|
Workers' Liberty
the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class Workers Liberty Australia |
|
|
|
Members of Workers' Liberty (Australia) - the group which produces this newsletter and web site- will be meeting in conference in Sydney on 10-11 June.
The biggest decision at our last conference, on 17-18 July 1999, was to produce this newsletter monthly. Just before the conference we had put out one trial issue. Since then we have produced it regularly, except for a special summer issue covering four months.
In June we will try to assess the successes and shortcomings of the newsletter. By doing that we will also, in large part, be reviewing the ideas about main political themes which we decided last July. Those were:
"1. Stop the retreat! We can not rely on damage limitation and legal manoeuvres, the labour movement needs to take a strong and millitant stand, especially against Reith's new laws.
2. For a government serving workers' interests! At the moment this can be given expression by the unions placing clear demands on Labor to make commitments to repeal the GST and Reith's anti-union laws.
3. Develop rank and file organisation. There is some there (MUA, AMWU) on the level of "militant pragmatism". These are positive developments, but limited unless they also point to political answers, such as we suggest in points 1 and 2.
We aim to raise these issues with rank and file militants, wherever we can. Other important points for current political work are: Defend Medicare and public education; Shorter work week with no loss in pay, to tackle unemployment; Unions to organise the unorganised, to fight for real jobs for youth and undercut the racists".
As well as publishing the newsletter, we took part in the campaign against Reith's "Second Wave" legislation notably by being heavily involved in the "Defend Our Unions" initiative in Brisbane, and by promoting a petition for a special ACTU conference to debate strategy against the legislation. We got no such conference, but "Defend Our Unions" was able to organise some handy mobilisations - in a state where the official trade-union response to the "second wave" was much slacker than in the ACT or Victoria. In the end the Democrats decided that they could not afford to be seen to be doing the Coalition's dirty work again so soon after they enabled Howard to push through the GST, and Reith dropped the legislation - for a while, anyway. Now the Australian Financial Review has reported that manufacturing industry bosses are pressing the federal government for new amendments to the Workplace Relations Act to counter the planned campaign of the manufacturing unions for common conditions across manufacturing.
Some Workers' Liberty members have also been centrally involved in the industrial action by public service unions in New South Wales. We'll review that experience. On East Timor and the Republic referendum, the newsletter has carried extensive debate as well as an editorial line. This open approach, unfortunately untypical of the left press, seems vital to us. Members, associates, friends (and those who are for now our political opponents on the left!) can learn politically by studying all sides of a debate much better than they can from studying a bland, filleted set of conclusions. Members who have minority views should express them rather than pretending to support conclusions that they are in fact dissatisfied with.
As well as printing the newsletter, we also run this web site -a web discussion forum, "Politics in Australia", available on this web site, and two e-mail lists, workersliberty@egroups.com for associates, friends, and interested labour-movement activists, (subscribe at the front page of the site) and awlaus@egroups.com for our own members.
Last July we talked a lot about promoting our own political and theoretical education. The work of producing the newsletter and sustaining our activity on the Internet has certainly been an education for us, and in Brisbane we have been involved in a regular political discussion group. On some counts, however, we have fallen short here of what we decided last July. Did we set ourselves unrealistic targets? Can we do better?
Finally, at least two other issues will be put on the agenda for June. One, adopting a formal constitution for the group. Two, emphases and areas of concentration for our activity and our sales of the newsletter.
Friends of Workers' Liberty interested in following the debates at our June conference, or even attending, should contact us on wlaus@ozemail.com.au.