Australia

Australian left in crisis

The largest activist group on the Australian left, the Democratic Socialist Party, is in crisis over its policy towards the Socialist Alliance. At the DSP congress, in the first week of January, its long-time leader, John Percy, and its longstanding chief theorist, Doug Lorimer, were ousted from key positions, defeated by the supporters of Peter Boyle, who argues that the DSP can build the Socialist Alliance, and a network of trade unionists more or less sympathetic to it, into a big force in the Australian labour movement. According to Bob Gould, a hostile but often well-informed observer...

After Cronulla - solidarity against racism - but not "with Islam"

About 150 people turned up in King George Square, Brisbane, on 18 December to protest against the racist riots in the Sydney beach suburb of Cronulla, New South Wales, on 11 December, when 5000 white people, mostly young, took to the streets waving Australian flags and attacking anyone of Middle-Eastern appearance. The size of the anti-racist rally - the last Sunday before Christmas, and in baking heat - was encouraging, as was the fact that it was mostly young people. In Sydney, according to a report phoned through to the rally, up to 5000 protested (the police estimated 1000). All the...

Brisbane Workers' Liberty study group, December/January 2005/6

Discussion group on Working class and trade unions: Marx and today . Dates: Tuesday 13 December 2005, Monday 2 January 2006, Monday 9 January 2006. 1. Marx on the evolution of the working class Reading: Marx, "Capital", volume 1, chapter 15 and part of the "extra" chapter printed in the Penguin edition, "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" ; and excerpts from Marx collected here . Discussion notes . 2. The working class today Reading: Doug Henwood, Talking about work , Monthly Review July-August 1997. Paul Hampton, The Fight for Independent Working-Class Politics in the 'Third...

Australia: half a million against anti-union laws

AUSTRALIA’S unions estimate that over half a million people joined rallies across the country on 15 November to protest at the Howard government’s anti-union laws. There were 210,000 in Melbourne, 45,000 people in Sydney, and 25,000 in Brisbane. Right from the start, however, the leaders of the Australian Council of Trade Unions have signalled that they do not think it possible to stop the legislation, only to build up popular dislike for it. From the Perth demonstration, Kat Pinder reports: “The march was lively and had a good impact. But before that we had the same old union bureaucrat...

Half a million march in Australia

According to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), over half a million people joined rallies and demonstrations across the country on 15 November against the Howard government's new anti-union legislation. Some impressions: Brisbane (Melissa White) Brisbane was tightly controlled by ALP (Australian Labor Party) speakers who all promised to repeal the legislation if they got into power. It was dominated by Beattie (premier of Queensland) and Beazley (federal ALP leader) before the QCU (Queensland Council of Unions) got on the microphone. However, we did have an LHMU (Liquor...

Population levels and immigration: two responses

The following letters, abridged for space reasons, represent part of an ongoing debate. James Sinnamon makes a case and Martin Thomas replies. For full text of this debate, click here . Dear W L comrades, Population levels and immigration have been taboo subjects within socialist circles. These issues are an aspect of a question which has been avoided by almost the whole socialist movement, that is the finiteness of this planet, and how we can hope to create a stable basis for a sustainable society within the constraints of the physical limits of our planet, given the unprecedented population...

Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), spoke to Martin Thomas when she visited Britain at the end of June. The following interview is heavily edited for space. For the full interview click here . What does the OWFI do? For example, what were you doing in Baghdad in the week before you came to Britain? Last week we started something new. In spite of our work for equality and a secular constitution, we know that if we do not do the daily outreach to women and people in general, if we are not becoming a social movement, then we are not getting anywhere...

Letter from Germany

According to the various polls in Germany they [the new Left Party [formed by former SPD left leader Oskar Lafontaine getting together with the PDS, the old CP] stood at around 12% for a while, over the last two weeks or so they dropped to 8%. The Left Party just had their party congress last Saturday to decide on their final manifesto and didn't really kick off their campaign before that. Personally, I don't think that the Left Party will get more than 10%, but even that will be enough to shake the "Bundestag" up and provide a platform of resistance from the left. To see this as a part of a...

Letter from NZ

New Zealand goes to the polls on 17 September to elect a new government. A close look at the parties shows that, from a working class point of view, there remains nothing to choose from between Labour and the opposition National Party. For instance, Labour, worried by slipping support,have announced a vote-catching policy of cancelling interest on student loans. Yet the accumulated student debt of $7 billion is a result of “user pays” policies introduced by Labour in the 1980s and pursued and extended by National Party through the following decade. NZ workers have tried, with some limited...

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