Socialist candidates call for community control

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE -- "Brisbane needs a council that is controlled by ordinary working people, who are the majority -- not a council that panders to developers and big business: a council that works for people on the basis of environmental sustainability, social justice and democracy", the Democratic Socialist election manifesto for the March 15 Brisbane City Council poll declares.

The Democratic Socialists are standing two candidates, Kathy Newnam for Central ward and Coral Wynter for Dutton Park ward.

"A vote every three years will not guarantee this", the statement continues. "We need to break the two-party cycle with new politics that doesn't rely on politicians keeping promises, but on the power of people organised in their communities.

The Democratic Socialists are campaigning on the theme, "For a genuine alternative to Labor and the Liberals! People before profits!" The campaign aims to contribute to the building of a new party that unites local struggles and is accountable to them." Only through grassroots organisation and action can we win our rights", they say.

"The major parties, some smaller parties such as the Greens and Democrats, and independents will say, `Vote for us and we'll change it for you'", Wynter told Green Left Weekly, "but the Democratic Socialist campaign is for a council that provides the information and resources to enable people to make decisions about the things that affect their lives at a local level and gives them the power to implement those decisions".

At public meetings in Paddington and Yeronga, Newnam and Wynter stressed the need for a council that is responsible to and serves the needs of working people through improved and cheaper public transport; affordable public housing; urban renewal for the people, not the developers; and genuine job creation programs, not bogus work for the dole schemes.

For more information about the campaign or to offer assistance, contact the campaign office at 29 Terrace Street, New Farm, telephone 3254 0565.

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