Vote once, Struggle often

Vanguard August 2010 p. 1

At the 2010 Federal election, the openly reactionary party, the Liberal-National Coalition, with Abbot as their leader, should be defeated. Equally, a strong protest vote against the increasingly reactionary Gillard ALP government would be a declaration of the people’s confidence in their ability to organise independently in their own interests.

It is also our view that the position of some unions and others in supporting a vote for the Greens in the Senate is tactically useful and will assist the organised working class and people. Ultimately, this will test and further expose the ALP government’s true class interests.

A strong vote for the Greens and other progressive candidates with a solid base in mass, grass roots struggles and organisations of the people will help articulate and shift the focus onto the strivings and struggles of ordinary people for real change.

However, only the people’s mass movements of struggle for workers’ and union rights, the environment, democratic rights, Aboriginal sovereignty and community services will be decisive in bringing about real change.

Democracy for big business
The 2010 Federal election is exposing the sham of so-called parliamentary democracy in Australia. The distraction of vacuous personalities and theatrical performances by individual politicians covers up the reality of which class governs, and where the real power lies in this country. It conceals the truth that genuine democracy is not exercised by the people through the ballot box.

Whilst politicians perform their carefully scripted acts, the real business of running the country continues in the boardrooms of major foreign and local monopoly corporations and big business organisations - the Business Council of Australia, Minerals Council, Australian Industry Group and Australian Chamber of Commerce.

Endless spin by the Liberal-National Coalition and the ALP hides the reality of policy differences in shade only, not in substance. A few superficial appearances aside, the two main parliamentary parties sing in chorus with the big business end of town. They compete to win approval from big business monopolies and make the people pay for the economic crisis. Their policies overlap on attacking workers and union rights, on climate change and the environment, public education and health, privatisation, Aboriginal land rights, asylum seekers, troops in Afghanistan and mining monopolies ripping off the wealth of the country.


A charade of shallow point-scoring is the best that the capitalist parliamentary system can offer the people. But when the whirlwind of baby kissing and stage managed empty theatrical performances settles and the elected government takes office, the reality that very little has changed will again assert itself. The people must return to their struggles in workplaces and communities where real problems are faced and battles are fought. This is where the truth about the so-called ‘democracy’ of the monopoly capitalist class is tested every day and where the people practise their own genuine democracy.

In spite of deepening cynicism in the two major parliamentary parties, many people are hoping for a genuine democracy where the country is governed for the people, not just a tiny handful of big business monopolies and corporations.

Parliamentary elections are an important tool for the ruling class of monopoly capital to reinforce and strengthen illusions that periodic voting through the ballot box is the only means through which the people can exercise their democratic rights, and are the highest form of democracy. In fact, it’s a vote for which party of big business will misrepresent the people. It hides the power of the monopoly capitalist class that runs the country. It diffuses the build up of frustrations and disillusionment with sell-outs by the main parliamentary parties. The three yearly parliamentary vaudeville show is a temporary distraction from working people’s daily financial and economic problems and concerns about job security.

Action speaks louder
Rich lessons from experience show that change for immediate improvements will only come when the people take collective action in their workplaces and communities. Workers battling for decent EBAs, protecting union rights and their safety in the workplace know that only their own organised actions can progress conditions and rights on the job. Victorious workers at Kennon Auto in Melbourne have shown the truth of this.

Relying on the return of the ALP government weakens the people’s capacity to fight and results in set- backs.