An April Morgan Poll shows that on a two-party preferred basis, voter support for the federal ALP is at 54.5%, while support for the federal Coalition parties is trailing behind at 45.5%.
On these figures, it seems likely that Prime Minister John Howard's government will be dumped by voters in favour of an ALP government led by Mark Latham in the federal election later this year.
Being ousted would be a well-deserved reward for the Coalition government's years of lies and attacks on working people in Australia and abroad, particularly its enthusiastic participation in the US-led attack on Iraq.
However, a Latham-led Labor government will not necessarily be much better. Latham has made some welcome promises — such as as saying he wants to pull Australian troops out of Iraq before the end of the year. But the overall thrust of his policies is completely within the neoliberal, economic rationalist, agenda that was first begun by the Hawke-Keating Labor governments of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Just like British Labour PM Tony Blair, Latham espouses pro-capitalist nationalism and urges workers to adhere to traditional conservative "values" like individual competitiveness rather than working-class solidarity and internationalism.
Latham is as committed to the US-led and pro-imperialist "war on terror" as Howard, but he wants to defend "Australians" from alleged terrorists in "our" region — South-East Asia — rather than in the Middle East. He wants to pull Australian troops out of Washington's grab-for-oil debacle in Iraq so as to be available to provide "security" for Australian corporations' investments in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Whatever the outcome of the federal election, working people will only be able to defend and advance their interests if they act together to fight for them — through taking industrial action and through mass protest demonstrations in the streets.
Our sellers are frequently approached on the street by people who believe Green Left Weekly should, or in fact does, support the Australian Greens.
In Australia, the Greens have opposed most economic rationalist legislation that has passed through parliament. But they do not advocate the replacement of the system which creates these "excesses" with a radically different system — one in which the working people democratically control economic life.
Instead, the Greens seek to use the existing institutions of capitalist "democracy", parliament above all, to ameliorate capitalism's "excesses".
That's also why the Greens do not regard the collective, extraparliamentary mobilisations of working people — like mass anti-war demonstrations — as the most effective means to achieve progressive social change.
This is why Green Left Weekly supports the Socialist Alliance. As we pointed out in our editorial our July 2, 2001, edition (GLW #454), "Australia desperately needs a strong socialist party ... a party that will campaign for society be run by and for the majority", that is, by working people.
The Socialist Alliance has proven that the socialist left can collaborate on a major project over a sustained period. It has provided a space for socialists to come together and debate politics. It has assisted the development of militant left networks in some unions. Its members have been the key activists in building the street protests demanding the immediate withdrawal of US and Australian troops from Iraq.
At its conference last year, the Socialist Alliance voted to transform itself into a multi-tendency socialist party. Further important steps along that road will be discussed and voted on at the alliance's third (annual) national conference, which will be held in Melbourne over the May 8-9 weekend.
At the conference, the Socialist Alliance will launch the biggest socialist election campaign in decades — contesting Senate seats in six states and territories and at least 30 seats in the House of Representatives.
Socialist Alliance candidates will be explaining how alternative people-centred policies can be made to work in the areas of life that are vital to working people. They will also be explaining that socialists seek election to parliament not to "represent" the extra-parliamentary movements and struggles of working people, but to build and resource them.
Green Left Weekly urges its readers, in whatever way they are able, to help the Socialist Alliance achieve its ambitious goals.
From Green Left Weekly, May 5, 2004.
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