Stuart Munckton
"Young people are being affected by [Work Choices] now, as the case of a 15-year-old Bakers' Delight worker indicates. This worker was forced to sign an AWA [Australian Workplace Agreement] without being told what the contract included, and it set her wage at $8.35 an hour, a figure 25% less than the minimum wage. After talking to the boss about how little she was paid she was sacked on the spot. Bakers' Delight then appealed the fact that the worker had been overpaid."
This true story was told on the back of a leaflet urging Melbourne students to join a nationwide student strike against the Howard government's anti-worker Work Choices laws on June 1.
Young people are doubly affected by Work Choices. First, with a high degree of casualisation and a lower-than-average rate of unionisation, they are among the most vulnerable of workers. Secondly, today's students are tomorrow's work force and young people have to fight against Howard's attempts to condemn them to virtual slavery.
It will take the sustained, united action of workers of all ages across the country to force the government to repeal Work Choices. But young people have a particular role to play — students and young workers are generally less tied down by family commitments, have more energy and are not demoralised by past defeats.
These are the lessons from France, where the right-wing government was forced to repeal anti-worker legislation last month, not by one demonstration or strike, but by a sustained campaign of mass mobilisation over many weeks, accompanied by two general strikes, each one bigger than the last.
The campaign began with a student revolt that helped inspire broader sections of the working class to join the fight. The students shut down or occupied three-quarters of France's universities and one-quarter of the high schools.
The example of France helped convince the socialist youth organisation Resistance to initiate the June 1 student strike against Work Choices. The ACTU-initiated June 28 national day of action against Work Choices falls when universities, and some high schools, are on a break. While it is important for young people to join the June 28 mobilisations, the timing is not ideal for students so the June 1 action will give students an opportunity to take direct action.
Why a strike? More than a demonstration held outside of class hours, a strike allows young people to show that they will take serious action to defend their rights. Student strikes do not directly affect bosses' profits, but they have great political value, giving expression to broader public opinion, showing a lead to others who want to resist and directly building future actions, such as the June 28 protests. The 1998 high-school walk-outs against Pauline Hanson's racism and the 2003 "Books Not Bombs!" student strikes played these roles.
The June 1 strike will demand the repeal of not only Work Choices, but also the other misnamed law — "voluntary student unionism", which will come into effect in July. To date, it has been endorsed by: the National Union of Students (Vic); the Young Unionist Network (Vic); the Cross-Campus Student Union Network (Vic); Union Solidarity (Vic); the Wollongong University Student Association; the WU Education Action Group; the Sydney University Education Action Group; the Young Workers Solidarity Movement (Sydney); the University of NSW and University of Technology, Sydney branches of the National Tertiary Education Union; the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (Vic); the Maritime Union of Australia (WA); Resistance; the Socialist Alliance; the Socialist Party; Socialist Alternative; and the secretary of Geelong Trades Hall, Tim Gooden.
To endorse the student strike, email <nationaloffice@resistance.org.au>. A sign-on statement can be found at <http://www.resistance.org.au>. To get involved, contact your local Resistance branch (see page 2 for details).
[Stuart Munckton is a Resistance national executive member.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 10, 2006.
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