tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post6150570676686601751..comments2024-02-07T19:30:21.880+11:00Comments on Left Focus: Unions and Labor: is Dean Mighell right?Vaughann722http://www.blogger.com/profile/11604027151490275320noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-40640277075842540692010-03-21T16:11:21.986+11:002010-03-21T16:11:21.986+11:00AJFA,
The insulation scheme should have had more ...AJFA,<br /><br />The insulation scheme should have had more rigorous safeguards - including re: accreditation of those responsible for instalation. But this in itself does not refute the need for stimulus: and the idea to promote at once a boost to the economy, and progress for environmental sustainability at the same time. I dare say there are always some 'shonky operators' who escape through the cracks... I'd be interested in seeing what safeguards there were before the implementation of the insulation program.... That way we could more clearly discern what else Labor could realistically have done...<br /><br />re: Education infrastructure - It appears also that opportunists have 'slipped through the cracks' to exploit spending programs.. But I very much think this has been blown out of proportion... Perhaps a greater proportion of funding should have gone to schools who were more clearly in need... More rigour would have been good here... But the aim was to provide stimulus - and quickly!! Thus errors have been made... But to have a couple of errors here - alongside the boost to employment and confidence that accompanied this... I still belief the infrastructure expediture programs were effective and justified...Tristan Ewinsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-21176953752464066372010-03-21T09:22:44.325+11:002010-03-21T09:22:44.325+11:00AJFA is obviously keen to avoid principles and tru...AJFA is obviously keen to avoid principles and truth, except perhaps by unfortunate accident. The home insulation scheme was implemented by the profit-seeking sector, not by government. Garrett was repeatedly warned of the problems, but thought that he could use spin and denial to avoid doing his job.<br /><br />Before all these things were flogged-off. they were often done by government, and were better for it. Main Roads crews built better and cheaper roads than profit-seeking contractors. Breaking up the government-owned Western Power into five bits according to the current economic ideology increased costs and reduced reliability.<br /><br />AJFA’s enthusiasm for smear is matched only by AJFA’s desire to misrepresent the article to the readers of this column – it was the union-dominated workforce that received the higher site allowances. Unions didn’t and don’t get any commission. Not only was there an arguable case for the claim, but also the Victorian Building Industry Disputes Panel accepted them. <br /><br />Given the viciousness of the ABCC, and the dishonesty of too many profit-seeking insulation contractors, a Master Builder’s Association is not the most impressive advocate for justice, integrity, and workmanship.Rrogrnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-35916650955369410762010-03-20T13:38:39.023+11:002010-03-20T13:38:39.023+11:00Yet more rorts, this time with trade unions having...Yet more rorts, this time with trade unions having their snouts in the trough: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/unions-grab-80m-slice-of-school-building-funds/story-e6frgczf-1225843032795AJFAhttp://www.theaustralian.news.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-17711631616488686282010-03-19T10:05:45.449+11:002010-03-19T10:05:45.449+11:00Dear Tristan,
First there was the home insulation...Dear Tristan,<br /><br />First there was the home insulation scheme, which was a waste of money and caused 4 deaths and nearly 90 house fires.<br /><br />Now the 'education revolution' is shown to be replete with rorts also: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/schools-watch/school-building-revolution-being-rorted/story-fn56ulhe-1225842573296 <br /><br />Perhaps its time that you considered that government might be the problem, rather than the solution comrade.AJFAhttp://www.theaustralian.news.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-49660176506172774902010-03-15T09:56:31.493+11:002010-03-15T09:56:31.493+11:00A leftist political culture is one thing that we c...A leftist political culture is one thing that we can build, once we are aware of what it should be – and also what it should not be. <br /><br />Contemporary trade unions are typically ideologically empty fragments the main role of which is to provide a base for political advancement for Hard Labor apparatchiki. As in Lenin’s time, but for more understandable reasons, working people do not consider themselves to be “working” in the class sense. It follows that a truly socialist party cannot realistically expect mainstream working class or “workers” party support here. <br /><br />No survey of the motley collections of leftist fragments amongst non-mainstream political groups looks any better. <br /><br />All clearly lack the “meaningful strategy of the left that has the potential to change radically the organisational and political face of anti-capitalist politics and struggle “referred to by Dale McKinley in “The crisis of the left in contemporary South Africa”. Such ideas as they have are usually irrelevant, useless, or obviously self-promotional. Better, it allows them to self-promote and self-aggrandise without the need to be in the least effective.<br /><br />Worse, there are groups like the Healyites or the Etomerites and suchlike hypocrites and class traitors that might seek to delude others that they’re “leftist”. <br /><br />Rather than the debates on which leftist group is biggest and which is least bad, individual leftists should combine an insistence on high standards with a willingness to move away from ineffective groups to those that do seem to know what they are doing. Once that becomes the practice, the groups and individuals that are non-performers and under-performers will soon become obvious. Obviously they will ferociously oppose such a culture.<br /><br />Many on the left seem to see a "Fifth International" (a misleading term, since it is not even intended to be the successor to the Fourth) as a sort of ideological and psychological saviour of organisations and causes that have lost their way. But such an event can't possibly do that. But, whether it became a tragedy, a comedy, or a farce, it would be a good laugh. Goodness knows we could do with some entertainment.<br /><br />Indeed, history provides a strong argument that progressive socialist groups should focus more on a culture that supports and mutually reinforces progressive policies. Without the former, we would seem unlikely to have the latter.<br /><br />Marxism has essentially been abandoned. That is, however, a formality, since the intellectual rigour of dialectic materialism has long gone.<br /><br />So, to put it briefly, the left has completely lost its way. That can really only be resolved by being honest that such has occurred, then by groups of like-minded people who recognise the importance of historical perspective, sound and sturdy philosophy, discipline, coordination, genuine commitment, and honest leadership together building organisations to work towards making the world a better place. <br /><br />So a big problem is internal – a culture that promotes self-promotion far above competence or achievement. That, we can do something about.Roger Ravennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-80480707360442719402010-03-08T12:34:21.899+11:002010-03-08T12:34:21.899+11:00A couple of quickpoints
While the problem to whic...A couple of quickpoints<br /><br />While the problem to which Mighell points is real, there really is no way around it within the current structure. Ultimately, what anyone wants to do to acheive politcal power is to assemble a sufficiently coherent and disciplined constituency to make it there. Since no single consitutency is large enough on its own to do this every ruling group is a coalition of distinct and overlapping interests. Any coalition large enough to achieve office and stay there long enough to implement policy will necessarily be one in which the sine qua non members hate the alternatives to the coalition they are in more than the inevitable compromises that come with staying unified. <br /><br />One may argue that the ruling group in one's coalition is giving too much ground to those outside the coaltion -- this occurred in December last year over the ETS within the conservative coalition -- and now here with Mighell, but unless one's proposal can secure a new and adequately large coalition to effect a new policy, then one has little alternative but to attempt to correct the course of the coaltion one is in. <br /><br />The fact of the matter is that organised labour is not able to play off the two sides because the rival coalition knows that it would shatter if it gave the kind of accommodation to the labour movement that the ALP is unwilling to yield -- and nowhere near enough electoral compensation for them would follow because whatver leftists think of the ALP, hardly any of us will ever preference the coalition.<br /><br />So in practice the unions and their allies are hostage voters. We can withdraw our support and threaten to damage the ALP's fortunes, but electoral enfeeblement of the ALP tends to make them want voters to their right rather than their left, because going the other way opens up much larger non-captive constituencies in the "middle". <br /><br />The ALP knows that the left and the labour movement know this and so their threats to disaffiliate/withdraw support are moot. Of course, a move on the part of the labour movement to ally with the Greens would be a lot more worrying for the ALP, because conceivably, at least part of the labour movement could live better with them, but it is doubtful if this would change the basic dynamic. You'd get more "product differentiation" but again, a winning coalition is going to rely on the ALP getting enough rightwing voters to get the coalition of ALP-Greens over the line. We might feel better, but would the policy on labour issues be greatly better? Probably not, and for the same reasons. If the ALP-Greens looks like a rabble, then the rightwing and mainstream voters drift away.<br /><br />As I've said previously on this blog, I think the answer lies in new forms of representational politics -- inclusive governance. As long as we get two basically solid blocs we are going to have this problem. What we need is a far more nuanced and fluid form of governance in which there are no permanent targets for populist posturing and in which the focus is policy driven.Franhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00934312179608056908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-54678695635301386532010-03-05T00:55:00.243+11:002010-03-05T00:55:00.243+11:00Dean is of course far from the first person to cri...Dean is of course far from the first person to criticise the political incestuousness, corruption, and nepotism of Labor and its associated unions, though he is one of the latest.<br /><br />Unfortunately, many nominally progressive organisations, not just those nominally leftist, or unions, in fact look to ensuring a comfortable life for their senior management rather than carry out any serious advocacy for whatever cause they represent. They are happy to go through the motions, walk the walk, and talk the talk, as long as it doesn’t make any waves or rock any boats.<br /><br />As a whole, the social NGO sector is noted for useless meetings, useless conferences, with leftover time spent on typically useless submissions. For instance, despite the enormous stresses on tenants created by housing unaffordability, and the systematic dishonesty of the private housing sector, the WA Tenants Advisory Service has not issued a single paper or press release in three years, or undertaken any political activity that I am aware of. <br /><br />Such arteriosclerosis has become notable in the case of Hard Labor and its associated unions. Union and ACTU staff and secretaries who put all their members’ eggs into the ALP basket will be rewarded with a senior union position, then a safe Labor seat.<br /><br />Those unions, many Labor supporters as well as members, and those many nominally progressive organisations, will all attack any critic far more fiercely than they will attack any attack on working people or changes that damage the interest of ordinary people. Such criticism, after all, directly threatens to expose their self-service and their inaction.<br /><br />After all, a leader’s successful abuse of his position to expel a member for no better reason than conflict with the leader’s narrow standards is itself a mark of a deeply corrupt organisation.<br /><br />In that context, the ACTU is more properly seen as an active and informed collaborator in Labor’s long-standing disregard of the interests of labour. <br /><br />That collective opposition to criticism, and to progressive change, provides a powerful and very serious barrier to dealing with many pressing issues. It receives far too little attention. <br /><br />Prices and Incomes Accords MkI to MkVIII were all about two things: firstly, getting Labor re-elected by diverting worker’s future income to business, secondly, stopping strikes (or helping bosses break those which occurred). Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBAs) were first introduced by Accord Mark VII (1991). They became central in Accord Mark VIII (1993). In fairness, they were forced on unions by Bill Hayden.<br /><br />In the 1980s centralised wage fixing under the Accord enabled a marked decline in both unemployment and inflation and laid the basis for the very low levels of inflation in the early 1990s. When nothing more could be squeezed from workers through that mechanism, EBAs became the focus, allowing the removal of centralised constraints (e.g. involving the marginalisation of awards).<br /><br />Stopping strikes appears to have been an aim at least in part because left-dominated unions used them for political purposes as well as economic ones. But while all things can be misused, strikes are a legitimate means of achieving industrial and social justice. <br /><br />It may be that EBAs allowed a much looser monetary policy, thereby facilitating higher rates of economic growth. It seems that relatively low interests rates in the 1990s were capitalized into higher house prices, which naturally means an apparent increase in national wealth. That has since meant exponentially increasing household debt.Rrogrnoreply@blogger.com