En Passant

Until an anti-austerity mass movement and its political expression arise we will continue to have bad government after bad government in Australia. That new formation will I suspect only happen when we decide to take action as the working class against whoever is in power, the Liberals or Labor.

Simone White in Red Flag reports on the McClure welfare review and concludes it is all about welfare on the cheap. Here is part of what she says:

The McClure review of the welfare system, commissioned by the government and last week handed down to social services minister Scott Morrison, provides the architecture for a very lean and very mean welfare system. “A new system for better-employment and social outcomes” would more aptly be named, “Sink or swim: a guide to how you don’t deserve a life jacket”.

Gillard will attack public services to continue to fund her largesse to big business.

The Business Council of Australia has a plan – a plan to make the poor and working people of Australia pay for the crises of capitalism. In its Budget submission the BCA argues the Government must reduce the budget deficit.  This fear of deficits is a conservative furphy. Our Government debt is one of the lowest […]

Our hope at the moment must be that the apparently growing number of strikes and other industrial disputes in Australia boil over into a generalised campaign for wage increases, social services and jobs.