Marxist interventions 2, 2010

Contents

Contributors

Robert Bollard teaches history at Victoria University. He was a trade union delegate in the Commonwealth Employment Service, and has been involved in socialist politics and the labour movement for nearly thirty years.
Kyla Cassells Kyla Cassells is a student activist at La Trobe University in Melbourne. She recently completed an Honours thesis in History on the commemoration of public holidays in the Great Depression, and is currently undertaking a PhD. kcassells @ students.latrobe.edu.au
Ben Hillier is a regular contributor to www.sa.org.au and can be contacted at bmh @ netspace.net.au
Sam Pietsch is the author of a PhD on the Australian military intervention in East Timor. sam.pietsch @ gmail.com
Liam Ward is a Melbourne-based activist and a delegate in the RMIT Branch of the National Tertiary Education Union.
Katie Wood was the RMIT Student Union coordinator of the Business Campus in 2008, during the campaign to save the prayer room.

In this issue

The articles in this issue focus on major controversies within and beyond the Australian left.

Few issues have challenged the Australian left as much as the Howard Government's 1999 military intervention in East Timor. Contrary to the common view that the intervention was a humanitarian action forced on a reluctant government by popular pressure, Sam Pietsch analyses it as an imperialist use of military power to secure longstanding strategic interests of the Australian state. The intervention also enabled the Howard Government to increase military spending and act more aggressively to assert imperial power in the Southwest Pacific.

Marxist strategies for change often centre on the potential of organised labour struggles. Yet labour is divided in many ways, including between leaders and the rank and file. The tradition to which Marxist Interventions belongs has long argued that the union rank and file has different interests to those of the labour bureaucracy. Robert Bollard's essay on the Great Strike of 1917 is a defence of our position, in response to critics such as conservative historian Jonathan Zeitlin.

There is now an exhaustive literature about the global financial crisis. Australia's peculiar position remains a matter for somewhat puzzled debate. Ben Hillier looks closely at the effects of the crisis on the Australian economy. He considers how the relative stability of Chinese demand, the buoyancy of the housing market and the circumstances of the financial sector have so far insulated Australia from the carnage witnessed in Europe, Japan and the US. Since the article was completed, upheavals in Greece have showed how fragile the situation is.

In March and April 2010, a major debate broke out in the Australian media over Anzac Day, featuring such issues as militarism, race and gender. Class differences in society have received relatively little attention. Kyla Cassells presents a comparative study of Anzac Day and Labor Day in Victoria between the World Wars, which explores how these days were used by Trades Hall, the Australian Labor Party, and the RSL to perpetuate political agendas. She also considers the contestation of these agendas by such groups as the Communist Party, women, and the unemployed.

During 2008 and 2009, Muslims at RMIT University in Melbourne ran a successful and important campaign for the return of dedicated Muslim Prayer Rooms on campus. Because the campaign's central demand was for a religious space, much of the left dismissed the movement outright or even supported University management. This raises serious questions concerning the Australia left's clarity about racism. Katie Wood and Liam Ward consider the campaign and its lessons.

Abstracts

Australian imperialism and East Timor Sam Pietsch
The Howard Government’s military intervention in East Timor in 1999 was an act of imperialism. It was not forced on a reluctant government by popular pressure, nor were its aims humanitarian. Rather, the intervention used military power to secure longstanding strategic interests of the Australian state. From 1974, successive Australian governments supported Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor in order to foreclose the possibility of rival powers gaining influence in the Indonesian archipelago, which might allow them to threaten Australian interests. But, by September 1999, the Indonesian occupation had become untenable. Australia inserted military forces into East Timor to ensure that the transition to independence would be relatively orderly, avoiding a destabilising power vacuum. The intervention also boosted Australia’s ability to defend its economic and strategic interests in the new nation. The success and domestic popularity of the intervention allowed the Howard Government to increase military spending and act more aggressively to defend Australia’s imperial interests in the Southwest Pacific. full article (PDF)

‘Rank and fileism’ revisited: trade union bureaucracy and Australia’s Great Strike Robert Bollard
In the early 1990s a debate was initiated by conservative historian Jonathan Zeitlin, who attacked a number of (mainly) British Marxist historians for ‘rank and fileism’—alleged exaggeration of what (Zeitlin argued) were arbitrary distinctions between the rank and file of trade unions and their bureaucracy. A key element of Zeitlin's criticism was his allegation that such historians were obsessed with periods of radical insurgency. This article uses the Great Strike of 1917 in eastern Australia to argue that such episodes of revolt are valuable because they illustrate in a stark and unequivocal way the inherently conservative nature of the trade union bureaucracy. full article (PDF)

Australias resilience during the global crisis, 2007-2009 Ben Hillier
There is now an exhaustive literature detailing the causes and consequences of the global financial crisis. The point of this intervention is to look at the effects of the crisis on the Australian economy. Australia cannot be understood without regard to the international situation. The contribution therefore begins by briefly commenting on the nature of the global crisis. It then considers how the relative stability of Chinese demand, the buoyancy of the housing market and the circumstances of the financial sector have so far insulated Australia from the carnage witnessed in Europe, Japan and the US. The final sections comment on the current state of the Australian economy. full article (PDF)

Politics and meaning: Melbourne’s Eight Hours Day and Anzac Day, 1928-1935 Kyla Cassells
The public commemoration of particular days can have an impact on public consciousness. This article considers the commemoration of Anzac Day and the Eight Hours Day during the Great Depression. It explores how these days were used by Trades Hall, the Australian Labor Party, and the Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Imperial League of Australia to perpetuate political agendas. It also considers the contestation of these days by various groups, including the Communist Party; women; the unemployed, and the Movement Against War and Fascism; and how the commemoration of the days responded to, and was shaped by, this contestation. full article (PDF)

‘Right the wrong’: the RMIT University Muslim Prayer Room Campaign 2008-2009 Liam Ward and Katie Wood
During 2008 and 2009, Muslims at RMIT University in Melbourne ran a successful and important campaign for the return of dedicated Muslim Prayer Rooms on campus. Because the campaign’s central demand was for a religious space, much of the left dismissed the movement outright or even supported University management. This raises serious questions concerning the Australia left’s clarity about racism. full article (PDF)