Peter Boyle

Coalition under fire in lead-up to NSW elections

鈥淧remier Gladys Berejiklian and her Coalition state government are getting desperate as the election campaign heats up,鈥 according to Socialist Alliance candidate Rachel Evans. 鈥淎s more and more of its crimes and misdemeanours are exposed, the government is coming under increasing fire from so many directions.鈥

Evans, who is heading up the party鈥檚 NSW Legislative Council ticket for the March 23 election, said: 鈥淭he government鈥檚 neoliberal agenda has been an absolute disaster for the people of New South Wales.

Tian Chua addressing Merdeka (independence) celebration in Sydney on September 1

Malaysia: New gov鈥檛 will 鈥榙eliver its pledges鈥

Back in 1999, Tian Chua was one of the leaders of the Reformasi movement in Malaysia who was arrested and beaten up after mass protests against then National Front government of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

But today he is vice-president of the Peoples Justice Party (PKR), the largest party in the new Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan) government whose PM is the same Mahathir.

During a recent speaking tour of Australia, which coincided with Malaysian Independence Day celebrations, Tian Chua spoke about his new relationship with his former jailer.

Turkish regime attacks on left-wing HDP shows party 'on the right path', says vice co-chair

The People鈥檚 Democratic Party (HDP), a broad-based left-wing group largely initiated by Kurdish forces in Turkey, has faced the full brunt of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan鈥檚 authoritarian crackdown.

More than 10,000 HDP members have been arrested, along with its leaders and dozens of elected officials 鈥 often on trumped-up charges of 鈥渟upporting terrorism鈥 in retaliation for the HDP鈥檚 support for the struggle of the Kurdish community for democratic rights.

Newtown community turns out in force amid WestConnex no show

A community meeting in inner city Newtown, called at short notice to hear from WestConnex and a panel of traffic, heritage and health experts, attracted some 170 people on December 6.

A movement led by First Nations militants can defeat Hanson

Pauline Hanson came across a racist and incoherent cartoon character on the ABC's Q&A program on July 18. But it would be a mistake to think that Hanson, and the more than half a million people who voted for her in the July 2 federal election, can simply be laughed away. They represent, in a distorted way, the deepening contradictions in our society that have to be addressed at their root. The myth of the egalitarianism of Australia is cracking up after 50 years of Coalition and Labor Party governments helping the super rich get even richer at the expense of the rest.

Socialists gain in anti-major party election

Anger with the two major parties was the clear winner this federal election as a quarter of the electorate gave their first preference to independents, Greens or minor parties. The Socialist Alliance (SA) ran in the Senate in three states, and in four lower house seats. Despite its blanket exclusion from the corporate media, its reliance on small donations and its radical message, its votes increased in two lower house seats, dipped in two others and increased our Senate vote in NSW and WA compared to the previous election.

Action for Public Housing launched in Sydney

Action for Public Housing (APH) was launched at the Redfern Community Centre on June 24. The launch was addressed by Green Bans movement activists Jack and Judy Mundey, Aboriginal elder Jenny Munro and Associate Professor Michael Darcy. The meeting also watched short videos highlighting the history of community resistance to the destruction of public housing in the city.

2016 federal election: Can the disengaged be mobilised for change?

Mainstream media chatter about recent polls showing the Coalition's honeymoon has dramatically ended has ignored another revealing statistic: there is a growing slice of the population that rejects the politics-as-usual model. They are the people the surveys lump into the category of 鈥渄on't know鈥. These are the people who do not engage with the pollsters' questions. They have a variety of reasons, but disengagement from the whole political process as they see it on TV and hear it on the radio is one of them.

Socialist Alliance election launch

About 130 people attended the Socialist Alliance election launch in Sydney on April 15. The night launched the campaign to elect Peter Boyle in the seat of Sydney and the Senate team of Ken Canning, Susan Price, Sharlene Leroy-Dyer and Howard Byrnes. It was a very positive night with Aboriginal activists, unionists and activists signing on to the People's Movement.

LetThemStay shows power of the people

I feel privileged to have been able to spend several hours on the community picket outside Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane where people were rallying in solidarity with Asha. Asha is the refugee baby who was being treated for burns after an accident in Australia's notorious offshore refugee detention camp, in the increasingly dictatorial Pacific island state of Nauru.

Opposition to NSW council merger explodes

Residents attending a public inquiry on February 2 at Wests Ashfield into the New South Wales government's plan to amalgamate Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville Councils were of one mind: they opposed it. About 50 people spoke in the afternoon session, and only 5, including Ashfield Liberal councillor Julie Passas and a self-described businessman, supported the plan. Similar meetings were organised at Sandringham, Bankstown, Manly, North Sydney, Parramatta, Mona Vale, Deniliquin and Shellharbour and more will take place over the next fortnight.

Socialist Alliance: Defend Wikileaks and Julian Assange!

statement, December 7. Defend Wikileaks and Julian Assange! Australia should break the military alliance with US! 鈥淭he Australian government should defend and support Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, and their efforts to expose the lies, duplicities and outright crimes of the US government and its allies鈥, said Peter Boyle, national convener of the Socialist Alliance. 鈥淲e condemn the Australian government for collaborating with the American government in hunting Julian Assange down.