On Saturday, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) held a speak-out in Liverpool, a working-class suburb in southwest Sydney. Max Boddy and Warwick Dove, the party’s candidates for the Senate in New South Wales, spoke in the town centre and the socialist perspective against war, genocide and austerity they advanced met with a strong response.
The candidates, as well as other SEP members and supporters spoke with many workers and youth, and several gave comments, some of which are published here.
Amina, a nursing student at Western Sydney University, came to the speak-out to show her support for the SEP candidates and has already been helping the party distribute its election statement in the working class.
She spoke with Boddy about the conditions she had witnessed during her hospital placements: “The nurses are definitely overworked,” she said. “There were four nurses looking after 12 to 15 patients, and they were just running around constantly. We were there as student nurses and had to run with them the whole time.”
Amina explained that nurses were not only overburdened but were also placed at serious risk, dealing with highly infectious patients while receiving low wages that did not reflect the dangers of the work. Asked why hospital conditions were so poor, Amina said governments “don’t really care. They say there’s not enough money, but there’s always money for war and genocide.”
Amina said the ongoing genocide in Gaza was the responsibility not only of the Israeli regime but also of the United States and other governments, including Labor in Australia, supporting the onslaught.
Joey, 20 years old, said, “Most people in my generation don’t know who to vote for. We feel left out and out of options.”
Joey spoke about the two Bankstown nurses who were sacked and persecuted after being baited into reckless comments online by an Israeli provocateur. He said: “Honestly, online you should be watching your words in case it offends people. But at the same time, it’s ridiculous that your whole life can be taken away from you and your whole career can be taken away and your family gets attacked, for what? For words?
“A lot of times, the capitalist system has led to genocide, whether it’s in Gaza or whether it’s exploitation in Africa or the Middle East. That system has led the wealthy to commit these atrocities.
“War is never a good thing. There are definitely better solutions. We don’t want to end up in a similar situation to Russia and Ukraine. A war with China could be an even worse situation.
“We’re at a time in history when we can be more educated than any other time, with all the social media, everything happening right in front of us.
“Uniting the working class would be a very, very helpful thing, in my opinion, because I believe that most people in the working class know what’s right and what’s wrong and together they can do what’s right.
“If a socialist system can be implemented to stop the massacring of humans and for the working class to be more in power, that would be a great thing.”
Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Level 1/457-459 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010, Australia.
Read more
- A panel discussion with the Socialist Equality Party candidates in the Australian federal election
- Australian election: How to vote for the Socialist Equality Party
- Support the SEP in the Australian federal election! Build a socialist movement of the working class against war, austerity and dictatorship!