Posted on Friday, 28 March
This morning Anthony Albanese pulled the trigger for the 2025 federal election campaign - announcing that the poll will take place in just over a month on Saturday 3rd May.
Between now and then we'll be going all-out to ensure as many voters as possible hear about our wonderful group of Vic Socialists candidates - Jordan van den Lamb aka. purplepingers (Senate), Omar Hassan (Scullin), Jasmine Duff (Fraser), Kath Larkin (Cooper) and Rohan Tyler (Bendigo) - and our vision for a society that puts people before profit. You can read about our main federal election policies via the campaign page on our website (we’ll be adding more in the coming days).
Our campaign kicks off TONIGHT from 6pm at Brunswick Town Hall where we'll be holding our federal election campaign launch. Tickets are $10 concession and $20 waged and can be purchased online via Humanitix or at the door. We hope to see you there!
Victorian Socialists is a people-powered organisation and we depend on the efforts of our members and supporters to get our message out. There are many things, big and small, that you can do to help. Here are some of the main ones:
1. Sign-up for a shift on the booths at polling day via our new volunteer campaign portal - Spending a few hours talking to voters coming to vote on polling day (and during the 2 weeks or pre-poll leading up to it) and handing out VS 'how to vote' leaflets is the perhaps the single most valuable thing you can do to help our campaign.
We're attempting, for the first time, to cover polling places across the whole of Victoria - so we need as much help as we can get! Even if you can only do a couple of hours, every bit counts, and we'll make sure those who are new to it are properly briefed about what it involves.
2. Donate to our campaign - as a campaign that relies on volunteers and small donations we don't have as much to spend as other parties. We'd love to be able to get some billboards, professional posters, and online advertising to help us reach more people.
To kick off the campaign to get us noticed we're aiming to raise $25,000 in the next 2 weeks - a modest amount compared to what other parties spend but it will go a very long way for us! Lots of $10 or $20 donations all add up.
3. Register to attend a volunteer training session - In the lead-up to the election we'll be holding regular training sessions to get new volunteers up to speed on door knocking, campaigning on polling booths, and other essential campaign skills. If you want to help on election day but have never done it before - these sessions, which unless otherwise noted will take place at our volunteer centre at 83 Sydney Rd in Brunswick, are for you!
Dates and times are as follows, click on the links to register:
- Friday 4th April, 6pm - 'Pingers 4 Parliament' Volunteer Welcome and Candidate Q&A - REGISTER
- Friday 11th April 6pm - Volunteer training and BBQ - REGISTER
- Saturday 12th April 12pm - Volunteer training and activities afternoon - REGISTER
- Tuesday 22nd April 7pm - Online volunteer briefing for election day (Zoom) - REGISTER
4. Order a campaign sign to display in your front yard - This is the easiest way to help us increase the visibility of our candidates. Signs for Senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb can (and should) go up anywhere in Victoria. If you live in the areas where we're running lower house candidates you can get a sign with both upper and lower house candidates. People in regional areas may have to wait a bit for deliveries but we'll get there in the end!
5. Sign up to help deliver VS campaign letters in your area - Another great way to ensure as many voters as possible hear about our candidates and policies before the election. We're particularly looking for people who can do some letterboxing for our Senate campaign in areas where we're not running a lower house candidate. Letters can either be picked up from our volunteer centre in Brunswick (open 10am-6pm Monday-Saturday) or, where necessary, we'll post them to you.
6. Come along to one of our forums or campaign events in your local area - We're hitting the ground running this weekend with local campaign activity happening across the electorates of Fraser, Cooper, Scullin and Bendigo. We're also hosting a joint forum on the housing crisis in Geelong with comrades from the Socialist Alliance. We'd love to see Geelong people there - from 3pm at Geelong Trades Hall.
Over the next month people will be talking about and debating politics in their workplaces, local communities, friendship groups and families. The opinions of major party politicians and mainstream, mainly right-wing political pundits will be broadcast continuously from our TV screens, radios, phones and computers - attempting to drown out all other voices.
Our campaign will push against all the right-wing crap and ensure socialism is part of the discussion: a vision of a world vastly different to the crisis ridden and inhuman reality of capitalism today. The more people we have on board with us, the more of that we'll be able to do. And come election night, fingers crossed, we’ll be celebrating another step forward for the growing socialist movement in this country. Get involved!