September 9, 2001

Australian Socialist Alliance Preselects Victoria Senate Ticket

Socialist Alliance selected a Senate team of two longtime women activists to contest the upcoming Federal Election at its recent 8 September Victoria state conference.

Alison Thorne, Melbourne Organiser for the Freedom Socialist Party, a Socialist Alliance affiliate, was chosen for the top position. A veteran feminist and gay liberationist, Alison has many years of experience fighting the right wing and standing up for oppressed people. She campaigned to rid Fawkner of a Nazi bookshop and is a frequent protestor against Right To Life moralists who aim to curtail women¹s right to choose. Alison, who lives in Brunswick, works in a telephone call centre and is a member of the Community and Public Sector Union.

Alison's running mate is Sarah Peart. A resident of St Kilda, Sarah is an energetic, young leader in the global anti-corporate movement and helped organise the M1 protests earlier this year. She is currently building support for a blockade of the Commonwealth Business Forum on October 3 and is a member of another Socialist Alliance affiliate, the Democratic Socialist Party.

The choice of Thorne and Peart to run for the Senate completes Socialist Alliance preselection in Victoria. The Alliance, formed by nine socialist organisations earlier this year, will stand in five lower house seat as well as the Senate. The other preselected candidates are Josephine Cox for Aston, David Glanz for Wills, Tim Gooden for Corio, Jorge Joquera for Gellibrand and Jackie Lynch for Batman.

Thorne says that Socialist Alliance is particularly proud to have preselected four strong socialist women amongst its seven Victorian candidates. The ALP still has not reached its modest target of having 35% of its candidates be women in winnable seats, despite years of claiming to work towards this goal. In contrast, Socialist Alliance has achieved a greater than 50% female-to-male candidate ratio in the first time round.

"The political voice of the growing anti-corporate movement in Australia" is how Sarah sees Socialist Alliance. "More and more people, especially young people, can see that capitalism is simply not working. Socialist Alliance will put forward innovative solutions based on human need not corporate greed."

Alsion agrees. "The Federal Government has spent billions on corporate welfare and tax cuts for big business" she said. "Now that Howard is facing almost certain defeat later this year, he has turned to scapegoating groups such as refugees, single women and lesbians in a desperate attempt to divert working people¹s attention away from issues such as the GST, cuts to the public sector and privatisation. Socialist Alliance will challenge this cynical incitement of racism, homophobia and sexism."

The Socialist Alliance will stand candidates in every state and territory in Australia. Aboriginal leader, Sam Watson, has been preselected to head the Senate ticket in Queensland and refugee rights campaigner, Ian Rintoul, heads the ticket in New South Wales.

For more information about Thorne's and Peart's campaigns, call Alison on 03-9386-5065 or 0411-080-031; call Sarah on 0402-555-591; Linda Waldron on 03-9639-8622; or Peter Murray on 0404-814-197.

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