En Passant

The decision by Labor’s National Conference on Saturday not to ban turning back asylum seeker boats has shocked, outraged and upset many members and supporters. And so it should. It puts Labor on the same moral dung heap as the Liberals. I want to work with all those good activists who are or were in or near or supportive of the Labor Party and who are now reviewing their membership or support. Let’s work together in fighting for a better Australia here and now and in doing that learn the lessons flowing from this latest Labor leadership betrayal, not as a one off but as a consistent pattern. I am a member of Solidarity, one of those small revolutionary socialist groups. At least check us out here. Consider coming along to our Keep left Conference in Sydney on the weekend of Saturday 22 August and Sunday 23 August. Click here for details.

My article on the real leaners using information about tax avoidance and poverty will be in the next edition of Solidarity Magazine. Subscribe.

Petros Constantinou is a long-term socialist activist from Greece. As a member of the anti-capitalist coalition Antarsya, the Greek socialist organisation, SEK, and a councillor for Athens, Petros has been a part of the momentous struggle of Greek workers against austerity in the midst of capitalism’s greatest crisis since the Great Depression. Now, as the newly-elected left party Syriza tries to manage the crisis, Petros will join us at the Keep Left conference to discuss: Recession and austerity in Greece: Can Syriza solve the crisis? A debate. Join us.

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey famously declared that Australia needed to be a nation of ‘lifters, not leaners’. Just who are the real leaners?

For Marxists the ruling class exploits the working class. This means it extracts surplus value (what becomes profit, interest, rent, dividends etc) from workers. That surplus value is the unpaid work workers do for the boss in the normal working day over and above what they are paid to survive, come back the next day and raise the next generation of workers with a little left over for socially determined activities like after work drinks on Friday night.

This means it is the bosses as a class who are the real leaners.

I cannot predict if the Australian working class will abandon Labor and create a radical left party akin to SYRIZA, although the portents are there. My task at the moment is to help build Solidarity, a small group of revolutionaries who believe that the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class. If you want to be one part of building for the future today, check us out.

James Supple writes in Solidarity magazine that the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra (NATSEM) released modelling that did the sums [on Hockey’s 2015 Budget]. As Ben Phillips from NATSEM explained, “the overall picture is one where low income families do the heavy lifting.

The ABC’s The Killing Season explains nothing, yet exposes everything, about what is wrong with Labor today writes Erima Dall in Solidarity

The process of the degeneration of the ALP from a capitalist workers’ party to a capitalist party is at best resulting today in a CAPITALIST workers’ party if not a capitalist party. Shorten is but one indicator of that process. Our task is to win over those who support reform to the side of revolution. Shorten and the rest of his rotten crew might make that task just a little easier.

The May edition of Australain socialist magazine Solidarity is now out. Links to the articles are below.

Solidarity magazine argues that Tony Abbott is desperately praying that this year’s budget will save his skin. But the budget cuts from last year remain in place, and even his new spending on childcare relies on taking money allocated elsewhere for families and new mothers.