MUA ex-official attacks 'character assassination'
By Dick Nichols
BRISBANE — Jeff Langdon, former organiser with the Maritime Union of Australia's (MUA) south Queensland branch and well known for his work during the Patrick dispute, has denounced problems within the branch in a fiery "Open letter to all members of the MUA".
The document's main aim is to rebut allegations contained in the January bulletin of the Queensland branch of the Maritime Unionists Socialist Activities Association (MUSAA). It helps clarify why Langdon recently resigned as MUA organiser.
At the root of the dispute is the narrow rejection by the December 8 branch annual general meeting of a section of the report from the MUA's November 23-27 national council which proposed to cut the number of full-time officials by 10, including one from south Queensland.
There was strong opposition from the floor to this proposal. As the MUSAA bulletin put it, "Most members prior to the National Council were adamant of the necessity of four officials remaining in Brisbane to service the whole state, two from stevedoring and two from seagoing".
The feeling of the majority at the meeting was that the branch couldn't afford to lose a wharfie organiser when it faced ongoing skirmishes at Patrick, a likely full-scale battle at P&O Ports and a backlog of other work.
Langdon spoke against the cut, while the other branch officials accepted it.
A short, garbled, report of the meeting appeared in the December 10 Brisbane Courier-Mail. On December 11, Langdon was called to a meeting of south Queensland branch officials and charged by branch secretary Mick Carr with leaking internal union information to the Courier-Mail. According to Langdon, Carr then read from a letter he intended to distribute to all MUA members.
Langdon's resignation letter says he was happy to agree that only the branch secretary and deputy branch secretary should in future speak to the press, but insisted that he would distribute his own version of events to members, particularly because Carr had not asked him for his side of the story but "presumed that I was guilty". After "a healthy debate covering previous AGMs and stop-work meetings", Langdon wrote that Carr told him that he would not distribute his letter but put it on file.
According to Langdon, this action made it impossible for him to work with Carr, "someone who doesn't trust me and someone I do not respect". He added, "No-one has ever questioned my honesty and loyalty to the WWF/MUA".
The MUSAA bulletin stated, "The reality of the MUA's budget situation has now altered the luxury of the continuation of four full-time representatives" and commented that the concern caused by the coming retirement of many older members "has now been exacerbated by the stated intention of organiser Jeff Langdon to resign over an internal branch matter that he feels aggrieved over".
The MUSAA leaflet continues: "Members can pass their own judgment as to whether the matters of concern raised by the branch deserved such a reaction and the subsequent spate of misleading information and activity of a few alarmist and possibly opportunist elements.
"Regrettably, the concern now at the situation confronting members has promoted some unfounded and damaging accusations not in the spirit of unity to be circulated since the matter was raised, such as: Jeff Langdon was victimised; one section is out to take over the branch, and some will finance their own official."
The MUSAA bulletin also states, "The issue raised with Jeff Langdon by the branch secretary for good reason, would have been raised no matter who was the branch secretary at the time. Nobody has the right to raise the internal affairs of the union in the right-wing media unless the press release has been sanctioned."
MUSAA warns: "What all members must realise and act on, is that in this continuing era of concerted attacks upon us and our union, we cannot afford to look for reasons to dispute and divide among ourselves, division will only assist Reith and all those out to destroy us".
Langdon's reply, authorised and paid for by rank-and-file wharfies, focuses on the unsigned article, its alleged errors of fact, the vagueness of its allegations and the need to change the intimidatory atmosphere in the union. Above all, it is a passionate defence of his own honour as an MUA member and official.
Dubbing the anonymous author a "no-name parasite who lives off bilge and sewer rats", Langdon wrote: "I have been a proud member of this union for 28 and a half years [and] have never known or heard a branch secretary, federal official, branch organiser or job delegate accuse a fellow worker of doing anything before asking for the financial member's account of what actually has taken place".
Langdon challenged the writer to justify his claims by specifically naming "the alarmists", "the opportunists" and those who "will finance their own official" as well as "those who are putting out misleading information".
On the charge of leaking information to the Courier-Mail, Langdon states that "any member who attended the AGM would have known the information in the Courier-Mail was misquoted" and "there was no press release and there was no policy on who speaks to the press until Mick Carr wrongly and falsely accused me".
Langdon asked who gave the writer the right to speak for all MUSAA members.
Langdon compares the unsigned article to those that appear in a discredited publication called Lighthouse that circulates in the maritime industry. "[Lighthouse] has been ridiculed, criticised and thrown away by financial members of our union because the writers won't put their names to their paper." Is there some connection? "I don't believe so. There are too many good officials and rank-and-file members in MUSAA", Langdon wrote.
The real purpose of the bulletin, Langdon states, is to support Mick Carr in the coming MUA elections.
The former organiser expressed concern about the internal atmosphere in the MUA: "There is one thing and one thing only which will bring this union into trouble. Members must be able to attend AGMs and stop-work meetings with the confidence that when they vote for or against policy changes that they don't have to worry about attempted character assassinations and then be labelled as anti-union, alarmists, opportunists and Trotskyites."
Langdon claimed the branch leadership did not send copies of his resignation letter to ships "because members on board would not have had the opportunity to ask Mick Carr or myself about the wrongful and false accusations". He added: "I did not want to see what happened to [former MUA joint national secretary] Tony Papaconstuntinos happen again when meetings were held on board ships and only one side of the accusations were told".
Langdon's letter ends with a call for a "return to leadership not dictatorship". It is certain to produce profound reactions in a union where rank-and-file discontent continues to rise.
[Dick Nichols is national industrial convener of the Democratic Socialist Party.]