It is now looking pretty clear that some sections of the Parliamentary Labor Party Left are distancing themselves from the Bill and Tony comedy duo. I wouldn’t be surprised if this tactic is part of the right’s attempt to win back disaffected supporters and voters. Let the left have a little leeway, not too much, but enough to attract support for a new Labor that will be in fact just like old Labor – neo-liberal economically and reactionary socially.

Today it was the turn of former leadership contender, the man with 60% membership support, Anthony Albanese. According to Katharine Murphy in the Guardian Australia:

Anthony Albanese has signalled Labor has gone too far in supporting the Abbott government’s national security agenda, particularly the new “draconian” restrictions on press freedom which would see journalists jailed for between five and 10 years.

But not to worry. Albanese makes clear in the same article he is a true blue warmonger supporting the latest senseless western intervention in Iraq, an intervention that will only in the long term increase the power and appeal of fundamentalists like ISIS.

This comes on top of Melissa Parke voicing her opposition to the national security laws in Parliament and abstaining (so I have been told) on the vote.

A few weeks ago Parke and former speaker Anna Burke addressed a Canberra Refugee Action Committee meeting to argue refugee policy must change.

It is good to see this sudden bout of conscience from sections of the group formerly known as the Left in the ALP. It reflects I think the concern within the membership and that section of society horrified by the bipartisan Labor and Liberal onshore and offshore concentration camps and dismayed with yet another Labor supported war and the attacks on our rapidly dwindling rights that entails.

However we need to be clear. Albanese, Parke and Burke not only support the racist, misogynist, warmongering ALP; they are integral to its racism, its sexism and its war mongering, not to mention its ‘caring’ neo-liberalism.

Their opposition provides left cover for the dominant right wing. It gives false hope to left wing Labor members. It might even win back a few voters from the Greens.

Our task has to be to point out this reality and to talk to those with illusions in Labor not to repeat the same errors of the past.

Let these champions of freedom and refugees actually join the campaigns and mobilise ALP members and supporters. Why do you think they don’t?

Labor’s left feint is cover for the right