24 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW

MARKET FORCES

The Left, the and the Market

David McKnight

The left should be taking the appeal of the New Right seriously. And it shouldn't ignore the positive commonsense images of the market which underly it.

s the Left complacent about the Some take this a step further, threat posed by the New Right? arguing that those who ring the I Does it understand the basis of alarm bells about the New Right its appeals? More importantly, does have a Machiavellian intent to cover the Left realise that its own way of up the sins of the Hawke government thinking needs updating in order to by crying wolf at the "greater danger" understand and successfully oppose (which is not much d ifferent from a the threat posed by the New Right? rightwing ALP government, they imply). Among leftwing and radical Another response decries the people there is a school of thought label "new". arguing that its which sees as philosophy is not new at a ll but was, essentially a simple and easily in fact, practised. at great human understood phenomenon. Conserv­ cost, in the earliest days of atism functions as an ideology of the . , rich, privileged and dominant Decrying the "new" label members of society. It disguises its effecti vely counters the purpose of defence of privilege in a number of that tired word. a stalwart of every ways, by speaking instead of the advertising agency which ever national interest, the good of the wanted to revive an old product. But economy. the flag, the family and all these approaches beg some even the unemployed and the poor. questions: why does a growing The bottom line. so the assumption section of conservative thought feel runs. is that non-rich, non-privileged the need for an atavistic change in its or subordinate people have no real philosophy at the cost of a highly interest in what conservatism puts public brawl between wets and dries purpose of thts article. most left fo rward, nor is there any value in and among employers who are by no responses to conservatism. on their serious stud) of conservative t hought means united in support of the New own, relieve the Left of any need to because. put simply, "they're all Right approach to industrial studv the weaknesses of its own view bastards anyway". Why bother with relations? Why does a philosophy of politics and its own philosophy ­ profound study of the philosophical which benefits the rich and powerful weaknesses which a r c being and political differences between Ian also strike roots among the un-rich exploited by the New Right. McPhee and John Howard when, at and un-powerful? Why does the Left and bottom. they're as bad as each other. But, most importantly for the mainstream labour movement seem AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW 25

response contains more than a grain The various functions of the of truth, but the Left rarely examines contemporary state in advanced its own inability to respond capitalist societies can be emphasised adequately to the New Right critique quite differently according to one's of state regulation and its argument political predilection. For some for market determined outcomes in socialists, it!. monopoly of force in economic and social policy. defence of the capitalist social order is the main feature, though it may Socialism's heritage is only appear in the long term. For intimately involved with state others. it possesses regulatOr) regulation against the brutality and functions to curb exploitation and irrationality of the market. The promote social change in the short "golden age" of the was, term. of course, nineteenth century Yet the state is much more than England, which saw children this. It is a major employer, working in the mines, and men and employing about one in four women working fourteen (or more) Australians. It is a major provider of hours in ill-lit, dirty and exhau!.ting services judged necessaryforcivilised manufactories. life: education. health, transport, In common with the enlightened communications, water, and so on. rationalism and cult of science which The importance of this is that emerged alongside the industrial the mass of the population are revolution, socialism supported consumers of state services and the notions of the perfectability of New Right wins support by posing as humans and their social institutions. the upholder of the state consumers' "Natural laws" did not decree that interest and carving out a new humankind was doomed to be constituency for itself. It speaks to composed of millions of ignorant people at large, whom the Left define labourers and a tiny elite of wealthy, as "workers", as consumers of state cultured rulers.' services, consumers of goods whose The early socialists and trade prices are affected by tariffs, as unionists aimed to improve the parents of children at state schools. conditions of labouring men and as users of health care, as potential women by regulation through victims of crime, as telephone combinations of workers called subscribers. and even a~ consumers unions, and through state of trade union services. intervention. Socialism would be Against the traditional achieved by a political party of populism of the left and labour workers winning or seizing the state mO\'ement which had its hey-day to institute this. Resources would be from the time of the Depre:.~ion to co-ordinated and distributed the 'fifties, the New Right represents rationally, the economy planned and the modern, rightwtng populism of the education of workers by the state the consumer society. ( Bjelke­ would see a new age dawning. Petersen 's populism is different Socialism itself would have agam, with roots in the same arrived when the means of conditions and period which sa\\ production were in the hands of the Labor and the left build a worker­ whole people - that is, the state.2 small farmer populist ba~e in These conceptions, at various Queensland which lasted until the stages, spanned mainstream social Ia te 'fifties.) democracy, Fabian socialism and A great many thmgs could be unable to counter the slow drift to the those who believed a social said about the Left's attitude to the right? revolution was necessary to end modern state but, practically. for While the latter 4uestion is exploitation and win socialism. many on the trade union based crucial to politics today. too often the But, today, people in general, as left, the state is an employer. The knee-Jerk answer is to blame the well as the Left, have a long struggle of nurses, railway workers. Hawke-Keating leadership of the experience of state regulation, trade teachers and other public servants ALP whose strategy is a pragmatic unionism, the operation of the arc industrial struggles in much the mixture of compromises with, and market, and attempts to create same way as other indmtrial out-bidding of. the New Right. This socialist societies. struggles. Thus. the New Right\ call AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW 27

for cutbacks may materially affect of overall health policy. which are recognised by people at the livelihoods of thousands of trade Yet, for a primarily political, not large who see things in more union members, an issue on which industrial, force like the Left, an contradictory and complex ways the Left in the unions can make overall view which ent;ti)s than is reflected in slogans such as common cause with the centre and recognising and resolving "defend Medicare". right. contradictory interests is essential if Unless it recognises the While the many far-sighted it hopes to project an alternative complexity of reality and appreciates unions have long tried to express their interests in ways which benefit the consumer (better schools, health most left responses to the New Right relieve the left of services, etc.) most unions don't. Mostly, this stems from narrowness any need to study the weaknesses of its own view of and conservatism, but it is debatable politics and its own philosophy whether there is ultimately an identity of interest between state workers and consumers of related VISiOn of SOCiety. some of the contradictory effects of state services. At least, in terms of Another example worthy of state intervention, the Left can be traditional indus trial activity, such as note is the recent push for the portrayed in such circumstances as a strikes, the interests are diametrically privatisation of Telecom. The high taxing group unmterestcd in opposed. But what of more common argument which won the day was not criticism of bureaucracy. conflicts? that which argued that it was m the The cruc1al point about the Left An example was the clash, some blatant self-mterest of would-be and the state is this: by automatically years ago in NSW, between nurses private owners of Telecom (and defending each and every aspect of and health workers defending their would cost many jobs), but that the public sector, it gives implicit jobs and opposing the closure of which mobilised rural Telecom support to the assumption that inner-city hospitals and the subscribers (and hence National socialism will be bureaucratic, 1 Marx1oJa.y

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"transfer" of beds to the western MPs) who benefit from cross­ unresponsive and inefficient. suburbs. More hospitals, not subsidation because it is a state - The most positive part of the transfers and closures, was the o~ned monopoly. Left's attitude to the state has been answer, it was argued. On the other From another angle, 1n the development in the last decade of side were local councils and a defending Medicare against the far "workers' intervention" and popular feeling that the west was right charges of "nationalisation", corporate plans in which the workers hard done by regarding government the Left has rarely acknowledged take on the job of saving the public services.J that state-run health insurance is part sector from itself. That means In the end, the NSW Labor of the impetus for corporate super­ transcending the narrow style of government apparently brought clinics, for more technological trade unionism which only thinks about an overall reduction in medicine, for inflating doctors' about "the members' interests" to hospital beds in Sydney, while giving incomes and for outright fraud. thinking in terms of reorganisation the west better access to hospitals Again, my intention is not to of the public sector in the context of The point, for our purposes, is that undermine the defence of Medicare, overall social policy. the Left tended to construct 1ts but to point out some of the Another part of the left sees this political view based around jobs in unintended consequences of forms of as suspiciously close to "reformtsm" the public sector, rather than in terms state intervention-- consequences - reshaping the state gradually. An 28 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW

interventionist strategy does involve views of the state is a conception of wages become mere factors in a changed attitude to the state by the the market which sees it as incapable production and arc treated as such by Left, but it's a change which of producing any social good. A employers. recognises that the character of the significant challenge to this comes, But while the market ultimately state is far different from the days perhaps surprisingly, from the USSR lead~ to oligopoly or monopoly, on when the texts of insurrectionary where instilling a degree of the level of a national economy, it socialism were drafted. This was a accountability to the public and means something completely period, particularly from the turn of consumers through the market is a different in the experience of the century to 1945, when Europe central part of the recent reforms ordinary people and at the lower and was convulsed with economic announced by Gorbachev and more competitive levels of an depressions, world wars, and several others. economy. Within limits, it can even revolutionary insurrections. T his If we take at face value the need mean what the New Right says it means: encouraging diversity, innovation and, to a degree, freedom of choice. the New Right wins support by posing as the upholder Take the example of shopping of the state consumers' interest and carving out a new One of the most powerful images constituency for itself against "actually existing socialism" is that of the queue stretching around the corner, and of the inferior "model" for socialist trans1t10n for such market mechanisms in such products which sometimes await assumed that wars ands revolutions countries, how much more so must a consumers at the end of the queue. within capitalist societies were a western conception of socialism be What Gorbachev's planners seem natural and inevitable part of the market-based? And if this is so, it to have concluded is that there objective conditions. poses a problem for the left, does it actually is a link between abundance For rna ny reasons, but say capitalist markets are wholly bad and choice of consumer goods on the especially the existence of nuclear and socialist markets are good? one hand, and the market weapons, this is no longer so. The Well, the answer is probably mechanism on the other. main strategic problem for socialists "no" because the distinction which Stuart Hall makes a similar is how to handle a long period in appears to exist in the question is point about the West: "(T)hc Left has which winning the battle of ideas and blurred in practice. Socialist markets never understood the capacity of the achieving structural forms whi.:h can also deliver socially undesirable market to become identified in the express those ideas and empower results like bankruptcies, minds of the mass of ordinary people people are the decisive questions for unemployment, high prices for not as fair and decent and socially laying the groundwork for deeper scarce commodities and so on. responsible (that it never was) but as social change. The Left's classical critique of an expansive popular system".s An interventionist strategy can the market is well based. In a market, "Another reason for the Left's also take unions off the back foot competition leads gradually to the resistance to cultural change when dealing with a force like the prospering and survival of the probably derives from the belief that New Right which wants to dismantle biggest and most powerful forces and the market has delivered most - as it or privatise slabs of the public ultimately to monopoly.4 Social usually does only to those who sector. needs are by no means likely to be already have the market advantage Linked with conservative left met, and humans who work for of wealth, power, status and MarxToJay

freshly riSV~ from /he :leocl, KARL MARX find$ himsi!IF under arM!.St .••• AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW 29

influence: the sense that what we point is that, in the 'thirties and (traditional) issues to come to the have been talking about is, for the 'forties, the Left was able to make a fore. Yet, despite recession, despite majority of ordinary people, beset by logical and natural connection millions in poverty, a large part of the harsh necessities of life, a between people's aspirations for a Australian society carries on with its minority experience. But is it? It better life and the Left's program for attitudes , aspirations and certainly wasn't in the long boom. state intervention. Today, a similar preoccupations determined by And while the recession prevents the struggle is being waged by the Right relative affluence an affluence mass of people from participating to for opposite ends. more "naturally" associated with the same degree on a regular or stable Part of the reason for the Left's market capitalism. basis, it certainly does not prevent loss of the initiative must surely be The Left also concedes ground them from wanting - and often having - not yesterday's but today's goods for themselves and their children." the left tended to construct its political view around An example which Hall uses, the jobs in the public sector, rather than in terms of overall rapid spread of video cassette health policy recorders, is particularly pertinent to Australia which has one of the highest rates of ownership in the world. And VCRs are only part of that when relative affluence did to the New Right through its ill' electronic paraphernalia which arrive for sections of the people, it absolute opposition to private has not only been delivered to an didn't understand how to handle it. enterprise and small business. eager working class during a For the most part, the Left's Practically, this means considering recession but also, for a period at attitude to affluence has been (i) that small business with the same least, at continually falling prices. it was a temporary phenomenon, (ii) suspicion as that directed to giant that it was the result of a bitter union What has the New Right to do corporations. It conveys a notion of struggle, (iii) that it did not change society in which state control reaches with this association of consumer the fundamental basis of capitalism down to the tiniest enterprise and in goods with the market? Hall again: all of which are partial truths but "The intention of the radical Right which there is no mcentive or evade the deep cultural changes that freedom to go into business for which has been most penetrative has came in the wake of affluence. not been the conversion of the masse~ oneself, one of the sustaining myths Even today, across much of the of this society. to the religion of the market and Left (socialist feminists aside), there unemployment. Rather, it has been is a great deal of concentration on Of course, some of the nastiest the subtle capacity to identify the wages, working conditions, bosses can be found in the small positive aspirations of people with overseas solidarity, and little shopkeeper, the contractor and the the market and the restoration of the understanding (and often a degree of professional. But this is not to be capitalist ethic, and to present this as puritanism) towards the revolution countered by extending state a natural alliance." in lifestyle, media, entertainment, ownership to every nut and bolt and Similarly, the redefinition of and new modes of work and its eliminating the market. Attempts to freedom, involving linking it with a relation to the rest of life. Many do so are bound to become market-based conception of seem to have a sigh of relief when bureaucratic, repressive and freedom, is one of 's each cyclical ·economic recession economically stagnant and remarkable successes, he says. The appears, allowing "simpler" inefficient, the latter being the main

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goad for reforms in "actually existing more goods overall. In the field of in the mistaken belief that we could create socialism". capital goods and raw materials, a , equality where none exists in nature~. In propaganda terms, the limited market may allocate 2. There was, of course, also a mmorit} statism of the USSR and China have resources more effectively and on tradition within socialism of anti-Mate been a boon to opponents of critena which encourage more anarchism and libertanamsm. efficient use. socialism in the West. While the 3. As well, there was a section of health planning and state ownership in the The Right already is arguing professionals who argued that cutting funds to that such reforms show that USSR appeared to be a beacon to hospttals and doctors would be a good thing tf funds were used in local commumty health many who suffered in the "capttalism" was right all along, falsely conflating the market with centres and preventive health campaigns. -\ Depression. the political repression private ownership. While the Left s1milar d ilemma occurred with the which accompanied it turned many rccommcndatiom of the Richmond Report more away from socialism from the should be wary of identifying itself on mental health. De1nst11utionalising 1950s onwards. once again with a "socialist paradise" pat1cnts on humane ~ nd mental health overseas, it must not fail to draw the grounds meant somo: ourses'jobscould he lost Gorbachev's (and, at least until lessons for strategy within the West 4 I he most telling recent example hc1ng the recently, Teng Tsiao Ping's) reforms concerning attitudes to private consequences in the newspaper industr) m have tried to tackle the consequences enterprise, the problems of state which, over the last fifty years. newspaper of centralised planning: apathy, lack intervention and the market. titles have decreased marked!} and owner. of incentive and inspiration which ha\e shrunk to two. lead to a system less dynamic and 5. "The Culture Gap", Marxism Tuda1. adaptable than capitalism. In the FOOTNOTES January 1984. field of consumer goods, such reforms will undoubtedly mean DAVID McKNIGHT is a journalist on higher prices for many commodities, I, Thus, the historical allusions in Charles Copeman\ statement during the Robe Rtver the Sydney Morning Herald but such a result is also a stimulus to dispute 1n September 1986, when he !>poke of factories and farmers to produce "the struggle for freedom which has been lost

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