Fighting the cuts

Fighting the cuts

By Jen Crothers

SYDNEY — Fighting the Cuts, a public meeting convened on September 18 by a new alliance of organisations, was attended by 50 people. Speakers from the NSW Teachers Federation, the Ethnic Communities Council, Public First, Black Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, the National Union of Students (NUS), the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union (NTEU) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) addressed the meeting.

The October 19 Lindsay by-election was proposed as a focus for the campaign, with a consensus that it should not be a campaign for Labor. However, the popularity of the "put the Liberals last" slogan within the alliance indicated the lack of a progressive electoral alternative.

The meeting unanimously passed a motion: "This meeting condemns the anti-social economic policies of the federal government and calls for unions and community organisations opposed to the August 1996 federal budget to unite in action to bring about a reversal of these vicious and anti-social policies.

"As part of a continuing campaign we call for a Week of Action Against the Cuts, to take place from 21 to 26 October 1996. Organisations involved in this campaign will use one day of that week, or the entire week, to:

• raise public awareness of those federal government policies which are an attack on their communities

• gain maximum media coverage for the campaign

• build broad support for the United Rally Against the Cuts which will commence at Town Hall Square at 12 noon on Saturday 26 October 1996."

An amendment calling on the CPSU, NTEU, Teachers Federation, NUS and other unions to organise a general strike on October 23 was narrowly defeated.

From GLW issue 248