Battle for Workers Rights in Australia by Aggie Mccallum
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Socialist Fight Issue No. 5 Winter 2010-11 Price: Concessions: 50p, Waged: £2.00 Only a United Anti-cuts Campaign based on strikes and occupations will defeat the Coalition assault Contents Page 2: Editorial: Only a United Anti-cuts Campaign based on strikes and occupations will defeat the Coalition assault. Page 5: Three days in the life of an Unemployed Workers Centre. Page 6: Ireland on the Rack: Defend the welfare state, de- fend the Republican Prisoners By AJ Byrne. Page 7: After the Irish bailout: The financial wolf pack tar- gets new victims By Nick Beams. Page 8: Ireland: The Creepy Millionaires’ Budget By Michael Taft. Page 9: Jimmy Reid: “It cannae be Lenin — he’s deid” Obitu- ary By Tony Fox. Page 12: The Jerry Hicks Campaign: Good Trot, Bad Trot and Trot in the Middle By Gerry Downing. Page 14: Obama’s America: The Furlough—Intent and Im- pact By Jake Cooper. Page 16: Mumia Abu-Jamal, on Pennsylvania's death row for 29 years By Dave Lindorfff. Page 18: Class Struggle in Zimbabwe by Ady, RIL - FI (Zimbabwe). Page 20: Trotskyist Turn in Nepal? By Rajesh Tyagi (New Wave). Page 20: Comment on the above By Ret Marut. Page 21: Women's Oppression: Two opposing views of the sex industry. Page 24: Letters pages. Page 28: Dubstep rebellion - the British banlieue comes to Millbank By Paul Mason Page 29: The Recession and Theories of Imperialism: It has to be Lenin! By Ret Marut. Page 31: Debating the Thermidor: “Me No Dirty Commie” By Gerry Downing. Page 33: Ark Tribe….Battle for Workers Rights in Australia By Aggie McCallum. Socialist Fight is produced by the SF Editorial Board. Signed articles do not necessarily Contact: PO Box 59188, London, NW2 9LJ, [email protected] represent the views of the SF EB. ,đoàn kết là sức mạnh, Jedność jest siła ,اتحاد قدرت است . ,Unity is strength, L'union fait la force, Es la unidad fuerza, Η ενότητα είναι δύναμη ykseys on kesto, યુનિટિ થ્રૂ .િા , Midnimo iyo waa awood, hundeb ydy chryfder, Einheit ist Stärke, एकता शक्ति, है единстве наша сила, vienybės jėga, الوحدة هو ,unità è la resistenza, 団結は力だ", A unidade é a força, eining er styrkur, De eenheid is de sterkte ,אחדות היא כוח ,bashkimi ben fuqine !Ní neart go chur le céile, pagkakaisa ay kalakasan, jednota is síla, 일성은 이다 힘 힘, Workers of the World Unite ,القوة Socialist Fight Page 2 Only a United Anti-cuts Campaign based on strikes and occupations will defeat the Coalition assault cally controlled syndicalism (Unite’s Len McCluskey), parlia- Editorial mentarianism, the British Road to Socialism, (Tony Benn) and ab- ll serious revolutionary socialists must stract theory as a cover for thor- agitate for strikes and occupations as oughgoing right-wing opportun- the basis for the unity of all the local ism (John Rees). and national anti-cuts campaigns to What serious class fighter is not Adefeat the government assault. These are an John Rees and Lindsey German at the CoR conference: supported today inspired by the militant McCluskey in the Unite election and are obviously tracking close expression within the working class of the ur- response of the students in Brit- gently felt necessity to fight to survive the deep- to those elements within the SWP who wanted to support ain to the Con-Dem coalition cuts McCluskey to enhance their careers and ‘influence’. ening crisis of capitalism. But of course the lead- through educational fees in- erships of these local and national campaigns are creases? The students have shown by example, not revolutionaries (despite the protestations of have inspired the ranks of the working class and opposition to the more leftist rank-and-filer Jerry some!) and have in general an ill-conceived radi- have thereby put huge pressure on all trade Hicks for General Secretary of Unite. Their aim cal reformist solution to the crisis and not a revo- union leaders to make some token resistance of was to advance their own careers in the TU bu- lutionary one. In fact most of these leaders are their own. This is what happened in France back reaucracy and so increase the ‘influence’ of the totally opposed to revolution, denouncing those in 1968, but we must work for a better outcome SWP within the labour movement. That path is that propose transitional demands that tend in today. strewn with hidden minefields; we have already that direction as ‘sectarians’ and ‘trouble- seen what it leads by the opportunist trajectory makers’. How could this be otherwise given their The bureaucrats have worked might and main of Jane Loftus, the CWU (post workers union) history of centrist practice for decades? over the years to contain the struggles of their President eventually forced to resign from the members within individual TU regiments using We have to therefore ask these fundamental SWP for backing the CWU Executive in the sell- the ’anti-union laws’ as an excuse. They are top out of the strikes a year ago. Counterfire’s Alex questions of the campaigns. Are they merely down wary of any initiative which may provoke ‘a seeking to address tasks that start and end in Snowdon, in his introduction to Brian Pearce's break-out’ of uncontrollable militancy which classic article Some Past Rank-and-File Move- ‘resistance’ or ‘defence‘? If that be so it is a cor- may/can subsequently then fall into the hands of rect starting point; no rational mind can argue ments, justifies the group’s capitulation to the the rank-and-file militants. This could escape left bureaucrats thus: against making defence of those social gains that their direction and control and then offer the resulted in common welfare interests in today’s prospect of a real fight and real successes to an “There are two basic divisions inside the trade society. Those who cannot defend old gains can aroused and united memberships. unions. One is the division between left and right never make new ones. - including contests between left-wing and right- Students, despite their youth and militancy, start wing candidates for leading positions in the un- The first and most vital question then is; what from a separate existence in an educational then, what is their perspective, to where do they ions. The other division is between the bureauc- environment and are not the working class, racy and the grassroots members.” want to go after ‘resistance and defence’? The cannot substitute for it or become a new second question is insolubly linked to the first; ‘revolutionary vanguard’. They cannot become So the CoR supported a left bureaucrat against a what forms of organisational structures are either junior ranks or officers in this class war more left rank-and-filer because these are two needed to enable that work to proceed in the against the government. Moreover they are unconnected basic divisions of the class struggle! most democratic form which can give voice to fighting on a very limited and politically naïve Two other tendencies are involved in the CoR. the struggles of the ranks of the working class basis, which is itself hostage to many years of The movementist Socialist Resistance (USFI) who and those who fight best for their cause of revo- false hopes promoted by the parliamentary de- had split from Respect over George Galloway’s lutionary socialism? mocracy obfuscation of which Benn and his left- intention to stand for the Holyrood parliament in To win this struggle we must have strikes and talking ilk are front-rankers. Glasgow next May. SR are committed to support- occupations as our basic weapons. To achieve The students are being channelled primarily into ing the Scottish Socialist Party, currently acting as those we must fight the trade union bureaucra- exposing the Lib Dem MPs’ hypocrisy on tuition super grasses for the state and the News of the cies. To effectively fight those we must build a fees thereby taking the pressure off the Tories World to jail Tommy Sheridan. Workers Power rank-and-file movement. That was why we who lead the Coalition. Nevertheless, in their are also involved in an attempt to win some participated in the Jerry Hicks for Unite General size, mobilisation and militancy they have dem- more student recruits. The traditional weakness Secretary campaign and that is what we are onstrated a great latent potential and must be of Workers Power, its lack of working class mem- seeking to build out of the various elements encouraged to adopt a deeper labour movement bers, will only be made much worse by this new that precipitated in that movement and others. orientation and link up with the working class in opportunist orientation. The Coalition of Resistance Conference the various anti-cuts campaigns now proliferating National Shop Stewards Network throughout Britain, Ireland and Europe. The Coalition of Resistance (CoR) Conference on launches its own anti-cuts campaign We must fight the class struggle where it is at, in 27th November has shown by its 1,300 atten- At its Steering Committee meeting on 4 Decem- dance that many old and new factors are on the the mass trade union movement and in the La- bour party. Here putting theory into practice is ber the Socialist Party-dominated National Shop stage and in the audience declaring readiness to Stewards Network (NSSN) decided to form an combine for a fight with the present government. very problematic for Counterfire. It supported Len McCluskey in the Unite general secretary NSSN All-Britain anti-cuts Campaign by 22 votes The conference was organised mainly by Coun- to 16. Against this sectarian move, opposed by terfire, the right wing grouping that split from election and is obviously tracking close to those elements within the SWP who supported him in the Chair, Dave Chapple, and others, the SP put the SWP.