Alex Bainbridge & Raul Bassi, Sydney
This year's May Day march will be the first opportunity for a major show of public opposition to the Howard government's new anti-worker legislation since it became law.
More than 70% of Australian oppose the new laws and the message of this year's May Day march must be clear: Working people will defend our rights. We can make the new laws unenforceable. We will stop the clock from being turned back 100 years.
The French strikes reveal not only that it is possible to force the repeal of anti-worker laws, but also how it can be done. Unity and militancy are key. If Australia's union leaderships led a serious fight — not only in the courts and the media but, more importantly, on the streets with strikes, rallies, marches and occupations — the overwhelming majority would come in behind, giving Howard and the employers no choice but to back down, just as the French government did.
Even as employers start destroying more people's jobs, wages and working conditions with the new laws, there is still a lot of debate within and beyond the unions about what is needed to defeat the attacks. A growing number of militant union leaders and rank-and-file activists are calling for serious, mass action without further delay. They are building union-community alliances and preparing to stop work to stop the laws.
Union activists in the Socialist Alliance in Sydney are joining with other militants to call on all those who want to help build a campaign that can defeat Work Choices to come together in a broad, united "fight-back contingent" in this year's May Day march. A unified, militant face for May Day will also help build momentum for an even bigger and more effective mobilisation on the ACTU's national day of protest on June 28.
If you don't fight you lose!
[For more information, phone Alex Bainbridge on (02) 9690 1977 or Raul Bassi on 0403 037 376, or email <sydney@socialist-alliance.org>].
From Green Left Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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