Her campaign is driven by a simple conviction: ordinary people can change the balance of power. For Bolger, contesting Albert Park is part of a wider effort to rebuild grassroots socialist networks in workplaces, unions, schools and local communities.
“We are openly socialist because we think a lot of the problems that face us are because of the way that capitalism works to benefit a minority at the expense of the rest of us,” Bolger explains.
Rather than viewing politics as a game played solely within parliamentary chambers, her politics centres on working-class people developing a collective sense of power.
Bolger believes socialist candidates can amplify active, grassroots struggles. She points to local campaigns—including the fight to stop the demolition of public housing towers and emerging activism over the impact of data centres in Melbourne—as the real battlegrounds where change is being won.
People power can make the shift
Bolger argues that socialist voices in politics can fundamentally shift the terms of political debate. Instead of forcing local communities to scramble and compete over limited resources – choosing for example funding a new hall and toilet block for St Kilda Park Primary School or the funds needed to maintain Albert Park Lake and sports facilities – she insists the state should demand more from big corporations and the super-rich.
“We shouldn’t have our blinkers on so that it has to be one or the other,” Bolger says, pointing out that the wealthiest 20 people in Australia hold as much wealth as the 3 million people with the least.
By taxing the rich and ending subsidies to private companies that run public transport, childcare and disability services, Bolger argues the state could readily fund high-quality, affordable public services.
A Counterpoint to the Right
With One Nation rising in the polls amid widespread disillusionment with mainstream parties, Bolger sees her campaign as a vital progressive counterpoint. She firmly rejects the “race scapegoating” of migrants as a distraction from the cost-of-living crisis, pointing instead to those who hold wealth and power.
Her message is aimed squarely at renters and working-class families feeling the squeeze. With inner-city rents soaring by 72% over the past five years, Bolger is pitching to anyone who supports a 25% rent reduction, rent freezes, expanded public housing and public sector wage rises above inflation.
“You don’t have to be destitute to be in the line at food banks,” Bolger says, describing an economy in which two-income households are left wondering whether they can afford voluntary public school fees alongside soaring electricity bills.
Bolger’s message to Albert Park voters is simple: “We want to be a voice for working-class people, for migrants, for renters and for people who are struggling to pay their bills.”
As the Victorian Socialists contest every state seat for the first time, Bolger’s campaign aims to bring socialist hope south of the Yarra—and turn it into collective power.
PS: And before you ask, Colleen is not related to Irene of Nurses Union fame, but Bolger says the other Bolger has endorsed her.
