Australian prime minister Rudd ousted in political coup (big capital doesn't want to be taxed)

[Hannah Bell]

In a series of extraordinary events over the past 24 hours, the Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has been ousted as prime minister through a campaign orchestrated by multi-national mining companies, the Murdoch media and other corporate and financial interests and implemented through a series of backroom manoeuvres by right-wing factional warlords and trade union bureaucrats. Deputy prime minister Julia Gillard was elected unopposed as Labor Party leader at a special meeting of the party’s parliamentary caucus this morning after Rudd was pressured not to re-contest the leadership position.

The political coup began several weeks ago when right wing factional leaders began organising support for a leadership challenge. On June 15 former Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten, now a Victorian MP, urged Julia Gillard to challenge the leadership. Gillard insisted that she did not want to stand — a position she maintained at Tuesday’s caucus meeting, from which Rudd emerged confident of remaining Labor leader.

Key right-wing faction leaders, however, initiated a series of manoeuvres behind the backs of the caucus and the party to effect a leadership challenge. By Wednesday evening, the coup against Rudd was in full swing. Australian Workers Union national secretary, Paul Howes, issued a statement that the union no longer supported Rudd, while faction leaders informed the media that support for the prime minister had collapsed. Confronted with a fait accompli, Gillard told Rudd she would challenge.

Late on Wednesday night, Rudd issued a defiant statement that he had been elected by the Australian people, not by factional bosses and indicated he would fight. But the following morning, he reversed his position and Gillard was installed unopposed.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/rudd-j24.shtml


Article goes on to say that most of the party had no idea what was going on & were in the dark as events progressed: "The leadership challenge was not decided by a move from the caucus but by a tiny handful of unknown factional bosses and union bureaucrats responding directly to the demands of powerful corporate and financial elites"

[apocalypsehow]

1. They love Douglas MacArthur in Australia - when I visited there in 2005 I had at least fifteen beers

bought for me in various pubs/dives/bars/whatever-you-want-to-call-them in "for Mac" once they found out I was an American. That's all I got.

[aquart]

2. Australia needs to get off its ass and fight for its government.

Seems to me some asses tried a coup in the New York legislature. Democrats locked the doors on them.

Take back the government and tax those thieves into oblivion. Come to think of it, that would work well here, too.

Murdoch, of course, is the modern form of the Plague.

[depakid]

4. Julia Gillard the new PM is labor left- and usual the WSWS piece is full of crap

Didn't you get enough of this with your last bogus post on the topic?

[Fool Count]

5. She may be "labor left", but there is no denying the fact that Rudd's

downfall was over the mining tax he proposed. Gillard was the only labor leader popular enough to
lead the party into the coming election. She already proposed the so-called "compromise" on the
mining super-profit tax to the mining council: instead of "consulting" with the companies, the
governments will now "negotiate" with them over tax. Imaging that "negotiation" with multinationals
over taxing them more. It should go something like that: Government - We want to increase tax
on you; Multinationals - No fucking way, you wanna end up like Rudd?; Government - OK, forget it.
Big business doesn't care if one is "left" or "right", as long as they don't touch "their" profits.

[depakid]

6. Rudd's downfall began with the failure to stand up for climate change legislation

his numbers went off a cliff after that and he completely lost control of the narrative to the point where people weren't listening to him anymore.

Labor was headed to defeat if they didn't move to spill him.

and btw: under Gillard, the mining tax will still be going forward in one form or another- but this time it will be properly framed as a fair return for our resources and as a means to bring the budget back to surplus in 3 years.

[Hannah Bell]

3. kik