Re: Why no petrol blockades in Oz?

[John Edmundson <jwe21@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary MacLennan wrote:
> The thought has also occurred to me - why hasn't similar action
> spread to Australia?  Here petrol prices are heading ever upwards
> and there is little hope that they will fall while the dollar remain so
> vulnerable in the currency markets.

> The answer must be surely that there is a missing ingredient - a
> labor/social democratic government. The right wing Howard
> government may be betraying the middle class but they are
> reluctant to confront it directly on the streets.

A similar situation exists in New Zealand. Spiraling petrol prices, a
high dependency on private cars, second only to the USA I think,
collapsing currency. But we do have a Labour government here yet
still no protests.What we do have in the government though is
Alliance leader Jim Anderton continually talking about the evils of
the oil companies and threatening to set up an independent "bench
mark price" to keep the big four companies honest. While I don't
think this has made people trust the oil companies any more, it
might have muted their opposition to them. We don't have quite
such a high fuel tax as Europe and Britain either,  so it would be
harder for people to rally anti-government action around fuel taxes.

I don't have a lot of enthusiasm for the fuel protests, anti-tax
protests tend to be conservative and the very sight of people
marching doesn't get me too excited in itself. I do think though that
it might go into the "collective memory" of people who had forgotten
that direct action can work.
Cheers,
John Edmundson