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Victorian Socialists
Leader	Collective leadership
President	Sue Bolton
Secretary	Corey Oakley
Founded	February 2018; 1 year ago (2018-02)
Merger of	Socialist Alliance Socialist Alternative Independents
Headquarters	Victorian Trades Hall, Carlton
Membership	1,700[1]
Ideology	Socialism Anti-capitalism
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
Colours	Black and red
Slogan	People before profit
Legislative Assembly	0 / 88
Legislative Council	0 / 40
Local government	2 / 645
Website
www.victoriansocialists.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Victorian Socialists (commonly shortened to as Vic Socialists or VicSocs) is an Australian socialist political party based in the state of Victoria. Founded in February 2018, it is an electoral alliance of various socialist parties, organisations, community groups and trade unionists. Seeking to "unite Victoria's left-wing" through a combination of activism and electoral work, Victorian Socialists have a specific focus on housing, public transport and workers' rights issues.^[2]

Their initial 2018 Victorian state election campaign gained support from several trade unions such as the ETU, VAHPA, UFU, CFMMEU (MUA division), AMIEU and NUW.^[3][4][5] The campaign also gained support from several local immigrant diaspora organisations, including the "Kurds, Tamil, Afghan, Eritrean" and Lebanese community organisations.^[6][7]

Although the largest grouping within the Victorian Socialists was initially Socialist Alternative, with Socialist Alliance being the second-largest, a significant majority of the membership are not affiliated with either of these two parties.^[1]

History

The party's formation was announced publicly on the 5th of February 2018 and called for people to join the party in order to register with the Victorian Electoral Commission.^[8] The party was to be created to contest the Northern Metropolitan Region seat of the Legislative Council at the 2018 Victorian state election. Within three days, on February 7, the party announced that it had reached the minimum required to register as a party in Victoria.^[9]

On February 26, the party proposed that the 'outdated' Victorian state flag be replaced with the Eureka Flag.^[10]
On April 20, the party announced via its Facebook page that it had begun the process of registering with the Victorian Electoral Commission.^[11] The party was officially registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission on 6 June 2018.^[12]

In July 2018, the party launched its 'We are Not Sardines' campaign to promote its public transport policy. Featuring leafleting at several stations in the northern suburbs of Melbourne as well as sardine-themed stunts, it has outlined renationalised, reinvested, free and reliable public transport as its priorities.^{[citation needed]} This was followed by the party's election manifesto launch on 24 August, which drew a full crowd in Brunswick Town Hall.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2018, the party announced that it would field candidates in every Victorian Legislative Council region, as well as several Victorian Legislative Assembly electorates. One of the announced candidates included the former Geelong Trades Hall Secretary Tim Gooden running for the Western Victoria Region.^[13]

On Saturday 16 February 2019, the Victorian Socialists held its Founding Conference in West Melbourne. The conference facilitated a democratic transfer of power from the founding Transitional Executive to direct control by the membership in the form of a 9 seat Executive Committee and a 25 seat Governing Council.^{[citation needed]} The Founding Conference adopted a party Constitution and Code of Conduct.^{[citation needed]} As of this conference, membership numbers have grown to just under 1800.^{[citation needed]} The party have since announced they will run candidates in the electorates of Calwell, Wills, and Cooper during the upcoming 2019 federal election.^[14]

Office Bearers

Executive Committee

4 members of the Governing Council (yet to be elected by the Governing Council) also sit on the Executive Committee.^{[citation needed]}

Governing Council

All 5 other office bearers also sit on the council.^{[citation needed]}

Policies

Victorian Socialists launched its 2018 election manifesto on 24 August at the Brunswick Town Hall, outlining a broadly left-wing and socialist vision. It is based on broad principles of public ownership, workers' rights and equality.^[15][16] The party's policies include:

Housing

• Support for ongoing Victorian Government reforms, including limiting rent rises per year, limiting bond to 4 weeks' rent and abolition of no reason vacancy notices


• Five-year freeze on rent increases


• Subsequent rent increases to be indexed to the Consumer Price Index
  


• 50,000 new public housing units over next five years


• Mandating basic features for new dwellings such as minimum outdoor space and minimum floor space per bedroom

Public transport

• Re-nationalisation of public transport providers


• Free public transport
  


• Train services every 5 minutes during peak times and every 10 minutes during off-peak times


• Tram services every 2 minutes during peak times and every 6 minutes during off-peak times


• Electrification of Craigieburn line to Wallan and extension of Mernda line to Whittlesea
  


• Increasing staffing on stations

Jobs

• Large-scale public investment


• Cessation of subsidies to private companies


• Creation of publicly-owned energy corporation


• Creation of recycling plant in Whittlesea

Education

• Stopping public funding of private schools
  


• Free childcare and pre-school


• Greater funding of public schools to provide "world class education system"


• Employment of additional 1600 teachers to ease workload and reduce class sizes


• Abolition of NAPLAN and standardised testing that "create artificial competition between schools"


• Implementation of curriculum that fosters critical enquiry and engagement


• Restore full funding for free and public TAFE
  

Nationalisation

• 
  Public ownership of energy, public transport, aged care, childcare, hospitals, vocational training and disability services

Workers' rights

• Implementation of wage theft and industrial manslaughter laws


• Increase in sector-wide bargaining powers of trade unions


• Protection of right to strike


• Cessation of government contracts with "anti-worker" companies


• Limit of shift length to no longer than 10 hours

Justice

• Addressing crime through addressing root causes such as housing, education and employment


• Halting construction of new prisons


• Reversing changes to bail, parole and mandatory sentencing laws


• Halting militarisation of Victoria Police


• Establishment of an interdependent body to investigate police misconduct

Other policies

• Implementing inclusionary zoning, requiring 20% of new developments above four stories to include low-cost housing


• Large-scale public investment in renewable energy
  


• Drug liberalisation


• Public investment into healthcare


• Protecting heritage sites such as Federation Square from private development

Electoral results

Victoria

Legislative Council

Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats	+/–
2018	32,603	0.91	0 / 36

Legislative Assembly

Endorsements

A number of notable public figures have endorsed the party for the 2018 state election, including:

Notable members

See also

• Socialism in Australia


• Socialist Alliance


• Socialist Alternative

References