The Socialist Party is standing Kylie McGregor for the federal seat of Melbourne in the upcoming election.This seat takes in the municipalities of both the right-wing run City of Melbourne as well as the City of Yarra, which has the first ever Socialist Party Councillor, Stephen Jolly. Kylie is the President of Unite, the new militant union established last year to organise fast food and retail workers in Victoria.

As a co-founder and organiser of the Unite union, she has been active in the struggles to stop the exploitation of young workers in fast food and retail. She has campaigned to abolish youth wages and AWA’s and to increase the minimum wage for all workers.

Kylie has also been working for several years now to defend low paid workers and campaigning against casualisation.

She told The Socialist: “Overwhelmingly it is young people and women who have been hit hardest by Howard’s new work laws, being forced on to AWAs and reduced wages and conditions. We need a voice”.

If elected Kylie will live on the average working wage and donate the balance of the salary to the Socialist Party and campaigns by workers and local communities. If elected, to federal parliament Kylie will work to provide a real opposition to the right wing parties.

The seat is currently held by the ALP’s Lindsay Tanner. While an ex-trade union leader and member of the party’s Socialist Left faction, Tanner is one of the most explicit neo-liberal exponents on Labor’s front bench. He has made many speeches where he has openly called for further capitalist globalisation.

The Greens will put up a strong challenge, but as we explain elsewhere in this edition they offer no real alternative for the working class.

If you believe there is a need for a real opposition to the policies of this Government and the ineffectiveness of the opposition, vote No.1 Kylie McGregor, Socialist Party candidate for Melbourne.

We call on voters to put SP’s Kylie McGregor 1, then vote Green, and put the Liberals and racists last.

If you want to help our federal election campaign, contact our National Office on (03) 96399111