BY JIM McILROY
BRISBANE — The Democratic Socialists have announced they will be running two candidates in the February 17 Queensland state elections, on a platform of "End corruption — Support socialism".
The two Democratic Socialist candidates are Adam Baker, contesting the seat of South Brisbane, and Coral Wynter, who will be running in Labor premier Peter Beattie's seat of Brisbane Central.
Beattie called an early election on January 23, despite a pledge that state parliament would run its full term until May, following a scandal over electoral rorts which has engulfed his government.
The day the election was called coincided with the re-registration of Pauline Hanson's racist One Nation party, which has added to the major parties' concerns that they will end up with a hung parliament, with One Nation and its split-off City-Country Alliance holding the balance of power.
Opposition leader Rob Borbidge has stated he would reject One Nation and CCA support to form a minority government, but few believe him given he said much the same thing in 1998 and then promptly went back on his promise.
"The Democratic Socialists will be campaigning on opposition to a politically and economically corrupt system", South Brisbane candidate Adam Baker, a student activist at Griffith University, told Green Left Weekly. "The electoral rorts revelations about the internal workings of the ALP are merely an indication of a deeper corruption which pervades the whole capitalist system."
Baker said he sees the election campaign as part of the growing international movement against capitalism. "Only socialism can provide an alternative to a deeply corrupt system of corporate power, in which big companies make huge profits while unemployment soars, and poverty and racism increase."
Baker said the Democratic Socialists' campaign would support the movement for an anti-corporate strike and blockade of the Brisbane stock exchange on May 1 this year.
The M1 action isn't the only extra-parliamentary campaign the party is backing. Brisbane Central candidate Wynter, a long-time women's liberation activist, also pledged Democratic Socialist support for International Women's Day marches on March 10.
Wynter contrasted her party's position on women's rights with that of her opponent. "Peter Beattie has had an opportunity to repeal the anti-choice abortion laws in this state, but has failed to do so. We, however, pledge to campaign strongly for the total removal of anti-abortion laws from the criminal code, and for full equality for women in every sphere of social, economic and political life".
[Anyone wishing to assist the Democratic Socialist campaign can call the party's Brisbane office on (07)3831 2644. Email <brisbane@dsp.org.au>.]