Socialist Alliance
Trade unions must join the fight against climate change
Ian Angus speaking at the Climate Change Social Change conference. Photo by Alex Bainbridge.
September 29, 2011 -- Climate and Capitalism, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- Ian Angus, editor of Climate and Capitalism, is currently in Australia to speak at the Climate Change Social Change conference in Melbourne, September 30 – October 3.
During his pre-conference speaking tour, he was invited to address several meetings of trade union members. The following is a lightly edited transcript of the opening comments he made at union meetings in Melbourne and Geelong.
[For more articles by Ian Angus, click HERE.]
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Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
On the Australian left: 'Let’s unite behind Green Left Weekly'
September 8, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly -- For many years we were regular contributors to Green Left Weekly and proud supporters of the paper. We’ve now decided to resume writing for GLW and we urge other former contributors to consider doing the same.
In May 2008, we and about 50 other former members of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) launched the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the monthly paper Direct Action (DA) following a bitter internal dispute in the DSP that centred on the Socialist Alliance.
In August 2010, we and six other members of the Sydney branch of the RSP left the organisation as a group, having concluded that the RSP was not viable as a Marxist party because it lacks both a critical mass of activists and realistic possibilities for recruitment.
We were unable to establish enough of a readership and support base for DA to justify the effort that goes into the paper.
GLW, on the other hand, has established itself over the past two decades as a socialist publication with a relatively high profile, readership and support base.
It’s the only such publication that comes out weekly and its website is among the ten most visited Australian political websites.
`Foro Social Latinamericano', Green Left Weekly's Spanish-language supplement, August 2011 issue
The tide of rebellion and revolution now sweeping Latin America is posing a serious challenge to imperialism’s brutal global rule. For anyone who wants an end to war, exploitation and oppression, Latin America’s struggles to create alternatives are crucially important.
Australia's leading socialist newspaper Green Left Weekly is strongly committed to supporting the growing “people’s power” movement in Latin America. Through our weekly articles on developments in the region, GLW strives to counter the corporate media’s many lies about Latin America’s revolutions, and to give a voice in English to the people’s movements for change.
The continent-wide rebellion is weakening imperialism’s power. As a result, it is taking increasingly threatening steps to push back the power of the people. Our solidarity, to help the people of Latin America defend and extend their tremendous achievements, is vital.
Marxism and ecology (video): John Bellamy Foster at Marxism 2011
John Bellamy Foster addresses the British SWP's Marxism 2011, July 3, 2011.
For an extended text version of the talk delivered at the Marxism 2011 Conference, University College of London, July 3, 2011, click HERE. John Bellamy Foster will be a featured international guest at the second World at a Crossroads: Climate Change – Social Change Conference, Friday, September 30 – Monday, October 3, 2011, Melbourne University.
Keynote speech by John Bellamy Foster: "Capitalist crises, ecology and socialism"
Friday, September 30, 2011, 7.30-9.30 pm,
Sidney Myer Asia Centre (http://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville/building/158), Melbourne University.
Australia: Labor government's carbon price is not a serious response to global warming
Protesters heckle climate denier Barnaby Joyce, a sen
Marxism and ecology: World at a Crossroads conference background readings
July 22, 2011-- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Climate and Capitalism -- The second World at a Crossroads; Climate Change, Social Change conference will be held in Melbourne Australia, September 30-October 3, 2011. Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is proud to be one of the co-sponsors of the conference and urges all its readers to attend, if at all possible. Click here to register.
The conference aims to contribute towards understanding and collective action, in Australia and internationally, to urgently address the climate and social emergencies that we must overcome if humanity and the planet are to not only survive, but thrive.
Dr Jeyakumar Deveraj, detained socialist MP: ‘Malaysian politics has become more dangerous’
Socialist MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj. Photo by Peter Boyle.
By Peter Boyle
July 9, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green Left Weekly -- Dr Jeyakumar Deveraj, a federal member of parliament in Malaysia, is one of 30 activists of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) detained without trial on June 25 as they travelled the country campaigning against the repressive and corrupt Barisan Nasional government headed by Najib Razak.
The detention of these socialists was designed to intimidate people from supporting a broad mass rally for free and fair elections that called for July 9 by civil society groups united in the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih, which means “clean”).
[Urgent appeal for protest letters to be sent to the Malaysian government, please visit http://www.parti-sosialis.org/en/en/articles/1585 for details of where they can be sent. See also "Malaysia: Protests demand release of democracy activists".]