Earlier this month, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) launched a campaign to regain official party registration so that it can have its name on the ballot at the next Australian federal election. This is essential, as the SEP is the only party with a socialist program and perspective to fight war and inequality and their source, the capitalist system.
The campaign has been met with a strong response from workers and young people who are horrified by Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and shocked by the Labor government’s full-throated support of this barbarism.
At mass protests against the Gaza onslaught, on university campuses, in working-class suburbs, SEP members have spoken to hundreds of people who are looking for an alternative to capitalism, the root cause of genocide, war and the deepening social crisis confronting ordinary people.
Published today are comments from several of those who have joined the party as electoral members, explaining why they support the SEP, and urging other workers and young people to follow their lead.
To apply to become an electoral member (EM) today, fill out the form at the end of this article, or click here.
Leanne, 47, a child protection worker in Far North Queensland, initially met the party when she was 14 through her father: “I first attended meetings back in the day when the SEP was called the Socialist Labour League. Years on, I now live in Cairns but still read the website, and support the party, likely until the day I die! I definitely believe there’s no other political party that supports the working-class struggle.
“I had a politically formative experience arising from the death of Daniel Yock. It was a steep learning curve for me. It taught me that the aboriginal bureaucrats don’t support their own people, but their own class interests. I understood the need for a class-based party because it is a class-based system. The struggles need to be fought on a class level, not on a capitalist, parliamentary level.”
On Labor’s recently defeated Voice referendum, Leanne said: “It was a distraction from what’s actually taking place, the build-up of the military, what’s going on overseas. The majority of aboriginal people are working class. We need to come together on a class basis, not a racial basis.”
She urged people to join as an electoral member: “Becoming an EM, you will get educated on what is going on, it will be an opportunity to understand the truth of what is going on in the world politically.”
Joe, an 18-year-old University of Newcastle student, said: “I used to be in Young Labor, and I thought maybe you could change it from the inside, but I thought if Albanese, who is part of ‘my’ party, is supporting genocide, ethnic cleansing, the murder of civilians—Nazi Germany did the same thing less than 100 years ago—morally, I couldn’t stand with that.
“The party should be able to participate in the elections and they should win. I am joining the SEP because they know the right way to stop genocide. It’s not by appealing to your local MPs or spreading awareness on social media, it’s by taking up a political struggle based on the lessons of history, such as the Russian Revolution, and mobilising the working class to strike systematically.”