BY MARCEL CAMERON
BRISBANE — "One hundred years of ALP control of the trade unions is enough" — Community and Public Sector Union delegate Jim McIlroy, who is the Brisbane secretary of the Democratic Socialist Party, told a May 18 seminar. Fifty people attended the Socialist Alliance event, which debated rebuilding the trade union movement and the relationship between unions and the ALP.
"Why should workers continue to donate vast amounts of their hard-earned money to a political party that supports privatisation and job cuts?", asked McIlroy. "Workers are starting to demand an alternative. It's time for unions to reconsider their affiliation to the ALP."
Elliot Moreland, a Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union organiser and a member of the International Socialist Organisation, argued that the rightward shift of the ALP had created a "political vacuum" on the left.
Moreland argued that socialists should support those ALP members who are trying to "bring Labor back to the left", implying such a process is possible. "Without [socialists] being involved, the right-wing of the party will decide policy", said Moreland.
He described the recent decision of the Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to stop payment of affiliation dues to the ALP as a "terrible mistake".
The panel discussion on unions and the ALP was also addressed by ALP Queensland senator-elect Claire Moore, who said: "If the ALP wants the support of unions the party has to earn it".
Queensland state secretary of the National Tertiary Education Industry Union Howard Guille discussed the Coalition government's attacks on public sector workers, pointing out that Prime Minister John Howard knew the union was an obstacle to further privatisation.
He also urged unionists to relate to the changing structure of the workforce, particularly the "new economy" sectors, which are now largely unorganised. He pointed out that many school leavers now expect to work three casual jobs, instead of one permanent job.
Transport Workers Union Queensland branch state secretary Hughie Williams pointed out that after more than a decade of declining union membership, the percentage of Australian workers in a union was now slowly increasing.
Williams argued that his union's recruiting success was a result of its militancy. "A lot of union [leaders] have to get off their arse and organise things properly", he argued.
A contribution from the floor by Andrew Phillips, a young factory worker who is a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance, focused discussion on the future of the union movement. "A lot of young people are angry and disillusioned", Phillips said, "but the unions need to do more. They need to give some leadership on the job".
From Green Left Weekly, May 22, 2002.
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