THE SHADOWS LENGTHEN

Disastrous events are now casting their deepening shadows before them. The professional soothsayers, including the politicians, continue to insist that all will be well - given time. But as the famous Chinese sage said, it is no use running even harder if you are already on the wrong road. In his Budget address last August, Federal Treasurer John Howard doggedly insisted that his economic strategy had Australia on the right road. He did not recall that events over the previous five years had proved every prediction made by the Fraser Government wrong: Taxation had been increased, not reduced, interest rates had increased, not fallen, unemployment had not fallen, nor had the inflation rate.

1982 dawned with the prediction by the Melbourne University Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research that there was mounting economic strife ahead. There would be higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher unemployment, a slowing of economic growth with severe cuts in the building industry. Several commentators suggested that the Institute's worst fears may not eventuate, in the words of Mr. Terry McCrann, business editor for "The Age", "it is always easier for a Government to pump money into an economy than to keep the lid on". But an increase in the rate of credit expansion means, under present financial rules, an increase in the volume of financial debt. It also means continuing higher inflation.

All attempts at reducing inflation under present financial rules inevitably produce even greater unemployment and industrial unrest, with the Marxists and other revolutionaries exploiting the situation. The Reagan Administration claims that it now has inflation reduced to 7 percent. But there has been an awful price and, with Congressional elections to be held later this year, the Administration will have no alternative but to attempt to relax its present policies.

As we have correctly predicted over many years, there is no way in which inflation can be reduced, still less abolished, under financial rules which are based on the view that all new financial credit can only be created as an interest bearing debt. Every industrialised nation in the world, including Japan, is now threatened internally with permanent high inflation, the basic revolutionary force steadily eroding social stability. What is left of Civilisation, now only being sustained by what moral capital remains from the past, is rapidly moving towards the end of the road.

While we do not deny that there is stupidity in abundance, particularly among the products of "higher education", the persistent refusal to consider the only alternative to disaster, a change in present financial policies, supports the view that inflation is a deliberate policy, designed to help destroy traditional society as a prelude to fitting it into the World State. The one hope in a desperate situation is that there is a growing knowledge of the realities of finance economics, and the conspiracy against the individual. We can only urge all our readers to do everything possible to expand that knowledge in the faith that when it is clear that complete disaster threatens if present policies are persisted with, enough men and women of goodwill will come together to insist that there is an alternative, starting with a substantial reduction in total taxation and interest rates.

EFFECTIVE SANCTIONS AGAINST THE SOVIET

The famous Russian exile, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, has constantly stressed that a West determined to defend itself against Soviet global expansion, would apply economic sanctions to the Soviet, stressing that an overall shortage of domestically produced grain was one of the major Achilles heels of the Soviet.
While the Soviet leaders fear the strategic implications of developments in Poland, they are also conscious of the fact that Solidarity gained much of its support as a result of high prices for limited supplies of food. In the Soviet Union discontent is minimised by subsidising the prices of food, enormous quantities of which are imported from the West, much of it on credit. Access to technology is vitally important to the Soviet, but even more vital is access to sufficient food to prevent an internal revolt similar to that in Poland.

President Reagan's failure to get a united Western response to his proposed anti-Soviet sanctions policy foundered basically on the fact that under present financial policies, Western economies are increasingly geared to exporting in an endeavour to sustain themselves. At the start of the Afghanistan affair, even liberal President Carter suspended grain exports to the Soviet, only to have Australia and Argentina help make good the shortage. The EEC also seized the opportunity to unload massive food surpluses.
President Reagan agreed to the renewal of the grain exports under pressure from America's farmers.

The situation produces some strange allies, as witnessed by ALP leader Hayden endorsing the policy of the Australian Government, as expressed by Deputy Prime Minister Anthony, indicating support for the motives of the Reagan Administration, but no support for sanctions.

If open military conflict started between the Soviet and the West, Western food exports to the Soviet and its satellites would have to be stopped. This is one reason why the Soviet will continue to wage the type of war, which ensures that the West continues to provide them with adequate food supplies. However, the Polish crisis has forced into the open what we have been reporting on for years: that the Soviet Union and its satellites have been financed by International Finance, which has used its enormous influence to prevent any effective anti-Soviet policies by the West.
As carefully documented by Dr. Antony Sutton in his "Wall Street And The Bolshevik Revolution", Bolshevism was imposed upon Russia by International Finance during the First World War.

Seen in retrospect, this tremendous historical event was part of an on-going global strategy. A more widespread understanding of the real history of Bolshevism could be a major influence in preparing for an eventual policy of effective sanctions against the Soviet. It is encouraging to report that one enterprising publisher has now made "Wall Street and The Bolshevik Revolution" available in a paperback edition. This explosive work may be obtained from all League of Rights addresses: $7 posted.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Mrs. Joan Coxege, a Labor Member of the Victorian Legislative Council, is a prominent member of the Victorian Labor Party's more radical element. In her latest monthly newsletter, "Hard Facts", Mrs. Coxege warns against what she describes as "mindless backing" to the Polish trade union movement Solidarity. "We must recognise the role of the church and the CIA in its affairs... .The CIA and their reactionary friends are looking for another Czechoslovakia or Hungary". Mrs. Coxege also claims that the greatest failing by Polish leaders is that they have not given Polish workers enough information to let them take a meaningful part in controlling their destiny Mrs. Coxege's lack of sympathy for the oppressed Polish workers is typical of many radical Socialists.

Objective American observers believe that President Reagan is attempting to develop a much more realistic Middle East policy, even if this means upsetting the Israelis. Saudi Arabia is of far greater importance, strategically to the West than is Israel. But terrorist Begin of Israel attacks the Reagan Administration because of what it claims to be a pro-Saudi Arabian attitude. His arrogant attitude towards the U.S.A. is, of course, based upon the knowledge that the major source of International Zionist influence is in the U.S.A., not in Israel. The future of the world will be governed to a great extent by President Reagan's attempt to curb Israeli extremism.

Comrade Mugabe of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) continues to reveal his real intentions. He has not only returned to his theme that a one Party State should be established, but now says that the Zimbabwe Government will take economic power from the minority white community and hand it to the blacks. The Mugabe policies can only result in an even greater European exodus and the decline on the economy. Where are all those wishful thinkers who claimed how "moderate" Robert Mugabe would be?

Press reports state that B.H.P. has dashed the Federal Government's hopes of "containing" inflation and reviving the economy with an increase in the price of steel and iron products by 3.64 percent. It is estimated that this increase will mean a five percent increase in a wide range of locally produced items, including cars, washing machines and refrigerators. Why should the Government be surprised when the financial policies it endorses makes it mathematically certain that increased financial costs throughout industry make it inevitable that prices will have to be increased to recover these costs? If, of course, the Howards and Frasers do not understand what they are doing, then they are taking their big salaries, "perks" and superannuation handouts under false pretences. It is time to insist upon the principle of politicians accepting responsibility for their actions.

A Canberra actionist sends us the following letter, which was published in The Canberra Times (7.12.81.):
"As a Palestinian and an Australian citizen, I must register my strong opposition to Australian participation in the so-called 'peace-keeping' force in the Sinai. "The 'peace-keeping' force is based on the fraudulent Camp David Accords, which exclude the rights of the Palestinian people and deny the representative nature of their organisation, the P.L.O. The Accords and the 'peace-keeping' force cannot contribute to peace in the Middle East because they do not address themselves to the cause of war - the nature of Zionism.
"Indeed, the 'peace-keeping' force is itself an instrument of Zionist policy. It frees Israel's southern border so that Mr. Begin can resume the bombing of Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
"When will Mr. Fraser recognise that it is Zionist policy 'to create facts, to confront the world with these facts, and to build on their foundation', as Weizmann, Israel's first President, wrote in his autobigraphy. "The Zionists, and later the Israelis, created facts through first destroying Arab facts - they squeezed the Palestinians out of the land they had tilled and built since civilisation began, long before the dogma of Zionism entertained the idea of Israel.
"It is ironic that the Palestinians are asked to recognise the State of Israel, which was created by colonists in 1948 on Palestinian land. Why should the Palestinians recognise Israel while Israel is launching a continuous war of genocide against them, assassinated their leaders and itself refuses to recognise their representative organisation, the P.L.O.? "Is it realistic to ask the oppressed to recognise and accept their oppressors?
"When Australia voted at the United Nations in 1947 for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state it did not vote for the forcible expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes and property and their transformation into a nation of refugees. Thus Australia now has an obligation to the Palestinian people - to support their self-determination.
"Israel must be prevented from waging war in the name of 'peace'. It is time for the Jewish people to realise that they will never have peace and freedom by denying these to the Palestinians under the banner of Israel. And it is time for the Australian Government to realise that until the Palestinians achieve their rights, there can be no peace in the Middle East."
This letter appeared above the name of an "Ali Kazak", of Fitzroy, Vic.

A Toowoomba actionist sends us an article by Queensland economist, Mr. H.W.Herbert, on the "Campbell Plan Blind Spots". The Campbell Report makes several glaring mistakes, says Mr. Herbert:
"Competition does increase efficiency - up to a point where excessive competition becomes wasteful. We saw this years ago when the oil companies competed by building petrol stations on every busy corner. No more total business was done. Eventually many of these stations were closed, and it was the consumer who paid for the waste. "It would be the same if powerful overseas banks were let in. Bank branches would proliferate. ....
"This leads to what I think is the major fault in the Campbell Report - the proposal for complete decontrol of interest rates. Competition, it believes, will lead to lower interest rates. What the committee fails to see is that the money supply in Australia is rationed at the source...Through its control of the Reserve Bank and hence bank advances, sales of bonds and capital inflow, the Treasury can prevent more money than the target being created in Australia. "So what happens to interest rates when the quantity of money is severely restricted? With the complete decontrol interest rates would rise. "By disregarding the prime fact that money is rationed at its source, the Campbell Committee is like a garage man to whom you take your car for a complete overhaul. "I'll fix it', he says, 'but I don't know anything about engines'.
"Next we come to the proposal to free the Australian exchange rate, with the banks being the dealers in foreign exchange. This is a risk that a country of Australia's size could not afford to take. It would make our currency subject to speculative raids by big overseas money. Foreign money would buy Australian dollars, running the price up... Then the ringleaders would unload at a profit, and await the fall in the value of our dollar (and help manipulate it) to buy in again and repeat the process.
"The profits made by exchange manipulators would be provided by Australian consumers, who would have to pay more for imports at each downturn of the exchange".
Our opinion is that Mr. Herbert's criticisms are valid: the Scenario he sets is "life like". We do disagree with him when he foresees the proliferation of branch banking when the Monster banks are let in to Australia. Rather do we foresee the shrinkage of branch banking from its present state of growth. The Monster banks (his own term) are primarily concerned with what has come to be known as "wholesale banking" (the loaning of huge volumes of bank credit to multi-nationals, resource developers, etc.) and not "retail banking" (the loaning of bank credit to the "small man", farmer, etc.) We expect to see branches of many banks closed down, particularly in rural areas; and some small rural towns without any banking service at all.