By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — "Green, democratic and socialist — this is the guiding theme of our campaign in the upcoming council elections", Susan Price, Demcratic Socialist candidate for Central ward in the March 26 Brisbane City Council poll, told a public meeting to launch the campaign on February 23.
"The environment we live in, the nature of urban development, our access to public transport, democracy and community participation and job creation are some of the key issues", Ana Kailis, Democratic Socialist candidate for Dutton Park ward, added.
"While the Labor administration of Mayor Jim Soorley pays lip service to these issues, in reality there has been little progress in making council a genuine vehicle for the citizens — 'a people's city, a city for the people'.
"At best we've seen timid attempts to address environmental concerns; at worst we've seen the council responding to the needs of private industry and developers, to the detriment of the community at large", Kailis said.
"Of course, the Liberal ticket led by Bob Ward represents nothing but a return to the bad old days. What we need is a genuine, a green, left alternative."
Price took up the broader issue of real power in society, where it lies and how genuine democracy can be won.
Real power in capitalist society lies outside parliament, councils or other institutions of representative democracy, she said.
The purpose of socialists running for office, in state or federal parliament or in local government, is to help empower working people.
"What we will do when we are elected is to develop alternative democratic structures; to help develop direct democracy outside parliaments or councils. We're not simply there to 'keep the bastards honest', as the Democrats put it", Price explained.
"If we win we will seek to mobilise people to struggle for their own demands, while at the same time attempting to carry out the greatest possible reforms to improve the lot of the poor, the unemployed and the workers."
Some of the main issues in the BCC elections nominated by Kailis in her speech included waste management, urban environment and urban renewal, public transport, democracy and democratic rights and employment programs.
"The problem of waste management is a major crisis for both the Soorley administration and its cousins in the Goss Labor state government", she said.
The Rochedale dump, the toxic waste site at Gurulmundi, the Willawong dump and the Esk nuclear waste facility are all a threat to local communities and the Brisbane environment as a whole, she explained.
"Companies that create toxic waste must be made to pay for its proper disposal; companies which illegally dump waste should face harsh penalties which are actually enforced", she said.
A comprehensive urban renewal strategy to link parkland, bike ways, river clean-up and genuine restoration of our city communities is needed, Kailis said.
We need a program to build quality, reasonably priced housing for lower-income people, not expensive high-rise apartments for the wealthy, she said.
We want an immediate end to police harassment of Aborigines in Fortitude Valley and West End.
And we need a major overhaul and integration of our public transport system, both buses and rail, to bring the people back to public transport and away from the private car.
"These are the kinds of policies Susan and I will be campaigning for ", she concluded.
Anyone interested in assisting with the Democratic Socialist campaigns in Central and Dutton Park wards, through letterboxing, handing out how-to-votes on polling day or with financial assistance, please phone Maurie on (07) 254 0565.