Jacob Andrewatha, candidate for the seat of Pascoe Vale in the Victorian state elections, outlines his organisation’s election pitch.
NB: We invited the Victorian Labor State Secretary Steve Staikos to also provide election comment ahead of the 28 November election. He did not respond to our request.
The Victorian elections on 28 November are shaping up to be a watershed moment for working class Victorians, as the Liberals and One Nation push politics to the right.
The three term Labor government may lose because it has not substantially addressed the cost-of-living crisis, chronic housing needs or deteriorating public services in health, education and public transport.
Workers are also disillusioned with Victorian Labor as it has fought against substantive wage rises for public sector workers, and has joined the federal government’s full-frontal attack on the CFMEU by calling a Royal Commission.
Socialist Alliance does not want to see the Liberal-National Coalition win government, especially with support from One Nation, but Labor’s refusal to push back against corporations and the billionaires makes this more likely.
One Nation purports to be anti-establishment while taking handouts from the billionaires and bosses who are making huge profits on the backs of struggling workers, all while blaming immigrants for the housing affordability crisis.
This is why Socialist Alliance is running under the slogan: Fighting for People NOT the Billionaires. We are putting forward an anti-capitalist alternative that shows workers who are disillusioned with Labor that they don’t have to vote for hypocrites and racists like One Nation.
Socialist Alliance has always seen the electoral arena as an opportunity to present and build support for socialist ideas among the working class. We believe we have a unique contribution to make as a democratic, non-sectarian party focussed on building alliances and mass mobilisations that radicalise workers.
One of the strengths of our election campaign is that it is an extension of the ongoing movement building work that we do on a daily basis. Our electoral work is integrated into building our revolutionary party project.
Socialist Alliance is running 12 candidates in this election focused on two regions; Northern Metropolitan and Western Victoria.
Our lead candidate in Melbourne is Sue Bolton running for the seat of Broadmeadows. Bolton is probably the best-known socialist in Victoria with a stand-out record, in her 14-years on Merri-bek Council, of working with communities to empower them to take her action.
Bolton is supported by me running in Pascoe Vale, and a team of three led by Meredith Lawrence, a proud anti-Zionist Jew, and community activists Chloe Beaton and Darren Saffin, for the Northern Metropolitan Region.
We are running in all four seats in Geelong, with former City of Greater Geelong councillor, unionist and well-known activist Sarah Hathway running for the seat of Lara.
Painter and decorator Brenden Grull, LGBTIQ rights campaigner Freya Hedley and former School Strike 4 Climate organiser Dom Williams are running in Geelong, South Barwon and Bellarine respectively.
Former Geelong Trades Hall secretary and construction union activist Tim Gooden is leading the Western Victoria Region ticket, along with veteran unionist Sue Bull and maritime union stalwart Ross Smith.
All of our candidates are community activists involved in a range of campaigns — most significantly against the genocide in Gaza. All have pledged that if elected they will take only an average workers’ wage investing the rest back into community campaigns.
Our movement building approach, and the respect that these candidates have won across different campaigns and communities, is the reason Socialist Alliance reached the 500 members necessary to achieve re-registration with the Victorian Electoral Commission.
This election, we will be campaigning for six critical demands:
- Fully funded public schools, public health, TAFE and free public transport;
- Housing for all, a freeze on rents and 10,000 new public houses;
- No dollars for war, weapons manufacture or the genocide in Gaza;
- Protecting free speech, the right to protest and trade union rights;
- Environmental action, no Lara waste incinerators, a moratorium on artificial intelligence data centres;
- An end to racism and discrimination.
Socialist Alliance will recommend preferencing other socialist and Greens candidates, putting Labor before the Liberals and putting far-right candidates last.
We urge you to vote 1 Socialist Alliance.