By Jorge Andres

PERTH -- Racism No! candidate Clarrie Isaacs says he has no wish to "join the enemy" in parliament but simply wants to get closer to be able to "kick their arse". His running mate in the WA state election, Arun Pradhan, thinks the same: "If we were to get elected, it would not be to `restore the balance' or keep some bastard `honest' but to help drain the power from parliament and hand it back to the community".

"Parliament may make the announcements, but the decisions that change lives are made in corporate boardrooms or, from the community point of view, on the streets", says Racism No! campaign manager Ana Kailis. "The ability of communities to close down workplaces through strike action and to close down society when on the streets is the political power we aim to organise."

But other candidates to the left of Labor have demonstrated again how widespread is the illusion that parliament is the centre of political power. For the Democrats, parliament is the house of the people, even if some bastards might have got the upper hand in it. The WA Greens, while not so deluded, see parliament as the primary vehicle through which to change people's lives.

Many middle class supporters of the Greens and Democrats are still economically secure enough to retain a strong ideological commitment to the parliamentary democratic show, which so far has not done too badly by them. This will prove a shifting base, however, as previously comfortable families are increasingly impoverished and made sceptical of capitalist politics by the economic rationalist attacks now being stepped up by the Liberals.

Unlike the Democrats, the WA Greens have retained a policy outlook consistently against the economic rationalist agenda. This has won them support among the most politically aware elements in the working class and social movements. Instead of combating the parliamentary illusions of these activists, however, the Greens have fostered them.

The current Greens campaign in the WA elections demonstrates what seems to be the growing influence of the more conservative Greens activists, whose perspective is completely focused on the parliament. In the midst of the major offensive being carried out by the Liberals, the Greens chose to run their election campaign under the theme of "Restore the Balance". Instead of putting the key issues affecting the community up front, they chose to mimic the Democrats and put themselves forward as guardians of the "democracy" of parliament.

Racism No! has aimed its campaign at providing a public platform through which to mobilise and organise support against the racist policies of state and federal governments. "When we say we are running to win, it is not so that we can use parliamentary posts to get invitations from Western Mining to address their executive and beg for a few crumbs, but to expose this very set-up", says Pradhan.

"Activism is about organising the creative political power of mass community action. Organised mass action can bring corporate governments to their knees. It can certainly do more to win community demands than a polite knock on parliament's doors. Too many activists forget that a social vision cannot be taken to the community via parliament, where it only gets watered down, but must be taken to people where they live and work."

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