Towards a million unemployed!
Everyone knows there is a recession and this recession has been brewing for a long time. At first Kevin Rudd was a bit blase. He believed that Australia would weather the storm with only minor damage. Then it was predicted that an extra 150,000 would join the dole queue. Later it was estimated that the percentage of the workforce unemployed would reach seven percent! Now it is acknowledged that even this is a serious understatement and the real figure will be much greater. As many as a million people will be forced to live below the poverty line! Many will lose their homes.
Rudd�s basis for optimism was as follows: Australia has a more regulated banking regime and the economy was based on the export of mining raw materials to the less affected Peoples� Republic of China. It�s true that Australia is doing better than other countries. But this is relative. People are suffering. Rudd got it wrong. Australian mineral exports to China have suffered because China�s exports of manufactured goods made from those minerals have declined rapidly. Chinese workers have suffered from serious unemployment also. So there is a reduced demand for Australian imported minerals. Australian mining workers have been laid off.
This recession has exacerbated the process of restructuring. It has been suggested that companies such as Pacific Brands have used the recession to do what they wanted to do anyway �lay off workers. Australian manufacturing has always been weak, undercapitalized, poorly equipped and suffering from a poor local market. For decades, since the post war boom of the sixties, manufacturing firms have folded and many more want to. The recession gives them a smokescreen.
Rudd�s way of dealing with this is to give out money. He believes that if money is given to the right hands, people will spend and this will bring back confidence. The retail sector claims increased spending has helped their industry and saved some jobs. But this gain is minimal. Maybe it has stemmed the tide a little, saving a few jobs for a while. Rudd�s spend big has not been any solution. The flood of unemployment is continuing and is expected to intensify. Working people should not be concerned about the welfare of the government or the bosses. Unless we put our interests first we will be forced to live below the poverty line.
Every sacking must be fought!
Organise, occupy, expropriate the ruling class!
A shorter working week at the bosses' expense, without loss of pay!
No part-time work!
Pakistan faces collapse
It is taking a long time, but the West may win in Afghanistan. The price of this victory will be Pakistan. Osama Bin Ladin is living there and so does El Quaida. In fact they control the North West Provinces and Swat. They have surrounded the North West city of Peshawar. There are regular reports about suicide bombings. Moderate leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. An attack with great social consequences was that on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Apart from religion, cricket is one of the few things which tie Pakistan together.
Pakistan is a reactionary state. It was formed with one common denominator, the Moslem religion. It is a cobbled together mixture of many nationalities with different cultures and languages. Some like the Punjab are divided between Pakistan and India. When the state was formed millions migrated from India to Pakistan to live in the country of their religion. The people known as the Mohijirs are on the bottom wrung of Pakistani society. They formed a national liberation front to fight the reactionary Pakistani state which discriminates against them.
Pakistan is an extremely poor country. It is a country where poor peasants and proletarians suffer a low standard of living.There is no significant communist movement. Stalinism has indeed been compromised. So the likes of El Quaida and the Taliban offer a pole of attraction. It is very easy to blame sin for Pakistan�s failings. Many refugees from Afghanistan are crossing the virtually open border on Pakistan�s North West Frontier. They provide a force for Moslem extremists in their fight against �sin and corruption�.
The Pakistan Government is compromised: by corruption and by its alliance with the USA. After all, the USA is fighting their Moslem brothers in Afghanistan. This war is completely unjustified -- the US alleged that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Afghanistan. The Taliban rulers demanded proof of his participation in the World Trade Centre terror attack. This is fair enough. They were prepared to negotiate. But Bush and cronies didn�t listen. They just invaded.
Naturally Moslems hate other Moslems being invaded and attacked without valid reason. So El Quaida has been able to recruit within Pakistan.
Pakistan is now facing a crisis of terrorism. The terrorists have a social base especially amongst Afghan immigrants. They have support amongst Pakistan�s armed forces. The whole country might explode into sectorial violence.
In no way do we wish a Taliban government on the Pakistani people. The position of women will be degraded from its current low level. They face oppression and discrimination. They would not be allowed to attend school. In Taliban controlled Afghanistan schooling for women was illegal and forced underground. They were forbidden to earn any money. We are totally opposed to any form of Islamic regime. But thanks to the ruling and liberal elites (such as Benizir Bhutto) throwing in their lot with the US, the Taliban are seen as fighters against imperialism. It�s time the proletariat under a revolutionary communist banner fought imperialism for a socialist revolution
Fiji under martial law
Fiji�s former Prime Minister Qarase was ecstatic when Fiji�s Supreme Court handed down its ruling --the military coup which overthrew his government was illegal. However he was going to learn very quickly what this moral legal victory would mean. The President abolished every institution of Fijian democracy and handed power to Bianimarama. Fiji is now a military dictatorship.
The press is censored and foreign journalists have been kicked out of the country. Civil law has been abolished. Qarase cannot appeal because there is no justice system to appeal to.
People like Qarase will never learn. When the interests of capital are interfered with by democratically elected governments then capitalism�s state, the armed forces and the military dispense with democracy.
This is especially true in Fiji where capitalism is less stable but it is also true in countries such as Britain, Chile and Australia. In Australia they used the Governor-General and the Senate to dispense with the democratically elected Whitlam Government. In Chile they used a military coup and imposed a military dictatorship which slaughtered many thousands of leftists and workers. This is the fourth military coup in Fiji.
Rudd and other democratic Commonwealth countries are talking tough. A coup like the one in Fiji is bad for their image. They are
talking about kicking Fiji out of the South Pacific Forum and sanctions.
Bainimarama wants to talk. He thinks he can persuade Rudd that his actions are in the best interests of Fiji (read Fijian capitalism). Yes, it is in their interests to stop governments who may interfere with profits. For the sake of Fijian capitalism these governments must be dealt with.
Qarase has not merely failed to learn the lessons of Chile and Whitlam; he has failed to learn the lessons of his own country. When Fiji finally gets on its democratic feet again, the next government which advocates pro-working class measures will be dealt with also.
In Fiji as elsewhere the revolution must go all the way. The problem with this coup is that it is not only the reformists who will suffer, unionists and proletarians will suffer also, in prison. So will bourgeois democrats.
Workers therefore must break from Qarase and forge a revolutionary proletarian party committed to smash the Fijian state. For a revolutionary workers' and small farmers� government!
A revolutionary party must take up the democratic demands, recognising all cultures. It must take up the demand of the republic which in Fiji�s case can only be achieved simultaneously with the dictatorship of the proletariat which will, of course, transcend it. It must have a programme of agrarian reform. It must be committed to building workers' militias!
Once again the popular front has shown itself to be a death trap for proletarians and working people.