Lucy Redler, a prominent member of Socialist Alternative, German sister organisation to the Socialist Party and currently the most prominent Marxist in Germany, was watched by around five million viewers when she appeared on the ?Sabine Christiansen? discussion programme last Sunday on ARD, Germany’s main TV channel.

By Robert Bechert, CWI (more…)

‘The Longest Decade’ by George Megalogenis

Reviewed by Stephen Jolly

Murdoch stable journalist and author, George Megalogenis, has written a very useful history of Australian federal politics in the 1990s. Its title ?The Longest Decade? refers to the long but uneven 1990s economic upturn that has continued deep into this decade. (more…)

Six years after their first military intervention, a second Australia-led military and police force has re-occupied East Timor.

By Stephen Jolly, Socialist Party Melbourne (more…)

The following is the transcript of a report aired on ABC television’s program, Lateline. Broadcast on 29/05/2006. Reporter Rachel Carbonell.

TONY JONES: Well, a new labour organisation in Victoria could ignite a bitter turf war in the union movement. The group, UNITE, plans to operate as a union and represent young casual workers in the retail and fast-food industries. The new outfit is basing its strategy on a successful New Zealand campaign, which secured significant pay rises for fast-food employees. Rachel Carbonell reports. (more…)

Originally published on the websites of The Age newspaper in Melbourne and the Sydney Morning Herald.

A new unregistered “union” targeting youth workers at fast food and retail companies such as McDonalds and Starbucks will circumvent the government’s industrial relations laws, organisers claim. (more…)

Taken from the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper. By Ellen Whinnett, state politics reporter. 29/5/2006

A rebel trade union will be launched in Melbourne today for young people working at fast food and retail chains. (more…)

A new union for fast food and retail workers has been launched in Melbourne. The union, UNITE, grew out of a campaign for casual workers rights. UNITE first started in 2003 as an organisation fighting for low paid and casual workers. Its most notable campaigns were the ‘name and shame’ campaign on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and the campaign to unionise Boarders Books on Lygon Street in Carlton.
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Twenty five years ago in May, Bobby Sands, MP, died on hunger strike in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. Over the next few months, nine other young republican prisoners followed him, demanding jail reforms.

Niall Mulholland reviews Bobby Sands Nothing but an Unfinished Song by Denis O’Hearn (Pluto Books). (more…)

The following letter was written by Socialist Party member Andrew Calleja and published in the Whittlesea Weekly newspaper on May 16, 2006.
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Instead of the expected warm reception in Ireland for John Howard he was met with a bitter cold blast from Socialist Party MP Joe Higgins. After forcing a debate in the Dail (Irish Parliament) last week calling on the invitation for Howard to address the sitting to be withdrawn, Higgins decided to boycott the speech and was joined by five other deputies.

By Anthony Main Socialist Party National Organiser (more…)