The Historic MUA Struggle
by Anna Pha
Based on a report given to the CPA Central Committee, this article sees the attack on the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) as part of an all-out, world-wide offensive by capital against the working class. It examines the new legal framework unions are fighting in today, the tactics used to avoid the full force of the Howard Government’s draconian Workplace Relations Act, the role of the State, the police, the tremendous union and community support for the MUA, and the effectiveness of international solidarity. more ...
Some Reflections on the CPA’s Participation in the MUA Dispute
by Eddie Clynes
Based on a contribution to the CPA Central Committee, the author takes a critical look at the CPA’s role in the historic MUA struggle. The MUA dispute has tremendous significance in the fight for unionism and workers’ rights. It played an outstanding role in lifting the fighting spirits of the working class across the country and internationally. Thousands of union and community members joined the MUA picket lines. What can communists and socialists bring to such a struggle? more ...
The Trade Union Movement in the USA
by George Meyer
A report from the AFL-CIO Convention by the Chairman of the CPUSA Labor Commission. The article is a reprint from the October 1997 Political Affairs, the theoretical journal of the CPUSA. The left-progressive leadership of the United States’ trade union movement has made a world of difference to the policies, campaigns and attitude to struggle of the working class in the USA. more ...
Trade Unions and Day-to-Day Struggles for Socialism in South Africa
by Vishwas Satgar
Looks at “transformative unionism”, which is a commitment to action and struggle, a commitment to overthrow capital by building worker capacities for democratisation of the economy and ultimately, socialist development. Transformative unionism places the working class at the forefront of a socialist transition in South Africa, with its main goal being to shift power on to the side of the working class and the poor. more ...
Dimitrov and Today’s Fight against TNC Dictatorship
by Peter Symon
The world’s working class and all progressive humanity is once again faced with a counter-offensive coming from the big corporations and the governments which are promoting their interests. Dimitrov’s 1935 report can help us to defeat this new counter-offensive. more ...
Dimtrov Revisited
by Vic Williams
The Communist Manifesto looks forward to socialism, to the working class forces involved and the final aim. It does not see the struggle as one culminating act, but a continuing struggle. A look back at history and an application of the lessons to the struggle in South Africa today. more ...
From Native Title to Land Rights
by Dr Hannah Middleton
A look at the recent history of the struggle for Aboriginal rights, with an analysis of the Mabo decision. The difference between Native Title and Land Rights is explained and the 1996 Wik judgement by the High Court is commented on. CPA policies on Aboriginal Land Rights put forward. more ...
Class and National Formation among the Aborigines
by Dr Hannah Middleton
Some traditional Aboriginal groups at the earliest stage of the proletarianisation process have used a typically working class method of struggle, strikes, giving an indication of the proletarian content of their movement. The Aborigines today form a national minority within the Australian capitalist state. more ...
Land Rights or Native Title (a 5 point plan)
by Fernando Goncalves
An argument that “all Australians must now work towards returning to the Indigenous nations of our country what was forcefully taken away from them — their autonomy and their land.” more ...
Mother Teresa: A Communist View
by Vijay Prashad
Behind the Ghandi-like image of one of the world’s extraordinary people. “Mother Teresa, like other [non-political] service organisations, ends up compromising her principles for her benefactors”. more ...
THEORY
AUGUST 1998
