Local anti-Howard group formed

MELBOURNE — On May 30, 30 people attended a meeting in Campbellfield, a northern suburb of Melbourne, to launch a local group to campaign against the federal government's attacks on workers' rights and welfare.

Dave Kerin, convenor of the Union Solidarity Committee, told the meeting that the union movement needs to "go back to its roots" and fight the attacks planned by PM John Howard industrially. He cited the mass pickets during the waterfront dispute in 1998 as an example.

National Tertiary Education Union activist John Tully cited the movement against the Vietnam War as an example of a struggle that had defeated a central policy of a previous federal Coalition government.

Maritime Union of Australia Victorian secretary Kevin Bracken discussed the importance of winning public support and of the role of mass pickets in the 1998 waterfront dispute.

To contact the committee phone Tony on 0402 368 739.

Chris Slee

From Green Left Weekly, June 8, 2005.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 629