Below is an initial comment from the Socialist Party in Sydney
Arrests are continuing after tensions between police and Aboriginal youth in Sydney’s inner city suburb of Redfern broke out into open clashes on the night of 15/2/04 following the death of a young Aboriginal boy believed to have been being chased by police. (more…)

The politics of the WSF and socialism

Intervening in the World Social Forum in Mumbai was very much like intervening in one six day-long demonstration. The activity was more or less constant from eight in the morning until nine or ten at night.


Per-eke Westerlund, CWI
(more…)

The first ever Casual Workers Conference has been called by Unite for Saturday 3rd April 2004. The Conference will be an opportunity for the voice of casual workers to be heard. 2.2 million (1 million casual for over one year) face a working life without sickies, holidays, job security, the ability to get a loan and more. (more…)

Making Sense of the Foreshore and Seabed Controversy
In June 2003 the New Zealand Court of Appeal upheld in a landmark decision the right of 8 Marlborough tribes or iwi to have their claim to customary title over the local foreshore and seabed heard in the Maori Land Court. The claim was sparked initially by the fact that local iwi were being denied a real say in the setting up of new commercial mussel farming ventures in the Marlborough Sounds.
By Tim Bowen, CWI New Zealand (more…)

Capitalist firms produce commodities, that is a good or service produced for sale only. Every commodity has a use-value for people. That means they are useful to someone otherwise they could not be sold. (more…)

Are we really in an economic boom? Questions and answers on the Australian economy for workers…
Lenin described politics as condensed economics. There is a relationship between the politics of a society and its economic well-being. During the post-WW2 international economic boom of 1945-75 there was a general feeling amongst workers that capitalism was moving forward and had something to offer. (more…)

Australia has 2.2 million casual workers and its growing fast. One million of them have been casual for over a year. That’s a vast number of workers who, while making profits for their employer, never get a sickie, holidays, enjoy job security, and find it next to impossible to get a bank loan. (more…)

January 2004 saw almost 300 Australia Post workers in Victoria take industrial action for the first time in years.
The dispute arose from plans by Australia Post to move a mail centre from its current site in Port Melbourne to a new site in Ardeer. (more…)

The marginal tax rate for low income earners is trapping millions of people (mainly women) at home or into cash-in-hand casual work. The marginal tax rate is the real economic effect on people when they get a job or earn more income?they lose much of their government assistance for child care, their health care card, family tax benefit and more. (more…)

By Gary Duffy, SP Sydney
John Howard has often shown that he is a yesterday?s man. From his support of the monarchy to his ?All the way with the US of A? on everything and anything?wars, grandson of Star Wars?he is a relic of the mid-20th century. His attitudes towards women, immigrants and Aboriginals put him further into the past. (more…)