Number 5

The December 2 ABCC demo over here was very good; well over 2000 present maybe as much as 3000. Biggest contingents were from MUA and AMWU at around 1000 each.

The Socialist Alliance stands in opposition to the federal Labor government's seasonal worker scheme in the horticulture industry. Under the current trial, up to 2500 visas will be available over three years for workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to work in Australia for up to seven out of any 12 months.

Moved by: Dick Nichols.

As at the end of the 2007/08 financial year, Socialist Alliance National had $8,387.12 in its bank account and no debts outstanding, apart from a loan of $10,000 from a supporter which was given several years ago for an indefinite period.

Moved by: SA NSW Trade Union Committee.

Introduction

The Socialist Alliance National Executive has not produced a draft energy policy for the 2008 National Conference, pending the imminent release of the Rudd Government White Paper and the current UN climate change negotiations. It proposes that Conference adopt the following energy policy guidelines.

Moved: Stuart Munckton, Sydney Central.

The democratically elected government of Bolivian President Evo Morales, that nation’s first ever president to come from the ranks of the impoverished indigenous majority, is leading a process of change that aims to overcome 500 years of indigenous oppression and reverse two decade a brutal neoliberalism that has left Bolivia the poorest country in South America.

Here below is the text of a recruitment leaflet, done earlier this year. I have received feedback from the National Executive, but members should have their say about the draft too.

What do you think? Will the audiences we are trying to reach read this? How can it be improved?

Send comments to Alliance Voices or, if you don´t want your comment published, to the Socialist Alliance national office.

Conference notes that:

1. Morocco invaded and illegally occupied Western Sahara in 1975;
   1. The UN efforts to accomplish the decolonisation process in Western Sahara have not been successful yet;
   2. Over 165,000 Saharawis have been living in refugee camps in South West of Algeria for the past 32 years in dire conditions, waiting to return to their homeland which is occupied by Morocco,
   3. the only just, legal and lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, is to end the Moroccan illegal occupation and allow the Sahara people to exercise their right to self-determination, in accordance with the UN decolonisation doctrine;
2. Strongly supports the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence;
3. Condemns the gross violations of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara by Morocco;
4. Asks the Moroccan Government to respect human rights in the Saharawi occupied territories and to release all Saharawi political detainees forthwith;
5. Calls on the UN to proceed without further delay with the organisation of the long overdue referendum of self-determination; continued...

In the session on the Constitution at our forthcoming National Conference I shall move the following amendment:

Insert the following new sentence at the end of 8.1:
The National Executive may charter branches on a non-geographical basis where this helps the organisation of members.

Moved: Dick Nichols.

• Conference resolves that the Socialist Alliance shall have two National Spokespersons in the coming National Indigenous Rights Spokesperson
• National Anti-War and Civil Liberties Spokesperson

The problem

The current drought, exacerbated by global warming, has shown that current levels of water use are completely unsustainable in Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent. Excessive water use, especially by heavy industry and water-intensive agribusiness, is causing irreparable damage to our fragile ecosystems and creating chronic watershortages.

Conventional free-market economics aims to solve this problem by putting a price on water and allowing it to be tradedby those who can afford to purchase it.