OVER 100,000 workers marched through Melbourne on 30 June, against
the imminent attacks of the Federal Government of John Howard under the
new Industrial Relations legislation.
Steve Jolly, Socialist Party Councillor, Yarra City council,
Melbourne
It showed workers their potential power and will stiffen their
resistance to those arrogant bosses who think 1 July – when Howard’s
right wing government brings in new anti-worker Industrial Relations
legislation – will magically wipe out trade unionism.
The mood amongst those who have already been under attack, such as
the postal workers, who defied court orders to attend the rally, was
loud and defiant. However, the rally was relatively quiet, especially
compared to the Socialist Party/Unite (trade union) rally of school
students last Friday (see last week’s international socialist).
Workers have no confidence in any strategy from their leaders that
means waiting for or relying on a Labor Party (ALP) election victory.
They well remember that the last Federal Labor government smashed unions
and introduced a wage-cutting "Accord".
Workers are willing to fight, if they are convinced their leadership
will go all the way, but are wary of losing pay for a half-hearted
campaign.
Union militants need to offer an alternative to the line of the
Australian Congress of Trades Unions (ACTU) and moderate union leaders.
The Socialist Party argues that we need to pressurise the more militant
union leaders to continue the campaign of industrial action, including a
national 24-hour general strike, to stop Howard. Workers also need a
genuine political alternative, a new workers’ party with mass support.
We sold over 500 copies of our paper, which included a four-page
supplement on the Industrial Relations attacks and our strategy to
defend workers’ wages and conditions. Thousands of workers wore our
anti-Howard sticker, including Kim Beazley (embarrassingly for him!),
the Labor Party leader, as seen on the TV news that night.
There were also large demos in other cities including 20,000 in
Perth, 15,000 in Brisbane, 10,000 in Geelong, 7,000 in Adelaide, 4,000
in Hobart and over 1,000 in Darwin.
