En Passant

Amy Thomas in Solidarity discusses where the Greens are heading under Richard Di Natale.

The real extremists sit in Canberra and in the board rooms across the country. It is not Karen who invaded Iraq, or Afghanistan. It is not Karen who is bombing Syria. It is not Karen killing black men and women in custody. It is not Karen driving Aboriginal people off their land to open it up for big mining companies. It is not Karen killing women in relationships or doing very little about it. It is not Karen increasing inequality and poverty in Australia. It is not Karen attacking Medicare. It is not Karen attacking penalty rates and wages. It is not Karen who is stopping equal love. It is not Karen locking up and abusing thousands of innocent people on Manus Island and Nauru.

I sent this to the Sydney Morning Herald in response to an article quoting me. What chance? John Passant My thanks to Gareth Hutchens for using me as an example of those who have condemned the Greens’ shift further to the neoliberal right. (‘Meet the new Greens economics team preparing to shake up Australian politics’, […]

Here is a quote from an article in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald about the Greens’ new economic team and direction: ‘Liberal senator Sean Edwards, who chairs a Senate estimates committee with Whish-Wilson, says the Greens have benefited from Whish-Wilson’s contribution. “A lot of the stuff I’ve talked to him about privately I’ve found him economically […]

While we are splitting hairs arguing over which worker is slightly richer than other workers, and admiring the government for its sleight of hand in giving a few crumbs to a few pensioners, the rich are laughing all the way to their tax free superannuation bank. And it is not just superannuation. As ACOSS has revealed in its report Inequality in Australia: A nation divided, inequality continues to increase in Australia. As the report says ‘a person in the top 20% wealth group has around 70 times more wealth than a person in the bottom 20%.’ The main winners out of this winner/loser strategy are the Abbott Government and the really rich. The government will use the same divisive model again. Public school fees anyone?

In their eagerness to prove their ‘realistic and pragmatic’ credentials the Greens have been sold a pension pup that attacks retired workers but leaves the superannuation of the rich untouched.

James Supple writes in the socialist magazine Solidarity about the ongoing and deep-seated problems in bourgeois politics in Australia. He says that underpinning the turmoil in parliamentary politics is the low level of class struggle. The greatest strength the working class majority has is in its industrial strength and in mass movements to fight for change outside of parliament. This is where real reforms, for land rights, equal pay, penalty rates and long service leave, have been won. That is why socialists put such emphasis on fanning the flames of struggle—this is where the hope for change lies.

Bravo to the New South Wales Greens. Here is part of a press release Senator Lee Rhiannon and other Greens NSW parliamentarians have released, arguing that there can only be a ceasefire with the end of the blockade of Gaza and the Occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Three weeks since the attack on Gaza began, […]

Ludlum’s speech doesn’t specifically mention class let alone using it as the basis for fighting Abbott. All we have to do is wait 2 1/2 years to vote Abbott out. This is the talk of defeat, the strategy of failure, not fighting back.

As the demonstrations of tens of thousands across Australia in defence of refugees show, the alternative right now to the Labor Party is struggle. The way to fight Abbott is to fight Rudd. It is the minority who want to fight back against cruelty and neoliberalism that we on the Left have to join with and relate to in the battle for a better world.