En Passant

Tiananmen Square was a dress rehearsal for the future. The Chinese working class has a material interest in democracy. It has the strength to overthrow the corrupt and bankrupt butchers in Beijing.

Having done that the Chinese working class will be forced to take the revolution beyond bourgeois political demands and threaten capitalism in China itself. Then and only then can we talk about genuine socialism, the self-emancipation of the working class through its own democratic organs of societal control.

The current Australian Parliament is a good argument for socialism and workers running society democratically through their own institutions.

FOR SOCIALISTS, democracy exists only in name unless it consists of genuine popular control from below. Parliamentary democracy–in which we choose unaccountable misrepresentatives every two, four or six years–has been fairly successful in providing the illusion of real democracy in a society where a small number of very wealthy people and the bureaucrats who serve them make all the important decisions.

When the Sun kings of profit get challenged the ideology of their empires is threatened and the nudity of their worth stands for all ordinary working people to see. So having not lived in the real world of work, of labour, they do what they always do – invent a self serving story.

If the economy worsens or the Greens actually begin to exercise some power instead of being Democrats in waiting, what Palmer said about them will be a small taste of much worse to come as the rich maggots squirm and worm to protect their rotting patches.

That is what I am working for – a truly democratic society in which we workers, the people who produce the wealth of society, decide what will be produced to satisfy human need, not to make a profit. Then neoliberal nobodies like Gillard and Rudd and Abbott would be consigned to the museum of recent history and our really democratic and fulfilling lives could begin.

An erosion of democracy is a normal feature of capitalism in difficulties, argues Tom O’Lincoln.

The party that screws over gays and lesbians and refugees and fears the views of its own members, most of whom are part of the 99%, will screw over workers as workers for the one percent.

Labor’s conference is a con – the ALP remains a right wing party, a party of neoliberalism.

Yesterday wasn’t a bad day for democracy. Every day is bad day for democracy until we have a truly democratic system in which workers, those who produce the wealth, run society democratically in their own interests. That is socialism.

As the European crisis worsens, perhaps engulfing France next, the temptation for the ruling class to reach for solutions outside the democratic norm will become greater.

Whether they do or not depends on a range of factors, including the depth of the crisis and the strength of our side. We should be preparing now to defend democracy. Every union struggle, every demonstration against the problems capitalism creates, every occupation deserves our support and helps build our strength.