You can't listen to the radio, watch the news or read the papers these days without being reminded that this government is consistently, blatantly and outrageously acting against the wishes of the great majority of people.
Recently, yet another a poll confirmed that most Australians now believe that Australian troops should not have joined the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Last month, a poll showed that 75% of Australians would rather have more government spending on schools, hospitals and other social services than receive a tax cut.
What are these polls telling us about the state of Australian society today?
They are demonstrating that many people are in dissent, and that the crisis of legitimacy of mainstream politics is not just an abstract concept, but a reality.
Though this dissent may still be largely passive, it is broad and deep within our society. And it says clearly that most people don't approve of the way society is being run. They don't agree with the right-wing "free-market", "economic rationalist" madness being pushed relentlessly by both the Liberal and Labor parties. They're saying in large numbers that they don't agree that society should be destroyed for the sake of tax cuts for the benefit of the rich. And they're saying loudly and clearly that they don't agree with the decision to go to war.
The Howard government's tax bribe didn't suck people in last year, and the latest round of tax bribes isn't working either.
People are not stupid. ACOSS has done its sums and arrived at the figure of $8 billion a year — $8 billion a year in tax breaks for the rich that have robbed the working poor, pensioners, the unemployed and the needy of vital, basic social services. And now they want to hand out billions more to the rich!
We look around and we can see the social cost of the last two decades of handouts to big business, of the shady deals with arms manufacturers.
We can see it in the crisis in the public hospital system and the public education system starved of funds while private schools get bigger handouts. We can see it in the public transport system crumbling, while deals are done with construction companies for more private toll-ways.
We can see it in the decay and destruction of the environment, there's a sense of foreboding about the future of the planet out there that reminds those of us who can remember the fear we felt as children about the threat of a nuclear crisis. Meanwhile our government offers its support to the madness of King George W. Bush's Star Wars missile defence program.
And people have had enough of this bipartisan, profits-first agenda! The polls are showing this disapproval of the last two decades of social vandalism.
The polls are showing that people want a society that puts community, the environment, peace, democracy and justice before corporate profits.
And the people are going to say it once again in the coming federal elections by voting the Howard government out!
They will be voting to put an end to Australia's military involvement in this unjust imperialist occupation of Iraq — which will speed up the now inevitable defeat in that country.
Since its birth, the Socialist Alliance has been running a relentless street campaign against the war and for social justice. Our federal election campaign could make a significant contribution to Howard's end.
While it will be a welcome victory to rid ourselves of the Coalition, the ALP government we get as a replacement will be fundamentally committed to the same neoliberal agenda. The work will by no means be over. Our goal is to change the political agenda in the workplace, in the community and on the streets.
We have an election manifesto "Another Australia Is Possible" (available at < http://www.socialist-A href="mailto:alliance.org/resources/manifesto-web.pdf"><alliance.org/resources/manifesto-web.pdf>). It isn't a wish list or phrase-mongering, it is a plan of action to apply under the incoming government.
It is also a pledge that Socialist Alliance parliamentarians are not careerists, but champions of the people. We won't be sitting around in comfortable offices, living off the fat of a parliamentary salary. We'll take a worker's wage and use our positions to build the movements for progressive change.
Susan Price
[Susan Price is the Socialist Alliance candidate for Sydney in the coming federal elections. She is a activist in the National Tertiary Education Union.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, June 2, 2004.
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