[With all the arrogance of a squire evicting…]

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With all the arrogance of a squire evicting cottagers the Queen's representative in Australia has installed millionaire ultra-right Liberal Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister in the run-up to a rigged general election on December 13th.

The Governor-General's action -alias Tahnut Drima Minister Gough Whitlam after Labour was returned with a majority in the House of Representatives (the equivalent of the House of Commons) in two elections since 1972 - has sparked a waye of angry protest from the trade union movement.

The power that GovernorGeneral Sir John Kerr has used to oust an elected Labour government is the same as the British monarchy holds over majorities in the House of Commons. The political coup in Australia is therefore a serious warning of the ability of the monarchy and the Tories in Britain to tear up the unwritten 'understandings' of the constitution and impose political 'solutions' in the teeth of an elected majority.

Keer's action. in appointing Fraser - an enthusiastic supporter of the US in Vietnam - as Prime Minister has all the hallmarks of a hastily-concocted political conJustice Sir Garfield Barwick, a well-known Liberal sympathiser (Australian Liberals are the equivalent of British Tories) before his bombshell dismissal of Whitlam And shortly beforehand the Liberals discreetly booked more thạn $1 million worth of television time, now to be used in the election campaign.

Kerr, appointed by the Queen on Whitlam's proposal in 1974, is a lawyer and former intelligence official of the secret 'Directorate of Research and Civil Affiars' During the war he rose to the rank of Colonel, then held posts as a federal judge in industrial courts, and later became chief justice of the state of New South Wales.

Fraser's government, which Kerr put in theoretically to play a "caretaker" role, is already using its position to the hilt in the election campaign.

Sehior civil servants have already complained that they were asked to provide financial and economic information which could only be used for electioneering. Fraser and his ministers are provided with free transport, massive clerical support aad body guards that go with official posit10ns.

All police leave in New South Wales - a traditional Labour strong hold - was cancelled in a drive against "violence" during the campaign.

The organised working class have reacted with shock and anger to the dictatorial political conspiracy. As news of Whitlam's sacking came over the radio, thousands struck and demonstrater in Sydney and Brisbane. Liberal Party headquarters were besieged in Sydney and in Melbourne a call for a four-hour general strike by local trade union leaders brought out hundreds of thousands.

But the trade union bureaucrats have actea to squash even token mobilisation in defence of democratic rights. National trade union chief Bob Hawke has urged all trade unions "not to be provoked", arguing that industrial action will damage Labour's electoral chances.

Nonetheless local action continues, especially in shipping and the building industry, and is likely to sread during the campaign.

Meanwhile the ruling class add their political representatives are pulling no punches despite the fact that Fraser is in theory a. "caretaker" - and was voted out of office in a vote of no confidence by the House of Representatives only hoursiafter Kerr had appointed him - he is already using his position to shape the flow of government "news" to his advantage.

And Whitlam, together with three of his former colleagues in the Labour Caninet, already face legal cases concerning the allegations - with which the Liberal press has been crammed fDI months - that they acted improperly Mao greets CIA's Kissinger 'Australian Labour Party demonstration, in raising huge loans overseas:

The lesson of the Australian crisis is the opposite of what Whitlam and the Labour leaders are preaching. It is false for them to claim that it is a purely Australian affair - or one that can be resolved by yet another Labour majority in the House of Rep. resentatives.

The powers that were úsed to remove Whitlam could be used in Britain. And Whitlam's proposals to tinker with the constitution offer no protection to the labour movement in Australia.

Only the severing of all colonial links with Britain combined with the mobilisation of the Australian working class in the strug gle for socialism can beat the conspiracy of the Liberals and the British monarchy. temporary de facto division of the country between the two claimani governments". (Times, Nov 19th)

We must be absolutely cleat that the situation in Angola is not that of a conflict between rival national liberation movements. By last September virtually the whole of Angola was under MPLA control, the narrow tribally based FNLA and UNITA movements having been defeated.

These latter were resuscitated with massive injections of CIA arms and money together with mercenaries from • South Africa and Portuguese ex-colonial troops who have stayed behind to "win the war in Africa"

PORTUGUESE

Thus the FNLA forces to the north of Luanda are directed by extreme right wing Portuguese colonel Santos e Castro until recently an anti-guerrilla strategist with the Portuguese army. At present he is leading a band of 130 Portuguese mercenaries based in Ambriz and supplemented by

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spiracy. Kerr admitted that he consulted Supreme Court Chief

CLASS STACK