960

US International Socialist Organisation member Brian Jones speaking at the opening night of Marxism 2013. This snippet from his speech deals with the hypocrisy and current contradictions in US capitalism including the fights by teachers for justice in education.

Income support for single parents has been slashed by up to $140 a fortnight as part of a new 鈥渇air incentives to work鈥 bill adopted last year, similar to a 2006 law designed by the former John Howard government. Insidious in nature, the new rules will move many sole parents onto Newstart once their youngest child turns eight. The federal government says this will encourage parents to find work. But it may conflict with state-based child protection laws.
The Northern Territory women鈥檚 policy minister, Alison Anderson, told a gathering at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne that 鈥渄omestic violence has reached a crisis point鈥, the on April 4.
The overwhelming majority of the 1140 people who attended some part of the Marxism 2013 conference would have agreed with Socialist Alternative national executive member Vashti Kenway at the opening session: 鈥淚 am feeling extremely hopeful of developments here in the left in Australia.鈥 The hopes for closer unity of the revolutionary left infused the conference with excitement in the wake of the March 28 merger of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and Socialist Alternative and the participation in and endorsement of the conference by the Socialist Alliance and 麻豆传媒 Weekly.

Speakers Viv Moore and Trevor Grant addressing protesters inside the National Gallery of Victoria on April 4.

A fortnight after the NSW Liberal government announced policy changes to coal seam gas (CSG) mining in NSW to ban drilling within two kilometres of some residential areas, about 400 local residents met at Springwood Civic Centre on March 24 for the 鈥淐oal seam gas 鈥 it still stinks鈥 public forum. Speakers explained the continuing threat to the environment, residents鈥 health and the world heritage values of this area posed by the CSG industry.
For many years the Manningham council in Melbourne鈥檚 northeast, which consists of 10 suburbs, the largest being Doncaster and Templestowe, has been advocating for some form of mass rail transport. Manningham is the only Melbourne metropolitan municipality without train or tram services. At the 2011 census, Manningham had a population of 111,300 people, 41% of whom are classified as low-income earners 鈥 a higher percentage than Melbourne鈥檚 average.
Bernie Rosen really was a man for the people. He battled for the rights of the exploited and oppressed, from being a teenager before WWII, right to the very end of his life. I have a collection of letters from Bernie, each in his increasingly spindly handwriting and each packed in a little envelope. Every letter is an encouragement to his comrades to carry on the struggle and advice on how we should do so.
When the Murdoch-owned Australian starts attacking students who took to the streets on March 27 as part of the National Union of Students鈥 (NUS) protest for free education, it is evidence that student activism makes conservatives very nervous.
For anyone who knows the science, it鈥檚 settled 鈥 fossil fuels need to be banished fast from our energy mix. But how do we achieve it? Can we rely on renewable sources such as wind and solar? Or must humanity turn to nuclear power? That鈥檚 a controversy that has bubbled away for years among people who all accept the dangers of global warming. Now, from the energy sector in China, there鈥檚 hard new evidence bearing on this debate. The experience in China shows that as a way of quickly replacing greenhouse-polluting fuels, renewable energy wins against nuclear, hands down.
Socialist councillor Sam Wainwright has vowed to run a fierce campaign for the seat of Fremantle aimed at winning public support for confiscating the wealth of the mining billionaires and the big banks. 鈥淭he mining boom reveals starkly the manifest inequality of capitalism in Australia today,鈥 Wainwright told 麻豆传媒 Weekly. 鈥淥n the one hand, we have Gina Rinehart 鈥 who has become the richest person in Australia 鈥 and on the other hand we have homeless people on the streets of Fremantle.
Twelve years ago, with the support of the United Nations, world leaders agreed to work together to achieve universal education, promote gender equality and halve extreme poverty by 2015. Known as the (MDGs), the initiative has been described as the 鈥渕ost successful global anti-poverty push in history鈥. But how much have the goals really achieved? Five years after they were adopted, their achievements were discussed at the World Social Forum held in Brazil in 2005.