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November 12, 2005
The Moir cartoon refers to the 'Its Time' Whitlamite ALP of the early 1970s when there was an organic connection between the parliamentary party, the blue collar workers, the unions, the professional middle class and the intellectuals:
Alan Moir
Today's Beazley -led ALP is confronted by a disconnect. The blue collars workers went over the Coalition conservatives atfer 1996 due to the negative effects of globalization caused by the Hawk/Keating ALP's economic reform that opened up the economy. The blue collar workers were attracted by sound economic managemnt, law and order, bring strong on border protection and tough stance on terrorism. And they have stayed with the conservative side of politics. I cannot see them shifting back no matter how hairy chested the ALP is on national security.
The Beazley-led ALP is fighting to contain its rump blue collar vote by being tough on industrial relations. It's in defensive mode and it sees defending the rule of law, civil rights, sedition laws associated with being hairy chested on terrorism and the enemy within as a sideshow. That implies a right-wing dominated ALP is prepared to dump the progressive middle class and the intellectuals in favour of the commonsense of those blue collar working people living in the suburbs and who have moved to the right. The ALP right seem to think that the key to political success is the increasing conservatism of the electorate.
Shouldn't the ALP try to retain the connect with intellectuals and the progressive middle class as well? Is that a sideshow too? Shouldn't it be reaching out beyond to its core constitutency? Or does the right wing dominanted ALP live with the fiction that it will be returned to powerjust by energizing its core constitutency in a polarized world. Don't they have to capture a lot in the centre as well as the inner city left?
There are large forces of globalization at play here. This is how I understand it.
An important segment of the Australian .economy has been rolling along, as globalization and technology lower the labor costs of producing goods and as intense worldwide competition forces businesses to be more productive. The result has been dramatically higher corporate profits and a level of growth that has driven the forward momentum in the Australian economy in recent years.
Some groups have not enjoyed the prosperity; those who do not have the education or skills to compete in the new knowledge-based economy. In some cases, they do possess the skills but are competing with workers elsewhere in the world who make one-fifth or less of what the U.S. worker makes, while receiving few if any benefits.
The ALP is defending this group in relation to the IR legislation whilst ignoring the new knowledge workers.
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