Andrew Ferguson, Sydney
Mass protest action by workers and the community is a vital component to our battle against the Howard government's radical new anti-worker laws. Our campaign so far against the laws has been a resounding success, with half a million Australians taking part in campaign actions, a massive swing in public opinion and strong support for a fairer industrial relations system.
The effectiveness of this campaign has been the result of a multi-pronged approach, with protests, name-and-shame campaigns, advertising, legal challenges, workplace education efforts and broad community alliances.
While all these factors have been important, mass protest action has been the integral element, providing a focal point for organising and a visual expression of our campaign publicly to the community and in the media.
Our next mass protest will occur in Blacktown, in the heart of Sydney's western suburbs and in the marginal Liberal electorate of Greenway. The June 28 day of action, kicking off at Blacktown Showground at 9am, will be the biggest trade union protest ever convened outside the Sydney CBD with tens of thousands of people marching to demand the abolition of Howard's radical workplace laws.
In recent months there has been serious debate within the trade union movement about the role of mass protest action in the campaign against Work Choices.
Several unions initially argued that our resources should be allocated to the High Court challenge or focused solely on campaigning in marginal seats for a change of government in 2007. While there is a universal recognition of the importance of marginal-seat campaigning, most unions are not convinced of the merit of substantial resources going into the High Court challenge ahead of capacity building in workplaces and the community.
June 28 provides another element to our campaign that can involve all workers, not just those living within a marginal seat. The day of action will provide the opportunity for tens of thousands of working people to be actively involved in the campaign, to build morale, to demonstrate the continuing community opposition to these laws and to warn bad employers that we are capable of mobilising to defend our rights at work.
Workers are crying out for an opportunity to be more involved in the campaign, and taking to the streets to publicly fight these laws not only provides this opportunity, it gives a focal point for organising and educating workers. June 28 will allow tens of thousands of working people, whether teachers, nurses, builders or office workers, to have the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder and show that the community is united in the fight against these laws.
A campaign reliant on a handful of opposition MPs whinging in parliament or highly paid barristers arguing points of law in the High Court not only fails to involve the very working people that this campaign is about, and does not have the capacity to defeat the Howard government and their anti-union laws.
In addition to mass protest action, we also need effective protests and community pickets that target selected employers who viciously use these laws to attacks workers rights. Our campaign must teach these employers a lesson that even without legal power we have the capacity to win disputes against bad bosses who show disregard for their workers. Only with this capacity for decisive direct action can we restrict the use of these laws and damage the appeal of slashing workers' wages and conditions.
By protesting in Blacktown on June 28 we send a message to workers and the Howard government that the fight continues and that we have returned to the heartland of working people and are determined to win it back.
If we fail to defeat the Coalition government in 2007, we will encounter another three years of vicious attack on the trade union movement. At this point it will be impossible to argue that our campaign should continue with another three years of marginal-seat campaigning. The reality is mass protest action must be a central component of the fight-back.
Without effective protest action, we risk many workers becoming disillusioned and believing that our campaign has lost momentum and effectiveness.
Let's make June 28 the biggest rally of working people western Sydney has ever seen.
[Andrew Ferguson is the NSW secretary of the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 31, 2006.
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