Socialist Alliance Merri-Bek councillor Sue Bolton is contesting a fourth term in the inner north of Naarm/Melbourne. It will be difficult given small party resources and Victoria’s shift to a single-member ward system.
But Bolton’s leadership for council to take a stand to support Palestine in the Gaza war has given her a hearing among communities who want genuine representation. Green Left’s Alex Bainbridge spoke to Bolton about the campaign and her record.
“Roads, rates and rubbish” is the conservative’s mantra to limit the political discussion and democracy at a local government level. Over your three terms on Merri-Bek Council, you’ve shown it is possible to worry about the basics while also getting council to take a stand on human rights.
Councils are concerned with a lot of issues, including maternal and child health services, parks, libraries, age care in the home and roads, rates and rubbish.
Historically, councils have always been involved in issues the community says are important. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, councils took a stand to ban the nuclear bomb.
During the 1980s, a lot of councils became nuclear-free zones, taking a stand against nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, and radioactive waste.
More recently, in the late 1990s, after the East Timorese voted for independence and the massacres ensued, councils took a stand to support Timor Leste.
It was not extraordinary for Merri-Bek to add its voice to the call for an end to the genocide in Gaza, and to stop contracts with companies profiting from this war.
There’s the question of double standards, here, isn’t there. Conservatives were happy for local governments to pass motions against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But they do not want them to take a stand on Palestine.
Yes, a lot of councils opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last year some of the same councils lit up public buildings with the Israeli flag.
They also took advantage of ignorance about the history of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. So there were clear double standards.
Conservatives also like to focus on the “process” rather than the politics. Those who do not want to stand with Palestine will complain about the process of a local government taking a stand rather than honestly laying out their arguments supporting Israel.
Some Zionists have criticised councils for taking a position in support of Palestine, arguing they needed to have held a referendum first.
Peter Khalil, Labor MP, accuses council of not talking about the Rohingya or the Sudanese.
That is interesting, because Labor has left Rohingya refugees in the lurch and it has still not called for a ceasefire in Sudan.
A lot of those at Palestine protests have also been vocal about the need to support Rohingya refugees and the Sudanese community.
It should not be necessary to say it but Khalil and others in Labor should understand that residents care about and are affected by wars overseas.
Lots of people in Merri-Bek as well as other communities have suffered as their family members and friends have been killed by Israel’s airstrikes, or as a result of the lack of medical aid.
I know a woman who, by last November, had lost 120 members of her family. This absolutely is a genocide.
It reminds me of the genocide inflicted by the colonisers against Aboriginal people: entire clans were wiped out.
In this area of Naarm/Melbourne only a small number of First Nations clans survived. People can look at Gaza and see that that’s what happened to First Nations people.
That has an impact on council services, too, because people are suffering deep grief. People are suffering from anger. Some feel guilty because they can still eat three meals a day, but their relatives have nothing but grass and leaves.
The Gaza refugees living in our community are also suffering. They have no rights at all, really. The Muslim and Palestinian communities have been raising money to try and cover their rent, schooling and food and all the other bills.
So, in that sense, the war on Gaza is not just an international issue.
You’ve served three terms and you are now contesting a fourth. Can you describe your method?
Being on council is a little bit like being a union delegate. If there’s an issue that affects just a single person or a couple of people, then I’ll try my best to advocate for them to council officers.
I always encourage people to organise together, to put forward their views on any issue because, ultimately, that’s what gets wins for the community.
I want to help the community win progressive change, which usually doesn’t come from simply asking bureaucrats, who don’t listen, or other councillors, who often don’t listen.
There are quite a few resident action groups in the inner North in Merri-Bek, where the community is practiced at advocating for themselves.
But, further north in the poorer parts, there is less community activism. So I encourage people to first petition others to get a sense of whether other people are also keen for change and then, depending on the response, organise a community meeting, and then bring the issue to council.
Helping people exercise their own voice to council — using that tiny bit of democracy — is what’s important to me.
This is how we saved the Falkner pool, despite the pandemic lockdown in 2021. We managed to present good evidence as to why we needed to keep the outdoor swimming pool.
If it had just been me voting against the closure of the Faulkner outdoor pool, we would have lost. We built a campaign and won.
We also managed to get action on a toxic site in Faulkner, where Agent Orange had been manufactured in the 1950s, ‘60s and the early ’70s.
It was across the road from residential houses. Plants were not growing, paint was peeling from fences and the smell was foul.
The site was cleaned up but not properly. An environmental audit needed to be redone as a permit to build a new warehouse on the toxic site had been given, meaning that workers would have been affected.
There were protests at the factory gates and I was accused of being hysterical. All the other councillors, even the Greens, were initially against me. But in the end, with a resident campaign, we won over all the councillors to a unanimous vote against that development. And so that was a win, though we ended up losing at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Your main rival is a Labor council candidate, who is Muslim, and discussion in the Muslim community in Faulkner has started as to who to vote for. You are not Muslim and you’ve taken a strong stand against Israel's genocide and supported the community’s democratic rights in speaking up against it.
It is really interesting that the Palestine movement, which has kept mobilising for more than 11 months, has politicised so many people.
A lot more people, including in the Muslim community, have had their eyes opened about the hypocrisy of the system and politics in general.
Migrant organisations, especially those with recently arrivals, as well as the Muslim community, can feel vulnerable because of racism.
They often like to invite politicians to their events, but now some have started to say they will no longer be their backdrops for photo ops while Labor supports the genocide in Palestine and refused to do anything concrete.
There was a debate over whether to boycott the Premier’s Iftar dinner, with grassroots Muslim community organization leading the charge.
Some wanted to attend because they know their funding for various projects relies on such appearances. But the community demanded a boycott and they forced organisations to sign letters saying they were going to boycott.
These communities are made to feel that they have to be super grateful for every little thing governments do. And even if nothing is done, they still feel they have to be thankful.
So, this was a rebellion towards Labor. It was a sign it can no longer take the Muslim community for granted.
There is a debate in lots of debate in Merri-Bek, particularly in the ward I’m standing in, in which something like 25% of the community is Muslim, mostly from South Asia.
The major parties are playing the identity card, including pre-selecting Muslim candidates. Labor is dangling funding to different sporting and migrant groups, trying to win the more conservative parts of that community and to try and scare people against voting for me.
But lots of Muslim community members want pro-Palestine candidates to win. They are openly barracking for pro-Palestine candidates against Muslim candidates that Labor and the Liberals have pre-selected.
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