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Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Encyclopedia
Socialist Alternative (SA) is a Trotskyist
political organisation in Australia
formed by an expulsion from the former International Socialist Organisation
(ISO) in 1995. It is one of the largest groups of the Australian far Left
, claiming to have the largest active membership. With branches across Australia, its membership is active in the student union
movement. SA is most visible in student politics, on university campuses and through the National Union of Students
, including their participation in campaigns such as those supporting same-sex marriage
, refugee
rights and Palestinian
national liberation. They oppose on principle US and Australian military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan
, and support the 2011 Arab Revolutions.
Though one of its stated aims is to contribute towards building a revolutionary party
that can intervene in and lead mass struggles in the midst of working-class upheaval, SA does not consider itself (or any other Australian Left group) a political party at their current size and influence. Originating in the political tradition of the International Socialist Tendency
, SA defend the position that a socialist revolution
can only come about through a genuine workers' upheaval "from below
" and argue that all existing states commonly described as socialist countries are actually "state capitalist
" economies. As of 2011, it has attempted to mend its strained relationship with Solidarity
, the successor organisation of the ISO which shares its basic politics, by proposing unity.
SA host an annual conference in Melbourne
each year called Marxism, which has grown to attract several hundred participants, including national and international guest speakers such as John Pilger
. It also produces political commentary and analysis through its own various publications and through other publishers in which the organisation puts forward its positions on Australian and international issues.
It publishes a twice-weekly updated online magazine, Socialist Alternative, which is distributed in hard copy as a monthly. Alongside numerous externally published books and academic works, it publishes a biannual theoretical journal, Marxist Left Review.
(ISO) in Melbourne
. Following debates over the orientation of the ISO to the political situation, the members were expelled for arguing the ISO held overblown expectations of the 1990s. This was part of the debate internationally within the International Socialist Tendency
(IST) over the nature of the contemporary political situation and how socialists
should respond, with the leading organisation in the IST, the British
Socialist Workers Party
(SWP) arguing, the 1990s were like "the 1930s in slow motion". Like in Australia, splits occurred within the IST in other countries, including New Zealand
, Greece
, Germany
, Canada
, South Africa
and France
. In addition to splits, the International Socialist Organization
in the United States
was expelled from the IST.
SA has links with a number of other groups which were previously part of the IST, such as the ISO in America, the Internationalist Workers' Left
in Greece, Socialist Aotearoa and the International Socialist Organisation
in New Zealand, Socialisme International
in France. It also maintains friendly relations with the ex-Maoist Fourth International
ist Revolutionary Workers Party - Mindanao (RPMM) in the Philippines.
SA was asked to join the Socialist Alliance
in 2002. The Alliance grouped together the Democratic Socialist Perspective
(DSP), the ISO, and other left groups and individuals. SA eventually declined to join due to the Socialist Alliance's strong emphasis on running in parliamentary elections. This parliamentary emphasis in the flat political climate was seen by SA as a restriction to building activism on the ground and representing a turn towards reformist
politics. Since deciding against joining the formation, Socialist Alternative members frequently accuse the Alliance of Stalinist tendencies.
of "exploiting ethnic tensions to promote anti-Semitism
and recruit members" at the University of Melbourne
and other Melbourne campuses. They were accused of assaulting Melbourne University Liberal Club
students who supported Israel
during the Lebanon War. SA was likewise accused of being unsympathetic to Jewish groups during what was allegedly the highest period of anti-Semitism since the 1940s and demonstrating on university campuses where the majority of this was occurring. A member of SA from RMIT University
wrote a controversial email referring to some pro-Israel students at that university as "Zionists
(who) felt the need to assert their racism
and fetish for genocide
and mass slaughter of Arab
people".
SA members argue that they are anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic. It claims that accusations of anti-Semitism are slander from apologists of Israel who defend an apartheid state and maintain that such slander "just makes it more difficult to fight actual anti-Semitism". SA claims that its goal is to "demolish the lies upon which the racist state of Israel was built, and argue for the only real solution to the Middle East conflict - a single secular, democratic state in historic Palestine, one in which Palestinians and Jews can live in equality and peace".
SA maintains that Israel does not represent Jews, but simply claims to do so. Furthermore, SA points out they have many, including some leading, non-Zionist Jewish members, such as Rick Kuhn
and Patrick Weiniger. Vashti Kenway, (Students Against War and Racism and leading SA member) insists that the organisation "take[s] a firm stand against all forms of racism". Mick Armstrong
of SA claimed that the organisation has "supported innumerable protests against anti-Semitic bigots such as the Holocaust denier David Irving
" and believes that Israel's most strident critics are often Jewish themselves, citing Jewish Marxists Leon Trotsky
and Rosa Luxemburg
in their opposition to Zionism, who saw it as a pro-imperialist ideology, as well as contemporary Jewish intellectuals such as Norman Finklestein, Noam Chomsky
and Antony Lowenstein.
, the other Australian socialist organisation originating from the IST and the successor group of the ISO. SA argues that the existence of two separate organisations sharing the same basic politics ultimately undermines the credibility of the revolutionary left, and that the differences between the two organisations are of tactics rather than principles and can therefore be debated within a single group.
, student unions
and higher education
; campaigns for the rights of refugee
s, the right of women to access free abortions on demand, the right of same-sex couples to marry
, in anti-racism
, anti-capitalism
and anti-globalisation
demonstrations and the campaign against the operation of the Jabiluka
uranium mine. In 2011, SA members participated in demonstrations to defend public services against proposed cuts by the O'Farrell
New South Wales Liberal State Government.
SA has also historically been involved with the Stop the War Coalition
and participated in other anti-war
demonstrations in the country, including the protests against the 2008-2009 war on Gaza, the 2007 APEC Conference
, the 2006 G20 Summit, the 2006 war on Lebanon, as well as the ongoing wars on Iraq and Afghanistan
. SA members are identifiable during large demonstrations with the red flag
s carried in their contingent or red bloc
.
, SA has participated in and built national street mobilisations for marriage equality. In their capacity as National Union of Students Queer Officers, SA members have been integral to establishing the Equal Love
campaign. In 2010, SA member and Victorian Equal Love Convenor Ali Hogg received an award from the ALSO Foundation for Most Outstanding Volunteer and a People's Choice Award for Most Influential LGBTI person in Australia.
, a nation-wide network of pro-Palestinian
student activists and have been involved in demonstrations and campus activity, including the protests against the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid
and helping fundraise for the Viva Palestina 5. In 2011, SA members were among 19 arrested in a Melbourne demonstration against Israeli-owned chocolate chain Max Brenner
as part of the international Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel.
and other broad campaign groups formed under the Howard government to mobilise opposition to mandatory detention and offshore processing. They have participated in protests against detention centres such as Woomera
and Baxter
, including the breaking out of refugee
s in 2001. SA is opposed to the entirety of mandatory detention as a policy and supports open borders. Since the election of the Rudd-Gillard Labor government in 2007, they have continued to organise and campaign around the issue.
, Sydney
, Brisbane
, Canberra
, Perth
and Adelaide. In Melbourne, SA are based at Victorian Trades Hall
with three branches meeting separately on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Branches hold regular meetings focused on discussing current political developments and Marxist
history and theory, as well as public meetings. Speakers at SA public meetings have included former refugees, published authors such as Cordelia Fine and activists such as Gary Foley
. Branches are also the organising centers of the group, in which the day-to-day campaign activity of the organisation is discussed. SA usually advertise public meetings on street stalls and by conducting poster campaigns, particularly on university campuses and in inner city suburbs.
SA participates in the National Union of Students
as a faction, of which it claims to be the largest to the left of the National Labor Students. It is known within Australian student politics for its hostility towards both the Liberal
and Labor
parties and for its focus on recruitment at university campuses, in demonstrations and through campaigns. It is also known for its use of megaphones to drown out political debate to which they disagree through the loud, repetitive chanting of slogans. It has come under attack from a range of factions in student politics, including Liberal
students, both Left and Right Labor
students and claim to have been slandered by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students
, for their strong opposition to the state of Israel
.
Student and student union
activists are the main composition of SA's membership. Their political work emphasises university-based campaigns. According to National Executive member Mick Armstrong
, SA's focus on student work is part of a perspective that the organisation has adopted for the political period, due to what they see as their limited size and influence in the working class
movement and the lack of any substantial radicalisation in society. SA's political orientation to students mirrors the development of the British Socialist Workers Party
during the 1980s.
SA members are, or have previously been active in student unions such as the Queensland University of Technology Student Guild
, Swinburne Student Union
, La Trobe Student Union, Monash Student Association
, University of Melbourne Student Union
, RMIT Student Union
, University of Western Sydney Students' Association, University of Sydney Union
, Charles Sturt University Students' Association, Curtin University of Technology Student Guild
, University of New South Wales Student Representative Council, University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association and Victorian College of the Arts Student Union
. The membership of the organisation also includes secondary school students, active in their schools.
SA members holding elected student union office bearer positions in 2012
appropriate for their industry, while employed student members are also involved in their respective trade union. SA has active trade union members in, amongst others, the Australian Services Union
, the National Union of Workers
, the Australian Education Union
, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
, the Community and Public Sector Union
, the Electrical Trades Union of Australia
, the Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union
, the Australian Nursing Federation
and the National Tertiary Education Union
, in which lecturer and SA member Liam Ward was elected to the RMIT University
Branch Committee as part of a left-wing oppositional ticket that replaced the previously established union leadership in 2010.
SA reject the practice of forming separate 'red unions' such as Unite
, arguing that such projects isolate socialists from the organised working class and are premised on a top-down method of artificially substituting a radical union leadership for the rank and file, instead arging for activists to rebuild rank and file organisation within existing unions irrespective of their conservative leadership. In 2010, SA member and Queensland Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association
delegate Duncan Hart organised supporters of same-sex marriage within the union in a rank and file challenge against the socially conservative SDA leader Joe de Bruyn
.
and subsequent theorists in the Marxist tradition, including the Trotskyist and International Socialist
traditions. In holding that capitalism cannot be reformed to meet human needs, it believes that the capitalist
class and its state
must be overthrown by means of a working-class revolution from below
, in which the direct producers
in society unite to overthrow their employers
and the ruling class
, through democratically expropriating the means of production
and reorganising society along lines of mass democracy through workers' councils. Or, as Marx and his life-long collaborator, Frederick Engels asserted: "The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself." They hold that a socialist society will, by removing the material basis for oppression and democratically reorganising society to meet human needs, place an end to not just to wage slavery
but eventually, to all class exploitation. SA also believe that as a result of a socialist revolution, phenomena such as racism
, sexism
and homophobia
(which they argue only materialised with the emergence of class society) will eventually disappear alongside the material realities that underpin them - among which include the nuclear family
and the state.
SA are hostile to other far-left tendencies who look to forces outside the working class for liberation, such as anarchism
and Castroism
, which they characterise as substitutionist
, elitist and ultimately, siding with reaction
. SA also believe identity politics
- such as liberal feminism
and black nationalism
- present a false unity between members of oppressed groups across class lines by positing that all members of an oppressed group hold a common interest in fighting oppression. In the case of the latter as an example, SA believe women's oppression
can only disappear with the abolition of all classes.
SA claim to be committed to avoiding pretensions they believe characterise much of the left. Describing itself as a "propaganda group" at its current size, SA attempts to relate to its audience primarily on the level of ideas, rather than seeing itself as a party that can be capable of leading mass struggles. While SA supports existing trade union
s as essential components of workers' struggles, they believe that capitalism can only be successfully overthrown if a revolutionary party
is built to challenge the hold of the ALP and the trade union bureaucracy
over the working class, in conjunction with similar parties internationally.
SA's strategy for building a socialist organisation is outlined in the book, From Little Things Big Things Grow, by one of its founding members, Mick Armstrong
.
SA has over the years tried to establish unity talks with both Solidarity
and its predecessor organisation, the International Socialist Organisation
, (the group from which SA's founders were expelled) yet have remained unsuccessful. This could be largely to do with SA's perspective of currently identifying as a propaganda group, which has been controversial within the Australian left in general.
of Australia's Aboriginal
people and opposes the intervention
which was initiated by the Howard Government
and continued by the Gillard Government
in the Northern Territory
. The organisation condemns racism and has in the past criticized other far-left groups in Australia, such as Solidarity and the Revolutionary Socialist Party
(RSP), for what they deem capitulating to racism.
SA also accuses the governments of Australia, the United States
and the EU of promoting racist scapegoating toward Arabs and Muslims
under the guise of the "War on Terror
". They support the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab
or burqa
and accuse secularists
on the far-left who oppose them, such as members of the New Anticapitalist Party
in France
of anti-Muslim racism
, arguing bans on Islamic dress further oppresses Muslims and encourages racism towards them. SA also unconditionally support the right of people in the Middle East
today to resist US and Israel
i occupation, in line with Vladimir Lenin
's position of "the right of oppressed nations to self-determination".
SA oppose both of Australia's major parties' policies on the mandatory detention
of asylum seekers seeking to enter Australia, which they characterise as racist and believe that there should be no restrictions on immigration
. They call for the release of all refugees currently held in detention, the closure of all immigration detention facilities
and contrast Australia's border control
laws with accusations of the Australian military and federal police
of having invaded the national borders of countries such as the Solomon Islands
, Papua New Guinea
, Tonga
, East Timor
, Iraq
and Afghanistan
.
Another position of SA which separates them from much of the Australian far-left, particularly the former Democratic Socialist Perspective
(now Socialist Alliance
), is their opposition to the Australian military intervention into East Timor in 1999, seeing it as not a humanitarian action but an opportunity for Australia to secure its strategic and economic interests in the region.
, SA remains committed to the ideas and positions associated with the International Socialist tradition of Trotskyism
advanced by Tony Cliff
, which sees the states of the former USSR, Eastern Europe
, China
, Vietnam
, North Korea
and Cuba
as being in no sense socialist, rather forms of "state capitalism
", where workers are exploited by a bureaucratic ruling class.
SA argue that rival socialist organisations, particularly on the Australian far-left, who promote the idea that such states represent some form of socialism or, what SA terms "socialism from above
", such as the Socialist Alliance
, the former DSP and the RSP are "Stalinist" in nature.
SA sees the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia
as a genuine socialist revolution but believe what they see as the following imperialist attack on the young socialist republic and the failure of the revolution to spread to Western Europe
lead to its ultimate defeat by Stalin's
counter-revolution.
SA are, like any left group, hostile to the conservative Liberal Party
, the open party of Australian business interests. They are also however, highly critical of the Labor Party
(ALP) for its rightward shift and acceptance of neo-liberalism. SA classifies the ALP as a "capitalist workers' party" that while qualitatively different to the Liberal Party due to its organisational relationship with the trade union
bureaucracy, governs in the interests of the capitalist class.SA are critical of the ALP's Fair Work Australia
, which they see as a watered down version of the Liberal's WorkChoices
, alongside its maintenance of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
SA moreover hold that the Greens
are not a left alternative to labor, and consider it a middle-class
party equally committed to the maintenance of Australian capitalism as the two major parties and accuse them of "populist
left nationalism". Therefore, SA reject reformism
outright and defend Rosa Luxemburg
's position in her work Social Reform or Revolution
that reformism is "not the realisation of socialism, but the reform of capitalism".
Before the 2001 federal election they called for a vote for the Socialist Alliance
in the seats it contested, for its "unambiguously anti-war and pro-worker stance". In the other seats, they called for what they said was "little choice but to grit our teeth" and vote for the Labor Party
(ALP) over the Liberals
.
Before the 2004 federal election they called for a vote for the ALP or the Greens
in the lower house
in the hope to remove the Liberals, and a vote for the Greens in the Senate
to remove the Democrats
for what they saw as their co-option by the Liberals. The Greens vote was a protest vote against the ALP, whom SA characterized as alienating their traditional support base.
Before the 2007 federal election they called for a first preference vote for the Greens and a second preference to the ALP, again, as a protest vote against the ALP for what they saw as the party's rightward shift.
Before the 2010 federal election SA called for a first preference vote for either the ALP, the Greens, left or socialist candidates, while putting the Liberals last.
Before the 2010 Victorian state election
they actively campaigned for Socialist Party
candidate Steve Jolly in the seat of Richmond, and called a vote for left-wing candidates in other electorates, instead of a vote for the ALP or Greens, arguing that Jolly's union-backed campaign confirmed the possibility of a left alternative to the ALP gaining strong votes. Again, they called for voting the Liberals last.
weekend. In the past the conference has featured local and international guest speakers such as journalist and documentary maker John Pilger
, LGBTI National Equality March
co-convener Sherry Wolf
, International Socialist Review
editor Ashley Smith, Socialisme International
editor John Mullen, The Palestine Telegraph
journalist and founder Sameh Akram Habeeb, Internationalist Workers' Left
central committee member Thanasis Kourkoulas, anti-apartheid
activist and Anti-Privatisation Forum founder Trevor Ngwane, Alyawarra nation and Ampilatwatja walk-off against the Northern Territory intervention spokesperson Richard Downs, Intervention Rollback Action Group activist Barbara Shaw, Iraq Veterans Against the War
spokesperson Logan Laituri, International Department, Working Peoples Association of Indonesia Vice Chairperson and anti-Soeharto activist Mahendra Kusumawardhana, Egyptian general strike
participant Mamdouh Habashi and Globalization Monitor founding member Au Loong-Yu.
John Pilger said of the conference:
Marxism 2011 was held from 21–24 April and speakers included John Pilger, Lenin Rediscovered. What is to be done? in context author Lars Lih, Unite Union
organiser Joe Carolan, The Wall Street Journal
, The Christian Science Monitor
and The Nation
journalist Anand Gopal, US International Socialist Organization
representative Shaun Harkin and socialists and activists from Greece
and the Philippines
.
basis and trajectory of the Greens
and the liberal
defence of the Northern Territory Intervention
.
As of 2009, SA members edit the annual online theoretical journal: Marxist Interventions (MI). The journal is an update of the previous MI, which SA members also contributed to. The update aims to move beyond Australian politics, yet retains an Australian bias. The overall aim of MI however, remains the same: to make Australian Marxist writings more readily accessible to audiences. Arguments taken up by MI have included the Marxist attitude towards religion and Australian imperialism during the Pacific War
.
SA members have also contributed texts to international publications such as the Marxists Internet Archive
, International Socialist Review
, Socialist Worker, Monthly Review
, CounterPunch
and ZNet.
SA also publishes a range of books and pamphlets on topics ranging from Women's Oppression to Australian Labor History. In 2008 they published a pamphlet arguing for the relevance of Marxism
to understand the Global financial crisis: A crime beyond denunciation: a Marxist analysis of capitalist economic crisis and a polemic defending the role of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution: How workers took power: the 1917 Russian Revolution. Both pamphlets were written by Sandra Bloodworth
.
In 2007 they published the controversial From Little Things Big Things Grow: Strategies for building revolutionary socialist organisations by Mick Armstrong
, which argues their orientation for building a cadre organisation in times of revolutionary downturn and a critique of the Australian Labor Party
: The Labor Party: A Marxist Analysis by Armstrong and Tom Bramble
.
published Tom Bramble and Rick Kuhn
's Labor's Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class which traces the history of the Australian Labor Party
from its formation through to the Gillard
Government from a Marxist perspective. University of Sydney
professor Frank Stilwell described it as "recommended reading for anyone wanting to understand the Labor tradition in Australia".
In 2008, Bramble attacked the role of the trade union bureaucracy
in Trade Unionism in Australia: A History from Flood to Ebb Tide also published by Cambridge University Press. Australian journalist John Pilger
described the book as "An essential read."
Kuhn also wrote a biographical study on the Polish-German
Marxist economist, Henryk Grossman
: Henryk Grossman and the recovery of Marxism published by University of Illinois Press
, for which he won the Deutscher Memorial Prize
in 2007. Chris Harman
, editor of International Socialism called Kuhn's study "a valuable addition to our theoretical armour."
In 2005, several members contributed to a book analysing Australian working class militancy: Class and Struggle in Australia published by Pearson Education
, which Kuhn also edited. Ken Buckley of History Cooperative
called it "hard-hitting and sharp".
Also in 2005, Tom O'Lincoln
wrote a book on the origins of the Australian ruling class: United We Stand: Class Struggle in Colonial Australia published by Red Rag Publications, which University of Melbourne
professor Verity Burgmann
said "uncovers new aspects to Australia's history of struggle".
In 2004, Liz Ross
wrote Dare to struggle, dare to win! Builders Labourers fight deregistration, 1981-94 published by Vulgar Press
, which outlined the history of the militant Builders Labourers Federation
. David Renton of Labour History
said the book "takes seriously the challenge of understanding the past".
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
political organisation in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
formed by an expulsion from the former International Socialist Organisation
International Socialist Organisation (Australia)
The International Socialist Organisation was an Australian Trotskyist political organisation, founded in 1971, originally as the Marxist Workers' Group until it dissolved to form Solidarity in 2008 with two other socialist organisations...
(ISO) in 1995. It is one of the largest groups of the Australian far Left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
, claiming to have the largest active membership. With branches across Australia, its membership is active in the student union
Student union
Student union may refer to:* Students' union, or student government in the U.S., a student organization at many colleges and universities dedicated to student governance...
movement. SA is most visible in student politics, on university campuses and through the National Union of Students
National Union of Students (Australia)
The National Union of Students is the peak representative body for Australian university students. Most student unions in Australian campuses are affiliated to NUS...
, including their participation in campaigns such as those supporting same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
, refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
rights and Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
national liberation. They oppose on principle US and Australian military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, and support the 2011 Arab Revolutions.
Though one of its stated aims is to contribute towards building a revolutionary party
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
that can intervene in and lead mass struggles in the midst of working-class upheaval, SA does not consider itself (or any other Australian Left group) a political party at their current size and influence. Originating in the political tradition of the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
, SA defend the position that a socialist revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
can only come about through a genuine workers' upheaval "from below
Proletarian revolution
A proletarian revolution is a social and/or political revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists, communists, and most anarchists....
" and argue that all existing states commonly described as socialist countries are actually "state capitalist
State capitalism
The term State capitalism has various meanings, but is usually described as commercial economic activity undertaken by the state with management of the productive forces in a capitalist manner, even if the state is nominally socialist. State capitalism is usually characterized by the dominance or...
" economies. As of 2011, it has attempted to mend its strained relationship with Solidarity
Solidarity (Australia)
Solidarity is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia, formed in 2008 from a merger between three out of four groups emerging from the International Socialist tradition: the International Socialist Organisation , Socialist Action Group and Solidarity. The group is a member of the International...
, the successor organisation of the ISO which shares its basic politics, by proposing unity.
SA host an annual conference in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
each year called Marxism, which has grown to attract several hundred participants, including national and international guest speakers such as John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
. It also produces political commentary and analysis through its own various publications and through other publishers in which the organisation puts forward its positions on Australian and international issues.
It publishes a twice-weekly updated online magazine, Socialist Alternative, which is distributed in hard copy as a monthly. Alongside numerous externally published books and academic works, it publishes a biannual theoretical journal, Marxist Left Review.
Expulsion from the ISO
SA was established in 1995 by ex-members of the former International Socialist OrganisationInternational Socialist Organisation (Australia)
The International Socialist Organisation was an Australian Trotskyist political organisation, founded in 1971, originally as the Marxist Workers' Group until it dissolved to form Solidarity in 2008 with two other socialist organisations...
(ISO) in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. Following debates over the orientation of the ISO to the political situation, the members were expelled for arguing the ISO held overblown expectations of the 1990s. This was part of the debate internationally within the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
(IST) over the nature of the contemporary political situation and how socialists
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
should respond, with the leading organisation in the IST, the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
(SWP) arguing, the 1990s were like "the 1930s in slow motion". Like in Australia, splits occurred within the IST in other countries, including New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In addition to splits, the International Socialist Organization
International Socialist Organization
The International Socialist Organization is a revolutionary socialist organization in the United States that identifies with the politics of International Socialism, a current of Trotskyism, and the Marxist political tradition that American socialist writer and activist Hal Draper called...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was expelled from the IST.
SA has links with a number of other groups which were previously part of the IST, such as the ISO in America, the Internationalist Workers' Left
Internationalist Workers' Left (Greece)
The Internationalist Workers' Left is a revolutionary marxist organization in Greece, founded in 2001, having split from Socialist Workers' Party-International Socialist Tendency ....
in Greece, Socialist Aotearoa and the International Socialist Organisation
International Socialist Organization (New Zealand)
The International Socialist Organisation is a Trotskyist organisation in New Zealand. It is based in Dunedin.The founders of the ISO in New Zealand, notably Brian Roper, had developed sympathies with the International Socialism current of Trotskyism while living overseas...
in New Zealand, Socialisme International
Socialisme International
Socialisme International was a small French revolutionary socialist organisation, founded in 1985 and publishing its magazine until 2009....
in France. It also maintains friendly relations with the ex-Maoist Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
ist Revolutionary Workers Party - Mindanao (RPMM) in the Philippines.
Early years and S11
Until 2003, SA was based primarily in Melbourne, until the organisation began to establish branches in other Australian cities following a surge of growth out of the S11 protests against the 2000 World Economy Forum meeting in Melbourne. However Melbourne still maintains the largest membership nationally with three branches. SA now claim to have the largest active Left organisation in the country.SA was asked to join the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (Australia)
The Socialist Alliance was founded in 2001 as an alliance of socialist organisations and individuals in Australia, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation along with 6 other founding socialist organisations, to create greater left unity in the...
in 2002. The Alliance grouped together the Democratic Socialist Perspective
Democratic Socialist Perspective
The Democratic Socialist Perspective was an Australian Marxist political group, which operated as the largest component of a broad-left socialist formation, the Socialist Alliance...
(DSP), the ISO, and other left groups and individuals. SA eventually declined to join due to the Socialist Alliance's strong emphasis on running in parliamentary elections. This parliamentary emphasis in the flat political climate was seen by SA as a restriction to building activism on the ground and representing a turn towards reformist
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
politics. Since deciding against joining the formation, Socialist Alternative members frequently accuse the Alliance of Stalinist tendencies.
Lebanon War
In 2006, SA claimed their members were wrongly accused by the politically zionist Australasian Union of Jewish StudentsAustralasian Union of Jewish Students
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students is a federation of Jewish student societies at Australian and New Zealand universities and other higher education institutions. It was founded in 1948 at the University of Sydney and is affiliated with the World Union of Jewish Students. It is politically...
of "exploiting ethnic tensions to promote anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and recruit members" at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
and other Melbourne campuses. They were accused of assaulting Melbourne University Liberal Club
Australian Liberal Students' Federation
The Australian Liberal Stduents' Federation or ALSF is an Australian students political group. The ALSF is the peak national body for over thirty campus Liberal Clubs. While the ALSF carries similar ideology to the Liberal Party of Australia and works closely with the party it is an Independent...
students who supported Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
during the Lebanon War. SA was likewise accused of being unsympathetic to Jewish groups during what was allegedly the highest period of anti-Semitism since the 1940s and demonstrating on university campuses where the majority of this was occurring. A member of SA from RMIT University
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
wrote a controversial email referring to some pro-Israel students at that university as "Zionists
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
(who) felt the need to assert their racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and fetish for genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
and mass slaughter of Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
people".
SA members argue that they are anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic. It claims that accusations of anti-Semitism are slander from apologists of Israel who defend an apartheid state and maintain that such slander "just makes it more difficult to fight actual anti-Semitism". SA claims that its goal is to "demolish the lies upon which the racist state of Israel was built, and argue for the only real solution to the Middle East conflict - a single secular, democratic state in historic Palestine, one in which Palestinians and Jews can live in equality and peace".
SA maintains that Israel does not represent Jews, but simply claims to do so. Furthermore, SA points out they have many, including some leading, non-Zionist Jewish members, such as Rick Kuhn
Rick Kuhn
Rick Kuhn is an Australian Marxist economist, political analyst and reader at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is best known for his biographical study on Henryk Grossman, for which he won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2007...
and Patrick Weiniger. Vashti Kenway, (Students Against War and Racism and leading SA member) insists that the organisation "take[s] a firm stand against all forms of racism". Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong is a socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founding members of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative and was also one of the Austudy Five....
of SA claimed that the organisation has "supported innumerable protests against anti-Semitic bigots such as the Holocaust denier David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
" and believes that Israel's most strident critics are often Jewish themselves, citing Jewish Marxists Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
in their opposition to Zionism, who saw it as a pro-imperialist ideology, as well as contemporary Jewish intellectuals such as Norman Finklestein, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
and Antony Lowenstein.
Proposed unity with Solidarity
As of October 2010, the organisation began pursuing unity talks with SolidaritySolidarity (Australia)
Solidarity is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia, formed in 2008 from a merger between three out of four groups emerging from the International Socialist tradition: the International Socialist Organisation , Socialist Action Group and Solidarity. The group is a member of the International...
, the other Australian socialist organisation originating from the IST and the successor group of the ISO. SA argues that the existence of two separate organisations sharing the same basic politics ultimately undermines the credibility of the revolutionary left, and that the differences between the two organisations are of tactics rather than principles and can therefore be debated within a single group.
Campaign activity
With a presence within most broad-left campaigns in cities with its largest branches, SA has participated in campaigns against the Australian Government's attacks on industrial relationsWorkChoices
The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...
, student unions
Voluntary student unionism
Voluntary student unionism is a policy, notable in Australia, under which membership of – and payment of membership fees to – university student organisations is voluntary....
and higher education
Tertiary education fees in Australia
As a general rule, all students who attend Australian tertiary education institutions are charged higher education fees. However, several measures are in place to relieve the costs of tertiary education in Australia....
; campaigns for the rights of refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s, the right of women to access free abortions on demand, the right of same-sex couples to marry
Same-sex marriage in Australia
Same-sex marriages are currently not permitted under Australian federal law. In 2004 the Marriage Act 1961 was amended in federal parliament to expressly state that marriage is considered a union between a man and a woman only and that any existing same-sex marriage from a foreign country is not to...
, in anti-racism
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
, anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....
and anti-globalisation
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
demonstrations and the campaign against the operation of the Jabiluka
Jabiluka
Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...
uranium mine. In 2011, SA members participated in demonstrations to defend public services against proposed cuts by the O'Farrell
Barry O'Farrell
Barry Robert O'Farrell MP, is an Australian politician and is the 43rd Premier of New South Wales, Minister for Western Sydney, Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party and a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Ku-ring-gai for the Liberal Party since 1999.Born in...
New South Wales Liberal State Government.
SA has also historically been involved with the Stop the War Coalition
Stop the War Coalition (Australia)
Stop the War Coalition is an Australian anti-war group initially formed in Sydney in 2003 and later in Melbourne in 2004 mainly in response to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the general "War on Terror" of which the Australian Government has been a strong ally...
and participated in other anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
demonstrations in the country, including the protests against the 2008-2009 war on Gaza, the 2007 APEC Conference
APEC Australia 2007
APEC Australia 2007 was a series of political meetings held around Australia between the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation during 2007...
, the 2006 G20 Summit, the 2006 war on Lebanon, as well as the ongoing wars on Iraq and Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
. SA members are identifiable during large demonstrations with the red flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
s carried in their contingent or red bloc
Red bloc
Red bloc is a distinct contingent at rallies or protests notable for carrying red flags. It is similar in nature to a black bloc, although members of a red bloc tend to be from Communist or Socialist organisations....
.
Marriage equality
Since the Howard government introduced legislation in 2004 to ban same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
, SA has participated in and built national street mobilisations for marriage equality. In their capacity as National Union of Students Queer Officers, SA members have been integral to establishing the Equal Love
Equal Love
Equal Love is an Australian-wide campaign initiated by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in an attempt to win gay and lesbian couples marriage rights in the country...
campaign. In 2010, SA member and Victorian Equal Love Convenor Ali Hogg received an award from the ALSO Foundation for Most Outstanding Volunteer and a People's Choice Award for Most Influential LGBTI person in Australia.
Palestine solidarity
Since early 2009, SA has played an active role in building Students for PalestineStudents for Palestine
Students for Palestine is a network of pro-Palestinian student activists based on various Australian university campuses. The group was set up in response to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict...
, a nation-wide network of pro-Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
student activists and have been involved in demonstrations and campus activity, including the protests against the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid
Gaza flotilla raid
The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea...
and helping fundraise for the Viva Palestina 5. In 2011, SA members were among 19 arrested in a Melbourne demonstration against Israeli-owned chocolate chain Max Brenner
Max Brenner
Max Brenner is an Israeli chocolate shop chain. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Strauss Group, Israel’s second-largest food and beverage company. Max Brenner chocolates are marketed as "Chocolate by the Bald Man."-History:...
as part of the international Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel.
Refugee rights
SA is active within the Refugee Action CollectiveRefugee Action Collective (Victoria)
Refugee Action Collective or RAC, are a grassroots group of activists concerned with refugee rights operating in Melbourne, Australia...
and other broad campaign groups formed under the Howard government to mobilise opposition to mandatory detention and offshore processing. They have participated in protests against detention centres such as Woomera
Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre
The Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre was an Australian immigration detention facility near the village of Woomera in South Australia. It was opened in November 1999 in response to an increase in unauthorised arrivals, which had exceeded the capacity of other detention facilities...
and Baxter
Baxter Immigration Reception and Processing Centre
Baxter Immigration Reception and Processing Centre or commonly just Baxter Detention Centre, was an Australian immigration detention facility near the town of Port Augusta in South Australia. It was the focus of much of the controversy concerning the mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Australia...
, including the breaking out of refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s in 2001. SA is opposed to the entirety of mandatory detention as a policy and supports open borders. Since the election of the Rudd-Gillard Labor government in 2007, they have continued to organise and campaign around the issue.
Branches
The organisation has branches in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and Adelaide. In Melbourne, SA are based at Victorian Trades Hall
Victorian Trades Hall
Victorian Trades Hall is a Trades Hall building located in the suburb of Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and home to the Victorian Trades Hall Council....
with three branches meeting separately on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Branches hold regular meetings focused on discussing current political developments and Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
history and theory, as well as public meetings. Speakers at SA public meetings have included former refugees, published authors such as Cordelia Fine and activists such as Gary Foley
Gary Foley
Gary Foley is an Australian Aboriginal Gumbainggir activist, academic, writer and actor . He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern in the 1970s...
. Branches are also the organising centers of the group, in which the day-to-day campaign activity of the organisation is discussed. SA usually advertise public meetings on street stalls and by conducting poster campaigns, particularly on university campuses and in inner city suburbs.
Campus clubs and student politics
National Union of Students (Australia)
The National Union of Students is the peak representative body for Australian university students. Most student unions in Australian campuses are affiliated to NUS...
as a faction, of which it claims to be the largest to the left of the National Labor Students. It is known within Australian student politics for its hostility towards both the Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
and Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
parties and for its focus on recruitment at university campuses, in demonstrations and through campaigns. It is also known for its use of megaphones to drown out political debate to which they disagree through the loud, repetitive chanting of slogans. It has come under attack from a range of factions in student politics, including Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
students, both Left and Right Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
students and claim to have been slandered by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students
Australasian Union of Jewish Students
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students is a federation of Jewish student societies at Australian and New Zealand universities and other higher education institutions. It was founded in 1948 at the University of Sydney and is affiliated with the World Union of Jewish Students. It is politically...
, for their strong opposition to the state of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Student and student union
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...
activists are the main composition of SA's membership. Their political work emphasises university-based campaigns. According to National Executive member Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong is a socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founding members of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative and was also one of the Austudy Five....
, SA's focus on student work is part of a perspective that the organisation has adopted for the political period, due to what they see as their limited size and influence in the working class
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
movement and the lack of any substantial radicalisation in society. SA's political orientation to students mirrors the development of the British Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
during the 1980s.
SA members are, or have previously been active in student unions such as the Queensland University of Technology Student Guild
Queensland University of Technology Student Guild
The Queensland University of Technology Student Guild is a student organisation established to provide service, support and representation to the students of the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. It is a student member organisation, whose office bearers are also students...
, Swinburne Student Union
Swinburne Student Union
Swinburne Student Union , is the independent student representative body of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Membership is opt-in for all Swinburne students....
, La Trobe Student Union, Monash Student Association
Monash Student Association
The Monash Student Association Inc is located at the Clayton campus of Monash University in the Campus Centre building. The MSA is made up of elected student representatives who represent all Clayton campus students on general issues such as education, fees and student welfare, and also specific...
, University of Melbourne Student Union
University of Melbourne Student Union
The student union, one of several student organisations at the University of Melbourne, Australia, is divided into two parts. The University of Melbourne Student Union , incorporated as University of Melbourne Student Union, Inc. provides representation for students. The service provision arm is...
, RMIT Student Union
RMIT Student Union
The RMIT Student Union Council, commonly known as the RMIT Student Union or RUSU, is the representative body for all students enrolled at RMITUniversity...
, University of Western Sydney Students' Association, University of Sydney Union
University of Sydney Union
The University of Sydney Union is the student-run services and amenities provider at the University of Sydney. The Union's key services include the provision of food and beverages, live music and other entertainment, the Verge Arts Festival and other cultural activities, Orientation week and...
, Charles Sturt University Students' Association, Curtin University of Technology Student Guild
Curtin University of Technology Student Guild
The Curtin Student Guild is the student representative association at Curtin University. The Guild began life as the WAIT Student Guild in November 1968. Since the introduction of voluntary student unionism in 2006, the Guild has operated on the membership fees of students who have chosen to join....
, University of New South Wales Student Representative Council, University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association and Victorian College of the Arts Student Union
Victorian College of the Arts Student Union
The Victorian College of the Arts Student Union was the student union of the former Victorian College of the Arts , now known as the Faculty of VCA and Music in Melbourne, Australia. It was a separately incorporated organisation which represented the VCA student body. It had a strong history of...
. The membership of the organisation also includes secondary school students, active in their schools.
SA members holding elected student union office bearer positions in 2012
- Jess Mcleod, Curtin University of Technology Student GuildCurtin University of Technology Student GuildThe Curtin Student Guild is the student representative association at Curtin University. The Guild began life as the WAIT Student Guild in November 1968. Since the introduction of voluntary student unionism in 2006, the Guild has operated on the membership fees of students who have chosen to join....
Education/Vice President (Left Action) - Laura Riccardi, Monash Student AssociationMonash Student AssociationThe Monash Student Association Inc is located at the Clayton campus of Monash University in the Campus Centre building. The MSA is made up of elected student representatives who represent all Clayton campus students on general issues such as education, fees and student welfare, and also specific...
Environment and Social Justice Officer (Left Action) - Emma Dook, La Trobe Student Union Disabilities Officer (Stand Up!)
Trade union activists
Worker members of SA are politically active within the trade unionTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
appropriate for their industry, while employed student members are also involved in their respective trade union. SA has active trade union members in, amongst others, the Australian Services Union
Australian Services Union
The Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union, which operates under the trading name of the Australian Services Union or ASU, is a trade union that represents members in a variety of industries.-Union history:...
, the National Union of Workers
National Union of Workers
The National Union of Workers is a large Australian trade union formed in 1989.-History:The National Union of Workers of Australia was formed by a progressive amalgamation of unions from 1989 onwards in a time when all Australian unions were merging, with varying degrees of success...
, the Australian Education Union
Australian Education Union
The Australian Education Union is an Australian trade union, founded in 1984 as the Australian Teachers Union, which is registered with Fair Work Australia as an employee group, and is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions...
, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry and furnishing products, mining and energy production....
, the Community and Public Sector Union
Community and Public Sector Union
The Community and Public Sector Union is a national trade union in Australia.- History of The CPSU :...
, the Electrical Trades Union of Australia
Electrical Trades Union of Australia
The Electrical Trades Union of Australia is a trade union in Australia which has a history stretching back over 100 years. In its modern form the ETU is a division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union , although it is possibly the most well known of the three divisions...
, the Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union
Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union
The Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union , formerly known as the Public Transport Union or PTU, was formed on 1 March 1993, through the amalgamation of the Australian Railways Union, the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen, the Australian Tramway & Motor Omnibus Employees'...
, the Australian Nursing Federation
Australian Nursing Federation
The Australian Nursing Federation was established in 1924. The ANF is the national union for nurses and the largest professional nursing organisation in Australia...
and the National Tertiary Education Union
National Tertiary Education Union
The National Tertiary Education Union is an Australian trade union for all higher education and university employees. It is an industry union and the only union working exclusively in the Australian university sector.-About the NTEU:...
, in which lecturer and SA member Liam Ward was elected to the RMIT University
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
Branch Committee as part of a left-wing oppositional ticket that replaced the previously established union leadership in 2010.
SA reject the practice of forming separate 'red unions' such as Unite
Unite Union (Australia)
Unite is a trade union established in Melbourne, Australia. The union is not registered under the Fair Work Act 2009. Its secretary is Anthony Main, a Socialist Party member. Its inspiration is the Unite Union in New Zealand...
, arguing that such projects isolate socialists from the organised working class and are premised on a top-down method of artificially substituting a radical union leadership for the rank and file, instead arging for activists to rebuild rank and file organisation within existing unions irrespective of their conservative leadership. In 2010, SA member and Queensland Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association
Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association is the largest trade union in Australia with more than 230,000 members and branches in every state and one in the Newcastle, Hunter Valley and Central Coast region. The SDA is the union for retail and fast-food workers, but does have other...
delegate Duncan Hart organised supporters of same-sex marriage within the union in a rank and file challenge against the socially conservative SDA leader Joe de Bruyn
Joe de Bruyn
Joe de Bruyn , is an Australian trade union official. He is currently National Secretary and Treasurer of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association , a Vice-President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and a member of the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party .De...
.
Working-class self-emancipation
SA analyses the world in terms of the political and economic ideas of Karl MarxKarl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and subsequent theorists in the Marxist tradition, including the Trotskyist and International Socialist
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
traditions. In holding that capitalism cannot be reformed to meet human needs, it believes that the capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
class and its state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
must be overthrown by means of a working-class revolution from below
Proletarian revolution
A proletarian revolution is a social and/or political revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists, communists, and most anarchists....
, in which the direct producers
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
in society unite to overthrow their employers
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
and the ruling class
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
, through democratically expropriating the means of production
Means of production
Means of production refers to physical, non-human inputs used in production—the factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth — along with both infrastructural capital and natural capital. This includes the classical factors of production minus financial capital and minus human capital...
and reorganising society along lines of mass democracy through workers' councils. Or, as Marx and his life-long collaborator, Frederick Engels asserted: "The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself." They hold that a socialist society will, by removing the material basis for oppression and democratically reorganising society to meet human needs, place an end to not just to wage slavery
Wage slavery
Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person's livelihood depends on wages, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a negatively connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor, and to highlight similarities between owning and employing a person...
but eventually, to all class exploitation. SA also believe that as a result of a socialist revolution, phenomena such as racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
(which they argue only materialised with the emergence of class society) will eventually disappear alongside the material realities that underpin them - among which include the nuclear family
Nuclear family
Nuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...
and the state.
SA are hostile to other far-left tendencies who look to forces outside the working class for liberation, such as anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and Castroism
Castroism
Castroism is a left-wing ideology, lined with and created by Fidel Castro. Castroism is influenced by many ideologies but particularly the theories of Cuban revolutionary José Martí, and after 1961, Karl Marx, Freidrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and according to some, fellow 26th of July Movement...
, which they characterise as substitutionist
Substitutionism
Substitutionism is a term in Marxist theory which refers to the relationship between the revolutionary party and the working class, where the former's activity substitutes the latter's. It is seen as an inverse to classical Marxism, where the "emancipation of the working class must be the work of...
, elitist and ultimately, siding with reaction
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
. SA also believe identity politics
Identity politics
Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
- such as liberal feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and black nationalism
Black nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
- present a false unity between members of oppressed groups across class lines by positing that all members of an oppressed group hold a common interest in fighting oppression. In the case of the latter as an example, SA believe women's oppression
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
can only disappear with the abolition of all classes.
Revolutionary party
In recognising the frequent occurrence of workers' revolutions in modern world history, SA argue that while revolutions are an inevitability due to the crisis-ridden nature of capitalist society, the success or failure of revolutions is dependent on the existence of a mass party that can challenge the hegemony of the reformist trade union leadership and provide a political lead to working-class radicalisations. Such an organisation, it argues, must be an organisation of experienced militants capable of generalising the past lessons of the working-class movement and therefore cannot be built in the heat of a revolutionary situation. SA's political interventions are therefore attempts to mobilise workers and students in a period of relative capitalist stability in order to take the first steps towards laying the beginnings of such a party.SA claim to be committed to avoiding pretensions they believe characterise much of the left. Describing itself as a "propaganda group" at its current size, SA attempts to relate to its audience primarily on the level of ideas, rather than seeing itself as a party that can be capable of leading mass struggles. While SA supports existing trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s as essential components of workers' struggles, they believe that capitalism can only be successfully overthrown if a revolutionary party
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
is built to challenge the hold of the ALP and the trade union bureaucracy
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
over the working class, in conjunction with similar parties internationally.
SA's strategy for building a socialist organisation is outlined in the book, From Little Things Big Things Grow, by one of its founding members, Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong is a socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founding members of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative and was also one of the Austudy Five....
.
SA has over the years tried to establish unity talks with both Solidarity
Solidarity (Australia)
Solidarity is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia, formed in 2008 from a merger between three out of four groups emerging from the International Socialist tradition: the International Socialist Organisation , Socialist Action Group and Solidarity. The group is a member of the International...
and its predecessor organisation, the International Socialist Organisation
International Socialist Organisation (Australia)
The International Socialist Organisation was an Australian Trotskyist political organisation, founded in 1971, originally as the Marxist Workers' Group until it dissolved to form Solidarity in 2008 with two other socialist organisations...
, (the group from which SA's founders were expelled) yet have remained unsuccessful. This could be largely to do with SA's perspective of currently identifying as a propaganda group, which has been controversial within the Australian left in general.
Support for oppressed groups
SA supports the right to self-determinationSelf-determination of Australian Aborigines
The concept of self-determination has, since 2003, become a topic of some debate in Australia in relation to Indigenous Australians.In the early 1970s, the Aboriginal community approached the Government of Australia and requested the right to administer their own communities...
of Australia's Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
people and opposes the intervention
Northern Territory National Emergency Response
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response was a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the Australian federal government under John Howard in 2007 to address claims of rampant child sexual abuse and neglect in Northern...
which was initiated by the Howard Government
Howard Government
The Howard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government...
and continued by the Gillard Government
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
. The organisation condemns racism and has in the past criticized other far-left groups in Australia, such as Solidarity and the Revolutionary Socialist Party
Revolutionary Socialist Party (Australia)
The Revolutionary Socialist Party is a small socialist organisation in Australia, formed in 2008 by a split from the former Democratic Socialist Perspective . Members of the split were expelled from the DSP over debates about the organisation's participation in the Socialist Alliance...
(RSP), for what they deem capitulating to racism.
SA also accuses the governments of Australia, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the EU of promoting racist scapegoating toward Arabs and Muslims
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
under the guise of the "War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
". They support the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
or burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
and accuse secularists
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
on the far-left who oppose them, such as members of the New Anticapitalist Party
New Anticapitalist Party
The New Anticapitalist Party is a French political party founded in February 2009. Its name was originally intended to be temporary; a vote on the name being held at the founding congress on 6–8 February 2009, where NPA won over "Revolutionary Anticapitalist Party" with 53% of the vote.The party ...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
of anti-Muslim racism
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
, arguing bans on Islamic dress further oppresses Muslims and encourages racism towards them. SA also unconditionally support the right of people in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
today to resist US and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i occupation, in line with Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's position of "the right of oppressed nations to self-determination".
SA oppose both of Australia's major parties' policies on the mandatory detention
Mandatory detention in Australia
Mandatory detention in Australia concerns the Australian federal government's policy and system of mandatory immigration detention active from 1992 to date, pursuant to which all persons entering the country without a valid visa are compulsorily detained and sometimes subject to deportation.In the...
of asylum seekers seeking to enter Australia, which they characterise as racist and believe that there should be no restrictions on immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
. They call for the release of all refugees currently held in detention, the closure of all immigration detention facilities
Australian immigration detention facilities
Australian immigration detention facilities comprise a number of different facilities throughout Australia and one on the Australian territory of Christmas Island. They are used to house people who are detained under Australia’s policy of mandatory detention and previously under the now defunct...
and contrast Australia's border control
Border control
Border controls are measures used by a country to monitor or regulate its borders.The control of the flow of many people, animals and goods across a border may be controlled by government Customs services. Security is enforced by various kinds of Border Guards and Coast Guards...
laws with accusations of the Australian military and federal police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
of having invaded the national borders of countries such as the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
, East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
Another position of SA which separates them from much of the Australian far-left, particularly the former Democratic Socialist Perspective
Democratic Socialist Perspective
The Democratic Socialist Perspective was an Australian Marxist political group, which operated as the largest component of a broad-left socialist formation, the Socialist Alliance...
(now Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (Australia)
The Socialist Alliance was founded in 2001 as an alliance of socialist organisations and individuals in Australia, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation along with 6 other founding socialist organisations, to create greater left unity in the...
), is their opposition to the Australian military intervention into East Timor in 1999, seeing it as not a humanitarian action but an opportunity for Australia to secure its strategic and economic interests in the region.
State capitalist analysis
While not a member of the International Socialist TendencyInternational Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
, SA remains committed to the ideas and positions associated with the International Socialist tradition of Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
advanced by Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...
, which sees the states of the former USSR, Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
as being in no sense socialist, rather forms of "state capitalism
State capitalism
The term State capitalism has various meanings, but is usually described as commercial economic activity undertaken by the state with management of the productive forces in a capitalist manner, even if the state is nominally socialist. State capitalism is usually characterized by the dominance or...
", where workers are exploited by a bureaucratic ruling class.
SA argue that rival socialist organisations, particularly on the Australian far-left, who promote the idea that such states represent some form of socialism or, what SA terms "socialism from above
Two Stage Theory
The two stage theory is the Stalinist political theory which argues that underdeveloped countries, such as Tsarist Russia, must first pass through a stage of bourgeois democracy before moving to a socialist stage...
", such as the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (Australia)
The Socialist Alliance was founded in 2001 as an alliance of socialist organisations and individuals in Australia, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation along with 6 other founding socialist organisations, to create greater left unity in the...
, the former DSP and the RSP are "Stalinist" in nature.
SA sees the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
as a genuine socialist revolution but believe what they see as the following imperialist attack on the young socialist republic and the failure of the revolution to spread to Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
lead to its ultimate defeat by Stalin's
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
counter-revolution.
Labor and the Greens
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, the open party of Australian business interests. They are also however, highly critical of the Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) for its rightward shift and acceptance of neo-liberalism. SA classifies the ALP as a "capitalist workers' party" that while qualitatively different to the Liberal Party due to its organisational relationship with the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
bureaucracy, governs in the interests of the capitalist class.SA are critical of the ALP's Fair Work Australia
Fair Work Australia
Fair Work Australia is the Australian industrial relations institution created by the Federal ALP Government's Fair Work Act 2009.. It commenced operation on 1 July 2009.-Functions:...
, which they see as a watered down version of the Liberal's WorkChoices
WorkChoices
The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...
, alongside its maintenance of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
SA moreover hold that the Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
are not a left alternative to labor, and consider it a middle-class
Petite bourgeoisie
Petit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois is a term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
party equally committed to the maintenance of Australian capitalism as the two major parties and accuse them of "populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
left nationalism". Therefore, SA reject reformism
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
outright and defend Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
's position in her work Social Reform or Revolution
Social Reform or Revolution
Reform or Revolution is the title of a pamphlet written by Rosa Luxemburg in 1900. It was published to confront the revisionist ideology beginning to emerge in Europe shortly after the internal conflicts amongst Marxists at the Second International....
that reformism is "not the realisation of socialism, but the reform of capitalism".
Electoral interventions
SA maintain the position that parliamentary elections are not the key to social change and do not stand candidates at their current size and influence. However, they do not reject voting in elections outright and recognise that elections reflect the state of mass political consciousness. Therefore the organisation promotes who they vote for in their magazine and website during election periods.Before the 2001 federal election they called for a vote for the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (Australia)
The Socialist Alliance was founded in 2001 as an alliance of socialist organisations and individuals in Australia, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation along with 6 other founding socialist organisations, to create greater left unity in the...
in the seats it contested, for its "unambiguously anti-war and pro-worker stance". In the other seats, they called for what they said was "little choice but to grit our teeth" and vote for the Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) over the Liberals
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
.
Before the 2004 federal election they called for a vote for the ALP or the Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
in the lower house
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
in the hope to remove the Liberals, and a vote for the Greens in the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
to remove the Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
for what they saw as their co-option by the Liberals. The Greens vote was a protest vote against the ALP, whom SA characterized as alienating their traditional support base.
Before the 2007 federal election they called for a first preference vote for the Greens and a second preference to the ALP, again, as a protest vote against the ALP for what they saw as the party's rightward shift.
Before the 2010 federal election SA called for a first preference vote for either the ALP, the Greens, left or socialist candidates, while putting the Liberals last.
Before the 2010 Victorian state election
Victorian state election, 2010
The 2010 Victorian state election was held on 27 November. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party government, led by John Brumby, was defeated by the centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition, led by Ted Baillieu....
they actively campaigned for Socialist Party
Socialist Party (Australia)
The Socialist Party is a small Trotskyist political party in Australia affiliated with the Committee for a Workers International. The SP has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth. It publishes a monthly newspaper called The Socialist which contains a socialist perspective on news and...
candidate Steve Jolly in the seat of Richmond, and called a vote for left-wing candidates in other electorates, instead of a vote for the ALP or Greens, arguing that Jolly's union-backed campaign confirmed the possibility of a left alternative to the ALP gaining strong votes. Again, they called for voting the Liberals last.
Marxism 2012 conference
SA holds a national public conference called Marxism each EasterEaster
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
weekend. In the past the conference has featured local and international guest speakers such as journalist and documentary maker John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
, LGBTI National Equality March
National Equality March
The National Equality March was a national political rally that occurred October 11, 2009 in Washington, D.C.. It called for equal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia...
co-convener Sherry Wolf
Sherry Wolf (activist)
For the American surrealist painter and designer, see Sherry Wolf .Sherry Wolf is an American revolutionary socialist, Jewish anti-Zionist, independent journalist and author. Openly lesbian, she was on the Executive Committee for the LGBT National Equality March for full civil rights in October 2009...
, International Socialist Review
International Socialist Review
International Socialist Review may refer to:*International Socialist Review *International Socialist Review *International Socialist Review...
editor Ashley Smith, Socialisme International
Socialisme International
Socialisme International was a small French revolutionary socialist organisation, founded in 1985 and publishing its magazine until 2009....
editor John Mullen, The Palestine Telegraph
The Palestine Telegraph
The Palestine Telegraph is the first online newspaper based in the Gaza Strip. Its staff is composed of Palestinians and international volunteers, both professional journalists and, "citizen journalists who do not take assignments from editors or paychecks from corporate controlled media."Sameh...
journalist and founder Sameh Akram Habeeb, Internationalist Workers' Left
Internationalist Workers' Left (Greece)
The Internationalist Workers' Left is a revolutionary marxist organization in Greece, founded in 2001, having split from Socialist Workers' Party-International Socialist Tendency ....
central committee member Thanasis Kourkoulas, anti-apartheid
Internal resistance to South African apartheid
Internal resistance to the apartheid system in South Africa came from several sectors of society and saw the creation of organisations dedicated variously to peaceful protests, passive resistance and armed insurrection. It came from both black activists like Steve Biko and Desmond Tutu as well as...
activist and Anti-Privatisation Forum founder Trevor Ngwane, Alyawarra nation and Ampilatwatja walk-off against the Northern Territory intervention spokesperson Richard Downs, Intervention Rollback Action Group activist Barbara Shaw, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Iraq Veterans Against the War is an advocacy group of active-duty United States military personnel, Iraq War veterans, Afghanistan War veterans, and other veterans who have served since the September 11, 2001 attacks who are opposed to the U.S. occupation of Iraq...
spokesperson Logan Laituri, International Department, Working Peoples Association of Indonesia Vice Chairperson and anti-Soeharto activist Mahendra Kusumawardhana, Egyptian general strike
2008 Egyptian general strike
The 2008 Egyptian general strike was a strike which occurred on 6 April 2008, by Egyptian workers, primarily in the state-run textile industry, in response to low wages and rising food costs. Strikes are illegal in Egypt and authorities have been given orders to break demonstrations forcefully in...
participant Mamdouh Habashi and Globalization Monitor founding member Au Loong-Yu.
John Pilger said of the conference:
Marxism 2011 was held from 21–24 April and speakers included John Pilger, Lenin Rediscovered. What is to be done? in context author Lars Lih, Unite Union
Unite Union
The Unite Union is a trade union in New Zealand. It is the sponsor of the campaign directed towards improving working conditions for fast food workers in the country, in addition to representing other hospitality and retail workers...
organiser Joe Carolan, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
and The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
journalist Anand Gopal, US International Socialist Organization
International Socialist Organization
The International Socialist Organization is a revolutionary socialist organization in the United States that identifies with the politics of International Socialism, a current of Trotskyism, and the Marxist political tradition that American socialist writer and activist Hal Draper called...
representative Shaun Harkin and socialists and activists from Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Socialist Alternative Magazine
SA publishes its political commentary and analysis twice a week in an online magazine called Socialist Alternative. The hard-copy monthly version of the same name is printed in full colour and sold on street stalls, at university campuses and political demonstrations.Marxist Left Review and other publications
In 2010, SA launched a biannual theoretical journal aimed at responding to current debates on the left called Marxist Left Review, edited by Bloodworth. The organisation sees the journal as a more substantial publication than its magazine, providing more in depth arguments on issues such as the classSocial class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
basis and trajectory of the Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
and the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
defence of the Northern Territory Intervention
Northern Territory National Emergency Response
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response was a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the Australian federal government under John Howard in 2007 to address claims of rampant child sexual abuse and neglect in Northern...
.
As of 2009, SA members edit the annual online theoretical journal: Marxist Interventions (MI). The journal is an update of the previous MI, which SA members also contributed to. The update aims to move beyond Australian politics, yet retains an Australian bias. The overall aim of MI however, remains the same: to make Australian Marxist writings more readily accessible to audiences. Arguments taken up by MI have included the Marxist attitude towards religion and Australian imperialism during the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
.
SA members have also contributed texts to international publications such as the Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet archive of Marxist writers and other similar authors...
, International Socialist Review
International Socialist Review
International Socialist Review may refer to:*International Socialist Review *International Socialist Review *International Socialist Review...
, Socialist Worker, Monthly Review
Monthly Review
Monthly Review is an independent Marxist journal published 11 times per year in New York City.-History:The publication was founded by Harvard University economics instructor Paul Sweezy, who became the first editor...
, CounterPunch
Counterpunch
Counterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
and ZNet.
SA also publishes a range of books and pamphlets on topics ranging from Women's Oppression to Australian Labor History. In 2008 they published a pamphlet arguing for the relevance of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
to understand the Global financial crisis: A crime beyond denunciation: a Marxist analysis of capitalist economic crisis and a polemic defending the role of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution: How workers took power: the 1917 Russian Revolution. Both pamphlets were written by Sandra Bloodworth
Sandra Bloodworth
Sandra Bloodworth is a labour historian and socialist activist, based in Melbourne, Australia. She has been involved in radical politics since the 1970s, where she has played roles in the women's, Aboriginal, anti-uranium mining and trade union movements...
.
In 2007 they published the controversial From Little Things Big Things Grow: Strategies for building revolutionary socialist organisations by Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong
Mick Armstrong is a socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founding members of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative and was also one of the Austudy Five....
, which argues their orientation for building a cadre organisation in times of revolutionary downturn and a critique of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
: The Labor Party: A Marxist Analysis by Armstrong and Tom Bramble
Tom Bramble
Tom Bramble is a long-term socialist activist and author based in Queensland, Australia. He is a senior lecturer in Industrial Relations at the University of Queensland. He holds a Ph.D. from La Trobe University in the same field and won the University medal in Economics from the University of...
.
Published books and academic works
Work by leading SA members has been issued by other publishers. In 2010, Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
published Tom Bramble and Rick Kuhn
Rick Kuhn
Rick Kuhn is an Australian Marxist economist, political analyst and reader at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is best known for his biographical study on Henryk Grossman, for which he won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2007...
's Labor's Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class which traces the history of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
from its formation through to the Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
Government from a Marxist perspective. University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
professor Frank Stilwell described it as "recommended reading for anyone wanting to understand the Labor tradition in Australia".
In 2008, Bramble attacked the role of the trade union bureaucracy
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
in Trade Unionism in Australia: A History from Flood to Ebb Tide also published by Cambridge University Press. Australian journalist John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
described the book as "An essential read."
Kuhn also wrote a biographical study on the Polish-German
German minority in Poland
The registered German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people, according to a 2002 census.The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship , where most of the minority resides...
Marxist economist, Henryk Grossman
Henryk Grossman
Henryk Grossmanalternative spelling: Henryk Grossmann , was a Polish-German economist and historian of Jewish descent....
: Henryk Grossman and the recovery of Marxism published by University of Illinois Press
University of Illinois Press
The University of Illinois Press , is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic projects...
, for which he won the Deutscher Memorial Prize
Deutscher Memorial Prize
The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize is an annual prize given in honor of historian Isaac Deutscher and his wife Tamara Deutscher for new books published in English "which exemplifies the best and most innovative new writing in or about the Marxist tradition." It has been on-going since...
in 2007. Chris Harman
Chris Harman
Chris Harman was a British journalist and political activist, and a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party...
, editor of International Socialism called Kuhn's study "a valuable addition to our theoretical armour."
In 2005, several members contributed to a book analysing Australian working class militancy: Class and Struggle in Australia published by Pearson Education
Pearson Education
Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...
, which Kuhn also edited. Ken Buckley of History Cooperative
History Cooperative
History Cooperative is an online database of scholarly history articles from leading journals. It provides online access to library users to recent articles from 20 major journals and other online sources. It was originally created by the University of Illinois Press, and is also sponsored by...
called it "hard-hitting and sharp".
Also in 2005, Tom O'Lincoln
Tom O'Lincoln
Tom O'Lincoln is an American born Marxist historian, author and one of the founders of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia. He attended UC Berkeley in 1966 and joined the International Socialists who had participated in the Free Speech Movement two years earlier...
wrote a book on the origins of the Australian ruling class: United We Stand: Class Struggle in Colonial Australia published by Red Rag Publications, which University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
professor Verity Burgmann
Verity Burgmann
Verity Burgmann is Professor of Political Science at the University of Melbourne.Burgmann was born in Sydney, Australia, the daughter of Victor Burgmann and Lorna Bradbury. In 1971 she ran away from home to attend the London School of Economics, where she completed a B.Sc with a major in politics...
said "uncovers new aspects to Australia's history of struggle".
In 2004, Liz Ross
Liz Ross
Liz Ross is a long-term Socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. She has campaigned for Women's Rights and Gay Liberation since 1972 and was a union delegate in the Department of Social Security for ten years during the Hawke era...
wrote Dare to struggle, dare to win! Builders Labourers fight deregistration, 1981-94 published by Vulgar Press
Vulgar Press
Vulgar Press is a publishing house based in Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1999, the publisher's stated aim is "the publication of working-class and other radical forms of writing". Vulgar Press publishes a number of books and magazines for alternative and non-profit companies and organisations...
, which outlined the history of the militant Builders Labourers Federation
Builders Labourers Federation
The Builders Labourers Federation is an Australian trade union organisation which existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian States by the federal Labor government and some state governments of the time. This occurred in the...
. David Renton of Labour History
Labor History (journal)
Labor History is an inter-disciplinary, peer reviewed journal which publishes articles regarding the history of the labor movement in the United States, Europe and other regions and countries....
said the book "takes seriously the challenge of understanding the past".
Current
- Australian Lesbian and Gay ArchivesAustralian Lesbian and Gay ArchivesThe Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives is a non-profit, community-based organisation of volunteers committed to the collection and preservation of material reflecting the lives and experiences of LGBT Australians. The material collected is either produced by LGBT people in Australia or...
founder and historian, Liz RossLiz RossLiz Ross is a long-term Socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. She has campaigned for Women's Rights and Gay Liberation since 1972 and was a union delegate in the Department of Social Security for ten years during the Hawke era... - Author and University of QueenslandUniversity of QueenslandThe University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
Industrial Relations senior lecturer, Tom BrambleTom BrambleTom Bramble is a long-term socialist activist and author based in Queensland, Australia. He is a senior lecturer in Industrial Relations at the University of Queensland. He holds a Ph.D. from La Trobe University in the same field and won the University medal in Economics from the University of... - RMIT UniversityRMIT UniversityRMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
National Tertiary Education UnionNational Tertiary Education UnionThe National Tertiary Education Union is an Australian trade union for all higher education and university employees. It is an industry union and the only union working exclusively in the Australian university sector.-About the NTEU:...
Branch Committee member and lecturer, Liam Ward - Blogger, columnist and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of CanberraUniversity of CanberraOver the years the Stone Day program has gradually become larger and larger, taking up a whole week and now Stonefest is one of Australia's most popular music festivals. The first foundation celebrations were held in 1971. In 1973 Stone Day celebrations were held over two days, which was expanded...
, John Passant - Author, historian and founder of the International Socialists in Australia, Tom O'LincolnTom O'LincolnTom O'Lincoln is an American born Marxist historian, author and one of the founders of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia. He attended UC Berkeley in 1966 and joined the International Socialists who had participated in the Free Speech Movement two years earlier...
- Author and historian, Sandra BloodworthSandra BloodworthSandra Bloodworth is a labour historian and socialist activist, based in Melbourne, Australia. She has been involved in radical politics since the 1970s, where she has played roles in the women's, Aboriginal, anti-uranium mining and trade union movements...
- Author, Stop the War CoalitionStop the War Coalition (Australia)Stop the War Coalition is an Australian anti-war group initially formed in Sydney in 2003 and later in Melbourne in 2004 mainly in response to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the general "War on Terror" of which the Australian Government has been a strong ally...
co-organiser and Austudy Five arrestee, Mick ArmstrongMick ArmstrongMick Armstrong is a socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founding members of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative and was also one of the Austudy Five.... - Author and Australian National UniversityAustralian National UniversityThe Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
political science reader, Rick KuhnRick KuhnRick Kuhn is an Australian Marxist economist, political analyst and reader at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is best known for his biographical study on Henryk Grossman, for which he won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2007... - University of New South WalesUniversity of New South WalesThe University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
Industrial Relations lecturer, Diane Fieldes - Refugee Action CollectiveRefugee Action Collective (Victoria)Refugee Action Collective or RAC, are a grassroots group of activists concerned with refugee rights operating in Melbourne, Australia...
co-organiser, Fleur Taylor - Victorian Secondary Teachers AssociationVictorian Secondary Teachers AssociationThe Victorian Secondary Teachers Association was a Victorian trade union organisation which existed from 1953 to 1995. It was established as a breakaway from the Victorian Teachers' Union, originally as the Victorian Secondary Masters' Professional Association in 1948, becoming the VSTA in 1953...
union militant, Tess Lee Ack - Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy UnionConstruction, Forestry, Mining and Energy UnionThe Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry and furnishing products, mining and energy production....
activist, Jerome Small - Political artist and student activist, Azlan McLennanAzlan McLennanAzlan McLennan is a visual artist and socialist activist based in Melbourne, Australia. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts...
- Student activist and son of former Victorian Labor government minister Bronwyn PikeBronwyn PikeBronwyn Pike is an Australian politician. She was Minister for Education in Victoria in the Brumby Government, and is the State Member of Parliament for Melbourne.-Early life:...
, Paul Coats - Students for PalestineStudents for PalestineStudents for Palestine is a network of pro-Palestinian student activists based on various Australian university campuses. The group was set up in response to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict...
activist and former Monash Student AssociationMonash Student AssociationThe Monash Student Association Inc is located at the Clayton campus of Monash University in the Campus Centre building. The MSA is made up of elected student representatives who represent all Clayton campus students on general issues such as education, fees and student welfare, and also specific...
Education Officer, Omar Hassan - Victorian Equal LoveEqual LoveEqual Love is an Australian-wide campaign initiated by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in an attempt to win gay and lesbian couples marriage rights in the country...
Convener and 2010 ALSO Award winner & 2011 People's choice award for most influential LGBTI person in Australia, Ali Hogg - South Australia Equal LoveEqual LoveEqual Love is an Australian-wide campaign initiated by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in an attempt to win gay and lesbian couples marriage rights in the country...
Co-Convener, James Vigus - Queensland Equal LoveEqual LoveEqual Love is an Australian-wide campaign initiated by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in an attempt to win gay and lesbian couples marriage rights in the country...
Convener, Jessica Payne - Community Action Against HomophobiaCommunity Action Against HomophobiaCommunity Action Against Homophobia is a community activist organisation based in Sydney, Australia. Since its establishment in 1999, CAAH has aimed to eliminate homophobia and achieve full equality for queer people -- defined as "lesbian, gay, bisexual, same sex attracted, transgender, intersex...
Co-Convener, Cat Rose - On Line OpinionOn Line OpinionOn Line Opinion is an electronic opinion journal, founded in 1999 by political commentator and strategist Graham Edward Young, a former president of the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party of Australia, and edited by Susan Prior...
author and Jewish anti-Zionist activist, Patrick Weiniger
Former
- Author and academic, Kalinda AshtonKalinda AshtonKalinda Ashton is an Australian writer and academic based in Melbourne, Victoria. She has a doctorate from RMIT University and is the author of the 2009 novel, The Danger Game, which has been praised by notable Australian authors such as Christos Tsiolkas and Amanda Lohrey...
- Former NSW Greens candidate, Marc Newman
- Author and activist, Jill SparrowJill SparrowJill Sparrow , has been active as a socialist in Melbourne since 1991. She helped organise protests against the Gulf War and was involved in free education campaigns throughout the early 1990s, as well as participating in nearly every left-wing political cause over the past decade .-Biography:Having...
- Author and editor of OverlandOverland (literary journal)Overland is an Australian literary and cultural journal. It was founded in 1954, under the auspices of the Realist Writers Group in Melbourne, Australia, with Stephen Murray-Smith being the first editor. The current editor is Jeff Sparrow. The journal has a left-wing orientation.- External links :*...
Journal, Jeff SparrowJeff SparrowJeff Sparrow is an Australian leftwing writer, editor and former socialist activist based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the co-author of Radical Melbourne: A Secret History and Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within... - Singer/songwriter and activist, Ezekiel OxEzekiel OxEzekiel Ox is an Australian entertainer and political activist. He is currently the singer for The Ox and the Fury, a band featuring Lucius Borich from the band Cog, as well as Full Scale Revolution, Smash Nova and Over-Reactor. He was previously the singer of Mammal...
- Lawyer and Head of Maurice Blackburn Social Justice Division, Lizzie O'Shea
See also
- MarxismMarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
- TrotskyismTrotskyismTrotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
- International socialismProletarian internationalismProletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
- Revolutionary socialismRevolutionary socialismThe term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...
- International Socialist TendencyInternational Socialist TendencyThe International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
- National Union of StudentsNational Union of Students (Australia)The National Union of Students is the peak representative body for Australian university students. Most student unions in Australian campuses are affiliated to NUS...
- Equal LoveEqual LoveEqual Love is an Australian-wide campaign initiated by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in an attempt to win gay and lesbian couples marriage rights in the country...
- Students for PalestineStudents for PalestineStudents for Palestine is a network of pro-Palestinian student activists based on various Australian university campuses. The group was set up in response to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict...
- Refugee Action CollectiveRefugee Action Collective (Victoria)Refugee Action Collective or RAC, are a grassroots group of activists concerned with refugee rights operating in Melbourne, Australia...
- Stop the War CoalitionStop the War Coalition (Australia)Stop the War Coalition is an Australian anti-war group initially formed in Sydney in 2003 and later in Melbourne in 2004 mainly in response to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the general "War on Terror" of which the Australian Government has been a strong ally...
External links
- Socialist Alternative Online magazine
- Marxist Left Review Biannual theoretical journal by Socialist Alternative
- Marxist Interventions Broad-left theoretical journal by Socialist Alternative members and others in the International Socialist tradition
- Socialism 2010 Socialist Alternative annual educational conference in August
- Marxism 2011 Socialist Alternative annual national conference in April
- Equal Love Campaign group for same-sex marriage rights in Australia
- Refugee Action Collective Campaign group for refugee advocacy in Australia
- Students for Palestine Campaign group for Palestinian solidarity in Australia
- Stop the War Coalition Campaign group for anti-war activists in Australia
Further reading
- A further appeal for left unity Latest Socialist Alternative unity proposal to Solidarity
- Letter from Socialist Alternative to Solidarity (29 September 2010) and Solidarity’s response Socialist Alternative and Solidarity unity proposal documents.
- From little things big things grow Socialist Alternative book on strategies for building socialist organisations.
- Socialist Alternative and the ISO – Perspectives for Socialists Socialist Alternative document discussing the group's history.
- Socialist Alternative (1995 -) Reason in Revolt: Source Documents in Australian Radicalism archive containing early Socialist Alternative publications.
- Marxist Interventions: Articles from Australia in the social sciences Old Marxist Interventions archive.
- Marching down Marx Street: The International Socialists in Australia, 1972-92. Tom O'Lincoln's Red Sites document discussing the history of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia.