Don’t miss the public events during this years Socialist Party National Conference in Melbourne. It starts this Friday night 7pm at Trades Hall, Carlton South with a debate on ‘Where is Australia going’ with Greens candidate for seat of Melbourne Adam Bandt; Union Solidarity leader, Dave Kerin and Socialist Party councillor Stephen Jolly.

The case of Dr. Mohammed Haneef shows the draconian and anti-democratic nature of the Howard government’s ‘anti-terror’ laws. In early July Haneef was stopped at Brisbane airport as he tried to board a plane to India. He was held by the Federal Police for 12 days without charge.
By Anthony Main, Socialist Party Melbourne

Only hours before last Friday’s successful Socialist Party-organised rally on Smith St, Socialist Party Councillor Stephen Jolly received the following email from the Green Party Mayor of Yarra Council, Jenny Farrar. Stephen’s reply goes to the heart of the differences between these two parties in the area.

On a day of political turmoil for the Victorian Labor government yesterday over 400 people attended a rally on a cold winters night outside Safeway supermarket at Smith Street, Collingwood calling for State government funding for a cultural centre, sobering-up facility and 24-hour indigenous run bus.
By Socialist Party reporters Melbourne

SP Newsletter No.181
Howard’s police-military operation in the Northern Territory against remote Aboriginal communities has been met with growing scepticism. One recent opinion poll, found 58 percent of people thought Howard was only acting because of the federal election, while only 25 percent accepted that the prime minister genuinely cared about the plight of Aboriginal children. [...]

In the first few minutes of Michael Moore’s new movie Sicko, viewers meet a man named Rick who accidentally sliced off two of his fingertips with a table saw. Rick is uninsured, and when he goes to the emergency room to get the stumps reattached he gets a nasty surprise: his ring finger will cost [...]

No to racist solutions to Smith St public behaviour issues. Unity not racism to improve our street.
Aboriginal activists, trade union and Socialist Party supporters will be rallying on Collingwood’s Smith St this Friday. The rally is in response to a push by some traders for a police clampdown on public drinking on the street.
Rally Friday [...]

The following articles appear in the latest issue of ‘Justice’, the newspaper of Socialist Alternative -the Socialist Party’s sister organisation in the USA. They address the debate in that country over the lack of affordable healthcare and argue that the current failing system is the consequence of a health system geared to the profits of [...]

The decision of the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez to revoke the broadcasting licence of the pro-opposition TV channel, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) last May became the subject of criticism in the worldwide press and a focal point for the criticism of the opposition parties against the Chávez government.
By Karl Debbaut, CWI

Bush still claims that Iraq under US, British and Australian military occupation is making progress towards a stable, democratic society. In reality, the situation is catastrophic. For most Iraqis, things are much worse than under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. There are severe shortages of fresh water, electric power and even fuel.
Editorial from ‘The [...]