Tony Oldfield.
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Tony Oldfield interviewed by Federico Fuentes
September 22, 2012 -- Green Left Weekly -- As we walk into a cafe in the Sydney suburb of Newington, a young
Afghan barista greets Communist Party of Australia (CPA) activist Tony
Oldfield by name and asks how the recent local Auburn council elections
went. After talking for a few minutes about which councillors were
re-elected and which were not, the young man asks: “And how about you
Tony?”
Only then does Tony point out that he too was elected.
In doing so, Oldfield became one of only four socialist local councillors in Australia at the present time.
Oldfield told Green Left Weekly that the origins of his
election date back to the early 2000s, when “local Turkish community
activists, leftists and some small business owners”, came together to
form a community group opposed to the proposed Collex waste transfer
station.
Their legal challenge against the waste dump was successful in the
Land and Environment Court, but “the Carr Labor government brought in an
act to parliament that overturned the court decision”.