Australia: Socialist Party councillor elected

SOCIALIST PARTY member Stephen Jolly has won a seat in Langridge Ward in the Yarra City Council elections in Melbourne, Australia. This is the first electoral victory for the socialist movement in Australia for many years.

Socialist Party members, Melbourne

Eleven candidates stood for the seat. Stephen got the third highest first preference vote.

The Socialist Party left-wing team took up the basic concerns of the local community. We successfully presented ourselves as the left opposition to the joint Australian Labour Party (ALP)/Green-run Council.

On core economic issues the council has undertaken a neo-liberal agenda, with asset management and debt reduction the major priority. The big issue is the on-going financial bleeding of councils by State and Federal government. We said it was wrong for the council not to campaign with other councils, trade unions, and the community to change this.

The other reason we won this seat was as a result of a decade of hard work in the area. A significant number of local people knew of our work saving Richmond Secondary College, on the urban environment, on heroin reform, for casual workers' rights etc and trusted us enough to vote socialist.

For a full report see: www.socialistworld.net

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