SP Newsletter No.293
The Rudd Government, who boast about their concern for human rights, have ignored the plight of over 250 Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking refugees held in a small boat near Merak, Indonesia.

SP Newsletter No.292
International students in Australia have a reason to be concerned: aside from the ongoing violence and the unscrupulous employment practices that many have been subject to, it has recently emerged that 41 private education institutes across Victoria will be audited due to widespread scams taking place in the sector.

SP Newsletter No.288
The October Yarra Council meeting was the best attended and most dramatic for years. The vast bulk of the residents who turned up were there to discuss the proposed local law to ban public drinking in Yarra.

Socialist Party statement
In recent weeks we have seen an increase in the number of Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum in Australia. Most of these people have been travelling by boat via Indonesia and Malaysia. This has put the refugee issue back on the main stage for the first time since the 2004 Federal election.

SP Newsletter No.287
For the past few months the capitalist press has bombarded us with stories about alcohol-fuelled street violence in Australia’s major cities. Socialists accept that crime and late night anti-social behaviour is a problem in many areas. We wholeheartedly understand people’s concerns.

SP Newsletter No.286
Socialist Party members from Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland met in Melbourne on October 2 & 3 for the 2009 Socialist Party National Conference.

The general crisis of world capitalism
The main issue facing the working class in Australia and across the world is the economic crisis. Most economists now agree that we have entered a period that is worse than anything seen since the ‘Great Depression’ of the 1930s. The only point of argument is how deep this crisis [...]

SP Newsletter No.285
US Bank Goldman Sachs is on track to pay $22 billion in salaries and bonuses this year, an average of $700,000 for each of its 31,700 employees. This is more than the record payout in 2007 at the height of the financial stock market bubble.

SP Newsletter No.284
One year on from the biggest financial crisis for 80 years most people are hoping that the worst is over.

I come from a Labor voting family in Preston (Melbourne). In our house the rights of workers and social justice are things we always talk about. The problem is that Labor doesn’t actually represent ordinary people anymore. They are a big business party and just another cog in the capitalist machine.
By Joel Simmons, Socialist [...]