The recent death of John Cummins (Cummo) has been a huge blow to the working class movement in Australia. Cummo was the President of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU (construction union), probably the strongest union in the nation. (more…)

State President of the Victorian CFMEU (construction divison) and BLF stalwart, John Cummins (Cummo), died yesterday with his family by his side. John was a good friend of the Socialist Party and will be sadly missed. His loss leaves a gapping hole in the leadership of the Australian trade union movement. The Socialist Party will publish its own obituary soon but in the mean time below we publish an article from todays Melbourne Herald Sun. Even this rabid anti union paper felt the need to comment on Cummo’s death. (more…)

Limits of Israeli military power exposed.
Part One by Kevin Simpson, CWI.
The barbarous 34-day assault on Lebanon saw the deaths of at least 1,300 Lebanese, thousands injured, up to a million people forced to flee their homes, and civilian infrastructure shattered. On the Israeli side, 157 were killed, including 118 soldiers. But none of the Israeli regime’s objectives were achieved. (more…)

On 16 August 2006, the Malaysian Court of Appeal rejected the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) case to be registered as a legal political party which it has been fighting since 1998. The court verdict also demonstrated that, although the right of association is guaranteed in the Malaysian constitution, the state could still use its apparatus such as association registrar department, courts and other bodies to manipulate the facts of the case and rights of PSM. (more…)

August 6 saw 4,000 people take to the streets of Chamchamal, a Kurdish city in northern Iraq, in protest against the huge increase in fuel prices and the lack of water and electric.
By Rozh Pavilov, CWI. (see pictures below) (more…)

SIXTY SIX YEARS ago, on 20 August 1940, Ramon Mercader, an agent of Stalin’s secret police (the GPU) struck a crushing blow with an ice-pick into Leon Trotsky’s skull, ending the life of Stalin’s most feared critic, the foremost Marxist theoretician and outstanding revolutionary.
By Alec Thraves, Socialist Party Wales (more…)

By SP Cllr Stephen Jolly
The council meeting on Tuesday last was a quite affair. Outrageously Council has decided, as seen in a media release this week, to ban access to local people to Richmond and Fitzroy pools for over one week in March next year and hand over the facilities to an international syncronised swimming event. For working class families, a day at the pool is a cheap and healthy time together. This issue will be debated in next weeks Melbourne Times. (more…)

For Bush, Blair and Howard, the architects of ‘regime change’ in Iraq, their swift victory over Saddam Hussein in 2003 must seem like another era as the country descends into sectarian conflict and chaos. (more…)

The world economic situation is the main backdrop to the political and social relations facing the planet. Behind a facade of growth and progress we see an upturn less impressive than the post-war economic boom. This is true both internationally and in Australia. (more…)

After nearly a month of carpet bombing the country, by air, sea and land, the enormous sound of the Israeli war planes is now sinking into the background with noises of people trying to go about their daily lives.
Eyewitness report from a socialist in Lebanon. (more…)