Current and Previous Editorials

 

Current Issue

Vol 16, No4, 2007/8

I began to write this editorial at the time Federal Parliament opened on ASorry DayonFeb .14. The new Rudd Government certainly did itself and the country proud with this dramatic symbolic opening.

The absence of John Howard from the gathering of living former Prime Ministers on that day reminded us once again of his mean rule and the great relief we felt on that day ,November 24, last year at the defeat of his government and his own defeat and departure from his seat of Bennelong. Don Brown=s poem expresses our feelings well.

These Foolish Things.

Young children cowering behind barbed wire,

A plan that set the middle east on fire,

A GST that stings

These foolish things remind me of you

The non-core promises we thought wre real,

The lap dog Peter snapping at your heel

He's still there in the wings

These foolish things remind me of you.

Time flies but lies still hang around

They're just as fresh today

As when you told them yesterday

The balaclavaed men and dogs from Patricks

Your wondrous ecstasy at Warnie's Hat tricks

The way George pulled your strings

These foolish things remind me of you.

*****

The refugees who languish in detention

The children overboard you had to mention.

The mud you flung that clings

These foolish things remind me of you.

The flame of prejudice and how you fan it

The house you commandeered for darling Janet

When private Telstra rings

These foolish things remind me of you

Your crime this time

has come to light

Now as you slink away

I'm left with only this to say

Goodbye good riddance to your coalition

The lies and scandals and your narrow vision

You're down and Kevin swings

These foolish things remind me of you.

PS Oh Happy Day! Reckon Amanda and Peter Reith will be sipping chilled sauvignon Blanc and laughing their heads off. They got out while the perks were at their height. Keep on celebrating Donditty

 

But we had no illusions. Rudd's government would be neo-liberalism lite, and it would need constant vigilance from the people to keep it close to their interests and needs.

It did not take long for Rudd to confirm our caution about him when he came out in support of NSW Premier Iemma's stated intention to privatise NSW electricity in the face of opposition to this from 80% of NSW citizens.

There is no doubt now,if there ever was, that the Eureka spirit of resistance is alive in Autralia!

 

Vol 16, No 3, 2007/8

Editorial

Socialists everywhere need to understand what is happening in China in the name of socialism. How can the current reality be equated with past confident programs of China’s communist party predicting progress towards socialism. Because there are no easy answers the need for an ongoing search for the truth is obvious. This journal is willing to engage in such a search and seeks contributions from its readers towards this end.

Australian socialists have been particularly interested in the outcome of China’s revolution - because we realize the importance of China in our region as well as China’s world importance. The late Ted Wheelwright, for instance, along with co-author Bruce Macfarlane, wrote The Chinese Road to socialism" after their visit in 1968.This AS pays well deserved tribute to Ted who gave early warnings of the threat to socialist ideals from the manifestation of capitalism in the form of globalising neoliberalism.

Despite its shortcomings the existence of the Soviet Union had been an obstacle to this globalisation push. The strong presence of a power opposed to world capitalism encouraged others to oppose it -for instance the anti-colonial countries of the third World and trade unions all over the world. But that resistance was weaker after 1990 when the Soviet Union collapsed, thus encouraging the globalisers to step up their attacks including the use of open warfare in countries like Iraq.

So it is no accident that much of the contents of this AS is concerned with the neoliberal push and resistance to it. Examples include the Philippines, Iraq’s destruction, the fear tactics used by the ruling class against opponents, the neoliberal dilution of the ALP‘s support for trade unions etc.

Tristan Ewins points towards alternative ALP policies which could lead the way from the ALP’s dominant right wing agenda. Ewins’s left social democrat position, while far from being strong in ALP circles and while well short of a socialist position, can and must raise consciousness. The realisation of Ewins’ program would be strongly resisted by the financial oligarchy but could succeed with wide popular support. After all, there are countries today which maintain left social democrat governments.

But in the meantime with Howard’s reactionary neoliberal agenda being challenged by Rudd’s less reactionary neoliberal agenda, there is no doubt that Australians need to choose Rudd for us to have a chance of safeguarding our future.

If Howard succeeds in destroying trade unions Australia will have a society with a high percentage of the working poor in emulation of Howard’s ideal society, the USA.

Vol 16, No 2 , 2007

Editorial

The Pine Gap Four deserve our gratitude, not fines, tokenistic though they are. They and all those campaigning against US bases - euphemistically called Ajoint facilities@ - on our soil are the true patriots. The dozens of such bases quietly allowed into our country by our governments over the years are a threat to Australia=s sovereignty. No government since that of Gough Whitlam has asked serious questions about them - no doubt because they realise that the Whitlam government was undemocratically dismissed for raising such questions.

The Howard government goes out of its way to invite bases. It would appreciate that the permanent presence of US troops can give it and its ultra conservative successors extra protection against the rising anger of the Australian people because of its anti popular policies of allowing foreign and Australian transnational corporations mercilessly to exploit us. It ignores the proven record of social damage caused by such bases in other countries where US forces have had immunity from prosecution for any crimes they have committed. That is why, in the Philippines for example, the New People=s Army (NPA) enjoys popular support. And John Howard in his accepted role of US ADeputy Sheriff@, could be called upon to send Australian forces against the NPA.

Howard justifies this approach to neighbouring states by the outworn argument that we need to build bulwarks against threats from the north. Such an approach includes the kind of Australian government co-operation with Kopassus which has for years been part of our relationship with Indonesia. A surer path to guaranteeing future security by people to people relationships with neighbouring countries is ignored.

Bob Boughton, currently in Dili, puts a strong argument that the Australian government is continuing this trend by its hostility to the pro Fretilin forces which led the way to East Timor=s independence.

Kevin Rudd speaks of friendship with the US without subservience. If that implies giving up a Deputy Sheriff role it should be given a chance - and Rudd=s diplomatic experience in Asia gives him a background that does not lend itself to Howard=s AAsian hordes@ mentality. Let us this year see a turn away from Howardism with an ALP majority in the House of Representatives and a restoration of the Senate as a house of review with progressive minor parties and independents holding the balance of power.

Domestically this can involve a rejection of Howard=s IR laws, a genuine attempt to tackle our environmental problems - and restoration of free speech by refusing to allow the Howard government to encroach on it by pretending it is tackling terrorism.

We have long known that parliament cannot be relied upon without an informed public opinion bringing pressure to bear on politicians. We cannot leave it to them alone. We must keep discussion and popular action going whatever the outcome of the federal election.

Vol 16, No 1 , 2007

Editorial

The month of March has produced two outcomes which have electoral implications for the Howard government this year.

The Hicks issue had been putting increasing pressure on the federal government. Howard would be relieved that David Hicks has pleaded guilty to facilitate his return from the hellhole at Guantanamo Bay, although the Acourt@ process was not convincing and will still be argued about for some time to come. So too will the Australian government=s neglect of its citizen.

The other outcome is the result of the NSW election which showed that the federal IR laws are having an adverse effect generally on voting patterns. NSW electors recognized that Debnam, the NSW Liberal contender, was on his party=s Right - as Howard is - and intended to sweep aside any NSW protections that still exist against the federal IR laws. Debnam=s attempt to gain office in NSW was soundly rejected by the voters despite the unpopularity of the ALP NSW government.

The threats from two other much longer term ongoing problems - climate change and Australia=s particular vulnerability to increasing water shortages-are also coming closer to the top of the political agenda this year because of increasing public awareness.

John Howard has only recently decided to admit that these problems exist - when he could see the chance of using them as arguments for a nuclear power industry in Australia and for encouraging false faith in Aclean coal@ in the near future.

Howard=s political approach of promoting short-term, private profit maximising capitalism, is the least suitable for seriously tackling climate change and water shortages.

Kevin Rudd=s ALP has a marginally better approach, which could have been much better had the ALP Right not downplayed the party=s longtime socialisation platform and not engaged in so many privatisations of public assets. Still, Rudd=s recent criticism of market fundamentalism sounds a new and welcome note, which was not coming from Kim Beasley before he was replaced as leader by Rudd. Not that the voters can be entirely confident of consistency from pragmatic ALP politicians- unless public pressure is exerted on them. Progressive minor parties like the Greens, Democrats and Progressive Labour Party can help maintain public pressure by increasing public awareness.

Of course there will be counter-pressure from the global corporations and the US Bush Administration to lock the ALP into the neo-liberal globalisation agenda. Then we will have to see how Rudd interprets his declared policy of being friendly to the US without kowtowing to every US decision as the Howard government has tended to do.

With his deep understanding of China Rudd should be better able to resist US attempts to Acontain@ China than has the Howard government. And Rudd=s diplomatic experience should help him to resist the Ahonour@ of being appointed Deputy Sheriff in our region or taking Australia more into the mire of the Middle East.

Volume 4, 2006/2007

EDITORIAL

Tristan Ewins rightly argues that the left should not avoid Howard's challenge to a values debate. This field should not be left to a hypocrite whose actions rather than his words reveal his true values. His values can usually be measured in financial terms. When Howard appropriates the term, mateship, he does not mean the solidarity of workers defending their pay and conditions. His kind of mateship is closer to those sharing the proceeds of the plunder of those workers through exploitation.

Yes, he also values power - but in a capitalist economy that is ultimately based on the ownership and control of capital.

Not so long ago he was making no claim to valuing the environment - in fact he denied the existence of climate change. But his sudden reversal of such denial was not based on any serious study of climate change science. Rather it was the realisation that the nuclear industry could reap huge profits from acknowledging the growing public awareness of climate change and arguing that nuclear power could help solve the problems raised by it. His "mates' in that and related industries could then show their appreciation by larger donations to the Liberal Party.

The logic of uncritically choosing capitalism and its values leads Howard and his ilk to want to gravitate towards the greatest world concentration of capital in the US. This course is pursued even when it leads towards loss of Australian independence, despite our leaders' claim to value Australian patriotism. US foreign policy then tends to force us into conflict with our neighbours and countries like Iraq whose resources are coveted by giant US corporations.

A neo-conservative cabal which may gain temporary ascendancy in US government can take it and us into many debacles until the US public wakes up and insists on a reversal. We are stuck with the consequences.

False claims that we are following this course because it is necessary to winning the "war on terror" help keep it going long after the debacles have been exposed. Not enough people ask what an abstraction like a "war on terror" really is. Thus cynical leaders can continue to generate fear to perpetrate their power by use of this device. Well might we ask: "How is victory or loss be measured in such a war?" Acts of terror at will can easily be perpetrated by cynical government when needed to whip up popular fear.

"Uncritically choosing" was the key phrase in describing the course chosen by Howard but governments under capitalism do not have to be so uncritical.

Those who want to set a course towards socialism in countries like Australia, Britain or USA certainly have the correct long term answer to the contradictions of capitalism - though there is no immediate prospect of socialism in such countries. The ALP is at present the only alternative government in Australia - and the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard team has the capacity to win in 2007. Rudd has articulated the key concept capable of victory - an alternative to market fundamentalist, neo-liberal (economic rationalist) policies. That alternative was not suggested by Kim Beazley after Howard's declaration of credo at the most recent ideological splurge at that ultra-right wing thinktank, AQuadrant@.

Though Rudd is essentially right wing he is complex and his outlook is not the same as Kim Beazley's. What now needs to be done is for Rudd to win the federal election, scrap Howard's IR laws and respond favourably to public and union pressure to develop his alternative to market fundamentalism.

All capitalist countries do not uncritically choose to become US satellites. New Zealand retains independent anti nuclear policies; Britain insisted on its nationals being repatriated from Guantanamo Bay despite Blair's subservience to Bush on Iraq - and most West European countries are trying to retain social democratic features now being lost in Australia. But Australian experience of more than a century of ALP federal governments should make us vigilant about them. They need to be subject to principled public and union pressure and there needs to be help in the Senate from progressive minor parties just as the NZ Labour Party needed the Alliance of such parties to get it back on track in the 1990's.

Volume 15, No 3 2006

EDITORIAL

The "war on terror’ continues to be used as an excuse for imperialist aggression against resource rich countries, mainly in the Middle East. The hawks are still hovering over Iran, which could help to protect itself by trying to do more to win world public opinion, which can affect Security Council decisions on its future. For instance, unnecessarily provocative assertions , like Holocaust denial, by the Iranian leader do not help its cause .In turn the US and its proxy, Israel, have alienated much world opinion by Israel’s disproportionate destruction of much of Lebanon in pursuit of Iran’s part-proxy, Hezbollah, so Iran is not isolated yet. The mess made by the US in Iraq cannot make US decision- making on Iran any easier, either.

But the imperialist grab for resources is not always being "justified’ by the "war on terror".

For instance, East Timor’s oil is coveted by Australia on behalf of the transnational companies dominating our politics at present, and deposed PM Alkatiri is resented by the Australian government for insisting on a fair deal on oil sharing. The manoevres going on in Timor are far from transparent, but Australia’s insistence on having the leading miltary role vis-a -vis the UN throws suspicion on why it has so far mishandled its military role there in ways which help Major Reinado and other opponents of Timor’s government.

Concurrently with the attempted moves by the US for hegemony over South and Central Asia are counter moves by Russia and China and their partners in the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO). These are going on alongside even wider moves around the world to "get out" of US dollars and into euros.

Could a multi-polar world eventually emerge and obviate the threat of world domination by one superpower, the US? In such a world could the UN have a better chance of exerting its rightful role? And could the growing realisation of the threat of climate change force competing countries to face the need for more co-operation to survive? There is cause for hope in these trends.

There is hope, too, in Latin American developments away from US hegemony and towards socialism, which is a non aggressive system geared to meet the needs of people rather than the greed of capitalists.

Australia is in the odd position of being dependent, on the imperial nations to which it has attached itself (the US now, with dependence on Britain declining), and also being pulled by trade links towards China, which the US sees as a rival. Healthy debate in this country could resolve this contradiction in the interests of the Australian people.

The ruling Howard government is steadily limiting the scope for free speech. Hence there has been the growth of new electronic free speech movements such as Getup and New Matilda.

"Anti- terrorism" laws are one form of government constriction - and within Parliament itself the powers of Senate committees to critically examine legislation and legislators have been drastically cut back. The ability of minor parties to regain the balance of power in the Senate has been hampered by a law to automatically deregister a minor party which does not have a Federal MP and has never had one. Such parties will be able to seek re-registration next year , but under "stricter conditions". The Progressive Labour Party (PLP) is one of these .

An encouraging new force formed this year is the Third Voice Alliance(TVA), to strengthen the input of progressive minor parties to the democratic process to restore the balance of power by progressive minor parties in the Senate. This would be in the interests of vigorous parliamentary debate, which is now lacking.

Minor parties can help Australia to regain vital public assets which big business is coveting and buying "for a song’ in the same way that it plunders resource rich countries internationally. The New Zealand Alliance of its minor parties showed that it is possible to force a Labor government which depends on it to govern to restart public enterprises previously privatised. The Kiwi Bank in NZ is now thriving because of this pressure on a government which had thought it could turn its back on a "peoples bank"the concept for which was similar to that of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank before it was sold out by the Keating government.

 

Medibank Private is the latest public asset on the block - but we cannot assume that Howard’s haste to sell is a sign of the government’s confidence of success.

Let us not forget that people power stopped the Snowy Scheme selloff! Let’s work towards winning back the Senate for the people.

Volume 15, No 2 2006

Now ,in late June, new eruptions are happening around the world . At this moment it is difficult to foresee some of their outcomes.

For instance, in East Timor the assumption of a couple of years ago that it was safe to withdraw Australian troops and UN personnel can now be seen as too facile and the Howard Government’s mistake of going into Iraq is able to be seen as a contributing factor to the early withdrawal from Timor.

But would Australian troops have been a force for peace in Timor anyway if Australian government policy had changed to one of helping to destabilize a Fretilin -led government resisting foreign pressure via the World Bank to sacrifice government intervention for economic development in favour of leaving things to market forces? And what of foreign pressure on Timor to sacrifice more of its oil assets?

Questions like these are suggested by Tim Anderson’s article but are not asked in Australia’s mass media.

Then there is the sudden eruption of Liberal Party interest in the conditions of NT Aborigines. Problems that have been known for years are being "revealed". Is there a connection between this and the uranium exploitation plans of the Federal government which were announced just after Howard’s last visit to Washington.? Why then?

The Israel/ Palestine issue is erupting day by day with no signs of compromise either by Hamas or Israel. Hamas cannot win in this unequal contest which can only lead to humiliation and further Palestinian suffering. Only a two state solution can offer a way out of the impasse. Otherwise the present course can play into the hands of rightwing Zionist extremists who hope to drive the Palestinians out of their 2,000 years old homeland altogether.

The Iran situation has been on the edge for some time now but aggressive decisions by the US are fortunately at present too difficult..

 

No more eruptions of " Orange revolutions" are being reported in the former Soviet Union. Ukraine seemed to have been made available for the CIA and the transnational companies, to plunder the people’s assets there through privatisations - but a kind of mixed result eventuated. Byelorussia (See Vera Butler’s article ) rebuffed the Western capitalist destabilisers and, consequently earned itself a bad press in the West - but better result for its people.

Fortunately for the people of Latin America, however, the eruptions continue to be in their favour. There the Left is winning!

What of Australia?

Howard is continuing to use his Senate majority to push the agenda to the Right and restrict democratic safeguards, the latest casualty being the Senate committees to critically examine legislation.

As for the ALP. Now that he has consolidated his position within the ALP, Kim Beasley is the only possible alternative PM in the short term. If he sticks to his pro-union position he can win but he will need continuing pressure from the unions and the progressive minor parties to keep him on course.

His pro-union rhetoric can be quite impressive ( see Quotable Quotes) but pressure

will be needed to ensure that his actions match his words. .

Volume 15, No 1 2006

Editorial

As a result of the US invasion causing Iraq to become more chaotic every day - some would say it is in a state of civil war - the White House is threatening to extend the chaos to Iran on the pretext that it is developing nuclear weapons. But as John Pilger points out (p 17) Iran's "crime" is its desire to withdraw from dependence on the US dollar. This, too, was Iraq's crime under Saddam Hussein when it was about to choose euros instead of dollars in its oil trade.

US imperialism's expansionist plans across south Asia apparently cannot be allowed to falter in the face of independent minded nations making their own decisions about currency - or about the development of their own nuclear power!

Hence Bush's perceived need to court India in case it grows too close to China, another developing economic rival to India's east. And, unlike Iran, India has not even signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Yet the US hypocritically agrees to supply nuclear material to India while maintaining its need to oppose Iran. This allows Howard's Australia a convenient reason to follow its US master because the chance of profitable uranium sales is opened up by it.

In the case of Australia's recent agreement to sell uranium to China, it could have had one positive aspect - it could have shown an independent Australia reluctant to help the US "contain "China._But that was offset by the agreement to sell Australian uranium to Taiwan, (via the US) , thus contributing to possible future friction across the Taiwan Strait.

The worries of US imperialism about growing Left progress in Latin America can be added to its south and east Asian worries and its euro bloc worries

These concerns help explain the new fear of free speech in the US and its allies (satellites?). Free speech is being equaled with sedition, helping to answer Lindsay Foyle 's question (from the Walkley Magazine p 20). After all, if we all knew the truth, who would want to join in US imperialist wars and keep following the neo-liberal path of privatisation and neglect of community welfare? In Australia both major parties are blindly following that path. Public/private partnerships and outright privatisations on disgraceful terms will continue to proceed in Australia until the ALP right wing is forced by growing public awareness and pressure from the progressive minor parties to turn its back on big business and resist its demands. Then it might be a more effective Opposition able to challenge the more big business oriented Liberal/National coalition in defence of the public sector and the public's welfare. At least the ALP is now using its best opportunity in years to harness public anger about the industrial relations agenda of big business. It must resist any temptation to give ground on this before the next federal Election.

The ALP would be a more effective Opposition too if it stood up to the media "shock jocks " and our "dogwhistling" Prime Minister on matters of race and immigration.

As Julia Gillard said recently, the ALP shouldn't allow itself to be easily "wedged" into a retreat from moral and humanitarian policies out of fear of these policies being caricatured.

John Howard who still regards himself as the Deputy Sheriff of the region, has now decided that West Papuan refugees who have reached the Australian mainland can no longer feel free from the Nauru "solution ". To paraphrase his words at the time of Tampa - Indonesia will decide who comes to this country and in what circumstances!

West Papua should never have been part of Indonesia and needs independence. But as the immediate difficulty of achieving this is obvious, perhaps autonomy along the lines of the Aceh solution should be seen as the first step. See Damien Kingsbury 's attempts outlined (p 4).

Noam Chomsky's article on Intelligent Design is about the USA - he could have found many parallels in today's Australia.

Volume 14, No 4 2005- 2006

Editorial

As US imperialism continues its expansion in one part of the world, problems for it emerge in other parts. Not that the US imperialist problems are in one sense problems for the people in these "other parts". In fact problems for the US imperialists give hope to people in these regions of finding solutions .

So it is hopeful now for the people,.the pueblo, of Latin America, which the US, since the nineteenth century, regarded as "its backyard", to be plundered at will by US business interests. The Monroe Doctrine was a declaration of intent to plunder.

Now the Latin American Left is starting to reclaim for their people what is rightfully theirs and the move to unify its efforts across the continent and Caribbean can help past divisions and failures. Venezuela is leading the unifying moves and is right to expect a military move against it by the US - not least because of its oil reserves.

As the Pentagon cannot nuke a resource rich "rebellious" region of the world - if only because the resources it seeks from such a region need to be preserved - it must attempt to advance its interests by conventional military methods over currently widening areas. That means more troops, many more at a time when its wars are becoming more and more unpopular. So conscription must be contemplated - not only for the US itself, but also for its few satellite countries (its "allies") like Australia and Britain and poor countries whose leaders are paid to follow and whose people are sufficiently subdued at present.

If any City Hub (See p 17) readers thought its columnist, "Nick. B. Possum" was being far fetched in his speculation about conscription for Australians, they would have been pulled up by the recent feelers put around by Retired Admiral Barrie. If Washington was restrained from putting out similar feelers in this year of Congressional elections, why not get its Australian "Deputy Sheriff" to take the initiative - but not too obviously. If it had to be a Defence Chief (fortunately retired) todo a difficult job, who better than Admiral Barrie. After all wasn’t it Admiral Barrie who was willing to do the Howard Government’s dirty work by supporting its "children Overboard" lies and its denigration of the noble Norwegian "Tampa" captain?

In the interests of Australians there should be open debate about these issues. Now the Howard Government and Bomber Beazley’s ALP have enacted an anti-terrorism law that can stifle such debate while the definition of "sedition" in this legislation is so wide and loose as to cover any criticism of government policies, the chances of vital debate being stifled are obvious - so obvious that many federal backbench Mps had to be pacified by attorney General Ruddock before Christmas by the promise of an early review of the sedition provisions in 2006. It is up to all of us to ensure that promise is kept.

Volume 14, No 3 2005

Editorial

The Howard Government is hell-bent on pushing through its anti-democratic and anti-human rights agenda as soon as possible before too many people become aware of its real intentions. These intentions are to serve the interests of the global corporations largely based in the USA, and the dictates of the Bush Administration which represents them.

Howard=s Industrial Relations (IR) legislation cannot be assured of an easy passage through parliament - not only because of National Party Senator, Barnaby Joyce=s reservations about it, or Family First=s Senator Fielding=s conclusion that the legislation is anti-family in effect. Howard, who is always hypocritically claiming pro-family credentials, must be worried that Fielding is not a hypocrite. And he must be disappointed and dismayed that his unscrupulous use of at least $55 million of taxpayers= money for his IR propaganda campaign is not convincing a majority of voters and has not swayed the church leaders including even the conservative Cardinal George Pell. Could the vote of even one more Coalition Senator now turn against the IR Bill to make its defeat a certainty!

No trick is beyond Howard in pursuit of his agenda, so the timing of an alleged impending terrorist attack on the eve of his introduction of the IR Bill and anti-terrorism Bill to Parliament should be no surprise, despite the ATrust Me@ protestations of AHonest@John. We should by now know the Alying rodent@ (as he is regarded by many of his colleagues) - after Tampa, Children Overboard, the GST etc! History should have cautioned all Australians to be suspicious when laws suspending civil liberties are rushed through in an atmosphere of fear and panic induced by unscrupulous politicians. Have we forgotten the Reichstag fire in 1933 Germany?

Strengthened by an effective ACTU campaign across the country the ALP is resisting the IR moves - though it has been betrayed by its leaders over civil liberties. The ALP State Premiers with the honourable exception of ACTU Chief Minister, the Honourable John Stanhope, easily caved in to Howard=s guile. But Bomber Beazley, the Aleader@ of the Opposition, disgraced himself and his Party by publicly announcing that he would recommend support for Howard=s anti-democracy Bill even if Howard rejected the ongoing ALP moves to inject some safeguards into it. We know, as Beazley knew that he had been Awedged@ once again over security matters, just as he had been over Tampa, but this does not mean that he should make ridiculous extreme statements in a vain attempt to show he is not weak on security. How can we forget that he is on record that a whole suburb should be isolated if a terrorist suspect lived there. And then what, Kim?

With ALP compliance the Howard Government can now use its new powers to silence critics of the invasion of Iraq and any other adventures dictated to it by US imperialism. The attached graphic on Media Watch illustrates what could be a possible scenario in the future from media critics. And the ACTU has said that if the IR legislation becomes law there will be a scenario of union leaders in gaol!

Volume 14, No 2 2005

Editorial

So many of the great and the good do not live to a healthy old age. We pay tribute to three such people, Joyce Hawkins, Denis Kevans and H.T. Lee, three such people who have been closely associated with this journal.

If John Howard and George W. Bush choose to ignore the dangers of climate change, this journal along with many critical and alarmed voices cannot. The plight of New Orleans makes all but the greedy oil and coal etc transnational companies and their political representatives aware of the increasing instability of weather systems caused by global warming. It is making more and more of us around the world aware of the different responses to such disasters by a powerful and wealthy, but class and race divided, capitalist country like the USA - and socialist Cuba.

No wonder that Latin America is rejecting the enticements of US imperialism to isolate internationalist Cuba.

Wars and coups are never far from the agenda of the profit and power hungry US military -industrial complex; it is not only a question of which country will be next for attack, but how to avoid too many entanglements at once or how to contain a nuclear conflict if it erupts. Scott Ritter=s warnings about oil rich Iran are timely - and Venezuela will need to be especially vigilant!

Our region=s ADeputy Sheriff@, John Howard agrees with the overall agenda of US imperialism, but Australia=s increasing dependence on trade with China will give him a dilemma if the US and Taiwan threaten war with China. Apart from that Howard=s strengthened position in the Senate is energizing his efforts to push ahead with the neo-liberal (economic rationalist) policies favoured by the transnationals dominated as they are by US companies.

On the pretext that they are a protection against terrorism, new laws restricting civil liberties are being introduced amid criticism even from among the Federal Government=s usually compliant ranks. Such signs of resistance are encouraging as are the trade unions= resistance to Howard=s attempts to strangle them. The sharks are encircling what is left of Telstra whose previous public ownership is criticised by the corporations as Abig government@. So is the welfare state we once took for granted. So Medicare, for example is under constant attack.

As more Australians suffer under these changes, it can be expected that public criticism will increase and that critics can expect to be labelled conveniently as Aterrorists@ in order to silence them.

Australians will not be alone in resisting the neo-liberal agenda which advocates Asmall government@ and the phasing out of the welfare state, as Aemployment creating@. The argument is that international investors will gravitate towards countries where labour is cheapest and social welfare outlays are lowest. Neo-liberals want us to engage in a race towards the bottom. The trouble is that there are always countries whose living standards are lower than those we would choose but investors would prefer.

The European Union=s transnational companies - powerful but on a smaller scale than those of the USA - had the rebuff they deserved half way through this year when they moved to amend the EU Constitution to facilitate lowering the welfare state standards of Western Europe. We can thank the voters of France and Holland for voting NO!

 

Volume 13, No 4 2004-2005

Editorial

Socialists have always celebrated the Eureka Stockade because it shows that the spirit of rebellion was, and is, alive and well. Socialists realise that radical social change is impossible without the presence of that spirit. (See Arthur Pike’s Eureka Songs p 6)

That is why the ruling class have always tried to downplay the importance of Eureka - and why John Howard almost ignored its 150^th Anniversary in early December - until the rising tide of public support for it forced him to make some positive statements about it.

We started this anniversary year with an article honouring the role of two great socialists, Evelyn Healy and the late Len Fox in helping to locate the part of the Eureka flag long thought to be lost. In this last issue of the year we bring you Bob (RD) Walshe’s updating of his centenary year (1954) presentation of his Eureka research findings.

The rising tide of national pride and republicanism in this country is on a collision course with the increasing subservience of its corporate ruling class to the international globalising corporations. As a result of Australia’s October 9 federal election the latter forces now seem to be supreme, despite the hollowness of the popular mandate Howard claims. The "mandate" is based on tricky tactics and evasion of the real issues - as was the case with US President Bush’s re-election on Nov 2.

Noam Chomsky, that famous US citizen of the world, on p 20 actually highlights for us what was a fundamental but largely ignored issue for Australia’s independence on Oct 9 - the Australia/US FreeTrade Agreement (AUSFTA). Not that the ALP would have rejected the Agreement either, but Labor did make a limited attempt to defend Australia’s PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) against the giant US drug corporations - and this must not be forgotten in 2005! When Howard’s new Senate majority comes into play in July, socialists and the overwhelming majority of Australians will be called upon to defend our PBS. We are fortunate that we have a friend like Chomsky, who has a particular feeling for Australia developed at a time when he did much collaborative work with the noted Australian social scientist, the late Alex Carey.

The world is waking up to the destructiveness of the globalising corporations but those of us who have not wakened up to it already` will sooner rather than later become painfully aware of what the corporations have in store for us. Argentinians have had their painful lessons and have learned to reject the prescriptions on offer from institutions like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to relieve the pain. The prescriptions are really the problem.

Argentina still needs to build on its partial success against the corporate imperialists- for the wellbeing of its people as well as to inspire other countries to resist.

It must not be forgotten that peaceful imperialist penetration can be accompanied by imperialist wars under certain conditions. The" Christmas Letter 1914" is included in this Issue as a reminder that popular resistance can end imperialist wars ,even if only temporarily and partially at first- as for example on the Western Front in France between British and German troops at Christmas , 1914. By 1918 the Christian feelings of goodwill towards "enemies" at Christmas had become politicized , particularly among Germans , French and Russians , into a socialist consciousness that their fellow workers were not only around them , but also across "enemy" lines and borders - and that they were all being exploited whether as workers or cannon fodder against each other.

In Iraq to-day the US oil and other corporations are using some of the most needy and deprived of their own people as cannon fodder against the people they have impoverished by the embargo since 1991 - but a people whose resistance shows that their spirit refuses to be crushed. And how much will the US troops endure before they start to resist?

As Arundhati Roy, the Indian author, winner of the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize put it "we all have to throw our weight behind the resistance...There can be no peace without justice."

Vol 13, No 3, 2004

Editorial

In this official campaign period, in the run-up to the federal elections in Australia and the USA, the financial bribes to voters from the major parties have become indecent (because the money has to come from services denied to the people over years of conservative government).Moreover the personality politicking in Australia is approaching the customary US style.

Not that campaigning in both countries hasn=t been going on all this year - it=s just that the pace has now become frantic with the two major parties in each country in a close race.

Both Howard in Australia and Bush in the US are vying in their use (or misuse) of the fear of terrorism and ADeputy Sheriff@ Howard is taking Bush=s doctrine of pre-emption to the length of threatening to attack terrorist suspects in neighbouring countries Apre-emptively@. This fear factor gives the excuse for curtailing civil liberties.

Howard=s preference for American institutions favouring the private over the public sector has not prevented him from pretending that he=s become a late convert to Medicare - because health is a core concern of voters. So he has put aside (and the US has also Akindly@ postponed its decision)until after Australia=s October 9 election a needed debate about the likely effect on our pharmaceutical prices of an AUSFTA (Australia US Free Trade Agreement). After all, the US Ambassador warned us of his (and the US pharmaceutical companies=) displeasure over the ALP=s questioning the likely effect of AUSFTA on our PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme).

Another US feature has entered this Australian election - the drive by rightwing religious fundamentalists to influence the Right towards more extreme positions and to oppose progressive parties like the Greens and the Progressive Labour Party. The large amounts of money they are spending is suspected to be coming from their ideological mentors in the US who are core supporters of the Bush Republicans. In Australia they have formed the Family First Party from Assemblies of God church members - who pretend there is no connection between these two organisations.

In the US there is a clear link between the religious fundamentalists and the NeoCons (Neo Conservatives) who are driving US foreign policy under Bush. They created Bush=s war strategy in Iraq and the Middle East generally. They have links with rightwing Zionism whose own expansionist aims for Israel give the NeoCons important common ground with those religious fundamentalists who want to hasten Armageddon through increasing conflict in the Middle East (see Butler article p 16),

And Howard=s foreign policy is tying Australia to these mad plans!!

The rightwing Zionists like Sharon are dissimilar to the peaceful leftwing Zionists of the kind who pioneered the semi-socialist kibbutzim in Israel and the secular Israelis who oppose war and support a two-state solution for Palestine, with Israelis and Palestinians co-operating across a common border. But it is the Right that controls the state of Israel and gives it a bad name internationally. Increased anti-Semitism follows among those who don=t analyse the complexity of the situation. But this does not stop Sharon etc from labelling as anti-Semitic the critics who point out the consequences of his policies.

The Australian election campaign has been quiet on the anti-privatisation front but Telstra would go fully private and be followed by Australia Post if Howard wins! Whatever the outcome privatisation of public assets has to be stopped or reversed. In the case of reversal, the example of NZ needs to be noted (see Larry Noye=s letter p 27).NZ=s restored Apeople=s bank@, the Kiwi Bank, is thriving as a reminder to us of what happened to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. In NZ the NZ Labour Party had to be forced by an alliance of progressive minor parties led by the breakaway New Labour Party to restore the Apeople=s bank@. In Australia a similar strategy is being sought by the PLP (Progressive Labour Party) which is keeping the issue alive among progressive minor parties and the ALP Left.

What can be the best outcome in our Australian election? The election of a Labor Government - with enough progressive minor parties elected in the Senate to ensure a check on the major parties!

Vol 13, No 2, 2004

Editorial

The term Afascist@ has often been used loosely and this has weakened the impact on the public of warnings by well informed antifascists when actual and daily mounting evidence of a dangerous trend towards fascism is becoming apparent. Public understanding has not been helped, either, by the deliberate attempt to confuse by those leaders who justify their increasingly anti-democratic laws in the name of AFreedom@. Bush, Blair and Howard may be to us the most obvious examples of this >turning the truth on its head@. But many regimes around the world are eagerly making excuses in the name of war against terrorism for the repression they seek against inconvenient critics.

And there are still confused people who have not yet learned the lesson from interwar Germany that fascists (Hitler=s Nazis in this case) can even pretend they are socialists to win enough temporary support among the organised working class to be able to turn around later and crush the independent organisations of the workers. Hence the name ANational Socialist@ for a party representing the Big Business interests of the banks and firms like Krupps, Thyssen, Farben etc to stop Germany becoming socialist and to wage war. A left adage is that AFascism comes when Big Business can no longer fool the people by democratic means so it chooses undemocratic means.@

Today the same combination of finance capital and Big Business (now more globalised) is driving towards war and fascism, with their vision for war extending indefinitely into the future and into space. But today in the US, which is calling the tune, the owners of major war profiting firms like Haliburton, are in the White House (Cheney keeps a puppet there called Bush). Puppets are needed too around the world for the neo-conservative (fascist) war plan to succeed. So Australia=s alternative PM, Mark Latham, has had an unprecedented barrage of interfering comment from Cheney=s neo-con cronies because he=s not seen as their reliable puppet. Unfortunately John Kerry, the Democratic party presidential candidate has been too cautious in not differentiating his approach on this from that of Latham=s US critics.

If this is what the US-Australia alliance leads to, could Australia like NZ come to the view that we=d be better off without it! With a secret military treaty (see p 10)creeping in under a Afree@ trade agreement, where is our sovereignty and self respect heading?

For security we could better work for a stronger UN system and improved relations with our Asian and Pacific neighbours.

Vol 13, No 1, 2004

Editorial

This a year of crucial national elections in the USA and Australia.

It is as vital to Australians that George W. Bush be defeated as it is that John Howard be defeated.

The Kerry led US Democrats and the Latham led ALP are not the whole answer to the people’s needs - both are neo-liberal (economic rationalist) in approach. They are both corporate financed, although there is a modifying influence on the ALP through trade union financing. To a lesser extent than with Australia’s ALP, trade unions support the US Democrats.

Consumer advocate, Ralph Nader, correctly notes the preponderance of corporate financing on US Democrats and Republicans, whom he labels "two factions of the business party". But Nader fails to note that "in a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes" (Chomsky, p 15) and chooses, once again to make a presidential bid despite the outcome of splitting the vote for Kerry as it did for Gore in 2000.

There is a kind of ultra left fundamentalism which regards it as an act of "purity" to say "a plague on both your houses" of both corporate serving major parties. Trotskyists tend to take this simplistic approach. The Greens in the US took this approach in 2000 but now regret it. Many Greens in Australia support Nader‘s "right to stand" - but that is not the issue.

The right to stand exists in a context. In Australia the context is our preferential system of voting, which allows us to vote for minor parties of our choice without playing into the hands of the ultra right. We should be urging our US friends to persuade Nader to stand down at this stage and to campaign for a preferential system of voting in the US.

The context in both Australia and the US must also include the ultra right nature of the Bush and Howard governments. Chomsky (p15) reserves "his special venom for the Bush Administration plans for the health sector" - to dismantle the protections achieved by popular struggle. And Howard has the same attitude to Medicare.

It is the militaristic, geopolitical resource grabbing world strategy of Bush (followed by Deputy Sheriff Howard (and others like Blair elsewhere) that overshadows everything else!

Neo-conservative(neocon) advocates like Perle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney and others have policies which co-incide with the oil and other resource owning ambitions of the Bush and Cheney families, but have as well other dimensions which don’t always coincide with the main interests of the US military/industrial complex. That is why splits are occurring over Iraq (e.g. Richard Clarke and Paul Krugman, a small liberal, labelled "left" in the American context). The US Democrats are gaining the courage to emerge from the terrorist induced hysteria which stifled debate in the US in 2002 and 2003. And in Australia, Mark Latham, despite some tactical stumbles, is now in the position openly to challenge Howard on the false evidence for invading Iraq last year. And it is for these reasons that the Kerry/Latham side of the debate must prevail in US and Australian elections this year - and why popular pressure must be maintained on them both before and after their election.

It was popular pressure that recently helped Spain change its government. The manifestation on the streets of popular disgust over Aznar’s pro Bush policy swayed the vote for the Spanish social democrats (labelled "socialists").

Despite new laws against terrorism, vaguely defined to facilitate repression, and the frequent use of wedge tactics to thwart it (Glendenning p 7), popular pressure can prevail.

"The people united" are now winning in parts of Latin America.

History has always shown the ultimate power of popular pressure. It prevailed at the Eureka Stockade - despite what NSW’s "history loving" Premier said about "the non significance of Eureka". Carr should concentrate more on Australian history as well as America’s.

Vol 12, No 3, 2003

Editorial

How can voters have access to genuine contests of ideas based on principle when the major parties concentrate on the pursuit of pragmatic goals through their use of spin while most of the mass media indulge them in this kind of politics by the use of selective reporting?

One important way, and one which is becoming more prevalent throughout Australia is through independent forums for the exchange of information and ideas - e.g. in pubs, coffee shops and book shops. "Politics in the Pub" is an institution with healthy growth in some cities over the past 10-15 years. This journal has often published interesting speeches from this source. Lately a "Socratic Forum" has been established by past presidents of the two major parties to open up dialogue and discussion - and met recently in Brisbane. When distinguished past presidents of the major parties feel they are being left outside the loop by the decision makers, the extent of the "democratic gap" is glaring. But is this a David v. Goliath situation vis-a-vis the mass media, especially when the globalising corporations are being served by the current situation and want it to continue?

The voices for truth cannot accept the current situation and must continue to build upon the avenues of free expression. The internet is a great asset and the relative independence of the ABC and SBS needs continued defence.

The Howard Government’s subservience to the corporate globalisers mainly based in the USA has brought stronger pressures against dissent which can be labelled as "terrorism" by any government inclined to do so - with the backing of repressive legislation such as the laws widening ASIO powers.

Dr Alison Broinowski and Dr Vera Butler see the need for Australia to be less dependent , not least economically, on the USA, thus helping to reduce these strong pressures to conform. As we are close to Asia it makes sense for us to have additional poles of attraction, not only with Britain, USA and Europe, but also in Asia. China and SE Asia have more potential for us as trading partners than the USA.

Yet as Dr Broinowski warns we will not win long term trust from Asia easily, given the negativity of the Howard government towards the region. After all Howard has earned the name of Deputy Sheriff of the region!

This may not deny us trade deals with China from time to time as Dr Butler points out - but Dr Broinowski points out we’ll really have to earn inclusion as equal trading partners among ASEAN countries.

Doug Cameron has legitimate concerns about the loss of Australian manufacturing industries but there need not be the kind of recent concession given for instance to China when it was not treated as "an economy in transition" thus depriving Australian manufactures of protection against dumping of Chinese goods. After all the Howard Government is more interested in looking after the interests of financiers than manufacturers and workers!

Any trade agreement Australia signs must not include strings which limit our independence and culture and adversely affect our living standards.

The war on Iraq drags on into 2004 with Iraqi resistance to the invaders increasing daily and Bush, Blair and Howard refusing to recognise that Iraq has a patriotic resistance movement. Wouldn’t we have such a movement if our country was invaded in similar circumstances? If Al Qaeda supporters are also coming in from outside is that surprising? It vindicates those critics (including later the Secretary General of the UN) who warned that an attack on Iraq with the excuse of reducing terrorism would actually spread terrorism especially while the problem of Palestine remains unsolved. Sharon ignores Washington’s half hearted support for the "Two States" solution as advocated by the most responsible elements on both sides in Israel. An important opening for sane discussion in this issue in late 2003 was actually made in Australia when the eloquent Dr Hannan Ashrawi was granted the Sydney Peace Prize by Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, directed by Prof. Stuart Rees (See his poems p. 26). Not even the furore and disinformation created by Sydney’s more right wing Zionists prevented Dr Ashrawi from speaking and spreading her message. Unfortunately counterproductive tactics by Hamas extremists in Israel do not help her or her people. The capture of Saddam makes no basic difference to the situation in the Middle East and still makes the problem of finding a credible exit strategy from Iraq vital for Bush, leading up to the 2004 US elections. The grassroots internet-fed "Move On" movement in the US against Bush is growing daily and has put backbone into the US Democrats’ campaign to beat Bush and his "neo-conservative" policies.

The need to beat Howard in Australia’s 2004 elections is likewise an urgent priority for Australians. Already the racist and fear "wedges" have emerged from the Lib/Nat political armoury, instead of constructive policies. The emergence of Mark Latham (strongly economic rationalist though he is) as ALP leader can give new hope that the ALP can win federally in 2004, but the Left must continue to criticise Right Wing policies. We must never forget that the defeat of the Howard Government is imperative - and the preferential system in Australia gives us the opportunity to vote for progressive minor parties if we wish, but to make sure that our preferences do not help the Howard Government.

Socialists have not and will not forget their ideals. Although we may have among ourselves differences in interpretation, we should all welcome Tristan Ewins’ attempt to remind the ALP that it is doomed if it departs too far from the socialist objectives endorsed at the 1921 ALP Conference, and subsequently weakened.

Vol 12, No 3, 2003

EDITORIAL

Professor Chalmers Johnson (see p.5) is worried that the US Republic could go the same way as the Republic went in ancient Rome when the Caesars extended their conquests to embrace the whole of the then known world . Imperial titles then became synonymous with dictatorship and citizens’ rights were negated. Citizens, of course were never the majority of the population - these were slaves .

The imperial aims of the US neo- conservatives (neo - cons.) are being barely concealed behind their calls for defence against terrorism, which provide the excuse to curtail hard-won civil rights.

With US forces occupying Iraq, (whose resources are being shared largely among cronies of the US Administration), and the flimsiness of the excuses for attacking Iraq being exposed , the neo - cons are now trying to divert world attention from what they have done by focussing on Syria - using Israel as their proxy.

US lack of readiness to meet the problems of a devastated pre-empted country is being shown up by the anarchy prevailing in Iraq, and is being sharply brought home to their families by the number of body bags being returned to the US.

But, beyond trying to bribe or bluff other countries into sacrificing their sons and daughters in lieu of US troops and failing to have a coherent plan for reconstructing Iraq , Bush again invokes the need to pre-emptively attack another oil-rich and strategically important country in defiance of international law .

Yet, could it be that the transnational resource-grabbing companies do not need reconstructed countries in which to pursue their profits? Are chaotic countries like Congo an example of how the companies can operate in comparative isolation from the chaos around them? After all, companies can provide their own infrastructure and guard it with their own or mercenary forces They can even regard the anarchy surrounding their enterprises as an advantage, keeping nationalist opponents divided and so non-threatening to their companies .

Australia’s Howard Government has once again managed to oblige its US patron on the matter of pre-emptive strikes. No less a person than the newly appointed Governor- General is now trying to popularise the doctrine of pre-emption - with no condemnation from the Prime Minister for speaking out of turn. The PM has, however, let his Defence Minister and Foreign Minister mouth agreement with the G-G.

What a different reaction to a political vice-regal statement from the response which met G-G Deane when he spoke out in favour of black- white reconciliation!

If Governors-General now have a new-found right to speak out (even in favour of illegal international acts) as long as our Federal Government agrees with them, the Australian people cannot feel secure about their right to speak out if their views are against those of the government now that the ASIO laws have ben amended in a dangerously wide ranging way with complicity by the ALP. Once again the US trend is being matched. Further, the Howard Government is trying to limit criticism by the minor parties by changing procedures for Senate elections which Howard hopes will restore the monopoly on Senate seats once held by the major parties.

And, as trade unions challenge the monopoly on power held by the Government and the "big end of town", Howard has the large CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) under threat from a Royal Commission. At the same time he is rushing to meet the demands of medical specialists, whose union is composed largely of self-employed professionals (who should all be public servants working within a national health authority).. Howard pretends that he would not destroy Medicare to enrich this group and further his ideology of non-public enterprise but voters are becoming more aware of his real agenda. Yet the ALP cannot bring itself to be a real alternative on health by opposing the tax rebate for private health insurance.

The British Labour Party, like the ALP, may have "Bushed " leaders , but at least a large section of it has actively resisted the corporate serving direction in which both parties have gone . The ALP Left has become too accustomed to giving up its claimed ideals quietly. There has never been the resistance to the watering down of the party’s socialist objective as in Britain, for instance. This journal (p.14) is trying to keep the socialist ideal alive, although the opinions stated differ on what is socialist and what is social democratic. But currently apparent with the ALP is its departure from social democracy,as ell as its socialist objective. The corporate serving privatisation push continues whenever the ALP is in government - as it is in all Australian states. In NSW the latest such push is to do with hospitals. The prompt protest strikes by health unions have alerted the NSW Carr Government to the increasing unpopularity of privatisation but ongoing public campaigns are also essential to reverse it.

Vol 12, No 2, 2003

Editorial

"The tumult and the shouting have died!" So have many thousands of Iraqis through US "precision" bombing, but very few (often as a result of "friendly" fire) have died from the Coalition of the Willing.

"The captains and the kings" have not all departed. Saddam Hussein has almost certainly done so, but the military chiefs of the invading armies of "liberation" have dug in for the long haul to ensure a steady stream of oil into the future for the USA’s gas-guzzling cars and a steady flow of profits for the oil owning friends of the Bush Administration.

Back home in the Coalition countries, their "kings", the warmongering leaders, have survived and received a boost (temporary?) in their political fortunes, except for Britain’s Blair.

Much "spin" has been used to try to justify an unjust war, whose legal "justification" (Resolution 1441 of the UN Security Council) was based on the need to destroy Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Now that they have not been found the spin is subtly shifting the excuse to that of the "need for regime change".

And so it goes on - and will go on because the "Neo-Conservatives" behind the Bush agenda are now known to have plans to keep on changing the map of the whole Middle East to favour US oil and gas interests and Israel’s Zionist leaders. These are not two separate interests because the role of a nuclear armed Sharon (or Netanyahu) is to be the US Deputy Sheriff for the region - just as John Howard’s apparent role is to be D.S. for our region.

In spite of the huge anti-war protests in Australia and elsewhere earlier this year Howard is benefiting from the "Falklands effect" of a war victory with no Australian casualties (despite the weakness of the opponent).

Howard has gained enough confidence from this and from the weakness of the Opposition ALP to be able to preside over a Budget based on more blatant discrimination in favour of the privileged than he has hitherto. In health and education, the private sector is to prosper even more than at the expense of the public. Howard’s past hypocritical pretences of belief in Medicare and equality of educational opportunity now sound more hollow than ever. Howard is combining this with a battery of legislation seemingly intended as a trigger for a double dissolution when it suits him. Bills to amend IR laws and ASIO legislation stand out as possible triggers.

The ALP and the more principled minor parties are correctly taking a stand against these measures, which are potentially vote winners for opposition parties. But the ALP could do much more to defend democracy by opposing the use of the Government’s ASIO bill to curtail civil liberties ostensibly to combat terrorism. Ironically Defence Minister Hill denied that Australia’s incursion into Iraq could have any effect on terrorism against Australia - even as convicted Bali bombers, Amrozi and Samudra were saying the opposite.

A Liberal leaning minor party formed recently by ex-Democrat, Meg Lees, was quick to voice its support for the promised Howard legislation to restrict university education for the less well-off. Meg Lees has the hide to name her newly formed party, the Australian Progressive Alliance Party. What a travesty! If ‘progressive" means anything, it means gain for the great majority, not for minority big business which Lees has supported through the GST, weakened IR legislation etc.

One of the principled minor parties uses "Progressive" in its name in a valid way and it has a rising not insignificant vote. The Progressive Labour Party (PLP) was inspired by the example of the breakaway NZ New Labour Party, which initiated an Alliance of progressive NZ minor parties to oppose and reverse economic rationalism ("Rogernomics") in that country. The PLP’s role in Australia has been made necessary because the relatively weak ALP Left has enabled the Right from both major parties in this country to get away with economic rationalism. A strong coalition of progressive minor parties (a real progressive alliance) outside the ALP could only help not hinder the role of a genuine Left inside the ALP.

Vol 12, No 1, 2003

Editorial

As this journal is being prepared for publication the world is on the brink of another terrible act of imperialist war, launched by the US in the name of freedom /democracy/God - you name the typical euphemistic cliches and double speak used to cover acts of imperial aggression.

The obscenity of their intended action is apparent even to its perpetrators who recognise in the Guernica mural at the UN building in New York a symbolic illustration of what they intend for a weakened victim, Iraq. Otherwise, why did they shamefacedly cover the mural on Feb 5 when Colin Powell spoke there.

That the US military/industrial/complex has been moving towards this culmination for over 20 years is documented by US journalist, Robert Parry in his article on Page 6. Even Presidents who have been considered as comparative Adoves@ have been drawn into the orders of their hidden masters to wards the same Middle Eastern goals of those more overtly aggressive like the current US Administration.

The latter have realised that their superpower/hyperpower predominance has given them the confidence to ignore unprecedented displays of world opposition to their war aims and they have been openly arrogant and contemptuous of those who differ from them. US Defense Secretary, Rumsfeld, in dismissing France and Germany, as Old Europe, does not even pretend to be diplomatic.

Overweening pride will have its fall - as this batch of Administration Texan oil owning and oil driven Acowboys@ will find out. Their fall will be shared by those misled sycophantic leaders like John Howard who have chosen to be among the few members of the coalition of the AWilling@. And the fall will be shared, too, by those who have been bribed by a share of Iraq=s oil like Britain=s Tony Blair.

John Howard may think he is going to pull another Apolitical rabbit@ out of his bag of electoral tricks by preparing for a Double Dissolution using a AWar on Terror@ as an election winner. But he will find that the election triggers he has in place will this time backfire on him because the Australian people are seeing through him and the Bush/Blair rhetoric.Never has there been a time when there has been such opposition to a war before it has even started.

When Howard and his government go, it is up to the progressive section of the population to ensure that the damage done to our civil society by 20 years of economic rationalism (particularly under the Howard Government) can start to be reversed. The ALP Right who made their own contribution to this 20 year downhill slide, will have to be pressured into turning the tide. Some of their number have now become critical of privatisation, corporatisation and the Public/Private Partnership, gimmicky way of avoiding public hostility towards loss of the public sector.

The NZ example of a Labour Party dependent for electoral survival on progressive minor parties shows the way towards the restoration of civil society in a way that Australians can relate to.

As well there are threats in our society to the democratic rights of citizens through repressive so called anti-terrorist legislation.. And immediate challenges towards restoring our civil society will have to include restoration of respect for the separation of powers between legislature, executive and judiciary - even judges are been intimidated by government. The misuse of terms like Apolitical correctness@ has been used like a bludgeon by politicians like John Howard who even want to rewrite our history to suit the class interests that he represents. And we need to move towards a reconciliation not only between white and black but between the groups that the politicians have divided by their wedge politics. This has even affected our international reputation . 9

Vol 11, No 4, 2002

Editorial

The US is now a hyperpower- not just a superpower.

So, can people power turn it back from the course its leaders have set it in attacking Iraq for oil and strategic advantage? As famed author John le Carre has said - "Its leaders have performed the conjuring trick of diverting US public anger at the September 11 massacre towards Iraq which had no connection to September 11."

The US public is starting to see through the trick with increasing numbers demonstrating against war on Iraq. But the force of public opinion is stronger outside the US - particularly as evidenced in huge anti-war demonstrations in Western Europe. This, so far, has had the effect of slowing the momentum for the attack sought by the US leaders who had hoped to bypass the UN altogether. Only popular pressure in Europe has forced the need for UN inspectors to be given time to check if there is evidence to justify UN endorsement to attack.

Lack of evidence has meant that Germany won’t co-operate even if there is Security Council endorsement - and France says it will use its veto power. Blair, in Britain, is resisting huge public and Labour Party pressure because of the counter pressure from Britain’s huge oil interests, traditionally strongly involved in the Middle East especially Iraq. John Howard, with an ingrained habit of kowtowing to the US, but with little economic reason to support an attack and strong economic argument from the wheat farmers against it, is resisting ever rising levels of public opposition in Australia.

Vol 11, No 3, 2002

Editorial

On October 26 the Hollywood actor, Susan Sarandon, expressed what many current peace demonstrators are feeling and what many more about- to- be peace demonstrators had not heard in so many words before when she said the Bush government is hijacking our pain@. Susan Sarandon was speaking at a Washington rally against a threatened pre-emptive attack on Iraq by her government - but that threat of attack is being backed by our government too.

But if Bush=s push for Iraq=s oil was able to gain momentum in the guise of combatting the (unrelated) terrorism which broke out on 11 September, 2001, John Howard=s attempt to link the October 12, 2002 Bali bombings to the need to attack Iraq has not impressed the majority of Australians. It is becoming ever harder for Howard to disguise his foreign policy moves as other than knee jerk support for what Washington wants. This is becoming so obvious that even the cautiously pragmatic ALP right wing is starting to question the need for Australians to fight in Iraq when our own region may need them more.

But when we feel pain over the September 11 and October 12 tragedies we too object to our pain being hijacked by the global corporations through their political minions in Canberra, Washington and London to justify the kinds of unrelated corporate serving actions they claim are needed against terrorism. So, while plane travel is to be made more secure, by justified safeguards, laws against citizens= rights of protest are not justified. Nor are laws which make ASIO a secret police force. Yet these laws loom large in Howard=s agenda.

As an interesting variation on the relationship between a right wing government and its right wing security service, the letter by Fred Hopkins on page 31, gives food for thought. It points to apparent opposition by the CIA to Bush=s current policy on Iraq. This should give Howard even more food for thought about the wisdom of blindly following Bush - a case of the blind leading the blind?

Is Bush blind because he is ignorant? He presumes to lecture the world that it is necessary to attack Iraq Ato avoid the mistakes of the League of Nations@. Surely even he knows that it was the lack of backing by his own country as much as anything else that led to the demise of the League of Nations and is now weakening the UN.

A genuine attempt to tackle the roots of terrorism would mean less imperial exploitation of poorer parts of the world by the global corporations. It would also mean well directed aid, and more of it, for those regions.

But - that might remove some of the fear which serves as a useful prop for right wing governments like those of Bush, Blair and Howard and release them from the need to be constructive about domestic issues like unemployment, health, education, privatisation etc. The terrorism induced prop gives them a timely excuse to attack such potentially progressive institutions as the trade unions.

So we have the current Howard witch hunt against the CFMEU and the attempt to weaken the MUA by substituting cheap labour, foreign owned Aships of shame@ for our Australian owned and crewed Australian coastal shipping. And on the US west coast it means Bush backed lockouts for US waterfront labour. ‘

Appeal from the Editorial Committee

The printing/postage costs for Australian Socialist mean that more generous financial support is urgently needed. Unfortunately if we don=t receive enough donations from enough people by early next year, it is likely that we will have to cease publication.

If you can afford it, please give generously as a New Year gift for the Journal.

Vol 11, No 2, 2002

Editorial

This issue of the journal will be on display in bookshops during August and September. On and around 11 September, 2002, its readers will be well aware that 11/9 is the first anniversary of the terrible events of September 11, 2001.

Not that those who are profiting from that tragedy will need reminding and there will be buckets of ballyhoo at their behest. The oil barons and financiers will have their puppets performing on many stages - in parliaments, press and other mass media - to remind us that we need wars and clamps on our cherished civil liberties and cuts to our standard of living. In the case of the US Cabinet it will be hard to distinguish the puppets from the instigators, as so many of them are big oil owners.

Their motives for promoting war - in oil-rich Iraq, Central Asia and Colombia are suspect - just as their account of the sequence of events on September 11, 2001 is suspect. As there is more and more close examination and criticism of the alleged reasons for the Pentagon's drive for new wars; the motives for curtailing free speech through so-called anti- terrorism legislation are also suspect, to say the least. And because Australia's Howard Government chooses to operate on behalf of the corporate globalisers who also control the US Government, the voices of small journals like this need to be heard among those who are trying to tell the Australian people that September 11 is to be seen as a warning that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

In so many past wars the pulpit has often been one of the chauvinistic trio (politicians, press and pulpit). Today however, churches even at an early stage have been critical of government moves to attack another country - in this case Iraq. So the move by Bush (and Howard here) has been challenged by church leaders, internationally as in Britain, Europe and in Australia (eg see the letter from Canberra church leaders in this issue p 19). This challenge and the growing chorus of criticism has brought out echoes even among those in the ALP's right wing who are ever mindful of opinion polls before principles.

The breadth of anti-war feeling over Iraq gives hope for broad based delegate structured co-ordinating committees to help to mobilise the Australian people in demonstrations against the drive to war - as happened with the Palm Sunday movement during the 1980s against the nuclear arms race.

While this issue concentrates on the threats of war with Iraq and the continuing wars in oil rich regions and curtailment of liberties in the post September 11 world, issues such as Australia's reconciliation between its first inhabitants and the much later migrants has been put on the backburner. In this atmosphere the recent High Court anti-Mabo decisions did not lead to the outcry of concern that should have followed. In Denis Kevans' poem, AAlbert Namatjira@ the line AAustralia grips my shaking hand@ captures the spirit of Mabo.As well the Howard government's anti union agenda currently being implemented against the CFMEU has escaped the wide concern it should be getting from fair minded people. "

Vol 11, No 1, 2002

Editorial

In varying degrees all of the contents of this issue reflect, on a world scale, the clash of two trends. One represents the push towards globalisation by finance capital whose main centre of power is increaingly in the USA. It is associated with oil, militarism, repression, divide and rule tactics like racism, contempt for international institutions like the UN, corruption in business and government and advocacy of a hands-off approach to the corrupt transgressors etc etc - the list could go on.

The counterveiling tendency is one of resistance - in various forms. It can take the form of Palm Sunday demonstrations, some of whose participants are most concerned about nuclear war dangers as the US Pentagon succeeds in gaining ever more billions of dollars to feed the greed of the military industrial complex; other participants are most concerned about the racism of the leaders of more fortunate First World, target countries for refugees, many of them the victims of the very wars waged against them by those First World countries who follow the lead of the USA. Or the resistance can take the form of Israeli conscripts refusing to regard Palestinians as less than human; or those families of September 11 victims in New York who refuse to allow the victims’ fate to be used as an excuse for hate/greed wars; or a World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil about the links between Third World poverty and corporate globalisation; or trade union resistance to anti-worker laws whether in Rome or Australia; or those opposing the repressive laws being pushed by corporate serving governments to head off the growing popular resistance.

The clash of these two trends is not "the clash of civilisations" which the right wing US ideologist - historian Huntington wants to preach about and from which the US Industrial Complex wants to profit. That clash is supposed to be between the Muslim world and the Judao/Christian world, which, according to P