Book review - Missing the point: Alison Pennington's "Gen F'D"

 Written by: Blake Sartori on 15 November 2023

Review of Alison Pennington’s Gen F’D, How Young Australians Can Reclaim Their Uncertain Futures, $24.99.
Review by: Blake Sartori 

To tread the dangerous path of summarising a book in one word, let’s settle on disappointing. If Pennington succeeded in one aspect, it is demonstrating just how void the mainstream Australian left is today, and how much farther we have to go before any of us can provide genuine explanation and battle against the current tumults. 

In fairness to Pennington, the pitfalls which Gen F’D leaps into are not unique, or new. Similar stories can be found through the opinion pieces slapped on the Guardian’s website, in the Green’s talking points, and from too many a ‘progressive’. These pitfalls all share a common root, which Gen F’D fails to unearth. This weakness stems from an inherently bourgeois economics, not a socialistic one. Let us, to paraphrase Marx, be radical – and grasp matters by the root. 

The issues that Pennington identifies are shared by many of the proletariat – precarious housing without much hope of home ownership, insecure jobs that are typically underpaid, and a lack of faith in the political system (take note – a political system, at large, which escapes scrutiny in Gen F’D). But these are all signs of an underlying disease. This disease, Pennington posits, is the nebulous neoliberalism. This is wrong. Instead, these symptoms come from the disease that is Capitalism. Neoliberalism is the label attached to one of its recent phases.

The first chapter of Gen F’D demonstrates Pennington’s bourgeois economic outlook from the onset. According to Pennington:

“From the 1970s, but gathering pace in the 1980s, big structural changes were made to the DNA of Australia’s economy. Businesses became increasingly determined to make quick bucks for shareholders rather than investing in people for the long term.” 

Seemingly the bourgeoisie only became more determined in ever higher profits in the late 1970’s and 80’s. When the aim of the game is valorisation, ever higher profits are always front and mind of a capitalist. Pennington’s claim fails to properly account for the nature of the class struggle within Australia in the 30-odd years following WWII. In those years, the bourgeoisie still had just as much of an interest in yielding ever higher profits. What was the counter to this drive? Put simply – labour militancy, through trade union struggle by the proletariat. This omission foreshadows Pennington’s later resorting to a ‘generational divide’ analysis later in Gen F’D. If we are to concede the proletariat of past generations had their own trade union militancy and class struggle, then any sort of analysis of ‘generational divide as a class divide’ becomes unravelled. 

One need look no further than the sub-section in Chapter 4 titled the loss of class to lament at the liberalism tainting Gen F’D. Pennington fails to identify class in its most basic form – being determined by the social relations that different groups have to the means of production. Even for an introductory book, this requirement shouldn’t be a tall order. Indeed, without this conceptual understanding, how can one hope to comprehend the problems facing us today and begin to forge, at least in our imaginations, what a new world might look like? And while it is essential to understand there are different strata within the proletariat and bourgeoisie, especially so in a ‘developed’ capitalist country such as Australia, to understand their underlying commonality, one must understand how these layers relate to the means of production. In a word, as workers versus owners. 

Another pitfall is Pennington’s resort to a ‘generational divide.’ The inability, as outlined above - to see class as determined by social relations to the means of production - allows Pennington to divide people by age. Given the title of the book, one shouldn’t be surprised at this lacklustre analysis. And although it is true that the ratio of the average income compared to the average house price has shifted significantly in the last 50 years, Gen F’D readers are once again denied the class analysis that would allow us to see that it is not baby-boomers who are our enemy, but rather the owners and controllers of global capital. Once again, a failure to see social divide in terms of property relations. 

Pennington does make some strides when confronting the liberal’s tendency to focus on ‘identity formation’ as the guiding star of one’s politics. She does well to approach this subject by not discounting the varied challenges that marginalised communities continue to face. In addition, Pennington draws a potent link between this liberal identity formation and the types of content that today’s younger generation share and consume en masse. 

“Millions of algorithmically tailored sales pitches entrench human differences… Despite facing similar conditions, time spent online can make people feel worlds apart from others.”

Greens, Labor Lefties and ‘progressives’ take heed. If we are to advance the processes for total transformation, this ideological battle must be understood, lest we land ourselves with a century of infighting. 

Pennington’s final chapter, Making the Modern Fair Go, introduces readers to another re-heated slab of social democracy. Even using the term ‘social democracy’ is a stretch, given the lack of any proposals for nationalisation. There is some attempt to draw readers towards the importance of rebuilding the trade union movement. But without any class analysis, this cry rings hollow. Let us be clear, labour should be organised by our class. Our interest is directly opposed to that of the owners. Past union struggles, such as the green bans waged by the Builders Labourers Federation, understood this class analysis and distilled it into concrete action. Pennington’s failure to do the same will not help to deliver a reinvigorated labour movement. What’s more, Gen F’D in no way confronts the reality of today’s labour bureaucracy, exemplified by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, as the enemy of rank-and-file activism, let alone militancy.

Today, our class needs to be reintroduced to the basics. Good theory sharpens good practice. For all Pennington’s talk of neoliberalism, in the final analysis, we still exist in (or more accurately, are ruled by) the same economic system – capitalism. Today’s proletariat have greater means to access scientific socialist works, like those of Marx and Lenin. What’s more, we have had over two centuries of struggle from which to learn. Using the insights from theoretically informed practices will continue to prove the most adept at realising real benefits for our class. 

If Gen F’D is the best on offer from today’s Australian left, that is because it is ‘best’ for those who dare not go to the root of a system of exploitation grounded on class relations. 
 

 

 

Corporate management and the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

 

Written by: (Contributed) on 14 November 2023

A recent study of the views of Australians toward the economy has produced some interesting insights; a substantial section of the electorate has serious concerns about corporate management.

The corporate sector has also taken notice of the problem: their cronies and associates deeply penetrate government departments in Canberra and provincial cities, international financial institutions and other influential organisations. Little escapes their notice although whether they admit it is another matter; problems of liability merge with political expedience and the hidden identities of their trusted informants.

It has been noteworthy, therefore, how the corporate sector has chosen to deal with the problem, who selected the Australian delegation for the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London, and the political line they appear to be formulating for future agendas.

The recent SEC Newgate Mood of the Nation survey of more than 1,600 Australians has revealed nearly half thought the corporate sector was not behaving in an ethical manner: key points included excessive profits, unjustified price increases, tax avoidance, political interference, stagnant wages in relation to executive pay, and the general treatment of employees. (1)

Australia, like most of the world economy, was swept along by the tide of US-led globalisation implemented through international financial institutions; after four decades of economic rationalism marked by deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation, however, ordinary Australians have received little benefit. It remains particularly revealing, therefore, to note only twenty per cent of the sample agreed with corporate sector ethics. (2)

The fact many of the richest people in Australia, and globally, pay little or no income tax on their immense wealth remains a serious matter of contention. (3)

In fact, a total of 63 per cent of the sample thought Australia was heading in the wrong direction and, 'are increasingly uneasy about the long-term prospects for the economy'. (4)
The bigger picture, likewise, is not rosy; economic rationalism has not created a vibrant economic environment.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook, published last month, upgraded Australia's growth, but only from 1.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent; the figures reveal a mediocre level of sustainable economic development. (5) The report noted global growth was again slowing from 3.5 per cent last year, to a projected 3.0 per cent for 2023, with an even slower level of 2.9 per cent for next year. (6) So much for the dynamics of globalisation.
  
The corporate sector, however, is not oblivious to the economic quagmire they are largely responsible for creating.

As a means of consciously distancing themselves from traditional US-led international financial institutions they have recently established the ARC which held its first major international forum in London last month. A total of 1,500 delegates paid a conference fee of $2870 to attend a talk-fest amongst former political and economic leaders and those who have been groomed to revamp the flagging fortunes of the corporate sector. (7) The extensive use of flowery language, carefully fine-toned to create an image of something new and fashionable, included the view that 'Davos man became a caricature of itself, almost the platonic ideal of elites out of touch with ordinary people and common sense'. (8) This refers to the notion of 'Davos man' being the symbol of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The ARC sales and marketing personnel would appear to have been working alongside specialists in psychological warfare techniques to create a viable alternative to existing bodies such as the WEF and other international financial institutions.

When studied closely, however, the ARC is not different but a continuation of the same political and economic traditions of right and far-right positions; it merely marks an attempt at re-packaging traditional conservative positions, making the way for a takeover by right and far-right forces, if, and when, required. In fact, it is not surprising to note the ARC would appear to have direct lineage to earlier, largely US-based, political front organisations including Western Goals, the American Security Council and the Conservative Caucus which were major players during the previous Cold War. (9) They are now being revamped for the present Cold War.

The Australian link in the elite ARC patronage system chose a motley crew to steer the country into higher levels of capitalist exploitation which appear more in line with far-right positions than the supposedly democratic ideals usually associated with Canberra and other provincial cities; the delegation carried some considerable and curious baggage, to say the very least.

Three former Australian right-wing prime ministers attended the London ARC conference: John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison, together with Dominic Perrottet, former premier of NSW, and the First Nations quisling who almost single-handedly brought about the defeat of the Voice Referendum, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. They enjoyed a wave of favourable publicity in the mainstream media. (10)  

All, however, was not what it seemed at face value.

John Howard, for example, has held a long-time involvement with the notorious World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and its renamed counterpart, the World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD), although has always presented himself as a political figure of the centre. (11) He attended their 22nd annual conference in Brisbane in August, 1989, which was composed of 120 delegates representing fifty countries. (12)

Political expedience and downright duplicity merge; studies of the WACL/WLFD conducted by interviewing former members and their associates have revealed it is, 'largely a collection of Nazis, fascists, anti-semites, sellers of forgeries, vicious racialists, and corrupt self-seekers … the very existence of this organisation is a total disgrace … and it is a … collection of fringe ultra-rightists, religious nuts, aging ex-Nazis, emigres and cranks'. (13)

It is important to note those hosting the Brisbane conference were not only able to invite WACL delegates from such backgrounds but to also enable their safe passage through stringent Australian border controls without difficulty and without too many questions being asked about sponsoring organisations and their political affiliations. Grey flannelled dwarves in the corridors of power obviously served their purpose as Mr and Mrs Fixit.

Tony Abbott, likewise, has a long history of nasty right-wing politics and was mentored by Bob Santamaria, founder of the notorious National Civic Council (NCC). (14) The NCC was, and remains, committed to a political strategy of establishing front organisations which spew anti-communist positions and socially conservative Catholic bigotry in line with 1930s clerico-fascism. (15)  

Scott Morrison would also fit comfortable into the mould of religious bigotry, holding right- wing evangelical positions which were subsequently pushed into the political arena. His tenure as prime minister was continually marked by highly questionable behaviour, which at times, bordered well into the illegal 'grey' areas of constitutional irregularities together with the notorious and illegal Robo-debt scandal. Morrison, nevertheless, remains a man in denial behind a smug grin.

Last year Morrison also joined the board of the International Democrat Union (IDU), which has been described as being aligned with 'the intolerant far-right'. (16) The stated position of the IDU was openly flouted by Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who in 2020, addressed an audience which included Tony Abbott with praise for Australia due to its 'brave, direct and Anglo-Saxon constituency which it has shown on migration'. (17)  

The fact that John Howard held the position of IDU chairman from 2004-14, is evidence of his far-right position. (18) His period of tenure was marked by disturbing trends of openly resisting asylum-seekers, which appeared blatantly racist and Islamo-phobic in nature. Howard, even to the present time, has openly admitted he has 'always had trouble with the concept of multi-culturalism', despite the fact contemporary Australia is a truly multi-cultural and multi-racial society of a vast number of different cultural and racial types. For him, the Anglo-Saxon European world in which he resides, takes precedence over the rest.  

Jacinta Price has embraced this world, telling the Conference that she rejected “our most marginalised being told they are victims of their racial heritage, of our country’s history, because of colonisation…”. Instead, she said, as individuals “we all have agency”, implying that if someone is marginalised and disenfranchised it was because they had failed to use their “agency” successfully. Referring to the right-wingers and racists who had backed her campaign, she said its success “has emboldened every day Australians”. (19)

And, finally, there is the case of Dominic Perrottet; while being carefully groomed as a 'party animal', it eventually emerged he had the disposition of liking to get 'dressed up', including wearing Hitler's uniforms. When challenged about his strong identification with German fascism he dismissed it on the basis, 'he had nothing to disclose that could embarrass the Liberal Party'. (20) The NSW Liberal Party, historically, it should be noted, has come under considerable scrutiny on a number of occasions for harbouring far-right figures masquerading as loyal party members. (21)
 
Perrottet has been particularly noted as remaining close to John Howard and the product of a family background with strong allegiance to the reactionary Catholic Opus Dei sect; all sexual activity is for procreation only, with sublimation including flagellation. (22) The norms lend themselves to a closet lifestyle based on secrecy to avoid open identification and ridicule.  

In conclusion, the corporate sector appears to be pushing the ARC agenda as a means of strengthening their class and state power to enable higher levels of exploitation of the working class; the Australian contingent, however, have chosen some highly questionable leaders! Others, associated with the Australian ARC link, have yet to be identified; for reasons perhaps best known to themselves. They appear to have no wish to openly identify themselves as being associated with the ARC.

A noted strategy used by the right and far-right, however, has always taken the form of the 'use of double agents and sleepers by the conservatives – people who join the Liberals, claim to have moderate views and become friends with the moderates, while secretly working for the right and taking over their branches'. (23)

1.     Voter rage against corporate profits, Australian, 7 November 2023.
2.     Ibid.
3.     See: Alan Kohler – Make billionaires and multinationals pay more tax? The New Daily, 25 October 2023; and, Survival of the Richest, Oxfam publication, 2020.
4.     Voter rage, Australian, op.cit., 7 November 2023.
5.     Global economy still limping along: IMF., Australian, 11 October 2023.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Meeting of minds for a better future, The Weekend Australian, 28-29 October 2023.
8.     Ibid.
9.     See: Inside the League, Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, (New York, 1986), pp. 155-61.
10.   Meeting of minds, Weekend Australian, op.cit., 28-29 October 2023; and, Howard's way 'leads to harmony', Australian, 3 November 2023.
11.   See: Howard's way, Australian, ibid., 3 November 2023.
12.   Website: WACL., 9 January 1990.
13.   Inside the League, Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, op.cit., page 88.
14.   See: Crusader who gave lift-off to a PM., The Weekend Australian, 1-2 August 2015.
15.   Ibid; and, John Maynes and the National Civic Council, Chapter 12, The CIA's Australian Connection, Denis Freney, (Sydney, 1977), pp. 59-67; and, B.A. Santamaria, Your most obedient servant, selected letters: 1938-96, Edited, Patrick Morgan, (Victoria, 2007), pp.185-86; and, Catholic spies in ASIO's network, Australian, 11 August 2017.
16. Scott Morrison signs on with global political network home to 'intolerant far right', The New Daily, 14 September 2022.
17.   Ibid.
18.   Ibid.
19.   See:  Jacinta Price
20.  Wikipedia: Dominic Perrottet.
21.   See: A right wing and a prayer, The Weekend Sydney Morning Herald, 10-11 September 2005; and, Putsch to extremes, The Weekend Australian, 17-18 September 2005; and, Ardent Nazi took Liberal to extremes, Obituary: Lyenko Urbanchich (1922-2006), The Weekend Sydney Morning Herald, 4-5 March 2006; and, A man and his dogma, The Weekend Australian, 14-15 April 2007.
22.   Wikipedia: Dominic Perrottet.
23.   Party animals, The Weekend Sydney Morning Herald, 1-2 July 2006.

 

Albanese’s visit to China – a different China from the one Whitlam visited in 1973

 

Written by: Ned K. on 11 November 2023

 Recently Prime Minister Albanese visited China and met with the Chinese Communist Party's leader Xi Jinping. Albanese and his government know they have a problem. Their political and military allegiance is with US imperialism and this has deepened through its commitment to AUKUS, nuclear submarines and an expansion of US military bases of one form or another in Australia. US imperialism's main target is China. The problem for Albanese and his government is that China also remains Australia's major trading partner and is likely to remain so for many years to come. 

Albanese came away from his visit to China all smiles in the hope that China's tariffs on Australian products will be lifted. He also trotted out the same mantra of previous Prime Ministers about their concern about "human rights" violations in China, a few days after China would have noted that Australia abstained on the UN vote for an immediate Ceasefire in Gaza!

Albanese's visit to China came 50 years since Prime Minister Whitlam's visit to China in 1973 which was a landmark visit because Australia recognised the People's Republic of China before the US did so. Albanese in his visit was hoping to repair trade relations between the two countries and paint a picture of himself as following in the footsteps of Whitlam as far as relations with China goes.

However, there are some important differences regarding the relationship between Australia and China in 1973 and in 2023 and also the relationship between Australia and the USA.

In 1973 when Whitlam visited China, China was starting to emerge from the Cultural Revolution and was still on the path to building a socialist country with the ruling CCP under the leadership of Mao Zedong. In 1973, Whitlam made murmurs about whether it was in Australia's interests to have the US-owned Pine Gap and other military bases in Australia. The CIA was meddling in Australia's internal affairs and the US embassy in Australia was openly concerned about Whitlam's murmurs.

In 2023 when Albanese visited China, China was no longer on the path to building a socialist country, but challenging US imperialism as the world's number one capitalist economic system "with Chinese characteristics". President Biden of the USA and US imperialism's mouthpiece in the media in Australia, the Murdoch Press, were impressed with Albanese's total commitment to AUKUS and the USA's use of Australia as a military base from which to launch attacks on China when required. 

China in 2023 has expanded economically like previous imperialist powers with a very visible and wealthy capitalist class of private and state-owned corporations and individual company directors. 

Evidence of Chinese capitalist expansion sometimes hits the news headlines such as the Chinese company operating the Port of Darwin, a few hundred kilometres away from large US military bases in Australia! 

There are other forms of Chinese capitalist expansion into Australia that Chairman Mao and Whitlam, when they met in 1973, would never have imagined! An example of this was tucked away in a report in the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday 8 November 2023. The reporting article was headed "Chinese buyers use private jets to swoop in on Toorak mansions".

The report said that a real estate agent in Melbourne, Mr Bragilevsky, "facilitated $135 million of real estate deals in Toorak in the past 6 months and all these buyers were Chinese". One of the buyers from China was Xin Zhang who bought a Toorak mansion for $21.5 million. Another Chinese client, a Mr Jin Du, the chief executive of a clothing manufacturer, bought a mansion on fashionable Whernside Avenue Toorak for $33.5 million. 
Mr Bragilevsky said "the Chinese will pay over the odds for single dwellings. These will serve as the family home with their children attending prestige schools like Scotch College"!

The Albanese government can see that it needs China as a trade partner for its own electoral survival but that it must continue to kow-tow to US imperialism or face the same or similar fate as the Whitlam government - a semi coup orchestrated by USA.

There is an alternative for an Australian government. That is to have trust in the people of Australia to back Australia having an independent foreign policy and removal of all foreign power owned military bases in Australia. 

Bosses still out to undermine Awards in changing workforce

 Written by: (Contributed) on 7 November 2023

While the federal government in Canberra makes minor amendments and deals with opposition to their Closing the Loopholes Bill, some reports emerging about the changing composition of the Australian workforce have not raised concerns from the business-classes.

In fact, the business-classes have remained totally quiet about the massive growth of temporary work visas, which hinder security of longer-term, viable employment and permanent residency leading to citizenship status.

It provides evidence of a business-class agenda marked by attack on basic Award terms and conditions of employment being largely unaccountable, a plan designed to ensure many workers remain employed, indefinitely, on the vulnerable basis at the whim of their employers.

Criticism of the Closing the Loopholes Bill, passing through Canberra, has been the rallying cry of the Australian business-classes. Some of the complaints have been particularly revealing; while casualisation remains a huge problem, the political line of the business-classes is that it remains a matter of choice and the 25 per cent paid over the standard wage is a fair outcome for not having sick leave, annual leave and other entitlements; a position symptomatic of industrial relations conducted on level-playing fields with economic trickle-down wealth rubbish. (1) The business lobby, in conjunction with the Opposition in Canberra, have, nevertheless, launched a multi-million dollar campaign to challenge the legislation.  

It is not particularly difficult to establish why the business-classes remain so agitated about the Bill; an official statement from Canberra, for example, has accused opposition to Labor's proposed legislation as 'being solely motivated by a desire to keep wages low'. (2) Decades of economic rationalism and exploitation of workers has created huge profits which have not 'trickled down', but, to the contrary, enriched the already wealthy and powerful business lobby; they are now, therefore, squealing like stuck pigs, realising their game is up!

For 2.7 million Australian workers employed as casual workers, for example, opposition to the legislation completely overlooks the fact they remain on minimal credit ratings due to no security of employment and, therefore, remain on the economic fringes of mainstream Australian society, subsisting on the day-by-day basis with little opportunity for longer-term financial planning and enhanced outcomes. Mortgages and car loans are a major problem. Many have also been long-term casual workers for years, seemingly, almost forgotten.

Casual workers tend to be difficult for trade unions to recruit and organise, for a variety of reasons. The temporary nature of their employment creates conditions whereby longer-term planning for improved terms and conditions of employment take lower priority over receiving their pay every week. Immigrants arriving in Australia from some countries may also be cautious about joining a union in fear of retaliation from employers; in countries such as the Philippines and India, two large immigrant groups in Australia, trade union activists are often targeted by far-right para-military organisations and killed.  

Official statistics reveal Australia has a total workforce of those aged between 18 and 67 years, of 14,115,100; a participation rate of about 66 per cent, however, leaves only 9,428,886 million. (3) In reality the true figure is likely to be far lower, with those of working age not officially registered as unemployed or elsewhere. When comparing the small size of the Australian workforce with the estimated $3.3 billion Super theft by employers each year, it is not difficult, however, to establish what the business-classes regard as ethical best practice. (4)  

When broken down into component parts, the Australian workforce would also appear to have changed in composition in recent years. While the country has always been dependent upon immigration for a reliable workforce, in recent years there has been a dramatic increase in temporary work visas. The latest official statistics reveal nearly 2.3 million workers live in Australia without permanent residency. (5)

Many of those residing in Australia on temporary work visas also never access permanent residency for a variety of reasons: better prospects elsewhere, high rents, problems with employers, bureaucracy. In fact, during the past financial year, for example, those on temporary work visas rose 424,000, 'more than twice the number of enduring settlers'. (6)

The Australian economy has also been noted as stagnating during the three months to June, with at least one in eight mortgage-holders now, 'unable to make ends meet … and … Australians may have been working harder and longer to maintain a reasonable standard of living as the cost of living soared'. (7) Those casually employed, together with those on temporary visas, must find living in Australia, at the present time, financially very difficult.

It is also significant to note a substantial proportion of those on temporary visas do not necessarily enter the Australian workforce as skilled workers, revealing shortages of labour in those areas of unskilled and semi-skilled employment. In fact, in the 2020-21 year, when the permanent program accepted 160,000 new immigrant workers, only half were in the skilled sector; later in the 2022-23 year, only 73 per cent were skilled. (8) Unskilled and semi-skilled workers are usually paid basic Award rates of pay or slightly above on workplace agreements, while skilled workers and trades-people receive far more.

The early experiences of immigrant workers in Australia often include rampant wage theft, as they are not aware of their rights and the obligations of employers. (9) A recent study conducted by Unions NSW and the Migrant Workers Centre found more than one-fifth of immigrant workers were paid less than other workers for the same job and 19 per cent 'lost an opportunity for promotion at work because of their visa status'. (10) So much for a fair go. A similar study conducted by the ACTU in May also established the hourly pay rate between casual workers and those permanently employed had risen to 28 per cent; casual workers earned $11.59 less an hour than their permanent work colleagues. (11)

When added together, 2.7 million casual workers and 2.3 million workers on temporary visas comprise a substantial proportion of the Australian work-force, although there may be some overlap. The former, however, have been targeted by the business-classes for special attention, to undermine government planning for permanent employment provision and increased wage rates, whilst the latter have been subject to silence as they are being systematically used to undermine Award wage rates, and terms and conditions of employment.

The problem, nevertheless, has already been highlighted by a top bureaucrat in Canberra, Martin Parkinson, who detailed how, 'what we've done without ever setting out to do it … is we've created a guest worker program with a permanent underclass of people who are temporary migrants … they have no pathways to permanency, they have no idea what their status is, but we also don't force them to leave'. (12) So there!

The silence of the business-classes over the matter is, therefore, revealing!

They have 2.3 million workers who live in fear of losing their employment as they are not entitled to welfare benefits and, therefore, remain in Australia for their livelihoods at the whim of their employers. The master-and-servant type relationship has been pushed by employers to undermine basic Award terms and conditions of employment and standard industrial relations. Those on the receiving end of this standard business practice continue to suffer, in silence. It is a total disgrace!

What is urgently required is for more stringent policing of the powers of the business classes
by trade union delegates and officials, by allowing open access to financial records and incriminating information, and for the judiciary to then act in the appropriate manner and secure criminal convictions!

1.     See: Casuals still in danger under Labor's blue-print. Australian, 2 November 2023; and, Survival of the richest, Oxfam publication, 2020.
2.     Pub giant toasts changes for casual workers, The Weekend Australian, 4-5 November 2023.
3.     Labour Force, Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 19 October 2023.
4.     Pub giant, Weekend Australian, op.cit., 4-5 November 2023.
5.     See: Migration reboot to target skilled talent, Australian, 30 October 2023.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Flat-out working but going nowhere, Australian, 11 October 2023.
8.     Migration reboot, Australian, op.cit., 30 October 2023.
9.     See: New migrants the key victims of wage theft, Australian, 24 May 2023.
10.   Pay rorts rife for migrant workers, Australian, 22 June 2023.
11.   Casual pay gaps at record levels, Australian, 23 May 2023.
12.   Migration reboot, Australian, op.cit., 30 October 2023.

 

For a United Front against Fossil Fuels and Feral Species

(Above: Original image Queensland Fire and Emergency Services facebook)

 Written by: Alan Jackson on 3 November 2023

This week, dozens of fires have burned across Queensland. More homes have burned in the state than during the 2019–2020 Black Summer – 57 so far this year, compared to 49. 

The current fires are peculiar compared to previously because the fires aren’t being slowed in any capacity by nighttime which usually brings lower temperatures and more moisture in the air. Queensland South-East and western downs regions are seeing more than five times more nighttime hotspots than average. (1) This is not an isolated issue and corresponds to similar cases in Canada, Spain, Greece and many other countries. Strongly permeated by ongoing climate change due to capitalism’s inherent infinite expansion of a finite planet and gutting of safer more pricey alternatives for cheaper and dangerous alternatives that destroy the environment.

Adding petroleum so to speak to this already heated situations is a key ingredient in Hawaii’s deadly Maui fires — unmanaged invasive grasses, like the highly inflammable buffel grass — is also spreading throughout vast areas of Australia, prompting a warning about the increased risk to people, houses and biodiversity on this side of the globe. 

Buffel grass expansion is growing further south at an accelerated rate and has the ability to grow in 60-70% of Australia, particularly in dry and arid climates which are so very common place in Australia. Buffel grass is also tough to manage with the labour required being intensive and expensive due to buffel grass’s widespread distribution often in remote areas. (2) Almost 50% of the Tjoritija/MacDonnell national park west of Alice Springs has been burnt since the start of 2023 with Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife senior director Chris Day stating “if we only had native grass in the landscape we would find these fires much less intensive”. (3)  To date, an area twice the size of Tasmania has been burnt in the NT.

Not only is the damage from the expansion of buffel grass ecological due to the fires it permeates but it is also cultural effecting Fist Nations people directly through its destruction of native plant biodiversity that is so important to their daily lives. 

Buffel grass is one of the worst invaders of arid ecosystems worldwide. Across Central Australia, buffel grass was deliberately planted at scale since the 1950's by the NT Government, CSIRO and pastoralists as a feed for cattle and as a dust suppressant for degraded lands (usually due to overstocking). Buffel grass outcompetes native wildlife and is considered a transformer weed due to its ability to change habitat and is greatly impacting First People’s culture and connection to country. For many years Aboriginal leaders from affected areas have been speaking out and demanding action to mitigate the buffel grass threat. Buffel is still not considered a weed in the Northern Territory despite it being declared so in South Australia in 2015. Buffel affects the viability of bush foods, bush medicines and plant materials to be harvested, in addition to altering hunting practices. Culturally significant animal and plant species are to also be impacted. (4)

The reason that Buffel grass and climate change have been allowed to gut Australia’s climate and habitat is due to monopoly capitalism and its failure to shut down fossil fuel industries allowing global warming to permeate. Inherently connected to capitalism’s insatiable drive for profit is the pastoral industry’s profit-before-environment over-grazing and denuding of country, followed by introduction of invasive species like cane toads, and grasses such as buffel grass and the failure of the governments and pastoralists to manage crops that aren’t native to our country. 

These fires and the ecological destruction of the country cannot be stopped unless capitalism is dismantled. A system predicated on infinite expansion of a finite planet cannot fix our ecological disasters and societal ills. Socialism is a necessity. In the meantime, a United front of the First Nations people, small and medium-sized farmers, regional townsfolk and the urban working classes must be agitated, organised, mobilised and unleashed in mass united struggle against buffel grass, global warming and unhealthy environmental practices that continue to destroy Australia’s environment and First Nations peoples’ daily life necessities. 

I write this on the traditional land of the Butchulla people and recognise the abhorrent appropriation that led to my fortunate dwelling here.

 

Strength In Diversity - The Australian Working Class

 

(Above: Victorian dairy workers, members of the United Workers Union display unity in strike action in October)

Written by: Ned K. on 3 November 2023

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has recently released its Population By Country Of Birth Report for 2022. The Report recorded that the overseas-born people in Australia represented 29.5% of the total population. 

According to the Report, by international standards, Australia has a high proportion of overseas-born people. The USA has 15.3%, Canada has 21.3 % and France has 13.!%.

The USA figure may be much higher if undocumented migrant workers, arguably the backbone of the US economy are included.

Although people born in England are still the largest migrant group at 961,000, the number of migrants born in England is steadily declining. The number of migrants born in developing countries continues to increase. Indian-Australians born overseas number 750,000, with large numbers of people born in China, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Nepal also looking to build their lives in Australia. The total number of overseas-born people in Australia is 7.7 million out of a total population of about 26 million.

There are overseas-born migrants in smaller numbers from many other developing countries from Asia, Africa and South America.

Most of the new migrants have to work for a living and make up a significant portion of the working class. They come from different cultures and have experienced different economic and political lives in their countries of birth. 

For generations since British colonial invasion of this continent, the ruling class has hoped new migrants and First Nations People turned out as a good source of cheap labour for the needs of capitalism's industries. 

In the age of the internet and now Artificial Intelligence, the nature of work is constantly changing but the ruling class still needs workers to create surplus value from which profits are derived.

New migrant workers are awake up to this and participate in collective action with other workers in pursuit of common goals as cost of living continues to rise. Sometimes they participate in workers struggles despite their visa status and threats from some employers of dobbing them to Immigration Department authorities for working when their visa has expired or is awaiting extension.

Many new migrants from developing countries in particular were ineligible to vote on the Voice Referendum but empathize with First Nations people because of their own experiences in their country of origin. 

This empathy with First Nations people's struggles and the experiences in their countries of origin strengthens the working class as a whole.

This in stark contrast to the ruling class and their press barons like the Murdoch group who look for every opportunity to weaken and divide the working class.
 

 

Support for Albanese, Wong and Marles declines, even within their own ranks

 

Written by: Ned K. on 3 November 2023

Within the governing Labor Party parliamentarians there are a range of views regarding the Palestinians struggle against Zionist state of Israel and its imperialist backers, led by the USA. 

Some in the ALP government such as Tony Bourke are more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and are also worried about an election voter backlash in his western Sydney electorate. Others like Sue Lines from WA are strong supporters of the Palestinians.

However, the decisive leadership of the ALP Government in Albanese, Defence Minister Marles and Foreign Minister Wong are firmly in the Zionist/US imperialist camp.

They were quick to condemn Hamas when it attacked Israeli forces and settlements in occupied Palestinian land north of the Gaza open air prison and quick to join the USA in branding them as a "terrorists".  Albanese and Wong in particular had some support from the Australian people when they attacked Hamas over reports of killing civilans.

However their support from the Australian people started to go downhill from there. 

As the Zionist Israeli regime launched its devasting military arsenal on the people of Gaza and to a lesser extent in the West Bank, Albanes, Marles and Wong pushed the US imperialist line that Israel had the right to defend itself against Hamas. 

They repeated ad nauseam that Hamas was a "terrorist" organization, conveniently omitting that Hamas was actually an elected government of Gaza which even former US President Jimmy Carter said was a fact. 

Their justification for condemning Hamas was the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas. 

The Israeli military's response in killing thousands of Palestinian civilians including children in Gaza has not been met by cries of Israeli Government "terrorism"  by Albanese, Marles and Wong. They still push the line of the Israeli Government and US imperialism that Israel has the "right to defend itself"! 

As the situation in Gaza worsens for the people, many rank-and-file people within the ALP and trade unions in particular can see that the struggle in Gaza is one of an oppressed, poorly armed Palestinian indigenous people and an Israeli military force armed with the most advanced weapons and financial backing of the USA. 

The other day, one young ALP member said in a lunchtime conversation that it was time to "call them out" (ie Albanese, Marles and Wong) regarding their " disgraceful" lack of support for the Palestinians.

Another young ALP member said that she thought Israel wanted to flatten the northern part of Gaza and everything in it and expand Israeli settlements into more Palestinian land!

In response, another ALP member said, "And the rest. Israel intends flattening the whole of Gaza and getting rid of all the Palestinians"

These young people were hopeful that with "Left" faction leaders Albanese and Wong in key positions of Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, there would be progressive change especially on foreign policy. First, they were served up with AUKUS and nuclear submarines and now with Australian Government support for the Zionist regime of Israel!
Albanese, Marles and Wong then would have heard the views of Sydney's western suburbs people of the Islamic faith saying they would never vote ALP again after the Sydney Opera House was lit up in Israeli colours of blue and white.

To top off their commitment to the Zionist regime and the USA the Australian Government could not bring itself to support the UN Resolution for a Cease Fire in Gaza. 

Then Albanese, Wong and Marles must have had a light bulb moment, but with a pretty dimly lit globe. 

They started saying that Israel should continue its aggressive military push into Gaza to "defend itself against Hamas" but kill less civilians in the process. 

They could still not bring themselves to say Cease Fire Now!