The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, June 27th, 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: The "Labor" illusion The workers' compensation legislation being foisted on the working people of NSW has brought forth anger not seen for a long time in Australian politics. And so it should. The lies being told by government leaders and the anti-worker content of the legislation are good reasons why the leading figures in the Carr Government should be thrown out of government and the Labor Party as well. The facts of the legislation are to be found on pages 7 and 12 of The Guardian. Read it for yourself and spread it far and wide in your workplace, at meetings and where-ever else people want to know the truth. Many people are asking: "How is it possible for Labor Party members to do this to workers?" The illusion is that ALP leaders such as Carr, Della Bosca, Aquilina and Debus to name but four, have a genuine commitment to the cause of the working people. They do not even have a commitment to Labor Party policies. Lenin named such people as the "labour lieutenants of capitalism" and he was right. These extreme right-wingers serve and have always served the interests of capital. The Carr Government has been in the forefront of the push to privatise whatever it can. Remember the attempt to privatise the NSW Energy network. The Government was only stopped by the strong resistance from within the trade union movement and more committed Labor Party members. Remember the huge handouts to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Studios when the Carr Government handed over the old Sydney Showgrounds and made "commercial in confidence" handouts to one of the richest corporate organisations. Remember the privatisation of the Government Insurance Office (GIO)? More recently the NSW Government was first in paying out HIH Insurance's debts that should be paid by the insurance industry. At least $50 million of NSW taxpayers' money is going in that exercise. The present WorkCover legislation is strongly supported by the organisations representing the big corporations. They will pay lower premiums and much lower compensation to injured workers. It's all about introducing an American model that is a real shocker -- for workers. There are no proposals to spend money on prevention of workplace accidents or enforcement of safety regulations. Many jobs these days are being conducted with little or no regard for the safety or health of workers. However, it suits the Australian ruling class to have a Labor government (right-wing of course) from time to time. Such governments, while posing no threat to captialism, use the "Labor" flag to provide the illusion of serving workers' interests while carrying out the economic rationalist agenda and acting as a bulwark against left and progressive policies or a socialist alternative government The right-wing leaders of the NSW Labor Party have their origin in the "Catholic Action" Movement of the 1950s. The "Movements" agenda was aimed at keeping Labor out of office, particularly the left and progressive forces of the ALP. Their counterparts in other States split the ALP and formed the now defunct Democratic Labor Party which succeeded in keeping the Federal Labor Party out of office during the 1950s-60s period. In NSW, "Catholic Action" remained inside the ALP and today has a tight grip on the Party's leadership. Nothing has proven the point more dramatically than the evident pride and joy with which the Labor Right crossed the workers' picket line outside of Parliament House last week. Premier Carr followed by offensively giving a "V" for victory sign. Was it to demonstrate his feeling of elation that he had achieved a victory over the trade unionists demanding the scrapping of the Workers' Comp legislation or was it a victory sign to signal his joy that his colleagues had crossed a picket line? Unfortunately the Labor Left did little better. Although refusing to cross the picket line, they were subsequently overruled by the Labor Caucus and voted for the legislation. If the legislation is eventually defeated it will not be any thanks to any section of the Labor Party but to the independents, Greens and Democrats in the NSW Upper House. ************************************************************* -- 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
LL:ART: Editorial: The "Labor" illusion
Communist Party of Australia Thu, 28 Jun 2001 23:00:09 -0700
