AUSTRALIA
Power to the people campaign builds
Dick Nichols, Sydney
25 April 2009
The successful April 18 “Stop the Sell-Offs!” public meeting of the Sydney Power to the People coalition (pictured) gave the campaign against the privatisation of NSW public services a strong boost.
Eight out of ten people in NSW continue to oppose privatisation of public assets and services.
The 90-strong audience was addressed by NSW Greens MP John Kaye, Maritime Union of Australia state secretary Warren Smith, University of Western Sydney economics professor Steve Keen, NSW Public Service Association assistant secretary Steve Turner, United Services Union organiser Scott McNamara and Paul Doughty from Unions NSW.
People left the meeting more committed to building the campaign to stop Premier Nathan Rees’s fire sale of public services and assets.
Rees’s most immediate target is Parklea and Cessnock prisons.
The meeting also heard from long-standing prisoners’s rights defender Brett Collins. The government was aiming to complete the paperwork for selling off the jails by early June, he said.
Collins also said an anti-privatisation alliance was growing between prison officers and Justice Action, the prisoners’ rights organisation he coordinates.
Discussion focused on campaign strategy. No-one disagreed with making privatisation as big a theme as possible in the next NSW election.
Yet there was also a clear concern that the campaign should focus on blocking the immediate privatisation schemes of the Rees government.
As a result Sydney Power to the People has decided to focus on pressuring MPs, especially Labor MPs, to declare publicly their opposition to the privatisation of public services.
All will be asked to follow the example of Bathurst MP Gerard Martin. Under pressure from the anti-privatisation group People Power Blue Mountains, Martin has repeated his opposition to electricity and prison privatisation.
Power to the People has set May 30 as a statewide “Super Saturday” of petition stalls and actions to build pressure on ALP MPs.
Inside the ALP, the Socialist Left faction has passed a resolution against Rees’ privatisation plans.
Power to the People also agreed to set up a web site that would list MPs’ position on privatisation, and provide campaign news and resources.
Unions NSW has called a meeting of public sector union delegates for May 27.
Sydney Power to the People meets every Wednesday at 6pm, in the AMWU building, 128 Chalmers Street, city. Phone Colin on 0419 698 396 for details.
