It isn’t hard to see why Che Guevara retains his relevance today. The need for the victory of ideas that Che fought for, his vision of a better world, the struggle for human liberation, has never been so great. Following the legacy of Che, revolution is once again back on the agenda in Latin America, led by Venezuela, showing that you can kill the revolutionary, but never the revolution.
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Socialist Alliance members and supporters will be very busy over the next few months as the federal election draws near. We will be organising election launches, meetings, fundraisers, letterboxing and leafleting drives.
A recent survey has suggested that young workers who were underpaid before the federal governmentÂ’s Work Choices legislation will now be even worse off. This wonÂ’t be very surprising news to the majority of Australians.
The federal government announced on September 23 that it has — for the first time — adopted an actual target for energy generation from “clean” sources. Under the plan, 15% of Australia’s electricity would be generated from such sources by 2020, including renewable energy like wind and solar, as well as “clean, green” nuclear power and “clean coal”. Prime Minister John Howard heralded the plan as “a major cost saving and regulatory breakthrough”.
Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of Labour Party Pakistan — along with 10 other LPP members — was arrested for the third time in three months on September 27.
If lawyers are coming to the street, then something is very wrong, Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Malaysian Bar CouncilÂ’s president, said on September 26 when she addressed bar members gathered at the Palace of Justice.
Human rights activists from East Timor and Indonesia have slammed the latest round of the Indonesia-East Timor Truth and Friendship Commission (CTF), which began hearings in Dili on September 24. The CTF was established with the support of the Indonesian and East Timorese governments in 2005, with the aim of establishing the truth of the events of 1999 in East Timor, when a reign of terror by Indonesian military-backed militias occurred before and after a vote in favour of independence in the UN-supervised referendum. To achieve this, amnesty is offered to perpetrators of human rights abuses in exchange for their testimonies.
Diego Montoya, who was arrested in La Paila, Valle del Cauca, on September 10, ranked second on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives list. He will shortly be extradited to the US to stand trial for cocaine-related racketeering offences. Predictably, the US State Department and much of the corporate media have hailed his arrest as a victory in the so-called “war on drugs”. Yet, despite this official posturing, it is undeniable that Montoya, like many other significant figures associated with Colombia’s multibillion-dollar cocaine industry, was a product of US Colombia policy.
Gangster Capitalism: The United States and the Global Rise of Organised Crime
By Michael Woodiwiss
Constable, 2005
260 pages, $44.95 (pb)
By Michael Woodiwiss
Constable, 2005
260 pages, $44.95 (pb)
On August 15, the cities of Ica and Pisco located in the southern region of Peru were hit by a massive earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale. This was the first quake recorded in living history in this area. It resulted in the loss of 540 lives, and immense physical destruction; 80% of buildings within the heart of Pisco collapsed, and more than 16000 people were left without housing and basic services.
The international campaign to free five Cubans wrongfully imprisoned in the US has intensified, with 115 participating in a coordinated month of solidarity between September 12 and October 8.
Capitalist Networks and Social Power in Australia and New Zealand
By Georgina Murray
Ashgate, 2006
252 pages, US$99.95 (hb)
By Georgina Murray
Ashgate, 2006
252 pages, US$99.95 (hb)
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