******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
t should be remembered that after the First Budget and Shorten's triumphant reply, there was something of a potential chiasmus in Australian politics. Had the Labor Party turned anti-Austerity? Was it going to reverse the terms of the Government's policies? If it had done so it could have swept the Liberal Party out of office at the state and eventually at the federal level. Shorten alarmed at his own popularity hastened to reassure the bosses that he was still 'pro-reform'. John is right. Shorten's backtracking and compromising and weasel words might smooth the way for a return of an Abbott government in 2016. But I am inclined to think not. The economy is probably going into a recession. And the international slump that Michael Roberts et al are forecasting for 2016, might eventuate and then all bets would be off. The truth is as Bill Mitchell as argued, Labor Parties and social democratic formations have lost their *raison d'etre*, when they abandoned Keynesianism in the mid 70s. The British Labour Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan's words at the 1976 Labour Party conference, marked the turn to neo-classical "solutions". He said "We used to think you could spend your way out of recession and increase employment by boosting government spending. “I tell you, in all candour that that option no longer exists. And in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion… by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step." The Whitlam government in Australia had capitulated earlier with a conservative budget in 1975. So that is where we are today. We have a public that longs for an anti-austerity party and three big parties (Liberals, Labor and Greens), that are wedded to neo-liberalism. It is impossible to say what will break the log jam. Another crisis on the level of 2009, might do it. Events in Southern Europe will also have an impact. The combined fates of Sinn Fein, the SNP, Podemos and Syriza will all have a role to play, I believe (hope?). We should also note that there is something of a crisis among the intelligentsia. Krugman, Stiglitz, Wolf and Galbraith have all in their differing ways helped Keynesian ideas re-emerge from exile.But I wold not put too much hope in that lot. We will see what the people have to offer. ae Gary On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 8:33 AM, John Passant via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > How did Tony Abbott end up as Australia's Prime Minister? > > There is a continuity in our politics. We have two parties of > neoliberalism who argue over the detail. The first and arguably most > successful governments of neoliberalism (most successful from the point of > view of the bosses) were the Hawke and Keating Labor governments. Hawke and > Keating and their neoliberalism made Howard acceptable. Rudd and Gillard > and their neoliberalism made Abbott acceptable. Shorten and co and their > neoliberalism are making Abbott potentially re-electable. > > > http://enpassant.com.au/2015/06/02/how-did-tony-abbott-end-up-as-australias-prime-minister/ > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ 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
