Hi, I’m Claudio, Victorian Socialists candidate for Tarneit.
I’m a socialist activist, a warehouse worker and a union member. I come from a family of Chilean refugees and trade unionists. I grew up in public housing in the inner west, and have lived in Hoppers Crossing for 20 years.
Out in the west, our community has grown significantly but access to basic services like childcare, schools, healthcare and affordable housing lags behind. Meanwhile, greedy developers walk away with huge profits from residential developments. Rent, housing and food are less affordable every day, but the rich keep getting richer.
I first became an activist as a TAFE student, fighting Ted Baillieu’s deregulation and cuts to the vocational education and training sector. I knew these cuts would make it harder for people like me to access education, jobs and opportunities, yet Baillieu’s Liberal government invested in new prisons instead. We see the same pattern today – endless funding increases for policing and punishment, but never enough to provide the services people need to be healthy and happy.
I’m a long-term member of the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, an activist collective formed in response to the rise of neo-Nazi, Islamophobic movements like Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front in 2015. Over the years, we have worked to bring communities together to stand against the far right, as well as government attacks on migrants and refugees.
As a socialist, I believe we have to fight collectively not only to combat racism and discrimination but also to win better wages and living conditions for ordinary people. If we don’t stand up and fight back, the rich will never stop squeezing us to increase their profits. I’m running for Victorian Socialists to help build that kind of grassroots, anti-capitalist resistance in my community and beyond.