In the early twentieth century Lenin wrote that a socialist is one 'who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears, no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects.'

Today these words ring even more true. For it is clear that the capitalist system manifests itself not only in the struggle for wages and for a dignified standard of living, but also through the worldwide regimes of racial and gendered oppression; through imperialism: the systemic exploitation of those in the Global South; through ecological ruin unparalleled in world history; and through the repression of those who fight for their self-determination.

In light of this, Red Ant's 2024 National Conference revolves around these crucial questions: what sort of forms of collective organisation are needed to fight oppression wherever it occurs, and how do we build them?

Program at a glance:

SATURDAY DECEMBER 7
10:00 am – 11:40 am: Climate Crisis and the Capitalist System of Profit
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm: The Womens’ Movement in Australia Today
2:15 pm – 3:40 pm: Social Movements and the “Mass Action Strategy”: from Anti Vietnam War to Palestine Solidarity
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm: Australian Imperialism, AUKUS and Anti-China Panic
Evening: Multi-Media Arts Event

SUNDAY DECEMBER 8
10:00 am – 11:40 am: What Was It Like When Australia Had a Revolutionary Party?
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm: Building Revolutionary Parties Inside Imperialist Societies: Practices from Australia, the U.S.A and Belgium
2:15 pm – 3:40 pm: What is a Leninist Revolutionary Strategy?
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm: The Australian Political Situation and the Next Steps for Revolutionary Organising

Detailed Program:

SATURDAY DECEMBER 7

10:00 am – 11:40 am

Climate Crisis and the Capitalist System of Profit

Andrew Martin and Rjurik Davidson

The capitalist system can’t stop destroying the environment. Capitalist production is for private profit, where businesses and countries compete against one another for their own survival. There is no prospect of ending environmental destruction within this competitive system, which resembles a war zone. Revolutionaries argue that if we are serious about saving the planet we have to be serious about replacing the system of capitalist production for private profit with a society that puts people and the environment first — socialism. For this to occur, we must build a powerful mass-based movement to replace the international and Australian governments with ones that can lead the transition to renewable energy, to environmental repair, and to the eradication of global inequality and injustice.

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

The Womens’ Movement in Australia Today

Ana Cavalcante, Madeline F. & Nandini Shah

When asked about the feminist movement in Australia today, many would find it difficult to explain exactly what it looks like. The movement exists in the form of neoliberal feminism, NGO feminism, and recent reactive campaigns to the realities of oppression - regression in reproductive rights and healthcare, alarming rates of feminicide, sexual violence and family and domestic violence. Why are these forms of feminism unable to change the overall position of women in society? Why does womens’ oppression continue? We need to have this conversation and reflect on the history of the womens’ movement in order to understand the challenges which exist and propose key strategies for overcoming these.

—Lunch Break—

2:15 pm – 3:40 pm

Social Movements and the “Mass Action Strategy”: from Anti Vietnam War to Palestine Solidarity

Harley R, Hugo M & Rjurik Davidson

History shows that social change occurs through mass action, in which people take their lives into their own hands and organise together. This democratic strategy can be contrasted to two other approaches: the reformist strategy which focuses on winning positions of power and the ultra-left strategy of direct action by a minority. This panel examines why mass action is the most effective strategy, using the historical example of the Vietnam war and the current-day campaign for Palestinian liberation. It discusses the mass action approach, the role of the united-front tactic, direct action, election to positions, mass organisations and institutions - and all the components of winning permanent social change.

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Australian Imperialism, AUKUS and Anti-China Panic

Nick D, Denis Rogatyuk, Daehan Song

Australian foreign policy has always been determined by its membership within a small club of imperialist powers that dominate the world economy, as well as by its ‘junior’ status within this club. Although a ‘junior partner’ of the larger imperialist powers like the US, Australia remains a powerful and constant source of imperialist oppression over non-imperialist nations in Asia and the Pacific.

After years of escalating hostility, anti-China hysteria is now peaking. The resulting cold war atmosphere is being used to justify massive military spending and silence dissent. In a context of the Australian ruling class taking us down a path that could easily lead to war, how should anti-imperialists work to oppose Australia’s war-mongering? How can we build regional solidarity to fight the US-led imperialist bloc and their aggression against China?

Evening

Music, Multi-media Revolutionary Arts Event

Pipin Jamson, Nandini Shah

SUNDAY DECEMBER 8

10:00 am – 11:40 am

What Was It Like When Australia Had a Revolutionary Party?

Max Lane and Barry Healy

Since the decline of the Communist Party of Australia and the demise of the Democratic Socialist Party in the 2000s, there has been no revolutionary party in Australia. During this period, class and social struggles, where they did occur, have been spontaneous, small in scale, fleeting, and often directionless.

This panel will offer reflections on the experience of being in a revolutionary party, on what a revolutionary party was able to achieve when one existed, and on the lessons to be learned from this legacy, both positive and negative. Its aim, above all, is to make the history of revolutionary organising in this country more well-known and usable for us in the present.

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Building Revolutionary Parties Inside Imperialist Societies: Practices from the USA, Belgium and Australia

Party for Socialism and Liberation, Workers Party of Belgium, and Red Ant

In 1920 Lenin wrote of ‘the very gist, the living soul, of Marxism [is] a concrete analysis of concrete conditions.’ Only on the basis of an analysis of this kind, he argued, can revolutionary activity succeed. But a concrete analysis of Australian society today must surely reckon with Australia’s position as a rich, exploiter country in the context of world capitalism—for this fact influences every aspect of Australian society and economy. Accordingly, if revolutionary organising is to succeed in Australia, it must be attentive to this: Australia’s imperialist nature.

This panel considers the practice of building revolutionary socialist parties in imperialist societies like Australia, the United States and Belgium. We will hear from leaders of important revolutionary projects inside imperialist countries. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (formed in 2004) is already the most important revolutionary group in the USA, while the Workers Party of Belgium has long been exceptional in the imperialist world in that it remained a large and powerful party through an epoch of widespread retreat and decline. Max Lane was a founding member of Red Ant collective. These are very different projects, each from different historical traditions that exist in very different situations. They are united by a struggle to build up revolutionary consciousness and struggle behind enemy lines - inside the imperialist core countries. The discussion will examine key experience and lessons for revolutionaries operating in this context and help to bring our struggles closer together.

—Lunch Break—

2:15 pm – 3:40 pm

What is a Leninist Revolutionary Strategy?

Nandini Shah, Brendan Duncan-Shah and Sam Coleman

The class interests of working people lie in the complete abolition of the capitalist mode of production and the regimes of gender and racial oppression that support it and are supported by it. Lenin defined ‘socialist consciousness’ as consciousness of this fact: of the irreconcilable nature of the interests of working class people and the capitalist system as a whole.

But how does the consciousness of working people become socialist consciousness, consciousness of the antagonism between their own interests and the system? If it doesn’t arise spontaneously, then how does it arise? How do people come to the conviction that the whole system needs to be abolished, and not merely reformed?

Lenin’s theory of revolutionary strategy proposes an answer to this problem, and proposes an organisational form suited to solve it in practice: a party of a particular type. Against those who would say the party form is in some way outdated—a moribund form of political organisation only suited to the early twentieth century, if ever—this panel will outline the specific meaning of Lenin’s concept of the party and make the case for its continued relevance and, indeed, necessity.

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

The Australian Political Situation and the Next Steps for Revolutionary Organising

Sam King

Australia is among the most politically stable imperialist countries. Yet even here large numbers of people – especially young people – are questioning or rejecting the Australian contribution to genocide in Palestine and increasing economic insecurity at home. These issues are accelerating the longer term trend of eroding support for both major parties and increasing political openings for struggle and opposition. Left social-democratic projects like the Greens and revolutionary socialist groups are growing in this context. To organise effective interventions that can force open the situation further, socialists need to have a clear picture of the national political situation and work out strategies and tactics on that basis.