In the week before polling day on September 7, the Socialist Equality Party will be holding final election meetings in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, the five states where we are standing Senate candidates. The meetings will present and develop discussion around the socialist alternative to war, austerity and the escalating assault on democratic rights.

Amid the greatest crisis of world capitalism since the 1930s, the official campaigns of Labor, the Liberal/National Coalition and the Greens are based on suppressing the essential political issues facing the working class. Foremost among these is the unconditional alignment of the Labor government—and the entire political establishment—with preparations being made by the US Obama Administration for war against China, under the guise of its “pivot to Asia.” Through secret military deals made by former Prime Minister Gillard, and now Rudd, Australian workers and youth are being placed on the front line of a military confrontation that threatens catastrophe for the region and the entire world.

At the same time, regardless of which party or parties form the next government, its economic and social agenda has already been laid out by the corporate and financial elite. The Labor Party, the Liberal/National coalition and the Greens have all committed to launching a major assault on the social position of the working class—the imposition of European and American-style austerity cuts to jobs, wages and working conditions, as well as the slashing of public spending on health, welfare, education and other social services, and a further acceleration of privatisation.

Such measures cannot be imposed peacefully. That is the significance of Prime Minister Rudd’s callous and unlawful assault on the democratic rights of refugees. Backed to the hilt by Abbott’s Liberals, Labor’s repudiation of international law and covenants on the rights of refugees is a warning of the type of repressive measures that will be used against the working class as a whole, as social tensions rise and anti-government protests and struggles begin to erupt. The intimate involvement of Australian government and intelligence agencies in the vast US spying operations exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals the advanced character of police-state preparations in the US, Australia and around the world.

The Socialist Equality Party and its 10 Senate candidates are alone in speaking for the working class and fighting for its interests in the 2013 election campaign. In dozens of meetings around the country, and in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, the SEP candidates have exposed the drive to war against China and sought to develop a unified and independent political movement of the Australian, Asia-Pacific and international working class against the capitalist system—the source of war.

The SEP has insisted that the critical issue is not which capitalist party wins the election, or is the “lesser evil”, but the building of a new revolutionary leadership in the working class that will fight for a workers’ government and socialist policies.

Melbourne

Saturday, August 31, 4 p.m.

Arts House, Meat Market

5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne

Sydney

Sunday, September 1, 2 p.m.

University of Sydney, Camperdown Campus

Carslaw Building, Lecture Theatre 157

Eastern Avenue

Parking: $6 in City Road entrance car park

Brisbane

Wednesday, September 4, 7 p.m.

Ithaca Hall

Cnr Kennedy Terrace & Enogerra Terrace

Red Hill

Adelaide

Thursday, September 5, 7 p.m.

Grenville Community Hub

10 Playford Boulevard

Elizabeth

Perth

Thursday, September 5, 7 p.m.

Citiplace Community Centre Conference Room

Wellington Street, Perth

(Located upper level walkway Perth City Railway Station Complex)

All tickets $3 or $2 concession

Authorised by Nick Beams, 113/55 Flemington Rd, North Melbourne VIC 3051