The monarchy seems like an enormous Ponzi scheme and now is the right time to talk about a republic, argues Tony Smith.
Monarchy
Luna Michaels talks about the struggle for democracy and an end to absolute monarchy in Swaziland.
Hundreds rallied on Labor's so-called Day of Mourning, calling for the monarchy to be "abolished". Photos by Alex Bainbridge.
Leading Socialist Alliance member Peter Boyle joins the Green Left Show to discuss the manufactured outpouring of pro-monarchist propaganda, the push for a republic and what real democratic change would look like.
William Briggs argues the propaganda effort since the Queen's death shows how the state has the power to evoke a sense of unity between vastly different classes.
Aleks Wansbrough argues that the queen's passing shows how modern capitalism has a tendency to uproot and decontextualise forms of cultural kinship and care, relativising everything as a commodity.
The Australian republican movement’s great mistake was to banish from discussion any reason beyond symbolism to be a republic. Aleks Wansbrough argues it effectively treated the royals as beyond reproach.
There is nothing better in these times than reading the words of James Connolly, the Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader, executed by the British firing squad on May 12, 1916, writes Sam Wainwright.
The revelation that Spain's former king will probably get off scot-free on allegations of corruption has shone a torch down the sewer of the Spanish state, writes Dick Nichols.
Thailand’s King Pumipon Adulyadej died on October 13 aged 88, after more than 70 years on the throne. Thai socialist Giles Ji Ungpakorn has been in exile since he was charged with lese majeste (insulting the monarch) over a 2006 book criticising the king’s support for a military coup. Below he assesses the monarch’s role as a block to democracy and social justice.
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King Pumipon was a weak and characterless monarch who spent his useless and privileged life in a bubble, surrounded by fawning, grovelling toadies who claimed that he was a “god”.
Do we need to debate whether Australia should become a republic?
After all, it is not just parties that say Australian society should be transformed (Socialist Alliance) or reformed (the Greens) that want a republic. The national leaders of the major capitalist political parties and all the state premiers agree on ending the situation where a British monarch is Australia's head of state.
I suspect this is in line with what most Australians think: who gave birth to you should not make you the head of state, even nominally. So why is there an argument about this?
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia has died at the age of 90. Abdullah was one of the world’s most powerful men and a key US ally in the region, controlling a fifth of the known global petroleum reserves.
In a statement, President Barack Obama praised Abdullah for his “steadfast and passionate belief in the importance of the US-Saudi relationship as a force for stability and security in the Middle East and beyond.”