BY PETER BOYLE
SYDNEY — The racist hysteria and red-baiting by the pro-war media were to be expected after the police aggression during Sydney's Books Not Bombs protest on March 26. The following resolution, however, adopted on March 27 without a formal vote by the NSW Labor Council has many shocked anti-war activists:
"NSW Unions tonight called on the mainstream peace movement to distance itself from the organisers of Wednesday's [March 26] violent student rally and is insisting there are no repeat performances.
"The NSW Labor Council tonight endorsed a resolution calling on the Walk Against the War coalition to take steps to ensure similar events are not held in the coming weeks.
"Labor Council delegates will take the resolution to Monday night's [March 31] meeting of the Walk Against the War Coalition, which has over-riding responsibility for the anti-war effort.
"According to onlookers at the rally there was a lack of marshals and general organisation, calculated to create the sort of mayhem that has undermined the message of those genuinely supportive of peaceful solutions to conflict.
"'The reality is that Wednesday's rally has put the peace movement back months — if John Howard wasn't paying these people, then he should be' Labor Council secretary John Robertson said.
" 'We are a mainstream movement, not a group of fringe extremists.
" 'It is important that the mainstream peace movement takes a stand against these fringe elements.
" 'The NSW Labor Council and its affiliates support the anti-war effort provided organisers do their job and ensure that protestors can make their point peacefully and effectively."
"The next endorsed march is the Palm Sunday Peace March on April 13 to be coordinated by all the major religious denominations and the Walk Against the War Coalition."
It is well-known that the NSW Labor Council is dominated by the notorious NSW Labor right faction, but this motion to attack the student protest set a new benchmark for conservative Laborism.
If the motion is carried at this critical Walk Against War Coalition meeting, Books Not Bombs, Students Against War, Resistance and other youth activist groups will not stop organising street actions. The Labor Council and Premier Bob Carr's conservative ALP government do not control the movement.
But a decision to endorse the motion would split the movement, warned Nick Everett, one of the Walk Against War conveners, and a member of the Democratic Socialist Party. He told Green Left Weekly, "The students should be applauded and encouraged instead of attacked by the union movement."
Everett added that one of the most disturbing things about the Labor Council motion was its attempt to dampen street protests in the next two critical weeks.
Another of the three WAW Coalition conveners, Dr Hannah Middleton argued in a circular on the WAW e-list:
"I think it is important that we do not cut ourselves off from the great majority of high school and university students. I think that it is therefore unacceptable for us to condemn the protest as a whole.
"I believe our public position should be that we welcome every anti-war activity, including by students. However, we condemn isolated acts of violence, we condemn police intimidation and provocation, and we oppose any attempt to undermine the right to protest."
Mike Donaldson, NSW state secretary of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) said that his union supports the students' call for an independent inquiry into the "distressing events" at the protest. "My union will continue to build and support peaceful protest as a legitimate means of expressing opposition to the unjust and unnecessary war in Iraq."
Many trade unionists are sending messages of protest to the Labor Council as soon as they see the resolution.
Others who support the students' right to protest include (organisations listed for purpose of identification only): Steve Roach, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union official (Vic) and Moreland city councillor; Michael Thompson, assistant state secretary, general staff, NTEU (NSW); Mick Bull, state management committee, CFMEU (Vic); Chris Spindler, organiser and state council, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (Vic); Craig Johnston, former state secretary, AMWU (Vic); Ray Goodlass , secretary, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus sub-branch NTEU (NSW); Jeremy Smith, president, Ballarat University branch, division executive and national council, NTEU (Vic); Naomi Arrowsmith, organiser, CPSU (NSW); Chris Pickering, chairperson TAFE working group, PSA and delegate to South Coast Labor Council (NSW); J Sita, NTEU, CSU, Albury; Liz Thomson, NUS national education officer; Fred Moore, May Day Committee, Wollongong (NSW); Jan Petroff, Dunoon People for Peace (NSW); Louise Walker, branch committee, Melbourne University branch and national council, NTEU (Vic); and Tim Gooden, delegate, CFMEU and executive member of Geelong and Region Trades and Labor Council; Judy McVey, CPSU.
The NSW Labor Council can be contacted at: telephone: (02) 9264 1691; fax: (02) 9261 3505 or email: <mailbox@labor.org.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, April 2, 2003.
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