Posted by John, December 8th, 2009 - under Reaction, The Liberals, Tony Abbott.



Montgomery Burns didn’t get called into Tony Abbott’s shadow cabinet, but just about every other undead Liberal did.

Bronwyn Bishop, preserved in a petrol bath, has been resurrected to look after old people. She did such a great job last time, didn’t she?

Kevin Andrews, the man who overdosed on Workchoices rhetoric and spewed out its putrid essence, will now look after families. Yeah, just like he did with his anti-families Workchoices.

And Philip Ruddock of anti-refugee fame? Well, he does look like Mr Burns. Actually, he looks more like one of the undead.

Zombie capitalism lives.

I am disappointed there wasn’t room for Wilson Tucky. Give it time, Wilson, give it time.

A more serious analysis might conclude that Abbott is fighting some of the battles of the past, battles like Workchoices and refugees, with the people of the past.

The appointment of Scott Morrison as the shadow Immigration Minister is a case in point. Morrison is a Turnbull supporter.

Abbott is toughening up immigration, which was already a racist festival under moderate Liberal Sharman Stone.

It will be much worse under Morrison. Bear with me on this. On his website he says:

My Christian faith remains the driving force for my family, beliefs and values.

Previous Immigration Ministers like Andrews and Ruddock all proclaimed their Christianity as they attacked and vilified asylum seekers and refugees and then locked them up. Christianity and the Immigration portfolio have been a deadly combination, for refugees.

This may come as a shock to some readers but Ruddock is not, in Liberal Party terms, a member of the hard right. The so-called NSW Taliban actually began a challenge to Ruddock’s pre-selection recently but ended it a few weeks ago.

Eric Abetz will lead the charge against ‘union power’. This is code for attacking wages, conditions and jobs.

Abolishing unfair dismissal laws, further strengthening the Australian Building and Construction Commission, individual contracts – in reality the essence of Workchoices heavy – will be the Opposition’s industrial relations agenda. Vote Liberal vote Workchoices.

The shadow cabinet is a reward for the time servers and climate change deniers who supported Abbott in his lucky win over Turnbull. The young fogey (thanks PJK) has promoted old fogeys.

The leader of the Opposition is a hater. He has rewarded his supporters and dumped some members of the Turnbull faction.

The talent is so thin in the Liberal Party he had to keep some of the geniuses from the Turnbull faction, those whose ‘principles’ meant they could quickly adapt to the new ancien regime.

These unprincipled moderate Conservatives are also ‘useful idiots’ for the forces of reaction.

But there is something deeper in all of this. Abbott’s shadow cabinet is actually a victory of reaction over conservatism, at least for the moment.

Reaction rejects any change and wants to protect the past in the present as the way for the future.

Hence the resurrection of workchoices (slightly fine-tuned), the rejection of human induced climate change and the likely forthcoming even more strident anti-refugee racism.

The constant battle between the past and the future that is capitalism resonates in the lived experiences of the middle class and bourgeoisie. It reinforces in them the value of defending the past.

But in a dynamic system of constant change like capitalism reaction can only be a sleight of hand for something else.

Under the guise of defending and reinforcing the past, the ideologues of reaction are in fact attempting to impose a golden remembered era of expanding profits onto the memory of today.

They can only do this by having as their main but disguised strategy the smashing of the power of the trade unions and other organs of working class defence.

But the times are not right for Abbott. The Australian economy is expanding. The global economy has stabilised (if slowing rates of decline are stabilisation).

This means Labor’s ongoing and subtle reduction of workers’ societal wealth can be implemented.

The crisis of profitability doesn’t yet mean the bourgeoisie see the need for outright attacks on workers and their defensive organisations.

When or if it does Tony Abbott will arise from the political grave with the other zombies of reaction.

Then their change will return to haunt us, trying to force us back to a past of Workchoices writ large and compulsory white picket fences.