The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, February 21st, 2001. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** EDITORIAL: Voter Backlash The results of the West Australian and Queensland elections are a dramatic rejection of the policies of the economic rationalists who are responsible for the hurt and the anger that is steadily building up in Australia. It has been felt most severely in the countryside at this stage. But it is also being felt among workers in the cities. The loss of government by the Liberals in WA and the virtual wipeout of the Liberal and National Parties in Queensland are a well-deserved repudiation of their policies. No doubt there are some other factors involved, but it is the policies of both Liberal and Labor Governments -- the "free market" policies dictated by the big corporations -- that are the bottom line issues. They are the cause of the debacle that has overtaken the right-wing parties. The State election results herald a crushing defeat for the Howard Government in the coming federal election. The Australian Democrats are also feeling the backlash. They are not going to escape the consequences for their backing of the GST and the anti-union Workplace Relations Act. No amount of talk about the elections being decided on local rather than Federal issues, or that in Queensland the people just wanted stability of government, can hide this fact. High petrol prices, the closure of banks, post offices, employment centres, tax offices and other services, along with the privatisation of Telstra and the loss of many thousands of jobs, have resulted in much of Australia's rural population left to deal with a growing crisis. Farmers are hurting. The deregulation of the dairy industry and the move to monopoly ownership in agriculture in general is forcing long-term family farms off the land. Farmers are also facing the consequences of erosion, salination and degredation of the land, the outcome of weak-kneed and ineffectual actions by government to prevent environmental damage. Although the Labor Party is holding victory celebrations, the fact is that the increased vote for the ALP in WA amounted to only one percent, with many ALP representatives being elected by the flow-on of mainly Green preferences. It was a different story in Queensland where the ALP increased its primary vote by about 10 per cent. The reason for this was the personal stand by Peter Beattie on the issue of the voting rorts that were the stock-in-trade of some Labor Party members (and Liberals as well, no doubt). Rather than attempt to cover up and protect the crooks in its own ranks, Beattie went into damage control, declaring that they had to be cleaned out of the Labor Party, and so came across as an honest man. Compared to these issues the question of preference exchanges with the One Nation party is a mere sideshow. Cult campaign Once again the situation has been marked by the attempt of the mass media to resurrect Pauline Hanson as a political figure. The daily newspapers and electronic media are conducting an out-and-out cult-of-the-individual promotion in the lead-up to the federal election. Hanson and her inner-circle of ultra-nationalists are insidious and opportunistic: Hanson poses as an opposition figure to the establishment, while hiding a vicious, racist anti-people program. This why she wraps herself in the flag and trumpets her opposition to all existing elected politicians; as the mouthpiece of these rabid opportunists, Hanson rails against the greedy banks and "foreign" corporations, thereby winning the support of some among the working class. However, many of her supporters are not racist and vote for One Nation believing it to be a genuine protest against those responsible for their present extreme difficulties. She seems to offer them a way out. The promotion of Hanson by the media, which recognises that there is a growing opposition to the policies of the major parties, aims to ensure that the discontent is channelled to the political right and not toward the left and progressive forces. Thus, the same mass media that is promoting Pauline Hanson, ignores the increased vote won by the Greens in both WA and in Queensland. The Greens won five seats in the WA Upper House to Hanson's three. In WA it was Green preferences rather than those of One Nation, that helped the Labor Party across the line. In Queensland the vote for One Nation actually slumped by over 10 per cent. In the previous Queensland election, One Nation got 11 representatives elected. On this occasion, it was just three. In Queensland the Green vote varied from 2.5 to over 10 percent. It was Green preferences that resulted in the near defeat of the National Party leader, Rob Borbidge, a result that forced him to resign immediately from politics. But, as in WA, so in Queensland, the Green vote is being ignored by the mass media. While there is a clear voter backlash against the consequences of the economic rationalist policies of the major parties, the causes of the problems are not yet recognised by most. It is the oil companies as well as the Federal Government that are responsible for high petrol prices. It is the banks that charge high interest rates. It is the processors that demanded and got governments to agree to the deregulation of a number of key agricultural industries, and it is the economic system of capitalism that is responsible for the widespread damage to the environment. In this respect the policies of the Federal Labor Party will not overcome these problems either. Federal Labor intends to keep the GST, and although at present Labor is criticising the policies of the Howard Government that have resulted in high petrol prices, the ALP has no intention of limiting the power of the oil companies. Neither will a Labor Government reverse the present privatisation program. The Labor Party is wedded to the present corporate structure and does not accept that this is the real reason for the difficulties facing the working people of town and country. The unfolding situation provides an excellent opportunity for the trade unions and the progressive-minded community activists and organisations to strengthen their support for country people by making contact with their organisations, discussing their common problems and attempting to work out policies to deal with them. The state election results can be seen as the beginning of a great awakening to the real causes of the present problems facing millions of people in Australia, and in many other countries around the world. The problems are the same and the causes are the same and they demand similar policy answers. Unless, and until, the power of the big corporations is shackled and replaced by the power of the people, no real solution will be found. The unemployment, destitution and collapse of businesses which have existed for generations, the neglect of services ... all have a common cause. While these problems mount ever higher and more pressing the corporations make vast profits on an unprecedented scale. That is the challenge which has been brought into the open by the massive protest vote registered in WA and Queensland. There are now large numbers of people who are lashing out at the policies of the economic rationalists. When brought together into a left and progressive alternative political force it will change the present unacceptable direction of the political parties that have brought the present situation about. END END END END END END END END -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
