Steelworker candidate: 'Nationalise BHP'

August 19, 1998
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Steelworker candidate: 'Nationalise BHP'

By Stephen Marks

NEWCASTLE — Geoff Payne, a rigger at the BHP steelworks, is standing as the Democratic Socialist candidate for the federal seat of Newcastle. Payne will "challenge the racists who are trying to take advantage of the closure of the steelworks".

One Nation's David Oldfield recently told the Newcastle Business Club that a "tariff wall" would save the steelworks. Payne said that this is an attempt to scapegoat overseas steelworkers for taking "Aussie" jobs.

"It is 'Aussie' BHP's quest for the highest possible profits that is behind the decision to close the works and throw thousands onto the dole queues", Payne said.

"It's just like the way One Nation tries to blame migrants for everything in this country. I'm not falling for that. The Australian steel industry has been built by the sweat of workers from all over the world, and I am proud to have worked alongside people of many different nationalities and races these 20 years.

"In any case, imported steel is not the real issue. The main competitor for Newcastle's steel products (angle iron, wire and reinforcing rods) is the Smorgon steel mill in Victoria. Does One Nation want to set up a customs post on the Murray River?"

Payne argues that BHP is making more steel now, with less than one quarter of the work force it had when he started work there in 1979. "But that's still not enough for it. BHP has to find more and more ways to reduce costs and increase profits, and closing the steel-making sections of the Newcastle plant is the next step for them."

"After all", he adds, "BHP is not really in the business of making steel; it is in the business of making profits. Workers' lives, and the welfare of their dependents and their communities, are only of minor concern, if they figure at all, in the minds of the BHP bosses.

"The way to save steel jobs in Newcastle is not by trying to protect the bosses' profits by pleading for tariffs, but by nationalising BHP. This industry is too important to be left to the whims of the share market.

"There is tremendous community sentiment for keeping Telstra public. We need to build on this sentiment and extend the principle of public ownership to industrial resources like BHP."

Payne told Green Left Weekly that he was inspired by the actions of the young socialists of Resistance, in Newcastle and around the country, who mobilised thousands of secondary students and other young people against racism.

"The widespread sympathy won by these actions confirms that the pro-mobilisation sentiment, demonstrated by last year's rally of 5000 people outside Hanson's Newcastle pubic meeting, still exists."

The Democratic Socialists will appeal to this sentiment. Payne's campaign was launched on the evening TV news with an impromptu interview outside the steelworks.

Prime News carried Payne's remarks about Hanson's racism. "I don't like it: not for the people I work with here on a daily basis, not for the community I live in and certainly not for the country", hundreds of thousands of viewers heard Payne say.

While the Democratic Socialist campaign is off and running, One Nation is still looking for a candidate.

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