The government thinks that discussions with the National Tertiary Education Union are "very good". That's because it looks like NTEU officials are prepared to sacrifice their members’ livelihoods for nebulous and unenforceable undertakings about job numbers.
Putting politics aside and uniting around the supposed “common good” is dangerous in a time of crisis. It’s precisely in times of crisis that those in power have been most able to act in ways that inflict long-term damage on society in the name of protecting the “national interest".
An American neo-Nazi planned to bomb a hospital full of COVID-19 patients, while Hungary's far-right government has used the pandemic to wipe out democratic rights.
Italy's coronavirus epicentre is also home to a tradition of working class militancy. Its factory workers are on the frontlines of the global class struggle to shut down non-essential production – and they're having to drag their union leaders behind them, kicking and screaming.
