Stephen Jolly (born 1962) is an Australian politician, socialist activist, author and construction worker.^[1] He is a councillor in the City of Yarra and previously was the President and lead candidate for the Victorian Socialists during the 2018 state election.

Following allegations of family violence, Jolly was suspended from the Victorian Socialists pending an investigation, leading him to resign from the party.^[2][3]

Jolly was born in London to a single Irish mother who had left Ireland due to concerns regarding the predominant Catholic Church's attitude towards single parents.^[4][5] He was raised in Ireland by his grandparents in a public housing estate.^[4] He moved to study at the University of Cape Town in 1977. In the early 1980s, he moved to Ireland and became involved in the Militant faction of the Irish Labour Party.^[5] In 1983 he supported underground opposition to Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.^[5]

Jolly moved to Sydney in 1985 and became involved in the Militant faction of the Australian Labor Party (later renamed to the Socialist Party), serving as Editor of its newspaper The Militant and as National Secretary until 2000.^[4][6] While working in construction, he has served as a shop steward with the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union.^[7]

In 1989, at the age of 27, Jolly was a first-hand witness of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre while he was speaking to protestors and helped them organise.^[8][9] Jolly was reportedly the only Westerner to address "the half-a-million strong crowd of students occupying Tiananmen Square".^[4] He noted in a 1990 news article that the protestors "never believed the People's Army would turn against them" and has since been involved in pro-democracy in China rallies.^[10]

In 1993, Jolly and Militant was involved in a year-long occupation of Richmond High School, organised to prevent the Victorian government from closing the school.^[11] In 2000, he supported and was involved in the S11 anti-globalisation protests in Melbourne.^[12] In 2011 and 2012, he pledged to support the Occupy Melbourne movement against corporate influence in politics.^[13][14]

Jolly's socialist political stances have led to hostile reactions from far-right groups such as the United Patriots Front, which has promoted rallies and death threats against him.^[15][16][17] In 2015, a man was charged over death and rape threats towards Jolly.^[18]

In 2016, Jolly led a mass resignation from the Socialist Party (now Socialist Action). He alleged there had been a cover-up of allegations of sexual abuse within the party,.^[19] The party denied any cover-up.^[20][21] Jolly and others who had left then established a new group, The Socialists.^[22] In 2018 he joined the Victorian Socialists, an electoral alliance combining the Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative, as well as non-party affiliated socialists.