Housing, a basic human right, is now more than ever a tool of profit-making for the wealthy. The working class face an acute emergency, intensified by decades of capitalist exploitation. While the rich amass enormous profits, millions are locked out of secure, affordable housing. This is not a policy failure, it is the inevitable result of a system that prioritises profit over people’s basic needs.
We are living through a difficult period for traditional, establishment politicians. In country after country, renegade gangs of populists, demagogues and mavericks are challenging the old liberal elite for power, with increasing success. As the masses’ confidence in the liberals rightly crumbles, across the world the vacuum has been filled by the likes of Farage, Le Pen, Meloni and, of course, Donald Trump.
In December, two gunmen carried out the deadliest mass shooting Australia has seen in decades. This vile, antisemitic attack, inspired by Islamic State, took place during Hanukkah celebrations at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. In its aftermath, the Labor government initiated a brutal wave of repression, cynically using the attack to crack down on Australia’s pro-Palestine movement – the world’s largest outside the Middle East in terms of the number of major protests.