Sydney climate emergency rally, October 3, 2008. Photo by Alex Bainbridge.

Climate action now!

September 25, 2008 -- The Australian federal government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, has released his recommendations for medium-term cuts to Australian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

He calls for reductions by 2020 of just 5% if there is no comprehensive international agreement on emissions reductions, or reductions of 10% if there is an agreement. At the Bali climate summit in December 2007 many developed countries expressed support for goals of 25-40% reductions.

By Dick Nichols

September 20, 2008 -- “Will my superannuation [pension] fund be next?” “Are my savings safe?” As working people in the developed economies watch the assets of one financial institution after another vaporise into nothingness, tens of millions are asking these dreadful questions.

Yesterday’s AAA assets are now junk and yesterday’s “risk-free” investments are losing money. No-one, not even the world’s central bankers, who are spending sleepless nights arranging rescue bailouts and emergency injections of trillions of dollars into a financial system frozen with fear and distrust, can answer them with 100% certainty.

July 15, 2008 --The planet is facing a meltdown -- from the global financial system to the unprecedented environmental crisis. Almost everyone from stockbrokers to scientists to economists agree the situation is dire.

Yet Wall Street banks are given hundred-million-dollar bailouts, while millions face home foreclosures. In the Third world it's worse -- crops are used to provide fuel for thirsty rich-world SUVs, while 100 million more people face starvation due to the growing food crisis. The disregard for the hardship of the majority has seen food riots and strikes hit over 30 countries.

By Tony Iltis

July 12, 2008 -- The visit to Sydney for World Youth Day (WYD), July 15-20, by Pope Benedict XVI and 300,000 Catholic pilgrims is set to become the scene for protests. Ironically, the protests are being fuelled by the clumsy efforts of the NSW state Labor Party government to suppress them — passing laws making it illegal to “annoy” pilgrims and defining “annoy” broadly enough to include having signs, or even wearing t-shirts, with messages that the doctrinally rigid pope or his followers disapprove of.

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No to Pope Rallies, July 19, 2008

By Dick Nichols

June 17, 2008 -- The latest surge in the spot price of crude oil (to US$139 a barrel—87.4 cents a litre) dramatises the urgent need for society to wean itself off “black gold”. The longer we remain hooked the greater the devastation both to our environment and to the living standards of billions, especially the poorest peoples of the planet.

The challenge is huge. The response must combine defence against the threat to livelihoods from price rises with a plan to restructure economies and ways of living so that oil-intensive production and transport becomes a thing of the past.

By Dick Nichols

April 26, 2008 -- The protests and arrests in Lhasa and the demonstrations and counter-demonstrations around the Olympic torch relay has re-focused the world on the plight of Tibetans. This has, in turn, sparked a debate on the left about whether the Tibetan struggle is a just one, or not what it seems. The Socialist Alliance national executive decided at its April meeting that the right to self-determination applies as much to the Tibetans as to any other people. It’s not for others to decide according to some private benchmark of oppression whether or not the Tibetans are “really” oppressed. Obviously, the protests in Lhasa and other centres reflect deep feelings of discrimination and alienation: these things cannot be manufactured.

In this context it is irrelevant that some in the West, especially high-profile Hollywood followers of the Dalai Lama, believe in the weird delusion that old theocratic Tibet was a Shangri-la that was cruelly destroyed by the “Chinese communist dictatorship”. The fact that the Tibetan resistance army up until 1959 was funded and trained by the CIA is also irrelevant.

Climate action now! Socialist Climate Change Charter

Climate action now!

Download the Socialist Alliance Climate Change Charter here Download easy-to-print version of the Socialist Alliance Climate Change Charter (with references) here To see how the charter was created click here SUMMARY: Warnings that can’t be ignored Climate scientists have been warning us about global warming for Australia climate change Documents environment socialism Socialist Alliance 1 comment Read more A revolutionary response to the climate change crisis ``We need an emergency mobilisation of society, a five- or 10-year plan to achieve a drastic reorientation of our economy and use of energy. Anything else is simply not serious.'' climate change DSP environment Marxist theory socialism Socialist Alliance 5 comments Read more DSP Congress reaffirms commitment to broad left regroupment By Peter Boyle January 7, 2008 -- The 23rd Congress of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, a Marxist endency in the Socialist Alliance in Australia, reaffirmed its commitment o broader left regroupment. The Congress noted that a new political terrain was opening up with the election of the Rudd Labor government on the back of a mass campaign of opposition to the anti-worker "Work Choices" laws introduced by the former Liberal-National government. Australia DSP left unity Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Statements on Burma Statements on the Burmese struggle for democracy from the Socialist Party of Malaysia, the Indonesian solidarity movement, the Australian Socialist Alliance and the Philippines' Partido ng Manggagawa. Socialist Party of Malaysia PRESS STATEMENT : 27 SEPTEMBER 2007 Burma Documents Indonesia Partido ng Manggagawa Socialist Alliance Socialist Party of Malaysia Add new comment Read more The Democratic Socialist Perspective and the Socialist Alliance The following resolution was adopted by the DSP's 22nd Congress in Sydney, January 5-8, 2006, following extensive internal discussion about the experience as a leading force within the Socialist Alliance since its formation in 2001. *** Australia Documents DSP Issue 29 left unity Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Work Choices: a huge challenge for organised labour in Australia By Graham Matthews Work Choices is the Orwellian name given by the Australian federal Liberal-National (conservative) Coalition government to its second wave of industrial relations legislation, passed through parliament on December 2, 2005, and proclaimed as law on March 27. Australia DSP Issue 30 Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Looking backward, looking forward: Pointers to building a revolutionary party by John Percy CONTENTS DSP internationalism ISO (Australia) Issue 23 left unity leninism Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Resolution on work in the Socialist Alliance from the Democratic Socialist Party This resolution was adopted by the Twentieth Congress of the Australian Democratic Socialist Party [DSP], held in Sydney from December 28, 2002 to January 1, 2003. For an explanation of its background, see Peter Boyle's article in this issue. This Twentieth Congress of the Democratic Socialist Party: Australia Documents DSP Issue 23 left unity Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Australia: Letter to Socialist Alliance National Executive September 3, 2002 State of the Socialist Alliance The international context The potential for and constraints on the Socialist Alliance Political basis for greater unity The Democratic Socialist tendency and the Socialist Alliance Dear comrades, I am writing to you on behalf of the National Executive of the Democratic Socialist Party to advise you that we have initiated a discussion in our party about making a radically bigger commitment towards left unity within the Socialist Alliance. Australia Documents DSP Issue 23 left unity Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Steps toward greater left unity in Australia By Peter Boyle Leninist approach Politics of the Socialist Alliance ISO ultimatum Lessons from previous regroupment attempts In September 2, 2002, the Democratic Socialist Party [DSP] national executive adopted the perspective of making the Socialist Alliance the party its members build by transforming the DSP into an internal tendency within the Socialist Alliance. The sole purpose of the Democratic Socialist tendency (DST), as it was to be called, would be to complete the process of left regroupment while preserving for the Socialist Alliance our main political gains (such as a popular weekly newspaper, our nationwide network of activist centres, and a politically educated cadre). Apart from carrying out this transition, the DST would not seek to be a permanent political tendency. Australia DSP ISO (Australia) Issue 23 left unity leninism Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Australian Socialist Alliance takes a new step for left unity By Peter Boyle and Sue Bolton Peter Boyle is a member of the incoming Socialist Alliance national executive and a member of the DSP national executive. Sue Bolton is a member of the national trade union committee of the Socialist Alliance and a member of the DSP national executive. Conference documents are available from <http://www.socialist-alliance.org>. CONTENTS Reviving militant unionism Perspectives debate United front approach to ALP, Greens Developing socialist policy Tendency rights protected Prospects for the Socialist Alliance Australia DSP Issue 24 left unity Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more What happened in globalisation? By Humphrey McQueen Humphrey McQueen is a leading Marxist writer in Australia and an activist in the Socialist Alliance. A version of this article appeared in the Journal of Australian Political Economy, No. 51 (Jime 2003).   CONTENTS Globalising capitals Labour times Money-capital Commodity-capital Production-capital The nation-market-state Summing up Notes       economics Issue 25 Marxist theory Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more The Democratic Socialist Perspective and the Socialist Alliance This is the text of a resolution of the twentieth congress of the Australian Democratic Socialist Party, which was held December 27-30, 2003.   CONTENTS Introduction Socialist unity—the preconditions and the gains to date Strengthening our base of support in the working class Socialist Alliance, revolutionary socialism and the Democratic Socialist Party Conclusion     Australia DSP Issue 26 left unity Socialist Alliance Add new comment Read more Powered by Drupal - Design by Artinet