Socialist Equality Party final election rallies

International class struggle returns: A socialist program against war and austerity

10 June 2016

The Socialist Equality Party invites workers, students, young people and retirees to attend our final election rallies in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on June 25 and 26. Leading SEP candidates, including the party’s national secretary, James Cogan, will outline the socialist alternative to the program of war and austerity supported by all of the major parties.

The elections take place amid widespread hostility to Australia’s involvement in endless US-led wars, the obscene growth of social inequality over the past three decades and the erosion of democratic rights under the fraudulent “war on terror.” The capitalist parties—Labor, Liberal-National and the Greens—speak for a tiny layer of the ultra-wealthy and have nothing to offer working people. Whichever combination of parties forms the next government, it will impose the dictates of the banks for sweeping cuts to social spending, and intensify Australia’s involvement in the US preparations for war against China—placing the working class on the frontlines of a potential nuclear conflict in Asia. These policies will provoke mass social struggles, as they have around the world.

The intense alienation of millions of people from the entire political establishment is one expression of the new historical period that has begun.

Twenty-five years ago, the dissolution of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy was hailed by defenders of capitalism as the “end of history” and proof that socialism was off the historical agenda. Post-modernist academics declared that the working class had “disappeared” and was no longer a force for revolutionary social change. Now, eight years into the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the working class is re-emerging onto the arena of the class struggle.

In France, millions of workers have engaged in mass strikes and demonstrations in opposition to regressive labour laws supported by the ruling social-democratic government and the unions. Similar struggles are emerging throughout Europe in opposition to austerity measures being imposed in every country.

Socialism is once again in the air. In the United States, millions of workers and young people have supported the campaign of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries for the presidential elections, in the mistaken belief that he is a socialist opponent of Wall Street and the banks. The American population, seething with social discontent, now faces the prospect of a presidential contest between Hillary Clinton, a war criminal, and Donald Trump, a fascistic billionaire.

The critical issue in every country is political leadership. On the basis of the decades-long struggle of the world Trotskyist movement, the SEP is putting forward a socialist, revolutionary and internationalist perspective against war, and in defence of the social rights of the working class. We appeal to workers, students and young people seeking a political alternative to come to the rallies, and bring your families and friends.

Meeting details:

Queensland

Saturday June 25, 2.00 p.m.

Woolloongabba Senior Citizens Hall

22 Qualtrough St, Woolloongabba

Tickets: $5/$3 concession

New South Wales

Sunday, June 26, 2.00 p.m.

Duchess Room

Coronation Club

86 Burwood Rd, Burwood

Tickets: $5/$3 concession

Victoria

Sunday June 26, 2.00 p.m.

Meat Market Meeting Room

5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne

Tickets: $5/$3 concession

To contact the SEP and get involved, visit our website or Facebook page.



Authorised by James Cogan, Shop 6, 212 South Terrace, Bankstown Plaza, Bankstown, NSW 2200.







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