Red Report Back - Week Ending 20/03/2022

East Coast Chaos - A Taste of Things to Come

As unrelenting storms lash our coast, from south-eastern Queensland all the way down to southern New South Wales, it is worth reflecting on what this means for the future. We are no strangers to flooding and fires in Australia, but the undeniable evidence is that these events are now getting more dangerous and more frequent, and will only continue to do so.

The capitalist state is guilty on two counts when it comes to dealing with this crisis.

In the short term, they have been slow to react, leaving everyday people in the lap of the gods when it comes to escaping danger and dealing with the immediate fallout of these disasters. When help belatedly arrives, repair and rebuilding will be inadequate and geared to line the pockets of businesses and developers rather than working people. Their long term policies, born out of total subservience to capitalist interests, will only cause these events to occur more frequently and with more disastrous consequences for people all across Australia.

Under the current order, we’ll be seeing tragedies like this play out endlessly in the coming decades. Capitalism has only one motivation: the endless search for profit, with no thought for the human or environmental consequences. Only a socialist Australia would be able to behave in an environmentally responsible manner for the benefit of all life on this continent and beyond.

Climate Change Duty of Care

Last week, the coal loving, corrupt politicians of the modern day Rum Corps have shown once again why people should have zero faith in their legal system. Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has successfully argued she does not have a duty of care to protect young people from climate change when assessing fossil fuel projects. The saddest part is that in making this decision, the full bench of the Federal Court overturned the earlier success of the class action launched by children that held our government accountable to a duty of care for future generations of Australians.

The case was known internationally with liberals and moderates lauding it as a way to hold corrupt, coal-loving political leaders accountable to the public for their wanton destruction of the environment. Many touted this as a common law solution to bring about meaningful change. This just goes to show that the capitalist ‘democracies’ of the world will not permit any change in this system under their control, while the mega-rich elite continue to rake in billions from fossil fuels and accelerate the impacts of climate change upon workers. We are unable to confirm reports that Ms Ley celebrated the victory by smoking a cone of coal and shooting several caged koalas.

Housing Slips Further From Workers' Grasp

In news that will shock no-one, house prices continued to rise in Australia’s capital cities over the last quarter – a 4.7% increase over what were already eye-watering sums to most Australians. In regional areas prices are skyrocketing, as those with means to do so have fled our cities since the beginning of the pandemic. The ever increasing housing bubble ensures the door remains firmly shut on the human right to a roof over every head. When the property bubble finally bursts, it won’t be the bankers, developers, real estate agents, and politicians left holding the bag. Just as happened in 2008, it will be working people who cop the economic fallout.

In a country with 10 year wait lists for public housing, the truth is that we could easily house everyone who needs it. This country is full of investment properties, holiday homes, and AirBnB’s that sit empty – the inevitable result of an economic system which turns housing, like everything else, into a commodity. In a socialist society housing would serve only as a place to shelter, live, sleep, and raise a family. Under capitalism, properties which would make perfectly good dwellings for working families are treated the same as barrels of oil, stocks on the market, or digital apes on the blockchain – a means by which capitalists can speculate and earn profit. Don’t buy into capitalist rhetoric – we have no “housing crisis”. We have plenty of houses. The crisis is capitalism.

Murderous Landlord Kills Three in Boarding House Fire

In the early hours of the morning last week, an explosion at a Newtown boarding house in Sydney engulfed a property in flames. Three have died as a result of the fire, while several other residents remain hospitalised. The landlord is to be charged with murder; the maliciously lit fire being reminiscent of the dodgy developers of old that burnt their inadequate boarding houses to reap the profits of redevelopment.

These people, as with many who live in the boarding house system across New South Wales, were forced into unsafe living conditions under the control of a neglectful landlord – another vulture of profit. Now, there are three more people that can be added to the list of victims of this government that refuses to provide adequate housing to its people. There are more than 100,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in New South Wales. Yet, the government sees fit to continually destroy public housing and the communities the residents have created.

Under capitalism, there can be no justice for these three victims of an uncaring system. Nor for the homeless on the streets, the families waiting for houses and the millions of others in need of adequate housing. Housing is a human right, and a socialist housing system is the best way to secure this right.

Fare Free Fridays for Sydney Trains

New South Wales Transport Minister David Elliot has offered to meet the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) halfway by offering fare-free travel on Friday’s for a year if the union doesn’t take further industrial action. After bungling negotiations with the union that represents the frontline transport workers that have kept Sydney going for two years over the pandemic, the RTBU threatened industrial action unless fare free travel was given to members of the public for every Friday until June. Cowering at the thought, Mr Elliot offered fare free travel for the rest of the year to compensate the public for the havoc he caused when his cabinet shut down the rail network several weeks previously, and then tried to blame the union.

While it is welcome news, and it is impressive to see the RTBU stick to their guns, we must not rest on our laurels. State governments across Australia continue to sell off public transport into inefficient and overpriced operators that they are often mates with, while those who work the transport systems are subject to worse working conditions and pay. The public deserves free public transport, and those who run it deserve better conditions.

To Fly a Rebel Flag

The Federal Court ruled last week that companies subject to the Commonwealth Building Code are banned from displaying the Eureka flag at these work sites. The ban includes displaying the Eureka Flag on union logos, mottos, insignia, as well as any clothing, property or equipment supplied to workers.

The secretary of the Ballarat Regional Trades and Labour Council, Brett Edgington, criticised the act as an ideological move to attack workers and their right to display a symbol of the workers movement. He highlighted the contradictions, as many others have, over the issue in recent years, between bans placed on symbols of the workers movement, while far-right symbols are continually protected under the guise of ‘freedom of speech’. This is just another in a string of attacks on unionists, following the anti-worker Australian Building and Construction Commission and its decision in 2019 to attack contractors at Monash University for displaying the flag on cranes and in break rooms.

It is notable that the government has time to attack workers and the union movement for raising a symbol that Australian workers have rallied around for nearly two centuries, but can’t manage to put the same amount of effort into attacking the $320 million in wages stolen by dodgy companies every year in the construction industry, nor to attack those that subject workers to unsafe conditions that cause death. We must protect and reclaim these symbols of the Australian working class, whether from right-wing conspiracy theorists or anti-worker governments. In the words written by Francis Adams some 100 years ago, we say:

Fling out the Flag! And let friend and foe behold, for gain or loss,
The sign of our faith and the fight we fight, the Stars of the Southern Cross!

Peaceful Protestors Shot Down

On the 15th of March, a peaceful protest was held in Yahukimo, in the occupied state of West Papua. The demonstration was held to protest against the expansion of the new autonomous regions and special autonomy by the Indonesian government in their ongoing genocidal invasion and occupation of West Papua.

The fascist military of the Indonesian state reacted to this peaceful expression of dissent by shooting into the crowd of West Papuan protestors with live ammunition. In the aftermath of the chaos, two have been pronounced dead, while three others are still hospitalised from their wounds. Australians must know the truth: our tax dollars are being spent giving Australian Federal Police training to the thugs who murdered these protestors.

As communists and internationalists, we honour the memory of the dead by fighting against the Australian government’s ongoing involvement in colonialism and capitalism, both domestically and internationally. We must hold our government accountable for these criminal acts, and honour the memory of Erson Weipa and Yakob Meklok. All power to the people of West Papua.

Follow this link to read more about the situation in West Papua.