Socialist Party Australia - What We Stand For

sp writes "The Socialist Party's programme

What we stand for

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders

* Full support for full land rights.
* We recognise that all land was stolen from the indigenous peoples.
* Aboriginal title to take precedence over mining and grazing on land of historical Aboriginal value.
* Labour movement action to support a campaign to launch an offensive against black deaths in custody.
* Increase funding for remote area health, educational, housing and community services.
* Unity between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal working class people in a struggle for the genuinely Socialist transformation of society as the only real way to put an end to exploitation, racism and discrimination and ensure the right to self-determination.

Defence

* No support for anti-democratic regimes, eg. Papua New Guinea in Bougainville. Opposition to Australian military involvement in the region - it's a tool to expand Australian imperialist domination of hte area, with New Zealand as a junior partner.
* For cuts to arms expenditure and an end to uranium mining. Transfer the resources to socially useful production with no loss of jobs.
* No to US military bases. For a nuclear-free Australia, but with the recognition that only a socialist change of society in Australia and internationally can eliminate the danger of a nuclear holocaust.

Education

* Free education for everyone, for the whole of your life - abolish HECS, up-front fees and all other course-related fees.
* Adequate government funding of public education.
* No government subsidies to private institutions.
* Stop the privatisation of schools.
* Free uniforms and text books and other educational materials.
* Smaller class sizes and more resources to facilitate quality education.
* Provide TAFE and University places for all who want them - increase funding and end overcrowding.
* Ensure access to further education for adult students.
* No to student loans - increase Austudy to $380.00 (net) per week for all full-time students over the age of 16.
* Free, high-quality child care facilities at all TAFEs and Universities.
* School curriculum to be worked out by democratically-elected committees of students, teachers and the wider communities. Subjects like Aboriginal studies and international labour movement history to be available to all students.
* The right for students to organise and manage their own organisations/student unions and funds collected for these bodies. No anti-student unionism legislation ("Voluntary" Student Unionism).

Environment
* For an end to the destruction of the world environment by big business.
* For safe and humane food production under workers' and consumers' control.
* Development of more efficient and environmentally-friendly farming methods.
* For immediate steps to halt and reverse global warming, including a worldwide ban of CFCs, more harmonious use of fossil fuels, massive investment into the development of renewable energy, eg. solar, hydro and wind.
Building legislation to provide for energy saving and greater recycling capacity in houses, factories, offices, etc. Recycle of waste and ending the dumping of dangerous wastes on land or in the sea.
* Nationalisation of the timber and mining (especially uranium) industries.
* Alternative jobs to be provided for all workers whose jobs are lost due to environmental measures.
No to short term profits at the expense of the environment: a long term plan for the industry to be drawn up by timber workers and their unions, conservationists, government and local authorities. While supporting steps to halt the decline of the environmental standards and improve the quality of the environment, we recognise that preventing the destruction of the global environment is only possible through an integrated plan for all the world's resources. Only in this way can we assure the needs of this and future societies will be met.

Health

* Free, high-quality health care for all, including dental and optical care. Defend and extend Medicare. Opposition to any cuts to PBS
* Unions and the Community to conduct mass campaigns, to reverse all cuts to and closures of hospital and health services. Put an end to the privatisation of hospitals.
* A massive increase in government health expenditure to expand the public hospital system and end the long waiting lists for operations.
* For government-funded community-managed health centres.
* Nationalise the private health insurance funds.
* Free prescriptions and immunisations for those who need them.
Increase resources for medical research with the emphasis on preventative health care.
* Fight the spread of HIV and AIDS. Increase public funds for research, treatment and care of people with HIV/AIDS.
* Increase facilities for drug users, eg. needle exchange programs, rehabilitation treatments, safe injecting facilites, heroin trials. End police harassment of users.
* Improved sex, drug and AIDS education programs in the schools and wider community.
* Nationalise the pharmaceutical companies so that research is co-ordinated and geared to health needs, not profits.

International

* We support solidarity amongst the labour movement throughout the world to fight the agenda of global capitalism. We actively support the struggles of the workers and peasants throughout the world. We support the right of all nations to self-determination. We are affiliated to the Committee for a Workers' International which links over 34 revolutionary groups throughout the world. We support the regroupment of international socialist organisations on a principled basis.
* Create a socialist world where hunger, poverty, tyranny, environmental destruction and war can be finally abolished.

Jobs and conditions

* Jobs for all who want them. Immediate introduction of a 35-hour working week without loss of pay.
* Permanent full time jobs for all who want them - put an end to the slide into casualisation of the workforce.
* A mimimum hourly rate of $20 an hour, including pensioners, unemployed, students, people with disabilities and illnesses. This would be indexed in line with rises in the cost of living.
* Equal pay for equal work: for women, youth, disabled, etc.
* Part-time jobs with maximum and minimum hours and pro-rata conditions (eg. holidays and sick pay)
* No to "Work for the dole".
* An end to low paid, "no future" and bodgy traineeships. All traineeships to be worked out and overseen by a democratically-elected committee of trade unions, community and unemployed workers' representatives.
* Ensure full time jobs are guaranteed on completion of traineeships.
* No to in-house apprenticeships.
* Resist every redundancy with industrial action. Take plants facing closure into public ownership and allow workers to run them
* Open company accounts so the public can see how the wealth has been squandered.
* The right for all workers to organise in unions in the workplace free of discrimination and harassment from the bosses - ie. fight for collective bargaining.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, (Queer) Rights

* Opposition to all forms of discrimination on the basis of sexual preference.
* Equal ages of consent - nationally.
* The question of the age of consent to be worked out by a national committeee comprising youth, youth service professionals and community leaders.
* Repeal of all anti-homosexual laws.
* For union and community education and action to stop 'gay bashing'. For the unions, community groups and progressive parties to work actively with the lesbian, gay and queer communities to educate and act against homophobia.

Media

* Total opposition to the monopolisation of the capitalist media which attacks workers in struggle for daring to defend their jobs, wages or conditions. The media, printing plant facilities, radio and TV should be nationalised and run by democratically-accountable boards, comprising trade union and community representatives. Access to facilities should be given to political parties in proportion to their support at elections.
* Government funding for the publication of political information for all political organisations with over 500 members.

Migration and Refugees

* Oppose all discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality or nationality. Equal rights for all people living in Australia. We oppose all cuts to immigration and support the lifting of barriers on immigration.
* For an increase in immigration to boost the economy. Close all detention centres - jobs not jail for refugees and all workers.
* Increase funding for free and improved English studies for all migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds.
* International freedom of movement for all nationalities.
* Equal access to public health care and social welfare for all newly arrived migrants.
* Government funding to assist in maintaining the cultural heritage of all races and ethnic groups.

Socialist Society

* We support Australia becoming a Socialist republic.
* Re-nationalisation of privatised state and federal industries.
No to privatisation. For the democratic nationalisation of the monopolies that control the economy, including the banks and insurance companies, with compensation only to small shareholders who are in need.
* For the formation of cooperatives of small or owner-operator businesses.
* This would allow a socialist plan of production to be drawn up and implemented by committees involving trade unions, workplace delegates, unwaged and small business men and women. This would end the waste and duplication of the capitalist system and allow the savings and benefits to be ploughed back into the economy, paying for all of the above.

The State

* Disband elite military police units.
* End police violence and harassment.
* Community control over the police, through democratically-elected local authority police committees. These committees to have control over the distribution of weapons, with distribution based on proven need.
* For genuinely independent police complaints procedures.
* No police presence at rallies, demonstrations, picket lines and occupations. Trade unions and community groups to organise progressive crowd control and protection - in conjunction with the police - on demonstrations and strikes, etc.
* Decriminalisation of swearing and marijuana.
* Removal of racists from the police and judiciary.
* Abolition of the positions of Governor-General and Governors.
* Abolition of the Senate and State upper houses.
* A Socialist Australia as part of a Socialist world federation.

Trade Unions

* Trade union democracy: rank and file groups to be built in every union.
* Form an unemployed workers' union.
* All union officials and organisers to be regularly elected and subject to recall.
* All union officials to receive the average wage of the workers they represent, with genuine expenses only.
* Delegates or shop stewards to be elected by workers in every workplace.
* Hold regular mass delegates' meetings.
* All major issues to go to mass meetings of union members to be voted on.
* No secret negotiations between union officials and bosses. Union officials to be accompanied by delegates or shop stewards in workplaces and in negotiations with bosses at all times.
* Make the use of scabs by employers illegal.
* Fight all anti-union laws with industrial action if necessary.
* Conduct a mass campaign to defend the right of all workers to organise, stike and picket without legal restrictions.
* Unions to be given immunity from common law action.
* Unions to pay any fines incurred by workers in industrial disputes.
* Internationalism - Australian unions to form links with and actively support, through solidarity boycotts and industrial action, workers in struggle internationally.
* Create a regional federation of trade unions to co-ordinate workers' solidarity, lift wage levels for all workers, and prevent the bosses from shifting plants offshore.

Women

* Opposition to discrimination on the basis of gender and opposition to all forms of sexual harassment. Equal pay for work of equal value.
* End the "sexual division of labour": equal opportunities for women in the schools, workplaces, labour movement and home.
* Create a free, publicly-funded network of good-quality child care, combining workplace and community-based provision with places for all those who wish to use them.
* Increase child benefits to reflect the true cost of child-rearing.
* Free, safe contraception and abortion on demand.
* Increased funding for rape crisis centres, women's refuges and assistance for victims of domestic violence. Conduct public campaigns, led by unions and the community, to heighten the awareness of psychological and physical domestic violence and the causes of these problems.
* Free, safe and clean public transport for all, 24 hours a day.

Workers' Party

* Found a genuine mass workers' party based on trade unions, community organisations and ordinary people who want real change.
* All representatives to be elected by the party rank and file and subject to immediate recall.
* Rotation of all offices at regular periods.
* All party representatives to receive no more than the average wage of a skilled worker (plus bona fide expenses, vetted by the rank and file) and any surplus to be given to workers' struggles.
* Policies to be determined by mass meetings of the rank and file (from the bottom up).
* The party to be linked with the trade union movement.
* Actively and consistently fight for genuine Socialist policies on every issue the constituency faces.

Youth

* A guaranteed job or educational place for all youth.
* Repeal archaic juvenile crime legislation.
* An end to junior rates of pay, including junior social security payments.
* Equal pay for equal work and equal rates and access to benefits for 16-20 year olds.
* The right for youth to organise in unions at school, college or at work.
* The right to vote at 16.

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