‘We know that society can be better’: Victorian Socialists launch federal election campaign

More than 300 people gathered at Brunswick Town Hall in Melbourne on Friday evening to launch the Victorian Socialists’ campaign for the federal election.

The party will contest four lower house seats in Victoria in the election on 3 May and run Jordan van den Lamb, aka purplepingers, for the Senate.

Hundreds of people have already been involved in the campaign, either by attending forums in Melbourne and regional towns or by helping to distribute letters, yard signs and socialist arguments to working-class people across the state.

Friday’s launch brought some of these people together, and many new faces, to hear our socialist platform for the federal election.

Kath Larkin, candidate for Cooper in Melbourne’s inner north, spoke at the launch about rising inequality and poverty. It’s an indictment that, in one of the wealthiest countries on Earth, demand for food banks and homelessness services is increasing.

The major parties don’t care about this pain; they’ve helped facilitate it. Under federal Labor, we’ve seen a massive transfer of wealth to the richest at the expense of workers’ living standards.

Victorian Socialists are fighting to increase taxes on big businesses and the ultra-wealthy to take back what they’ve stolen and to pour that money into cost-of-living relief and public housing, healthcare and education.

The housing crisis is the sharpest edge of Australia’s cost-of-living crisis. Evidence for this is the popularity, both online and at campaign forums, of van den Lamb, who has tapped into widespread discontent among renters with his “shit rentals” videos targeting dodgy landlords and developers. Speaking at the launch, he outlined a socialist solution to the housing crisis:

“We’re not here to beg for crumbs. We’re here to demand housing for all. We’re here to demand the empty homes be taken off speculators and distributed to the people who need them ... We’re here to fight for an end to this system that treats our homes like poker chips in a casino.”

It’s this fighting anti-capitalist approach to politics that sets Victorian Socialists apart. We need to see more of it in parliament, not another do-nothing, pro-capitalist moderate.

Omar Hassan, candidate for Scullin in Melbourne’s outer north, spoke about the rise of the far right globally and the response we need in Australia. Labor is sucking up to Trump, while Dutton and the Liberals are seeking every opportunity to blame migrants for the problems we face.

“It’s only socialists who know how to fight right-wingers, the far right and fascists”, he said. “All around the world we’re seeing that the mainstream cannot defeat the far right. Vote socialist to fight that scum—whether in the White House, or here in Australia.”

Despite the economic and political challenges, the mood was not despair but hope—and determination to fight for something better.

“We know that society can be better”, said Jasmine Duff, candidate for Fraser in Melbourne’s west. “We can live in a world that puts people before profit. And that’s because working-class people have at their core the empathy and sense of solidarity that can make that world possible.”

Most hopeful of all is the feeling of standing alongside hundreds of people who aren’t going to accept the current state of politics. We’re going to fight in this election and beyond to force a much-needed socialist perspective into Australian politics that puts people before profits—on doorsteps, voting booths and wherever else we can get that message.