Friday, June 25, 2010

Gillard equals more of the same - we need real change


Julia Gillard's ousting of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is nothing more than a blatant attempt to re-brand the Labor Party in the face of poor polling results in the lead up to the election, according to Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth Alex Bainbridge.


"Kevin Rudd was elected under the banner of 'change' and 'new leadership' but didn't deliver anything like the progressive changes that we need. Gillard has now become prime minister precisely because people are still hungering for real change and genuine progressive leadership."

If you want to discuss the implications of this new development in Australian politics, come along and have your say at the Socialist Ideas Conference this weekend. The conference starts Saturday 9:30am at the State School Teachers Union Function Rooms (150 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth).


These sessions will be of particular interest:

Feminism under a female prime minister 
2:15pm Sat 26 June
(by Sanna Andrew on Equal Pay, Justine Kamprad on women and workers' rights and Vicki Thomas on the campaign for homebirth rights)

Australian politics in Rudd's Gillard's Australia
 4:15pm Sat 26 June
* Alison Xamon (Greens parliamentarian)
* Alex Bainbridge (Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth)
* Phil Chilton (Refugee Rights Action Network member)
* John O'Donnell (Communication Workers Union organiser)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Selected environmental features at the Socialist Ideas Conference


Cuba’s achievements in social justice and sustainability
12:30pm Saturday 26 June
Speakers:
Annolies Truman, Socialist Alliance
Find out what it was that made the WWF declare in 2006 that Cuba is the only country in the world practising “sustainable development”.

Capitalism versus “mother earth”
4pm Sunday 27 June
Speakers:
Gemma Weedall, Cochabamba climate conference participant
Del Weston, political economy activist and researcher
Jess Moore, Resistance National Coordinator
Bolivia’s indigenous president Evo Morales responded to Copenhagen’s failure by organising the “World People’s Conference on Climate and the Rights of Mother Earth” in Cochabamba. This contrasted to Copenhagen by taking the climate crisis seriously. Morales says we have to choose between “capitalism” or “mother earth”. This session will discuss the implications.

The Socialist Ideas Conference runs from Sat 26-Sun 27 June at the State School Teachers Union function room.

Analysis and strategy for the liberation of Palestine


Analysis and strategy for the liberation of Palestine

By Alex Whisson, Palestine solidarity activist

Israel’s attack on the peace flotilla was not a one-off event. Is it possible to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict? What are the merits and feasibilities of a “one state” or “two state” solution? What’s socialism got to do with it?

2:15pm Sunday 27 June


State School Teachers Union Function Room, 150 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth


A session at the Socialist Ideas Conference – Sat 26-Sun 27 June

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Photos from World Refugee Day Perth 2010





150-200 people marched through the streets of Perth on 20 June 2010 to mark World Refugee Day and to call for an end to the Rudd government's visa freeze and for "resettlement not detention".

Slideshow:

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Complete agenda for socialist conference now available


People-power in the 21st century: Towards sustainability & socialism


Current agenda information:

SATURDAY 26 JUNE
9:30am - Conference open - Kamala Emanuel

10:00am - The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights Today
* Richard Downs (Alyawarr spokesperson for Intervention Walkoff, NT)
* Marianne MacKay (Aboriginal activist, ESJAP member)
* Sanna Andrew (Aboriginal Rights Coalition member)

12:30pm - workshops
a) Radicalism in WA (by Charlie Fox, UWA historian)
b) Socialism and human nature (By Sophie Greenwood & Alex Bainbridge)
c) Why socialists support Cuba (by Annolies Truman, Socialist Alliance)

2:15pm - workshops
a) Whose healthcare system is it anyway? (by Gavin Mooney, professor of health economics, Social Justice Network)
b) Feminism today (by Sanna Andrew on Equal Pay, Kamala Emanuel on Abortion rights and Vicki Thomas on the campaign for homebirth rights)
c) Global Financial Crisis: Everything old is new again (by Barry Healy, Socialist Alliance)

4:15pm - Australian politics in Rudd's Australia
* Alison Xamon (Greens parliamentarian)
* Alex Bainbridge (Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth)
* Phil Chilton (Refugee Rights Action Network member)
* John O'Donnell (Communication Workers Union organiser)

6:00pm Evening feature: The role of socialists in Parliament
Jeyakumar Devaraj - Malaysian federal parliamentarian, Malaysian Socialist Party

SUNDAY 27 JUNE
10:00am - Socialist Alliance state conference (decision making session for Socialist Alliance members)

12:00noon - The Struggle for Socialism in the 21st Century
* Kiraz Janicke (Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau)
* Jeyakumar Devaraj (Fighting for socialism in Malaysia)
* Ben Peterson (Revolutionary struggle in Nepal)
* Sam Wainwright (Fremantle Councillor, Socialist Alliance WA co-convenor)

2:15pm - workshops
a) Revolutionary struggles in Latin America (by Fred Fuentes & Kiraz Janicke, GLW Caracas bureau)
b) Socialism and the liberation of Palestine (by Alex Whisson, Palestine solidarity activist)
c) Defending Civil liberties (by Alex Cassie (tbc)- Search for Your Rights & Elliot Herrington, Perth Resistance)

4:00pm - Capitalism versus 'Mother Earth'
* Gemma Weedall (Cochabamba climate conference participant)
* Jess Moore (Resistance National Coordinator)
* Del Weston (Political economy researcher and activist)

[NB: Organisations listed for identification purposes only.]





Sat 26 - Sun 27 June 2010
VENUE: State School Teachers Union Function Room
150-152 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth 
(enter from carpark off Bennett Street)

For more details, click here.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Socialist conference gathers momentum


The Socialist Ideas Conference, organised by the Socialist Alliance in Perth, is shaping up to be the biggest and most interesting socialist event in Perth for some time.

Alongside international guests such as Malaysian socialist parliamentarian Jeyakumar Devaraj and Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau journalist Kiraz Janicke, a number of respected speakers have confirmed their attendance in recent weeks.

Left-wing historian Charlie Fox from the University of Western Australia will speak on the history of the labour movement in WA. Palestine solidarity activist Alex Whisson will introduce a discussion about strategy for liberation of the Palestinian people.

Greens MLC Alison Xamon will speak on the plenary session about building a political alternative to the big parties of Australian capitalism.

Professor of health economics Gavin Mooney will scrutinise the Labor government’s health policy and discuss what a progressive health policy would look like.

“This conference will not be a talk-fest — it will be an activist conference that links discussion of left-wing ideas with practical plans for action”, conference organiser Alex Bainbridge told GLW.

“But action without theory does not get you very far, which is why gatherings like this one are important.”

“Socialist ideas are more relevant than most people realise because socialism is the basis of a practical alternative — arguably the only practical alternative — to the current capitalist system.

“This system not only generates hardship and misery, it is also destroying the basis of human life on this planet”, he said.

The conference will be held over June 26-27 at the State School Teachers Union function room at 150 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth.

[For more information, phone 08 9218 9608 or 0413 976 638 or visit www.socialist-alliance.org/perth.]

Friday, June 18, 2010

Jeyakumar Devaraj and Socialist Ideas Conference in the Perth Voice


Malaysian Socialist Party member Jeyakumar Devaraj has been interviewed for the latest issue of the Perth Voice.

The article profiles the upcoming Socialist Ideas Conference at which Jeyakumar will speak.

"Malaysia's only socialist federal parliamentarian will be in town next weekend for the Socialist Ideas Conference, and he has a few tips for federal Perth seat candidate Alex Bainbridge from the Socialist Alliance," the article reads.

The "tips" in question are indicated by the title: "Malaysian MP's tip: Don't scare them with socialism".

"He says he won because he didn't frighten people off by bandying around the word 'socialist' too much," the article reads.

I told the journalist David Bell that we are very keen to pick up any tips we can from Jeyakumar when he visits. I also said that "I think it is important to remember examples like the Fremantle council elections last year where Socialist Alliance member Sam Wainwright won 33 per cent of the vote which was enough to win the seat."

"Sam waged an openly socialist campaign," I said. "It is a bigger challenge to run in a federal election, but you have to start somewhere."

Jeyakumar also told the Voice that "it [capitalism] is a failed ideology... what answer do they have? Their only answer out of the economic crisis is to have more growth. How much more growth can we have and not bring the climate to an ecological disaster?"

The Socialist Ideas Conference opens at 9:30am on Saturday 26 June. Jeyakumar will speak on the Saturday evening feature session beginning at 6pm on the role of socialists in parliament and at the Sunday 12 noon plenary on campaigning for socialism in the 21st century. Register now!

The Voice article is right next to the advertisement for this weekend's World Refugee Day Rally so is a good reminder to get along to that rally as well. (1pm Sunday 20 June at Wesley Church www.rran.org)

Also you can find our more about Malaysian politics in preparation for Jeyakumar's visit on the links website or the Malaysian Socialist Party website.

Alex Bainbridge

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

World Refugee Day rally - Sunday 20 June - and other events


World Refugee Day Rally
Sunday 20 June 1pm
Outside Wesley Church
(cnr William & Hay Sts, Perth)

Resettlement not Racism
Dignity not Detention

Speakers include:
Alison Xamon
Australian Tamil Congress
Jarrod McKenna
Phil Chilton

More info: www.rran.org





WINGS Organisation for Cross-Cultural Development Inc.

Celebrate:
World Refugee Day - Freedom from Fear

Guest Poets:
Afeif Ismail, Lily Chan & Hassan Alnwab

Guest Singers:
Alex Bainbridge & Hussein Almudari

When: 6:30 –9:00 pm, Sunday 20th of June, 2010

Where: Ruah Community Centre, Unit 67, Plaitsowe Mews, West Perth.

For more information call: Afeif Ismail: 0423 675 479 Lily Chan 040021068

LIGHT REFRESHMENT PROVIDED

ALL WELCOME



Winning justice for refugees
Join the discussion about how to achieve this important goal at the Socialist Ideas Conference (June 26-27)

4pm Saturday 26 June - Australian politics in Rudd's Australia
featuring: Phil Chilton (refugee rights activist on winning freedom for refugees)

REGISTER NOW!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Photos from Perth ASU Equal Pay rally





Thursday, June 10, 2010

Two chances to see Richard Downs in Perth


Richard Downs, respected Aboriginal activist and Alyawarr spokesperson for the intervention walkoff, will be visiting Perth later this month.

Richard will be speaking at two public events:
  • Public meeting: "The intervention walkoff and human rights in NT" (6 for 6:30pm Thurs 24 June at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University of Technology)
  • Socialist Ideas Conference: The struggle for Aboriginal rights today (9:30am, Sat 26 June at the State School Teachers Union function room, 150 Adelaide Terrace)
When John Pilger spoke alongside Richard in April, he said "When I first heard Downs speak ... I knew that an exciting new chapter in the struggle of Indigenous Australians had opened... The issues which the Gurindji brought to light — the denial of basic human rights, the lack of proper living and working conditions and the racism — are no different in principle from those described by Downs and other Alyawarr elders since their own historic walk-off in July last year."

Many people around Australia have already been inspired by the Alyawarr people's walk-off. On July 14, following a great tradition from Aboriginal struggles of the past century, they walked off their community and set up a protest camp.

Their community had been compulsorily "acquired" for five years by the federal government, through powers granted to it through the NT Emergency Response legislation (the NT intervention).

The welfare recipients of Ampilatwatja all had their income "quarantined" — half their income replaced with a "basics card" that can only buy specified things at specified shops. This even applies to the aged pensioners who worked hard all their life, for rations and a little cash, opening up the country so the pastoral industry could exploit it.

With their pensions now quarantined, the elders felt they'd been returned to the rations days.

In February this year, a group of trade unionists and Aboriginal rights activists from Victoria, New South Wales and the NT joined forces with the Alyawarr people from Ampilatwatja community to help make history by building a "protest house" in contrast to the federal governments tardy attitude to building the housing infrastructure in Aboriginal communities.

The public meeting is sponsored by Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Deaths in Custody Watch Committee & Amnesty International. The Socialist Ideas Conference is organised by Socialist Alliance.

More info about the NT protest house.

Read John Pilger's speech.


Intervention Walkoff Blog

REGISTER NOW FOR THE SOCIALIST IDEAS CONFERENCE

No more deaths! Troops must leave Afghanistan!



While expressing its condolences to the families of Darren Smith and Jacob Moerland, the two young soldiers killed on June 7 by roadside bombs on their first tour of duty in Afghanistan, the Socialist Alliance has renewed its call on the Rudd government to take all Australian troops out of harm’s way and bring them home.
The war was launched in response to the al’Qaeda 2001 terror attacks on the US. But ordinary civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been its main victims.

Regardless of the stated purpose of this war the results nine years later reveal a devastated country in which the government of Hamid Kazai is corrupt and weak, the fundamentalist Taliban has grown in strength, the numbers of displaced people continue to rise and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.

Australia has around 1550 combat troops in Afghanistan as part of the 100,000-strong US-NATO command. They are taking part in the summer military offensive in the southern province of Kandahar.

The deaths of the two Australian soldiers in one day is the highest number of troops killed since the dragged-out war in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has a duty to explain to the Australian people exactly how being in a war of occupation in central Asia helps protect the Australian people’s interests.

The misnamed “war on terror” is better described as a war of terror against ordinary, poor folk in Afghanistan.

If Canberra really wanted to help the people of Afghanistan, it would send engineers and architects and doctors and nurses to help re-build a country devastated after so many years of war.
 
INFORMATION:
Pip Hinman, Socialist Alliance candidate for Grayndler 0412 139 968
Trent Hawkins, Socialist Alliance candidate for Wills 0407 070 841
Alex Bainbridge, Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth 0413 976 638

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Mining companies: "It'll ruin us!!"


Monday, June 7, 2010

Equal Pay for Equal Work Rally 10 June 2010


RALLY: Equal work - Equal Pay
Community Workers Make a Difference

National Day of Action
11am, Thursday 10 June 2010

Solidarity Park, opposite Parliament House

Organised by the Australian Services Union

Sausage Sizzle – Gold Coin Donation

Help ‘bind’ the Parliament to funding our claim. We will wrap the front of Parliament House with our pay equity material!

Register you interest in attending by emailing pat.branson@asuwa.org or by phone on (08) 9427 7777

Fighting for Equal Pay and justice in 21st century Australia

Sanna Andrew Socialist Alliance candidate for Fremantle Sanna Andrew is the Socialist Alliance candidate for Fremantle, Western Australia, in the coming federal elections.

She joined the Socialist Alliance in 2007. She is a qualified social worker and has worked in community-based mental health service provision for more than a decade.

Andrew is also an active member of the Australian Services Union (ASU) and sits on the executive council as a representative of the Social and Community Services Sector division.

* * *

I have been actively involved in the Pay Equity campaign launched by the ASU, agitating for increased wages in the social and community services in WA since 2007.

The inadequate pay structure of this sector is based partly on the gender imbalance. Work traditionally considered "women's work" is still undervalued in 21st century Australia.

This is made worse when the government privatises service provision through the non-government sector, as the WA state government is systematically doing now.

Pushing for greater "efficiencies" by shifting from public sector to non-government provision of services, translates into lower wages for many workers, including those in my area of work.

Community service sector workers are more often than not tertiary qualified. Yet they are paid anywhere up to 52% less than workers with similar qualifications in similar roles in the government sector.

Community service sector workers employ high levels of skill and training to deal with the most vulnerable and marginalised members of our community. Their skill and dedication should be recognised. It should not be considered voluntary or charitable work, but rather essential building blocks for developing socially inclusive and productive communities.

Vulnerable community members also deserve services that are appropriately resourced and professionally staffed and supported: it should be a right of citizenship, not paternalistic "charity" for the "less fortunate".

Indeed, it is the very structure of our society, under capitalism, that creates the conditions that lead specific groups of people within society to become "vulnerable" and "less fortunate".

I have been an active member of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition since its inception in 2007. It was formed in response to the racist laws imposed on Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory under the NT intervention.

I am deeply committed to this campaign because Australia will never become a democratic country as long as we ignore our Aboriginal brothers and sisters or treat them as second class citizens.

As long as our state and federal governments continue with laws that are racist, and won’t even consider a human rights charter, nor true and enduring land rights, treaty or sovereignty, they perpetuate the racist legacy of the colonial imperialism that this country, in its current guise, was founded on.

We need true dialogue, not top-down responses. We need community-initiated responses to issues that have, under colonial imposition, become entrenched.

Why are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars administering racist laws — in the form of the NT intervention — when it would cost less to properly resource communities to address the causes and consequences of poverty imposed by colonialism and capitalism?

As a community mental health worker, I am privy to the extreme results of government policy and inaction, lack of resourcing and subsequent alienation that some of our most vulnerable community members experience.

I see lack of public housing and lack of affordability in private housing, lack of accessible and appropriate services and programs, lack of employment and vocational/educational policies and overstretched health service provision that is the cornerstone of mental health services in Australia.

Increasingly, service provision is being "privatised", which means there is less money spent either on the services provided and on the wages of the highly skilled practitioners that service these areas.

This also limits accountability, as the government can "wash its hands" because it only funds the service and therefore claims it cannot be responsible for what happens at the service-delivery level.

What we also need is secure housing policies that lead to resources being pumped into the delivery of actual houses at the coalface. We need a robust public housing sector that services all Australians and not just a stop-gap safety net measure.

Housing should be a right and not a privilege.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Defending Indigenous Rights: land, law, culture - Anti-racist convergence in Alice Springs


Dear Comrades,

We’re writing to tell you about the important next steps in the campaign against the Northern Territory intervention, and to invite you continued participation in it.

The February protest house project at the Alyawarr people’s walk-off was the result of much collaboration with and solidarity from the union movement across this country. We understand the importance of our comrades in the unions being part of our struggle: we’ve learnt from history and appreciate the role that particular unions played in organising and constructing the protest house.

Many unionists came away from the experience inspired and wanting to stay in touch and involved in the campaign. While solidarity from unions is growing, the momentum across Aboriginal communities affected by the intervention also gathers pace: more communities are coming on board, wanting to make a stand against the laws. There is a campaign to unionise Aboriginal workers who are forced to work for nothing more than the Basics Card – a policy taking us back to the rations day.

Because of this momentum, and the need for us all to come together in a display of strength and opposition to the intervention, we’re planning what looks set to be an historic gathering of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Alice Springs: 6-9th July 2010.

We want people to come together to hold workshops and forums, plan a national strategy to defeat the intervention, and learn from each others’ experiences in other campaigns.

The demands of the gathering are:
* Stop the intervention &
* Reinstate the Racial Discrimination act with no conditions and no special measures.

Students and other groups around the coast are already planning “Freedom bus rides” to converge on Alice Springs for the event, and we’re mobilising families and communities across central Australia.

We are asking unions, activist groups, churches – anybody concerned with human rights for Aboriginal people- to join us in this campaign.

Please consider being part of the July gathering. This is an invitation to attend the event.

But we also invite you to consider being a part of it in other ways: official endorsement; host a workshop or stream (you may want to consider a theme relevant to your organisation- “Unions and the Aboriginal rights movement”, “Climate change and Aboriginal people”, etc); provide material support for the event such as marquees, donations of food, money etc; “sponsor a seat” on the freedom bus rides to enable a student or young Aboriginal person from your state to attend…

Monday 5th July - Arrival of every one

Tuesday 6th July 10:00am - Arrente welcoming speech to all

Richard Downs
Alyawarr Spokesperson for Intervention walk off

NB: Richard Downs will be speaking in Perth on Thurs 24 June and Sat 26 June

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Julie Gray for the Senate


Julie Gray is a Red Cross lab technician and a union delegate at her workplace. She was a Socialist Alliance candidate in the WA state election in 2008.

"We've got a two-tier boom happening in WA, with big corporations, especially mining companies, making huge profits out of destroying the Earth while the residents of these mining regions, and in Perth, are paying more for rent, food and transport.

“Now these same mining companies spending millions of dollars on a propaganda campaign against  being made to pay more tax on the super profits they are making. Their greed knows no bounds.

"Meanwhile here is a huge rise in the number of West Australians living below the poverty line, and homelessness is growing.

"I know the day-to-day problems working people face, especially the way rising prices are eating away at our wages. Teachers, nurses and public servants have had to really battle to get pay rises  that just keep up with rising costs.

"At election times, both Labor and Liberal make lovely promises to repair all the damage their policies have caused in the hospitals and the schools. But it doesn't matter which party gets in, all we get is more economic rationalism."

Protest Israel's murder of Peace Activists - Sunday 6 June 2010


PROTEST ISRAELI MASSACRE AT SEA SUNDAY JUNE 6 AT 12 NOON OUTSIDE WESLEY CHURCH
9 people have been killed and others 30 injured after hundreds of masked Israeli commandos stormed the six vessels of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters off the coast of Gaza.

Al Jazeera further reports that the ships are being towed by Israeli warships to the port of Haifa instead of Ashdod where dozens of journalists were awaiting the flotilla’s arrival.

Not since the French Secret Service blew up the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985 has there been such a brazen act of international piracy by a sovereign state.  Governments all around the world have condemned the criminal actions of Somali pirates in international waters off the horn of Africa, and have even sent naval armadas to confront those pirates.  The international community must now unreservedly condemn this criminal act of piracy on the high seas, and immediately sent an international naval armada to restrain the barbaric actions of the Israeli Navy.

Friends of Palestine Western Australia has called a protest for:
SUNDAY JUNE 6 AT 12 NOON
outside the Wesley Church on the corner of Hay & William St in the Perth CBD.


There will also be a vigil, 5pm, Friday 4 June at Wesley Church.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Photos from emergency protest for Gaza 1-6-10


150 people protested in Perth at 24 hours notice on June 1 against Israel's attacks on the Gaza peace flotilla. Friends of Palestine has called another protest rally for Sunday 6 June, 12 noon at Wesley Church.



Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Socialist Ideas Conference Sat 26 - Sun 27 June


People-power in the 21st century: Towards sustainability & socialism

Sat 26 - Sun 27 June 2010
VENUE: State School Teachers Union Function Room
150-152 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth 
(enter from carpark off Bennett Street)

Featuring:
Jeyakumar Devaraj (Malaysian Socialist Party parliamentarian) will be speaking about the role of socialists in parliament and the link between parliamentary work and community organising

Kiraz Janicke (Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau) will be speaking about the rebellion in Latin America and the push for a fifth socialist international.

Richard Downs (Alyawarr spokesperson for the intervention walkoff) will be speaking about the Campaign against the NT Intervention and the protest house built in February this year.

Alison Xamon (Greens parliamentarian) will be speaking on building an alternative to Labor and Liberal.

Gavin Mooney (Professor of Health Economics, co-convenor WA social justice network) on "Whose health-care system is it anyway?".

Sam Wainwright (Fremantle Councillor, Socialist Alliance WA co-convenor) on the struggle for socialism in the advanced capitalist countries.

Alex Whisson (Palestine solidarity activist) discussing a Marxist analysis about the dispossession of Palestine and the strategy for justice.

Charlie Fox (UWA history lecturer) on an introduction to the history of radicalism in WA.

Sanna Andrew (Socialist Alliance candidate for Fremantle, Aboriginal Rights Coalition member) will be speaking on community activism for Aboriginal rights.

Marianne MacKay (Aboriginal activist and Ecological, Social Justice, Aboriginal Party member) will be speaking on Aboriginal rights today.

Gemma Weedall (Cochabamba climate conference participant) will be speaking on the panel "Capitalism versus 'mother earth' ".

Phil Chilton (Refugee rights activist) will be speaking about the current phase of the struggle for refugee rights.

Alex Bainbridge (Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth) will be speaking about Australian politics in the lead up to the election.

John O'Donnell (Communication Workers Union organiser) on workers' rights under Rudd.

Current agenda information:
SATURDAY 26 JUNE
9:30am - Conference open - Kamala Emanuel

10:00am - The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights Today
* Richard Downs (Alyawarr spokesperson for Intervention Walkoff, NT)
* Marianne MacKay (Aboriginal activist, ESJAP member)
* Sanna Andrew (Aboriginal Rights Coalition member)

12:30pm - workshops
a) Radicalism in WA (by Charlie Fox, UWA historian)
b) Socialism and human nature (By Alex Bainbridge, Socialist Alliance)
c) Cuba's achievements in social justice and sustainability (by Annolies Truman, Socialist Alliance)

2:15pm - workshops
a) Whose healthcare system is it anyway? (by Gavin Mooney, professor of health economics, Social Justice Network)
b) Feminism under a female prime minister (by Sanna Andrew on Equal Pay, Justine Kamprad on women and workers' rights and Vicki Thomas on the campaign for homebirth rights)
c) Global Financial Crisis: Everything old is new again (by Barry Healy, Socialist Alliance)

4:15pm - Australian politics in Rudd's Gillard's Australia
* Alison Xamon (Greens parliamentarian)
* Alex Bainbridge (Socialist Alliance candidate for Perth)
* Phil Chilton (Refugee Rights Action Network member)
* John O'Donnell (Communication Workers Union organiser)

6:00pm Evening feature: The role of socialists in Parliament
Jeyakumar Devaraj - Malaysian federal parliamentarian, Malaysian Socialist Party

SUNDAY 27 JUNE
10:00am - Socialist Alliance state conference (decision making session for Socialist Alliance members)

12:00noon - The Struggle for Socialism in the 21st Century
* Kiraz Janicke (Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau)
* Jeyakumar Devaraj (Fighting for socialism in Malaysia)
* Ben Peterson (Revolutionary struggle in Nepal)
* Sam Wainwright (Fremantle Councillor, Socialist Alliance WA co-convenor)

2:15pm - workshops
a) Revolutionary struggles in Latin America (by Fred Fuentes & Kiraz Janicke, GLW Caracas bureau)
b) Socialism and the liberation of Palestine (by Alex Whisson, Palestine solidarity activist)
c) Defending Civil liberties (by Elliot Herrington, Perth Resistance)

4:00pm - Capitalism versus 'Mother Earth'
* Gemma Weedall (Cochabamba climate conference participant)
* Jess Moore (Resistance National Coordinator)
* Del Weston (Political economy researcher and activist)

[NB: Organisations listed for identification purposes only.]

Please keep this weekend (Sat 26-Sun 27 June) free so you can be part of this exciting event.

REGISTER NOW!
Full Weekend: $40 waged; $25 unwaged
Day Rate: $25 waged, $15 unwaged
Session Rate: $10
DOWNLOAD REGISTRATION FORM
or email registration details to: perth@socialist-alliance.org

For further information, contact Socialist Alliance 9218 9608, 0413 976 638.

Stephen Smith must condemn Israel’s attack, break diplomatic ties


*** Media Release ***

Tues 1 June 2010, 7:30am. For immediate release.
Socialist Alliance candidate Alex Bainbridge who is running for the seat of Perth, currently held by Stephen Smith, has called on the Australian government to immediately condemn Israel’s attack on the Gaza peace flotilla.

Australia must condemn outright Israel’s attack on the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza,” said Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Perth, Alex Bainbridge.

“Stephen Smith’s response to date – to express regret and shock about the deaths, to ‘proceed calmly’ and to call on Israel to provide a detailed explanation – is inadequate,” said Bainbridge.

“Israel has engaged in an act of piracy in international waters against unarmed peace activists bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza – there is no way of justifying that assault,” said Bainbridge.

“Stephen Smith has called on Israel to ‘ease’ its blockade of Gaza which is another way of supporting the continuation of that blockade in a modified form,” said Bainbridge.

“In reality, any form of blockade against Gaza is an infringement of human rights – the blockade should be ended and Australia should call for this explicitly,” said Bainbridge.

“This shocking attack is a direct consequence of Israel’s attempt to besiege the people of Gaza who want nothing more than an end to the unjust occupation of Palestine,” said Bainbridge.

Israel’s actions are so shocking that Australia should break diplomatic ties immediately until the flotilla and its passengers are released and allowed to travel unimpeded to Gaza,” said Bainbridge.

“Emergency protest actions are happening everywhere and I will be attending and promoting the Perth protest action at 5pm at Wesley Church in the city today,” said Bainbridge.

For more information:

Alex Bainbridge 0413 976 638