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Militant supports a republican form of government for Australia and no matter how the Howard government tries to delay it, a republic is inevitable. Anything that replaces the residue of feudalism as we approach the 21st century has to be supported by socialists. It is a sign of the cowardice of the local ruling class that they have hung on so long to the discredited British monarchy.
The move towards a republic is a popular move among workers, students and youth. But will it really usher in a new millennium? As one writer put it, do we want just a republic, or a just republic?
The right-wing dominated republican movement will ensure that one thing stays the same: no matter how a president is elected or appointed, s/he will have the same reserve powers that the Governor-General currently enjoys; the power to sack a democratically-elected government.
Throughout Australian history, political freedoms have only been won through struggle and forced on a reluctant ruling class. Only after the Eureka Stockade in the 1850s were voting rights introduced, first for men, and later for women.
The elite use their media, economic power, and ultimately their state machine (police, armed forces, judiciary etc) to keep elected governments under capitalism within certain constraints. The reserve rights of the Governor-General allow for a constitutional coup as seen in 1975 when the Whitlam government was sacked by Sir John Kerr.
Section 57 of the Constitution states:
If the House of Representatives passes any proposed law, and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House of Representatives will not agree, and if after an interval of three months the House of Representatives, in the same or the next session, again passes the proposed law with or without any amendments which have been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House of Representatives will not agree, the Governor-General may dissolve the Senate and the House of Representatives simultaneously...
Section 59 allows the Queen herself control over the democratic process in Australia.
That's why Militant believes full democracy can only be achieved when, side-by-side with bringing the key levers of the economy into public ownership, judges are elected, police and armed forces put under community control, and all unelected permanent positions and bodies in the public sector are replaced by democratic structures.
So why is the ruling class not just keeping with what has served it so well in the past? Why are silvertail Liberals such as the merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull so avidly pro-republican?
The answer is that John Howard's pro-British, pro-monarchy views are increasingly out of step with the economic and political direction of Australia. From a time when half of Australian exports went to the 'mother country', now the East Asian economies are our main trading partners. The constitutional ties of Australia to Britain are used by competing Asian countries like Malaysia to keep Australia out of key trading and political blocs vital for future profits.
The other historic role of the monarchy; its use as a fig leaf for class rule, to create loyalty among ordinary people for the status quo, is almost defunct now due to scandal after scandal. Only sixteen years ago in 1981 support for the monarchy was at its peak after the 'fairytale' Charles-Diana wedding.
But the whole business has been exposed as a hypocritical sham and the royal family as an unsavoury crew on the make. Far from being a role model for those they presume to lecture on morality, they have shocked their traditional supporters with their antics. Diana admits to adultery - still technically punishable by beheading in a royal spouse - and cavorts with playboys on Mediterranean yachts. Charles, on his part, tells his lover he wants to be her tampon and daily grows more eccentric, talking to plants and mumbling pseudo-scientific gobbledegook. His father is exposed as a fascist sympathiser (and his Uncle Ted as a Nazi collaborator and all-round greedy bastard). The Queen Mother is senile, and a whole number of lesser figures from Fergie downwards sell their stories to the mass media and shatter the mystique and secrecy of the monarchy. Even the Queen is exposed as a 'Hovis' monarch, as boring as the sliced bread that she consumes with the corgis. Not only in Australia, but more and more in Britain, the monarchy is losing support especially amongst the youth.
Probably around the year 2000, Australia will come into line with the USA, Germany and France and a republic will be proclaimed. Working class people will be told that this is a great step forward for democracy, just at a time when fewer and fewer people control the media, industry and banking, and parliament is an increasing irrelevance. The struggle for democratic rights is therefore telescoped together with the struggle for socialism.