Why you should vote for the Victorian Socialists
As a socialist, I’ve always found elections to be somewhat depressing events. After all, whoever wins them, most of us lose. Billionaires and corporations can rest easy knowing that their power and profits are in safe hands, because the capitalist system will roll on unchallenged. For decades, their share of the world’s wealth has been steadily rising, while that of those who actually produce that wealth has been in steep decline.
This palpably growing inequality is just one of the salient features of the world today. But we also face existential threats. The hideous ongoing wars in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar (and in the case of Palestine, genocide), have killed, maimed and displaced millions of people, with no end in sight. And there’s an increasing threat of a global war driven by the rivalry between US and China. Military spending is on the rise around the world, inevitably draining funds for the things people actually need. Australia’s alliance with the US—a solidly bipartisan affair—would make this country a prime target, thanks to the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap, which provides crucial surveillance intelligence, and the US military bases dotted around the country.
Catastrophic climate change is making parts of the world completely uninhabitable. In Australia, as elsewhere, supposedly “once in a generation” disasters such as major fires and floods are now regular occurrences. Yet governments of all persuasions have not only failed to do anything meaningful; they have continued to expand the extraction of fossil fuels. The much-touted goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is already a pipe dream.
Then there’s the running down of health, education and welfare services, assaults on the rights of migrants, women, LGBTI+ and other oppressed groups, the rise of racism and Islamophobia, and the increasing erosion of democratic rights such as freedom of speech and assembly; the list goes on.
None of the major parties offers anything of substance to address these issues. At best, they will just tinker around the edges. You only need to look at what they’re offering in response to the cost-of-living crisis, the issue uppermost in most Australian voters’ minds. While more and more people are being forced into homelessness or having to choose between paying their rent or mortgage and putting food on the table, the Labor government promises a pathetic $5 per week tax cut and the Liberals a temporary cut to the petrol excise. At the same time, both parties shell out billions for a bunch of nuclear-powered submarines, continue to open and subsidise fossil fuel projects and hand buckets of money to private providers of aged and childcare services.
Their priorities and allegiances are crystal clear and demonstrate their contempt for working people and the poor. The old saying about the Roman emperor Nero, “fiddling while Rome burned”, springs to mind (although Nero wasn’t actually in Rome when the devastating fire broke out, and fiddles didn’t exist in AD 64). The phrase remains a metaphor for “someone insensitive or inattentive to a crisis”, which certainly applies to our parliamentary representatives. At best, they have stood by while a cost-of-living crisis driven by corporate profiteering has trashed the living standards of workers and the poor. For the most part, though, they’ve colluded in this process.
So yes, it’s hard to get excited about an election when you know nothing will really change for the better, and things will likely get worse for ordinary people. But if you live in Victoria, it’s different. Since 2018, it’s been possible to campaign and vote for Victorian Socialists candidates in state, federal and council elections. It’s been an exciting experience showing the potential to build a real alternative to the barely distinguishable major parties.
Attempting to lower our sights and aspirations, capitalist politicians and the media constantly try to convince us that radical change isn’t possible. Yet Australia is among the world’s richest countries, with more than enough wealth to fund affordable housing for all, boost welfare, and provide everyone with quality health care and education—the basics of a decent life.
The problem is that the wealth is increasingly hoarded by a tiny minority at the top. In 1974, Australian workers received 56 percent of GDP in wages. Today it’s down to 48 percent, representing a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. This rampant inequality is supported and enabled by politicians. In return for their high wages and multiple perks and privileges, they keep the system ticking along for their class.
The Victorian Socialists project is based on the belief that working-class people—the vast majority of the population—can collectively challenge the power of the rich and build a society that looks after all those left behind.
A key issue in this election is housing, which is an important factor in the cost-of-living crisis. Housing insecurity and homelessness are the result of a market-driven society organised around private ownership of residential property. The major parties fully concur with this state of affairs and are firmly in the pockets of the developers and landlords.
Governments are destroying public housing, and since most parliamentary representatives own multiple properties, they are utterly opposed to measures that would lower property prices (ending negative gearing, capital gains tax discounts and similar rorts), or regulations to cap soaring rents. Victorian Socialists stand unequivocally for all those struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Secure, quality housing should be a right, not a money-making opportunity for the rich.
That’s why we’re standing Jordan van den Lamb as a candidate for the Senate. Jordan (aka “purplepingers”) has built a significant following as the hero of renters and scourge of scumbag landlords via his website shitrentals.com. By running for the Senate, he hopes to take his online campaigning a step further, winning a broader audience and building an activist base to fight for the Victorian Socialists’ housing policies. These include Commonwealth funding for public housing, with the goal of building 1 million new units over the next decade and imposing a five-year freeze on rent increases.
In addition, Victorian Socialists would tackle inequality and the cost of living by such measures as heavily taxing the ill-gotten gains of the rich. For example, by increasing company tax to 50 percent and making sure they actually pay it, ending tax breaks for property investors, cracking down on price-gouging and profiteering by supermarkets, energy companies etc., and significantly increasing the minimum wage and welfare payments.
Historically, unions have played a crucial role in defending workers’ rights and living standards. But Australian unions today are in a parlous state; rather than mobilising workers to fight the bosses’ attacks, they put their resources into getting Labor re-elected. And they actively discourage strikes, our most important weapon. Victorian Socialists stands for rebuilding the fighting strength of our unions and for getting rid of anti-strike laws and other restrictions on workers’ ability to organise and fight for better wages and conditions.
The military alliance with the US has embroiled Australia in horrific wars against Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The bipartisan commitment to the alliance is largely behind Australia’s unwavering support for Israel, even as it commits genocide. And it puts Australia right in the firing line if the imperialist rivalry between the US and China escalates into open war. The best way to defend Australia from the threat of such a war is to break the alliance. That means not only scrapping AUKUS, but also shutting down Pine Gap and other US military installations. Victorian Socialists also calls for cutting military funding and redirecting it to shamefully underfunded areas such as health care, housing and education.
The demands of capitalism—the endless pursuit of profit and power—mean that the major parties are incapable of solving the problems that blight the lives and living standards of workers and the poor, even if they wanted to. In many countries, this failure has contributed to the growth of the far right and, along with it, increased racism and bigotry of all kinds.
Capitalism benefits directly from oppression in all sorts of ways: the scandalous gender pay gap for women is just one example. But the indirect benefits of pitting ordinary people against each other, whether on grounds of ethnicity, gender or sexuality, are equally important. Divisions such as these help to prevent the collective unity we need to fight back against the bosses’ attacks. Standing up to all forms of bigotry—racism, attacks on women’s and trans rights etc.—is not only morally imperative, it is key to building working-class unity.
These are just some of the policies that Victorian Socialists stands for (visit our website for more detail). But good policies are one thing, achieving them is another. Clearly, there’s no prospect of Victorian Socialists forming government. But that’s not the point. As the Irish civil rights leader Bernadette Devlin said when elected to the British parliament in 1969: “My function in life is not to be a politician in parliament: it is to get something done”.
For us, the main reason to contest elections is to build a movement from below. Victorian Socialists is attempting to broaden the horizons of politics by putting forward a vision of society that’s sharply at odds with the mainstream. Having even one elected representative would provide a voice and platform, not just to advocate for better policies, but primarily to organise resistance on the ground. History demonstrates that if we stand together, organise and fight back, we can win. To quote Devlin again, “Never underestimate the power of ordinary people to bring about extraordinary change”.
So in this election (at least in Victoria), you can vote for candidates who stand for fundamental social change: for Jordan van den Lamb in the Senate, for Victorian Socialists in Cooper, Fraser and Scullin, and for Socialist Alliance in Wills.
But ultimately, we don’t only need votes. Victorian Socialists’ good showing in previous elections is down to the activism, commitment and enthusiasm of our members. We want to broaden the audience for radical politics, and to do that we need more people committed to building a bigger socialist movement (not just in Victoria)—a movement that can keep fighting for a better deal for workers, no matter who is sitting in parliament.
