Saturday, 8 October 2016

For Public Housing, Green Space and Livable Cities



FOR PUBLIC HOUSING, GREEN SPACE AND LIVABLE CITIES!

21-08-2016 – Concrete jungles, unaffordable housing, expensive public transport, the privatisation and commercialisation of more and more public space, traffic congestion – all this has unfortunately become the norm for Brisbane for some years now. The imposing “West Village” development in West End is scarcely different. Seven 15 storey high-density luxury apartments are proposed by development corporations with no other agenda other than to pocket themselves millions of dollars, and damn the consequences, for they do not live anywhere near the monstrosity built. 

Local State Member of Parliament, the Australian Labor Party’s ALP Jackie Trad, has, after objections, initiated the process of “calling in” the West Village development.[1] But this does not at all mean that the project will be stopped – it could be merely a mechanism by which an ALP politician can claim that they have carried out “public consultation”. The ALP, along with the Liberal National Party (LNP) are bought and paid operatives for the system which creates unsustainable development in the first place. In fact, the entire parliamentary system, from the local council right up to the Federal Government, is not a system of “representation”, but a system of suppressing the right of working people to make political decisions.

The parliamentary apparatus is the sham political arm of the capitalist system – the system of private production for private profit. At the same time, privately organised production uses the social labour of the working class to amass all the monetary gain, returning only enough to working people the means to reproduce themselves – or not even that. This system has been in recession for years in Australia, with no current signs of any kind of recovery. Capital seeks an ever greater return on its rate of profit, and thus will undertake projects which glean the highest rate of return – irrespective of what working people and the communities in which they live actually need. Affordable public housing, cheap or free public housing, green space and public parks and amenities – capital pockets no profit from building or maintaining such needs for working people. 

Developments such as West Village are an example of the contradiction between private property and social property. As long as the Absoe Furniture site remains private property, the capitalist system will allow, and is set up to enable, the private owners to do as they see fit – short of a huge intervention by working people. Private property in land underpins capitalism. Opposing this system is social property owned in common – socialism. The struggle for rational social planning, for green space, for public housing and public amenities, therefore, is ultimately a struggle against private property. Such a struggle ultimately can only successfully be waged as a working class struggle. A “community” campaign, due to the fact that it appeals to all “locals” regardless of class, just won’t cut it.

Historically, where the working class has waged such a successful struggle which has resulted in victory, working people have reaped the benefits. While in Australia we have governments of all stripes which have privatised public housing, in the People’s Republic of China, their government has embarked on an immense public housing program. By the end of 2014, the Chinese government had supplied 40 million families with low-rent public housing.[2] Housing in China is seen as a responsibility of the government. Or take the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – referred to by the Western media as “North Korea”). Its capital Pyongyang has a whopping 58 square metres of green space per person[3], and is known for its 10 metre wide footpaths. Compare this to Brisbane, with a maximum of 4 square centimetres of green space per person.[4]

The crucial difference is that, with all its imperfections, socialism rules in China and the DPRK, whereas capitalism remains unchallenged in Australia. Local struggles, such as the one against the rapacious property developers, backed by the Brisbane City Council, seeking to bury West End under an avalanche of luxury units, are important way before the struggle advances to the stage of posing questions of the entire system. The efforts of all those struggling to make Brisbane a livable city are welcome. Yet even here class differences will become apparent. Residents and working people will have a totally different conception of “livable” compared to Councillors, developers, real estate agents and even small shopkeepers. They all see dollars in their pockets, whereas as working residents desire a pleasant and amenable place to reside for themselves and their families. In fact, the struggle for livable cities is inseparable from the struggle for decent working conditions, a lower cost of living, decent public transport and basic public services. With the right strategy, a win in one area can mean a win in others. Down with “West Village”! 

ML Group
PO Box 66  Nundah QLD  4012
E: mlgroup271@gmail.com

Demand Free Education



DEMAND FREE EDUCATION – JUST LIKE IN THE DPRK!

24-08-2016 – The figures are staggering. $20 billion of government funding cut from the University sector, a drift towards total deregulation of fees, $100 000 degrees, and the privatisation of higher education. Combine this with a further slated 20% cut in funding, and a 100% increase in class sizes over the last generation,[1] and the labelling of tertiary education as being “Americanised” is no exaggeration. Along with the daylight robbery type fees, crowded lectures, more online courses and less contact with tutors have become the norm. Higher Education in Australia is becoming, or has become, unaffordable for all but the most privileged.

The quality of the education provided at Universities today and the fees charged proceed in inverse proportions. The worse the quality, the more fees are charged. University staff also suffer – there has been a raft of job cuts at Universities around the country, and many tutors who have some employment are only taken on for short-term contracts. Casualisation is rife, with tutors sometimes only paid for the actual student contact hours. In contrast, the remuneration for University Vice-Chancellors continues to be obscene. Figures for VC salaries from 2015 reveal that the lowest VC salary was $540,000, while seven VCs pulled a salary of over 1 million per year.[2] Universities have become commercialised degree factories, whose graduates are endorsed for uncritically accepting the privatisation of virtually everything.

The rapidly approaching full deregulation of fees will adversely affect international as well as domestic student. A HSBC report found that despite Australia having the highest education costs of any country in the world,[3] international students make up 20% of tertiary student body. These students are treated by University administrations as little more than cash cows, who are charged higher fees than domestic students. These international students have to work to pay the tuition fees in addition to their living expenses, while somehow studying full time. This leads many international students to undertake any available work, often ending up being illegally underpaid by notorious outfits such as the 7 Eleven convenience stores.

While the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has done some positive work to oppose the further drift to full fee deregulation, and to highlight the dangers of $100 000 degrees, it still ultimately retains an electoralist and parliamentarist strategy to address the almost terminal state of accessible higher education. In amongst encouragement to attend rallies, the NTEU officials talk about “helping out at election time” , “writing a letter to your MP”, and “ensuring that the government not abrogate its role in providing [higher education]”. The left party Socialist Alternative (SAlt), the largest left group organising on University campuses, also ultimately plays into a perspective of “pressuring” parliament and parliamentary parties, despite its laudable organisational role. SAlt correctly recognise that both Liberal and Labor parties back the effective privatisation of higher education, but often tailor their calls to target Liberal party ministers, which opens the door for work on the ground with Labor and Greens aligned students.

To be clear, the ongoing attacks on higher education in this country are not a result of the ideas or ideology of the major political parties, nor are they the result of the ideology of “neoliberalism”. Higher education is being privatised due to the economic crisis engulfing the capitalist world economies, mired in effective recession since 2008. In this country, the privatisation of higher education began in 1989 under the Labor Party, but has continued ever since, regardless of whether there has been a Liberal/National, Labor or Labor/Greens coalition. All of these parties are committed to maintaining the capitalist system at the expense of the suffering of working people. All “liberal democratic” governments in this country are thus in practice arms of a dictatorship of the owners of the means of production. This is why they no longer see it (if they ever did) as “their role” to provide accessible higher education, as the NTEU leadership implores.

It is only a socialist government which genuinely sees its role as providing education for all working people. It is in the material interests of a socialist government to ensure all its citizens have access to all forms of education to establish an educated workforce, but also to ensure the scientific and cultural progress of that society. There is a socialist state in the Asia-Pacific region which does provide all its citizens with free education – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – referred to by the corporate media as “North Korea”). The DPRK has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is only 1.3% the size of Australia’s GDP[4], yet it is able to provide education at all levels, including 12 years of schooling, and between 3 and 5 years of University education at no cost to DPRK citizens. What is more, all University graduates are guaranteed employment, as the concept of unemployment is unknown in the DPRK.

It is a far cry from what young working people in Australia face – crippling or unaffordable tuition fees, and a high likelihood of unemployment upon graduation. The contrast between capitalism and socialism could not be more stark. While we face the barrier of wholesale deregulation, however, the same methods used to secure a socialist state – class struggle – is ultimately the only way of obtaining a decent and accessible education system now. Students, as an intermediate body between school and the workforce, do not have the social power to bring the system to a halt. Only the working class, particularly on campus, but also in the public service and workplaces across the country, has the potential to ramp up the class struggle, through mass actions up to and including the withdrawal of labour.
The main obstacle to the linking of the student’s struggle for free education with workers’ power is primarily the influence of the top officials presiding over most Unions, who see their role as channelling any just demands into the capitalist state via pleading with “our” politicians. These politicians are not “ours” no matter how much snake oil they sell. Students and workers need to rely on their own strength, independently of the parliamentary system, to forge a mass movement which has the power to win. This will also require the formation of a workers’ party, which can champion the struggle for both free education and socialism.

DEMAND  FREE  EDUCATION!
ML GROUP
PO  Box  66  Nundah  QLD  4012
E: mlgroup271@gmail.com

Monday, 29 August 2016

Shut Down Nauru! No Wars of "Regime Change"! Full Citizenship Rights For All Refugees and Migrants!



SHUT DOWN NAURU!

NO WARS OF “REGIME CHANGE”!

FULL CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS FOR ALL REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS!

Above: Detainees demonstrate against their detention on Nauru. Banners compare the Australian Border Force (ABF) to the fascism of Nazis, after 1026 days being incarcerated. Image from www.springhillvoice.com

27-08-2016 – The Nauru files, a cache of 2000 reports totalling over 8000 pages, present yet more overwhelming evidence of worsening mental, physical and sexual abuse of refugees on the Australian run detention centre on Nauru. Around half of the files present evidence of serious harm to children. Refugees, who have committed no crime, are being subjected to grossly inhumane conditions which amount to nothing less than torture. The files are replete with stories of guards asking for sexual favours from female asylum seekers, beating children and dehumanising the detainees daily.[1] The files are reportedly grim reading for anyone with a shred of humanity.

The detention centre on Nauru is wholly the responsibility of the Australian government. Nauru is the world’s smallest island state, with a population of around 10 000 people. Although the Nauruan government signed the deal, it is not in a position to bargain equally with Australia, which has the world’s 13th largest economy. If the Nauruan government said no to the Australian government run detention centre, the Australian government could easily withhold much needed trade and basic supplies. The refugee rights movement is correct to point the finger directly at the Australian state.

While the refugee rights movement in this country is to be commended for its relentless activity and commitment, which has given the opportunity for those opposed to inhuman behaviour against innocents to mobilise, it also needs to take stock. The refugee rights movement has won some minor gains, but overall the situation remains dire. The Australian government has repeatedly given every indication that no amount of exposure of its crimes against human beings, no amount of damage to the international reputation of the country, and no domestic or international law will deter it from administering unparalleled brutality against those who are its convenient scapegoats. The Australian government rules for the interest of capitalism internationally. It considers that one of the most important duties it must carry out is to actively prevent workers from binding together against the “market forces” which are denying workers here a decent standard of living. If keeping working people blaming “refugees”, “migrants” and other “others” for their own misfortune means carrying out appalling human rights abuses against asylum seekers, then this is what they will do.

For this reason, if no other, the refugee rights movement will either move forward together with the labour movement, or they will fall back separately. It is in the direct interests of the workers to end the vicious mistreatment of refugees, so they can also fight back against their own mistreatment in the workplace, a direct product of the ongoing capitalist economic crisis. The refugee rights movement therefore needs to strategically orient to the labour movement, and seek to encourage it to enter the field of class struggle. It is noted that this is extremely difficult, as the major block towards mobilising workers in their own interests, as well as for basic humanity, is the ideologically pro-capitalist Union officialdom, which, with a few exceptions, so thoroughly integrates itself into the capitalist state that it virtually functions as an arm of the government. In an effort to overcome this, the refugee rights movement should at the least raise demands and slogans aimed towards workers as workers. There are many ways to formulate such demands, but one could be: Workers Demand – Shut Down Nauru!

Against War

The refugee rights movement as it stands carries out numerous actions in which working people and supporters of humane treatment of asylum seekers can be a part of. Groups such as the Refugee Action Collective are to be applauded for the organisational work they ceaselessly engage in. At the same time, there are severe political limitations which hamper its impact. For one thing, the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) – and the left parties which underpin it, such as Solidarity (SOL), Socialist Alternative (SALT) and Socialist Alliance (SALL) – make little or no attempt to explain one of the major drivers for the refugee exodus from the Middle East and North Africa – the US led wars for regime change in Libya and Syria. This is for very good reason – these left parties, to the last letter, have not opposed these wars, but backed them. This then flows on as the defacto position of RAC. In this, they are joined by the more mainstream Australian Greens, the labour bureaucracy sitting atop the Unions, and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) front groups such as GetUp! and “Love Makes a Way”. Despite their differences, all of these groups and left parties, RAC, the ALP, the Greens and conservative Union officials line up with the foreign policy of Canberra – tied as it is by a thousand threads to that of the US behemoth.

Make no mistake, the US led war for regime change in Syria has been perhaps the most dishonest of dirty wars ever waged in history. Professor Tim Anderson’s book on the subject has the apt title “The Dirty War on Syria”. The US Empire has been unequalled in the savage barbarism it unleashed in the form of “ISIS” and at least 20 other “Islamic” mercenary terrorist groups. It is an open secret that ISIS and all “opposition” groups in Syria was armed, and/or funded with aid from the governments of the US, France, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Jordan, with assistance from Israel.[2] US Special Forces have entered Syria, and recently pictures emerged of British Special Forces on the ground in Syria.[3] The notion that the US and British troops are there to fight “against” ISIS is patently absurd. It is much more likely that they are in the process of securing patches of Syria as “ISIS-free zones” in order to occupy them themselves and thus facilitate the break-up of the Syrian Arab Republic. For years, Western governments have chanted in unison “Assad must go”, while arming the most reprehensible misanthropes in an effort to do just that.

The wholesale slaughter of men, women and children across Syria has necessarily forced some to flee the country, some becoming refugees within Europe, others fleeing further, including to Australia. At a certain point, imperialism itself used the refugee crisis to further its war agenda. Witness the outcry over the pictures showing a Syrian boy of Kurdish background being washed up after drowning trying to cross with his family from Turkey into Greece in early September 2015.[4] At that moment, groups such as GetUp! and RAC took the bait, and took the streets to demand “action” in Syria. Though unstated, the “action” they demanded was an outright imperialist war of conquest. Many genuine people were thus mobilised for a cataclysmic war, under the guise of concern for refugees.

It was soon after this that Russia finally drew the conclusion that if the US was to overthrow Syria, not only the Middle East, but the entire region could descend further into a conflagration which would almost certainly reach their doorstep. Thus on September 30 2015 Russia, at the invitation of the Syrian government, began a military campaign to eliminate ISIS and all mercenary terrorist groups seeking to overthrow the Syrian state.[5] The military campaign has been devastatingly effective in a military and political sense. Militarily, it has finally turned the tables decisively in the interests of the sovereignty of Syria. Politically, it has exposed the US role as the benefactors of ISIS and other terrorist groups, for the US did not want to harm its investments in Syria. Russia has also been joined by Iran, the Lebanese Hezbollah and most recently, China.[6] We should be clear, the intervention of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and China on the side of Syria has dealt a decisive setback to the aims of US imperialism, and thus these actions can only be supported by working people worldwide. This does not necessarily imply, however, political support for the governments involved.

Furthermore, the turning of the war against US imperialism can only improve the drastic situation for refugees, for now some Syrian refugees are already seeking to return to their home. For with the military might of Russia behind it, it is more unlikely that the Syrian government will be dislodged. It should also be noted that in practice the call to welcome Syrian refugees to Australia was deeply reactionary, in that the draining of the Syrian population from Syria can only ease the conditions for an ISIS victory. But this is precisely what RAC, its constituent left parties, and GetUp! et al overtly spruiked. It is a subtle call for the overthrow of the Syrian government – their aim all along. All of these groups, especially SOL, SALT and SALL, bizarrely refer to US armed mercenaries in Syria beheading their way across that country as “revolutionaries” – without ever being able to name a single group or individual. Thus, while refugee rights supporters should not oppose Syrian refugees coming to Australia, neither should we call specifically for it.

It would be remiss of refugee rights supporters to ignore the role of Canberra in the war for regime change in Syria. In fact, the former Liberal government dispatched Australian troops to Syria, along with six fighter jets, and claimed to be bombing ISIS targets. This has to be taken with a large grain of salt. The Australian ruling class is lockstep with Washington, whose aim has always been regime change. It is more likely that any such bombing clears the way for ISIS. However, this facet of the war became moot when Russia entered the war at the request of the Syrians. The Australian jets soon had to turn tail and run, lest they come up against the far superior Russian jet fighters.[7] Australia, however, still maintains its hardware and troops in Iraq and Syria. This does not assist anything except creating more war and thus more refugees. The refugee rights movement and working people here need to loudly demand: Australian Troops: Out of Iraq and Syria!

Link the refugee rights struggle to standards of living

One reason why the Federal Government’s deplorable treatment of refugees does not immediately provoke mass outrage is the deteriorating living standards which the recession prone capitalist economy has been imposing on Australian working people for at least the last 30 years. It is all too easy, in an economic environment where unemployment is rampant, housing virtually unaffordable, and health and education costs, together with basic services such as electricity and water are skyrocketing, to blame an “other” – in this case refugees. To cut against this, the refugee rights movement needs to link the efforts for humane treatment of those seeking asylum to the struggle to maintain decent living standards for working people. This way, workers can see that there is no contradiction between assisting refugees and asylum seekers, and improving living conditions for everyone here. For example, the refugee rights movement could demand that a job, a Union, housing, health, education and welfare services are entitlements of everyone living here, including refugees and asylum seekers. To undercut any concern about a lack of jobs to go around for Australians and refugees, the Union movement should demand and fight for a drastic reduction in the working week with no loss in pay, to share around the available work and allow all to take part in their communities. It should also demand automatic wage indexation to offset inflation. If the Unions could lead a determined struggle for these demands for all workers, angst towards refugees is likely to fade away.

Despite their pro-war stance, to their credit RAC demands permanent visas, instead of the agony of temporary visas, which allow refugees and asylum seekers to be deported at the whim of the government at any time. However, the refugee rights movement should go further and demand full citizenship rights for all refugees and migrants. There is no more basic right than to be acknowledged as a citizen, and thus have the right to access jobs, housing, healthcare, education, pensions, join a Union, apply for jobs in the public service, and so on. The ruling class does not have the right to decide who can be, and who cannot be, a citizen. To our knowledge, throughout history it is only social revolution which has won this simple democratic right. The first time was during the French Revolution of 1789, the second time was during the Paris Commune of 1871, and the third time was during the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. At that time, the new Soviet government made it clear that any working person, regardless of nationality, resident within the area covered by the victorious revolutionary forces would be welcomed. Before our movement reaches such heights, we need to demand full citizenship rights for all those who have made it to these shores.
 
Unfortunately, the depth of the economic recession has, in the absence of a strong left-wing alternative, produced ultra-right wing political excrescences such as One Nation, Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front. Mistakenly associating ISIS with Islam, these fascistic goons also blame refugees for the failures of “free enterprise”. The environment of war combined with the “war on terror” propaganda has resulted in some street attacks on those identifiable as “Islamic”. In response, we call for integrated workers defence guards, both to defend refugees and those who follow the Islamic faith, in order to secure peaceful communities for working people to live. At the same time, we give no endorsement of any religious views, recognising that these should remain a private matter.

We should be aware that even if we are able to win humane treatment of refugees here, the world’s refugee crisis will not be solved while capitalism rules five-sixths of the world. The global capitalist economic crisis generates ever more reckless imperialist wars, and flirts with world war against Russia and China. The vast inequalities created by “free markets” cause massive poverty as a matter of course, forcing people to flee in search of a better life. And this is to say nothing of the potential incineration of humanity via runaway climate change, which has already caused its own flow of refugees. The only hope for working people here, and not only to solve the refugee crisis, is to fight for a Socialist Republic of Australia, which can then link up with the existing socialist states in the Asia-Pacific, and reach out to the hundreds of millions of workers in Indonesia and Japan. This task requires the formation of a workers’ vanguard party, which is bound up with efforts to win a class struggle leadership of the Trade Unions. Shut Down Nauru!

ML Group
PO  Box  66  Nundah  QLD  4012