This year marks the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act in Australia, yet we still live in a country where racism runs deep. We need to build the campaign against racism and tackle the system that gives rise to it.
Social Justice
The arrests of Victorian CFMEU officials, State Secretary, John Setka and Assistant Secretary Shaun Reardon, demonstrate that the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption is purely a witch hunt against unions.
The Radical Ideas 2015 conference organised by Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance was a three day conference of socialist ideas and activism.
The impacts of neo-liberalism, including rising unemployment (up to 25% in areas like Broadmeadows), the crisis in housing; cuts to social services and attacks on workers' rights, provide fertile ground for the far right to organise, if left unchallenged by the progressive movement.
On 22 November, Reclaim Australia and associated far-right racist groups will be mobilising around Australia to spread hatred, fear, and division.
On November 22 in cities around Australia, anti racists will be mobilising to defend the rights of refugees, Muslim communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These demonstrations have been organised as counter protests to nationally coordinated actions by Reclaim Australia, a racist group targeting Muslim communities.
The Socialist Alliance and its youth wing, Resistance, expresses our solidarity with the people of Paris and Beirut who were targeted in back-to-back acts of terror by ISIS forces in the past few days.
Since 2 November the neighbourhoods of Tekel, Mescit and Konak in the town of Silvan in the province of Diyarbakır in South East Turkey have been under the occupation of Turkish police special forces and the Turkish army.
The global refugee crisis has its roots in the wars waged by global powers for resources and territory. These conflicts have left millions of people displaced and driven hundreds of thousands to seek safety and protection in countries like Australia.
In the face of the ongoing ecological crisis unleashed by the drive for corporate profits, Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance (RYSA) would like to express our support for the campaign calling on universities and other public institutions to divest from fossil fuels and express our solidarity with students who are locked in the struggle to force universities to divest.
Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance calls for the release of Khalid Ismeth, a socialist student activist who has been imprisoned by the Malaysian state since the 7th of October. He is being held under the undemocratic Sedition Act which criminalises dissent and stifles democracy.
Any meaningful push for genuine democracy would require a lot more than just electoral reform. We need a change of government: not just a change from the Liberals to Labor, but a change from corporate power to people power.