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b_auspolMax Boddy (Unlisted Group)
Website: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/13/aust-a13.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SEP_Australia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia
Max Boddy is actually standing for the Socialist Equality Party. The SEP were deregistered as part of the changes to party registration rules at the end of 2021, which is why they are contesting with an unlabelled column.
Socialist Equality Party are the party of the Fourth International, which if we translate, means they are the Marxists who are awaiting the Glorious Revolution and will have me up against the wall when the day comes. They are also the socialist party who play least well with the other children; among the splinter party tendencies of the socialist left, they are the MOST splintery and least willing to cooperate with anyone else.
Party Analysis
SEP don’t appear to have a proper election page for the federal election. They are extremely unhappy about their deregistration as well as every other political party in existence. “We are irreconcilably opposed to every other party—the Liberal-National Coalition, the Labor Party, the Greens, the United Australia Party and pseudo-left parties such as Socialist Alliance and the Victorian Socialists—as well as the array of so-called “independent” candidates who seek to curry favour with the major parties, all within the framework of the political establishment.” I always do enjoy a socialist party claiming that the other socialist parties are degenerate and not actually socialists.
SEP are particularly unhappy at the moment about: COVID restrictions being lifted; nuclear war due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict (they are unhappy about the “demonisation” of Putin and of Zelenskyy being portrayed as “the defender of freedom and democracy”).
They are against austerity, angry about the lack of action on climate change, championing “free Assange” and believe our democratic rights are being undermined.
Look, SEP don’t really have policies outside of “support the struggles of the working class; strike and revolution”. What they have outlined is the following:
In terms of jobs and income: all wages indexed to the cost of living, with a MONTHLY cost of living adjustment; full time permanent jobs for those who want them with decent wages and conditions; ending mandatory overtime; living wages for those unable to work provided by Centrelink; abolish mutual obligations. Look, this is mostly reasonable socialist policy, though I am unsure how monthly indexation works. Sounds like a lot of extra administration for very little gain.
Youth policies include cancelling all student debt, provide highly paid apprenticeships, and stop all exploitation of young workers.
COVID policies are basically “reintroduce all restrictions”. Mandatory contact tracing and isolation, reintroduce lockdowns, provide free N95s and PCR tests. And look, this is where I am relentlessly practical. We’ve grappled with this issue for the past 2 years. The world is not going to eliminate COVID-19, even if we achieve local elimination again. Therefore we either have to turn into a hermit kingdom with closed borders forever, or we have to work with the fact it is now an endemic disease. Do I support mitigation measures? Yes. But the idea of shutting down society completely again doesn’t have an endpoint, because it will be continually reintroduced to the population.
SEP’s construction policies include building new schools and hospitals to upgrade the education and healthcare systems; upgrading public transport; better telecommunications in rural and regional areas; and expanding social housing.
They also want to create a disaster relief agency to respond to emergencies, instead of calling in the defence force, which is a solid idea, along with providing full income support for those in disasters.
Finally, they want more money, effort and measures to improve Aboriginal living conditions (close the gap).
The thing is, the SEP don’t believe any of this can be achieved through parliament, but only through protest and revolution. So it’s not really an election platform.
Is this party trying to kill me?
The SEP are not actively trying to kill me unless I get in the way of the revolution.
Is this party trying to harm me?
The SEP believe in mass revolution is the only pathway to achieve their goals, which is not really ideal either for those in the revolution or for the bystanders in terms of suffering harm.
Conclusion:
The Socialist Equality Party are certainly the most reluctant of the various Australian socialist parties to stand for government among those parties who actually nominate candidates. It’s essentially a protest vote. As far as I can tell the SEP would be willing to sit in Federal Parliament; however we are highly unlikely to ever be in a position to check this. They are for better conditions for workers and against nuclear war, but if they got into parliament they are upfront about the fact they wouldn’t be fighting for these goals, but rather would be focused on exposing what other politicians get up to.
Website: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/13/aust-a13.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SEP_Australia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia
Max Boddy is actually standing for the Socialist Equality Party. The SEP were deregistered as part of the changes to party registration rules at the end of 2021, which is why they are contesting with an unlabelled column.
Socialist Equality Party are the party of the Fourth International, which if we translate, means they are the Marxists who are awaiting the Glorious Revolution and will have me up against the wall when the day comes. They are also the socialist party who play least well with the other children; among the splinter party tendencies of the socialist left, they are the MOST splintery and least willing to cooperate with anyone else.
Party Analysis
SEP don’t appear to have a proper election page for the federal election. They are extremely unhappy about their deregistration as well as every other political party in existence. “We are irreconcilably opposed to every other party—the Liberal-National Coalition, the Labor Party, the Greens, the United Australia Party and pseudo-left parties such as Socialist Alliance and the Victorian Socialists—as well as the array of so-called “independent” candidates who seek to curry favour with the major parties, all within the framework of the political establishment.” I always do enjoy a socialist party claiming that the other socialist parties are degenerate and not actually socialists.
SEP are particularly unhappy at the moment about: COVID restrictions being lifted; nuclear war due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict (they are unhappy about the “demonisation” of Putin and of Zelenskyy being portrayed as “the defender of freedom and democracy”).
They are against austerity, angry about the lack of action on climate change, championing “free Assange” and believe our democratic rights are being undermined.
Look, SEP don’t really have policies outside of “support the struggles of the working class; strike and revolution”. What they have outlined is the following:
In terms of jobs and income: all wages indexed to the cost of living, with a MONTHLY cost of living adjustment; full time permanent jobs for those who want them with decent wages and conditions; ending mandatory overtime; living wages for those unable to work provided by Centrelink; abolish mutual obligations. Look, this is mostly reasonable socialist policy, though I am unsure how monthly indexation works. Sounds like a lot of extra administration for very little gain.
Youth policies include cancelling all student debt, provide highly paid apprenticeships, and stop all exploitation of young workers.
COVID policies are basically “reintroduce all restrictions”. Mandatory contact tracing and isolation, reintroduce lockdowns, provide free N95s and PCR tests. And look, this is where I am relentlessly practical. We’ve grappled with this issue for the past 2 years. The world is not going to eliminate COVID-19, even if we achieve local elimination again. Therefore we either have to turn into a hermit kingdom with closed borders forever, or we have to work with the fact it is now an endemic disease. Do I support mitigation measures? Yes. But the idea of shutting down society completely again doesn’t have an endpoint, because it will be continually reintroduced to the population.
SEP’s construction policies include building new schools and hospitals to upgrade the education and healthcare systems; upgrading public transport; better telecommunications in rural and regional areas; and expanding social housing.
They also want to create a disaster relief agency to respond to emergencies, instead of calling in the defence force, which is a solid idea, along with providing full income support for those in disasters.
Finally, they want more money, effort and measures to improve Aboriginal living conditions (close the gap).
The thing is, the SEP don’t believe any of this can be achieved through parliament, but only through protest and revolution. So it’s not really an election platform.
Is this party trying to kill me?
The SEP are not actively trying to kill me unless I get in the way of the revolution.
Is this party trying to harm me?
The SEP believe in mass revolution is the only pathway to achieve their goals, which is not really ideal either for those in the revolution or for the bystanders in terms of suffering harm.
Conclusion:
The Socialist Equality Party are certainly the most reluctant of the various Australian socialist parties to stand for government among those parties who actually nominate candidates. It’s essentially a protest vote. As far as I can tell the SEP would be willing to sit in Federal Parliament; however we are highly unlikely to ever be in a position to check this. They are for better conditions for workers and against nuclear war, but if they got into parliament they are upfront about the fact they wouldn’t be fighting for these goals, but rather would be focused on exposing what other politicians get up to.
