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Issue No. 129 | 22 March 2002 |
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Not So Happy Campers
Interview: Pulling the Pin International: At the Crossroads Unions: A Case Of Lost Identity History: Rocking the Foundations Industrial: Rocky Road Economics: Cracking a Coldie Poetry: The Right Was Wrong Satire: Heffernan�s Evidence Conclusive: Proves He's An Idiot Review: Upstairs, Downstairs
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Cole-Watch Week in Review
 Letter to Howard #1Letter to Howard #2Letter to Howard #3Jump Before You're Pushed
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Unions A Case Of Lost Identity
****************** On the surface the resignation from the ALP of senior Victorian unionist and Secretary of the Electrical trades Union, Dean Mighell, shouldn't be an issue of major consequence. He is just one person and individuals are constantly joining and leaving the ALP for a variety of reasons. Even unions have disaffiliated in the past. But the resignation masks a deeper dissatisfaction within the ALP - both amongst individual members and many affiliated unions. Only time will tell whether that dissatisfaction results in further resignations from the ALP or whether the ALP, through its national policy review (headed by Deputy Opposition Leader Jenny Macklin) and the Hawke-Wran Review into party organisation, is able to convince party members that it will seriously address the underlying policy and organisational causes of the discontent. And discontent there surely is. In the 2001 national election the ALP recorded its lowest primary vote in 70 years. It is my sense that itt simply doesn't attract or inspire the activists who would have once seen it as the first step in their political lives. For the ALP there is a crisis of core values, of knowing what it stands for and ensuring that it is clearly distinguished from the Coalition parties. The blurring of the lines between the ALP and the Coalition was never more evident than at the last federal election. Despite some great policies on paper and some real differences in such areas as industrial relations, many members and supporters perceived the ALP as standing for free trade, for youth wages, for handouts to the private health insurance industry, for mandatory detention and a host of policies that were clearly out of the Coalition locker. This discontent applies in relation to both federal and state ALP and across a range of issues. For twenty years the ALP has either lead the shift toward the right, and since the advent of the Howard Government it has been pulled toward the right. To many activists and long term members Gough Whitlam now looks like a radical. The accommodation in the 1980's with economic rationalism, free trade and privatisation has been followed in the late1990's by poll driven, small target strategies which inspire few and anger many. Added to this is the failure of the party to seriously address the issues of branch stacking, which has alienated many ordinary party members. At the state level the ad hoc industrial relations policies of the Bracks Government and the perception by a number of unions that the government has failed to consult them or address key social and industry issues, while listening attentively to the needs of business, has led to further discontent. As a mostly inactive member of the ALP for over 20 years I too am struggling with the future of the ALP and my place in it. The one truth is that the ALP is the only mass party that has a traditional relationship with workers and which is capable of winning government in its own right. The chances of successfully starting another workers party are small and a split labour movement is not a positive step forward. For unions and individuals to move outside the ALP is to court marginalisation. For that reason alone, there will be very few unions that decide to leave the ALP. But the few who do will join the ranks of a significant number of unions - the education, nursing, finance sector, police and public service unions - who are not ALP affiliated and who concentrate on campaigns on behalf of their members regardless of which political party is in office. In the case of the public sector unions most have made great gains, despite non-affiliation and despite their battles with the ALP in government. For those who move outside there is also the option to form strategic alliances with other parties and progressive independents. As an individual I am constantly torn between the reproach that to change something for the better you must work from within, and the gradual realisation that the values and processes of the ALP today are not those of the ALP that I joined in the early 1980's. Not that the ALP has ever been perfect. It is a party of constant struggle between competing factions and ideas. But gradually the progressive elements in the party have been sidelined by the pragmatists, just as the 'wets' in the Liberal Party were virtually eradicated by the 'dries' in the 1980's. The great strength of the ALP had been that as a broad church it allowed plenty of scope for ideas, debate and participation. Much of that space and policy tension seems to have disappeared. For some in the ALP the disappearance of Dean Mighell will be the cause of celebration. I would argue that the gradual leaching of diversity from the ALP weakens it and weakens the strength of the whole labour movement. It should be a cause of concern. In some respects the policy and values vacuum in the ALP reflects the decline of politics generally. Long gone are the days when organizations like the Communist Party and the National Civic Council stimulated debate amongst unions and the community and those debates were mediated through the ALP. Today, a less ideological and increasingly corporatist approach prevails. If a policy can't make it in the opinion polls, forget it. Little wonder that Senator Brown and the Greens sound attractive to a new generation of activists and socially conscious voters. Opposition leader Simon Crean says nothing will stop him modernizing the party and its relationship with unions. But what does that mean? Isn't the real issue about how the ALP regains its relevance for workers, families and communities? Isn't it about how the ALP conveys a sense of passion and inspiration through policies that sometimes challenge the status quo, rather than by continuing to adopt policies that conform to the right wing economic and social agenda. I agree with Labor frontbencher Lindsay Tanner, who in his submission to the Hawke-Wran review, said that the ALP house doesn't just need a coat of paint; it needs a complete restumping. Many of us are waiting to see if this complete overhaul actually occurs and, if it does, what form it will it take. In that context the ALP leadership would be wise not to simply dismiss the Mighell resignation as the one off act of a disgruntled individual. It should be used as a trigger to rebuild the relationship with unions, to speed up the policy review process and to return to clearly stated core values. Many will be watching the ALP response closely.
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