Subverting Australia's labour movement

By Joan Coxsedge I was intrigued by a recent story in the Age about a speech given by Treasurer Ralph Willis at Harvard University. He was discussing the federal government's compulsory superannuation scheme at a seminar co-sponsored by Harvard's Trade Union Program and the Kennedy School of Government. In the early 1980s, I was researching material on the Australian labour movement. It was soon after Bob Hawke had wrested the federal Labor Party leadership from Bill Hayden and been voted in as Prime Minister. Hawke's supporters were moving to consolidate his power base within the Victorian branch by boosting the numbers of his Labor Unity faction. The admission of four ultra-right wing unions — the Federated Clerks, the Shop Assistants, the Ironworkers and the Carpenters and Joiners was also part of a bigger plan for a "new look" Labor Party that was a more reliable instrument for big business than the Liberals could ever be. In June 1984, after a bitter debate, Victorian state conference delegates voted by a two-thirds majority to keep the four unions out of the branch. The ALP national executive over-ruled the decision. These unions were not simply right-wing. At least two were at the forefront of hysterical anti-communist campaigns. They were dominated by a clandestine grouping known as the National Civic Council (NCC), Australia's nearest thing to a fascist movement. It was reported that some of them even supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In an ABC interview in 1982, one NCC member boasted they had more than 30 full-time staff and about 200 trade union officials with NCC connections. Federated Clerks Unions president John Maynes, prominent member of the NCC national executive, was said to be the ultimate controller of the NCC in the union movement. For many years, he was the main link with ultra-right US organisations specifically set up to control union activities in the "free world". In 1983 I spent a few days in Boston, home of Harvard and the Kennedy Library. During my stay I looked into the Harvard University Trade Union Program, funded by the Harvard Foundation, because I wanted to learn more about its background and connections. I discovered there were two Harvard Foundations. One Harvard Foundation was genuine. It sat squarely in the centre of the university and was legitimately involved in student affairs. After talking with the people who ran it we found that, contrary to popular belief in Australia, the Harvard University had no connection whatsoever with the Harvard University Trade Union Program. I eventually located the "union" group's headquarters a little distance away from the campus and nabbed copies of their literature. The Harvard Trade Union Program Alumni read like a who's who of right-wing unionism. The first Australian to graduate was Ralph Willis in 1964, then working at the ACTU. He was followed by right-wing power-brokers Barrie Unsworth (1966), and Joe Thompson (1968), federal president and NSW state organiser for the Vehicle Builders Union. Other material indicated, however, that the funding body — the Harvard Foundation — wasn't created until July 1976, so who footed the bill between 1964 and 1976? The initiative to set up the 1976 Harvard Foundation came from AMCHAM Australia, the local branch of the American Chamber of Commerce and agent for US big business in Australia, with "the blessing" of carefully selected senior unionists. Its letterhead named 68 trustees. All were top executives of large multinationals and Australian corporations such as Sir Peter Abeles and Hugh Morgan. Other big companies represented included Comalco, Du Pont, Rothmans, Chrysler, Uniroyal, Mobil Australia, Boral and Amatil — not a group renowned for its sympathies with unionism. Four union officials were listed as trustees, along with Bob Hawke, Neville Wran, Ian MacPhee and Professor Donald Gilson. Another name stood out - Peer da Silva. Described as working for the US giant Honeywell, he had earlier been CIA Chief of Station for Australia. The 68 were each supposed to kick in $2500 for the "honour" of being part of the scheme. Aspects of the Foundation program were managed by Macquarie University, thereby guaranteeing tax deductibility of 42% for contributors. Program participants — four unionists each year with "proven leadership potential" — received return air fares, tuition, accommodation and study materials, and $250 a week pin-money for the duration of the 13-week indoctrination course. At its conclusion, the US government also gave each "student" a daily allowance for four weeks of travel around the US to "liaise with their US counterparts, solidify friendships and see those principles learned at Harvard in action". Joe O'Donnell, described as executive director of the Harvard University Trade Union Program, was the same bloke brought out to Australia in 1977 by an outfit called Enterprise Australia to give us the right-wing line on trade unionism. Enterprise Australia was one of many well-funded, US-modelled organisations zealously promoting Friedmanite capitalist ideology. It was launched in Australia in 1976 by former Liberal minister Sir Allen Fairhall, on behalf of the Australian Free Enterprise Association, "to help Australians understand that our economic and business freedoms are the bulwark of our personal liberties". Exactly what corporations get for their money from outfits like the Harvard Foundation was spelled out by managing director of Koppers Australia, Brooks Wilson, to corporate executives attending the 20th Annual General Meeting of AMCHAM in 1981. He said: "there is one very important thing this chamber has taken a lead in doing. And that is in terms of helping union leaders to become educated. Since the program started ... 12 or 15 trade unionists have been and returned. They feel its been an experience that opened their eyes to how the system can work — in other words, to the benefit of everybody. You don't have to keep knocking it down; you can work with it. "One of the trade union leaders ... selected was [the] secretary of the Professional Divers Association. It has 200 members. Why would you send somebody from such a small union to go to this sort of program? ... that union has the responsibility to hook up under the water the North-West Shelf [oil deposit]. If that union chose to be militant and try to wreck the system it would be within their means. Therefore, to have a man setting up that union who has a wide view of the social responsibilities of the union movement is in his union's benefit and Australia's benefit." A Harvard Foundation position paper for the initiated went even further. It was highly critical of Australian unions, claiming that 70% of all work stoppages were attributable to demarcation disputes. It blamed these "counter-productive" disruptions [in part] on inadequately trained union officials and argued that "it is vital to foster an increase in the number of qualified union professionals to respond to future challenges of a predictable nature in Australia. For this reason the Foundation was formed". It went on: "To a man [no women here] the union officials who graduated from the Harvard course stated: "it was the best training a union official can obtain, the kind that makes him a reliable professional in every sense of the word ... the lack of qualitative education for union officials in Australia is a prime cause of unnecessarily volatile industrial relations". So there you have it. A blue-print for the union movement in Australia's "new look" Labor Party. There are no legitimate reasons why Australian unionists should go on US tours and courses to learn about unionism. When Australian union leaders go to the US they really go to learn about anti-unionism. Activists should not be surprised at this example of US intrusion in our domestic affairs. From Washington's point of view, especially with a compliant right-wing Labor government in power, Australia is a pushover. It represents an important resource for economic exploitation and a stable platform for unlimited military bases in the Asia-Pacific region. And Washington is making sure we stay that way. The Harvard Foundation graduates — including Willis — learned their lesson well, faithfully carrying out the policies of international finance capital. Australia's carefully constructed and very necessary financial controls were thrown overboard, and foreign imports were given open slather, leading to the demise of our manufacturing and rural base. We now have spiralling and permanent unemployment and a new under-class in what used to be one of the most egalitarian nations in the world. Those lucky enough to still have a job are seeing hard-won conditions and wages erode while executive salaries and business profits reach obscene levels. So, did Ralph Willis speak at the real Harvard University, as reported in the Age, or a few blocks down the road at his old Alma Mater, the right-wing manipulative Harvard Foundation run by and on behalf of giant transnational corporations? [Abridged from Hard Facts for Hard Times.]