Melbourne residents who live in the Yarra, Maribyrnong and Moreland local council areas will be able to vote for socialist candidates in the council elections in November.
Socialist Party member Steve Jolly has been a Yarra councillor since 2004. For the upcoming elections, Jolly is calling for a socialist Yarra council. The Socialist Party is running in all three wards in Yarra.
The Socialist Alliance is running candidates in two wards of Maribyrnong and one ward in Moreland.
Jolly told Green Left Weekly that, in his experience as a councillor, "the Labor Party is the party of the establishment in the inner-city suburbs. It stands for privatisation, outsourcing and roads instead of public transport."
In contrast, Jolly said "The Greens have policies to the left of the Labor Party, but because they don't have class politics, when they get into a position of authority in the Yarra council, they crumble in the face of the resistance from the top bureaucrats and the Labor Party."
"That's why since 2002, when the Greens have had a very strong position on Yarra Council, they haven't been able to implement many of their environmental or transport policies.
Green waste and zero-emissions policies have been won by a combination of community groups mobilising and having a socialist councillor to advocate for them and help them mobilise", Jolly said.
The Yarra council has a policy that every year rates go up by inflation plus 2%. The Socialist Party "opposes that because lots of elderly working-class folk bought houses years ago that have since become goldmines. But they don't have any money so they can't pay the increase in rates."
The Socialist Party wants to expand council services. "To pay for the expansion, we need to look at the expensive consultants, the extra layer of management we have at Yarra and outsourcing, which is more expensive than keeping services in-house.
"State and federal governments are cost-shifting onto local councils, but in order to fight cost-shifting, you need the full support of the council staff and local residents to wage a mass campaign."
Jolly explained that "in the inner city you've got two extremes. You've got 10-20% in public housing estates. The issues there are very basic — more sports facilities for the kids, more resources for the elderly, better security."
"Outside the housing estates", Jolly said "there are elements of the population that are quite wealthy. We've had to defend child care and kindergarten centres against closure. We've had some successes and forced the council to expand the number of places at council-run child care."
Jolly said urban planning is a major issue, with the state government's Melbourne 2030 plan to put a million people into the inner city. The Socialist Party doesn't oppose the plan but is concerned that there won't be additional services to match the population growth.
"When these young couples start having babies, they find no child care, no libraries, no neighbourhood houses", he said. "Instead, we are pushing for a matrix of lower-density housing where the houses are matched with social services."
He pointed to Smith Street in Collingwood — an important meeting place for Aboriginal people — as an example. "At times there have been behaviour issues with the use of alcohol, but that's been grossly exaggerated by the right-wing media, some of the traders and the police, who are pushing for a local law to ban drinking on the street and kick Aboriginal people out.
"That is racist and discriminatory because nobody is talking about kicking out the mainly white folk who drink on the street at a nightclub or cafe."
The Socialist Party is pushing for a Koori community centre, in line with the wishes of the local Aboriginal community. Such a centre would be a place "people can go for a feed, a shower, for activities or referrals to housing and vocational training and have their own space.
"If we don't take a pro-active social justice approach to this issue, the traders will raise the racist alternative again", Jolly said.
Jolly is urging people to vote socialist where they can, and then preference from left to right. "Their preferences will then go back to the Greens with a left-wing message", he said.