Monday, April 18, 2016

Socialist Alliance WA senate candidates


Kamala Emanuel is a women's health doctor and a mother of one. She is a passionate feminist who campaigns for abortion rights and against violence against women. She has a strong interest in climate justice and helped draft the Socialist Alliance's Climate Action Plan. She has been an active socialist for almost 25 years and in 2001 was a founding member of Socialist Alliance. She is a campaigner for refugee rights and against Islamophobia.

“I am running in this election because I think we need to tax the rich for real. We need funds for 100% renewable energy, public housing and other social services.

“The Bernie Sanders campaign in the US is a reminder that all around the world, in different ways, challenges are breaking out against the corporate 1% and we need to build our own people's uprising against the billionaire class in this country.”

Séamus Doherty was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and emigrated to Australia as a plumber in 1974. He has had a number of roles in the union movement and was black-listed by the bosses for his fierce defence of safety standards and workers' rights. He is immediate past-president of the Plumbers' Union and remains a passionate unionist. He has actively supported Nyoongar sovereignty including the Nyoongar Tent Embassy and the Matagarup Refugee Camp. He played an instrumental role in the establishment of Solidarity Park as part of the Workers' Embassy that helped defeat the Court Government's attacks on workers' rights. He is a human rights activist and was an organiser of the CHOGM protest in 2011. He is a supporter of Celtic Football club and played Gaelic football for ten years at Finbars.

“I am running to help the poor, the marginalised and the underprivileged.”

Farida Iqbal is currently actively in the campaign to save the Safe Schools program. She is an active campaigner for equal marriage rights and has been involved in the Queer movement since 2003. In 2014 she was an organiser of the March Australia movement against the Abbott government's anti-people budget, calling at the time for the budget to be blocked. She is also part of the movement to defend protest rights and has actively opposed gas fracking in WA.

“I'm running to stand up for the Safe Schools Coalition, and for queer youth. If our government was genuinely democratic there is no way they would have thrown a whole generation of young people under the bus just to hold on to power. We need a government for the people, by the people, that looks out for minority groups.”