Socialist Alliance challenge to Rudd in Griffith

The Socialist Alliance has decided to run long-time socialist activist Jim McIlroy in Labor leader Kevin Rudd's seat of Griffith in Brisbane's central-south in the federal election. Its nationwide election campaign themes are "People before profits!" and "Planet before profits!"

"We'll be challenging Rudd and the ALP leadership's policy retreats on industrial relations, uranium mining and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars", McIlroy told Green Left Weekly.

"The Rudd leadership's backdown on it promise to tear up Work Choices, its ramming through of an open-slather uranium mining policy, its refusal to reverse the anti-democratic Voluntary Student Unionism law, and its support for the so-called 'anti-terror' laws, make it even more clear that there's a need for real working class political alternative."

"We all want to get rid of the Howard government, but we don't want to replace it with a Labor government with 'me too' policies", McIlroy added.

Socialist Alliance in Queensland has also endorsed a Senate team consisting of prominent Aboriginal leader Sam Watson and Gold Coast union activist Amelia Taylor; and Dr Tim Kirchler, running in the Gold Coast seat of Moncrieff.

From GLW issue 713