FRIDAY evening 30 May
7pm Bullets and ballots: Babu Maharjan from Nepal gives a first-hand account of the mass movement for change.
8pm Vote socialist 2008: The Workers Party launches its election campaign with a view to being on ballot papers in every home.
SATURDAY 31 May
10am Revolution and Resistance: panel discussion
Dennis Maga (from the radical trade union the KMU) on the mass movement in the Philippines; John Minto (social justice activist) on the betrayal of the liberation movement in South Africa; Don Carson (a long-time campaigner for Palestine) on the relentless struggle for liberation; Mike Treen (unionist and social justice activist) on Cuba surviving encirclement; and John Edmundson (Workers Party) on Afghanistan’s long-running resistance.
11.45am New government, old problems? Anthony Main from the Socialist Party of Australia talks about the current situation
12.30pm Lunch
1.15 -3pm: 1968: The Year that Rocked the World – Mike Kay (Workers Party) on the tumultuous events of forty years ago.
John Moore (Workers Party) speaks with former Polynesian Panther Party member Tigi Ness about radicalism in Polynesian Ponsonby.
Short break
3pm- 4pm Building a Fighting Force -Matt McCarten (Unite Union) and Don Franks (Workers Party) on how to fight redundancies and build mass resistance
Short break
4-15pm – 5pm What is socialism? – Jared Phillips (Workers Party) gives an historical view.
Parallel session: Dialectics of nature vs nurture – Daphna Whitmore (Workers Party) looks at the dichotomy debate.
SUNDAY 1 June
12.30pm Sex and Socialism – Bryce Edwards ((Politics lecturer) brings two of the most interesting words in the English language together in a libertarian-socialist talk where discussion will range from pornography to prostitution, lesbianism to childcare, ‘raunch culture’ to abortion.
1.15pm Debate: That open borders bring freedom – Tim Bowron (Workers Party) argues the affirmative; Brian Van Dam (social justice activist) argues the negative.
2.30pm break
2.45pm The vital role of a revolutionary paper Don Franks (Workers Party, editor of The Spark)
3.30pm Who needs a revolutionary party? Philip Ferguson (Workers Party) argues essential need for a revolutionary organisation.