Date: Wed, 6 Mar 96 08:55:02 GMT
From: Adam Rose <adam-AT-pmel.com>
Subject: Re: Conservatives win Australian election



>
> Adam (and others)
> 
> Do you really think that if people vote Labor, it is necessarily a 
> class vote?
>

Yes. The bedrock of the Labour ( and Labor ) vote is the organised 
working class, and you know it is.

> Is labourism the 'concrete embodiment of class 
> consciousness'?

No. "Labourism" as a set of ideas represents opposition to aspects of the
system within the framework of the system.

> 
>
> > 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.
>

Sure. Same in Britain.

Labo(u)r parties have, and always have had, both racists and anti racists in them.
Labo(ur) in power has always acted as racist or more so than the Tories.

But my basic point, that the crisis of reformism has meant that there are
fewer people arguing against racism day in day out, on the ground, still holds.

And again, I think you know it does. You know perfectly well that in any 
argument or campaign against racism the most reliable allies of socialists
are Labo(u)r voters.

> 
> Well the union bureaucracies are faking left for now.
>

They're not faking left now any more than they were faking right before.
Union bureaucrts are under pressure from above and from below. Sometimes
they're pushed one way, sometimes the other. As far as they lead, good.
As soon as they don't, we have to act independently of them. To do this
we have to fight alongside Labo(u)r voters - and voting Labo(ur) along
with them once every four or five years makes this easier.

Adam.

PS.

Anyway, we've been round this loop a number of times.
Marcus, how about you have one more reply, and then we all agree
to leave it for a while ?
Unless anyone else outside the usual wants to say something.

Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK

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