The interests of Working Class areas in Parliament

Parliament is in the wider scheme of things, simply a talking shop serving the interests of imperialism. But in order to shore up domination over the other section, one section of the capitalists with put large amounts of money into fancy new trinkets for marginal seats in order to win them over. These seats are overwhelmingly middle class areas, that are well serviced as it is, with local concerns already looked after. In safe Labor areas, such as Preston, Footscray and Sunshine, which are overwhelmingly working class, where services are scarce, no money for vital services is coming in from federal or state levels, as Labor takes these areas for granted, and the Liberals know they stand no chance. For example, people in more affluent areas bemoan the poor public behavior of youth from Preston and Footscray. Take a trip through these areas, and you will see a distinct lack of community facilities such as swimming pools, and the clubrooms and training facilities of sporting clubs are falling into disrepair. There is simply nothing for working class youth in these areas to do to pass the time, and the schools in these areas are chronically underfunded, leading to disillusionment with school, while community health services are completely inadequate. What is needed is genuine local peoples organization, to signify that enough is enough, that we want a fairer deal for our impoverished suburbs. Through these organisations, we need to organize support at ground level, organize community programs to help sort out these issues, and through elections, challenge the hold that the Labor Party has on these seats through new community electoral fronts.

Fight for true democracy

The overwhelming majority of Australians have the impression that Australia is a democracy. We do elect a national talking shop (parliament) every three years, and this is what the ruling class puts across as the argument for the  'democratic foundations' of Australian society. I could use the valid argument that elections are rendered a choice between the two parties of capitalism (The Coalition and Labor) by the fact that they get blanket media coverage except for scare campaigns against even mildly radical bourgeois parties like the Greens. But there are even more sobering arguments than this! All of the important economic decisions in Australia are carried out by fat cats in board rooms, thinking only of their profit margins, with no responsibility to anyone but themselves. How is this democratic? Real democracy would entail workers and communities having a say in what is produced, how it is produced and when it is produced, it would include a constant say in how the resources that rightfully belong to the people of Australia are managed, it would include continued democratic involvement and a people's oriented media rather than the meaningless triennial vote and Murdoch Yankee imperialist propaganda.

Continue the fight taken up at Bakery Hill 146 years ago and fight for real democracy!