THE BANKCARD

"Spending records of bankcard holders will be accessible to the Taxation Department." - The Herald ( Melbourne) October 14th.

It is fitting to mention, in order to give further emphasis to our "Thought for the Week", that inflation is a vicious form of taxation, and has the same effect upon us that direct taxation does; viz, send us scurrying to the money source; the banking system. There is no doubt that bankcards can be a great convenience; we all know that. We don't wish to dwell on the obvious; the columns of the Letters to the Editor in the daily press are full of the more obvious comments on this bankcard operation. It is nothing new. It has been established in some countries overseas for years. We have been asked to make a brief comment upon it and we shall.

The bankcard operation does and will add to inflation; or to be more specific at this particular time, stagflation. Why stagflation? Because the added high interest rate to be incurred by the purchase under the bankcard operation will naturally make every purchase of goods and services that much dearer (up to 20%) whilst at the same time doing nothing to stimulate the industrial/commercial system.
The way to give stimulus to the economy is to lower prices of goods and services not the reverse. The bankcard operation will guarantee to assist the reverse process.

There are two other comments we shall make on this matter also. One is that we shall be surprised if, as has been stated, the "Labor" Government, or any other Government, for that matter, does legislate to prevent the universal implementation of the bankcard operation. Our reason for saying this is that the forces of International Finance, in our view, desire that as many people as possible are to be brought under some form of control by becoming geared to the bankcard. The heading of this item is a case in point.
We also believe that the forces of International Finance intend to do away with, as far as possible, the use of cash. This to bring about the further control of the individual, which we have already mentioned. We advise all our supporters to have nothing to do with bankcards.

OPEN LETTER TO THE HOUSEWIVES

THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

"What this election is all about, according to the Soviet party machine, is whether the class struggle is finally going to be fought to a finish, and a revolutionary democracy established." - Weekly Review (U. K.) October 10th.

This edition of the Weekly Review gives some considerable space to an analysis of the current British political scene by Georgiy Kuznetzov, a Soviet expert on British political affairs. We fear that he is, indeed, an expert because we find ourselves in pretty full agreement with his analysis in the Soviet political weekly, Za Rubezhom.

It has been obvious to us for many years that the era of political parties, as constituted in the West, is passing. They are fragmenting. We dealt in some detail with this process in the April (1974) issue of the League's monthly journal of political affairs, "Intelligence Survey". Accordingly, the era of stable political party government in the U. K. has passed, as it has passed in Australia. No longer can we be sure that an elected party government will govern for three years; in fact, it is now likely that it won't. We certainly do not now expect an elected party government to govern for the constitutional five years in Britain. The political instability of the government of the Continent has now come to the British world.

Georgiy Kuznetzov sees the (British) election "ending in a Labour victory (right again) which must not be regarded as anything other than a prelude to a class struggle on a scale not seen before in Britain; and moreover, a class struggle that will be waged, regardless of cost, until the final victory of the 'working class' has been irrevocably achieved."
This is the pattern that will most probably take place in Australia.

A probable victory for the Liberal-Country Party coalition around the middle of 1975 would usher in a period of intense industrial warfare. The pattern will be likely to be the same as in Britain. The so-called "conservatives" will be unable to cope with the situation (we are of the opinion that Dr. Cairns would welcome a brief Snedden Government; to allow it to be completely discredited!) and a Cairns Government, with the intention of implementing Dr. Cairns's Marxist "six-point Plan" would come to power.

As each Government sweeps in and out, like the pendulum of a clock, the political climate becomes more revolutionary, until that point is reached when the moment for violent revolution comes. The Communists will have their experts "testing the water" for the right temperature. However, the unrehearsed events shape history, and the "best laid plans of mice and men gang oft agley".

Mr. Wilson's majority is slender, and there is no telling what Mr. Enoch Powell will do with frustrated and bitter Conservatives, Scottish Nationalists, Welsh Nationalists, and the Members from Ulster. The whole political climate screams out for constructive leadership just as it will in Australia within the next 2-3 years.

WISHY-WASHY LIBERALS TURN TURTLE ON ANTHEM

"God Save the Queen should be used only for Regal and Vice-Regal occasions, and another anthem promoted for other times, the Liberal Party Federal Council said yesterday." - The Age (Melbourne) October 15th.

We believe that the decadent Liberals could have won the last election if they had had the political nous to take up the Heritage cause as an Election issue. Now they have slipped further into the bog of permissiveness. The Chipps, Gortons, Peacocks, have had their way again. Furthermore, the name of God has been deleted from the "new" Liberal Party policy platform.

On the brighter side, the Liberals are still for the alliance with the U.S.A., and say they are solidly for Federalism, and State Rights. But they are being edged to the Left, more and more, as the fires of inflation rage in the land, and the demands of the electorate for Government assistance, which is provided with strings (socialism) takes place because the individual is so heavily taxed, and battered by inflation, that he simply cannot provide adequately for himself and his family.

A Labor defeat next year will inevitably bring about divisions within the Labor Party; they are papering over the cracks now. Then the Liberal-Country Party Government will be rent with division and it could fall apart under the pressures of inflation and industrial warfare. Only a grassroots political Movement can salvage the situation and give direction to sound political principles. The League of Rights "moment" is coming; it will burst like a thunderclap on the Australian politicial scene in the few short years ahead and the reverberations will roll right around the English-speaking world.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Lord Robbins, one of the British orthodox economists from way back, in a lecture in London last week, made some damning accusations against the modern Welfare State in Britain. He said that the restrictive practices prevalent in today's Britain were a great drag on efficiency. He also blamed the Welfare State for much of the strike action which has crippled Britain in recent years; the reason being that strikers are able to go on welfare, and thus trade unions are not required to bite into union funds for strike-pay. The system actually encourages strikes.
Professor Robbins blamed the Conservative Government for credit expansion and deficit budgeting on an unprecedented scale in the peacetime history of Britain. Small wonder that inflation is roaring, and the "balance of payments" in heavy deficit.

The present Portuguese Prime Minister (at the time of writing) Colonel Vasco Goncalves, made an interesting, and not unexpected (to us) comment on the clergy a few days ago. He said that the "New" Government believes that there should be one sphere for religion, and another for political, economic, and social activity. In other words, the Church will be allowed to function so long as its teachings do not interfere with the political and economic programme of the Government of the Portuguese revolution.
That's the message we receive from the Portuguese Prime Minister's comment.

The Liberal Party's Federal Council (14/10/74) condemned the "Labor" Government's new tax on unearned income. And rightly so. If the Government does not abandon this tax altogether it may well amend it drastically so as to apply to persons whose taxable income is in excess of $5,000 or a similar figure. We feel that this is likely. After all, the Government does not desire to alienate the tens of thousands of small investors with their few thousand dollars (life savings) invested in Building Societies, shares, loans etc., etc.

What is most interesting is a slip (?) or at least a revelation made in The Age (Melbourne) Editorial of October 2nd. Speaking of the "unearned income" surtax the Editorial continued: "It originated neither from the much-maligned Treasury, nor from the Asprey report on tax reform, but apparently from the febrile mind of the Prime Minister's principal private secretary. (Mr. Jim Spigelman)

It would be an understatement to say that Gough Whitlam, a man whose concepts are distorted by Socialist political doctrine and consummate egotism, is surrounded by some pretty fishy characters. Neville Curtis, the student who was kicked out of South Africa, is now gnawing at the Public Purse. We are paying for him! He is working for the "education" (that's a good one...Ed) unit of the Australian Council for Overseas aid funded by the Federal Government (us) and private grants. His aim is to organise union and public boycotts of South African goods.
His "campaigns" will be directed to whipping up public support to break trade relations, and ultimately diplomatic relations with South Africa. Our guess is that the decadent Liberals, when they are returned, probably briefly, to power next year, will do nothing to remove mischief-making parasites from the sustenance of the Public Purse. We could think of vast areas where public money could be salvaged. Our kaleidoscopic, very "ex" Immigration Minister, Mr. Al Grassby and his new section," would be one area where it should be a pleasure for the incoming Liberals to cut costs. There are very many others.

League supporters must realise that the Indian Ocean region of the world is now being given all priority attention by the International Communist global strategists. The French even the realists, know this all to well, and are sending naval forces to this region. The position is now that the Suez is virtually in the hands of the Russians, through the latter's grip on the Arab World
(read "Censored History" price 74 cents, post free from all League offices.)
Most of Europe's oil is shipped by tankers via the Cape sea-lanes. Need we say more concerning the Soviet's interest in Southern Africa and the seas around it. We believe that the Soviet is fearful that a security pact could develop between Australia/New Zealand and South Africa and is using all its organs of subversion and propaganda to prevent this from even raising its head. Its main propaganda weapon against Southern Africa is the racial issue "apartheid", not understood by those who do not have the problems that South Africa has.

The Western Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal affairs, as reported in our issue of On Target (September 6th) did recommend the very "apartheid" which has evolved in South Africa. How the report even sneaked in "The Age" confounds us; we have seen nor heard nothing of it since. Added to all this, even the disinterested observer should be aware that the Chinese communists in East Africa are giving sophisticated arms to the African terrorists, and training them in their use. The final goal is South Africa. The capture of the Southern Hemisphere may well mean final success, or final failure for the Communist Conspiracy.

Labor's new Senator for Victoria, Senator J. Button, thinks that industrial trouble is a healthy sign. His comments made at a Dinner on September 30th in Melbourne have a very familiar ring to us. "Change"... "struggle" . . . "we should work toward the position of Yugoslavia where workers elect the management and run the company.

President Ford and the Soviet Foreign Minister (Andrei Gromyko) discussed U.S. trade "concessions" to Russia and a liberalised emigration system for Soviet Jews during September" Obviously, the latter is conditional on the former. Israel will receive 100,000 Jews from the Soviet Union a year according to the report from Tel Aviv (The Age, Melbourne Sept. 24th)

The Forms of Money