By Robert Bechert, CWI

Across Venezuela hundreds of thousands have celebrated the defeat of the attempt to ?recall? the radical President Hugo Chávez. The overwhelming referendum result is a huge blow against US President Bush?s policies and the Venezuelan ruling class. The opposition had hoped that they would be able to mobilise sections disappointed by Chávez and thereby secure a victory. (more…)

By Kylie McGregor, Socialist Party Melbourne
Although I was skeptical and cynical when I first came into contact with the Socialist Party, expecting hypocrisy and shallow banners. What I found was progressive ideas, a strong network of serious, dedicated and committed people. There were no hierarchical barriers but there was an opportunity to get active and be supported.

The crisis gripping Darfur, in western Sudan, has been prominently in the news for weeks now.

By Robert Bechert, CWI (more…)

The political organisation of workers is a lot weaker today than in the past. In the 1960s and 1970s, for example, many trade unionists and student activists were organised in the Labor Party, or one or other Communist Party, or some other left wing party.


Today, the shift to the Right in the Labor Party has led to its emptying out by workers and young people. The collapse of Stalinist Soviet Union and Eastern European regimes led to the virtual wiping out of the Communist Parties in Australia and worldwide. Left parties like the Socialist Party are still small, albeit very active and ?punching above their weight? in terms of their effectiveness. (more…)

By Tim Bowen, CWI New Zealand
Its time for the trade union movement and anti-capitalist left to stop bailing out capitalist politicians and fight for a real socialist alternative! Within the last couple of months all households in New Zealand will have received in their letterbox a glossy brochure entitled “The 2004 Budget: What?s In It For My Family And Me?” (more…)

Australia was represented by Denise Dudley at the recent CWI Summer School in Belgium. The CWI (Committee for a Workers’ International) is the international organsiation of 35 socialist organisations that the SP in Australia is affiliated to.

Read the first reports of the event which concentrates on the report on the exciting developments in Latin America (more…)

This Friday 6.30pm August 13th - Commonwealth Hotel, 35 Union St, Cooks Hill, Newcastle NSW. This Saturday 3pm August 14th - Gaelic Club, 64 Devonshire St, Sydney. Then Tuesday 7.30pm August 17th - Irish Club WA, 61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco, WA. Finally Satuday 1pm August 21st - Trades Hall, cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts, Carlton South, Melbourne. For more information about the tour phone (03) 96399111.

Aboriginal History: McGuinness, Windschuttle and Quadrant
The attempt to revise the history of the massacre of Aborigines on the British colonial frontier in Australia

Follow the link to this article written by Sydney Marxist bookseller Bob Gould

Click here (more…)

This year is the 35th anniversary of one of the most important and victorious strike movements in modern Australian history - the General Strike movement in response to the jailing of Tram Workers’ Union leader Clarrie O’Shea in 1969.

Ruben Montero analyses the events in an article first published in 1994 in the Militant - the predecessor to The Socialist.
(more…)

Editorial from latest issue of The Socialist
Sometime this year Australian voters are going to be faced with a choice. John Howard of the Liberal Party or Mark “I want to be like John Howard” Latham of the Alternative Liberal Party (ALP). Commonsense dictates that when you are faced with two bad choices (the horns of a dilemma) you go for a third choice, and if one is not available you make it. (more…)