The Communist League in Australia is presenting a working-class alternative to the Liberal, Labor, and other parties of capitalism in the September 17 by-elections for the state parliament in New South Wales (NSW). Supporters of Alasdair Macdonald, the Communist League candidate who is on the ballot in Marrickville, Sydney, have been campaigning among unionists in struggle and in working-class communities.

Macdonald, 24, is a meat worker and member of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union as well as a member of the Young Socialists and the Communist League in Sydney.

“I am urging working people to join the Boeing workers’ picket line in Newcastle and other actions to oppose the government’s attacks on unions, wages, and working conditions,” Macdonald said. “Under the state Labor government, health care, education, public transport, and other social services have been further eroded. The NSW state government has joined with the federal government’s expansion of police powers under the banner of the ‘war on terror.’ “Our campaign promotes solidarity with workers’ struggles from the strike against Northwest Airlines in the United States to the public service workers’ strike in Tonga.”

Macdonald took part in the recent world youth festival in Caracas, Venezuela. There, “I was able to speak out against the Australian rulers’ racist immigration policies,” he said. “Our campaign opposes the arrests and deportations of immigrant workers, who strengthen the working class here.”

He added, “I might be standing for state parliament in Marrickville, but our campaign platform starts with the world. Working people in Australia have nothing in common with the bosses and their government.” He called for “the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of Australian and other imperialist armed forces from Iraq and Afghanistan,” and for the removal of Australian police from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and East Timor.

“We support forging an alliance of working people worldwide to fight to overthrow imperialist rule, bringing about a workers and farmers government in Australia,” Macdonald said.
 
 
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