Resistance plans action against injustice

May 20, 2011
Issue 
Resistance members at the Resistance national conference. Photo: Alex Bainbridge

Below is the Resistance Action Plan, which was adopted by delegates at the Resistance national conference held in Sydney over May 6-8.

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Resistance is Australia’s only socialist, feminist, social justice, environmental, revolutionary youth organisation. We seek to organise young people to fight the injustices we see in the world, from war and poverty, to environmental destruction and discrimination against minority groups.

We recognise that capitalism — the economic, political and social system that is controlled by and for the rich at the expense of the rest of us — is the root cause of these problems.

Resistance is the only socialist organisation in Australia that is specifically for young people. Young workers make up about one-fifth of Australia’s workforce. Yet most young people are forced to accept casual and low-paid jobs that pay them much less for doing the same work as others, just because of their age.

It is difficult for young workers to unionise and demand better conditions. We call for young people to be active in political campaigns, their trade unions, at university and at high school.

Young people are hit hardest by capitalism, so Resistance seeks to organise and educate young people against this system, to overthrow it, and to restructure our world along democratic, environmental and social lines.

To build towards these ends, the Resistance Conference 2011 endorses the following as our action plan to guide our work.

Equal Rights for all

Resistance is against discrimination in all its forms. Today there continues to be discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Most notably, this is expressed in the unequal marriage laws that discriminate against LGBTI people in “same-sex” relationships. But it is also expressed in other ways such as religious organisations’ exemption from anti-discrimination laws and the cultural persecution of LGBTI people.

Resistance will:

• continue to play a part in and build the Equal Love campaign for equal marriage rights for LGBTI people,

• look to call a national youth and student protest actions around LGBTI rights towards the end of year, possibly to coincide with the ALP national conference, and

• challenge homophobia and transphobia in all its forms, and work within the community against it.

Change the system, not the climate

We find ourselves today in the situation in which the very existence of humanity is under threat.
Capitalism is unwilling and unable to factor in the environmental costs of its industrial processes as it is solely concerned with maximising the immediate profits of their operations.

As greenhouse gas emissions continue, and as our climate changes, we will see rising sea levels, the loss of arable land and greater frequency and severity of drought, floods, hurricanes and cyclones.

These phenomena will hit the working and poor people of the world hardest, as they are moved from their lands, starved by rising food prices and then expected to pay for this systemic crisis that is not of their creation.

Resistance will play an active role in supporting the movement for climate action, and will:

• actively fight against the expansion of fossil fuel industries, such as coal and gas,

• actively fight against coal seam gas expansion in all areas, and

• build the movement for a sustainable Australia, with 100% renewable energy by 2020.

Resistance recognises that any solution to climate change can’t punish ordinary and working people. Polluters, not people, must pay for this crisis.

Unity is strength, fight racism

Resistance is an organisation that seeks to unite all people and to challenge structures and ideologies that divide us.

We must fight to defend Indigenous Australians, who are attacked and vilified. We oppose imperialist wars that see the Australian government attacking countries across the world and we support people who come here as migrants or refugees and are attacked, vilified and discriminated against.

Resistance will:

• continue to oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,

• oppose intervention and invasions in Libya or elsewhere in the Middle East,

• support refugees, and campaign against mandatory detention. We will support local refugee rights groups, and seek to support further convergences, when/if they occur, and

• support migrant communities, and condemn racism and islamophobia.

Defend our rights and liberties

The truth, and our ability to tell it, is our biggest weapon, which we must defend and extend.

Our rights, such as the right to assemble, the right to free speech, and the right to be free from persecution is always under threat by governments and corporations that are threatened by these liberties.

For these reasons Resistance:

• is for defending the internet as an open and public source of information, and thus, we will continue to fight against any proposed internet filters or government interference,

• will defend WikiLeaks, its staff and those whistleblowers that make it possible. WikiLeaks is an important journalistic development that breaks no law, but still is under attack from western governments. We have the right to information, and must defend that right, and

• also opposes expansions of police powers, increases in government or private sector surveillance and the undermining of democratic institutions.



We extend our solidarity

In building the revolution in Australia, we recognise, get strength and inspiration from, and support people who are struggling to fight against oppression internationally.

• We reaffirm our support for the Cuban revolution and its people.

• We reaffirm our support for the Venezuelan revolutionary process and the Venezuelan people.

• We reaffirm our support for the Nepalese revolutionary process and the Nepali people.

• We extend support to all people in all corners of the world who are fighting against injustice, racism, war and discrimination, and pledge to support them when and where we can.

• We extend our support to the people of Palestine, and will continue to support their cause, specifically through the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign.

We are a feminist organisation

To bring about meaningful change in our society, we must take up the feminist cause. Women are over-represented in poorly paying jobs, suffer domestic and sexual abuse and under-represented in positions of power and influence.

We must campaign for women’s rights as an issue, but also within our other campaign areas. We must encourage women to not only be active, but to be leaders in all aspects of our work.

Resistance will:

• support campaigns for equal pay for women, against violence towards women, and for women to have full rights over their body and for safe, legal, free and available abortion,

• campaign against sexist attitudes in popular culture, and in political discourse, and

• actively seek to encourage women into leadership roles within Resistance and in groups we work with.

We need to grow and build our organisation

Collectively, we can be stronger and more able to make an impact than we ever are as individuals.

We can coordinate our actions to multiply their effect, we can streamline our messages to make them stronger.

Resistance has resources, material and abilities that we can utilise in agitating for change.

• We need to continue to build our financial resources, and encourage members to (where possible) begin a pledge to your local branch.

• We need to continue to provide socialist education to our members, to train people up as Marxists, as well as activists — this is the mark of a revolutionary.

• We need to continue to build democratic structures in our Resistance branches. We need to develop democratic and accountable leadership teams.

• When building Resistance, we will do so in a way that builds the political party we are affiliated to, the Socialist Alliance. Resistance is our youth organisation, but Socialist Alliance is our party. One is stronger when the other is stronger, and we can’t be playing a role in one, but not the other.

• In building Resistance, one of our strongest weapons is Green Left Weekly. We will continue to distribute GLW, and continue to contribute to making it a more effective vehicle for revolutionary change.

For all its flaws, this world is ours. Together we can fight the injustices that corrupt it.

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