Socialist Alliance
Breaking the real taboo in the population debate
By Ian Angus
April 27, 2011 -- Climate and Capitalism -- Is there a taboo against attributing environmental problems to population growth? Are populationist views being suppressed?
Sir David Attenborough thinks so. On March 10, the noted naturalist and broadcaster told a meeting in London that there is a “strange silence … some bizarre taboo” about the population issue. This “absurd taboo” has “a powerful grip on the minds of so many worthy and intelligent people”. Attenborough urged his listeners to “break the taboo”, by raising the population issue whenever and wherever they could.
Who was he talking to? Who were the brave people who dared to listen to a talk on this forbidden topic? Was it some secretive group, hanging on despite all odds, somehow keeping alive the truths that are suppressed by the powers that be?
Well, no.
Australia: Murdoch press demonises Greens over support for Palestinian rights
Racist vandalism of Greens’ election campaign billboards, Sydney. Photo: Peter Boyle.
By Samah Sabawi
April 10, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly -- While Palestinian, Israeli and international non-violent protesters who march against Israel’s policies in the Occupied Territories are literally showered in sewage, beaten, arbitrarily arrested and sometimes killed by Israeli forces, the battle against non-violent resistance has taken its own ugly form in Australia.
Supporters of the non-violent global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement — especially members of the Greens — have been subjected to abuse in a deliberate national campaign of misinformation and slurs orchestrated against them. It has questioned their values and integrity and falsely accused them of anti-Semitism.
The war on BDS is part of a concerted effort to sabotage Palestinian and Israeli non-violent resistance against Israel’s 43-year-old illegal occupation and its 63 years of discrimination against non-Jewish Israeli citizens.
Debate on Bolivia: Government, social movements and revolution
[The following article is a reply to Jeffery Webber's article, “Bolivia’s reconstituted neolib
Western Sahara: `We want to go back to our country. Nothing will stop us wanting our rights'
Tagiyou Aslama. Photo by Alan Bain.
Tony Iltis interviews Tagiyou Aslama
Socialist Alliance: Support the Libyan uprising but reject foreign military intervention
February 22, 2011 -- Solidarity rally in Sydney with the
Libyan people in their struggle for democracy. Photo by Kiraz Janicke. See an article
about this action here: http://www.greenleft.org.a
Socialist Alliance statement
March 18, 2011 -- The threat of military air strikes against Libya by Britain, France, the US and allies — now supported by a March 17 UN Security Council resolution — may or may not force the despotic Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi to stop using its armed forces against the rebel-held city of Benghazi in the short term.
However, it does pose grave dangers for the sovereignty of Libya and for the wave of democratic revolts that have swept the Arab world this year.
Australia: How Socialist Alternative misrepresents Socialist Alliance on Libya
February 22, 2011 -- Solidarity rally in Sydney with the
Libyan people in their struggle for democracy. Photo by Pip Hinman. See an article
about this action here: http://www.greenleft.org.a
[For more coverage of Libya, click HERE.]
By Nick Fredman
March 16, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Most interested observers of the public statements and activity of the Australian organisations Socialist Alternative (SAlt) and Socialist Alliance in regard to Libya would surely conclude that the two groups are in concord: a similar analysis of the pro-imperialist nature of the regime and enthusiastic support for the struggle of the workers and oppressed against dictatorship. Which makes it quite disappointing that Corey Oakley of SAlt has launched a swingeing polemic against Socialist Alliance about Libya[1]. [See Appendix 1 below]
The revolution is the people of Libya’s to make
Anti-regime protest in Bengazi.
[See also "Libya: How Gaddafi became a Western-backed dictator". For more coverage of Libya, click HERE.]
By Peter Boyle
March 13, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly -- Saif al-Islam, the billionaire son of Muammar Gaddafi who was the neoliberal darling of Western governments until only recently, boasted in a March 10 interview with Reuters that forces loyal to his family were now on the offensive against rebel forces.
NATO, for its part, has decided against military intervention — for the time being. However, France became the first government to recognise the rebel Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) set up in Benghazi on March 5. AFP reported that France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has also proposed “targeted air strikes” on Libya.
Libya: Gaddafi kills his own people, but Western military intervention is no solution
[See also "Libya: How Gaddafi became a Western-backed dictator". For more coverage of Libya, click HERE.]
By Peter Boyle
March 7, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly -- The dictatorial regime of Muammar Gaddafi has escalated its violence against rebel forces seeking to bring it down. On March 6, opponents of the regime were reported to be in control of a number of cities, especially in Libya’s east. Al Jazeera said on March 4 that anti-government protests in the capital Tripoli had been met with tear gas by security forces. Opponents said Az Zawiyah, a town just 40 kilometres from Tripoli that is home to an oil refinery, was mostly under rebel control.
Tunisia: ‘It is a real revolutionary process’ -- interview with 14th January Front militant
Alhem Belhadj (right) speaking at a session of the French New Anti-Capitalist Party congress, February 11.
February 27, 2011 -- Alhem Belhadj is a Tunisian revolutionary socialist and member of the Ligue de la Gauche Ouvriers (Left Workers’ League). It is a part of the 14th January Front, which unites left-wing groups seeking to push Tunisia’s revolution forward by creating a new government free from members of the former ruling party, and supporters policies reversing neoliberalism.
Belhadj spoke with Green Left Weekly’s Tony Iltis on February 12, at the congress of the New Anti-Capitalist Party in France, about the Tunisian revolution.
* * *
I think there is a real revolutionary process. Things are going very quickly.
There is a lot of change. Every day, there is some change and there is a big popular resistance.
`Foro Social Latinamericano', Green Left Weekly's Spanish-language supplement, February 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.