
Issue No 4		12 March 1999

Review

Opening Spaces For a New Labor

By Peter Lewis

A new book by Sydney academic McKenzie Wark looks at how Labor must adapt to the popular culture.

Like many in my social circle, I was astounded when John Howard swept to power in 1996. How could so many of my compatriots have rejected Paul Keating's vision of an open Australia?

The True Believers who celebrated in 1993, who thought Chifley's Light still burned on the Hill, who thought a decent social democracy engaged with its region was something to treasure; were suddenly hit with the realisation that they were in the minority.

How did it happen? we asked. The soul-searching that followed threw up a confused mix of reasons: he'd got the economics wrong, he'd got the economics right but failed to sell it, he'd lost touch with those outside the Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne triangle; he'd gone "too far" in embracing "political correctness".

An issue touched on, but never really grappled with, in the 1996 post mortems, was how Labor had lost touch with the pervading culture to the extent it did not appreciate the growing

hostility of its socially progressive and economically open agenda,

McKenzie Wark's "Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace" helps fill this gaping hole in the contemporary political debate by giving weight to the popular culture of these postmodern times and their interplay with the polity.

This is a suburbia where the images of Kylie and Cave jostle for public space with the burblers on talkback radio, a virtual homeland where the community exists in the shared experience of the mass media.

An academic who teaches media studies, Wark casts a wide net across pop culture, looking for a space where a labour ideology can flourish. A strength of the book is his commitment to a better way for the movement and, while you might not agree with his final conclusions, he opens some interesting doors that have remained closed for too long.

The fundamental issue that Wark raises for me, is how Labor must come to grips with the emerging cyber-culture or cultures if it really wants to reinvent itself as a party for the new millennium. It's fine to write books with master plans but to actually touch the public requires a far greater understanding of its dominant forces.

While those in politics may like to think that it is their deals and power plays which are the dominant force, they are only ever experienced by the votes through the ever-changing amalgam of sounds and images that comprise our popular culture.

"Whether it is the virtual optimism of Kylie Minogue, or the critique of fortress suburbia in Muriel's Wedding, entertainment is no less important a part of democratic communication. Images and feelings matter as a part of democratic communication," he writes

And as the technology of the Information (and entertainment?) Society proliferates, it becomes at once more difficult and yet more attainable to have one's voice heard. Where the TV age was of one voice from above, the cyber age is of many voices, constructing their own networks of dialogue. The domination of the media moguls has not been settled and may yet be upset, by those who want to hear alternative voices and different stories.

I'd like to think that projects like Workers Online play a small part in this new domain for political conversation. At the very least I think it establishes a beachhead. Part of the value of Wark's book is that it helps explain why this beachhead is such an important thing.

This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. Wark's prose, free-ranging discourses and constant references to himself and his friends grate at times. Moreover, too much of the book veers from the focal point of Labor's relevance to a changing world to peripheral discourses.

But the contribution Work's book makes may be a profound one. Especially if it stimulates debate about how politics engages with the broader culture in which it operates.

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  Issue 4 contents

Interview: Jennie George - Eyeing 2000
The ACTU President looks to the future and erects a few new signposts for her last 12 months in office and beyond.

Unions: Trade Unions Thinking Globally
How do you put people first in a global economy? That's the question for an international trade union conference in Sydney this week.

History: The Pioneers: Trade Unions Before 1850
Labour historian Greg Patmore looks at the early days of unions in Australia

Review: Opening Spaces For a New Labor
A new book by Sydney academic McKenzie Wark looks at how Labor must adapt to the popular culture.

Campaign Diary: On The Bus - A Tale Of Two Campaigns
As the State election campaign moves into full swing, Workers Online looks at how the management of the media by the two main parties is reflecting their strategies.

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