The following is the text of a leaflet being distributed in Melbourne by the Democratic Socialist Party.
Jeff Kennett's Liberals have earned the dubious distinction of being the most reactionary, anti-worker, anti-people government seen in Australia since the Great Depression. Ordinary people are facing attacks right along the line: wages and working conditions are to be forced back to the 19th century; education, health and public transport are to be savagely cut; a $100 "poll tax" is to be imposed on every homeowner... and the list goes on.
The Liberals' butchery of the education system shows their ruthlessness and utter contempt for teachers, other school staff, students and parents. The recently-announced cuts fall most heavily on schools serving the poorest areas. Furthermore, they come on top of years of cutbacks under Labor (as well as a marked increase in funding of the private school sector). It all fits in with the Liberals' elitist view of education — a lucky few will benefit while the mass of students will suffer in underfunded, under-resourced, overcrowded schools.
We should be clear that if Kennett's blitzkrieg succeeds, even worse will follow. The postwar economic conditions which underlay the development of a welfare state in Australia with its high living standards and developed social infrastructure have long since gone. Today capitalism internationally is in a profound crisis, economic competition is intensifying and employers and governments everywhere are pushing to slash social expenditures, drive down wages and boost business profits.
Labor no alternative
The Liberals were elected on October 3 because of popular revulsion at the seemingly endless series of financial scandals under the Cain and Kirner ALP governments. Kennett traded on this feeling of anger to gain office and carry out a vicious program most Victorians don't support.
Hewson's GST, the federal Coalition's industrial relations policy and Kennett's more extreme version of it will probably drive many people to vote for Labor at the next federal elections. However, although the ALP is clearly a "lesser evil", it is no real alternative for those seeking social justice, ecological sanity and an end to the Liberals' anti-worker assault.
Labor shares the Coalition's "economic rationalist" agenda of privatisation, tariff cuts and labor market "reform". The major parties differ only on how to achieve these objectives and at what pace.
Labor can boast of the ALP-ACTU Accord's proven record of wage control and forced industrial peace. Labor boosted the profit share of national income to a postwar record at the expense of wages and jobs. The ALP also cut taxes for the rich and corporations. When Kennett and rra recently, Keating loaned them $1.6 billion to carry out their program of sacking thousands of Victorian public servants!
Furthermore, the Victorian Liberals calculate that a decade of Labor's Accord has weakened and demoralised the trade union movement to the point where it will be unable to resist their reactionary offensive.
Some sections of the mainstream media are a little nervous about the Liberals' confrontationist approach. This was particularly noticeable after the huge popular mobilisation on November 10. They share Kennett's objectives but call for a more oblique approach. However, should Kennett succeed, they can be expected to change their tune.
How to win
A strategy to take on the Liberals and win can't rely on either the Labor Party or hesitations in the ranks of the employers. That is the road to certain defeat.
The Kennett offensive can be halted only if the organised labor movement reaches out and unites with all those sectors threatened by the pro-big-business agenda of both major parties — the unemployed, young people, students, parents, pensioners, welfare recipients and so on.
Industrial action is important, especially in re-establishing union membership and organisation at the base level after almost 10 years of erosion and decline under the Accord.
But industrial struggle alone is not enough. The fight is above all a political one. The labor movement has to engage in a mass struggle to win hearts and minds, to clarify the issues, to cut through all the vicious, inhuman arguments that Victoria's financial situation demands that the mass of ordinary people be plunged into poverty and despair.
The massive public outpouring on November 10 — when some 250,000 people marched in Melbourne and regional centres across Victoria — has been the high point and single most effective action of the campaign so far.
Any strategy to win must be centred on developing further such mobilisations on an even broader basis. This is absolutely vital to winning the political argument and building morale and confidence. Other forms of protest and struggle naturally take their place within such an overall framework.
Working people need a new political party
Even if Kennett is defeated — and the issue is certainly far from decided — the attacks will not stop. They are dictated by the global capitalist crisis and the needs of Australian big business to increase competitiveness and boost profits. This will be the background for politics for the rest of the 1990s at least. The challenge facing all who are under attack — whether by the Liberals or right-wing Labor governments — is to build an alternative political party — a new party which will lead the fight for the interests of workers and ordinary people.
While this may seem a daunting task, it is certainly not impossible. The meteoric rise of the Alliance in New Zealand shows that it is possible to break the two-party monopoly. The Alliance is a coalition of the NewLabour Party, the Greens, the Maori Mana Motuhake Party and two other smaller parties. Campaigning on a resolutely anti-cuts, anti-privatisation, pro-workers' rights platform it is currently out in front in the opinion polls, ahead of Labor and the Nationals!
We can do it here! All it takes is the political will to do it! There will never be a better time.
Those unions that want to be more than boosters for the Keating government's re-election could lead the way by breaking from Labor and striking out with all those community forces that believe that people's needs should come before corporate profits.
Of course, an effective alternative to Labor and the Liberals will have to be more than just another parliamentary party. While it will have to contest elections it will also have to be committed to independent mass action, to mobilising and empowering masses of ordinary people who are excluded and alienated by mainstream parliamentary politics.