Workers and greenies unite

By Trish Corcoran

MELBOURNE — On May 21, 150 people attended an Earthworker public meeting featuring Jack Mundey. Earthworker is a Melbourne-based organisation that mobilises trade unionists around environmental issues.

Many of the objectives of Earthworker are similar to those of the Mundey-led NSW Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) of the 1970s with its famous "green bans".

Mundey said that "eco-socialism" was the only way forward because capitalism, even in its most "advanced" form, is predatory. Mundey applauded the emergence of Earthworker and praised attempts to incorporate a larger number of unions into environmental campaigns. He noted that one of the weaknesses of the NSW BLF was that it did not bring other unions along with it.

Mundey spoke about the significance of urban environmental issues and why a worker-environmentalist alliance is important: 70% of Australia's population live in urban areas. He pointed out that the environment movement is predominantly "middle-class", using the example of the Australian Conservation Foundation board, of which he is the only member from a trade union background.

The meeting was also addressed by Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth, Leigh Hubbard, Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary, and John Cleary, Earthworker's chairperson.

Earthworker will be touring Ron Quantock around green-ban sites in Melbourne. Earthworker can be contacted through Trades Hall in Melbourne.

From GLW issue 363