Socialist Alliance (Australia)

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The Socialist Alliance was founded in 2001 as an alliance of socialist organisations and individuals in Australia, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Party and the International Socialist Organisation along with 6 other founding socialist organisations. The alliance grew to a point where most of its members were not members of any of the affiliate organisations. In late 2003, the Democratic Socialist Party resolved to became a "a Marxist tendency in the Socialist Alliance", renaming itself the "Democratic Socialist Perspective."

At successive national conferences the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the non-aligned members argued successfully for measures to take the Socialist Alliance in the direction of becoming a united socialist party. Other affiliates preferred to adhere to the alliance's original direction: a broad electoral front. At the 2005 National Conference particularly sharp political differences were expressed. These centred on: the extent to which the Socialist Alliance should criticise the Australian Labor Party; whether the organisation should have a formal relationship with newspaper associated with the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Green Left Weekly, as a step towards Socialist Alliance itself having its own newspaper, and whether non-aligned members should have an automatic majority on the organisation's national executive. Following this conference most of the leading members of a "Non-Aligned Caucus" and most of the active affiliate organisations gradually withdrew.

Despite the disaffiliation or inactivity of many of the founding groups, the Socialist Alliance has continued to set up branches in areas not usually associated with the socialist movement in Australia, including the Gold Coast, Armidale, Lismore and Perth Hills, as well as becoming well-established in more areas, like Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong. It also continues to attract a significant number of activists and militant unionists, and, despite its poor electoral results, is increasingly identified as the main vehicle for explicitly socialist politics in Australia.

The Socialist Alliance published a quarterly journal, Seeing Red, the last issue of which came out in March 2006. The newspaper Green Left Weekly regularly runs a Socialist Alliance column called Our Common Cause, and the Brisbane local newspaper The Westender has done likewise.

Contents

[edit] Election results

The Socialist Alliance was formed to provide a united socialist intervention in electoral politics in Australia. Its first campaign was to contest the 2001 federal election, however candidates were listed as independents on the ballot as its application for electoral registration was suspended when the election was called early. Despite this, it received over 25,000 votes for its 2001 Senate campaign in Victoria and thousands of voters across the country took the opportunity to vote for a socialist candidate for the first time. The Socialist Alliance has also run candidates at several state and council elections as well as the 2004 federal election. Some results were promising. In the 2003 Moreland City Council elections, two candidates exceeded 4%. In an election in the Melbourne suburb of Boroondara, a Socialist Alliance candidate won over 12% of the vote (in the absence of an Australian Labor Party-endorsed candidate). Other results have been numerically disappointing. At the 2004 federal election the alliance received 0.11% of the primary vote (13,305 votes) overall, while it has polled around 2% in individual seats. In the 2007 NSW election, the Socialist Alliance received 0.4% of the primary (15,142 votes), almost triple what it received in 2003.

[edit] Registration

On 22 December 2006 the Australian Electoral Commission announced that the Socialist Alliance had been deregistered as a political party, in accordance with the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 [1], an act that deregistered all political parties unless they currently or formerly held seats in the Federal Parliament. In early September 2007, the Socialist Alliance successfully reregistered and contested the 2007 Federal elections.

[edit] Campaigns

 The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Anti-War The Socialist Alliance, its affiliates and members have played a leading role in the campaigns against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, helping to organise protests against the invasion of Iraq, the "war on terror" and the attacks on Muslims and civil liberties. The Alliance pursues this work in local peace groups and in broader coalitions like the Stop the War Coalition.

Workers' Rights Another main focus of the Socialist Alliance is in the union movement, where members have played a successful role in the struggle against Work Choices. Notable Socialist Alliance trade union leaders include Chris Cain, Western Australian State Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia; and Craig Johnston, former Victorian State Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, who was jailed for 9 months in 2004 after an industrial dispute at Johnson Tiles in 2001. The Socialist Alliance, in line with its criticism of the ALP's role in the holding back and bureaucratising the union movement, encourages workers and unions to break with Labor and to set up a "new workers' party".

Climate Change The Socialist Alliance also campaigns around Climate Change, helping to organise the 2006 Walk Against Warming rallies in some cities, and producing detailed policies on combating climate change. The environmental website VoteClimate rated Socialist Alliance policy #1 (ahead even of the Greens) for the 2007 Federal Election. As part of that election campaign, Socialist Alliance conducted a "Climate Change Roadshow" around parts of the country, arguing that no solution to the crisis caused by global warming is possible without overthrowing capitalism.

Indigenous Rights The Socialist Alliance has played a central role in supporting the campaigns for justice for indigenous Australia, particularly around the inquiries into the deaths of TJ Hickey in Redfern and Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island. In the case of Doomadgee, leading indigenous activist, academic and Socialist Alliance Queensland Senate Candidate Sam Watson played a key role in organising the protests that led to the re-opening of the inquiry.

The Socialist Alliance is also involved in a number of other campaigns, including: refugees, LGBTI rights, anti-racism, numerous local issues and international solidarity campaigns.

[edit] Active affiliate organisations

[edit] Inactive affiliate organisations, and organisations which have not formally disaffiliated

[edit] Former affiliates

[edit] External links

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