The reconciliation walk in Melbourne on December 3rd will see hundreds of thousands of Victorians on the streets in a de facto opposition to the Howard government's racist agenda. The march will follow on from similar mass turnouts in Sydney, Hobart and other major cities.

For ordinary people the march is about recognising the historic and continuing injustice faced by Aboriginal people. It is also about wanting action to redress these injustices.

For the mining companies and other big businesses that will sponsor the walk it is about a hypocritical readjusting to a progressive shift in public opinion. They want Howard to apologise to Aboriginal people. They see his pig headedness as an unnecessary act that will politicise the population and potentially spill over into other issues.

Aboriginal people were dispossessed and then discarded by capitalism. They were not incorporated into the working class to the same extent as black South Africans or even New Zealand Maoris. As a consequence living conditions are 3rd world-like for many, despite Australia's 1st world status.

Mandatory sentencing is just the icing on the cake, a final humiliation for blacks in Australia's racist backyard. Partially in response to growing anger by black and white Australians to the treatment of the indigenous population and partially as an attempt to undermine Aboriginal radicalisation, governments have thrown a few dollars at the 'problem'. But a bureaucratic layer (including of whites) has developed that absorbs much of these resources. 52% of money for indigenous housing programmes in the Northern Territory goes on administration. Well-publicised symbolic gestures (such as the Olympic Opening Ceremony) are sops to passive resistance. A culture of dependency is actively sought by governments to undermine a radicalisation by black youth. When Aboriginal parents and students stood up to fight against Jeff Kennett's closure of Northland Secondary College in 1993-94, the Labor Aboriginal Affairs Minister and the bureaucratic structure supposed to aid indigenous people were nowhere to be seen.

It is in struggles like at Northlands that the key to the future can be found. The significance of Morthlands was it's uniquely successful approach to educate. A militant black-led campaign, with support from the trade union movement and similar struggles such as at the white Richmond Secondary College, won a famous victory against Kennett. It was a victory for the people that led to concrete results, it wasn't due to any assistance from the government or big business.

Noel Pearson has opened up a key discussion within the Aboriginal community about moving away reliance on welfare. It is the task of the workers' movement to ensure this debate is not hijacked by the right-wing, but is a means to creating a progressive alliance of black and white Australians for a joint struggle against the continued oppression of indigenous Australians. What is needed is real jobs with real wages and not 'work for the dole' schemes. To provide decent housing, education and medical care in culturally appropriate ways as well as to make a start to repairing the damage done to the land and environment.

Todays capitalist crisis can not deliver these necessary reforms. Only a socialist struggle, for a socialist society gives opportunity to erase social inequality and create a fair and equal society for both indigenous Asutralians and non-Australians.

"The real reason for what is happening here is the economic, social and political state of the Arab sector."

-unemployed Palastinian

"The Temple Mount is just an excuse. Sharon's visit was merely the match that set off a barrel of explosives that was close to bursting. And when such a barrel can't hold any more, it explodes, without checking to see whether this is a good time to explode."

-Israeli Newspaper

The situation in the Middle East, apparently relatively calm on the surface a month ago has degenerated into a cauldron of bloody conflict. The Israeli regime has responded to the new Palestinian uprising in a brutal manner, deploying helicopter gunships on bombing raids against the Palestinian Authority area, undercover snipers to eliminate leaders of the uprising on the ground, and a vicious wall of bullets against unarmed Palestinian youth.

The Israeli regime has cut off communications between all major towns and population centres, making travel impossible. A full blockade is operating closing Gaza from the rest of the world, leading to shortages and the closure of industry.

In an earth-shattering change from previous conflicts, Israeli Palestinians, using the same methods of mass struggle as their compatriots in the Palestinian Authority, have poured out onto the streets of Israeli Palestinian towns and villages. They have hurled themselves unarmed against Israeli police and paramilitary Border Police using live ammunition. They are infuriated at years of treatment as second-class Israeli citizens and they were enraged by the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli Defence Force in the Palestinian Authority.

There have been widespread anti-Palestinian riots by sections of Israeli Jewish workers and youth. These riots, encouraged by the crude propaganda of the Israeli regime, and based on the security fears of Israeli Jews, have involved the most poverty stricken and alienated sections of Israeli Jews.

The Israeli Defence Force (including undercover military and snatch squads), paramilitary Border Police, as well as groups of reactionary Jewish settlers, have slaughtered over 100 Palestinians, one quarter of them under the age of 15. Over 1000 Palestinians have beeninjured, including a two-month-old baby.

The dying moments of 12 year old Muhammad Al Durrah - his face contorted with terror while cowering in a street with his father under a of hail Israeli Defence Force bullets - has been seared indelibly onto the minds of millions of workers and youth internationally.

US imperialism has the blood of all those Palestinians who have died on its hands because of its consistent military, political and economic support for the Israeli capitalist regime over the decades. In a final humiliation to the closing days of the Clinton Presidency, the much-vaunted Oslo Peace process has fallen apart at the seams. In contrast to previous conflicts, a move to war has been started as a result of a spontaneous movement from below rather than the machinations of big imperialist powers in search of profits or spheres of influence.

The spark that lit the present conflagration was the visit of Ariel Sharon on Thursday, 30 September, guarded by 1000 Border Police to a disputed Jewish and Muslim religious site in Jerusalem - the Temple Mount (Judaism's most sacred place).

Sharon is leader of the right-wing Likud party, well-known and hated amongst Palestinians for his previous record. He was Defence Minister of the Israeli government that launched the bloody invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

But the fundamental explanation lies in the political, social, economic and national developments amongst the different sections of society involved in these events.

The absence of mass socialist and revolutionary organisations of the working class and oppressed masses on both sides of the national divide which could chart a way forward to genuine stability and prosperity is glaringly obvious.

The day of Sharon's visit ended in widespread rioting by Palestinian youth in Jerusalem. Next day the Israeli ruling class gave its response - a brutal and widespread crackdown. The use of live and rubber coated steel ammunition caused many fatalities. There was a rapid deployment of Israeli

Defence Force snipers armed with high velocity rifles.

The numbers involved in the protests spread as wider sections of the masses became enraged at the young age of those killed. One journalist described an incident where a group of Palestinian youth repeatedly stormed through a gap in a wall to attack an Israeli Defence Force post with stones. An Israeli Defence Force sniper using a laser-sighted rifle picked off one of their number each time they moved forward. Yet they continued in their attempts.

The repeated attacks on Red Crescent ambulances by the Israeli DF and the killing of their staff while attempting to collect the injured was an attempt to terrify the local population. It did not work - it enraged the masses even more.

Initially, Palestinians only used stones against the murderous wall of fire from the Israeli Defence Force. However, as the wave of anger spread through the Palestinian Authority, it is obvious that arms were made available to the youth and that many members of the Palestinian police joined the protests.

Members of the Tanzeem, the armed youth militia of Fatah (Arafat's political organisation), were involved in leading and mobilising different actions.

A new generation of youth has grown up in a much more polarised and brutalised situation. They follow the tradition of the Intifada youth but, unlike the previous generation, are not exhausted by the years long, grinding confrontation with the Israeli Defence Force. The withdrawal of the Israeli Defence Force from southern Lebanon in July of this year, boosted the confidence of these youth. In their eyes it convinced them of the necessity of confronting the Israeli Defence Force with tenacity and determination.

These layers of youth, mostly from working-class Palestinian families, formed the spearhead of the uprising. They were no longer prepared to live under the old conditions, although they did not have a distinct idea of the tactics and strategy necessary to achieve their aims. The fact that they had lost any remaining fear of the Israeli Defence Force - even if struggle meant death - was an extremely important development in their consciousness. It opened the floodgates to the mass uprising.

Some of the biggest and most important changes in consciousness have occurred amongst the Israeli Jewish working class. These are developments that have been largely ignored by the international media, and up to recently left-wing organisations inside Israel and around the world. The CWI, internationally and inside Israel, has outlined the importance of these changes.

The 1990s brought huge change to Israel. The Israeli ruling class, under the pressure of the world economy and determined to maintain their profits, implemented fierce neo-liberal economic policies. 40% of the Israeli Jewish population live on, or under, the official poverty line. Unemployment is officially around 9%. Working conditions have been savaged.

The Israeli working class feels not just anger but bitter betrayal. They feel their sacrifice over decades to protect the state is now being repaid with poverty and social disintegration. There has been an unprecedented collapse in the authority of bourgeois rule. As the last few weeks has shown, this is extremely dangerous for the ruling class and imperialism in a country where the national question is an explosive problem and the threat of war is always near.

The political effect of this, in the absence of any alternative, has been an increase in support for the ultra-orthodox Shas party, which has become a focus for disillusioned, mainly Sephardic, Israeli Jewish working-class voters. This party has provided funding for new schools and clinics as well as emergency feeding kitchens. It has also articulated the growing protest against the suppression of Sephardic culture and identity.

Over the past four years there have been many strikes and protests by the most disadvantaged and wider sections of organised workers in Israel. Many Israeli Jewish workers have talked about the ground "burning under the feet of ordinary people" and the need for a "Jewish Intifada" or a revolution, although without a clear idea of what this would mean.

Many Israeli workers saw the formation of a party by Amir Peretz, head of the Histadruth, as the first step to building a mass party for the Israeli working class. This party mainly made up initially of activists from the organised Israeli Jewish working class put forward radical social and economic propaganda and demands. The party never had a clear position in support of the rights of the Palestinians and avoided discussing the issue. Just before Yasa Arafat left for the Egyptian Summit there were mass demonstrations in Ramallah and Gaza calling on him not to betray the struggle. Before the present uprising exploded on to the scene, opinion polls put him at only 30% support amongst Palestinians. He has been forced to embrace the more radical elements within his apparatus and the Palestinian masses. He has released Hamas prisoners and grant the organisation its own TV programme on Palestinian TV. Arafat has done this for two main reasons: to consolidate his shaky grip on power; and to try and exert more control over the uprising.

The majority of demonstrators were carrying Hamas flags. This reflects a shift in the Palestinian population towards Hamas (extreme fundamentalist organisation), as the only alternative on offer and the only organisation which articulates the rage of the masses. The Tanzeem, the youth militia of Arafat's Fatah group, produced a leaflet declaring they had split from their parent organisation. They explained that Arafat and his cronies sitting in their offices had not made the gains of the Al Aqsa intifada. They also announced they would be adopting the methods of Hezbollah in their struggle against Israel.

There is a desperate need to build a genuine socialist alternative to the present poverty, social disintegration and national oppression that permeates the regions. This requires building support for a programme aimed at the social, economic, and national problems which blight the regions, all of which are interlinked. A socialist movement can only be built on the basis of putting forward a programme which answers the national aspirations of the Palestinian masses and the economic and social needs and security fears of the Israeli Jewish working class.

Socialists within the Palestinian population would start from the point of view that Arafat and the other Arab leaders have consistently and continually betrayed the Palestinian masses. They would raise the demands for the uprising to be run under the control of the masses and with a democratically elected and accountable leadership.

They would also explain that one goal which has to be achieved for the struggle for genuine national liberation to be achieved is the splitting away of the Israeli working class from its capitalist ruling class. This means convincing Israeli Jewish workers and youth that Israeli capitalism has meant five wars and mass unemployment and social hardship; that the Palestinian masses will not abandon their struggle for their homeland; and that the only two choices are the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and feudalism in the region or continued bloodshed. A socialist Middle East would release the resources to wipe out the social deprivation and poverty in the region. It would also create the basis of fulfilling the national aspirations of the Palestinian masses, protect the rights of all minorities, and guarantee the fears ordinary Israeli Jews have for their future.

It could, for example, open the way to providing a solution to the conflict over the future of Jerusalem. In this way the tensions and conflict, which have poisoned the relations between the working class and poor peasantry, could be eradicated within a generation. The only way out of this present crisis is by fulfilling the national aspirations of the Palestinian masses through the granting of an independent state; genuine stability and prosperity necessitates guaranteeing the rights and answering the security fears of the Israeli Jewish working class; it means protecting the language, cultural, religious and democratic rights of all minorities in the region; just as importantly, it means ending the poverty and social deprivation that exists amongst the working class and poor peasant masses (i.e. amongst the Arab masses, the Palestinians, and the Israeli Jewish working class). This requires the building of a mass movement to overthrow oppressive Israeli capitalism and the reactionary Arab elites that dominate the region. This can only be done through the struggle for a socialist society.

• The ceasing of military operations by the Israeli Defence Force in all areas of the Palestinian Authority
• The democratic control by the Palestinian masses of their struggle, through the establishment of grass-roots committees. The right of these committees to be armed for the purposes of defence organised under the democratic control of the masses
• Against attacks on religious sites of Muslims, Jews and Christians
• A struggle of working class and oppressed masses to overthrow the capitalist regime in Israel and the Arafat clique in Palestine and for a socialist Israel alongside a socialist Palestine as part of a voluntary and free socialist confederation of the Middle East

According to Professor Roger Short at Melbourne University, Australia has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and abortion in the world. The real figures has been suppressed by most Australian states but it is likely that there are about 2000 teenage abortions every year, more than teenage live births.

The fact that many teenagers are forced to go through an abortion, because contraceptives are too difficult to obtain is a big health risk, both mentally and physically. By freely distributing contraceptives and comprehensive sex education in school, many of these accidents could be avoided.

At the last annual meeting of Family Planning Victoria Mr. Short warned about the high number of teenage pregnancies and abortions. Australia's teenage birth rate is 20 per 1000, and by far exceeds that of other developed countries like Sweden, Denmark and France, all between five and six per 1000.

The figure for abortions is probably even higher but the authorities have suppressed figures for many years, with the exception for South Australia, were there were more teenage abortions than live birth, 24.8 per 1000. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, Australia in 1995-1996 had a teenage abortion rate of 23.9 per 1000, compared with Netherlands' 4.2 and Germany's 3.1.

Everybody has the right to a comprehensive sex education in school and the right to decide over their own body. By not supplying teenagers with contraceptives the establishment are risking our health and at the same time, trying to restrain our right to decide over our own bodies. Examples from Netherlands and Sweden shows how comprehensive sex education and making contraceptives, in particular condoms, freely available both reduce teenage pregnancies, but also stop spreading of sexually transmitted infections. The costs for free contraceptives would probably be made up by the decrease in abortions, and if not, the federal government could use some of it's $700 million allocated next year for funding Australia's 2500 private schools, among them luxury schools like Penleigh, Wesley College and Essendon Grammar.

Steve Bracks commented in the Age that contraception was a matter for families to discuss and doctors to prescribe-not for schools to provide. Nolene Horton, from the Association of Head for Independent Schools, of course agree with Bracks, saying that sex education should first be taught at home.

"It is not a question about the right or wrong of abortions, it is the fact that the society want to dictate the lives of women, and take control over our bodies", says Sophie Dimor. Steve Bracks seems to want a society where teenagers life and sexuality are totally controlled by the establishment and family.

But you cannot turn the clock back. The right to control your own sexuality is here to stay, and Bracks and the rest of the establishment's policies will only risk the health and lives of women. Women sometimes feel emotionally crippled after abortion and there are also physical health risks, which the debate about allowing the abortion pill RU486 shows.

Practicing safe sex is a matter of education and it is about time that Australia saw a good mandatory (for schools) sex education. This would mean a big change for the health and safety of young women. The Socialist Party stands for: Condoms to be available free of cost at schools. Contraceptive pill should also be accessable without charge on prescription without cause by a doctor and sexual health clinics specifically set up for teenagers should be established. No veto by parents or the State!