DN

By G.
MURRAY-SMITH

aati Gordon Menzies, the

man who openly confes-

sed his admiration of Hitler
and Mussolini, and who lent
moral and material’ support
to Japanese fascism, led his Lib-
eral party to ‘victory’ in last De-
cember’s elections. He has since
governed on a minority mandate
of some 47 percent of the electo-
rate, Menzies’ platform consisted,
in the main of two pledges — @
demagogic “promise” to raise the
standards of living of the Austra-
lian people, or as he put it, to “put
value back into the pound”; and
to attack and ban the Communist
party and militant tendencies in
the trade unions.

“Menzies knows the temper of
the Australian workers. He knows
that the majority of Australian
unionists — and Australia is a
highly unionized country — have
democratically elected Commu-
nists and militants to the leader-
ship of their trade unions. Long
the bitterest enemy of the. Aus-
tralian working class, neverthe-
less he was not over-anxious to
challenge this . temper, driven
though he has been by the Am-
erican masters .who financed his
election campaign and have pro-
mised to finance his catastrophic
war policy in Australia.

But with the pitiable collapse
of his promises concerning living
standards it became necessary for
him to act — and quickly — to
divert public attention, to find
scapegoats, in every way to cover
up the greed and ruthlessness of
the capitalist groups that he
leads.

The cost of living has risen, for
the average Australian working-
class family, by 36 shilling a week
since Menzies came into office.
Official figures for September
stated that the cost-of-living in-
dex in Australia’s six capital cities
had risen by 2.5 percent in that
month alone; in the town of Ade-
laide they rose three percent.

The tendency of official figures
to obscure the real position can be
gathered from’ the index which
gave the rise for January-March,
1950 as 11 percent over 1948, En-
quiries on individual items over
this period, however, showed that
vegetables had risen 100 percent,
meat from 25 to 85 percent, and
milk, bread and groceries all by
over 20 percent.

Since 1939, the cost-of-living in-

dices have risen by 73.5 percent, ~

according to official sources, but
most economists admit that the
real figure is well over 100 per-
eent. “Australian costs and pric-
es are rising more rapidly than
those of any other English-speak-
ing country,” said the National
Bank of Australia’s Report as

ustralia plays a
ankee war game

early as February this year.

As the Australian economy
comes more and more under the
dominance of American imperial-
ism, evidences of the development
of economic crisis in the country
become clearer. The gigantic
wool-cheque presented this season
to Australia’s landed aristocracy
of wealth has aggravated this po-
sition to the serious concern even
of government members.

So much for Menzies’ “promise”
to put value back in the pound —
a promise that has made him ‘one
-of the most ridiculed men in Aus-
tralia today.

' ,

But it is not only his economic
failures that have moved Menzies
in his attack on democratic rights.
Almost the day after the last elec-

‘tions, the Melbourne Sun prophe-

sied that, if the Americans were
to give Menzies the support he
was openly counting upon, then
they were certain to demand tac.
tion against” militant trade union
leaders and others supposedly
“hampering production.”

The main reason for the action
against the Communist party is
not only that it has always stood
for increasingly better living stan-
dards for the Australian workers
but that it has led the opposition
to the joint plans of Menzies and

4

the U.S. state department to turn _

Australia into one gigantic Ame-
rican depot for war.

“Australia,” says the American
publicist C. Hartley Grattan in
the September 12 issue of the New
York Reporter, “is the only, large
and secure base available to the
United States which is at all close
to the continent of Asia.”

The introduction of the Commu-
nist party dissolution bill was only
one of a whole series of attacks

on democratic liberties. The last
two years have seen the imprison-
ment of many union leaders and
the Communist party secretary,
Lance Sharkey; they have seen
the use of the Crimes Act—a form
of “emergency” legislation which
is kept permanently on the Statute
Book — against the Waterside
Workers and other unionists; and
they have seen numerous attacks
on workers’ standards from ob-
lique directions, such as through
the machinery of the Arbitration
Court.

“In many cases,” declared J.
D. Blake, a leading Communist,
recently, “these attacks on the
rights of the workers were initia-
ted by the Labor party. In all
cases they were supported by the
Labor party, which first developed
the policy of national betrayal tq
American imperialism, which sup-
ports armed American aggression
against Korea and the use of Aus-
tralian forces against Korea.”

Recent withdrawal of the phony
Labor party “opposition” to the
Bill in the House of Representa-
tives has surprised no one. ‘ The
opposition was never directed
against the fundamental aims of
the Bill — the smashing of the
militant working class — but was
confined to points of procedure.
It was a maneuver to screen the
whole legislation for what it was
— a purely fascist war measure.

The legislation is now before
the Australian High Court despite
the fact that power to legislate on
“treason” was not among the spe-
cific powers handed to the Com-
monwealth government on its for-
mation at the beginning of this
century, 1

Although | bitterly reactionary,
the court is susceptible to the mass
pressure which opposition to the

legislation has aroused among the
people. The very granting of in-
junctions restraining the opera-
tion of the legislation, and agree-
ment of the court to hear the ap-
peal, indicates that the Australian
ruling class does not dare to act
except under legal facades. i

The legislation suppresses the
Communist party, bans its publi-
cations, removes Communist offi-
cials from trade unions, the civil
service and from any other simi-
lar posts. ,

Organisations may be outlawed,
if “regarded” as Communist or
“prejudicial to defense or the
laws.”

Individuals are found guilty by
the process of being “declared” —
and the obligation of proving in-
nocence rests solely on the ac-
cused, Since the- word “Commu-
nist” as capable of wide interpre-
tation, there is virtually no de-
fense possible against these charg-
es. 4 ,

Despite the fact that the in-
terim injunction of the High court
prohibits the putting into opera-
tion of the legislation, police in
all major Australian centers have
already raided Communist party
offices and private homes.

e
A foretaste of the medicine with

which the Australian people will.

be purged if this legislation is
finally enacted is contained in the
Menzies’ budget, announced a
few weeks ago. :

Payment for the last war and
preparations for the next are ba-
sic causes of the disastorus infla-
tion, and the present budget wor_
sens the position. The note is-
sue, used to finance war expendi-
ture, has grown from £49,400,000
($197,600,000) in 1939 to £235,300,-
000 ($941,200,000) in August this
year. Since Menzies took office
the note issue has been raised by
£4° million each month.

While Australia’s characteristic
monopolies, directly implicated in
the war program, have announced
bumper dividends (the mining and
steel monopoly Broken Hill Pro-
priety has just announced a pro-
fit of £1,336,000 and dividends of
up to 130 percent), Menzies calls
On the workers for more produc-
tion to finance the war effort.

In a pre-budget speech he stated
that inflation would be curbed by
the "destruction of Communist in-
fluence in key industries and a
Grive for increased production.”

Budget expenditure on “defense
services” was estimated at £83
million, the stockpiling of strate-
gic stores and equipment at £50
million, and expenditure on “war
and repatriation services” at £106
million. And this from a total

budget expenditure of £738,300,-

000 ($2,953,200,000). And Menzies
talk of curbing inflation by des-
troying the Communists!

Not only is the Australian eco-

nomy suffering from diversion of
urgently-needed materials to war
purposes (Australia has one of
the worst housing shortages in
the world), but the U.S. is de-
manding huge exports of lead,
zine, meat, wool and other com-
modities for its own war plans.

Granting to Australia in August
of a first instalment of $100 mil-
lion on an American loan marked
the intensification of the drive to
war in Australia. Secret clauses
in the loan specify that the dollars
are to be used to re-equip Austra-
lia’s largest monopolies in the ar-
maments sphere, particularly the
mining and steel-producing mono-
polies.

It coincided with the announce-
ment that Australians would join
the Americans in the Korean war
— and not a few commentators
made the “blood-loan” provisions
of the grant clear.

The loan is complementary to
the steady taking over of strate—
gical sectors of Australian indus-
try by dollar capital, and to the
secret agreements already made
by the Menzies government leas-
ing bases in Queensland, Northern
Australia and New Guinea to the
United States.

The Sydney Smith’s Weekly
said, on the occasion of the grant-
ing of the loan, that in putting
forward his anti-Communist legis-.
lation, “Menzies removed Ameri-
can security objections to Austra-
lia’s security weakness .. .”

The government economist, Sir
Douglas Copland, remarked that
if American investment was to
be reorientated towards countries
such as Australia, it would need
to be “towards countries posses-
sing resources which, if develop-
ed, will make ‘the economies of
those countries somewhat comple-
mentary to that of the United
States.”

e'

Australian progressives are not
dismayed by the recent turn of
events have taken in Australia.
The Australian people have shown
a tremendous will and initiative
for peace. The peace campaign
has been markedly successful, and
wide groups of the people have
shown that they fully realise that
the whole peace issue is, tied up
with the anti-Communist legis-
lation which is so intimately a
part of the world-wide war plans
of decadent capitalism.

“We will fight this legislation
with every means at our disposal,”
said Communist party president
Dixon last April, when it was in-

troduced. “The legislation and ac-

tions of the government are not
those of persons in a strong posi-
tion. They are actions of des-
perate men, aware of their isola-
tion and their crumbling pedes-
tals. In this, as in so many other
ways, they faithfully resemble
their masters.” —

had been destroyed.

mandos.’

Swayne-Thomas has alr

this scheme.

to break down union rights.

E Australian government is preparing to support a plan for

the establishment in Australia of a labour corps similar to
that which functioned in Nazi Germany after the trade unions

The scheme is being advanced under government patronage
by Col. G. Swayne-Thomas, an English ex-army officer now resi-
dent in Canberra. Swayne-Thomas proposes to bring out an event-
ual total of 20,000 ex-army men from England. They will be
formed into units in Australia, working under military super-
vision, doing military training and acting as “a, labor force
wherever directed.” The corps is termed the “migration com-

This “labour corps” is to be provided with uniforms and
weapons by the defense department, which will also provide
officers for the corps. Members of the corps who do not “respond”
to the discipline will be returned to England.
eady gained support of the National
Development Minister Casey and Army Minister Francis for

P Australian trade unions are preparing strong protests against
this American-inspired anti-labor plan, which is clearly designed

‘It is siginficant that the first batch of British recruits for
the Australian army sailed from London last month. :

SYDNEY

£5

First DP’s . . . now-a»labor corps.

g ‘labor

corps’

/

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 10, 1950 — PAGE 4 ;