NSW election campaign launched

BY LISA MACDONALD

SYDNEY — The mood among the 52 delegates, representing nine NSW Socialist
Alliance branches, was confident while tinged with a sense of urgency,
when they gathered for the alliance's state conference on August 3.

The first gathering since the alliance achieved state electoral registration
early this year, the conference began to shape the alliance's response
to escalating attacks on civil rights, immigrants and refugees, public
ownership, unions, workers and the unemployed. The meeting's focus was
on the March 2003 state election campaign.

The delegates voted unanimously to stand at least 15 candidates for
the Legislative Council (NSW's upper house). Under NSW electoral regulations,
this is necessary to get the Socialist Alliance's name printed above the
line on the ballot paper.

Eight activists were elected onto the upper house ticket. The remaining
candidates, and the order of the ticket, will be decided at a state conference
on November 2. The candidates pre-selected on August 3 were:

* Angela Budai, a member of Sydney's northern suburbs branch of the
alliance and a Finance Sector Union organiser. She is also active in the
local Network Opposing War and Racism and Jews for a Just Peace.

* Geoff Payne, a long-term socialist and union activist in Newcastle.
Payne is a trainee teacher, having been sacked by BHP when it shut down
its Newcastle steelworks in 1998.

* Jim Knight, a former Communist Party member living in Lismore who
has been active for decades in the peace, anti-nuclear and trade union
movements. He was the founding chairperson of the Lower Clarence Landcare
Coordinating Committee and is currently president of the Clarence Environment

Centre.

* Michael Thomson, a member of the Marrickville alliance branch and
the assistant state secretary of the National Tertiary Education Industry
Union and the NSW representative on the NTEU national executive. He is
a founding member of Sydney University Staff for Refugees.

* Lisa Macdonald, from Parramatta branch, a long-time activist in women's
liberation and international solidarity campaigns. She is a former editor
of Green Left Weekly and is currently active in the refugees' rights
movement through the western suburbs Free the Refugees Campaign. She was
the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Reid last year.

* Dr Margaret Perrott, president of the People's Medical Centre Co-op
in Wollongong and the alliance's candidate for the federal seat of Throsby.
She is president of the South Coast May Day Committee and is also active
in the Reclaim the Night and International Women's Day committees, and
the Wollongong Hiroshima Day Committee. She is a member of the editorial
board of Broad Left, a local socialist monthly newsletter.

* John Morris, a secondary school teacher, a member of the central council
of the NSW Teachers Federation and the media officer for the Canterbury-Bankstown
branch of the NSWTF.

* Michael Schembri, from Sydney's eastern suburbs branch, an activist
in the socialist movement for two decades. He has been a consistent campaigner
against racism and for indigenous rights and gay liberation. He is a coordinator
of the Gaywaves program on community Radio 2SER.

The Socialist Alliance's local branches have begun to discuss which
lower house seats to contest in the state election. While the final decisions
will be made by branches during the next month, the seats being seriously
considered include Marrickville, Port Jackson, Bankstown, Lakemba, Auburn,
Parramatta, Illawarra, Wollongong and Newcastle.

The Socialist Alliance delegates set ambitious goals — not simply to
provide a radical left alternative at the polls, but to build progressive
campaigns and movements and present socialist solutions to the many social
and ecological crises that confront humanity.

The meeting decided to produce an initial list of “priority pledges”
for the state election, produce regular local branch newsletters, investigate
setting up a web “chat room” to discuss politics and the alliance's work
and organise a series of public forums in different locations across Sydney
and the state to encourage more public discussion and campaign activity
around key issues.

Participants broke into policy working groups to discuss the alliance's
policy platform. Topics included: refugees and racism, education, health,
union and workers' rights, gay and lesbian rights, public transport, civil
liberties and the “law and order” offensive, rural issues and women's rights.
A NSW discussion bulletin launched last month will host detailed discussion
about policies and campaigning in the lead-up to the election.

A dinner that evening raised around $1000 to help cover the alliance's
immediate campaign costs.

To join the alliance or obtain more information about its branches and activities,
visit < http://www.socialist-alliance.org> or write to <sydney@socialist-alliance.org>.

From Green Left Weekly, August 14, 2002.

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From GLW issue 504