Scoundrels
It is not just the radical left that recognises the relationship between existing deep-seated social problems and unemployment. Writing in an April issue of the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Geoff Kitney stated that the Liberal Party leadership will "focus on law-and-order issues, which they believe have emerged as a major concern in the community because of social breakdown caused by unemployment" (emphasis added).
If, as it seems, there is a broad understanding that unemployment is the key factor in the breakdown of social solidarity, why is it that the focus for Alexander Downer is on law and order and not eliminating unemployment?
It would be unfair, however, to single out Downer and the Liberals as the sole keepers of conservative social values; state Labor governments and oppositions increasingly bang the same drum.
Carmen Lawrence, as premier of Western Australia, introduced some of the most draconian laws enacted in Australia against young people; now she says these laws were an error — meanwhile, her victims languish in jail, while her career takes off. Following Lawrence's lead, the new WA premier, Richard Court, has intensified the attacks on the rights of young people.
In New South Wales, opposition Labor leader Bob Carr has announced that a government led by him would legislate to give the police more powers to deal with gangs of youths (once described by him as young people with baseball caps on backwards) — powers even the Liberal government and the police say they don't need. With youth unemployment stuck at over 30%, why no legislation to give young people a job?
It is easier for these politicians to pay lip service to very real social problems and to build a few more jails and detention centres than to create real and meaningful work. But there are no statistics to show that building more jails to house more prisoners for longer reduces the crime rate; quite the contrary. So one is forced to conclude that these politicians are not serious about reducing the rising crime rate. Their concern is only for potential votes and their careers — the same as it ever was.
"Law and order" is the last refuge of the politically bankrupt and of scoundrels.
The breakdown of social solidarity is a very real problem that needs urgent action; its victims are seldom the wealthy and their politicians, who can afford to live in safe and leafy suburbs.
The only solution to rising crime is to build a society in which full employment is a reality and young people are cherished and treated with dignity.
With unemployment expected to remain at historically high levels for the foreseeable future, social dislocation will surely accelerate.
Tackling unemployment ultimately means tackling employers' profits; something that politicians around this country have no intention, or desire, to do.
A new social agenda, a new vision is needed. Progressive movements and parties in this country need urgently to articulate such a vision. More, they need to find a maximum of unity with which to fight the reactionary "law-and-order" campaigns of the establishment politicians.