On June 1, students and young workers around Australia will be leading by example — showing why young people have always been at the forefront of progressive struggles.
The June 1 student strike initiated by the Resistance socialist youth organisation will say "no" to the Howard government's brutal Work Choices laws and its "voluntary student unionism" (VSU) law. It will say "yes" to all those who've had enough and want to take Howard on and resist his rotten laws that will obliterate, in just a few years, wages and conditions that have taken more than a century of hard struggle by millions of working people to achieve.
Many university and high-school students are also workers, and young workers are already super-exploited, being paid wage rates they could not live on if this was their sole source of support. A high rate of casualisation leaves the majority of young workers with no job security. And the fact that most jobs done by young people are un-unionised means that their working conditions are more often than not miserable.
Work Choices will make all of this worse.
Many young people are realising that the campaign against Work Choices is literally a battle for their lives. The prospect of 40-50 years of having to work hours at the boss's beck and call, in unsafe workplaces and with wages that barely cover basic living costs gives young people the right — indeed a responsibility — to take whatever protest action they think is necessary to defend themselves and their futures.
The June 1 student strike is one such action. Of course, much more will be needed to push Howard back, but students will be sending an important message to all of us suffering under the Howard government's attacks: We must draw the line in the sand now; we must stop Howard; and we can all play a role.
Undoubtedly, there will be attempts to punish some of the young people who join the protests on June 1 — by parents, teachers or bosses. For taking a stand, they will be made to feel their relative powerlessness in a society that refuses 15, 16 and 17 year-olds the right to vote, yet gives employers the right to exploit them at work.
Green Left Weekly stands 100% in solidarity with all the young people who walk out on June 1. Their courage is an inspiration and their clear understanding that if you don't fight you lose is an example to follow.
The student strike call states: "High school students, university and TAFE students, and young workers taking action together on June 1 will inspire other workers to strike on June 28 — to show Howard that the vast majority of people believe workers have the right to bargain collectively, to job security, and to decent wages and safe conditions. These laws remove the rights and dignity of working people, but by uniting together and taking action, we can defeat them."
The trade union movement must heed this message from young people. Students do not, by themselves, have the power to defeat unjust laws by bringing the economy to a standstill. But they are prepared to put themselves on the line and join with trade unionists fighting back. Such an alliance can win, as the French students and workers recently demonstrated when they forced a conservative government to dump a draconian anti-worker law.
A number of trade union branches have formally endorsed, offered assistance to and are planning to send delegations to the June 1 protests. This is to be welcomed and sets an example of how such an alliance can be forged.
The June 1 student and young workers' strike is one of a number of activities in June aimed at building the June 28 ACTU-called national day of action against Work Choices into a massive protest that the government and bosses cannot ignore and that will give working people even more confidence to take further action to defeat Howard's attacks.
Young people will take a stand on June 1. The rest of us need to join them on June 28.
From Green Left Weekly, May 31, 2006.
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