Resistance, the socialist youth organisation in political solidarity with the Democratic Socialist Party, was the organiser of the impressive secondary school walkouts and protests against racism and One Nation that were held around the country in July. The demonstrations received massive media coverage, focusing on the issue of racism, but also on the “youth” of the protesters. Pauline Hanson and David Oldfield attacked the students as “manipulated” and “brainwashed”.

Resistance, the socialist youth organisation in political solidarity with the Democratic Socialist Party, was the organiser of the impressive high-school walkouts and protests against racism and One Nation that were held around the country in July.

Hansonism – that’s now a synonym for racism and bigotry – and it has burst onto Australia’s political stage with a vengeance. It’s shameful – for us as Australians, as workers, as socialists, as human beings. We can take some cold comfort – the biggest parliamentary victims in the Queensland elections were its creators and nurturers, the Nationals and Liberals. But 23% was 23% too much!

The title of this report refers to the party having entered a “new period”. But what are its new features? Firstly, we all have to understand – even here in firewalled, comfortable, Lucky Country Australia – that we are now in the middle of a global economic crisis for capitalism.

1968 was a momentous year for the left and the newly radicalising young people of the time, and a legendary year for the young rebels of today. A popular slogan was coined at the time: “We are the people our parents warned us about!” Well, they’re still the people your parents are warning you about, except for those parents who themselves were part of it at the time, who radicalised then, and kept their ideals and fire and hopes alive.

The Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference taking place in Sydney, April 9-13, will bring together nearly 70 international speakers and participants from parties and movements in Asia, the Pacific, Europe and the Americas, and hundreds of activists from around Australia. It has proved to be an extremely timely initiative, exceeding even the initial ambitious plans of the organisers.

The Communist Manifesto ushered in a new epoch in human history. It described and projected the process of change from capitalism to socialism, the coming to power of the working class. That’s a process still taking place. So it’s a thoroughly modern document.

It’s undoubtedly the most influential political document, not just of the last 150 years, but of all time. While the Magna Carta and the US Declaration of Independence marked important political victories for advancing sections of society, the Manifesto both marked a stage and projected the course for the working class and for the future of humanity as a whole.

Marx and Engels were not the first to develop and advance a vision of a classless society. As they themselves noted, earlier thinkers had developed “in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Utopian pictures of ideal social conditions; in the eighteenth, actual communistic theories… [in which] it was not simply class privileges that were to be abolished, but class distinctions themselves”.

The memorable year 1968 – a momentous year for the left and the newly radicalising young people of the time, and an almost historical, legendary year for the young rebels of today. A popular slogan was coined at the time: “We are the people our parents warned us about!” Well, they’re still the people your parents are warning you about, except for those parents who themselves were part of it at the time, who radicalised then, and kept their ideals and fire and hopes alive.

The Communist Manifesto ushered in a new epoch in human history. It described and projected the process of change from capitalism to socialism, the coming to power of the working class. That’s a process still taking place.