Democratic Socialists call for help

By Peter Boyle SYDNEY — Democratic Socialist election team leader Max Lane has called on union militants and social movement activists to help get the "People before profits" message out during the federal election campaign. Lane — a leading activist in the movement for independence for East Timor and democratic rights in Indonesia — released the Democratic Socialists' election manifesto on January 27. "On March 2, voters face the poor choice between a Labor and Coalition federal government that will put corporate profits first. Both will continue the attack on jobs, the environment, democratic rights, health, education and other public services in the name of 'economic rationalism'", said Lane. "John Howard has declared war on unions, while the ALP has been slowly killing the union movement through the ACTU-ALP Accord. Either way, our ability to stand up to the corporate barons' greed is being eroded." Lane said that there would be "no real choice" between parties "until we can build a real opposition to the major parties. To do this we have to build a new mass extraparliamentary opposition. It won't be enough to give a couple of Green or Democrat senators the mythical 'balance of power' in parliament. There's no balance of power when both major parties have basically the same politics. "Unlike the Greens and the Democrats, we don't say bump us into parliament and we'll do the job for you. We say get active, get organised and together we'll build a real opposition — during and after the election campaign", said Lane, who is the Democratic Socialist candidate for the seat of Lowe in Sydney. The Democratic Socialists are fielding 12 candidates for the House of Representatives, in the Northern Territory, Perth, Hindmarsh, Melbourne, Denison, Canberra, Cunningham, Sydney, Lowe, Newcastle, Griffith and Brisbane. Most people are rightly cynical about parliamentary politicians, said Lane. "They've put perks, privilege and patronage first, and they've betrayed the interests of the great majority of voters. "Each of our candidates is an activist in the union and/or the social movements and if elected will devote all their resources to building a real opposition outside parliament to the profits-first regime. They have also pledged to donate all of their parliamentary salary above the average wage to this cause." The Democratic Socialists' "People before Profits" campaign can be contacted at Resistance Centres listed on page 2.