Sue Bolton

More trade union leaders have rallied to support the Green Left Weekly Emergency Appeal as it enters its sixth week with $70,173 raised and less than $30,000 to make our target.

Solidarity and union spirit were on display on November 25, as 6000 unionists gathered outside the State Library to protest the jailing of former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) Victorian secretary Craig Johnston and the increasing criminalisation of trade union struggle.

The rally called for Johnston's immediate release and the start of a fight-back campaign against PM John Howard's reactionary agenda.

On April 28, the ballot opened for the post of Queensland branch secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. The candidates contesting the position are Brett Cardinal, a former Queensland AMWU organiser, running for Workers Unity, a militant rank-and-file group in the union, and acting state secretary Andrew Dettmer, who is supported by AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron.

Dettmer became acting state secretary in 2003 when the elected state secretary, Dave Harrison, resigned to contest preselection for a safe Labor Party seat.