The Australian Council of Trade Unions under the leadership of Secretary Sally McManus has been marked by ever increasing class collaboration in the union movement, particularly during the pandemic.
The Murdoch press and the Liberals are hypocrites–but that doesn't mean Victorian Labor are the good guys. They've privatised, outsourced, and cut their way into a disaster.
Count the problems that working class people face in Australia. More than 100,000 homeless. More than 3.2 million living below the poverty line. Eighty-four percent of JobSeeker recipients skipping meals to save money, with nearly half skipping at least five meals a week, according to the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). The average income of the top 1 percent, at $11,862 a week, more than 26 times that of the bottom 5 percent, at $436 a week, again according to ACOSS. This was all before the pandemic and recession hit.
Pauline Hanson is a dangerous, racist bigot. She is no friend of workers or our unions. Her party’s vote to defeat the federal government’s vicious anti-union “ensuring integrity” bill is a cynical attempt to shore up some working class votes. That Australia’s unions have relied on this bigot and her allies to save us from an existential threat speaks volumes about just how bankrupt the strategy guiding our movement is – and how urgently we need a change of direction.
On 19 May the Rail, Tram and Bus Union lost a stalwart and comrade, Marty McGrath.
More than 250 people attended Socialist Alternative’s Union Activism and History Conference, held at the Victorian Trades Hall on Saturday, 15 October.