Editorial:

Towards a new reality

The US-led war against the people of Afghanistan is being used by the 
two major parties as an election platform to whip up the "Anzac tradition" 
and militarism.

It is a measure of their opportunism that a major part of the election 
platform of both John Howard and Kim Beazley is built on the bodies of 
innocent Afghani men, women and children.

The two reached a peak of sorts last week in their bellicose sermons to 
"farewell the troops" (in fact a contingent of SAS, the military's elite 
commando squad highly trained to kill).

Laying in wait behind all the jingoistic rhetoric is the reality of 
Australia's growing economic crisis and the people's increasing hardship, 
the result of the policies of both the Liberal and former Labor 
Governments. That is why neither is offering any comprehensive solutions to 
begin overcoming the problems besetting Australia's working people.

It is also a major reason for both to seize on the war with calls to rally 
together in the name of the "war against terrorism". But they both know 
that their promotion of the war will not stop the slide into economic 
crisis.

A compelling factor in this election is their mutual defence of the two 
party system. The big corporations — the real ruling class — knows that 
the policies of both are little different. They both support the war, both 
support privatisation and deregulation, both have acted to eliminate public 
ownership, both support corporate globalisation. Both have restricted trade 
union rights and worsened conditions, both have failed to extended 
recognition to the Aboriginal people despite many promises.

When they call for people to "rally together" they mean behind one or the 
other of them in implementing these policies.

This shoring up of the two party system includes the promotion of "strong 
leadership", which is a product of the public relations machine whose job 
it is to create illusions through the mass media.

So we have the attempted transformation of John Howard, from an extremely 
unpopular prime minister of a government rife with corruption, beset with 
broken promises and a disastrous economic and social agenda, into a media 
created image of a strong leader that we must have in these "troubled 
times". His "strength" is exercised in the act of refusing to say "sorry" 
to the Aboriginal people, by imprisoning refugees from certain middle 
eastern countries and sending others off to war.

That is the illusion. The reality is faced by Australians every day: the 
economic burden foisted on workers and small businesses through the GST; 
the drive to crush the trade union movement; the strangling of the public 
education system; the undermining of public health and its universal 
provider, Medicare. There is more of the same for the Indigenous people.

These policies have resulted in obscene profits for the big corporations, 
the increased exploitation of workers and the handing over to the private 
sector of hundreds of millions of dollars from the pockets of ordinary 
Australians (there is no "mutual obligation" in the Government's corporate 
welfare system).

The "leadership" of the two major parties has in reality meant the giving 
up of Australia's independence and sovereignty to the transnational 
corporations while kowtowing to a warmongering US leadership.

The way to real change is to get off the path of "free" market policies and 
on to a road towards a socially responsible, planned economy where the 
rights and needs of the people take precedence.

A key element of such a course is the restoration of the public provision 
of services — education, health, telecommunications, social security, 
airlines, etc.

Public ownership creates jobs and provides job security; it is more 
accountable, more inclusive and democratic. From it springs the sovereignty 
and independence of Australia together with friendly relations with other 
countries.

These things are not on the immediate agenda in Australia. Nonetheless, a 
step away from the backward and dangerous policies of the Liberal/Labor 
duopoly at the November 10 election would be a vote for progressive 
candidates. It would be a step towards a new Australian reality.