BY DANIEL HARRISON
CANBERRA — "Change happens on the street, not in parliament", said James Vassilopoulos, Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Fraser, during an interview for the local ABC drivetime radio program. "Choosing between Labor and Liberal is like choosing between a Big Mac and a Whopper."
He went on to explain that while the major parties received tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations from big business, the Socialist Alliance relied on street-level activism to get across its anti-war, anti-racist message.
In an expression of solidarity with their calls for desperately needed improvements to health care, Vassilopoulos visited nurses on strike at Canberra Hospital on October 18. The strike is deemed illegal under the government's draconian Workplace Relations Act.
On October 22, Socialist Alliance members joined with striking workers, this time cleaners at Dickson Woolworths who had lost their jobs to a contractor who pays his employees less than half the previous rate.
Socialist Alliance supporters are also setting up stalls and distributing publicity across the city. More than 12,000 leaflets have been distributed and letterboxing is being organised for 30 suburbs, three quarters of the Fraser electorate.
Regular letters of support have been appearing in the Canberra Times, with prominent Socialist Alliance member John Passant writing in the October 24 edition arguing the case for a socialist alternative to the Labor Party.
Ken Fry, the sitting Labor member for Fraser from 1974 to 1984, has openly endorsed the Socialist Alliance and its policies.