Socialist Alliance members and supporters will be very busy over the next few months as the federal election draws near. We will be organising election launches, meetings, fundraisers, letterboxing and leafleting drives.
The major parties have begun their election campaigns, which are heavily subsidised by the government and big business. But the Socialist Alliance runs on people power. That makes our approach to politics and election campaigns different from other parties.
Firstly, we don't just pop our heads up at election time. The alliance acts all year round to build all movements for progressive change. The alternative for which we are fighting can only grow through strengthening people's participation in all movements for justice. Election campaigns are just one part of this process.
How can we address the urgent problem of global warming? How can we defend our workplace rights? How can we defend Medicare and extend it into a decent public health system? How can we create free and accessible education at all levels? How can we end the Australian government's criminal policies on war and refugees?
The only way to achieve these goals is through building grassroots campaigns that are too powerful to be ignored. Such movements are the only counter-power that can challenge the entrenched corporate interests on whose behalf both Liberal and Labor will seek to govern.
Socialist Alliance parliamentarians would be a new breed of politician in Australia. Not careerists in suits living comfortable lives, but "champions of the people", who would use their parliamentary positions to speak up for our rights and strengthen grassroots movements for social progress. If elected, our candidates would take only an average worker's wage.
The Socialist Alliance doesn't just fight for reforms as an end in themselves. The policies we advocate point to a new type of society. Our goal is an Australia where the majority of people (workers and the unemployed, family farmers and the self-employed, students and pensioners) would really gain the power to make the decisions presently made by a powerful and privileged corporate elite. This people's self-government is the essence of what we mean by socialism.
It would be real majority rule, as opposed to the "choice" every three or four years between parties who agree that corporate profit and power are simply untouchable.
If you agree with what we say, then you should join us. Socialist Alliance membership is open to any individual who broadly agrees with the aims and objectives of the alliance and agrees to participate in its non-sectarian, cooperative spirit.
Annual membership rates are $60 high-waged, $24 waged, $12 unwaged and $6 for high school students. And any person who joins the Socialist Alliance or renews their membership before the end of the year will receive a complimentary three-week introductory subscription to Green left Weekly.
[To join, visit http://www.socialist-alliance.org, contact your local Socialist Alliance branch (see page 2) or phone Dick on (02) 9690 2508 or 0425 221 565 to get a membership form mailed out to you.]