Left unity
Your coverage of the MUA dispute in GLW #314 was excellent as to fact, background and political economics. It must surely have won us a large new readership among the wharfies and those who showed solidarity with them.
We must, of course, beware of the spin the mass media will put on any ultimate victory. Howard may go to the polls soon on a "who's governing the country" platform. If re-elected, he'll "do a Wik" on his failed workplace relations legislation. Given half a chance, an ALP victory would see the same.
Now is the time for us to launch a four-pronged attack.
1. Unite the anti-Right in cross preferencing at the coming election, and encourage the method — which can now be legally advertised — of not voting at all for either the Coalition or the ALP.
2. Unite all working people in fighting to regain and then improve their pay and working conditions.
3. Get them and all other exploited people to realise that #1 and #2 are not full solutions.
4. Avoid alienating those at #2 by our work on #3 and those at #1 by our work on #2 and #3.
Ron Guignard
Brompton SA
[Abridged.]
Child-care
I was pleased to see your article about the crisis in child-care funding. Even if both parents work and are on reasonable incomes, child-care fee increases of 60% over the last three years have led some to withdraw their kids from child-care — or reduce the number of days they use it. You might manage with one child, but paying for two children is getting prohibitive.
My daughter goes to the South Coast Workers' Childcare Centre, established by the South Coast Labour Council, where fees have had to be increased from $25 to $40 per day over the last 3 years.
When my four year old sees the stories about child-care centres in crisis on TV, she wants to know why everyone is worried. I try to tell her that John Howard has taken money from the centres; that now they cost more; that some families can't afford to send their children to child-care any more; that it's not fair because children should be able to go to child-care regardless of how much money their parents have.
Fees for one child in child-care are up to about $10,000 p.a., about the same as private school tuition fees. For two children, the fees are up to $20,000 p.a. — twice the highest HECS payment at any of our universities.
The actions of this conservative government are not only jeopardising community based centres, but also the private centres. No wonder the industry is in crisis.
Councillor Kerrie Christian
Wollongong City Council NSW
[Abridged.]
East Timor
The decision by the French Government to award the Legion of Honour to all surviving Australian soldiers who served on the Western Front raises the question of when the people of East Timor are going to be decorated for their outstanding sacrifices in support of the Allied war effort in World War II.
In April 1942, King George VI bestowed the George Cross on Malta for its stoic resistance to bombing and blockade by Axis forces. Malta suffered 8700 civilian casualties.
In the case of East Timor, 300 Australian commandos tied up 15,000 Japanese troops for 10 months. They could not have done this without the unstinting help of the people, who were consequently persecuted by the Japanese, losing between 40,000 and 70,000 lives and having their country ravaged.
In 1945, the RAAF dropped thousands of leaflets over Dili thanking the East Timorese and telling them their friends would never forget them. It is time East Timor got more than leaflets and a memorial cairn outside Dili.
It is time East Timor was awarded the George Cross. It is time for all Australians to do the right thing by petitioning Her Majesty and the Australian Government to make this award a reality.
Gareth Smith
O'Connor ACT
[Abridged.]
Greens and elections
I found Peter Sykes' article on the future of green left election tickets (GLW #314) very interesting.
He convincingly argues that the "green left" influence in the Senate will be reduced in the next elections. Incredibly, he concludes that a merger between green left forces is "not necessarily needed"! It seems Sykes doesn't mind if the Right strengthens itself and its parliamentary position.
A united ticket between the Greens and other left forces would be a huge step forward for working-class and eco-friendly forces. It could only strengthen campaigns like Jabiluka, MUA and anti-fees. If now isn't the time to initiate such a unity, with the attacks on workers and the environment coming unabated from the federal government, when is?
I urge the Greens to put their money where their mouth is. Come together with other green and left forces and start providing some real opposition to the economic rationalist forces that are stuffing up people and the environment.
Rachel Evans
Brunswick Vic
[Abridged.]
MUA 1
The scenes that I witnessed on the picket line at Port Botany can best be described as a crusade for social justice. I was inspired by three picketers in wheel chairs. One of them, a man in his 30s, attends each day. The other two were women in an older age group.
It was heartening to see Asian men and women joining forces with fellow Australians to defend the Trade Union Movement and denounce the reactionary legislation of the Howard Government and the action of the Patrick Shipping company that is motivated by greed for higher profits.
The word "reform" is frequently misused by the media and spokesmen for the employers' organisations. The reforms of the Howard Government are to advance the interests of the wealthy at the expense of workers, pensioners and students.
The Ecumenical church service at Port Botany on April 26th is evidence that clergy from the Anglican, Catholic, Uniting, Baptist and Quaker religions realise that the current conflict on the waterfront is a crusade for social justice that merits the full support of all fair-minded people.
Bernie Rosen
Strathfield NSW
[Abridged.]
MUA 2
There are uncanny similarities between the current attack on wharfies and the successful onslaught on airline pilots in the late '80s. Both were conspiracies run by shonky tycoons in cahoots with equally shonky governments; both used the ploy of demonising workers on the phoney grounds of "excessive" incomes and unsustainable conditions.
However, in both cases the long-term effect on the economic fortunes of the companies involved was either zero or negative. The reason for this apparently counter-productive behaviour is found in another common feature which goes un-publicised.
Both wharfies and pilots aspired to a measure of workers' control which took them beyond their allotted function as wage-slaves. The pilots had the temerity to lay down the law on air safety and other aspects benefiting airline users; the wharfies are seen to interfere with the right to hire and fire.
It is important for left activists to realise that workplace relations, as well as oppression by the State, are about exercise of class power in the first instance, and that economic gains come second. Real-world class struggle can rarely be explained in terms of the lust for profits alone. It isn't just about who has the money, but about who is boss.
Gerry Harant
Blackburn Vic
MUA 3
One wonders why the MUA doesn't form a cooperative of wharfies and buy out what is left of Patrick and its subsidiary companies — in liquidation! The utter failure of so-called industrial relations reforms by the major parties, as well as the adversarial IR system itself, surely call for drastic change.
Workplace democracy and employee ownership were rejected by Hawke and Keating, as well by the Business Council of Australia and the Coalition. Such reforms are the way to go and Governments have to play enabling roles in that process.
The waterfront issue would be resolved quickly and permanently, productivity would leave every other port in the world for dead and the wharfies and their families would be laughing all the way to the bank. Take your pick.
Klaas Woldring
Southern Cross University
Lismore NSW