CP of Australia, Guardian1909, 2020, 03, 30

3/30/20 9:34 AM
  • Australia, Communist Party of Australia En Oceania Communist and workers' parties

The following articles were published by The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia, in its issue #1909 of March 30, 2020.

 

Reproduction of articles, together with acknowledgement if appropriate, is welcome.

 

The Guardian, Editorial, 74 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

Communist Party of Australia, 74 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

 

The Guardian mailto:editor@cpa.org.au

 

CPA General Secretary: Andrew Irving gensec@cpa.org.au

 

Phone (02) 9699 8844    Fax: (02) 9699 9833    Email CPA cpa@cpa.org.au

 

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INDEX

 

  1. COVID-19: WORKERS MUST BE PROTECTED
  2. Editorial – THE FRAGILITY OF CAPITALISM REVEALED
  3. VALE SHEILA SUTTNER
  4. WORKERS WILL NOT PAY FOR THE CRISIS AGAIN!
  5. IMMEDIATE MEASURES TO PROTECT THE HEALTH AND RIGHTS
  6. DEMOCRACY UP IN SMOKE
  7. ANTI-WAGE THEFT, PRO-HONEST MISTAKES
  8. FREEZE ON RENT AND MORTGAGES
  9. This week …
  10. TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
  11. WOMEN FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
  12. LET ‘EM STARVE MENZIES POSES AS CHRISTIAN SAINT
  13. 200,000 KEY UNIONISTS FIGHT FASCIST THREAT TO AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE
  14. CHINA AND CUBA: INTERNATIONALISM AT ITS FINEST
  15. WHAT CAN A COMMUNIST DO DURING A PANDEMIC?

 

 

 

 

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01.COVID-19:

WORKERS MUST BE PROTECTED

Anna Pha

In line with other countries around the world, Australia faces serious health, social, and economic crises. The number of people testing positive for COVID-19 continues to rise exponentially, doubling every few days. Thousands of people have already lost their jobs as businesses close or wind down.

People have been advised to stay at home. With a few exceptions, non-essential services have been ordered to close. As a result, millions more people face the prospect of unemployment and loss of income. All but the most urgent elective surgery has been cancelled in public and private hospitals to free up more beds and resources.

At the time of writing there had been twelve deaths in Australia and 2,613 confirmed cases. Fear reigns as state and federal governments send out mixed and at times contradictory and confusing messages. In addition, all sorts of nonsense mixed with fact is being spread on social media and, unfortunately, some people are still not taking the health crisis seriously.

The ABC public broadcaster is providing invaluable advice and detailed information in its broadcasts and online. Health workers are to be commended for the work they are doing under challenging conditions, sometimes without the necessary personal protective equipment they require.

The scene at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, with thousands of people crowding the beach the weekend before last, was a disgrace. It demonstrated a serious failure to heed social distancing. While many people are fearful of the virus and taking the necessary precautions, there are still some who treat it with scorn.

The price gouging has commenced. In one shop, hand-sanitiser was being sold at $25 for a 500 ml bottle now costs $25 for a 17 ml bottle. No, that is not a typo! The same with toilet paper as it reaches $5 a roll. The price of some vitamins has increased by fifty to sixty per cent or more. Prices of fruit and vegetables have also been jacked up.

Testing has still not been extended to all people presenting with symptoms.

State and federal governments, albeit somewhat belatedly, are introducing stricter restrictions on social distancing and travel.

JOBS

More than three million people are employed as casual, body hire, gig or contract labour. They have no leave entitlements if they are sacked. Their rent, electricity bills, etc. will not stop. The federal government is offering the job seeker allowance at the temporary rate of $1,100 – a doubling of the previous rate. There are eligibility rules, including a means test.

It was only under considerable pressure the government extended the $550 coronavirus supplement to students receiving Youth Allowance, Austudy, and Abstudy payments.

The tourism sector has been hard hit. Qantas has stood down 20,000 of its 30,000 staff, Flight Centre has downsized by 3,800 people, and Tiger Airlines have stopped flights. Tourist resorts are empty. Food outlets are closed except for take-aways. Retailers, except for pharmacies and supermarkets, are closed. The list is endless as restrictions continue to be imposed.

Several of the Big Four banks are offering a pause on mortgage payments, with interest accruing doing that period. Their approach varies from bank to bank. Many small businesses have been forced to close.

Centrelink is swamped with people who have lost their jobs, and the myGov website crashed two days in a row, creating further frustration and anger. Years of cutbacks have left the government agency massively understaffed. Those who do manage to get into the office after queuing for hours are more often than not told to go home and go online.

The government must act immediately to ensure that workers’ incomes are maintained. The reactionary government of Boris Johnson in the UK is guaranteeing workers eighty per cent of their wage up to $5,000 per month. In the US income guarantees are before Congress.

Post-virus, we can expect employers to seek reductions in wages and conditions to rebuild their businesses.

PROTECTING BUSINESS

The government issued a second stimulus package on 22nd March to keep businesses afloat. In all, up to $189 billion is available through the government and Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

This includes another $750 payment to recipients of government benefits in order to put more money in the pockets of people who will spend it.

The aim of doubling of the Job Seekers allowance is to keep the economy going as much as possible. Recipients already on extremely low or no income are most likely to spend every cent.

Governments have failed to take measures to ensure people are not kicked out of their homes, a major and legitimate source of fear.

The package included measures for the write-off of capital spending, capital guarantees, and payments to small and medium employers to keep staff on the payroll.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) rock bottom reduction of the official cash rate and offers of cheap capital to the finance sector are designed to support the banks and encourage them to lend to investors. The RBA recognises the seriousness of the situation – if large numbers of borrowers default Big Banks face collapse, creating a massive financial crisis.

Thus the main aim of the RBA and government’s financial measures is to prop up the financial stability of the economy and protect the interests of the finance sector.

WHO WARNING

World Health Organization officials warned against calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” as President Donald Trump did, saying that it could unintentionally lead to racial profiling.

“Viruses know no borders and they don’t care about your ethnicity, the colour of your skin or how much money you have in the bank. So it’s really important we be careful in the language we use lest it lead to the profiling of individuals associated with the virus,” Dr Mike Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, said at a recent press conference.

A recent meeting of the G7 governments failed to issue a statement because the US insisted it contain a reference to the “Wuhan virus.” The other six governments refused to accept this.

DESPICABLE ATTITUDE

Telegraph (UK) associate editor and financial columnist Jeremy Warner wrote in his column that, “Not to put too fine a point on it, from an entirely disinterested economic perspective, the COVID-19 might even prove mildly beneficial in the long term by disproportionately culling elderly dependents.”

This capitalism. Everyone in society is reduced to an economic unit and assessed on their value to capital. While the Australian government does not express it so crudely, it is this approach that is behind the treatment of the unemployed, the aged, and disabled.

President Donald Trump is letting the virus rip through the community, not concerned for the vulnerable or workers. In poorer countries, with lack of basic sanitation, overcrowding, and health care for the wealthy, millions of people face death. Western countries are doing nothing.

Cuba, the People’s Republic of China, and Russia are shining examples of international solidarity with their generous assistance to a number of countries fighting the virus. Australia has a relatively good health system compared with many of the developing countries in the “South” that lack adequate clean water, sanitation, and housing.

There is a contradiction between halting the economy in the interests of public health and putting lives at risk to keep the economy ticking. Some governments are trying to do a balancing act, the US is putting profits first.

MIXED MESSAGES

Lack of planning and early direction by governments has resulted in delays and confusion. Education is one example, where the Prime Minister is determined that schools remain open. But states have taken varying positions on this issue while recognising that schools need to provide for children of essential service workers.

Football codes were initially given the power to determine whether matches would continue without the presence of sports fans despite all the hugging that takes place following a goal or point.

Personal services were told to close with a few exceptions, including hairdressers and barbers – limited to thirty minutes per client. Then the thirty-minute limit was lifted. It made no sense – what was the point of four square metre distancing when hairdressers could stand breathing over and touching the head of clients?

CRUISE SHIPS

On 18th March, the Commonwealth banned the entry of cruise ships, but four cruise ships were then exempt from the ban. They included the Ruby Princess that docked on 19th March and the Celebrity Solstice a day later. Thousands of passengers came ashore from these ships without health checks.

This occurred despite a number of people having symptoms while still on the Ruby Princess. Just under 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark from the cruise ship.

They then travelled to different parts of Sydney, Australia and internationally with no idea that there had been any cases on board. So far, a total of more than 160 passengers from the ship have tested positive, with one of them dying.

NSW Health saw no red lights nor the need to test passengers although they had been informed that some passengers had flu-like symptoms. It rated the cruise ship as low risk! It was only four days later that passengers received government messages to self-quarantine for two weeks because of COVID-19 on board.

ECONOMIC CRISIS

The economy was far from healthy prior to taking a hit from COVID-19. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his introduction to The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020, said:

“The global economy is suffering a significant and widespread slowdown amid prolonged trade disputes and wide-ranging policy uncertainties; poverty rates are increasing in numerous countries; climate risks are more pressing than ever; and inequalities remain broad within and among countries. This is the backdrop as policymakers strive to advance on the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Stock markets are now gyrating daily, with the overall trend a steep fall, as could only be expected. We are entering a severe global crisis that will be deep, painful and most likely prolonged.

Governments, banks, and big business will attempt to recoup their losses further down the track when the temporary assistance ceases. Their aim will be to make workers and recipients of government benefits pay for the recovery. There will be cuts to services, attempts to roll back penalty rates, slash wages and working conditions.

The only force capable of standing up to these attacks is a united trade union movement in alliance with progressive forces in the community. Trade union rights will be further attacked to remove this barrier to the employers’ agenda.

The following are just some demands to address the COVID-19 pandemic:

Health and safety of the people must be the top priority, especially those most vulnerable

Unions must be at the forefront of working-class responses to the failures of governments and the crisis

Employers and governments have a responsibility to ensure safe and healthy workplaces

Special paid leave for all workers stood down or in quarantine or lockdown, including casual and labour-hire workers

Legislation for workers’ right to strike and unions’ right to defend their members against attacks on wages and conditions

Provide of emergency housing including requisitioning the empty apartments

Nationalisation of the health system

Ban patents on pharmaceuticals and establish public production of medications

Test everyone with symptoms

No disconnections of electricity, water, internet

No evictions

An immediate end to the criminal blockades of Cuba, Iran and Venezuela

Finally, workers must not pay for capitalism’s crises. (See Guardian, “CPA Central Committee Statement”, #1908, 23-03-2020 for further details.)

 

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  1. Editorial – THE FRAGILITY OF

CAPITALISM REVEALED

Last week, the government announced a second stimulus package – worth $66 bn, on top of the $17.6 bn – as well as $100 bn in other emergency measures to prevent against a credit freeze. In this package, recipients of jobseeker, youth allowance jobseeker, parenting payment, farm household allowance, and special benefit will see their benefits essentially doubled. Sole traders and the self-employed are also eligible. For those who won’t receive the $550-a-fortnight Coronavirus supplement, such as veterans and other income support recipients, a second one-off $750 payment will be made available.

Those “in financial stress” will have tax-free access to their superannuation, with $10,000 available in this financial year and a further $10,000 available in the next. Those who are eligible for access include all the above welfare recipients as well as sole-traders.

The government also announced a “coronavirus SME guarantee scheme” designed to help small and medium businesses.

The Morrison government’s announcement of a second stimulus package so soon after the first is an exceptionally peculiar action for a conservative government to take. We could chalk up the government’s policies as a response to the highly unusual situation we find ourselves in. However, if this was the case, where was this kind of action during the bushfire crisis? Rather than an act of benevolence, these moves do not reveal a compassionate government but rather one that is attempting to mask the fragility of capitalism.

It hasn’t even been a month since the “social distancing” period begun and Australia is already the worse for wear. Businesses are failing, causing mass redundancies, particular those in casual employment; supermarket shelves are bare, not because of shortages, but because of their supply model; the daily increase of COVID-19 cases has put our health sector under stress, with more doctors and hospital beds urgently required.

Let us not be mistaken. These are not new problems, but old ones that have always existed. The working-class, who have always had precarious employment and financial stability, are the foundation of our economy. They’ve always been neglected, living day-to-day, with inadequate allowances that keep them in perpetual poverty. Now a tsunami threatens this unstable foundation, washing away with it the house that stands on it.

The Coalition knows this. In order to prevent our proverbial house from being washed away, the government is attempting to act quickly, hoping to avoid an impending economic collapse.

However, it’s much too late, regardless of how the economy looks after the Coronvirus pandemic is over. The holes in our system have been revealed. If jobseeker payments were already adequate, why do recipients require a sudden, time-fixed boost to their allowance? If there isn’t a housing shortage, why are renters all of a sudden protected? If we have an adequate health system, why are their shortages of medical health professionals and medical equipment?

Questions like these need an answer, and the answer is clear: Capitalism is not the solution. It is a system where monopolies rule, creating wealth disparity. A system that only invests where profits can be made, not in people. A system that benefits a minority of wealthy capitalists at the expense of the poor.

This system won’t last because it is unsustainable. A socialist system prioritises the working-class, not profits. The working-class is not merely the foundation in a socialist system; they are the entire structure.

 

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03.VALE SHEILA SUTTNER

Vinnie Molina

It is with sadness we learnt of the passing of our WA Party branch member comrade Sheila Suttner. Originally from South Africa she was a stalwart fighter against apartheid and a campaigner for racial equality in WA.

I met comrade Sheila at a CPA WA branch meeting hosted at her place in Dianella early in 1996. Always an inspiration and full of life, ready to help people in need. We just loved meeting at her place with plenty of wonderful food and much love around her beautiful garden.

Many party functions were held at her place and the Party branch grew considerably during those years in the struggle for peace, social justice, and socialism.

Sheila passed away short of 97 years of age. I had the opportunity to see her for International Women’s Day on 8th March this year at her aged care home. It made me happy to witnessed the love of a young worker who was caring for her. I pay tribute to Sheila and look forward, once the COVID-19 pandemic goes away, to organising a celebration of her life with her family, friends and comrades.

Vale comrade Sheila Suttner, a better world is possible!

 

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  1. WORKERS WILL NOT PAY FOR THE CRISIS AGAIN!

Vinnie Molina

I would like to start by asking all Party members and readers to stay safe and do whatever possible to avoid spreading the Coronavirus. However, the struggle must go on to demand workers will not end up paying for the crisis again.

As Australian governments shut our borders and social distancing gets more restrictive the Party of the working class moves its activity online on various social platforms. Party functions will continue online and we will continue to post updates on our website, social media, and Party press. Branches will explore party life in times on COVID-19 and learn to adapt to continue interacting with the Australian people by other means. Various efforts are underway to start live-streaming, podcasting, etc.

Despite the obstacles we faced twelve months ago when the Communist Party of Australia’s (CPA) original Facebook page was stolen and taken by another organisation it is good to report that our current page gets new likes everyday and our twitter account has more than 10,000 followers. It is important that all members and supporters get their hands on their gadgets and share the Party’s social media posts. As we said, with discipline and without distractions, we are now in better conditions than twelve months ago to take the Party to the people.

The current leadership has led the Party for a year and has managed successfully to unite the Party across the country. We have a number of vibrant new members in all branches particularly younger people. The South Australian State committee and Sydney District Committees held conferences and elected new leaderships. All branches had their AGMs and many have many new faces around the table including comrades leading those branches. We have new Party branches in NSW and great perspectives coming from Darwin and Canberra. Comrades have rallied around our new general secretary and other members of the collective leadership. It is important to note that the five comrades elected to Party leadership are full time workers and play active roles in their respective unions. Having that link with the working class is essential to avoid losing perspective of what it means to be a worker and its links with the working-class party.

As our Party moves into its centenary anniversary, we rally together selling more Guardians every week. Branches are organising more and more public activities which have raised our profile and brought new recruits. The balance is positive and we have a stronger Party and are prepared to deal with the current crisis created by the pandemic.

Communists around the world are demanding workers will not pay for the capitalist crisis again. We will continue to campaign for universal access to health and education, the cancellation of student debt, more public housing, land rights for Aboriginal people and pension for all workers. As governments struggle to save the capitalist system with massive stimulus packages we demand the nationalisation of our national resources, a national public health and education systems. Australian unions were on the front foot from the onset of the crisis and have done a great job representing their members and demanding sick pay for all workers as the country goes into a lockdown.

The Communist Party of Australia campaigns for socialism as the only alternative to this inhumane and greedy system that is killing the planet and its people. Stay tuned and stay safe. Let’s get organised and win.

 

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  1. Communist and Workers’ Parties

Immediate measures to protect the health and rights of the peoples

The Communist and Workers’ Parties are positioned with responsibility before our peoples. We are here! We are present at the forefront of the struggle to immediately take all necessary measures to protect the health and safeguard the rights of the working class and the popular strata everywhere!

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the doctors, nurses, the hospital and health units personnel that are fighting this battle facing great difficulties.

We express our solidarity with those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and wish them speedy recovery from the disease.

We salute the countries that develop solidarity actions with the most affected countries, such as the sending of protective materials and health professionals from countries such as China, Cuba and Russia, actions that are in stark contrast to the absence of the European Union.

The COVID-19 pandemic tragically proves the huge shortages of health systems in all capitalist countries that were known before the outbreak of the coronavirus. These shortages did not occur accidentally, they are the result of the anti-people’s policy pursued by governments in the service of the big capital to commercialise and privatise health, to support the profitability of monopoly groups. This policy undermines the great scientific and technological capabilities available today to meet all prevention and healthcare needs of the people.

Today's experience reveals the anti-social and parasitic nature of capitalism and highlights the superiority and timeliness of socialism and central scientific planning based on popular needs, which can secure primary healthcare and prevention, hospitals, medical and nursing staff, medicine, laboratories, medical exams and everything else needed to meet the constant as well as any emergency health needs of the people.

The pre-existing slowdown in world economy is now being furtherly reinforced by the spread of the coronavirus and increasing the risk of a new crisis in the coming period. In spite of the propaganda about “unity”, governments in the service of the big capital focus their financial measures on the support of monopoly groups and will once again seek to throw the burden of the crisis on the workers and the other popular strata. The workers and the peoples cannot and must not pay again!

“Individual responsibility” cannot be used as a pretext to cover state and government responsibility. Today, taking the necessary measures also requires the struggle of the peoples against the policy of supporting the monopoly groups, which sacrifices the satisfaction of the needs and the health of the peoples at the altar of capitalist profitability.

The Communist and Workers’ parties demand that all necessary measures be taken immediately to address the epidemic, including the following:

Immediate strengthening of public health systems by state funding, recruitment of full-time medical and nursing staff with full labor rights. Meeting all the needs of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and the infrastructure needed for the full functioning of public healthcare and research services.

Immediate provision of all necessary means of protection (masks, gloves, antiseptics, etc.) by the state to the people free of charge and fight against profiteering. Provision of all protection measures to all healthcare personnel fighting this battle at the hospitals with sacrifices and at their own cost.

Protection of the income and rights of the working-popular strata. To put a brake on the unaccountability of the capital that under the guise of the COVID-19 epidemic proceeds to massive redundancies and tries to further trample over wage rights, working time, leave from work, and other labour rights. Immediate action to protect workers in the workplace.

No to any curtailment of the democratic rights of the peoples under the pretext of the coronavirus.

End all sanctions and measures of economic exclusion, which in this situation are even more unjust and criminal and make the life of the peoples in the countries they turn against to even more difficult. To take all necessary measures to protect the health and life of the peoples.

We say no to imperialist interventions and military exercises, such as those of NATO, and demand that public resources be redirected to support the needs of the peoples, such as the financing of public health and social security systems.

 

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  1. DEMOCRACY UP IN SMOKE

Eileen Whitehead

Australia used to be a nation that pursued and upheld democratic values and ideals. Now it’s nothing better than a neo-colonial power, especially in its sordid and immoral treatment of Timor-Leste over its oil deposits. The trial comes later this year where the establishment accuses Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery for leaking information to the Timor-Leste government about the disgraceful conduct of ASIS in bugging that government (i.e. spying) during negotiations over their oil field. Collaery maintains the trial was delayed while negotiations were in train, and it certainly looks that way.

The unethical behaviour of our present thugs and criminals in Canberra would not have been countenanced by earlier governments, such as Curtin or Chifley. Nowadays, we see a revolving door in place for ex-government ministers going onto fossil fuel boards, such as Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister during the bugging, who went on to act as an advisor to Woodside Petroleum which operates Greater Sunrise (the Timor oil field)! Such acts used to be described as taking “brown envelopes” or “back-handers”.

Court processes of this country have been attacked; The independence of the judiciary has been purposefully weakened under National Security Legislation – an excuse for obfuscation of what the government is doing because of “terrorism.” This should never have been allowed, and earlier – more honourable – governments would never have allowed it to happen. This government is dismantling our democracy along with the values Australians have always held to be sacrosanct, such as justice, fairness, and decency. This governing in secret must not be allowed to continue. But, alas, the present generation seems asleep at the wheel and unable to recognise criminal behaviour as such.

Australia has always welcomed migrants, but currently, the treatment of asylum seekers is abhorrent: not just keeping them indefinitely offshore but in more evil and subtle ways not seen nor understood by the public. We have thousands of asylum seekers in the country caught up in a humanitarian crisis. They’re living in the community while their applications are assessed – which takes forever because the number of public servants dealing with them has been cut to the bone. Meanwhile, the Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) which provides a “living’ allowance” leads to homelessness, destitution and despair. Now, this government has reduced the eligibility criteria for even this and those receiving it in 2018 – some 13,000 – have been reduced to fewer than 5,000. It’s obvious that this government is relying on charities to take up the slack.

Through the same vein of fund-cutting falls the disaster of the 2019/20 fires where more than 18 million hectares of land – the equivalent of seventy per cent of New Zealand – was destroyed. In April and September 2019 the former Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner, Greg Mullins, wrote to the PM to arrange a meeting about the impending bushfire crisis, which CSIRO scientists had prophesied. Interestingly, Scott Morrison took his family to Hawaii as the flames took hold.

The 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review had also predicted that fire seasons would start earlier, end later and be more intense. They went on to say that such an effect would increase over time but would be “directly observable by 2020.” Fire management experts in May 2016 had told a Senate enquiry that they needed more aerial fire-fighting resources and that a national large fixed-wing air-tanker capability was a logical and necessary strategy. It might be a good time to note that the lack of resources which, in turn, increased the stress and fatigue suffered by the inadequately resourced fire-fighting personnel could have been responsible for the loss of three Americans flying an air-tanker over NSW.

With the intensity of these fires guaranteed for the future, we need more equipment and personnel, not less. The Australian government seems to be incapable of listening to the scientists, or perhaps more accurately, ignoring any facts that might interfere with their relentless pursuit of an economy “in the black.” There’s a wilful neglect of spending money where the safety of its population is concerned. Trillions can be spent on the military but can’t be found to buy more fire-fighting equipment and training future firefighters.

And now we see how our government handles the coronavirus pandemic, closing the stable door once the horse has bolted! How much longer can our country – and even the planet – continue to support such cretinously incompetent and down-right crooked governments?

 

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  1. ANTI-WAGE THEFT, PRO-HONEST MISTAKES

Bri Sea

On 18th March 2020, Minister for Workplace Safety, Jill Hennessy, released a media statement saying that the Victorian government were going to be implementing anti-wage theft laws this year.

The Wage Theft Bill will penalise individuals committing wage theft up to $198,264 and companies up to $991,320. Employers could also face up to ten years in jail. Victorian Labor claim that these measures will hold employers accountable for “dishonest record-keeping practices.” The investigation into wage theft will be conducted by the “Wage Inspectorate of Victoria,” which will be established under the bill with “powers to investigate and prosecute wage theft offences.”

The announcement was seen as a win for unions in Victoria – especially for Hospo Voice who has been campaigning tirelessly over the past few years against wage theft. We should commend the efforts of unions for bringing wage theft back into the consciousness of workers, but we should remain critical of any reformist laws. People are quick to jump at the news and see it as a levelling of the playing field. However, the contradictions of the bourgeois, the capitalist class conceding over wage theft do not pass by communists. The playing field is far from level.

Further, in the media release, it is stated that: “Employers who make honest mistakes or who exercise due diligence in paying wages and employee entitlements will not be guilty of wage theft offences under these laws.” This is an interesting addition to wage theft laws because it is the perfect loophole for big business, and powerful employers to manoeuvre their way out of accountability. The excuse that companies only “accidentally” underpay staff is clichéd at this point, but we never hear of these companies “accidentally” overpaying staff.

Rob Scott, the chief executive of Wesfarmers, the company that owns Target which is guilty of $9 million in wage theft, is quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, saying, “I’m not sure more punitive penalties are necessarily going to change behaviour at all” and then goes on to blame the “incredible complexity” of paying staff.

The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. Employers get wriggle room when they commit the crime of stealing millions from thousands of workers. At the same time, unprotected industrial action laws have led to the CFMEU paying millions upon millions in fines over the past few years. If capitalists like Rob Scott really think that increasing punitive measures is pointless, then maybe they should reconsider the Ensuring Integrity Bill!

The Liberal Party’s page on the Ensuring Integrity Bill says that they were forced to introduce harsher laws to crack down on CFMEU because they have “sadly [...] shown no signs of slowing down, treating these penalties as the cost of doing business.” Why has CFMEU not slowed down on breaking anti-union laws? Because it protects the interest of its workers. Will employers respect anti-wage theft laws? No, because they protect the interests of capitalists, and wage theft will always be an interest of the capitalist class.

It will be interesting to see which employer will be the guinea pig for these new laws (if they are ever actually acted on) and how effective they are. As communists, we know that even if the laws are put to good use, it won’t be long until employers begin lobbying the government for more and more loopholes until anti-wage theft laws are no more than a façade.

 

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  1. URGENT

WE NEED TO PRESSURE THE GOVERNMENT TO PUT A FREEZE ON RENT AND MORTGAGES

Members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) are calling on the members of parliament to make the correct decision tonight (25/03/2020) in order to protect people’s housing and health during COVID-19 health crisis.

As the government discusses its decision on housing during COVID-19, the CPA is asking it to make the right decision and to implement the three demands in our statement. (Guardian, “Communist Party of Australia CC Statement”, #1908, 23/03/2020)

STATEMENT ON THE QUESTION OF HOUSING, RENT AND MORTGAGE DURING COVID-19:

It is of upmost importance that during COVID-19 there are safe and secure measures to prioritise and protect public health with no one left behind. The CPA wishes to urge the government to implement the three demands listed below. We believe that by protecting people’s housing and finances, we help protect public health by relieving the pressures that force people to break social distancing and self-isolation.

We demand that the government take action using state of emergency powers and achieve the following:

A total rent freeze during the COVID-19 health crisis so that nobody is evicted, experience financial pressure or force themselves to risk their health and that others by breaking social distancing or self-isolation or quarantine.

A total freeze on mortgage payments and interest. This is to ensure that nobody is left with increased debt during COVID-19 and again so that nobody puts themselves in a hazardous position to make mortgage payments.

Emergency housing for Australians who are already in insecure housing or on the streets. Any empty housing units or hotel accommodation should be temporarily seized under the control of the state to house people who are at risk of spreading and contracting COVID-19 due to insecure housing and inability to maintain social distancing, self-isolation or self-quarantine because of this.

In solidarity,

Andrew Irving

Communist Party of Australia

Victorian Branch

 

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  1. This week …

This week, we have four articles for our Australian Communist History and Thought spread. The two articles on page eight are about women and workplace equality – both of which highlight how the communist movement has always been at the forefront for proletariat, regardless of gender.

The first history article is about the hypocritical attitude of former PM Robert Menzies who said Communism had nothing to do with Christianity. Our second article involves a story about how eleven federal unions issued a manifesto against what they perceived to be the creeping fascism of the Australian government (the manifesto was endorsed by the Metal Trades Federation). This article highlights how the union movement in Australia has traditionally been a progressive force in our society, fighting back against our anti-worker state.

 

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  1. TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Carmen Coleman

Today the most potent factor for women’s progress, is war production, emphasising and demonstrating that “the emancipation of women will only be possible when women can take part in production on a large social scale and domestic work no longer claims anything but an insignificant amount of her time.” (Engels – “Origin of Family”). New opportunities for equality have opened up, which are undermining the material foundation of women’s inequality, undermining centuries-old restrictions and prejudices.

Thousands of women have been drawn out of the backwaters of social life into the mainstream of historical development, coming in the only way such a fundamental advance can come, by way of industry, transforming them from a relative inertness into an active force in the working class movement. The continued and increasing demands for woman power are hastening this process. Communists must ensure that this advance continues and endures. We must see that this new force in society becomes an active vital force. The most urgent problems of women in industry today are wages, the care of children, housing difficulties, sympathetic adjustment of hours to allow for the necessary duties in maintaining a home and so on. These problems open up many avenues for us to approach, interest and educate.

Indicative of the changing conditions governing the employment of women have been the advancements made by many trade unions, particularly the metal unions in securing for large numbers of their members eighty, ninety and 100 per cent of the male rates of pay. Approximately 60,000 women have been affected by the operation of the Women’s Employment Board, which determines the rates for those women who are engaged on work not done by women prior to the war.

It has now become necessary to transfer large numbers of these women into lower paid wage groups, such as clothing, textiles, boots, and rubber. This has resulted in widespread resentment which in the case of clothing and textiles has been met, to some extent, by the introduction of special awards. These awards give a weekly increase of approximately 10/- and brings the rates closer to those fixed by the Arbitration Court for the metal trades. Here reaction shows how it hopes to ensure that after the war women will be again relegated to the lower wage rates, when such improved wages are “for the duration of the war and six months thereafter.”

In these lower paid industries there is much to be done. It will not be simple, but it can be done. The transference of large numbers of women accustomed to strong union organisation is bound to have some effect. Women members of heavy industrial unions have had considerable experience of discussing the problems of the job or factory on terms of equality on their shop committees and in their unions. They are now going into shops where the union, if known at all, is often an object of derision and contempt, where women have joined the union only because it was an imposed qualification for the job and an item on the expense sheet which brought them very little. The experiences of those women who have been affected by operations of the Women’s Employment Board, by the improvements gained by their trade union, must in turn result in interest in working class organisation.

We should remember Comrade Miles’ words in Work Among Women when he says “We seize on the main demands of the moment. [...] basing everything on our attitude to the war, having in mind the aim of unity for victory, having in mind our proletarian viewpoint.” Communist trade union organisers have given numerous instances of how they are able to discuss politically with their women members the day-to-day problems facing them. While we struggle for this and that demand, we learn to speak to them about Socialism, here we remember always as Lenin so ably puts it “The struggle wins us the confidence of the masses of women who feel themselves exploited, enslaved, sup pressed, by the domination of the man, by the power of the employer, by the whole of bourgeois society [...] The working women will recognise that they must fight together with us.”

The increasing numbers of compassionate releases from industry, the high rate of absenteeism among women indicate two main problems. The first, the necessity for relief of the strain of the double burden of home and job. We recall Palme Dutt’s description of the working woman, “Capitalism extracts from her the labour of two persons; and at the same time the whole family and home life, which the capitalists affect to worship with such holy piety, is broken up and destroyed, the care of children neglected [...] and the younger generation has to grow up under conditions destructive of health or of the possibility of development.”

One of the results of the influx of many married women into industry is a keen interest in the problem of child care and education. Barriers are crumbling and the mothers’ fear of entrusting their children to others is being dissipated. Our program includes the practical solution to this problem and we note reaction’s refusal to progress, in the recent agitation for the removal from industry of women with children under school age.

The second point which demands special methods of agitation adapted to the specific needs is where women earning good money deliberately absent themselves from work. Many women do not feel any responsibility towards the war effort, let alone the solving of problems arising from working conditions and further, do not want to be bothered with them. Here we have an immediate task. If we are to ensure the continuance and endurance of the advances made as a result of the war period, we must endeavour to make women really conscious of their role in the war and in the peace.

International Women’s Day this year should be used extensively to show ever larger numbers of women how the real road to emancipation lies through Socialism. Men and women in some factories are already planning to discuss, on this day, progress achieved over the past year and to plan for new achievements.

8th March, focusses our attention on Work among Women, which in the words of Lenin is “a half of general Party work.” We have seen how the status of women is improving. It is our duty to utilise all International Women’s Day celebrations to develop to an even higher degree, the strongest antifascist sentiments, the determination for victory among women, everywhere; we must express our unity with our sisters in the Allied countries, in occupied Europe, in China and particularly the heroic women of the Soviet Union.

This article originally appeared in Communist Review February, 1944.

 

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  1. WOMEN FIGHT FOR EQUALITY

Mabel Baird

For the last century enlightened women have been struggling for equal status with men in pay and opportunity for equal work.

Frederick Engels, in Origin of the Family, has traced the relationship between the sexes from early primitive times.

He found that men and women lived in relationships which excluded the possibility of determining parentage except through the mother. She received a high respect and ruled the family. This was the Matriarchal Period. It secured to women a higher social level than they have ever had since.

With the coming of private property all things, including his wife and children, were the property of the husband.

The law and the church made them so, the latter through the teaching of St Paul who enjoined complete submission.

The law makes her entirely dependent on him, even, not long ago, giving him possession of her marriage dowry.

Today, if she does not work in industry or a profession, she is still dependent upon him. It is incumbent on him to supply her with food, clothing, and shelter but the law does not state quantity or quality.

“INFERIOR SEX”

Unfortunately custom and environment persist and many, women today accept themselves as the “inferior sex.” “I’ll ask my husband” is frequently heard as one canvasses a peace petition or at election times.

Changes have been won over the years, by the struggle of women.

These rebellious spirits, many of them writers, belonged mostly to the class who had the opportunity of education, and were spurred on by the superior-status the men of the-family occupied.

It was considered not necessary to educate a girl beyond domestic and social graces, as she would marry and not use the subjects taught to her brother. Until quite recently that idea has prevailed.

Today the advance of education has given girls the chance to pit their brains against the boys and the examination results show that there is as often a girl, at the head of the list as a boy.

But there is still not equality of opportunity. Again and again women are passed over in favour of the male.

PROFESSIONS

Many women have climbed to success in professions, but it has not been easy to achieve.

They have had to strive against the prejudice of men; for men still hold the power in their hands and relegate them to the home.

Today, woman’s higher status, from her achievements, demands the respect of mankind, and she is demanding not only nylons and orchids but an equal place in any walk of life in which she achieves success.

But what of women who have, not had the opportunity of professional training, who work in industry, shops or offices.

In Australia the International Labor Organisation’s decision on equal pay for. the sexes has pot been implemented and women still get only a percentage of a man’s pay for the same job.

Unions are moving in this matter, but it is necessary for women to move faster if they wish to reach economic equality.

At the last ACTU conference a union of 20,000 women and 2,000 men members sent only men delegates. Does this mean that women are apathetic to their own interests, content to be the inferior sex? They are a necessary part of the whole work force and an efficient part.

When men realise that employers are using women’s labour because it is cheaper and their own wages and standard of living are lowered thereby, they will wake up and men and women will march together towards equality for the good of all.

In article originally appeared in Tribune May, 1964.

 

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  1. LET ‘EM STARVE MENZIES POSES AS CHRISTIAN SAINT

“Communism,” said Mr Menzies in his policy speech, “has nothing in common with the Christian gospel of love and brotherhood.”

Menzies’ whole life, of course, has been one shining example of Christian love and brotherhood.

Here are a few examples: —

“LET THEM STARVE”

In Wesley Church. Melbourne on 3rd May 1931, in the midst of the depression, Menzies said: “Rather than that we should fail to pay our honest debts to our bondholders, I would prefer to see every man, woman and child in Australia die of starvation in the next six months.”

“PROUD OF KOREA”

Menzies stated he was proud of Korea. This means he agrees with the Christian general MacArthur, who, as he gazed on the dead bodies of Koreans at Inchon, on 17th September 1950, said: “That’s a good sight for my old eyes.”

GAS OVEN MURDER

“I thought myself it was a great thing for Germany to have arms,” said Menzies according to the Telegraph, 12th December 1933. This policy of arming Hitler led to the murder of millions of people, including the mass killing of civilians in gas ovens.

ATOM BOMB TORTURE

The terrible death and torture of millions of civilians was advocated by Menzies at a Sydney Town Hall meeting when, answering an interjector, he advocated “solving” the Berlin crisis by using the atom bomb.

“GREAT SELF-SEEKER”

Menzies’ colleague W M Hughes described Menzies’ “Christian” character when he called him “the great self-seeker, the man behind the scenes in every intrigue, the fountainhead of every whispering campaign, the destroyer of unity.”

PROFITS FROM DEATH

Menzies has admitted in Parliament that his friends are shareholders in the big monopolies now making swollen profits from the dead bodies in Korea and the drive to world war.

It is because Communists oppose this drive to war that Menzies attacks them. Communists can be proud that they are singled out for attack by a man with such a record.

This article originally appeared in Tribune in April, 1951.

 

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  1. 200,000 KEY UNIONISTS FIGHT FASCIST THREAT TO AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE

Eleven Federal trade unions with a membership of over 200,000 will throw their full weight into a campaign against attempts to impose Fascism on the Australian people.

In Sydney Town Hall last week the powerful Metal Trades Federation called on the ACTU to organise a nation-wide campaign for repeal of all anti-trade union and repressive legislation.

Five hundred delegates, shop stewards and officials of unions comprising the federation carried a resolution describing this legislation as “increasingly menacing to the working class.”

A manifesto, issued by the eleven Federal unions and endorsed by the Federation, declares that “the alarming growth towards fascism in Australia” is shown by:

The brutal batoning of legal observer Fred Paterson, MLA, and many Brisbane trade unionists taking part in a peaceful procession on March 17.

The anti-trade union, strikebreaking legislation of the Hanlon, Hollway, and Playford Governments.

The hysterical demands by “Liberal” and Country Party leaders and others for the suppression of the Communist Party, and further measures to destroy trade union militancy.

The eleven unions which issued the manifesto include Ironworkers, Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, AEU, Moulders, Sheet Metal Workers. Miners’ Federation, FED and FA, Waterside Workers’ Federation, Seamen and ARU.

The manifesto was supported by the town hall meeting of 500 shop stewards, union delegates and officials, representing unions in the Metal Trades Federation.

Those present pledged themselves to support the principles of the manifesto and to fight for a free, democratic Australia.

“GATHER ALL FORCES”

The text of the manifesto is:

The great Australian trade union movement, the chief guardian of traditional living standards and the main stronghold of democracy, must gather together all its forces to defeat attempts to impose fascism on the people of Australia.

The Queensland legislation has been described by the Queensland Labor Council as the “most vicious anti-working-class legislation ever introduced in Australia.” It bans picketing and gives the police power to arrest without warrant and to enter any premises, including union offices and meetings, at any time.

It bans the publication of the strikers’ side of the case and prohibits the display of signs and posters soliciting support for striking unions.

Police are given full power to use force against striking unionists wherever they deem it necessary.

The purpose of this, and similar legislation in other States, is to outlaw strikes, legalise scabbery, smash organised picketing, intimidate workers and, above all, to destroy trade unionism.

HITLER PRECEDENT

Similar repressive legislation by German Governments preceded the coming to power of Hitler in 1933. Hitler also attempted to blame the Communists for all Germany’s industrial and political ills and proclaimed the banning of the Communist Party to be his main aim.

When Hitler came to power, however, he suppressed not only the Communist Party but also the Social Democratic Labour Party and the Free German trade unions, including the Christian trade unions. Communists, Social Democrats, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, all who protested against forced labour at starvation wage-rates were persecuted and herder into concentration camps without distinction.

The terrible tragedy of the German labour movement was that the great trade unions, that could have done so much, did so little to unite and fight fascism while it was still in its formative stages.

To prevent this tragedy being repeated in Australia, the Federal unions that subscribe to this manifesto call on all Australian workers to unite their forces and fight with the utmost determination to defend their traditional liberties.

The right to strike, the right to picket, the right to assemble without police interference, and the right to publicise our cause without police censorship, are traditional rights won in 100 years of struggle and essential to the very existence of free trade unions in Australia.

FIGHT BAN MOVE

The great trade unions have always maintained the unassailable right of individual members of their own religious and political beliefs and will fight to uphold these rights against any move to ban the Communist Party or any other working-class organisation.

To defend democratic rights and defeat growing fascism before it has time to gain a foothold on Australian soil, the whole trade union movement must unite in a campaign for the repeal of Hanlon’s Industrial Law Amendment Act, Hollway’s Essential Services Act, Playford’s Industrial Disputes (Inquiry) Bill, Dr Evatt’s approved Defence Projects Protection Act and all similar anti-trade union, anti-democratic legislation.

The working-class movement, providing it is firmly united, is much stronger than the forces of reaction and fascism. United struggle now will safeguard trade union and democratic rights.

This article originally appeared in Tribune in March,1948.

 

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  1. CHINA AND CUBA: INTERNATIONALISM AT ITS FINEST

Seamus Carey

The Republic of Cuba and the People’s Republic of China are showing the way forward, both in tackling the virus crisis and demonstrating a new standard for international relations based on cooperation and friendship.

Despite dealing with their outbreaks of COVID-19, these countries in particular have shown great generosity in helping the rest of the world tackle the pandemic.

For several years Chinese President Xi Jinping has promoted the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind.” Given the ever-increasing interconnectedness of human societies worldwide, large-scale cooperation and planning is needed to address the problems we face. International relations based upon competition and hostility are, ever more clearly, in opposition to the interests of our entire species. Major examples of relevant issues have been those of peace, environment, poverty and economic development. These remain no less urgent matters, but the COVID-19 epidemic has acutely illuminated this principle and brought the demand for change to the fore.

The Chinese government and many organisations within China have sent medical supplies and staff to dozens of countries around the world. So too has the tiny nation of Cuba, supplying Cuban antiviral medicine Interferon Alfa-2B to many countries (including China), as well as other supplies and skilled medical teams.

Cuba also aided hundreds of passengers on the British cruise ship MS Braemar by allowing the ship to dock in Cuba and the passengers to fly home after the ship spent over a week being refused entry to several countries including the United States.

US-aligned media has incessantly attacked China during this crisis, making ludicrous criticisms of China’s response that become more ironic by the day. The US and other Western governments have all enacted a much slower response, despite having months more warning, and are timidly starting to introduce the same necessary measures they had labelled “authoritarian” in China.

It is only since the crisis hit the stock markets that Western governments have taken it at all seriously. China, on the other hand, showed no hesitation in shutting down most of its economy in order to control the outbreak. This approach has already proven successful. Now Chinese experts are being sought after by countries around the world, and China is generously providing all forms of assistance.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, in a passionate speech, criticised the European Union for denying Serbia medical imports from the EU, saying “European solidarity does not exist” and described the People’s Republic of China as “the only ones who can help us”. China has sent Serbia medical teams, test kits and other medical equipment.

Meanwhile, information was leaked to the German media suggesting that US President Donald Trump offered German pharmaceutical company CureVac one billion dollars for exclusive rights to a COVID-19 vaccine under development. An unnamed US government official has denied some of the content of this report, claiming that if the US were to procure exclusive rights to a vaccine, they would still share it with the world. But simultaneously, the US government persists in its criminal blockades against many countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and the DPRK, restricting access to vital medical supplies and willingly causing unnecessary deaths – all the while claiming that these sanctions only target the governments of these countries and not their people.

A political world away, in a phone call with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel last month, President Xi Jinping said China “highly appreciates the understanding and support the Cuban side and the Cuban president himself have shown for China’s anti-epidemic efforts.” He also stressed that “China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades, and good brothers who can rely on each other in difficult times and are as close as lips and teeth.” He further stated that “the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government will, as always, support Cuba’s pursuit of a socialist path”.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded that China’s successful measures to combat the epidemic have “fully demonstrated China’s strong mobilisation ability and the great advantages of the socialist system.”

He also complimented President Xi’s leadership, and thanked China “for its long-standing support for Cuba’s just cause and its assistance for Cuba’s development and construction,” declaring that “Cuba stands ready to work with China to further consolidate their traditional friendship.”

 

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  1. WHAT CAN A COMMUNIST DO DURING A PANDEMIC?

Franc Stregone

COVID-19 has not only changed the way we live but if you’re a communist like me, it’s changed the way we organise. Before the Coronavirus outbreak, we would organise in at our branches; we would attend rallies, stand with comrades on the picket-line, among other activities – it was a life filled with lots of social events.

However, COVID-19, in a few short months, has completely changed this way of life, and we are now forced to rethink how we can perform our revolutionary duty.

As editor-in-chief of The Workers’ Weekly Guardian, my immediate thoughts go to our party paper as this is the last week of our printed edition until COVID-19 is contained. Comrades who are wondering what they can do with their time are more than welcome to contribute by writing letters or articles. I find the process of writing to be a great way to articulate my thoughts, and I encourage all comrades to put their ideas on paper.

As a rank-and-file comrade, my thoughts go to how my branch can operate during this crisis. Many branches have already clued in to the idea that going online (with applications like Skype, Zoom, Discord, etc.) is best to continue their work. I think this can extend to many other kinds of activities that comrades can participate in (such as digital campaigning) and it will be interesting to see how our party mobilises.

As a communist, I think about what I can do in order during these times. Since I cannot organise in the streets, I look for opportunities to communicate with comrades across the left to coordinate a response to the government’s actions and making sure they’re held accountable. I am also taking it as an opportunity to sharpen my ideological understanding by reading Lenin (along with Stalin and other Soviet political economists). I think using this time to read the great thinkers of our political tradition provides an opportunity for us to come our even sharper when we are back on the streets, fighting for the working-class.

Whatever it is we do, we need to be as diligent as possible with our time. Especially when working from home, one can quickly become lethargic, as the days blur into one another. However, if we stay in touch with our comrades, we can find solace in solidarity, and come out of the COVID-19 a stronger, more united, party.

 

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