It hasn’t taken long for ALP Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to show his market credentials on the climate change issue that, second only to Work Choices, was responsible for his victory last month. Yet in Bali at the United Nations Climate Change conference the Australian government has refused to agree a mild proposal for developed nations to aim to reduce global emissions by 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. (more…)

A Socialist Party member involved in the industrial dispute in regional Victoria with the diary giant, Fonterra, talks to us today… “50-60 Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and Australian Manufactuing Workers Union (AMWU) maintenance workers at the New Zealand-owned Fonterra (a large dairy corporation, the 4th biggest in the world) are on dispute at four Victorian sites – at Cobden, Colac, Stanhope and Darnum. (more…)

The constitutional referendum called by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela on December 2 has unfortunately and tragically resulted in a defeat. For the first time in nine years Chavez has lost an election. The right wing opposition will claim this victory as theirs. This defeat for Chavez will embolden and strengthen the rightwing and is a warning of the threat that exists from the counter revolution.
By Karl Debbaut, CWI (more…)

Six weeks ago a cleaner working at Australia Posts logistics center on the Burwood Highway in Knoxfield, Melbourne was arbitrarily sacked by his employer, CMC, at the request of Australia Post. The cleaner had been working there for 11 years and had never had a trust issue raised with him in that time.
By Kirk Leonard, Socialist Party Melbourne (more…)

Lenin and the Russian workers’ movement 1885-1898.
Ninety years ago the Russian workers removed capitalism and began building the world’s first workers’ government. Today, academic historians, wedded to capitalism, often present this revolution as a coup or an isolated “mistake”.
By Hugh Caffrey, Socialist Party (more…)