En Passant

In the reality of community that the bushfires have bought out in us lies our hope for the future; in the working class and its power to turn society on its head lies the reality of the realisation of a future with hope.

It is working class supporters who will have to rally to the defence of the Newcastle Knights and force the National Rugby League, and the rich parasites who make money off the sport, to pay for the Knights’ survival.

The urgency is great. Capitalism cannot cure itself. It is driven by its internal logic to destroy the planet in the search for profit and the reinvestment of any surplus value we create. The choice is becoming starker and starker. It is either socialism with democracy, planning and satisfying human need leading to a secure and safe environment or the continuation of capitalism and the descent into global warming barbarism.

If Wayne Swan was really serious about sharing the wealth we workers create, he’d tax the rich. He’d support workers fighting to defend jobs and win pay increases. He’d legislate for a 30 hour week without any loss of pay or conditions.

He won’t do any of these things because Swan isn’t a working class hero; he’s a puppet of the rich.

It is vital for the long term viability and success of the occupations to have the working class as working class involved and at its centre. Bring the workplace to the occupations; bring the occupations to the workplace.

The task is not to create a better capitalist workers’ party. It is to build a socialist workers’ party capable of challenging Labor’s still dominant position in the working class and eventually of leading workers to understand that they can create a new society, a democratic society based on organising production to satisfy human need.

That is what we in Socialist Alternative, small and isolated as we are, are trying to do. Why don’t you join us?

The task now is to link the economic and political, to demand Mubarak go and to fight for higher wages and to begin organising workers’ control of the workplaces. Day after the day the revolution deepens.

The working class is beginning to stir. Victory to the Egyptian revolution.

The revolt in Egypt poses point blank the need for a struggle for socialism. The demands that are driving the revolt – for an end to imperialist domination of the region, for democracy, for a decent life for the millions of Arab workers who cannot afford the basics of life in spite of living in a part of the world that has created more riches than almost any other in history – cannot be met without a fundamental reorganisation of power in the Middle East.

If it is February in Tunisia there is hope yet for October.

The victory of the Tunisian working class will provide hope and inspiration to hundreds of millions across the region. Their revolution is our hope and inspiration too.

During 2010 the third phase of the global financial crisis – making workers pay – began to play itself out. Capital in Europe has used and is using its parliamentary dominance - it doesn’t matter whether reformists or conservatives are in power – to attack their working classes. While there have been magnificent strikes and demonstrations involving masses [...]