Sue Bolton
Union leaders around Australia were overwhelmed by the size of the mobilisations against the federal Coalition government's anti-union laws. Up to 300,000 people joined the protests during the Australian Council of Trade Unions' week of action beginning on June 26.
The bulk of the protests were on June 30, which turned into a national day of action despite the ACTU originally discouraging state trades and labour councils from coordinating protests on this day. Between 200,000 and 235,000 marched on June 30 in Melbourne, Geelong, Portland, Wodonga, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Gladstone, Hobart and Devonport. The following day, more than 100,000 mobilised in New South Wales.
Unions NSW originally decided that there would be no mass rallies, marches or stop-works to coincide with the 219 indoor Sky Channel meetings on July 1. But in the end, the sentiment for action among union members forced Unions NSW to allow a march at the end of the Sydney Town Hall and Parramatta meetings. Other marches went ahead in regional cities.
Most of the NSW meetings were packed to the rafters, with workers locked outside or turned away at many. The ACTU's television advertisements would have had an impact on the size of the rallies, even though they didn't promote the protests. The ads would have alerted workers who haven't been following the debate about the extent of the government's plans. Reports of nationwide protests on June 30 would also have inspired more workers to attend the NSW meetings.
At the beginning of the campaign, the ACTU and Unions NSW officials were opposed to organising any mass rallies, instead arguing that workplace organising was the key thing. They said that rallies are likely to "turn off" the community, because they would only attract male construction workers, who they alleged would be likely to engage in violent action.
Contrary to these slurs on mass rallies, one thing that was notable in all of the demonstrations was that all unions and industries were well represented. The message is clearly getting out that it doesn't matter whether you are a building worker, a factory worker, an office worker, an academic, a driver or a health worker — the proposed industrial relations laws will hurt us all.
The question now is what next? In many cities and towns, the message coming from the keynote speakers on the platforms was to "continue the campaign" and to vote for the Labor Party at the next election. However, this strategy is being disputed by an increasing number of unions, including some that haven't necessarily been regarded as militant in the past.
One of the clearest speeches outlining an alternative strategy to relying on getting the ALP elected was given by Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Western Australian state secretary Kevin Reynolds at a meeting of the CFMEU contingent before marching to join the main Perth rally on June 30.
Reynolds told his members that unionists could not rely on politicians of any ilk. He said that employers should be aware that while PM John Howard was responsible for the laws, it would be those who enforced them who would pay financially.
"If John Howard wants a war with the trade union movement, the war is going to be fought not in John Howard's office, not in parliament house. It's going to be fought over there on Leighton's jobs." He said that contractors Leighton, John Holland, Doric and Pindan construction companies would experience financial pain if they adopted the proposed industrial laws.
Union leaders from the Victorian branches of the CFMEU, the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union voiced similar sentiments at the June 30 rallies.
The July 1 Gladstone Observer reported that many workers in the 2000-strong Gladstone protest called out to their leaders to organise a national strike: "Bring the country to a standstill, then they'll listen."
Motions for national stoppages were carried at the July 1 Wollongong meeting and the Transport Workers Union pre-rally meeting in Brisbane on June 30.
However, Unions NSW secretary John Robertson disagrees with this strategy. After the July 1 meetings, Robertson told ABC Radio's The World Today: "At one point in our history, the answer to the question would have been simple — let's strike, and if that didn't work, another strike, and another."
"Unfortunately", he continued, "the answers to this campaign are not as simple. To stop this attack on our rights at work, we need to shift public opinion. And we need to drive a wedge between the people and this arrogant federal government's attack on workers' rights." Robertson's comments are similar to those expressed by ACTU officials on many occasions.
Socialist Alliance member and Geelong Trades and Labour Council secretary Tim Gooden agrees with the approach outlined by Reynolds. Gooden says that he supports the ACTU's education campaign of television advertisements, leafleting of AFL games and other forms of community education. "That's all vital, but at the end of the day, if we don't tie the community education campaign to the taking of action — both industrial action and mass rallies — the laws will come in and get implemented.
"We need another mass delegates' meeting and we need a national stoppage combined with mass protests around the country, as well as unions organising actions relevant to their own particular industries."
According to Gooden, Howard didn't propose this legislation purely out of a vendetta against unions. "It's primarily because the employers asked Howard to attack the unions, and some of them are even saying that Howard isn't going hard enough against unions.
"We have to inflict pain on the employers, as well as winning the support of all sections of workers and the community that are being bludgeoned by Howard, in order to stop the legislation going ahead, or to make the legislation inoperable.
"[Workplace relations minister] Kevin Andrews condemned the June 30 statewide stoppage as being illegal, but well over 150,000 workers throughout Victoria ignored the government and took stop-work action anyway. They can't jail everyone.
"Now that June 30 is over, we have to go ahead and implement the rest of the resolution voted on by the March 23 [Victorian] Trades Hall delegates' meeting, that there be another action in late August/early September. We need to work out the best date for this and issue a call for it to be a national day of action. We also need another mass delegates' meeting in the lead up to the action."
Chris Cain, Western Australian secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, is also calling for a united national protest. He told Green Left Weekly that "Howard's got to realise he's put on a blue and that these were only our first protests. Next time we've got to make them bigger, we've got to be planning for a united mass national day of action in six or eight weeks, that draws in everybody affected by Howard's attacks, with rallies double the size we just had."
The June 11 National Union Fightback Conference in Melbourne also called for a national day of action in August and mass delegates' meetings around the country.
Some of the actions already being planned include a big union protest in Ballarat on July 30. The NSW branch of the Transport Workers Union is planning a truck convoy to Canberra to protest against the industrial relations laws on August 16.
Students are calling on the union movement to join them in a protest against attacks on trade unions and attacks on student unions on August 10, the first sitting day of the new parliament. Some Canberra trade unionists in the Community and Public Sector Union have begun campaigning for Unions ACT to join with the students and call a big protest in Canberra on this day.
[Sue Bolton is the national trade union convener for the Socialist Alliance]
From Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005.
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