The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as 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 governing federally since being elected at the 2022 election, and with political branches in each state and territory, they are currently in government in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory – Tasmania is the only state or territory where they currently form the opposition. It is the oldest continuous political party in Australia, being established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament.
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political 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 economically liberal and, in some cases, more socially conservative. 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 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. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented mixed economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to representative and participatory democracy, measures for income redistribution, regulation of the economy in the general interest, and social welfare provisions. Due to longstanding governance by social democratic parties during the post-war consensus and their influence on socioeconomic policy in Northern and Western Europe, social democracy became associated with Keynesianism, the Nordic model, the social-liberal paradigm, and welfare states within political circles in the late 20th century. It has been described as the most common form of Western or modern socialism, as well as the reformist wing of democratic socialism.
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 political magazine based in New York. It offers socialist perspectives on politics, economics and culture. 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.
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).
Left Renewal is a political faction that exists within the Australian Greens, primarily the NSW Greens branch, which was established publicly in late 2016. Described by elements of the media as hard left, it regularly promotes ideologies and beliefs such as anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, feminism, and anti-racist arguments through its online spaces and community events.
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 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.
James Normington Rawling (1898–1966) was an Australian political activist and writer. After serving on the Western Front during World War I he became an ardent pacifist, and later became known for his association with, and expulsion from, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), as well as his research and broader literary activities.
Meagan Day is a writer, editor, and activist. She is an editor at Jacobin, where she was previously a staff writer. She is the author of the 2016 book Maximum Sunlight and co-author of the book Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vox, n+1, The Baffler, In These Times, Mother Jones, The Believer, and elsewhere, and she's been interviewed by the Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Harvard Political Review. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
