By Andrew Hall
WOLLONGONG — There is a long and proud history of militant working class struggle in the Illawarra. The waterside workers, metalworkers and miners can claim much credit for winning many of the rights working people take for granted in Australia today.
On May 7, a Democratic Socialist public forum brought together workers, students and environmentalists to discuss how to fight the Howard government's current attacks on workers' rights.
Support for others' campaigns and the need to overcome the government's divide and rule tactics was a major theme of the meeting. As Dick Nichols from the Democratic Socialist Party put it, "Howard won't take us all on at once. He is using an ideological offensive along the lines of the current South Australian model ... where one sector at a time is targeted."
Commenting on the revival of MUSAA (Maritime Unionists Socialist Activities Association), Mark Armstrong, branch secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, argued, "The fight must bring workers and political parties together. Workers have to put aside the individualism and despair of the past in order to fight." Discussion also took up the struggle of the Shearers and Rural Workers Union, the ongoing Weipa dispute and the campaign against the Court government in WA.
In the same vein, Damien Cahill from Wollongong University SRC called on students fighting against fees and voluntary student unionism legislation to unite with the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union in its current wage campaign.
The meeting discussed short- and medium-term steps to strengthen the fight back, including supporting the Maritime Union Defence Committees in Sydney and Wollongong, inter-union solidarity, rank and file conferences and militant actions by workers.