The Sound of Solidarity

Mililma May (Dangglaba Kulumbringin Tiwi organiser) describes the ongoing crisis of police and state repression against Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. Luke Ottavi (Solidarity) introduces the session. Read more about Indigenous resistance. Find out more about Solidarity. These talks were delivered at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 4 April 2026.

Erima Dall explains the developments in AI and the threats they pose. She argues that workers need to fight to bring AI under our control. Read more about AI. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 5 April 2026.

Geraldine Fela, author of the award-winning book Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia's AIDS crisis, talks about the role that health workers and patients play in the battle for bodily autonomy and dignity in the health system. Read more about the fight for LGBTI+ rights. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 4 April 2026.

Madison Lee outlines how Western imperialism has made continual efforts to control Iran but has been confronted with revolt and revolution, from the constitutional revolution of 1905 to the 1979 revolution and the recent waves of protest against the Islamic regime. Read more about Iran. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 30 April 2026.

The left internationally has generally supported the right of small nations to national independence. Should that also apply to Taiwan in any conflict with China? Griffin Philips introduces the politics of “One China” and “Taiwanese independence” and discusses their impact on the class struggle in Taiwan and globally. Read more about Taiwan. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 5 April 2026.

US socialist and long-time campaigner for migrant rights, Victor Fernandez, tells how mass organising has pushed back ICE and laid the basis for a working class fightback against Trump. Read more about the US. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 4 April 2026.

Professor Clinton Fernandes is in the Future Operations Research Group at UNSW. His latest book is Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Era. In this episode he discusses the US-Israel war on Iran. Read more about Iran. Find out more about Solidarity. Get a copy of Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Era.

Judy McVey describes the building of a movement in 1970s Queensland that beat back the banning of street marches by the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government. She draws out the lessons for the Palestine movement today. Read more about fighting Bjelke-Petersen. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 19 March 2026.

David Glanz looks at why the US and Australia invaded Iraq in 2003, how it blew up in their faces and how anti-war activists responded to the crisis. He draws lessons for opposing war today. Read more about the Iraq War. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 26 March 2026. The background noise in the first half of the talk was caused by an exceptionally heavy rain burst. Blame global warming.

Liz Grosshans explains how the Stalinist politics of the German communist party -- and the reformism of the German socialist party -- allowed Hitler to come to power over the strongest working class in the world. She draws out lessons for today, including the need to build a united front between revolutionaries and reformists against the far right. Read more about fighting Hitler. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at a Solidarity branch meeting in Melbourne on 23 October 2025.

Riley Hogan explains Labor's deep commitment to US imperialism and its watchdog in the Middle East, Israel. Read more about Palestine. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given in Melbourne on 19 February 2026.

Liam McMullen explains the imperialist pressures that are driving the US and Israel, backed by countries including Australia, to bomb Iran. He criticises the "campist" idea that to oppose the US we need to back the Tehran regime and argues that revolt from below is the hope for the region. Read more about Iran. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at the Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 12 March 2026.

Ken Davis, a '78er who took part in the first Sydney Mardi Gras, and Jean Parker from Solidarity discuss the lessons from 1978, when the first Mardi Gras protest march demanding LGBTIQ+ liberation was violently attacked by police with 53 arrests and people severely beaten.   Mass defiance not only strengthened the fight against discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people but also triggered a campaign to drop the charges that won legal change and the right to march.   As we face new anti-protest laws today, Ken and Jean will explain what happened and the lessons for today.   Read more about LGBTIQ+ liberation.   Find out more about Solidarity.   This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting in Sydney on 26 February 2026.

Robert Stainsby looks at a world in crisis and outlines the socialist solution in this talk introducing the politics of Solidarity. Find out more about Solidarity.

David Glanz discusses the resurgence of One Nation today and looks back to the 1990s, when mass protests and campaigning defeated Pauline Hanson and pushed One Nation back. Read our pamphlet of fighting Hanson from 1996. Read how One Nation was beaten. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given in Melbourne on 5 February 2026.

Solidarity editor James Supple looks at Labor's continuing shift to the right and what it means for struggles today. Read more about Labor. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's annual conference on 31 January 2026.

Ian Rintoul looks at how Trump's break with the so-called "rules-based order" is reshaping imperialism today ... and making it ever more dangerous. Read more about imperialism. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's conference on 31 January 2026.

Tom Fiebig explains how Donald Trump's kidnapping of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife was a nakedly imperialist attack to assert US power in Latin America, push back Chinese influence and make the region a playground for US corporations. Read more about Venezuela. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given in Melbourne on 15 January 2026.

Rouzbeh, an Iranian socialist, explains why mass dissent has erupted in Iran and how the majority on the streets are saying no to the Ayatollah and no to the Shah. Read more about Iran. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting in Sydney on 15 January 2026.

Professor Penny Green has recently returned from the West Bank. She describes the horror there. Penny is a professor at Queen Mary University of London, the Director of the International State Crime Initiative and editor of the State Crime Journal.  Read more about the West Bank. Find out more about Solidarity. Find out more about the Gaza Tribunal.

Julie Monteiro explains the unfolding genocide in Sudan. She argues that today's horror is a result of the race by regional powers to grab Sudan's resources following the defeat of the 2019 revolution.  Read more about Sudan. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered in Melbourne on 20 November 2025.

David Glanz, an anti-Zionist Jew and Palestine solidarity activist, argues that the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the crimes of imperialism are root causes of the antisemitic massacre at Bondi beach.  Read more about anti-Zionism. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 18 December 2025.

Liam McMullen discusses the failure of the COP30 climate talks despite the mounting evidence of global warming and climate change. He argues that the drive to profit means capitalism can't offer real solutions to the climate crisis. Read more about fighting for climate action. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at a Solidarity meeting on 4 December 2025.

Tara Burnett, former Greens candidate for Cooper and an AEU member, and Solidarity member Jasmine Ali discuss how Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York has generated hope. But they also warn that, since his election, Mamdani has started to soften some of his positions and draw conclusions for the struggle ahead. Read more about Mamdani. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered in Melbourne on 27 November 2025.

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) has recently released a report on anti-Palestinian racism in Australian schools. Zakaria Saleh, Wasim El-Haj and Chris Breen discuss the issues. Zak was a high school student in 2024 and is now studying at Western Sydney Uni. Wasim and Chris are both teachers. Chris is active in Teachers and School Staff for Palestine and a member of Solidarity. Read the APAN report. Read more about Palestine. Find out more about Solidarity.

Phil Griffiths, labour historian and Solidarity member, explains the forces at work behind the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government on 11 November 1975. He describes how workers immediately walked out on strike, with a push to shut down the country until Whitlam was reinstated, and draws conclusions for our struggle today from the defeat. Read more about Whitlam. Find out more about Solidarity. Buy our pamphlet, written by Phil, on how workers fought the Dismissal. This meeting was recorded at a Solidarity meeting on 13 November 2025.

Emeritus Professor Judith Brett has spent much of her academic career writing about the Liberal Party. She argues that the Liberals face an existentialist crisis but that Labor is failing to take advantage of the moment. Judith's books include Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People, published in 1992, and Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class, from 2003. Her most recent book, published last year, was on the Australian feminist, Beatrice Faust. Read more about the Liberals. Find out more about Solidarity.

Dr Sara Cheikh-Husain discusses her research into Islamophobia in Australia and argues that it cannot be understood separately from the imperialist agenda of the West and the attempt to silence the voices of Palestinians and their supporters. She is the author of an upcoming book, The politics of anti-Islamophobia in Australia: The case of the Muslim community organisations.  Read Sara's article in Overland. Find out about her book. Academic books are, unfortunately, very expensive. Ask your library to order it. Read more about Islamophobia. Find out more about Solidarity.

David Glanz discusses the fragile nature of the ceasefire and why it brings no respite, let alone peace, for Palestinian people. He looks at why Israel agreed to the ceasefire and how the movement here and overseas should respond. Read more about the Palestinian struggle. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at a Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 30 October 2025.

Lucia Pradella and Fabio Santoro discuss the 3 October general strike in Italy for Palestine. Adam Adelpour gives an introduction to the meeting. The summing up by Lucia and Fabio that followed question time is included.   Lucia is an Italian scholar of political economy, Marxist theory and labour movements who helps coordinate University and College Workers for Palestine in Britain. Fabio is with the SI COBAS trade union.   This national Solidarity meeting took place on 16 October 2025.   Read more about Italy.   Find out more about Solidarity.

Casey Forsyth looks at the dynamic driving colonial settlement on this continent and draws lessons for the struggle for Indigenous rights and in solidarity with Palestine. Read more about colonial settler movements. Find out about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at the Resist and Rebel conference in Melbourne on 30 August 2025.

Victor Fernandez, an LA-based activist and member of Solidarity's US sister group, Marx21, talks about Trump's racist ICE raids and the growing resistance to them. Read more about resistance to Trump. Find out more about Solidarity. Find out more about Marx21 US. This talk was given at the Resist and Rebel conference in Sydney on 23 August 2025.

Michael Grewcock, a retired lecturer in criminal law and criminology, speaks on the history of capitalism, settler colonial law and the police in Australia. Read more about the police. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at Resist and Rebel in Sydney on 23 August 2025.

Socialists from Britain and Greece draw on their experiences of fighting the rise of the far right. Judy Cox is a member of the Socialist Workers Party, which has played a central role in Stand Up to Racism counter-demonstrations against the far right in Britain. Petros Constantinou is a socialist and coordinator of the Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat (Keerfa), which helped smash the Nazi party Golden Dawn. Liz Grosshans gives an introduction about the relevance for Australia today.   Read more about fighting racism and fascism.   Find out more about Solidarity.   This Solidarity forum took place in Melbourne on 18 September 2025.  

Liz Grosshans introduces the ideas of Alexandra Kollontai, a Russian revolutionary who argued that liberation for women was tied to the fight against capitalism. In a socialist society private domestic drudgery would be replaced by public services for all. Read more about Kollontai. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at the Resist and Rebel conference in Melbourne on 30 August 2025.

There have been waves of protest against the Prabowo government in Indonesia. Solidarity spoke to Indonesian socialists about the issues. Neysia is from the Socialist Youth Organization and Aldi represents the Perserikatan Sosialis or Socialist Union. Read more about Indonesia. Find out more about Solidarity. This interview was recorded on 10 September 2025.

Chris Breen discusses why Anthony Albanese's recognition of a Palestinian state is a sham, why a "two-state" solution is an illusion and why one Palestinian state based on equality between the river and the sea is an urgent necessity. Read more about Palestine. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at a Solidarity meeting in Sydney on 28 August 2025.

Julie Monteiro tells how students and workers turned France upside down, with student protests helping trigger a 10 million-strong general strike. She looks at how the ruling class was able to reestablish "order" and discusses the political lessons we can draw today. Read more about May 68. Find out more about Solidarity This talk was delivered at Solidarity's Melbourne branch on 31 July 2025.

A Chinese student activist and Griffin Phillips explain how the revolution unfolded and draw lessons for the struggle today. For security reasons, the student's voice has been replaced.  Read more about China. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered on 29 May 2025.

Solidarity editor James Supple looks at the agenda behind Trump's erratic behaviour and argues that to fight him, we need to take on the logic of the system he represents. Read more about Trump. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 19 April 2025.

A Palestinian student activist from the West Bank and Chris Breen (Teachers & School Staff for Palestine and Solidarity) discuss the way forward for liberation. Read more about Palestine. Find out more about Solidarity. These talks were delivered at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 19 April 2025.

Karina Lester (Yankunytjatjara woman and anti-nuclear activist) is a descendant of Indigenous people who experienced nuclear testing in South Australia. She talks about the horror of that time and its consequences. Caitlin Doyle (Solidarity) argues why nuclear tensions are increasing and how we can resist today. Apologies that the sound quality of this recording is poor but the content is great -- please stick with it! Read more about nuclear testing. Find out more about Solidarity. Buy Solidarity's anti-nuclear pamphlet, Atomic Ambitions. These talks were delivered at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 20 April 2025.

James Connolly was a socialist whose role in the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin made him a key figure in Ireland’s national revolution.   But he was also a major theorist, one of the few socialists of his day to link working class struggles with the fight for national liberation.    Paddy Gibson discusses the importance of a new book about him, The Lost and Early Writings of James Connolly, 1889-1898, by Conor McCabe.   Read more about Connolly.   Find out more about Solidarity.   This talk was delivered at a Solidarity meeting on 1 May 2025.    

Phil Griffiths looks back at how the Communist Party rebuilt a fighting union tradition in the 1930s and draws lessons from today, from both their successes and weaknesses. Read more about the Militant Minority Movement. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 20 April 2025.

Dr Stephen Gapps has just published Uprising: War in the colony of New South Wales, 1838–1844. Here he is in conversation with Solidarity member Paddy Gibson. Read more about Aboriginal resistance. Find out more about Solidarity. Buy a copy of Uprising. This talk was recorded at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 20 April 2025.

Angus Dermody explains why the logic of capitalism is taking us to the brink of disaster and how we can challenge the system to fight back for the planet. Read more about climate action. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was given at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 20 April 2025.

Stalinism and Maoism continue to attract new supporters. To make sense of this, and to make the case for socialism from below, we talk to David Camfield, the author of a new book, Red Flags: A reckoning with communism for the future of the left. Find out more about what's wrong with Stalinism. Find out more about Solidarity. Buy a copy of Red Flags: A reckoning with communism for the future of the left. Read Hal Draper's The Two Souls of Socialism. Listen to David's podcast, Victor's Children.

James Supple analyses Israel's onslaught on Iran, how it fits with the aims of imperialism in the region and how mass revolt from below can stop the war. Read more about Iran. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at a Solidarity meeting on 19 June 2025.

The majority of European Jews looked to socialist ideas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. David Glanz argues Zionism was a fringe movement for decades and can be challenged again. Read more about anti-Zionism. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 19 April 2025.

Paddy Gibson speaks about a new edition of Tom O'Lincoln's book, Into the Mainstream: The Decline of Australian Communism, for which he has written the introduction. Paddy describes how the book charts the CPA's strengths, but also how its Stalinist politics led to its decline. He draws lessons for revolutionaries today. Copies of the book are on sale at Solidarity branch meetings or by contacting the publisher, Interventions. Read more about the CPA. Find out more about Solidarity. This talk was delivered at a Solidarity meeting in Melbourne on 15 May 2025.