Progressive unity delivers results in Auburn

Peter Jarvis

Residents who turned up to watch Auburn Council meetings last 
year were given a sharp lesson in the nature of local democracy 
in Sydney's Western suburbs. There are 12 councilors in Auburn — 
two of them, Barbara Perry a State Labor MP, the other a Liberal, 
rarely attended. The remainder spent about 90 percent of their 
time working on development applications.

There was a fairly set rhythm to council meetings. Developers 
would put up plans that any sane person could see were 
unacceptable — extra units getting squeezed in by lowering 
ceilings, parking spaces barely thought of, inadequate services 
and facilities. Developments like these would be passed by the 
council with a sole voice — Residents Action Group's (RAG) Irene 
Simms — calling for her objection to be recorded.

Thus, before the March 27 elections Auburn had only one 
councillor who would stand up to the greedy property developers 
queuing up to wreck Auburn's low-rise suburban heritage.

Three progressive groups stood candidates for the March 27 
election. The Resident Action Group stood candidates in both 
Auburn wards and the Greens in one ward. The third group — No 
Dump Group — was made up of Green party members, local activists 
and residents and Communist Party members. It decided to stand in 
both wards.

The No Dump Group was closely allied to the team that defeated 
Collex Waste Management Corporation in the Land and Environment 
court only to have Bob Carr pass "special" legislation to impose 
a waste dump on Auburn.

Issues

Tony Oldfield, the lead candidate of the No Dump Group in ward 2 
said, "Obviously the dump was an important issue. Here we have 
the Land and Environment Court ruling against the dump, saying it 
was unacceptable to build this facility in Auburn.

"On the other hand, Collex the operators of the dump, are making 
big donations to the NSW branch of the ALP. And finally we see 
Bob Carr and the Labor Party deciding that they know what is best 
for our multi-ethnic suburb and he passes legislation to impose 
the dump on residents. Frankly it is a huge issue."

There were other issues in addition to the dump. Tony commented, 
"Residents want to stop the dump, but we also want to stop greedy 
developers running amuck in our suburb. We are sick of 
desperately needed services getting chopped back by State and 
Federal Governments.

"We want to see a council that will bring ordinary residents into 
the decision making process. Residents must be consulted with and 
given the right to veto development that they strongly object to.

"Overriding everything is the desperate need for a clean council 
that puts residents and communities before big-business and 
property developers."

The No Dump Group decided that they would only preference other 
groups where they had a good record on council and correct 
policies towards the dump, development and political donations. 
On this basis the No Dump Group could only really work with RAG 
and the Greens.

Campaign Manager, Mike Newman, said "beyond just sorting out who 
the decent people were and preferencing with them — we brought a 
new level of cooperation and alliance building to the campaign. 
We weren't preferencing just to give 'our' candidates the best 
chance possible. Our sole interest was trying to get as many 
progressives onto the council as possible, even if that meant we 
sacrificed our own chances."

Mike says that "At first this idea appeared a little too novel 
for the other groups. But we continued to work with RAG and the 
Greens during the election campaign — we shared information, 
particularly when anti-Muslim and similar rumors where being 
spread in the community. We helped each other give out how-to-
vote information and worked to persuade voters to follow the how-
to-vote instructions and exercise their right to preference."

Paid off

This strategy appears to have paid off, with possibly three 
progressive councilors elected.

Tony Oldfield said, "This is excellent proof of the Communist 
Party's position that encourages left and progressive alliances. 
We went into this election with an isolated individual standing 
up to the property developers. Now, there will be three 
progressives working together for the benefit of ordinary working 
residents."

Tony thinks that getting people onto the council is important, 
but is only part of the jigsaw. He says, "We need to look beyond 
the council election. There is now a pool of people from 
different groups who have worked together and learnt to trust 
each other.

"This means that No Dump activists are plugged into parts of the 
community who had not been reached before. The same goes for the 
Greens and the Resident Action Group.

"Getting decent people to pull together, work co-operatively and 
start to trust each other has been a major plus coming out of 
this campaign. We now need to concentrate on working in an 
alliance on the council and making this co-operation an everyday 
reality for our community's fight against the dump and the 
developers."