SP Newsletter No.322

On June 24th Australia inherited its first ever female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Some have hailed this as a great achievement in the struggle for women’s rights, regardless of the fact that Australian voters had no participation in the event.

While her ascension can be attributed to male factional leaders within the Labor Party, Gillard is undoubtedly a beneficiary of the movements of women around the world that have fought long and hard for equal rights.

Continue reading Australia’s first female PM: A win for women?

Workers need a party of their own!

Julia Gillard has called the Federal election for August 21, just weeks after her coup against Kevin Rudd. While for now Gillard is more electable than Rudd, there has been no fundamental shift in Labor policies - the only exception being the cave in to the mining bosses.

Both Gillard’s’ Labor Party and the Coalition led by Tony Abbott support privatisation, free trade, the war in Afghanistan and the detention of refugees. Neither Gillard nor Abbott has a serious plan to address climate change and while one has introduced a raft of anti-worker laws, the other has refused to repeal them.

Editorial from the August edition of ‘The Socialist’ newspaper

Continue reading Federal Election: The bosses have two parties

Just a week after becoming PM Julia Gillard announced a complete back down on the Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT). Billions of dollars of concessions were made to the three big mining companies; BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata. Delighted with the windfall, the mining giants decided to call off their $100 million anti-government advertising campaign.

At the behest of the chiefs of industry the RSPT was replaced with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT). The new proposal includes a reduction in the headline tax rate from 40% to 30%, and the tax will only apply to iron-ore and coal projects.

By Anthony Main, Socialist Party

Continue reading Gillard caves in to mining giants

Workers from the Kennon Auto factory in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Preston went on strike in early July. After being denied a pay rise for more than 3 years these low paid workers decided to stop work and set up a picket line outside the plant.

The employer tried to bully the workers into signing a sub-standard agreement that undermined many Award conditions. Incredibly, the boss even tried to insert a clause into the agreement which said that “the company will decide if a worker is genuinely sick”! Any absence that is considered ‘unauthorised’ could lead to the withholding of pay, disciplinary action or dismissal.

By Socialist Party reporters Melbourne

Continue reading Victory for striking textile workers in Melbourne!

SP Newsletter No.321

For Australian voters the upcoming Federal election will be a choice between who will carry out the least severe cuts to jobs and services. While the massive stimulus packages helped keep Australia out of a technical recession, the cost has been the racking up of a huge debt. Both Labor and the Liberals are at one with the view that it should be ordinary people, and not big business, who should pay this debt. The agenda for both parties is one of cuts, cuts, and more cuts.

The Liberals have said that if elected they will slash $45 billion worth of services. This will mean attacks on the public sector with reduced services and increased costs for working people. Labor is no better, with Gillard boasting that they have already made nearly $84 billion in cuts! We can be certain that more cuts are to be expected if Labor is returned to power.

Continue reading Federal Election: No real choice for ordinary people

The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party will host a public meeting on the politics of the Black Panther Party for Self Defence. The details are: 7pm Wednesday July 28 @ Trades Hall, corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South.

SP member Anthony Main will kick off the discussion and look at the history and ideas of the largest black revolutionary organisation that ever existed. Come along to learn the lessons of history and discuss how we can advance the black struggle today.

For more information contact: 96399111.

SP Newsletter No.320

The Socialist Party has been hosting a large number of public meetings throughout the municipality of Yarra in Melbourne over the past few months. The aim is to mobilise people to win reforms on concrete issues of concern to them and in the process win greater support for socialist ideas and methods.

Yarra has two quite distinct parts of its population. One part is made up of about 20% of residents who live in public housing estates. They have very specific and sometimes very extreme problems related to the dire poverty that exists on these estates.

Continue reading Putting socialist ideas into practice

“It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimised by this manmade disaster are made whole”. These words of US President Obama on the ongoing catastrophe that is the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico won’t get him off the hook.

By Laura Fitzgerald, Socialist Party

Continue reading Lust for profits caused BP oil disaster

SP Newsletter No.319

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has revived their anti-WorkChoices campaign in the lead up to the next federal election. The ACTU is asserting Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has “shamelessly vowed to resurrect the core elements of WorkChoices, the policy that was so resoundingly rejected by Australian voters less than three years ago”.

The Howard Government’s WorkChoices industrial relations legislation has gone down in Australian history as one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever introduced. It brought hundreds of thousands of angry workers out onto the streets and ultimately led to the federal Coalition’s 2007 electoral defeat.

Continue reading WorkChoices – Never Again?

By Nguyen Tran, Socialist Party Melbourne

I am an international student from Vietnam and I have been interested in politics since I was in high school. Initially I was influenced by my family who lived through two wars in Vietnam and were quite patriotic.

After doing some reading I knew that I would have to look further than patriotism if I was going to find a way to affect change. I gradually moved in the direction of socialism which I think it is system that would benefit all people.

Continue reading Why I joined the Socialist Party