WHO SHOULD socialists vote for - and, just as importantly, on what basis should that decision be made? In most places the choice is between Green and Labor. But in a small number of lower house seats there are also candidates from the Socialist Alliance, the Socialist Equality Party and the Socialist Party, as well as some socialist senate tickets.

The International Socialist Organisation (ISO), the group that produces Socialist Worker, is arguing for a first preference vote for the Greens, with a second preference to Labor.

The Greens are campaigning for WorkChoices to be ripped up, for serious action on climate change, for all troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and for the surplus to be spent on public services and higher pensions rather than tax cuts.

Even though the Green vote is being squeezed by Labor's resurgence, up to three-quarters of a million people are likely to vote to the left of Rudd on November 24.

Importantly, sections of the union movement are shifting towards the Greens.

The ACTU's national campaign committee last month decided to hand out how-to-vote cards urging people to choose a party in the senate "that would abolish WorkChoices"-effectively signaling that a Green vote was as acceptable as the traditional Labor vote.

The Electrical Trades Union in Victoria has gone further, giving tens of thousands of dollars to the Greens. The United Firefighters Union in Victoria is backing the Greens in both the senate and the lower house.What this all tells us is that a significant minority of the working class - in particular, serious union and movement activists - is making a considered break to the left of Labor.

Broad left

For the ISO, the critical question is how best to begin or sustain a dialogue with at least a portion of that broad left vanguard.

As revolutionaries, we understand that the parliamentary struggle is only a faint echo of the wider class struggle in the workplaces and on the streets.

We also understand the limitations of the Greens-the primacy they accord to the parliamentary process, for example.

One response would be to start with the differences. That is essentially the position of the Socialist Equality Party, which "insists" that the starting point in this election is "not the defeat of the Howard government".

To demonstrate its "purity", it is splitting its senate preferences equally between Labor, Liberals and Greens, thus guaranteeing it remains isolated from the working class movement and its debates.

The ISO's approach is quite different. Our starting point is the areas of agreement - first and foremost the need to get rid of the Coalition government, and secondly to undo the damage it has inflicted.

Only on the basis of making that agreement clear-of being allies in the struggle-can we hope to influence left-leaning workers and activists towards Marxist politics.

In the past, we have begun that dialogue by voting Labor. But Labor's dramatic shift to the right has weakened its voting base and created the space for a more radical expression of social democratic values.

For a while, it seemed possible that the Socialist Alliance, in which the ISO enthusiastically participated for some years, might gather enough momentum to become a small but viable working class alternative to both Labor and the Greens.

Unfortunately, the Alliance was unsuccessful in tackling either Labor's resurgence or the strength of the Greens. The space for an explicitly socialist electoral expression has been closed off for the time being.

Of course, a decent vote for socialists is a positive thing because it reflects a desire for radical change and the clear association of a minority with socialist ideas. However, while Australia's preferential voting system means voters can vote 1 socialist, 2 Greens, 3 Labor, the unfortunate reality is that the socialist electoral presence is currently so negligible that it is irrelevant.

The ISO wishes the Socialist Alliance and Socialist Party candidates well. But the only serious way in this election to both send a message to Rudd that his me-tooism isn't welcome, and to work alongside and influence left activists in the process, is to support the Greens.

By David Glanz