Australia: Why you should become an electoral member of the SEP
“The working class must have a political voice, which the ruling class through its latest legislation is seeking to stifle.”
SEP holds online meeting to fight Australia’s new anti-democratic election laws
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) held an online public meeting on Sunday October 31, pushing ahead with its campaign to inform and mobilise young people and workers against Australia’s new anti-democratic electoral laws.
Amid the global resurgence of COVID-19, anti-democratic bills have been rushed through Australia’s parliament to suppress opposition to the criminal “reopening” drive by the capitalist class.
The laws seek to strip party registration from all those political parties, including the Socialist Equality Party, that do not currently have parliamentary representation, by trebling the number of members required from 500 to 1,500 to be officially recognised.
The SEP has always opposed these laws, which give the state apparatus the power to decide which parties have support in the population. Under protest, however, we have submitted the names of 500 electoral members in time for each election in order to exercise our right to stand candidates under our party name.
The working class must have a political voice, which the ruling class through its latest legislation is seeking to stifle. The opposition to the dictates of big business and its political servants needs to be guided by a socialist program that puts the social needs of working people—above all their health and lives—ahead of the private profits of the wealthy few. The SEP alone fights for this perspective.
Our party fights:
● For a scientific program to eradicate the coronavirus pandemic against the criminal, “herd immunity” policies of the ruling elite.
● For an end to militarism and war.
● Against all forms of nationalism and racism and for the unity of the international working-class.
● For the social rights of the working class, including quality, free education and healthcare for all, and a decent, full-time job with permanent conditions for those able to work.
● For a workers’ government and socialism, that is a society in which the working-class democratically controls the wealth that it produces, not the banks and the billionaires.
Fill out this form to apply to join the SEP as an electoral member. The membership fee is $5 (waged) or $2 (unwaged/student).
The Socialist Equality Party is launching a campaign throughout the working class against blatantly anti-democratic electoral bills that were rushed through Australia’s parliament last week at record speed.
The Morrison government is increasingly paralysed by internal revolts, but Labor’s support remains at near-historic lows.
“The working class must have a political voice, which the ruling class through its latest legislation is seeking to stifle.”
The AEC’s pre-election refusal of an extension confirms the necessity for the determined campaign being conducted by the Socialist Equality Party against the new anti-democratic electoral laws.
The Socialist Equality Party is conducting an intensive campaign against the new anti-democratic electoral laws pushed through the Australian parliament.
These laws seek to restrict and control the use of “socialist” and “communist”—names associated with the strivings and struggles of the working class internationally for two centuries.
SEP Assistant National Secretary Max Boddy warns, “Children, almost all unvaccinated, are being recklessly sent back to school, risking infection, illness and death to force their parents back to work.”
“The 200 richest people in Australia increased their wealth by 40 percent, from $341.8 billion in May 2019 to $479.6 billion in May this year.”
IYSSE members explain that the environmental crisis is a product of the capitalist system, and its subordination of all aspects of life to the profit interests of a tiny corporate elite.
“Health workers are rightly angry. They have witnessed decades of gutted health budgets that they are expected to compensate for with their intolerable workloads and hours.”
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) intensified its campaign against Australia’s new anti-democratic electoral laws with a well-attended online public meeting on Sunday September 19. Those logging in came from across Australia, as well as from New Zealand, Britain and the US. Many were attending their first SEP meeting with numerous enthusiastic chat messages and several deciding after the event to apply to become electoral members.
“I needed to find a party that I am confident and happy to support and that is the SEP.”
“Oppression is an inexorable process under capitalism—there is no escape from it unless socialist governments of the people, by the people and for the people take over.”
“My sister’s daughter, who is a nurse, got COVID-19. She can’t walk more than 50 metres and it’s been six months!” – Tony
The laws are “an underhanded attempt to eliminate smaller parties which they see as a threat, while maintaining the illusion of the two-party system.”