I think Jack Marx perfectly summed up Rudd's Labor when he wrote:

"... despite my natural lean to the left, despite the fact I was brought up to root for Whitlam and boo Fraser - an inclination that continued with my knee-jerk admiration for Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and an equally automatic loathing of John Howard – I now find myself disliking the Rudd Labor Government like I’ve never disliked any before it. What irks me most about this is that I think I despise it not because it is witless, or arrogant like Howard’s Liberals, but because it is so clever - perhaps the first Government in our history smart enough to know how stupid Australia really is, bold enough to openly exploit that stupidity, and contemptuous enough of the intelligent minority to care not a hoot what they might think of it all."

Mark Latham was the last time, in a life, nay, generations, of Labor voting, that I voted Labor.

I handed out how-to-vote cards for Keating and Latham, but I wouldn't have wiped my backside with one of Rudd's.

Kevin Rudd is a popularist, he is like the 8yo kid who tries to be popular

Everything he does is to try to be popular
People worry about glocery cost -"let me help you" Grocery watch
People worry about petrol cost -"Let me help you" Fuel Watch
People worry about their mortgage and spending for Xmas - Let Rudd give you cash!
People worry about the environment - Let Rudd give you the ETS
People worry about their jobs - Let Rudd reduce the ETS

There is no real plan for Australia, there is no real plan to get us out of this crisis, Rudd just say the popular thing and does the popular thing. Rudd is trying to win the 8yo most popular kid at school contest, and he will romp it in at the next election.

On day 10 year down the track, Australia will figure it out, and will view him likee the Carr government of NSW .... they were popular, but they did not do anything for 10 years .... Australia will suffer

While reconciliation to me has been important for the country, and that I've also been deeply troubled by some refugee experiences, I've known for a long time that these are no longer the heart of the ALP, just the red herring to keep a lot of gullible voters on board, I say gullible because the only small-l-liberal party now in Australia is the Greens, and a hung parliament with greens holding the balance of power in the house of reps scares the hell out of our country's ruling class because they would no longer have any of their supplicants giving them their preferred policy or law outcomes on a silver platter.

We need to reverse media ownership concentration, reduce immigration, roll back Howard's welfare changes completely (grant the right of refusal without breach to any job that does not pay a liveable wage), and cease the exploitation of our youth by ending junior pay rates for all occupations except apprenticeships only (most traineeships were created to provide another avenue for cheap exploitable labor for predatory employers).

“If corporate Australia does not trust a Labor leader, as history amply demonstrates, then the media that it controls will prevent that leader from attaining office.”

I fear that Marko Beljac is right. And not just with Labor but with any candidate or party. Our system of governance does indeed seem to be this horribly corrupted, to the point that the type of leadership that this country desperately needs is just about impossible to achieve.

Vested-interest, profit-driven, continuous-growth-at-all-costs big-business forces are all-pervasive.

There have been some high points of the Labor Rudd government. The apology to the Stolen Generation - was a landmark in a healing process that we must build on, to 'bridge the gap' in indigenous health; and to ensure that the 'Australian story' is an inclusive and honest one.

In some ways, though, these issues are easier for Rudd Labor to deal with than the pleas of the ACTU for real progress im industrial relations. Reforms that threaten the interests of corporate Australia - we can be sure will be resisted vigorously...

Julia Gillard fails to see that wage austerity for Australian workers, and attacks upon the rights of organised labour. Austerity. in particular, will only fuel a 'vicious cycle' - reducing consumption, and then investor confidence, and so on and so on...

The $10 billion stimulus package was a move in the right direction - but comprised less than 1% of Austrealian GDP. Assistance for pensioners was also a positive measure - but only a temporary 'stop gap'... And in the aftermath of increases in the Cost of Living, pensioners and low income earners have 'felt the brunt'...

Most notable is the failure of Labor to provide anything for the unemployed... Threat of dire poverty,here, no doubt is meant to 'discipline' the labour market.

Rudd Labor has options - and certainly it is unthinkable that the Comservatives - with their neo-liberal and contractionary policies - could do better.

As I feel I have learned the hard way - Labor needs pressure both witin and without - for there to be any chance of it 'delivering the goods'.

Rudd's apology to indigenous Australia would never have happened - without a grassroots campaign which gathered steam over decades...

Rudd Labor today works within the confines of a 'relative centre' framed by corporate elites, corporate media - with talk of 'union bosses', 'irresponsible strike action' and the like. The jobless and the vulnerable, meanwhile, (in another form of 'wedging' are stigmatised as 'bludgers' - that the austerity they face can fuel corporate and middle class welfare.

More in next entry...

One thing former ALP figure Evan Thornley had right in'Coming to the Party'-was the idea that Labor needs a radical wing,and radical vocies - to drive debate forward-such that the Labor mainstream could be progressive-but appear 'moderate' in the 'bigger picture'...

The 'centre' is NOT absolute...Although as constructed by parties adopting the language of the 'Third Way'-formerly social democratic parties capitulated in the face of neo-liberalism...

But a TRULY 'radical centre' is another matter...I have thought about this as part of my rethinking of 'Third Way' politics...

Giddens abandoned much that is essential for social democracy...But a 'counter hegemonic historic bloc' - AND/OR an "Electoral Bloc'-needs to carry amd CONSTRUCT the 'RELATIVE Centre' to win government...

And so the struggle is more gradual...progress glacial...fought through popular culture...The broader cultural struggle marks the ground upon which the parliamentarists can fight...

Of course, even here, there is a need for truly radical forces-and for more militant outbreaks of class struggle... (take the example of France...)But assuming we accept liberal democracy-as well as social democracy AND class struggle...the key is to truly mobilise citizens - through unions, environmental groups, welfare organisations;to form a cultural bloc which an identity and a perspective - that can rival corporate power - and the 'culture industry'...

At least the ACTU is not currently allowing itself to be cowed into silence-as it was to a great extent during the election campaign...

Organised labour is still the potential hub of any bloc which could stand to challenge for a new kind of society...of popular and worker's power;an inclusive and particpatory public sphere-as well as liberal and social rights...

Parliamentary politics, by this reckoning, are still crucial....And the State itself is not some crude 'instrument' wielded by the 'ruling class' to supress dissent...It is itself marked by the logic-and the dynamic-of class struggle...

One issue of immediate importance is the issue of the National Broadband Network...see my article from OLO Jan 13th...