A-Infos (en) Australia, ACF - Picket Line: The Victorian Election (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This November, millions of workers across Victoria, alongside our class 
enemies, will vote to decide who governs for the next four years. What 
do the different parties represent? ---- Historically, Australian 
elections have been dominated by two major parties: Labor; the political 
arm of the trade union bureaucracy, and the Coalition; a long-standing 
but uneasy alliance of conservatives, unified in their opposition to 
workers. ---- Like their union bureaucrat mates, the Labor Party claims 
to represent workers. Their real role, though, is to manage the 
contradictory relationship between bosses and workers.

When we as workers organise to better our conditions, it comes at the 
expense of the bosses' profits. If union officials want to keep their 
jobs, their power, and their privileges, they have to be able to 
mobilise members, but without threatening the ruling class too much.

Labor looks out for the interests of the union officials. But just like 
the Coalition (or any other party of government) they inevitably have to 
manage capitalism in the interests of the bosses. Differences over "how" 
can be chalked up to disagreements within competing sections of the 
capitalist class. Ultimately, the goal is to manage a status quo defined 
by globalisation and financialisation.

The economic roots of One Nation
Over the course of the 80s and 90s, successive Labor governments oversaw 
major economic changes. To be globally competitive, Australian capital 
embraced globalisation. It became easier for the bosses to send their 
business elsewhere, and to undermine the pay and conditions won by 
unions through industrial action. If it's more profitable to make 
something overseas, it's not getting made here.

Likewise, it was made easier for international capital to enter the 
Australian market. Multinationals, with their coffers of cash, could 
out-compete, bid up, or purchase small-to-medium sized Australian 
businesses.

The financial sector was deregulated too, making it easier for banks to 
loan money to bosses and workers. Along with superannuation, these cheap 
loans further tied our interests to the health of the financial system. 
When we're in debt, our living standards depend on paying it back, 
making us extra susceptible to interest rate changes.

These conditions caused grief for two distinct and often antagonistic 
groups. Blue collar workers lost their secure union jobs to overseas 
manufacturing, and small business owners to the competition of 
international capital. Together, they would eventually form the 
mass-base for a new political force: Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Until recently, One Nation remained relatively dormant outside of 
Queensland. In other countries, far-right parties had been able to take 
advantage of the 2008 recession. But because of Chinese demand for 
Australian minerals, the crash wasn't felt so deeply here. It wasn't 
until post-COVID economic pains, and the inflationary pressures of the 
Iran war, that the party's racist scapegoating caught on (for details 
see The One Nation surge).

What about The Left?
To the left of Labor sit two parties, The Socialists and the Greens.

Unlike Labor, the Greens can't claim any historic links to the workers 
movement, and while some sections of the party might claim to be 
socialist, their orientation isn't grounded in class struggle. Instead, 
Greens candidates campaign on whichever progressive values play best in 
a given electorate. Typically, this limits their vote to highly educated 
professionals, activists, and the inner city.

With the degradation of the Australian Dream in full swing, a massive 
portion of the working class is economically insecure. Housing and the 
cost of living are reported as primary drivers for political 
polarisation, from the far-right to the far-left. The Greens have 
responded by attempting to mobilise young, inner city renters. But 
despite their activist roots, the result is to funnel discontent into 
dead-end election cycles.

The Socialist Party shares a similar critique of the Greens, and aims to 
be a party of the working class. As we wrote before the last federal 
election (The election: An anarchist view), the Socialist Party is 
largely controlled by self-described revolutionaries - Socialist 
Alternative. These comrades claim to have no faith in elections, or 
intentions to manage capitalism, and that their real aim is to spread 
revolutionary socialist ideas.

But is that the case?

Each section of their policy platform opens with a few radical sounding 
statements - 'workers should control their workplaces'; 'Australia's 
state institutions must be replaced' - but these are quickly followed by 
what the party actually campaigns on: reformist demands around existing 
rights people already have.

Rather than talk about the need to overthrow this oppressive system 
through workers' power, the Socialist Party have rolled out detailed 
plans for taxing the rich, funding public services, reparations for 
colonialism, and further state intervention. When a Socialist candidate 
was asked on 3AW to define socialism, the response was to talk about 
free health care and the corrupting influence of lobbyists from the 
'billionaire (not capitalist!) class'.

This rightward drift has come after securing just a tiny percentage of 
votes. What could we expect if they were to make real gains, or if they 
ever have a shot at forming government? Instead of using the state as a 
platform for revolutionary ideas, the state will use the Socialist Party 
as a platform for reformism.

Workers, not voters
The kinds of activity we engage in changes us just as much as we change 
the world. Elections force parties to fight for votes, moderate their 
goals into "realistic" proposals, and centre themselves instead of their 
constituents. Representation, not self-organisation, is the name of the 
game.

The Socialist Party will claim their campaign organises workers. But 
organise towards what? And how? Too often the word "organise" is used as 
a thought-terminating cliche - the conversation stops there.

As anarchists, we don't want to see workers organised as 'voters'. We 
understand that real change is only possible when we organise 
collectively as workers to build power where it really matters.

This means organising on the shop floor. It means joining your union, 
building the rank-and-file, and fighting directly for better conditions. 
It means taking charge of our own struggle, not handing it over to those 
promising to act on our behalf.

The election won't decide whether we win these fights. We will.

https://ancomfed.org/2026/10/the-victorian-election/
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