Howard loses the election! And His Own Seat by Dave Riley

Yep. It's over: the witch is dead.

The hopes of millions of Australian working people were realize last night when John Winston Howard's government lost electoral traction and floundered under the weight of its own political arrogance.

But to add more sweetness to the defeat -- this most tactical of maestros has lost his own seat of Bennelong to former ABC journalist Maxine McKew,. As well, the man who engineered the invasion of the Norther Territory and placed indigenous Australians there under marshal law, Mal Brough, has himself been thrown out of office. (We can perhaps also thank for that the many single Mums in his seat who sought to punish Mal's role in setting up the Welfare to Work scheme.)

It's happy faces all around.

What with all the inquests we'll be now treated to let's make one thing clear: Australian working people , galvanized around the Our Rights at Work campaign, bought down John Howard. The election was about class and about support for trade unionism. The tide changed with that just as the shift in the ALP's fortunes was a direct product of it.

Those mobilisations in the street were nothing to snort at. Although generating them was hard enough given the entrenched opposition in the official trade union movement at the ACTU level to any break out, imagine what could have transpired if the agenda had been upped and the ACTU had not rolled over so much for Ruddism?

Compared to March 1983 when Labor last won office, this places the trade union movement (now a very much weaker and undermined trade union movement in the 24 years since) in a stronger and more confident position to deal with Rudd's Work Choices Lite spin on industrial relations.Last time the Accord 'consensus' was the Labor government and through bullying and spin, the trade union tops regimented the working people hog tied into a Laborist 'fit'. This time it's different. This time there's protest.

And centre piece is the right to strike.

Back in 1983 and for the period of the ALP administration those who advocated a class struggle perspective were isolated vilified and, in some cases, criminalised. But not much was happening in that regard as all trade unions were bought into line.

Now, while there is no breakout or generalised fight back, there's an alternative perspective that has not existed for many a year. Thats' what the Socialist Allaince tries to relate to, and to some degree, serves as its political voice.

For me, though, McKew's drubbing of Howard was the highlight of last nights call. An extremely skilled television and radio journalist I found a lot more to celebrate in her sometimes rambling speech than when the swarmy Rudd took to the podium to claim a victory that was rightfully ours.

The alternative vote

This did indeed turn out to be a polarised election so the alt vote didn't rise much in the House of Reps seats. The Greens pulled in an 7.6% average and the Socialist Alliance will average somewhere under 1%. With all the jockeying and game play the Senate figures should be different. Even the ACTU did not call absolutely for a ALP vote -- opting instead for one against Work Choices -- and the Get Up phenomenon impacted on small "l" liberal Australia --although it won't save the Democrats from a likely annihilation.