on 13-03-2014 05:05 PM
Instead of licking its wounds and working on new ideas, the Australian left has focused on tearing the government down. This won’t work
This weekend, protesters will be heading to the streets to participate in March in March across the country. Organisers have said the weekend of protest “signifies the people’s vote of no confidence in policies of the government that go against common principles of humanity, decency, fairness social justice and equity, democratic governance, responsible global citizenship and conserving our natural heritage.”
With the election of Tony Abbott to the lodge, the left seems to have adopted many of the right’s oppositional tactics. There is the same heavy focus on “lies”, “broken promises” and “secrecy” – a focus on Abbott’s character and not much in the way of presenting new policies. These are linked to similar destabilisation tactics – highlighted by a recent petition which has gained over 60,000 signatures – calling on the governor general to sack the government.
All of this is based on an ongoing claim, yelled very loudly, that the Abbott government is illegitimate due to his apparent reliance on the Murdoch media to get elected. This argument, whilst as weak as Abbott’s claims that the Gillard government was illegitimate, but seem to be just a fervently believed.
Instead of licking our wounds and creating an alternative approach, we have focused on tearing the government down, and using whatever arguments and tactics we can find to do so. After years of hammering Abbott for this brand of politicking, one could ask why the left is following suit – it seems like a rather hypocritical move.
Investigate further though, and you can see that the use of these tactics is a worrying symptom of a fundamental crisis in politics. Over the past decades the left has lost its social base, leaving it weak as it faces the Abbott government. Union membership is at an all time low, a drop in numbers that is being met with a significant drop in influence. The environment and climate movement is facing similar problems, struggling heavily to deal with recent political realities.
The neoliberal agenda is slowly crushing progressive politics, leaving us stuck with these sorts of attack-based campaigns to beat our opponents.
The crisis represents an overarching general dissatisfaction with politics and politicians, and a strong dislike of our political system and processes. A recent Newspoll survey highlights this really well: on nearly every issue both major parties have gone backwards in recent months, signifying a shift away from any trust of our political leaders. And the left has been just as culpable.
And this is where adopting Abbott’s tactics becomes problematic. In the short term, it seems like a good strategy, but the long term damage will be real. In using this strategy, the left have failed to understand this anti-politics sentiment. We have in fact bought into it - playing an insider game focusing on broken promises, parliamentary tactics and media games, whilst effectively ignoring any real and substantive issues.
A new approach needs to be found. We need to recognise that this dislike of politics is actually a good thing: the rejection of a system that now largely serves the interests of the upper classes. The left now needs to tap directly into this sentiment.
There are plenty of successful examples of this. Russel Brand’s comments last year, for example, struck a chord largely because of his anti-establishment or anti-politics tone. The same can be said for the success of the Occupy movement. A bit closer to home and the climate movement has managed to gain significant momentum recently through going around standard political channels and directly taking on the power of the fossil fuel industry. The asylum seeker movement is also shifting its course - with the successful boycott campaign over the Sydney Biennale growing new energy for the campaign.
These tactics are about tackling the system from a different angle. They’re about challenging the power systems that are stacked up against us, and building a sustainable social base to do so. They are about doing the hard work of rebuilding our social movements, and rebuilding them to take on the systems that underpin our political system.
March in March doesn’t do this. Neither does attacking Abbott’s broken promises, calling for him to be sacked, or claiming his government is illegitimate. We have to do better than this.
Nothing like a good C&P to sink your teeth into, is there?
BBL
on 13-03-2014 07:02 PM
@just_me_karen wrote:
OP is too long to read, a summary would have been more useable.
So you're marching too, icy? That's great...the more the merrier.
I'm marching on both Saturday in one town and Sunday in another.
oddly it's gone around my city that it was cancelled, it isn't but someone bothered to spread it around that it was.
on 13-03-2014 07:06 PM
on 13-03-2014 07:08 PM
on 13-03-2014 07:19 PM
on 13-03-2014 07:19 PM
@donnashuggy wrote:
@lakeland27 wrote:i disagree. it worked for Abbott. look at the convoy of incontinence, all of these things add up.
Why are you turning this into a political thread?
not at all, he called the media campaign he ran a peoples revolt at one stage, not an LNP revolt. so going by his logic (he is PM after all) its not. its a grassroots campaign. The first place i saw it floated was by an LNP supporter on whirlpool in the NBN forums somewhere. he had misjudged turnbull and become disenchanted. not surprising as its an area OZ can compete for global jobs.
if you have the nouse there's no limit to the different IT businesses you could host from home.
on 13-03-2014 07:49 PM
@boris1gary wrote:left and right are not just "a label" they do actually signify political opinion whether someone likes it or not. Terms are used for a reason, to deny this as some kind "weapon used to silence people" is a little infantile. People have political views even when they aren't aware that their views are political. Even if the terms left and right were never used again (in political terms) new ones would appear.
It is when it's used by self proclaimed conservatives who use it to denigrate people who don't agree with their point of view.
It's up to individuals to decide for themselves whether they wish to be adopt the left or right label or be non-aligned.
on 13-03-2014 08:53 PM
@freakiness wrote:
@boris1gary wrote:left and right are not just "a label" they do actually signify political opinion whether someone likes it or not. Terms are used for a reason, to deny this as some kind "weapon used to silence people" is a little infantile. People have political views even when they aren't aware that their views are political. Even if the terms left and right were never used again (in political terms) new ones would appear.
It is when it's used by self proclaimed conservatives who use it to denigrate people who don't agree with their point of view.
It's up to individuals to decide for themselves whether they wish to be adopt the left or right label or be non-aligned.
individuals of course can decide for themselves what their politics are - the terms are their regardless of what "individuals" may or may not think to call themselves. One of the best trade union speeches I've heard (in this country anyway) was from a union delegate who started her speech with - I am not left or right wing, I am not political at all - It was very left wing and political and a brilliant speech, she just didn't realise it. Majority of people are probably somewhat in the middle, left on some things, right on the other. Non-aligned generally means they don't belong to a political party.
on 13-03-2014 09:25 PM
on 13-03-2014 09:42 PM
Where has the OP gone?
A great big ol' C&P and then nothing.
on 13-03-2014 09:59 PM
You don't have to be a member of a political party to support their policies. In the context I used non-aligned I meant what I said, not right or left, exclusively. I was not talking about political party membership.