By the Crow
This I how I sum up Labor unfortunately.
They brought the army in on the miners strike in 1949. They smashed the BLF in 1986, they brought in scabs in the pilots strike in 1989. The ALP smashed militant unionism through forced amalgamations, introduced trading off award conditions for pay rises. Where they had one man one job they brought in multi-skilling. They brought about industrial-based unions by force then turned around and forced workers to negotiate on an enterprise-by-enterprise basis. In other words, industrial based unions couldn’t use the power of the whole industry to bring about a good outcome for all.
They raised the retirement age to 67 so that working people got another 2 years flogged out of them before they could rest their weary bones.
They have never really supported the unemployed in this country, $40 a day is a disgrace.
They have supported every war the Yanks have started (except the Whitlam government) sending our young Aussie boys to their deaths when Australia was never under any threat.
The Labor party are the ones who changed the media laws so that Murdoch could take control and become as powerful as he has…… I could go on.
Am I anti-worker? No. Do I want to see a better deal for workers? Yes. Do I think Labor can bring real change ? No. We need real change not patched up solutions at best. To start with the union movement needs to become independent of the Labor Party and rely more on industrial muscle to achieve good wages and conditions outcomes. Following the ALP and the current ACTU is like going to the boss with cap in hand. If you look back at the history of Australia and any where else in the world , the best wages and conditions came out of real struggle. Fighting campaigns, not sitting around the table begging with the boss.
Its time for change, time for a real workers’ party that is not just hell bent on getting elected to parliament so that they can get their heads in the trough. The message (from Murdoch) for Albanese after Shorten got knocked off was sit tight, play the game, you will get your turn at the trough. But take me on and I’ll crucify you.
What happened to all the tough talk from Sally McManus (if a law is a bad law it should be broken). She was soon pulled into line and changed to ‘Change the Rules‘. She was seen at every picket line and dispute before the election. Where is she now?
It was all about getting Labor elected and rallying the troops behind Labor. Is she flying around to every dispute now ?? Was she out there at the Coles dispute?
I’ve been a worker all my life, in the building trade. I was an official of the BLF through deregistration. I support workers struggle 100% but I’ll never be convinced the Labor Party is our saviour.
I hope to see more workers getting organised to take on the bosses industrially like the Carlton brewery dispute, as have many others before and many will after. And politically for the future we need real change not bullshit neo-liberalism, Labor or Liberal.
