Socialist Party councilor re-elected in Yarra

From the Socialist Party website, 30 November

Best result for a socialist in more than 50 years!
Australia’s only socialist councillor Stephen Jolly has been re-elected in the City of Yarra. Preliminary results are showing that Socialist Party member Stephen Jolly has in fact beat the Labor Party candidate in their traditional heartland of inner city Melbourne.

Jolly, who has been a councillor since 2004, has won approximately 28 per cent of the vote in the Langridge Ward of Yarra City Council. This is by far the best result for any socialist candidate in more than 50 years!

In the other wards of Yarra Socialist Party members have also achieved decent results. Anthony Main won about 5 per cent of the vote in the Nicholls Ward and Denise Dudley won about 2 per cent of the vote in the Melba ward. (All figures are based on preliminary results from the VEC)

Jolly said today “this result sends a wakeup call to both Labor and the Greens. This shows that socialist ideas do get an echo if explained in the right way.”

In light of this important victory the Melbourne Branch of SP will be holding a meeting to discuss the Victorian council election results and which way forward for socialists and community campaigners.

The details are: 7pm Thursday December 4th @ Trades Hall, corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. All welcome!

The wombats also strongly advise anyone interested in further left unity and discussing strategies for socialists in Australia today to get along to the Socialist Alliance national conference this weekend (Dec 5-7) in Geelong. More details here.