Australia’s still-minority Labor government rushes to commit to war and austerity
Labor’s interim ministry is moving with extraordinary haste to implement the anti-working-class agenda demanded of it by Washington and the corporate elite.
Mike Head•
The Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
A socialist program of action for the working class to oppose war and fight COVID-19 and austerity
The Socialist Equality Party is standing candidates in the Australian federal election to provide workers with the political weapons and organisational means to fight for their social and democratic rights.
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Contact the SEP!
Phone: (02) 8218 3222
Email: sep@sep.org.au
Facebook: SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia
Twitter: @SEP_Australia
Instagram: socialistequalityparty_au
TikTok: @SEP_Australia
PO Box 574
Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2012
Australian election result shows mass hostility to Labor and the Liberal-Nationals
The vote for the major parties has fallen to the lowest level in history, revealing a historic crisis of the parliamentary set-up and of capitalist rule.
Oscar Grenfell•
Australia: Phony election promises will do nothing to resolve housing crisis
The measures proposed by Labor and the Liberal-Nationals are aimed solely at maintaining record house prices and the profits of the banks.
John Davis, Socialist Equality Party Senate candidate for Queensland•
Vote 1 for Socialist Equality Party candidates in the Australian election!
The Socialist Equality Party is standing Senate teams in three states in order to present a genuine socialist alternative to the broadest possible audience, and prepare for the convulsive working-class struggles ahead.
Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•
Oscar Grenfell, Socialist Equality Party Senate candidate for New South Wales•
Oscar Grenfell, Socialist Equality Party Senate candidate for New South Wales•
Max Boddy, Socialist Equality Party candidate for New South Wales•
Mike Head, Socialist Equality Party Senate candidate for Queensland•
Oscar Grenfell, Socialist Equality Party Senate candidate for New South Wales•
Strong response to SEP final election campaign meeting in Australia
Enthusiastic participants at Sunday’s meeting peppered SEP candidates with a broad range of questions about the party’s anti-war and revolutionary socialist program.
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Workers speak on Australian election: “It doesn’t matter who gets in, the whole system is broken”
Keith, a manufacturing worker who voted for the SEP, said: “Everything is now skewed towards the rich in this country. Things are getting too hard for the average worker to make ends meet.”
Our reporters•
Why young people should support the SEP (Australia) election campaign
The Socialist Equality Party is the only party standing in the May 21 federal election which fights in the interests of youth and students, and the working class as a whole.
International Youth and Students for Social Equality (Australia)•
Australian postal workers support SEP candidates in federal election
The Postal Workers’ Rank-and-File Committee warns that a union-backed Labor government will deepen the assault on the working class, advance the drive to war and continue the homicidal “let it rip” COVID-19 agenda.
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Australian workers and young people voice their support for the Socialist Equality Party’s election campaign
“I used to vote for major parties, but what you put forward is a good program.”
Our reporters•
Our correspondent•
Our reporters•
Our reporters•
Our reporters•
Our reporters•
Oppose the Putin government’s invasion of Ukraine and US-NATO warmongering! For the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers!
That the US and NATO are prepared to take the world to the brink of nuclear war, with all its horrific consequences, testifies to the staggering level of recklessness and aggressiveness that now prevails in all the centers of world imperialism.
Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International•
The NATO-Russia conflict spirals out of control
The war between Russia and Ukraine, now well into its third week, is rapidly and dangerously escalating.
Statement of the WSWS Editorial Board•
The US-Ukrainian Strategic Partnership of November 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
A principled, left-wing opposition to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine requires uncompromising opposition to US/NATO. Absent that, claims of being “anti-war” are hypocritical and deceitful.
Statement of the WSWS Editorial Board•
Australian Labor Party leader commits to big business restructuring and US militarism
Albanese’s speeches are part of his pitch to the ruling class to support a trade union-backed Labor government to suppress the growing discontent throughout the working class.
Mike Head•
Statement of the WSWS Editorial Board•
Oscar Grenfell, Peter Symonds•
Richard Phillips•
Oscar Grenfell•
Peter Symonds•
IYSSE (Australia) meeting against war provokes lively discussion
Students and young people responded enthusiastically to the discussion, describing it as “eye opening” and “informative.”
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Historical Foundations
The program of the Socialist Equality Party is of a principled, not a conjunctural and pragmatic, character. It is based on an analysis of the crisis of world capitalism and an assimilation of the strategic revolutionary experiences of the working class and the international socialist movement.
The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party was adopted by the Founding Congress of the SEP in Sydney in 2010. It traces the historical events and strategic experiences of the working class and Marxist movement spanning more than a century.
Australia’s floods: An indictment of capitalism
The floods have laid bare the failure of governments—Coalition and Labor—to protect the population from such disasters and the necessity for the socialist transformation of society.
Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•
Australian PM in flood-hit Lismore: People are on their own in natural disasters
Morrison, his staffers and the police went to great lengths to prevent working people devastated by the floods from getting anywhere near the prime minister.
Oscar Grenfell•
Crisis-wracked Australian government ramps up war drumbeating
This fortnight’s dysfunctional parliamentary session saw Prime Minister Scott Morrison virtually accuse Labor Party leaders of being treasonous agents of China.
Mike Head•
Sharp swings in Australian by-elections underscore political instability
The by-elections were the first electoral test of the government decisions made to scrap most pandemic safety restrictions.
Mike Head•
Mike Head•
Oscar Grenfell•
Mike Head•
Oscar Grenfell•
Oscar Grenfell•
The coronavirus pandemic, the crisis of capitalism and the tasks of the SEP
This is the main resolution that was discussed and adopted unanimously at the Fifth National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) held on August 14-16, 2020.
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An open letter to workers in Australia: Join the global fight to end the pandemic and save lives in 2022!
The homicidal policies of the ruling classes everywhere are finding stark expression in Australia, where governments have completely abandoned previous mitigation measures and are presiding over an unparalleled increase in COVID-19 infections.
Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•
After claiming pandemic is over, Australian Labor Party leader contracts COVID-19
Albanese’s infection exposes the lies promoted by both major parties to justify the ending of public health measures and the endangerment of millions of working people in the interests of corporate profit.
Martin Scott•
Over 600 students at Australian National University test COVID-positive one week after return to campus
“Is the ‘vibrant on campus experience’ worth the health of the #ourANU community? It’s only Day 2 of semester! We are not meeting our duty of care for students.”
Eric Ludlow•
Amid record COVID infections, say no to Australian school reopenings! Educators, students, parents—join the fight for rank and file safety committees!
In this third year of the global pandemic, a rational and scientifically-based approach to the virus is more urgent than ever before.
The Committee for Public Education•
Richard Phillips, Gary Alvernia•
Richard Phillips, Max Boddy•
Meg Bourne•
Richard Phillips•
Clare Bruderlin•
SEP (Australia) meeting on NSW nurses strike provokes lively discussion on role of unions, fight against pandemic
The meeting, addressed by a health worker in the US, a nurse in Sydney and Socialist Equality Party leaders, opened up a discussion on the burning need for workers to form rank-and-file committees throughout the health sector.
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Australia: The way forward for New South Wales nurses
Rank-and-file committees must be formed to fight for the unification of all workers in an industrial and political struggle for real improvements to pay, safe working conditions, a high-quality public health system and an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•
Vote No to Australian Education Union wage cutting agreement with Victorian Labor government!
The AEU bureaucracy is attempting to quickly ram through the deal by mid-March under conditions of an unprecedented explosion of COVID-19 infections within the schools.
The Committee for Public Education (CFPE)•
Australia Post workers oppose criminal “let it rip” COVID-19 policies
The PWRFC calls on postal workers to reject the “opening up” drive by governments, both Coalition and Labor, backed by the unions, which puts working people at risk of infection every day.
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Striking NSW teachers must fight for school shutdown to stop the spread of Omicron in Australia!
The cutting edge of the fight for all of the rights of educators is to close the schools for the year so that no more teachers or students are infected with a disease that could claim their lives or leave them with dire medical issues.
The Committee for Public Education•
Martin Scott•
Martin Scott•
Martin Scott, Oscar Grenfell•
Martin Scott•
our reporter•
Watch: Meeting commemorates decades-long Australian Trotskyist Barry Jobson
At a meeting on January 17, Socialist Equality Party speakers reviewed Barry Jobson’s contribution to the fight for socialist internationalism, in the context of the deepening crisis of Australian and world capitalism.
SEP holds emergency online meeting to demand immediate freedom for Julian Assange
“Assange’s salvation has never been the British judiciary. His freedom and defence have always depended on a mass movement of the international working class.”
Our reporters•
UK Supreme Court refuses Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to US
The case will now be sent to Home Secretary Priti Patel to give a final decision, barring further appeals by Assange’s legal team.
Thomas Scripps•
Ten years since WikiLeaks and Assange published the Guantánamo Files
The files exposed the lawless global network established by the US and its allies as part of their “war on terror.”
Oscar Grenfell•
Free Julian Assange! Defend Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden!
The SEP’s recent National Congress committed to “intensifying the fight for the unconditional freedom of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange” and the defence of all persecuted journalists and whistleblowers.
the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•
Thomas Scripps•
Oscar Grenfell•
Oscar Grenfell•
Oscar Grenfell•
the Committee for Public Education (Australia)•
Fight the bipartisan attack on democracy—join the SEP as an electoral member!
In a blatant act of political censorship, the Socialist Equality Party has been deregistered. Nevertheless, the SEP will stand candidates in the federal election, if and when it is called, and conduct the broadest possible campaign for a genuine socialist alternative.
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Apply for electoral membership of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)
The working class must have a political voice, which the ruling class through its latest legislation is seeking to stifle. The opposition to the dictates of big business and its political servants needs to be guided by a socialist program that puts the social needs of working people—above all their health and lives—ahead of the private profits of the wealthy few. The SEP alone fights for this perspective.
Our party fights:
● For a scientific program to eradicate the coronavirus pandemic against the criminal, “herd immunity” policies of the ruling elite.
● For an end to militarism and war.
● Against all forms of nationalism and racism and for the unity of the international working-class.
● For the social rights of the working class, including quality, free education and healthcare for all, and a decent, full-time job with permanent conditions for those able to work.
● For a workers’ government and socialism, that is a society in which the working-class democratically controls the wealth that it produces, not the banks and the billionaires.
Fill out this form to apply to join the SEP as an electoral member. The membership fee is $5 (waged) or $2 (unwaged/student).
Lecture series: Why study the history of Trotskyism?
The lectures, now all available online, reviewed some of the fundamental lessons of the protracted struggle by the Trotskyist movement for socialist internationalism.
Principles
Membership in the Socialist Equality Party is based on agreement with its Statement of Principles. The principles of the SEP incorporate the essential experiences of the revolutionary upheavals of the twentieth century and the corresponding struggle waged by Marxists for the program of world socialist revolution.
Leadership
Crisp was a founding member of the Socialist Labour League, the forerunner of the SEP, in 1972, and has played a leading role in the Trotskyist movement in Australia for more than four decades. She was elected National Secretary at the Fifth National Congress of the SEP in 2020.
Max was elected to the position of assistant national secretary at the 2020 SEP National Congress. He writes regularly for the WSWS on issues facing asylum seekers and their inhumane treatment at the hands of Australian governments. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Newcastle, majoring in Aboriginal Studies.
Oppose the dangerous reopening of universities! Students and youth must take up a fight against the pandemic!
The start of 2022 has brought young people around Australia face to face with the cruel reality of the ruling elite’s criminal policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
International Youth and Students for Social Equality (Australia)•
IYSSE wins support at Australian university orientations from students opposed to war, “herd immunity” policies
One first year student in the working-class city of Newcastle said: “Capitalism has some very obvious flaws, the 1 percent getting richer at the expense of everyone else. You end up looking for an alternative, and socialism is very enticing.”
Our reporters•
Young workers in Australia speak on dire working conditions amid pandemic
”I guess the government is looking at it as ‘We saved enough people, it’s time to just move on and whoever suffers now, it’s too bad.’ It’s so depressing.”
Eric Ludlow, Maya Hunt•
Reports show worsening conditions for Australian youth
The studies highlight that living conditions and financial security for young people in Australia were declining even before the pandemic, which has further exacerbated this trend.
Eric Ludlow•
Our reporters•
Our reporters•
Our correspondents•
Eric Ludlow•
the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)•