Should we offer tactical advice to the entity that calls itself the Australian Labor Party and occasionally still claims to be social democratic? My politics are to the left of social democracy so I am disinclined to give advice, as it would be helping an adversary. Also, I doubt whether anybody in the ALP would be very interested in what I have to say. Most of them dont know me and if they googled me would probably quickly decide I was irrelevantly radical. All the same, I cant resist the temptation. Polls show the ALP at a two party preferred vote of 52% against the LNP at 48%. Why is this? It is not because of anything the ALP has said or done - not that you would notice, if they have been saying anything. It is because the Abbot regime, breaking a whole set of explicit and clear promises before the elections, has started its offensive to redistribute as much wealth away from ordinary people (workers) upwards to the already excessively rich. Welfare and social infrastructure spending will be cut back, so the government needs to borrow less money, making money cheaper to borrow for Capital(ists). As this spending is cut back, ordinary people will have to pay more and more charges, starting with a Medicare payment, on top of the levy which is paid every year. There will be more and more costs like this everywhere. Eventually sales tax will also go up. At the same time, pressure will increase to keep wages down. The so-called Commission on Audit, headed up by representatives of big business and their ideologues, have already recommended a steady DECREASE in the minimum wage. The list of policy ideas aimed at redistributing wealth UPWARDS goes on. So how to make the most of the steady unpopularity of the Abbott regime brought about by these policies. A common sense response would be: 1. Campaign everywhere against all these polices and for policies that redistribute wealth from the rich to the rest of society through both better wages and conditions and better social services. Redistribution of wealth through protecting wages and through welfare and education services is, at least formally, traditional social democratic policy. 2. Give this campaign a sense of reality by doing it together with the other social democratic party, the Greens. Not only that, work with the Greens using the current Senate numbers to BLOCK THE BUDGET and demand a new election as a referendum on Abbotts pro-rich policies which break all his promises. That would mean actually fighting for something you believed in: a social democratic welfare state with policies based on redistributing wealth away from the super-wealthy that capitalism creates, Oh yes - I forgot - nobody in the ALP has believed in fighting for such a thing for decades, Aha, yes, that is why such advice as this is irrelevant. All the same, here are my suggested slogans: TAX THE RICH TO PAY FOR FREE EDUCATION AND HEALTH SERVICES BLOCK THE BUDGET! DEMAND AN ELECTION! P.S. Congratulations to all the students who disrupted the Q$A Rulers Club Circus on the ABC the other night. maxlaneonline
Posted on: Wed, 07 May 2014 09:20:29 +0000
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