Still worth fighting for!

Bosses’ charter

The revelations from the secret research at the Office of the Employment Advocate have proven what we knew would happen with Work Choices is already happening. Conditions are being lost wholesale through AWAs and bosses are using them to divide us amongst ourselves. In other news, wages are stagnating despite the tightest labour market in a generation and union membership is still declining. The union officials have no answer to the Howard Government’s legislation, even though it threatens to put them out of a job. And this is before the election – many bosses are holding back till after it and after current agreements expire.

The ALP won’t save us

A “Labor” government will be no saviour for workers. Anyone who thought differently would have received a rude awakening as Labor leader Kevin Rudd announced the policy he has decided to impose on the ALP. It could have been written by the Business Council of Australia. It was certainly written to impress them. ALP Governments are just as committed to administering capitalism in Australia as the Liberals are – and that means boosting profits by any means necessary, even if they kick their supporters in the face in the process.

It will take a general strike

The entire apparatus of the State is now geared to crush independent working class action. There are heavy penalties against “unlawful” strikes and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has been equipped with broad new powers to deal with them. Further, there are hoops to be jumped through and clauses banning almost any industrial action likely to be effective. To win, we’ll need to have a general strike, bringing every industry to a standstill and demonstrating that nothing gets done in society unless the workers do it.

Build a rank and file movement

The officials have demonstrated they’re not up to the task. Bureaucratic unions are on the way out – they’re useless to workers and surplus to the bosses’ requirements. We have to rebuild the unions from the ground up, to be run by the rank and file, to be schools of solidarity and to let us fight as hard for our interests as the bosses fight for theirs. This is the path to the general strike we need to defeat Work Choices, and it will point the way to the revolution to create a society based on the liberty, equality and solidarity that a good union embodies today.

THE RANK & FILE HAVE TO TAKE CHARGE