By Maurice Sibelle
One of the greatest obstacles to winning working people to the perspective of a socialist revolution is the widespread and deeply ingrained illusion — inculcated in their minds day-in and day-out by the capitalist rulers — that through the institutions of bourgeois democracy, particularly parliament, working people can defend and advance their interests.
Sydney Town Hall in the 1950s.
By Pamela A. Brunfelt
At a pregnant moment in time, a young Swede-Finn from a small town in the heart of Minnesota’s Cuyuna Iron Range made history. When Karl Emil Nygard was elected mayor of Crosby on December 6, 1932, he became the first Communist mayor in the United States. His triumph was no accident. It was the culmination of years of radical activity on the iron range.
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- A document on socialists standing in municipal council elections, produced by the Communist Party of Australia in the 1940s. Download HERE or read on screen below.
Tony Oldfield.
For more articles on socialists in municipal councils, click HERE.
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”.
For more articles on socialists in municipal councils, click HERE.
By Chris Slee and Selena Black, Melbourne
Re-elected socialist municipal councillor Steve Jolly.
For more articles on socialists in municipal councils, click HERE.
Socialist Party member Mel Gregson interviewed by Ian Anderson
By Sam Wainwright
[Sam Wainwright is an elected municipal councillor in Fremantle, Western Australia, and a member of the Socialist Alliance. This is a talk he gave on the topic of how to achieve social change in Australia.]
December 9, 2012 -- Socialist Alliance (Australia) -- It's pretty obvious for anyone that cares to look that capitalism is a socially destructive and ecologically unsustainable system.
Based on the unequal distribution of wealth, it condemns billions to living in poverty worldwide.
In more wealthy places like Australia, where workers have much higher incomes, capitalism invents products for us to spend money on just as quickly as we win a wage increase. That we have one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world is but one proof that it doesn't provide people with a meaningful existence.
Now the worsening climate crisis -- caused by capitalism’s endless accumulation of profit and wealth -- threatens the very basis of life on Earth.