Sue Bolton
It is no exaggeration to say that the federal Coalition government's package of vicious laws — attacking workers and unions, welfare support and democratic rights — is the most serious assault on the rights of working-class people in the last 100 years.
Unionists will face jail for basic union organising. Building and related industry workers face a mandatory six months' jail sentence for not answering building industry task force questions.
The welfare cuts will reinforce the anti-union laws by forcing welfare recipients to accept jobs on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) or lose their benefits. The "anti-terrorism" laws are designed to prevent most forms of political protest, including industrial action. Almost anything that trade unions or other progressive groups do could be defined as seditious, with a penalty of seven years' jail.
Despite spending $2-$3 million a day on a propaganda campaign, the federal government has failed to win public support for its draconian laws.
Up to 350,000 people around Australia mobilised against the anti-union laws on June 30-July 1, and the November 15 nationwide protests are set to be even bigger. Workers who have avoided unions for years are joining for the first time, especially in country areas.
How to win the campaign
Early this year, ACTU secretary Greg Combet argued that the campaign should be limited to media and public relations work, and a marginal seats campaign to get Labor elected at the next federal election. Mass protests and industrial action were ruled out because the ACTU leaders thought they would alienate public opinion.
The ACTU's position changed after the success of the June 30-July 1 mobilisation. The huge size of those protests, which were initiated by Victorian and Western Australian unions, fuelled public opposition to the laws and forced the Labor Party to be more vocal against the laws — once it realised there were votes in the campaign.
Public opinion polls show 57% opposition to the new anti-union laws, including one in four Coalition voters. Some unions argue that the extent of public opposition means that the next federal election will be fought on industrial relations and that unions' main focus over the next two years should therefore be to campaign for a federal Labor win. This would be a mistake.
Firstly, there is no guarantee that the next election will be fought on industrial relations issues. PM John Howard is a master at distraction, and it is not beyond imagination that the government could manufacture a "security crisis" on the eve of the next election with the aim of nullifying the electoral impact of majority public opposition to the anti-worker laws.
Secondly, after several months of refusing to commit the ALP to repealing the legislation, finally mass opposition to the laws pushed federal Labor leader Kim Beazley to promise to "tear-up" the legislation if Labor is elected after Howard tabled the legislation last week. However, Beazley has stated repeatedly that a future ALP government will keep AWAs. Federal Labor is also gung-ho in its support for Howard's "anti-terrorism" laws, and state Labor premiers are collaborating with Howard to pass laws that strip away civil liberties.
Thirdly, if the union movement puts all its efforts between now and the next election into getting Labor elected, the IR laws will be able to be implemented with little resistance. That will seriously weaken the union movement and relieve the pressure on both Liberal and Labor to repeal the legislation.
Resistance is necessary
We must continue to organise mass protests like June 30-July 1 and November 15 to demonstrate the strength of public opposition and build maximum unity between working people in the campaign.
But we also have to make the laws unworkable, not just for the Howard government but for the bosses as well. Employers have to be made aware that they will suffer financial repercussions if they attempt to implement the laws.
This means that industrial action is needed and that union organising needs to continue in defiance of the laws. Emergency response networks need to be set up so that solidarity can be quickly mobilised when the IR or "anti-terrorism" laws are used against any worker or union.
We need a true workers' party
Although a Labor government would be preferable to the Howard government, the ALP is no more a workers' party than the Liberal Party. Even in opposition, the federal Labor Party hasn't consistently supported workers' rights, and state Labor governments have attacked workers and unions throughout the period of the Howard government.
Workers in Australia need an alternative to the ALP that consistently defends working-class people's rights. Elections are important, but a genuine alternative workers' party has to be committed to building the opposition outside of parliament. Anti-worker and anti-democratic laws can be defeated, and fundamental rights defended and extended, only when governments confront a people's movement.
The Socialist Alliance was formed in 2001 to begin the process of building such a party. Despite being just four years old, Socialist Alliance has already played an important role in strengthening the campaigns against the anti-union laws and in defence of civil liberties.
Socialist Alliance's key slogan is "For the millions, not the millionaires". If you want a party that consistently defends the rights of working people, join the Socialist Alliance (see advertisement on this page).
From Green Left Weekly, November 9, 2005.
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