Socialist Alliance
Jan. 26th, 2021 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
b_auspolSocialist Alliance
https://socialist-alliance.org/
Okay, and so we swing from the far right where we’ve spent a lot of time recently over to the far left.
Socialist Alliance are the only openly socialist party running this election (I do not count the Greens when I’m talking about the collective socialist parties simply because while they share values, the Greens are a lot more strategic at how they pander to Left Labor to borrow voters and are less enthralled with the eventual coming socialist paradise).
They were originally formed in 2001 and enjoy minor political success in the People’s Republic of Moreland and apparently also Freemantle and Cairns. This is FASCINATING: can anyone get me caught up on the potential People’s Republic of Freo and Cairns news as to why this is? Freo person in question is Sam Wainwright, who looks like he enjoys high levels of local popularity. When did Cairns become a possible socialist paradise? I want ALL the deets.
There is a long list of the various groups that have joined and split from the Socialist Alliance on their Wikipedia, because as we all know, nobody hates a socialist party quite as much as another socialist. They’re still trying to be a bit of an umbrella party, only a small one.
Reminder to everyone (including me) who can’t keep them straight: Socialist Alliance are open socialists who want to work with society and think that elections can help their platform (newspaper: Green Left Weekly); Socialist Alternative are the Troskyites who want to attempt work with society but who still believe elections don’t do anything (newspaper: Red Flag); Socialist Equality Party are the Marxists who are awaiting the Glorious Revolution and will have me up against the wall when the day comes (newspaper: I can’t find one/I think they read Red Flag and scoff). (These are only small jests)
They appear to have a campaign slogan! “For The Billions Not The Billionaires!” Yep, that’s socialists summed up nicely.
The website is listing various articles written by these three folk ahead of their bios. Oh, Socialist Alliance. They also have a policy A-Z that is mildly terrifying me. There are just so many policies. And then another set of “What We Stand For”.
Sam Wainwright’s pet issues include: opposing the closure of Fremantle Port (Sam is an ex-wharfie); improved public housing; climate action; Indigenous reconciliation and a treaty; and cycling and public transport. He’s the founder of both the Fremantle Bicycle Users Group and Fremantle Road to Rail (because I know André wants to know this).
Marianne Mackay is Indigenous and has the campaign track record that shows it. Her pet issues are deaths in custody (always a good one to get me on side), refugee rights, uranium mining (she’s against it), land rights, recognising sovereignty and calling for a treaty, and improved public housing. She pointedly notes that in terms of a treaty, she would very much like one where land rights can’t be overridden by mining companies, which after Juukan Gorge and the many other similar incidents, is a reasonable concern.
Dirk Kelly’s pet issues include: raising the iron ore levy and using the money to fund services, infrastructure and environmental repair; and opposing systemic injustice.
Socialist Alliance have a set of 5 policies they’ve grouped at the bottom of the election page. The five highlighted policies are: Black Lives Matter, Housing is a Human Right, Climate Justice Now, Take Back the Wealth, and Save Freo Port. These appear to be their specific campaign policies for this election, with conveniently summarised dot points.
Black Lives Matter: this is from the Australian perspective and is focused specifically on Indigenous rights. They want a treaty, real land rights, full implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (can I add a hear hear to that? It’s only been 29 years), and an independent investigatory Body for Police and Prison Guard Crimes (yep, also for that).
Housing is a Human Right: oh this one is fun. They want 30,000 new public housing dwellings in the next 4 years; to expand public housing “by buying out defaulting mortgage holders and allowing them to stay as tenants” – this is a fascinating idea, particularly in WA where the housing market has been through a lot of upheavals over the past 10 years, though I worry about how many of these properties might be shoddy McMansions that only have a 30 year life span; a ban on no-fault evictions for private tenants; “Peg private residential rent increases to CPI” – which looks like an attempt to find a way to cap rents at a percentage of income; and for “Private residential rentals left vacant for more than 12 months to be compulsorily managed by the Housing Authority”. That one also amuses me. So essentially Socialist Alliance would like to drastically increase the amount of public housing, in part by just acquiring housing that’s already in existence and making sure it’s being used. Selling your house to the government and getting to stay in it as a tenant is seriously an interesting policy in terms of “ways to increase the public housing stock”.
Climate Justice Now is all about climate action. Obviously. Socialist Alliance want WA to be at net zero emissions within 10 years – they don’t specify if that includes coal and iron ore sold overseas – a 100% carbon offset by the gas industry immediately, no new gas projects, phase out the gas industry and ban fracking. Also tucked in the climate policy is their trains policy: “Metronet for the south west: Murdoch to Fremantle, Cockburn Central to Fremantle”. I looked and this is MOAR TRAIN LINES PLZ.
Take Back the Wealth is fun as it is NOT seizing the means of production, but the name does suggest that they would be amenable to a bit of that too if it became necessary. This is instead a policy to increase the iron ore royalty levy to $5/tonne (it is currently 25c/tonne) and to increase the gas royalty payment. The money, it is proposed elsewhere, should be used to fund additional services in WA, and sounds like this is both ‘trying to use mining profits to benefit the entire community’ and ‘if we can’t get back all our GST money let’s find the additional cash elsewhere!’
Save Freo Port has some suggestions aimed at exactly that. Socialist Alliance want to “put freight on rail, eliminate empty running by trucks, incentivise off-peak truck movements and electric trucks”, presumably as a better way to transport to and from the port. They also want to build the Freo Wind Farm, and do not want a “PPP port in Kwinana”.
Why is it the socialists are the only ones who want to throw tonnes of train policies at me?
Socialist Alliance also have several dozen other policy documents that are general to the party and not this election specifically, which have been broadly grouped as principles: a social & democratic economy; environmental sustainability & eco-socialism; participatory democracy; solidarity & cooperation; and true equality.
There are just so many policies. I looked through a sample of them, and many of them were written several years ago (the Afghanistan and Iraq policy for instance is dated 2012 and is basically “get out of both! These wars are not justified! Pay reparations!”) but I’ve gone through to note what the main issues are.
Social and democratic economy includes: increase animal welfare, including ending live export; a banking Royal Commission into banking corruption (this was written in 2017); A Charter of Worker and Trade Union Rights (This is basically Unions Get Things Done! Join Your Union); Dying with Dignity, which is both ‘support euthanasia’ and ‘support quality of life for people with disabilities and illnesses’; Education (free childcare, free uni, more public school funding); a Health Charter (more money for Medicare, better services for all, extend mental healthcare); Housing (more public housing, less evictions); NDIS (they want more funding and more reliance on people choosing what they need); People with disability (incredibly extensive, largely ‘do better’); Sex Work (full decriminalisation, end to discrimination for working in the profession); Superannuation (they think it’s a rort and want guaranteed pensions instead), Tax Policy (GST is regressive! Abolish the GST! Raise the top income tax bracket to 70% and the business tax bracket to 49% and tax the rich and big businesses); and a Welfare Rights Charter (Universal welfare rights, raise the rate, end mutual obligations).
Environmental sustainability and eco-socialism includes: agriculture (Aboriginal-led land management, not European; protect water; sustainable agriculture; protect farmers and farm workers; ensure national food security); a climate change charter (incredibly extensive, it’s capitalism’s fault, they think the Green New Deals are a sign that the public is ready for action here); coal seam gas (it’s bad); sustainable transport (TRAINS!! Just more public transport, especially for freight, own it publicly); and water (water conservation, no private water ownership, clean up waterways, desal only as a last resort).
Participatory Democracy: Socialist Alliance would like electoral reform as the current system entrenches class inequality and want proportional representation in all levels of government. The policies are fun and wonky (and definitely slanted to make the lives of small and micro parties easier), but basically want more light, posting of HTVs in polling places, the 4% threshold for funding eliminated, voting for 16 year olds, no restrictions on political donations by unions (because “restrictions on political donations can be easily circumvented by the rich”), more information about voting for participants, and so on. Their Youth policy is also under this (voting for 16 year olds, youth led social change organisations, better access to services for teenagers and young adults).
Solidarity and Cooperation: and this is where the roundup of “solidarity for X country, Y group and Z people” is. Afghanistan & Iraq (end the wars), Asia-Pacific region (stop Australian imperialist domination), Kurdish liberation struggle (solidarity!), Latin America Revolutions (solidarity with them, end US imperialism), Palestine (end the occupation and settlements), Refugees (end offshore processing, end detention, let people live in the community), Tamil self-determination (solidarity!), US bases out of Australia, Western Sahara (solidarity!).
True equality: this is all the various “rights for various segments of society” policies. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights (sovereignty, treaty and real land rights, reconciliation and compensation); against Islamophobia (support women’s rights to wear the hijab, niqab, and burqa); a charter for women’s rights (extensive; we still have so far to go); a charter of ATSI rights (extensive, reconciliation, compensation, meet needs); intersex rights (end non consensual surgery, support people’s own decision-making, end discrimination); LGBTI equality (what is says on the tin); marriage equality (they supported the yes vote. Shocking, I know); No Racism! (defend s18C and s18D of the Racial Discrimination Act); Trans People’s Rights (access to hormones and medical care, recognition of gender identity, etc)
It’s all very earnest and very long winded and really there was very little of surprise to me in all of this.
They don’t want to link me to their social media, possibly because they want me to go read Green Left Weekly and their long website articles instead.
They do have a whole set of articles on COVID. I clicked on the first one listed, which is dated 17 March 2020 (why is an article from 17 March 2020 the first one laid out on your page, Socialist Alliance?) which starts with the sentence “It is clear that the Australian government has badly mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic with doctors now warning that Australia is on track to be in a "worse position than Italy is currently in".” … I’m sorry. Socialist Alliance, while I am impressed you have many articles about COVID and what the response should be, have you ever possibly considered that your web design is JUST A BIT SHITTY and maybe that the first article a visitor sees should not be from 17 March 2020, a time renown for things like “the WHO declared a pandemic 6 days ago”, and the biosecurity emergency order NOT YET BEING ENACTED (that happened on 18 March).
I quickly looked at the articles. Most are from March/April 2020, and the ones that are not are from July/August: Melbourne public housing tower lockdown is bad; don’t name and shame the Queensland girls; don’t rollback the JobSeeker/Keeper programs and free childcare.
I hate to say this, but there is not anything relevant on this page except as a historical curiosity. Articles I might currently be interested in would be things on lockdowns, state borders, vaccination and the way the developing world has delayed deliveries, and maybe an article poking fun at the notorious capitalist hellscapes in Europe and North America who can’t cope in this pandemic. Nary a one to be seen.
Any Predictions?
None for Socialist Alliance. I am going to do something that will make both parties despise me and use Cate’s prediction for the Socialist Equality Party instead (how dare I equate the two):
The Socialist Equality Party is going to build an independent political movement of the working class to address COVID-19. They blame capitalism. And for once, Comrades, they are not entirely wrong.
Socialist Alliance is definitely blaming capitalism for making COVID-19 worse and causing a failure to address underlying issues. And as Cate says, they are not entirely wrong here.
Is this party trying to kill me?
Socialist Alliance have never given me the impression that I, as an aspiring lawyer, will be one of the first against the wall when the revolution comes. They would probably like me to spend more time on the parts of the law that allow me to keep a soul, but I am already turning down The Money in exchange for getting to keep Some Soul Parts, so I think I’m safer with them than some of the other socialists we have in Aus.
Is this party trying to harm me?
No, they probably would like to consider solidarity and rights for me more than they would like to harm me (though may I note that as someone who identifies as ace and as queer as explaining takes all too long, I was not listed in ANY of that Solidarity Rights For All Diversities section, Socialist Alliance, update your literature, though I will grant you that specific trans and intersex policies documents are slightly more urgent).
Conclusion:
Look, Socialist Alliance are essentially the most cuddly option of all the Australian socialist organisations. Do I agree with them all the time? No. But I know their heart is in the right place and that they actually want to try to accomplish their goals via exploiting the system we currently have, rather than going immediately for revolution.
Do I wish that sometimes they would possibly consider being a bit more user-friendly? Of course.
Sam Wainwright has racked up seven years of local government experience, and that is not to be sniffed at in terms of ability to actually achieve things within government. His community keep voting him back in. On that basis, if I were in his region, I would strongly consider giving him a vote at the top of my ballot, simply because supporting effective political candidates is how we help small parties grow. The other two candidates, I would definitely be listing pretty high on my ballot. I’d certainly personally prefer a candidate I know their position on EVERYTHING for over, say, an AJP candidate where there are vast swathes of policy areas avoided as they can’t be put into an animal focused framework.
If you’re heavily left leaning, there are worse parties you could vote for, though I would still argue than the Greens are more effective at promulgating their similar agenda as they have already spent the past 30 years working out how to play in the big leagues (I realise this is a disincentive to many left leaning supporters who feel that the Greens have gone corporate).
