Labor Tribune welcomes letters from across the socialist and labour movement. Unlike most of the left, we welcome open debate and discussion. Important disagreements should be thrashed out in front of the whole movement so that the working class learns the methods of Marxism and self-liberation and isn’t just given pre-prepared dogma. Email the editors at labor.tribune@proton.me.
Confronting the arms expo at Darling Harbour
The Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition (SAAC) mobilised 21 organisations to sponsor a peaceful protest at the International Convention Centre (ICC) at Sydney’s Darling Harbour on the morning of 4 November, 2025. Given it was a workday we were pleased that some 100 people joined the two-hour protest.
We had wanted to hold it in front of the International Convention Centre. But only days before we were told it had to be held in the “designated area” – Tumbalong Park.
We were annoyed, of course, but we knew that it would be difficult to build the numbers that would be needed for a serious challenge to the anti-protest laws which cover Darling Harbour.
From 8.30am through to 10.30am, speakers addressed the new and dangerous arms race, the deadly AUKUS pact aimed at a war with China, the immorality and illegality of Australian weapons’ exports to Israel, Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries, and the underlying sexism and racism of militarism and nuclear weapons.
Our focus was on the politics of the weapons expo in a time of genocide.
Prominent speakers from the Greens, Labor Against War, the Maritime Union, Wollongong Against War and Nukes, Wage Peace, WILPF and IPAN explained how the genocide in Gaza, the push for catastrophic war with China, the Expo and the alliance with the US are all interconnected.
Militant socialist organisations – the Communist Party, Socialist Alliance and Solidarity – emphasised the Australian people’s anti-war record and the community’s capacity to organise to stop the drive to war and to challenge the deadly threat from Australia’s military alliance with the United States. Speakers called for real action on climate and housing instead of an arms race.
The rally ended with the Pop Up Peace Singers and a collective photo shoot.
Two weeks before the protest, the Palestine Action Group and Students for Palestine decided to focus on a ‘blockade’ of the expo and about 300 people took part in that effort.
Police responded violently, and came armed with pepper spray. Just after 8am, they used such a large amount inside the designated protest area, the cloud affected everyone inside and outside Tumbalong Park. Twelve people were arrested and face charges; two have been refused bail.
The police’s use of pepper spray on protesters was totally unjustified and we intend to lodge a formal complaint. Their heavy handedness landed one woman in hospital with a fractured tibia.
Predictably, the mainstream media focused on clashes with protesters rather than government support for corporations associated with genocide in Gaza being invited to the Expo.
Despite the difficult circumstances, SAAC did its best to articulate the broad concerns a widespread section of Australian society, including that this weapons Expo made NSW Labor more complicit in the Gaza genocide.
We will continue to reach out to build the coalition we need to cancel AUKUS and all its associated militarism, while remining active in the movement to stop the genocide in Gaza. Get in touch if you’d like to help out.
Peter Murphy, Pip Hinman, Denis Doherty
Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition
5 November 2025
Genuine change needed in the ALP
The Labor Party need not be a bourgeois workers’ party, nor need it be one that capitulates to capitalism, or does not challenge the Trump administration, or cheerleader the status quo of the monarchy, a fading relique of a foregone era. There can be genuine change from within the party.
When I first joined the Labor Party, I appreciated the aspects of intersectionality and progressive values within the ALP. I still strongly affirm an intersectional approach and lens to analyse and address other forms of oppression and discrimination (gender, sexuality, race, religion, neurodiversity, weight, age, ability, etc). These could be seen as an extension of Marxist thought to other aspects of privilege or lack thereof. It can also help to prevent hierarchies of social privilege and discrimination within the working class.
While these things are important, they should never be a distraction from core principle of Marxism such as the liberation of the proletariat from the predominately capitalist controlled establishment, which can influence culture and is a primary root causes of exploitation for the working class and others. Without affirming the central goal of transition from capitalism to a democratic socialist society, intersectionality cannot be truly achieved as a natural extension of Marxism.
Thankfully, I think I found what I was looking for within the ALP as a member. I am glad to have just become involved in and supportive of the Labor Tribune, an authentically democratic socialist alternative (not SAlt) advocating for international solidarity, a democratic republic and for the needs of the many, not the few.
As it operates within the Australian Labor Party and the labour movement it does not compromise or capitulate to the status quo, but is broad enough to encompass and foster free discussion and debate with many views across the Marxist spectrum such as my own Anglican ‘Christian Left’ perspective which is grounded on core Christian beliefs and in turn on many core principles of Marxism (dialectical materialism, Marxist analysis, etc.) which I see as mutually compatible and build off of them.
Giles P.
ALP Member
3 November 2025
Graham Richardson: won’t be missed
The death of Graham Richardson, who personified the core ALP rightwing politics that power is everything and political principle is nothing or only gets in the way, reminds us that there truly are some people who set out to leave the world a worse place than they found it, if only to empower and enrich themselves.
That the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, would issue a statement saying that after his stint in parliament Richardson remained a ‘thoughtful, perceptive and engaged observer’ in the service of Packer and Murdoch; and that he was a ‘giant of the Labor Party’ is unfortunately deeply unsurprising.
Andrew
Sydney
9 November 2025
Anarchists: property is theft!!
It appears that Australia’s anarchist community has taken to heart the anarchist maxim that “property is theft”, coined by one of the founders of anarchism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (not by Marx as many falsely believe).
According to the ‘Leftist Trainspotters’ page on Facebook, the Australian section of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) – the Wobblies – has stolen the website domain name of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (International Workers Association).
If you go to asf-iwa.org, you get redirected to … the Wobblies’ Australian page (iww.org.au). It seems the Wobblies (IWW) registered their anarchist rival’s name on 1 April 2025, no joke.
Never fear, the ASF registered asf-iwa.org.au on 18 July 2025, so they keep their shingle hanging.
Who said it was just Trotskyists who don’t get along with each other.
Michael
Brisbane
2 November 2025
Margaret Reynolds corresponds
Congratulations on establishing Labor Tribune.
It brings together so many in the labour movement who want to see Labor governments remember their history . We all understand there are certain pragmatic decisions that will be made in government, but Labor governments have a responsibility to lead reform as well.
Too much recent decision making is cautious and conservative and this is alienating both young and old who expect so much more from the progressive side of politics.
I am confident Labor Tribune will contribute to giving Labor governments the courage to dare to reform in the interests of a really egalitarian Australia .
Margaret Reynolds, former ALP Senator
National Patron, Labor Against War
Tasmania
14 October 2025
Change needed in the labour movement
I am very pleased by the entry of the Labor Tribune into the ecosystem of leftwing discourse in our society. As a member of the ALP, I find myself often defending my personal position against others on the left with whom I tend to align more closely than with the party I am committed to supporting.
Electorally, I do believe that pragmatism and compromise are useful tools. And I have no qualms about saying so. What bothers me is when it is not matched by an impetus to change the electorate, and move the debate onto ground from which the party can argue for its stated objectives. I see these two problems as the same.
A Labor Party content, at best, to confine itself to realpolitik, and would-be comrades who disparage the ALP (and its members) as illegitimate and vitiated.
I commend your publication for recognising and organising to effect necessary change in the labour movement. I hope it can bring together the party and disaffected lefties to the empowerment of both. I will be sharing it to those ends.
Emil Chandran
ALP member
25 October 2025
Affordable rental housing – a scam
Affordable rental housing (ARH) being promoted by NSW Labor Gov is a scam!!
This research is using conservative measurable economic figures. It does not account for the negative impact of ARH contributing to higher median open market rates.
A recent paper commissioned by Shelter NSW demonstrates that up to 80 percent of ARH uplift benefit goes to developers. Just 20 percent of the benefit goes to the public as ARH for 15 years.
Yes, even the 20 percent benefit is dubious. The ARH rental in many areas (like Sutherland) is still above median rental rates and in effect raises the median open market rate!
As The Sydney Morning Herald has reported, only 550 rentals in Sydney are affordable. Median is clearly not affordable!
And the new developments are knocking down and not replacing in kind, the genuinely affordable red and blonde brick walk up units 400m from town centres.
Double whammy: watch “low and mid-rise housing” reforms and “transport-oriented development” completely strip us of genuinely affordable rental.
SD
ALP member, Sydney
20 October 2025
Pasifika solidarity
Mālō comrades,
This letter is part congratulations and part encouragement from one socialist publication to another. It is incredibly important that the socialist left in Australia puts forward a sound, Marxist program for the emancipation of the working class. Labor Tribune is an important project to give a voice to Marxists in the Labor Party who struggle against the reformist socialism of the rotten leadership of Albanese and co.
Temokalati [“Democracy”] was established on similar grounds: except our arena of struggle is the Pacific, instead of the Labor Party. Pasifika workers are overwhelmingly exploited in Australia, as are many other workers of minority and oppressed nationalities (including those from Southeast Asia). We recently saw Australia and Tuvalu sign a treaty allowing Tuvaluans to enter Australia with permanent residency – this was motivated primarily by the climate crisis, in which rising sea levels threaten to engulf Tuvalu, among other Pacific island countries. This climate crisis, of course, is being accelerated by the big imperialist countries such as Australia.
We aim to provide a socialist voice to pro-democracy forces in the Pacific. The democratic movements of the Pacific too have rotten leadership, from church ministers to bourgeois lawyers and business owners. In Tonga especially, working people languish under an oppressive, suppressive, and repressive royalist regime, in which working people do not have the democratic rights and freedoms that we take for granted in the liberal democratic (imperialist) countries.
We send comradely greetings to Labor Tribune, and hope both of our publications have a long and prosperous run, ideally ending with some kind of revolution establishing a democratic workers republic, at which point our publications would most likely become redundant. We are unsure of how many Pasifika workers are members or supporters of the Australian Labor Party, but we encourage them to read Labor Tribune alongside ourselves.
Max (on behalf of Temokalati)
15 October 2025
No risk to banks in First Home Guarantee
Marcus Strom’s piece succinctly gets to the fundamental issue at the centre of the housing crisis: the utter capitulation by the state to capital markets in determining housing outcomes. As such, I need to add very little other than: 1) the real beneficiaries of the scheme are the lender and capital more generally and, 2) to emphasise the point that structural homelessness and debt enslavement are deliberate features of a system that sets worker against worker and uses fear and greed as instruments of social control.
The second point is self-evident to anyone paying attention, only the first requires further elaboration. Comrade Strom is correct in his argument that the inducement to become further financially stressed as a result of taking up this scheme is a likely outcome for those at whom this policy is notionally targeting. Yet the mortgage lender is free to make higher loan-to-value (LTV) loans up to 95-98% with even lower risk exposure than a standard 80% LTV mortgage, assured that the government will underwrite any default and keep the whole rotten scheme rolling along as lending volumes increase and the Banks get more customers, paying more interest.
Under capitalism, ‘the House always wins.’
Mal Dale
Leichhardt ALP branch, Sydney
14 October 2025
Sectarianism and solidarity
Socialist movements have always been prone to splits and disagreements. Yet solidarity is the essential condition for working-class power. Even the Liberal Party – a party of individualists – understands the importance of collective discipline to exercise power. The left, meanwhile, remains fractured among multiple parties and organisations, often more focused on asserting internal purity than working together toward shared goals.
This contradiction – our dependence on solidarity alongside a tendency toward sectarianism – is the Achilles heel of socialist organising in Australia. Every time the movement grows, unresolved tensions resurface, producing another split.
We can’t expect historic organisations to suddenly merge, but we can rebuild relationships between them. Most divisions are sustained by mistrust between leaders, which in turn poisons organisational relations. Rebuilding trust requires vulnerability – extending small, low-risk gestures of cooperation and allowing others the chance to reciprocate.
The Socialist Alliance model, effectively replicated with some changes through Victorian Socialists and interstate counterparts, has always been subject to the domination of one group in some form. There is both a need and a desire to organise more effectively across organisations.
Labor Tribune’s recent piece on the Socialist Alternative and Solidarity split (28 September 2025) points to opportunities for collaboration – such as joint actions supporting Palestine – where common ground clearly exists.
People are drawn to movements that work constructively with others. Consistent demonstrations of solidarity strengthen credibility; consistent refusal to cooperate isolates.
To embed this spirit, I propose a simple council of socialist organisations, with representation from each group, whose sole purpose is to identify opportunities for joint action. This minimalist structure would help ensure solidarity remains a living priority rather than a rhetorical one.
The contradictions of capitalism will bring it down, but we need to resolve our own contradictions so that we might build enough power to move the corpse of the current system.
Stephen McCallum, Tasmania
12 October 2025
Congratulations from ‘Purplepingers’
Dear comrades,
I’m writing to congratulate you on this project. This is a positive development that has been required for some time.
There is no need to relitigate a principled criticism of the ALP and its unwavering support of the capitalist system in this letter – as members you would be acutely aware of the various and pressing issues facing not only the party, but the working class oppressed by that same party here and abroad.
It is refreshing to see what appears to be a principled Marxist project forming rather than simply another campaign group titled “Labor against <insert something horrific the Labor party is doing here>” or “Labor for <insert something the Labor party is doing its very best to destroy here>”. Though these various campaign groups have been necessary, they do little to achieve what is probably the most important aspect of this project – steps towards Marxist unity.
I have many reservations about this project, but I am glad it is happening and commend the project’s aim to work with the broader left and reject a sectarian approach to the struggle. Whether this aim is purely a statement or will be put into practice is yet to be revealed, but I’d like to offer my support where I can provide it without being unprincipled in nature, and I hope that others do the same.
If the project has concrete goals or campaigns it would like to work together on, I encourage those behind the Labor Tribune and its audience to reach across the aisle, noting that many on the left will be rightly wary of the bright red badge its members will be carrying.
The task before you is a difficult one, both to convince those within the Labor Party of the Tribune’s worth as well as the socialists outside of it. You will likely face sectarian opposition from the outside and reactionary opposition from within. It is my hope that sectarian opposition withers away – and if the reactionary opposition assumes the form of your expulsion from the party, I believe there is a certain Socialist Party that would have you.
I’ll end this letter with an amended quote from the Labor Tribune’s article titled, ‘Dear comrades: Comintern to CPA in 1922’:
While the fight for coherent working class politics must take place outside the ALP, for socialists within the ALP it is beholden on them to get their house in order to take the struggle forward, united.
In solidarity,
Jordan van den Lamb, aka ‘purplepingers’
Victorian Socialists (personal capacity)
30 September 2025
Should Labor campaign to nationalise Optus?
I’m a member of NSW Labor and the NSW Left who identifies as a socialist because I believe in socialising industry and building a workers’ democracy. The recent 000 outage from Optus – the second in just a few years, with deadly consequences – shows again that penalties slapped on these corporations are little more than a cost of doing business. They aren’t real accountability.
That’s why I asked fellow ALP branch members online whether they’d be moving motions to call for the nationalisation of Optus. I know nationalising a company isn’t automatically socialism, but in this case it’s clearly a question of the public good. If critical communications infrastructure fails, lives are at risk.
Of course, the question is always raised: can we even do it? After the High Court’s 1948 Bank Nationalisation Case, constitutional barriers exist in Section 92 and Section 51(xxxi). But are socialists in the Labor Party willing to test that? Shouldn’t we be discussing how to push for a referendum to amend the Constitution so that governments can nationalise critical services when they are in the public interest?
I know bipartisan support would be hard to win, but the more important question is whether Labor’s socialist wing is prepared to fight for it. Are we going to make the case inside the party that corporate control over essential services costs lives, and that public ownership is the only guarantee of safety and accountability?
To me, that’s what being a socialist in Labor has to mean: putting nationalisation and democratic workers’ control back on the agenda.
Josh L.
Shellharbour Barrack Heights branch
22 September 2025