Less than 5mins long, Shoebridge explains and puts in a nutshell where we are now (and where that will take us) and what we need to do for a decent future.
Let's get active!
how can voting Socialist help us to get to that society we'd like to see?
If the Socialists the original commenter was referring to is the Australian Socialists* (what we'll be running under at the next federal election), then here's the answer:
We don't believe we'll achieve socialism through parliament alone (the ruling class would never give up their power over society so easily), however running in and winning elections is an important part of building a socialist movement:
- Because that's pretty much the only place the average Australian engages with politics these days,
- Because parliamentarians get a much larger platform from the media
- As evidence of popularity of socialist policies
You've got to make the socialist argument to people where they are.
Abstentionists claim participating in elections necessarily means you're going to moderate your views. We don't agree with this and see it as a means to promote our movement to as many people as possible. Make no mistake, we don't think we're going to get into parliament and implement a bunch of reforms by compromising our ideals like the Greens' do.
There's a reason people have heard of us and we're growing and abstentionists are completely invisible and no one has ever heard of them (exaggeration, but you get what I mean).
Do let me know if you have further questions about why the Socialist contest elections!
* these are the state-level parties: