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Issue No. 125 | 22 February 2002 |
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Unfair and Dismal
Interview: If Not Now, When? Activists: Fighting Back Industrial: Croon And Divide Politics: Politics of Extinction History: Harry Bridges: International Labour Hero International: Rats in the Ranks Review: Follow The Fence, Find The Truth Satire: Howard Screws Refugee Kids: G-G Turns Blind Eye Poetry: Let It Be
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
 Dirty Politics Won't WashTom's FooleryGive Us a Spray!
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Politics Politics of Extinction
************** According to Lynton Crosby, smug campaign director of the Liberal Party, trade unions constitute a minority voice in the Australian political landscape. He made the claim during a National Press Club function on 21 November 2001.His words were warmly greeted by a simpering audience of government apparatchiks and lobbyists. Elements within the ALP have also run with the idea. Following the party's defeat in last year's Federal election, and in pursuit of the slippery, amorphic, shadowy "aspirational voter", some Labor strategists argued the need for the ALP to scale down or terminate its century long relationship with the trade union movement. A strange sort of tactical response, amounting to an identity crisis, considering the ALP emerged from the trade union movement. Interestingly, these same strategists were silent when it came to explaining how a deunionised ALP might cope without the comfort zone of union contributions, and minus the extraordinarily hard work unions put into supporting the party, particularly during election campaigns. Maybe it is simply the case that the ALP is to roll over completely to the big end of town and reliance on corporate dollars. So far as minorities are concerned, consider this. The Australian trade union movement comprises a tad over 1.9 million people, about 25 per cent of all employees, and is slowly growing. On the other hand the Liberal Party and the ALP are struggling to attract members. The ALP has been reported as having about 40000 members nationally, and the Liberal Party close to being in the same boat. Their appearance of strength does not come from actual members, let alone active members, but from the nature of the two-party Westminster political system, partial funding courtesy of the tax-payer, compulsory voting, substantial donations, bulging war chests that can be splurged in the lead up to elections, a deluge of cynical election promises, and the manipulative power of multi-billion dollar media empires that tend to come down on the side of one or the other. Indeed Election 2001 demonstrated how much the two major parties are electorally on the nose. As veteran community activist Bob Walshe recently agued, over a million voters chose either not to vote, or voted informal. Another million did not bother to enrol for the vote. And a million-and-a-half voted for the Greens, Democrats, or One Nation. All in all a sizeable percentage of the electorate, suggesting the two major parties are facing their own problems of credibility and relevance. Ideologues who employ the trade union/dinosaur metaphor fail to point out that since the 1980s trade unionism has been the target of a sustained, global "forced extinction" campaign, one that has gone hand in hand with the development of global corporatisation. This campaign ranges from the assassination and intimidation of trade unionists in developing countries to the enactment of anti-union legislation throughout the developed world. The aggressive legalistic and confrontationist anti-union programme of the Howard government in Australia, for example, is how the politics of anti-unionism are conducted when you cannot resort to the crude politics of extermination, currently under way, for example, in Colombia. One coin; two faces. A cultural shift also had its roots in the 1980s, and the ideas of 'greed is good' and 'individualism' gained currency in society, promoted uncritically by an increasingly Americanised mass media. The value of sharing and the notion of collectivity that underpin trade unionism became regarded as old-fashioned. Working people were encouraged to transfer their loyalties from their neighbour and work mate to their employer. The corporately loyal, self-contained, individually contracted, atomised ego became regarded as modern, responsible, and the key to national prosperity. In spite of all this the trade union movement globally numbers some 164 million people, arguably the biggest social movement in the world. Total union membership is rising annually in the UK. In the USA there have been notable recent successes organising non-union employees. Indeed there is a broad, if uneven, revival of unionism in the advanced capitalist world. In newly industrialising countries, particularly in Asia, trade union membership has also increased. Furthermore, when trade unions have linked with non-government and special interest organisations, there have often been successful results in specific campaigns, for example on environmental, human rights, and consumer issues. This is an area of trade union involvement the International Labour Organisation has identified as being part of the way forward to a fairer and socially just world. Perhaps if the overall membership level of the Australian trade union movement ever deteriorates to the levels of those of the major political parties, I might give the dinosaur thesis a second look. But until then I will regard the dinosaur/trade union metaphor for what it is: a political device, possibly originating in some corporate padded think-tank, designed to confuse working people, undermine trade unions, and legitimise the anti-union machinations and programmes of corporations and governments.
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