By James Vassilopoulos
The rise of the racist, anti-worker One Nation presents a big challenge to the union movement. The federal election will be a further test after the 23% statewide vote One Nation received in the Queensland elections.
Unions, as the organised part of the working class, with their delegates and shop stewards, financial base and journals, can play a decisive role in combating racism.
It is in the interest of unions to stop racism, which is used by bosses to divide working people. It's bosses who encourage and exploit racism by paying oppressed minorities less, using them as strike breakers and diverting the majority's anger at its own exploitation onto scapegoats.
Recently there have been worrying incidents in which unions have compromised with racism or carried out racist acts.
Tony Maher, the new president of the mining and energy division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, said that it would be important for One Nation voters to give their preferences to the ALP.
The CFMEU is affiliated to the ALP. It is coming under pressure from significant sections of its membership in regional mining areas.
Maher said in the Australian on August 11, "Entrenched One Nation supporters should be encouraged to give the ALP their second preferences". The argument for this is that Labor has a better industrial relations policy than the Coalition and it is therefore important to try such appeals in order to get the Coalition out.
This is a position of accommodating to racism, of getting the ALP elected at all costs. It will boost the racists and will further legitimise One Nation.
The journal of the miners' union, Common Cause, has barely mentioned Hanson over the last two years.
The other incident involved the WA CFMEU and AMWU. Both unions have worked with immigration cops to rid workplaces of "illegal" migrants. This strategy is contrasted with the strategy of unions in California, which assist illegal immigrants to gain legal employment.
At this stage these events are the exception rather than the norm of the union movement.
But it is not enough, in this racist climate, to put forward a fuzzy view on the issues. Praise for diversity, tolerance and multiculturalism is not enough.
The Coalition government has been doing this itself — claiming that it is for harmony — yet carrying out racist attacks like cutting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and cutting Asian immigration.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions on August 20 issued a statement opposing One Nation. It described One Nation as an anti-worker party, condemned using immigrants as scapegoats, called for all parties to put One Nation last and encouraged affiliates to work with organisations campaigning against One Nation.
However, when the ALP supported eight out of 10 points in Howard's plan to extinguish native title, the union movement did not speak out. When the Coalition in 1997 cut immigration by 6000, cutting the family reunion program (most of which is Asian), the unions again did not speak out.
The unions must speak out and organise against all forms of racism. How? A start would be to inform and educate workers about what racism is and how it undermines working-class solidarity and benefits the boss.
In the Manufacturing Worker, the journal of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, there has been an ongoing debate about racism.
Officials have come out against racism. Members have written racist and anti-racist letters. Some of the letters have been confused, but the debate is a good thing, as it has discussed who the real enemies are — bosses, rather than migrants — and what political alternatives are open to workers.
Second, unions must oppose every manifestation of racism, including immigration cuts and Howard's amendments to the Native Title Act. It is much easier to oppose racism in the abstract, but to keep silent when concrete attacks occur.
In 1995 the ACTU campaigned for a freeze on immigration numbers, even though immigration had been cut substantially over the previous few years. The implication is that migrants do after all take jobs. This policy, if it still exists, must be changed. (The 1997 ACTU Congress did not adopt a specific immigration policy.)
Third, unions must begin a discussion on the political alternatives for workers. Unions unconditionally supporting the re-election of the ALP will advance the political interests of One Nation, which feeds on dissatisfaction with the major parties. Many workers have not forgotten the ALP's record and see it as the party of austerity, of privatisation, of attacking working conditions and wages.
Union leaders calling for a vote for Labor can only alienate workers further and drive them into the arms of One Nation.
Unfortunately, it looks like the unions will continue their close links with ALP. The CFMEU decided to give $350,000 to the ALP, although this was reduced from the planned $1 million.
There is also the example of the acting national president of the AMWU, Dave Harrison, blaming the rise of One Nation on the media and John Howard. While Howard certainly deserves blame, leaving out the ALP means that union leaders lose credibility amongst workers.
Fourth, the unions must fight, strike and mobilise their membership to defend gains that are under attack. Engaging in class struggle begins to provide real alternatives for workers, which undermines far-right populist solutions.
In April, when the Maritime Union of Australia set up pickets and blocked cargo, One Nation was marginalised. The Hansonites were caught in a bind: either defend the MUA and risk losing their conservative rural support, or attack the MUA and lose their working-class support. So One Nation sat on the fence and remained silent.
When France was in the middle of its "winter of discontent" in December 1995, when millions of workers struck, the racist National Front was also silenced. Racist incidents declined. A cleaner of African origin commented: "Since the beginning of the strike, I haven't come across a single racist".
Finally, the union movement must link up with the organised anti-racist movement and support its actions. It was a big step forward for the labour councils of SA, WA, the NSW South Coast and the ACT to endorse the recent Resistance national secondary student walkout against racism. The SA United Trades and Labour Council went further, calling on unionists to strike for two hours.