About Us

The ISO (Australia) belongs to theĀ International Socialist Tendency, an international current of revolutionary socialist organisations which share the same political outlook and seek to help each other by exchanging experience and other forms of practical support.

Where we stand

Socialism

Capitalism is a system of crisis, exploitation and war in which production is profit not human need. Although workers create society’s wealth they have no control over production or distribution.

We stand for socialism, the creation of a society in which the workers will make the decisions about the economy, social life and the environment.

The Stalinist system that once existed in countries like Russia and Eastern Europe had nothing to do with socialism but was a form of state capitalism.


Workers’ Power

Only the working class has the power to create a society free from exploitation, oppression and want.

Liberation can be won only through the struggles of workers themselves, organised independently of all other classes and fighting for real workers’ power – a new kind of state based on democratically elected workers’ councils.


Revolution, not Reformism

Socialism cannot be created by gradual reforms as some in the Labor Party believe. The capitalist state – parliament, the military, the law – is a weapon of class rule and must be smashed. There is no parliamentary road to socialism.


Internationalism

The working class exists in all countries and the struggle for socialism knows no national boundaries.

We are for building an international movement organising to overcome national divisions between workers.

The defeat by Stalin of the Russian revolution of 1917 shows that socialism cannot be built in a single country; socialist revolutions must be spread if they are to survive.

We oppose racism and imperialism and support all national liberation struggles against imperialist domination.

Australia is not an oppressed country, but an imperialist power in its own right. This means we are opposed to Australian nationalism and immigration controls.


Liberation from Oppression

We fight for democratic rights. We are against the oppression of women, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, migrants, and lesbians and gay men. All these forms of oppression are used to divide the working class. Combating them is an essential part of building a united revolutionary struggle that can create a socialist society free fromĀ oppression.


Revolutionary Organisation

Crucial to a workers’ movement smashing the capitalist state is a revolutionary workers’ party built out of the day-to-day struggles around economic and political issues.

We are beginning to build such a party, linking the ideas of revolutionary socialism to workers’ struggle against the system.