BY STEPHEN MARKS
NEWCASTLE — More than 40 people attended the launch of the Newcastle Socialist Alliance on June 15. Participants included students who had taken part in the M1 stock exchange blockades, trade unionists, Latino workers, progressive Christians and people from different socialist traditions.
Marcus Larsen from the London Socialist Alliance detailed the experiences from the Socialist Alliance in England. He promoted the Socialist Alliance as an arena for left-wing organisations to debate the way forward in a comradely manner.
Alison Stewart, from the International Socialist Organisation, spoke of working people's growing disgust at the policies of the Howard government. "And it's clear", she said, "that the Labor Party is not providing the alternative that ordinary working people want." Stewart said the Socialist Alliance would provide that alternative.
Democratic Socialist Party Sydney district secretary Lisa Macdonald emphasised the importance of building the anti-corporate globalisation movement not only through street protests also by challenging the pro-corporate policies of the Liberals and Labor within the electoral arena. The Socialist Alliance was the ideal vehicle for this.
A number of people joined the alliance on the night, including a former ALP branch president and trade union delegates.
The first meeting of the Socialist Alliance in Newcastle will be held at 6.30pm on June 27 in the Commonwealth Hotel, Cooks Hill.