- by Richard Titelius
- The Guardian
- Issue #2122
On 23 August 2024, the Federal ALP Attorney General Mark Dreyfus announced that the CFMEU would be put into administration and the CFMEU members would no longer control the union, its funds and assets. The cost of the administration would be born by the unions themselves. This caused many within the CFMEU to question their loyalty to the ALP despite their affiliation. Other unions also questioned why they should be affiliated to a political party which was attacking a democratically elected and run union.
To help promote discussion and find some answers, Worker’s Solidarity WA held a Politics in the Pub in Perth and invited Red Kelly Cast podcasters Colton and Emily as well as a labour activist Lexi to give their takes on the dispute and its consequences. The MC for the event was Elly Hulm of the Communist Party of Australia.
Colton said that though the ALP had been formed 1890’s on the back of the Shearers’ strike, it did not take long after Federation for the Labor Party became a parliamentary party managing the state, and used to pacify workers. As Vladimir Lenin, observed, the ALP became the party that wants to manage capitalism.
The industrial relations apparatus of conciliation and arbitration was used to control demands by workers for better wages and conditions. In 1949 ALP Prime Minister Ben Chifley took two days to introduce legislation prohibiting a strike by coal workers and use soldiers as strike-breakers. Chifley also worried that the Communist Party of Australia could replace the ALP as the party of the working class. The General Secretary of the CPA at the time was Lance Sharkey who wielded considerable influence among certain sections of the labour movement. The ALP – especially its right faction in NSW, sought to rid Australia of the influence of the Communist Party. However, this backfired electorally, as the ALP was rejected by voters until 1972, when Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister. The resurgence of the ALP however was short-lived when in 1975, Whitlam was sacked by the Governor General Kerr.
In 1983, Bob Hawke, former ACTU secretary became Prime Minister. Hawke introduced the Wages and Prices Accord, a compact between the unions, and government, which in the medium term suppressed wage demands and in the long term substantially weakened union power and influence. Union density started to fall from this time and has not recovered since. It’s currently sitting at around 12 per cent.
Industrial relations ‘reforms’ introduced by the next Prime Minister Paul Keating, further weakened union power. In 1998 the unity and solidarity of the union movement built some of their power back up through the Patricks dispute, involving the Maritime Union of Australia.
The next speaker, Emily said the development of labour laws had been geared towards the interests of the ruling class. We can see this in 19th Century laws which gave employers the right to hunt down renegade employees who went Absent Without Leave. More recently members of the CFMEU have been fined $10,000 for calling a strike breaker a scab. Emily said unions need solidarity and unity to fight these attacks.
Lexi said the rank and file union members should control their unions – and this is certainly true of those unions which are politically engaged such as the CFMEU, ETU, CEPU, and AMWU. However, this objective becomes a little more problematic in those unions where the majority of members are not as politically engaged. Many unions have historically been linked to the ALP although it is often not in either the workers’ or unions’ interest. Unions become the dance partner to the government said Lexi, when the ALP gets into government.
An option could be for unions to disaffiliate from the ALP which should not be seen as disengaging politically but as reclaiming their power and acting in the interests of their members. Lexi said there was a huge apathy by many workers towards unions who see them as another cog in the machinery. However, there are also those workers who have no consciousness of themselves as a class but feel like disparate individuals. In UK, rail workers are removing themselves from the shadow of social democratic parties.
In 2008, the United Auto Workers in the US saw they were losing their power, cut their ties with the Democratic Party, and went on strike. After they went on strike and achieved their industrial goals they started once again to be noticed by politicians who sought to be associated with union successes in lifting workers’ living standards. This is why concluded Lexi, “Unions have more agency when they are not part of a social democratic party.”
A lively Q & A followed. One activist said that since the Administration of the union began in August, rank and file members have become more active, thereby maintaining its democratic character.
The Communist Party of Australia supports the objective of unions to be democratically run and encourages the involvement of members and elected delegates to build the union in workplaces for workers to feel empowered.
The CPA stands in strong opposition to the undemocratic administration imposed on the CFMEU.
19 October 2024
