Harry Stratton is a lawyer and anti-corruption activist from Australia.
In the UK, local governments are constantly agreeing to sleazy deals to provide hyperprofitable contracts to property developers. The only solution: ban developers and their lobbyists from councils.
Earlier this year, disgraced former MP Adem Somyurek joined the long list of Labor politicians to be investigated for corruption. Somyurek was no outlier — the nepotism and cronyism he practiced are just part of the day-to-day running of the Australian Labor Party.
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association organizes retail workers across Australia. Under its hard-right social conservative leadership, the association cooperates with employers to enrich its top officials at workers’ expense.
In order to challenge the ALP leadership’s right-wing policy agenda, we first need to democratize the party’s rotten internal structures. The party’s Left faction should be leading this fight; instead, they’re helping perpetuate a system that keeps left-wing politics locked out.
Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese could be facing a leadership contest. Albanese’s record has been unimpressive, but changing leaders won’t be enough to turn the party’s fortunes around. Real party democracy and a break with neoliberal dogma are the only remedies for Labor’s malaise.
The ALP’s right faction is riddled with corruption and cover-ups that are holding the party back. We can’t rely on the legal system to clean out the ALP’s stables — empowering Labor members through real party democracy is the only way to break the cycle.