Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 17:04:08 +1000
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: M-I: RE: australian wharfies


At 04:09 PM 4/14/98 +1000, you wrote:
>
>There is also a more immediate political reason. There is a federal
>election looming. The government up until the last couple of months has
>been slagged off by the ruling class as a bunch of no-hopers.
>
>Check the editorial out from todays Financial Review
>
>"...after the setbacks of the Dubai debacle and the MUA victory at
>Cairns, the Government how appears to have the great demonstration it
>needs to impress Australian business and workers that the new world of
>industrial relations has arrived. This is a major achievement for a
>Government which, six months ago, was widely being dismissed in business
>circles, within its own ranks and by this newspaper as a do-nothing
>outfit paralysed by its lack of reform mandate in the 1996 election,
>becalmed by lack of leadership and distracted by short-term pandering to
>its new "battler" constituency..."
>
>and then the grand finale
>
>"...Indeed, the wharves dispute may be the sort of cathartic reformist
>event that lays the foundations of the Governments longevity. If so, for
>the Howard government the 1998 victory on the wharves would be
>comparable to the Falklands War in defining Mrs Thatchers resolute
>remaking of Britain, and to the American air traffic controllers dispute
>in demonstrating the conviction of President Reagans political
>revolution"
>
>That kind of puts a different spin on the term "reformism", doesn't it?
>
>The attacks on aborigines along with the attacks on unionised workers
>then are part of the same package to show Australian bosses that the
>Liberals can fuck over exploited troublemakers who won't lie down and
>take "reforms" like nice little sacrificial lambs.
>
>The MUA is for city bosses, and the Aborigines are for country bosses.
>
>Tony Hartin
>


Makes the blood fair boil does it not, Tony.  But Australia is not Britain,
and the Falklands war appealed to a working class fed on imperialist
fantasies.  Here the attack is internal.  Sure the capitalists love it but
they will pay a price for canibalising their most loyal supporters - the
Australian Congress of Trade Unions.

regards

Gary

"No more water.  The fire next time.."




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