The National President of the CFMEU, Jade Ingham, did an interview on the Betoota Podcast on 14/10/2024 – essentially it would be fair to summarise that he’s part of the CFMEU fightback but he’s bewildered and feels betrayed by the Albanese Labor Government and the ACTU. The government has appointed an Administrator to take over the union and sacked the Construction Division officials of the CFMEU.
Some background
Government laws to attempt to destroy trade unions is nothing new, it’s been going on for over 100 years in Australia. The CFMEU predecessor and progenitor the BWIU, was deregistered from 1948-1962. They survived with reduced members, less constitutional and award coverage. But the main lesson the leading officials such as Pat Clancy and Tom McDonald learnt from the deregistration period was not to rock the boat again and also to connive with the bosses and government at the expense of other unions.
So when the bosses and Hawke Labor Government attacked the BLF in 1986 with deregistration, administration, seizure of assets, courts, coppers and gaols, the BWIU actively participated in the BLF deregistration and benefitted by forcibly recruiting BLF members with the bosses’ and government’s and coppers’ help.
The creation of the CFMEU in 1991 came out of that, by the ongoing destruction of the BLF, when the course was open to an incremental, amicable, and democratic rank and file amalgamation of the BLF and the BWIU in all States, and in turn with the forestry, mining, energy unions, and later with the maritime unions.
The irony of the current attack on the CFMEU is not lost on former BLF members. The BWIU picked up a rock to drop on the BLF. They set the precedent of supporting the Hawke Labor Government/ACTU interference on behalf of the bosses on the BLF.
The bosses, ACTU and the Federal Hawke Labor Government, NSW Wran Labor Government and Victorian Cain Labor Government actually only enacted draconian anti BLF legislation because of BWIU treachery. The BWIU gave a green light beforehand and their agreement for active participation in destroying the BLF and forcibly taking over its members. This opportunism is a blight on the BWIU’s history and the early history of the CFMEU.
Now in 2024 the CFMEU is faced with exactly the same struggle. The bosses and a subservient Albanese Labor Government and an obedient ACTU have attacked them. Obviously the BWIU/CFMEU leaders should not have let the precedent happen. They should have stood shoulder to shoulder with the BLF. It is a powerful lesson.
Current Situation
With this history we can see the bosses and their governments have been down this road before and have been emboldened by past success. They have streamlined and refined their tactics to attack the CFMEU and so reduce hard-won construction workers’ wages and conditions. Indeed all workers’ wages and conditions as the attack on the CFMEU is an ominous example to all unions.
The struggle now as it was in the 1980s and 1990s with the BLF, is to get the bosses, government, Labor Party, Liberal Party, media, courts, gaols, administrators out of the affairs of workers’ unions. Hard struggle, getting the workers organised and sticking by basic Union principles is the only way.
What we’re seeing at the moment is a pretty tame campaign by some officials to defend the CFMEU and the workers. Some of the leadership of the CFMEU is attempting to channel ALL struggle into the courts, soft behind-the-scenes dealings with the Albanese Labor Government and the ACTU, submissive dealings with the government-appointed Administrator.
There is a targeting of militant sections of the CFMEU and the promotion of tame officials and rank and file delegates. And rogue unionists are feeding spurious allegations or misrepresenting the facts to the media to support the bosses’ attack.
The grassroots support of the rank and file workers needs to build and refine their tactics. Likewise the support and solidarity of other onside unions. There needs to be the calculated targeting of the major employers who, when their profits are severely affected, will then knock into line the Albanese Labor Government and the ACTU to back off.
The Union is answerable to the workers and not the bosses, media, government. Yes, the workers need to work out the correct strategy. The level of militancy is always determined by motivation of the workers, good organisation especially at the big worksites and good leadership.
Legal Questions
Still the task remains to break free from all the legal shackles such as repressive legislation, fines and penalties, royal commissions and other legal impediments to the right to strike and the right to organise. This is all about defending wages and conditions which the bosses want to reduce and so increase the fabulous profits of the big construction companies, developers and financiers.
The financiers include the big four so-called ‘Australian’ banks who have dominant shareholders such as US Funds, Blackrock and Vanguard, and have tens of trillions of dollars in investment worldwide under management. It is they who are pushing the big construction companies to cut costs at the expense of the workers and pushing the Albanese Labor Government to deliver laws and regulations to cut costs and maximise profits. This is who the Labor Government and the Liberals serve.
It is these huge financiers that are demanding the smashing or restricting of any union who takes the fight to the bosses to defend and extend better wages and conditions. This is a problem not only for construction workers but for all Australian workers as these U.S. multinationals dominate Australia.
The workers defence can be aided by strong legal representation under the current conditions, though under increasing fascist repression that option is reduced. But presently it is important to take full advantage of legal options. The workers are legally tied up like a modern day Gulliver with thousands of restrictions and you fight that anyway you can do it.
There are also questions of democracy and justice, of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the right to a defence. These are basic tenets of the law. But the bosses and their machine care nothing for legal niceties and will break all the rules to attack the workers, their trade unions and their wages and conditions.
Strong organisation at the worksites and well organised industrial action remains the key. The CFMEU is being attacked now because they have been doing a job for the workers. Enough of a job to earn the ire and hatred of the bosses and government.
And there has to be a reckoning with the Labor Party who have sold out workers once again. The Labor Party does things that the Liberals can only dream of doing. In effect, the Labor Party says to the employers we can administer the system much better than the other mob. Then the precedents are set and when the Liberals get in again they attempt to enact even tougher anti union legislation.
With the attack some CFMEU officials have gone to water but some officials and rank and file leaders are having a red hot go. There is a sorting out of who’s who in the zoo.
A well organised, hard-hitting fightback needs to be supported.
