Julie Gray SENATE

Julie Gray
SENATE

Julie Gray is a health worker and a workplace delegate for the Health Services Union. Julie unapologetically supports workers' rights against the ravages of “economic rationalism'".

As a health worker Julie also well understands how inequalities in society affect poor minorities. Indigenous people have serious health issues yet government negligence has done more to harm than to help.

Julie is also a passionate advocate of ecological sustainability. As a socialist, she believes in working together with other like-minded groups to make a future for the planet

Sanctions against Israel, not Gaza

Socialist Alliance calls for Australian government to cut ties with Israel

The Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Perth, Chris Latham, today called the Israeli government’s decision on October 28 to cut fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip a “war crime”. Latham, a National Tertiary Education Union activist and Murdoch University tutor, called for the Australian government to cut all military, economic and diplomatic ties with the government of Israel.

Latham explained: “Since Israel bombed Gaza’s only electricity plant in June last year, the people of the enclave are dependent on Israel for 60% of their electricity, and almost all of their fuel. A World Bank report released last year said that Gaza is experiencing the worst economic depression in modern history. Two-thirds of its residents are dependant on the UN for food to survive, and more than 80% of the population are trying to survive on less than US$2 a day.”

“Israel is committing war crimes by collectively punishing the 1.5 million people it has besieged in the Gaza Strip. Half of these people are children: what possible justification can there be for deliberately causing a humanitarian catastrophe by cutting fuel supplies, essential foodstuffs and medical supplies to a civilian population?”

He continued, “The international community responded shamefully to the expression of Palestinians’ democratic will last January when it backed the US-Israeli led embargo on the Occupied Territories in the wake of the electoral victory of Hamas. The UN human rights representative in Palestine John Dugard pointed out at the time that this was the first time in history that sanctions had been imposed on an occupied people.”

Latham concluded, “Israel is a criminal pariah state, and must be treated as such by the international community, which is why the Socialist Alliance is supporting the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. We need to isolate Israel, which is pursuing genocidal policies against the people of Gaza, carrying out ethnic cleansing in its West Bank land grab, and consolidating an apartheid society, the way the international community isolated apartheid South Africa.”

Latham will be speaking at the Just Peace-organised anti-war public meeting on Tuesday November 20, 6.30pm, City Place, Perth, with election candidates from the other parties.

For more information or comments, phone Chris 0408 567 923.

Trent Hawkins for Senate

Trent Hawkins
SENATE

Trent is a 24-year-old activist and PhD student of engineering at the University of Western Australia. He got involved in politics on campus in 2003, joining the student campaign against the invasion of Iraq, and has since consistently been involved in campaigning against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Trent has also served as a UWA Guild Councillor in 2005 and been involved in campaigns against the Howard government's university fee increases and voluntary student
unionism legislation.

Trent is the president of the Perth branch of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. He visited Venezuela in December 2006 during the country's most recent presidential election, where socialist president Hugo Chavez was re-elected in an overwhelming victory. The revolutionary transformation of Venezuelan society, where the poor are being empowered to take control over their lives, communities and resources for the first time is a major inspiration for Trent and others invoved in building the socialist movement here in Australia.

A leading youth activist in Perth over recent years, Trent is the Perth organiser of the socialist youth organisation Resistance, and organised the recent high-school student walkout against the visit of George Bush for the APEC summit in September, which hundreds of students participated in. He is currently involved in organising young people in the environment movement, and has initiated a youth and student contingent to the upcoming Walk Against Warming march, which
will be happening around the country on Sunday November 11.

Trent said, "Young people need to be at the forefront of the movement to stop climate change; it's our world and our future, and increasing numbers of young people are coming to the realisation that only radical social change will solve this problem. A Newspoll released in Februry this year showed that 94% of 18-34 year olds think climate change is a massive problem, and the Democrats' Youth Poll 2007 found that 87% of young people think the government is not doing enough to
address it.

"Young people are dismayed at the Labor Party's environmental policies, particluarly at the decision of the Tasmanian state Labor government to approve the Gunns pulp mill, and the ALP's decision at its national conference to drop its no-new-mines policy and back an expansion in the poisonous uranium mining industry.

"It is widely agreed in climate science that we have a narrow window of about 10 years to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid catastrophic runaway climate change; these cuts require more than changing our lightbulbs. The government and big business advocate
individual-based solutions to reducing emissions, when the reality is that a fundamental transformation in industry and massive investment in renewable enery is what's necessary. The major parties lack the political will to take this sort of action for the sole reason that it will hurt their pockets.

"The Socialist Alliance is the only party contesting these elections that stands for the kind of radical change necessary in industry and government; we stand for people and planet before profit, and believe in democraticownership and control of the earth's resources. We don't just think we can make small changes here and there through parliament, but aim to build a mass movment of working people, on the streets, in their schools and workplaces, that can force whatever
government that's in power to act in the planet's interests – and that can ultimately change the system and build a sustainable, democratic socialist society that puts people and the environment first.

"I'm calling on all young people not just to vote for the Socialist Alliance, but to get active in the movement to stop the destruction of our planet by oil-thirsty warmongers and climate vandals: we want renewable energy now, not wars for oil!"

Election campaign meeting

Come to the next Socialist Alliance campaign meeting at 2pm, Sunday, October 21st.

The meeting is at the Resistance Centre, Unit 15/5 Aberdeen St (formerly Short St), East Perth, near McIver station.

Anyone interested in helping with the Socialist Alliance election campaign is welcome to attend.

Sam Wainwright for Fremantle

The Socialist Alliance has chosen Sam Wainwright as its candidate for the seat of Fremantle in the coming federal election. Wainwright, a thirty-seven year old resident of O’Connor, works and lives in the electorate. He is a wharfie at the DP World container terminal at North Quay and an active member of the Maritime Union of Australia, editing its West Australian journal.

Wainwright explained some of the Socialist Alliance’s main campaign themes, “The Howard government has shown itself to be morally bankrupt and a policy disaster zone regarding its anti-worker WorkChoices laws, its support for the murderous war in Iraq and its inability to acknowledge the enormity of the global warming crisis. Unfortunately these are also all issues on which the ALP has failed to provide any real opposition.” Wainwright added, “Kevin Rudd thinks it’s enough to just tinker around the edges.”

Expanding on these themes he said, “Poll after poll shows that Australians hate WorkChoices, they want these anti-worker laws buried. Eighteen months ago Kim Beazley was promising to tear up WorkChoices, but Kevin Rudd has been caving in to big business pressure and every day says he will leave more in place.” Wainwright concluded, “Instead of getting rid of WorkChoices, Rudd is serving up WorkChoices Lite. This is not good enough, it’s all got to go.”

Regarding the war in Iraq Wainwright said, “Only fools and liars pretend that the invasion of Iraq was not about seizing that country’s oil assets. And at what bloody cost? Over six hundred thousand Iraqis have been killed, the majority of them civilians. The Howard government’s support for the occupation is an act of terror. The only moral course for Australia is an immediate and unconditional withdrawal.”

“As for climate change,” Wainwright said, “The government’s cynicism knows no bounds. First they deny that there is a problem, then when the pressure gets too much Johnny-come-lately admits there’s a problem but tries to manipulate the issue to the benefit of the uranium lobby. The toxic legacy of nuclear power has not been solved. Renewables can and must be our energy future. Let’s have no part of the nuclear cycle and leave uranium in the ground.”

Wainwright is a former ALP member and was Secretary of Young Labor in Tasmania, where he grew up. He observed, “Like many people I had my heart broken by Labor’s pro-privatisation and pro-big business policies. I think the way it has been seeking out so-called celebrity candidates and taking donations from big business symbolises the party it’s become.” Wainwright continued, “We’ve got to see the back of Howard, which is why we’ll be directing our preferences to the Greens and then Labor. But it’s very clear that Rudd will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing by Australian workers and our communities. If my campaign helps do that, then all the better.”

For further comment

Phone: Sam Wainwright 0412 751 508

Email: fremantle@socialist-alliance.org Web: www.socialist-alliance.org

Chris Latham for Perth

Chris Latham
PERTH

Chris Latham is a post-graduate student and tutor at Murdoch University, and an activist in the National Tertiary Education Union. As a member of the Murdoch branch committee of the NTEU, he is involved in organising casually employed staff at Murdoch to win better conditions in the face of the restrictions imposed on workers' and unions' rights by the Howard government's Higher Eduacation Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRR). Chris stands for the repeal of the raft of legislation introduced by the Howard government that attacks higher education and student and staff rights, including HEWRR, Work Choices, fee increases and voluntary student unionism.

Chris is the WA state convener of the Socialist Alliance.

As well as campaigning for the rights of students and university staff, Chris has also been a longtime activist in campaigns to build international solidarity with struggles against war and poverty around the world, and with the Asia-Pacific region in particular. In the late 1990's, Chris was the student campaigns officer of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), raising awareness and support among young people and students in Australia for the East
Timorese struggle for independence.

He is currently supporting the struggle in Burma/Myanmar against the country's military dictatorship, and will be calling on the Liberal and Labor parties to cut ties with the regime through his election campaign. According to Chris, "the Australian government sheds crocodile tears over the vicious repression of the pro-democracy movement in Burma/Myanmar, but at the same time the Australian Federal Police are involved in training the dictatorship's police. The Socialist Alliance fully supports the democracy movement led by National League of Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi against the illegitimate junta in Burma/Myanmar, and we are actively supporting the solidarity demonstrations here in Australia."

Chris was a founding member of the Perth No War Alliance, the group that organised the large demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq in 2002-03, and has been a leading anti-war activist in Perth since before the US-led, Australian-backed invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He was involved in organising the rallies against Israel's invasion of Lebanon last year, and was recently involved in organising the Stop Bush demonstration in Fremantle that drew hundreds of people out to protest the visit to Australia for the APEC summit of what he calls "the world's number one war criminal and climate vandal", US President George W. Bush.

Chris said, "The Socialist Alliance is internationalist: we are struggling for a society based on equality and justice, and we recognise that this is a global struggle. A rich, industrialised nation like Australia has the capacity to play a positive role internationally in overcoming poverty and the legacy of colonialism, but instead we see bipartisan support for Australia to play a bullying, dominant and exploitative role in the Asia-Pacific region. We have also unfortunately only heard mealy-mouthed opposition from the ALP to the Howard government's participation in the disastrous occupation of Iraq – and no opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan."

"The occupation has turned Iraq into hell on Earth, with the latest estimates suggesting that one million Iraqis have died unnecessarily as a result of the 2003 invasion. A further three and a half million Iraqis have been turned into refugees. The fact that Australia has been a willing participant in this mass slaughter is is abhorrent to the majority of Australian people, who want the troops home now."

He continued, "The Socialist Alliance stands for the rights of the Iraqi and Afghan people to determine their own future free from the oil-hungry war-mongerers in Washington, London and Canberra. We will continue to lead the anti-war movement in its demands that all Australian troops be immediately withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan, for an end to Australia's military alliance with the US, and for the Australian government to pay war reparations to its victims."

Annolies Truman for Pearce

Annolies Truman is a community activist who advocates environmental sustainability and human rights. Annolies taught English to migrants for 12 years and knows about the plight of refugees from personal experience. As a community project officer, she worked for the closure of the Waterloo Incinerator, a major polluter in Syndey. She has been a trainer for Earthworks, a community waste reduction program, and has taught Permaculture.

Annolies is a convenor of the Perth Hills branch of the Socialist Alliance. She co-founded the Hills No War Alliance in early 2003, which will continue to meet and organise anti-war activity in the Hills until Australian troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan.

She has been involved in the Aboriginal Rights movement since the 1980's and participated in the Sydney-based Deaths in Custody Watch Committee. She currently tutors Indigenous students. She is outraged at the Howard government's treatment of Indigenous people and is proudly part of the Alliance's defence of Aboriginal Rights.

Annolies said, "In my view, the rights and living standards of Indigenous Australians is the most serious human rights issue facing us in Australia today. Aboriginal people have a life expectancy 17-18years lower than non-Indigenous Australians, and the average infant mortality rate is three times higher than that of the rest of the Australian population."

"Since its election in 1996, the Howard government has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in services to Indigenous communities. While the government ended the 2005 financial year with its federal budget $13.6 billion in surplus, basic primary health-care services for Aboriginal communities are under-funded by at least $450 million each year."

Annolies continued: "Instead of taking action to empower Indigenous people through a Treaty and bill of rights, to end the Third World living conditions in Indigenous communities, and to pay compensation for the horrific abuses of the past, the Howard government is instead sending in the army to police Indigenous communities under the cynical pretext of stopping child abuse. This measure will fail to solve social problems resulting from extreme poverty and marginalisation,
and shifts control away from Aboriginal land councils to the federal government, something that willtake native title backwards 40 years."

"The Socialist Alliance has played a central role in standing side by side with Aboriginal Australians in campaigns for justice; we are part of the ongoing struggle against deaths in custody, and for justice for the victims of police brutality, such as Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee and Redfern teenager TJ Hickey. Mass protest movements can change not only government policy, but also the attitudes of large numbers of people."

"The Socialist Alliance is committed to working with others to build people-power movements that don't just win a small gain here and there, but make real change. We don't just stand against racism: we recognise that it is an essential tool of the ruling minority to divide us from each other under this system, and we stand for an alternative. We're about trying to work together towards another type of society — one that is based on equality, democracy and sustainability, in which we can truly make racism history."

Sam Wainwright for Fremantle

The Socialist Alliance has chosen Sam Wainwright as its candidate for the seat of Fremantle in the coming federal election. Wainwright, a thirty-seven year old resident of O’Connor, works and lives in the electorate. He is a wharfie at the DP World container terminal at North Quay and an active member of the Maritime Union of Australia, editing its West Australian journal.

Wainwright explained some of the Socialist Alliance’s main campaign themes, “The Howard government has shown itself to be morally bankrupt and a policy disaster zone regarding its anti-worker WorkChoices laws, its support for the murderous war in Iraq and its inability to acknowledge the enormity of the global warming crisis. Unfortunately these are also all issues on which the ALP has failed to provide any real opposition.” Wainwright added, “Kevin Rudd thinks it’s enough to just tinker around the edges.”

Expanding on these themes he said, “Poll after poll shows that Australians hate WorkChoices, they want these anti-worker laws buried. Eighteen months ago Kim Beazley was promising to tear up WorkChoices, but Kevin Rudd has been caving in to big business pressure and every day says he will leave more in place.” Wainwright concluded, “Instead of getting rid of WorkChoices, Rudd is serving up WorkChoices Lite. This is not good enough, it’s all got to go.”

Regarding the war in Iraq Wainwright said, “Only fools and liars pretend that the invasion of Iraq was not about seizing that country’s oil assets. And at what bloody cost? Over six hundred thousand Iraqis have been killed, the majority of them civilians. The Howard government’s support for the occupation is an act of terror. The only moral course for Australia is an immediate and unconditional withdrawal.”

“As for climate change,” Wainwright said, “The government’s cynicism knows no bounds. First they deny that there is a problem, then when the pressure gets too much Johnny-come-lately admits there’s a problem but tries to manipulate the issue to the benefit of the uranium lobby. The toxic legacy of nuclear power has not been solved. Renewables can and must be our energy future. Let’s have no part of the nuclear cycle and leave uranium in the ground.”

Wainwright is a former ALP member and was Secretary of Young Labor in Tasmania, where he grew up. He observed, “Like many people I had my heart broken by Labor’s pro-privatisation and pro-big business policies. I think the way it has been seeking out so-called celebrity candidates and taking donations from big business symbolises the party it’s become.” Wainwright continued, “We’ve got to see the back of Howard, which is why we’ll be directing our preferences to the Greens and then Labor. But it’s very clear that Rudd will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing by Australian workers and our communities. If my campaign helps do that, then all the better.”

For further comment

Phone: Sam Wainwright 0412 751 508

Email: fremantle@socialist-alliance.org Web: www.socialist-alliance.org

WA's Two-Tier Society

Many WA working class people are suffering under a “two-tier” society despite the state’s booming economy, Socialist candidate for Pearce, Annolies Truman told the WA Socialist Alliance state conference on August 11.

Quoting research from the WA Council of Social Service she said that rent had skyrocketed in the last year. “In 2003 4.8% of Perth rental accommodation was vacant, meaning you could get a house at a reasonable rent,” she said. “But not today. Now only 0.8% of rental accommodation is vacant.” Between June last year and June this year the average rent for a three-bedroom home in Mount Hawthorn went from $260 per week to $600!

“That’s an increase of $340!” she said. “It is the same all over the city. Even in Midland rents for three bedroom houses have gone up by $70 in the last year.”

She detailed the basic food items have also gone up in the last year: Frozen chicken has gone up 14% in the last year. White bread has gone up 15%, milk by 6%, eggs 22 %, even baked beans have gone up 4%. “If you can’t afford to eat you won’t need to go to the toilet,” she said. “Just as well, because toilet paper has gone up by 26%!”

Fuel Watch figures from the WA government show that the cost of keeping a car on the road continues to rise, she told the conference.

“Food, housing and transport are the three major cost items for medium to low-income families,” she said. “But how can they survive if they are pushed out to the urban fringe like Armadale, where rents have only gone up by $28 in the last year or Rockingham, where they went up by $57.” Because of this women and children make up the majority of homeless people in this city, she reported.

“That’s what I mean by a two-tier society. People living the fly in/fly out, highly paid lifestyle are living right next door to people who are suffering terribly.” “Socialist Alliance knows about these things because our members are people on the receiving end of all this.”

Socialist Alliance WA State Conference Draws Activists

Socialist campaigners, gathered at the Maritime Union of Australia WA office, nominated senate candidates for the coming elections and endorsed activist movements at the WA Socialist Alliance state conference on August 11.

Close to 50 people attended, representing a range of activists, campaigns and branches.

A plenary session on strategies for combating WorkChoices heard CFMEU State Assistant Secretary Joe McDonald, AMWU State President Steve McCartney, MUA State Secretary Chris Cain and SA National Industrial Co-ordinator, Sue Bolton.

The Indigenous Rights workshop, attended by 15 people and addressed by Noongar academic Professor Ted Wilkes, discussed the need for an Indigenous-led campaign to stop the attacks by the Howard government. Members of West Australians for Racial Equality, WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and Women in Black also contributed.

Justice for migrant workers was the topic of the 457 Visa workshop, addressed by AMWU organiser, Joel Asphar, and Migrante activist Annibeth Desierto.

In the Climate Change workshop, Tim Hemsley from the Australian StudentsÆ Environmental Network accused the capitalist system of causing the current crisis. Australia û Cuba Friendship Society and SA member, Nancy Herrera, outlined some of the achievements of socialist and sustainable Cuba. Annolies Truman, SAÆs candidate for Pearce, showcased the Socialist Alliance's new Climate Change Charter.

The final session highlighted the need for a mass socialist party in Australia for upholding workersÆ rights. This session pre-selected Trent Hawkins and Julie Gray as Senate candidates in the up-coming federal election.

Annolies Truman for the seat of Pearce.

Annolies Truman
PEARCE

• Read more about Annolies Truman and the Socialist Alliance campaign for the seat of Pearce. Click on the "Annolies Truman" label at left.
  
• Contact the campaign by email.
• Phone the election campaign organiser on 9299 6453

How you can help the Annolies' campaign in Pearce

• Volunteer to help out.
• Join in the discussions on the Socialist Alliance campaign forums.
• Attend one of our local campaign events. Check this site for calendar details.

Red Cinema Presents: Lumumba

Perth & Fremantle

Start: 7 Sep 2007 - 7:00pm

Raoul Peck's award-winning epic dramatises the rise and fall of legendary African leader Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo. Lumumba lasted just months in office before being brutally assassinated ... Cheap meal available from 6.30pm. Resistance Centre, 15/5 Aberdeen St, East Perth (near McIver Train Station). $10/$7. A fundraiser for Green Left Weekly. Ph 08 9218 9608.

Film Screening: Unjust Genes

Back by popular demand!

Who can own life? Who can control food? Who benefits from GMO foods? Who wants it? A screening of this film made by famous Australian progressive priest Father Brian Gore, Unjust Genes, reveals the dangers in the gene transfer process; the clandestine moves by big companies to misuse patent laws to control the food industry and the danger to bio-diversity.

Time: Sun Aug 19 at 6:30 pm.
Speaker: Janet Grogan, Say No to GMO.
Venue: Soul Tree organic café, Shop 6, 3 - 5 Railway Pde, Glen Forrest.
Organised by Perth Hills Socialist Alliance. Entry by donation. Ph 9299 6453.

A new vision for Australia

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Perth Socialist Alliance

Perth Branch: 9218 9608
perth@socialist-alliance.org

For local branch updates click on the "Perth" label on the left.

Fremantle Socialist Alliance

Fremantle Branch: Angela 0408 321 327 or Sam 0412 751 508
fremantle@socialist-alliance.org

For local branch updates, click on the "Fremantle" label on the left.

Perth Hills

The Perth Hills branch of the Socialist Alliance has merged into the Perth branch. Contact us here.

Contact Socialist Alliance

Email

wacontact@socialist-alliance.org

Web:
National website: www.socialist-alliance.org
Local site: www.socialist-alliance.org/perth

Perth Activist Centre Street Location: 15 / 5 Aberdeen Street, Perth (next to McIver station) Postal Address: PO Box 204, Northbridge WA 6865 Phone: Ph 9218 9608 or 0413 976 638 Map to Perth Activist Centre: View Larger Map

Fremantle Activist Centre Street Location: 5 / 195 High Street, Fremantle Postal Address: PO Box 1379, Fremantle WA 6959 Phone: Ph 0412 751 508 Map to Fremantle Activist Centre: View Larger Map

August Darlington Review column

New Vision for Australia

Queensland Aboriginal leader and Socialist Alliance Senate candidate, Sam Watson, has issued a statement outlining his vision for Australia. Here is an edited version:

“We urgently need a new vision for this country’s future.

Traditional politics—Coalition and Labor—is increasingly hostile and irrelevant to that future.

There is no hope in a Labor “opposition” that stands beside John Howard in his latest racist attack, supports anti-terrorism legislation that destroys civil liberties, and retreats from its promises to tear up Howard’s hated anti-worker and anti-union laws?

It’s time to put shameful and disgusting politics into the rubbish bin.

It’s time to enshrine the principles of justice, democracy and sustainability in a Bill of Rights, at the core of which is reconciliation with Indigenous Australia.

It’s time to build a political alternative that rejects economic rationalist “competitiveness”, which threatens our planet with a permanent tragedy of war and environmental disaster.

The alternative must put people and our planet before the profits of the giant corporations. It must learn from Indigenous tradition and live in balance with the natural world.”

If you want to work with Sam towards this vision visit: http://www.socialist-alliance.org. Sam’s statement is available as a sign-on petition.

These values will be in evidence at our state conference on August 11 at the MUA Hall, 2-4 Kwong Alley, North Fremantle, from 1 - 6pm.

The plenary will discuss opposing WorkChoices with speakers Chris Cain (State Secretary MUA), Steve McCartney (State President AMWU), Joe McDonald (State Assistant Secretary CFMEU) and Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance National Trade Union Convener). Workshops on Indigenous rights, Climate Change and rights of migrant workers will follow.

Our next local event is a re-showing (due to popular demand) of Unjust Genes, a film about genetically modified food, on Sun Aug 19 at 6:30pm at the Soul Tree Café.

East/Hills branch runs candidate in Pearce!

East/Hills branch of the Socialist Alliance has preselected Annolies Truman for the seat of Pearce in the up-coming federal elections. Our information from Canberra predicts an election in November, which would give us about 3 1/2 months of campaigning.

Here's a word from Annolies: "I'll do my best to present a more humane, environmentally sustainable vision for Australia. Our overarching slogan is People before profits! Planet before profits! Our main demands are: Tear up Work Choices; No more blood for oil - Bring the troops home now; System change not climate change; Lock up war criminals, not protestors; Respect Aboriginal Land Rights.

Please join me in this campaign. While only one person represents us as a candidate, the effort is very much a collective one.

We'll need ideas for campaign opportunities and fundraising. We'll need people handing out how-to-votes on polling day. We'll need donations for the deposit and for the leaflets we'll print. We'll need letterboxers and people willing to erect a sign on their property.

Any contribution of skills, creativity, imagination, hard work, money or moral support is much welcomed.

We need people to join the Socialist Alliance and help make a difference.

Leanda Horth is joining today (welcome!) and Len Howle, who joined in April, has just donated $50. Thank you, Len!

Our next branch/election campaign committee meeting will be on August 25 at 4pm. If you're interested, contact me on 9299 6453."

July Darlington Review: Uranium Mining and Land Rights

Over 30 people came to see our June 23 screening of A Hard Rain, a compelling anti-uranium mining/nuclear power documentary. The issues presented in the film caused a wide-ranging discussion where links were made with recent events.

Just before the film showing the federal government announced its sudden interest in saving Aboriginal children from neglect. Indigenous NT landowners successfully campaigned against the Jabiluka uranium mine and have refused to allow nuclear waste to be dumped on their land. The plan to “save Aboriginal children” shifts overall control of communities away from Aboriginal land councils to the federal government, which will be given five-year leases of their townships.

Will landowners who prevent mining now be found to be in need of extra police and army troops in their communities? Will families that object to radioactive waste dumps find their children taken away?

After consistently refusing to address the $450 million deficit in Indigenous health funding, the federal government has suddenly found funds to introduce compulsory health checks for Indigenous children. The “health checks” are linked to families being subject to surveillance and punitive sanctions that would never be tolerated in the broader community. Australia has seen all this before. The Bringing Them Home report into the stolen generations described it in heart-breaking detail.

How many times will fraudulent concern over children be used in Australian elections? The fake “children overboard” incident was manufactured to cast refugees in a subhuman light. White Australians are now being encouraged to see Aboriginal Australians in the same way.

Australia now has a police state attitude towards refugees, police state anti-terrorism laws that have been directed against Muslim citizens, police state laws targeted against construction workers and now a police state for Aborigines. Who will be next?
July’s event will be a screening and discussion of An Inconvenient Truth on Sat 21st at 4pm in St Cuthbert’s Meeting Room.

SiCKO a film by Michael Moore

Fundraising screening for Green Left and Socialist Alliance: Opening with profiles of several ordinary Americans whose lives have been disrupted, shattered, and-in some cases-ended by health care catastrophe, SiCKO makes clear that the crisis doesn't only affect the 47 million uninsured citizens-millions of others who dutifully pay their premiums often get strangled by bureaucratic red tape as well.

After detailing just how the system got into such a mess, we are whisked around the world, visiting countries including Canada, Great Britain and France, where all citizens receive free medical benefits. Finally, Moore gathers a group of 9/11 heroes - rescue workers now suffering from debilitating illnesses who have been denied medical attention in the US. He takes them to a most unexpected place, and in addition to finally receiving care, they also engage in some unexpected diplomacy.

While Moore's SiCKO follows the trailblazing path of previous hit films, the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine and all-time box-office documentary champ Fahrenheit 9/1, it is also something very different for Michael Moore. SiCKO is a straight-from-the-heart portrait of the crazy and sometimes cruel U.S. health care system, told from the vantage of everyday people faced with extraordinary and bizarre challenges in their quest for basic health coverage. SiCKO uses humour to tell these compelling stories, leading the audience conclude that an alternative system is the only possible answer.

For more information on the film, visit http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/ and http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/711/36909 Thursday August 9, 6:30 pm Luna Cinema 155 Oxford Street, Leederville. Tickets: $20 solidarity / $15 waged / $12 concession. Tickets available from the Resistance Centre, 15/5 Aberdeen St, East Perth. Ph: 9218 9608

Socialist Alliance State Conference

Building a Fighting Alternative to Howard: The 2007 Socialist Alliance State Conference will be held at the Maritime Union of Australia Hall North Fremantle, from 1 pm on Saturday August 11.

The conference will provide an opportunity for members to discuss the work of Alliance and the campaigns against the Howard government's assault on workers rights and the wider community. In addition the conference will set the framework for the Alliance's campaign in the coming federal elections.

Defend our Rights at Work-Tear up all of Work Choices!

We will open the conference with a panel discussion about the fight against the anti-union laws.

Figures for March show that corporate profits are growing at the expense workers' wages. The Howard government plans has plans for even tougher anti-union laws if it gets re-elected. The ALP has said it will keep the majority of Work Choices if it gets elected, including draconian penalties for workers who strike outside the bargaining period, a ban on pattern bargaining and special policing of building workers.

This panel will discuss options for union campaign against Work Choices, whether the anti-Work Choices campaign should be independent of the ALP, the potential for a right to strike campaign in Australia and the implications of both major parties support for a building industry police force continuing after the federal election.

Speakers include:
Chris Cain
State Secretary Maritime Union of Australia
Sue Bolton
Socialist Alliance National Trade Union Convener

The conference will also include workshops sessions on:

• Campaigns for the rights of migrant workers
• Indigenous rights
• Climate Change and the campaign against nuclear power
  
  
  1 pm Saturday August 11, entry $12/$8, Maritime Union of Australia Hall 2-4 Kwong Alley North Fremantle. perth@socialist-alliance.org or 9218 9608.

Sign up to Community Solidarity!

Join this network of community, union and welfare activists with the aim of building a broad people's movement to beat back the attacks on workers, unions and communities. Remember how people power stopped the attempt to destroy the MUA in 1998? The battle was fought and won on the wharves with mass pickets defying the laws and keeping the gates closed. We've done it before and have to do it now!

Send your email or mobile number to wasolidarity@yahoo.com.au so you can receive alerts about protests, pickets and other actions to "name and shame" employers that use Howard's anti-worker laws to rip-off workers. For more information on the network go to www.unionsolidarity.org and follow the links to the WA Community Solidarity.