For the last three and a half decades we have been subjected to a barrage of rhetoric about the efficiency of the market, held up as the god of global economics. Wages were held down in the name of global competition and efficiency, trade unions were slandered and attacked as obstacles to the market, education increasingly became user pays. Capital markets and the banks were deregulated. State-run enterprises were privatised. This program had a name - neoliberalism. Then at the beginning of September, the god of neoliberalism was torn down from its pedestal.

UPDATE AFTER LEHMAN COLLAPSE: read A system out of control from US Socialist Worker. AFTER AIG BAILOUT: Capitalism on trial . AFTER PAULSON'S $700 BILLION BAILOUT OF WALL ST: Their desperate gamble with our money

On September 15 the trial of Abdul Nacer Benbrika and eleven other men on charges under Australia's anti-terror laws ended in seven convictions.  These convictions are a massive step backwards for civil liberties, and have been cynically used to promote anti-Muslim bigotry.  Right from the outset everything about this case - the laws the men were prosecuted under, the trial and verdicts themselves, and the media coverage - point to a political frame up intended to provide ideological support for the "war on terror".

To the extent that neoliberalism has any meaning (and it is a slippery concept) it refers to three processes connected with the onset of crisis in the world economy in the 1970s: an attack on the working class, further monopolisation of business on an international scale, and the growing significance of financial speculation in the world economy.

The fall of right wing NSW Labor Premier Morris Iemma and his even more right wing Treasurer Mick Costa, who had attempted to force through electricity privatisation in the face of overwhelming opposition by the trade unions and ALP membership, is a very significant and positive development in Australian politics.

Video footage taken by an Afghan doctor on his mobile phone on August 21 has revealed the awful reality of the Western occupation of Afghanistan. In the video, bodies of all sizes and ages are seen laid out next to each other. The doctor walks between the rows and people lift material from the faces of the dead to show him. These faces are broken and bloody. Some seem to have large parts of their skulls blown apart.

On July 29, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed 29 prisoners in the infamous Evin Prison, built by the Shah, where thousands of political prisoners were and continue to be tortured and murdered. These executions occurred shortly before the 20th anniversary of the massacre of over 10,000 left-wing prisoners in September 1988.

Dealing with sexism is an ongoing, relentless part of the daily routine of all women living under capitalism, whether we're conscious of it or not. Just opening the newspaper, switching on the TV or radio, or travelling to work will expose us to more sexist images than we can begin to count. But even before our coffee has kicked in sexism permeates our lives in the most insidious ways - affecting our personal relationships and interactions, and even our own self-image.

In March, RMIT University in Melbourne reneged on its promise to provide a new Muslim prayer room, leaving Muslim students without such a facility for the first time in 15 years. Liam Ward from Socialist Alternative and RMIT staff talked to Brother Amr S from the RMIT Islamic Society about the ongoing campaign to reinstate the prayer room, and about anti-Muslim racism in Australia more generally. Amr spoke in a personal capacity; his views aren't necessarily those of the RMIT Islamic Society.

The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, seven years ago this month, opened up a new era of imperialist war. First in Afghanistan and then Iraq, the might of the US military was unleashed on Afghanistan and Iraq. It seemed to some that the era of classic imperialism - the twentieth century great power rivalry that gave us two World Wars and the Cold War - was over. Twenty-first century imperialism had morphed into an old-style colonialism - the subjugation of the weak by the strong. All that has now changed.

In May 1933 a group of about 20 mostly unemployed men, all except one recently expelled from the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) or its youth organisation, the Young Communist League, met in a hall in the Sydney suburb of Rozelle to form Australia's first Trotskyist organisation, the Workers' Party of Australia (Left Opposition). Despite their small size, they saw themselves as following in the tradition of those who had led the Russian revolution.

It's no accident that in confrontations with the Australian and other occupying forces in their country the weapon of choice for Dili's youth are rocks. Their city is literally crumbling around them. Any infrastructure left standing after the violence of past years has been left to rot (in many cases quite literally).

The cancellation of the Asia Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition (APDSE) - a trade fair for the world's largest weapons manufacturers scheduled to open on 11 November - is a huge victory for the peace movement.

The second week of September saw student union elections held on several university campuses. Socialist Alternative student clubs report on the results.