Media Release
Tasmania's newest party:
Socialist Alliance registered!
17 May 2002. For immediate release.
The word socialist will appear on ballot papers in the coming Tasmanian
state elections for the first time since 1976. The Socialist Alliance has
now been registered by the Tasmanian Electoral Office one of only six
officially registered parties in Tasmania and will be running candidates
in Denison, Franklin and Bass.
The TEO registered the Alliance yesterday [i.e. 16/5/02]. We expect to
receive written confirmation today. Public notices will be published by the
TEO in Saturday newspapers.
We are very proud to announce our registration as a political party and we
are looking forward to a vigorous campaign in the coming state elections,
said Socialist Alliance spokesperson Alex Bainbridge.
The Bacon government claims to represent working class people but nothing
could be further from the truth, said Bainbridge, who was a Socialist
Alliance senate candidate last year.
Labor is thoroughly committed to economic 'rationalism' just like the
Liberals which is a complete disaster for workers, pensioners, students
and the unemployed, he said.
We believe that socialist solutions are going to become more and more
popular as we get further into the 21st century.
All around the world, more people are turning to the left as the realities
of capitalist globalisation become clearer the unprecedented 10% vote to
revolutionary socialists in the first round the French presidential
elections is one sign of this.
The fact that we have been able to achieve electoral registration in
Tasmania, which requires that over 100 members agree to have their name and
address published in the three daily papers, is a testament to the growing
support for a radical alternative in this state also, said Bainbridge.
Although socialists have run in previous state elections, this has seldom
been officially recognised by the Tasmanian Electoral Office. The only
exception since party registration was introduced is the 1976 election
campaign by the Socialist Workers Party (now called the Democratic Socialist
Party).
John Tully, one of the Socialist Workers Party candidates in that election,
has welcomed the registration of the Socialist Alliance.
I am delighted that after 25 years socialists are once again recognised on
the ballot in Tasmania, said Tully previously a well-known socialist
activist in Hobart and currently a Melbourne-based member of the Socialist
Alliance affiliate Socialist Democracy.
The coming state elections will be the first state or federal elections
that Socialist Alliance has contested with our party name on the ballot
since the Alliance formed last year, said Bainbridge.
The very formation of the Socialist Alliance last year was a major step
forward for Australia's previously divided socialist movement. The Alliance
was founded by eight separate socialist parties but the Alliance's total
membership almost 3000 nationally has more than tripled the membership
of the original eight groups, said Bainbridge.
This election campaign will be another step forward. As far as we're aware,
there has never been a socialist campaign targeting as many as three seats
in a Tasmanian state election before, said Bainbridge.
For further information, or to organise interviews, contact:
Alex Bainbridge 0413 976 638(9-11am, 1-2pm, after4pm)
Kamala Emanuel 0417 319 662
Darren Jiggens 0438 691 125
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