A poster I once saw...

Politics, propaganda and posters have a long history of being bedfellows. See here for a Soviet example. Other countries have their own examples - maybe somebody out there has some old Australian wartime posters.
In any case, fellow blogger Toaf posted about anti-Beijing posters, of the sort that may be useful for a protest. This is one that I snapped on my travels a couple of years ago:

The Failed Doctrine

It is customary for leftist solutions to concrete problems to be dismissed as little more than the dew-eyed ramblings of cloistered academics. In particular, unions are dismissed as 'irrelevant', the by-product of a long-dead industrial reality, and socialism is dismissed as self-evidently absurd. Faith in the 'market' as an all-purpose 'solution' is one of the few dogmas that brings a whole range of anti-leftists together.



With this in mind, I was struck by two recent articles illustrating the costs of the supposedly 'free' market.



China is in the process of 'freeing' up its markets for the exploitative labour of migrant workers. We have seen recent reports of slave labour literally occurring at the hands of indifferent, budding capitalists. In addition, last week a strike-busting squad, armed with shovels and other weapons, lead a vicious attack on workers. The workers were protesting the fact that they had not been paid in four months.



One of the victims of the assault is currently brain-dead, but is being kept artificially alive, lest his assailants face murder charges:




Of course, the employers had their reasons for withholding workers' wages:

Mr Xiang says most of the six seriously injured were, like him, singled out
by the Fuyuan thugs because they were team leaders. His dead colleague, Mr Lei,
was a safety monitor for Qiutian Construction, the subcontractor that brought in
the workers.
Qiutian says it has been unable to pay workers because Fuyuan
has refused to compensate it for losses suffered last summer when the site
flooded. Qiutian says that legally the developer is responsible for losses
caused by acts of nature.

This is, apparently, 'capitalism with Chinese characteristics'. Such things were not uncommon in Western capitalist countries not so long ago. Today, union-busting in Australia takes place via legislation, and is held by the Government to be in everybody's best interests, other than self-serving 'union bosses'.

Courtesy of our American friends at Crooks and Liars, I noticed this article (also being featured at Larvatus Prodeo). In contrast to the allegedly destructive Bolivarian socialism of Venezuela, free-market utopia Colombia has made the news once again for its treatment of union members:

The bus had just left Drummond Co. Inc.'s coal mine carrying about 50
workers when gunmen halted it and forced two union leaders off. They shot one on
the spot, pumping four bullets into his head, and dragged the other one off to
be tortured and killed.
In a civil trial set to begin Monday before a
federal jury in Birmingham, Ala., union lawyers have presented affidavits from
two people who allege that Drummond ordered those killings, a charge the company
denies.
Multinationals operating in Colombia have admitted paying right-wing
militias known as paramilitaries to protect their operations. But human rights
activists claim the companies went further, using the fighters to violently keep
their labor costs down.

Colombia is being treated as a mere colony for US Corporations, as are some of its northern neighbours. Yet pointing out the fact that corporations do not always act in humanity's best interests is virtually anathema in the mainstream press, and likely to result in accusations of 'anti-Americanism', or, still better, 'socialism'.

The existence of Stalin and Mao appears to be enough for some to dismiss any leftist doctrine - critics simply cite a figure of those killed under the relevant dictators, and consider the matter finished. When will the same critics turn their attention to the failed doctrine of capitalism, starving millions for the profits of a few, and crushing the resistance of those who stand in the way?

It is not that capitalism is inherently 'evil', (even if moralising had anything to do with it). The raison d'etre of capitalism is simply to generate capital. The inevitable by-product of this generation is that more or less people will be exploited, starved, and, in the cases we see above, killed.

But at least our plasma screens are relatively cheap.

Turning a blind eye

More nonsense in today's Australian, where political editor Dennis Shanahan has written an article lambasting Kevin Rudd for his perceived 'closeness' to China. Shanahan begins by praising Rudd for his ability to speak Mandarin, and for his foreign policy credentials. He waxes lyrical about Rudd's forthcoming visit to China having a 'Whitlamesque frisson' to it. Then the article takes a bizarre turn:

Yet for all of these positives there is a real policy and political problem for Rudd in being able to order duck pancakes and fried flounder at Portia's Chinese restaurant in Canberra, where he indulges in his linguistic and culinary pastimes.

Simply put, Rudd is seen as being too close to China for Australia's comfort.



By whom is Rudd seen as being 'too close' to China? And for what? Is it because at Chinese eateries, he 'indulges in his linguistic and culinary pastimes', as Shanahan puts it, with the sneering anti-intellectualism that one exepcts from The Australian? Is it because, as Shanahan (rather ludicrously) supposes, that 'Rudd may have batted from the "Long live Leninism, Stalinism and Mao Zedong" end of the Beijing cricket ground against the Poms'?

So why should we be concerned if Rudd is 'too close' to China? Is Shanahan trying to remind readers that, irrespective of China's economic growth, and development into a world 'superpower', the world still has not forgotten the events of the not-so-distant past? Is it to remind us that China's economic strength is, at least in part, predicated upon significant levels of exploitation, or that Australia is in an awkward position in relation to asylum seekers, whom the regime allegedly persecutes?

Shanahan never bothers to give the reader a clear answer, preferring instead, in his waffling sort of way, to suggest that Japan might (and this 'might' is important) be critical or Rudd for 'obscurely supporting Beijing in academic speeches'.

That's it folks - it's a bad idea for an Australian politician to learn Chinese, visit China, or been seen as 'too close' to the dictatorial regime, not because of its clear record of (recent) human rights abuses, but because it might offend the Japanese.

Again, it goes without saying that, whilst both the Coalition and ALP leaders are uncritically pro-American, this position is beyond scrutiny. Even if human rights in the US are looking increasingly shonky, (even to the Chinese, ironically), Shanahan's boss thinks it essential that an American-Australian alliance continues without question. The opinions of Australia's neighbours, or even Australians themselves, apparently do not matter. When it comes to criticism, the US is off-limits; not so China. Of course, Shanahan's selective silence on these matters says far more than his vacuous criticisms of Rudd.

Incidentally, on the topic of our neighbours' perceptions of Australia, the support shown to embattled and allegedly racist fuckwit Alan Jones by our leaders will do nothing to enhance Australia's image, especially when some neighbours already associate Australia with 'white supremacy'.