Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 09:02:37 +0200
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: M-I: Reflections on the wharfies' struggle


I just posted this very general contribution to Labor-List.

____________________________

Here are some general reflections of my own on the wharfies' struggle.

This conflict is developing very fast -- and some of its wider political
aspects are not only very clear to those fighting, but being clarified very
rapidly to the rest of the working class. If it develops further, the
wavering of the repressive forces (police union proclaiming for itself the
right to strike) may well, as Tony says, force the bosses to call the
military in. This sort of escalation was unwelcome to the political
authorities in the Santos dock strike in Brazil last year, and it looks as
if the Australian authorities will soon discover that they're playing with
fire, too.

Given that we've now seen fifty years of post-war capitalist domination of
the world, with very little to stop them creating a world to their own
liking, do we see a world of prosperity and harmony? Of course not. The
welfare state concessions that were made after the war in the face of huge
working class pressure have been clawed back, and that's only in the richer
countries -- poorer countries never even got these crumbs from the
capitalist tables! And have things got more prosperous and harmonious since
the collapse of the Stalinist bureaucracy and the attempts at capitalist
restoration in the Soviet Union? Quite the contrary.

So I think Dave Bedggood's post yesterday should make us think. What sort
of resolution do we want for this kind of struggle if we win it?? One that
will see us back in the same mess in a few decades time, and so on ad
infinitum? Or one that will see an end to capitalist exploitation and
brutality for good? Now that the capitalists have so obviously failed to
create a world that is good for working people to live in, it's time the
working people thought about creating their own world, without the
capitalists.

Cheers,

Hugh





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