Resist the Capitalist Horror Show. Attend Marxism 2025 with us!
The third issue of the socialist club newsletter is your handy guide to Australia’s largest left wing conference, happening April 17-20. Start with the unimelb student pub meet up this Thursday!
Socialist Alternative at the University of Melbourne have set up this newsletter because there’s plenty to say— and do, about the barbarities of 21st century capitalism. We hope it can help you make sense of the madness and keep you updated on how to join the fightback, starting from our campus.
Explaining the Horror: a spotlight on contemporary issues
The news cycle is faster than ever. Capitalism today keeps throwing up a whole series of questions: how can a far-right egomaniac like Donald Trump win presidency—twice, how are imperialist tensions between the US and China shaping our world, the capitalist battle for space, and more. The Marxism Conference is Australia's largest forum for leftists, anti-capitalists and socialists to thrash out our answers to these questions, and to begin building the resistance we need if we’re going to win. At the conference we’ll be hosting a stream of sessions on these contemporary themes.
Fighting the Far-Right Stream
Far-right movements are gaining strength and momentum all around the world. They’ve even been welcomed into the halls of power— Orban’s Hungary has launched mass attacks on LGBT rights, banning pride parades, and using repressive force and dystopian surveillance to suppress dissent and enforce its reactionary aims. Milei’s government in Argentina has sought to smash living standards through mass attacks on welfare, the university system and working conditions.
The left needs to theorise and understand the rise of the far-right, and the capitulation and collaboration of mainstream politicians to their bigoted and reactionary politics.
At Marxism, we’ll be discussing with activists on the frontlines of the resistance against the far right from Germany to Argentina, as well as the history of anti-fascist movements, to organise a fightback for a revolutionary socialist alternative.
Australian Politics: a housing crisis and declining living standards
Here in Australia we have our own questions to contend with: ‘A plague on both your houses: analysing the upcoming federal election’, and ‘Houses for people, not for profit: Socialist solutions to the housing crisis’.
We desperately need an alternative to the major parties. Labor has continued the assault on working-class living standards. They have refused to increase taxes on corporations, legislate meaningful wage increases or restore vital social services. Peter Dutton's Liberal Party is experimenting with a viciously conservative political agenda, and right-wing independents and minor parties are contributing to the most reactionary tendencies in Australian politics.
On the other side of this class equation, workers are facing a full-blown housing emergency because capitalism treats the need for shelter as a profitable commodity rather than a human right. Join us and Victorian Socialists Senate Candidate Jordan Van Den Lamb (aka purple pingers) to discuss.
Fighting the Horror — how can the world change for the better?
Racism, Sexism and Resistance
The rise of ultra-misogynist influencers like Andrew Tate, the rollback of abortion rights, Trump’s attacks on trans rights. Indigenous children locked up and tortured in adult watch-houses, migrants scapegoated, attacked, and deported, and killer cops. Sexism and racism are alive, well, and on the rise.
These sessions will discuss how and why capitalism produces, and thrives on this brutal oppression, from understanding women’s oppression and racism today, to why so many teenage boys are misogynists.
They’ll also focus on the lessons from heroic movements against oppression, from the Civil Rights movement to the strikes that made International Working Women’s Day, and what they tell us about how to win a world free from oppression.
Foundations of Marxist Politics
Do you want to smash capitalism, a system that runs perfectly well for a minority of billionaires and thrives on the oppression of the majority of workers and the poor?
The Foundations of Marxism stream is a handbook designed to help you understand how capitalism works and where our power lies, with over a hundred activists, with years of experience, all in the same room. From exploring topics like class exploitation, oppression, and imperialism, to the case for a socialist revolution to overthrow the current system.
Join us at Foundations of Marxism stream, come with questions, discussions, and rage.
“If you want to change the world, you can’t do it by yourself”
— Gary Foley (legendary Aboriginal activist and speaker at the Marxism Conference!)
And we agree. This is why we put a lot of effort in turning the Marxism Conference into the biggest gathering of the left in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s put on every year by Socialist Alternative as a platform to discuss and debate current issues, historical movements, or theory and strategy. It’s essential work in rebuilding the socialist movement in Australia and globally.
So this weekend, we invited activists, from our own local heroes and across the world, to speak at the Marxism conference. There’s plenty to learn from unionists in Australia who are putting up a fight against the elite manufactured cost-of-living-crisis, like the workers who struck against the price-gouging Woolies. And from socialists in Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Germany, Argentina, France and many more who will share their insights on the fight against their own governments and how capitalism today shapes their struggles.
Hossam El-Hamalawy is a renowned journalist and lifelong member of the Egyptian revolutionary socialists. A witness to the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and subsequent fall of dictator Hosni Mubarak, he will be talking about his political experiences during the Arab Spring this Friday at the Marxism conference.
Muzan Al-Neel is a Sudanese socialist who participated in the 2018-2019 Sudanese revolution. She will be speaking this Friday to make political sense of the revolutionary moment in Sudan that brought down a dictator but has since developed into a brutal civil war.
Mariano Rosa is a leader of the Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores (MST) In Argentina and a member of the National Coordination of the Left Unity Front (Frente de Izquierda Unidad). He is giving the talk “Argentina: the socialist left and the struggle against Milei” which is part of the theme of rebuilding the far left and fighting back against the far-right.
Will Schulz is a member of Workers Power Germany. Schulz is a revolutionary Marxist based in Berlin, Germany. He's been involved in various political movements in the past and has written on different aspects of class war, including the rise of populism and the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) in Germany.
Right wing politicians and activists are organised— the Conservative Political Action Conference draws hundreds of far right shock jocks from around the world— now more than ever, the left needs to out-organise the right.
Over three days, attendees have the opportunity to attend hundreds of talks on a variety of topics, and time for discussion from the floor— questions, agreements, disagreements are welcome. In between sessions, there’s also the opportunity to meet socialists with a breadth of experience, from partaking in the anti-Vietnam war movement to the school walkouts for Palestine. For those angry at the state of the world and searching for answers, Marxism is the place to be this Easter weekend.
╰┈➤ How to get there
Plan the sessions you want to attend using the website’s planner, by bookmarking the sessions you’re interested in
Join us before the Opening Night panel, meet other students and the socialist club who will be attending Marxism 2025
we’ll be meeting up at the Clyde Hotel at 4pm
Attend Opening Night!
Missed out on the Radical Book Fair last week?
Lucky you! Red Flag Books is coming to Marxism. Keep your eye out for their huge discounted aisle.
Play Class Wardle, a Wordle spin-off
The word last week: FORTY
We pay more taxes and get less and less benefits because the government funnels public money to private companies. Australia’s subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major users totalled $14.5 billion in 2023–24, an increase of 31% from the previous year. $14.5 billion equates to $27,581 for every minute of every day, or $540 for every person in Australia. You do the maths, that’s just about forty million dollars everyday for climate criminals.
The hint this week
Click the button to play if you don’t want one! Return to the hint for fact’s sake.
Biblical; boasts an extensive multi-million dollar property portfolio; a teenage homeowner.
If you get it in less than three attempts, share your results with us. You might just receive a discounted Marxism ticket.