Isocracy Newsletter 21, Wednesday October 6, 2010
Isocracy Update
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General Meeting Saturday, October 16, 11am
The Melbourne Isocracy branch will be holding a General Meeting of the association on Saturday, October 16 from 11am to 1pm at "Caffeine at ReVault" Basement, 344 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3000. Call Lev on 0432 255 208 for further details.
The agenda includes (a) New Members (b) Matters Arising from the Last Meeting (c) Literature Development (d) Campaign Reports and (e) Adelaide branch. Our fortnightly newsletter will be moving to a monthly publication which summarises activities of the previous month. Notification of news items, articles and reviews will be sent out as they occur, instead of only in the newsletter.
In the recent Australian elections, Isocracy Network Public Officer, Dr. Joe Toscano, headed a ticket of "Independent Radicals" for a Victorian Senate position. Dr. Toscano's group received 3,906 votes.
News
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US Government to Spend on Infrastructure
In a case of a government doing what it is good at, U.S. President Barak Obama has announced a fairly modest $50 billion to construct over 200,000 kilometers of roads and a network of high-speed rail. In general, public finances are effective at enhancing positive externalities and mitigating negative. Governments, acting as the State, also generate a few negative externalities of their own. The $50 billion promise of infrastructure investment ought to be compared with the $6.7 monthly cost of the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/president-obama-hopes-to-build-roa...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-05-12-afghan_N.htm
Basque separatist group E.T.A. Announces Ceasefire
ETA, a far leftist paramilitary group who has been engaging in an armed struggle for the independence of the Basque region since 1959, has announced a ceasefire, the third in their campaign of over fifty years. In the last forty years, ETA has been considered responsible for 800 deaths, injuring thousands and engaging in numerous kidnappings, and are considered a terrorist organisation by France, Spain and the European Union, fitting a definition of using systematic violence against non-combatants for political purposes. A closely associated political group, Batasuna, received between 8 and 13 percent of the vote in regional elections before being declared illegal in 2003. Although Basque has a high degree of regional autonomy, including their own public finances and police, a referendum on Basque self-determination, the Spanish government appealed to the Constitutional Court who declared the plebiscite illlegal on September 11, 2008, a position upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in February 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11191395
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Estrasburgo/admite/recurso/PNV/anu... (Spanish)
Swing To Right In Swedish Elections
The 2010 general election to the Riksdag or Swedish parliament was held on 19 September 2010. The governing centre-right coalition The Alliance, led by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (leader of the liberal-conservative Moderate Party), faced an election battle against the opposing Red-Greens coalition, led by Mona Sahlin (leader of the Social Democrats). Results indicated a victory to the Alliance, with the Moderate Party receiving 30% of the vote (107 seats, up 10), the Liberal People's Party at 7% (24 seats, down 4), and the Centre Party 6.5% (23 seats, down 6). The Red-Greens vote consisted of the Social Democrats (30.5%, 112 seats, down 18) with the Greens winning 7.5% (25 seats, up 6) and the Left Party with 5.5% (19 seats, down 3). Also notable was the sixth-placed anti-immigration Swedish Democrats, who received 5.5% (20 seats, from 0). Whilst technically a hung parliament, the Alliance leaders have said that there is no possibility that they will seek to form government with the Swedish Democrats.
Centre-Left Returned in Australian Elections
After weeks of negotiation, the Australian elections of August 21st finally resulted in the return of the centre-left government of the Australian Labor Party, led by Julia Gillard. Labor suffered a significant swing of -5.4% (37.99% of the primary vote), and lost 11 seats (down to 72), whereas the right-wing coalition, led by Tony Abbot of the Liberal Party in coalition with the rural National Party, made only a very slight gains in primary votes of 1.31% (43.32%), but gained 7 seats. The Australian Greens gained 3.97% (11.76%) and won one seat. With the support of the Greens, and three out of four independents, Labor was able to form government on September 14.
Comments
Aust Labor party Centre-left??
I notice the newsletter describes the ALP as "center-left" ... that is pretty arguable. More like 'centrist' if you are judging relative to the broad sweep of 19th and 20th century history, even if they are more 'left' than the conservative norm of today.
It also depends on whether you are judging them on the party's history (largely 'left' social democratic until the 1960s) or policies of today.
What Is The Left?
Following the criteria set by the French revolution, the Labor Party is still a centre-left, social-democratic party. It is republican, (social) democratic, (more or less) secular, internationalist & etc. But in any case, it is somewhat splitting hairs to debate the difference between a centrist and a centre-left party.