En Passant

Mr President, I rise to inform the Senate that this morning I have resigned as a member of the Labor Party to set up a political movement of Australian socialists, a community of working class Australians who will share their unique gifts and talents to chart a democratic and socialist way.

Let’s hope your decision to publish Kuhn’s article is a light bulb moment for Fairfax owners and senior managers that there is a big audience for left wing ideas in your newspapers, driven by the desire of millions of Australians for a social democratic country. Who knows, printing more of such articles might actually help address the disastrous decline in the Canberra Times’ readership numbers.

The neoliberal snake oil salesman that is Turnbull is performing the role Labor wanted to play. He has stolen their ground and unless they come up with a real alternative, a radical alternative a la Corbyn that challenges austerity, then in the short to medium term, until the reality of Turnbull’s snake oil salesmanship is revealed in practice, they will continue to rot in opposition.

Many of my readers will be hoping for a Jeremy Corbyn in Australia to move the Labor Party here to the left. There is no Corbyn in the Parliamentary Labor Party. The Labor left, such as it is, is thoroughly imbued with the logic of neoliberalism. In the main it is a tribal allegiance rather than an ideological ferment of ideas to challenge capitalism. You never hear the S word from these very models of a modern major general of capital. None of the possible contenders for Corbyn down under have the same track record as Corbyn in opposing austerity or fighting against social and political injustice. Indeed people like Albanese and Plibersek have been Ministers in Labor governments that have implemented neoliberal policies and attacked public services and workers’ rights and conditions. They are part of the very problem Corbyn is fighting against.

Tristan Ewins has written a piece called “Debate on tax and ‘small government’ flares again” in the ALP Socialist Left Forum, with a revised version in Online Opinion. In it he makes some sensible suggestions about tax re-jigging that could raise tens of billions from the rich and powerful although much more could be added to the program such as a net wealth tax on the top ten percent without impacting at all on the capital accumulation process. It is worth a read.

Maybe it is time for a socialist to not just be building or supporting these progressive campaigns but to stand for the Senate in the ACT against the sell-out that is Labor.

Albanese, Parke and Burke not only support the racist, misogynist, warmongering ALP; they are integral to its racism, its sexism and its war mongering, not to mention its ‘caring’ neoliberalism. Their opposition provides left cover for the dominant right wing. It gives false hope to left wing Labor members. It might even win a few voters back from the Greens. Our task has to be to point out this reality and to talk to those with illusions in Labor not to repeat the same errors of the past. Let these champions of freedom and refugees actually join the campaigns and mobilise ALP members and supporters. Why do you think they don’t?

Unlike John Faulkner, don’t waste your time on the Labor Party, a moribund organisation of time servers and careerists bowing down at the altar of profit.

Instead check out Socialist Alternative and consider becoming part of a growing movement of revolutionaries in Australia to help build the fightbacks needed today and ultimately to challenge the dictatorship of capital.

The alternative to a neoliberal ALP is not a return to a Whitlamite ‘nirvana’. First, it wasn’t a nirvana. Workers were still exploited, making all the wealth the bosses expropriated.

Second there can be no return to the halcyon days of the late 60s and early 70s because the system has aged, profit rates now are much lower than then and the long recession can only be overcome by massive economic crisis or revolution.

The first alternative is a return to the militancy of the late 60s and early 70s. Then the task is to build a fighting alternative, a revolutionary socialist organisation committed to a society based on democracy and satisfying human need.

If you want a new and democratic society where people come before profit, if you think we need a revolution of the mass of workers to win that, then you should consider joining Socialist Alternative. Unlike Labor and its puppy dog left, we welcome refugees; we don’t demonise them, imprison them indefinitely in concentration camps, or deport them to possible death, torture or imprisonment.