Socialist Alliance recommends vote for the Greens in WA state election

Socialist Alliance is not standing candidates in the 2025 WA state election so we will be actively supporting Greens candidates instead.

Labor took advantage of its majority in both houses of parliament to make a number of changes to WA electoral law. Some of these changes we support, in particular "one vote one value" in the Legislative Council (upper house). However, there were also two measures that made it more difficult for us to run.

Firstly, parties that do not already have an MP in parliament need to submit a register of at least 500 members. This did not change, but where previously people could sign up electronically, they now have to physically sign a piece of paper that has to be delivered to or collected by the party. This is a lot more work for a volunteer organisation with no paid staff.

Secondly, in order to run "above the line" in the Legislative Council, parties need to run a ticket of at least five candidates and pay a $2K deposit for each candidate, plus a $2K re-registration fee. In other words, it would have cost us $12K just to run, money we would only get back if we got over 4% of the vote.

These were not an impossible thresholds for us, but we decided to instead put our energy and the money of our members and supporters into our federal election campaign and the grass-roots movements for change that we are committed to building. It's not a concession we wanted to make, but it made sense in the circumstances given our resources.

We hope to see the Greens vote grow and more Greens MP elected. This would signal a strong rejection of the anti-social and climate wrecking policies of both Liberal and Labor, who are the loyal servants of big business in parliament.

Of course we still have a significant strategic difference with the Greens. The billionaires are not going to concede anything serious to us without a fight. Breaking the stranglehold of big business over our society in order to even make modest progress requires the self-organisation of working people in struggle: in our communities, in the workplace, at our places of study and in the streets.

Whatever the exact outcome of the poll, the real "balance of power" will still be held by Labor and Liberals. Given this reality, we must continue to build up working people's power and confidence in the parliament of the streets in order to resist the attacks on us they have planned.

Election campaigns and the actions of principled and gutsy MPs in parliament can help spark or lead the struggle and self-organisation we need, but it can't substitute for it. Rather than seeking to "represent" the movements in parliament, we need the Greens to use their profile and authority to help build them outside of parliament.

Not only would this strengthen the movements for change, but it would it grow the support base and influence of the Greens in a way that no election campaign by itself can. This is vital if the more far-reaching solutions to the social and ecological crises that the Greens propose are to win majority support among the population and in the parliament. This is a perspective we hope to convince the Greens of through respectful discussion and work together.

Once again, we encourage you to actively support the Greens in the state election, and then our own federal election campaign where will be running candidates in Fremantle and the Senate.

In Solidarity, Socialist Alliance WA