Media statement: February 2, 2012

“The racist hysteria about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protests against PM Julia Gillard and Opposition leader Tony Abbott on January 26, prove that the Tent Embassy is as relevant as it was in 1972 when it was established, said Sam Watson, the Socialist Alliance national spokesperson on Aboriginal affairs.

Sam Watson, a respected Murri activist, filmmaker and playwright, participated in the 1972 Tent Embassy protest and was in Canberra with about 2000 Aboriginal people and their supporters for the 40th anniversary march and coroborree.

By Jim McIlroy, Brisbane

Following Queensland Labor Premier Anna Bligh’s announcement that a state election would take place on March 24, the two Socialist Alliance candidates issued an initial joint statement.

Mike Crook, who will contest the seat of Sandgate, and Liam Flenady, who will stand in South Brisbane said on January 27: “The major parties in the upcoming Queensland election stand for the neoliberal status quo. What the people really need is a radical transformation of the system.”

SYDNEY - The 8th national conference of the Socialist Alliance in Australia decided to take a draft document entitled “Towards a socialist Australia” through a nation-wide public discussion and consultation process to promote a wide discussion about socialism in the 21st century...

Below are greetings to the 8th national conference of the Socialist Alliance.

From the Socialist Party of Malaysia

Greetings of solidarity from Malaysia!

The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) would like to deliver our message of solidarity to the 8th National Conference of Socialist Alliance.

PSM and the Socialist Alliance has forged a closed comradeship for years in our struggle to defeat capitalism and to build socialism from below. Our party has sent a number of comrades to participate in some of the event organized by the Socialist Alliance, and your organisation also have sent comrades to speak in several occasions organised by PSM. We have learnt a lot from the Socialist Alliance...

By Paul Benedek

The global economic meltdown is yet to hit Australia hard, but 2011 was still a busy year of struggle in this relatively sheltered, wealthy country.

The year began with an Australian citizen on the global centre stage. WikiLeaks cables embarrassed governments worldwide, revealing war crimes and treachery, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested without charge. He was detained for all of last year. His supporters fear he will be extradited to the US, where conservatives have openly called for his assassination.

The federal government joined the attacks on Assange, but public sentiment has been overwhelmingly on Assange and WikiLeaks’ side...

Socialist Alliance members prepare for 8th national conference

‘Intervention mark II’ a new whitewash The Socialist Alliance released the statement below on November 25. * * * The federal government, through its “Stronger Futures” bill and associated legislation, seeks to lock in “intervention mark II” — for 10 years. Far from being the end of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (as the NT intervention legislation, due to expire in June next year, is officially known), the government plans to force paternalistic, controlling and assimilationist policies on to NT Aboriginal people for a decade — twice as long as the original intervention introduced by the Howard Coalition government in 2007. Again and again the Labor government is whitewashing Aboriginal voices, riding roughshod over communities and ignoring evidence. More

Isolate Egyptian military regime! Power to the people! Socialist Alliance media release Thursday November 24, 2011 "The Australian government should come out and support the Egyptian people in their demand that the Egyptian Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) return the government to the people who successfully ousted the former dictator Hosni Murbarak in February this year," Socialist Alliance national convenor Peter Boyle said today. "PM Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd should condemn the bloody crackdown by the Egyptian military regime, and support the protestors’ call for genuine democratic change including the immediate resignation of Field Marshall Tantawi, the head of SCAF. More

Socialist Alliance condemns PM Gillard's backflip on sale of uranium to India Calls for closure of all uranium mines and total end to uranium exports Media release November 16, 2011 "PM Julia Gillard's policy backflip on the sale of uranium to India, a non- signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), is yet another sorry betrayal of ALP policy on the mining and export of uranium," said Socialist Alliance National Convenor Peter Boyle today. "This will become yet another reactionary bi-partisan policy, in a parliament dominated by two big parties for the corporate rich. "It also exposes Gillard's talk of supporting reform and democratisation the ALP as a lie." More

Reject Baillieu government’s bullying tactic Support nurses, teachers, state public sector workers Before Ted Baillieu’s Coalition state government was elected, Baillieu made many promises – that he would not do anything extreme like the previous Kennett government of the 1990s, he would make Victorian teachers the best paid in Australia and that he would maintain the nurse-patient ratios that the Australian Nursing Federation had won through hard battles. Many workers voted for Baillieu government in disgust at the pro-corporate agenda of the Brumby Labor government, only to find that the Baillieu government has a similar pro-corporate agenda. What has been Baillieu’s record? More

How to overcome the power of the 1% Sunday, November 13, 2011 By Dave Holmes The global Occupy movement has focused the spotlight on the 1% versus the 99%. Who are the 1%? In the United States, the 400 richest individuals have as much wealth as the bottom 150 million. A similar picture applies in all the large capitalist countries. Economy owned by the 1% The source of their power derives from their ownership and control of society’s economic infrastructure. A relative handful of people own the means of production, distribution and exchange. They own the corporations that own the mines, factories, banks, transport networks, supermarket chains, media empires, and so on. This is monopoly capitalism. Each sector of the economy is dominated by a few giant corporations. They are continually engaged in ruthless competition — against each other and against their workforces. More

Time to put Qantas back in public hands Saturday, November 5, 2011 By Sam Wainwright If you speak out against the widening gap between wages and CEOs’ salaries, the corporate media will accuse you of stoking the “politics of envy”. Workers who dare take industrial action to get a few more crumbs from the bosses’ table are cast as class war dinosaurs. The Occupy protesters? We’re told they are naive rebels without a clue. But the Qantas lock-out proves otherwise. Along with lots of guff about how Labor’s “Fair Work” laws “swung the balance too far” in workers’ favour, the corporate elite have been falling over themselves to sympathise with poor Qantas CEO Alan Joyce who, with a $2 million pay rise in his back pocket, had “no choice” but to lock out his entire workforce. The pilots had worn special neckties, the engineers imposed work bans, and ground staff struck for just eight hours in eight months. Pretty mild stuff. If that’s going too far then you get a pretty clear picture of just how much bargaining power these employers think you deserve: zero. More

People power is key to our future Saturday, October 22, 2011 Socialist Alliance national convenor Peter Boyle gave the speech below at the recent Climate Change Social Change activist conference, held in Melbourne over September 30 to October 3. * * * The idea of this session follows on from something Ian Angus mentioned this morning, where he said there are two things we should be going for in building a revolutionary ecosocialist movement — a movement to transform this society in a fundamental way. He said we have to respect the best possible science and we have to learn from experience. I thought this was quite a profound statement because it sums up a non-dogmatic, practical and collaborative approach to building the kind of organisations and alliances that are necessary to transform society. We hoped this session would be part of the sharing. Of course, the whole conference is this sharing — a sharing of experiences between representatives of a number of projects to build such a movement for change in a number of countries. Groups that have been working together, collaborating, sharing experiences and staying in touch over a number of years. So it’s an ongoing conversation that we want to have in front of everybody and with the participation of everybody here. More

Socialist Alliance condemns violent police attacks on Melbourne and Sydney occupations Date: October 23, 2011 Socialist Alliance condemns the violent police dispersal of peaceful protesters at Occupy Melbourne (October 21) and Occupy Sydney (dawn, October 23) and pledges its full support for the re-establishment of these occupations against the tyranny of the world's richest 1%. The experience around the world has been whenever one of these Occupy movement camps has been attacked, even more people have rallied to support them in response. We are confident the same will happen here. We call on all people who share the Occupy movement's rejection of the gross injustices and global ecological vandalism being carried out around the world to make the richest 1% even richer to join the occupations and lend all possible solidarity and assistance to their re-establishment. Occupy Melbourne and Occupy Sydney will be back stronger because the 1% and their enforcers cannot arrest the truth. They cannot handcuff ideas. They cannot beat the people's spirit of resistance or throw it into a paddy wagon. More

Occupy to put human need before corporate greed The Socialist Alliance released the following statement on October 14, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street protest started small. But it has now become a global movement, with occupy events planned in about 1500 cities worldwide. It’s born out of the recognition that, in country after country, ordinary people are being made to pay for an economic crisis caused by the super- rich. The 99% are being told they must surrender their livelihoods, their future, their security and their dignity to keep a broken system afloat. In contrast, the 1% are having a wonderful crisis. The world’s biggest corporations have emerged stronger, more profitable and more powerful than ever before. To add insult to injury, the 1% want to convince us that we, the 99%, are to blame for the crisis. They say our wages are too high and that we don’t work hard enough. They say our social security systems are not affordable and that our rights at work are should be done away with. They say our public education and health systems are not efficient and that our public services must be privatised. The occupy movement is raising a challenge to the power of the 1%. Its strength lies in its diversity, breadth, unity and grassroots democracy. More

Climate change social change conference attracts hundreds Saturday, October 8, 2011 By Viv Miley More than 500 people gathered in Melbourne over September 30 to October 3 to take part in four days of stimulating talks and discussion at the second Climate Change Social Change conference. The conference, which featured five plenary sessions, 39 workshops and more than 90 speakers, was organised by Green Left Weekly, Socialist Alliance and Resistance. The conference brought together activists, academics and unionists from Australia, Asia, North America and the Pacific to share ideas and experiences from the movements for indigenous sovereignty, against environmental destruction, for women's rights, for queer rights, for peace, social justice and workers’ rights. The conference opened with a September 30 public meeting. More than 360 people crowded into the Carrillo Gantner theatre at the University of Melbourne to see the opening presentation by US author and academic John Bellamy Foster. His talk was titled “Capitalism and the Accumulation of Catastrophe”. More

'Anti-Semitism' slander ridiculous Sunday, September 25, 2011 By Tony Iltis Green Left Weekly, Socialist Alliance, and other left-wing groups have received more attention than normal in recent weeks in the mainstream media and even in state and federal parliamentary debates. This attention has mainly been in response to the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid and has mostly consisted of nasty allegations of anti-Semitism, with endless colourful references to Hitler and the Nazi’s Holocaust. There is nothing new in opponents of Israel being slandered as anti-Semites. Since its foundation, Israel has claimed to be the state for all Jews and dismissed any opposition as Jew-hatred. The recent attacks on the left and the BDS movement in Australia are part of a broader campaign by the Coalition and the Murdoch media aimed at smearing and dividing the Greens. Misuse of the term “anti-Semitism” is getting ridiculous, and not just in Australia. More

Letter to Pakistan High Commissioner for Australia re Baba Jan and political prisoners September 22, 2011 Dear Mr Abdul Malik Abdullah, We are writing to ask for your urgent intervention with the government of Pakistan to secure the release of Mr Baba Jan and five other political prisoners currently detained in the region of Gilgit-Baltistan. Mr Baba Jan is a leader of both the highly respected Labour Party Pakistan and the Progressive Youth Front in the region. During a peaceful demonstration on August 11 by local residents of Gilgit- Baltistan demanding the payment of compensation allowances due to them following the devastating flood and landslide in the valley of Hunza on July 4, 2010, the police opened fired on the protesters, killing Afzal Baig (22 years old), then his father, Sher Ullah Baig (50 years old) who was trying to protect him. The following day, the population of Aliabad and other localities of Hunza rose up, clashing with the police. On August 19, in an attempt to silence the protesters and conceal these murders from public view, 36 people were picked up by police, then another 33 were picked up on September 16. More

Labor and Coalition unite to destroy refugee rights Saturday, September 17, 2011 By Jay Fletcher Now that the Labor government has almost entirely reneged on its 2007 election promise to end Australia’s sickening abuse of refugees, the two big parties are united on an issue they have so vehemently pretended to disagree. Unhappy with the High Court’s interpretation of the law — that Australia must uphold fundamental human rights when making policies on refugees, and that deporting them to a country that does not have such rights violates the law — the Labor government is cajoling the opposition to agree to water down Australia’s refugee protections. The proposed changes would make expelling refugees to other countries, opening offshore detention camps and turning boats around lawful under Australian law. More

Liberals attack workers' rights, public services Saturday, September 3, 2011 By Susan Price, Sydney The day after the Barry O’Farrell Coalition government was elected in NSW in March, NSW Business Chamber CEO Stephen Cartwright said he wanted action in the first 100 days of the new government. He said business wanted O’Farrell to cut government spending, sign up to the weaker federal occupational health and safety laws (OH&S;), appoint a Small Business Commissioner, establish Infrastructure NSW, and produce the first report card on the progress of the Pacific Highway upgrade. These priorities reflected the chamber’s "10 Big Ideas to Grow NSW", which was released in June last year. Well, the NSW Business Chamber got its wish and then some. More

Sam Watson: Tackle the real ‘Aboriginal industry’ August 27, 2011 The Strategic Review of Indigenous Expenditure was submitted to the government in February 2010 but only made public on August 7 after a long- running freedom of information case brought by Channel 7. Queensland Murri activist and Socialist Alliance spokesperson Sam Watson spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Jim McIlroy about the report’s findings. * * * Over a decade ago, racist One Nation leader Pauline Hanson attacked what she called the “Aboriginal industry”. But the problem lies with the real Aboriginal industry, which is characterised by an army of white businesspeople, consultants, contractors and public servants. This industry has made an enormous amount of money out of Aboriginal disadvantage over the years. If you closed down all Aboriginal programs tomorrow, many thousands of whites would be out of a job. You see this contradiction right across the Northern Territory today. The whites live apart from the communities they are supposed to serve. They experience far better salaries and conditions than the Black communities. More

Nationalise BlueScope Steel to save jobs and the environment! Socialist Alliance statement August 23, 2011 BlueScope Steel Ltd. announced on August 22 that it will shut two production facilities and shed 1,000 jobs as part of a restructure aimed at turning around a $1.05 billion annual loss. This will mean the shut down of a blast furnace at Port Kembla in the Illawarra region of New South Wales and closure of its Western Port hot strip mill in Victoria. The Port Kembla closure will result in 800 job losses, while 200 jobs will be cut at Western Port. According to the Green Jobs Illawarra Action Plan, one third of the Illawarra region’s manufacturing workforce of 18,000 are direct or contract employees of BlueScope Steel. These cuts will be devastating to communities already suffering from high unemployment and underemployment. The $3 million worth of bonuses executives are paying themselves are a further slap in the face for retrenched workers. More

Baillieu attempts to silence BDS protesters in Victoria Our right to demonstrate in support of Palestinian human rights must be protected Socialist Alliance statement, August 10, 2011 Millions of people across the Middle East have been protesting for freedom of speech and freedom to protest, while in Victoria, the Baillieu government is proceeding to criminalise political protest, particularly protest in support of Palestinian human rights. The government is trying to shut down Palestine solidarity protests by: More

Disability pensions cut, corporate profits rise Stefan Skibicki Saturday August 6, 2011 About 40% of new Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients may be ruled ineligible as the federal Labor government updates the tables for the assessment of work-related impairment for DSP. Community services minister Jenny Macklin said on July 30 that the revised impairment tables will be implemented from January 1 next year and will apply to new recipients only. This is the first review of the DSP impairment tables since 1993. More

Hands off David Hicks Socialist Alliance statement Thursday August 4, 2011 War criminal and former British PM Tony Blair had only just completed a lucrative commercial speaking tour of Australia when Australia’s federal Director of Public Prosecutions began court proceeding to prosecute former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks under “proceeds of crime” laws. Government prosecutors want to seize the profits from his book Guantanamo: My Journey, of which about 30,000 copies have been sold. Hicks has committed no crime recognised under Australian law. Even former Australian prime minister John Howard has admitted this. The truth about Guantanamo must not be silenced. More

Australia-Malaysia refugee swap is human trading Socialist Alliance statement Thursday, July 28, 2011 The Australia-Malaysia refugee “swap” deal, signed in Kuala Lumpur on July 25, further persecutes people who have escaped conflict and terror and have an international right to seek asylum in Australia. The Australian government said the plan was intended to attacked the “people smugglers’ business model”. But, in effect, it is a high-priced human trafficking deal between two governments known for discriminating against refugees. The refugee swap deal is part of the Australian government's ongoing attempt to criminalise and punish refugees who arrive in Australia by boat. However, it is not illegal to seek asylum, regardless of the means by which someone arrives. More

WikiLeaks vs News Ltd: Jail Murdoch, not Assange July 16, 2011 By Ash Pemberton When it comes to comparing the cases of two publishers of secret information — WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange and billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch — the hypocrisy from politicians and media is huge. The key difference between the two is obvious — one seeks to challenge the establishment, the other exerts huge control over it. Papers run by the Murdoch-owned News International — the British arm of his media empire — were caught stealing personal information from hundreds of people as well as engaging in widespread police bribery. Their motivation was purely cynical: to produce trashy, sensationalised stories to make money. More

Gillard’s carbon price: not a serious response Simon Butler, July 17, 2011 Action on climate change is one of the most important issues of all. But the Gillard government’s carbon price plan is not a serious response, grounded in the climate science. The biggest problem is that it aims to take ten years to cut Australia’s emissions by just 5% (based on 2000 levels). This is nowhere near enough. It’s so far from enough that even if it succeeds, the world will still be pushed into an unstable, dangerous climate system. Most other developed countries have pledged much bigger emissions cuts than Australia. Yet most climate scientists say all the promised cuts put together will be too little, too late. Visiting German climate scientist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber told Lateline on July 12 that the Earth was on track for a 4°C temperature rise. More

Tasmanian Labor-Greens coalition a mistake Susan Austin, Hobart Socialist Alliance 18 July, 2011 Socialist Alliance Hobart branch notes the recent expression of disillusionment with all political parties in parliament in Tasmania. The state government continues to disappoint with its lack of transparency when it comes to funding dodgy deals such as the proposed Aprin loan (now scuttled after Gunns chose a different bidder), with its inability to support the proper funding of public services such as education and health, its inability to either protect our public forests or create jobs, its dodgy priorities (for example, funding race-tracks and football sponsorship while closing down Hayes prison farm), its inability to deal with the rising cost of living and the housing crisis, its inability to protect Aboriginal heritage and its inability to put the environment and the community before Gunns when it comes to the Tamar Valley pulp mill. More

Regional left statement in solidarity with Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) Free All Political Prisoners! Democracy for the Malaysian People! On 19 June 2011 a campaign called Bersih 2.0 was launched by Malaysians wanting a free and fair elections in the country as the 13th General Election is around the corner. The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih) also called a gathering for 9 July 2011. On 24 June, the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM - Socialist Party of Malaysia) launched a Udahlah BN, Bersaralah (Enough BN, Retire Now) campaign. The PSM campaign aimed to expose the corruption of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government and also to drum up support for the Bersih 2.0 rally. Since 22 June, over 100 individuals have been arrested because they have expressed their support for a mass rally on 9 July, called for by Bersih. As for now, 81 people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained by the police at various locations in the country before the Bersih 2.0 rally. More

Australian government must pressure Israel to release activists imprisoned in Tel Aviv MEDIA RELEASE July 12, 2011 Vivienne Porzsolt (pictured in centre), spokesperson for Jews Against the Occupation and a member of the East Sydney branch of the Socialist Alliance, was arrested at Tel Aviv airport on July 11. Her crime? Trying to visit Palestine. Ms Porzsolt joined the Freedom Flotilla 2 along with hundreds of other pro- Palestine activists from around the world. Three other Australians, including former Greens NSW MP Sylvia Hale (on left) and youth worker Michael Coleman (on right), also took part in the protest which was aimed at highlighting the illegal blockade of Gaza. More

Union fight can beat O’Farrell back Saturday, June 25, 2011 By Susan Price In a show of anger against the attacks on workers rights by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell, 12,000 public sector workers stopped work and rallied outside NSW parliament on June 15. The protest was organised in just over a week, and several unions, including the Nurses Federation and the fire fighters took stopwork action on the day. In spite of constant rain, the rally spread out for more than a block along Macquarie Street and into Martin Place. The date was chosen to coincide with the sitting of the NSW Legislative Assembly, which passed the industrial relations legislation into law that night. More

Carbon price: the gas agenda Saturday, June 25, 2011 By Jess Moore The public wants meaningful action to address climate change. The 2010 annual Lowy poll found that 86% of Australians support climate action. Forty-six percent said they supported strong action and a further 40% supported gradual steps. Moreover, a 2011 poll by the 100% Renewable Energy Campaign asked 14,000 people their views on renewable energy and the government’s responsibility. It found 91% of respondents think the government should increase action to roll out renewable energy and that 86% think the government needs a plan to get to 100% renewables. So the pressure is on for federal and state governments to deliver. But what we’re getting is a lot of gas. More

Urgent appeal for solidarity - crackdown on Malaysian socialists Dear friends and comrades We have received an urgent appeal for solidarity from the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) following the arrest and detention of 30 of their members including their Member of Parliament Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj and several other leading members. They were arrested while conducting a peaceful nation-wide bus tour They were arrested while conducting a peaceful nation-wide bus tour calling for the ruling Barisan Nasional government (which has run the country since independence) to retire. For background see "Malaysia: Government arrests socialists ahead of Bersih 2.0 pro-democracy rally". Please publicise this matter and send your messages of solidarity to the PSM to: "International Bureau PSM" int.psm@gmail.com and arul.psm@gmail.com Thanks Peter Boyle National Convenor Socialist Alliance (Australia) More

Say no to Victoria’s anti-swearing law Saturday, June 25, 2011 For something as simple as stubbing your toe and saying “Oh, fuck” in public, the Victorian police will now be able to fine you $238.90 for swearing or using offensive language. Does this mean that an entertainer or musician can also be fined for swearing or using offensive behaviour in their act or song? The anti-swearing legislation doesn’t define what a “swear word” actually is. This gives the police extraordinary power to use these laws in discriminatory ways. The police are unlikely to use this fine against everyone. They are more likely to use it against people they deem social undesirables. These could be homeless people, teenagers hanging out in a public space or even a group of activists. More

Socialist Alliance responds to harsh Tasmanian budget State government budget is outrageous - we need a socially just alternative. 24 June 2011 Socialist Alliance members were outraged by the harsh neo-liberal budget handed down by the Tasmanian Labor-Greens government on June 16. The budget slashes a total of $1.4 billion from the public sector over the next four years, including a $100 million cut to health within the next financial year and the closing of 20 schools. Up to 1700 full-time equivalent jobs will be scrapped, including 100 police jobs. The 5 per cent cap on water price rises was increased to 10 per cent, meaning price rises of up to $100 per quarter for households. Public sector workers will have their pay rises capped at 2 per cent a year, with the possibility of an extra 0.5 per cent through productivity improvements, still well below rising inflation and cost of living increases. More

Nauru refugee detention extreme, inhumane Saturday, June 18, 2011 By Jay Fletcher The president of the Pacific island nation of Nauru told Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott that it would move to sign the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees though it has not taken formal steps to do so. Abbott said on June 13 this meant Prime Minister Julia Gillard had “run out of excuses” not to reopen the centre and send refugees to the small, poor nation about 4000 kilometres from Australia. The opposition has taken Labor’s extreme and inhumane “solution” to so- called people smuggling as an opportunity to push its planned revival of the “Pacific solution” and the reintroduction of temporary protection visas. More

Make O'Farrell’s industrial laws unworkable Saturday, June 11, 2011 By Susan Price A bill attacking the rights of NSW public sector workers pushed by the O’Farrell Coalition government are set to pass through the upper house on June 14, with the support of Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats and the Shooters Party. It can then be put through the Liberal dominated lower house on June 15. The anti-union bill is a draconian measure. If passed, it will give the state government the power to unilaterally set the wages and conditions of public sector workers. It means the government could not only freeze or even cut wages but also cut penalty rates, shift allowances, maternity leave payments, redundancy payments and other entitlements without public sector employees having any redress to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). More

Pay Equity: Time To Pay Up! Socialist Alliance statement, 8 June, 2011 Gender Pay Gap Widens Forty years after the first equal pay test case, the gap between male and female wages continues to widen. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on 20 May 2010 put the pay gap (as of February 2010) at 18%. Women on average now earn $239.30 a week less than men. The gap is now at its highest level since August 1994. This pay gap means, on average, Australian women have to work an extra 66 days to earn the same amount as men. More

We’re not being swamped by refugees Saturday, June 11, 2011 By Sam Wainwright, Socialist Alliance Councillor on Fremantle Council It was a good thing when 14 Labor members of the Western Australian parliament and the federal member for Fremantle, Melissa Parke, publicly voiced their disgust that unaccompanied children would be sent to Malaysia as part of the Labor federal government’s refugee swap. The claptrap used to sell this cruel and illogical farce is deservedly collapsing in on itself. Federal Labor’s contradictory flip-flopping on this issue has been excruciating to watch. It’s not guided by any rational policy making, but political imagery. More

Refugees are not commodities: No outsourcing refugee obligations to Malaysia! Joint statement of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) and the Socialist Alliance (Australia) The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) and the Socialist Alliance in Australia denounce the recent agreement made between the governments of Malaysia and Australia, whereby Australia will send 800 asylum seekers who have been detained by Australian authorities to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 refugees currently in Malaysia. The arrangement for this “Malaysian solution” to asylum seekers attempting to arrive in Australia clearly shows that the Australian government is washing its hands of its responsibility to protect refugees and is “off- shoring” or “outsourcing” the violation of refugee rights to Malaysia, a country with no proper legal instruments to protect the rights of refugees. Both the governments of Malaysia and Australia have not taken the plight of refugees and asylum seekers seriously, and only treat them like trade-able commodities. More

'Worse than WorkChoices' - O’Farrell to slash public service wages Saturday, May 28, 2011 By John Gauci The newly-elected Barry O’Farrell Coalition government in NSW has introduced a bill that gives it unprecedented power over pay and conditions for the state's 400,000 public servants —gutting the NSW Industrial Relations Commission’s (IRC) role. The Industrial Relations Amendment (Public Sector Conditions of Employment) Bill 2011 amends the state industrial relations act to require the IRC to “give effect to aspects of government policy declared by the regulations relating to NSW public sector conditions of employment”. Industrial relations minister Greg Pearce told parliament on May 24 that the policy was intended to cap annual wage rises at 2.5% a year in cases where they are not funded by trade-offs in working conditions. He said the bill was meant to ensure the “wages policy or the government’s fiscal strategy is not rendered ineffective by decisions of the Industrial Relations Commission”. The proposed 2.5% capped wage rises are less than the rate of inflation. This would mean a wage cut for NSW public sector workers. More

Budget 2011: A budget for billionaires By Peter Boyle The mining and banking companies creaming billions in super profits from the Asian industrialisation-driven mining boom in Australia – the biggest ever mining boom in this country’s history – have done very well from the federal Budget delivered by the Gillard Labor government on May 10. The big mining companies will continue to pay the lowest ever share in tax and royalties of the biggest ever profits ripped out of the ground in Australia. And on top of that, the Budget guarantees to supply skill labour (at the lowest possible cost) to the mining companies, to reduce these companies’ obligations to contribute to the training of skilled workers, and to subsidise, by billions of dollars, the building of transport infrastructure to get the minerals shipped out as fast and, as cheaply to the mining companies, as possible. Never mind the environmental and social society as a whole will have to bear. More

Sri Lanka must be pursued for war crimes Sunday, May 22, 2011 The report of the three-person panel appointed by United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on human rights issues in Sri Lanka has found “credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law was committed both by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam], some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”. The report focused on the final months of the war between the LTTE (an organisation that fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka) and the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE was defeated in May 2009. The panel found “credible allegations associated with the final stages of the war. Between September 2008 and 19 May 2009, the Sri Lanka Army advanced its military campaign into the [Tamil province of] Vanni using large-scale and widespread shelling, causing large numbers of civilian deaths ... More

International May Day greetings from the Socialist Alliance The Socialist Alliance in Australia sends our warm comradely greetings and best wishes for successful activities on May 1, International Workers’ Day. May Day this year takes place in a tumultuous time: the multiple crises confronting global capitalism are deepening, while mass resistance to its brutal rule grows. The people’s uprisings across the Arab world this year pose a major challenge to imperialism and neoliberalism, and are inspiring hope and resistance among oppressed people everywhere. More

Socialist Alliance May Day Statement 2011 'United action is the answer' The ALP took government on the back of the Your Rights At Work Campaign. But Labor has failed to "rip up" Work Choices. Australian Industry Group boss, Heather Ridout, told the 2011 HR Nichols Society conference: "There were many positive elements of the previous [Coalition] Government’s work place relations laws that have been retained by the Labor Government". More

Stand up against Israeli apartheid Socialist Alliance statement April 18, 2011 “Struggles for freedom and justices are fraught with huge moral dilemmas”, said Nobel Laureate and South African anti-apartheid campaigner Bishop Desmond Tutu last year in an address last year to students at the University of Johannesburg who were debating whether to terminate the university's agreement with Ben-Gurion University in Israel (BGU). The university decided to terminate relations with BGU on April 1, 2011. This same moral dilemma faced Marrickville Council on December 14, 2010, but the majority of councillors (including all four Labor, all five Greens and one independent) voted in favour of joining the global non-violent call to divest and sanction Israel for its apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians. More

Tax profits, don’t slash welfare Monday, April 18, 2011 By Peter Boyle As the May federal budget approaches, Labor PM Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott have gone on a welfare-recipient bashing spree. Exploiting the well-worn and reactionary “dole bludger” stereotype, they are softening us up for budget cuts to welfare and other social services. But this sadly predictable spectacle is not washing with most people, according to the findings of an April 11 Essential Report survey. More

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