Catherine Robertson for Laverton

Powerful to join the Uyghur community today to hear from two survivors of the Chinese government's mass internment camps of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province. It was a privilege to speak to the demonstration alongside these freedom fighters and many other Uyghur activists.

Uyghurs have faced genocide and repression for decades due to their faith and culture. Victorian Socialists believe in the self determination of the Uyghur people and East Turkistan, and for freedom of movement everywhere. We want to be part of building a labor movement that sees international solidarity as a core organising principle. The liberation of all workers is bound together, especially for Uyghurs that are right now locked up in slave labor camps that produce products for major corporations such as Apple, Samsung & Volkswagen.

The recent protests in China as a result of the fire in Urumqi and the demands for democratic rights, are hopefully a step towards building a movement that can link together the fight for liberation and Uyghur rights from below. The vigils for those who died, many of whom Uyghurs, are an important moment breaking down the walls of division that the government has constructed.

A wrap to an amazing campaign!

On Saturday volunteers across all the booths in the Laverton district finished up the last day of a massive state election!

The incredible effort from all our campaigners saw 15,000 doors knocked in Laverton district, over 150 corflutes and a whole fortnight of early voting staffed. It was fantastic to cap it off by chatting to the thousands of people who came through the booths on Saturday, looking for an alternative to the major parties and supporting socialist politics.

Let's hope our hard work paid off and we get Liz Walsh for Western Metro elected, but regardless of outcome we are immensely proud to be part of a historic effort to grow socialist politics in the west!

1️⃣ ✊

Five reasons you should VOTE 1 Victorian Socialists this election.

1. Because politics as usual is broken. We can't afford to push on with the status-quo of out of control inequality, a deepening housing crisis, and climate disaster. A bit of tinkering won't fix it - we need a radical shift in our political system.

2. Because our candidates have a proven track record of doing the tireless, unglamorous work of agitating and organising for a fairer society and a better world - fighting alongside workers, oppressed peoples, and all those exploited and excluded by the system.

3. Because in Melbourne's Northern and Western Metropolitan Regions the fifth spot in the upper house is a battle between Victorian Socialists - with our candidates Jerome Small and Liz Walsh - and hard-right creeps like Bernie Finn and Adem Somyurek who want to roll back the clock on abortion and LGBTIQ rights, and force everyone to fit with their particular dystopian view of society.

4. Because if enough people VOTE 1 Victorian Socialists in the upper house in Melbourne's North and West, then we can win and have a socialist (or two) elected to an Australian parliament for the first time in 70 years. A socialist in parliament would stand up to the major party politicians and their corporate mates, and provide a powerful platform from which to support and amplify the struggles of all those fighting for a better life for themselves, their workmates and their communities.

5. Because if you vote for us and we don't get up, you can be 100% sure that your vote will flow through to another progressive candidate, rather than risking the right getting in. In the lower house, you control this yourself. If you VOTE 1 for the VS candidate and we drop out, your vote will pass through to candidate you put at number 2, and so on. In the upper house, Victorian Socialists preferences from left-to-right (unlike some other so-called 'progressive' parties, we would NEVER put a right-wing party above one from the left), so if we drop out, your vote will help another progressive candidate get elected.

So tomorrow, VOTE 1 Victorian Socialists, and let's make some history.

Just finished up the last 8:30 - 8pm early voting day with these legend volunteers! Inspiring to be joined by Imran in last few hours on the booth, a refugee that recently fought and won his freedom from the Park Hotel prison, and after being detained for 9 years is now fighting for permanent protection.

For the last two days of voting polls are open till 6pm - Vote 1 Victorian Socialists!

Wonderful to meet Dina and her partner at the Sunshine booth today, two Palestinian socialists from Jordan who came to vote for us and chatted to our volunteers about the about fight to liberate Palestine.

Another day of prepoll wrapped up! We had great chats today at the booths, meeting supporters from our federal campaign back in May and people who only just found out about us today and decided to vote socialist!

Four more days to go to in the fight to get a socialist into parliament, sign up to help us in our biggest campaign yet by lending a hand at one of the hundreds of booths were staffing this Saturday: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/polling

It's been a great first week on the prepoll booths in Laverton!
We've meet a bunch of people excited to vote socialist after reading about us, getting their doorknocked or seeing a sign up in their neighborhood. We've also met voters like Quang, who only just found out about VS when we stopped him on the booth and decided, as a local unionist and processing worker, to give us his number 1 because we want to fight for workers.

We're ready for week 2, and the big day on the 26th!

The first week of prepoll is nearly over! We've been out in Sunshine campaigning to:

▪️Put politicians on a workers wage
▫️Fight for Refugee and Migrant Rights
▪️Lift the public sector wage cap and fight for wages above inflation
▫️5 year rent cap and mass affordable housing
▪️Defund the police and take radical climate action now
▫️Reverse privatisation, fund health and community services

Booths are open until 6pm today, with your first preference we have a real chance at getting a socialist elected to parliament for the first time in decades this November!

Great feature by pedestrian.tv on the Victorian Socialists campaign across the West & North!

Here's an excerpt of my interview with them:

"The reason we call ourselves socialists is because we want to rebuild the tradition of socialism being the politics of working-class struggle,” Robertson said.

“People have negative associations with Stalinism and forms of socialism that really bastardised the name … but hopefully over time as the ranks of socialists get rebuilt in Victoria in some small way, it can be the thing that starts to shift people into being more open to it again and seeing it as genuinely trying to fight for ordinary people’s interests.”

READ MORE: https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/victorian-socialists-minor-parties/
Help us on polling day: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/polling?fbclid=IwAR2_gPnuC5XB_2c8y-C7Hhjk2RTIV-XsR5_hFAuZEtr6fq5AGKQspfCEduY

How to vote for the Victorian Socialists in Laverton!

We are fighting to get a socialist into the upper house of the Victorian Parliament, to fight for people to be put before profit - but we will only be able to do that if you preference us number [1].

Laverton Early Voting Centres are open now [except 20/11] until the 26th:
📍1st Sunshine Scout Group Hall, 23 Nixon Street Sunshine VIC 3020
📍Unit 10, 180 Fairbairn Road, Sunshine West VIC 3020

Want to help? Sign-up for a shift talking to voters and handing out our how-to-vote cards during pre-polling and/or on election day, Saturday 26th November: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/polling

Vote 1 Victorian Socialists to put politicians on a workers wage, so we can use the rest for more dog treats!

The affordable housing crisis in the Western Suburbs is only getting worse.

Brimbank council has one of the highest rates of homelessness in Victoria and almost half of renters and people with mortgages are in financial stress.
In Wyndham council, a whopping 62.9% of renters and 34.4% of mortgagees are in financial stress.

We need to put someone in parliament this election who wants to fight for quality housing to be a human right, not a money-making opportunity for landlords, speculators and developers.

Victorian Socialists will fight to:
→ Impose a five-year freeze on rent increases and cap subsequent increases to CPI.
→ Double the Vacant Residential Land Tax owing on all properties that remain vacant for more than six months of the year.
→ Audit existing properties that are vacant; bring into public ownership those that have been vacant for more than two years without extenuating circumstances.
→ Abolish all tax concessions for property investors and landlords.
→ Adopt a 'housing first' policy that offers unconditional access to public housing for all homeless Victorians.
→ Ban the sale and privatisation of public housing and land to private property developers under the guise of 'renewal' programs.
→ Construct at least 15,000 new public housing units per year for at least the next 10 years.

As early voting opens tomorrow it's incredible to look back over what we've achieved in this campaign so far, after our latest outing volunteers in Laverton have knocked over 11,000 doors!

In between talking to residents on their doorstep, we've organised forums and protests in Sunshine for climate action, refugee rights and social justice, alongside staunch community activists. We've attended local events against gambling harm, for better public transport and joined workers on strike at their picket lines in the west.

We've received huge support for socialist politics in Laverton, let's keep up the momentum! When you hit the polls over the next two weeks Vote 1 for Victorian Socialists.

Let's get a fighter for our side in parliament, one that will stand up for workers and the oppressed against the rich and powerful!

Wonderful doorknock across Ardeer and Albion today in the sunshine!

It was a real honor to organise and chair this rally alongside the local Tamil refugee community and Tamil Refugee Council. Fantastic to see young and old take to the streets of Sunshine with such anger and defiance, demanding permanent protection and the end of the cruel and insecure TPV and Bridging Visa system.

Free the refugees! Permanent Protection now!

Volunteers out postering Sunshine, today spreading the word about this Sundays Rally for Permanent Protection for Refugees!

Join us at 12pm this Sunday alongside the Tamil Refugee Council, out the front of the plaza on Hampshire Rd, to demand permanent protection for refugees and the end of the inhumane visa system in Australia.

Our schools are in crisis. Over many years, state and federal governments – both Labor and Liberal – have refused to put in the required resources. Victoria’s state Labor government still spends less per student in government schools than any other state or territory. Parents on average pay around $2,000 per child per year on fees, camps, electronic devices, uniforms and textbooks for what is supposed to be a free education for their kids.

At the same time, increasing administrative workloads and stagnating pay has create massive teaching staff shortages. A recent survey found 9 out of 10 school principals expect to be unable to put a teacher in every classroom in 2023. This isn't good enough. Teachers and students deserve better. Victorian Socialists are going to the state election with a proposal to reverse the collapse of public education:

-Hire 10,000 additional teachers and support staff for the state’s 1,600 public schools.
-Make the state government fund all schooling costs – including excursions, buildings, maintenance, devices and uniforms.
-End “voluntary contributions” from parents in state schools.
-Boost state and federal government funding to bring every school up to at least the level recommended in the “Schooling Resource Standard” from the Gonski review. This would mean increasing average funding for government schools in Victoria by around 15 percent (in addition to pay increases)

Don't miss our big policy manifesto launch tonight, Friday 21 October, 6pm at the Mission to Seafarers, 717 Flinders St, Docklands (VS Presents: A Socialist Manifesto For Change ). More info and tickets here: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/manifesto.

We're excited to announce a special guest speaker at the event - Victorian Socialists member and CFMEU delegate at Knauf, Viraj Dissanayake, who alongside his workmates has now been on strike for over 5 weeks.

The Knauf strikers are on the front lines of the struggle for a better deal for workers at a time when real wages are falling at the fastest pace in a generation, and we're looking forward to hearing Viraj's account of their battle with the multi-billion dollar global manufacturing giant.

Right now Australians are living through a worldwide crisis and our politicians have absolutely nothing decent to say about it. Because the ruling class elite and their government lackies are the ones profiting from the ecological, social and economic crises that are going on rampage through the world right now.

This needs to end! We need to look around us and say if nobody else is doing anything, well then we will! Victorian Socialists have put together our 2022 Manifesto for Change detailing everything we believe needs to change to make our society a just society for everyone and not one that’s built for corporate, money-hungry monsters.

We’ll be launching the manifesto tomorrow night at the Mission to Seafarers in Docklands at 6pm and it’s going to be an affair to remember! Come along to get riled up and build up some spirit for the final stretch of the Victorian Socialists State Election Campaign!

https://facebook.com/events/s/vs-presents-a-socialist-manife/631456475152935/

Our hospitals are in crisis after years of deliberate underfunding and neglect, which the covid crisis has only further exacerbated. Werribee Mercy, which thousands in the west rely on for medical care, is one of the worst resourced hospitals in the state.

Just this year:
-A woman suffering severe haemorrhaging died in the emergency department waiting for care
-It was reported that the hospital does not have resources to provide public psychiatry and ophthalmology
-The psychiatric unit was forced to close 16 of its 66 beds due to staff shortages
-A ‘short stay’ unit, made of shoddy portables, was constructed to deal with overflow from the emergency department

This isn’t good enough. Victorian Socialists are arguing for a major overhaul of our health system, and massive state investment to address this crisis, including:
1. Immediately increase nurses’ and paramedics’ wages by at least 2.5 percent above inflation, and again in 2023.
2. Boost the numbers of hospital beds, nurses, midwives, doctors, allied health and mental health specialists.
3. Improve nurse-to-patient ratios across all areas and properly enforce them.
4. Pay full wages to trainee nurses, paramedics and other healthcare professionals completing placements.
5. Expand the ambulance fleet to reduce wait times.

Out in the sun at Albion today, great arvo chatting to locals about why we need a genuine left wing alternative in the area.

Laverton volunteers and supporters will be joining hundreds of other VS members at to our big Manifesto Launch this Friday at Mission to Seafarers in Docklands! Join us and grab your ticket here: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/manifesto

Knauf workers, who produce half the plasterboard for construction in Australia, have now been on strike for 4 weeks. They have been locked out of their jobs for rejecting a pay cut in real terms, and the introduction of labour hire. It's incredible to see the strength of these workers as they face off against this enormous corporation. Victorian Socialists have been down at the picket expressing solidarity and getting inspired. With a spiralling cost of living crisis and stagnant wages, we want to see more strikes like this one! Please donate to the strike fund to help these workers who are fighting back against corporate greed.

https://knauf-lockout-fund.raisely.com/?fbclid=IwAR0P5Jumz9n6TluCa0bzYj7twzDr_rH84MXj7077JkW-8PAQCJzOzOAMzPg

Knauf lockout fund Workers at Knauf have been locked out of their work place after voting down the current EBA offer from Knauf. Help them out by donating to the lockout fund.

Another tragic and preventable death in our hospitals.

The story of Mr. Mills and his family's attempts to receive urgent medical assistance would be familiar to anyone who has tried to access care in our healthcare system:

"Hospital records reveal more than 90 adult patients were waiting in the Sunshine Hospital emergency department when Mr Mills was there, above the maximum cubicle capacity of 50 people."

Our public health care system is its worst state for for the past 40 years, on the same evening Mr. Mills attempted to access emergency care at Sunshine hospital 10 patients left the department without seeing a doctor. The average length of stay for the other attendees was almost 11 hours, and only 9 per cent of patients were seen by a doctor within the recommended time.

Universal and timely access to comprehensive quality healthcare is a human right.

We need to immediately;

1. Increase nurses’ and paramedics’ wages by at least 2.5 percent above inflation, and again in 2023.
2. Boost the numbers of hospital beds, nurses, midwives, doctors, allied health and mental health specialists.
3. Improve nurse-to-patient ratios across all areas and properly enforce them.
4. Put private hospitals in public hands.
5. Build new public hospitals in growth corridors, and other areas where needed.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-04/coroners-report-neville-mills-sunshine-hospital-emergency-delays/101499350

Fantastic and empowering to join hundreds others on the streets this past weekend to protest the bigots, corralled by Bernie Finn, and their attempts to wind back abortion rights in Australia. Lets boot Finn from parliament this November and put socialist fighters in his place!