left flank - Latest Comments

Re: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Daniel — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:03:47 -0000

Greens in general have said that the QLD result was good in a result which was a turn to the right. I disagree. It shows that they didnt engage enough in the most winnable seats they targeted.

Re: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Dr_Tad — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:18:22 -0000

We've just moved to Wordpress and the Disqus migration is stupidly slow. It should be up later today.

New blog address is: http://left-flank.org/ but comments not currently working.

Sorry for the trouble
Tad

Re: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Makropulos — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:59:58 -0000

Have all comments for this post vanished or is disqus acting up like it did on Lenin's Tomb?

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Robin Wingrove — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:21:18 -0000

It certainly appears as if the worker has been over run by capital and that there is no-one there to assist them as those who once did are now pseudo libertarians and are sucking from the capitalist teat with as much vigour as their opposite numbers. Historically, the only way out of such an impasse is that the situation becomes so dire that revolution is the only answer and that would be decades away in today's terms. There certainly is not any group within our current body politic who gives active opposition to the greed we see all around us or offers protection to those who question the basis of society's premises. Most are anaesthetised by the current bread and circuses of sport, tv and 'career' and the good old Australian 'she'll be right, mate'.

Personally I can't find anyone to vote for now as the Greens, my last port of call, are now swimming with the sharks as well.

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Casper_79 — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:20:35 -0000

For all your talk of a "concrete analysis of a concrete situation" - there is no concrete strategy here.

Nothing about ANY union fightback that have actually happened in the latest while and how they could contribute to laying the basis for a left alternative eg. nurses in vitoria, sigma picket in victoria, workers solidarity actions on port in Sydney - however limited.

You can criticise the left for old slogans, but actually isn't what we have seen with the Occupy slogan of 1% vs 99% exactly the type of class identification that has been absent in australian politics? Isn't a union power central to making this slogan a reality? I would think a little more of this sort of identification - class, unions resistance, what the left needs to be arguing?

Good on you for developing a witty metaphor. But we need more than metaphors to rebuild the left.

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Makropulos — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:26:26 -0000

You’ve given me a new spin on the Walking Dead series. I was
starting to suspect it was all about an embattled bourgeoisie struggling against
a ferociously unproductive Malthusian mass who were forever coming to take away
“what’s mine, MINE, I tell ya!” i.e. I thought the still living characters were
the beleaguered capitalists. Or, at least, it was the way they saw themselves. I’d
certainly say that the zombies are the “shadow projection” of capitalism i.e.
the way the workers are perceived – lazy, good for nothing, always taking too
much, having the nerve to keep going, depleting scarce resources and almost
unkillable.

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Harlequin11 — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:42:15 -0000

I loved this and I wanna see this movie now!

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Sam Bauers — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:28:09 -0000

Except that the notion of a mining-dependent economy is a fantasy.

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Ben C — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:58:15 -0000

What will probably throw a big spanner in the works (for the LNP and for capital) will be if the mining boom ends more or less suddenly. I'm not saying that's about to happen necessarily, but there are a few signs. Mind you it will be disaster for Gillard too...

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

liz_beths — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:37:20 -0000

The metaphor has also been picked up in academic work, and Gareth Dale discusses it in this article: http://csi.sagepub.com/content...

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Dr_Tad — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:06:32 -0000

Rosa Luxemburg once said, "The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening."

That was my go at it. Not really sure what else you expect?

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

Syd Walker — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:51:56 -0000

In other words, you have no tangible suggestions at all for the way forward, t=other than recognising the "historic scale and specificity of the crisis".

With respect, is it worth publishing an analysis that says so little?

Re: left flank: Zombie social democracy, or the ALP as Australia’s political ‘Walking Dead’

auskadi — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:10:19 -0000

more zombie refs here in article and comments http://blogs.crikey.com.au/nor...

Re: left flank: Malcolm is not so in the middle

Lorry — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:44:28 -0000

wrong+

Liz was writing for The Drum...

Re: left flank: Malcolm is not so in the middle

wrong+arithmetic — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:22:14 -0000

"In the process we have failed to put the greatest ethical questions of this decade front and centre — those being the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power, and the failure of neoliberalism to deliver fair and sustainable outcomes locally or globally."

What do you mean by 'ethical questions' here? It appears that not letting 'the rich and powerful pursue their economic agenda', or effectively challenging it, is then an ethical question; that this has involves putting ethical questions front and centre. What is the value (beyond rhetoric, unless it is simply rhetorical) of thinking significant politics problems as ethical questions?

Re: left flank: Is the ALP’s condition terminal? A crisis of social democracy

liz_beths — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:47:16 -0000

This is real food for thought for me Geoff. Thanks for raising those thoughts.

Re: left flank: Is the ALP’s condition terminal? A crisis of social democracy

Geoff Robinson — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:27:21 -0000

First thing I ever published too long ago was somewhat on these lines. The left's neo-liberal turn (&I include ALP & Greens as the left) has encouraged class dealignment but it has also won new supporters would female professionals be as strong in their support for the left if the left was the class-defined left of the 1960s? The left's unprecedented electoral success in Australia since its neo-liberal turn has to be explained. Perhaps this model is running out of steam but it has worked for Labor MPs (and would-be MPs) for a long time

Re: left flank: Malcolm is not so in the middle

Guest — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:19:10 -0000

Malcolm Turnbull ain't no leftie. I mean, look what party he's in!

Re: left flank: Is the ALP’s condition terminal? A crisis of social democracy

Dr_Tad — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:01:05 -0000

Great questions!

The section of core supporters I refer to is those who identified strongly with the party's Left. There is much anecdotal and Australian Election Study evidence to back this up. I see the shift to the Liberals as being less class-conscious workers, less consciously political and "Labor". This week's Essential poll showed how strong the idea that "we are mostly middle class" remains in Oz politics. Those numbers don't seem to have shifted since the early 1990s despite social attitudes on most "class" or "economic" issues having moved considerably to the Left.

In terms of whether it can recover, short of a miraculous resolution of capitalism's long-term global stagnation the only other thing is a major revival of working class confidence to engage in economic and political struggle, which will benefit existing reformist parties first, even if they are not very good at relating to it. In Greece PASOK has suffered because it has led the austerity; you can imagine that if it had been in opposition for several years the radical Left may not have had the same space to grow.
In terms of whether Labor is "terminal", I think it can hang on for ages in a degenerate state in the absence of a credible alternative. We on the radical Left haven't built that alternative, one that can engage in the arena of official politics, and there are many reasons the Greens will find it difficult to fill the gap. But things may be more fluid than we realise. Greece has certainly delivered some surprises in short order.

Re: left flank: Is the ALP’s condition terminal? A crisis of social democracy

John Passant — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:48:24 -0000

Hi Tad. Good article. A few questions. Do you think it right to say 'Nevertheless, Labor’s acquiescence to Howard on asylum seekers and the War on Terror hit hard among a section of its core supporters, who switched to the Greens in disgust.' I wonder. maybe they switched or are switching to the Liberals?

Of course reformism - the desire for progressive change - is born of the crap world of capitlaism. So there can be reformism without reforms for some time. I think after 30 years of Labor neoliberalism the jig is up. But is this cyclical or terminal?

Maybe the lack of a social surplus from which to pay for real reforms like Denticare means that Labor is terminal. Certainly in parts of Europe that seems to be the case, eg Greece. The radical left is on around 40% in the polls, I understand.

Re: left flank: Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

Danielsydney — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:22:08 -0000

I think the NSW need some serious political strategists.This kind of thing should not happen again.

Re: left flank: Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

Paul R. — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:57:53 -0000

Thanks, Mannie, for that thoughtful response, much of which I agree with. Although it addresses only some of the issues involved in what I believe should be a comprehensive review of the BDS campaign by the Left, it's a constructive opener in this important discussion.

Re: left flank: Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

liz_beths — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:34:51 -0000

Thanks for that comment Mannie. A more articulate version of what I've been thinking.

Re: left flank: Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

Mannie De Saxe — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:46:38 -0000

Between 1948 and 1990 apartheid South Africa was a police state. After Sharpeville in 1961 there was a world outcry but little in the way of understanding the politics of the South African government, so in a sense it was business as usual.

However, after the beginning of the Soweto uprisings and the massacres which followed, even some of South Africa's most ardent supporters, such as the USA, Israel, UK and France, found world opinion hardening against the regime and realised that something must be done to help bring about change to a country where 80 per cent of the population was suffering cruel oppression and disaster was looming for them.

Boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) were gradually introduced in various ways and by various means and South Africa's booming economy started to falter. BDS was beginning to bite in many different ways including sports boycotts - which hurt a fanatically mad Rugby Union supporting white minority, motor manufacturing companies began divesting, banks withdrew capital and in general the economy started suffering - including white job losses - the situation for blacks had always been parlous and finally cracks started to appear.

The most ardent supporters of BDS were those who were already suffering untold deprivation and hardships, but they felt conditions could not get much worse than they already were and they were pushing for the outside world to increase the pressure as the cracks widened.

The end, as they say, is history, with the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 after 27 years behind bars for his "terrorism" activities and many other members of the banned ANC and the first free elections ever for the whole population in 1994.

Pressure must be maintained on Israel with BDS and it is pathetic that, after Lee Rhiannon's strong stance on this issue, the Greens have forced a dumbing down of their support.

I am not a Greens member, and the only reason I have voted Greens over the last several years is because basically there has been little alternative. Now I am not so sure, and am considering not voting for anybody at the next election if the Greens are so pathetically weak on the BDS issue.

Israel has felt the effects of some mild BDS so far, but if countries around the world, including mainly the USA and other Israel allies, would themselves start to see the light, Israel would dramatically have to change its stance on Palestine and the Palestinians.

For a long time the so-called two-state solution has disappeared with the increaing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and there is not enough Palestinian territory left for a viable state.

So the only answer in the longer term is for a unified Israel-Palestine secular state which at the moment is abhorrent to all 13 or more million inhabitants of that tiny piece of the world.

Re: left flank: The Greens at the crossroads: ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ matter more than you’d think

Matthew Davis — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:45:13 -0000

Excellent piece. I might add the Greens in Ireland were absolutely pulverised last election, which reiterates the point wrong+arithmetic made in his comments on this thread, and the observations of Tad - if you don't take the left vote seriously they will roll you. The Egyptian twitterers made the same point months ago - everyone knew the Islamists would win the election by a landslide - which they did. Last few weeks in Egypt hundreds of protests, a wave of strikes and lots of people still opposing Mubarakism in it's new guise. Lesson = what people vote for today may not matter once people hit the streets or distrust you. Lets hope for the left Greens members they understand this and people are hopefully inspired towards socialist thinking again. They should hold the line with Bob Brown and his more reformist colleagues. People would more greatly appreciate them for the fuss.