The system has to go!
While the protests like those at APEC this month, are directed at Howard, Bush and other world leaders, for many they will also be directed against the capitalist system. Capitalism is the economic system that we currently live under. It is a system that allows a tiny minority of bosses to own and control the vast amounts of wealth that is produced by millions of ordinary workers across the world.
By Denise Dudley, Socialist Party Melbourne (more…)

On Sunday, 9 September, crowds gathered in more than a dozen Chinese cities to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. This follows nearly 30 years’ of so-called “opening up” and liberalising “reform”, and various attempts to erase the image of Mao’s politics from 1980s.
By Chen Lizhi. Originally published on chinaworker.info (more…)

SP Newsletter No.186
With the federal election campaign gearing up you might have expected a real debate between the major parties on how to improve our ailing education system. Even in the face of Australia’s much-touted skills crisis both the Liberals and Labor are singing the same tune. (more…)

With no end in sight, the situation in East Timor seems to be going from bad to worse. Ever since President Jose Ramos-Horta chose his close ally Xanana Gusmao to be the new Prime Minister the country has been overcome by a new wave of violence and instability.

By Anthony Main, Socialist Party Melbourne

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No solution to indigenous problems
Last month the Howard government rammed the Northern Territory Emergency Response Bill through parliament. The ‘emergency legislation’ authorises the federal government’s intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. It was passed with the full support of the Labor Party.

By Kylie McGregor, Socialist Party

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The Socialist Party encourages students and trade union activists to attend the Rouge Education Conference being held at Trades Hall in Melbourne on the 14th - 16th September 2007. This conference will be based on three major themes: Institutions, Capitalism & Dissent. (more…)

Thousands rally despite crack down on civil liberties
As the Asia Pacific Economic Co-Operation (APEC) forum wound up in Sydney, John Howard was trying to spruik its success. The reality is however, that no significant decisions came out of this meeting of world capitalist leaders.
By Socialist Party reporters Sydney & Melbourne (more…)

Press statement from SP National Office
Socialist Party members from Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney will be targeting the APEC summit on Friday September 7th and Saturday September 8th. (more…)

Workers employed by the mining multinational Freeport McMoran in West Papua struck from 18-21 April and gained a 100 percent wage increase. Freeport’s mine at Grasberg is the worlds second biggest copper mine and the worlds biggest goldmine. Freeport worked closely with the Suharto dictatorship in the 1970s and the 1980s and became Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer.
By Per Johansson, CWI (more…)

The War on Democracy, directed by John Pilger.
John Pilger’s first cinema-released documentary is a damning indictment of US policy in Latin America, past and present. Mainly focusing on Venezuela, especially the US-backed coup in 2002 which temporarily overthrew the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez, the film unmasks the contempt the US ruling class has for the opinions and rights of working-class people as well as the atrocities they have committed in the name of freedom.
By Edd Mustill, Socialist Party (more…)