90,000 Victorian workers take to the streets
By Roberto Jorquera
MELBOURNE — March 1 marked the death of the state award system here. Some 80,000 people marched in Melbourne and several thousand more rallied in regional centres to protest against the new Employee Relations Act and the savage attacks on state services by the Kennett government.
Despite the lack of official union advertisement, the turnout (about 30% smaller than the November 10 rally) surpassed expectations and renewed confidence in the anti-Kennett campaign, which has floundered since November 10.
The official speeches stressed unconditional support for the Labor Party in the elections. Speaker after speaker, including prominent feminist lawyer Jocelyn Scutt, pointed to the crimes of the Kennett government since its election. She also drew a nasty picture of what a federal Liberal government would look like but did not mention the crimes of the Labor government over the past 10 years.
Other speakers included representatives from one of the teachers' unions, pensioners lobby group and the secretary of the Victorian Trades and Labor Council, John Halfpenny, who received an ovation when introduced to the rally.
Halfpenny said, "This is the second and will not be the last time you will be asked to take to the streets. We will fight and we will pursue the government until we get rid of Kennett and the policies he is trying to impose."
Halfpenny stressed the need to make a "clear choice on March 13" to make certain that the Liberals do not win the elections.
At regional rallies, the numbers were not as high as the November 10 rallies, but the turnouts were still impressive, with Geelong attracting some 4000 people and 1000 attending the La Trobe Valley rally. The lower numbers were due to the Trades Hall policy of "allowing individual unions to organise their own actions", a union activist from Moe told Green Left Weekly.
The La Trobe Valley rally became little more than a platform for the Labor Party's re-election campaign. Only one of the speakers mentioned the need to break with the two major parties and pointed to the New Zealand NewLabour Party and the Alliance as positive examples.
Later in the week, Premier Kennett invited union leaders to join him in a trade mission to Asia and in a "summit meeting" on March 22. The catch is that the unions have to accept that the "reforms" are here to stay. Halfpenny responded that the invitation was an election ploy and that the campaign against the act would continue. The ACTU's idea of such a campaign is to spend $200,000 on television commercials to promote a vote for the ALP.