Which part of the word ‘class’ don’t you understand?

I have been writing for The Conversation for  a while now. My latest piece on class warfare rhetoric had over 2000 hits on the first day it was live It also sparked lots of comments and a rebuttal of sorts from Associate Professor Gregory Melleuish of Wollongong University.

The debate about class confuses many people, partly because Australia seems like ‘the lucky country’ and it seems like class is a thing of the past.

Aren’t we all aspirational today, and so much better off than our grandparents?

If that’s the case, the argument goes, aren’t we really a middle class country?

Well, yes and no.

Class is not confined to blue collar manual labour – a point that Prof Melleuish misses in his piece.

Cass is not defined by the colour of your collar, or whether you do manual work or service labour. Class is about the soical relations of production.

Turn Left 2013 – a new blog to check out

A recently established Australian political blog, Turn Left 2013, will be worth following.

It launched on International Women’s Day this year (8 March 2012).

This from the ‘about’ page:

Turn Left was founded on International Women’s Day 2012, by Australian artists and activists who believe that Australia deserves better than the future we are facing if we continue down the path on the Right.

It is about bringing together the voices on the left, and finding new ways to promote the traditional ideals of social justice, peace, compassion, freedom, democracy, equality, truth and a fair go.

Turn Left is reclaiming the our space in the political debate.

Turn Left is reclaiming the centre and the left of centre.

Turn Left is.

The site has an interesting page – our most controversial post ever

It is worth checking out.

Today (Monday 14 May) this image was posted and it sits with other original pieces by one of the blog’s collaborators. it sits nicely with the ‘class warfare’ debate and rhetoric that’s kicked off in recent days.