Thanks for your support

A big thanks to all of our members and supporters that have helped out so much during this election campaign, what a champion effort!

With postal votes still to be counted, Socialist Alliance in Fremantle has almost doubled our first preference vote, garnering 1.6%. A big shout out to everyone that took the brave step to support the little party with big ideas.

We've injected issues and solutions into the public arena that no other party will touch; an economy largely in private hands and run for profit cannot and will not meet the needs of the community and planet. The only solution is to radically democratise our society, bringing the big sectors like the banks and mines into public hands to fund 100% renewable energy and much needed social services.

The struggle for a better world goes on, we'll continue to do all we can to help bring it about and we invite you to join us. Ours is a world and future to win!

Three reasons to vote 1 Socialist Alliance - your strongest progressive vote!

Socialist Alliance needs your NUMBER 1 vote in order to make an impact! If you want to see progressive change, this is the strongest vote you can make.

The establishment always tries to pressure people to vote for what they think is "realistic" - instead of what is needed. However legendary US socialist Eugene V Debs used to argue that "it is better to vote for what you want and not get it, than to vote for what you don't want, and get it". The successes achieved by Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders in the US show also that millions of people can be convinced that socialist change is perfectly reasonable and feasible.

Here are three reasons to vote 1 Socialist Alliance.

1 Socialist Alliance has the strongest progressive policies

Socialist Alliance supports a transition to 100% renewable energy in a decade. This is perfectly feasible but the Greens and Labor refuse to match it.

We support the abolition of all anti-union laws - not just some of them. We have an unambiguous position against mandatory detention and offshore processing of refugees and in favour of Aboriginal sovereignty.

Our policies are aimed at breaking the power of the big corporations and bringing about genuine democratic reform so that power can be in the hands of the people.

Unlike the Greens and Labor, Socialist Alliance parliamentarians would not have voted for the supply bills in Abbott's 2014 horror budget (which resulted in cuts to the ABC, SBS, CSIRO and more).

No other party can make all of these claims.

2 Voting Socialist Alliance puts left wing pressure on other parties

Historically the ALP has always been at its most progressive when it has faced strong pressure to its left. Their natural direction is to the right. Today even the Greens are drifting in more pragmatic direction. If you want to see a genuine, principled and consistent progressive change, giving your number 1 vote to Socialist Alliance is the strongest way to use your vote (even if our chances of being elected are slim at this point).

Using the preference system to preference Greens before Labor and Labor before Liberal means your vote will be passed on at full value if we're not elected.

3 Voting Socialist Alliance puts us in a better position to build grassroots protest movements against whichever government is elected

We all know that regardless of whether Labor or Liberal form government, we'll need to fight hard to stand up for our rights. A big vote for Socialist Alliance will help energise the social movements that are the foundation stone for a progressive people's power alternative. If elected, we will use the resources and the platform that come with parliamentary office to directly build and promote people's power.

P.S. You're welcome to come to the Socialist Alliance election night party

Labor's proposed budget cuts ought to be slammed

The Labor Party announced a series of “savings” measures on June 10, including $1 billion worth of Abbott/Turnbull cuts that had previously been blocked in the Senate.

It has tried to make the attacks appear palatable by claiming they are directed at higher income families. However the truth is they reaffirm that a future Labor government's direction will be more about cutting government spending than raising revenue from the big end of town.

Further, they will have bigger impacts on ordinary workers than appears evident at first glance.

The highest profile cut is the proposed abolition of the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A supplement to families earning over $100,000 per year. They claim this will save the government $500 million over the four years of forward estimates and over $2 billion in ten years.

The Supplement to FTB Part A is for an annual bonus of up to $726 which may not seem much to someone on $100,000. However it is important to remember that this is family income that is being measured. That is a couple who each earn $50,000 — hardly extravagant wages — would be affected by this policy.

Of greater concern is that this cut will not be indexed so over time it will affect increasing numbers of workers.

Labor is also planning to save $2.3 billion by continuing the Coalition's freezing of payment thresholds for private health insurance rebates. The community as a whole would be better off if all the money currently spent on subsidising private health insurance were redirected straight into the public health system.

However, after significant government campaigns to pressure people into taking out private health insurance, to cut the rebate paid is another slug on ordinary workers.

There are also a number of Abbott/Turnbull cuts — that Labor said “will never pass the parliament” — that Labor is now planning to implement. One of these is the change to the higher education indexation program. This will mean that graduates will have to start paying back student debt sooner: another slug on ordinary workers.

And there is no talk from Labor about reversing the cuts in former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 2014 horror budget — which Labor and Greens voted for in large measure when they passed the supply bills. These included cuts to the ABC and SBS, the CSIRO and Aboriginal services.

Instead of slugging ordinary working families for hundreds of millions of dollars, Socialist Alliance says tax the super-rich. Returning to the 49% corporate tax rate of the 1980s and taking steps to close the loopholes that allow the multi-millionaires and billionaires to hide their taxable wealth in tax havens would net far more for the budget. These measures would be of significant benefit to the majority, creating jobs and fighting climate change.

The Socialist Alliance is for measures that will help more people. By taxing the corporations adequately, we could raise Centrelink payments to allow a decent standard of living, expand public housing to solve the housing crisis and fund free and accessible childcare. This is what pro-people policies look like.

In this election campaign, Labor has tacked to the left by promising some modest measures such as reform of negative gearing and criticising treasurer Scott Morrison's cuts to corporate tax, for instance.

However, the detail of the ALP's planned “savings” shows the party in its true colours. The policy direction they will implement in government is not so different from the Liberals.

It took mass protests — such as the March in March movement — to stall significant parts of Abbott's budget in 2014. Whichever capitalist party wins the July 2 election, we need to be prepared to protest again to defend our rights.

[This article by Socialist Alliance WA senate candidate Kamala Emanuel first appeared in Green Left Weekly. Photo from March in May protest in 2014.]

How to vote Socialist Alliance in WA

The Socialist Alliance is recommending a vote in Fremantle with these preferences:

1 Chris Jenkins (Socialist Alliance)
2 Kate Davis (The Greens)
3 Josh Wilson (ALP)
4 Mick Connolly (Mature Australia)
5 Pierrette Kelly (Liberal)

In the senate, we suggest:

1 Group G: Socialist Alliance
2 Group J: The Greens
3 Group M: The Arts Party
4 Group O: Renewable Energy Party
5 Group S: Marijuana (HEMP) Party/Sex Party
6 Group N: Australian Cyclists Party
7 Group K: Animal Justice Party
8 Group D: Australian Labor Party

For National recommendations, check:
socialist-alliance.org/news/how-vote-1-socialist-alliance-nsw-wa-and-victoria

Join the Socialist Alliance election campaign

It’s that exciting time of the year: join the Socialist Alliance election campaign!

Your contribution and participation in this election campaign is highly regarded. Help us spread the word: Another world is possible!

This is how you can support our campaign:
1) Volunteer for letter boxing. Initially, we are prioritising the Fremantle electorate; please contact Judith at 0406-225-179 or lyskten@yahoo.es. If you prefer to letter box in other areas, please contact Kamala on 0413 976 638 or kamala@greenleft.org.au).
2) Make a donation (big or small) at http://www.Socialist-Alliance.org/Perth
3) Volunteer now for polling day – Please contact Sam 0412-751-508 or use this online form.
4) Attend one or more of the events in the list below. Show your support to the candidates by spreading the word and letting your friends, family and people in your community about these events.
5) Have fun! Join the election party!! (Saturday 2 July 2016, from 6pm at 21a Jarvis St, O'Connor)


Events:
· Walyalup/Fremantle Branch meeting on Thursday 16 June 6pm, (phone Chris 0415 922 740 for details). We will be discussing election preferences and coordinating adventures campaign activities over a hot meal and drinks.

· Debate for the Federal Seat of Fremantle on Tuesday 21 June 5:45pm, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Tannock Hall of Education (ND4) Corner Cliff and Croke Streets, Fremantle. It will be good fun, come and support Chris. More info: here.

· Socialist Alliance election rally on Thursday 23 June, the Perth Activist Centre. This is THE opportunity for your friends, neighbours and family to meet those your support. Please share the Facebook event.

· Freo Safe Harbour Refugee Rally and Walk on Saturday 25 June at 12pm, at Pioneer Reserve, opposite the Fremantle train station. More info: here.

· Marriage Equality Rally on Saturday 25 June at 1pm Murray Street Mall.

Nurse for Fremantle

Socialist Alliance candidate Chris Jenkins has told the Fremantle Herald that his campaign is pushing for more companies to be brought into public ownership, increased social housing and campaigning against off shore processing of refugee claims.

The comments were reported in the May 14 issue.

“It’s not just that the indefinite detention and abuse of people who have sought our protection is an atrocious crime,” he told the paper, but that “Refugee-bashing and the anti-Muslim hysteria was cooked up in order to distract people from the corporate rorts.

“It is designed to spread racism, to confuse working people and get them fighting among themselves.

“If the union movement doesn’t stand up to this bullshit then it will pave the way for the emergence of violent anti-worker far-right outfits like we’ve seen in Europe.”

Socialist Alliance election launch

Socialist Alliance WA launched its election campaign launch on May 7 at a well-attended function at the Navy Club in Fremantle.

Socialist Alliance candidate for Fremantle, Chris Jenkins, told the crowd that "we believe a very different society is possible".

He outlined some of the key issues that the Socialist Alliance is taking into this campaign: "We want free education; we want free health care; we want a decent public transport system.

"We want an immediate transition towards 100% renewable energy.

"We want people to have access to decent public housing - housing is a right.

"We want to end all anti-worker and anti-union legislation and allow people to collectively organise and fight back for their rights.

"We want equal pay for women. We want equal marriage rights to be put immediately."

Jenkins addressed the issue of where the money will come from to pay for a socialist transition: "The question is where is that money going now. We already live in a society where the resources and material exist to have this transition made but it does exist in the bank accounts and in the hands of a very small number of corporations which are not accountable to the community."

"The only way we're going to see that change happen is when enough people - the majority of people - actively participate in reclaiming that wealth they they themselves have produced."

Socialist Alliance lead senate candidate Kamala Emanuel also addressed this theme. She said that if the four big banks were in public hands, that would give tremendous power of investment into the democratic hands of the people.

She pointed to the current campaigns of divestment from the big banks because of their irresponsible, profit driven climate polluting decisions. "Let's go a step beyond that," she said, "let's have that investment power in public hands, democratically run".

"Think what that could do for environmental repair."

She also highlighted Socialist Alliance's feminist politics and the need to end the gender pay gap. "We're very much in favour of pushing a vision of society where there is egalitarianism," she said.

Emanuel also paid tribute to the revolutionaries of Rojava who are paving the way for such a change.

Senate candidates Seamus Doherty and Farida Iqbal also spoke. Doherty spoke of the Alliance's commitment to justice and sovereignty for Aboriginal people and Iqbal spoke about the Alliance's campaign to support the Safe Schools Coalition and to win equal marriage rights.

The night also featured Chilean music and a message of solidarity with Chilean communities campaigning against the devastating ecological impact of industrial fish farming.

The video (above) was first published on Facebook

See also:

* Support the Socialist Alliance campaign

* Chris Jenkins: Why I'm running in the elections

* Socialist Alliance election platform

Resistance member: Why I'm running in the elections

I live and work as a nurse in Fremantle and I'm the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Fremantle in this year's federal election.

The Socialist Alliance recognises that not only has corrupt, business-as-usual politics caused a deepening social and climate crisis, but that those entrenched and greedy interests are unwilling and incapable of providing real solutions. Major system change is needed.

There is a growing despondency amongst large sections of the community; real anger and frustration in the way things are going. And rightly so.

We see rising wealth and income inequality, to the point where 64 people own the same amount as the world's poorest 50%. Six hundred of Australia's biggest corporations pay no company tax, yet poor people are chased down and jailed for the non-payment of fines. Some like Ms Dhu have died in custody as a result.

Homelessness and desperation are on the rise despite there being sufficient resources to provide a decent life for all.

Our climate is on the brink, yet governments are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and approve new coal, oil and gas projects. This reality cannot go on if we want to live a dignified life on a sustainable planet.

The problem then is not this or that politician, or this or that CEO. What is urgently needed is far-reaching social change driven by human needs and environmental balance, not profit.

The power of big money makes a farce of our democracy, where election campaigns are funded by corporations that also shape public opinion through their monopoly of much of the country's media. Why would profit-driven enterprises give money away during and between elections if they didn't expect plenty back in return?

As profits rise, the rest of us are told there's no money for healthcare or renewable energy. The government and media use the politics of fear and racist scapegoating to divide and distract the community.

The alternative the Socialist Alliance stands for is one in which people and the planet, not profit, are the driving motivation behind all our social interactions.

To meet the needs of our community, we need high quality social services like free education and health. We need an integrated renewable energy system while rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. We need comprehensive public transport infrastructure to break the dependence on private vehicles.

We need to embark on genuine reconciliation with the First Nations peoples of this land by acknowledging sovereignty through a comprehensive treaty.

We need to end the horrendous violence inflicted on women by ensuring economic independence through equal pay, properly funded women's health services and refuges and through making housing for all a right.

We need to celebrate diversity by immediately passing an equal marriage law and fund programs like Safe Schools, aimed at overcoming bullying and bigotry everywhere from the playground to parliament.

We need to fight for the rights of working people to have a high quality standard of living, by chucking out all anti-worker laws and supporting the rights of unions to organise.

Is all this a pipedream that is never going to happen? Some ask where the money will come from? The real question is: “Where is all the money going now?” Into the hands of big banks, the big corporations and the same greedy few. That wealth was created by working people and should come back into the community.

Setting and enforcing higher taxes on corporations is a good start. But ultimately key strategic industries such as the banks and mines need to come under democratic public ownership to ensure that the wealth created is invested in the community so that we can take control of our collective future.

Young people have a major part to play in making this change. I encourage everyone to think big and bold and not see politics as a contest between who do you hate least, but rather to ask what do we want our future society to look like?

People elected to public office are often on salaries and pensions well above that of the average member of the community.

The disgraced Bronwyn Bishop is now taking home more than $9000 a fortnight in a pension paid for by us. Many parliamentarians use their position as a stepping stone into the corporate world, and not from a deep motivation to serve the community.

In the Socialist Alliance, we want to rise with communities, not above them. All our candidates pledge that, if elected, they will only take home the average wage, and I am proud to do the same.

[This article by Chris Jenkins first appeared in Green Left online on April 22, 2016. Jenkins is running for the Socialist Alliance for the seat of Fremantle in the federal election.]

March with Socialist Alliance at May Day

Join the Socialist Alliance contingent this May Day!

Sunday 1 May

Gather from 10am, March at 12 noon
Fremantle Esplanade

Each year, May Day celebrates the hard won gains won by workers' collective struggle across the world, and brings together all who are fighting for a dignified, sustainable future for everybody.

The need for collective struggle has never been more apparent. Pro-business governments, both Labor and Liberal, are on the offensive against workers, unions and their communities in order the maximise profits for the bosses. In the process they are also destroying the very climate we all depend on, and using toxic racism, xenophobia and sexism to divide us.

The Socialist Alliance stands for solidarity towards all who are oppressed by capitalism. A different world is possible, one based on mutual solidarity and cooperation and one in which people and planet matter, not profit. This alternative isn't going to be handed to us, we need to fight for it!

For more information contact 0415 922 740

Attend on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/events/215786778785421

Support Socialist Alliance in the double dissolution election

For the billions, not the billionaires

The senate has done the right thing and rejected the government's proposed anti-worker legislation. This means a double dissolution election is now likely on July 2.

All around the world, more and more people are realising that we need to challenge the billionaire class if we are to have a decent future.

The Socialist Alliance is running in these elections to wage a real campaign to back people power not corporate power.

We want to tax the rich for real and use the money to fund renewable energy and social services.

Only a people's uprising can break the power of the billionaire class and their bought-and-paid-for politicians and that's what our campaign stands for.

You can support our campaign:

1 Make a donation (big or small)
Millions of Americans have donated an average of $27 to support the Bernie Sanders' socialist campaign in the US elections. Can you match that? If you can afford more, we'd appreciate it. Every cent you donate will be used wisely to support a movement for genuine change. (Details here)

2 March with Socialist Alliance on May Day
Gather from 10am, march at 12 noon, Fremantle Esplanade, Sun 1 May.

3 Attend our election launch
6pm Sat 7 May, Navy Club Fremantle. Details here. (Facebook event)

4 Volunteer now to help on polling day
Phone Sam 0412 751 508 or use the online form below

5 Help support our regular campaigns and activities
This Saturday, we are rallying to save the Safe Schools Program (1pm Sat 23 April, Murray St Mall). The week after, we're hosting Canadian ecosocialist Ian Angus at an important forum (2pm, Sat 30 April, Perth Activist Centre) (Facebook event)



Donations to the WA campaign team can be paid by:
* Deposit or Transfer to: Socialist Alliance State Committee [CBA, BSB: 066 003  Account: 1014 0921]
* Post cheque or money order made out to "Socialist Alliance" to PO Box 204, Northbridge 6865
* Come into the Activist Centre (15/5 Aberdeen St, East Perth - next to McIver station) (we're there most of the time but may be best to phone first to check 9218 9608 or 0413 976 638.)
* Make a credit card payment over the phone (ph 9218 9608 or 0413 976 638)

Socialist Alliance election launch and fundraiser

Join us for the launch of the Socialist Alliance WA federal election campaign!

6pm Sat 7 May

Navy Club
64 High Street, Fremantle

In the upcoming federal election, Socialist Alliance WA will be contesting the seat of Fremantle, with Chris Jenkins being our candidate.

In the senate, we have a three-person team comprising Kamala Emanuel, Seamus Doherty and Farida Iqbal.

Follow the link below for our national election proclamation 'For a peoples movement against cuts, racism and attacks on workers rights'

socialist-alliance.org/news/peoples-movement-against-cuts-racism-and-attacks-workers-rights

Unlike the major parties, who receive large donations from the billionaire class, Socialist Alliance relies on the contributions, including financial, of our members and supporters in order to get our message of a political alternative out into the public domain. Fundraisers such as this are essential to that effort.

Please RSVP by messaging Christie on 0420 944 651

Attend on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/events/1602868126700200/

Protect our kids from "The Australian"

Socialist Alliance senate candidate Farida Iqbal responds to the Australian newspaper's latest attack on the Safe Schools program

Join the rally to save Safe Schools (Perth 1pm Sat 23 April, Murray St Mall, Perth City):
www.facebook.com/events/1576428109338422

Support the Socialist Alliance election campaign:
socialist-alliance.org

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.”

Safe Schools saves lives

[This article by Farida Iqbal first appeared in the Perth Voice 15 April 2016.]

FARIDA IQBAL is a founding member of Save Safe Schools WA and a Socialist Alliance candidate for the Senate. Her political views do not necessarily represent Safe Schools WA, a broad coalition encompassing people of all stripes.

ON March 18 this year the federal government announced devastating attacks on the Safe Schools Coalition.

Safe Schools is not a “paedophile grooming” program, as it has been so horrifically described. It is the opposite. It is a program that protects young people and saves lives.

Schools can join the Safe Schools Coalition to access resources, such as training and educational materials. These resources help schools combat bullying effectively, by challenging the culture that underpins it.

We must recognise that school bullying isn’t just kids being mean to each other. Bullying is an expression of homophobia, transphobia and sexism. Bullying comes from a culture of macho boys and mean girls who pick on anybody they decide doesn’t fit into their gender norms.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex students face the most severe consequences of this culture. This is clear in the harrowing suicide rates.

Yet it is important to recognise that homophobia and transphobia impact on the entire student body. How many straight boys are beaten up because they are accused of being “fags”?

As well as the bullies in school, we have to take on the bullies in parliament. The Safe Schools Coalition began without controversy under the Abbott government. How is it possible that transgender children will now be denied this life-saving program, because it can’t be taught in primary schools?

How is it possible that parental consent is now required for the program to be implemented, denying it to LGBTI kids with prejudiced parents?

How is it possible the entire program will be defunded after 2017?

This would not have been possible under a truly democratic political system. A government of the people would not pander to the Australian Christian Lobby. It would act in the interests of the community.

What would such a government even look like? We have been living for so long under lying, cheating, manipulative politicians that it can be hard for Australians to imagine things could be any different. But it is getting easier.

Bernie Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the US presidential race, has given us a powerful message. We can’t leave it up to the politicians. The community needs to take things into its own hands. This is socialism, not in the Stalinist sense of the word, but in the original sense of the word.

Taking things a step beyond Bernie, we can say the community needs to take political power. That’s ordinary working class people like you and me. We need to put politicians on an average working wage, and we need to be able to recall them once elected.

It is precisely the community that is now starting to come forward. In the past few weeks I have been inundated by parents, teachers, high school students, primary school students, LGBTI people, and countless others wanting to stand up for safe schools. We have formed a new campaign group: Save Safe Schools WA. We will hold a rally at 1pm on April 23 in the Murray Street Mall.

Socialist candidate for Fremantle takes aim at the corporate rorters

[6 April 2016. For immediate release.]
The Walyalup-Fremantle branch of the Socialist Alliance is pleased to announce that Chris Jenkins will be its candidate for Fremantle in the coming federal election.

Twenty-six year old Jenkins is a nurse at Fremantle Hospital and resident of South Fremantle. He completed his degree at the University of Notre Dame, where in addition to his studies, he campaigned for students' right to free speech in the face of stiff opposition from the university administration to students speaking out in favour of LGBTI rights.

Outlining some the keys themes of the Socialist campaign, Jenkins said: "Both here and around the world we need a society that looks after the billions, not the billionaires.

"600 of Australia's biggest corporations having been paying absolutely no tax, and many more don't pay the full corporate rate even though successive Labor and Liberal governments have cut it from 48% to only 30% today. If they all paid the full rate the federal budget would reap an extra $8.4 billion per year. It's time to make them pay for things we need like renewable energy, free healthcare, education and decent public transport."

"It's not enough to just properly tax the corporate rich, which Labor and the Greens propose to varying degrees. There are key sectors of the economy that need to be progressively brought under democratic public ownership if we are to have any hope of stopping runaway global warming, achieving significant wealth redistribution and extending democracy. It's not just a question of stopping privatisation, but reversing it."

"A few years ago such talk would have seemed to many like a fantasy to many, how times change! Today Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of British Labour and proposing the re-nationalisation of British Rail. In the US where 'socialism' was the most searched word on the Merriam-Webster site last year, Bernie Sanders could still win the Democratic Party nomination."

"But let's face it, Bill Shorten is no Corbyn or Sanders. Only the Socialist campaign puts these questions on the table. The bigger our vote the more we open up debate about these issues."

As a mental health nurse Jenkins is acutely aware of the systematic failure of successive governments to peg social security payments to the cost of living or to properly invest in areas like preventative health and social housing. He said,

"This week we had the Treasurer Scott Morrison telling Australians that they have to 'live within their means'. Most people on the pension, low paid workers and single parents know very well how to manage a tight budget. The federal government is seeking every way it can to shift even more of the tax burden on to working people and small business so it can fund tax cuts for big business instead of funding essential services. Now they have Medicare on the chopping block too. We have to resist these crooks with everything we've got."

Jenkins, who is a member of the Australian Nursing Federation, also called on the union movement and the Labor candidate to reject Bill Shorten's embrace of the attack on refugees begun by John Howard and continued by successive Labor and Coalition governments.

"It's not just that the indefinite detention and abuse of people who have sought our protection is an atrocious crime. Refugee bashing and the anti-Muslim hysteria was cooked up in order to distract people from the corporate rorts. It is designed to spread racism, to confuse working people and get them fighting among themselves. If the union movement doesn't stand up to this bullshit then it will pave the way for the emergence of violent anti-worker far-right outfits like we've seen in Europe."

Jenkins will be joined by a Senate team of fellow grass-roots activists. They include: long-time women's health doctor and pro-choice campaigner Kamala Emanuel; Hilton resident, CHOGM protest organiser and former Secretary of the Plumbers Union Séamus Doherty; and LGBTI campaigner Farida Iqbal.

Previous Socialist Alliance candidate and Fremantle City councillor Sam Wainwright commented , "What a team of gutsy, selfless and dedicated activists. The more support they get the more we empower a peoples' movement to take the fight up to governments that are servants of the super rich, and the more we spread the idea that a better world is possible."

For more comment: Chris Jenkins 0415 922 740

For more information: Sam Wainwright (Campaign Manager) 0412 751 508 and fremantle@socialist-alliance.org

www.socialist-alliance.org

Save the Safe Schools Coalition

On March 18, a day that was supposed to be the National Day of Action Against Bullying, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced devastating attacks on a crucial anti-bullying program.

The Safe Schools Coalition is an alliance of 535 primary and secondary schools across the country, which aims to ensure the safety of LGBTI students. The program began in 2014 under the Abbott government. It has already engaged more than 13,000 education professionals.

Turnbull announced that funding will not continue after 2017, that parental consent will be a requirement for implementation of the program and that primary schools will no longer be able to sign up to it.

How did an anti-bullying program launched without controversy under the Abbott government have its guts ripped out by Turnbull, who has promoted himself as a queer-friendly prime minister?

The whole process speaks volumes about the undemocratic nature of politics in this country. The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), a right-wing fringe group, has been campaigning against the Safe Schools program for the past 18 months. If our government and mass media were truly owned and run by the people, in the interests of the people, there is no way the ACL could have achieved this.

Shamefully, The Australian and key Liberal Party politicians came behind the ACL campaign. The Australian ran a vicious smear campaign against Safe Schools for a month. Liberal backbenchers, notably George Christensen and Cory Bernardi, petitioned the government to suspend funding Safe Schools while a full parliamentary inquiry was conducted. Forty-three coalition backbenchers signed the petition. Rather than standing up to the petitioners, Turnbull called for a review of the program.

University of Western Australia Professor Bill Louden conducted the review and could not find any major problems with Safe Schools. Ignoring Louden's expert opinion, Turnbull threw a generation of LGBTI youth under the bus to maintain peace within the Liberal Party, not even a month after he took selfies with us at the Sydney Mardi Gras.

We all know that Tony Abbott is a homophobe, but Turnbull achieved what Abbott could not: the most significant attack on queer Australia since the 2004 marriage ban.

Program gutted

Here is why Turnbull's changes add up to a “gutting” of the program. The defunding of the program after 2017 means there is no funding for project officers. There will not be any paid staff to train school staff in how to implement the Safe Schools' educational materials. Well-meaning teachers might try their best, but queer sensitivity can be tricky.

Safe Schools has not been an expensive program, costing only $2 million a year. This is peanuts compared to the $243 million over the past four years given to the National School Chaplaincy Program, which has at times been quite damaging to LGBTI youth.

The requirement of parental consent means that LGBTI students with homophobic or transphobic parents will not be able to access the program. It means that homophobic school bullies will not be educated if their parents agree with them.

Primary schools will no longer be able to access the Safe Schools program. Yet transgender identity often starts to take shape very early in life, before primary school even begins. Many intersex people were simply “born that way”. Bullying of trans and intersex people in primary school can be severe enough to drive children to suicidal thoughts. Lesbian, gay and bisexual attractions generally start to take shape at around ten years of age — young enough for a homophobic culture in primary school to have a lasting psychological impact.

Managers of the Safe Schools Coalition will no longer be allowed to engage in political advocacy. This is a blatant attack on freedom of speech, aimed squarely at the LGBTI movement and the socialist left. It was coverage in The Australian that pre-empted this. Unable to analyse or critique the actual issues in any meaningful way, the newspaper launched personal attacks on Socialist Alternative activist and Safe Schools Coalition leader Roz Ward.

Bullying

The Safe Schools Coalition's website will be dissolved into a generic anti-bullying website. This is an attempt to dissolve the coalition itself into a generic anti-bullying program. Yet a generic anti-bullying program cannot address homophobic or transphobic bullying. To address those kinds of bullying, we need to directly challenge the prejudice that underpins the behaviour.

It is no accident that about a quarter of LGBTI people have contemplated suicide, compared to 2.7% of the general population. It is not possible to address any kind of bullying without challenging homophobia. Homophobia is a core element of much of the bullying that goes on in high schools; many boys who are not gay are accused of being “faggots” and are beaten up for it. Many girls are fed up with the inherent sexism of macho homophobic school culture.

The criticisms of the Safe Schools Coalition are as puerile as the bullying itself. Bernardi claimed that the Safe Schools educational materials “prematurely sexualise” children, and Christensen equated the program with “paedophile grooming”. Yet gay people exist. Informing children of this fact does not constitute paedophilia. We might also ask where the real paedophilia occurs. Most often it is in the context of heterosexual nuclear families. But too often, it is on school grounds. Too often homophobic and transphobic school bullying includes sexual assault.

Right-wing smears

Right-wing politicians and journalists have had conniptions about links on the Safe Schools Coalition website to a Minus 18 publication. Minus 18 publications include links to the Tool Shed sex shop, sadomasochism sites and chest binding instructions. The Tool Shed link has been removed. Minus 18 material was not part of the core Safe Schools program. There is simply a link to it on the Safe Schools website. There is no plan to take 6-year-olds on school excursions to the Tool Shed.

But it is also important to acknowledge that Minus 18 publications are written by and for young people, who have a right to decide for themselves what information should be shared among young people. Youth do not need paternalistic overseers who are completely out of touch with their world to determine what information they can access in the internet age.

Right-wing commentators are horrified that the Safe Schools program introduces students to the concept of gender fluidity. That is, the notion that gender identity is not necessarily etched in stone for all individuals, and it is not necessarily determined by genitalia. Some people do not identify strictly as male or female, or their identity changes throughout their lifespan. This should not be a controversial notion; it should simply be recognised as fact.

Bernardi is horrified that children would be asked to imagine they have no genitals. But he does not refer to the context in which this request is made. Safe Schools teachers ask students to consider what it is about them that makes them male or female. Many students will of course answer that it is their genitals. Teachers are then prompted to ask students to imagine they have no genitals. It is merely a way of explaining transgenderism to young people; the concept that genitals do not necessarily determine gender identity. Children can deal with this brief imaginative exercise.

Nationwide rallies

The LGBTI community and its supporters have organised nationwide rallies in response to attacks on the Safe Schools Coalition. This has been an inspiring exercise in community democracy, significantly broadening the forces in the LGBTI movement.

LGBTI organisations from P-Flag to the Bears have been standing up for Safe Schools. The Greens support Safe Schools. The Labor Party has promised to restore funding to the Safe Schools Coalition if elected. The radical queers and the Marxists, so unfairly smeared, are standing tall for safe schools. Trade unions are coming on board, as are school P&C associations. Three hundred health professionals recently signed a statement supporting the program.

So far the people who work for the Safe Schools Coalition itself have been pretty quiet. These workers need union support to come out loud and proud in defence of their jobs.

Victorian education minister James Merlino announced the Victorian government would make no changes to the program and continue its funding. The ACT Legislative Assembly has also endorsed the program.

We call on more state governments to follow this example. We call on the Federal government to reverse its decisions. We will not rest until we achieve the full restoration of the Safe Schools Coalition.

A 'national disgrace' to attack Safe Schools program

Oscar Kaspi-Crutchett speaking at #Perth rally to save #SafeSchools on March 21.#AusPol #LGBTISee more photos and story: https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/61402

Posted by Green Left Weekly on Friday, March 25, 2016

[This article by Farida Iqbal was first published in Green Left #1089. Photos and video by Alex Bainbridge from the March 21 rally in Perth.]

Forum: Can Bernie Sanders' "political revolution" happen here?

Socialist Alliance forum - all welcome

Bernie Sanders' "political revolution": can it happen here?

Self described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders has won wide support for his call in the US presidential elections for a "political revolution" against Wall Street and the "billionaire class". In this election year in Australia, this forum will canvass if socialism is coming back on to the agenda and if radical social change can win mass support here.

Featured speaker:
Chris Jenkins (Socialist Alliance candidate for Fremantle)

6 for 6:30pm Thurs 31 March

Perth Activist Centre, 15/5 Aberdeen St, Perth (next to McIver station)
Ph 9218 9608, 0417 319 662, 0415 922 740.

Attend on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/events/447042225485700

[NB: This public forum will be followed by a Socialist Alliance senate ticket preselection.]