The Federal government-despite the continued economic upturn-is in crisis. Opinion polls have them roughly 5% behind Labor. All States bar two are Labor-run, and in SA and WA the Labor Opposition is ahead in the polls. There is a clear reaction developing to economic rationalism and not just in Australia. Traditional social democratic parties are now in power in New Zealand, Germany, Britain and elsewhere. Austria is as exception for special reasons. These ex-workers' parties also support economic rationalism, but the perception amongst workers is that they will bring relief after years of cuts.

However the threat to fine workers by the Bracks government shattered any illusions that this was a workers' government. The Labor Party remains slaves to economic rationalism, as much as the Coalition. Howard's rural tour was a disaster, hounded by demonstrations. His defensive and uneven reaction to bailing out workers in bankrupt firms shows the pressures he's under.

The boom has enabled some sections of workers to repair the wounds of the past and confidently fight attacks and even go on the offensive (Ansett, Victorian construction and manufacturing workers, Yallorn). Other sections of the population are being left behind in this uneven boom. In fact the boom partially rests on greater job insecurity, contract labour, worse working conditions, and lower taxes for business which depend on continued cuts to government spending.

Capitalism offers no future for workers and youth even when in upturn.

Over recent months the arrival of mainly Middle Eastern refugees in boats along the Western Australian coastline has triggered a huge scare campaign orchestrated by the government and the media who warn of a "migrant invasion". Federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock claimed that the refugee crisis is a "national emergency", whilst both the Labor and Liberal parties attempt to outdo each other announcing further coastline defence programmes and tighter immigration laws. During periods of high unemployment the refugee crisis is seen as a winner by politicians for it plays on the popular myths that Australia cannot sustain a larger population and refugees simply take the jobs of local workers. However these scape-goating lies are filled with contradictions, one minute refugees are wealthy queue jumpers, the next minute desperate strike breakers. In truth, Australia only received 2,867 boat people over the last three years. Hardly a number which could constitute a "national emergency". It's true these figures are on the rise, but this is the result of a further tightening of immigration laws, which are amongst the most stringent in the world.

After their perilous journey to Australia, refugees arrive weak, starving, and often in need of medical attention. Instead they are taken to detention centres along the western coastline where temperatures reaching the mid-40s are common, however no air-conditioning is provided. Asylum seekers are denied access to information on their legal rights, the mandatory detention law itself is so extreme that it is at serious risk of contravening UN covenants protecting children's rights. It has taken hunger strikes in which the refugees at the Curtin Air Base sowed their lips together for the media to report the horrific conditions at these camps. However, at the same time as boat people are locked up on arrival, every year some 10,000 US and UK citizens overstay their visas. Further highlighting the hypocrisy of our immigration laws is the case of the ex-nazi Konrad Kalejs. As poverty stricken boat people are incacerated, Amanda Vanstone said Kalejs was "very welcome". Overall, Australia offers just 4,000 refugee slots each year, only 0.02% of the population. In an era when one in fifty of the world's citizens live outside the countries of their birth Australia's intake is minute. In comparison, Germany has taken 500,000 refugees since the breakup of Eastern Europe in 1989. Yet Germany has one of the strongest economies in the world together with a 36-hour week! These facts destroy the arguments that refugees are bad for the economy and bring down working conditions. Another issue is the wasted talent of migrants as they sit incarcerated. The next time you sit waiting for hours at a hospital outpatients department, think of all the illegal and even the legal migrant doctors barred from plying their trade in Australia.

Often it is claimed that boat people are queue jumpers’ who have the money to pay for an expensive trip to our shores. A study of Middle Eastern refugees arriving in Australia shows that this is far from the truth. The majority are fleeing from refugee camps in Iran which itself is overflowing due to its intake from Iraq. In Iraq unemployment sits at 95% and since the Gulf War US trade embargoes have killed two million people. However such racist opinions suit the Australian Government. Their complicity in the Gulf War is directly responsible for the poverty of the boat people and their acceptance into Australia would be seen as an admission of guilt. The government remains silent as America continues to bomb.

The most dangerous argument put forward by Government and business is that refugees will bring down our living standards, taking low paid jobs and undermining working conditions. This scape-goating tactic simply shift the blame away from the real enemy of workers. It is businesses that continue to sack thousands of workers every year; it was the Government who gave businesses the laws to do it, along with slashing health, education, and welfare budgets.

Instead of isolating refugees we should embrace them. This cycle will only be broken by fighting for migrants' rights in workplaces, increasing funding for their education (especially English as a Second Language) and breaking down racist views which force them to live in poverty. Migrants, given an equal chance in our society, will create new jobs as they did in the 1950s. Every new person creates new demand for housing, food, transport etc-and new demand leads to work for someone else. It's cheaper for the government to put a refugee on the dole than place them in a detention centre. This fact alone shows the racist, scape-goating agenda behind the lies of the government and media.

Business leaders constantly boast about a borderless society of capital. Because of this it is more necessary than ever to fight for the living standards of working people everywhere, a struggle in which racism is a major barrier. Instead of attacking migrants we must assist them here and also assist the development of unions in Asia to boost wages and conditions and thereby undermine the attempts of the bosses to use Asian cheap labour against union-organised workers here. We must match global capital with a global prejudice-free working class, which struggles together. Embracing refugees is an immediate step we can take because, at the end of the day, every organised worker is one less slave at the mercy of the business class.

I have always been amazed and confused about our current political system. As a young person growing up I asked my father questions along the lines of "why he was put off work?" or something regarding my education "why doesn't the government do something about this or that?" I would often hear, "Well darling, that's our government and there isn't a lot we can do to change it" The answers I received were never satisfactory to me, I often felt angry, helpless and powerless over these matters. I began looking forward to the age of 18, not just so I could drink legally or get my drivers licence but I was excited about voting, to have my say politically speaking. My friends at the time were not so enthusiastic about voting, I couldn't understand why.

My mother and Grandmother taught me a little about the struggles our foremothers fought for-the right to vote. It was something they believed in enough to put their marriages, freedom, and their lives on the line for. All sorts of punishments and tribulation these woman went through for a human right men at the time took for granted. The right to vote was an issue they believed was too important to ignore.

So for myself I feel privileged about my right to vote, have my say. By becoming a member of the Socialist Party, I know I can go a few steps further in my belief that change to our current system will be made. Change in this country is long overdue while the majority of our country are content to sit back and just bitch about things but not stand and be counted, I am proud to be a part of the Socialist Party and change will happen. I am over the moon to be part of a better Australia for every Australian. Perhaps now I can answer some of my own questions. Robynne Irvine, Essendon, Melbourne.

Toni Bloodworth has written a short but valuable and accessible publication called Dealing with the Drug Problem, first published by the Militant Socialist Organisation and now distributed by the Socialist Party. The first print run sold out and we've now published an extra 2,000 copies. Bloodworth gives us an earnest view of the many issues raised around the drug problem with a close look at illicit drugs in contrast to legal drugs.In so doing she points to the hypocritical stance taken in blindly following the USA's `Zero Tolerance' approach, saying the problem is complex and calls for a more coordinated and varied response than just a quick fix. Bloodworth continues to appeal to open-minded members of the community that are interested in different and non-linear solutions to an ever vexing drug concern where the present outcome is misery for all, exploitation of the addicted, and death to those who are ignorant in how they `use'.

By examining the history of drug use in society, sharing a number of interesting statistics from countries like America, Holland, and some of the poorer nations, she provides an alternative view. Australia could come to terms and support people in their every day lives by empowering the drug afflicted to work with the community to increase the quality of their own lives. Bloodworth argues "what before seemed [an] insurmountable" problem, can now be overcome. What is needed is an effort on our part to challenge apathy, educate ourselves, combine and collectively use our solidarity to influence the decision and policy makers to give the youth in our community more to look forward to than their daily fix.

On a personal level, I've seen the heroin problem on the streets of Melbourne close up, and what seems to be missing is a fair go. The user, for various reasons, chooses to use drugs. What is needed are facilities that gives the users the choice to modify their intake, or in fact not to use at all.

The publication, Dealing with the Drug Problem, deserves your attention. Reviewed by Larry Lawson. Available for $2 from the Socialist Party, PO Box 1015, Collingwood 3066

Two friends of the Socialist Party died in tragic circumstances last month. Duncan Cranfield was active in the Richmond Secondary College dispute in 1993-94 and for many years afterwards housed Militant members in Melbourne and gave other support to the party. Duncan was no angel and he subscribed to the belief of Marx that "nothing human is alien to me". Yet his cutting sense of humour and the broad range of his life experience meant he often touched those who met him, even for a moment, forever. Sean Murfitt was a regular on MSO stalls in Melbourne in late 1999. His personal battle with heroin and the loss of his only brother to the drug months earlier, made him a passionate advocate for heroin reform and socialism. A relapse led to a tragic accidental death and we offer deepest sympathy to his father. No-one could know what he has been through in the past 12 months.

The official launch of the People for Human Rights and Racial Equality (PHRRE), an organisation formed by Sri Lankan expatriates living in Melbourne was held on 15th of January.

It was different from many other Sri Lankan community functions because it brought both Tamil and Sinhala communities together, many of whom are living in Melbourne together after 17 years since beginning of the war in 1983.

Channa Wickremesekera, the President of the PHRRE, pointed out that the Tamil people have the right to self-determination and this "ethnic problem" can only be solved by negotiations and not by war. PHRRE recently issued a statement regarding recent political developments in Sri Lanka condemning all kinds of violence including bombing at political rallies and murder of the leader of All Ceylon Tamil Congress Mr Kumar Ponnambalam. Stephen Jolly from the Socialist Party, the ALP's Jude Perera, Pat Walsh from the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and Souralis from the East Timor Human Rights Organisation also spoke at the launch. Jolly welcomed the formation of PHREE and called on Sri Lankans to come forward and join with the Australian working class movement to get its support to end the war in Sri Lanka.

PHRRE has a weekly radio programe on 3CR community radio every Thursday from 9.30pm to 10.30pm dedicated to promoting peace and educating the Sri Lankan community about the destructiveness of war.

Sonja Grusch is the National Secretary of the Socialist Left Party, the Austrian section of the Committee for a Workers International and is a leader of the protests against Haider. Sonja spoke to Voice on February 23rd. Why, when the rest of the West is moving away from the Right in elections, has such a government won power in Austria? The main reason is the search for an alternative to the Social Democratic Party (SD-similar to the ALP in Australia). The SD was in power since 1970. It stood in the 80's for a policy of privatisation and in the 90's for social cuts, deregulation and for racist anti-immigration laws. This policy was implemented by the SD party, and the unions held the workers quiet. Workers became more and more frustrated but saw no way to resist. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) could present itself as an opposition to the "old system".

An important factor is the weakness of the left in Austria that enabled the FPÖ to fill the vacuum. At the last elections about 300,000 of the non-voters said they did not vote because there is no party they can vote for. This shows the potential for a new workers' party in Austria.

Is Haider = Hitler as some on the Left say? To say this is not only wrong, it is dangerous, because it leads the movement in the wrong direction. Far Right populism is not the same as fascism. Both are dangerous but you have to be clear what your enemy is to choose the right weapons against him. It is true that Haider is coming from a fascist family background, and it is also true that there are fascists in the FPÖ. But these are not the main and dominant political elements of this party. Its main element is populism, its main political programme is neo-liberal policy combined with racism to split the working class. It is not excluded that the FPÖ could develop into a fascist party in the future or that there will be fascist splits from it, but at this moment in time this is not its main element.

What's been the attitude of workers to the demonstrations, as they seem youth-dominated so far? The demonstrations are very mixed. You maybe saw mainly youth on the television, because they are in the front of the demo but there are also older people there. When we walk through working class areas with the demos, people stand at their windows, wave to us, hold red flags, t-shirts, sheets etc out of their window. I was on a lot of demos in my life, but I never saw such broad support from ordinary people. On the big demonstration on the 19th of February with 300,000 participating also the unions called for it. The union bureaucracy is under strong pressure from below-the people want to do something.

What are the leaders of the demonstrations calling for and what is your party calling for? The daily demonstrations are not organised, so there is no "leadership". Nevertheless a number of left and union organisations, including ourselves, organised the "Action Committee against blue-black". Its main task is to organise the demos better, not only to go round somewhere, but to go into working class areas. We also organised on February 12th which is the anniversary day of the Austrian workers fighting against fascism in 1934 a big demo with over 20,000 participants. The big demonstration on February 19th was organised by the "Democratic Offensive" a platform of different artists, politicians, humanists etc who organised also the big demo on the 12th of November and which is mainly arguing along moral lines. They have no real plan how to go further after the 19th. They can not call for a strike, because this is not a left organisation. They criticise the racism of the new government, but not the social cuts.

How is our new party intervening in this movement? Our party, the Socialist Left Party (SLP), has a long tradition of fighting against the FPÖ. We started immediately after the elections last October together with the YRE and the SAP (School students Action Platform) a campaign for a school-student strike against the participation of the FPÖ in the government. This led to the Vienna-wide school student strike on February 18th with over 10,000 participants from over 50 schools in Vienna. A political strike that showed that the "Generation X" is active and political.

We also were part of the daily demonstrations from the beginning. It was mainly our initiative to go to working class areas. We produced four issues of a special A3 double sided edition of the paper of which we sold 3,500 and we produced for the 18th and 19th a special edition of the paper (A2 double sided) of which we sold 3,000. We call for strike actions and put the demand forward for a day of action with strikes on the 8th of March. We call for the unions to get active and organise strikes but also to form anti-blue-black committtees from below.

A main demand is that of forming a new workers' party and that of a socialist society. We have to see that every government that is working on the basis of capitalism will be a government of social cuts and also of racism as a weapon to split the working class.

The victory for a coalition of the New Zealand Labour Party and left-wing Alliance parties in the recent general election raises important issues for socialists. New Labour was created in 1990 when 5,000 Auckland workers led by union leader Matt MacCarten and Labour MP Jim Anderton split from Labour in disgust at its neo-liberal policies while in power for most of the 1980s. Once dubbed a 'workers paradise', Labour government ministers won a series of awards from the international business press for their neo-liberal agenda. New Zealand went from having probably the best social security safety net in the West to the worst during the lifespan of that Labour government.

At the time of the New Labour split, socialists internationally looked with great interest at this development, hoping to see a similar process elsewhere and not ruling out the possibility of the creation of a new mass workers party on a left programme in New Zealand. In the next few years similar splits occurred in Italy, Japan and in other western countries. However developments took a negative turn. In the wake of the collapse of the Stalinist block and the strong recovery from the recession of the early 1990s, there was a strong ideological backlash against socialism by the capitalist class and their media. Not only the traditional social democratic parties, but also these new left parties, shifted to the Right. In New Zealand, New Labour won power in the Auckland City Council and undertook a policy of cuts and counter-reforms. In the mid-1990s the party joined with small liberal parties in an Alliance. This provided a cover for its right-ward shift. Last year the Greens (more left wing than in Germany) left the Alliance partly in response to this degeneration.

The election programme of the Alliance was moderate, making Labour quite comfortable about inviting them into the Coalition government. They called for cheaper student loans, not an end to the loans system and a tax rise for those earning over NZ$60,000 from 33c to 39c in the dollar. This rise would have effected many skilled workers. Their minimum wage policy was for an increase from NZ$7 to NZ$7.50! When the Labour Prime Minister Helen Clarke raised a finger in protest, the Alliance dropped their call for a NZ$20 rise in pensions. The Alliance knew their most radical proposal-for the re-nationalisation of electricity companies privatised in the past two years-would be blocked by Labour. and of course it was.

Despite the hopes of the early 1990s, the Alliance only won 7.8% of the vote, a 2% drop since the previous general election in 1996. Alongside Labour's 40% and the support of the Greens (6%), it was enough to take power. The Alliance has been unable to withstand the pressures of globalisation and the neo-liberal ideological onslaught. The whole sorry saga underlines the importance of building a strong marxist current in the New Zealand and international workers' movement.