Regular public speak-outs and more emphasis on distributing information in suburban centres were among the projections adopted by our branch conference on July 6.
Entitled “A New Left Unity: Fighting War, Fighting Oppression”, the conference was addressed by national executive member David Scrimgeour, who outlined the continuing moves by the Australian left toward shared structures and greater collaboration. Following a report by Renfrey Clarke on the activity and projections of the branch, which summarised members’ active role in the anti-war and pro-refugee movements, the conference decided that a key task now is to take the Alliance’s message out to working class areas, and seek out and support progressive campaigns and activists in those areas.
The branch also decided to step up its involvement in local labour movement campaigns. Reporting on members’ participation in various struggles, Leslie Richmond noted the fight around wage demands by Adelaide bus drivers - in a three-day strike at the time of our conference - as an example of working-class battles that the Alliance needs to throw itself into. The bus drivers’ campaign has been the most determined industrial action in South Australia for some time. The branch has contributed money to the strike fund and been supporting the picket line.
The next major activity for Adelaide branch will be a public meeting on Medicare at the Semaphore Workers Club on July 16.