The richest 48 people in Australia now control as much wealth as the poorest 11 million. This growing inequality is the result of political choices made by the major parties.
Hi, I’m Malak. I’m running in this year’s state election as the candidate for Caulfield with Victorian Socialists because I believe we urgently need a left-wing response to the growth of inequality, racism and militarism in Australia.
I believe the root of all these issues is capitalism, a system that subordinates all else to the drive for profit and thrives on oppression and scapegoating to justify the inequality it produces. Socialist politics is the alternative to this. I want to fight to rebuild a fighting socialist movement in Australia which puts people before profit and mobilises the power of working-class people to fight for a more just world.
I’ve lived, worked and studied in south east Melbourne my whole life. I have a background in healthcare and am currently a history student at Monash University. I grew up in a single-parent working-class family and saw from a young age how the system is rigged against workers and ordinary people trying to stay afloat. This galvanised my resolve to fight for economic justice for workers.
The richest 48 people in Australia now control as much wealth as the poorest 11 million. This growing inequality is the result of political choices made by the major parties. Here in Victoria, Labor has presided over this historic transfer of wealth and the Allan government has responded by cutting social services and knocking down public housing.
I want to fight instead to put this wealth into fully funding our hospitals, schools and communities, expanding public housing, ensuring dignified and fair wages and reversing declining living standards.
I think anyone with a left-wing bone in their body, should be alarmed by the rise of One Nation. Pauline Hanson, Australia’s Trump, is now the preferred prime minister. Australia’s richest woman and far-right mining magnate, Gina Rinehart, has been pouring money into her campaign so that Hanson can popularise her anti-worker, anti-immigrant and anti-left agenda.
A confident, anti-capitalist fight back is required to combat the normalisation of her politics and vile racism. As part of Victorian Socialists, I have been involved in organising anti-fascist and anti-Hanson demonstrations and events, but the movement must be bigger. We need as many people as possible who are outraged by Hanson’s racism to join the fight.
As well as organising against the far right, I’ve been a community activist for years - involved in campaigns for climate action, refugee rights, women’s rights and justice for Palestine. I helped organise the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at my university to fight to cut ties with weapons companies and the US Department of War.
If elected in November, I’ll fight for you and for a society free from poverty, war and oppression. I believe working-class people deserve more than the crumbs on offer from the major parties. If you think so too, join us !