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The Thoughts of Chairman MC

Neale Towart trawls the collected works of Michael Costa and looks at his love-hate affair with Marx.

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Given Michael Costa's fondness for global markets and privatisation, and his claiming of Marx as his ally, he should perhaps reread the words of Mark Duffy and himself, quoting Big Karl, in Labor Prosperity and the Nineties.

On page 158, critiquing Laurie Carmichael, they point out, quite rightly, that Laurie inserts "history" as a character in his analysis, "as if history is a conscious purposeful living being" rather than being something that is made. As Marx, said "men make their own history, but they do not make just as they please..." (quoted by Costa and Duffy p159).

Could it be that in lauding globalisation and claiming that Marx "would be a vocal advocate for globalisation", Costa has forgotten that markets are also are a human construct and that we make and unmake social conditions ourselves? A read of the work of an acute observer writing one hundred years after the Communist Manifesto, Karl Polanyi, would provide him with terrific insights into how the current order was made and "markets" came to dominate. It was not a 'natural' event.

Marx could well agree with the notion of one world market, but would probably be in with the unions arguing for international solidarity and strategies to ensure international social justice went hand in hand with that. Advocates of free market globalisation seem to feel you have to have the free trade more than anything else. Why wouldn't people argue that they need consideration before the needs of capital. Costa in critiquing the Accord, favourably refers to Frank Stilwell's comment (from The Accord and Beyond) that the priority of the new Labor Government was to "use the Accord as a means of for restoring the conditions of private sector profitability." Modes of regulation, of the capitalist economy as Geoff Dow reminds us, are "not dictated by logic but are contingent, the balance between political and market determination is not immutable...economics is really politics." (Dow in Everlasting Uncertainty chapter 3).

The different interpretations are an illustration that there are many versions of Marx, not surprisingly since he wrote so much over a long period. Costa's version has validity, but so do others. Dow also points to the side that Costa has moved away from or ignored. Michael Costa would doubtless agree that capital's historic mission is to attempt to maintain the defining capitalist relations of production and labour's mission is to limit the operation of market forces, and to democratize industrial and economic life as much as possible (Capital vol. 3).

However, our Michael is a person of wide interests and has shown his willingness to shift his thinking on the issues, as his move from leading the radical left to the voice of the ALP Right shows. His concern and his wide social views are exemplified by his calls for his new Legislative Council colleague Michael Egan, to have a social audit (response to this is not for publication at present). He also led off Workers Online with a call for more sex. The results of Labor Council's survey showing workers sex lives have been adversely effected by the 24/7 regime of global capitalism. Unions needed to and had the right to take an interest in these issues he said.

Not that he wasn't willing to take criticism. He and mark Hearn republished Drew Cottle's attack on Labor, Prosperity and the Nineties in Reforming Australia's Unions in which the book is written off as "a safe, factitious institutional history of Australia's 'industrial relations' is presented. The power of the Australian bourgeois and their overseas masters are conspicuously absent."

He led the Labor Council into the information age, and got off a few passing shots at the ACTU on the way. His critique of Unions 2001 by the Evatt Foundation was a continuation of his long-standing opposition to union amalgamations and the inherent centralism they promoted. memorably entitled Super Unions: dinosaurs of the information age, he argued that the super union model completely fails to understand the relationship between structure and strategy in unions. What was the strategic need for super unions? There was no clear one and Unions 2001 tries to provide it after the event. The decentralized industrial relations environment ushered in by enterprise bargaining was too much for the super union structure to handle. A focus on the workplace was absent, to great cost to unions and particularly union members. "The super union is part of the problem not part of the solution". His own solution was partly outlined in an earlier article taking on Max Ogden's Towards Best Practice Unionism where he summed up:

"entrepreneurial unions deserve to grow; conversely, poor pe4rforming unions deserve extinction. A competitive market for union services is what the union movement needs, not more nannies."

More recently, he has pointed out the dangers of focusing of organizing at the expense of retention of existing members, a problem highlighted by the research he commissioned as deputy secretary at Labor Council. Half of the members surveyed felt the union failed to effectively communicate. Plugging this leak should be priority one.

Interesting arguments were developed before Labor Prosperity and the Nineties, arguments that got Mark Duffy sacked and caused a huge furore amongst NSW unions. These arguments were further developed in the book. Certain passages show how far we have traveled. In 1989 Costa and Duffy were warning unions about the likelihood of a Coalition federal govt in the year ahead, on top of the Greiner govt in NSW.

"The Coalition is committed to a drive against union power on Thatcherite lines. The agenda includes voluntary enterprise agreements, genuine voluntary unionism, outlawing the closed shop, increasing sanctions and penalties." A few weeks before Costa and Duffy published this, Paul Keating, Treasurer at the time said the Accord had outlived its usefulness and that "the challenge now is to further develop the process whereby enterprises can deal directly with their workforce."

Looking back, with 20/20 hindsight, we should now question who was off beam then, Costa and Duffy or the barrackers for the Accord and the status quo. Who brought in voluntary agreements? - The ALP in its 1993 IR legislation. Unfortunately for unions the ALP accepted the enterprise agreement idea, backed by Kelty, but the model was one developed by the Business Council, not one thought out by the unions.

Whatever we think of his views the good thing was and is that by speaking what he sees as "the bald truth" he makes others think too. That's what unions especially need at the moment.

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  Issue 112 contents

»	Muslim Schools Targets of Hate Attacks
»	Up, Up and Away � Where Does Howard Stand?
»	Revealed: Anderson Ignored Ansett Early Warnings
»	ACTU: Administrator Had to Go
»	Union Official Tragic Victim of Ansett Collapse
»	Entitlements Version 7.0 Still Falls Short
»	Pasminco Latest Entitlements Scare
»	WorkCover: Privatisation Still On the Books
»	Fatigue a Life Threat
»	Egan Faces Prod Over Maternity Rights
»	Patricks Workers in Job Security Win
»	Safety Fears Go Through the Roof
»	Ragged Trousered Scientists
»	Tougher Safety Legacy of Tragedy
»	Stellar Drops Unionism Ban
»	Paint Workers Hit With Injunctions
»	Rort-Friendly Proposals Draw Fire
»	More Sackings But 20,000 Faults To Fix
»	Howard Erects More Voting Hurdles At Eleventh Hour
»	Activists Notebook

»	The Soapbox
»	The Locker Room
»	Trades Hall
»	Tool Shed

»	In Defence of Kiwis
»	UK Unions Mourn Knox Loss
»	Premature Analysis
»	Belly's Turn
»	Rally for Peace
»	John Wayne is Dead

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