Socialist Alliance (Australia)

Socialist Alliance (SA) is an Australian socialist political party and activist organisation. It was founded in 2001 as an alliance of various socialist organisations and activists, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation.

Engaging in a combination of grassroots activism and electoral politics, as of February 2024 Socialist Alliance has one elected officeholder in Australia, Sue Bolton in the City of Merri-bek.

The party is involved with the trade union, environmentalist and student movements in Australia. It takes strong left-wing stances on numerous issues, including refugee rights, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights, anti-racism, and public ownership. Socialist Alliance also proposes nationalising the banking, energy and mining sectors. On workers' rights, the party supports raising the minimum wage, implementing wage theft and industrial manslaughter laws, increasing trade union bargaining to industry-wide status and reducing the working week to 30 hours. It opposes the building of new coalmines and any attempts to privatise public services such as Medicare. The party supports expansion of the public healthcare system to cover dental services and the cessation of public funding to private schools. Policies of state branches include support for public housing, public transport, public education and publicly owned utilities, as well as advocating for less militarised and hard-line policing and justice systems.

The party participated within the Victorian Socialists electoral alliance in Victoria, until it withdrew from it in May 2020.