In solidarity with Australian workers taking mass protest action, union members in New Zealand (from the SFWU, EPMU, Unite Union and the CTU) gathered outside the Australian Embassy in Auckland, on 28 June, to protest against Australian Prime Minister John Howard?s Industrial Relations laws.

By Nicki Jonas, CWI Auckland (more…)

Close to 150 000 people attended the mass demonstration in Melbourne as part of the June 28 national day of protest against Howard?s IR laws. Large contingents of workers from both blue and white collar unions were in attendance. Many families and young people also attended due to the fact that it was school holidays in Victoria.

By Anthony Main, UNITE Secretary (more…)

On a recent visit to Pakistan, Kevin Simpson interviewed Sadjid Balouch, a member of the Socialist Movement Pakistan (CWI in Pakistan), about his involvement in the struggle of the poor peasants who are still to this day continuing their struggle to remain on lands owned by the government and the military. At the height of the movement Sadjid was a political coordinator for the AMP, the mass peasants campaign which led this struggle and faced imprisonment and torture as did many other activists. (more…)

In the 1950s, Lee Kuan Yew formed a political association with the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) which had been able to amass and maintain a huge following among the working class.

By Ravi Chandren, Socialist Party (more…)

The recently concluded general election on 6 May in Singapore was considered an exciting election, at least by Singaporean standards. For the first time since 1988, opposition parties succeeded in filing candidates. They stood in over half the 84 constituency seats.

By Ravi Chandran, Socialist Party (more…)

Eighty years after history’s greatest display of working-class power in Britain, Peter Taaffe’s book comes at a time when organised labour is again beginning to flex its muscles.

Tony Mulhearn, Socialist Party (more…)

By SP Councillor Stephen Jolly
Last night saw a Hansonite, exclusionary policy for child care introduced by Yarra Council (Melbourne). Rather than bite the bullet and spend more money to create more child care places, the Council majority (ALP, independents and the two right-wing Green Councillors) voted for a ‘close the borders’ policy. Cllr Kathleen Maltzhahn (Green) and myself voted against. It was John Howard who said ‘We will decide who comes to Australia’ - we now have our own pathetic version of this in Yarra when it comes to child care. (more…)

The original version of this article commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Soweto uprising, appearing in the September 1986 edition of Inqaba Ya Basebenzi (Fortress of the Revolution). Inqaba was the journal of the Marxist Workers? Tendency of the African National Congress (ANC), predecessor of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM ? CWI South Africa). The author, Weizmann Hamilton, writing in exile under the pen name, Basil Hendrickse, had been an activist in the Black Consciousness movement. He had served two spells of detention in solitary confinement before being placed under a banning and house-arrest order. (more…)

Column from the June edition of ‘The Socialist’

10th worst: Bob Hawke, ACTU leader who stopped spontaneous general strike in wake of dismissal of Whitlam. ALP Prime Minister 1983-91 that introduced the wage cutting Accord. (more…)

I can hardly call myself the greatest football fan alive. However, I used to be football crazy when I was little and I still remember the excitement of the 1982 World Cup in Madrid; my first “conscious” world football event.

By Tanja Niemeier, CWI.

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