Stuart Munckton
"Go and repeat that imperialism is not invincible. Go and repeat that we are in a time of offensive. Go and repeat that a new time is approaching." This was the message that Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez had for the more than 20,000 young revolutionaries attending the World Festival of Youth and Students in Caracas in August, including dozens of members of the Australian socialist youth organisation Resistance.
Planning the offensive against the system here in Australia will dominate the 28th Resistance National Conference in Melbourne on October 2-3, under the slogan "Cracks in the empire, resistance can bring it down!", according to Resistance national coordinator Zoe Kenny.
"Whether it is the crimes in Iraq, the barbarism exposed in New Orleans or the inspiring movements for change in Latin America, the cracks are opening up in this global system of exploitation and injustice and we want to figure out how to take advantage of this to help bring the system down."
Kenny said the conference will be planning how to organise young people to fight back against fresh attacks from the federal Coalition government. PM John Howard "has control of the Senate and wants to use this to bring in some really big attacks on the rights of young people, like 'voluntary student unionism' and his anti-union laws."
Prior to the conference on September 30, Resistance is organising a "Supersize my pay!" protest outside the Nike mega-store in Melbourne at 5pm. Protest organiser and Melbourne Resistance activist Tim Doughney told GLW, "Young workers are among the most exploited sections of the work force, with the least rights, and the Howard government's anti-union legislation is going to hit young people hard. Resistance is committed to building a campaign against these laws and for young workers' rights, including among university students, who are often forced to take shitty jobs just to get themselves through their studies."
The conference will also feature a number of Resistance activists who participated in the first-ever Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade in July and August. Brigade participant and Sydney Resistance organiser Katie Cherrington told Green Left Weekly: "In Venezuela we saw people power in action. We saw how ordinary people, workers, the poor, students, women and indigenous people were able to organise to win real improvements in their lives.
"Chavez pointed out at the festival that the future will either be socialism or barbarism, and that it's crucial to struggle for socialism in our own countries. This conference is about us working out how to build that struggle here."
Cherrington said that Resistance will use the conference to discuss how to build solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution, especially in light of the hostility shown to Venezuela by the US government. A highlight will be the attendance of Nelson Davila, Venezuelan charge d' affaires to Australia, who will bring revolutionary greetings from Venezuela and discuss the exciting process of transformation in his country.
The Resistance conference is preceded by a day-long Latin America solidarity conference that will discuss Venezuela and other Latin American struggles in more detail. (See <http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org> for details.)
The Resistance conference will also feature union militant Craig Johnston, the former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union who was jailed for his role in a campaign defending the rights of sacked AMWU members. Johnston is also a member of the Socialist Alliance, to which Resistance is affiliated.
For more details on the conference or to register, phone (02) 9690 1230 or (03) 9639 8622 or email <nationaloffice@resistance.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, September 21, 2005.
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