Yasemin Shamsili

Hi, I’m Yas. I’ve been a socialist and community activist for 15 years and I’m proud to have been preselected as the Victorian Socialists candidate for Pascoe Vale.

I live and work in the electorate, and I’m standing because we urgently need socialist politics in this state election. I’m a socialist because I believe working-class and oppressed people deserve far more than what capitalism delivers.

Both major parties offer austerity and division in the interests of big business, while the far right offers the same system dressed up in racism and scapegoating.

I have worked in education, a sector in deep crisis. Chronic underfunding has left Victorian schools the lowest funded in the country, and teachers the lowest paid. Victorian teachers are now preparing to take strike action because neither Labor nor the Liberals are willing to fund public education properly.

As a proud socialist unionist I believe that working-class people have to fight collectively to win the services we deserve.

I’ve also been involved in anti-racist organising in this city for a decade and a half. At a time when racism is being stoked by politicians and the far right to divide us, I’ve helped lead recent anti-fascist protests in Melbourne that brought thousands onto the streets. Building a confident and public fightback against racism at the local level and in society at large is essential.

We are in the midst of a housing crisis, while public land and public housing are being handed over to developers. In Coburg, redevelopment plans threaten to displace residents and reshape the suburb for profit rather than people.

I’ve been a housing activist and helped lead campaigns to save public housing, because secure, genuinely affordable housing should be a right, not a commodity.

Alongside this, I’ve been involved in fighting for justice in Palestine, opposing cuts to health services across Melbourne’s inner north, and campaigning to stop the council from cutting funding for a social worker at Merri-bek libraries.

I’m standing for Victorian Socialists to put working-class people front and centre. That means fighting exploitation and oppression in all their forms, and helping build a confident, organised socialist movement – and I hope you’ll join me.