The Socialist Party (SP) is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The Australian section began when comrades recruited to the CWI whilst living in Britain returned to Australia in the early 1980’s.

At the time we began organising mainly within the trade union movement and Young Labor (the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party). At one time we controlled three Young Labor branches. Our organisation has since left the Labor Party and we now operate as an independent party. We currently have branches in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Over the years the Socialist Party has supported and led a number of struggles in support of the rights and conditions of the working class and community as a whole. We were the strongest influence during the student movement against the Greiner government, calling demonstrations and rallies attracting tens of thousands of school students that strongly influenced the Teachers strike against the Liberal government.

Again in Victoria after the Kennett led Liberal Government attacked the education system we were at the forefront of the anti-Kennett movement. In fact we played a leading role running the rebel run school in defiance of Kennett at Richmond Secondary College.

During 1992, after the Victorian Liberal government decided to close Richmond Secondary College, the school community led by some of our members occupied the site for 360 days, 24 hours a day, ran a rebel school, took the education department to court, established picket lines, and launched a giant political campaign. In late 2000 protesters who had been severely beaten by police, won an out of court settlement in excess of $300,000. An initiative instigated by us.

We were also the first socialist party anywhere in the developed world to take up the issue of heroin and the detrimental effect it has on the working class especially it’s youth. We initiated the building of the Community Campaign for Heroin Reform - a campaign to force the Government to acknowledge the drug crisis as a health & social issue rather than an issue of crime. We have campaigned for the opening of safe injecting rooms to reduce the number of overdoses as well as the creation of jobs and other rehabilitation programs.

During the late 1990’s we led the anti-racism struggle against the right-wing party, One Nation. Calling for school student strikes with enormous success in Victoria and participating on rallies and demonstrations throughout Australia. The protests played a significant role in halting the racist party’s growth in popularity, especially in the cities. We were also active during the demonstrations against a fascist run book shop in the Melbourne suburb of Fawkner that eventually closed under the pressure of the protests.

As was the case internationally, in the early 1990s workers and youth came to the conclusion that the Labor Party no longer served the interest of ordinary people. We made a positive open turn towards working as an independent party. Our work was directed towards the new and politically inactive layers in society, amongst workers and youth. However, we have continued to work amongst the rank and file of the trade unions. The success of this work can be gauged by the fact we now have a number of comrades working for trade unions and who are elected as union delegates.

As a result of the many years of campaigning on the ground, we decided, in 1997, to stand a candidate in the Federal Election. Our candidate received over a thousand votes. Following on this successful campaign we stood a candidate in the Victorian State Election built on the foundations of the Richmond School and Heroin Reform campaigns. The SP candidate received one the highest results for a socialist candidate since the 1950s.

In September 2000 we helped mobilise young people and workers to protest against a World Economic Forum regional meeting held in Melbourne. We called a school student strike for the day and organised the successful First Aid Tent. Hundreds of protesters were treated by trade union first aid officers after the brutal and unnecessary attacks by police. Our influence in the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union) led to this and other unions breaking from the Victorian Trades Hall leadership and marching onto the picket lines in support of the protest.

In 2003 SP members established the UNITE campaign which helped to organise casual and low paid workers. In 2006 UNITE was transformed into a union and SP members still hold leadership positions. In November 2004 SP member Stephen Jolly, was elected to Yarra City Council (Langridge Ward) - the first socialist elected in Australia for over 50 years.

We will continue to build and mobilise around campaigns to strengthen the struggle against capitalism. SP will stand candidates in future elections in all states, build rank & file groups within trade unions and fight for the rights of working class people. The development of campaigns and the struggle against exploitation of youth and women will be forefront in the future work of the Socialist Party.