RAC: Gillard's actions on refugees reminiscent of Tampa

MEDIA RELEASE

GOVERNMENT STANCE ON ASYLUM SEEKERS IS UNSUSTAINABLE
JULIA GILLARD BRINGS SHAMEFUL REMINDER OF TAMPA

“Julia Gillard’s claim that the Sri Lankan Tamils taken to Indonesia are Indonesia’s responsibility is a shameful reprise of the Tampa incident in 2001,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“The longer this episode goes on the more the Rudd’s policies mirror those of the Howard government. The Rudd government is letting the Liberals set the political agenda. It does no credit to a government that promised to establish a humane refugee policy in place of the divisive policies of the Howard era.

“It is an unseemly and unnecessary political fiasco. What’s more, it is a stance that is unsustainable,” said Rintoul

“Indonesia does not have the resources to deal with asylum seekers. The Rudd government has spent hundreds of millions of dollar to buy Indonesia’s silence, but that can’t last. In the end, just like those detained on Nauru, the world community will judge that the Sri Lankans and other asylum seekers in Indonesia are Australia’s responsibility.

“It is a dilemma and political crisis of the Rudd government’s own making. Rather than bluster about people smugglers and border protection, Kevin Rudd should face up to the fact that asylum seekers are a fact of life. They are not illegal immigrants. There is no flood. Just as the Fraser government took responsibility for Vietnamese refugees, surely it is not beyond the Rudd government to provide similar leadership.

In 2001, the Australian government called for international assistance for an asylum seeker boat in distress. After the Norwegian flagged vessel MV Tampa answered the distress call the then Howard government promptly tried to coerced the Captain, Arne Rinnan, to transport his cargo of asylum seekers to Indonesia. The Indonesian government, understandably, refused. The asylum seekers were eventually dumped on Nauru - so began the so-called Pacific Solution.

“What is not admitted by the Howard government, or stated clearly by the Rudd government, is that the Pacific solution collapsed because of opposition from the Nauru government in spite of million dollar bribes. More particularly it collapsed because no third countries, like Canada or New Zealand, were about to take asylum seekers who were clearly Australia’s responsibility.

“Kevin Rudd’s ‘Indonesian/Indian Ocean solution’ will also collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. But further damage will be inflicted on asylum seekers and the social fabric of Australia if the government does nothing to take a lead to stem the anti-refugee histrionics. Indonesia should let itself be blackmailed,” said Ian Rintoul.

“The Refugee Action Coalition is calling on the government to recognize its responsibilities and bring the Tamil asylum seekers to Australia.”

For further information contact Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

Stop the job cuts in employment services – national protest April 8

Via the ASU website, and http://www.saveourjobs.com.au/ (for some good background analysis, check out this Green Left article).

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Government decision on employment services likely to cause thousands of redundancies, and cuts to other community services

The ASU calls upon the minister to immediately:

• Audit the likely impact of the decision on the employment of staff
• Determine where the changes to employment services are likely to impact broader delivery of community services
• Establish mechanisms to ensure that staff displaced from services which will be stripped of their contracts have preference of employment in new services.
• Agree to provide additional funds to services that will be forced to cut other programs as a result of having employment services removed.
  

In the midst of a global economic crisis it is totally unacceptable for a Labor government to be restructuring its services in a way which will make thousands of staff redundant.

Not only will staff be made redundant but in addition the services that are being delivered to the most vulnerable and the increasing number of unemployed are likely to be cut.

Join the national protest - be part of the solution. Wednesday 8th April at 1pm in your capital city. Download the flyer for details. For further information about the campaign visit http://www.saveourjobs.com.au/

ACT - The Griffin Centre, 20 Genge Street, Canberra
SA - ASU Office, 5-9 Rundle St, Kent Town
QLD - Trades and Labour Council, 16 Peel St, South Brisbane
NSW - Trades Hall Auditorium, Unions NSW, 377-383 Sussex St, Sydney
VIC - Victorian Trades Hall Council, New Council Chambers, Corner Victoria and Lygon Sts, Carlton South
WA - ASU Building, 102 East Parade, East Perth
TAS - ASU Office, 265 Macquarie Street, Hobart
FOR NON-METRO AREAS VISIT http://www.saveourjobs.com.au/

Five reasons why the ABCC must go...

Via Rights on Site:

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Dear Wombo,

Did you know that you are one of nearly 10,000 activists who support Rights on Site?

Thousands of you responded to our survey with ideas for how to win the campaign

You told us you wanted to write blogs and send letters to politicians by email and snail mail, and take to the streets to demonstrate at big rallies all around the country.

But you also told us you need to know more about the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

So we've made a video about the five reasons why the ABCC must go. You can watch the video here.

You can arm yourself with the facts about the Australian Building and Construction Commission and tell your mates, write blogs and send letters to pollies.

It's going to be a big year for the Rights on Site campaign and we are going to have lots of ways for you to stay connected with the campaign and let the pollies know it's time to get rid of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Click here and start by hearing academics and construction workers giving 5 reasons why the ABCC must go.

As electrician Brett Walker says, "Five reasons, do you want to stop there?"

We're not going to stop there.

You can write to us as info@rightsonsite.org.au and tell us why you think the ABCC must go.

At the next Rights on Site rally we'll get up on stage and tell the crowd your reasons why the ABCC must go. Send me your reason to get rid of the ABCC at info@rightsonsite.org.au

Thanks

Dave Noonan and the Rights on Site Campaign Team.

P.S The Rights on Site campaign survey is still open. If you have 30 seconds in your day to help us, you can tell us your ideas about how we can campaign to get rid of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Take the survey here for Rights on Site.

Defend jobs, not profits! - A working-class response to the economic crisis

Socialist Alliance statement

The current economic crisis comes after 14 years of boom conditions, which have delivered a profits bonanza to the bosses. Workers’ share of the national income has declined from 60% in 1978 to 51% today. At the same time, the cost of living has risen significantly.

The bosses are using the global financial crisis as a cover to slash jobs. As the Australian economy heads towards recession, unemployment is rising. The official unemployment figure is predicted to rise to 9% by the end by 2010; the real level of joblessness will be far greater.

Corporate greed

Even though companies like Pacific Brands have received millions of dollars of government subsidies over the years, they are retrenching workers and devastating entire communities in the process, not because they are on the brink of collapse but because their profit margins are down! While Pacific Brands cries poor, its CEO’s pay packet was tripled to $1.89 million, which includes “incentive payments” — no doubt a reward for her success in axing jobs.

The federal Labor government has called for a united response to the financial crisis, asking government, business and unions to work together. Workers have been told that we have lived beyond our means and that now is the time to tighten our collective belts, forgoing wage claims for the sake of the nation. No demands are made on the employers however!

Billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have been allocated to stimulate the economy. Most of this money is delivered as a handout to big business without any real guarantee to retain jobs. Workers are pressured into accepting pay cuts and shorter working hours to help employers retain their profits. In rural and regional Australia, the pressure is especially acute for workers in vulnerable industries.

Stimulus package: job losses for the poor & welfare for the rich

The federal government’s $42 billion “stimulus” package aims to soften the worst aspects of the recession through increasing public spending — but by as little as possible. Fundamentally it is designed to protect private profits. Rudd’s corporate welfare package will not protect workers; it may prevent some job losses but it won’t stop unemployment from rising sharply. At the very least, firms (like Pacific Brands) which take government subsidies should be prohibited from sacking workers.

Who is to blame & who should pay?

The bosses will attempt to force working people to bear the burden of the crisis by:

Threatening workers with unemployment. Calling for wage restraint, demanding that workers moderate wage claims or forego wage increases (such as at the ALCOA plant in Western Australia), to guarantee profitability. The bosses argue that wages must be lowered during the downturn or else workers will price themselves out of the market. But there is no evidence that wage increases automatically lead to job losses or that a low minimum wage will reduce unemployment. The current situation is that companies cannot find buyers for their products and if no market exists, firms will not produce and will consequently not hire workers, no matter how low the wages. What is clear, however, is that lower wages mean higher profits for bosses and companies. What position should unions take? In the face of the global financial crisis, the ACTU’s response has been one of retreat and essentially tails the Rudd government’s pro-business agenda by accepting its calls for wage restraint. Unions must not accept bosses’ claims of financial hardship at face value. We need to demand that companies open their books to workers’ scrutiny — let’s see for ourselves what is really going on. Unions should demand that the government take over firms that threaten to go offshore for cheaper labour (such as Pacific Brands) and run them in the interests of the community. Unions should demand that the government nationalise companies that fail and reorganise them for socially useful production on an environmentally sustainable basis. Unions should demand a shorter working week without a loss in pay, to help boost employment. Unions need to engage in protests and industrial action and mobilise their members to fight to keep jobs, decent wages and conditions. It is especially important that unions vigorously oppose Rudd’s anti-worker, anti-union “Fair Work Bill” and the ABCC which seriously impede the ability of workers to fight back against employer attacks. Massively expand the public sector to create jobs on a large scale But, above all, unions must demand that the public sector be massively expanded. Only this can create permanent, secure, well-paid jobs on the scale we need. This is the only kind of “stimulus package” working people should fight for. For example: Public transport networks need to be massively expanded, both to make our cities fit to live in and to cope with sharply growing public demand. We need to move away from the dominance of the motor vehicle which is helping drive global warming and making our cities into urban nightmares. By training scores of thousands more teachers, class sizes could be drastically reduced and the quality of education radically improved. The state school system would start to win back pupils from the private sector. Our public health system needs a massive transfusion of funds and personnel to be able to provide every single person with free quality healthcare. The artificial hospital beds crisis and the huge surgery waiting lists could be rapidly abolished. Public housing likewise needs a huge shot in the arm to abolish homelessness and to put an end to the criminally overpriced housing and rental market Restructuring our economy and our way of living to radically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and move towards 100% renewable energy as rapidly as possible will create large numbers of new jobs. Tax the rich! The resources for building a better life for all do exist. Since the economic meltdown began absolutely stupendous amounts of money have been thrown at the bosses by governments, here and overseas. In the past, whenever it has been a question of improving pensions, grappling with climate change, providing free quality healthcare for all, or expanding public housing, the cry has always been that we can’t afford it. But when it’s a question of saving the hides of a gang of greedy bosses, suddenly money is no problem at all and mind-boggling amounts have been thrown to the bloodsuckers whose insatiable greed has caused the crisis. At the end of the day, the working class will be made to pay for this largesse by savage cuts to our standard of living. Socialist Alliance says: Make the employers and the rich pay! They can certainly afford it. For too long the big end of town has gotten away with paying minimal taxes on their mega profits. The current business tax rate is a paltry 30% and few firms actually pay anything like this. Restoring it to, say, its original pre-Keating government level of 50% would be a big start in delivering the resources for the necessary large-scale job-creating investments in our public infrastructure. Our tax system favours the well-off through very low tax rates, negative gearing and other concessions. The personal tax scale should be made sharply progressive to stop the rich bludging off society. The highly regressive GST, the burden of which disproportionately falls on workers and the poor, should be abolished.

BHP cries poor and sacks thousands: let affected workers and communities see BHP’s accounts!

January 23, 2009

On January 21, BHP-Billiton – “the big Australian” – announced the sacking of 3400 workers across Australia . The company will close its Ravensthorpe nickel mine and downgrade its Mt Keith nickel sulphide mine in Western Australia. It will slash jobs at a nickel refinery and slash production of coking coal in Queensland. It will also sack 200 workers as a result of abandoning a proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam in South Australia.

In the 2007-08 financial year, BHP registered profits of $15.4 billion. While the company has been hit by the global slump in commodity prices, its profit outlook for 2008-09 still remains rosy, with an expectation of $13.3 billion according to the January 20 Herald Sun.

“Neither the federal government nor the ACTU should stand for BHP now crying poor and sacking so many workers at the cost of lives and communities”, Margarita Windisch, Socialist Alliance national co-convenor said. “They should insist that BHP open its accounts to public scrutiny.

“It should be up to BHP’s workers and the communities that service its facilities to decide what is a ‘reasonable’ profit – not BHP shareholders.”

Windisch added: “BHP-Billiton is hardly on the brink of collapse. The ‘big Australian’ has made billions over the years on the back of Australian workers. It also received millions of dollars of public money in the 1980s from the federal Steel Plan, which it used to restructure and sack workers.

For the Socialist Alliance spokesperson the response from the federal Labor government has been “underwhelming”. Calling an immediate press conference, federal treasurer Wayne Swann described BHP’s actions as “a tragedy” and a “sobering reminder” of the evaporation of the mining boom, but promised nothing.

Yet, apart from the immediate impact on the sacked workers, BHP’s decision will also devastate regional towns in WA and Queensland.

Windisch said: “The town of Hopetoun, which services the Ravensworth mine has been left in tatters by BHP’s decision. Families with large mortgages now face the prospect of their homes being virtually worthless and being saddled with debts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“If BHP is really near collapse, the federal government should step-in and nationalise it without compensation to large investors. Too many workers, too many families, too many communities are affected by BHP’s actions to allow this decision to be made by the bean-counters.”

Windisch concluded: “Where BHP has been affected by the global resources slow-down, it should be obligated to share the necessary work around all existing workers, without loss in pay.

“The Rudd government should also insist that BHP fully reimburses all workers for the cost of lost value of homes, the cost of relocation and retraining on full pay where necessary. For years BHP has had its hand in the pockets of the Australian taxpayer. It’s time that the BHP gave that money back to the community, starting with its own workforce.”

Comment: Margarita Windisch 0438 869 790

Rudd’s White Paper shows we’re still not serious about climate change

Socialist Alliance Media Release, Dec 15, 2008

The Rudd Government’s emissions reduction target of 5 -15 % by 2020 and its decisions to accept a target of 450 ppm CO2e (parts per million, carbon dioxide equivalent) and to give free permits to the worst industrial polluters, are appalling and disgraceful. It must be roundly condemned by the 80% of Australians who realise that immediate and emergency action is essential if we are to save our environment for future generations.

Global warming poses the gravest threat to human existence since remote prehistory. Unless science, industry and political forces work together successfully to combat climate change within the next few years, warming processes already occurring are likely to become impossible to stop. If climate change is not stopped, most plant and animal species will become extinct and advanced civilisation will perish.

If it were to be adopted globally, Australia's 5-15% reductions and 450ppm targets would ensure that the planet passed tipping points for large sea-level rises, temperatures rises of more than 2 degrees and ocean acidification that will destroy the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu. It would also be an economic and humanitarian disaster for hundreds of millions of people without proper food, water or shelter.

If high per-capita emission nations like Australia commit to very modest reduction targets by 2020, the developing world will reasonably argue that their emissions can continue to increase. Australia's position is likely to undermine all the small gains that have been made internationally. At the recent climate talks in Poznan, 49 of the least developed countries advocated a target of 350 ppm, knowing that their countries will be devastated by any higher target.

A target of 450ppm is not even a firm +2°C target, as statistically there is a 78% chance of exceeding 2°. The Socialist Alliance says that GHG emissions must peak by no later than 2015, then fall by at least 5% annually, to achieve a target of 300-325 ppm CO2 and have any chance of stopping the most severe impact of climate change.

The laws of science aren't interested in political compromises and steering "a balanced course". Climate targets must be set according to the scientific imperatives, and putting them through political filters can only imperil the planet.

Socialist Alliance also opposes the government’s reliance on carbon trading as a key tool for reducing carbon emissions. Market mechanisms—which subject emission reduction measures to the short-term pressures of the marketplace—are unsuited in principle to the complex, unquantifiable requirements of preserving the environment.

In the absence of leadership by government, the task of forcing the changes needed to preserve nature and humanity falls to citizens organising, protesting and mobilising independently of the conventional political process. Lobbying politicians with the facts of climate change is necessary, and may at times score successes. But reliable impacts can only be made by demonstrating that large numbers of people are alarmed by climate change, and that they expect governments to act decisively.

Socialist Alliance will continue to campaign for the Government to set stronger and realistic targets next year.

Media contact David White (National Environment Coordinator) 0403 871 082

Email queensland@socialist-alliance.org Web www.socialist-alliance.org

End the Intervention! National Day of Action on Saturday June 21!

from Aboriginal Rights Coalition

Endorsed by the national conference called by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition on Sunday May 25 in Sydney attended by over 200 people.

• Repeal all “NT intervention” legislation


• Restore the Racial Discrimination Act


• Fund infrastructure and community controlled services


• Sign and implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples- Aboriginal Control of Aboriginal Affairs

June 21 will mark one year since the Howard Government announced the NT intervention. Far from improving child welfare, the intervention has created a new wave of dispossession and is compounding social problems.

The Racial Discrimination Act has been suspended, land taken over and business managers imposed on communities.

The universal quarantining of welfare payments, the closure of many Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) and the compulsory acquisition of Aboriginal property has forced thousands of people from their communities into urban centres.

Bagot town camp in Darwin, for example, has increased in population from 500-1200 people since the intervention. People are facing extreme hardship without jobs, services or stable accommodation.
While the Rudd Labor government made a symbolic apology for the Stolen Generations, in practice, it has retained and expanded Howard’s explicitly racist intervention laws. The government refuses to acknowledge the social break down taking place. They continue to deny protection under the Racial Discrimination Act.

Aboriginal people are suffering stark discrimination as they are forced to stand in segregated queues in Centrelink, in supermarkets and in schools. The practice of traditional culture is becoming impossible for many, unable to travel due to welfare restrictions. As Lyle Cooper, Vice President Bagot Community has said, “I thank you Prime Minister Rudd for your apology…(but) it’s an invasion all over again. We are being told where to shop, what to eat, how to act and how to live”.

Communities continue to stand up against the intervention. Scores of representatives from “prescribed areas” traveled to join the 2000 strong Canberra Convergence at the opening of the new Parliament. Many more will come from communities around the Northern Territory to protest in Alice Springs and Darwin as part of the national protests on 21 June.

One of the strongest examples is Yuendumu, where a strategy of non-cooperation has held off repeated attempts by the government to take over local programs and implement “income management”. Jeannie Nungarrayi Egan from the community council has said, “No body likes it, we have to control our own community, we’re going to push out the quarantine”.

Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma recently released a report which demonstrates how NT intervention legislation contravenes numerous UN charters to which Australia is signatory, including International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

In July Jenny Macklin, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs will begin a review of the Intervention. We need to bring thousands of people out onto the streets around the country to ensure grass-roots voices are no longer ignored. The new Government must break with the assimilationist policies of the Howard era. They must act on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A massive injection of funds and resources into communities is badly needed, but cannot come at the expense of basic human rights. Only an approach which respects self-determination will lead to improvements in community life.

Stop the intervention, Stop the Racism - Human Rights for all!

Sydney: 11am, The Block, Redfern

contact Monique Wiseman 0415410558 or Paddy Gibson 0415800586

Alice Springs - Mbantua: 2pm Court House Lawns

contact Barbara Shaw 0401291166 or Marlene Hodder 0889525032

Darwin: 10am Raintree park

contact Liv 0401955405

Perth: 11am Wesley Church, cnr Hay and William st

contact Natasha Moore 0434303248

Brisbane: 11am State Parliament, George st

contact Lauren 0413534125

Melbourne: 12pm State Library

contact Michaela 0429136935

Wollongong: 10am Lowden Square (east side of Wollongong Station),

contact Sheree Rankmore 42281585 or Tina McGhie 0415504589

Adelaide: details tba,

contact John Hartley 0424943990 Sue Gilby 0431112898

Rally endorsed by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition National Conference on Sunday May 25 in Sydney attended by over 200 people.

Support from Aboriginal leaders and activists includes: Barbara Shaw (Mt Nancy town camp, Alice Springs), Lyle Cooper (President of Bagot community, Darwin), Harry Nelson (President, Yuendumu community council), June Mills (Long-grass association, Darwin), Pat Eatock, Brian Butler, Shireen Malamoo, Millie Ingram, Pastor Ray Minniecon, Mitch, Peta Ridgeway, Heidi Norman, Shane Phillips

Supportive organisations include: Maritime Union of Australia (MUA NSW & NT), Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Railway Tram and Bus Union (RBTU NT), Australian Services Union (ASU NT), Top End Aboriginal Conservation Alliance, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR NSW & NT), Indigenous Social Justice Association, Alliance for Indigenous Self Determination Melbourne, Intervention Rollback Action Group (Alice Springs), Aboriginal Rights Coalition (Darwin, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth), Socialist Alliance

Protest Iemma’s power sell-off outside NSW ALP conference

Dick Nichols

9.30 am, May 3, Darling Harbour—be there against Iemma’s power sell-off!

It’s time to apply our pressure against theirs. All the forces in favour of the electricity privatisation proposed by NSW premier Morris Iemma and treasurer Michael Costa have been heavying the delegates to the NSW ALP conference as well as NSW Labor MPs.

Within the ALP the pressure comes from the very top, beginning with Kevin Rudd, energy and resources minister Martin Ferguson and parliamentary secretary and ex-ACTU leader Greg Combet (note to Greg: whatever happened to NSW electricity workers’ rights at work?) All have come out in favour of electricity privatisation.

Within the state government the ministers belonging to the “left” faction (like Ian Macdonald, Linda Burney and John Watkin) also support the sell-off, to the point that Iemma tried to have the “left” component of the 16 parliamentary delegates to the state conference made up of cabinet ministers only!

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· Click here to watch a slideshow of the case against NSW electricity privatisation

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Along with the sticks come the carrots. Iemma is presently working out a new stick-carrot mix for the NSW cabinet. According to the internet gossip sheet Crikey “his advisers believe that he can gain critical backing [for privatisation] within the parliamentary party by rewarding factional hacks with seats at the Cabinet table.”

One obvious ploy would be to give a cabinet position to an MP from the Hunter region, which threatens being as devastated by the sale of the coal-based power industry as the Latrobe Valley was in Victoria. (The only Hunter MP presently in cabinet is hated treasurer Costa).

To date, despite the massive public opposition, only a minority (17 to date) of Labor MPs have come out against Iemma’s electricity sell-off. The spineless majority of the ALP’s “representatives of the people”—petrified at the thought of their parliamentary careers being destroyed by Iemma’s wrath—invoke the fictional rule of ALP parliamentary caucus solidarity to explain their strange silence on the issue.

The only answer to all this filthy pressure coming from the NSW business elite via Iemma, Costa and their “left” cabinet ministers is to strengthen the campaign against the sell-off.

Our most immediate job is to get as many people as possible to the May 3 rally outside the NSW ALP conference at Darling Harbour. The bigger this rally, the stronger the anger with Iemma and Costa that it expresses, the greater the chance of wavering delegates and MPs getting the point that they will have no future if seen to support the sell-off.

The decision of Unions NSW to ask the Sydney May Day committee to shift the city’s traditional Sunday march to Saturday and have it finish outside the ALP conference is a good step towards building the rally.

Over the years May Day in Sydney has become a symbolic stroll through the streets: having it support the May 3 rally against electricity privatisation restores relevance to May Day itself and says that the working class and union movement history it celebrates lives on around the critical issues of the day.

The Socialist Alliance NSW Trade Union Committee will be doing everything it can to build the May 3 protest. It calls on all Socialist Alliance members and our fellow unionists to be there.

Let’s all shake Darling Harbour with a mighty roar of rejection of Iemma and Costa’s power sell-off!

Dick Nichols is the National Coordinator of the Socialist Alliance

Labor Tribune: Victory is sweet, but the Labor left must develop a platform form for change.

Victory is sweet, but the Labor left must develop a platform for change
From Labor Tribune

The last-man-standing of Bush’s coalition of the willing was unceremoniously dumped in last weekend’s Australian election, writes Marcus Strom.

Former Labor leader and party apostate Mark Latham called it the Seinfeld election, an election about nothing. Incoming prime minister Kevin Rudd’s “me-too-ism” aside, there was enough difference between the Australian Labor Party and John Howard’s conservative coalition government for the Australian electorate and the working class in particular to comprehensively demolish the conservative’s hold on Australian politics.

Howard’s “battlers” – traditional working-class voters won to the Liberals in the outer metropolitan mortgage belts – rejected the Liberal-National coalition in a 6.3 per cent swing to Labor. In rural and regional areas, particularly north Queensland, the swing went as high as 15 per cent. Only in the mining boom state of Western Australia did the Liberals hold their own. The middle-class progressive Green Party vote was squeezed, although it will regain the balance of power in the Senate with South Australian anti-pokies campaigner, Nick Xenophon.

Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, defeated by Howard in 1996, rejoiced, expressing his “relief that the toxicity of the Liberal social agenda ... was over” (The Sydney Morning Herald, November 26).

The landslide victory for the ALP in last Saturday’s federal election reopens many political questions that were stifled during the Howard era. Republicanism, indigenous rights, environmentalism, sexual equality. However, the November 24 poll was effectively a referendum on industrial relations with the electorate emphatically rejecting the anti-union laws of the coalition’s Orwellian Work Choices legislation, laws which sought to force workers onto individual contracts and sideline collective bargaining. The ALP has said it will rip up Work Choices, but plans to retain sections of the anti-union laws, including laws to restrict union right of entry to workplaces. It will be up to the labour movement to push home its advantage.

Much of the Liberal’s campaign concentrated on “union thugs’’. The conservatives used images of beer-bellied unionists and the threat of militancy in an attempt to scare the electorate. It backfired. In the face of a grassroots trade union campaign which mobilised union members in strategic marginal electorates, the conservatives were outflanked and trounced.

The defeat of Howard is a victory for the labour movement and the working class but there should be no illusions. The ALP in power under Kevin Rudd will be a party of managerial capitalism. (The Australian share market climbed 2 per cent in the first day of trading after the election.) However, the fact that the unions played such a big role in defeating Howard means that the working class movement should be able to prise open considerable political space, but only if it acts with vision and audacity.

While the unions in Australia are not as strong as they were, this victory puts considerable spring in the step of the labour movement. One of the architects of the Your Rights At Work campaign, Unions NSW secretary John Robertson, can take considerable pride in his role. He is calling for the immediate scrapping of Work Choices in contrast to the peak body ACTU’s more gradual approach.

However Robertson has also rushed to put out the shingle of social peace. Rather than engage in class struggle, “Robbo” wants to “share the peace, not win the war” (The Australian, November 24). Further outlining his agenda he argues there is a “fundamental difference to the way the Liberals and Labor manage industrial relations. For the Liberals it is a battle with an enemy. For Labor it is a process to be managed to develop results that are in everyone’s interests.” Class collaboration in a nutshell.

It is not just the unions that are suing for peace. The new president of the Business Council of Australia, Greg Gailey, said on Monday that “business has worked with unions for a very long time. They’re part and parcel of the community. I’m absolutely confident that we will continue to work effectively with unions” (AM, ABC radio, November 26). A far cry from the “we’ll all be ruined” blather from the bosses during the election campaign. The BCA and other employer groups spent millions in an attempt to win the Howard government’s re-election.

There will be fallout from this campaign as employers seek to deal with the Rudd government. The days are numbered for Peter Hendy, the ultra-rightwing chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Hendy worked for Peter Reith, the former workplace relations minister, who sent the dogs and military against the Maritime Union of Australia in his unsuccessful attempt to smash the waterfront union in 1998. Hendy helped formulate Work Choices. I understand that the incoming ALP government is happy to work with the ACCI, but that Hendy will not even get in the door, let alone to the table. The ACCI board will get rid of Hendy within weeks.

Despite these moves to industrial peace, Unions NSW has vowed to keep the Your Rights At Work campaign going in some form. During the election campaign it collected tens of thousand of signatures in a petition directed at Labor leader Kevin Rudd demanding he rip up all of the Work Choices legislation. Rank-and-file unionists will need to insist that the campaign continues.

Given the disarray of the Liberal Party, Robertson and other militant union leaders may well become something of an unofficial opposition to Rudd’s Blairite path. But such opposition must be principled, thought-through and determined. There is a danger that some unprincipled sections of the labour movement will attempt to push through its agenda under the guise of militancy.

Other issues that decided the election’s outcome were climate change, the war in Iraq, rising interest rates and housing affordability, and indigenous policy. The great unspoken election issue was federalism.

Iraq and the war on terror

On the international stage, most interest has been in the fall of Howard, a staunch ally of US president George Bush and a member of the “coalition of the willing”, which invaded Iraq in 2003. Bush ridiculously called Howard his “man of steel” in reference to his unwavering support for US foreign policy and the “war on terror”.

During the election campaign Howard’s approach seemed to be “Don’t mention the war”. Rudd’s approach - “I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it” – was not much better.

While it is a victory for the anti-war movement that an ALP government will withdraw combat troops from Iraq, Rudd remains committed to increasing military operations in Afghanistan and believes Australia has an important role in policing the ‘arc of instability’ throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific, from East Timor to Fiji. The leadership of the Labor Party remains committed to Australia’s role as US imperialism’s policeman in the region.

The environment

It is somewhat of a paradox that one of the main issues in this campaign was the environment but the Green Party’s vote remained largely stagnant. In the Green’s current form, the party may well have hit its high-tide mark. Climate change, the drought, river and water management, agricultural policy, farm management and a controversial pulp mill in Tasmania dominated the environmental agenda.

Many disillusioned Labor voters have moved to the Greens in previous elections. In this ballot, many would have moved back to Labor to kick out Howard.

Howard early attempted to split the ALP over nuclear power by being a last-minute convert to the reactor as our saviour for climate control. But this wedge backfired and the Liberals dropped the issue.

The environment could well have played out in rural and regional areas hit hard by drought and water restrictions. The ALP successfully painted Howard as a Johnny-come-lately on issues relating to the environment.

Of course, Labor’s commitment to signing the Kyoto protocols is mere window dressing. It signals to the rest of the world that the incoming Australian government wants a seat at the table to negotiate the next round of agreements relating to carbon emissions. The problem, however, is that such agreements are generally an extension of existing power relations on the world stage. Kyoto is about further extending the market into controlling our natural resources, not about seriously addressing the issues of climate change.

Secondary factors in rural areas were the sale of Telstra, the affect of free-trade agreements and the handling of the Australian Wheat Board scandal, where the AWB sent bribes to the Saddam Hussein regime under the UN sponsored oil-for-food program. The minor conservative partner in the coalition, the National Party, lost three seats and is now down to just 10 seats in the new parliament.

End of the Liberal Party?

Labor achieved a remarkable political quinella: the ousting of the government and the ignominious defeat of John Howard in his own seat Bennelong, which he has held for 33 years. Howard becomes just the second prime minister defeated in his own electorate, echoing the fall of Stanley Bruce in 1929. That election, too, kicked out a government attempting to radically overhaul Australia’s industrial relations system.

The resounding defeat of the Liberals has sent them into shock. Labor holds power in every state and territory, and now has taken national government. With some seats yet to finalise, it seems the ALP will hold a 24-seat majority in a 150-seat House of Representatives. The Liberals are riven with factionalism, with the far-right Uglies in New South Wales held largely responsible for stuffing up much of the campaign in Howard’s home state. The discovery that the Liberals were distributing an unauthorised anti-Muslim leaflet, purporting to show Labor’s support for a mosque in the Liberal held seat of Lindsay, was the final nail in the campaign’s coffin. The Liberal Party lost the seat with a 10 per cent swing to Labor. The Federal Police are investigating.

Once on top, Howard ruled his party with an iron fist. This partly explains why Treasurer and deputy leader Peter Costello couldn’t summon the ticker to knock him off. Now Howard retires, leaving his party an empty shell. But is the party over?

It is highly unlikely that the main party of the Australian ruling class will disappear. There may be some blood-letting and years in the wilderness, but with what seems a compliant Labor Party in government, the rich and powerful will take time to rebuild their main political weapon.

In a country like Australia the main ruling class party can only be in power by winning a large minority of the working class to its conservative agenda. (The Labor Party traditionally takes power only if it proves it can rule responsibly in the interests of capital.) Thus it has always been since the advent of universal suffrage. In Britain in the 19th century, the Tories won a large slice of the protestant workers to their side over Ireland and catholicism. At other times it has been over protectionism and free trade. During the Cold War it was anti-communism. At other times open racism or just plain old national jingoism. Recently it has been the “war on terror”.

In Australia, this is called the wedge. Howard’s Liberals have used migration, asylum seekers and refugees in some of the most nakedly chauvinist attempts to retain power. In 2001 they were remarkably successful.

The Liberal Party, however, was not dealt a death blow on November 24.

Kevin Rudd

The incoming prime minister ran an almost faultless mainstream political campaign. Some are comparing him to Britain’s Tony Blair. He may share some of Blair’s political agenda, but he is more alike to John Major in the charisma stakes.

Blair took power in Britain in 1997 and had unprecedented central power as a Labour leader. Rudd is attempting to echo much of this. Like Blair in his early days he is asking that he be considered the education prime minister. Rudd has set education reform as his first cabinet agenda item.

Rudd’s cabinet will be announced on Thursday. There has been much phooey written about this, with just about every political pundit in the press falling for the line that Rudd will name his own people and cabinet will not be determined by the factions. So it’s just a coincidence that Rudd is waiting until after the new ALP caucus meets that he names his cabinet?

Of course Rudd will have a lot of room to manoeuvre, but he cannot escape the tribal political world of the ALP with just one election victory. Factions will be a big influence on the cabinet and, as former PM Keating says, cabinets also have a tendency to pick themselves.

A big difference between Blair in 1997 and Rudd in 2007 is the trade union movement. The ACTU and the unions ran a parallel campaign to Labor. The union campaign started more than two years ago and has been unprecedented in Australian political history for its breadth and organisation. The largest workers’ rallies in Australian history have taken place in opposition to Howard’s industrial relations laws during this campaign. A slick marketing and advertising campaign has been married to concerted grassroots campaigning, with a data base of more than 180,000 supporters.

Despite the impulses to class peace from the union leaders, this is not a campaign that can be so easily turned off. They work quietly – at first – but the unions will expect their pound of flesh from the incoming government.

Rudd, a former diplomat, is a very conservative politician with no background in the trade unions. His initial policy statements are very Blairite, right down to the need to reintroduce compassion to society (but not to immigration policy). Like Blair’s alter-ego Rev ARP Blair, MA (Oxon) in the British satirical magazine Private Eye Kevin Rudd sings from a very similar hymn sheet.

The Labor left

The relative independence of the Labor left is a direct function of the relative political fortunes of the working class. To that extent, the ALP left has practically disappeared in the labour movement. Factions are now more about patronage than principle. It is hard to distinguish just what it is the Labor left stands for now.

However many in the Labor left continue to fight for socially progressive causes. But these are not galvanised into a political platform for Labor and the unions.

As the unions, progressive movements and the left enters into struggle with the Rudd government (as they inevitably will), the left will need to develop a coherent platform for social change if it is to be relevant to these movements.

This is the challenge before us, to do the heavy intellectual lifting and push for a democratic socialist agenda in the labour movement. A movement for a democratic republic and the abolition of state governments, for a treaty with indigenous Australia, for the withdrawal of Australian troops from foreign theatres and the abolition of all anti-trade union laws is the direction we should be heading.

November 27, 2007

Marcus Strom is editor of Labor Tribune

Postscript: the far left

The Democratic Socialist Party’s Socialist Alliance ran in 17 electorates and received an average 0.72 per cent of the vote. In the Senate, it ran in five states, winning 7392 votes overall, an average of 0.08 per cent of the vote. In all practical terms, this is a socially invisible result.

Politically the SA’s platform was in reality indistinguishable from the Green Party. It’s headline campaign issues were: tear up all of Work Choices; make poverty history; no nukes – phase out coal; Iraq and Afghanistan - troops home now; serious action on housing; land rights, not land grabs; end all discrimination; and scrap the anti-terror laws. Nothing different from the Greens there.

On posters during the campaign, the only distinguishable difference was that the Socialist Alliance called for free public transport, whereas the Greens called for “affordable” public transport. The Socialist Alliance also opposed the Australian military’s involvement in the Solomon Islands; the Greens are in favour of this. However, the Greens and SA are at one on the involvement of Australian troops in East Timor. Neither calls for withdrawal.

The Taafeite Socialist Party of Australia ran a single candidate in the seat of Melbourne where it has a sitting councillor. The result was derisory: 396 votes (0.61 per cent). The Healyite Socialist Equality Party also stood there, gaining 280 votes (0.43 per cent). The SEP stood in eight other seats gaining a similarly invisible vote.

Socialist Alliance launches charter to defend working people's rights

Illawarra Socialist Alliance launches charter to defend working people's rights

This Saturday the Illawarra branch of the Socialist Alliance is launching the Workers Rights Charter. In the face of unprecedented attacks on the rights of working people and the lack of genuine opposition from the ALP, the Socialist Alliance is calling on working people to unite so that we, the majority of Australians, can defend our rights through a political alternative to the major parties. Socialist Alliance candidate for Cunningham, Jess Moore and NSW Senate candidate Tim Dobson will be speaking at the event. Moore stated:

"We are told we live in a democracy, yet WorkChoices was introduced despite the fact that the vast majority of people in Australia oppose the legislation.

"WorkChoices has disproportionately impacted women workers. In the six months immediately following its introduction our wages fell to an average of $100 a week less than men. That's the same gap that existed back in 1978.

"And the ALP's IR policy is simply a watered down version of WorkChoices. They have back-pedalled on AWA's, do not guarantee the democratic right of workers to strike, do not fully reinstate unfair dismissal laws and the right of entry for union organisers to the workplace. They've even scape-goated and expelled union officials who've gone public with their objections to ALP policy.

"People keep saying to me - we just have to get rid of Howard. Indeed, a defeat of the Howard government would be a huge boost. However, the last thing we need is to give a blank cheque to the ALP which stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Liberals on all the essentials.

"The campaign to defend Our Rights at Work must continue until we've won all of them."

Tim Dobson added: "We need to defend all those forced onto AWA's who average 90 cents an hour less than those on collective agreements! We need to repeal all anti-union laws, defend the right to organise and fight for job security and equality at work!

"We need a party that's prepared to genuinely defend our interests."

Both candidates have committed to campaigning against the misnamed "WorkChoices" policies throughout the election campaign. They will be speaking at the launch of the Socialist Alliance Workers Rights Charter in the Illawarra, from 2pm on Saturday 29 September at 13 Girvan Crescent, Corrimal.

For interviews contact Jess Moore on 0416 232 349 or Tim Dobson on 0413 928 894


The charter is also available for download as a PDF here.

Riot squad called on sacked workers!

Just when you thought nothing more stupid could be done by the organising committees for capitalism in Australia (known, ironically perhaps, as "Governments"), this happened.

After almost 500 workers lost their jobs, and had all pay and entitlements (including their Superannuation) frozen when their employers - McArthur Express - went belly-up and into receivership, the company locked them out at the gates. They naturally decided to protest.

Now, there a number of ways to deal with this kind of problem. One of them, and the most reasonable in the wombats' eyes, would be to give the workers open slather on the company - they are, after all, owed around a million dollars. Naturally, Capital doesn't think this way and disagrees.

You might even call in the tame union officials - and the TWU all-too-often falls into that camp - to talk them into a kind of vote-ALP supine submission. But no...

The Clever-clogs-that-be decided that in the current climate - what with terrorism, and anti-Howardism, and anti-WorkChoices-ism being so rife at the moment (take, for example the 15,000 workers that rallied in Melbourne today) - it would be best to call in the Riot Squad. And that they did, resulting in two arrests, one woman being injured by over-the-top police violence, and a worker being crash-tackled. (Now, imagine if they tried to pull the same trick in Melbourne today...).

Apparently it didn't go down too well up here either:

Transport Workers Union senior official Mark Crosdale said the mood outside the depot was angry.

No surprise there. Even less surprise, then, ought to be on the faces of employers and ALP MPs when, after the elections (and if Labor wins), they find that workers don't take too kindly to the WorkChoices-lite of "Forward With Fairness". After all, when the "workers' party" provides an "alternative" that includes maintaining the ban on the right to strike, not restoring the right to entry, and maintaining the ABCC - the secret police force used to harass building industry workers as though they were worse than terrorists, who would be surprised?

And, just to leave no doubt as to which side of the locked gates Kevin Rudd falls on, at the WA Labor Party Conference back in June, Rudd was honest enough to point out that:

"When it comes to the construction industry, we support a strong cop on the beat."

No doubt that's a great comfort to the workers at McArthur Express. Once again, the question is posed, if Labor won't put workers first, who will?

Socialist Alliance media release on ALP IR policy

The trade union movement can only rely on itself

“The Australian Labor Party under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard has ceased to be a party that in any serious way can be said to represent the interests of working people in Australia”, Socialist Alliance National Coordinator Dick Nichols said today.

“Those in the union movement who don’t see this, simply don’t want to see it”, he added.

Nichols said that it was “clear as day” that the union movement could only rely on its own strength, and called on all states to follow the Victorian Trades Hall example and call a massive independent union protest against Work Choices on September 26.

“The more the union movement has simply placed its hope in an ALP election victory and worked for it through its marginal seats campaign, the more it has allowed the Rudd-Gillard federal leadership to carry on abandoning pro-union and pro-worker policies”, he stressed.

“Now we have the disgusting spectacle, in the Rudd-Gillard ‘Policy Implementation Plan’ for industrial relations, of Labor maintaining Work Choices’ restrictions on union right of entry into the work place. This simply means that unions will not be able to do their job—bosses will be able to intimidate their employees, run unhealthy and unsafe working sites, and pay below agreed rates.

“No wonder both the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group have hailed the ALP’s plan ‘as an important step forward’—it entrenches the employer’s power in the workplace.”

Nichols said that anyone who doubted this should read the August 28 Open Letter to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Victoria, which describes that union’s experience of workers in tears because they were forced to sign Australian Workplace Agreements that sacrificed their rights and conditions.

Nichols concluded with the comment that “the union movement has poured millions of members’ dollars into ALP coffers to help its re-election, and for this it has received a series of kicks in the head. It is money down the drain.

“It is now time for unionists to call on their leaders for a serious re-evaluation of the policy of using their money to support an anti-union, anti-worker party.”

INFORMATION: Dick Nichols (02 8011 4108)

Aboriginal Leaders' Gulkula Letter to Kevin Rudd

Two letters were written on the weekend at a meeting at Gulkula in Arnhem Land of some of Australia's most respected indigenous leaders, including former Northern Land Council president Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Mandawuy Yunupingu from Yothu Yindi, the "father of reconciliation" Patrick Dodson, Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma and Jackie Huggins, co-chairwoman of Reconciliation Australia.

Some of the top Aboriginal leaders in the country carried the letters to Canberra earlier this week, in an effort to stop the Howard's government's attacks on aboriginal communities from passing through Parliament. The delegation was led by former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment Coordinator Pat Turner and former NT government minister John Ah Kit, and tried - in vain - to meet with Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd before parliament debated the legislation.

Labor voted for it anyway. This is the text of the letter to Rudd:

Mr Kevin Rudd MP
Leader of the Opposition
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Mr. Rudd

Aboriginal leaders meeting at Garma this weekend have called upon the Prime Minister not to introduce the proposed legislative measures to give affect to his declaration of a national emergency in our communities in the Northern Territory.

The safety and wellbeing of all our children is paramount. We understand the need for tackling violence and abuse in some of our communities. Aboriginal people have led the way in addressing these issues in the absence of government support.

If any measure is expected to achieve the desired outcomes, there must be collaboration with community leaders throughout the Northern Territory. However, the Prime Minister’s unilateral action, without consultation or negotiation with us puts in jeopardy our relationship with the Government. It jeopardises the possibility of achieving any sustainable outcomes. The leaders brought to the Garma meeting messages from communities across the Territory expressing our people’s continuing concerns and alarm at the way in which the Australian Government’s intervention is being used to do much more than the intended protection of our children.

We are at a loss to understand how the removal of the permit system and the introduction of compulsory acquisition of our lands have anything to do with redressing the many complex social issues afflicting our communities. It is more likely that the Governments proposals will open the floodgates to illegal alcohol, drug and pornography dealers and to those who intend to prey on Aboriginal women and children.

We are deeply concerned at the severity and widespread nature of the problems of child sexual abuse and breakdown in our communities. But these are complex matters that occurred due to the neglect of successive governments in Australia that require a long term commitment of resources and political resolve on all our parts if we are to achieve the sustainable, positive changes that are so long over due.

We will continue to work collaboratively with Governments and communities to ensure that children are protected, they are our future and we will not compromise that for them. Above all, the role of our families and the need to strengthen and maintain our families must lie at the heart of any proposed solution. The widespread
fear caused by the deployment of Defence Force personnel in our communities will be a long term obstacle to achieving stable, healthy families and communities.

The Governments present intervention is not sustainable and the personnel presently working in our communities will inevitably leave. The impact of this intervention will have serious negative consequences, and one which concerns us most, because of the widespread defamation of all Aboriginal people that has resulted, is that Aboriginal people will lose confidence in any intervention, such as regular visits to medical services.

The Government’s decision to terminate the CDEP and replace it with social security arrangements will affect a majority of those people living on Aboriginal land. The detrimental impact of this new policy will be to force people into townships and communities where Aboriginal housing and services are drastically inadequate and create further dysfunction in those populations. Their policy of making social security entitlements conditional on school attendance and other factors will also contribute to a large transmigration with disastrous potential.

Moreover because the homelands have served as safe havens for families escaping alcohol, drug abuse, criminal behaviour and related dysfunction there will no longer be the option of the protection of their homelands. Thereby, the scale of the problem that concerns us all will accelerate rapidly particularly exposing women and children to greater risk.

We believe that the following steps are a pathway forward in dealing cooperatively with these matters.

Sit down and talk

It is convention upon the declaration of a national emergency for the Prime Minister to visit the affected areas to offer support and to listen to the needs of the people directly affected. Normally, the Leader of the Opposition accompanies the Prime Minister on such visits.

This fundamental courtesy has not been extended to the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory. It is a matter of urgency that, before taking any further action, the Prime Minister come to the Northern Territory and meet with us. We believe that you should seek to accompany the Prime Minister in the event he has the courage to make the trip and meet with our people. Indeed, an earlier request to the Prime Minister on 26 June has gone without even any acknowledgement. Nor has there been any acknowledgement of the preliminary response of the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory sent to the Government on 10 July 2007. We have invited the Prime Minister to meet with us at the earliest opportunity to find a sustainable way forward.

Stop the legislation The Aboriginal leadership meeting at Garma believes that there is no need for the extraordinary legislation that is to be put to the national parliament in the coming week. The proposed legislation has been drafted without any consultation with the people most affected by it – we the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory.

Our people are concerned that the proposed legislative measures will be in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act, and as such, will bring further international condemnation to all Australians.

The permit system

The current permit system allows for all government officials to enter Aboriginal Land to carry out their duties at any time. These permits are issued by The Australian and Northern Territory Governments, not by any Aboriginal Land Council.

No more dispossession

The Government must negotiate with Aboriginal people with legitimate property rights before any compulsory acquisition of our property. The usurping of our property rights does nothing to engender confidence that we are part of the democratic polity of Australia.

This is our land. Australia recognised this in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and further reinforced it in the Mabo and Wik native title High Court decisions. Additionally, the Special Purpose Leases in perpetuity for Town Camps provides the necessary security of tenure for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

We know that Australians support the recognition and protection of the property rights of all Australians, including those held by Aboriginal people. The Government’s intention to remove these rights, however well meaning his proposals to protect our children, will be regarded as deceitful and a betrayal of our children.

We would welcome the Oppositions support in defeating this iniquitous legislation. In the event of the legislation passing in the Parliament we would seek a commitment from the Australian Labor Party to repeal it immediately should you win government. We request that you meet with us on our traditional lands in the very near future. If you are agreeable to such a meeting we nominate Ms Olga Havnen as our contact person.

She can be contacted on 0488107060.

Yours Sincerely




Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu
4th August 2007