The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, November
14th, 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 RACE CARD WINS
The Howard Government succeeded in clawing victory from what was certain
defeat just a few months ago by whipping up the basest racist sentiments,
by beating the war drums and promoting militarism, and by mouthing jingoist
sentiments. For some time it has been apparent that Howard's campaign
against "political correctness" was in fact, a campaign to promote the most
conservative social attitudes including racism and xenophobia and forcing
women out of the workforce and into the home.
To justify the campaign demonising asylum seekers, John Howard and his
Ministers have resorted to outright lies. In two recent incidents they
claimed that children of asylum seekers had been thrown into the water from
a boat headed for Christmas Island and then, that refugees had deliberately
set their boat alight off Ashmore Reef in an incident in which two women died.
[These incidents require a full-scale investigation to reveal the
disgraceful behaviour of Howard and his Ministers.]
Having mounted the racist tiger and thrown Australia into an illegal and
unjustified "infinite war" in the interests of US world domination, the
Howard Government will push these policies further and faster in the
future. This course is also being used to divert attention from the
gathering economic crisis that is now affecting the economies of all the
developed capitalist countries.
No answers
The issues of jobs, education, housing, health, social security, peace, the
need to promote tolerance and maintain multiculturalism will not go away
and struggles around these issues will intensify in the future. But the
Howard Government will apply policies demanded by the big corporations that
will not satisfy the needs of the Australian working people.
At the same time the new Howard Government will become more authoritarian,
anti-democratic and anti-working class. They will implement more cutbacks
to social services. They will intensify their attacks on public health,
public education and social welfare and attempt to impose new anti-trade
union legislation.
There is, however, strong opposition to the war and many people reject the
racist agenda which has already created an atmosphere of intolerance and
bigotry.
On the eve of the election a number of prominent public figures, including
former Liberal and Labor Party leaders, Malcolm Fraser, John Hewson,
Neville Wran, Margaret Reynolds and Tom Uren, and Dr John Yu, Richard
Woolcott, Tim Costello and others, published statements denouncing both the
Liberal and Labor Party leaderships for their policy towards asylum seekers.
Missing from this collection of public figures, however, were current
serving politicians of these two parties, with the one exception of Liberal
MP Julie Bishop. Not a single trade union leader was to be found in the
list. Any politician from the ALP and the Liberal Party that voiced any
misgivings was immediately silenced by the Party machines.
With a few principled exceptions, trade union leaders remained
closed-mouthed over the war and the vilification of asylum seekers. They
believed that by remaining silent they were helping the Labor Party. The
outcome has proved this attitude to be a mistake.
Now that the elections are over critical statements are being voiced which
would have been better had they been heard in time to help bring about a
different electoral outcome.
ALP right-wing
The responsibility, however, lies squarely with the right-wing ALP
leadership. Kim Beazley immediately supported the exclusion of asylum
seekers and their transfer to Pacific Islands. He gave unquestioning
support to the US war. The Labor Party helped the Howard Government rush
through allegedly anti-terrorist legislation but which is actually a severe
restriction on the democratic rights of all citizens.
While the Labor Party attempted to give attention to a number of "bread and
butter" issues, inadequate as their policies are, the Party ignored the
necessity of countering the racism and war policy being promoted by the
Government. This was the Labor Party's Achilles heal.
The right-wing Labor Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, had already contributed to
the racist campaign by his charges of "gang-rape" by youths of "Middle
Eastern appearance". This goes some way to explain why the swing against
Labor was greater in NSW than in other States and why what should have been
safe Labor Party seats have been lost.
The racist campaign was effective among many blue-collar workers whose
outlook was swayed by the fear that "foreigners" will take away their jobs
and that asylum seekers are merely "queue jumpers".
No attempt was made to explain the circumstances that are impelling
millions of people from a number of countries to escape war, poverty,
unemployment and persecution.
All considerations of fairness, humanity, concern for others, morality and
tolerance were thrown out of the window.
One supposedly "left-wing" Labor Party Senator told an audience of workers
to forget about the asylum seekers and to forget about the war as nothing
could be done about these issues because, as he put it, Australia's
policies were being determined in Washington and London. This was an
out-and-out capitulation to the Howard agenda without any attempt to
counter the vile spread of racism and the involvement in war.
As a consequence, the political climate has been moved to the right to the
applause of the Liberal Party and its followers and to the dismay of all
progressive and labour movement supporters who stand for a humane attitude
to refugees and who oppose supporting the Us and its war plans.
The capitulation to reactionary, conservative policies - which in fact is a
complete bankruptcy of leadership -- has led tens of thousands of workers
to give their political allegiances to their most dangerous class enemies
in this election.
The problems that this has created for the whole of the labour movement
will be felt for a long time and will remain until forces emerge that will
contest and defeat the right-wing agenda and remove the stultifying grip
that the right-wing leadership exercises both nationally and particularly
in NSW.
The Labor Party's percentage of first preference votes is the lowest
recorded for the ALP since the Depression of the 1930s when the Labor Party
introduced the infamous Premier's Plan which cut workers wages and social
welfare. The policies followed by Beazley in this election are equally
disastrous for the ALP and the labour movement as a whole.
The primary vote for Labor in NSW was the lowest (percentage) since 1906
when the party was five years old. NSW Labor's workers' compensation
legislation, privatisations, school closures, hospital waiting lists and
references to ethnic gangs did not help.
Bright spot
The significant bright spot emerging from the elections is the substantial
increase in the vote for The Greens and the possibility that they will win
three Senate seats, including leader Bob Brown's Senate seat.
Bob Brown in Tasmania secured a 14 percent quota, thereby retaining his
seat in his own right -- without relying on preferences.
Across the country The Greens polled over 400,000 votes for the Lower
House, but no seats.
Their success indicates that those who campaign on principle, who oppose
racism and stand for a humanitarian attitude to refugees, who oppose the
war and advance other progressive policies can win support.
While the vote for the Democrats remained relatively stable they may lose
one of their present nine representatives in the Senate.
The new leader of the Democrats, Natasha Stott Despoja, failed to make the
same firm, unambiguous stand on the vital issue of asylum seekers and the
war against Afghanistan as the Greens. Furthermore, many voters have
neither forgotten nor forgiven Democrat support for the GST and Peter
Reith's anti-union industrial legislation.
An opportunist attitude is dominant, with the Democrats attempting to
balance between clearly contending social forces and policies. "Keeping the
bastards honest" has been abandoned in an attempt on the part of the
Democrats to become "mainstream".
As Bob Brown aptly put it, "If you stand in the middle you get run down by
traffic in both directions."
In practice the Democrats are pursuing policies that are acceptable to the
mass media and the ruling class. Politics has to be made of sterner stuff!
The overall outcome once again illustrates that the electoral system for
the House of Representatives favours the two-party system and has been
constructed to ensure that smaller parties are kept out.
The Labor Party has won 67 seats (that is 44.6 per cent of the total) with
only a 38.4 per cent of the first preference votes. The Liberal/National
Party Coalition will hold 80 seats (that is 53 per cent of the total) while
their first preference vote totalled only 42.3 per cent.
Just under 20 per cent of voters did not vote for either the Labor Party or
the Coalition parties which continues the trend apparent in both Federal
and State elections for some time.
However, this 20 per cent has no representation in the House of
Representatives except for the three seats won by independents - Bob Katter
(Qld), Tony Windsor and Peter Andren (NSW).
Electoral reform
The situation calls for urgent amendment of Australia's federal election
laws with the introduction of a system of proportional representation into
the House of Representatives voting system, a system which already applies
in the Senate.
Despicable media role
The role of the privately owned mass media during the elections
substantially assisted the Howard campaign. Most daily newspapers ran
editorials calling for the re-election of Howard.
They played a despicable role in the promotion of racist attitudes to
asylum seekers. None seriously attempted to oppose the spread of racism and
the transportation of refugees to what are no less than prison islands.
Sydney's "Daily Telegraph", a newspaper specifically designed for workers
to read, ran a front page headline on election morning -- "As 12 million
Australians go to the polls today they are again confronted by the election
campaign's BURNING ISSUE". Below this headline was the picture of a refugee
boat.
Six years of conservative Howard Government has created an Australian
society which is less fair, less tolerant, less humane, and one in which
the standard of living of the majority is going down. The inequalities
between the rich and the poor have increased. It is a society that is less
secure and confident of its future.
The Government's policies are being questioned or opposed by the countries
in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere. Australia has joined the US in
its campaign of pressure and threats against other countries. The
triumphalism and arrogance that was evident in the speeches of Howard and
Costello on election night will not be lost on those who observe such matters.
It will take many years to overcome this conservative legacy. Australia is
rapidly become a pariah nation, and this will have serious economic as well
as political consequences in the future.
The dominant right-wing Labor Party leadership is unlikely to either change
its ways or to opt for any significant change of policy direction. This is
indicated by the promotion of Simon Crean as the likely successor to Kim
Beazley. The election of Crean would signal that right-wing policies have
prevailed and this will, over time, result in a continuation of the decline
of the Labor Party.
CPA vote
The left vote, apart from that won by The Greens, remains insignificant. In
the NSW Senate elections, the Communist Party has, at the present stage of
counting, secured 1,144 votes while the Socialist Alliance has 1,085 votes.
In the SA seat of Port Adelaide, Michael Perth had received 571 votes at
the time of going to press -- a slight decline on his result three years ago.
This situation obscures the fact that the policies of the Communist Party
on many issues have a widespread relevance and resonance in the community.
However, an accumulation of national and international events continue to
obstruct the progress of the communist movement in Australia. There is also
the unceasing anti-communism of the media.
Many continue to believe that the communist movement is "dead" and that
socialism "does not work". Neither of these assertions are correct but the
relatively small size of the Communist Party, its limited resources and the
limits of its activities means that many neither see nor hear of the
policies or work of communists.
The comment, "I thought you had gone out of existence", is still all too
frequently heard. The discovery that that is not the case is often followed
by the comment that the Party's continued existence is a good thing.
There is a reservoir of support for communists as a result of their
commitment and accumulated work over many years. This remains a firm
foundation upon which to build in the future.
****************************************************************
--
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
