Victorian Socialists conference resolves to expand party organisation
Victorian Socialists hosted a members’ conference over the weekend of 14-15 June. After garnering impressive votes and national attention in the May federal election, the executive moved to establish socialist parties Australia-wide. More than 2,200 financial members have since joined outside Victoria, including more than 900 in NSW, 480 in Queensland, 270 in South Australia and 330 in WA.
The momentum and excitement of this project were reflected in conference attendance—360 people participated over the weekend, making it the biggest gathering of party members to date. This is an important step at a time of overlapping capitalist atrocities that highlight the need for a radical left challenge to the status quo. This was acknowledged in the first motion moved at the conference, a statement of solidarity with Palestine.
“In the past week, a small boat carrying twelve international activists set out to the ocean to deliver a tiny quantum of food, baby formula and medicine to Palestinians being genocided in Gaza”, Palestine solidarity activist and Socialist Alternative member Simone White said, introducing the motion. “They are amplifying one clear message, one statement of fact ... And it’s a statement of fact written into this motion. They asserted that governments and politicians around the world, particularly in the Western world, were complicit in the genocide in Gaza, and where they were complicit, where they betrayed and failed the Palestinians, we needed to fight.”
VS Secretary Corey Oakley introduced the first session by talking about the overlapping crises of the capitalist system—from far-right authoritarianism to escalating imperialist violence. “What underpins all of this is a savage class war taking place all around the world”, he said.
The conference overwhelmingly endorsed motions to enlarge the scope and scale of Victorian Socialists’ activity. The executive’s decision to expand the party federally was supported, as was a proposal for an ambitious strategy to contest all 88 lower house seats in the 2026 state election. Victorian Socialists members also voted to expand the democratic structures of the party, organising members into groups based on electoral districts and enshrining democratic processes at a local level.
On Saturday afternoon, members broke into groups to discuss organising in their local areas. Reports from these groups give a sense of the work VS members are doing to promote socialist politics locally and in workplaces.
In Melbourne’s West, party members are organising an anti-racist demonstration to respond to police discrimination and violence. In Brunswick, the group is supporting a union rally to defend Merri-Bek council’s library social worker program, which has recently been cut. In the south-east, where Victorian Socialists have a newly established presence, the focus is on setting up the first local meetings to organise volunteers. In the Whittlesea and Darebin council areas, members are preparing to run candidates in upcoming by-elections.
Many conference participants were new to Victorian Socialists, from unionists sick of Labor’s sellouts, to Palestine activists brought into the socialist movement through interaction with the party.
There was a series of debates at the conference, reflecting the party’s democratic internal life. The Communist Caucus, a minority faction, intervened with proposals to significantly alter the party’s structures and strategic orientation. They proposed a program for Victorian Socialists modelled on the politics and structure of early-twentieth-century European social democracy. The faction also nominated an alternative leadership and was provided ample time to explain their positions. They garnered only a small minority of votes for any of their motions or candidates.
Conference elected a new executive, and re-elected the incumbent secretary, treasurer, campaign director and communications officer based on their records of orienting the party through an impressive period of growth.
The conference closed with remarks from Rebecca Barrigos, a teacher unionist and state secretary of the new Queensland Socialists. Bec described the success of the new party in attracting support from blue-collar trade unionists disgusted by the federal Labor Party’s support for union-busting, including the takeover of the Queensland branch of the construction union (the CFMEU).
“It’s a question that’s been posed to them very concretely because they have had ... Labor governments that have actively attacked them”, Barrigos explained. “They can’t have a meeting in their union offices without a bloody government spy sitting in their office listening to what every union member says.”
Bec read from a statement by unionist Dan Jones, explaining to other CFMEU members why he has joined Queensland Socialists:
“The political class is out of touch with the working class, because it’s not made up of ordinary people. Part of it is made up of lawyers, lobbyists and career politicians—people who’ve never clocked on, have never packed a lunch, and have never fought for a pay rise ... Militant unionism, the kind that refuses to beg, that organises and takes collective action, needs political representation that represents its values. Queensland Socialists don’t just talk about supporting unions. They hit the streets, and they do it.”
The project of building a nationwide alternative to the political parties that prop up capitalism in Australia is still in its early stages. However, if this conference is any indication, there is a great deal of willingness to build a new socialist alternative.
