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'Tis so ironic that the Abbott government should face a comeuppance over the issue of folk having sex and cohabiting with one another. Who saw that coming? To add to the fall out, the Abbottoirs seem determined to dig their own hole deeper. When you look at it from one step away from the coal face who today unconditionally supports the Abbott government? The mining industry and climate change deniers. Religious and moral fundamentalists. Even those with a keener austerity agenda must realize that the 'shock and awe' push, so much the rage early on in the government's tenure, has floundered. What sustains the government is racism -- a racism aided and abetted by the ALP -- over the issues of refugees, 'national security' and aboriginal disenfranchisement. Even the big business media has begun to turn on Abbott. That suggests, to me anyway, that what's missing from the options on the table is a clear offer from the ALP that it can drive austerity and remake industrial relations so that profits can be jigged up. Penalty rates come to mind. Further welfare and health 'reforms'. A new way to package tertiary education at our collective expense. A quickening of corporatism and asset sell offs. And an emissions green wash that will still protect the mining and power profiteers while allowing open slather Coal Seam Gas mining. On this last point, the Abbottoirs have painted themselves into a corner. While the folk of this land tend to be patient & resilient, another horror Summer like the last three on the weather and bush fire front is sure to feed a keen angst. That the context of the UN Climate Conference occurs as our Summer begins is not in Abbott's favor. Nonetheless, the continuing break up of Australian electoral politics and drift away from the duopoly ensures that there will surely be wild cards in the mix. Not voting Abbott doesn't necessarily mean voting Greens or ALP. The racism driven shift of the discourse to the right has surely had an impact on the protest vote. That Abbott -- and Shorten, for that matter -- has been so right wing has suppressed a coarser conservative surge and for now we haven't a true UKIP phenomenon among us.Just a gaggle of right wing outfits playing boutique funny buggers. Nonetheless, that the Maritime Union of Australia has won a bit of a victory on the waterfront, changes the dynamic --as do the mobilizations around same sex marriage and the attempt to close remote aboriginal communities in Western Australia. The anti-CSG movement is still a potent regional force. Indeed our collective fatal flaw is racism.That's the divide that is sapping our solidarity.Its potency for savage harm is clear over the antics of the ALP lefts on the issue of boat turn backs.Clearly any left wing pretensions are sabotaged and made complicit when concessions are made to this racist push.Indeed, like the 1984 federal ALP conference that backed uranium mining, this year's conference result may prove to be a watershed moment for 'stay-in-and-fight' ALPers. Their, and their party's, progressive credentials have been gutted. It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of apologists. dave riley _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
