Print this article Restrain profits, not workers’ wages – make the rich pay

The inherent insecurity of capitalism has reared its ugly head again in Australia, this time with the double nightmare of economic recession arm in arm with inflation. Who is to blame for the sudden crisis? Not the many workers who have been ground down under AWA individual contracts, limited award provisions and intensified working hours and conditions, that’s for sure. And it’s not the ordinary people who struggle to make ends meet in the face of rising costs. Whether it is food, petrol prices, interest rates, rental costs, medical, dental, school or childcare, insurance, bank fees, or the cost of council rates, water, gas or electricity, they all just keep going up and up. Working people have no control over any of this. Nor is it the small farmers and manufacturers no longer able to compete with big foreign money and cheap labour and a flood of imported goods. They didn’t cause the crisis. So why the hell should we all pay for it? The big end of town Before Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swann tell us to work harder and longer with little or no wage increases, to cut back on spending, to forget about holidays and other small luxuries, they need to have a hard look at the big end of town. The global corporate monopolies, the mining giants, the coal and gas industry tycoons, the greedy banks, the financial speculators and other parasites have all created the crisis, creaming off record profits along the way. The ridiculous salaries and bonuses paid to top executives are also well known by the people. The filthy rich have been getting richer, and they can well afford to lead the way in showing ‘restraint’. Exporting a crisis We are told it was all triggered by the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis in the United States. We learnt that this meant rip-off loans to poor American workers who had little chance of ever paying them off. Shabby deals for sure, but nothing to do with us. It all seemed so remote from our situation in Australia. But it soon became clear that the shabby dealing banks, finance and loan companies were enmeshed in the intricate web of global finance capital that has fuelled the global domination of US imperialism. The recession crisis in the USA is being exported to other countries, including Australia, as international borrowings become sluggish and the banking houses lick their wounds. Recession in Australia is now the price to be paid for surrendering ownership and control of our major industries and resources to the whims of foreign capital, for relying on foreign borrowings for domestic investment capital. Another road to take An independent and democratic Australian republic would put the economic security and well-being of the people before the profits of the rich. Instead of profits and interests payment being sucked out of the country, wealth created could be turned to investment in housing, education, healthcare, public transport, alternative sources of green energy, restoration of the damaged environment, a viable manufacturing industry and other practical measures to benefit the people and build the nation. Planning for economic development and infrastructure would be long-term, and not the sort of haphazard pork-barrelling that typified the Howard era. These things sometimes seem a long way off, but not impossible. In the meantime, workers and working people will resist attempts to make them carry the burden of economic recession. They will fight for decent wages and EBA conditions. They will demand a more progressive taxation scheme that forces the rich profiteers to cough up. They will defend their rights and liberties. They will build their unity and cooperation and take back what is theirs.