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  Issue No 102 Official Organ of LaborNet 13 July 2001  

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The Soapbox

Why Bother With Labor?


John Passant argues that the coalition that is the Labor Party is ending.

 
 

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The ALP no longer contains a real divergence of views. The Left and Right have merged, but on the Right's terms. The vast majority of the Parliamentary Left has capitulated to capital.

Instead of a coalition of competing ideologies there is nothing but consensus that the market is the solution to all society's problems.

As the majority of the Left have bowed before the altar of free enterprise, the atmosphere has become unbearable for the principled left wingers. These are the

remaining remnants in the Party who still believe in social justice and equity rather than just mouthing platitudes.

These committed people are the most likely to defend the interests of workers. However, as the WorkCover disaster in New South Wales shows, they almost always fail against the power of the Right.

There is a real conflict between the industrial and political wings of the labour movement.

One problem for the unions is that significant elements of the Parliamentary ALP no longer see themselves as being in the labour movement let alone the ALP being its political wing.

This presents a dilemma for the union bureaucracy. The better elements of the leadership of the industrial Left are torn between fighting for the interests of their members and not upsetting the ALP's election prospects.

However, the symbolism of Labor Premier Bob Carr giving the "up yours" salute to picketing workers outside parliament House has not been lost on the more political sections of the industrial movement. Carr's gesture epitomises the contempt he and a large number of other Labor Party MPs feel for their own electoral base, the working class.

What is different is that Carr felt confident enough to display his anti-working class disdain openly. The Right is on the move. Carr no longer needs a Left cover.

Just as importantly Carr's WorkCover changes show once again that the ALP rules for the rich, not workers. The Left of the ALP can no longer deny this.

However that realisation does not mean that the Left will break out of its political prison in the Party immediately. For the opportunists in the Left the power and position they have at the moment is threatened by something as drastic as leaving the party. Serious left-wingers can dismiss these people as parasites on the working class.

And of course there is the perennial argument about staying in the Party to move it to the Left. But in the light of the experience of the Hawke and Keating Governments, and now Carr in NSW, it is clear that the ALP is unreformable. It is a creature of capital.

The reality is that the ALP is not and has never been a workers' party. It was once a party of the trade union bureaucracy. That bureaucracy has a special place in class society - it comes out of the working class but its role is to bargain with the bosses over how much workers are exploited. The bureaucracy's material interest is in the continuation of capitalism, not its overthrow.

Since its inception this bureaucratic and class collaborationist approach has found expression in the politics of the ALP. While the Party in power manages capitalism it attempts to provide crumbs from the table of the rich for workers.

But sometimes, given the crisis-ridden nature of capitalism, the feast finishes and there are no leftovers. The need to manage capitalism becomes paramount and the Party responds by attacking its working class base. It was ever thus.

The difference is that today the ALP is moving away from any working class pretence. There is talk of a "third way" which is code for Thatcherism with a Labor face. If this approach wins out, it will make the Hawke and Keating Governments seem paragons of left-wing virtue. The "reformers" want a neo-liberal party without any trace of working class politics.

This degeneration is highlighted by the changing nature of Labor representation in Parliament. The ALP's representatives are now more likely to be professionals than workers. Their position in society - middle class marketeers - determines their politics - middle class marketeering.

Of course this analysis is a generalisation. There is still a Parliamentary Left within the ALP. But at least at the higher echelons of power this group is not committed to or even interested in radical change.

But the question to the principled section of that Left has to be - why stay in such a thoroughly reactionary political organisation?

Other developments outside the ALP Left may provide an alternative. The radical and revolutionary Left has united to form Socialist Alliance. It is putting forward Old Labor policies. Abolish the GST. Tax the rich. Spend much more on public schools and public hospitals.

The radical left probably won't have much impact in the forthcoming elections. This is because workers' anger will be focused on John Howard. A small socialist group to the left of the ALP will be swept aside in the rush to get rid of the Coalition.

But paradoxically the election of a Beazley Government will provide a boost for the radical Left.

The next Labor Government will be "a warmed over version" of the Howard Government, to quote from a recent article in the Financial Review.

Economic rationalism infects Beazley and Crean. Just like Bob Carr they will attack workers to ensure the bosses' profits are safe. This reality will see the principled Left having to make a choice - abandon their principles or leave the ALP and join with other leftists to build a new organisation fighting for justice and equity.

Why wait?

John Passant is a member of Socialist Alliance


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 102 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Jolly Green Giant
Senator Bob Brown on the upcoming federal poll, balances of power and what the Greens can teach the trade union movement.
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*  Workplace: Call Centre Takeover
Theresa Davison brings us this real-life story from the coal face of the call centre industry.
*
*  E-Change: 1.2 Community � The Ultimate Network
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at the potential for network technologies to reconnect communities.
*
*  International: Child's Play
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has recently entered a new alliance with the Child Labour Schools Company to support a project for child labourers in India.
*
*  History: Flowers to the Rebels Faded
With the departure of our own Wobbly, a look at the development of the Wobblies in Australia and their view of Labor politicians and the work ethic seems timely.
*
*  East Timor: A Dirty Little War
In this extract from his new book, John Martinkus recounts the scenes in Dili immediately following the independence ballot.
*
*  Satire: Telstra Share Failure Ends City-Bush Divide: Everybody Screwed Equally
Communications Minister Richard Alston today claimed that the government had fulfilled its promise to ensure that the bush was not disproportionately disadvantaged by Telstra's privatisation.
*
*  Review: Cheesy Management
Currently climbing Australian best-seller lists is the 'life-changing' motivational book 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Rowan Cahill has a nibble but doesn't like the taste.
*

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»  Fears Grow Over Shangri-La Protests
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»  Mick Young Play Award
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»  Activist Notebook
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  The Locker Room
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  Strained Relations
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»  Crocodile Tears
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»  Wrong Bias?
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