The Victorian state election will be held on Saturday, 28 November. To date, most of the coverage of the election has been focused on the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. If, as predicted, the party gains a breakthrough vote—perhaps even enough to strong-arm its way into a coalition government with the Liberals—it will be big news. One Nation would likely cement its spot as a genuine third force in mainstream politics and gain further momentum to take it through to the NSW state election in March 2027 and the next federal election, due by May 2028.

In the face of this, the increasingly unpopular Labor government is preparing to wage a classic, US Democrat-style “lesser evil” campaign—arguing that everyone who opposes One Nation must vote for Labor as the least-worst option among prospective parties of government.

We’ve seen in country after country, though, that attempts by traditionally dominant capitalist parties to head off the threat posed by the far right by doubling down on the neoliberal status quo have only added fuel to the fire. Parties like Labor are incapable of pushing back the far right for the simple reason that they don’t offer anything that will improve the lives of working-class people and address the anger many feel.

What’s needed isn’t more of the same from a now almost 12-year-old Labor government that has failed working-class people and the oppressed in so many ways. What’s needed is a political alternative that’s prepared forthrightly to call out the lies of the far right and point the finger at those who are actually responsible for things like the cost of living and housing crises: billionaires, big banks and property investors, the supermarket giants and other major corporations, and, of course, the major party politicians who have made it their life’s work to serve them.

That’s the alternative that Victorian Socialists will provide, and we’ll be doing it on a bigger scale than anything attempted by socialists in Australia for generations. We’re aiming to run

candidates

in all 88 of Victoria’s lower house seats, and a full suite of candidates in the upper house, ensuring that all Victorians have a chance to vote for a socialist alternative to the major parties and the far right. And between now and the election, we’ll be mobilising thousands of party activists across the state—talking to voters on their doorsteps, delivering letters, putting up yard signs and, come November, handing out how-to-vote cards at polling booths.

There are two sides to our campaign. One will focus on issues we know are driving the deep frustration many feel with today’s economic and political set-up. We’ll be talking about the obscene level of inequality in Victoria and Australia that has been growing year on year and decade on decade, no matter which of the major parties has been in power. We’ll be pointing out that while governments claim not to have enough money to spend on things like public housing, education and health care, the wealth of Australia’s billionaire class balloons to greater extremes every year.

We’ll be talking about the failures of neoliberal agenda of cuts and privatisation—subscribed to by Labor, the Coalition, and One Nation alike—that has laid waste to working-class communities across our state. We’ll point to the need for much greater investment in things like public transport, schools, hospitals and social services, and for measures—like bringing the energy system and other essential services back into public hands—that will rein in the relentless, out-of-control drive to private profit at the heart of capitalism and prioritise meeting human needs instead.

Our approach to the housing question is typical. As socialists, we don’t believe that meeting people’s need for shelter should be left to the whims of the capitalist market. Our goal is a society in which housing is no longer a commodity, but a universal right. As a step towards that, a centrepiece of our campaign will be the demand for the establishment of a public builder to construct 150,000 new, high-quality, sustainable public housing units over the next ten years. Not only will this ensure those currently experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity have a place to live, it will also put downward pressure on rents and home prices in the private market.

The other side of our campaign will be a vision of hope and solidarity—of a society run by and for the working class, one free from exploitation, oppression …