Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

Inspired by the British Socialist Labour League, Nick Beams and other young Australian radicals founded the Socialist Labour League (SLL) in 1972.{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/02/ihf1-f27.html|title=The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party, Part 1|publisher=World Socialist Web Site|date=27 February 2010|access-date=15 May 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/03/ihf7-m06.html|title=The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party, Part 7|publisher=World Socialist Web Site|date=6 March 2013|access-date=15 May 2013}} Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the SLL supported strikes against the Fraser (Liberal) and Hawke (ALP) governments.{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/03/ihf8-m08.html|title=The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party, Part 8|publisher=World Socialist Web Site|date=8 March 2013|access-date=15 May 2013}} By the 1980s the party's newspaper, Workers News, was circulated in all major cities twice a week.{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Robert |title=International Trotskyism, 1929-1985 : a documented analysis of the movement |date=1991 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-0975-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationaltro01alex_2/page/78 78-79] |url=https://archive.org/details/internationaltro01alex_2/page/78 }}

In its 1993 perspectives resolution, the SLL drew a balance sheet of the response of the petty-bourgeois "left" tendencies to the demise of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Communist Party of Australia in 1991, arguing that "As long as the working class was dominated by and subordinated to the vast apparatuses of Stalinism and Laborism, they were happy to define themselves as ‘socialists’ and even as ‘Marxists’ or ‘revolutionaries’. They formed part and parcel of the petty-bourgeois buffer, created by the ruling class in the aftermath of the war, to suffocate the working class."A Socialist Strategy for the Working Class, Socialist Labour League, Marrickville, Australia, 1992, pp. 45–46Industrial relations and the trade unions under Labor: from Whitlam to Rudd, op. cit., p. 17

{{Quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#F5FAFF|align=right|quote="The very name ‘Socialist Equality’ makes clear the connection between socialism and the most basic strivings of the working class for a just society, based on social equality and the right of all people to a decent and productive life."|source=—SEP Statement of Principles, adopted unanimously at January 21–25, 2010 founding congress.From the Socialist Labour League to the Socialist Equality Party, Labour Press Books, Bankstown, Australia, 1996, p. 2.}}

The Socialist Labour League was officially refounded as the Socialist Equality Party in 2010, with its founding congress held in Sydney on 21–25 January 2010, where it unanimously adopted a statement of principles.{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/03/sepp-m12.html|title=Statement of Principles|publisher=World Socialist Web Site|date=12 March 2013|access-date=15 May 2013}}

In elections, the party's strongest state has historically been New South Wales. Demographically, the party is stronger with younger voters.{{cite web|url=http://www.reportageonline.com/2010/08/socialist-equality-party-calls-for-radical-change/|title=Socialist Equality Party calls for radical change|website=Reportage Online|date=20 August 2010|access-date=28 November 2012}}

In the 2016 federal election the Socialist Equality Party fielded two senate candidates in each of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, two candidates in New South Wales for the House of Representatives and one in Victoria for the seat of Wills, which also had a Socialist Alliance candidate.{{cite web |url=http://www.aec.gov.au/election/candidates.htm |title=Candidates for the 2016 federal election |date=12 June 2016 |access-date=12 June 2016 |publisher=Australian Electoral Commission}}

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• Socialism in Australia
• Socialist Alliance (Australia)

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• [http://www.sep.org.au Socialist Equality Party (Australia)] Official site.
• [http://www.wsws.org World Socialist Web Site] Official site.

{{Australian socialist groups}}

{{Australian political parties}}

{{Socialist Equality Parties}}

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Category:1933 establishments in Australia

Category:2010 establishments in Australia

Category:Communist parties in Australia

Category:International Committee of the Fourth International

Category:Political parties established in 1933

Category:Political parties established in 2010

Category:Trotskyist organisations in Australia

Category:Trotskyist parties