By Ken Setter
LIVERPOOL, Sydney — Even the rain couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd attending a May 12 rally here against the high rates of unemployment in the south-western region of Sydney. The protest, part of the National Day of Action on unemployment, was held to counter an official $25-a-head gabfest staged by Liverpool City Council at the local RSL.
The alternative jobs summit on the footpath outside the RSL attracted about 30 people representing local unemployed, the Unemployed People's Embassy and Resistance. A local coffee shop owner also joined in, brandishing a hurriedly made sign offering free coffee to unemployed people for the day.
Liverpool's unemployment rates are among the highest in Australia, with 42% of people under 25 without a job and an 18% across-the-board rate compared with the 10.4% national figure.
Speakers pointed out that these figures were only a superficial index of the real miseries generated by unemployment, injustices that show up more in terms of high rates of domestic violence, child abuse and frustration.
Respected Liverpool independent alderperson Don Syme said the situation was "unacceptable and a disgrace to the country". Syme, a campaigner for social justice in Liverpool since the 1930s depression, added that "we must never return to those days".
Summit organiser Ken Setter stated that the Liberals' "answer" to the intolerably high rates of unemployment was a return to the days of dead-end jobs and low wages. "They say we should be competitive with our trading partners but never consider supporting improved living standards for overseas workers", he said.
Setter also spoke out against the destruction of manufacturing industry and the trend for jobs to become casual, low-waged and deskilled. "We must work to change the government's economic rationalist policies before it's too late".
The response of shoppers and passers-by to the footpath "jobs summit" was friendly and supportive.