Carr crashes at rally

Carr crashes at rally

By Dick Nichols

SYDNEY — The central city rally on the November 30 National Day of Action here revealed a new level of hatred and disgust with Labor politicians on the part of the 3-4000 workers present.

State ALP leader Bob Carr, who had publicly opposed strike action on the day, decided that valour was the better part of discretion and attempted to instruct an angry and cynical crowd as to the correctness of his views.

The response was a deafening and unending barrage of whistles, catcalls and abuse. Carr battled on against the rising tide of noise, then lost his cool and abused one heckler, telling him that he should have spent his energy trying to get more fellow workers to the protest.

This was particlularly rich. The rally was "built" by the NSW Labor Council so badly that few knew it was on, individual unions were left to decide what to do and Carr's opposition to strike action was headlined in Sydney's mainstream press.

Carr had been preceded on the platform by Labor Council supremo Michael Easson who had also had to run the gauntlet of heckling, but Easson — more experienced than Carr at handling meetings of this sort — simply put the crowd to sleep with an unrelenting drone of anti-Hewson platitudes.

Easson had earlier been interviewed by the media about Labor Council strategy for the Day of Action. Here the Napoleon of Sussex Street unveiled the Labour Council's "Lethal Weapon One" against the Liberals — ecumenical church services that would give people the opportunity to pray for "sensible industrial relations and fair standards".

Quoth Easson: "A lot of people wanted people on their legs in the street, I wanted them on their knees."

From GLW issue 83