Sound and fury signifying (next to) nothing!

Although ALP leader Simon Crean got his way after months of discussion 
and build up, the so-called reforms of the Labor Party are unlikely to add 
a single vote for the Party when the next Federal elections take place.

A rule change to facilitate the attendance of rank and file members at 
future ALP conferences was defeated. Crean hopes that a cosmetic change — 
the reduction of trade union representation from 60 per cent to 50 per cent 
will encourage new members into the Party.

Future ALP conferences will be dominated by Labor Party officials, 
apparatchiks and trade union officials as in the past. The rank and file is 
not going to get a significant look in.

Policies will be determined by factional deals among the officials 
concerned. If the members were to be really given a voice many policy 
decisions would be substantially different to those adopted for opportunist 
reasons by the present conference delegations.

The much trumpeted big win for Crean is, on closer analysis, found to have 
been built on a 42 to 37 vote of the left faction which also decided that 
all should vote for the majority decision.

In justifying the rule changes Simon Crean claimed that the big defeats 
suffered by the Labor Party in the last three Federal elections showed that 
the support of the working people was not enough. The fact is that almost 
90 per cent of Australian society is comprised of wage and salary earners. 
Not only is Simon Crean a pathetic political leader but is also incompetent 
when it comes to political mathematics.

The rule change foreshadows an even further shift to the right when it 
comes to policy questions and many will continue to draw the conclusion 
that there is little difference between the Liberal and National Parties 
and the ALP. More and more will look for an alternative among the smaller 
parties.

It is extraordinary that a political party could allow itself to engage in 
the introspective examination involved in the rule changes rather than 
spending time on the policy questions which are the real reasons for the 
defeat of the Labor Party in Federal elections.

Those who pressed for a discussion and policy decision on the mandatory 
sentencing of refugees were easily side-tracked by the establishment of a 
committee which will meet sometime and is not scheduled to report for a 
year.

The bait to those who pushed this question was to have representation on 
this committee. Crean immediately made his position clear by again stating 
the Labor Party's support for mandatory sentencing of refugees.

Other urgent policy issues include the danger of US aggression against Iraq 
and the reality that Crean is lining up to support the war should there be 
one.

Then there is the issue of the privatisation of Telstra on which the ALP is 
putting forward confused signals and appears to be weakening its earlier 
stated resolve to oppose any further privatisation.

The issues of public education, public hospitals and the preservation of 
Medicare (which is being systematically undermined by the Howard 
Government), cry out for clear, strong policies in support of the education 
unions, the nurses and the medical profession.

The Labor Party and trade union left believes that the way is now opened 
for adoption of policies that will attract working class voters back to the 
fold. This is an illusion. Crean's chase after voters other than those of 
the working people and his successful attempt to weaken trade union 
representation means that under his leadership the Labor Party is heading 
in the opposite direction.

The underlying policy void that has created such widespread disillusionment 
with the Labor Party was not solved by the weekend of largely unprincipled 
deals. The crisis will re-emerge as the policy issues unfold, just as the 
unresolved crisis in the Democrats is all about policies, not 
personalities.