We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men

Leaning together

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

Or rats’ feet over broken glass

In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,

Paralysed force, gesture without motion…

What a choice Labor Party members have! It’s a choice between a Labor hack in previous Labor governments, governments which cut single parent payments, demonised refugees, continued the Northern Territory intervention and the war in Afghanistan, oversaw an historic the shift in wealth to the ruling class and increased the gender pay gap and a Labor hack in previous Labor governments, governments which cut single parent payments, demonised refugees, continued the Northern Territory intervention and the war in Afghanistan, oversaw the historic shift in wealth to the ruling class at and increased the gender pay gap. http://enpassant.com.au/2013/09/22/albo-and-shorten-the-hollow-men/

Thirty years of Labor openly ruling for the rich and capital make this a choice between two apparatchiks of neo-liberalism.

That is why they can’t and won’t put forward policies, let alone different policies,  but only talk in platitudes about Labor values. Well the key Labor value is managing the capitalist system for the benefit of capitalists and in today’s economic climate that means attacking its own base - workers and the disadvantaged.

It is fair enough that after 120 years members finally have a vote on the leadership. But they do so in the context of a parliamentary party thoroughly infected with neo-liberalism and worshiping at the altar of profit.

There is no social surplus sufficient to sustain Labor’s supposed values of social welare and helping the disadvantaged and the poor.

It is why Albo and Shorten are the hollow men, the stuffed men.

Thus neither of them has raised the possibility of taxing the rich to pay for better health and education or welcoming refugees.

Their idée fixe on climate change is an ineffectual price on carbon which as Simon Butler has pointed out ‘Prices can never reflect true ecological values because those values simply cannot be expressed in dollar terms.’

A deepening of democracy in Labor, instead of a tawdry choice between two neoliberals, would be to put policy making power in the hands of the members too, and not only make that binding on parliamentarians but give members the power to remove any pollies not toeing the line.

This is not an election in the ALP between 2 radically different visions for Australia. It is about who can best sell us the shit sandwich of Labor neo-liberalism. The problem isn’t just the seller; it’s the sandwich.

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Albo & Shorten: The Hollow Men