Brian Webb & Dick Nichols
As the federal poll approaches, the Socialist Alliance is poised to launch Australia's biggest socialist election campaign in decades.
The alliance will be contesting Senate seats in six states and territories and at least 30 seats in the House of Representatives. Since the 2001 federal election, the first it had contested, it has won electoral registration, ensuring that Socialist Alliance will appear on the ballot paper.
Through uniting in the Socialist Alliance, the socialist movement in Australia has been able to put together the biggest socialist election campaign since the days of the old Communist Party of Australia.
In recent state and local polls, the alliance has confirmed that the socialist message enjoys a distinct base of support. In 2003, alliance candidate Maurice Sibelle won 6.1% in the Sunshine City Council poll in Melbourne, while in the recent Queensland state election Socialist Alliance candidate Adrian Skerrit won 3.1% support in the outer Brisbane seat of Inala.
These results reflect the solid work the Socialist Alliance has been doing beyond electoral politics — mainly in the anti-war and trade union movements.
The central message of the alliance campaign is contained in Manifesto 2004 — Another Australia is Possible. In it, eight of our candidates spell out the socialist approach in the main areas of concern to Australian working people — war, jobs, education, health, refugees, the environment and attacks on our democratic rights.
Manifesto 2004 explains how the key to gains in jobs, welfare and the environment lies in the expansion of a democratically run public sector. It also shows how unfair tax policy can be changed to fund health, education, welfare and recovery of the environment.
Manifesto 2004 is also intended to open up a discussion with Greens and Labor supporters. All of us want to replace the criminal and vicious Howard government, but how can we make sure that any future Latham administration isn't just a replica of former ALP prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating — the fathers of economic rationalism in this country?
And what approach to policy is needed to enshrine the four Green principles — peace, democracy, environmental sustainability and social justice — as social reality?
Along with Manifesto 2004 goes a plan to further develop the Socialist Alliance's platform and policies. All alliance members and supporters will soon be able to have their say in this process through our web page <http://www.socialist-alliance.org> as well as through the alliance's policy-specific e-groups.
The policies produced as a result will be published in policy statements in the months leading up to the federal election.
Naturally enough, the Socialist Alliance is also producing the usual paraphernalia of elections — leaflets, posters, badges, stickers and attention-grabbing plastic placards.
But expect a very different — very bold and active — style of election campaign from the Socialist Alliance and its candidates. Through our street theatre, stunts and challenges to others to debate, the alliance will further expose the criminal nature of the Howard government and its policies. We will dramatise a positive alternative that no other party is presenting.
Ours will be an all-round campaign to build resistance to the injustices of today in the name of the socialist alternative of tomorrow — another Australia is possible!
[Brian Webb and Dick Nichols are the national conveners of the Socialist Alliance's national elections working group. Visit <http://www.socialist-alliance.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 25, 2004.
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