Jeff Sparrow

Nov 6, 2024 | overland.org.au | Jeff Sparrow |Sam Wallman

Preliminary definitionsIn Disco Elysium (2019) by ZA/UM, the pale is an inter-continental tissue dividing the different pockets of physical reality, known as isolas. The pale can only be observed/measured by what it isn’t: it returns no light and where it borders the periphery of the world there is an uproar of matter, described by Joyce Messier — the CEO of a shipping company hiring private military contractors to kill a union strike — as “a great vision”.

Nov 1, 2024 | overland.org.au | Jeff Sparrow |Sam Wallman |Tasnim Sammak

Everyone knows that whatever the result in the US election, the genocide in Gaza will continue. Neither presidential candidate offers a strategy to mitigate the climate crisis. Neither will dispel the growing geostrategic tensions that could, all too easily spill, over into a global conflict. Whoever wins, the tasks facing the left will remain broadly similar.

Oct 15, 2024 | overland.org.au | Owen Bennett |Jeff Sparrow |Neil Vallelly

What role should unions and the left play when it comes to fighting unemployment and underemployment? With both the Albanese Labor government and Reserve Bank of Australia publicly advocating higher unemployment to bring down inflation, it’s a question that gets surprisingly little attention. Consider the current unemployment situation.

Oct 13, 2024 | overland.org.au | Jeff Sparrow |Neil Vallelly |Adalya Nash Hussein

If you want to understand the dismal state of Australian politics, consider the phrase “social cohesion”. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (and, honestly, who could blame you), you’ll have heard politicians deploy the slogan repeatedly against protests in solidarity with Palestine. “It is not a time to raise the temperature,” explained Anthony Albanese.

Jun 30, 2024 | crikey.com.au | Jeff Sparrow

If Donald Trump regains the US presidency, there will be no shortage of people to hold responsible. But spare some blame for the liberal media and its failure to report on Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline. Footage from the 2012 vice-presidential debate between a razor-sharp Biden and Paul Ryan demonstrates that his drowning-on-dry-land performance last week in the first 2024 presidential debate can’t be blamed on a speech impediment, or a cold, or a dog eating his homework.