Surrendering to the machine
Mark Latham’s ten reasons to stay out of party politics are well-padded. First, he complains (rightly) about our hollow democracy:
No. 1: Public apathy. Public apathy has hollowed out our democracy and handed power to a small clique of party machine men. In the Labor Party, for example, active party membership (as opposed to ethnic branch stacking) has collapsed.
No. 4: Rise of machine politics. As Labor’s real membership declined, it was relatively easy for a handful of factional power-brokers to grab hold of the party in the 1980s. A few dozen party officials and faction bosses now effectively control the organisation.
Next, he wishes people would play the ball, not the man — though evidently this doesn’t apply to people who publish their (so-called) diaries:
No. 2: Loss of privacy. Politics is now regarded as just another form of entertainment, ripe for ridicule and prying into politicians’ private lives.
No. 5: Politics of personal destruction (Labor-style).
No. 6: Politics of personal destruction (Liberal-style).
And then he gives his proposed alternative course of action a dot-point of its own:
No. 9: Social problems require social solutions.
No. 10: The sane, rational choice. If you are a young, idealistic person, don’t get involved in organised politics. Contribute to your community, your neighbourhood, your immediate circle of trust and support.
All up, Latham’s really given (at most) six reasons — but his conclusion that people should stay out of organised politics doesn’t follow. I’ve argued before that everyone who cares about Australian society should join a political party (Labor, Liberal, Greens, whatever) because that’s the only way to improve our democracy. As Andrew Norton pointed out about Latham’s prescription:
Far from advocating a political revolution, the practical consequence of his advice to stay out of national politics and get involved locally is to leave the ‘ruling class’ in power, unchallenged.
There ought to be no distinction between involvement in a political party and involvement in the community. In the era of mass political membership in Australia, political parties of all shapes and sizes were built on engagement with local communities — holding public meetings and picnic days, passing the hat around for people in need (as the Labor Party did to get Latham through university), forming real links between politicians and their local communities.
Mark Latham wants us to turn our back on that tradition, and instead to hand political parties to the machine men he so despises.
I agree with this. While obviously politics can be brutal, it can also be rewarding. My three Liberal Party activities over 20 years – student politician, branch member, and Ministerial adviser – have taught me a lot and produced many friendships, all (so far as I can tell!) with only routine gossip about my private life and minimal backstabbing. The higher you want to go, the tougher it gets, of course. But Latham’s advice should not deter people from participation in political parties.
If you are a young, idealistic person, don’t get involved in organised politics.
Sounds like Latham has become a revolutionary. Parliamentary politics is obsolete.
Correct and well said Rob.
I don’t know. I’d have to admit that it was being actively involved in the Young Labor right in NSW that largely brought about my own political disillusionment.
And I’d also have to say that to some extent Latham’s comments ring true, that there would be a greater personal satisfaction to be had in engaging with your own community etc.
But that said, not a one of the activities to be had at your local community centre is going to a bloody thing when it comes to the Tories IR “reforms” for example…
Having read quite a lot of labour and political history, I am pretty reluctant to join a political party. I’m quite aware that being coopted into something you don’t really support can quickly become a reality. I have been part of activist groups before and have been involved in community and sporting groups for a long time, since I was quite young. However, I take the point that being in a political party does not necessarily remove one from community level stuff and that it can open up areas of engagement that are not apparent from the garbage we see and hear on Question Time.
The guy is a fruit loop. He sucks up to the media and then complains when they invade his privacy. Perhaps he should move to Hollywood. He’d be in like-minded company.
Well, it sounds like an all or nothing approach from Latham. He is assuming that mass numbers of people aren’t going to join political parties leading to change in them, therefore the battles have to be fought on a different front. Either a few thousand new people join up to the Labor party and stir things up, change things by sheer weight of numbers, or we give up on the beast as a lost cause. And he’s probably right – I can’t see mass numbers of people joining up. I can’t see a popular movement to join the ALP occurring – and the more machine-like the ALP becomes, the less likely it’s ever going to happen, because people (myself included) get scared away. And the party seems to be happy with this – why don’t they ever promote themselves? Why don’t we see TV ads – “Do your bit for Australia – Join the ALP today!”? Why the double-whammy of declining union involvement, and the requirement to be a union member to join the party? They have to go one way or the other. Either fire up the union movement and get people back into it, or remove the requirement for union membership. Personally, I’d support the former approach, but that seems unlikely in the current climate, too.
Rob, I’d have had more sympathy for your views had I not earlier read Dennis Glover’s “Ten reasons why politics can be great� counter-list, cum inspiration-for-yoof: http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/ten-reasons-why-politics-can-be-great/2005/09/28/1127804542837.html
It veers from the cringe-worthy:
“[Peter] Garrett’s over 50 but his idealism is intactâ€?.
to the nakedly contradictory:
“This is particularly true of the staff, on both sides, who can be among the most idealistic, hardworking and committed people� (i.e. people serving apprenticeships as political hacks – as Latham himself did, never working in a post-uni “real job� – is a good thing).
“By getting elected or working in Canberra you can influence things directly. That’s why good people should be encouraged to enter politics . . . But first make something of your life in the outside worldâ€? (i.e. people serving apprenticeships as political hacks is a bad thing).
Politics needs leaders. Mark Latham, when not being silly with personal attacks and so forth, was a leader. He took the ALP in, overall, a fairly good direction, though it was along the lines Crean was already taking it. My current take on internal politics is that effective leaders influence on issues where they do not have the numbers, and take charge when they do have the numbers. There are some leaders in all political parties, and a disturbing number of followers.
Latham’s views seem founded in the New South Wales Labor Party – I do not know how bad things are in New South Wales, but they are susbtantially better in the Queensland Labor Party than he outlines in his book. The only way it is better is through leadership. Good people. Nothing good happens in politics without good people and good leaders.
I am going to fully respond to Mark’s speech on my blog some time in the future.
He is sounding very defeatist at moment. On a micro level telling someone not to go into politics would make some sense. Yet suggesting that politics should the sole domain of the party machine, he is saying that we will forever be stuck with it and we might as well live it. In which case, everyone might as well pack up and go home.
Mark Latham, circa 2005, reminds me of Gollum out of the Lord of the Rings. (The lyrics of “Gollum’s song” in the second LoTR film seems to resonate particularly well here. There were many grains of truth in his ramblings, grains of truth that might be used for a better purpose, but it was all drowned out by negativity, hate, vitriol and things that some would define as undiluted evil.
Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
Don’t say goodbye
Don’t say I didn’t try
These tears we cry
Are falling rain
For all the lies you told us
The hurt, the blame!
And we will weep to be so alone
We are lost
We can never go home
So in the end
I’ll be what I will be
No loyal friend
Was ever there for me
Now we say goodbye
We say you didn’t try
These tears you cry
Have come too late
Take back the lies
The hurt, the blame!
And you will weep
When you face the end alone
You are lost
You can never go home
You are lost
You can never go home
So what if I dislike the politics of all the parties? Should I be practising some form of enterism in order to drag Labour to the left or the greens away from the hippies? Or should I start my own party? I don’t think so.
Parliamentary politics are not the be all and end all of political life.