After an intense year of political activity in 2011, Socialist Alliance members have been preparing for the organisation’s eighth national conference, which will be held in Sydney over January 20-22.
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Happy New Year and thank you to all our supporters. You helped us raise $203,200 for our 2011 Fighting Fund. This is a great effort, even though we made only 81% of our target of $250,000. The big upsurge in political activity — spurred on by the “Arab Spring” revolts and the Occupy and Indignado movements — probably meant that less activist time was available for fundraising. But it also made the Green Left project even more significant. -
"The cleaners united will never be defeated," chanted cleaners and their supporters at a lively rally outside Westfield Sydney Shopping centre on December 8.
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Despite a significant, if partial, win for the marriage equality movement, the right-ward shift of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) continued apace at its recently concluded national conference.
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A group of 14 Occupy Sydney activists faced charges at Downing St District Court in Sydney on December 5. The charges arose out of the police eviction of Occupy Sydney's camp in Martin Place on October 23. The cases were "stood over", allowing human rights lawyer Stuart Littlemore to take some of these cases to the High Court in the new year. Occupy activist Tim Davis-Frank quipped "It looks like we'll be occupying the court system for a while!" A solidarity demonstration outside the court involved a few rogue Occupy tents on legs, who were refused admission into court.
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About 1000 refugee rights activists marched on the national conference of the Australian Labor Party in Sydney's Darling Harbour.
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The phrase “organise, don’t agonise” has become a bumper sticker, a popular slogan in the feminist movement, the title of many speeches, conferences and newsletters. African-American civil rights activist Florence Rae Kennedy coined the term. Gloria Steinem quoted her in Ms magazine in 1973. Since then, this powerful slogan has circumnavigated the world many times — used by many activists and movements. It has lasted because the slogan reasonates strongly with the condition of the oppressed, exploited and persecuted. -
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s imminent $90,000 pay rise is more than twice the estimated median wage of all Australian full-time or part-time employees, aged 15 years or over. More than half of all Australian workers have a yearly pay packet smaller than the PM’s expected pay rise. The $40,000 pay rise expected for backbenchers will also be more than the total wage of many Australian workers. -
About 10,000 people marched on the Australian Labor Party national conference to demand equal marriage rights on December 3 in Sydney. The ALP conference adopted policy supporting equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, but also voted to allow ALP members a "conscience vote" on the matter in parliament. The crowd was not impressed with this, which would likely see a vote lose, and vowed to continue the struggle.
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Green Left Weekly's Peter Boyle spoke to Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon outside Lynas Corporation's annual general meeting on November 30 about Lynas's plan to build a rare earths refinery in Malaysia.
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Protesters gathered outside the annual general meeting of Australian mining company Lynas Corporation in Sydney on November 30. Lynas is building a rare earths refinery in Kuantan, Malaysia, which will dump toxic and radioactive waste near a highly populated area. Local residents have been campaigning against the refinery. Greens senator Lee Rhiannon addressed the protest. Three activists attended the AGM and criticised Lynas's rare earths refinery before shareholders, CEO Nicholas Curtis and directors.
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Paul Benedek of the Socialist Alliance (Australia) gives a message of solidarity to the Egyptian Revolution at a rally outside the Egyptian Consulate in Sydney on November 26, 2011.