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War, racism, environmental destruction, homophobia, sexism...... Turn anger into action!
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Past generations have stood up against the great injustices of their time: slavery, Apartheid, fascism, and war. They envisioned the world as it should be, not just as it was, and through their struggles achieved things once thought impossible. Now is not the time to despair. We need to get angry, get active and get organised.
Resistance is a socialist youth organisation: We look at not only what is wrong, but why - and how we can change it. We argue that the injustices in the world today are fundamentally caused by capitalism. We believe that the only viable alternative is socialism - the the democratic control of society and economy by ordinary people, not corporations.
The Resistance national conference will bring together young activists to make decisions on furthering progressive campaigns how we build a socialist alternative to capitalism. It will give you the opportunity to hear eyewitness accounts from Venezuela's inspiring socialist revolution; Come and share your ideas for a better world.
The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) in Australia has suffered a destructive split organised by the Leninist Party Faction (LPF), a minority whose perspective of retreating from left regroupment and engagement with broader forces in struggle had been decisively rejected by large majorities at the last two DSP congresses. From the May 2005 NC, it was clear that there were different assessments about the value of Socialist Alliance within the leadership of the DSP. But this is a difference that we could have easily and constructively dealt with within a united DSP if the minority leadership had kept a sense of proportion and responsibility about their differences. Instead, they chose to factionalise the DSP and develop new theoretical differences, including labeling the democratically adopted course of the DSP as “liquidating” its revolutionary socialist politics.
Dave Holmes is one of the authors of the pamphlet Change the System Not The Climate (Resistance Books 2007) who participated in the recent Climate Change | Social Change Conference organised by Green Left Weekly. The other authors of the pamphlet, John Bellamy Foster and Terry Townsend, also spoke at the conference and selected audio and video recordings of the conference are available ( click here). Holmes is a veteran leader in the Democratic Socialist Perspective. Peter Boyle spoke to him about the key issues the conference needs to address.
Comrade S. Arutchelvan
Secretary General
Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM)
Dear PSM Comrades
On behalf of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in Australia, I extend the warmest congratulations for your successful election campaign which culminated with the PSM winning two seats on March 8. This is a great victory for the PSM but also a great victory for socialists all around the world.
The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) is now calling for the immediate withdrawal of the Australian troops from East Timor. The September 9-10 meeting of the DSP national committee resolved to investigate the prospects for building a public campaign around this demand. Peter Boyle, the national secretary of the DSP, explained the reasons for this decision: "Since May 2006, our position has been that the current Australian military intervention into East Timor – unlike the intervention in 1999 which we campaigned for because it would advance the national liberation struggle in that country – would not solve the underlying social and political crisis and marked a setback in the struggle.
Seven of the eight feature talks presented to the Democratic Socialist Perspective's Socialist Summer School, held at the University of Sydney in January are now available. The talks cover topics from: What is Marxism? to War, Imperialism and Revolution, the role of a revolutionary socialist party, Youth, Students and Revolution, Marxism and the environment and other issues.
Dave Holmes, Sydney 13 January 2007
The 2007 Socialist Summer School was a great success. Sponsored by Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP), both affiliates of the Socialist Alliance, the event was held at Sydney University’s Women’s College from January 4-7. Some 210 people attended the four days of talks, workshops, meetings and social events.
Conference participants heard plenary talks given by leaders of the DSP and Resistance on a number of key problems of the struggle for socialism. “What is Marxism?”; “War, revolution and imperialism”; “Popular power”; “Marxism and women’s liberation”; “Marxism and the environment”; “Class in an imperialist country”; “Youth, students and revolution”; and “The socialist revolution and the revolutionary party” — such were the titles of these instructive and thought-provoking presentations.
Filmmaker Jill Hickson from Actively Radical TV presented a compilation “2006 in review”, highlighting the big class struggle events and the involvement of members of the DSP, Resistance and Socialist Alliance. A special emphasis was given to the struggle by Indigenous people and their supporters to win justice for the 2004 death of Palm Island resident Mulrunji at the hands of Queensland police. Indigenous activist and Socialist Alliance member Sam Watson is playing a leading role in this struggle.
Trent Hawkins, a participant in the recent Australian solidarity brigade to Venezuela and Perth Resistance organiser, gave a vivid presentation on the December presidential elections there. Hugo Chavez won a historic victory, attracting some 63% of the votes cast. From this platform Chavez has gone on to outline a series of dramatic new moves to take the struggle to create a new socialism of the 21st century to a qualitatively new stage.
Venezuelan charge d’affaires to Australia Nelson Davila took up these themes in his address to the conference. This year is shaping up to be a major turning point in the revolutionary process in Venezuela. US aggression will likewise be ramped up and the solidarity movement in Australia will have to increase its efforts to get out the message and build support.
A highlight of the conference was the very enthusiastic Saturday evening rally that launched the 2007 fund appeal for Green Left Weekly. Last year some $231,000 was raised — 93% of the $250,000 target — to enable Australia’s leading radical newspaper to keep on coming out. This year GLW is again aiming to raise a quarter of a million dollars. Rally participants gave the fund appeal a big kickstart with pledges of $97,000.
Summer school participants attended a range of workshops and educationals on various topics. A number of national fractions to help coordinate the work of the DSP and Resistance were also organised.
2007 promises to be an extremely hectic year. The capitalist neoliberal, anti-worker offensive is continuing on all fronts, and the climate change crisis will only intensify. On the other hand, the inspiring revolutionary advances in Venezuela show what can be done. The Socialist Summer School left participants feeling energised and enthused for the struggles ahead.
 ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries’ attack on friends of Cuba in a Senate adjournment speech on October 10 is an ominous reversion to McCarthy-era red-baiting and intimidation”, warned Peter Boyle, the National Secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, one of the groups accused by Senator Humphries of being "Castro's cheer squad in Australia". “The DSP is proud of its support for the Cuban Revolution.
 Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez once again sent waves of shock through the US elite, and the corporate media, by using his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on September 20 not for diplomatic niceties but to expose the reality of US imperialism’s domination of the world and to call for a global struggle to end it.
The rising tide of enthusiasm for Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution is reaching Australia. This was seen at the Fourth National Latin American Solidarity Conference held in Sydney on September 29, the biggest such solidarity gathering in over a decade. Convened by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN) and the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS), and hosted by the Research Initiative on International Activism at Sydney’s University of Technology, the conference attracted 250 people to discuss “The Empire’s Weakest Link: Venezuela, Cuba and the Rebellion in the Americas”.
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