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| Issue No 121 |  |
30 November 2001 |
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Tool ShedRudd the Red?By Paul Smith
Simon Crean's Front bench newcomer Kevin Rudd attempts to establish himself as an ALP "reformer" has spun himself straight into the Tool Shed by demonstrating a total ignorance of basic Labor principle with his agenda to take the Labor out of the Labor Party Kevin Rudd said on the ABC's Insiders program last week that Labor's principles stripped down to two words "competition and compassion". Rudd then reduced the difference between Labor and "Tony Abbott's mob" as "they are on about a competitive Australia but without the compassion. Our tradition is to embrace those two themes." Rudd's claim that it is Labor tradition to support a dog eat dog economic and social system and compassionately throwing the losers a bone is the spin this "reformer" thinks get him and Labor elected to government. Labor needs "to pitch our message to the broad centre of Australian Politics," according to Rudd. Our problem is not with this obvious fact but the message that Rudd wants to convey In Labor tradition, the message has always been about the collective good of the majority in society . According Rudd, the message should be to ditch the common good for "commitment to reward for individual effort." in order to win what he calls the centre Rudd spoke against the current position of unions in the party saying "we need to look at 60/40 and we need to change it" arguing that "we need to do as part of conveying a strong symbol ... of what we're on about in the ALP of today." The Rudd spin is that Unions are a symbol of outdated values and therefore Labor must show that it must reject these values to win the centre that allegedly values individual reward. This is another way of advocating greed. That unions have higher approval ratings than the ALP and complaints by voters that they perceived little difference between the parties are facts that Labor needs to listen to rather than the spin of professional politicians like Rudd. Spin doctors like Rudd, with their small target strategy of avoiding debating the differences between the parties, cost Labor the last election. But the solution is not to remove the difference. What Labor needs are Leaders of substance who can connect with working people by articulating a message that is more than a pale imitation of the Liberal Party view of society. It is worth recalling what Ben Chifley, a leader of substance, had to say "I try to think of the Labor movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective - the light on the hill" Labor is about offering a better vision of how things could be for the great majority of Australians. It does not need to be reformed into a slightly compassionate Liberal Party to win over some imaginary centre. It's tradition has been to define the political debate by offering its better vision- its light on the hill. We don't blame Rudd but his deprived background. His previous careers as diplomat, a public service chief and international corporate consultant did not give him the opportunity to learn about struggle and solidarity. A week in the toolshed will give him his chance. We will give him the biographies of Chifley by Fin Crisp and David Day to read while he's there .Undoubtedly he will emerge from the shed a better man. Look out for Rudd the Red.
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   Interview: Back to the BattleFederal Labor's new industrial relations spokesman Robert McClelland outlines the challenges for the next three years. Politics: The Baby and the Bath WaterACTU secretary Greg Combet gives his take on the debate over the ALP's relations with the union movement. Unions: We're SolidBradon Ellem charts the history of the Pilbara dispute, and finds a revitalised grass-roots unionism challenging BHP's individual contracts bulldozer Organising: Benidgo Pioneer Comes Up TrumpsACTU Delegate of the Year, Leonie Saunders, is living proof of the way unions are adapting to life under the strictures of a hostile Government. Technology: India: Cricket, Computers and CorruptionRussell Lansbury cuts through the hype to look out the so-called hi-tech revolution on the sub-continent. International: Soul SearchingThe party of labour in Canada � the NDP - is right now undergoing a massive struggle for its heart and soul. History: A Timeless DebateThe ALP and unions - it's a debate that's raged for years as this extract from a 1947 Lloyd Ross pamplet shows. Review: In Fear of SecurityLaunching his new book, Anthony Burke argues that the cry of "security" is the last refuge of the political scoundrel
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