It's time to apply our pressure against theirs. All the forces in favour of the electricity privatisation, proposed by NSW premier Morris Iemma and treasurer Michael Costa, have been heavying the delegates to the NSW ALP conference as well as state Labor MPs.
Within the ALP the pressure comes from the top, beginning with Kevin Rudd, energy and resources minister Martin Ferguson and parliamentary secretary and ex-ACTU leader Greg Combet (what about NSW electricity workers' rights at work?). All have come out in favour of electricity privatisation. Within the state government, ministers belonging to the "left" faction also support the sell-off.
Along with the sticks come the carrots. Iemma is presently working out a new stick-carrot mix for the NSW cabinet. According to Crikey.com on March 25 "his advisers believe that he can gain critical backing [for privatisation] within the parliamentary party by rewarding factional hacks with seats at the Cabinet table".
One obvious ploy would be to give a cabinet position to an MP from the Hunter Region, which is threatened with devastation by the sale of the coal-based power industry, as happened in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria.
Despite the massive public opposition, only a minority of Labor MPS — 17 so far — have come out against Iemma's electricity sell-off. The spineless majority of the ALP's "representatives of the people" — petrified at the thought of their parliamentary careers being destroyed by Iemma's wrath — invoke the fictitious rule of ALP parliamentary caucus solidarity to explain their silence on the issue.
The only answer to all this pressure coming from the NSW business elite via Iemma, Costa and their "left" cabinet ministers is to strengthen the campaign against the sell-off.
The immediate task is to get as many people as possible to the May 3 rally outside the NSW ALP conference at Darling Harbour. We need the undecided delegates and MPs to realise that they will have no future if they support the sell-off.
The decision to shift the city's traditional Sunday May Day march to Saturday and have it finish outside the conference is a good step towards building the rally. Over time, May Day has become a symbolic stroll through the streets: supporting the anti-privatisation rally restores relevance to the day. The working class and union movement history that it celebrates lives on around the critical issues of today.
The Socialist Alliance NSW Trade Union Committee will be doing everything it can to build the protest. All SA members and fellow unionists must be there.
At 9:30am, on May 3, let's all shake Darling Harbour with a mighty roar of rejection of the power sell-off!
Dick Nichols
[Dick Nichols is the national coordinator of the Socialist Alliance].