Newcastle Socialist Students

02/02/2025

The double-standard of liberal and conservative parties in Australia makes itself known when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues, especially ones related to transgender people. Transgender healthcare is held to an incredibly high, unrealistic standard, moreso than 'mainstream' health.

For example, in no other field of medicine are high regret rates used to attack healthcare. Specialist malpractice would never lead to the government scuttling plastic surgeries or other medical practices, but a small amount of specialists 'breaking the rules' is enough for the state to clamp down and restrict trans healthcare.

If it isn't obvious enough already - the state isn't restricting trans healthcare to 'help' trans kids, they're doing it to force them into being 'normal' (whether they admit it or not). It is a barbaric practice informed by a deeply patriarchal, paternalistic worldview where children are the property of their parents, not autonomous human beings who can make their own (flawed) decisions.

Recent restrictions of trans healthcare for under 18s in Queensland is concerning, especially if it spreads to other states. The solution is clear: the state has no right to restrict essential, life-saving healthcare from groups of people on arbitrary grounds. It is an attack against the democratic rights of transgender children (and transgender people in general), and an attack against universal healthcare. It is a discriminatory move that would otherwise be considered unacceptable if it was applied anywhere else.

Socialists support LGBTQ+ people and the cause of q***r liberation, which won't come from voting in nicer governments or asking the prime minister nicely. Q***r liberation is only possible by building an emancipated society (Socialism).

You should go to a rally on February 8th if there's one near you, or organise one of your own.

15/08/2024

Sally McManus in 2019. What changed?

21/07/2024

On this day, 20 July 1979, Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier escaped from Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution, in California, with two other detainees, one of whom, Bobby Gene Garcia, was shot to death by a guard. Peltier, a leading member of the American Indian Movement, had been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. He had been warned by fellow Native American prisoner Standing Deer (a.k.a. Robert Wilson) that there was contract on his life in the prison.
Peltier’s original trial was riddled with inconsistencies and distortions. For example, an FBI ballistics expert claimed during the trial that a shell case found near the bodies matched Peltier’s r***e, but his report stating that the cartridge did not match was withheld from the jury. And three witnesses who placed Peltier near the scene of the crime later recanted, stating that the FBI had tied them to chairs and coerced their testimony. The legal misconduct was so severe that Peltier has received support from individuals and groups as diverse as Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the European Parliament, and the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights. Peltier was recaptured three days later.
The campaign to secure Peltier's release continues.
Learn more about Native American resistance in our latest podcast episodes, out now for early listening for our patreon supporters: https://www.patreon.com/posts/e88-indigenous-1-108305050

20/07/2024

As student workers, we care about the state of the unions and the welfare of union members. The CFMEU has become the target of political attacks by the Labor Party and sections of the ACTU, in particular the Construction section. The state and the bosses have come together in a combined assault against the union.

However, there are no ifs ands or buts about it: Setka is a fascist gangster, who has soiled the union by bringing in organised crime and thugs to push out militants who care about the union and the workers. We have known for at least a decade that Setka has demonstrable ties to organised crime, and is a thug himself. He should have been cast out after it was made open that he had abused not just his (now ex-) wife but also his children.

Much of the union leadership are not the left-wing militants of the past. They are often thugs, gangsters, hollow careerists, and bureaucrats who restrain the ability of workers to organise.

This is why we support the rank-and-file union members against the bureaucracy: workers need to reclaim their unions and demand democratic, transparent leadership. The investigations into the CFMEU should not be led by the Labor Party or other state apparatchiks, it should be led by workers from the ACTU, with the aim of clearing out the gangsters and restoring the CFMEU to working condition.

Militants must form slates for leadership, form rank-and-file committees, and fight politically for greater democracy and transparency.

Marcus Strom writes for Michael West Media that "if you're going to be a militant at work, you need to be cleaner than clean. That working-class lesson seems to have been lost". Much of the left ignores this crucial lesson and the need to be strict in conduct.

Revelations of organised crime in the CFMEU show royal commissions, police and union bosses have been unable to stamp out corruption

22/05/2024

Join us at our rally this Saturday, as part of nationwide protests to cut trade ties with Isr*el.

Join our event for the Newcastle rally here: https://www.facebook.com/events/7435640963191161/

12/02/2024

Static rally at Pacific Park 1pm. LETS SHOW UP NEWY! 🇵🇸✊🏻