Editorial: Black Saturday From The Guardian

Last Saturday’s federal election can only be regarded as a savage blow to all democratic minded and peace loving people, to workers and their trade unions, to other sections of the labour movement, to Indigenous Australians, and to many others, including Australia’s neighbours. It was a defeat for the environment.

It was a significant victory for conservatism and extreme right-wing politics, for the Christian right and for the US corporations that stand to gain from their dominant trade relations with Australia. It was an outright victory for the stream of lies that have poured from Liberal and National Party leaders on so many issues.

It was a victory for the fear inculcated in wide sections of the community including in the ranks of the working class – fear about jobs, fear about higher interest rates, fear about the outside world.

In the previous election, Liberal Party Prime Minister John Howard succeeded in stampeding the electorate with fear about refugees and of those people 'over-there' who were alleged to be threatening Australia’s security.

Millions of workers have been taken in by the propaganda and lies of the conservatives. They have been persuaded that home-ownership is a panacea for individual achievement and even liberation, and have bought homes on inflated property markets. They live in constant insecurity, fearing a rise in interest rates that would break them financially and see the banks throw them onto the streets. Many swallowed Prime Minister Howard’s threats of higher interest rates should a Labor Government be elected, although this charge was not backed by a single Australian economist.

Fear and lies

The fear of job losses by 'blue-collar' workers was highlighted by the incredible sight of a mass meeting of loggers cheering Howard on the eve of the election. It must be one of the most shameful episodes in the whole history of the trade union movement of Australia.

It proves the adage of the Nazi propagandist, Goebels, that if you tell a lie often enough it comes to be believed. The Liberals implement this strategy to perfection.

The re-election of the Howard Government, with an increased majority and with the conservative Liberal-National Party Coalition now poised to gain a majority in the Senate (with the support of the Family First Party), creates a dangerous situation. The Howard Government will have absolute power to intensify its attacks on every democratic right, progressive gain and economic benefit won in the past.

The final unleashing of this vicious attack will see a further destruction of democratic rights. Howard’s intended industrial legislation is meant to shackle the Australian trade union movement.

The Australian state is now entering a period which can only be described as neo-fascist, the obvious next step as the crisis-ridden Australian ruling class, facing many difficulties at home and overseas, attempts to secure its domination over society into the decades ahead.

The Liberal Party-promoted Family First Party is an extreme right-wing organisation based on the thinking, the physical support and the money of Christian fundamentalists. It has links with the Assemblies of God Church. It is similar to the powerful religious right in the United States which strongly backs the Bush administration and the war against Iraq. Behind its purported concern for 'family values' is a narrow-minded and conservative agenda. Its 'family values' are fundamentally anti-women and are being posed against the wider interests of the community as a whole.

Those Australians who voted for Howard despite his conservative policies and his stream of lies must also be held responsible for the consequences that are certain to follow.

Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party (ALP), with just over 38 percent of the primary vote (counting is incomplete), received one of its lowest returns in modern times. This was not any particular fault of the leadership of Mark Latham who has simply followed the right-wing policies and ideology of current ALP leaders.

There is a many-years’ long failure of the Labor Party and the trade union movement to answer the propaganda of the Liberals and to take the fight to the capitalist class – not simply in terms of somewhat better economic policies and more grandiose promises, but in terms of the conservative philosophy of Howard in particular.

The ALP failed to offer a genuine alternative; it failed to win the trust of the electorate.

Howard does not hesitate to talk about his philosophy – even using the word 'philosophy'. He poses, once again dishonestly, as the champion of 'choice' and even as the champion of the workers. In reality he champions 'individualism' which is behind the disastrous 'individual work contracts' which seek to turn every worker into unorganised and isolated individuals to face the united power of employers. Employers do not fall for this individualism nonsense which is being incessantly pushed down the throats of workers. Howard also champions 'family values'.

For its part the Labor Party and the trade union movement adopt one compromise after another. They have, so far, proved to be incapable of answering Howard on the more basic ideological issues.

Trade unions

The real rot started when the trade union movement – left, right and centre – adopted the theories of economic rationalism advanced by former Labor Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and by the leadership of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).

These theories have led the labour and trade union movements to the present-day disasters, and they have still not been analysed or repudiated, much less overcome, by the labour movement. There has been no return to any semblance of class politics and struggle. During the recent election campaign the trade union movement simply tagged along behind the Labor Party. It did not stridently and boldly fight for the cause of the working people. Its voice was largely unheard and its influence was obviously minimal.

The trade union movement will not buy any sort of thanks or truce from the corporations or the government as a result of these policies. What is certain is that the Howard Government will intensify its attacks. It is equally certain that the trade union movement will sink further into insignificance unless there is an honest and forthright return to the policies and willingness to struggle that built the trade union movement to its glory days. Those days came to an end when the Accord (a social partnership between the ALP Government and the ACTU) was adopted in the early 1980s.

The Greens

The Greens put forward strong progressive policies and campaigned openly for them without perpetually looking for compromises with the conservatives. For this, they were (and will be in the future) strongly attacked by Howard and others.

Their strong vote over-all and their over 20 percent vote in some electorates is a living indication that there is a sizable voting electorate that is willing to support principled left and progressive policies.

We need to take heart that the combined ALP, Green and Democrat vote means that half the electorate did not fall for the lies. This must encourage us to organise and resist.Furthermore, the actual voting figures, rather than the number of seats won, shows that the Coalition gains had more to do with the return of One Nation voters to the Liberal and National Parties and the decimation of the Australian Democrats than to any mass swing to the political right. (See adjacent article for voting figures.)

The Left

The Communist Party of Australia did not stand candidates in this election but leafleted and helped other left and progressive forces.

Some left groups supported the Labor Party as some sort of propagandist helper and ginger group. They put forward worthwhile policies but remain within the context of the social democratic Labor Party. Surely the shortcomings and limits of labour parties in many countries have been demonstrated time and time again.

For a number of years the left has allowed itself to be fractured on the basis of policies and personalities. It is a chronic illness which prevents the participants from acting in the interests of the whole. There remains a lot of potentiality on the left but it is futile to keep calling for change and protesting against the vile conservatism of the Howards and Costellos unless the left – as a whole – is prepared to take steps to overcome the present fractured reality.

Above all we must work to build a strong united front force with advanced social, political and economic policies that can take on the conservative philosophy of the Howards and expose it for the fraud that it is. A stronger and more influential Communist Party is fundamental in the development of such an effective opposition.

We must fight now for the day when we have broken the two-party stranglehold and Australia has a new type of government, one that really represents and looks after the working people of this country, an honest government committed to jobs, to peace and to democratic rights. The Communist Party is committed to help build this united front force, but to do so we must greatly expand the size and influence of our Party.



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