The "Democratic Socialism 96" conferences, held in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Brisbane over the Easter weekend, and in Perth, Darwin and Canberra the following weekend, were a great success.
More than 500 people participated in a wide range of workshops and plenary sessions at the eight conferences, which were organised by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance around the theme "Campaigning for people before profits".
Dave Wright reports that around 120 people attended the Sydney conference, including some from Newcastle and Wollongong.
The event was launched on April 4 with a lively picket of 50 people protesting against ERA's plans to open a new uranium mine in Kakadu National Park. Feature talks and workshops over the following two days discussed how to fight racism, Australia's role in the Asia Pacific, privatisation, the origin of womens' oppression, the relevance of Marxism today and many other issues of concern to left activists.
The final plenary session on fighting the Liberals' attacks and building a political alternative featured representatives from the Community and Public Sector Union, the No Aircraft Noise Party, the student movement and the DSP.
The proceeds of the conference dinner, which featured the Kurdish Cultural Association musicians, were donated to Green Left Weekly.
John Nebauer reports that 110 people attended the Brisbane conference. A talk by Peter Boyle, from Links magazine, titled "Socialism — the way forward" opened the conference and set the framework of discussion. Other highlights included talks on strategies for the women's movement and an address by a member of the United Left of Spain on economic globalisation and its implications for the left.
A panel of speakers on south-east Asia solidarity work included Dr Anthony Selvanathan on the oppression of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and Nick Everett from Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor on his recent visit to East Timor.
On the evening of April 4, local Aboriginal activist and film maker Sam Watson introduced a screening of his new film Black Man Down. On April 5, "Green it Up" was launched for 1996 around the theme of defending the Cuban revolution.
Dave Holmes writes from Melbourne that more than 80 people attended the conference there. A special feature of this gathering was the participation of members of the Militant tendency. The DSP and Militant are currently engaged in a process of becoming familiar with each other's political positions and exploring the possibilities for common work.
DSP and Militant speakers shared several sessions, generating a lot of discussion and debate.
A highlight of the conference was a panel on trade union renewal addressed by Steve Roach, general secretary of the Shearers and Rural Workers Union, which is leading the hard-fought E.P. Robinson dispute in Geelong.
Carol Mitchell and Matthew Munro report that a successful three day conference was held in Hobart. The opening talk on globalisation and the crisis of capitalism was followed by workshops examining political developments internationally.
Discussions in the following days examined "green capitalism", strategies for women's liberation and socialist theory. Green Left Weekly writer Norm Dixon gave a multi-media presentation on the role of the alternative media. Resistance national coordinator Natasha Simons spoke on the growing importance of campaigning for socialism, in Australia and internationally.
Around 50 people attended the conference in Adelaide. Carla Gorton relates that a highlight was a panel presentation by activists from the Kumarangk Coalition, which is campaigning against the building of the Hindmarsh Island bridge.
The final panel, on defending and extending the public sector, generated a lot of discussion and debate about the way forward for left activists.
Tom Flanagan reports from Darwin that more than a dozen people participated in the first Democratic Socialist weekend seminar to be held in that city. Of particular interest was a panel of speakers on the question of uranium mining in the Northern Territory, which generated a detailed discussion about how to stop the Howard government's push to open new mines in Kakadu National Park.
Michelle Armstrong writes from Canberra that the two-day conference there attracted more than 60 people from trade unions, the Greens, community campaigns, rural centres in the region and Third World solidarity campaigns.
The conference featured four plenary panels, including one on the theme of "Fighting the Howard offensive — Building a progressive alternative" which was addressed by DSP branch secretary Sue Bull and ACT Greens MLA Lucy Horodny.
A highlight was the closing panel discussion on the role of Australian imperialism in the region, with speakers on Indonesia, Indochina, East Timor and West Papua. At the end of the conference, participants were invited to celebrate the opening of the new Resistance Centre in Petrie Plaza in the city centre.
More than 80 people, most of them activists in local student, trade union and environment campaigns, attended the conference in Perth on April 13-14. Anthony Benbow reports that there was particularly lively discussion around the theme "Industrial reforms, unions and left political strategy", which took up the need for more shop-front unionism and the organisation of militant workers currently outside the unions.
The DSP and Resistance are planning to organise similar regional conferences again in 1997.