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Issue No. 135 | 10 May 2002 |
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The Costs of War
Interview: Squaring Off Industrial: Heroes Betrayed History: At The Coalface International: Wobblies With Chinese Characters? Politics: Dancing with Trotsky Economics: You Are What You Eat Poetry: Alexander's Bragtime Band Satire: Stott Despoja Celebrates Engagement With Minor Party Review: Painting Paradise
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Bosswatch Week in Review Tool Shed
 Heaps and Heaps of Hate MailNo ChoiceWho Rules Australia?No Wrap for Song Comp Abbott's Contempt
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Letters to the Editor Heaps and Heaps of Hate Mail
Unions Hi-jack My Birthday Sunday 5th May How ridiculous Mr Lewis! May Day can't be Hi-jacked, but it can be abandoned. The 1st of May is May Day for millions of workers across the globe. I'm a worker and a union member will protest every year on May Day for my rights in solidarity with the rest of progressive global community of unionists. In a world where corporateled globalisation spreads like a cancer in our comunities, at the expense of jobs, the environment and social services, we need a global response. Unions and progressive organisations have a chance, on their special day of international solidarity to say what we are for, not just what we are against. The real tradgedy is that when millions of unionists around the globe are marching in solidaity to uphold union rights, and fight against racism and corporate greed our NSW unions choose to stay away, although many members came out. I'd like to draw atttention to the distinct lack of police violence in Melbourne on M1 when thousands of unionists took to the streets along side students and progressive community organisations. It really is safety in numbers. I'd also like to make readers aware that Peter Lewis did not actually attend any of the events on May Day. Not the peaceful mass blockade of Australasian Correctional Management (who I would like to remind readers have broken no less then five UN conventions). And, no, he did not see the peaceful blockade being charged without warning by 20 mounted police. Neither did Lewis attend the Unity Rally in Martin Place where speakers and performers from The Wildernes Society, MUA, FSU, Refugee community, Palestininan community, the Trade Union Solidarity Chior and more, raised the issues of corporate globalisation and the complicity of our so-called 'democratic' government. And no, he did not attend the march which visted the offices of John Howard, the Isreali Consulate, the ASX and State Parliament. It seems Peter Lewis has been re-hashing silly stories from the Daily Telegraph and using the usual formula - focus on violence clearly caused by police, just say that the protesters did it and then proceed to totally forget about the real issues that over 1000 brave young people including hundreds of union members were raising on May Day in solidarity with millions around the world. Peter Lewis says "If they want to bring about meaningful change in a Democracy, they should rethink their tactics." I'd like to remind people that some extremely meaningful changes have been won through non-voilent direct action and civil dissobedience. To name a few the eight hour day, voting for women, the MUA dispute and countless other union picket lines. Very few (actually ZERO) meaningful changes have been made in society by re-hashing trollop from the Daily Telegraph. I think that it is apauling that the editorial of a usually good quality progressive publication Workers On-line lacks the spine to cover the issues of corporate globalisation on May Day and be any better than the worst and most anti-worker publication in Sydney - The Daily Telegraph. What are you doing Mr Lewis? Amanda LeMay AMWU Member ************************** Whose Hijacl? On May Day (May 1), the ABC's Sally Loane interviewed NSW Labour Council Secretary John Robertson. When asked about M1, he objected strongly to M1 activists "taking over" May Day, declaring it was a day for "workers struggles" not a day for "other issues." Robertson's comments were echoed in the May 3 editorial of Workers Online, entitled "the hijacking of May Day." "These were not 'May Day protestors' as portrayed in the media," claimed Peter Lewis, but "a couple of hundred political extremists... thumbing their noses to the history of the Australian working class." Who has really hijacked May Day? On May 1 1886, a massive strike wave erupted in the US in support of an 8-hour day. Australian building workers were the first to win this demand in 1856. The capitalists struck back against the striking workers using police to attack demonstrations. In Chicago a bomb explosion was used as a pretext to open fire on workers, killing five. Seven organisers of a mass meeting of striking workers, known as the 'Haymarket martyrs', were sentenced to death by hanging. The 8-hour campaign in the US gave rise to a decision by representatives of revolutionary socialist parties, at a conference in Paris in 1889, to declare May 1 an international day of strikes and street demonstrations in support of an 8-hour day. The Sunday afternoon annual May Day parades are a far cry from the origins of May Day. They rarely focus on advancing the present day struggles of the working class, but rather commemorate past struggles. Lewis claims that M1 protesters made "life hell for ordinary workers - be they the bank workers forced to get to work at 5am or the police officers facing physical danger from juvenile tactics." I personally spoke with one bank worker who had been given the day off by Westpac as a result of the blockade. Standing across the road observing, he was horrified by the violent police attack on peaceful protesters. "The only people who are angry with you are the owners of the building," he said. "The workers are all on your side." As for the police, none of those I observed wrestling with protesters, or knocking down a 90 year old man, seemed to be in any physical danger. On the contrary the orders of their boss, Dick Adams and his boss - Police Minister and former Labour Council Secretary Mick Costa - put large numbers of protesters and observers in immediate physical danger. The truth is the movement against corporate led globalisation has given new expression to the radical tradition of May Day, taking back a day that belongs to us. The brave actions of those who blockaded the Sydney headquarters of corporate giant Australasian Correctional Management - the company contracted to run Australia's refugee detention centres - were rightly given prominence in the international media alongside mass May Day mobilisations from Buenos Aires to Paris, Havana to Rome. Why? Not because they "induced media attention on the threat of violence," but because they tapped in to the best traditions of the Australian working class and workers the world over. They tapped into a sentiment of international solidarity:; solidarity with refugees behind razor wire in Australia;, solidarity with Palestinians struggling to force out their military occupiers; and solidarity with the masses of the Third World made to toil for the profits of the corporate globalisers. In Melbourne, eight thousand unionists, mostly from the militant Victorian CFMEU and AMWU, demonstrated alongside M1 activists blockading the Department of Immigration. Unionists in smaller numbers joined M1 protests in seven other cities. They were there because do not share Lewis' and Robertson's cynicism and acrimony towards M1 activists, but because they too are prepared to demonstrate that another world is possible. Nick Everett ********************* Facist(sic) Banter In response to your article "The hijacking of May Day" I am writing to express my disgust and outrage at your ill informed right wing facist banter. As a concerned unionist, an ardent campaigner for the rights of refugees and a participant in the M1 demonstrations I would advise you to check your facts before leveling accusations at participants of the M1 protests. The majority of the people at M1 were not political extremists but were rather political activists(including a number of union officials) who were willing to put their bodies on the line to demonstrate their disgust at the governments outrageous treatment of Asylum seakers. ] The aim of the demonstration was to stop anyone from entering Australian Correctional Management for two hours to draw public awareness to the refugee issue. The protest only turned violent when the police began pushing protesters against a glass barrier. A number of young women were screaming out in pain, because they were trapped against a glass panel. Several times people asked the police to stop pushing and allow the women to break free. The police did not relent which forced the crowd to surge forward down a driveway to force the release of these women. At that point many people were draged to the ground by the police and the momentum of the crowd. To further add to the chaos police on horses began to ride at the group from the top of the driveway which again trapped people who were trying to escape against the glass barriers. At this point I was dragged to the ground by four police officers and thrown against a wall before being taken into custody for three hours. Why did I participate in such a demonstration? Because I believe with all my heart that children and adults do not deserve to be locked up for seeking refuge from oppresive regimes. I believe that every person regardless of race, colour, age, ethnicity, gender or religion deserve the same opportunites to participate in Australian society that I have. If collective action outside the ACM has even the slightest chance of raising awareness to the suffering of children in detention, then I will be there again and be proud to be labeled a political extremist! I hope that for people like you the safety of your desk and your computer affords you enough protection to safe gaurd you against the growing tide of political extremism which will ultimately result in justice for refugees! Yours Sincerly Mia Kriznic Organiser AMWU ******************** , Divide and Rule As a union member I am outraged by your editorial attacking the M1 demonstration in Sydney. You make several untrue accusations and which serve only to play into the politics of divide and rule promoted by Howard his ilk. The only violence that occurred on the day was an unprovoked attack by the police on demonstartors towards the end of the blockade of ACM. This was corroberated by a widely circulated statement by independent legal observers. Why did the police wait until the end of the blockade to launch their assault? Your accusation that they "were training for intafada" is too silly to comment on. It smacks of the same beligerant attitude shown by the Israeli military to unarmed Palestinian demonstrators In Victoria the Trades Hall Council unions joined the demonstrations and there was no violence. Arguably it was the decision of NSW unions not to join in that left these brave young people open to assault. Your suggestion that workers somehow need to reclaim "May Day" is truely laughable. This and last year's M1 were a breath of fresh air compared to the moribund processions usually organised. Perhaps your editorial's real motive is to reclaim May Day for your old mate and fellow ALP member the civil liberties trashing Police Minister Michael "Dr Evil" Costa and his rampaging thugs. Ben Reid NTEU University of Newcastle **********************
Reactionary I'm writing to complain about your reactionary editorial against May Day protestors. As a worker and trade unionist I found the tone of the article to be shockingly factional and divisive. Why are you attacking the protestors when it is the Liberal government attacking workers and refugees? Next time be a bit more left wing and open minded. Regarding Tom Collins letter, May Day Debacle. Perhaps Pinochet's Chile would have been more to your liking. The police there were provided with all the equipment you described and I hear that they dealt with protestors in a very efficient and business like manner. Thankyou. Joshua Wood *************** Sectarian Bile What Are You Doing Peter Lewis? Last weeks editorial must really be one of the most offensive and hypocritical Peter Lewis has ever written. Sure the mainstream media painted the M1 protest as violent and counter productive but then which political protest has ever been portrayed as anything else by the mainstream media. I certainly didn't think it was a good idea to see horses and their riders brought down by protesters, but then I didn't like the two cavalry charges into the picket line formed around the American multinational prison company either. An 800 kilo horse charging into a picket line can do an awful lot of damage, twelve of them can do even more. In 1998 Richard Court sent the WA Riot Squad down to break bones on the Freemantle docks. The MUA with support from community groups, trade unions and others without a constituency resisted the police attempts to move them on. Force was met with force and the trade union movement celebrated its victory. Workers On Line created after this event hailed it as the greatest victory for Australian workers in living memory. Organised labor in this country is going backwards: Trade union density is down to 22% of workers. 3.3 million full-time jobs disappeared in Australia 1986-1997 Median incomes fell by 12%, while executive salaries went up by 56% The average working week is now 44.5 hours and almost a third of people working more than 48 hours said that work related tiredness was affecting their sex lives! Only this week Tony Abbott announced he is negotiating with the Australian Democrats to shift Labor laws into the domain of corporations law. Surely now we must realize that the trade union movement needs to change the way in which it is relating to Australian workers. Failure to organise unemployed workers, casual workers and the millions of unpaid workers brainwashed by the spin doctors of 'volunteerism' , is a fundamental mistake of the trade union movement in the 21st century. It is in every ones interests to see a vibrant and democratic trade union movement in this country but until we dump the sectarian bile and animosity of people like Lewis we are pushing ourselves further and further away from this outcome. Organised Labor needs to rebuild itself into the networks of activists throughout the country these are the organisation that are growing and filling the void that the trade union left behind in its drift from representing labors interests to managing them. Simon Flynn United Firefighters Union ************************ Bad Journalism Just a quick note regarding the "Workers Online" editorial of 03/05/02. Pretty much all of it was both factually incorrect and politically divisive. I want to comment on two aspects it. 1. The mass media coverage of the event was what you would expect - some reasonable, some sensationalist. As a participant on the ACM blockade what i saw was basically a police stuff up. Poor co-ordination, some hyped up coppers, and the rest is history. To focus on marbles, rather than asking why were horses depolyed on a nonviolent direct action, is the question i would expect the labour movement to be asking. Instead Ii log on to LaborNet and get a version of events lifted from talk back radio. The editor doesn't even have the excuse that other information was not available. Some of the mass media took a much more reasoned approach to the demonstration - which means Peter Lewis actually chose to run the most conservative line he could find. 2. To call the event a hijack of Mayday is ignores two things: the sizable numbers of rank and file unionists who did attend; and the desire of many in the anti-corporate globalisation movement to link up with unions where possible. It is truly regrettable to see Workers Online not only parrot bad journalism, but simulaneously alienate a growing constituency of active people who want to work with (or already work inside) the established labour movement. I'll be there next year, hopefully with more of my comrades from work. Come on down with us Peter Lewis - at least that way you can write from experience. In solidarity. Jim Casey. FBEU member. ******************** Faithful Regurgitation In its response to the M1 protests, Workers Online has set itself apart from progressive media by seeking to vilify and ridicule the 1200 people who came out in Sydney on May Day for both the ACM protest and the Unity Rally and March. Far from broadening the appeal of unions, Workers Online risks alienating a number of important community and activist groups who participated in M1, not to mention a number of NSW trade unions who participated in M1 events. And amid his faithful regurgitation of the worst of mainstream media reportage, the editor has displayed a profound misunderstanding of the growing movement against corporate-led globalisation and the politics of direct action. Recent protests which have adopted the tactics of civil disobedience, far from being "so counterproductive", have helped to bring into the mainstream many issues which would otherwise have remained buried. From Seattle to Melbourne to Genoa to recent protests at Woomera, the actions of thousands of "anti-capitalists" have been a most effective catalyst for widespread debate and discussion regarding the effects of economic globalisation. For example in the weekend reporting of M1, while a Workers Online article entitled "The Highjacking of May Day" attacked "political extremists" thumbing their noses at the history of the Australian working class, a Sydney Morning Herald article entitled "Our Conscience on the Streets" wrote that "It would be facile to dismiss Wednesday's protests as either a student jape or just another outing for rent-a-crowd... the fact that people are taking to the streets in large numbers is surely a welcome sign. A healthy society needs a new generation who take nothing for granted and insist on questioning some of our most comfortable beliefs about ourselves and 'the system'". The blockade of Australian Correctional Management was not, as the editor has claimed, an "orgy of self-indulgence" but a serious action undertaken as a response to the brutal and inhuman treatment of asylum seekers locked in concentration camps around Australia and the Pacific. As such it received good coverage in international media such as BBC and CNN. More broadly, the M1 protests around the country are organised in solidarity with the literally millions of other people and unions around the world who protest and march on May 1. The charge of "highjacking" by Workers Online we consider to be a ridiculous one especially, as in stark contrast to many other places around the world, there are no organised union actions in Sydney to celebrate May Day beyond the official evening toast. There is a need, however, to address the issue raised regarding the claim of "police officers facing physical danger" and the so-called violence of protesters. It should be made clear that both the ACM and Unity Rally actions were legal assemblies, with police being notified according to Section 23 of the Summary Offences Act 1988. M1 organisers liaised with police in the lead-up and assurances were given that the ACM protest would be cleared by 11:30am. The intention to picket the building was made clear by M1 and both the M1 Alliance and the Police informed tenants of the timing and nature of the protest. But while some commercial media obsess over a horse slipping over on marbles, there are more important issues to be considered. Why was it that there were 400 police present at a legal protest of around 800 people at ACM, and why did police smash up and charge the crowd only 45 minutes before it was due to disperse? The M1 Legal Observers Project will be making a detailed complaint to the NSW Ombudsman regarding the actions of police outside ACM. The preliminary findings are that the horse charge by over a dozen mounted police was without warning and resulted in a high level of injuries. Additionally, there were several reports of 'mandibular' holds, which is an illegal technique used by some police officers. It is illegal as it can result in unconsciousness with the associated risk of fatality. As acts of "violence" go, weighed up against an unprovoked charge by a dozen mounted police, the subsequent (albeit unwise) use of marbled in response pales by comparison. The point to be made is that as countless union members over the years who have stood on picket lines have been made aware, you don't rely on the police force to keep the peace, and you don't rely on the mainstream media to cover your issue objectively. We would have expected the editor of Workers Online who is also Labor Council's Media Officer to have been slightly more sophisticated in his take on M1. But most importantly, if Workers Online is willing to aggressively distance itself from the M1 protests, then it will have to set itself apart from a growing international movement which has brought literally millions of people onto the streets since the Seattle protests in 1999. Significantly, if NSW unions are to follow the "lead" of the editor, they will have to set themselves apart from other sections of the Australian union movement notably Victorian Trades Hall Council, which has moved official trade union May Day celebrations to May 1 and sought to engage M1 protesters rather than side with the Right and the most rabid sections of the mainstream media. The M1 Alliance believes that in an increasingly corporatised world, it is the committed grass roots action of thousands of people workplace union delegates, student and community activists, environmentalists, refugee advocates those at the battle fronts of corporate globalisation, which is actually the most important element in a democracy. We would argue that the best way to broaden the appeal of unions is not to adopt a fascination with media friendly sound-bites and gimmicks, but an unashamed commitment to fighting for better wages and conditions, and a willingness to take an active stand on important social issues. While we take issue with the editor of Workers Online, we realise that his opinions are not shared by all those in the union movement. The M1 Alliance congratulates the Unity Rally speakers at M1 in Sydney, especially those from the MUA and the FSU, and thank the NTEU for their formal endorsement. We congratulate the Victorian Trades Hall Council, and the AMWU and CFMEU members who went on strike in Melbourne for May Day. This is the sort of action which we feel is the best way to highlight the relevance of unions and their vital role of keeping in check the excesses of economic globalisation. As stated in our open letter last week, the M1 Alliance wishes to make clear our willingness to work with NSW unions and looks forward to building a bigger and better M1 next year. M1 Alliance *********************** Ed's Reply: OK, the editorial hit a nerve - I'm truly honoured to have a full page of the august Green Left Weekly dedicated to it. And full marks for reproducing the editorial, spirited debate is what it's all about. I'm not going to respond to all the brickbats, but will make the following brief points. (i) As I've stressed to people I've spoken to in the last week, this was not a personal attack on the individuals involved in M1, but their tactics which were dumb, dumb. dumb. Anger and violence always equals bad press. If you want a good run by cheeky, humorous and controlled. Mainstream your message. (ii) There may be a conspiracy by the media and police to paint M1 as aggressors; but by placing yourselves in the situation of blockading buildings and running menacing pre-publicity about training from the Intifada, you are asking for it. You are inducing media interest through the threat of violence and then complaining when that's what the media reports. (iii) For all the criticism in these letters, I've been overwhelmed with support for the editorial from those within the union movement. What this says to me is that there is a clash of cultures going on. One Group 'declaring' they will make May Day 'their' day is jarring to those who have worked within the clunky institutions of the movement and try to make them work. (iv) The union door is not closed to M1 - ideas like the Sydney Social Forum are a great way of building bridges and understanding of two very different cultures. But don't just proclaim yourselves the defenders of workers. The union movement represent two million workers some conservative, many progressive, a few revolutionary. Understand our constituency and work with us, don't just blunder in and expect every worker to smash the state. PL
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