“The surge in the vote for socialist candidates in the weekend Victorian local government elections shows that increasing numbers of working people are looking for candidates whom they trust to defend their interests as economic crisis looms”, Socialist Alliance Victorian State Convener Sue Bolton said on December 2.

Beneficiaries, teachers, adults, disabled people, students and workers came out on Friday to defend the social missions and programs of the national government in the face of threats to close them down by the new governor-elect of the state of Miranda, Henrique Capriles Radonski.

“If these people can spend millions and millions on sending troops to fight other countries, why can’t they spend maybe a couple of billions just to save people, like ourselves; the marginalised, poorest of the poor. Why? Because we are taking the brunt, we are the victims of these green[house] gas emissions, the pollution made by industrialised countries.”

The current global economic crisis has all the earmarks of an epoch-defining event. Mainstream economists now openly employ phrases like “systemic meltdown” and “peering into the abyss”.

The recent conviction and sentencing of Aboriginal man Lex Wotton has brought back into public discussion the shameful continuing suffering — and death — of Australia’s Indigenous people at the hands of the law.

Supporters and opponents of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution have come out with differing assessments post the November 23 regional elections, which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had defined as the most important electoral contest yet for the process of change.

The Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecution’s (CDPP) formal withdrawal of charges against Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) official Noel Washington on November 28 is a major victory for all workers and unionists.

There is no room for any doubt that Australia is suffering from an epidemic of domestic violence.

The November 27 terrorist assault on Mumbai’s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft.

Having captured the imagination of progressives across the globe with scenes of indigenous uprisings confronting right-wing governments and multinationals, Bolivia has become a key focus point of discussion within the left regarding strategies for change.

Few humanitarian crises have occasioned as much media and activist attention in the US as the conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Dr Fernando Martirena from the Centre of Investigation in Structures and Materials (CIDEM) research institute at the University of Santa Clara, Cuba, recently visited Australia to speak to a number of meetings organised by the Australian Green Development Forum.

What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights -- that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity?

The following is abridged from George Newhouse’s speech at the November 26 opening of “ARTicles — The Human Rights Declaration”, Amnesty International Australia’s 2008 art exhibition, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

President-elect Barack Obama ran his campaign on the promise of bringing “change” to Washington.

It’s not often we hear the rich talk honestly about the poor in public. We can only guess what goes on behind closed doors, but out in the open CEOs are supposed to stick to their PR script — squeaky clean and politically correct. Well, thanks to billionaire Gerry Harvey we don’t have to guess anymore.

Australian fans of quality, progressive music are in for a real treat this summer with the joint tour by left-wing songwriters Alistair Hulett from Scotland and David Rovics from the US.

On November 22, Hands off Venezuela (HoV) held its fourth national conference at Birkbeck College at the University of London.