BY SUE BOLTON
Anyone who thinks union militancy is dead, hasn't been paying much attention lately. In the last two months, the WA and Victorian branches of the Maritime Union of Australia and the Victorian branch of the postal union have elected new militant rank-and-file activists as officials.
This trend follows similar union elections in Britain in the last few years, and growing success by militants in some Victorian unions and in the Western Australian branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
In 2000, union militant Craig Johnston was elected as the Victorian branch secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. A member of the Socialist Alliance, Johnston is still an active unionist in the AMWU.
Along with WA CFMEU rank-and-file activist Peter Bollard, Johnston spoke to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly about the election of Chris Cain as the new secretary of the WA branch of the MUA.
Cain, an active MUA member since 1988, is the first Socialist Alliance member to win an election for a senior position within the union movement since the alliance's formation in 2001.
Johnston told GLW that the "significance of Chris Cain's victory is enormous, because the forerunners of the MUA — the Waterside Workers Federation, the Seamen's Union of Australia, and the Painters and Dockers Union — were all very strong militant unions with long histories.
"But the MUA fell into disrepair over the last few years because of very poor leadership. It was ... very much like the national leaders of the AMWU, the CFMEU and other unions that have lost faith in the rank-and-file members and think that the only way to fix things is by doing deals in the [industrial relations] commission and having Labor governments in power."
The rank-and-file MUA ticket did well in WA, Victoria and NSW. Johnston argues that this "shows that rank-and-file members are prepared to give other people a try, because they are sick of the same tired out officials who say we've got to rely on the Labor party getting back in power because you can't fight anymore.
"To the broader trade union movement, the victory [clarifies] that it's not only metalworkers, CFMEU members and ETU members in Victoria who are sick to death of those sorts of officials.
"Just recently, the rank-and-file team that's been running for years in the postal workers' union won against a bunch of right-wing grub officials. There are more and more rank-and-file groups in a number of unions springing up all around the country.
"It sends a message to all those union officials who are only using [unionism] as an exercise to move into parliament that they're on notice. I think the MUA result and the postal union result will scare the hell out of a lot of those time-serving officials.
"If the success of the reform groups reinvigorates some of these officials and makes some of them actually do something for the members, then that's welcome."
Johnston also says that "the more progressive currents, the more militants, the better, because they all bring different things. In WA, up until now, there haven't been a lot of unions other than the CFMEU that are willing to take up socail justice issues. They haven't had the support that we have in Victoria, where the militant unions all support each other.
"Over the years, the AMWU has given help to the textile workers' union in a number of its disputes, and they've always been there in support of us. They would bring up a lot of issues because their membership is very different — in gender and background — to ours. Our membership in the metals is a bit different to the CFMEU, so that broadens out the issues [we have to think about]."
CFMEU activist Peter Bollard has been active in WA for 20 years. He regards Chris Cain's election as "a major victory for the whole trade union movement in Western Australia. It's a clear indication that rank-and-filers want militant leadership."
Bollard, who has known Cain for around 20 years, regards him as " one of the most dedicated, militant trade unionists that I've had the privilege of knowing."
"The dedication and the solidarity of unionists like Chris Cain, Craig Johnston, WA CFMEU assistant secretary Joe McDonald and WA CFMEU secretary Kevin Reynolds is what rank-and-file unionists are looking for, not only as honest trade unionists, but also for their social conscience", said Bollard.
He added, "Something I am proud of about my own union is its social conscience. The position we took against the war on Iraq was the right thing to do.
"Unions have got to have a social conscience and speak up about moral atrocities. If they don't speak up, who is going to speak up? In the CFMEU, the anti-war position won in every site meeting, but only after a lot of debate."
Bollard says that there are pockets of trade union militancy around Australia that are getting more confidence.
"The Socialist Alliance", Johnston said, "played an important role in supporting militant unionists in WA and Victoria.
Johnston is "hoping that the Socialist Alliance will play a role like the Communist Party played in fostering rank-and-file groups within the various unions, and in educating rank-and-filers to know about their rights.
"The other thing that the Socialist Alliance can do is to bring a lot of the social issues that maybe our members don't see as day-to-day bread and butter issues — like the rights of refugees, the war, International Women's Day or Medicare — to the attention of rank-and-file unionists.
"The other thing I hope for with the Socialist Alliance is that we'll be able to get more and more trade unionists, but particularly rank-and-filers, to see capitalism for what it is, and hopefully embrace socialism."
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, July 30, 2003.
Visit the