The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself ISS N 1446-0165 No.51. June 2011 http://australia.workersliberty.org

Bob Carnegie tells MUA “The union is the members”

he job of officials is to serve and inform", It will campaign for the hiring of casuals to be declares Bob Carnegie in a leaflet for his regulated by agreed rotas and waiting lists, rather “T campaigning to become Secretary of the than employers’ arbitrary decision. Queensland branch of the Maritime Union of It will make the MUA a leader in the fight to win Austra lia. Balloting is currently underway. decent and secure employment conditions for workers Bob Carnegie has promised a number of measures to across the whole economy. ensure that officials are accessible and accountable to “Everywhere, privatisation means undermining members, and that members have opportunities to meet union strength and secure employment conditions. “When the Queensland state government privatised wholesale, the MUA responded passively. The “Queensland Not For Sale” fiasco, in which our union failed to take any leading or active role in combatting privatisation, showed the current leadership unworthy of our movement’s forefathers on whose shoulders we stand. Under my leadership the MUA Queensland branch will not involve itself in ALP “What the union says machinations over and does in the ALP the heads of the will be democratically and communicate about what they expect from the membership. discussed and decided union. It will use the by MUA members.” “For over a decade now our union leadership has union’s scaled down its aims to damage-limitation, and representation in trained the membership in the same poverty of Labor Party, both at state level and aspiration. Under my leadership the branch will nationally, openly to champion workers’ interests and reverse that trend. It will do that by harnessing all challenge the ALP leaders. the work of the branch officials to improving the The MUA will speak out in the same way that information and organisation available to members. South Australian unions are currently speaking out for By doing that we can defeat casualisation. the removal of Mike Rann as unworthy to be a Labor A casualised workforce is a workforce divided representative. It will not let issues drop once a token between permanents and casuals — inevitably so, to victory has been gained, as the NSW unions let issues some degree, despite the best efforts by delegates. drop once Morris Iemma had been ousted and his It is a weaker workforce. It is a less safe workforce, particular variant of electricity privatisation blocked. because workers dependent for their next pay on an My opponents in this election charge me with being employer’s favour must be less likely to raise safety a ‘Trotskyist’. I believe that can be no peace so long as issues than workers with permanent status. hunger and want are found among millions of working The branch will campaign to make Patricks and DP people, and the few, who make up the employing World accept interhire of casuals. class, have all the good things of life. It will campaign to make the database for seafarers “The working class and the employing class have open and transparent, so that employers are unable to noth ing in common. headpick. “Between these two classes a struggle must go on It will campaign progressively to force the until all the toilers come together on the political, as companies to accept stricter and stricter limits to the well as the industrial field, and take and hold that numbers of casuals they can employ, and to take on which they produce by their labour”. existing casuals as permanent workers. (continued page 2)

1 Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS): is this the way to win gained attention and new discussion in . The debate that wasn’t: for or Students for Palestine argued that their campaign is against the Palestinian call for a BDS effective, against the Jericho shop in Melbourne CBD, which sells gourmet salt produced in the Occupied by Riki Lane Territories. This at least targets Israel’s occupation of debate organised by Melbourne’s New the West Bank rather than Israel’s existence. International bookshop at Trades Hall, was However, it could become anti-Semitic, targetting a billed as a friendly debate between long terms A Jewish run business rather than just settlement activists. Against BDS was Sol Salbe, long time Jewish products. leftist, former SWP member (parent of today’s SA and RSP), and active in the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. For the Palestinian/global BDS, was Kim Bullimore, an RSP member and Palestinian activist – working with Palestinian women’s and queer organisations. Sol Salbe spoke first, opposing “Palestinian BDS” specifically, but not BDS against settlement products. Solidarity movements should not be bound by the organisations they support. The non-Stalinist Australian left determined its own positions on South Africa and Vietnam, rather than slavishly following the ANC or the Vietnamese CP. He pointed to the The central 1 disagreement is on Palestinian BDS citing a UN resolution recognising what means will the right of return for resolve the refugees, as an implicit struggle for endorsement of a one-state Palestinian rights. solution. Sol Salbe said that no-one supporting the Palestinian BDS was for a two-state solution. Kim Bullimore’s strongest argument was that BDS is a Palestinian initiative, with widespread support amongst civil society organisations. It is an anti- colonial campaign, focused on colonisation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing. She was on weaker Two speakers raised questions about the pro-BDS ground citing Lenin from 1903 arguing that forming a position, but I was the only speaker from the floor to Jewish nation would be reactionary. She said Sol was seriously oppose BDS as follows... putting the needs of the citizens of the oppressor state Kim Bullimore’s claim about Lenin could also be ahead of those of the oppressed – implicitly a made about Trotsky who was scathing about Zionism, colonia list attitude. but changed in the later 1930s. Trotsky certainly A procession of speakers attacked opponents of the thought fascism made a difference. A state and nation BDS - Socialist Alternative (Cliffite) and RSP and were established in Israel – through blood, ethnic Socialist Alliance (Castroite). Some argued that cleansing and so on. Other nations formed like this but Israel did not have the right to exist and that “getting are not slated for smashing. Were the Eritreans “nice” rid of Israel” would be a great benefit to the working to the Ethiopians in their war for independence? class in the Middle East. Socialist Party councillors in Bob Carnegie Yarra were criticised for abandoning Marrickville (continued from front page) Council by not supporting the BDS. I want to replace the unequal dog-eat-dog society of The strongest argument for BDS was that it gives a capitalism by a cooperative commonwealth. That free focus to solidarity here, e.g. Marrickville Council cooperative commonwealth will be as distant from the stifling, unequal societies of the old Soviet Union and 1 1 See http://www.bdsmovement.net/call , which sets out three demands on Israel: Maoist China as it will be from market capitalism. 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands That is the philosophy that guides me as a trade and dismantling the Wall; unionist. It is for MUA members to choose between that 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab- Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and and the current policy of bureaucratic inertia and timid 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of damage-limitation”. Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as More - http://bob2011mua.wordpress.com stipulated in UN resolution 194. Palestinian rights? Boycotts are not especially effective. As Kim unsuccessful Green candidate for the Marrickville admitted, the Palestinian call for BDS is an expression electorate in the NSW election, and , due of weakness. As Sol Salbe pointed out, it was not the to take her seat as a NSW Senator in July. boycott that ended apartheid, but the decision of the The Australian’s campaign seemed motiva ted by a whites that they had to change. desire to embarrass and cause strife for the federal The academic boycott is so broadly written that it Labor government, which is dependent on Green obstructs attempts to win over Israeli middle ground to support. But The Australian’s campaign has had an a solution. Who determines which academics are effect. boycotted? Anything organised by an Israeli university On 18 April Fiona Byrne said that Marrickville is automatically boycotted. That stands in the way of Council would not carry out its boycott policy (adopted, winning people in Israel. with little publicity at the time and the support of When trade unions break links with the Histradut, Labor councillors, in December 2010), though she still does this further anything? Does it contribute to thought a boycott right "in principle". Both Green and building the forces within Israel that are open to Labor councillors in Marrickville had already said Palestinian statehood? No,: it prevents links between that they no longer backed a boycott. working class forces in Israel and Palestine. Federal Greens leader denounced the The central disagreement is on what means will boycott. Lee Rhiannon's website carried no response on resolve the struggle for Palestinian rights. Is it by the issue. forcing a reluctant Israeli Jewish population into a The campaign by The Australian centred round unitary state, or is it through a consistently democratic claims that the boycott policy is "radical" and "left- agreement between the two peoples, achieved by wing". At a meeting in Sydney on 3 April on solidarity focusing on the working classes of the nations? with workers in the Middle East and North Africa, No speakers took up my specific criticisms about the called by the AusIraq group and organised mainly by academic or trade union boycotts. Instead my speech members of Workers' Liberty Australia, people moved was attacked – I think by a Socialist Alternative a motion to "defend Lee Rhiannon", and won a big member – as making a “racist defence of the Israeli majority among the 40 people present on the basis of state”. To his credit the chair, Bill Deller, defended underst andable outrage against the Murdoch press me from the accusation of racism. (this motion was opposed by a Workers Liberty A possibility for constructive dialogue was mostly member). missed. There could have been useful discussion of: But this is a case, like many in the Cold War years, • a more limited BDS campaign aimed at where consistent socialists had to oppose right-wing settlement products as a campaign with press campaigns without being boxed by them into potential for joint work by supporters of both one- positive support for Stalinist actions or policies which state and two-state solutions the right-wing press was attacking. • the limitations of boycott campaigns – in The coverage in The Australian offered no account particular the academic and trade union boycotts of the arguments that make people in favour of • the danger of anti-semitism being expressed in boycotting Israel: the word "Palestinian" scarcely demonstrations aiming to shut down Jewish-run appeared. It also failed to explain the most important businesses. arguments against the boycott policy. The meeting was not really a debate at all. A If a boycott gained any momentum, it would format of speakers for and against could have been unavoidably become also a campaign of shunning and more effective than Bill Deller asking for speakers to demonisation against all "Zionists", that is, against limit themselves where their “organisational position Jews worldwide who (while often critical of Israeli has already been presented”. AJDS supporters and governments) identify with Israel. other anti-BDS people who were in the crowd did not Experience bears that out. Practical "boycott" speak, feeling pressured by the avalanche of pro-BDS actions have been of the sort of excluding Israeli speakers. There should have been several more academics from editorial boards of academic journals prepared speakers – for example representatives of the in Britain; banning Israeli-made films from film Palestinian community and of the Socialist Party. festivals in France; excluding Israeli lesbian and gay contingents from Pride marches in Spain; running Boycotting Israel: neither pickets on Britain's high streets outside Marks and Spencer, which sells no large amount of Israeli-made Murdoch, nor Stalin! goods but is the business in the country most commonly by Rhodri Evans identified as Jewish-owned; banning student Jewish n the weeks after the NSW election on 26 March, societies at universities on the grounds that they refuse Rupert Murdoch's The Australian ran a big to disavow all connections with Israel. Icampaign against sections of Australia's Green Rather than helping the Palestinians, boycotts cut Party over their policy of boycotting Israel. against links with Israeli supporters of Palestinian Several front-page stories targeted Fiona Byrne, rights. The Israeli right thrives on the "embattled Green Mayor of Marrickville and narrowly- fortress" mood. The boycott policy is modelled on the boycott of "For this underclass, that Khomeini called ‘the South Africa organised by the African National disinherited’, the issue of an Islamic state and Congress between 1959 and the fall of apartheid. Some implementation of Sharia law, proved to be a very parts of that boycott were unobjectionable. Others were powerful slogan because it meant that, in the name of not: e.g. the "boycott" was used by the Communist God, in the name of justice, unjust and authoritarian Party of South Africa to claim control over the rulers could be ousted and this would be replaced by a residual links which had to be exempted from the state of things where they could have their place, boycott, and so, for example, to block direct links where they [i.e. men] could have respect, find a job, a between independent black workers' unions in South wife, an apartment. Africa, as they developed in the 1980s, and workers in “So the difficulty for political Islam was to keep other countries. And there is no evidence that the these two elements together since their social agendas boycott speeded the fall of apartheid. are quite different. This led to a third component, the The boycott of Israel has all the downsides of the yeast, the Islamist intelligentsia like the Ayatollah boycott of South Africa and none of the upsides. Khomeini who had to develop the discourse for Before joining the Greens Lee Rhiannon was a mobil isa t ion. member of the Socialist Party of Australia (the “The challenge for this third group (Muslim Stalinist faction which split from the Communist intellectuals) was how to produce a discourse that Party of Australia in 1971 in protest at the CPA's would unify the popular with the bourgeois opposition to the USSR's invasion of Czechoslovakia components until the actual seizure of power. in 1968). “Khomeini was the only one who managed to do so. The discourse she will have learned in the SPA i.e. When he claimed the mantle of the disinherited (the demonising "Zionism", outside of history, context, and mostazafin) not only did he mention the real nuance, as an epitome of imperial ism, racism, and disinherited – the riff raff from the lower end of fascism, was first devised and popularised, for their Tehran- but he also had in mind the bazaar class- the own purposes, by Stalinist governments and the social class from which he himself had risen. Communist Parties in the early 1950s. It is "left wing" “His discourse was sufficiently ambiguous socially only if Stalinism is reckoned as left-wing. so that everybody would identify with it. He was very clear not to be too revolutionary socially because it The class nature of political would frighten the bazaar class away. At the same time he was adamant politically, to galvanise the Islam masses, but he would pay them with words. “ by Lynn Smith Talk given at Worker-Communist Party of Iraq May Day rally Blacktown, Sydney he more experienced people here today are probably familiar with what I’m about to say. T But I think it’s important that younger people are also equipped to discuss this subject with their friends, classmates or workmates if they start saying political Islam is progressive. I also find it shocking that other groups on the left act as ambassadors for political Islam in the labour movement. I begin with the words of Gilles Kepel (co-author with Joanne J Myers of Jihad: the Trail of Political Islam) at a public meeting in 2002. “A pious middle class emerged after independence An Iranian woman, symbolically dressed as a victim of death by stoning, takes part in a National Council of Resistance of Iran protest outside a that was not pleased with the state of things. They … European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels in 2005. financed the movement. When they heard about the Photograph: Thierry Roge/Reuters issue of Islamist states they did not understand the Did the promises of Khomeini and the clerical slogan as a means to destroy society, rather as a means fascists in Iran pay off for the poor? to paint the social order green. To oust the incumbents Looked at overall, Iran is doing petty well. It’s the (kings and secular dictators) so they could seize power. 19th largest economy in the world with foreign In order to get to power they thought that religious reserves totalling US$100 billion. But drilling down language would bring with them, in the same into statistics the picture changes. Average GDP is movement the mass of the underclass - the young urban US$11,200 per capita... 99th in the world. Inflation is poor. running at 12% (Australia is 3.2%). The Iranian “This is the second component of the movement- on government says unemployment is 11.8% (Australia the one hand the pious bourgeoisie and on the other 5%, USA 9%) but unofficial estimates are from 12 to the young urban poor who are the vast majority in the 22% with the opposition claiming 30%. developing world. 4 Poverty is rife with almost 1 in 5 people (18.7%) International phone calls were prohibitively forced to get by on less than US$11 per day and 1 in 33 expensive. The link to the outside world was the people (3.1%) struggling to exist on less than US$2 per overseas Trotskyist press arriving in the mail. day! Nick had sympathised with Michel Pablo when in And how are the other financiers of clerical 1953 the "orthodox Trotskyists" split between a current fascism- the royals of the Middle East- doing? led by Pablo and a current led by the Socialist Pretty nicely, thank you. Prince Alwaleed Bin Workers' Party in the USA. He now had to seek Talal Alsaud (Saudi Arabia) is the 26th richest man enlightenment from French-language press. in the world with a personal fortune of US$19.6 Denis Freney who, like Bob, came into the billion. Nasser Al Kharafi and family of Kuwait are Trotskyist movement in 1957 from a Communist Party number 77 with $10.4 billion. background (but, unlike Bob, later went back to the And so to the struggles for democracy and workers’ CP), has described when Bob first took him to meet rights now taking place in the region. Nick. "After a few inquiries about my background, Something will replace the fallen (and falling) [Nick] began to read a document that he had just dictators. New regimes will emerge in Egypt, Libya, received from... Pablo. Nick was translating from the Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, Jordan and maybe more French as he read, speaking in nearly countries still. But they won’t be socialist because no incomprehensible English in what I realised was a working class parties lead these struggles. The very literal translation. Every few minutes he would question is.... who will fill the political vacuum? halt in mid-sentence to consult a large French-English We say: dictionary... • No support for or alliance with the Muslim "Nick was a self-taught man, whose dedication... Brotherhood or any form of clerical fascism! had led him painstakingly to study French after a • For workers’ rights, full women’s equality, hard day's work as a labourer". secularism and democracy! Whatever the difficulties, Bob learned about the More about class and political Islam basics of Trotskyism and stuck to them. When a www.workersliberty.oerg/islamism different strain of "orthodox Trotskyism" entered https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resources/transcript Australia, brought by chance by a young member of s/135.html/:pf_printable Gerry Healy's group in Britain who had emigrated, he http://www.critiquejournal.net/islam.html veered towards that rather than Origlass's "Pabloism". In 1965 Bob became a public figure, as secretary , 1937-2011 of the Vietnam Action Campaign which consumed his energies until Australian troops quit Vietnam in 1972. by Martin Thomas A new generation was brought into left politics. That ob Gould, who died on 22 May at the age of 74, movement also politicised two brothers studying at was the human link between the old Trotskyist Sydney University, Jim and John Percy, and with Bob B movement in Australia and today's left. The they set up a socialist youth movement, Resistance, in Trotskyist group he joined in Sydney in 1957 was, so 1967. Bob told me, "not really a group". It was a collection of This was a new start for the Trotskyist movement in people, each with his or her own activity in the ALP Australia, and separate from the old Origlass group. In or elsewhere, who gathered occasionally to hear its 1969 Barry Shepherd, then a leader of the US SWP main figure, Nick Origlass, a veteran from the 1930s, [then "orthodox Trotskyist"], dropped by Sydney on hold forth. his way back to the USA from an international Trotskyist gathering in Europe. He convinced the Percy brothers, and they started bui ld ing a long S WP-US lines. In 1970 Resistance split, with Bob Gould on one side and the Percy brothers on the other. The Percy brothers set up the Socialist Workers' League in 1972. They tracked along with the SWP-US, including in its break from any sort of Trotskyism to a species of Castroism after 1979, until the mid-1980s, and then developed a course of their own, as Castroite as the SWP's but more open and flexible in its approach, and less sect-like. died in 1992. John Percy was expelled in 2008 from the DSP (the group that the SWL had developed It was much more isolated from the rest of the into). He now leads a group called the Revolutionary world than the Australian left is today. Nick Origlass Socialist Party, in competition with the DSP (renamed himself did not go overseas to meet other Trotskyists Socialist Alliance) though equally Castroite. unti l 1976-7, and there were no Trotskyists from Bob did not consolidate a formal group of his own, overseas coming to Australia. There was no internet. but he remained active in the ALP and on the left, and 5 always with a circle of political associates, until his I used to be active in the ALP death. In recent years he wrote on the Ozleft website. by Janet Burstall His political activity for the last forty years was I used to be an active ALP member. I used to be able to intertwined with his work as a bookseller with the combine ALP membership, campaigning for ALP largest second-hand bookshop in Australia. As well as candidates in elections and recruiting new members ordinary commercial stock, it has a vast range of with putting my own socialist point of view and socialist, Marxist, and Trotskyist texts, piled on opposing Labor government actions that I disagreed overflowing shelves or stacked on the floor. Every time with. The internal forums, a measure of democracy and you went into his bookshop, Bob would have some new the presence of other socialists in the ALP, made th is text which he would insist you had to buy and read. all fit together. He saw it as part of his political work, I think, to push But an active left in the ALP and the unions was young Trotskyists, at least the ones interested enough seen as an inconvenience. NSW Women’s conference to visit his shop, into reading books that would make was shut down. Head Office, Premiers and PMs have them think. all demanded that they can recognise merit and talent And Bob would always have a political argument better than the rank and file, so they should pick with you. Although his daughter Natalie Gould candidates and ministers. worked with AWL when she spent time in London in the 1980s (possibly on his recommendation) Bob was always an "orthodox Trotskyist" of sorts, and never on the same wavelength as AWL. We were often at odds: sometimes infuriatingly so. But you always got a political argument from Bob, not a bureaucratic brush-off. He was always an educator, even if the education you received was through the effort to work out where he was wrong.

More on Nick Origlass The rank and file is further disenfranchised when http://archive.workersliberty.org/wlmags/wl50/r Labor in government acts against the expectations of eviews.htm#origlass ALP members and supporters. For example when Unions NSW was led by John Robertson he opposed electricity privatisation and there was a rank and file Reading Group campaign against it. We had a victory. Then Robbo Do you want to better understand capitalism? became a Minister in the NSW Labor government and Marx’s Capital Volume 2: did not speak against Keneally and Roozendal’s The Process of Circulation of Capital privatisation. It doesn’t wash to stand for one thing as the leader of a grassroots movement and then stand for its opposite as an MP. Your Rights @ Work is hailed as a successful campaign, and it was successful at mobilising support and votes for Kevin in 07. But Labor has not fully restored union rights, especially not building workers’ rights. The meaning of “success” from a grassroots point of view is not how many people or votes there are but what changes are made. The question ‘how can we get Labor back into government’ seems much more important to people hoping for a career as part of a Tuesday 19 July Labor Government. The question for the rest of us is Preface and Chapter 1: The circuit of money capital. ‘how can we get Labor to do the right thing in Then every 2 weeks government?’ 19 July; 2 16 & 30 August; 13 & 27 September; I support public education and hoped that 11 & 25 October Howard’s outrageous subsidies to wealthy private Location – to be confirmed schools would be abolished by Labor, but instead Gillard as Education Minister and PM embraced the Gaelic Club worst of right wing anti-teacher union policy from the 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, NSW USA and UK. Actually I think that all unions, (near Central Station) including my union the NSW Teachers’ Federation, should affiliate to the ALP and fight to hold Labor to More details: Janet 0428 957704 - Google group account, for example on public education. https://groups.google.com/group/enigma-of- I support a progressive income tax system. But Rudd, capital?hl=en then Gillard seemed completely unprepared to stand up to mining corporations by increasing taxes on mining profits. The ideology of kowtowing to markets and 6 profits has been the only one heard for so long that, not is to get rid of what some economists and politicians surprisingly, even mining workers were frightened of call “disincentives” to work. losing their jobs and Labor had no answer other than to Poorer people, and some who may most need cave in. benefits, are more likely to miss out on account of the Most of what Labor does badly in government is challenges of applying for means-tested benefits. And because the parliamentary party is much more eager to there is a huge, complex effort involved in please capital or conservatives than it is to stand for administering means tests (and tax deductions). fairness, and its traditional working class constituency. If the income tax system was a lot more progressive It should be no surprise that the consequence is and people on really high incomes paid a lot more tax, widespread conservatism in the electorate, combined then there would be no problem in them getting back with more progressively minded people bailing to the some of that in the form of welfare. (Also seriously Greens. progressive income tax would curb obscenely high I am even more skeptical of the Greens. They are not corporate salaries). If tax deductions and rebates were socialist. Labor at least has roots in the union removed for many items, such as childcare, movement. Class is the fundamental division in dependents, spouses, family tax benefits, etc and Australia even though conceptions of identity based on instead a universal allowance were paid at levels that class have changed. were beneficial to average wage earners, then these But these changes are over-relied on to gloss over would not disproportionately benefit people in the top the damage that has been done to the labour movement marginal tax bracket. and the Labor Party by the failure of leaders to stand The bogey of “middle-class welfare” has populist up for working class interests, gutting labour movement appeal and gives an impression that Labor is reversing democracy and ditching long held policies and values a Howard measure. But Labor’s decision not to in government. I don’t care to be treated like a focus introduce indexation of the $150,000 income ceiling on group member: that is, ‘listened to respectfully’ by one tax deduction is not redistribution from the party officials who are going to make the decisions wealthiest to the least well-off. Howard’s middle themselves. I want the chance to vote and make my class welfare was a combination of tax deductions and case to others who vote too in a democratic party. benefit payments, with an aim to promote the “stay at People who are disappointed and disillusioned home mum”. It is understandable that many women with Labor in government might be more interested in welcomed relief from the pressure for two parents to the ALP if it was obvious that it is possible to organise have jobs, given the effective increase in working for and win alternative policy positions and hold MPs hours. However, these family tax benefits should be to account for them. Without that I worry that a lot of abolished altogether, and replaced by paid parental the other ‘imaginative’ campaigning ideas discussed leave, publicly funded child care provision and at Progressive Australia will achieve very little for universal child benefits. A shorter working week Labor supporters. would also help with child raising and life in general. Tax rebates and deductions promote inequality, are Means testing covers up Labor complicated to apply for and make more bureaucracy. gutlessness on taxing the rich They are not a good way to support the majority of people, who cannot afford to wait a year to receive eople on $150,000 a year or even above should get rebates. When tax discounts are used to help with the the same welfare entitlements as people on costs of child care and child-rearing this tends to P lower incomes. But the post-budget debate on the increase the income of the highest income earner $150,000 a year ceiling on eligibility for the deduction (usually the father), reduce the economic independence for a tax payer with a dependent wife and child(ren) of the mother, and discriminate against households is complicated by the fact that it is not actually a that do not conform to the traditional two parent benefit, but a tax deduction. family ideal. Tax deductions always favour the better off because “We can take our welfare system in whatever they reduce tax on the portion of income in the higher direction we choose, mean or generous. But the more tax bracket. More on that later. generous we make it, the more tax we’ll end up having Universal benefits are traditionally a labour or to pay.” says Ross Gittins, referring to means testing as social ist policy. “Our means-tested welfare system is “mean” and universal benefits as “generous”. an inheritance from the Menzies era. The Whitlam Labor policy should be for a much more progressive government introduced universal health benefits in the income tax system (with a huge scaling back in shape of Medibank and began phasing in a non-means- deductions), universal benefits and proper funding for tested age pension.” (Ross Gittins Tough love or public goods such as child care, health, education and kindness – a taxing dilemma, SMH) public transport. Means testing is not a redistributive Means testing is primarily used against benefit measure, it actually most penalises less well off recipients living precariously on the edge of people. Labor should end the trend begun by Hawke employment and poverty: to try to force them into and Keating to means test as if that is fair, but really employment regardless of the lack of decent work. This to cover up for being too gutless to tax the wealthy more he av i ly. 7 Spain: "Real democracy needs " by James Bloodworth he youth protests — going under the banner of “Real Democracy” — which began during May as T a public outcry denouncing political corruption and unemployment have swept across Spain. In the last week of May French youth have also taken to the streets. With no end to the economic crisis and with the government forging ahead with its cuts programme, this protest has the potential for this to be the start of someth ing much bigger. Spain has a 21.3% unemployment rate — the highest in the EU — rising to 45% among youth. Some Spaniards who do have jobs are going for months Valencia 1 June 2011 without pay as the bosses threaten them with Photograph: furlin via flickr, some rights reserved. unemployment. This is the main drive behind the demonstrations. most of these youngsters’ parents and elders turned out But protesters have also come together against to vote for the People’s Party instead of joining the what they see as an outrageous carve-up between protesters.” bankers and politicians, who are making ordinary What is required is a bridging of the gap between people pay for the financial crisis of the rich. undirected discontent and ideas about a different sort The ruling social democratic party, the PSOE of José of society, a society where people would exercise Luis Rodrîguez Zapatero, has suffered one of i ts worst genuine democratic control over their economic lives. election results in recent history at municipal and What is needed from the protesters is forceful regional elections. The PSOE lost around two million arguments for socialism. votes while the conservative People’s Party gained. While the protesters say they wish to see radical The Fate of the Russian Revolution: Lost changes to Spanish politics, their lack of concrete Texts of Critical Marxism demands is a weakness. Ignacio Molina, a professor at by Max Shachtman, Hal Draper, C L R James, Leon Trotsky and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, believes that others, with an introduction by Sean Matgamna. 608 pages. £16.99 the movement is too limited and narrow in focus. Buy online - or via mail order - http://www.workersliberty.org/frr “... protesters are naive enough to think that changing the political model on institutional issues Exactly what was the USSR? Was it socialism? A powerful body of such as the republican form of government, critical Marxist analysis of the USSR was produced in the 1940s and participatory democracy or the proportional electoral '50s by Max Shachtman, Hal Draper and others, including C L R James. Today, their work is virtually unknown. It does not deserve system can help resolve the crisis and improve the life to be. In this book the reader will find the key texts of these long- prospects of young people or the unemployed,” he said. eclipsed, but important, political thinkers. It vindicates those who Be-all-and-end-all adherence to “autonomy” and made the October Revolution. It restates the real ideas of those “spontaneity” is becoming an obstacle to working out an Bolsheviks who fought Stalinism until it killed them. It provides an alternative programme. Consequently movements account of efforts to remake a democratic, revolutionary socialist across Europe are struggling to win the majority over to movement in the maelstrom of the mid-century events that gave to the world the shape it would retain until the 1990s. ideas that can successfully challenge the status quo. A long introductory essay traces Leon Trotsky's attempts to For example the manifesto of the protesters fails to understand Stalinism and submits Trotsky's ideas to a systematic make any concrete proposals on the Spanish economy. criticism. Yet that is the root cause of much of the Join the fight for socialism disenfranchisement felt by ordinary people. Contact Workers’ Liberty today When the protesters do return to their homes, whether in the next few days or several weeks from How you can help: now, there are no organisational structures in place nor • help distribute this bulletin mobilising demands, nor longer term political project • come to our political discussions for people to take home with them. As we saw on a Call for details: smaller scale in the British student protests, when this Sydney 0419 493 421 happens a movement can quickly lose much of its Melbourne 0400 877 819 momentum and force. And perhaps worse. Brisbane: 07 3102 4681 As one Spanish commentator remarked, “the saddest http://australia.workersliberty.org thing about the Spanish revolts is that, in the end, [email protected] P.O. Box 313 Leichhardt NSW 2040