It’s Wednesday and I’ve been busy with a bunch of things today, including two live events, to finish off the edX MOOC we’ve had over the past 4 weeks. These sessions are approximately 90 minutes each, giving participants from around the world the opportunity to discuss issues related to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and clarify uncertainty. It also helped me understand what confused those who entered the material for the first time. Therefore, it benefits both parties. Today, it saddens me that the Australian Labor federal leader who became the next Prime Minister in May this year has just announced that his model is a former Labor Prime Minister (Hawke), only to have the United States when he is the Australian Council of Trade Unions (the highest body) ) chairman, he was a corporate spy for the anti-labour movement who quickly promoted neoliberalism in Australia in the 1980s. Another of his role models is apparently John Howard, the conservative prime minister from 1996 to 2007, who accelerated neoliberalism, imprisoned refugees indefinitely on remote islands (some are still there), opposed unions, opposed unemployment He has overseen exploding household debt while running a surplus and crippling public infrastructure and services. What is given? Today’s music has to be an antidote to the anger sparked by the Labour leader’s revelations today. And a little bit about Russia.
Australian Labor still can’t get elected if you have a desire to progress
Today, Labour’s federal leader, a good opportunity to seize government in the May federal election, attended the “business summit”, which is a bit like the Duchess of the British Labour Party to the financial giants, begging them not to veto them (like John McDonnell). Nader did before the 2017 election).
The Guardian article (9 March 2022) – Anthony Albanese to embrace Labour leader Bob Hawke’s consensus style if Labour wins election – Provide clues to the Australian Labor leader’s propaganda.
None of them are good.
He will “take the lead from Bob Hawke” to reduce the cost of doing business and energize the industry.
Hawke has been Labour Prime Minister since 1983, before he was ousted by the scheming Treasurer in 1991.
His government has lowered the cost of doing business by undermining the ability of individual unions to get wage increases through his price and income agreements.
Real wages were systematically cut under his watch, and he oversaw a massive redistribution of national income to profits.
He claimed that the business sector promised to increase investment rates if real wages were cut. They didn’t — instead, they pocketed generous earnings, and we started seeing obscene corporate acquisitions and massive increases in executive compensation.
His government has also amended industrial relations legislation to make it harder for workers to enjoy wage increases and for low-income workers to share in the nation’s productivity gains.
His government also pushed hard on the mantra of fiscal surpluses and began privatization, outsourcing and deregulation, moving wealth to the upper echelons of towns.
He’s a summary chart that takes the Hawke government’s attitude towards workers – the reason why the Australian Labor Party exists, after all – as the political voice of the union.
Hawke was elected in 1983. The graph shows that this is the point at which labor productivity and real wages diverge for the first time on record.
As mentioned above, the Hawke government designed this divide. It celebrates the redistribution of national income into profit.
It shows that during the Hawke government, real wages barely rose after falling for several years. At the same time, productivity has substantially outpaced real wage growth, redistributing GDP as profit.
This trend continues today, but it was Hawke and his institutional machinery that began to rot.
His tenure has been a disaster.
Recently, it was revealed that he was also a traitor while leading the union movement.
This Guardian article (3 July 2021) – Secret embassy telegram casts Bob Hawke’s saga in a different way – Tell dirty stories:
Hawke, who is a union member, said one thing to his members and a completely different thing to his U.S. embassy friends, documents show
It is a disgrace that modern Labour leaders are eager to emulate the Hawke government.
To make matters worse, we learned that:
While shaping himself into Hawke’s Consensus tradition, Albanese will also draw on an adage from John Howard that in the race for economic reform you never get to the finish line because it’s about making the economy stronger and more Efficiency, there is always more work to do.
John Howard has done little to reform—in a sense, reform has made things better.
He simply thinks that the Hawke-Keating government has turned to neoliberalism and has further distilled the harmfulness of the regime.
No Labour leader should take anything away from his 11 years in power.
Sanctions won’t stop Russia from making bullets
Propaganda from the West is not surprising – it’s the norm.
But ordinary people believe in these things.
I read in the news this morning that a senior Washington think tank official claimed that the latest U.S. sanctions banning U.S. purchases of Russian oil are welcome and will prevent Russians from earning income:
… by constantly making bullets, constantly making armor…
Russia is a huge exporter of iron ore and has all the steelmaking capacity needed to make these nasty weapons.
Most discussions of sanctions ignore the fact that Russia is a currency issuer and has a diversified manufacturing industry that can meet most of its capital equipment needs.
And it also has many ways to obtain imported products that it cannot produce on its own.
There is a case in history where trade does affect military power.
Between November 1938 and January 1939, there was a major industrial dispute in Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia, known as— 1938 Dalfram battle.
Port Kembla was a vibrant port at the time, associated with steelmaking in the area, and the Waterside Workers Union refused to load pig iron onto a ship – the SS Dalfram – because it would bring the resource to Japan.
It is destined to provide input to Kobe-based Nippon Steel, which produces weapons and ammunition in the Japanese government’s (undeclared) military attack on China.
The cause of this dispute was the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937.
Unions argued that pig iron would be used to make military weapons, killing innocent Chinese and perhaps later Australians. They have foresight in this regard.
There are several other union-led resistance movements in other Australian ports protesting against Japanese aggression against China.
The Dafram dispute lasted more than 10 weeks as workers refused to load.
The federal attorney general at the time was Robert Menzies, who eventually became Australia’s longest-serving conservative prime minister.
In typical form, he is anti-union and claims that only the federal government has the power to make decisions with international ramifications.
During the feud, he earned the nickname “Pig Iron” Bob.
It was later used in World War II to evoke the image of conservatives shipping steel-making resources to Japan only to have them return in the form of ammunition to kill Australian soldiers.
music – king
Here’s what I’ve been listening to this morning at work.
In general, I wasn’t a rocker when I was young. In fact, I love modding, the local rock gang in the housing council slum where I grew up in Melbourne hated mods in long-haired corduroy jackets.
They used to walk around with transistor radios bigger than them, hair smooth, portable radios pumping— Elvis Presley – Songs. Disgusting.
I love R&B, Jimi Hendrix, and started appreciating fusion jazz.
So even though I’ve seen the movie and secretly liked his voice, it’s hard to accept that his music is somewhere between a high baritone and a tenor (very unique), and a beautiful sense of melody.
If we abstract from the syrup (they are the times) and American chauvinism, some of the songs are very well made, and his guitarist– Scottie Moore – is a legend.
So sometimes I listen to some of the earlier songs that I liked and still find it inspirational – even though the lyrics are sometimes emotional.
The composition and delivery make Elvis “King”.
Here is a song- can’t help falling in love – from the 1961 album – Blue Hawaii. I don’t remember when I saw that movie – sometimes in the late 1960s – but the song struck me.
It has mythical- Jordanian – Regarding the background vocals, they are worth listening to on their own, and – Floyd Kramer – On the piano, he was a great musician, defining the sound of Nashville.
Its melody repeats a classic French romantic song from 1784 – pleasing love.
I don’t regret it, but the closest thing I’ve come is that Elvis is a performer I’d love to see live but haven’t had the chance to. While his later live performances on the song, which usually end his performances, are over-produced due to the excessive string arrangements and other excess noise!
While it is childish to continue spreading the message of peace and love, I hope there is childish rule in Europe at the moment.
Enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2022 William Mitchell. all rights reserved.
