New Candidate for Pearce Showcases SA's Draft Climate Change Charter

On July 21 the East/Hills branch of the Socialist Alliance pre-selected Annolies Truman for the seat of Pearce in the up-coming federal elections.

That same afternoon, at a film screening of An Inconvenient Truth, she was able to present SA’s solutions to the climate change crisis.

“While Al Gore’s film graphically exposes the effects and consequences of global warming, it refrains from pointing the finger at the real culprits, big companies which pollute the environment with impunity in their pursuit of profits”, Truman said.

“The Socialist Alliance is calling the situation what it is: an emergency! We need to take climate action now.

“We say we have to set the greenhouse gas reduction targets that the planet needs, rather than those tolerated by the polluting industries. Some of the solutions we’re proposing are to phase out coal, ban nuclear and develop renewables now. We favour free and frequent public transport, organic agriculture and protection of old growth forests.

“Above all, we propose democratic involvement in decision-making at all levels,” she said.

To find out more and to get involved, consult www.socialist-alliance.org. The Climate Change Charter will be out soon.

Perth East/Hills branch runs candidate in Pearce!

East/Hills branch of the Socialist Alliance has preselected Annolies Truman for the seat of Pearce in the up-coming federal elections. Our information from Canberra predicts an election in November, which would give us about 3 1/2 months of campaigning.

Here's a word from Annolies: "I'll do my best to present a more humane, environmentally sustainable vision for Australia. Our overarching slogan is People before profits! Planet before profits! Our main demands are: Tear up Work Choices; No more blood for oil - Bring the troops home now; System change not climate change; Lock up war criminals, not protestors; Respect Aboriginal Land Rights.

Please join me in this campaign. While only one person represents us as a candidate, the effort is very much a collective one.

We'll need ideas for campaign opportunities and fundraising. We'll need people handing out how-to-votes on polling day. We'll need donations for the deposit and for the leaflets we'll print. We'll need letterboxers and people willing to erect a sign on their property.

Any contribution of skills, creativity, imagination, hard work, money or moral support is much welcomed.

We need people to join the Socialist Alliance and help make a difference.

Leanda Horth is joining today (welcome!) and Len Howle, who joined in April, has just donated $50. Thank you, Len!

Our next branch/election campaign committee meeting will be on August 25 at 4pm. If you're interested, contact me on 9299 6453."

August Darlington Review column

New Vision for Australia

Queensland Aboriginal leader and Socialist Alliance Senate candidate, Sam Watson, has issued a statement outlining his vision for Australia. Here is an edited version:

“We urgently need a new vision for this country’s future.

Traditional politics—Coalition and Labor—is increasingly hostile and irrelevant to that future.

There is no hope in a Labor “opposition” that stands beside John Howard in his latest racist attack, supports anti-terrorism legislation that destroys civil liberties, and retreats from its promises to tear up Howard’s hated anti-worker and anti-union laws?

It’s time to put shameful and disgusting politics into the rubbish bin.

It’s time to enshrine the principles of justice, democracy and sustainability in a Bill of Rights, at the core of which is reconciliation with Indigenous Australia.

It’s time to build a political alternative that rejects economic rationalist “competitiveness”, which threatens our planet with a permanent tragedy of war and environmental disaster.

The alternative must put people and our planet before the profits of the giant corporations. It must learn from Indigenous tradition and live in balance with the natural world.”

If you want to work with Sam towards this vision visit: http://www.socialist-alliance.org. Sam’s statement is available as a sign-on petition.

These values will be in evidence at our state conference on August 11 at the MUA Hall, 2-4 Kwong Alley, North Fremantle, from 1 - 6pm.

The plenary will discuss opposing WorkChoices with speakers Chris Cain (State Secretary MUA), Steve McCartney (State President AMWU), Joe McDonald (State Assistant Secretary CFMEU) and Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance National Trade Union Convener). Workshops on Indigenous rights, Climate Change and rights of migrant workers will follow.
Our next local event is a re-showing (due to popular demand) of Unjust Genes, a film about genetically modified food, on Sun Aug 19 at 6:30pm at the Soul Tree Café.

Film screening: An Inconvenient Truth

Time: Sat July 21 at 4pm.

Venue: St Cuthbert's Meeting Room, cnr Darlington and Hillsden Rds, Darlington.

We aim to present a socialist approach to the solutions and hope to have copies of SA's Climate Change Charter to drive the discussion and inspire people to get together to tackle this daunting task.

Please let your friends know. This simple community-based advertising is how we get people along to our events. You can email us for the leaflet.

Let's put the planet and people before profits!

July Darlington Review: Uranium Mining and Land Rights

Over 30 people came to see our June 23 screening of A Hard Rain, a compelling anti-uranium mining/nuclear power documentary. The issues presented in the film caused a wide-ranging discussion where links were made with recent events.

Just before the film showing the federal government announced its sudden interest in saving Aboriginal children from neglect. Indigenous NT landowners successfully campaigned against the Jabiluka uranium mine and have refused to allow nuclear waste to be dumped on their land. The plan to “save Aboriginal children” shifts overall control of communities away from Aboriginal land councils to the federal government, which will be given five-year leases of their townships.

Will landowners who prevent mining now be found to be in need of extra police and army troops in their communities? Will families that object to radioactive waste dumps find their children taken away?

After consistently refusing to address the $450 million deficit in Indigenous health funding, the federal government has suddenly found funds to introduce compulsory health checks for Indigenous children. The “health checks” are linked to families being subject to surveillance and punitive sanctions that would never be tolerated in the broader community. Australia has seen all this before. The Bringing Them Home report into the stolen generations described it in heart-breaking detail.

How many times will fraudulent concern over children be used in Australian elections? The fake “children overboard” incident was manufactured to cast refugees in a subhuman light. White Australians are now being encouraged to see Aboriginal Australians in the same way.

Australia now has a police state attitude towards refugees, police state anti-terrorism laws that have been directed against Muslim citizens, police state laws targeted against construction workers and now a police state for Aborigines. Who will be next?
July’s event will be a screening and discussion of An Inconvenient Truth on Sat 21st at 4pm in St Cuthbert’s Meeting Room.