En Passant

Julia Gillard is as left wing as Kevin Rudd. She supports the same things he does. Unlike Rudd, she has has a power base in the Labor Party. 

Her authority stems from the support of people like Bill Ludwig and David Feeney, reactionaries who swung behind her for fear the ALP would lose the election with Rudd as Prime Minister.

That fear was in part sparked by the resource super profits tax. The mining bosses overthrew Rudd.

Labor’s addiction to polls rather than principle is a good indicator that social democracy is dead in Australia.

What is laughingly called the hard left supported Rudd.

The terms left and right in the ALP these days are meaningless, other than to describe different social networks within the Party. They are united in their quest for power for power’s sake, or rather for the sake of big business.

Kevin Rudd did have one faction behind him – the bourgeoisie. That faction deserted him, partly because of the mining tax. It was only then that the Labor hard heads – the people who gave us Senator Fielding – dumped Rudd.

Julia Gillard now has the support of the ruling class, and she will govern accordingly. She is looking for a way out on the mining tax and the likely outcome is a super profits tax in name only. 

That tells you where real power in society lies – with the bosses, not Parliament.

Gillard will make up the lost revenue with savage attacks on schools and hospitals after the election. If Labor win. 

The media and many working people will talk about her ascendancy as historic because she is a woman. Her rise does reflect the changing nature of the role of women in society.

Women are oppressed in capitalist society.

Because Gillard is a member of the ruling class her oppression is less than that of other women and she will support the oppression of her working class sisters because that props up the capitalist system of which she is a key member.

Indeed ruling class women in the past have proven themselves to be the most enthusiastic supporters of women’s oppression because of their own lessened oppression.

If the choice is between equal pay for equal work and more profit for the bosses Gillard will support the bosses.

If the choice is between Afghan women living, or being killed by western forces, she’ll support their death in the name of the ANZUS alliance.

If the choice is between Israel and the oppressed women of Palestine, she’ll support Israel as the attack dog of US imperialism in the region.

If the choice is between building worker Ark Tribe and the profits of the building magnates, Gillard will choose the multimillionaires.

If the choice is between the aboriginal women of the Northern Territory and the racist intervention, she’ll choose racism every time.

If the choice is between refugee women and pandering to reaction, she’ll choose reaction every time.

If the choice is between equal love and homophobia Gillard will choose homophobia.

Having a new Pope doesn’t change the essentially reactionary nature of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Labor has changed its leadership – it hasn’t changed its fundamentals.

Gillard is a right winger who will rule in the interests of the bosses at our expense.