Victorian Socialists/Socialist Party calling for unity with Socialist Alliance in preparation for elections

To oversimplify the situation:

• Victorian Socialists^[wikipedia]^ are an electoral political party. They publicly announced themselves and registered in 2018 as a collaboration between Socialist Alternative^[wikipedia]^ (SAlt), Socialist Alliance^[wikipedia]^ and a few other politicians.
• In 2020, Socialist Alliance withdrew from Victorian Socialists. Official article.
• In mid-2025, Victorian Socialists announced plans to expand nationwide, and to change their name to Socialist Party. Branches have been launched in all other states and territories, with some already being registered.
• This month, VS announced their attempts to rename with the AEC and to register with the NSW Electoral Commission were both refused on the basis of similarity with Socialist Alliance’s name. They emphasised that Alliance has not acted to prevent the registration, Alliance have given permission, it’s the AEC and NSWEC blocking them. Official statement and call for unity with Alliance. [November 12]
• Less than a week later, VS have sent another statement to Alliance calling for unity. Official statement [November 17].

While I don’t see it bluntly stated, I think it’s fair to say VS want Alliance to join their party and deregister.

I am not well-networked with VS, Alliance, SAlt, RCO, etc., and I’ve often found that online arguments are different to the reality on-the-ground, so it’s hard to know what the situation truly is. Two of the main, contradictory perspectives I’ve heard so far are:

• One claims that Alliance’s 2020 claim of SAlt being a dominant anti-collaborative faction still applies today, and perceives VS as essentially a SAlt electoral front, or otherwise controlled by them. There is a history of allegations like this against SAlt, such as the Freedom Socialist Party and associated Radical Women claiming that SAlt joined after other groups and "over time through undemocratic measures, dismantled the unity and took control."
• The other points to the Communist Caucus, the minority factions in VS, and two successful former caucuses (Socialist Unity and Socialist Workers’ Caucus) as evidence of their openness to diversity of politics and open factions. The Communist Caucus formed by the Revolutionary Communist Organisation and allies. RCO’s article about their faction. The Socialist Unity and Socialist Workers’ Caucus are both discussed in this recent article by a VS independent and former member of Socialist Unity - SU met almost all of its demands and had little reason to continue existing, and the SWC were incorporated as an official party body.

I don’t see any official statements from SAll on their publication Green Left, although an RCO Partisan! article published today contains an excerpt of an official email sent to Alliance members, raising objections towards SAlt dominating through stacking VS’s undelegated conferences, and alleging that VS’s repeated calls for unity are not designed to leave the door open for regroupment or to build trust.

Unity supporters are arguing that Alliance and Socialist Party have near identical politics and that them existing as separate parties is counterproductive.