Women protest against IR attacks

Issue 

Linda Waldron, Melbourne

"Stop the war on our unions, civil liberties and working people's rights!" was the theme of the March 8 International Women's Day (IWD) demonstration at the Victorian State Library.

The rally, called by the Victorian Trades Hall Council, was addressed by VTHC president and state secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union Michele O'Neil. She explained how the federal Work Choices and "welfare-to-work" legislation, especially the changes to child maintenance payments, would negatively affect working women.

Yorta Yorta activist Monica Morgan denounced the upcoming Melbourne Commonwealth Games as commemorating the genocidal wealth-grab that underpinned the British empire, and Marisol Salenas from the Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network spoke about the struggles of Latin American women for liberation from poverty and US imperialism. Sheila Galacio from Gabriella-Australia described the situation of women in the Philippines today.

The Melbourne IWD rally was supported by community radio station 3CR; the Australian Services Union; the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union; the Community and Public Sector Union; the manufacturing workers' union (AMWU); the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union; and the La Trobe University Women's Collective.

After the rally, 40 people assembled at Victoria Trades Hall to hear Australian Council of Trade Unions president Sharan Burrow discuss the campaign against John Howard's industrial relations agenda. Danielle Archer from the Young Unionists Network also spoke.

The Melbourne rally was one of many rallies, marches, breakfasts, public forums and other IWD activities around the country last week.

Margaret Gleeson reports that Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Grace Grace told an IWD march in Brisbane on March 12 that employers are using individual contracts to undermine the working conditions of women even before the Work Choices laws are in place. She announced that a mass delegates' meeting would be held in late April before the biggest ever May Day march.

From Green Left Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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