SP Newsletter No.321

For Australian voters the upcoming Federal election will be a choice between who will carry out the least severe cuts to jobs and services. While the massive stimulus packages helped keep Australia out of a technical recession, the cost has been the racking up of a huge debt. Both Labor and the Liberals are at one with the view that it should be ordinary people, and not big business, who should pay this debt. The agenda for both parties is one of cuts, cuts, and more cuts.

The Liberals have said that if elected they will slash $45 billion worth of services. This will mean attacks on the public sector with reduced services and increased costs for working people. Labor is no better, with Gillard boasting that they have already made nearly $84 billion in cuts! We can be certain that more cuts are to be expected if Labor is returned to power.

Continue reading Federal Election: No real choice for ordinary people

The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party will host a public meeting on the politics of the Black Panther Party for Self Defence. The details are: 7pm Wednesday July 28 @ Trades Hall, corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South.

SP member Anthony Main will kick off the discussion and look at the history and ideas of the largest black revolutionary organisation that ever existed. Come along to learn the lessons of history and discuss how we can advance the black struggle today.

For more information contact: 96399111.

SP Newsletter No.320

The Socialist Party has been hosting a large number of public meetings throughout the municipality of Yarra in Melbourne over the past few months. The aim is to mobilise people to win reforms on concrete issues of concern to them and in the process win greater support for socialist ideas and methods.

Yarra has two quite distinct parts of its population. One part is made up of about 20% of residents who live in public housing estates. They have very specific and sometimes very extreme problems related to the dire poverty that exists on these estates.

Continue reading Putting socialist ideas into practice

“It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimised by this manmade disaster are made whole”. These words of US President Obama on the ongoing catastrophe that is the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico won’t get him off the hook.

By Laura Fitzgerald, Socialist Party

Continue reading Lust for profits caused BP oil disaster

SP Newsletter No.319

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has revived their anti-WorkChoices campaign in the lead up to the next federal election. The ACTU is asserting Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has “shamelessly vowed to resurrect the core elements of WorkChoices, the policy that was so resoundingly rejected by Australian voters less than three years ago”.

The Howard Government’s WorkChoices industrial relations legislation has gone down in Australian history as one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever introduced. It brought hundreds of thousands of angry workers out onto the streets and ultimately led to the federal Coalition’s 2007 electoral defeat.

Continue reading WorkChoices – Never Again?

By Nguyen Tran, Socialist Party Melbourne

I am an international student from Vietnam and I have been interested in politics since I was in high school. Initially I was influenced by my family who lived through two wars in Vietnam and were quite patriotic.

After doing some reading I knew that I would have to look further than patriotism if I was going to find a way to affect change. I gradually moved in the direction of socialism which I think it is system that would benefit all people.

Continue reading Why I joined the Socialist Party

By SP Councillor Stephen Jolly currently in South Africa

As the World Cup comes to an end the ruling ANC elite are crowing about one of the most successful World Cups. Attendance figures are the third highest after the World Cups held in the US in 1994 and Germany in 2006.

The transport system worked well and, in the words of FIFA official Valcke, there were no threats to the event, not even the weather, which, with one or two exceptions, held well for a winter competition. Government leaders and political commentators are beside themselves with euphoria especially about the inter-racial patriotism that developed behind the South African team Bafana Bafana.

Yet just how superficial and ephemeral the inter-racial and pan-African unity of the World Cup is, is shown by the increasing fears of another deadly xenophobic outbreak here as happened in 2008 when 62 people were killed.

Continue reading SA: Joint struggle needed to undermine xenophobia

Time to put the public back into public transport!

Its well over a decade now since Melbourne’s public transport system was privatised. According to the state government at the time, the move was supposed to bring a more efficient and reliable service. Since then Melbourne’s trams, trains and buses have become synonymous with lengthy delays, poor service, thuggish ticket inspectors and serious safety concerns.

Last year saw a wave of discontent towards Connex, the then private operator of the train system. Mass public anger led to Connex being replaced by Metro, a Hong Kong based company.

By Corey Snoek, Socialist Party

Continue reading Metro prove to be just as bad a Connex

SP Newsletter No.318

Thousands of workers Australia-wide face the reality, or threat, of job losses or cuts to working hours. Bosses are trying everything they can to make workers pay for the global crisis of their system.

The crisis has already led to the axing of 16 million jobs worldwide and destabilised a number of governments around the globe. The risk of a double dip recession also remains, which would heap further pain and suffering on workers and the poor worldwide.

Continue reading Job losses are caused by the market not migrants

July fast news

20,000 workers around Australia marched on June 10 to demand equal pay for women.

The Australian Services Union (ASU) organised marches in 17 locations around the country in the biggest national rally for womens’ wages since the 1970s.

3000 marched in Sydney and in Melbourne approximately 5000 workers marched through the CBD. Rallies were held in all the capital cities and some regional towns.

Continue reading Workers rally for equal pay