Anneke Demanuele

Hi, I'm Anneke. I'm proud to be running as Victorian Socialists' lead candidate for the Western Metro upper house region in this November's state election. I'm a renter in Maribyrnong and I'm sick of seeing working-class communities be neglected by the people in power.

Standing up to injustice has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was taken to my first protest by my mother, Gaye, when I was five years old. Protesting against the Howard government was a big part of my childhood.

My mum was part of the Hawkesbury Action Group Against Domestic Violence, and with them, organised a bus load of people to attend the Walk for Reconciliation in May 2000. More than 250,000 of us marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge that day, demanding justice for Indigenous people. I remember feeling proud that my mum had been part of organising to get people along to the march.

My dad, Frank, was a youth worker and when I was about four I remember he took me to a strike of council workers. He suggested I hold a placard that read “Treating us like monkeys and giving us peanuts”.

My dad came to Australia by boat from Malta when he was very young. He and his family hoped for a better life here after the Second World War destroyed the Maltese economy. He and his siblings were bullied for being “wogs”, and stopped speaking Maltese to avoid racial abuse. His mother and father both died away while he was still young, his father only a few years after they arrived. Because of this, he and his siblings weren’t able to finish school because they had to work to support the family.

My parents never tried to hide the injustice and oppression that capitalist society creates, but they also taught me the importance of standing up to it. And the best way to do that is by joining together with others, organising, protesting and showing solidarity with others. Fighting back, in the streets, at work or in school or uni, was for them the antidote to a society that thrives on division and keeping people down. And it can win things that improve our lives.

As a working-class kid growing up in a regional area I saw what it was like for people struggling to get by. Mum raised me and my five sisters mostly on her own. She was a counsellor, and then studied hard to become a registered nurse working in the emergency department. My sisters had to take care of me while mum worked nightshifts at the hospital, as there wasn’t childcare available, and still isn’t for many shift workers.

When dad got sick with leukemia, the nurses and doctors who cared for him were so compassionate and dedicated to helping him. Seeing how hard the hospital staff worked, and how kind they were to dad despite being run off their feet, gave me a real appreciation for healthcare workers. It makes me angry that healthcare workers are still not paid what they deserve, while CEOs and management consultants, who care for no-one, take holidays in Aspen and drive Maseratis.

The politics of the Howard era really shaped my political outlook. The barbaric treatment of refugees and the way the government mistreated desperate people to score points and win votes disgusted me.

Australia’s involvement in the murderous Iraq war, based on lies and undertaken in the face of mass opposition, opened my eyes to the violent and undemocratic nature of capitalism. And then WorkChoices – the wide-ranging attack on workers’ rights and conditions – showed what it was all really for: so that the wealthy could get richer at our expense. In the face of all that, socialism has always seemed like the decent and rational alternative to the capitalist system.

Since joining the socialist movement in 2014, I have been part of organising and leading protests for refugee rights and standing up against former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s plans to increase university fees. In 2020, I helped organise a march of more than 30,000 people during the bushfire crisis, demanding Scott Morrison resign. I’ve stood with striking workers outside Woolworths distribution centres and on the docks. I have helped organise protests against the far-right and neo-nazi movement, including helping to drive the fascists out of Sunshine when they set up a white supremacist gym.

I have been slandered by the Herald Sun and dismissed as a trouble maker by the Murdoch press. The media’s role is too often to promote the interests of big business and discredit anyone who dares criticise it or organise to stop it. Such attacks just give me more motivation to fight. I’m immensely proud to be the Victorian Socialist candidate for the Western Metropolitan region.

I want to be a voice for working-class people, the people who are ignored, taken for granted and underpaid. Public sector workers like nurses, teachers and doctors make an enormous difference in our lives, but they are denied real wage increases and forced to endure crushing workloads by those in power. I want to be a voice for them.

And I want to be a voice for public housing residents. Instead of demolishing public housing, we should be building more so that everyone has a safe place to live. I want to speak up for all the parents currently struggling to feed and care for their children, whether because of long working hours on low wages, the high price of necessities or lack of quality childcare.

I want to use parliament to speak truth to power. I want to give people hope that the way society is isn’t the way it has to be, and that if we get together and demand something better we can win. The teachers have shown that determination and standing together can get results. We need more of that. I want to be part of that fight to win the sort of society we all deserve.