We’ve reported that the Albanese government has committed itself to upending our right as self-employed people to be self-employed. Its stated agenda is to create a third definition of self-employment called ‘employee-like.’ This will throw into confusion, perhaps even remove, key protections we have long campaigned to achieve—for example, protection from unfair contracts.
The government plans to move with legislation later in the year. We intend to mount a strong campaign against this and are preparing for the battle ahead. The government comes at its agenda from the perspective that there is an inherent conflict between ‘workers and bosses’. This is the old Left-wing perspective of the social and economic order.
The challenge posed by self-employed people to this perspective is that we are both worker and boss at the same time. So, do we exploit ourselves? Are we inherently in conflict with ourselves? Um … confusing!!
Over Easter, Australian Marxists held their Marxism Conference 2023 in Melbourne. Self-Employed Australia’s Executive Director Ken Phillips attended the full three days. His aim was to seek to understand what the Marxists’ arguments are and the world view that underpins them. If we are to effectively defend the right to be self-employed, we need to understand what the ‘other side’ are saying and thinking—even at the furthest end of the spectrum.
The Albanese government is broadly of a Left-wing persuasion. Prime Minister Albanese is from the socialist left of the Labor Party. We’re not offering a view on that, but rather seek to understand a range of political views. All political views fit somewhere along a spectrum of some sort. We don’t know where the PM sits on the Left-wing spectrum. We doubt that he is a hard-line Marxist as presented at the Easter Marxism Conference.
What we have done, however, is to put together some day-to-day reports on what we think it is that Australian Marxists believe. Here are the three reports we put together over Easter:
Reporting from the Marxist Front Line – Overview and agenda
- Listing the agenda items.
Reporting from the Marxist Front Line – Day One
- Capitalism is the enemy.
- We are defined by our class.
- On War and Identity Politics
We have genuinely attempted to present reports of what was said and what was argued. We’re not commentating on those claims. Rather, we’re simply trying to gain a broader understanding of the mind of the Marxist Left.