BY KERRYN WILLIAMS
CANBERRA — Parliament House was beset by protesters again on October 27. The 100 Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) members chanted "What do we want? Aussie jobs!" while marching up the hill to join a 250-strong protest against the Australia-USA free trade (FTA) agreement.
The rally was held the day the fourth round of negotiations for the FTA began. The Coalition government has been enthusiastic in pursuing the agreement — supported by large sections of Australian business.
While, in such agreements up until now, the US has been unwilling to give even minor concessions on agricultural tarrifs and quotas, PM John Howard is betting that his slavish support for the US-led war in Iraq will net Australian businesses something as reward.
The rally was just one part of a campaign the AMWU is running against the agreement, emphasising the argument that the FTA will be bad for Australian business. Placards and banners at the protest read "Howard, Bush, USA — we don't want your FTA", "Advance Australia Fair Trade" and "Aussie dollars stay here".
However, even an FTA good for Australian big business (which anything Howard signs will certainly be), will be bad for working people, here and overseas.
In return for some extra profit to Australia's corporate elite, Howard is intending to sell off many of Australia's social services, so that US corporations can reap higher profits from them.
Many speakers at the rally highlighted these attacks. Prime targets are: the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which US pharmaceutical companies abhor because it drives down their profit margins and reduces medicine to prices even the poor can afford; quarantine laws, which are costing US agribusiness profits; and Australian-produced media, including internet media, pay television and the music industry.
"If we don't protect our culture, no one else will", actor Tina Burstall said.
Greens senator Kerry Nettle called for trade negotiations to take place on the basis of human rights, environmental standards and international labour standards. She argued that the agreement would bring no benefits to Australia.
AMWU national secretary and Australian Council of Trade Unions vice-president Doug Cameron, while arguing that the "benefits of free trade have gone to the big end of town", spent much of his speech arguing that free trade was bad because it failed to protect workers in the Third World. The AMWU is worried that the US-FTA will allow goods produced in the Third World to come through the US and get tariff-free access to the Australian market.
But denying Third World countries the ability to export to Australia will not make life easier for Third World workers. That will only come through better organisation and campaigns by workers to improve standards. Far from helping the Third World, slogans like "Aussie dollars stay here" play upon racist nationalism.
Cameron called for a "nation-building agenda" including industry development, job creation, research and development and immigration. He demanded "an economically and culturally independent Australia" and called for "fair trade, not free trade".
Loud cries of "shame!" greeted Cameron's claim that ALP shadow trade minister Stephen Conroy had welcomed the FTA without even seeing the details.
Cameron stressed that "public protest can make a difference" and highlighted how the WTO negotiations were derailed at Cancun when "developing nations acted collectively to send a message".
From Green Left Weekly, November 5, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.