By Dave Abbott
A strategy to defeat Howard must involve as wide as possible an alliance of paid and unpaid workers, unions, community groups, academics, and others. The Senate can do little more than temper the extremes of Coalition ideology. The traditional alternative under the two-party system, the ALP, will have a significant part of its power base weakened under the new industrial legislation.
Resistance to the forces Howard represents will need a wider response than simply reinstating the ALP and ACTU, with their comfortable and lop-sided accords. Ironically, the Coalition's attack on so many people and groups within Australia creates the very breadth of resistance needed.
Such a movement must of course embrace a minimum set of principles, both as a guide to policy and as common ground for the building of alliances; alliances only work on agreed objectives and ground rules. A first few: that the problem is economic rationalism, and related ideological notions which justify greed; that the test of policy must be the welfare of people, not the welfare of the economy; that the health of the environment is as important as the health of the economy, and any other view is destructively short-term.
In terms of practice, there are a number of debates. The first is obviously whether the movement should encompass parliamentary process or concentrate only on building a radical alternative based on direct action. With a background in community work, I see both as necessary.
In community-based politics, the "nutcracker" approach to political problems uses two or more complementary forces — parliamentary lobbying, union activism, direct action — as "nutcracker" arms to crack the problem. A strategy in which genuinely leftist parliamentarians are supported by active and widely-based community alliances would be an impressive political force.
The second debate is of course familiar — whether to devote energy to radicalising the ALP, or leave it to its fate. Pragmatically, there is little point in merely working to re-instate the ALP as is. Morally, the betrayal of ordinary people allowed under Hawke and Keating means it deserves nothing better than obscurity. Rationally, the skills and commitment of those on the left of the party will be useful. The task is to build a movement to which such elements of the ALP could re-devote their energy, and leave the rest of the party to whatever awaits them.
A new movement must embrace a new type of politics, with greater involvement of ordinary people and grassroots input, and less bureaucratised ALP-ACTU Accord-style control. Concentrations of power must be avoided by accountable processes and constant vigilance. This in turn means good organisational structures for informed and democratic decision-making. Alternative media like Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly are also vital.
There must, in turn, be a new unionism, based not on factional deals and cosy relationships with particular parties, but welcoming activism and new alliances. The rhetoric is there, but the practice still bureaucratic. Accords must be dumped in favour of wider alliances based on agreed core issues and principles, to broaden the base of opposition.
Last, each individual must decide on their own best sphere of action — as activist, organiser or policy-maker, to maximise their own effectiveness. However romantic, direct action is not the only way to go; very few are good revolutionaries. Fortunately, the range of tasks is enormous.
In Tasmania, pleasingly, there are encouraging signs. Public sector unions have formed a new Public Sector Alliance coordinated by the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council, in the face of threats of redundancy and falling membership. That alliance is looking at a wider political involvement of community and welfare groups in resisting Liberal policies. A wider alliance encompassing the opposition parties, unions, and the community and welfare sector might just deliver at least one state from right-wing ideology and economic cynicism.
[Dave Abbott is a trade union activist in Hobart. This article is abridged from a speech to a Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly forum in Hobart last month on strategies to defeat Howard.]