SP Newsletter No.281
The Socialist Party will be holding its National Conference on October 2/3 at Trades Hall in Melbourne. At 7pm on Friday October 2 we will host a public meeting titled ‘The crisis facing world capitalism’.

Today the bosses representatives are busy discussing the crisis at the G20 meeting Pittsburgh. The G20 is made up of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 of the world’s largest national economies, as well as the European Union, which is the 20th member. Also participating are leaders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Not surprisingly, organisations of working-class people have never been invited to the table. The agendas of G20 meetings are never made public, and their proceedings are also secret. The only information that the public receives about what actually happens during the meetings comes from the press releases offered by these finance barons themselves. With this being the case there is an urgent need for working people to discuss the crisis on their own terms.

The G20 claims their main task is to ‘stabilise’ the global capitalist economy. One of the key ways the G20 attempts to do this is by lending through the IMF, an organisation notorious for ravaging economies, the natural environment, and public programs such as education and healthcare. One of the main goals of the Pittsburgh G20 summit is to “reform” the IMF so that it will be able to operate more “proactively” (i.e. ruthlessly).

The G20’s agenda enriches multinational corporations at the expense of working people around the world. For example, at their last summit, held in April of this year, the G20 tripled the finances of the IMF by pumping in another $500 billion. How outrageous that workers, innocent victims of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, are being laid off by the millions, thrown out of our homes, and seeing our schools being closed down, while the governments of the world have managed to find trillions of dollars to keep profits flowing into the banks and other corporations that detonated this crisis!

The G20 and IMF are not anti-worker institutions simply because they are run by “evil” people. They are an organic outgrowth of the capitalist system, which by its very nature concentrates economic, political, and military power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.

Unlike the G20 the Socialist Party public meeting will look at the economic crisis from the point of view or ordinary people. We will discuss the effects it is having across the globe and outline a way forward to ensure that workers and young people are not forced to pay for a crisis they didn’t create. If you want to hear something other than spin from the G20 come along and contribute to this important discussion.

The details are: SP public meeting - The crisis facing world capitalism
7pm Friday October 2 at Trades Hall corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South.
For more information contact the SP National Office on 03 9639 9111.

Upcoming SP meetings

The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party meets every Wednesday 7pm at Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. Upcoming meetings include:

7/10/09 – The 1905 Russian Revolution – Lessons for today
14/10/09 – TBC
21/10/09 – Capitalism, women and the family
28/10/09 – Civil liberties – A socialist analysis
4/11/09 – The history of the Indonesian Communist Party

For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.

News links:

Kazakhstan: Socialist activist viciously attacked
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/09/2301.html

Car industry: Magna’s takeover of Opel/Vauxhall
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/09/2302.html

Honduras: Coup regime uses brutal repression
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/09/2303.html

Join the Socialist Party

If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.

We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.

Subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ newspaper!

Support the Socialist Party by subscribing to our monthly newspaper ‘The Socialist’. Subscription rates are only $10 per year or $20 solidarity price. You will receive 11 copies per year delivered to your door every month. You will also receive our email newsletter every week and you will know that you are supporting an organisation that is at the fore of fighting against the capitalist system. To subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a subscription form.

Socialist Party contact details

Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.

The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.

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