Australia: Full agenda for World at a Crossroads conference - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century
World at a Crossroads - Fighting for
Socialism in the 21st Century
Easter 2009, April
10-13
Venue: Sydney Girls High
School, Sydney
REGISTER NOW AT www.worldatacrossro
FULL CONFERENCE
AGENDA
The full conference agenda
is inserted below, or visit the following links to view the various topic
streams:
* Global economic crisishttp://www.worldata
* Climate
change & environmental crisis http://www.worldata
* Latin
American revolution: alternatives to capitalism http://www.worldata
*
Resisting imperialism & war http://www.worldata
*
Struggles in Asia and Africa http://www.worldata
*
Australian radical history & politics http://www.worldata
* Left
unity: alliances, movement building & revolutionary organisation
http://www.worldata
* Marxist
fundamentals http://www.worldata
Hosted by Green Left
Weekly. Organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective &
Resistance
For more info, email
dsp@dsp.org.
FULL
AGENDA
FRIDAY, APRIL 10
9.30am FEATURE
SESSION: World at a crossroads — socialism or barbarism
Reihana Mohideen, feminist and labour activist in the Philippines,
leader of the newly formed Party of Labouring Masses
David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red
Michael Lebowitz, Centro Internacional Miranda in Venezuela, and
author of Build it now: Socialism for the 21st
century
11am –
WORKSHOPS:
Sexism and the
system: A rebel’s guide to women's oppression - Reihana Mohideen, feminist activist from the
Philippines; Kavita Krishnan, national secretary of the All India Progressive
Women's Association; and Jay Fletcher, Resistance activist
Challenges of
building a climate change movement -
David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red; Simon Butler, Green Left
Weekly journalist on environmental issues and People for a Safe Climate
activist
South
Korea: A view from the
left – South Korean socialist Yongsu
Won
Iraq and Afghanistan: The US's unwinnable wars for oil – Alex Bainbridge, DSP; and anti-war activist from the
Labour Party Pakistan
Working-class
responses to the economic crisis - Jody
Betzien, activist in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; Roger Annis,
activist in the International Association of Machinists in Vancouver, Canada,
and delegate to the 2008 Canadian Labour Congress
convention
Marx, Engels
and Darwin: Evolution and historical materialism - Ian Angus, author of forthcoming book on
Darwin and materialism
Understanding
Marxist economic theory – Graham
Matthews, DSP national executive member and Green Left Weekly journalist
on economic issues
1pm –
LUNCH
2pm – FEATURE
SESSION: Obama,
US imperialism and the “war on
terror”
Salim Vally, spokesperson for
Palestine Solidarity Committee (South
Africa)
Labour Party Pakistan
anti-war activist
Rob Stary, civil liberties
lawyer
Hosted by Pip Hinman, DSP national
executive member and activist in Stop the War Coalition
3.30pm –
WORKSHOPS:
Public
ownership and workers’ control – Dave
Kerin, heading up initiative to establish worker-run cooperatives to build solar
panels; and Michael Lebowitz on the experiences and lessons of self-management
in Yugoslavia and Venezuela
Evo Morales and
Bolivia's Indigenous revolution – Federico Fuentes, editor of Bolivia Rising and
co-author of MAS-IPSP: A political instrument which emerged from the social
movements
Boycott
Israel campaign –
Discussion hosted by Salim Vally, involved in the recent actions by South
African dockworkers to boycott Israeli ships and involving activists in the BDS
campaign against Israel
Political
struggle in Timor Leste: The global, regional and local context – Tomas Freitas, socialist activist involved in Timor’s
clandestine movement against Indonesian occupation and a founding member of Luta
Hamutuk (Fight Together), a research and advocacy institute focussing on
economic issues
The politics of
Che Guevara – Duncan Meerding,
Resistance
Understanding
the economic crisis A - Jamie Doughney,
senior researcher at the Work and Economic Policy Research Unit at Victoria
University of Technology
Why be a
Marxist today? Introduction to
Resistance and the DSP – Resistance activist Mel Barnes and Brianna Pike, DSP
Sydney organiser
5.30pm – FEATURE SESSION:
Confronting the climate change crisis: An ecosocialist
perspective
Ian Angus, founder of the
Ecosocialist International Network, editor of Climate and Capitalism and
associate editor of Socialist Voice (Canada)
Dick Nichols, author of Environment, Capitalism and
Socialism, Socialist Alliance national co-convenor
Hosted by Stuart Rosewarne, co-editor of Capitalism, Nature,
Socialism
7.30pm Dinner
with music, poetry and film footage from struggles around the
world
SATURDAY, APRIL
11
9.30am FEATURE
SESSION: The spectre of 21st century socialism
Michael Lebowitz, Centro Internacional Miranda,
Caracas, author of Build it Now: Socialism For the 21st
Century and Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working
Class, winner of the Isaac Deutscher memorial prize
(2004)
11am –
WORKSHOPS:
Marxism, Islam
and national liberation – anti-war
activist from the Labour Party Pakistan, M. Saraswathy, founding member and
deputy chairperson of the Socialist Party of Malaysia; and Tony Iltis, DSP
activist
Climate
refugees and the “overpopulation” debate – Kamala Emanuel, DSP national committee
member
Philippines:
Developments on the left – Reihana
Mohideen, long-term activist in the women's and labour movements in the
Philippines, involved in the recent formation of the Party of the Labouring
Masses, and formerly vice-chair for international affairs at the socialist
labour centre Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino
Workers)
Haiti today: Five years of UN military
occupation – Roger Annis, Canada Haiti
Action Network, visited Haiti
on a human rights fact-finding mission in 2007
Production and
consumption as a source of global warming: Beyond capitalism and toward a
democratic ecosocialism - Hans Baer,
Development Studies Program and Centre for Health and Society at the
University of Melbourne, author of Global Warming and the Political Economy
of Health
Understanding
the economic crisis B – Dick Bryan,
Department of Political Economy, University of
Sydney
1pm –
LUNCH
2pm – FEATURE SESSION:
Building a worker-green-
Dave Kerin, convenor of Union
Solidarity and heading up initiative to establish worker-run cooperatives to
build solar panels
Mel Barnes, Resistance activist
in the Stop the Pull Mill campaign in Tasmania
3.30pm –
WORKSHOPS:
Indigenous
resistance from invasion to intervention – Sam Watson, Aboriginal leader from Brisbane and
Socialist Alliance national spokesperson on Indigenous rights; and an activist
from the Northern Territory Rollback Intervention Working
Group
The struggle
for same-sex marriage rights – Simon
Margan, Greens gay and lesbian rights activist; Farida Iqbal, DSP activist and
campaigner for same-sex marriage rights in the ACT; and an activist from
Community Action Against Homophobia, Sydney
The left in
Malaysia – M. Saraswathy, founding member and deputy chairperson
of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, and long-term organiser of plantation
workers, urban settlers and women workers in Malaysia
Crisis and
resistance in Africa – Salim Vally,
long time anti-apartheid campaigner in South Africa; and Soubhi Iskander,
Sudanese Communist Party
Experiences of
left unity: The New Anti-capitalist Party in France and Socialist Alliance in
Australia – Sam Wainwright,
international observer at the NPA founding congress; and Sue Bolton, Victorian
Socialist Alliance and DSP Melbourne secretary.
El
Salvador after the
elections: Where next for the FMLN? –
Activists from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front in
Australia
History of
Resistance and the DSP – Resistance
activist Mel Barnes and Stuart Munckton, DSP national executive
5.30pm – FEATURE
SESSION: Latin America: Revolt, revolution and socialism in the 21st
century
Abelardo Curbelo, veteran of the Cuban
revolution, central committee member of the Cuban Communist Party, currently
Cuban ambassador to Australia
Nelson Davila,
founding member of Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement (MBR-200),
currently head of Venezuela's diplomatic mission to Australia
Luis Bilbao, long-time socialist activist on the Latin American
left, participant in the construction of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
and in the formation of the Union of South American
Nations
7.30 pm
CONFERENCE DINNER & FIESTA
Celebrating
revolution: 50 years of Cuban Revolution, 10 years of Venezuelan Revolution.
With toasts by Cuba’s
ambassador to Australia, Abelardo Curbelo, and Venezuela’s charge d’affaires, Nelson
Davila
SUNDAY, APRIL
12
9.30am FEATURE
SESSION: Neoliberalism and resistance in Asia
Kavita Krishnan, Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist),
editor of Liberation, the CPI-ML’s magazine in English, and national
secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association
Yongsu Won, socialist activist from South
Korea
11am –
WORKSHOPS:
Cultural
dissent - The politics of art and resistance - Ian Angus on Racism, resistance and the blues; Jill
Hickson from Actively Radical TV; and Phil Monsour, progressive folk singer
Capitalism,
agribusiness and sustainable agriculture – DSP members Trish Corcoran, Kate Stockdale and Nick
Soudakoff
Has racism
always existed? – Resistance activist
Dom Hale
Australia’s hidden radical tradition – DSP national executive member Dave
Holmes
Understanding
the economic crisis C – Dick Nichols,
Socialist Alliance national co-convenor
The Cuban
economy and Latin American integration
– Tim Anderson, lecturer in political economy at Sydney
University just returned from Cuba,
and producer/director of The Doctors of Tomorrow
1pm –
LUNCH
2pm – FEATURE
SESSION: Revolution in Venezuela - Communal councils, the workers’ movement
and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
Luis
Bilbao, participant in the construction of the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela and in the formation of the Union of South American Nations, founding
editor of the Latin America-wide monthly magazine América XXI, and author
of 16 books, most recently Venezuela in Revolution: the Rebirth of
Socialism
3.30pm –
WORKSHOPS:
Young
socialists fighting back – Kavita
Krishnan, former president of the All India Students' Association (1999-2006);
Resistance national co-organiser Jess Moore and high-school activist Felix
Donovan
Sustainable
cities: The transition to public transport, accessible housing and
liveability – Ben Courtice, DSP
environment movement activist; and John Rice, Adelaide Ecosocialist
Network
Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah and the right of
Palestine to exist –
Issac Shuisha, Israeli-born Palestine solidarity activist; and DSP member Rupen Savoulian
Argentina: The
key to the region - Luis Bilbao, Union
of Militants for Socialism, Argentina, author of recently published Argentina as
the key to the region
Imperialism,
nationalism and financial collapse: The Canadian experience – Roger Annis, associate editor of Socialist
Voice,
Canada
The Tamil
struggle for self-determination - Brian
Senewiratne, Sinhalese activist involved for more than four decades in exposing
the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government and Sinhalese
militias; author of various books on the Tamil struggle that have been banned in
Sri Lanka
Building a
revolutionary alternative in Australia today –
Resistance activist Mel Barnes and Ruth Ratcliffe, DSP Adelaide organiser
5.30pm – FEATURE
SESSION: Revolutionary organising and internationalism in the 21st
century
Peter Boyle, Democratic Socialist
Perspective national secretary
M. Saraswathy,
deputy chairperson of the Socialist Party of Malaysia
Daphne Lawless, Socialist Worker-New Zealand central committee
member and editor of Unity journal
7pm
Resistance gig with funky tunes from Dhopec and
others
* Some session times and speakers listed in this agenda may change.
Please visit www.WorldAtACrossro