In an outline of their industrial relations policy prior to the 2007 federal election, the ALP stated that "Labor does not believe in separate industrial rules and regulations for different industries". This was a response to the fact that the Howard government had created a specialist union-busting body - the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) - with exceptional coercive powers and different laws for workers in the building industry. Yet in June this year the Rudd government rushed into Parliament a bill to retain these powers of coercive interrogation when the ABCC is wound up and replaced by a special "inspectorate" next year.

John Pilger decodes the "historic" speech President Obama made in Cairo. The BBC described the speech as "reaching out to the Muslim world". In reality it showed the seductive face of American power as it proceeds towards its unchanged goal.

"The most racist state in the most racist country in the world." No-one in the 1000-plus crowd in Forrest Place, Perth on June 20 was inclined to disagree with this description of Western Australia, where the death in custody of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward has provoked widespread outrage. The protest rally, in pouring rain, was many times larger than most demonstrations in Perth.

Few issues so neatly symbolise a whole system of oppression as the ban on same-sex marriage. It seems so clear to gay and lesbian people and our supporters that we deserve the basic civil right to be able to publicly celebrate our relationships with the same standing and recognition that straight couples do. It is so blatantly unfair.

In the biggest mass demonstrations since the overthrow of the US-backed Shah in 1979, millions of people took to the streets of Tehran in June to protest a presidential election widely seen as rigged.

They say a week is a long time in politics. Apparently it is. In that time, US policy towards Iran can shift from openly discussing the need to obliterate the country to championing the rights of its people. It seems that the most warmongering, demonising neo-cons can be transformed into teary-eyed, bleeding-heart liberals in the space of a few short days. Or am I missing something here?

The determination of the Rudd government to sink the boot into trade unions is indicative of a long term trend within the ALP - the sustained effort by a section of the party's parliamentarians to reduce the role of the trade unions in the party's affairs.

Let's make no pretences. Socialists argue for a complete and profound transformation of society in a way the world has never seen before, except in brief glimpses of workers' revolutions. The scale of change necessary to achieve this means that socialism seems to some people more suited to a science fiction novel than a serious prospect for the future of humanity.

Hajo Meyer, author of the book The End of Judaism, was born in Bielefeld, in Germany, in 1924. In 1939, he fled on his own at age 14 to the Netherlands to escape the Nazi regime, and was unable to attend school. A year later, when the Germans occupied the Netherlands he lived in hiding with a poorly forged ID. Meyer was captured by the Gestapo in March 1944 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp a week later. He is one of the last survivors of Auschwitz.

Many people have compared the mass protests in Iran today with the events of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah. It is an apt comparison. While there are many differences in the situation today, there are also important parallels with 1979.