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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-13 Daily Xml
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WORLD ECONOMY

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:35): Today is a little more than 191 years after the birth of Karl Marx on 5 May 1818. I speak today about him, knowing that his name and ideas are still alive and well and being spoken of with reverence and relevance. An article in the South Australian branch of the Australian Peace Committee's newsletter, reprinting an article from The Independent in the United Kingdom on 4 March this year by Mark Steel, states:

Marx…is in vogue. Most papers have had articles about him in their business sections, commending his analysis of booms and slumps, and he was on the front page of The Times.

My friends, old lefties who recently celebrated Pete Seeger's 90th birthday, Jim Doyle and Deirdre Tedmanson amongst them, and even in this house my colleague the member for Ashford last month spoke of the importance of being students of history and studying world political economy in order to begin to comprehend and be better able to come to grips with what is happening across the world today. I could not agree more; so, too, those who celebrated May Day at a recent successful dinner here in Adelaide.

I wonder what Marx would make of the current world recession and global financial crisis. I wonder what he would make of the obscene spectacle of corporate CEOs of multinational giants, with their dollar turnover matching the economies of whole western nations, voting themselves massive salary packages of millions of dollars as they preside over one of the worst financial crises the world has ever seen and the loss of jobs of thousands, indeed millions, of dedicated and honest workers around the world, not only in the USA and Europe but also right here in our own backyard as workers leave the car factories in much the same way as we saw workers forced from factories producing textiles, clothing and footwear.

How can we as parliamentarians—representatives of the people of this state—best play our role in the world order that is seeing the re-emergence of slave labour across the globe, where an estimated 20 million men, women and children are working in slave-like conditions? Reports in the UK in March this year revealed that children are working as slaves in the drug trade; yet those who rely on the net for their news hardly look up from their laptops to raise an eyebrow in shock at all this.

How can we begin to understand what we must do to change direction and renew our understanding of the alienation, exploitation and oppression that Marx prophesised so correctly—now so long ago? How do we come to grips with a world where private armies are engaged in the violent destruction of indigenous communities in Africa to support the appetite for oil and other extractable resources? How can we justify the inequality between first and third world nations and at home between Australians, where some profit and are advantaged on the back of the labour or oppression and disadvantage of others? Again, I quote from Mark Steel, as follows:

Sales of Marx's Capital are at an all-time high, and this can't just be due to the current rage against characters such as Fred Goodwin and his merry bonus.

He is obviously someone in the UK press. He continues:

It must also be because Marx fathomed that, under capitalism, boom and slump would remain a perpetual cycle…

Marx provided us with an analysis of what runaway capitalism would do. Other political economists in the tradition of Gramsci and, more recently, Hardy, Negri and Castell have predicted what a mess the world will be in if we do not contain and better govern the financial markets and the growth and, in some cases, greed of corporate capital.

As we analyse the Australian budget today, we must place that in the context of the challenges our governments now face in order to maintain our civil society and standards of living as we navigate the problems brought to us not by everyday citizens and working families but by an out-of-control philosophy.

Capitalism has now imploded on itself and, in so doing, has brought whole nation states to their knees. While those opposite may bleat about deficits and budget shortfalls, they need to keep their eye on the real culprits in this story, the greedy CEOs and corporate profiteers who have stalked the world markets like giant dinosaurs, consuming to the point of their own destruction—an example, if we ever needed it, of the importance of sustainability.

Our challenge, as Prime Minister Rudd has said, is to be part of a global action to tackle this global crisis. He has signalled Australia's willingness to be courageous and stimulate the economy in ways that keep our community cushioned from the worst excesses of out-of-control neo-liberalism. As Marx and others foretold, the economy is embedded in society, not the other way round. Our future is in our hands. As a society, we create the economy. We are not subservient to it, nor creatures and victims of it.

It is our duty today to re-read and learn from history and revisit our values as Labor Social Democrats. It is our responsibility to stand up for the workers of this state, this nation and across the world, and for all those socially excluded—the unpaid and underpaid, the under employed, and the carers, families and marginalised people. The market and economy belong to us as citizens and it is public policy and public action, and responsible pro-active governments and strong governance that will re-regulate and control the financial world. It is our duty to no longer just go along for the ride but to re-establish values of decency, ethics and social responsibility.

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