More than 360 people attended Socialist Alternative’s inaugural Socialism Conference in Sydney, held at the University of Technology (UTS) on the weekend of 4-5 July.

The turnout surpassed the expectations of organisers.

It was standing room only for the two plenary sessions. The first, “From Aboriginal community closures to Reclaim Australia: fighting racism and the far right”, heard from leading Aboriginal activist, author and poet Ken Canning; human rights activist and president of the UTS Muslim Students Association Rahaf Ahmed; US Black Lives Matter activist and socialist Khury Petersen-Smith (via video); and refugee activist and member of Socialist Alternative Liz Walsh.

The second was addressed by Danny Cain, newly-elected assistant secretary of the Western Australia branch of the maritime union. He spoke about the success stories of organising with a strategy of rank-and-file involvement and militancy.

Sarah Garnham from Socialist Alternative wrapped up the conference, arguing for the need to build a political alternative based on socialist ideas.

Some of the most popular sessions were the “Marxism 101” talks, which were educationals about the fundamentals of Marxist politics. One of the features of the conference was the level of discussion in every session. There were lots of contributions from people new to left wing meetings.

The referendum in Greece loomed over the event. The packed session “Greece: crisis and struggle”, heard an interview with Thanasis Kourkoulis, a member of the revolutionary group International Workers Left and the Left Platform of SYRIZA.

Socialist Alternative would like to thank all those who participated in making the conference such a success.