PM John Howard now claims a mandate for a raft of reactionary measures that he didn't even mention during the federal election campaign.
Before polling it was all about security, trust and "rewards". Just four days after the election, treasurer Peter Costello revealed with a smirk that these bribes were contingent on "over-optimistic" Treasury estimates. As Sarah Stephen points out in the cover story on page 9, Howard's political mandate is weakened by the fact that many people were terrorised into voting for the Coalition because of their extreme vulnerability to interest rate rises.
Opinion surveys continue to show that Howard is in a minority on the Iraq war, the government's treatment of asylum seekers, Telstra privatisation and a range of other issues. Our society is sharply divided down the middle on the big issues and, if anything, progressive thinking has gained ground over the last two years. Support for Howard's treatment of asylum seekers has dropped dramatically since the shameful Tampa incident. This progressive sentiment was also clearly reflected in the historic February 2003 million-strong demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq.
The Coalition's "fresh mandate" agenda of more attacks on workers' rights and the sale of the remaining half of Telstra will provoke resistance. In the last period, many people looked to the Senate to ameliorate Howard's attacks, but if the Senate is controlled by the Coalition, as looks likely, then Howard's nasty agenda will have to be resisted in the streets.
Can people power manifest itself again as it did so spectacularly in February 2003? What happened to those million marchers?
That large body of dissent retreated partly out of shock and demoralisation when the "millions in the streets" were ignored and Iraq was invaded by the "coalition of the killing".
Shock was followed by confusion about whether or not a Western occupation should be opposed. However, by last November, in the face of growing resistance in Iraq, it became clear to a majority once again that, like the invasion, the occupation was wrong. The final exposure of the WMD lies topped it off.
Yet the million did not reappear on the streets. Why? Perhaps Iraq was too far away for some. Others hoped that Howard's agenda would be thwarted through the October 9 election. However, on October 9 Howard was returned after an election campaign in which the Coalition, the ALP "opposition" and the corporate media did their best to screen out the Iraq war. Now our choice is stark: accept Howard's reactionary agenda or resist it in the streets.
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From Green Left Weekly, October 20, 2004.
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