The French presidential and parliamentary elections produced very contradictory results for the broadly defined radical left. Its collective vote of a little less than 9% in the presidential poll, while large compared to other industrialised countries, was down from 15% in 2002. However the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) bucked the trend and cemented its position as the most credible voice of the anti-capitalist left.
Sam Wainwright
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy as Frances president in April and the landslide to the conservatives in the first round of the parliamentary elections on June 10, described in France as the blue wave, were widely presented in the Australian capitalist media as a dramatic shift to the right in French political life. They are all too keen to wipe out last years images of French workers and students successfully resisting anti-worker laws, something they only grudgingly reported on in the first place.
West Australian union official Joe McDonald has rejected calls by Labor leader Kevin Rudd for him to leave the ALP. He insists he will fight moves by the party’s national executive to have him expelled, setting the stage for an important showdown.
If the Howard government thought that it’s battery of anti-unions laws had completely intimidated workers not to take so-called “illegal” industrial action then they must be disappointed. For the first time in more than a decade all work on the nation’s waterfront came to a halt on March 23 when more than 11,000 wharfies walked off the job. The stop work coincided with the Melbourne funeral of Bobby Cumberlidge, who died in an industrial accident at Toll’s Westernport wharf on March 16.
The deepening climate and environmental crises present us with an urgent need for change. But what type of change is necessary? Can we keep the structures of a class-divided, profit-driven model that empowers a few, or do we need far-reaching change that puts power in the hands of the vast majority and puts the planet and people ahead profit. Such an alternative is ecosocialism. Join us as we unpack its meaning and ways in which we can achieve a sustainable, humane future for all.
Dinner at 6pm, meeting starting @ 630pm
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