'Unions need a political alternative'
By Geoff Spencer
MELBOURNE — Sixty people attended a Democratic Socialist Party forum on August 10 to discuss the state of the trade unions and strategies on how to rebuild the movement.
Steve Roach, general secretary of the Shearers and Rural Workers Union outlined the situation for rural workers and the inability of the Australian Workers Union to defend its members from the employer attacks. It was this situation that led a number of disgruntled AWU members to breakaway and set up the SRWU. Roach stressed that this action should not be applied universally but grew out of the specific problems associated with the AWU.
Dave Mizon, National Union of Workers delegate at the Kemcor Olefins site spoke about the conditions in the petrochemical industry. The effect of Labor's Accord had been to lower the combativity of the workforce and to turn delegates into conduits for employer demands for greater productivity.
"The task for socialists," said Mizon "is to rebuild solidarity between workers". One innovation, began in the petrochemical industry, was the Australasian Refinery Operatives Committee, a cross union, trans-Tasman rank and file structure to forge links between workers in the industry.
Norrian Rundle, DSP member and activist in the VSTA-FTUV (Victorian teachers' unions) Rank and File group continued Mizon's theme. According to Rundle, what was needed in rebuilding the unions was a political alternative. "Unless the ALP stranglehold is broken unions will continue to degenerate," she said. This is illustrated with the massive anti-Kennett demonstrations of late 1992 which were channelled, by Trades Hall, into getting Labor re-elected federally; the movement was consequently demobilised. The publication Solidarity was one tool for facilitating links between union militants who want to rebuild a combative trade union movement, she said.