Steve O'Brien

Protests to demand聽jobs and a safe environment are聽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聽part of the renewable energy future, argues聽former steel worker Steve O鈥橞rien.

The furious commentary accusing the federal Labor Party of losing the election because it was 鈥渢oo left鈥 and 鈥渢one deaf鈥 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鈥橞rien, 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鈥橞rien also won 2.10%, or 1909 votes, for Lord Mayor.

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