Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 17, 1969, Winnipeg, Manitoba Australian labor Wynn spec free press thursday. July 17, Melbourne special the australian labor party once outstanding among Radical movements of the Western world for its Early and shrewd grasp on the Reali ties of political Power has Heen sliding gradually tin sensationally into Impo tence. The oldest Delegate to the party s supreme govern ing body its editorial con Ference to meet in Mel Bourne on july 28, can have no recollection of a time so bad for labor Here. This situation is in some ways sadly paradoxical. Labour is in some of its Lent better qualified to govern now than Ever it was before. Especially on Viet Nam events have proved the labor party More Cor rect t h a n the Liberal government. But the government survives its mistakes and misfortunes. Labor is farther out in the wilderness than Ever and with no sign of the revival of the Hope that nourished its Early struggles. The elect local defeat in May of the government in Tasmania where labor had ruled continuously since 3h34, was of Little significance in itself. But it marked the disappearance of the Only labor govern ment to survive in a country where labour had been resilient enough in the past 59 years to keep a hold on Power Federal or state somewhere i n Australia. Now every government in Australia is in the hands of the Liberal party the coun try party or a coalition of these two basically conservative groups. To look Back to labor s prodigious successes against the Long Odds of victorian and edwardian capitalism is a tantalising exercise. The labor movement in Australia stemmed largely from the English Radical tradition. Transplanted it showed More Vigour and Resolution Here. Its Stern party discipline was effective. It ran a generation ahead of British labor in achieving parliamentary Power. By 1915 the party con trolled the Federal govern ment and All but one of the six state governments. It reproduced this pattern in having recovered from the Embil ering split on conscription in 1916 and the ilk. Urged to end obscenity Laws by Karl Meyer in show of hands Only three i sex offences in Denmark was London special tons voted to oppose a report pre filed in t f f a conference of prominent pared Over a Vear by a working cultural leaders gave Over o is Culus Al leaders. Mall Only mis. In icehouse re whelming support tuesday to a originally members of the report urging the wholesale abolition of obscenity la working group considered re form of present obscenity Laws ejected All such Short term Evi Dence and recalled instead that there was no More depraved or corrupt society than the Britain for a five year trial i bul Len came the unanimous period thus removing the Legal View anal abolition was prefer restraints against pornography. Able the government financed arts Council of great Britain will i suggested by its conclusion now submit the report to Home j a is not for ule state _ Secretary James Callaghan with private citizens from conference on the request that he considers its j choosing what they May or May i shouted Martin is Selim a Reform recommend Lions a n d not it Calure or Art j biographer of Garth old Brachl Weimar Republic which Nur the spirit of the report is lured nazism. That was the most obscene thing you could have said at a take appropriate Steps. Unless there were uncool Roscit supporters of the Reform were ibid thai the result themselves surprised by the i would be injurious to society. Degree of approval at a Public j Thel e is no Setch evidence meeting for a step that would who maintained that in fact Weimar Germany had repressive censorship Laws. When another dissenter no Crystal Ball can Lay Down claimed that the filth in Soho have seemed in thinkable bold dogmatically whether More or is absolutely beyond belief he Only a few years ago. It is now less pornography would result j was answered by Jean Straker a pmed unlikely that there will i from repeal but in any Case a photographer whose Soho i be a vote and possible enact there is a Complete absence of studio specializes in erotic Art ment of the Reform in the next j evidence to suggest that sex in j Streaker said that pornography few years. The arts even when aphrodisiac is sox education for those when but the conference did hear j in intention has criminal or need it and that danish and impassioned objections that anti social swedish pornographers Are abolition of obscenity a w s the Reform recommendations j siphoning s60 million a year would make Britain a per would not interfere with the no Grapher s Paradise and per haps create a society As depraved and existing self censorship of films from the British Market contributing to this country s bal and broadcasting and the work Ance of payments problems. Corrupt As j ing group would leave intact a Weimar 3955 Law designed to protect from l a Luhta Reform w a spokesman for the National Union of teachers Felt that Hie sons. Ould expose youngsters to pornography and he urged Germany s interwar Republic. This dissenting View was offered by mrs Mary White a tuesday s debate was a dress j that an attempt be made to House a widely known lobbyist rehearsal of the arguments that Frame a More sensible Legal Lor purity on television who Are Likely to be heard nationally definition for obscene materials seemed lonely in her orthodox As the reformers press their John Mortimer an attorney rectitude at the conference of a i Campaign for abolishing obscene Hundred or so authors publish Ity Laws As Denmark. When evidence of a decline in ors and representatives of the theatre. Solo stores announce a Price correction for wednesday july 16 Calif. Fancy can. No. 1 tomatoes 14 of. Cons. 99c As Well As a playwright replied that he orig ally favored re drafting existing Laws until tip tried to do so himself and found no Way of improving on vague prohibitions of malarial that tends to deprive and corrupt. The experience converted him to abolition he said. I the report bad its genesis in i a decision last year by the arts Council to find out what a group of qualified persons in publish ing and the arts Felt should be i done about Britain s obscenity Laws. Lord Goodman chairman of the arts Council who pre sided at tuesday s conference stressed that the report is not. An official document nor is it intended to be hip. Last word on a controversial subject. For the perfect Diamond free Diamond insurance written guarantee service warranty test. 1912 Portage at Hargrove largest Diamond selection in Western Canada split of the depression years that paralleled the labor split in Britain. But now even the Sharp rejection of the fed eral labor government in 3949 by an electorate weary of wartime austerity and suspicious of socialism did not seem then to be capable of meaning a sentence of indefinite banishment. But that with the split Over communism in the Nineteen fifties that has left labor divided into a left a right and an u n comfortable Centre remains the Posi Tion in 19g9. Not since Ben Whitley the charming obstinate old line socialist engine Driver died in 1951 has the australian labor party been Able to find a National Leader Cap Able of maintaining author Ity inside the parly and generating much affection outside it. The egocentric Herbert Evatt the first Leader without a Trade Union background retired to the Bench and oblivion after losing three elections. Arthur Augustus Calwell a fundamentalist in his attachment to labor Ortho doxy lost three More before he reluctantly gave up the leadership. It is ironic that or. Calwell had stumped the country in 1068 furiously denouncing the "filthy.1 u n i n n a b i e Vietnam led labor to the heaviest defeat it had experienced the history of federation. Or. Calwell is now widely seen to Havi been right and ahead of his time and vindicated by president Nixon. Bui. Per haps because of his impulsive extravagant custard pie style of argument per haps because or. Calwell himself seemed to be a relic of a labor dream time Al Illy the Middle aged could remember labor was rejected. Now Edward Gough Whit Lam is the Leader of the labor opposition. He has yet to Lead his party to a general election. His prospects of tossing John Gorton at the general election expected in november must at present be reckoned very poor in Spile of All or. Gorton s mishaps. The knives of the left Are sharpened for or. Whitlam. He cannot count on All the right. Even in new South Wales the heartland of the australian labor move ment where labor ruled continuously from 1941 to 1965. Or. Whitlam s party support is not As solid As a National Leader would wish or. Whitlam is person Able fluent polished ener Getic imaginative experienced and at 53, seemingly of the right age for Leader ship. He is very Little younger now than sir Rob Ert Menzies was when he made the comeback in 1943 that changed the course of australian politics for two decades. There Are similarities Between them though both would probably Hale to be said. Or. Whitlam however has not yet Lear Ned As sir Kobert did in Lime to curb those striking hut unprofitable Public Oli impotence serv Lions that can and anon ise his friends More than they damage his enemies. In Victoria where the parly machine under Trade Union domination takes a Delight in frustrating and repudiating or. Whitwam. This control has lately been tightened. It has also denounced his intention of giving emergency financial help if he becomes prime minister to Church largely Catholic schools. Such altitudes Are elect orally damaging. But the. Labor party once dominant in Victoria has been accustomed for 14 years to losing slate elections and helping sometimes decisively to lose Federal elections. It seems almost like a death wish. How is it All to lie explained some bad management yes some undue harking Back to the party achievements of 25 years ago 50 years ago yes. Some bad Luck yes though As my sporting friends say you make your own Luck. Prosperity it seems even superficial Prosperity is no Good to labor. Only in the recession of 1961 has the party looked like regaining Power in Canberra during these two bad decades. Labor in office introduced the great and generally successful immigration pro Gram but it seems that immigrants from Europe when naturalised mostly vote against the labor party. Ami there is nothing in the electoral trend to that tiie one and a half million Post War British immigrants who Don t need naturalisation have become mainly labor voters either. Voting is compulsory. All parties believe in this. It brings a Large turnout. It has not. As the theorists hoped it would meant an enlightened new concern fur the democratic process. For the discouraged or. Whit Lam and for those wifi follow him. The question is How i find a cure for political stagnation to set australians away from Iho belief that who Ever governs Here things now won t change much. Birthday starts tomorrow save summer clothing Selkirk ave. Shopping Centre dial 589-6388 All depts. Open thurs. And Fri. Till 9-00 pm free parking across the Street Good times just naturally go together with the Happy Lazy lager Beer ;