Activists from the Australian Council of Trade Union’s campaign to “change the rules” for workers were told the day before pre-polling started that its official how-to-vote for the May 18 federal election would call on voters to put Labor first.
Disappointed, though not too surprised by the decision, some activists have decided not to hand out for the campaign.
Socialist candidates are campaigning in the May 18 federal elections to put forward solutions to the growing wealth divide and looming environmental crisis.
Following its successful state election campaign last year, Victorian Socialists is standing three candidates in the federal election: Sue Bolton in the seat of Wills, Kath Larkin in the seat of Cooper, and Jerome Small for the seat of Calwell. Green Left Weekly’s Alex Bainbridge spoke to Sue Bolton about the block the major parties pose to progressive politics and why it is important to support socialist candidates.
NSW Labor lost the March 23 state election with its small-target strategy, its refusal to challenge the privatisation agenda and its sly accommodation to racism.
The latest Newspoll for the NSW elections on March 23 has Labor and the Coalition neck and neck. A Coalition or Labor minority government dependent on crossbench support is considered to be likely by the pundits.
On top of that, with a plethora of right-wing micro-parties contesting in the upper house, only the tightest preferences between more progressive candidates will stop the right gaining more ground in the Legislative Council (upper house).
Climate change is the result of an economic system — capitalism — in which private companies' profit-making is privileged over the real needs of communities and their environments. Here is the Socialist Alliance's 11-point climate action plan.
Susan Price is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Parramatta in the March 23 NSW state election. She has been an active unionist and socialist for more than 20 years. Green Left Weekly’s Jim McIlroy asked Price about the Socialist Alliance election campaign, its aims and policies.
“Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Coalition state government are getting desperate as the election campaign heats up,” according to Socialist Alliance candidate Rachel Evans. “As more and more of its crimes and misdemeanours are exposed, the government is coming under increasing fire from so many directions.”
Evans, who is heading up the party’s NSW Legislative Council ticket for the March 23 election, said: “The government’s neoliberal agenda has been an absolute disaster for the people of New South Wales.
It is increasingly clear that we need more public transport to reduce air-polluting travel and provide much-needed sustainable jobs.
But state governments are captive to the road industry. The result is poor planning, expanding and expensive road tolls and more carbon pollution.
The following is the Socialist Alliance’s Sustainable Transport policy — an example of what an alternative transport plan could look like.
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The Socialist Alliance has a vision for a better world — and we are running in the federal election to share that vision and help make it become a reality.
Voters in two key Queensland seats will have the chance to vote for grassroots socialist candidates at the next federal election.
Medical practitioner Kamala Emanuel and community activist Mike Crook have been endorsed as the Socialist Alliance candidates for Brisbane and Lilley, respectively.
Our current industrial laws are anti-worker, anti-union and unjust. A campaign to change them is a must.