Justine Kamprad is a co-convenor of the Fremantle Socialist Alliance, and was the campaign director for the October 17 Fremantle City Council elections, in which socialist Sam Wainwright was elected with 33.44% of the vote.
Wainwright is the first member of the Socialist Alliance elected to an Australian council, and only the second socialist now in council office.
Green Left Weekly's Jim McIlroy spoke to Kamprad about the successful campaign.
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What were the main aims of Sam Wainwright's election campaign?
The main goals of the campaign were to try to engage the local community in a sense of hope that their activism could be effective. That was a huge part of the campaign.
The Socialist Alliance was running for councillor to give a community voice for peoples' campaigning, to be another tool in the campaigning arsenal in the Fremantle area.
This was about getting an activist onto council, rather than somebody who wanted to be involved in the bureaucracy.
What kind of support did Wainwright get from other groups and individuals?
Sam has been a longstanding candidate for the Socialist Alliance in the Fremantle area. He has been living in the community for about six years. He is very well known as an activist.
But in this case, there was an additional range of support that was quite deep. There were a number of reasons for this.
One was that most people believed his campaign was winnable. Another was that they believed that Sam was a very genuine activist, was non-sectarian and that he would work tirelessly for the community and their campaigns.
The other part of it is that the Socialist Alliance is genuinely engaged in campaigning in Western Australia.
What were the main policy planks of the election campaign?
First, we said we wanted to make Fremantle a "fight climate change" council.
If Sam's plans for council action on climate change are implemented, it will serve as a model in WA for how councils can shift to a less wasteful and more climate-friendly footing.
Second was better public transport, including linking Fremantle to [the suburbs of] Beaconsfield, Hilton and Samson with free Central Area Transit buses.
That links in with the first policy. Public transport is one of the practical steps that we need to take in order to de-congest our roads, to stop spending the inordinate amount of money that we are now on roads, and also to get people out of their cars and onto public transport.
The campaign also focused on fighting for the rights of council and community workers, including their right to be unionised.
Another big campaign issue for the Socialist Alliance was maintaining the area's beaches, parks and green spaces for everyone.
One of the big concerns has been the move to privatise those spaces, and sell some of them off for high-density urban development.
Next, we said council rates should be based on ability to pay.
Nearly all the rates in our area have risen far higher than inflation and we need address this problem in Fremantle.
And the last major issue we raised, and a big one, was "council democracy".
What we need to do is to give the community real control over council resources, how money is spent, where it is spent and also how we address key issues.
Now that you have a socialist elected to the Fremantle council, what is the future for the community and the campaign for socialism?
It's a very positive sign for socialists. There were a lot of people who said, "Look, people really like you, but this socialist thing really scares them", or "You can't do that if you want to get elected". We heard this kind of thing a lot.
Despite this, Sam said clearly on the front of all his leaflets that he was a socialist. He was running because he was a socialist, he was committed to left-wing principles, and if people didn't want to vote for that, they shouldn't vote for him.
Sam will be a spirited activist in favour of that form of change, and I'm sure he will lead the way in that area. I'm really excited about what he'll be able to achieve, and what socialists in WA will be able to achieve.
What it clearly shows is that people aren't afraid of socialist ideas. The community in general isn't afraid of people campaigning on principled ideas.
One crucial idea is that capitalism has had its day. And we need to replace it with something that is more positive, more humane and more environmentally sustainable.
That a socialist could be elected in Fremantle, or wherever, to represent that idea, and be proud to wear that badge, is a really positive change.
[Read the extended interview at www.links.org.au.]