LOOKING BACKWARDS AND FORWARD

by Eric D. Butler.

Unless people understand how they have reached their present situation, they have no hope of understanding where they are going, or what steps they should take to avoid even worse disasters than those they have already experienced. Nineteen seventy-three was a year of momentous and convulsive developments, but now mankind is threatened by a year whose convulsions will certainly dwarf those of the past. Those who believe that any type of stability is possible under present finance-economic policies are deluding themselves. Every day brings new manifestations of conflict, national and international, and social disintegration. Monetary inflation was a major feature of the internal disintegration of the Roman Empire. Effective resistance to the storming barbarians became impossible.

H. G. Wells wrote of how when he was writing his Outline of History, he became convinced that the basic cause of the internal rot was the heavy indebtedness of all social classes and the crushing burden of taxation. Wells wrote prophetically before the Second World War "It is dreadful to watch how gradually the same symptoms of decadence become visible in the great empires of the modern world."

Consider the plight of the British today, a quarter of a century after "winning" the Second World War. Mounting inflation dominated the affairs of every major non-Communist nation, including Japan, during 1973. The Arab oil policy, encouraged by the Moscow strategists, only accelerated inflation; it is not the basic cause of inflation and its destructive effects.

The chaotic British situation, for example, has been brought to a head by the refusal of the British coalminers to produce enough coal, of which there is an abundance, unless they receive substantial pay increases to offset the inflation which the Heath Government's "anti-inflation" programme has failed to halt.
The Communists manipulating the coalminers are only able to advance their programme for a British revolution because of inflation. The Heath Government refuses to meet the miners' demands, claiming that this would destroy their anti-inflation strategy. But under present financial policies, even the increased salaries offered by the Heath Government would intensify inflation by increasing wage costs which would have to be recovered in higher coal prices, these in turn being multiplied right throughout the British industrial system.

It is chilling to realise that one of the great industrial nations of the West, still a major factor in what resistance still remains against the pressures of International Communism, could be at the point of complete collapse as a result of a failure to adjust a man-made financial system in order to induce miners to produce adequate coal supplies for British industry without at the same time generating more inflation.

Two immediate steps could be taken by the British Government: An assessment to be made of the book value of one of the United Kingdom's greatest natural assets, its coal, and a special credit fund created against this asset to be used to pay the coalminers an adequate production bonus, outside the wage system, for increased coal production, and to finance a subsidy of the selling price of all coal, thus lowering the pressure of a basic cost on all sections of British industry. But just as the Heath Government ruthlessly forced the British people against their will into the European Economic Community, with even more disastrous results than anti-Common Market critics predicted, so it doggedly attempts to continue imposing the very finance-economic policies which have produced a situation which must become rapidly worse.

The re-election of the Heath Government, or the election of any other type of British Government cannot now save the British from their greatest national disaster unless the Keynesian financial policies of mounting debt, heaving taxation, and progressive inflation, are altered. Basically Australia is in the same situation as the United Kingdom.

In a political propaganda exercise disguised as a Christmas message, Prime Minister Whitlam told Australians of all of his Government's good deeds during 1973, but had to admit that inflation was still a major problem. However, the "fight" against inflation would go on. Mr. Whitlam then said, "I simply ask you to remember that inflation is partly the result of a booming economy - an economy that in many ways is the envy of the world." The suggestion is that Australians should be thankful that their inflation rate is, for example, about half of that being suffered by the Japanese or the Americans.

Playing the dishonest party game, Liberal and Country Party propagandists keep telling the Australian people that the only way to halt the record inflation rate is to replace Mr. Whitlam with Mr. Snedden, claiming monotonously that the inflation rate was "only" four per cent under the Liberal-Country Party Coalition. Relying upon the electors' notoriously short memories, these party apologists neglect to point out that the Liberal-Country Party Coalition was only able to reduce temporarily the inflation rate by a major credit squeeze, large-scale unemployment and disastrous economic dislocation. In a desperate attempt to restore their sagging electoral support, the Coalition, budget of 1972, brought down by Treasurer B. M. Snedden, was a blatant Keynesian exercise in monetary debt expansion which set in motion the "booming economy" mentioned by Mr. Whitlam and, of course, the inevitable record inflation.

If electors will but heed the lessons of the past, they can see that it is unrealistic to believe that by merely replacing the Whitlam Government with a Snedden Government, or any other type of Government, they are going to be relieved of the problems being used to drive Australia at an accelerating rate down the totalitarian road. What is needed urgently is a change of policies. Unfortunately there is no evidence whatever that Mr. Snedden, Mr. Anthony and their colleagues have in Opposition seen the error of the Keynesian financial policies they pursued while in office. They have offered no concrete proposals for ending inflation without economic dislocation, thus making it possible to reverse the present process of centralising all power.

The truth that Australians must face at the start of an explosive year is that the election of a Snedden Government wedded to the same destructive policies pursued in the past by Liberal-Country Party Governments, would result in a deepening of the crisis now so obvious. It is the same crisis threatening what remains of Western Civilisation. The crisis can only be solved by removing the basic finance-economic causes of the crisis. A new set of politicians may be necessary, but much more vital is a new policy.

The Marxists have consistently maintained that the free-enterprise system was inevitably doomed to destruction because of its "inherent contradictions", these leading to continuing crises, with confrontation between employers and employees. The Marxists have strongly opposed every constructive financial policy which would remove the ''inherent contradictions" in the free-enterprise system, enabling employers, employees and consumers to co-operate harmoniously to their mutual advantage. The Marxists readily grasped the significance of the contribution, which Keynesian finance-economic policies would make towards the destruction of the free society. Inflation is beyond doubt Communism's most deadly "secret weapon" throughout the non-Communist world.

The disaster road down which mankind has moved during this century can now be clearly seen by those prepared to look backwards. The record of how mankind has been forced down this road has now been carefully documented in a number of books. The lessons of history were never clearer. If the disaster road is followed for much longer, we can write Finish to the Free Society and Civilisation, as we know it. Nineteen seventy-four may be the last year possible for a real change of direction. That change will only come through the efforts of sufficient informed and dedicated individuals co-operating to make their will prevail against the policies of those who seek to enslave mankind.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL MURPHY'S DOUBLE-TALK ON RIGHTS

Senator Lionel Murphy attempts to present himself as a man with a deep concern about the rights of his fellow human beings, particularly the rights of minorities. The Croatian minority can be excused for not accepting this view of the Senator!

It was Senator Murphy's Government, which attempted to deny Australians the right to read information about Rhodesia issued by The Rhodesian Information Centre in Sydney. But while the Government does not think that Australians have the right to read about Rhodesia, and certainly should not visit this country, Senator Murphy, presumably supported by his colleagues, clearly feels that some individuals are being denied their rights because they have difficulty in obtaining hard-core pornography. He is therefore proposing that the States allow hard-core pornography to be imported by newsagents and booksellers for sale to adults.
We cannot help pondering on what type of "adults" we have in our society if they feel that their lives are empty in the absence of pornography.

Criticising Senator Murphy's proposals, Dean F. M. Chamberlain, Roman Catholic Episcopal Vicar for communications and the mass media, has made the pertinent comment in Melbourne that "The Senator is surprisingly naive if he thinks that this material can be controlled once it is allowed entry. But I do not believe for a minute that Senator Murphy is naive. He knows the score."
It is certain that if hard-core pornography is approved by law, the first step has been taken towards increased pressure to permit a flood of pornography to enter the country.

Pornography is, of course, big money today. Its promoters seek to exploit the baser aspects of human beings. And greater moral pollution makes for the easier disintegration of orderly society. The basis of a stable society is the family. But a study of Senator Murphy's Human Rights legislation, introduced at Canberra late last year, supports the claim of the Sydney Anglican Vicar, the Rev. Bernard Judd, who in a Christmas Day service, said that Senator Murphy was a secularist force seeking to undermine the institution of the family".

The Rev. Judd said, "Senator Murphy's approach has been unduly devious concerning this Bill, which he has tried to pass off as a harmless, open and shut enactment of the provisions of the International Covenant. The International Covenant defines the family as "the natural and fundamental group unit of society, which is entitled to protection by society and the State. Why has Senator Murphy omitted these words from his Human Rights Bill? Does this omission reflect the new life-style which the aggressive secularists are trying to force upon Australians?"

The Human Rights legislation makes much about "equality of rights" concerning race, sex, religion and other matters, but in fact it would restrict existing rights. For example, anyone discussing questions of race or arguing in favour of preserving a homogeneous society could be charged with violating the legislation. The Rev. Judd has pointed out that Senator Murphy was seeking to regulate "the time, place and manner in which people may manifest their religion and beliefs. That's how the Soviet Government regulates the Russian churches".

Following his Christmas Service criticism of Senator Murphy's legislation, Mr. Judd said, "Christians are regarded as passive intellectuals. Everyone else can have a go when they think the Government is impinging on their rights but not the Church. But if we don't stand up for our rights and protect our dignity, no one else will."
We warmly endorse Mr. Judd's sentiments. We trust that not only Church leaders, but the great majority of Australians, who are decent, will make it clear to Senator Murphy and his colleagues that they have no desire for any more pornography and gutter-filth, and that they do not want their present rights tampered with under a phony Human Rights Bill.

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's revelations concerning the Soviet secret police and concentration camps have had no effect on those preaching detente with the Soviet criminals. The credits and technology still pour in from the West. No cries of protest from Mr. Whitlam, who supports terrorism against Rhodesia and South Africa. The P.M. has refused an offer of a South African businessman to bring him to South Africa to see conditions for himself. Mr. Whitlam's mind has been made up. He does not want to become confused with facts!

Remember how last year Dr. Henry Kissinger obtained "peace with honour" in Vietnam? Since then there have been 50,000 more troops killed, 50,000 wounded, while the Communist terrorists have killed 1,800 civilians, wounded 3,000 others and abducted 1,700.