The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is holding its final Victorian election meeting to address the critical issues of war and austerity suppressed by every other party, and outline a socialist perspective for building an independent movement of the working class. The SEP is standing Morgan Peach and Peter Byrne in the Northern Metropolitan region.
WHEN: 2:30 pm Sunday, 22 November
WHERE: Djerring Flemington Hub, 25 Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington VIC 3031
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The lead-up to the November 28 Victorian election has underscored the deepening breakdown of the two-party system. Labor’s support has collapsed after more than a decade in office, while the Liberals, themselves in a protracted crisis, are increasingly aligning with the far-right One Nation. For the first time, there is a distinct possibility of a Liberal–One Nation government in Victoria.
How has this situation come about? Above all, Labor and the corporatised trade union bureaucracy bear responsibility. They have presided over decades of attacks on jobs, wages and living standards, creating the conditions in which One Nation can exploit widespread social anger, diverting it into anti-immigrant nationalism.
On the fundamental issues confronting workers, there is agreement between Labor, the Liberals and One Nation. In Victoria, all three are committed to massive cuts to government spending after the election, threatening further attacks on public education, healthcare and other essential services, regardless of who forms government.
Nationally, all three support the program of militarism being spearheaded by the Albanese Labor government, including Australia’s transformation into a frontline state in the US-led preparations for war against China. Tens of billions of dollars are being poured into war preparations while spending on essential social services is slashed.
These developments are part of an international crisis. Growing opposition to war, dictatorship and declining living standards found a distorted expression in the US midterm elections, which registered a mass popular repudiation of the Trump administration. But the Democrats—a party of the CIA and Wall Street—immediately responded by pledging renewed collaboration with Trump. Across Europe, mass strikes and protests are developing against austerity and militarism.
As in the US and Europe, the central issue in Australia is that the growing opposition of workers and young people cannot find a way forward through parliamentary parties committed to war and austerity. There is no lesser evil among the parties of big business, and none of the fundamental problems confronting the working class will be resolved by this election. The Greens and the pseudo-left Victorian Socialists promote the fraud that fundamental social change can be achieved through parliamentary reforms, tying workers and youth to a political establishment that is hurtling towards war and social catastrophe.
The SEP tells workers and young people the truth: We are living through a breakdown of world capitalism that poses the alternatives of socialism or barbarism. What is required is to transform growing mass anger into an independent international political movement of the working class, fighting to put an end to the capitalist system responsible for war, austerity and dictatorship.
Attend the SEP’s final election meeting to discuss these critical questions and the fight for international socialism.
Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Level 1/457-459 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010, Australia.