By Cameron Parker
PARRAMATTA — It may have been a long way from the picket lines on the Sydney wharves, but the police still felt the need to send a senior constable to monitor the situation as supporters of the MUA gathered at a public meeting here on April 24.
Parramatta City Council insisted that public liability insurance for $10 million be taken out by Green Left Weekly before the Town Hall meeting could go ahead. The council apparently feared the meeting would attract mobs of burley wharfies rampaging through the Parramatta mall.
Instead, the 50 people at the meeting heard speeches and a lively discussion about the waterfront dispute. The only things demolished were the arguments of Peter Reith, John Howard and Patrick's Chris Corrigan.
MUA Darling Harbour delegates' committee secretary Jake Haub told the gathering that if the MUA was destroyed by the Howard government, no unionist would be spared from attacks on their wages, conditions and right to organise.
"Go to the picket lines and you'll see that there are people from all walks of life who see this as an attack on democracy; that the use of security thugs with dogs in the middle of the night is not just an attack on the MUA, but is an attack on every body", he said.
Brian Forbes, an organiser with the Community and Public Sector Union, described the waterside workers' history of support for progressive causes. "Now is the time to return those favours", he urged. Forbes outlined how the Howard government has already attacked public servants and warned that worse is to come if the MUA is defeated.
Green Left Weekly's James Vassilopoulos pointed out that the favourable court ruling reinstating Patrick workers resulted from people mobilising in large numbers on the picket lines. This dispute proves that the combativity of the working class is not yet broken, he said.
Vassilopoulos advocated the continued building of the movement that has been ignited by the wharfies' struggle around the country, pointing out that victories cannot be defended against a system hell-bent on union-busting without such a movement.
More than $80 in donations was collected for the wharfies.