En Passant

James Supple writes in Solidarity magazine that the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra (NATSEM) released modelling that did the sums [on Hockey’s 2015 Budget]. As Ben Phillips from NATSEM explained, “the overall picture is one where low income families do the heavy lifting.

Solidarity magazine argues that Tony Abbott is desperately praying that this year’s budget will save his skin. But the budget cuts from last year remain in place, and even his new spending on childcare relies on taking money allocated elsewhere for families and new mothers.

The next time Abbott or Hockey tell us to ‘have a go’, our response should be ‘you have to go, ya mugs.’

In framing its 12 May Budget the Abbott government is torn between its desire to slash and burn and the realisation, in light of the massive backlash against its 2014 austerity Budget, that to do so would guarantee its political death. What it will do among other things is cloak some of its cuts in the rhetoric of fairness or look for back door ways to introduce their cuts. A wounded government is a dangerous government.

Where does all this income – profits, rents, dividends, interest, wages etc – and the taxes imposed on it, come from? It is the wealth (or more precisely, in Marxist terms, the surplus value) we workers create that we are talking about. It is ours. We should decide where it goes, not the parliamentary popinjays of profit.

In the circumstances of reformism’s despair and degeneration, abuse becomes a substitute for politics. To win laughter back we on the left need to help organise the fight, fight, fight against the neoliberalism of both parties which renders so many on the soft left, in their passivity, humourless and without hope.

The most impressive one-day rally, even backed by strike action, will not be enough to stop the Liberals. Only a sustained campaign of protests and strikes can do that. But the biggest possible turnouts to the 12 June events, and a big turnout to the union protests called for Melbourne and Sydney (and hopefully other cities) on Sunday 6 July would be important steps, showing that our side is serious about a fight.

The last 30 years have not been a battle between two different political ideologies but a Mafia family dispute over how best to rob the rest of us for the benefit of the whole gang. That is one of the reasons why calls for an election now, especially one solely brought about by parliamentary game playing, are misguided. Replacing one set of neoliberal politicians with another set won’t address the problems or the systemic drivers forcing the parliamentary cretins to manage society in the interests of capital. The mafia dons of Labor are still mafia dons.