Book your tickets to Ecosocialism 2023

LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal is sponsoring Ecosocialism 2023, a two day conference being held at Victorian Trades Hall in Naarm/Melbourne (Australia) over July 1-2. The conference will feature more than 30 confirmed speakers participating across four main panel sessions and sixteen workshop sessions.

Hosted and organised by LINKS' sister publication Green Left, Ecosocialism 2023 will bring together ecosocialists from around the world, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region, to examine the intersection between the ecological, economic and political crises of our times. It will also draw together activists from various progressive social movements to discuss how we campaign for a world beyond capitalism.

Headlining the keynote session is Japanese Marxist academic Kohei Saito, author of Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. Saito is an associate professor at Tokyo University who has built on the pioneering work of Karl Marx’s early ecological insights by other Marxist scholars, such as John Bellamy Foster, as well as carrying out extensive new research on Marx's previously untranslated and unpublished notebooks. 

Three more featured sessions are scheduled including the conference opening panel Fight climate change not war, The fight for democracy in India: Is Modi fascist? and the conference closing panel Re-conceptualising revolution in the age of the climate emergency.

Other speakers include Clifton D’Rozario, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and a campaigner for Dalit rights; Reihana Mohideen, National Council member of the Party of the Laboring Masses and head of the party’s international work; Ruchira Talukdar, co-founder of Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity, an Australian-based climate justice collective; and Farooq Tariq, President of the Haqooq Khalq Party of Pakistan.

Green Left co-editors Pip Hinman and Susan Price, both long-time ecosocialist activists who have been contributing to and supporting Green Left since it was launched more than 30 years ago, will be speaking at the opening and closing panels sessions, respectively.

The sixteen workshop sessions will cover issues such as: First Nations' justice and sovereignty; unions and workplace campaigning; imperialism; offshore detention and refugee rights; the struggle for West Papuan independence; the housing crisis; class struggle in South East Asia; Women, life, freedom and the Rojava Revolution; queer liberation and trans rights; climate justice; women's liberation; Myanmar's Spring Revolution and the Rohingya genocide; capitalism, 'artificial intelligence' and Marxism; and caste and class in India today. The full conference agenda can be viewed here.

Djab Wurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman and Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, along with Joel Shackleton, a Gunditjmara man and Koori organiser with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, will be presenting on Fighting for First Nation's Justice & Sovereignty, a workshop about how we can fight for genuine First Nation's justice that go beyond tokenistic measures.

Other workshop presenters and speakers include: Cheong Huei Ting, a leader of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) and coordinator of the PSM’s Environmental and Climate Crisis Bureau; Behrouz Boochani, Iranian writer and former asylum seeker detained by Australia in Manus Island; Sonny Melencio, chairperson of the Party of Laboring Masses (Philippines); Nilüfer Koç, member of the Executive Council and spokesperson for the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress; and Maung Zarni, research fellow at the (Genocide) Documentation Center - Cambodia, co-founder of FORSEA.co and Burmese coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition.

These are just a few of the international guests who will be speaking at Ecosocialism 2023. You can view a complete list of conference speakers here.

Socialist Alliance activists Nova Sobieralski, Peter Boyle, Rachel Evans, Sam Wainwright, Sarah Hathway and Sue Bull will be joining international guests in these workshops, along with local union and campaign activists such as Anthony Veal, Chloe Holmes, Karyn Brown, Kristin O'Connel, Margaret Kelly and Tash Wark.

Australian Greens WA Senator Jordon Steele-John, an outspoken critic of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine deal, and Liam Flenady, Chief of staff for Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown and activist with the South Brisbane Greens, will also be joining the opening and closing panel sessions, respectively.

Tickets are available to access the full conference, single days or single sessions, with prices starting from just $10, including options for concession and students. Tickets can be purchased through TryBooking or by calling 1800 634 206 (+61 2 8070 9330 for international callers).

For those attending in person, Green Left is also presenting A Celebration of Cultural Dissent featuring live performances from local activist musicians Riff Raff Radical Marching Band, Rotary Hoes with Izzy Brown & Frances Evans, and Farhad Bandesh & Ysk Lightspeed Chamber. This is a separately ticketed event on July 1, with tickets available at the door (Victorian Trades Hall Loading Bay) from just $15 (including meal).