It was a genuine surprise to read the nature of the 'arguments' presented by Allen Myers in his reply to our article "Can Australian Capitalism be Forced to Quit Coal?". The article critiqued an analysis presented in the journal Marxist Left Review by Sarah Garnham of the centrality of fossil fuels to capitalism. It was written to answer the question of what should be the strategic perspective and demands of the now emerging climate action movement.

The decision of the Sydney Palm Sunday 2002 organising committee to ban participation by members of the Democratic Socialist Party sets a dangerous precedent. Parties and other political organisations obviously have a right to determine their membership, based on their political program or basis of interest and whatever rules they choose.

In her discussion article “Can Men Be Feminists?” (Activist Vol. 9. No. 6, October 1999), Comrade Mary Merkenich poses the question, “Why is it such a big deal for men to be called feminists?”, without even seeming to realise that the reason is because she herself has made the claim that men cannot be feminists and therefore they cannot be members of the independent women’s liberation movement. Furthermore, she claims that her view is, or has been, the party’s policy.

Varanasi – Waving red flags, chanting slogans and singing revolutionary songs, 50,000 peasants and workers assembled for an inspiring rally to conclude the sixth congress of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (Liberation), held in Varanasi (Benares) October 20-26. They had come by train, bus and on foot, camping overnight at several locations around the city.

New Zealand Alliance leader Jim Anderton outlined a bold plan to rescue the country’s remaining unsold pine plantations at the party’s national conference, held in Wellington April 6-7. A week prior to the conference, the National Bolger government had announced its intention of selling the vast North Island forests off to the highest bidder.

Our strategy for achieving socialism is to build a mass revolutionary workers’ party on the Bolshevik model, which can imbue the working class with revolutionary consciousness and thus lead the masses in carrying out a proletarian revolution and the construction of socialism. Without the leadership of such a party the workers, no matter how massive or militant their struggles, will not be able to achieve decisive victory over the capitalist rulers.

The fundamental aim of the revolutionary Marxist party is to organise the socialist revolution. In order to realise this aim, the party must win the ideological and political allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the working class. This cannot be accomplished simply through propaganda alone. It is a general law of history that only through collective experiences of struggle, of action, can broad masses begin to free themselves from the domination of ruling class ideology and become receptive to revolutionary ideas.