The 27 Boeing maintenance engineers based at Williamstown RAAF site in NSW have been on strike for over 225 days. They are fighting for the right for the AWU (Australian Workers Union) to negotiate a collective agreement to cover their wages and employment conditions. Boeing is trying to force them to accept individual contracts.

By Samantha Ashby, Socialist Party Newcastle (more…)

Yet another political earthquake has struck the Middle East. Hamas, standing for the first time in national elections, won a massive landslide victory in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas won 76 seats out of 132 in Parliament, and Fatah has only 43. It is the first time in over 40 years that Fatah has lost its position as the predominant organisation amongst Palestinians. Hamas won seats in all the major towns and cities in the West Bank and Gaza, even in places like Bethlehem where there is a large Christian population and Nablus which was historically a stronghold for Fatah.

By Kevin Simpson, CWI (more…)

Malaysia’s main leftwing party, the PSM (Socialist Party of Malaysia) has announced who are they are sending to this weekends SP’s summer school in Melbourne. It is Comrade V.Selvam, a Central Committee member and founder member of Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), one of their 4 election candidates in the last election. (more…)

During December I attended the protests outside sixth ministerial meeting of the big business-dominated World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Hong Kong, along with thousands of workers and farmers from throughout Asia, especially Korea. Alongside me was fellow Socialist Party comrade Wynand and two members from our sister organisation in Sweden, Laurence and Eric. It was one of best experiences of my life.
By Greg Bradshaw, Socialist Party, Melbourne (more…)

A community picket in support of CEPU (Communications, Electrical and Postal Union) shop steward Peter Vining continued this week at the Fitzroy Delivery Centre in Melbourne. (more…)

Taken from the latest newsletter of the Electrical Trades Union.
The December edition of the ETU News featured Clinton Jennings from Unite, an organisation devoted to the rights of young casual workers. Unite will have a stall at the Big Day Out on Sunday 29 January at Princes Park (Melbourne), with the aim of letting young workers know what their rights are. (more…)

In the past seven weeks more than 100 people have been killed, most of them members of Sri Lanka?s armed forces. But last weekend, in the most serious development yet, according to unconfirmed reports, 28 cadres of the LTTE (Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam) were killed in a bomb attack deep inside Tiger held territory.

By Clare Doyle, CWI
(more…)

An on going debate has been taking place in the workers movement as to which is the best way forward towards building a new workers party. The DSP in particular have had lengthy debates about the future of the Socialist Alliance project. The Socialist Party has produced this document as a contribution to that debate. (more…)

China experienced a 6.6 percent increase in ?public order disturbances? last year, to a staggering total of 87,000 incidents ? or 240 every day ? following a 28 percent rise from 2003 to 2004, according to official statistics.

By Laurence Coates, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden). (more…)

This year the World Social Forum is taking the form of three polycentric events. Two are taking place in January 2006; one in Bamako (Mali) and the other in Caracas (Venezuela). The Karachi (Pakistan) event has been postponed until later in 2006 due to last year?s tragic earthquake. The Nigerian section of the CWI, the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), has produced a special English and French language edition of its paper, Socialist Democracy, for the Bamako Forum and we publish below its main article.
AFRICA: IT IS EITHER SOCIALISM OR DEEPENING BARBARISM, By Dagga Tolar and Peluola Adewale (more…)