A-Infos (en) Australia, Melbourne Anarchist (MACG) The Anvil Vol. 2 #6

THE ANVIL - NEWSLETTER OF THE MELBOURNE ANARCHIST COMMUNIST GROUP July/Aug 2010 NOBODY TO 
VOTE FOR ..On 21 August, a general election is being held in Australia. The Labor 
Government is being challenged by the Liberals, but neither party is interested in solving 
severe problems of inequality, social alienation and environmental destruction
In fact, they will make them worse. ---- To start with, the Liberals are the party of big 
business, the party of capital, and are sworn enemies of the working class. Under the 
leadership of Tony Abbott, they have openly embraced social reaction, stirring up every 
backward prejudice they can get away with. Everybody knows they are champing at the bit to 
bring back Work Choices and if they hesitate to say so openly, it is only because they 
fear the vehemence of the working class response.

The Labor Party, historically the electoral representative of the working class, is little 
better than the Liberals. Caught between its own servitude to capital and its craven 
capitulation to the bosses' media, it has time and again reneged on even its timid 
progressive reforms. In the name of “managing Australia's borders”, refugees are to be 
denied entry. In the name of “creating a consensus on climate change”, they will permit 
the greenhouse denial industry to veto any action. And in the name of nothing but naked 
fear, private schools will continue to be given preferential funding over private schools.

but plenty to vote against

Even on industrial relations, Labor is
a disgrace. Its Fair Work Act made
relatively minor reforms to Work
Choices and Labor has continued to
fund the Australian Building and
Construction Commission, a secret
industrial police force which treats
solidarity as a more dangerous crime
than murder. The Liberals want to kill
the unions. Labor's alternative is to
keep them chained and
malnourished, unable to resist any
determined employer.

Are the Greens a progressive
alternative? Certainly their rhetoric is
a refreshing change from the Libs
and the “me-too” ALP. Their fatal flaw
is exposed, however, by their
commitment to capitalism. This is
clearest to see in the most important
issue for them, climate change. They
understand the threat of global
warming and want to tackle it, but
their proposals would put the cost of
doing so largely on the working class.
This would drive workers into the
arms of the greenhouse denial
industry and destroy any hope of
effective action on climate change.
The Greens, therefore, have no
answers.

Finally (the assorted right-wing nutters are
not even worthy of consideration), in some
electorates a socialist might be found on
the ballot paper. They rightly name
capitalism as the problem and a (vaguely
defined) socialism as the solution. They
pose, however, no credible strategy for
getting there. Only the working class can
solve the burning issues of our time, and
we can only do it through organisation in
the workplace and the community. We will
build a society of liberty, equality and
solidarity, but we will do it without
Parliaments and other top-down bodies.
We will do it through a world-wide workers'
revolution.

At this election, therefore, there is no
shortage of people to vote against. But
there is definitely nobody to vote FOR.

------------------------------------

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

THE NO STATE SOLUTION

Since its inception, Israel has oppressed and maltreated the Palestinian people. From
the initial War of Independence in 1947-48, through the 6 Day War of 1967, and to the
Gaza War of 2009, Israel has treated the Palestinians as inferior or even 
non-existentexpanded its territorial borders and used extreme brutality to suppress 
resistanceThe violence against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla earlier this year was different 
only in that Israel was seen to be giving people from other countries a taste of what it 
has been dishing out to the Palestinians on a regular basis.

Why is this so?

The fundamental cause of the
Palestinians' plight was the decision, in
the wake of World War II, of the Zionist
(i.e. Jewish nationalist) movement to
establish a "Jewish State" in the British
territory of Palestine. All else has
flowed from this. Without the Jewish
State, there would have been no need
for ethnic cleansing, no drive for
territorial expansion and no point to the
discriminatory treatment of the
Palestinians. There would have been
other problems, but not these ones.

A “Jewish State” is a problem because
it defines Israel as a state of the Jewish
people, rather than a state of its
citizens. It is the moral and political
equivalent of a White Australia or an
Islamic Republic. Israel systematically
discriminates against the Palestinian
people, treating its Palestinian citizens
as inconveniences at best and, at
worst, as an enemy within.
Furthermore, Zionist ideology carries a
particular idea of the extent of Israeli
territory (though different Zionist
perspectives define the boundaries
differently), so there has been a
constant drive to expand the State and
enclose the desired territory. This has
led to the Israeli settlements on the
West Bank and the Apartheid Wall.

What is to be done?

Israel's defenders point to the Nazi
Genocide as a justification for a Jewish
State, but two wrongs don't make a right,
even if the initial wrong is as uniquely evil
as the Holocaust. Further, neither the
appalling regimes of the Arab States nor
the crimes of the Palestinian political
leadership invalidate the rights of the
Palestinian people, whether in Israel, the
Occupied Territories or the Diaspora. What
is required is a solution which provides
justice for all, including for the Jewish
Israelis who, despite everything, have
rights as well. Though the Zionists have,
like Australia, built a nation on stolen land,
a nation has been built.

The essential starting point is that there
can be no just solution to the Palestine
Question within the confines of capitalism.
Where there are interpenetrated peoples,
as there are in Israel/Palestine, the
vindication of the national rights of one
people can only occur through the denial of
the national rights of the other. Thus, any
Two State solution would result in two or
more pitiful Palestinian bantustans, leave
the Palestinians within Israel as second
class citizens, and abandon the Diaspora
altogether. On the other hand, a One State
solution would put the boot on the other
foot, with Jews within a unitary Palestine
being denied the self-determination they so
strenuously claim.

The no state solution

The only way out of the dilemma on the
Palestine Question is to reject the nation
state. National oppression in
Israel/Palestine can only be abolished if
there are no national institutions to fight
over and no State to suppress one nation
on behalf of another. This also necessarily
entails rejecting the capitalist system of
which the nation State is an integral part,
and which cannot exist without it.

The liberation of the Palestinian people,
without merely reversing the terms of
oppression, can only occur through a
workers' revolution to abolish capitalism.
The land and all social resources can then
be the common property of all, and
inequality and all forms of oppression
abolished. Given the current situation, this
is not on the immediate agenda, but there
is no other solution. In practice, the
initiative will likely come from outside,
through workers' revolution in the
surrounding Arab countries, most
importantly Egypt, with its large working
class. It is essential for those workers'
revolutions to transcend the nationalism of
the countries in which they occur, since
only internationalism will allow the Arab
workers to defeat their own capitalist class;
and only internationalism can break the
Israeli working class from its Zionist rulers.

Libertarian communism

The task before the workers of
Palestine and Israel is thus no different
from the task for workers here. It is
only posed in more difficult circumstances.
We must build a working class movement, based on
liberty, equality and solidarity, and fight
for a revolution which will re-make
society on the same principles. We
must abolish capitalism and its State,
and we must recognise the folly of
 building another State in its wake. We
 must build Libertarian Communism.

------------------------------------

Workers Solidarity Network
Workers Solidarity Network
Grassroots picket line supporters
Meets third Tuesday of every month
Meeting Room 1
Victorian Trades Hall
54 Victoria St Carlton
wsn.melb@gmail.com



------------------------------------

The presence of clinic defenders keeps the anti-
abortionists away from the clinic, so that staff and
clients can enter and leave, and people can walk the
street, free from their harassment. Defending the
clinic is still an important part of the battle to
decriminalise abortion and make it freely accessible,
on demand, to all women.
Organised by Campaign for Women's Reproductive
Rights. For more information, or to get involved in
CWRR, contact Radical Women on 03 9388 0062.
DEFEND THE FERTILITY
CONTROL CLINIC
Fourth Saturday every month
10.00 - 11.30am
118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne

---------------------------------------
Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group
P.O. Box 2120, Lygon St Nth, East Brunswick VIC 3057
macg1984@yahoo.com.au
---------------------------------------------

What is Anarchism?

Anarchism is a social philosophy
based upon the principles of
liberty, equality and solidarity. It is
the political dimension of a free
society.

What is Communism?

Communism is the principle of
"from each according to their
ability, to each according to their
need". It is the economic
dimension of a free society.

What is the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group?

The MACG is an organisation of
class struggle revolutionary
anarchists who share political
positions, articulated in theory,
strategy and tactics.
We aim to encourage struggle by
the working class for its own
interests and, within that struggle,
we aim to advance Anarchist
ideas as its necessary
philosophical basis.

_________________________________________
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