The politics of fear, terror and security

The Politics of Security

Long before the Tampa lurched onto our political stage, politicians of all colours knew security was the hot issue in the electorate.

As a junior media officer with the Carr Government circa 1996 I remember it being drummed into me: "safety and security" - we had to put the words in every media release; industrial relations, transport, health and, of course, that hoary old chestnut law and order got the treatment.

They've been doing it up at Macquarie Street ever since: make people feel scared, then get them to thank you for getting tough on the things you fear.

This week, the police signalled they'd had enough of this politicising of law and order. I suspect most of the public has too; after all the fear has moved onto a much broader international stage.

It is insecurity that drives anti-globalisation and the Fair Trade movement, as well as the reactionary Hansonism that John Howard has absorbed into his own political doctrine.

And then security became terror as September 11 and October 12 shook us out of our insular complacency into an insular paranoia.

All of which is why John Howard is still in The Lodge and the Federal ALP is in disarray - a party seduced by the opinion polls and easy grab is now caught in a wedge between its conscience and the flaws in its modern modus operandi.

Labor is stuck in a phoney discourse that requires a 'tough government' digging in and defending us from our perceived and real vulnerability to the dangerous hordes; to the Other.

Labor will never win on this turf. As the Party of Change it needs to shift the debate to the broader stage about values. Values not fear.

The debate surrounding asylum seekers is a threshold because it reflects the broader dilemma facing the ALP.

Labor's values challenge it to take a position that will actually make it harder to win short-term political backing. But it is this long-termism and its necessary pain that Labor must conquer before it will win office federally again.

A dialogue based on Labor values of fairness, equity and, yes, compassion. As a movement we need more federal MPs like Carmen Lawrence, prepared to put values above expediency to give us a Party worth fighting for.

The challenge for the union movement is to support Lawrence and others, from all factions, who are prepared to stand up for true Labor values. Because only when they are prepared do this, will they also be prepared to promote a union agenda.

As one ALP Insider observed this week: "when Australians want a piss-weak, do-nothing, middle-of-the-road government, we're a shoe in".

They don't, they won't and they never will. Until the Federal ALP accepts it has to stand on its principles, even in the face of opinion polls and right-wing ranters, it deserves to languish in Opposition.

Terror Australis

When the historians get down to chronicling 2002 their analysis will read simply: the Bali bombing brought the new era of terror home to Australians and heightened our feelings of insecurity and fear at our ill-defined place in the world.

The new climate of uncertainty has emerged by both necessity and design. We are rightly careful of terrorist attacks on our citizens; less justifiably our politicians are manoeuvring to maximise their political position, acutely aware of the benefits an incumbent faces in times of crisis.

Within this climate it has been easy to focus on the obvious symbols of terror: Muslim extremists, Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, hordes of refugees banging down our doors. We sit cowed in a corner, braced for war, too scared to think beyond the next attack

This white noise has drowned out the other trend in 2003: the continuing mutations of global capital as it spirals out of control, powered by the one remaining world power that regards it as an end in itself.

The mega-corporate collapses in the US of Enron and World-com were to corporate fraud what the S11 attacks were to geo-politics. HIH is our corporate Bali; individuals playing outside all the rules of humanity causing pain and distress to thousands.

Corporations larger than nations providing wealth beyond the dreams of ordinary workers, with CEO's on options packages which actually reward them for the short-term stock price, rather than the long-term health of the enterprise.

Global capital is now acting as recklessly and destructively as the extremists whose violence has shattered our sense of security.

And if the US Hawks get their war on Iraq the dynamics of global capital and geo-politics will have finally converged on a battleground on which few can confidently predict the ultimate outcome.

There is little to celebrate from this new global dynamic and much to fear; yet the bitter irony is that the times are right for trade unions.

Against this uncertainty people are looking for security, and while institutions like unions may have been out of fashion in the decade of Hedonism, they now have the history and values to draw people back.

The union creed of working together, not against each other; embracing not fearing difference; and standing up to the power of the corporate are the sort of values that do give hope and meaning to people struggling to make sense of the madness in the world.

It is a story that does not just address the excesses of capital, but also the small-mindedness of Terror.

The challenge for 2003 of course, is to tell this story and give every worker the chance to control their life; take a stand, be a hero.