Click on Links masthead to clear previous query from search box

Syndicate

history

A history of the Australian Labor Party, 1890-1967

By Peter Conrick

Conrick's History of the Australian Labor Party originally appeared in Direct Action, newspaper of the Socialist Workers League of Australia, between December 21, 1972, and June 14, 1973, and was published as a pamphlet by the Socialist Workers Party in 1979. The SWP is now the Democratic Socialist Perspective. This digital version was created by Ozleft.

1. Origins of the Labor Party

There is no set date for the emergence of the Australian Labor Party. Its formal appearance in the early 1890s coincided with an upsurge in working class militancy, but it was by no means a product of that upsurge.

The Australian Labor Party was the product of an evolutionary process in trade unionism that began in the 1880s and culminated in the spread of mass unions to important sections of the working class such as miners and bush workers. The corresponding growth of elementary forms of class consciousness was expressed in the collectivist ethos of these new bush unions.

The revolutionary life and tumultuous times of Ernest Mandel

By Barry Healy

A Life for the Revolution, Documentary by Chris Den Hond, 90 minutes, 2005; A Man Called Ernest Mandel, Documentary by Frans Buyens, 40 minutes, 1972, available of two-disc DVD, available from http://www.iire.org

Ernest Mandel, said to be perhaps the most important Marxist theoretician of the second half of the 20th century, died aged 71 on July 20, 1995. These two documentaries reveal why he was so respected but also expose a great deal more.

A Life for the Revolution uses Mandel’s life as a lens to examine some of the most significant revolutionary developments of the last few generations, with stirring archival footage and interviews with participants. The 1972 “talking head” interview A Man Called Ernest Mandel, in which he explains important aspects of socialist democracy and workers’ control of the means of production, is packaged as an extra.

A people's history of sports -- Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin presents a terrific and humourous talk on ``The People's History of Sports'', providing insights and little-known history about sports in the United States. He spoke at the US International Socialist Organization's Socialism 2008 conference in Chicago on June 21, 2008.

Zirin is a radical sports editor, writer and columnist for Nation.com, and a columnist for SportsIllustrated.com, the Progressive and other media. He is author of What's My Name Fool?, The Muhammad Ali Handbook and Welcome to the Terrordome. His columns and articles can be found at http://www.edgeofsports.com.

Howard Zinn said of Zirin, ``It is so refreshing to have a sports writer who writes with such verve and intelligence, who also has a social conscience,and who refuses to keep those parts of his life separate." He is author of the forthcoming A People's History of Sports in the US.

July 19, 1979: Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution remembered -- Video by John Pilger

On July 19, 1979, the Nicaraguan people led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the brutal US-backed dictator Somoza. In this film, made by John Pilger in the 1980s, the background to the revolt and the gains won -- and the United States' virulent opposition -- are graphically explained.

1 comment

The May-June 1968 revolt in France and its influence today (+ videos)

By Duncan Meerding

In May and June 1968, a movement erupted in France that threatened not just the survival of the government of President Charles De Gaulle but the system that it represented — capitalism. At the height of this movement, which was sparked by radical action by youth and students, an estimated 10 million workers were on strike and 600,000 students were occupying their schools and universities, and a further 2 million farmers were supporting them. This meant that more than one in five of France’s population were on the

The Soviet Union: a no-party state?

Review by Alex Miller

The Soviet Century
By Moshe Lewin
Verso 2005
416 pages

1968 year of revolt

Joel Geier, associate editor of the International Socialist Review, spoke on ``1968: Year of Revolt'' at the University of Illinois, Champaign, IL on March 26, 2008. He was a leading member of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in the 1960s and witnessed the 1968 protests in Paris. He discussed a vital yet hidden history of struggle and its relevance to today.

Movement history: Socialists and the anti-war movement

By Gus Horowitz

This is the text of a speech that was printed in the Militant, the newspaper of the us Socialist Workers Party, on October 10, 1969, shortly before the massive anti-war demonstrations scheduled to occur in mid-November of that year. Gus Horowitz was the SWP's national anti-war director during that year and through the first half of 1970. Minor spelling and punctuation changes have been made in the text reprinted here. The introduction was by the Militant.

Introduction

On Labour Day weekend [September 1969] in New York, the Socialist Workers Party held its national convention. One of the central points on the agenda was a resolution assessing developments within the movement against the Vietnam War and the role of the SWP within that movement.

Discussion on the resolution was initiated with a report by Gus Horowitz, a member of the party's national committee and its representative to the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

Malcolm X

By Barry Sheppard

This article is taken from a chapter of volume one of a political memoir, covering the years 1960-1973. Barry Sheppard was a central leader of the US Young Socialist Alliance and Socialist Workers Party during the years 1960-1988. He is a contributing editor of Links.

***

Syndicate

Recent comments

history

1. Origins of the Labor Party

Introduction