Red Flag Radio talks to Brendan Laws, an American socialist and trade unionist living in Melbourne. Brendan organised struggles for immigrant rights and worker solidarity for 12 years in Houston, Texas. He explains what's happening in the US right now from the recent LA protests in response to Trump's anti-migrant escalation, to the origins of ICE and the history of the US-Mexico border.

After a good result in the federal election, Victorian Socialists is expanding across Australia, bringing sorely-needed socialist politics to the whole country. Emma spoke to the Secretary of Victorian Socialists, Corey Oakley, about the exciting move. Corey gave his thoughts on the federal election and talked about why it's time to expand VS.

Join the Socialists wherever you are:

https://www.socialists.org.au/about

Emma and Chloe had a live conversation about all the things that make them mad in 2025, at the Marxism conference in Melbourne. They talked about Trump, wacky Auspol, bad takes on the left, lesser-known expropriatable billionaires and more, with fantastic audience participation to boot.

We spoke to Palestine Action Group leader and socialist Josh Lees about the renewed genocide in Gaza and the disgraceful antisemitism hoax in NSW which has been used to repress pro-Palestine activism.

In a true-crime scandal for the ages, a criminal hoax in NSW was falsely reported as an antisemitic terror plot intended to cause mass casualties. Both the state and federal Labor governments knowingly lied to the public, using the hoax to ram through draconian anti-protest laws in NSW.

The NSW antisemitism hoax is just one example of the unscrupulous campaign against pro-Palestine activism worldwide.

Further reading

Josh Lees on "The great antisemitism con job" for Red Flag

On Josh Lees' constitutional challenge to NSW anti-protest laws in The Guardian

On the People's Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine in Red Flag

We sat down with trans activist April Holcombe to talk about the unrelenting war being waged against trans people. April is a socialist train driver based in Sydney and the co-convener of Community Action for Rainbow Rights. She is the author of many articles for Red Flag newspaper and the Marxist Left Review.

April describes what is happening to trans people as "political sadism". She unpacks why right-wingers are so obsessed with policing gender, why socialists say gender is socially constructed, and how we can best fight back against these heinous attacks.

Further Reading:

April Holcombe's fantastic article in the Marxist Left Review: "The Freedom to Be": Marxism, gender oppression and the struggle for trans liberation

"Trump's war on woke is a war on all the working class" - by Sarah Garnham in Red Flag

Our guest Rick Kuhn explains the results of the German election. Rick is a socialist economist and political analyst. He is the author of a biography of Marxist economist Henryk Grossman, for which he won the Deutscher Prize.

In understanding the German election, the key word is "polarisation". The fascist AfD have received their best vote yet, of over 20%. Meanwhile the anti-racist left party, Die Linke, tapped into a movement of young antifascists and picked up 9%. The centre ruling coalition has collapsed after years of economic stagnation and migrant-bashing, and has been replaced by the conservative Christian Democrats who court the far-right.

Further reading:

• "Far right surges, but left surprises, in German elections" by Sean Larson in Red Flag
• Buy Rick Kuhn's book: Labor's Conflict
• Rick Kuhn on economic crisis: https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/economic-crises-are-unavoidable-under-capitalism/

Emma and Chloe dunk on the billionaires who run the world. From Silicon Valley freaks like Peter Theil and Mark Zuckerberg, to Australia's own Gina Rinehart, to the world's richest man, Elon Musk. We explain how they accumulated their wealth (hint: they didn't "earn" it), explore the sickening conspicuous consumption of the ultra-rich, and discuss why they need to be expropriated for every cent.

We also discuss Trump's outrageous call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

An interview with socialist journalist Omar Hassan, editor of and contributor to the Marxist Left Review. Omar spent two weeks reporting on the ground from Syria for Red Flag. He visited cities and towns devastated by regime repression, and he spent time with and interviewed left-wing activists. The result of his travels has been some incredible coverage in English of post-Assad Syria.

This recording was part of a live zoom forum with Omar in January 2025.

Read Omar's reports on Syria at Red Flag: https://redflag.org.au/category/syria-after-assad