February 2010
RSP launches campaign against racism & Labor government
STATEMENT FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION & MEDIA
Van Rudd from the Revolutionary Socialist Party
Announces Campaign Against Julia Gillard in the Seat of Lalor
The Revolutionary Socialist Party will be running Van Rudd against Julia Gillard in the seat of Lalor for the next federal elections.
Van Rudd's campaign will take a stand against the failure of both state and federal governments to defend Indian students against racist attacks.
Many young and working people in this country are fed up with Labor and Liberal, and the parliamentary system that guarantees the privileges of the corporate rich and perpetuates social inequality and discrimination.
Sydney Rally for same-sex marriage rights
Mar 20 2010 12:00 pm
Australia/Melbourne
Sat Mar 20, noon, Town Hall
International Women's Day rally & march
Mar 6 2010 11:00 am
Australia/Melbourne
Sat March 6 11am, Town Hall. March to Martin Place.
The U.S. Economy and China: Capitalism, Class, and Crisis
From Monthly Review February 2010
Martin Hart-Landsberg
Martin Hart-Landsberg (marty@lclark.edu) teaches economics at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, and is the author with Paul Burkett of China and Socialism (Monthly Review Press, 2005).
Anti-war veterans group calls for protests when Barack Obama visits Australia
From Brisbane Westender
Call to protest Obama
"Think Obama is against war? Think again," said Stand Fast spokesperson and East Timor veteran, Hamish Chitts.
“Obama is not a force for progress, he is not a man of peace - from his first day in office over 12 months ago he has firmly placed himself in the camp of the warmongers and war-profiteers.”
Open Letter to Australia Made Campaign Limited
The letter below is a response to the request by Australia Made Campaign Limited to guarantee their logo would not be used in the future in such protests as the Australia Day anti-racism action. The letter is addressed to the legal representatives of Australia Made Campaign Limited.
The request made by your client amounts to demanding that we, and by implication any other community member who has a protest to register, forfeit our freedom of speech.
While the right to free speech is not constitutionally guaranteed in Australia, the High Court has noted and defended this as an important implied right. Such a right does not and cannot preclude the use of any symbols, signs or logos, whether they are registered trade marks or not.
The request made by your client is a direct challenge to freedom of speech and will not be ceded to by us.
Racism in Australia
White Australia Policy – The Background
In the simplest means, White Australia Policy was a restrictive immigration policy pursued in Australia. But if we dig deep, it was a systematic racial approach by the capitalist ruling class. In the mid-19th century there was a shortage of labour and Chinese and Pacific Islanders were brought in as labour. By the 1880s developing trade unions were calling for a policy to protect the “White working man”. By 1890 all states had legislation to preserve the purity of White Australia, Alfred Deakin being one of its strongest advocates. The new Commonwealth government legislated to exclude non-Europeans in its 1901 Immigration Restriction Act. The main device used was to be a dictation test in any European language – with the language being chosen to ensure failure. This policy of exclusion continued until the 1950s. The Labour administration repudiated the policy in the early 1970s.
