The Victorian Socialists are standing in every seat in the 28 November Victorian state election. James Plested makes his organisation’s case why people should vote for them.
NB: We invited the Victorian Labor State Secretary Steve Staikos to also provide election comment ahead of the 28 November election. He did not respond to our request.
I appreciate the chance to put the case (in a personal capacity) for voting ‘1’ Victorian Socialists in the upcoming Victorian state election to Labor Tribune readers.
The Labor Party has governed Victoria for 23 of the last 27 years. During that time, its policies haven’t deviated significantly from the path of neoliberal capitalism (ie: deregulation, privatisation, restrictive anti-worker industrial relations laws, more money for police and prisons etc) forged by Labor and Coalition governments in this country since the late 1970s.
Under Ben Carroll’s leadership Labor has shifted even further right. It has capitulated to the right-wing media campaign against the CFMEU by calling for (yet another) Royal Commission into the construction industry. It has announced land tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit the rich. It has consistently centred policies responding to concerns about ‘law and order’ like increasing police and PSO numbers. And it has already, in numerous ways, pitted itself directly against important sections of workers and their unions (including, among others, teachers, council workers, public servants, and healthcare workers) – to the point that a number of unions have now, at least rhetorically, broken ranks.
Even if what was needed in Australia today was merely a slightly ‘better’, more social-democratic version of the Labor Party, voting for Labor in this election won’t help achieve that. To the extent it’s still possible for Labor to eke out anything resembling a decent result it will be taken as a justification for the right-wing policies of Carroll and his factional allies.
If we’re to talk, as the publishers of Labor Tribune do, of “a renewal of socialist thought and practice in the Australian Labor Party”, then a big vote for Victorian Socialists would, by applying pressure from the left, likely advance things more than anything else (the same goes, as an aside, for the Greens – and the hopes of those within it who may like it to shift from its progressive small ‘l’ liberal roots in the direction of socialism, too).
We should also consider, though, whether it’s better to give up on renewing Labor (and/or the Greens) altogether and support an actual socialist party instead. Looking at the situation internationally, the prospects for the growth of such a party – one that, unlike Labor or the Greens, takes seriously the prospect of putting power into the hands of working-class people – seem good. In country after country socialist currents and parties are growing rapidly, in some cases eclipsing previously dominant centre-left parties like Labor in the process.
A vote for Victorian Socialists is a vote for people who can be depended on to stand up to the corporate elite that dominates politics, oppose the racist, anti-worker politics of One Nation, and use their platform and the resources that come with their office to rebuild the cultures of resistance – in our unions, local communities, and on the streets – that will be central to any process of winning real change.
Our candidates – running in all 88 Victorian lower house districts and all 8 upper house regions – have histories as community organisers and activists, and many are long-time rank-and-file organisers within their unions (for example, the 14 who are teacher unionists and members of the Socialists in Schools rank-and-file group). And whatever you may think of this or that policy included in our election platform, it clearly adds up to something that would, if implemented, transform society in a way that would massively improve life for workers and the oppressed.
Victorian Socialists or Socialist Alliance?
To finish, why vote for Victorian Socialists instead of the Socialist Alliance? The two parties are, of course, quite similar in terms of their platforms and perspectives, and a vote for Socialist Alliance is certainly better than a vote for Labor or the Greens (we’ll be preferencing, in areas where they’re running candidates, accordingly).
The main differences are as follows. First, the disunited state of the socialist left is a barrier to the continued growth of socialist politics as a mass force in Australia, and Victorian Socialists is the party that is pushing for unification. Alliance members rejected this at their conference in January, but from Victorian Socialists’ perspective, the door is very much still open. A big vote for us in this election is something that, we hope, could encourage them to re-examine their decision.
Second (and relatedly), it is the Victorian Socialists and, on a federal level, the (likely soon to be registered as such with the Australian Electoral Commission) Australian Socialist Party, that hold out the best hope for socialism to re-establish itself as a genuine mass force in Australian political life; something which, in the context of the rapid rise of One Nation and the rightward drift of politics more generally, is of urgent importance.
Since the last state election in 2022 the party has grown in Victoria from around 500 members to approaching 2,500 (nationally, the figure is more than 5,000). New branches are springing up all the time, extending from Warrnambool in Victoria’s southwest, to Wodonga in the north, and Gippsland in the east. Wherever we’ve managed to organise a branch, including in places where the socialist left has had no presence for decades (if ever), there have been people keen to get involved. The internal structures and democratic processes of the party are being strengthened all the time, too, including its capacity (as our federal party conference in July showed) to deal with debates between different tendencies in a comradely and democratic fashion.
There is room for improvement. I’m among those who believe it would be useful for the party to further clarify its policies and perspectives on a national level by developing a program. There is always more to do to strengthen things on that level and to extend the roots the party has put down in the unions and social movements. In fact, the two things are integrally related. A decent socialist program can’t be plucked from thin air. It must be developed with reference both to history and to the practice of rebuilding working-class organisation and resistance in the here and now.
Electing Victorian Socialists candidates into parliament will certainly help with all that. But even should we fail to win a spot, a big vote for Victorian Socialists will make it clear we’re here to stay, and that the kind of socialist vision of society we offer can resonate with people well beyond the traditional haunts of the socialist left.
James Plested is the Victorian Socialists Communications Director.