Socialists, Greens collaborate in Fremantle by-election

Greens candidate Adele Carles and Socialist Alliance candidate Sam Wainwright argued for cooperation among progressive candidates in election campaigns at an April 22 meeting. Both activists are contesting the May 16 Fremantle by-election.

Carles and Wainwright spoke together at a Fremantle Socialist Alliance forum of more than 25 people.

Wainwright spoke about the need to build a working class response to the global capitalist crisis. This response would have to include expanding public ownership of major industries.

He said WA's mining wealth should be owned by the people so that the government received the full revenue, and not just royalties, from mining projects. For unsustainable mining industries, such as coal and gas, Wainwright said any revenue should be used to fund renewable energy alternatives to help phase out the use of fossil fuels.

Carles has a background as a community campaigner in the Fremantle area. She was a leading activist in the Save South Beach campaign. The campaign opposed a luxury housing development in breach of the then Labor government's own policy guidelines.

Like Wainwright, she spoke of the need to build a grassroots people's movement to achieve progressive change.

From GLW issue 792