WASHINGTON-OTTOWA RHETORIC MASKS REALITIES

Mr. Eric Butler reports from the North American front
"Generally overlooked in all the gushing comments concerning Ronald Reagan's sweeping Presidential victory was the immediate drop in share prices on the Wall Street Stock Exchange. Hardheaded investors do not appear to share President Reagan's enthusiastic post election comment that - 'America's best days are ahead; adding - You ain't seen nothing yet! Those investors may have an inkling that the much-publicised American recovery has been fuelled by the biggest deficit in the history of the U.S.A., and that a day of reckoning may not be far off. Even before the U.S.A. elections the American economy was starting to show the effects of the tightening of the growth of the money supply by the Federal Reserve Board, America's Central Bank.

"If the Reagan Administration attempts to reduce the astronomical Deficit, it is as certain as night follows day that the results will be catastrophic. Debt finance remains the Achilles Heel of the so-called conservative movements everywhere. Americans, who have been cheering Reagan today, may well be cursing him tomorrow. Reagan projects the image of a man who reflects the traditional values of the U.S.A., and there appears little doubt that he is much more wholesome person than many of his predecessors. But, as President Reagan has discovered on the Zionist issue, it has been (politically) necessary to back away from what was a much more realistic American Middle East policy.

No genuine conservative movement can develop anywhere unless the debt problem is constructively faced.

The new Mulroney Conservative Government at Ottowa has already indicated that it is going to take over where the Trudeau Government left off. One of its first acts was to appoint a former Ontario Socialist leader, Mr. Stephen Lewis, as Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Lewis has said - ' I'm still as committed to the cause of Socialism today as I have been at any point in my career'. Lewis will have plenty of scope at the U.N. to advance his socialism. Canadian electors who voted for the Mulroney Government believed that they were voting against Socialism.

In its initial statements on the plight of the Canadian economy the Mulroney Government sounds much like Mr. Bob Hawke when he came to office. Mr. Mulroney finds the financial position much, much worse than he had anticipated, and so, of course, some of his pre-election promises will have to be put aside. Canadians are being told that - 'the picnic is over': that the massive deficit must be reduced. With over 30 cents of every tax dollar going just to meet the interest bill on the National Debt, the Mulroney Government is doomed to disaster unless it can start to face the debt and taxation issues.

My prediction is that 1985 is going to prove a year of disillusionment for large numbers of those people, both in the U.S.A. and Canada, who voted for the conservative parties in this year elections. But this can eventually lead to an understanding of finance economic realities.

THE OPPOSITION THAT ISN'T

A growing number of Australians have studied the League's special issue of Intelligence Survey, entitled "The Tragedy of An Opposition that Isn't". It has simply dealt with a number of basic issues facing Australians in the election, which for one reason or another, the Coalition parties seem nervous of facing. Those who have "caught on" to the basic psychology behind the vicious attacks of former Communists Phillip Adams and Ken Gott, and the highly embarrassed Victorian spokesman on Aboriginal Affairs, Dr. Coghill, will by now understand they are designed to keep Coalition spokesmen quivering in a state of equivocation throughout the election.

This is sadly confirmed in The Age, (November 10th) in an article headed "N.P's Asian Ad killed". An election advertisement from the NSW section of the National Party was "killed" two days before going on air. The A.L.P. is now circulating the text of the advertisements to embarrass the Nationals. What then, did it say? The Age said: "... The commercial asked the voters: "Are you really happy seeing our traditional moral values being eaten away by socialist ideas? Do you vote for gay rights, porno movies and legalised abortion? ... an Australian republic? Or a new aussie flag? How about Aborigine land rights? Or more Asian immigration? Socialism is changing the face of Australia. Stop it while it is still democratically possible.

The embarrassment lies in the fact that the text touches on the real "gut" issues concerning many Australians. The Nationals have backed away in shamefaced silence. Presumably they fear they might be the next targets of the intimidatory tactics of Coghill, Adams and Gott.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AMALGAMATIONS

The Age (November 9th) contained an article on the programme of Mr. Frank Wilkes, Minister for Local Government.
"... Mr. Wilkes has not taken a back seat. He has, for the past two years, been waging a campaign of psychological warfare across Victoria in an attempt to reduce the number of councils..."

The report went on to say Mr. Wilkes was convinced he could wear down resistance to the idea of council amalgamations, using arguments showing there are too many councillors, too many councils, and that big cost savings could be effected by amalgamations. Victorians should beware. The Labor Government in NSW used the same phony tactics and arguments, and did enormous damage in the State before finally being forced to retreat ignominiously before the increasing wrath of councils and ratepayers who had finally woken up to the deceit in the claims.

UNITED STATES DEBTS

Maxwell Newton, reporting from New York in The Australian, (November 9, '84) highlighted the United States' ominous debt position;
"The escalation of the US foreign trade deficit is turning America into a major world debtor ... The net asset position of the US is eroding rapidly in the face of the $US100 billion current account deficit. Sometime in the first half of next year, the US will become a net debtor and at the present rate will become the world's largest net debtor by the end of next year. The world's financial system will be unable to manage its most developed country serving as a sponge for its savings. Something will have to give - the present trajectory, is not sustainable.
Unless policy reduces the twin deficits - the federal budget deficit and the overseas trade deficit - foreign appetites to acquire dollars will become sated, precipitating a crash in the dollar, higher interest rates, a weak stock market and a rise in inflation. Both the budget deficit and the trade deficit are the product of socialist policies that we introduced during the 1970s..."

Meanwhile, The Weekend Australian (Nov. 10-11) reported inflation in Israel topping 800 percent, with a series of strikes by municipal authorities because their wages have not been paid. Israeli government leaders visited the US during the election campaign to seek massive aid to solve Israel's financial problems. Presumably, US aid to Israel will simply be tacked onto the impossible debts in the US itself.

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH & THE U.S.A. ELECTIONS

From British On Target November 10th, 1984. This item further strengthens the comment by the National Director in the first item of this issue of On Target.

"The State opening of Parliament by Her Majesty, the Queen, took place on Tuesday, 6th November (notably avoiding the famous date of 5th November!). On the same date the people of the United States of America went to the polls to elect their President and also members of the U.S.A. Congress. Leading up to the American elections the strength of the U.S. dollar had grown continuously, and all other countries' currencies had got progressively weaker - particularly the pound sterling. The American economy has a superficial air of buoyancy, and fortunately for Mr. Reagan and his team, which has successfully obtained his re-election, the economy held together long enough for him to be re-elected. However, underneath all the superficial buoyancy - there is a time bomb ticking away. The time bomb in the U.S economy is the phenomenal growth of the U.S. national debt. Whilst the time bomb will continue to tick away, there will in fact be a controlled explosion, which will only affect people gradually. The first people to feel it will be, of course, the citizens of the United States of America, who will have to pay increased taxes or prices in one form or another, to pay for the phenomenal debt and debt charges.

The strengths of the U.S. dollar has meant that a lot of dollar funds have found their way back to the United States of America, and a number of reports now reaching us from the U.S.A. indicate that there is the possibility of the imposition of some control and monitoring of the movement of the overseas funds of U.S. citizens. These two factors, the controls, and the increased taxes of charges, to pay for the national debt, will mean that the value of the dollar against other currencies will start to go into reverse. Indeed, the reversal started, as far as the pound sterling was concerned, two or three days before the U.S.A. elections. There is, of course, the possibility that the relationship between the values of the pound sterling and the U.S. dollar will go up and down, but the value of the dollar must go down as it was being hopelessly over priced and has been unrealistic in terms of the purchasing power of the two currencies. What, however, is quite clear from all of this, is that there has been a high degree of political and financial manipulation going on behind the scenes".

WHAT IS THE REAL CAUSE OF THE FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA?

Patrick Walsh reports on the present Ethiopian tragedy (below). Mr. Walsh is Research Director for the Canadian League of Rights. The following from Canadian On Target (November 5th):
"Our 'Red Tory' External Affairs Minister, Joe Clark, was in Addis Abbaba a few days ago, agreeing with the Marxist regime's request that Canada should be 'a bridge to the prosperous countries' re the famine conditions in Ethiopia. "George Ignatieff, the old time unilateral disarmer and now a 'consultant' to External Affairs, complains that too much money is being spent on Canadian armaments (national defence}, suggesting that if we cut this spending and were to give the savings in the form of food to Ethiopia, 'we wouldn't be in this state of hopelessness'. Both Stephen Lewis, our U.N. Ambassador, and Doug Roche, our Disarmament Ambassador, have been peddling this same line. "Not one of this foursome has pointed out that the main cause of the famine stems from the rigid Marxist regime imposed by the Soviets and Red Cubans on the unfortunate Ethiopian people.
Mr. Walsh goes on to point out that while Moscow's Ethiopian puppet regime may be largely responsible for the present mess, it is Canada, not the U.S.S.R that is coming to the rescue with $25 million in food relief. Canada, according to reports, is the world's largest donor of food to this Red controlled country.
"Also, notes Mr. Walsh, it is significant that the Mulroney Government has appointed Joe Clark's old buddy, 'Rev.' David MacDonald, the notorious 'red Tory', to co-ordinate this whole relief aid program.
"It should not go unnoticed, too, that just two months ago 'the Marxist government in this North African country (Ethiopia) spent $200 million celebrating the 10th anniversary of the military coup which brought it to power' (Toronto Star, Nov. 6th)
"The reality of so-called 'liberation' in Africa is that the Marxists and do-gooders pressure the European influence out, the Reds move into the vacuum thus created, and while the Communists move to consolidate their power, the West has to foot the mounting bills for food and aid to prevent the poor Africans from starving. Meanwhile, we have our fair quota of addle brained Utopians running about advocating the weakening of our national defences as a solution to this problem!"

(Read - "The Truth Out of Africa", by Ivor Benson. Price; $5.00 posted from all League bookshops).

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND SOURCES OF FINANCE

FATHER BRIAN GORE ATTACKS AID

Father Gore, Australian Roman Catholic priest, for many years a missionary in the Philippines, and charged with murder by the Marcos Government, seems to us a mixed bag. He has exposed the corruption in his part of the Third World, but appears to be in concert with the 'liberation theologists'. However, we think he has hit on part of the truth in his comments in an article in the Sydney "Sun-Herald", November 4th.

"Father Brian Gore said developed nations supported their economic and political interests in Third World countries to the detriment of the people who lived in them, and by their support of authoritarian governments condemned people to continuing undevelopment and poverty. "He said the Church in Third World countries would have to decide whose side it is on - the people or the government. "The people are only asking for rights that we have - the right to three meals a day, to have their children educated, to organise, to not be in fear of their lives'. Notice that Father Gore (above) implies that the whole of Third World is in a virtual state of civil war - the people versus government, and the Church would have to decide which side it is on. This seems like an exaggeration to us. Surely, not the whole of the Third World. The heart of the problem, of course, is racial: but we mustn't mention this "taboo". It is a common maxim in Latin America that - "the higher you go up the social and economic ladder, the whiter men become".

Pretty blunt, but there it is! The liberation theologists in the Third World most certainly do witness the cruelty and injustices to the common people, and this does colour their political thinking. They ignore racial realities; they don't understand the finance economic conspiracy against the individual; they ignore the Moral Law, in that two wrongs don't make a right. Social justice can never be brought about by the gun.