Reform or Revolution?

Vanguard September 2010 p. 6
Duncan B.

The question of reform or revolution is an important one. It is true that a revolutionary situation does not exist at present in Australia. It is also true that the last couple of years have seen a continuing struggle in this country.

The workers have led the way with some staunch resistance to employers’ attacks on wages and conditions and the right to organise. Community and environmental groups have also had some good wins. As inspiring as they are, these struggles do not alter the fact that Australia is a nation still dominated by foreign imperialism, especially US imperialism.

Imperialism dominates Australia
Imperialism dominates all the main sectors of the Australian economy such as finance and banking, the mass media, mining, food processing and manufacturing. It also dominates our cultural life, smothering our own Australian culture. Imperialism is behind the attacks on the wages and working conditions of Australian workers. What is needed is to rid Australia of imperialist domination, rather than try to reform the existing system.

Reformism is strong in Australia
The reality of Australian politics over the past one hundred and twenty years is that most struggles have been for ‘a few crumbs from the rich man’s table’, that is, for reforms through the actions of the trade union movement and by the Labor Party in parliament.

The Labor Party was formed in the 1890s to win reforms in the interests of the workers in parliament. The trade union movement and the parliamentary system have had a strong hold on Australian workers for the last hundred years or so, and the Labor Party is still seen by many to be the party for the workers. In reality, the Labor Party does not challenge the capitalist system or the domination of Australia by US imperialism.

The trade unions are an important form of working class organisation. While unions struggle to defend workers’ wages and conditions from the attacks of the capitalists, even the most militant union still operates within the confines of the capitalist system. The recent struggle over the leadership of the Labor Party is sure to set people thinking about the question of who will lead the working class as it strives to meet the challenges of the present situation in Australia. The question of leadership of the working class is more important than ever.

Revolutionary leadership
The working class needs revolutionary, not reformist leadership. The time has come to look beyond parliament and trade union politics for a solution to our problems.

The workers need organisation that will offer revolutionary political leadership outside the capitalist system. The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) is working hard to build its revolutionary leadership and to win the respect of the working class. It seeks to win the support of the most advanced elements drawn from the ranks of the working class and members of other classes who support the working class. The CPA (M-L) is guided by the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism which recognises that the material world – matter – is primary. Ideas – consciousness – are the reflection of this objective reality.

Dialectical materialism informs the practice of the party. With the aid of this philosophical outlook we can see that all things in nature and society are constantly coming into being and passing away. We understand that things like parliamentarism and parliamentary politics are bound to pass away, but we also see that that must be achieved through the class conscious activity of the mobilised working class.

Day to day struggles
Undoubtedly, the struggle for reforms and immediate demands is critical to lifting the consciousness of the working class. In the experience of class struggle around specific issues, working people learn that Australian capitalist society is dominated by foreign and local monopolies that exercise political power, and that the state is a tool of their rule. The CPA (M-L) strongly supports all struggles of the people to defend and improve their rights and conditions and has proposed some immediate demands on important issues. (See opposite)

Capitalist exploitation
The Communist Party uses the dialectical-materialist approach to analyse Australian society. It has concluded that Australia is a capitalist society characterised by production for profit. This profit is derived from the unpaid labour time of the workers who produce the manufactured goods, build the office blocks or work in the mines, power stations or railways.

The CPA (M-L) recognises that the production of commodities by Australian workers is largely socialised. That is, production is mainly organised on a mass basis in workplaces where tens, hundreds or thousands of workers are employed. On the other hand, the capitalists privately appropriate the commodities that the workers produce. This is one of the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist system. Sooner or later the workers will act to put an end to this contradiction and establish a socialist society in Australia.

The age of imperialism
We live in the era of imperialism, which is the stage of capitalism where monopolies and finance capital dominate; when the export of capital is of pronounced importance compared with the export of commodities; when the world has been divided amongst the big trusts and multi-national corporations and when there are no longer any new territories to be seized without conflict.

The CPA (M-L) recognises that the present stage in the struggle to end capitalism in Australia is to win Australian independence from the foreign (mainly US) imperialist interests and their local allies who dominate the key sectors of Australia’s economy.

Australia has a limited measure of independence, but the foreign imperialist powers (in particular the US, Japan and Britain) continue to exert decisive political, economic, diplomatic, military and cultural influence in Australia.

The leading class
The CPA (M-L)’s analysis of Australia’s class society leads to the conclusion that the working class is the leading class in Australia’s struggle for national independence. This is because large-scale production forces the working class to be the most disciplined, cohesive and politically-conscious class. The working class can draw support from members of other classes in Australian society (small businesspeople, farmers, urban petty-bourgeoisie, etc.) to achieve its goal.

The capitalist state
The capitalist state comprises the various levels of state bureaucracy, the armed forces, the police (open and secret), the courts and the gaols. The state exists to protect the imperialist domination of Australia against the threat of revolutionary over- throw by the working class and its allies.

Currently, they maintain their domination mainly by deception (parliament, ‘democratic’ rights, ‘free’ press, etc.) Should the deception become less effective, the capitalists will turn to violent means to preserve their rule.

What is the alternative?
The CPA (M-L) points to an alternative to the continued imperialist domination of Australia. The whole reason for the Party’s existence is to assist the Australian people to win Australian independence and through that, socialism.

The CPA (M-L) works towards the formation of a vast peoples’ movement in Australia. This will comprise all Australians who oppose imperialism in any way and will ensure that the tiny handful of supporters of imperialism will be isolated from the vast majority of Australians.

As time goes by, more and more Australian workers will realise that the struggle for a multi-stage revolution for Australia is the best way forward.

Victory in this great struggle is more likely if the Communist Party is built in the heart of the working class so that it can assist in the Australia-wide mass movement of the working people and all those who want progressive, fundamental change.