[Debate] What's new at Links: Towards a Socialist Australia; Venezuela media; Pakistan; Asia; Paul LeBlanc/Lars Lih; 1 million climate jobs; capitalist production; May Day; Malaysia

[glparramatta]

What's new at Links: Towards a Socialist Australia; Venezuela media; 
Pakistan; Asia; Paul Le Blanc/Lars Lih; 1 million climate jobs; 
capitalist production; May Day; Malaysia

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    Socialist Alliance releases 'Towards a Socialist Australia'
    discussion document <http://links.org.au/node/2855>

May 5, 2012 -- The following document,/Towards a Socialist Australia, 
/was adopted as a discussion draft by the 8th national conference of the 
Socialist Alliance <http://www.socialist-alliance.org>, held in Sydney, 
January 20-22, 2012.

Socialist Alliance also voted to consult with members, supporters and 
allies in the social movements to improve the draft and deepen our 
collective understanding of the political climate and the nature of the 
economic and environmental crises.

We hope that by starting a broad discussion about socialism we will 
advance and further unite the socialist movement in Australia.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2855>


    Venezuela: Making a 'state for revolution' -- the example of
    community and public media <http://links.org.au/node/2849>

By *Lee Artz*
May 1, 2012 -- The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela has built mass 
organisations of workers and communities that have erratically 
challenged class and market relations---verifying that taking political 
power is difficult but essential to fundamental social change and that 
capitalist cultural practices complicate the revolutionary process. This 
article identifies components of state power, separating state apparatus 
(government) as a crucial site for instituting social change. The case 
of democratic, participatory communication and public media access is 
presented as central to the successes and problems of Venezuela's 21st 
century socialism. Drawing on field research in community media in 
Caracas, this essay highlights some of the politico-cultural challenges 
and class contradictions in producing and distributing cultural values 
and social practices for a new socialist hegemony necessary for 
fundamental social change.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2849>


    Pakistan: Protest torture of Baba Jan, 'prisoner of climate change'
    <http://links.org.au/node/2847>

May 3, 2012 -- The following letter to protest the beating and continued 
detention of *Baba Jan* (pictured speaking above), *Waqar* and other 
activists was sent to Pakistan's High Commissioner (ambassador) to 
Australia by the *Socialist Alliance*. Readers of /Links International 
Journal of Socialist Renewal/ are urged to send similar letters to 
Pakistan embassies and consulate in their own countries.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2847>


    Can Asia save global capitalism? <http://links.org.au/node/2853>

By *Reihana Mohideen*

May 4, 2012 -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has just held its annual 
board meeting in Manila, accompanied by much publicity and fanfare about 
"sustainable and socially inclusive development". A key framework 
document presented is entitled /How Can Asia Respond to Global Economic 
Crisis and Transformation/. The paper was prepared by a team of ADB 
technocrats and other leading gurus of neoliberal economic dogma, such 
as Jeffrey Sachs.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2853>


    Paul Le Blanc responds to Lars Lih: Bolshevism and party building --
    convergence and questions <http://links.org.au/node/2852>

*[Click HERE to follow the entire debate on Lenin 
<http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/665>.]*

By *Paul Le Blanc*
May 5, 2012 -- Revolutionary upheavals are made possible by the coming 
together of a number of diverse factors, one of which is the 
organisation, accumulation of experience and proliferating influence of 
conscious revolutionaries.

"Did the Bolshevik Party become the leading party of the Russian 
proletariat, and hence the Russian nation, by chance?", asked Italian 
revolutionary Antonio Gramsci in 1924. A brilliant and knowledgeable 
analyst, he answered his own question: "The selection process lasted 
thirty years; it was extremely arduous; it often assumed what appeared 
to be the strangest and most absurd forms." He added that the process 
involved "struggles of factions and small groups; ... it meant splits 
and fusions ..." (Gramsci, /Selections from Political Writings 
1921-1926/: 210).

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2852>


    One million climate jobs now! The video <http://links.org.au/node/2851>

May 4, 2012 -- The Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group  is 
organising a Climate Jobs Caravan in England and Scotland in May 2012.

Based on the /Million Climate Jobs report/, produced with the assistance 
of Public and Commercial Services Union, the University and College 
Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Transport Salaried 
Staffs' Association, the caravan will highlight how creating climate 
jobs can help tackle the twin crises of the ecomony and climate change.

This inspiring video sets out the caravan's message. The full 33-minute 
version, along with eight other videos about the struggle for justice, 
can be purchased on a DVD from /Reel News./

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2851>


    Revolutionising production itself: for humanity and for the world
    <http://links.org.au/node/2848>

By *Mike Ely*
April 24, 2012 -- There is a valuable exchange happening on the /Kasama/ 
website site. I won't try to encapsulate it here, but want to respond to 
it. I think there are some sharp contradictions here --- that are posed 
within our theory, and within the very choices facing people*.*

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2848>


    May Day greetings from the Socialist Alliance: Time for a wide
    discussion about socialism in the 21st century
    <http://links.org.au/node/2846>

May 1, 2012 -- The *Socialist Alliance* in Australia sends warm 
comradely greetings for May Day 2012. May Day this year takes place in 
tumultuous conditions: the multiple crises confronting global capitalism 
are deepening, while mass resistance to its brutal rule grows. Taken all 
together, the people's uprisings across the Arab world, the mass 
demonstrations and strikes occurring in Europe, the Occupy actions in 
the United States and the ongoing efforts of Latin American 
revolutionaries to construct socialism of the 21st century pose a huge 
challenge to the capitalist system.

The capitalist class is desperately striving to force working people and 
the entire Third World to pay for the worldwide economic, social and 
ecological crises it has created, but the momentum towards change and 
the creation of a system that puts the needs of people and the 
environment before private profit cannot be easily stopped.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2846>


    Bersih 3.0: Najib fears Merdeka Square could become Malaysia's
    'Tahrir', says socialist leader <http://links.org.au/node/2845>

By *Peter Boyle*
May 1, 2012 -- S. Arutchelvan, secretary general of the Socialist Party 
of Malaysia (PSM), is a veteran of many demonstrations. But the Bersih 
3.0 mobilisation, which he estimates was between 100,000 
-150,000-strong, was the biggest he's been a part of yet in the country. 
"It was a huge success", he told /Green Left Weekly/, "and it terrified 
the Barisan Nasional [BN] government."

"The BN government sees Merdeka Square as its Tahrir Square. They do not 
want to see -- and for the public and the world to see -- images of it 
being occupied by democratic movement. It is their political survival. 
Since 2011 PM Najib [Razak] has been worrying about the Arab Spring 
spreading to Malaysia. He said his government would not let it happen. 
So on April 28, the riot police was used to prevent the people from 
getting to Merdeka Square at any cost.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2845>


    Malaysia: Hundreds of thousands demand democratic elections at
    Bersih 3.0; police attack peaceful protest
    <http://links.org.au/node/2844>

April 30, 2012 -- The Coalition of Free and Fair Elections (Bersih -- 
meaning "clean" in Malay), the movement for free and fair elections in 
Malaysia, said that the April 28 rally was a great success, claiming 
that 300,000 Malaysians had joined the Bersih 3.0 rally in the capital 
Kuala Lumpur. Bersih called for a mass sit in on April 28 because it 
suspects that the country's entrenched Barisan Nasional (BN) government 
is about to call a general election without addressing widespread 
electoral irregularities. Rallies were also held in around 85 cities 
around Malaysia and across the world.

  * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/2844>

* * *
Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, 
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political 
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for 
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from 
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the 
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social 
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in 
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing 
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

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