Strength in solidarity
While the Howard government and Patrick Stevedores are doing their best to smash the Maritime Union of Australia in an exercise which threatens the rights and conditions of all workers, the wharfies are receiving widespread community support.
One of the reasons the MUA is receiving such strong support is its long history of giving solidarity to many progressive struggles. From opposition to apartheid in South Africa and uranium mining in Australia, to supporting the democratic movement in Indonesia, the MUA has a proud record of advancing the cause of workers and the oppressed.
More recently, the MUA has pledged to assist the delivery of containers of food and medical aid to East Timor, which is facing a severe and widespread famine. This contrasts starkly with the Howard government's commitment to prop up the Suharto dictatorship.
Despite the MUA-bashing of the big business media, large numbers of people are turning out at the picket lines to show their support for the wharfies. A great example was the 300 local and overseas participants in the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in Sydney who marched to the picket line at Darling Harbour early on Easter Monday and presented a cheque for $1000 collected at the conference.
Green Left Weekly sellers will be holding speak-outs and campaign stalls in support of the wharfies. Everybody who buys a copy of Green Left Weekly will be encouraged to join the campaign to defend the MUA and the right of all workers to unionise.
Green Left Weekly pledges to continue to provide the best coverage as the fight unfolds, with interviews, reports from the picket lines and detailed analysis of the anti-worker manoeuvres of Howard, Reith and Corrigan. To be kept informed about the wharfies' struggle, a subscription to Green Left Weekly is indispensable. Green Left Weekly -- it's your paper.
