En Passant

Kevin Rudd is once again leader of the Labor Party writes Mick Armstrong in Socialist Alternative. But the ALP remains an absolute disaster zone. Labor is still likely to face a devastating defeat in the upcoming elections – defeat at the hands of Tony Abbott, one of the most despised Liberal Party leaders ever. If Labor can’t beat a disgusting reactionary like Abbott, whose whole social outlook is completely out of kilter with the mass of workers in Australia, then it should immediately be put out of its misery.

Women like Gillard or Thatcher running the ship of the capitalist state make no difference to the dynamic drivers of the system – the need to extract surplus value from productive workers, women as cheap carers and raisers of the next generation of workers, and all that flows from that – the second class citizenship of women, the low wages, the systemic sexism.

What has made a difference is the organised struggles against oppression, especially militant action by unions. Julia Gillard is part of the problem. Ordinary working women are part of the solution.

The choice for Labor is the Hugo Chavez route or oblivion. Goodbye Labor.

We need to organise now in our unions to beat Labor’s attacks and by doing that strengthen our muscles for the battles ahead.

Julia Gillard can have all the stunts she wants. It shows the contempt Labor has for working class people that they think a few days among the proles will change our votes. The more people in Western Sydney see of Gillard the less her vote and that of the Party’s will be. Fight back now.

To address the Gillard government possibly undermining Fringe Benefits Tax concessions for low paid female and male workers in the Not For Profit sector, maybe it’s time for a real industrial campaign to win massive pay increases and leave the tax fiddling to big business and the rich.

Labor’s crisis is about politics and policies, not people. It doesn’t make much difference if Labor is led by Gillard or Rudd or some other snake oil sales person – the pro-profit and pro-business policies of the party would be much the same.

Although one angry student sneaking into a meeting to harass the prime minister isn’t going to change the world, it’s important to show that wherever racists, homophobes and ruling class stooges like Gillard go, they will be challenged.

The way to fight Abbott is to strike against Gillard Labor and its rotten anti-working class policies.

Perhaps, just perhaps, it is Labor’s anti-worker policies that sees workers deserting it and some (though not that many) swinging to the Greens? Perhaps, just perhaps, it is Labor’s anti-worker policies that sees or will see many workers holding their noses and voting for the Liberal or National Parties or even Bob Katter’s Australian Party?

Far better to blame a bogey man party like the Greens than to actually analyse why Labor is on the nose with workers.

Industrial action to defend jobs and increase wages and protect vital programs is the way to beat the slashers and burners. We workers have been too quiet for too long and Labor and the Liberals have been able to ride roughshod over us and distribute more of our wealth to Gina and Twiggy and Clive. The time has come to say enough is enough. Make the bosses pay.