Fighting war and poverty in 1985
Uregei. "However," he added, • "the FLNKS will not be tricked. Nothing will shake our intransigence for Kanak sovereignty.
"The struggle we have undertaken since our massive active boycott of the
SYDNEY, Australia - Australian politics is likely to continue polarising in the coming year, Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jim Percy told delegates to the Australian Section of the Fourth International's tenth national conference, held in early January.
The deteriorating world economic situation and the resulting increasingly war-like policies of the major capitalist powers have contributed to the growth of a mass peace movement as a powerful new political factor.
Formation mament Party (NDP) to contest last December's federal elections marked an important turning point in Australian politics, according to Percy. The NDP threw a sever fright into the ruling Labor Party (ALP), capturing up to 9 per cent of the vote and electing one senator, Jo Vallentine from Western Australia.
The political polarisation this reflects is likely to continue, largely because this changed situation has not led any section of the Labor Party's leadership to change direction, Percy added. Abandonment of many of Labor's traditional policies at the July 1984 ALP national conference in Canberra was the main immediate factor that sparked the emergence of the NDP, and there is no sign of any movement to reverse the anti-worker decisions taken by that conference.
Prime Minister Bob Hawke's direction is very clear said Percy, "He has to drive ahead on the course he has chosen. He can't respond to what happened in the elections. He's not going to move back towards the centre, bringing in some welfare programs. He's going to drive to the right.
"We don't expect the election results to bring a shift by the Labor left either. They're not going to say, 'Well, the mistake we made was to compromise on uranium mining, on nuclear power, or the mistake we made was to support the accord.' "
The mainstream left of the labor movement is unlikely to change. "That means the situation we're facing now is likely to be relatively the same for the next year." Only a sharp leftward swing by Labor could diffuse the impact of the new developments, • in particular the emergence of the Nuclear Disarmament Party.
"Labor's concern is simply how to win the votes back, not how to change course. The problem for the Labor left is that the election revealed that traditional approach to be completely inadequate. The situation has gone beyond that. 24
Rhetorie is no longer enough, fakery is no longer enough.
"Behind the rhetoric about Hawke's economic miracle, behind foreign minister Bill Hayden's nuclear disarmament rhetoric there lies a rather grim picture. No one says there's going to be any return to the employment levels and living standards of the 1950s and 1960s. The question is: at what pace will our living standards deteriorate?
"Everyone admits that there's structural unemployment of around 10 per cent. No one pretends they can do anything about that any more. And on top of that, the war drive is a permanent fixture.
"But the elections showed that the fight's not over," millions of people are by no means resigned to accepting war and poverty as inevitable, and they're prepared to break the mould of traditional politics in their search for alternatives.
War and poverty: Fighting one means fighting the other, was the theme of the conference, the SWP's highest decison making body, which also elects the party's national leadership. "Struggles for national independence are linked to struggles for peace"
The packed agenda kept the delegates and observers busy at Sydney's Chevron Hotel from early morning until late at night for six days. Discussion ranged over topics such as new trends in women's liberation, youth in politics, the relevance of Marxism in the West, and much more.
Besides a number of reports on national and international questions, the the world political situation and the Struggle for Socialism in the Imperialist
Epoch. The resolution, printed in book 3 die ser branches for aboli
form, material in the SWP branches for about three months before the conference. public gatherings. A highlight was Kanak union leader Louis Uregei's public meeting on the struggle for independence in Kanaky (New Caledonia).
recent elections has shown us that independence is not something you beg for."
Struggles for national independence are intimately linked with the struggle for peace, said national committee member Peta Stewart, reporting to the conference on the peace movement: "The rise of national liberation struggles since the Second World War has diverted the United States from fully pursuing its drive to war against the socialist states.
•The current rearmament program of the US would now be much further advanced had it not been for the victory of Vietnam in its struggle for independence. Defending national liberation struggles then, is an integral part of winning peace."
National independence struggles were a subject of considerable discussion by the conference delegates. As well as Louis Uregei the conference was addressed by a national liberation fighter from the Philippines. There were also sessions on Vietnam and Central America.
There was considerable discussion on how socialists can strengthen their solidarity work with the important struggles now taking place in Central America. The outcome of these struggles is likely to have at least as much impact on world history as did the victory of Vietnam.
"The fight for peace necessarily raises many issues" Peta Stewart told the con-
"What is war? Who profits from it? Everyone claims to be against war, so why does it happen? Is it an act of god? Is it because human beings are inherently aggressive?
"As people consider these issues, more and more are concluding that there's something wrong with the social system, the economic system we live under, something about it that generates war. The fight against war becomes the fight for a new social system.
"Humanity can never have peace until it rids itself of the social system that generates war: the capitalist system. Marxists are sometimes accused of not being genuine peace activists, of attempting to use the movement for our own ends. In fact what we do is to point out that to end war the peace movement has to change society."
Jamie Doughney took up the question of the trade union movement's social contract (prices-incomes accord) with the Labor government.
federal government-Australian Council of Trade Union's prices-incomes accord has meant a real decline in living
International Viewpoint 25 February 1985
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
AUSTRALIA
War and poverty: Fighting one means fighting the other Socialist Workers Party
Campaigns of Australian SWP (DR)
to be enough to continue to demoralise and intimidate militant workers in the near future. Developments towards left unity taking place
This SWP conference was the largest yet held, attracting over 450 participants. It was also the first opened to observers from other left parties. Representatives from the Eurocommunist Communist Party of Australia and the pro-Moscow Socialist Party of Australia (SPA) observed some sessions. The pro-Peking Communist -Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) sent apologies. SPA general secretary Peter Symon presented greetings to the conference. Supporters of the Melbourne-based Turkish Democratic Group were seated as delegates, and members of the Socialist Party of Croatia also participated.
Another guest at the conference was John Trinkl, a journalist for the Guard ian, the most widely read socialist paper in the United States. Trink addressed a well-attended public meeting on Us politics under Reagan.
Reporting on prospects for socialis unity, SWP Melbourne branch secretary John Percy surveyed the present frag mentation of the organised left. Including the various left-wing migrant organi sations, the Australian left is divided among at least twenty different groups
"Why is the left so divided? asked
Labor should
CROCE THE SEE
Percy, "Big political questions," he con tinued, "have led to the divisions. Thor ough political discussion and clarification will be needed before these divisions can be overcome or bypassed
"Developments towards left unity are
-END ANZUS standards for people in Australia," said Doughney. "A recent report in the Melbourne Herald described the situation in that city's western suburbs as a depres sion. The unemployment rate is 13 per cent.
"Fifty per cent of people living in the western suburbs have incomes below the poverty line. That gives some idea of what's happening to wages in Australia today. Wage restraint is driving down workers' living conditions.
"There are now 300,000 people who have been unemployed for more than six months. That's 120,000 more than when Hawke took office. And 100,000 of those people have been unemployed for more than two years.
"The accord's only success story can be summed up in a simple seven letter word: profits. In the first six months of 1984, 169 major companies recorded a International Viewpoint 25 February 1985
45 per cent increase in profits. The banks have been recording massive profits. There was BP's record 622 million [Australian] dollars in the last financial year. The accord has meant a massive redistribution of wealth away from the working class in this country.
"The facts completely destroy the central premise on which the accord was sold to workers: that wage restraint means more profits, means more investment, means more jobs, means less poverty."
Doughney pointed out that there is considerable unrest over the wage cuts of recent years. This will lead to increasing conflict. However, he said, the accord was likely to hold during 1985, mainly because the ACTU has taken on the role of industrial cop for the Labor government. The weight of virtually the whole of the top trade union leadership is likely taking place on two levels: Firstly, there's discussion and secondly there's action. A third level, organisational unity, is not on the cards at the moment. Obviously that's a goal for the future, but that will be based on success in the first two areas.
Most groups on the left now recognise that discussion is necessary and possible, Percy added. "The forms of the diseus sion and the topics are wide open, and the participation should be as broad as possible. Naturally, we in the SWP have some firm views on the most urgent topics for discussion: Assessment of the ALP, its role in government and its accord; and the attitude socialists should take to the Nuclear Disarmament Party are two of the most important issues, in our opinion. But we're open to sugges tions.
"That's one of the reasons we thre this conference open, inviting represen tatives and members of other left parties to observe our discussions. We wanted to set a precedent, so that dialogue gets extended, the process of discussion gets speeded up."
The conference heard messages from a number of international organisations, including the Sandinista National Libera tion Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua and the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
25