The last bastion of the Liberal Party is the state of New South Wales. Despite this, Labor has not been able to make the cost-of-living crisis go away, either on a state or national scale. Chris Minns, although condemning the wage cap introduced by the Liberals, has not confirmed whether wages would even increase if the cap were abolished ⁽¹⁾. Meanwhile even without a wage cap in other states, wages remain stagnant and interest rates continue to soar.

As working people everywhere languish, all the political parties fan the flames of the next world war and make preparations for the carnage to come, whether as an expansion of the Ukraine war or part of the fight for influence in the Pacific between the ‘West’ and China. In other words, the ruling class tries to limit wages and makes deep cuts to social programs that affect the wellbeing of working people everywhere, even as they spend that same money on lucrative arms contracts to produce nuclear submarines ⁽²⁾.

No matter what promises politicians and their parties make to working people to secure our support, we know that these promises, whether kept or unkept, will not make a single dent in the crisis of capitalism or improve our living conditions one bit under this system. Indeed, there is no law that could sate capital’s “vampire thirst for the blood of living labour” ⁽³⁾. And consequently, no method for running a competitive capitalist economy in the interest of the working class.

Parliamentary democracy, meanwhile, has been shown to not represent the majority; that is, the great mass of working people. We can vote for a party, which, once in power, is allowed to do what they like for three or four years: it can decide to ignore or crush the demands and needs of the workers; or we reject this false choice in its entirety and organise ourselves collectively, outside of the state and its organs such as the trade unions.

Only the global working class – a class which is, at the same time, compelled by its daily conditions of work and life to rebel against these conditions – can bury capitalism and its representative “democracy” for good, and bring about a higher form of society without states or borders in which production is organised entirely around human beings and their real needs.

In this connection, what is required is an international political organisation that collects within itself the most politically advanced members of the class to intervene within its struggles. This organisation, which one might call a ‘party’, is not a government in waiting; nor does it seek power for itself, as traditional parties (whether of the Stalinist or electoral variety) do. Rather, its function is to be a compass in the struggle; to advance workers’ interests against capital within every space around the world. If you are interested in helping work towards establishing this party then get in touch with us.

Notes:

(1) NSW Labor leader coy on whether scrapping wage cap will mean more money for public service, abc.net.au

(2) Aukus: Another Preparation for Imperialist War by ICO: leftcom.org

(3) Marx, Capital Vol 1, Chapter 10 - The Working-Day, marxists.org