WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO COMMUNISM?

Anti-Communism has since the latter part of last year become fashionable. As yet Dr. Jim Cairns has not publicly recanted and apologised for the misleading nonsense he talked about the Soviet Union and Communist China. Moscow trained John Halfpenny, currently acting as the real Premier of Victoria, left the Communist Party to join the Labor Party, but has never repudiated Marxism-Leninism.

A study of the activities of the different sections of the Marxist movement in Australia suggests that an attempt is being made to restructure the movement in order that Socialist ideas can be presented in a more acceptable form. There is tremendous emphasis on the environmental question, seen as one, which can be used to recruit large numbers of idealists to accept the necessity for a further centralising of power. The essence of Socialism, even when presented with the "human face" that Mikhail Gorbachev talks about, is central planning in one form or another.

The nature of reality is not altered by using a different name to describe it. At the conclusion of the Second World War large numbers of German National Socialist officials had no difficulty in becoming officials of the East German Communist Government. Several observers have drawn attention to the fact that many of the prominent officials, who served the Communist Governments, now in disgrace, are still exercising power. "Reformed" Communists are simply a type of Fabian Socialist. Fabianism has been a much more deadly variant of the collectivist virus than Communism. The Fabian virus has made a deadly contribution to the demise of the old British world, working together with the centralist policies of financial orthodoxy.

As we have consistently pointed out, Gorbachev, still expressing his loyalty to Leninism, has been forced by reality to accept the necessity for an attempted major dialectical step backwards in an attempt to preserve a Soviet base. Lenin took the long view of history and made the highly significant observation that the World State could not be established until a world economic system was established. Gorbachev and his associates support the New International Economic Order correctly pointing out that the concept is rooted in the ideas of Lenin.

Senior Zionist spokesman Isi Leibler says that he has told the Gorbachev Government that Western Jewish businessmen were encouraging their governments "to get involved commercially in the Soviet Union so as to support perestroika in the difficult period it is going through (vide The Australian Jewish News, June 12th.

The struggle for the world has entered a new and more dangerous phase. Stemming from the same philosophical root as Communism, Hitler's "anti-Communism" merely made a major contribution to the drive for centralised power. There is going to be greater instability than ever, and the greatest contribution Australians can make to their own future, and to that of that Western Christian Civilisation, of which they are a part, is to resist valiantly every policy of centralisation irrespective of how it is labeled.

THE HAWKE-KEATING ELECTION STRATEGY

As we anticipated, Treasurer Paul Keating has found it possible to ease interest rates minimally in preparation for the coming Federal Elections. The small reduction in the interest rate will not seriously affect the growing number of economic casualties throughout Australia, but is designed to have a psychological impact. The damage inflicted by the Hawke-Keating strategy is much greater than most people realise. The publicity concerning the fall of the tycoons like Bond, Skase and others tends to mask what is happening to small businesses and primary producers.

Accounting firm Ernst and Young say that Australian businesses are now collapsing at the rate of one every day. The Australian Small Business Association reports that between six and ten Melbourne retailers are closing their doors every week. The plight of primary producers is probably worse, but barely rates a mention in the media. If there were a genuine Opposition, a government inflicting a type of massive economic bloodletting under the guise of "responsible" management, would be swept from office. But electors perceive that there is no genuine alternative.

As at the last Federal Elections, a relatively small number of urban electorates will decide the result. These electorates have a large number of that new middle class which both directly and indirectly is sustained by government programmes. There are growth industries in the various forms of social welfare activity. It was the new middle class, which saved Hawke at the last elections, and may well save him again. The highly organised "green" movement will also be a major factor. While Prime Minister Hawke will nominate the election date which he feels will best help him to win, our view is that he is unlikely to have an election before Anzac Day, April 25th, when he is scheduled to be at the Gallipoli Reunion. The odds tend to favour Paul Keating's suggestion of May 12th. The Keating announcement on interest rates was a signal that the election campaign is now under way.

BRIEF COMMENTS

One of the most astonishing aspects of the Australian economic scene, is that $160 million a month is being spent on imported foods, most of which are also produced in Australia. Food imports are a major contributor to Australia's crippling imports bill. For once Senator Boswell of Queensland has said something sensible, observing that Australian primary producers were the victims of overseas products, which were being subsidised. The sensible policy would be either to restrict the importing of food which Australia can readily produce, or to apply the Second World War policy of consumer discounts, which would reduce the price of home produced foods, and at the same time help to reduce inflation. But the Hawke Government is wedded to internationalism and visualises large sectors of Australian industry, including primary producers, being "restructured". Sensible Australians would be well advised to plan ahead and ensure that they have adequate basic foods available. The internationalists could achieve what was once considered impossible: a domestic food shortage.

Generally overlooked by the world's media was an historic statement by Pope John Paul II in August of last year. The statement sent shock waves through Zionist ranks. The Pope rejected the view that Jews are God's Chosen People, a view, which the Zionists have used constantly to protect themselves against, charges that, for example, they have a Divine right to do almost as they like. On August 9th the Pope said, "The Jews are no longer God's special people because of their infidelity to God. God's covenant with the Jews has been superseded by His new covenant with Christians. This new covenant comes through Christ." Needless to say, the Pope is now being described as "anti-Semitic". We are not theologians, but observe that Judaism, irrespective of its form, is rooted in Pharisaism, which Christ denounced in the strongest possible terms. If made today, His comments would result in a charge before some Race Relations Board. The basic issue between Christianity and Judaism is philosophic and the Pope's statement may help to clarify a question, which has confused and misled many Christians.

Writing in The Age, Melbourne, conservative columnist Michael Barnard comments that when he was a boy growing up in England, and joined other boys in the age-old practice of stealing a few apples, the farmer reacted by kicking a few backsides. Parents were not told in case further discipline was applied. But today any such discipline would result in assault charges. Juvenile crime has today become a major social problem in all countries, with the present British Conservative Government introducing legislation to make it possible to fine parents who "fail to control delinquent children". But, as Michael Barnard points out, much of current juvenile violence and crime is the result of governments everywhere conniving or acquiescing in the steady undermining of parental and teacher authority. Thus the current nonsense about "child rights", and the bizarre spectacle of children "divorcing" their parents. The subject of proper authority is one little understood today, with the appalling results which can be seen everywhere. Sexual promiscuity, drug addiction, and the mindless behaviour of so many juveniles, as witnessed by the state of Melbourne's trains, are all manifestations of a breakdown of an authority rooted in the natural order. As Malcolm Muggeridge pointed out some years back, more of what passes for education is not an answer to juvenile delinquency. It is one of the causes of the problem.

Former Liberal Party Minister, Ian Macphee, darling of the political trendies has just lashed out at the New Right in the Liberal Party, and really at politicians generally. He commented over A.B.C. National that Australian politics were "rotten" and that ten years would see the end of the party system, as we have known it over past decades. Again, we observe that politicians can be brutally frank, and particularly when they are outside mainstream politics, as is Mr. Macphee now.

DEAR RUSSIA

The Weekend Australian, January 27th-28th, has published letters, which, it claims, are to be published in Pravda. It also claims that Pravda will send letters, from Soviet citizens, to The Australian, for publication. We select some of them:

BEWARE OF THE WEST'S "AFFLUENCE"
"Dear Russia, Congratulations on the changes you have made in the past few years. To read what we will, to say what we will, are rights which (with minor qualifications) we take for granted. Perhaps there are other ways of doing things in our society, which would save a lot of queuing up, or filling in forms. "But now a warning. Don't imagine there is any quick fix for your problems in simply copying Western capitalist society, described by one of our thinkers as 'private affluence and public squalor'. "In this country you would see all the signs of affluence. Strung along our most beautiful coastlines you would see towering blocks of apartments for the rich, extravagant private holiday homes (dachas?) for the super-rich. "At the same time, beside our biggest city, a beach where thousands of ordinary people were accustomed to swim is now fouled with raw sewage. On the fringes of most of our inland towns clumps of Aboriginal Australians live in makeshift homes with inadequate sanitation. In our biggest cities thousands of young people are living, as best they can, without any homes. "I could go on, but I think I have made my point." (G.G. Burgoyne, Reid, A.C.T.)

"Now that we know Russians are human beings, whom are our Western leaders going to have us fear?" (Desmond Skrede, Pooraka, S.A.)

"Why has it taken 72 years for the leadership to come to the conclusion that a 19th century statement by Karl Marx on communism is not the answer to the world's problems?" (John Powell, Yowie Bay, N.S.W.)

"Our lifestyle is overshadowed by the most incredible production and consumption of meaningless items. See if you can find a better way." (Jackson Barker, South Launceston, Tas.)

WATCH WITH A CRITICAL EYE

The following two letters also from The Weekend Australian, January 27th-28th:
"'Hello' to all of you up there in the northern winter. We who are about to fry salute you! "Though you are far away your country has caused us much anxiety in the past - it still does. We think of you as a tiger crouched across the roof of the world, powerful, secretive, unpredictable, so your present political upheaval has our wary attention. We have always thought of yours as a 'closed' society, ours as 'open', but many of our problems are similar to yours. "Take politicians. We believe that yours habitually lie to the people. Well, so do ours. They ever seek to increase their power, clinging to it as a drunkard to his bottle - so do ours. They claim to strive for paradise on earth - so do ours (here it is called 'the light on the hill' though it is mostly hill with precious little light). "They boast exclusive wisdom in every known field of human activity, constantly tell the people how good they are to them and with great ingenuity provide 'jobs for the boys', favours for the faithful - so do ours. They make countless new laws to regiment the people using armies of bureaucrats, tonnes of paper - so do ours. "Politicians everywhere seem prone to this legislative diarrhea. They succumb to it immediately on taking office, but, alas, it is not a terminal disease. "Who is to blame? We all are. Our apathy keeps these busybodies in place. As we have the numbers we should use them to kick calloused bums off seats and put up honest men, to wrest back our responsibilities, our lives and property from those who have come to possess them. "Therefore we wish you well as you start on your search for a just society and thank you for reminding us to watch our own estate with a critical eye. (John Sanders, White Gum Valley, W.A.)

AN ILLUSION
"Australia has a practised ideology whereby the holders of exceptional power are responsible to their peers alone and not to ordinary people. That is not unusual in this world, but the difference here is that people believe they routinely have access to real power, whereas they are just fed an illusion. "In operation, the companies and governments which run Australia do just as they please when and where it matters. "No tanks have ever rumbled through our streets. Yet we are oppressed by the evasiveness of our governments and the trickery of big business, and we are betrayed by the inadequacy of our electoral system. We are unable to hold on to real freedom, we can only touch it. "After all the turmoil in your part of the world, please do not tragically form a desperate reaction by seeking our poor version of democracy and the prison of consumerism. Crisis is an opportunity for new thinking." (Michael Godfrey, Derby, Tas.)

A VOTING BLIGHT