BY IAN BOLAS
In the present period we have Labor governments in all states and yet nothing much seems to be different.
The NSW government sends mounted police against pickets, the Victorian government collaborates in victimising the "Skilled Six" who are facing maximum jail terms of up to 25 years for defending their members against scabs, and here in Western Australia, [labour relations minister John] Kobelke jumps into the breach to announce that Joe McDonald will be prosecuted to placate the Cole royal commission.
Meanwhile, at the federal level, Simon Crean struggles to reduce the influence of the unions (and the working class they represent) in the decision-making of the party.
And every time the Labor Party turns rat we get surprised, as though it was something new.
"The ALP is going downhill!" we say, implying that they used to be different.
No, they didn't, as even a brief look at the history of the party reveals.
They've always behaved just as they're doing now — wooing the working class for votes and funds at election time, and sucking up to the bosses as soon as they're in power — and, meantime, desperately trying to make sure that unions and workers have as little influence as possible on their policy-making.
The ALP was formed as an outcome of the bitter struggles of the 1890s. It was formed by the unions to provide the working class with political representation.
But we need to remember that the founding principle of the party was not the "socialist objective". That came later and didn't last long. (One of the founding principles was, in fact, the racist White Australia policy which the ALP continued to support right into the '60s. Remember Arthur Calwell's infamous "Two wongs don't make a white" comment?)
And it didn't take long for these "working class representatives" to show which side they were really on. It was Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher who pledged Australia's support "to the last man and the last shilling" at the outbreak of World War I, and thousands of working-class Australians went off to die all over the world to defend British imperialism and the economic interests of the British ruling class.
And while "history" gives the Whitlam government credit for ending Australia's bloody and useless involvement in the Vietnam War, it should be remembered that Gough supported Australia's involvement for most of its duration. He only started to oppose it once it was obvious that most Australians were at last sick of it all and ready to vote against it!
The same Gough Whitlam made his name in ALP politics by destroying the power and influence of the Victorian Trades Hall and the left in the Labor Party!
To my knowledge only two Australian prime ministers have had "the balls" to use the military against striking workers. One was [Ben] Chifley who sent the army against striking miners — and he was probably one of the "truest believers" ever to lead the ALP!
The other, of course, was the Silver Bodgie ("Budgie"?) Bob Hawke who used the RAAF to break the pilots' strike in the 1980s — and went on to ruthlessly smash their union because it had dared to defy his "accord".
An "accord", by the way, that was more effective in reducing the working class share of the national "cake" than the Thatcher or Reagan governments ever were in the UK and US!
And while we're suffering under the attacks of [John] Howard, [Tony] Abbott, [Peter] Reith, etc., let's not forget that it was Hawke and [Paul] Keating who ripped the guts out of the Australian union movement with that same accord.
The matador comes in and finally sticks the bull (unless the bull gets him first!), but he couldn't even get close if the picadors hadn't spent a long time weakening the bull's neck muscle so he can get the sword down into its heart.
Then there's Â鶹´«Ã½ 45d and 45e of the Trade Practices Act. Those provisions are the ones that are used to persecute unions and individual workers by issuing them with writs (often for millions of dollars), particularly if they've taken action in support of other workers — so-called "secondary boycotts".
These Â鶹´«Ã½ of the act have been a major weapon of the bosses in reducing the ability of stronger unions to help their comrades with less clout in their struggles. As such they have been hugely effective in weakening the movement as a whole.
The ALP didn't bring in those measures. In fact, for a long time it was Labor policy to repeal them. Nonetheless, they stayed on the Statute books for the whole life of the Hawke and Keating governments.
And when the Greens finally moved to repeal them — while Keating was still in power — the ALP voted against repeal, thus ensuring that they were still there when the Libs came back to government!
Last but not least in this (by no means complete) list of treacheries, we should never forget which government presided over the de-registration of the BLF in most states — and the legal persecution of Norm Gallagher.
Norm's real crime of course was that he and the BLs wouldn't buckle down (like most of the rest of the union movement) and sell out their members to the accord.
What we do about all this, the way things stand, is far from clear. There are obviously times when we have to work with them and even vote for then just to get rid of the likes of Howard and Abbott.
But at least we can stop kidding ourselves, like the battered wife who goes back time after time thinking it's going to be different. We can remember that what the ALP is now is what it has always been — and in all likelihood always will be.
And we can start giving serious thought to what the alternatives might be, because the working class does need political representation and the ALP shows no signs of ever providing it!
[Ian Bolas is a member of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). This article originally appeared in the winter 2002 edition of the WA Construction Worker.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 21, 2002.
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