The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also commonly known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party has been in government since being elected at the 2022 federal election, and with political branches in each state and territory, they currently form government in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. As of 2023, Tasmania is the only state or territory where Labor forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuous political party in Australian history, being established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament.
The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a confederation of green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and the fourth-largest by elected representation. The leader of the party is Adam Bandt, with Mehreen Faruqi serving as deputy leader. Larissa Waters currently holds the role of Senate leader.
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been in a steady decline since its peak in 1945. Like most communist parties in the West, the party was heavily involved in the labour movement and the trade unions. Its membership, popularity and influence grew significantly during most of the interwar period before reaching its climax in 1945, where the party achieved a membership of slightly above 22,000 members. Although the party did not achieve a federal MP, Fred Paterson was elected to the Parliament of Queensland at the 1944 state election. He won re-election in 1947 before the seat was abolished. The party also held office in over a dozen local government areas across New South Wales and Queensland.
The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor or Labor Unity, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more supportive of free markets and can be more socially conservative than the Labor Left. The Labor Right is a broad alliance of various state factions and competes with the Labor Left faction.
The Labor Left, also known as the Progressive Left or Socialist Left, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It competes with the more economically liberal Labor Right faction.
John Bernard "Jack" Mundey was an Australian communist, union and environmental activist. He came to prominence during the 1970s for leading the New South Wales Builders' Labourers Federation (BLF) in the famous green bans, whereby the BLF led a successful campaign to protect the built and natural environment of Sydney from excessive and inappropriate development. Mundey was the patron of the Historic Houses Association of Australia.
The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Australia to create the current federated structure.
A green ban is a form of strike action, usually taken by a trade union or other organised labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. They were mainly done in Australia in the 1970s, led by the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) and used to protect parkland, low-income housing and buildings with historical significance. At times, industrial action was used in relation to other issues, such as when a 'pink ban' was placed on Macquarie University due to the expulsion of Jeremy Fisher, a gay man, from student housing.
Lee Rhiannon is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales between July 2011 and August 2018. She was elected at the 2010 federal election, representing the Australian Greens. Prior to her election to the Federal Parliament, Rhiannon was a Greens NSW member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1999 and 2010.
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and supports a gradualist, reformist and democratic approach towards achieving socialism, usually under a social liberal framework. In practice, social democracy takes a form of socially managed welfare capitalism, achieved with partial public ownership, economic interventionism, and policies promoting social equality.
The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and some state governments of the time. This occurred in the wake of a Royal Commission into corruption by the union. About the same time, BLF federal secretary Norm Gallagher was jailed for corrupt dealings after receiving bribes from building companies that he used to build a beach house.
Jacobin is an American socialist magazine based in New York. As of 2023, the magazine reported a paid print circulation of 75,000 and over 3 million monthly visitors.
Socialism in Australia dates back at least as far as the late-19th century. Notions of socialism in Australia have taken many different forms including utopian nationalism in the style of Edward Bellamy, the democratic socialist reformist electoral project of the early Australian Labor Party (ALP), and the revolutionary Marxism of parties such as the Communist Party of Australia.
Democratic socialism is a left-wing set of political philosophies that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a market socialist, decentralised planned, or democratic centrally planned socialist economy. Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom, equality, and solidarity and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society. Although most democratic socialists seek a gradual transition to socialism, democratic socialism can support revolutionary or reformist politics to establish socialism. Democratic socialism was popularised by socialists who opposed the backsliding towards a one-party state in the Soviet Union and other nations during the 20th century.
Bhaskar Sunkara is an American political writer. He is the founding editor of Jacobin, the president of The Nation, and publisher of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and London's Tribune. He is a former vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality as well as a columnist for The Guardian US.
Tribune was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia. It was published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Australia from 1939 to 1991. Initially it was subtitled as Tribune: The People's Paper. It was also published as the Qld Guardian, Guardian (Melbourne), Forward (Sydney). It had previously been published as The Australian Communist, (1920-1921) The Communist, (1921-1923) and the Workers' Weekly (1923-1939).
Sally McManus is an Australian trade unionist, feminist and political activist who has served as the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) since 2017. She is the first woman to hold the position of Secretary in the ACTU's 90-year history. Prior to becoming Secretary she served as a Vice President and Campaigns Director.
Joyce Stevens AM (1928–2014) was an Australian socialist-feminist activist, communist, and historian, one of the founders of the women's liberation movement in Sydney, prominent in the wave of feminism that began in the late 1960s in Australia.
The Victorian Socialists (VS) is a political party based in the Australian state of Victoria.
The Socialist Labor Party was a socialist political party of Australia that existed from 1901 to the 1970s. Originally formed as the Australian Socialist League in 1887, it had members such as George Black, New South Wales Premier William Holman and Prime Minister Billy Hughes.
