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Workers Power Australia, May 2001
Today is a day of firsts.
May first. The first time in fifty years that the Trade Unions have marched on May Day.
The first time, perhaps anywhere in the world that trade unions have organised beforehand for a unity rally with anti-globalisation demonstrators.
These are both things to celebrate. They are huge victories for the growing anti-globalisation movement and huge steps forward for militant trade unionism in Australia.
That since S11 we have all been able to build a movement whose mere threat of closing down the stock exchange has been enough to have the cops and their road barriers out in force and the building effectively closed ö is another victory.
And the most important victory is that today as we close down corporate Melbourne activists, unionists, environmentalists, socialists around Australia and the world are taking similar actions ö real international solidarity as we move as one against the capitalist system.
May Day is above all else ö International Workers Day. Thatâs why the role of the trade unions is so important. Even more so because the Australian working class is currently under attack from the Coalition governments Workplace Relations Act ö the anti-union IR laws.
These laws had their first outing in the attack on the MUA. They are being used against workers at BHP where the bosses are trying to force them onto individual contracts. And they are being used to tie the workers at Yallourn Power Station into the bosses courts and endless rounds of arbitration.
There laws are a class-wide attack ö they are there to rip up all the hard-won conditions of the working class. They demand a class-wide response. A response that is more than a two-hour march or symbolic blockade.
We can use this May Day as a platform for the struggles that workers around Australia and around the world are involved in. But we need to use it for more than that.
When militant workers joined anti-globalisation demonstrators on the blockades at S11 it meant a huge change in the way the two movements saw each other. Like the teamsters and the turtle kids in Seattle, militant unionists in Melbourne began to challenge why sections of their leadership kept the stage on the other side of the river while demonstrators were being beaten by cops outside Crown casino.
The May Day Unity rally and march is a direct result of this change in view and the pressure that has been brought to bear. And lets remember that in other cities in Australia the unity between Trades Hall and the M1 alliances has not yet reached this point.
When the organised strength of the working class meets with the activism and militancy of the anti-globalisation movement there is huge potential for real change. We have the chance today to forge links and build a movement that can do more than close down a symbol of capitalism ö we have the power to put an end to the system itself.
The way to halt the attacks on workers caused by the IR laws is clear ö only workers industrial action can stop these laws ö and it will have to be solidarity action across the class which the laws themselves deem illegal. A general strike ö an indefinite stoppage of the whole working class challenges the laws head on and challenges the system as a whole.
Thatâs why All Out for May Day is such an important slogan to organise around ö it is the show of our strength and what we can achieve united.
The M1 alliance has planned to blockade the stock exchange for some months. It may not have been the original intention but it has become the stated aim. It seems that the police will be doing the job for us ö and that in itself is a victory.
Because the stock exchange has never been more than a symbol of the system we are demonstrating against.
Militancy for its own sake ö for the sake of appearing to be the most militant is not the best use of our resources. A blockade, a strongly defended one was the best response to the meeting of the WEF at the Crown casino. But blockades ö like any other action ö are just tactics ö we need to be able to choos ethe best tactic for each situation.
A blockade ö however militant ö has a specific purpose ö in the case of the WEF ö to stop it meeting and making further decissions that affect the lives of millions without even a pretence of consultation or consent.
But on May Day the emphasis must be on building unity and solidarity with and within the organised working class. In this situation blockading can become an empty fetish.
The Way Forward
Whatever happens in Melbourne ö or any where else on May Day, we have made huge steps forward in forging unity and in drawing new layers into militant action against capitalism itself. But we need to know where to go from here.
Already activists are planning to demonstrate at the Commonwealth Heads of Government business meeting in Melbourne in October and the full CHOGM meeting in Brisbane soon after. This is an important target to keep the anti-globalisation movement rolling in Australia.
Right now around Australia the Socialist Alliance is also organising. Branches have been set up in many parts of Melbourne and are already planning campaigns. Socialist Alliance is a big step in the right direction ö the organised left and many others have joined together to try and provide a real alternative for workers to the betrayals of the Labor Party.
Building the Socialist Alliance into a strong force that can campaign electorally but which focusses on organising the struggle on the streets is vital. And it must be a real party of the working class which is able to attract wide layers of the militant trade unions and the people still in the Labor Party who have had enough of cutbacks and broken promises.
And it must be a party that stands clearly not for a few reforms of the system ö not a nicer, greener capitalism ö but for revolution and socialism.
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