En Passant

Just as changing Liberal leaders won’t change the fundamentals, neither will dumping Shorten for a fake leftie like Albanese or Plibersek, or promoting a smooth right-winger like Tony Burke.

There is a message for activists and socialists in the fall of Abbott. It wasn’t Labor who defeated him. It certainly wasn’t Shorten. It was those Aboriginal, education, refugee, Medicare, feminist and other activists, the gay community and their supporters, the teachers, nurses, public servants, wharfies, building workers etc etc etc actually fighting against Abbott and his rotten policies and sending a message to the wider community about Abbott’s rotten policies and the fact you could reject them and resist them.

It is the same message we need to develop in fighting Turnbull’s neoliberalism and that of whoever is leading Labor at the next election. On to the streets to fight for equal love, against the closure of remote communities, against climate change, to free the refugees, for women’s liberation and so on. Close down our workplaces to defend jobs and wages.

About 30 students in Sydney were protesting against Education Minister Christopher Pyne and his attacks on Universities. Here is the ABC video of a policeman pepper spraying the students. This is what their ‘democracy’ looks like.

Rebecca Barrigos writes in Red Flag:

To enable mass arrests, the Magistrates Court will be open 24 hours a day from 10 November. Magistrates will preside via video link at a special “G20 Offender Processing Centre” at the Supreme Court. There will be a presumption against bail in order to keep those arrested detained for the duration of the summit.

The real threat in Brisbane is not violent protesters, but the increase in the state’s powers.

To read the whole article click here.

The Tasmanian ‘Liberal’ Government has introduced legislation that will see those who protest against logging ‘and other production sites’ jailed for their second ‘offence’.

Jailing protesters? Now where I have heard about that happening recently?

In Egypt they jail protesters and journalists. In Australia, journalists could be next.

The misguided tactics being adopted by today’s social commentators, led no doubt by a minority within them hell-bent on fomenting trouble, are only encouraging further protest. This in turn is giving the masses a sense of their own collective power, strengthening their organisations and leading to a deeper understanding of the issues involved – and no one wins from that. Worse still, it is enabling the media to portray politicians – those who should command the greatest respect – as weak and vulnerable. This only corrupts our great democracy, the crushing uniformity of which is the envy of the world.

It is time for students, staff and the public to reclaim our Universities from the snake oil sales men and women of neoliberalism. Occupy our Universities. Close them down to win a new era in higher education.

The next time someone tells you protests don’t work and lose public support, you have an easy answer. Christopher Pyne has already begun the first small steps to backing down and the student protests have overwhelming public support. To beat the Free Budgeteers we need to increase the passion and the protests and begin organising strikes.

The strength of the protests has surprised the ruling class and their media mouthpieces. They thought their neoliberal project had turned and was turning young people into obedient automatons. The tens of thousands of students and others demonstrating show that the apathy is on the surface but that a spark, like the Budget attacks, can catch fire across the country. Our task as socialists is to fan the flames of resistance and rebellion wherever we can.

Students need to come out in a show of force against Pyne’s callous attacks on our right to education and our quality of education.

There will be demonstrations in every major city on Wednesday March 26th as part of a National Day of Action organised by the National Union of Students.

“Victoria Police clearly had a premeditated agenda of attacking our peaceful protest. They came out of nowhere. Riot cops moved in on the crowd and pulled people out. One of the first people they arrested, Lauren Stevenson, was unconscious as they pulled her towards the paddy wagon. We attempted to get an ambulance to her, but police said an ambulance would not be allowed to attend because she was under arrest. So they put her in the paddy wagon unconscious and drove away.”