Steve O'Brien

Protests to demand jobs and a safe environment are still necessary or we face the recurring nightmare of last summer's bushfires, argues Steve O'Brien.

A climate action protest in Sydney on February 22.

We need to ensure that coal-mining communities are part of the renewable energy future, argues former steel worker Steve O’Brien.

The furious commentary accusing the federal Labor Party of losing the election because it was “too left” and “tone deaf” to the importance of coal is disputed by those who are closer to the ground, writes Pip Hinman.

NSW Labor lost the March 23 state election with its small-target strategy, its refusal to challenge the privatisation agenda and its sly accommodation to racism.

The Socialist Alliance will be running three Hunter-based candidates in the March 23 NSW state elections.

A member of the audience at a recent public meeting in Merewether cheekily referred to Newcastle as being run by the Property Council, not the city council.

New South Wales transport minister Andrew Constance should note the observation by Victor Hugo, the French novelist, that the worst thing a minister can do is have policies that upset people so much that they protest publicly and loudly about them.

Socialists polled well in the Newcastle council elections on September 9. Steve O’Brien, Samantha Ashby and Gayle Dedman won 891 votes (4.13%) in Ward 1.

Their vote was more than 4% in five of the 13 booths, with the highest being in Newcastle East at 7.5%. O’Brien also won 2.10%, or 1909 votes, for Lord Mayor.

The “Community need not developer greed” platform resonated in a context where Labor boasted it would help developers, ignoring the impact on communities.