10-18-06, 8:49 am
Significant divisions have appeared in the Howard regime and he has been forced to retreat on a number of issues although neither the dissidents in the ranks of the Liberal Party nor opponents in the National Party are prepared to push their opposition to its logical conclusion.
But these are not the main factors which could defeat Howard and his team of ultra-conservatives and right-wingers.
Clearly one of the main factors is that opposition to the government’s IR legislation is continuing to build and with it actions. The ACTU has already planned mass actions across Australia on November 30 and again in April of next year.
The opposition is also reflected in the upsurge in the formation of Your Rights at Work committees which are attracting widespread community support and participation. In NSW alone, over 40 of these committees have been formed. In Victoria there is widespread involvement of Union Solidarity committees. This trade union-community alliance was the basis for the victory of the MUA in its struggle with Patrick Stevedores and the Howard Government in 1998.
Australia’s own history shows the importance of the involvement of hundreds of thousands of workers and community members. It was the sustained demonstrations and meetings and many other forms of activity that forced the withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s. It was the mass movements in 1951 that resulted in the defeat of the referendum by which the Menzies Government attempted to make illegal the Communist Party during the Cold War. During WW I, it was the active anti-conscription movement that led to the defeat of the attempt by Billy Hughes to introduce conscription for military service at that time.
The present movement against the IR legislation should be supported and encouraged by all trade union leaders and by the Labor Party if the best chance to defeat the Howard Government is to be seized.
There are some who would limit the campaign to the winning of votes in marginal seats but this is not enough and it is not the main form of struggle to defeat the IR legislation. Of course if the Howard Government is to be defeated it will be by votes cast at election time. But activity should not be limited to the parliamentary sphere. The Communist Party supports the marginal seats campaign but believes that the public activity on the streets, at meetings in all sorts of rallies and other forms of creative activity are fundamental.
Let’s use ALL forms of activity and not limit ourselves to just one form.
Having achieved the defeat of the Howard Government and the “ripping up” of the IR legislation as promised by Kim Beazley, the question arises: What is to replace the Howard Government’s laws?
This question is now under discussion within the trade union movement. The ACTU has published a document which sets out six principles. They are: the right to representation; to bargain in good faith; to a democratic voice in the workplace; to legislation covering a wide scope of issues; the removal of restrictions on the right to strike; and access to arbitration as a last resort.
The Communist Party is also discussing new legislation. A leaflet being prepared says that “a new system of industrial relations is badly needed. WorkChoices must be defeated, ripped up and replaced. But with what?”
There is no space in this editorial to even outline some fundamental principles but it is very timely that this matter should be publicly discussed by the whole labour movement so that a new government will not just “rip up” WorkChoices but will also replace it with a new system that is acceptable to the trade unions and the activists who will defeat Howard.
From The Guardian
