| SEP Election Campaign '98: Questions and Answers |
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To the SEP, I am standing as an Independent. I believe the lab/lib/nats. have totally betrayed the people of Australia. I find that I agree with all you say. I am funding my own campaign. Any help you can give would be appreciated. Funds, information, endorsements -- anything at all. Regards, TF Dear TF, Thank you for your inquiry. I have to say from the outset that the SEP does not believe that standing as an independent candidate in parliamentary elections can resolve any of the political problems confronting the working class. Your attitude to the Nationals, Liberals and Laborites is shared by broad layers of working people who feel disgust, not only towards the major parties, but with the whole framework of official politics. Over the last decade and a half, first under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, and now under Howard, the social gulf between rich and poor has widened immensely. Jobs, working conditions and wages, as well as essential services such as public education, hospitals and child care have been systematically slashed, leading to mass unemployment and poverty. The working class has been through many bitter experiences with the Labor and trade union leaders, from the Accord and the betrayal of the SEQEB dispute right down to the imposition of enterprise bargaining -- graphically shown in the waterfront struggle, where the MUA leaders are preparing to impose even more savage cuts to jobs and conditions. But the anger of workers has not been directed against the root cause of the onslaught on living standards -- the profit system itself. In the absence of a coherent anti-capitalist alternative, these frustrations have been expressed in many different ways -- declining electoral support for Labor, a vote for the Democrats or Greens, the disaffiliation, temporarily, of some unions from the ALP. Some people have chosen to vote for one of the so-called independents in the mistaken belief that they offer some kind of alternative to the major parties. Over the last decade or so, a significant number of "independents" have emerged in both state and federal elections, and in a few cases have been successful in winning seats. But what has been the result of these experiences? Whether the independents have been ex-ALP members like George Georges in Queensland, so-called leftwingers like Phil Cleary or extreme right-wing and racist figures like Pauline Hanson, the assault on the working class has continued unabated. None of them have made an iota of difference. All of them accept the fundamental premises of the capitalist system and the entire framework of parliamentary politics. None of them have challenged the prerogatives of corporations to slash thousands of jobs and destroy hard-won conditions, or the rights of big business governments to close down public schools and hospitals. Their chief function has been to maintain the illusion that there is a parliamentary solution to the crisis confronting working people -- through holding the "balance of power" or other types of manoeuvres with the major parties. The only way to challenge the power of the banks and big business is through the mobilisation of the working class as an independent social force. That cannot be done as an individual but requires the building of a new political party which is based on the fight for the abolition of the capitalist system and the whole parliamentary setup. The Socialist Equality Party stands in elections to expose the machinations of parliament and to educate the working class in the necessity for a workers government to implement socialist policies. We campaign for the complete reorganisation of society to utilise the immense wealth produced by the working class to meet the social needs of the majority rather than the profits of a few. If you are in agreement with our political program, then you should begin to participate in the struggle to build this movement and fight for its policies in the working class. We would welcome further correspondence and discussion, and would encourage you to study the analysis of the international Trotskyist movement, in particular on the World Socialist Web Site. The establishment of the WSWS earlier this year was a huge advance. Through the combined efforts of the Fourth International, the WSWS provides daily analysis and commentary of political developments and the struggles of the working class internationally as well as articles on culture and exhibits. Our site is rapidly becoming an indispensable resource for workers and youth around the world who are seeking a serious and critical analysis of contemporary events. Regards, Peter Symonds |
| SEP Election Campaign '98: Questions and Answers |