Mass unemployment, SDA Sellout Coles Workers, Not Much Help to Buy, and Housing Crisis Worsens Dramatically: Red Report Back 23.03.2024-5.04.2024

Bourgeois Plan for a flourishing economy: Mass unemployment!

In a case that highlights the baked-in hostility of both our national broadcaster and mainstream (bourgeois) economic theory towards the working class, the ABC recently put out an article under the headline “Tens of thousands more jobs must go to finally crack this cost-of-living crisis, economists say”.

Throughout the piece, written by David Taylor (although it seems a stretch to refer to regurgitating the crass talking points of bourgeois economists as ‘writing’), we see the usual propaganda by assumption that always constitutes articles on these topics in mainstream publications. The presentation of bourgeois ideology as fact begins immediately, as the 0.2% growth rate in the economy over the final quarter of 2023 is mournfully announced. Why exactly the economy must always grow and who exactly that growth serves is never something to be even examined, let alone challenged, in an article such as Taylor’s. It is taken as an immutable fact that the economy must grow, that the 0.2% rate of growth isn’t enough, and that working people will have to suffer to pump that number up.

 As communists we argue that a more equitable distribution of the goods and services that already exist in the economy would do vastly more for working people than simply continuing to grow an economy that only exists to serve the capitalist class, especially when that growth is predicated on the suffering and exploitation of the workers who actually build the economy. Indeed, the article itself notes the price hikes that are causing so much pain to the Australian working class, which when juxtaposed with the rest of the piece just highlights how out of touch the quibbling over growth rates and the technical definition of recession from supposedly educated economists is from the everyday lives of working people. Why should we care if the prophets of bourgeois economics say we are not “officially” in a recession when we are already struggling to pay rent and put food on the table?

The article signs off with a few lines that perfectly sum up the callous disregard that these economists and the ‘journalists’ who subscribe to their ideas have for the average person. Immediately after the writer states that there are currently well over 500,000 Australians out of work, a figure also projected to rise as high as 700,000, there is a final quote from Stephen Smith, partner at Deloitte Access Economics, who states “The labour market is still relatively healthy, but a slowdown is coming”.

What dreamworld do these dead-eyed psychopaths live in that they can say with a straight face that half a million people unable to find work, unable to provide for themselves and their families, is “relatively healthy”? Perhaps these economists would like to volunteer to be among the almost 130,000 additional unemployed people they project will “need” to be out of work before inflation is under control? Their services certainly won’t be missed.

SDA Sellouts Endorse Losing Deal for Coles Workers

Not content with fleecing the general population, bosses at price gouging duopoly supermarket giant Coles have turned their eye on their own employees, seeking to shake them down for every last cent as well. Workers at the chain have denounced a proposed new enterprise bargaining agreement that includes an hourly rate just 54 cents above the legal minimum.

Adding insult to injury, the proposal is so bad that Coles management have had to resort to bribery, offering workers meagre sums in the form of gift cards redeemable at their own workplaces should they vote to accept the deal - $600 for a small number of full timers, although the 85% of Coles employees who are part-time or casual would receive just $250 or $150 respectively. Clearly, the powers that be at the chain must think their employees are a bunch of idiots, trying to convince the turkeys to vote for Christmas in return for a minuscule one-time offer of company scrip. It is also worth pointing out that the different amounts offered to different employees is perfectly in line with a common tactic of employers during the bargaining process, that of turning employees against each other by offering various payoffs to different sections of the workforce, in an effort to prevent them uniting against the real enemy.

This comes after Coles held off on bargaining at all for years after the previous deal expired, their hand eventually being forced by legislation passed after the change in government after the last Federal election, all while profits soared to $1.1bn last financial year. It also follows years of job cuts, with countless workers booted into unemployment due to automation, another attack on working people that helped to fund those billions in profit.

Unsurprisingly, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA)  – an organisation that claims to represent supermarket workers, but which is more accurately described as a running dog for Australia’s supermarket duopoly – has come out swinging on behalf of management, with national secretary Gerard Dwyer going so far as to declare that the measly bribe “would be welcome money in the pocket for workers confronting significant cost of living pressures”. Of course, Coles has played more than their part in creating those “significant pressures”, with price rises in store contributing to the financial struggle faced by working people around Australia every day. Indeed, even many who are employed by Coles report that they can’t afford to shop at their own places of work, despite their 5% employee discount.

The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) urged members to vote no to the deal, saying “Coles has cut a wage stealing deal with the SDA and workers are fighting back. There are many reasons to vote no, including that it sees bosses make better offers. Don’t get railroaded into the sellout deal”. Whether RAFFWU’s tactics lead to any short term gains for Coles employees remains to be seen, but it is certainly a welcome change to the hand-in-glove relationship between the SDA and supermarket bosses.

Not Much Help to Buy

The Federal Government’s proposed “Help to Buy” Scheme is, bluntly, a smokescreen. The scheme as proposed will have the government contributing up to 40% of the cost of a mortgage for a new home, 30% for an existing house. purchasers will only have to front up a 2% deposit.

This seems pretty good on paper to allow people the opportunity to afford a home. However, it has many significant drawbacks.

First, and most glaring, is that it will only be available to 10,000 people across Australia annually. For the magnitude of the housing crisis that Australia faces, and the fact that everyone fundamentally needs somewhere to live, this cap is ridiculous. The government parades around that it has reached a budget surplus, but somehow they do not have the cash to make such a scheme accessible.

This is made worse by the fact many more people will be eligible for the scheme than these 10,000 placements. Singles making $90,000 or less and couples making $120,000 or less. Around 75% of singles are in this bracket and 39% of couples are in that bracket. The maths don’t lie - the scheme is essentially a lucky dip for help.

Furthermore, it restricts people to buying only cheaper than average homes. In Sydney this would mean no house worth more than $900,000 and in Melbourne no more than $800,000. Of course it is not a good idea to subsidise people to buy mansions, but this limit is low. The average house price in Sydney is $1.6 million. Melbourne is a little better at about $1 million.

And herein lies the ultimate issue - this scheme will not actually make housing cheaper at all. In fact, it has been estimated by the Grattan institute that the scheme could actually increase prices over four years.

The real solution for the crisis is a massive build scheme of good quality, public housing. The capitalist logic of simply helping a few people get into the “housing market” fundamentally misses the mark. None of the solutions proposed by the government, whether they be this or the previous HAFF scheme, address the basic reality that housing is a fundamental necessity for human life. Until the government is forced to address this viewpoint, a socialist viewpoint, the housing crisis will grind on indefinitely.

Housing Crisis Worsens Dramatically

Only 0.7% of all houses are vacant in Australia currently. In Perth and Adelaide, this sits even lower at about 0.3%. If anything was proof that there are not enough houses in Australia, it is this. We have allowed the logic of the market, supply and demand, to ravage our understanding of housing in Australia. It is a simple equation, when supply is low, prices go up.

So with such a low vacancy rate, a record low in fact, that causes prices to go up. This flows onto renters also as when property values go up, rent goes up. Already about two thirds of Australians are in housing stress. This raises to four out of five renters who are in that position.

But instead of actually going out there, breaking ground and building houses for people to live in, the government is putting its trust in the market. Their “centrepiece” housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund, assuming that it will work as effectively as proposed (which it will not), will only provide 40,000 social and affordable homes over five years.

This will not make a dent in the vacancy rate. In fact prices will likely increase as our population naturally grows. This pitifully small amount won’t achieve anything.

Most of the focus the government has put into “alleviating” this crisis is focused fundamentally around the market. Reforms in the states to build more houses are based around funnelling money into property developers’ hands rather than actually building houses for people. So-called affordable houses produced by the government, if they do not sell for the price they are listed at, lose this status and the developper is allowed to sell them at whatever price they chose.

Furthermore, the build quality of many houses made by developers over the past ten years has been atrocious, with Sydney’s Opal Tower a prime example. Property developers regularly propose deregulation of building approvals as a way for them to build more. This line appears in most articles about the amount of houses in the ABC, Guardian, Age and Herald. Houses that fall apart are not a solution.

So it is essential that working people come together to fight for something as basic as housing. Despite how serious an issue it is, it is not being addressed. And when there are rumblings about building more, those in government will first propose for any funding to go to dodgy developers. WIthout banding together to campaign for more and good quality public housing, nothing will change.