BY MATT EGAN

LISMORE — Nearly 40 people crammed into a caf‚ on May 17 to hear about the newly-formed Socialist Alliance and help launch a local SA group.

Edda Lampis, of the International Socialist Organisation, outlined the crisis of capitalism internationally and the vicious attacks of the Howard government on workers and the poor.

Boyd Kellner, central council member of the NSW Public Sector Association, argued that workers desperately needed political representation, and that union militants would be drawn to "an alternative to the class-collaborationist politics of the Labor bureaucrats".

The Democratic Socialist Party's Nick Fredman outlined how the Socialist Alliance came about and discussed its platform, strategy and its "vision of a new society based on collective and democratic ownership and control, on cooperation and solidarity".

Ideas brought up in discussion included debates with Labor and the Greens, regular educational discussions around the ideas of socialism, and the organisation of a protest on June 3, the national day of action for refugees' rights.

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