Issue 2 of The Platform will be launched in July. ---- The recent Australian federal
budget has once again highlighted the need for an effective Left to combat the Right?s
ever-increasing push towards domination of Australian society. This push is no surprise
given the natural tendencies of austerity capitalism. However, to those of the general
public who believe wholeheartedly in the welfare state and want to reconcile social
justice with a capitalist economy, this budget strikes a real blow. We need to show that
the budget is not only short-sighted but that the existing system is failing to keep its
promises. ---- Cutting higher education and pushing towards an American-style education
system reveals the inherent biases of the capitalist state and the current two-party
system. This should come as no real surprise considering the cuts already pushed by the
previous Labor government. These higher education cuts restrict the access of poorer,
potential students, and also cut along a gender axis that is often ignored.
As the current state of the prison system shows, we cannot even trust the capitalist
system to function in a way that it promises, and acts as a dumping ground for people with
mental illness. The prison system is a tragic farce that acts as a factory for churning
out newly brutalised people who are likely to suffer from mental illness, caused and
worsened by their incarceration.
But this Right-ward trend not only makes the time ripe for a Left resurgence, but for a
further, extreme Right-wing one too, in the form of fascism. Parallels between the rise of
fascists in Britain and the rise of similar elements in Australia should worry us all.
This is further exacerbated by the role of the state in the control of the border, and the
state-sanctioned racism behind it.
Anarchism is at a low ebb in Australia, as it has traditionally been. As anarchists, we
are constantly having to reinvent the wheel ? in how we act, how we organise, and how we
discuss issues. It is the failure of previous generations of activists that we have little
history to draw on in that regard. We must have these discussions now in order to be as
effective as we can be in the present and for those in the future.
Anarchist Affinity
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