En Passant

I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy. We are a democratic party, with a clear constitution. Our people need Labour party members, trade unionists and MPs to unite behind my leadership at a critical time for our country.

The 3 sentences plus one of spin that announce the Government’s priorities – making pensioners pay for multinational tax cuts. It is all about attacking the poor to give the big end of town more, and more, and more.

There are lessons for Australia from the Brexit vote but they have little to do with economic “stability” as Turnbull and the Coalition would have us swallow, I write in Monday’s Independent Australia. I finish off by saying: ‘If Labor lose this election it won’t be because they were too left wing. It will be because they weren’t left wing enough.’

Jim Casey may or may not win Grayndler from potential Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese in this election. It is however pretty clear that the Greens will not go away and the reason for that is that the ALP is now so right wing and so pro-market and pro-capital in government that some of its previous supporters are shifting and have shifted to what they perceive as a progressive alternative. No amount of abuse from the likes of Keating is going to change that. To win labour votes the ALP should have labour policies.

The weakness of our side has been the strategy of the union leaderships. Though they have supported sections calling strikes, they have not wanted to build even for a one-day general strike, which could realistically have been organized on this issue. And there is not an alternative leadership for the working class.

Similarly on the political front. Throughout the movement members of anticapitalist groups (such as Ensemble, the group I belong to, or the New Anticapitalist Party) have been very much involved in building up actions. And the Communist Party and Left Party have mobilized comprehensively. Nevertheless, no organization has given a clear and visible political lead on how to win.

Tim Ginty has written an important and thoughtful article in defence of Labor Party social democracy. (A tale of two campaigns: The Spanish and Australian elections compared. If the ALP wants to avoid a fate similar to the Labor type Socialist Workers Party in Spain (and SYRIZA, the equivalent in Greece, I would add), and avoid losing most of its support base and being outflanked by new more radical political groupings, Tim says Labor ‘must rebuild itself as a genuine party of the left. ‘ Can Labor be rebuilt? This is my reply.

In Independent Australia on Tuesday I discuss the recent tragedies of Orlando and the Jo Cox murder and the systemic violence behind these and other violent incidents.

Abstract Tax, war, democracy and rebellion intertwine down the ages. In this paper I introduce readers to the reasons why tax history is important and the concepts underpinning later articles. The four tax history articles that will be published in total over the next four issues (from September 2016 to June 2017) will look at […]

The real threat at the moment to Medicare is not privatisation. It is underfunding. Underfunding is the half way house on the way to privatisation and Labor by its failure to commit to restoring previously agreed $57 billion of funding is a key party to the long term destruction of Medicare.