One notable difference in Australia’s economic conditions is our near-compulsory superannuation retirement saving funds, and a few people I’ve talked to consider it to be one of the bigger unique challenges socialist movements will face in Australia.

An important aspect of it is that, assuming one will eventually retire, it attaches millions of working people directly to the stock market, and threats to stock prices can easily agitate workers against a government. In some ways, it systemically blurs class lines in a way which most other countries don’t have to deal with.

I’ve heard one comrade suggest that, so long as super exists, funds could be set up to encourage financial investment in socialist-aligned causes such as worker cooperatives, however I don’t know enough to judge how this could play out.

Do you believe superannuation is a notable hurdle to our country’s socialist movement? And if so, how should we try approaching it?