Red flags fly in Canberra
BY ANDREW HALL
CANBERRA — With prominent contingents from the Australian Education Union, the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance, and Members First, the rank-and-file group in the Community and Public Sector Union, 100 people marched and rallied with red flags flying through the centre of Canberra on April 29 for May Day.
The theme of the event, which was organised by the ACT Trades and Labor Council, was "Fighting for Job Security". The main speaker was TLC vice-president Susan Carcary, who spoke about how the increasing casualisation of work is putting people's lives on hold, leaving them at the beck and call of their bosses. It should be called "precarious employment, not casual employment", she said.
Carcary also condemned the federal government's outsourcing plans in the public sector, claiming that they will "continue to make the situation worse, and are a deliberate attack on our ability to collectively bargain"
Solidarity greetings were also heard from Jose Luis Minoz, the vice-president of the Chilean Teachers Federation, who thanked all those who had campaigned to try to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to justice.