As capitalism sinks into a growing crisis of war and economic meltdown, people around the world are waking up to the fact that something is drastically wrong with the system that is throwing millions into poverty, wrecking our climate and turning entire countries into battlefields.
Israel's murderous assault on Gaza earlier this year was a stark example, and has inspired a new generation of activists to get involved in the fight for a better world.
Green Left Weekly's Kiraz Janicke spoke to University of Western Sydney student Nadia Annous about why she joined the socialist organisation Resistance.
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"At the beginning of the year when Israel attacked Gaza, it really angered me, and I thought, 'that's enough' and I decided to do something about it. I'd seen Resistance around on campus before and I liked what they stood for and what they were fighting for", she explained.
Though Australian-born, Nadia's family migrated to Australia from war-torn Lebanon in the 1970s. She described growing up in Australia as a very politicising experience.
"My parents always raised me with an open mind … even though I was raised with Lebanese culture, as a Muslim person, they didn't say that there were any differences between Jewish people and Muslim people or any other people, so I didn't have any prejudices whatsoever.
"But I started to feel as I was growing up that people held prejudices against me, and I didn't understand that.
"I lived in the Sutherland shire [in the south of Sydney] when I was younger. I was probably around 13 or 14, where I'd just be walking down the street and people would call out names like 'Go home you fucking Leb' and things like that.
"And it just started from there. As the racism got worse, I started to feel like an outsider.
"It got to the point where the local kids on the street would throw rocks at us, they would abuse us in the street and threaten us; we didn't go to the local high school because of their threats. When we lived in that area, my mum would drive us to a school an hour away."
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Nadia began experiencing racism at school.
"I had people that would confront me about it. I didn't do anything, I didn't bomb any towers or anything, but some kids would just start abusing me and insulting my culture and religion, and I'd get into fights at school because of that. I didn't understand it at the time, but I started to feel like I didn't belong.
I'd come home crying 'Mum, why did you move to Australia?'"
The anti-Muslim racism whipped up by the mainstream media and the Howard government didn't help, "because a lot of ideas about assimilation came up … and I don't think that should be a policy", she said.
"I think the government has a role in promoting acceptance, rather than just tolerance. You don't just tolerate people. I think people should learn to accept people for who they are, and live side by side.
"A lot of people in the Lebanese community still feel really 'othered'", she added.
Perhaps her most chilling experience occurred on December 11 2005, a day now notorious for the racist Cronulla riots. Nadia and some friends were waiting for her sister to get her hair done in Miranda. "We thought, 'why not go to the beach? Cronulla's just around the corner, we've got a couple of hours to kill'.
"As we approached the beach we noticed that there were a lot of Australian flags around and we thought 'is there some occasion today that we don't know about?'" Nadia told GLW.
"We got there and there were masses of people with hate signs that said 'Go home' and 'Fuck off Lebs' and we thought 'what the hell is going on?'
"We got really upset obviously, we actually spoke to some people. We walked up to people and asked 'What's going on? Why is this happening? Do you really believe this?'
"All of them, said things like 'Yeah, you should just go home. You don't belong here, this is our country!'"
Nadia described being on the street surrounded by people screaming racist abuse.
"I told them, 'why are you telling me to go home? I am home' and I said that, 'I AM home, I AM home'."
"And then everyone just looked at me, because I don't really look very Lebanese, and they were like 'what are you saying?'
"I said 'I AM home', I started getting a lot of attention, I was crying at this stage. I was really upset and wasn't really thinking about the danger of what I was doing. These girls behind me started yelling 'She's a Leb, she's a Leb, take her down, she's a Leb.'
"And then all we heard was people yelling 'Get 'em, get 'em' and then these two guys behind us, they were big guys and they looked like they were from an anglo-Australian background, grabbed us and pulled us out and said 'you better get the hell out of here, go, run, run to the police'."
Importantly, Nadia said she channelled her anger in a political direction: "I could easily be prejudiced against Australians for being like that to me, I guess I wanted to do something about it."
"Now any issues involving the Middle East I feel really passionate about. I feel I have a duty to do something about it, that's why I love what Resistance is doing."
"There's power in numbers, and more people need to speak up, more people need to stand up for what they believe in", she concluded.