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15 April 1976. Thought for the Week: "The philosophy
behind Marxism - and it should be remembered that every policy has a
philosophy very often widely different from that which its supporters
claim for it - is dialectical materialism the economic interpretation
of history. I do not wish to misrepresent this theory, but as far as
I understand it, it appears to be one of those half-truths, which become
dangerous weapons in the hands of political schemers. An allied statement
is that "Labour producers all wealth." Now, fresh air and sunshine
are wealth, perhaps the greatest source of wealth, but they are not
produced by Labour in any mundane sense. And of course, using the word
"Labour" in the sense in which it is used by Marx, its contribution
to wealth is small and decreasing, which is why 'essential services'
are so easily maintained in a general strike."
C.H.Douglas, in "Whose Service Is Perfect Freedom." |
GET YOUR ANTI-FREEZE FOR WINTER"The Reserve Bank will pump $300 million into the trading banks this month to make sure Australia does not suffer a 1974 style credit squeeze." The Sun (Melbourne) April 9th. There is one principal reason for this injection
of large volume of credit into the Australian economy at this time -
taxation. It is being squirted in, so that the Taxation Commissioner
can come and siphon it out again, but leaving Mr. Businessman with an
increased debt. The Taxation "take" for the June quarter is in excess
of $1,500 million. Many companies increase their overdrafts to meet
the tax demands. The Banking System is unable to meet the requirements
(financial) of the business world currently because of the restriction
of their liquidity as a result of its drain into Mr. Phillip Lynch's
bobby dazzler bonds. Mr. Lynch (busily at work with his mop) has "mopped up" over $1,000 million with his new bonds; and most of this amount has come from building society deposits (so that they now are forced to pay higher interest to attract deposits back to them) meaning higher interest rates for building society borrowers: dearer housing. Fixed deposits in banks have been shot into the new bonds, and this has eroded bank liquidity. There are other reasons as well, and foremost
in the Government's thinking would be the continuance of business viability.
Mr. Fraser and Mr. Lynch don't want any more Mainline crashes, and Cambridge
Credit Collapses. Failure of businesses, big and small, means unemployment;
and unemployment means loss of votes, and the possible loss of those
nice ministerial salaries. So what do they do? A neat cosmetic job.
Release just enough money for business to stay afloat. |
NATIONAL SECRETARY OF INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY REPLIES TO 'BULLETIN'Mr. Jeremy Lee sent the letter below to the Editor of the (Sydney) Bulletin in reply to a criticism of the Australian League of Rights in the form of an article by Mr. Peter Samuel, in its issue of April 10th. 1976. Dear Sir, Peter Samuel's article -"The Rabid
Right Re-emerges", is pretty rabid itself ("Bulletin-April 10th.)
His customary lack of pre-occupation with the facts has never been more
evident. In the process he has done the National Country Party an injustice,
apart from misrepresenting the League of Rights. Could it be that Peter
Samuel has his own little axe to grind? |
FROM BRITISH 'ON TARGET'U.S. One Worlders Encourage Italian Reds. (issue
of April 10th) Fresh evidence of this appeared in 'The Observer' (Jan. 4th. 1976) which reporting U.S. concern with the advance of Communism in Europe stated: "There is, though, within the State Department and the C.I.A a significant measure of disagreement with this approach. A Harvard Don argues in ... 'Foreign Policy'(the Council on Foreign Relations 'insider' paper) that Washington should instead try to influence the Italian Communist Party in a direction favourable to fundamental U S. interests'. This echoes what some Government officials say; that treating the Italian Communist Leader, Berlinguer and his followers as reformers carries less risk than cold-shouldering them". "Down the years the arguments used by U.S. policy makers for supporting Communism is that the Reds are reformers; China, Cuba and Cambodia were all sacrificed on that altar. "It is apparent that the pro-Communist elements in U.S. Government are as powerful today as they were in the powerful days of Alger Hiss. If the west is to survive, a complete clean-out of the higher levels of the government, intelligence, media and academic fields is called for." |
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING COMMISSION TAKES A GRILLINGThe political and media obsession with numerical balance - column inches or on-time air - had tended to distort news values; The General Manager of the A.B.C., Mr. Talbot Duckmanton, said yesterday. - The Age (Melbourne) April 12th 1976. Mr. Duckmanton did raise some stimulating points in his address to a Liberal Party convention in Brisbane. We are in agreement with Mr. Duckmanton that "equal inches" or "equal time" do not guarantee that a balance of views has been achieved. In fact this "equality" of exposure in the media need not necessarily mean very much at all. Why? It's the way it's done. There are many ways of killing a cat. The type of questions that are asked; the inflexion of the voice; the innuendos; sweeping generalisations; condemnations by association. All these are the box of tricks of an experienced interviewer, and he/she can bring them out skillfully for use in the service of his particular bias if any. And most interviewers on the A.B.C. are well biased towards the Left. Such an interviewer can do more harm to a person, or point of view in five minutes than can be corrected, or "balanced" by a less skilful approach in half an hour. Mr. Duckmanton was right enough when he stated that many complaints concerned commercial stations (and channels). We know this is right; we have seen, for example, the race issue presented in a most inflammatory manner on a Melbourne commercial T.V. channel. There was no doubt in our minds that the purpose
of the current affairs programme in question was to inveigle inarticulate
viewers at large into attempting to defend Australia's traditional immigration
policies in the company of skilled performers; including no less a colorful
personality than Mr. Al Grassby himself. This programme took place about
the time that the Racial Discrimination Bill (now Act) was being debated,
and was quite obviously intended to knock out some of the public opposition
to the Bill. The Liberal-N.C.P Opposition (at that Time) were alarmed that they might alienate the New Australian vote if they were NOT seen to be in disagreement with racial discrimination. Quite ridiculous; the majority of the Europeans have much the same views on racial issues as the majority of Australians. We did not see any repetition of this outrightly subversive T.V. material on the channel in question, and we believe that protests to the advertising sponsors had the desired effect. It is a pity that individuals have no such ready sanctions with the A.B.C. We know that if a Board of Directors of a sponsor company sees letters of protest concerning a T.V./radio programme advising that patronage of their product/s will be withdrawn, then the effects are electric. The programme Stops. The League's view is that the A.B.C. has a lot going for it, and it is a pity that it can't clean up its current affairs programmes, and rid this area of subversive influences. The managerial structure is obviously top heavy, and there's too much bureaucracy. The ABC's drama, musical, comedy and other programmes are first-class. The Commission does a service of national importance to Australia in promoting symphony orchestras and bringing great instrumentalists and artists of world renown to this country for our cultural benefit. Mr. Duckmanton also said that politicians recognise that the ABC is the only national information service. We doubt the news services of the commercial TV channels would agree with this statement. |
BRIEF COMMENTSThe following important item was published in "Weekly Review" (U.K.) March 31st; ... "The Queen's Prerogative is being questioned by (British) Labour Party Marxists encouraged by the energy minister Mr. Benn. A committee under his chairmanship seeks to remove the Queen's right to dissolve Parliament and call a general election. They argue that the Speaker of the House of Commons should have this power. "It seems that the British socialists have learned quickly from the lesson of their Australian brothers, who had to face an unwelcome election when the Queen's representative, took the unprecedented step of dismissing Australia's most rotten government in modern history. The Queen has always acted upon the advice of her minister's. But what if a Marxist government should take control? The Queen's prerogative could be distinctly awkward. A Students news-sheet from one of the universities
in Melbourne re-prints a statement, which according to this sheet, was
printed in The Australian March 18th. The students newssheet
titles the article "Go Tell It To The Fairies", which follows:. . .
"Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka said to his white audience at the Adelaide
Arts Festival:... 'I am just ministering to your desire for self-flagellation.
Audiences of white intelligentsia are the most self flagellating body
in the world. They tend to drop every card, and say, guilty, guilty,
please
I see it all the time, in the lack of challenge for points
which are obviously debatable." We have been watching the pronouncements and activities of the Young Liberal Movement for some years and we don't like what we observe. Now young Libs, are calling for the resignation of Sir John Kerr, the Governor -General, whom the Young Libs say is no longer regarded sufficiently favourably by Australians. The Young Libs are really out of step with the Liberal Party, which supports the Governor General as do the majority of Australians, even now, so soon after the political explosion last December (1975) We firmly believe that more and more Australians will give their support to the Governor-General when they have had the opportunity to examine the issues more deeply for themselves, and the League intends to help our countrymen do just this. |
Planned ObsolescenceWar is not the only form of massive waste, which has become an essential part of modern society. A draft for discussion at a meeting of the World Council of Churches in Sweden in 1968 pointed out the double standard which this need for waste engenders: "We bewail wastage inefficiency and corruption in developing nations. Yet we see no contradictions in our valiant support of economic systems built on scientifically organised waste where the speed of obsolescence has to be steadily increased to enable an adequate flow of purchasing power."This shows the need for planned obsolescence in its true light. Without a constant distribution of incomes to be used as purchasing power, industry would come to a standstill. Supporters who buy automobiles, refrigerators, and other expensive consumer goods will have noticed the quality of them steadily deteriorates with each passing decade. True, they may have initially a better performance than the ten-year-old model, but they will not last as long. The reason is, of course, that because of inflation, the harassed manufacturer is forced to cut corners on costs everywhere. Quality hence declines. |