tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post6728909862226083263..comments2024-02-07T19:30:21.880+11:00Comments on Left Focus: Election Fiction versus Political RealityVaughann722http://www.blogger.com/profile/11604027151490275320noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-475953325873611462010-08-09T20:47:44.513+10:002010-08-09T20:47:44.513+10:00Thanks for sharing about the Australian politics. ...Thanks for sharing about the Australian politics. This was very great detailed news to read. thanks for the informative post. Keep it up the good work.<br /><br /><a href="http://currentaffairstv.com" rel="nofollow">labour</a>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14936493984208409915noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-92088376311722559632010-08-06T12:01:05.766+10:002010-08-06T12:01:05.766+10:00Justin's article has also appeared at On Line ...Justin's article has also appeared at On Line Opinion today - so those of you who have been reading and commenting here - are welcome to do so there too!!<br /><br />see: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10780&page=0Vaughann722https://www.blogger.com/profile/11604027151490275320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-43742115003560402102010-08-05T23:29:52.724+10:002010-08-05T23:29:52.724+10:00Without wishing to spend much time on the SEARCH F...Without wishing to spend much time on the SEARCH Foundation – an organisation virtually none of us have ever heard of outside this discussion group – one of the few relevant lessons of leftist activity that we can actually apply locally is that people and organisations should be rewarded for performance, not for posturing. People can “network” over cups of tea, or at parties, without being paid for it. <br /><br />There are a lot of important issues that receive no attention, because every group wants to be identified with the popular issues. SEARCH's recent Ecological Socialism essay, for instance, appeared to be a threadbare but verbose filling around a scaffolding of today's populist adjectives - 'democratic', 'ecological', etc. Indeed, an academic would probably join me in classing it as being of an unacceptably low standard. <br /><br />A small sample of issues desperately needing a promoter:<br />• Grossly imbalanced urban versus regional development<br />• Preparing for peak oil, peak water, peak commodities, and peak food.<br />• A practicable development scheme for the littoral states, and indigenous communities.<br />• Re-establishing government business enterprises in strategic sectors.<br />• Greatly reducing the inbuilt obsolescence and avoidable waste in goods and services.<br /><br />Certainly we ourselves need to insist on higher standards. Notwithstanding that plenty of people regard politics as an entertainment, many do seek meaning and leadership. But to attract them, the left needs to overcome its own mediocrity. That, not focussing on overseas situations of very limited relevance, is one of our big challenges.Roger Ravennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-16296689706415620042010-08-03T17:08:02.943+10:002010-08-03T17:08:02.943+10:00Roger; what you say re: democracy - it depends on ...Roger; what you say re: democracy - it depends on the extent and nature of that democracy. <br /><br />Obviously a democracy where mining bosses have a $200 million warchest to spread fear and disinformation doesn't have bosses and ordinary people on the same level... And then even in the ALP Left many of us have internalised issues such as capital mobility/threat of capital flight - and don't openly draw the radical conclusions about how this compromises the very liberal democracy we're engaging in.<br /><br />Re: What you said about the SEARCH Foundation; I think SEARCH continues to do good work; maintaining the old CPA networks; holding the Left Renewal Conference; providing grants, scholarships etc. <br /><br />But I would like to see a more aggressive recruitment effort. The recent Ecological Socialism essay was a step in the right direction, and shows there's still radical substance in SEARCH. <br /><br />Personally I would like to see a socialist party following in the tradition of the old (anti-Stalinist) CPA, but drawing tough conclusions re: very important issues - such as whether communism as imagined by Marx is really possible. And also bringing together those diverse tendencies on the Left into co-operation and exchange: but at least with a commitment to forms of economic democracy, liberty, a strong redistributive state ensuring social justice, at least some form of democratic mixed economy...<br /><br />I'm committed to working in the ALP myself; and one of the benefits of SEARCH is that SEARCH can maintain its networks; but individual members can intervene in a wide variety of forums. But I would like to see SEARCH take a more overt and interventionist stance...Tristan Ewinsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-30466358638915663502010-08-03T08:50:22.893+10:002010-08-03T08:50:22.893+10:00A very good article. But should we not rediscove...A very good article. But should we not rediscover Marxism-Leninism? Is not this article a good summary of the conflict of class interests entirely familiar to those great leaders? Surely the points made by this article further discredit the blind reliance on democracy espoused by fragments such as the Search Foundation (which should be closed, and the funds directed to a useful purpose)?<br /><br />It is hypocritical that anyone in the ALP could seriously expect “loyalty” from Kevin07 or anyone else. <br /><br />The post-1975 history of the ALP is one of ruthless expediency. During the 2004 election campaign, for instance, the Americans intervened very openly, against Mark Latham. While Latham’s position was supported by those such as Paul Keating, those such as Bob Carr undermined it (implicitly favouring then the shadow foreign minister Kevin Rudd). <br /><br />Kerry O’Brien has highlighted that the current flow of embarrassing emails is clearly a campaign of attack and reprisal. As its practitioners were from their earliest days cultivated by the machine for their ruthlessness and selfishness, they will be intending to continue it for as long as they benefit. <br /><br />NSW Hard Labor Right’s problem – also Julia’s problem, of course - is not just the brazen and blatant nature of the knifing (Hawke did the same to Hayden, while Keating did the same to Hawke) but also the frivolous and self-serving reason. Like the Roman mob as they cheered on the lions or the gladiators, for many people politics is a blood sport. Even so, people are aware of the need for sound leadership, so there are limits, and the latest knifing is generally regarded as having gone too far. Consequently it is not just Julia but also the Labor government that is being regarded as corrupt and degenerate. <br /><br />Our ABC’s site “The Drum” provides some first-class coverage of many issues, including the campaign. Allow me to quote from "The Drum's" Chris Uhlmann:<br />“So Labor can't run on its record, because that belongs largely to a prime minister it discredited. Julia Gillard hasn't been leader long enough to erase the mistakes or the memory of the Rudd government so she is running on the promise of an ill-defined, but better, future. But that's a vapour trail which evaporates as you watch it. …<br />But this election will be won or lost in New South Wales and Queensland. And there Ms Gillard doesn't play so well. There the wail of the fallen leader rings loudest because he is howling into the vast echo chamber of community anger built by the multiple failures of state Labor governments. The real problem is not that people feel sorry for Mr Rudd, but that he is a constant reminder of everything that is bad about the way Labor governs.”<br /><br />Critics of the USSR would do well to note that the removal of Khrushchev was certainly more democratic than that of Hayden, Hawke, and Rudd. The sad (also self-serving) delusion that democracy is an invisible hand that will naturally right all wrongs is an obvious barrier to any local perestroika, especially when the lack of it on the Left – as in the ALP – is so obvious yet so accepted.<br /><br />Organisations are not just a collection of individuals. They do develop a collective memory and a collective philosophy, whether good or bad. After all, whether ALP, Coalition, or the organisation misrepresenting itself as Socialist Alliance, they are selling themselves very much on that basis. The degeneration of the non-Labor left has, unfortunately, paralleled that of the Labor Party and union management.<br /><br />Similarly with government, the rise of the ministerial adviser and the destruction of independent public services from 1984 (largely by Labor) have led to a degeneration in quality and range of social services, with profit-seeking-sector replacements that manage to be both worse and more costly.<br /><br />Regrettably, what passes for today’s Left is as incompetent to produce good answers to these issues as any of the mainstream parties.Roger Ravennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-63017296280475001022010-08-01T16:02:18.873+10:002010-08-01T16:02:18.873+10:00One rule this election for the best struggle optio...One rule this election for the best struggle option:<b> Vote Socialist and Greens/Put Abbott Last.</b>Dave Rileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05319742357589026156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-77545624161875131812010-08-01T15:46:43.847+10:002010-08-01T15:46:43.847+10:00I agree with the general thrust of this piece. I t...I agree with the general thrust of this piece. I think the alternative is to build a party committed to a socialist society of democracy and production organised to satisfy human need. The degeneration of the ALP into a party of the right confirms the critique of social democracy that revolutionaries make and means for me not building a more radical version of the ALP but a party that wants to tear down capitalism. I'd say to those still in the ALP or still with hope in a new social democracy to at least consider the alternative - revolutionary socialism and join with us in the struggles of the day - for same sex marriage, against the ABCC and jailing Ark Tribe, against the NT invasion and so on. <br />My blog makes these points in various articles, including my most recent one Labor's death agonies. http://enpassant.com.au/?p=7855John Passanthttp://enpassant.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-87321561505639613332010-08-01T13:56:53.669+10:002010-08-01T13:56:53.669+10:00Justin’s analysis is for the most part accurate, s...Justin’s analysis is for the most part accurate, sadly.<br /><br />His analysis of a supine media in bed with market fundamentalist ideologues is accurate as far as it goes and his sketch of the Fairfax media as engaging in useless hand wringing while the Murdoch Molock takes a broadsword to news and current affairs is tragically amusing; but it fails to mention the fall of the ABC into the same mire of half truths and “star journo” opinion whilst absolutely abdicating any of its charter obligations to present a balanced analysis of the news of the day.<br /><br />This failure, this turning of the ABC into the common prostitute of the news space, pimped by Mark Scott to the big end of town, can only be interpreted as the first move in a long term fascist strategy to dumb down the ABC ready for its privatisation and rebirth as the organ of government power under an endless kryptofascist junta offering no choice elections and the slow slide of our once proud larrikin polity into a conformist political culture where it is demanded of us that we blindly consume and remain utterly silent while the blast of the panderers and fluffers of market fundamentalist consumerism shout their endless trivialising and infantalising slogans at us and finally, un-noted and un-missed, to die and be replaced by the next generation of automaton consumers.<br /><br />The only answer is the birth of a truly vernacular debate and direct action, in the streets if necessary. Engagement with the process has always been the answer and there’s no time like the present. What would both sides of politics think if someday in the next few weeks there was suddenly ten thousand people on the streets in the major cities saying that no choice was no choice at all?<br /><br />The alternative seems to be the slow decline to a state not unlike say modern Russia where oligarchs and criminals run things and the people take what they can get, or worse a Pinochet style Australia. Only a fool would think it can’t happen here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com