From: "Marcus Strom" <MSTROM-AT-nswtf.org.au>
Date:          Wed, 6 Mar 1996 10:13:32 GMT+10
Subject:       Re: Conservatives win Australian election


Adam (and others)

Do you really think that if people vote Labor, it is necessarily a 
class vote? Is labourism the 'concrete embodiment of class 
consciousness'? No. Labourism is the crisis of class consciousness.

I don't really think that all people who vote Labor are doing it 
through class identification. This is more ridiculous tailing of the 
Labour Party.

> 
> On the other, the collapse in the Labour vote indicates that large
> numbers of workers are no longer prepared to indentify themselves
> with working class politics. ( We should remember that the resistance
> to Thatcher came from people who continued to vote Labour in 1979 - not
> least, Militant ). The rise in racism is the flip side of the demoralisation
> of Labour activists on the ground who are prepared to put an anti racist
> argument.

A lot of this racism comes from the Labor Party itself. They had a 
"White Australia Policy" until the mid 1960s. Graeme Campbell was the 
Labor member of parliament and openly racist while he was in the ALP.

> 
> Nevertheless, we should not overestimate the shift to the right. From
> what I understand, there has been a certain increase in militancy from
> unions just recently.

Well the union bureaucracies are faking left for now. Any movement 
from the class will be directed back into the official labour 
movement "go back to work and vote labor". We will have to intervene 
to direct any movement from the class toward independent class 
politics and away from Labor. Pathetically calling for a labour vote 
will not do this, but help to direct any activity back into the 
official labour movement.

Marcus


     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------