Socialist Party Australia - History of the Socialist Party

sj writes "A brief history of the Socialist Party in Australia

The Socialist Party (SP) is the CWI's Australian section.

The Australian section began when comrades recruited to the CWI whilst living in Britain returned to Australia in the early 1980's. We began organising mainly within the trade union movement and the Young Labor (the youth wing of Australia's Labor Party ALP). At one time controlling three Young Labor Branches. The party has grown to have branches in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Over the years the Party has supported and led a number of struggles in support of the rights and conditions of the working class and community as a whole. We were the strongest influence during the student movement against the Greiner government. Calling demonstrations and rallies attracting tens of thousands of school students that strongly influenced the Teachers strike against the Liberal government. Again in Victoria after the Kennett led Liberal Government attacked the education system SP was at the forefront of the anti-Kennett movement. In fact the SP played a leading role the rebel run school in defiance of Kennett at Richmond Secondary. During 1992, after the Victorian government decided to close Richmond Secondary College, the school community led by members of the SP (then Militant) occupied the site for 360 days, 24 hours a day, ran a rebel high, took the education department to court, established picket lines, and launched a giant political campaign. In late 2000 protesters who had been severely beaten by police, won an out of court settlement in excess of $300,000. An initiative instigated by the SP.

The SP was also the first socialist party anywhere in the developed world to take up the issue of heroin and the detrimental effect it is having on the working class especially it's youth. The SP has initiated the building of the Community Campaign for Heroin Reform - a campaign to force the Government to acknowledge the current drug crisis as a health & social issue rather than an issue of crime. We have campaigned for the opening of safe injecting rooms to reduce the number of overdoses as well as the creation of jobs and other rehabilitation programmes.

During the late 1990's the SP led the anti-racism struggle against the right-wing party, One Nation. Calling for school student strikes with enormous success in Victoria and participating on rallies and demonstrations throughout Australia. The protests played a significant role in halting the racist party's growth in popularity, especially in the cities. SP was also active during the demonstrations against a fascist run book shop in the Melbourne suburb of Fawkener that eventually closed under the pressure of the protests.

As was the case internationally, in the early 1990s the workers and youth came to the conclusion that the social democratic ALP no longer served the interest of the workers and young people. The SP made a positive open turn towards working as an independent party. Our work was directed towards the new and politically inactive layers in society, amongst workers and youth. However, we have continued to work amongst the rank and file of the trade unions. The success of this work can be gauged by the fact we now have a number of comrades working for trade unions.

As a result of the many years of campaigning on the ground, the SP decided, in 1997, to stand a candidate in the Federal Election. Our candidate received over a thousand votes. Following on this successful campaign SP stood a candidate in the Victorian State Election built on the foundations of the Richmond School and Heroin Reform campaigns. The SP candidate received one the highest results for a socialist candidate since the 1950s. In September 2000 SP mobilised youth and unionist to protest against a WEF regional meeting held in Melbourne. SP called a school student strike for the day and organised the successful First Aid Tent. Hundreds of protesters were treated by trade union first aid officers after the brutal and unnecessary attacks by police. Our influence in the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union) led to this and other unions breaking from the Victorian Trades Hall leadership and marching onto the picket lines in support of the protest.

Our work at the S11 demonstration has laid the ground work for the launching of a youth wing of the SP, Young Socialist League. YSL will continue the of work within the school student movement and build a broader campaign to fight the exploitation of young workers and women in the workplace called Young Workers Association.

The SP will continue to build and mobilise around campaigns to strengthen the struggle against capitalism. SP will stand candidates in future elections in all states, build rank & file groups within trade unions and fight for the rights of working class people. The development of campaigns and the struggle against exploitation of youth and women will be forefront in the future work of the Socialist Party.

In Easter 2002 SP played a key role at the Woomera Detention Centre protest and later during the anti-war movement, organising school student rallies and strikes, union support for the anti-war effort, and direct action protests including the famous Camberwell action when Prime Minister John Howard came to speak at a Liberal Party function.

In 2003 SP moved to create a second branch in Melbourne and had a very successful National Conference in May. The same month our newspaper, The Socialist, went full colour on 4 pages, a tremendous breakthrough for the party.

Currently the party is campaigning against the cuts to Medicare, the attack on university students by the Federal Government and for young workers' rights. We are also preparing for US President George Bush's visit to Australia later this year.
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