Harry Stratton is a lawyer and anti-corruption activist from Australia.
Earlier this year, disgraced former MP Adem Somyurek joined the long list of Labor politicians to be investigated for corruption. Somyurek was no outlier — the nepotism and cronyism he practiced are just part of the day-to-day running of the Australian Labor Party.
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association organizes retail workers across Australia. Under its hard-right social conservative leadership, the association cooperates with employers to enrich its top officials at workers’ expense.
In order to challenge the ALP leadership’s right-wing policy agenda, we first need to democratize the party’s rotten internal structures. The party’s Left faction should be leading this fight; instead, they’re helping perpetuate a system that keeps left-wing politics locked out.
Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese could be facing a leadership contest. Albanese’s record has been unimpressive, but changing leaders won’t be enough to turn the party’s fortunes around. Real party democracy and a break with neoliberal dogma are the only remedies for Labor’s malaise.
The ALP’s right faction is riddled with corruption and cover-ups that are holding the party back. We can’t rely on the legal system to clean out the ALP’s stables — empowering Labor members through real party democracy is the only way to break the cycle.