The campaign against closure of Aboriginal communities and mobilisations against unconventional gas in Eastern Australia are some examples of growing campaigns that are successfully challenging the agenda of capitalist governments in Australia, according to the eleventh national conference of Socialist Alliance.
The adopted by the conference highlighted these and other campaigns — such as the successful campaign against the East West Link in Melbourne and the campaign to free the refugees — as important examples of resistance in Australia today.
"Socialist Alliance stands in solidarity with these campaigns and we will continue to help build them and to promote them through the pages of 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly," the resolution declared.
Building such campaigns is a major priority for the Socialist Alliance since grassroots organising is the most important driver of progressive social change. However, these campaigns — even when successful — are not enough if the corporate elite remain in power and their anti-people policies remain in force.
That is why the Alliance also organises to build an overarching movement against capitalist tyranny.
The pointed out that capitalism would have "ceased to exist long ago" if it could be "defeated simply by moral arguments".
"The primary challenge facing the left today is to build popular organisations — and particularly a socialist political party — that can inspire and give political clarity to progressive movements for change."
"While the political vehicle needed to lead a successful struggle for socialist change in this country will be much bigger and broader than today's Socialist Alliance, building the Socialist Alliance as a non-sectarian, revolutionary party is the best means to work for such change today," the resolution argued.
The conference was held in Sydney June 5-8 involving delegates from the Alliance's 15 branches around Australia.
The opening night of the conference featured a special launch of the new about the Jobs for Women campaign that defeated BHP's discriminatory hiring practices in Wollongong in the 1980s. Socialist Alliance is also supporting a project to make this story into a feature film.
Another evening feature was the "Beat Back the Abbottocracy" comedy night featuring Baloney Abbott, Carlo Sands and a unique .
One important decision of the conference was the adoption of a . This will be published under the title Towards a Socialist Australia and will replace the earlier document adopted by the Alliance under the same name.
The new Towards a Socialist Australia outlines a case for revolutionary socialist change. The new document explicitly seeks to learn from the ongoing experiences of the international socialist movement.
One important priority for the Alliance at the moment is the recruiting and training of a new layer of young members. Resistance — the youth wing of Socialist Alliance — met on the first day of the conference and were also adopted by the conference.
Among the other resolutions adopted by the conference was a to the left wing HDP that received more than 13% of the vote in the Turkish elections held while the conference was in session. Solidarity greetings were also sent to and who was contesting an election while in jail for political organising.
Socialist Alliance also resolved to mount a campaign in the coming federal election in Australia under a banner of "taxing the corporate rich to fund social services, renewable energy and other environmental measures". Alliance branches will soon be selecting candidates. In addition, the conference resolved to defend and expand the Alliance's representation in local government.
The conference heard from the Malaysian Socialist Party, the Party of the Labouring Masses (Philippines) and the People's Democratic Party (Indonesia). Representatives of the Palestinian Peoples Party and the Indonesian Working People's Party attended and gave greetings in person.
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