What's behind Mark Latham's policies?
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:33:52 CST

Editorial statement from SP paper, The Socialist, February-March 2004

Mark Latham’s dream run in the media since being elected leader of the ALP has generated a sense of hope amongst workers. Many now believe that ALP has a chance of beating the Coalition and even that the ALP itself might show a change for the better.

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Why I joined the Socialist Party
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:30:19 CST

By Antony Alder, 27 year old Chef, Fitzroy, Melbourne

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Obituary: John Lou 1953-2003
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:28:00 CST

By Dave O'Brien, CFMEU activist and Socialist Party Melbourne

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Movie Review: Goodbye Lenin
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:25:13 CST

Goodbye Lenin is a political love story set in East Germany (GDR) around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. A working class single mother, Christiane, and her 20-year old son, Alexander, live in a tiny East Berlin flat in the last days of Stalinism.

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Has socialism ever existed?
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:22:43 CST

By Greg Bradshaw, Socialist Party Melbourne


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Sri Lanka: Going Back to War Again?
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:19:12 CST

By Sampath Perrera, Socialist Party Melbourne
Last November Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga imposed a state of emergency while her rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was overseas.

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Report back from Australian representative at international socialist meeting
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:17:14 CST

By Anthony Main, Socialist Party Melbourne
Where is the world going in 2004?

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Troops out of Iraq!
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:14:48 CST

By Gary Duffy, Socialist Party Sydney
The situation for the US and other coalition of the willing forces in Iraq is still fraught with danger. Bush and Co. may have had a brief psychological boost with the capture of Saddam Hussein but this will not change the fundamental situation in Iraq.

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Hands off Newcastle stations!
Sunday, February 08 @ 05:12:58 CST

By Samantha Ashby, Socialist Party Newcastle
As a new resident of Newcastle, NSW it is hard to imagine a stranger idea than closing the railway access into the city and business center.

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World Social Forum, Mumbai
Wednesday, January 21 @ 21:15:37 CST

2 articles from CWI delegation at World Social Forum in India this month. SP (Australia) was represented by Jim O'Connor

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New material from Soviet archives confirms Bolsheviks' position on Kronstadt!
Monday, January 19 @ 21:52:21 CST

For many years the capitalist press, erudite professors and bourgeois analysts have been going on about the "secrets in the Soviet archives". There was much speculation about the "terrible secrets of the communist regime" that would finally confirm the "evil character" of communism.

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Short explanation of Dialectics
Sunday, January 18 @ 19:47:46 CST

Reading for SP Melbourne joint branch meeting on Introduction to Dialectics, 20th January 2004. Speaker: Andy Blunden
Very good, short explanation

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New SP poll on 2004 Federal election
Monday, January 12 @ 02:50:11 CST

Who do you think will win the 2004 Federal election? Vote on our web site, front page, bottom left...

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Britain 20 years ago: When Liverpool beat Thatcher
Saturday, January 10 @ 01:26:00 CST

During the Spring of 1984 the UK Liverpool City Council took on Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government and won a famous victory. The leadership of the Council was in the hands of Militant members (now SP) and it was one of the greatest victories in the modern workers' movement...
Read a fascinating interview with Laurence Coates, then a fulltimer for Militant in Liverpool and integrally involved in the struggle, now a leading member of our Swedish section.

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Against the theory of State Capitalism
Friday, January 09 @ 03:35:55 CST

Ted Grant's 1949 article opposing the idea that the Stalinist USSR and Eastern European regimes were a form of capitalism - "state capitalism" - is still the best read on the question. Groups like the Socialist Alternative and the International Socialist Organisation hold the state capitalist theory as the center piece of their ideas.
This article is aimed at Tony Cliff who re-raised the state capitalism theory after the war (Trotsky had slammed the idea in the 1930s when argued by some US socialists). Cliff went on to found the SWP/ISO tendency (from which Socialist Alternative comes too).
Ted Grant was a leading figure in the CWI until he split with us in 1991 insisting on staying in the Labor Parties of the world well after their use by date in terms of active involvement by workers and youth. The web site 'In defence of Marxism' is run by his supporters today.

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DSP dissolves and reemerges as the...DSP!
Thursday, January 08 @ 05:29:08 CST

Comment on new DSP manoeuvre by Stephen Jolly, SP National Secretary
The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) has voted over the break to dissolve itself as a party and reemerge as the DSP - the Democratic Socialist Perspective, a faction within the Socialist Alliance. In effect this makes the Socialist Alliance more than ever a DSP front...Read rest of this article by clicking below
Plus read the DSP resolution re their dissolving into a faction of SA
Plus read Sydney socialist Bob Gould's analysis of the DSP resolution. Despite its digs at us, it is a good critique of this tactical ploy by the DSP leadership dressed up as a principled strategic turn.
Plus read our original reasons for not joining SA and our perspectives for it, written in 2001 and proved correct today

Blast from the past: Extract from SP letter to Socialist Alliance in February 2001:
"No such forces exist as a basis for this proposed allliance. It would be a fundamental error to be under the illusion that a new viable party will be created by the gathering together of the already-existing small left parties and a very thin layer of non-aligned individuals. This layer, in addition to being small, is also overwhelmingly made up of long-standing activists, rather than of fresh layers just moving into struggle.
"We are in favour of a new mass party for the working class. This will not develop immediately but over a period and this process cannot be viewed in isolation from the class struggle and the situation in the workers’ movement. Any attempt to declare a new party of the working class before the forces necessary to make such a formation real have congregated, will end up the same way as the PLP."

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Labor's new policy on casual workers
Sunday, January 04 @ 20:01:40 CST

The ALP has just announced its new policy for casual workers.
As SP and UNITE has been arguing for months now, the issue of casualisation is of growing concern for working class people in Australia and at last the ALP have smelt the political mood and announced some policy initiatives. Whether they are implemented by a Labor government is another matter.
However UNITE should be congratulated for pushing casualisation onto the mainstream political Aagenda...


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Impending crisis of oil supply
Thursday, December 25 @ 01:59:24 CST

The world is quickly running out of oil - so why do politicians refuse to talk about this huge problem?
By George Monbiot. published in the Guardian Weekly, 25 December-31 December 2003
The article lacks a socialist alternative, but is great on facts and an explanation of the problem


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UNITE: Armchair critics attack UNITE
Monday, December 22 @ 23:18:27 CST

Greg Bradshaw answers criticisms of UNITE that were posted on the Melbourne IndyMedia web site.

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Labor calls for inquiry into survelliance of Medicare campaign
Monday, December 22 @ 17:55:04 CST

Federal Labor is calling for the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to investigate whether the Federal Government used police and intelligence agencies to discredit a campaign to defend Medicare.
The Socialist Party welcomes this call. SP is involved in the campaign, and the party and its members were attacked by the Government and the Murdoch press.
Read Melbourne Age report on Labor's call...

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CWI on Capture of Saddam
Wednesday, December 17 @ 17:12:54 CST

17 December 2003
CWI Statement: Saddam’s capture will not end Iraq turmoil

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New Zealand: Alliance Party conference calls for ‘left regroupment’
Wednesday, December 17 @ 01:37:21 CST

Eighteen months after the left-wing Alliance Party in Aotearoa/New Zealand suffered a damaging split and the loss of all its remaining MPs in a snap general election, there are signs that the party is (somewhat belatedly) trying to reconnect with its working class support.

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Capture of Saddam
Monday, December 15 @ 00:15:39 CST

A socialist response to the capture of Saddam. Plus vote on our new poll on the capture, bottom left of front page...

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SP statement on Federal Government/Media attack on us and Medicare campaign
Wednesday, December 10 @ 17:18:23 CST

The assault on the Defend and Extend Medicare Group (DEMG) and the Socialist Party (SP) in particular in the Murdoch media was in many ways humorous in terms of basic errors and rabid bias.

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Report of CWI International Meeting
Sunday, December 07 @ 22:06:18 CST

Nicki Jonas and Anthony Main represented Australia at the recent CWI International Executive Committee meeting in Belgium. Niall Mulholland reports on the key debates...

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Unite Name and Shame list
Sunday, December 07 @ 20:09:56 CST

The entire list of dodgy bosses and ethical employers on Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Melbourne

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Part 3 of Herald-Sun/Federal Government Red baiting
Sunday, December 07 @ 16:48:57 CST

From today's Melbourne Herald Sun (Monday 8th December)

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SP fortnightly political report, 8/12/03, Latham's Victory Analysed
Sunday, December 07 @ 16:41:54 CST

The SP welcomes the debate, discussion and vote inside the ALP around the question of its Federal leadership. Far better a vote than a backroom deal. The issue of Beazley vs. Latham was an issue of discussion amongst workers for days and this provided an opportunity for socialists to contribute with their ideas.

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Melbourne Herald Sun launch major attack on SP and other Medicare activists
Sunday, December 07 @ 00:50:42 CST

A political very significant attack has been waged on SP in two full page articles over two days by the most read newspaper in Australia, the Melbourne Herald Sun...

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Socialist Party wins second council seat in Lewisham, London
Sunday, December 07 @ 00:33:07 CST

Chris Flood, a Socialist Party member from Lewisham won a council by-election in his area yesterday winning a stunning 32% of the vote. He joins Ian Page, the other Socialist Party councillor on the local council.
The Socialist Party now has the same number of councillors as the Tories on the local council!

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