THE DEADLY RESULTS OF CENTRALISATION

by Eric D. Butler
Shortly after the First World War, which left a centralised Germany in place to be manipulated to produce a Second World War, a well-known European writer wrote of "A World in a Trance", a world, which refused to accept the deadly peril, which threatened the future of Western Civilisation. Writing from a slightly different perspective, C.H. Douglas warned that unless the drive towards centralisation, with debt finance being the main tool of the centralisers, was halted, Christian Civilisation was facing a bleak future.
All Civilisations are the incarnation of undergirding value systems. A study of history reveals that while, in the short term, centralisation can appear to be more efficient in a material sense it possesses the seeds of its own destruction.

In the early days of the Second World War, when Hitler was carrying all before him militarily, the view was expressed that the military successes of Hitler's Germany were the result of superior efficiency. There were a few farsighted Germans who strongly disagreed with the view and were convinced that Hitler was leading Germany towards ultimate disaster. Subsequent events proved Hitler's opponents were correct.

One of the most revealing statements made early in the Second World War, which came from the Fabian Socialists who welcomed the Second World War, was that it was only in war, or the "threat of war", that the British people would accept large scale planning. As the military conflict moved towards its conclusion, powerful international groups skillfully supported propaganda, which sought to convince a war-weary world, that international planning was essential to prevent another world war. International organisations like the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund came into existence.
It was alleged that the Bretton Woods agreement would pave the way for a world of economic and financial stability.

Events have increasingly confirmed the warnings of those who said that those promoting these grandiose centralist views were suffering from delusions; that the lessons of history taught that all centralist programmes contained the seeds of their own destruction. Consider the plight of the world today, as it is convulsed by one economic disaster after another. And clearly there is worse to come. The establishment of a United States of Europe would allegedly make further European war impossible and usher in full peace and prosperity. But as witnessed by the recent convulsion in bureaucracy of the EEC, reality has blown away the foolish dreams of the centralists.

The establishment of a single currency for the EEC countries early in January of this year was hailed as a great triumph. History will confirm that that was yet another great disaster. In the absence of a complete mobility of labour and a political union attempting to merge 20 plus nations of cultural and linguistic diversity into a single government, this programme is already doomed to disaster. Europe has had only two experiments in multi-national government - the former USSR and Jugoslavia; both were disastrous. The disasters of Jugoslavia, with the threat of military action by NATO backed by the USA, to attempt to force "unity" on the culturally diverse Balkans can only result in still greater disasters.

It has been said that those who will not learn from the disasters of history are doomed to repeat those disasters. Australia should take careful note as they are invited to intervene in the affairs of Indonesia. It was the deep student of history, Sir Raphael Cilento, who warned that multicultural Indonesia could never become a stable nation. Events are confirming Sir Raphael's warning.
In spite of brave words, Australia has not yet been able to help bring peace to Bougainville. How can it help to bring peace to Ambon in Indonesia?

Can the global planners point to even one success story where UN or other troops have brought peace and stability to multicultural countries? Australia can best contribute to global sanity by putting its own house in order. Yes, provide help where it is requested otherwise reject all manifestations of globalism and seek to maintain a basically homogenous nation. This means a rejection of the myth that a successful multicultural Australia can be created.

THE TANGLED WEB IN EUROPE

by Jeremy Lee
With billions of dollars unaccounted for in the European Budget over the last few years, things have come to a head with the resignation from office of all 22 European Commissioners after allegations of corruption. The Commission is a strange animal. Created in 1958, it is comprised of appointed officials - two each from Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and one from the other member States. Each is appointed for five years, with a considerable number of ex-politicians among its ranks. The Commission is not answerable to the countries making the appointments, but to Europe as a whole. Its members are supported by 19,000 full-time staff. The European Parliament Salaries of the 22 Commissioners are close to $400,000 each.

The Australian Financial Review (18/3/99) said: "... The Commission has been left to operate with no real political masters - and, until recently, the European Parliament has been treated with the same contempt as the bureaucrats by European voters. "That is, except for the people from countries who are the major beneficiaries of the European Commission's largesse in terms of political pork-barrelling and trade subsidies... The timing of the crisis could not be worse... The need for member States to take firm action is obvious, but the problem remains one of national sovereignty and just how much power member States are willing to cede to a single European authority..." With no accountability, and a blurring of the checks and balances, which should minimise such corruption, the reality is that the real power in Europe has shifted to transnational corporations.

As long ago as August 23rd, 1997, The Sydney Morning Herald reported: "For more than a decade, Europe has been effectively run not by national politicians or the Brussels bureaucracy, but by a little known group of transnational corporations called the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT)... The evidence shows the ERT was the driving force behind the EEC'S internal market in the 1980s, the 1991 Maastricht Treaty and the social welfare-cutting single currency. Founded in 1983, the ERT is made up of 45 business leaders from large European transnational corporations whose combined annual turnover approaches $880 billion..."

STINGING ATTACK ON REPUBLIC

Australia's best-known historian, Professor Geoffley Blainey, launched a stinging attack in a major address on March 10th, on the drive for an ill-defined republic. He compared the position with Hitler's rise to power: ... Hitler rode through the constitution. He became both the prime minister and the president. Does our new constitution prevent that? I doubt it,' Professor Blainey said.
'A democratic system needs checks and balances, and one of the important tasks is to balance the relative rights and duties of the president and the prime minister."' (The Australian, 11/3/99).

Professor Blainey went on to say that, while our constitution was not perfect, it was far ahead of the proposed alternative, which was seriously deficient in safeguards.

SLIPPING THROUGH THE NET

WISHFUL THINKING ON ECONOMY

The headline in The Courier-Mail's leading front-page article (12/3/99) was a Hans Christian Andersen special:
JOB HOPES UP AS ECONOMY TOPS THE WORLD. It quoted Reserve Bank Governor Ian MacFarlane: "... He said Australia was leading the world's economies in growth, inflation and low levels of bad bank debts, with its best-ever growth in productivity... Australian Bureau of Statistics data released yesterday showed 8.7 million people were in the workforce with the number out of work and looking for a job falling by 7,400 to 696,500..."

There are lies, damned lies ... A full-page in-depth review by Elisabeth Wynhoausen in The Australian (3/3/99) gave the other side of the story:
"... Ian Campbell, a research fellow at the Centre for Applied Social Research at RMIT University in Victoria, says the proportion of part-time employees who want to work more hours tripled between 1978 and 1998. By last year there were more than 500,000 of them... Campbell believes it shows 'the formation of a zone of intermittent employment'. In his estimation, up to 1.7 million people inhabit this grey zone between welfare and work on society's margins..."

Why don't they show up in the statistics? It's simple. If you have one hour's work a week you are counted among the employed! With this sort of latitude, a Government can make the figures say anything.

AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEMS JUST BEGINNING

A visiting World Bank official, vice-president for East Asia Jean-Michel Severino, warned on March 4th of the possibility of a global depression. The Australian Financial Review (5/3/99) reported: "…Mr. Severino said the analysts who declared the Asian crisis to be over were wrong: 'The financial side has stabilised, but it is a very fragile stability. If you look at what has happened in Russia, at what has happened in Brazil, you can see that the state of developing country markets is extremely fragile. If you look at the economic side, growth is not there. It is, on average, zero this year for Asia... If you look at the structural side, the magnitude of the damage that has been done is massive, and the restructuring will take several years. In the case of Indonesia, you can even talk about it as a generational challenge,' he said..."

This was almost immediately followed by the latest UNCTAD report, "Global Economic Conditions and Prospects": "... Neither a return to stability in the buffeted Asian economies nor the apparent containment of the Brazilian crisis can hide the downside risks facing the global economy in 1999,' it says… (The Australian, 11/3/99).

SEEDS OF MONOPOLY

ONE NATION'S MOMENT OF TRUTH

by David Thompson
It is not true to describe One Nation as "riven by internal divisions", as one press report recently did. It is not true because any internal dissent has been ruthlessly dealt with, and many enthusiastic Pauline Hanson supporters have been either forced out of the party, or have resigned in disgust. The formation of the party itself may have been unfortunate, but the real tragedy of One Nation has been the way in which the party has been administered. The moment of truth for One Nation comes this weekend, when NSW goes to the polls.

With Pauline Hanson herself effectively side-lined ("kicked upstairs" as party President) this election is perhaps the final opportunity for One Nation to show that there is sufficient community support to elect a One Nation Legislative Councillor. There is little chance of One Nation winning any Legislative Assembly seat, and the fact that the Legislative Council ticket is led by David Oldfleld is a mixed blessing.

Whether it is justified or not, the clear impression is that it is Mr. Oldfleld who has made the decisions in One Nation since he became Ms. Hanson s senior advisor. It is therefore David Oldfleld who is believed to be the person responsible for the internal dissent in One Nation that has resulted in many Pauline Hanson supporters leaving the party in disgust. The One Nation in-fighting has inevitably led to the party's policies being overlooked by the very considerable support base that is available to anyone representing such policies. These include such policies as keeping the NSW electrical system in public hands, a referendum on the death penalty, restriction of foreign ownership, the assimilation of migrants, and increased funding for the rickety NSW health system.

ABORIGINAL CANDIDATE OSTRACISED

ABOLISHING DEBT

The NSW State election is producing some bizarre claims and counter claims. The Coalition Opposition, desperate to sell the State's Electricity, which would fetch up to $25 billion on the foreign market, is promising voters a $1,000 handout per household if elected. Having paid off the State's debt of almost $19 billion, a Coalition Government would then legislate that New South Wales introduced a "no new debt Act" ensuring that the Government could not amass future debt except in "exceptional circumstances". Believe that one if you like!

The Coalition leader, Kerry Chikarovski, is slightly more "up-front" than the Liberals in South Australia. Having campaigned in the last SA election on the promise he would not sell ETSA (The Electricity Trust of South Australia), Liberal Premier John Olsen has now written an "open letter" to fellow South Australians, saying it's either sell ETSA, or face electricity bill increases of up to $200.00 per annum. These arguments are only smaller versions of the "blackmail" used against Australia for the last 20 years - "sell your assets, industries and utilities, or we'll cut your finance supply!"

It's now a massive form of international pressure called globalism. The beneficiaries are transnationals, and the banks, which finance them. What happens when we have unbolted all our assets and auctioned them? The question of future funding has still not been addressed. Until some leader with a bit of nerve touches the red-hot poker, the future of our children is being pawned, day-by-day.

THE COST OF PARLIAMENT