[Marxism] Too much Labourism makes you go blind

[Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Gould wrote:
>On trade policy, the capable, persuasive and determined Michelle
O'Neill, Victorian Secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union
(who spoke a number of times at the conference), achieved quite a coup.
She avoided too much discussion of it at the left caucus, at which it
was said that Kim Carr was opposed to her amendment, but on the floor of
the conference she insisted, to Kim Carr's obvious displeasure, in
putting an amendment that tariff reductions in the textile and clothing
area be frozen for the indefinite future. Michelle O'Neill's amendment
was comfortably carried by the conference, despite opposition from some
front-benchers. In the comparative jungle of ALP trade union politics,
Michelle O'Neill seems to me to be a fairly principled and rather
ingenious agitator.


This is a very good example of where Bob's Labourism leads.

An Australian trade union leader puts forward and gets passed a
resolution opposing tariff reductions in textile and clothing in
Australia.  The meaning of this, of course, is that 'Australian' jobs
are to be protected *at the expense of Third World workers' jobs*.

This was a reactionary and racist resolution which reflects the
continuing role of nationalism in the Australian labour movement.  And
Gould lauds it as a great left victory and indication of how the ALP is
shifting left.

Too much Labourism has made Bob blind to the interests of workers as a
global class and the interests of Australian workers in linking up with
Third World workers rather than creating jobs trusts for workers in the
imperialist heartlands.

I guess this is also a logical corollary of Bob's rejection of parts of
Lenin's theory of imperialism.

Philip Ferguson







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