Clearly, something's pretty rotten with the ALP today.

But disillusionment with Labor is hardly anything new; it's just that the very nature of the party means that despair at the end of Labor's rule inevitably morphs into myths about heroism, great deeds in the interests of workers and "the light on the hill".

The rose-tinted memories of the Whitlam government of 1972-75 are not matched by the reality. And other Labor governments have gone down in flames with few True Believers mourning their loss. Exhibit One is clearly the Hawke and Keating governments between 1983 and 1996, with their support for the US bombing of Iraq in 1991, the shredding of the award system and the introduction of enterprise bargaining, their refusal to enact any serious land rights legislation and the introduction of user pays and mandatory detention for refugees.

These policies resulted in the biggest redistribution of wealth to the richest from the poorest in Australian history; and they paved the way for both the election of Howard in 1996 and his continuing attacks on workers' living standards and rights. And it's these guys who are the pin-up boys for the new Labor Cabinet!

But Hawke and Keating weren't alone. In the Party's publications you won't find much reference to the Scullin government of 1929-32. Little wonder, as its entire record in government was one of attacking workers in the Great Depression. At the orders of the bankers, wages were cut by 10 per cent, the unemployed were hounded and public spending was slashed.

But what about Curtin and Chifley? Well, it was Curtin, don't forget, who set in train the US Alliance. It was Chifley who set up ASIO, launched vicious red-baiting against the Communist Party and used draconian legislation and troops to smash the 1949 coal miners strike.

OK, Labor supporters say, but let's not forget Gough Whitlam - Labor can be proud of him and his government. It's true that the Whitlam government brought about some important reforms - the introduction of Medibank, free tertiary education, increased social security and better conditions for public servants. But these reforms in many cases had to be extracted from a reluctant Whitlam, who was on the right of the party. Whitlam was a proud Cold Warrior in his earlier Labor career, had supported the war in Vietnam and in 1974 appointed as Governor General John Kerr - the same man who as an Industrial Court judge had jailed militant tramways union leader Clarrie O'Shea in 1969. And one of his final acts in government was to give the green light to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

But if all that's the case, why the Whitlam reforms? Well, some of them, like spending on health and education, were in line with the interests of the capitalist class which wanted a healthier and better educated workforce. The Australian economy was still enjoying the benefits of the long post-war boom in the world economy and there was sufficient "fat" in the system to afford such reforms. And when this boom came to an end in 1974, Whitlam proved to be an avid "economic conservative" himself, winding back many of the reforms of earlier years.

His first response was that workers had to pay for the economic crisis. He coined the phrase "one man's [sic] wage rise costs another's job".

Other Whitlam measures, like ending conscription, were only recognition that the land war in Vietnam was essentially over. Likewise equal pay for women only recognised in law the union campaign that was winning these rights out in the field. Higher pay and shorter working hours for public servants were already being won by striking workers in the private sector. Land rights legislation was drafted by Labor, but only in response to the wave of mobilisation by Aborigines over the preceding six years.

And when Whitlam was sacked in 1975 by the man he had appointed, what was his reaction? To call for calm and for the laws of the land to be upheld - the same laws that the Governor General and his business backers were so carelessly ripping up. Whitlam's desire to serve the capitalist system was greater than his desire to give voice to the millions of Labor supporters who were boiling over with fury at the manner of his sacking.

The truth is that no Labor PM has a clean record. The precondition for Labor even coming close to taking office is its commitment to serving the capitalist class. It does this because it knows that the capitalist class has many means to bring it to heel - the capitalists' control over vast financial assets, their ownership of 90 per cent of the country's productive mines, offices and factories, and their ability to hire and fire workers by the thousand.

But don't just take my word for it. Here's what Labor Treasurer Jim Cairns said at the 1975 Labor conference, when the ruling class were beginning to circle like vultures over the Whitlam government:

I know the capitalist system is exploitative and leaves many genuine desires of many people unfulfilled. I also know that the jobs of most of our people depend on private industry - much of it part of the multinational system. I know, therefore, that we must follow policies generally in the interests of the private sector.

The parliament that Labor upholds as the source of all authority is actually a weak reed - it has to contend not just with the capitalists' control over the country's assets but also with the loyalty that the heads of the state machine - the armed forces, the judiciary, the police, the Reserve Bank and the public service - all pledge to the capitalist class. They too benefit from the capitalist order of things - even in cases where they do not come from the same social class as the capitalists, they understand that their role is to protect private property, and that private property is the foundation of their own power.

It's not all hard work at the parliamentary salt mines for Labor politicians either. They are not immune to the benefits of cushy jobs, splendid pensions, free travel and fat allowances. Once they've got their rumps on the parliamentary leather, Labor politicians are not known for their eagerness to quit the Canberra gas house.

So Labor governments may be elected for the most part by workers but can never be relied upon to serve their interests. That's true 100 per cent of the time, but doubly so when there is an economic crisis! During an economic crisis, the bosses' profits are squeezed. They only make their profits from the sweat of workers so they demand of Labor governments that the workers' share of the national pie is cut back. And Labor governments are only too ready to oblige.

So what's that got to do with today and the election of the new Rudd government? Surely the economy's going gangbusters? Doesn't that create some slack for Rudd - might we expect to see a few crumbs come our way from the capitalists' hoard of profits?

The thing is, Australian capitalists know that, sooner or later, their current bonanza is going to come to an end. It's always been that way - every boom ends with a bust. They know that anything given away today will count against them tomorrow when the squeeze is back on.

And they also know that even with the huge mass of profits that they are enjoying today, the rate of profit - that is, the return on the total investments outlaid - is not back to where it was in the heyday of the 1960s when the post-war boom was at its height. So they have to keep the pressure on us all the time, with no let-up. That's where WorkChoices comes in. And that's why Rudd and Gillard have gone out of their way to assure the bosses that they'll get to keep 99 per cent of WorkChoices under Labor.

We've established that the record of Labor in government is pretty appalling. But there's also another tradition, one that we should celebrate - the tradition of struggles against Labor's attacks. During World War I, Australian workers successfully fought off attempts by Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes to introduce conscription. During the Depression, workers in Sydney fought pitched battles to prevent evictions from their houses under Labor state and federal governments. During the Chifley and Whitlam governments the strike rate soared as workers demanded economic justice. And during the Hawke and Keating governments, students and anti-war activists came hard up against Labor on repeated occasions.

Rudd's attacks on our rights will create resistance. Already unions have campaigned for the Greens as a first step to fighting Rudd. There's no doubt that we'll see strikes and demonstrations against Rudd before his first term in office is up. Socialists will be in the thick of these fights, not just because we support every spark of resistance, but also because we need to build an organisation that can really take the fight to the government. Having a clear understanding of the nature of Labor in power will strengthen these struggles and give us our best chance to win.