Asian speakers at the World at a Crossroads conference will join the initial guest speakers from Latin America and North
America, and solidarity activists in Australia, to report on struggles
from countries such as Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor
Leste, Sri Lanka and more. Already confirmed for the conference are:

* Tomas Freitas, Timor Leste – Activist involved in the Timorese
clandestine movement against Indonesian occupation and more recently,
the campaign for fair maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea; director of
Luta Hamutuk (Fight Together), a research and advocacy institute
focusing on economic issues.

* M.Saraswathy, Malaysia - Founding member and current Deputy
Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Malaysia; Chairperson of the PSM’s
Jelapang branch; long-term organiser of plantation workers, urban
settlers and women workers in Malaysia, and founder of the Textile Union
at Imperial Garment.

* Reihana Mohideen, Philippines - Long-term activist in the women’s and
labour movements; International Department of the newly formed Party of
the Laboring Masses (PLM); Chairperson of Transform Asia, a gender and
labour institute in South East Asia; editor of “Socialist Dialogue”, a
bulletin which carries debates and discussions of the international
socialist movement.

* Ammar Ali Jan, Pakistan - Youth secretary of the Lahore branch of
Labour Party Pakistan and a member of various progressive student and
youth groups in Lahore including National Student Federation and
Progressive Youth Front. While studying in the US he was involved in the
Campus Anti-war Network at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. He is a
regular contributor for the most widely circulated English magazine in
Pakistan including the News International of Jang Goup, the largest
chain of newspapers in Pakistan.

* Kavita Krishnan, India - Central Committee member of the Communist
Party of India (Marxist Leninist) and editor of the party’s magazine in
English, “Liberation”; National Secretary of the All India Progressive
Women’s Association (AIPWA); former President of the All India Students’
Association from 1999 to 2006.

* Dr Brian Senewiratne, Sri Lanka & Australia – Sinhalese activist
involved for more four decades in exposing the human-rights abuses
perpetrated against Tamils by the Sri Lanka government and Sinhalese
militias; author of various books published in Australia on the Tamil
struggle have been banned in Sri Lanka where he has been labelled a
“terrorist”; currently an activist in the Socialist Alliance.

* Daphne Lawless, Aotearoa (New Zealand) – leading member of Socialist
Worker – New Zealand; editor of Unity, the journal published by SW-NZ.

* Also confirmed to attend the conference are South Korean socialist
activist Yongsu Won; as well as an anti-war activist from the Labour
Party of Pakistan; and a representative of the Peoples Democratic Party,
Indonesia. We are awaiting further confirmation from a number of other
countries in the region

They will join Michael Lebowitz, a Marxist economist based at the Centro
Internacional Miranda in Venezuela; Luis Bilbao, a veteran of the Latin
American left and a participant in the construction of the mass-based
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV); and Ian Angus, co-founder of
the Ecosocialist International Network, amongst others.

The conference will house dozens of panel presentations and workshops
over three days to discuss the urgent questions of our time, including:

* The capitalist economic crisis: Putting people and planet before
corporate profits

* Stopping global warming: Social change, not climate change

* Emerging alternatives to capitalism and war: The Venezuelan revolution
& anti-imperialist rebellion in Latin America

* Organising to fight for a better world: Building mass movements,
alliances and left parties

Check out the website to book tickets, see full list of international
guests and agenda (to be uploaded in the next few days), read articles
and interviews with conference participants and more.

For those outside Australia interested in participating in this exciting
left gathering, please contact dsp dsp.org.au or
ring + 61 2 9690 1977 to see how we can help with accommodation and
other arrangements.

www.worldatacrossroads.org

World at a Crossroads - Fighting for Socialism in the 21^st Century

Easter 2009, April 10-13, Sydney Girls High, Sydney, Australia

A conference that brings together socialist and progressive activists
and thinkers from around Australia, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and
North America to discuss the urgent questions of our time.

Organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and Resistance.
Sponsored by Green Left Weekly.