BY LEIGH HUGHES
Refugee activists, trade union militants, free education campaigners and socialists by the trainload are to gather at Trades Hall this weekend to discuss and further their respective struggles. They will be attending the 31st national conference of the socialist youth organisation Resistance.
According to Resistance national coordinator Simon Butler, the conference delegates "will discuss how to organise the fightback against injustice in the world".
The September 27-30 conference comes at a time when the Howard government is preparing to deport hundreds of refugees on expired temporary protection visas and to actively back a US-led invasion of Iraq.
"It is also meeting at ground zero of the most important union disputes in the country and during landmark discussions on left regroupment", Butler told Green Left Weekly, referring to the battles by the militant Victorian trade unions as well as proposals by the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) to publicly dissolve itself into the Socialist Alliance.
A major anti-war protest will be held during the conference on September 29. "A war on Iraq is opposed by most Australians. The role of Resistance and this conference is to mobilise these people into action and stop the warmongers in their tracks", conference and protest organiser Kylie Moon told GLW.
The proposal for the DSP to dissolve into the Socialist Alliance to strengthen the most significant attempt at uniting the socialist left will be discussed by a panel of speakers from left organisations beginning at 10.30am on the second day of the conference.
The conference will feature major sessions, panels and workshops on the international and Australian political landscapes, the War on Terror, the refugees' rights campaign, the possibilities of building a stronger student movement, the global justice movement and more.
"The forces committing injustices against the world's people are strong, confident, have their massive armies, their laws and their lies to make sure they get their way", said Butler. "We have but one weapon to resist with our ability to organise. The conference will play an important role in enabling young socialists to get better organised."
From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.
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