The August 24 ousting of Malcolm Turnbull was the fourth time in just eight years that an elected Australian prime minister has been removed, through an inner-party coup, from their government.

The most right-wing faction of the Liberal Party, led by Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton and former prime minister Tony Abbott, is determined to shift the government’s agenda ever further into anti-immigrant demagogy, economic nationalist trade policies and unquestioned commitment to the US alliance, including Washington’s escalating confrontational measures against China.

The latest political upheaval in Australia broadly parallels the processes that have seen the rise of the pro-Trump “alt-right” in the US and neo-fascist movements across Europe.

The promotion of extreme right and authoritarian tendencies reflects not the strength, however, but the desperation of every political formation that defends capitalism and the outmoded division of an integrated global economy into competing nation-states.

As international relations and parliamentary forms of rule break down, the ruling elite is terrified of the growing left-wing sentiment among millions of workers and young people around the world. Whether under the Liberal-National Coalition or the Labor Party, the next government will escalate the assault on the working class, the drive toward authoritarian rule and the preparations for war. Australia is heading toward a period of immense economic shocks and the inevitable eruption of explosive class struggles.

This Socialist Equality Party meeting in Sydney will examine the key factors behind the coup against Turnbull and advance the socialist and international perspective that the working class must take up to defend its social and democratic rights, which are under sustained attacks.

The meeting on Sunday, September 30 will be livestreamed via the SEP Australia Facebook page.

Meeting details:

Sunday, September 30, 2:00 p.m.
Bankstown Library, Lansdowne Meeting Rooms 1 & 2
80 Rickard Road, Bankstown
(cnr of Rickard and Chapel Roads)
Tickets: $7/$5 concession

The meeting will be live-streamed in Melbourne:

North Melbourne Town Hall
66 Errol Street
North Melbourne
Tickets $3/$2

And in Brisbane: 

Inala Community House
38 Sitella St, Inala
Tickets: $5/$3 concession

For the livestream, go to the SEP Australia Facebook page