BY ANDY GIANNIOTIS

KATOOMBA — “For decades people have been asking the Australian socialist left 'Why don't you people get together?'”, Philippa Skinner, a homecare worker from Woodford, told the Blue Mountains launch of the Socialist Alliance on June 19.

“So it's no small turn of events that we now see the birth of the Socialist Alliance and the emergence around the country of Socialist Alliance groups holding meetings in their local areas and cities”, Skinner told the meeting, held at the Katoomba Civic Centre.

The launch of the alliance will offer Blue Mountains residents a real alternative to the pro-big business consensus of Labor and Liberal, she argued.

Susan Barley from the Democratic Socialist Party, one of the founding organisations of the Socialist Alliance, agreed, stating, “This morning's blockade by the trade union movement of state parliament, while a Labor government is sitting, sums up why we are here”.

The meeting participants lived in areas encompassing almost the entire Blue Mountains region — from Blackheath on the edge of the Blue Mountains plateau, to Leonay nestled in the foothills on the edge of the Sydney basin.

Most of them had either been active in social movements and left politics, or were inspired by the new global movement against corporate tyranny and were keen to get involved.

The existing Socialist Alliance campaigns were endorsed, as were plans to campaign against the sand-mining of World Heritage-listed areas in the region.

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