Maybe there was a reason Labor of the 1970s were aligned with Social Democracy and Unionism, rather than Big Business and Capitalism?

Selected Excerpts:

Until recently, the Australian Education Union’s Victorian branch had been locked into disputes with the state government over teacher’s pay and school funding. It was running paid ads against Labor MPs until early October.

The union is not formally affiliated with Labor and has not endorsed it at this campaign.

We are absolutely not campaigning for Labor,” says Lucy Honan, a state councillor with the Australian Education Union in Melbourne. “I can’t even describe to you the sense of anger we have. It’s desperation and anger.”

The Health and Community Services Union, meanwhile, has eight members running this election – none for the Labor party it is affiliated with. Its secretary, Paul Healey, has signed off on flyers encouraging members to support the Greens and Socialist candidates.

The AMWU, meanwhile, won’t tell its members who to vote for but is distributing material highlighting the achievements of unions in the 12 years Labor has been in government – things like free Tafe, criminalising wage theft and portable long service leave.

“Yes, people are angry, people are shitty,” Mavromatis says. “But when people are angry and shitty they just remember the shit and they don’t remember all the good stuff.

“It’s important to remind members what unions have achieved with a Labor government since 2014.”

But for some, it’s not enough.

“The unions and a whole lot of low-paid workers see the premier, driving around in the big red campaign bus that says he’s for working people, and rightfully wondering, well is he?” one MP says.

Within Labor, this is called “Thin Labourism” - a few mild/incremental adjustments here and there, small increases in wages, but no large reforms or wider socially democratic policies. No trying to change or fix the systems at play.