Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 09:37:14 +0100 From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se> Subject: M-NEWS: From the Picket Line 19 Apr-- "Queensland on brink of statewide More news from around Australia. I think we can understand why updates are a bit infrequent -- after all, who'd be sitting at their computer at a time like this?! It would take orders from a strike committee to tear most of the people I know away from the picket line or strike meetings. Lenin said revolution was a carnival of the people, and while there's a long way to go to that kind of euphoria, events of mass solidarity and the open assertion of working-class interests in defiance of the bosses, the politicians and their goons give a foretaste! Cheers, Hugh ________________________________ News Summary - Saturday 18 April War on the Wharfies Homepage: http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm My apologies for infrequency of updates - I have been joining the community picket at East Swanson Dock - an inspiring experience which every community activist and unionist should experience. The next few days will be crucial. If you are near a picket, go down and lend your support. In Melbourne listen to 3CR for constant updates, in other cities your local community radio station. Takver Sunday 19/4/98 CONTENTS (18/4/98) From the Picket Line - Friday 17th - Saturday 18th April Also new to the webpage: Songs and chants for the picket line >From the MUA Picket Line - Reports of the Melbourne and Sydney pickets. Recommended for browsing: The Keep Left Site A new site which has a comprehensive summary of the attack on the Maritime Union. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8162/ News Summary - Saturday 18th April ---------------------------------- >From the Picket Line - Friday 17th - Saturday 18th April Port Botany, Sydney Friday: New South Wales unions sent bus loads of members to the picket line at Port Botany today. In mid afternoon, police made an unsuccessful attempt to clear the picket line, following the arrival of a truck at the terminal. A large number of people were detained, and later released. More than 500 people remain on the picket line at Port Botany. The New South Wales Government has released legal advice from the Crown Solicitor that police have no responsibility to stop union members picketing wharves. According to the New South Wales Labor Government, police are only there to stop anyone on the waterfront breaching the peace, they are not there to assure trucks get through - that is a matter for the civil courts. This really angered "Honest" John Howard who wants the police to be used as Corrigan's front line troops against the MUA. New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has put forward a 5 point plan to negotiate a settlement. This involves the Federal Government, Patrick Stevedores and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) sitting down and accepting a compromise in order to reach a peaceful end to the dispute. Under the plan Patrick would give a commitment to re-employ the sacked workers in exchange for the union agreeing to efficiency improvements. Report of the Community assembly at Darling Harbour dock Melbourne Friday: While 300 people maintain the picket line at East Swanson Dock, Union delegates are holding an emergency meeting to discuss their next move in the waterfront dispute. At The picket concrete blocks have been placed across the railway line leading to the dock. The picket is being staffed in shifts to ensure the picket line is maintained. Police say they will move in before next Tuesday to close the picket down. A confrontation is expected. Police minister McGrath predicted the waterfront dispute would reach a "bloody battle". Saturday: Mr Coombs said that court injunction stopping his union picketing docks has backfired as the community has stepped in to fill the place of maritime workers. "The community has now come down and taken over these pickets, they are outraged. And that's my experience no matter where I go in this country, people are outraged and they are coming down and demonstrating that outrage. And no police, no injunction, no Patrick and no Federal Government will get over that. And Howard has pulled the wrong card here. He thought this union was so hated and reviled that people wouldn't come out in support of it and they've come out in their thousands." 3000 people spent the night at East Swanson dock to prevent the police closing down the picket line - now renamed the Community Assembly Line. A tense situation at dawn between hundreds of police facing the 3000 picketers resolved itself when 2000 building workers marched to the picket at 7.30am. One ANL ship with parts for Toyota plants was apparently originally diverted to a Patrick dock by the government, has now been rediverted to P&O to be unloaded by MUA members. Reith is pushing the 'MUA putting other jobs at risk' line, but the Toyota unionists, the very people who Reith was framing as the MUA's victims, have promptly resolved in union meetings at both the Altona and Port Melbourne plants to support the MUA. If Toyota had stood these workers down, many would have joined the Community Assembly Lines on the Docks. Saturday Night It appears a temporary truce has been negotiated between police and people on the picket for tonight. Evidently, police were made to work 14 hours straight without a meal break. Victorian police are about to launch an industrial campaign of their own for a payrise and improved conditions. ABC 18/4/98 Report of the Community assembly at East Swanson dock Brisbane Saturday: Spirits are high on the Maritime Union picketline at Fisherman Islands in Brisbane, with sacked Patrick workers saying their support is growing.Union members were preparing to block a train from entering the Patrick facility this afternoon, but the train has now been delayed. The MUA has warned Queensland is on the brink of a state-wide strike as police clamp down on waterfront protests. Fremantle After the use of riot police in evicting the picket outside the gates, supporters of the MUA union in Fremantle have set up a so-called "workers' embassy" outside the Patrick terminal on council land. A peaceful vigil was maintained overnight with about 90 police officers including mounted police stationed just in front of the terminal gates. During today numbers have swelled to about 400 members of various unions. While no trucks have attempted to enter the Terminal yet, police numbers have been building steadily during the day. Saturday: More than 100 unionists are manning the picket line around the clock, stopping trucks to check if they are bound for the Patrick terminal. WA's Pastoralists and Graziers Association has threatened to drive trucks through the picket at Fremantle, saying their livelihood is threatened by the union's blocakade on the docks. In reply John Coombs from the MUA said "And that's the one state where there has been a relationship develop with the farming community. And the farming community over there, that's the rank and file farmers ought to tell the rednecks to butt out because they're not going to take the law into their own hands. If they come down to a community protests on the Fremantle waterfront we won't be taking any responsibility for what occurs." Court Action Patrick has applied to the NSW Supreme Court to widen the court order to cover the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. Friday night: The British High Court injunction against the ITF has ceased. Mr Justice Thomas said what he was effectively being asked to do in England was to interfere in an Australian trade dispute and try to embargo possible action by workers in ports around the world who are sympathetic to the MUA. The Commonwealth and the National Farmers Federation (NFF) challenge in the Australian High Court the basis on which they have been involved in Federal Court proceedings in Melbourne as a result of writs issued by the MUA alleging a conspiracy. Justice Mary Gaudron heard arguments in the High Court on Friday in Brisbane, and dismissed their application. A win for the Maritime Union in its allegations that there was a massive conspiracy against union members by Patrick, the National Farmers Federation and the Government. Workers Welfare Union and community leaders including ACTU president Jennie George and former Premier Joan Kirner, have launched a national appeal for the families of sacked wharfies. Ex- victorian Premier, Joan Kirner, says the appeal is especially important for the wives of sacked wharfies. The Medical Industry Association, which represents medical suppliers, has called on the union for medical products to be exempted from a blockade of Patrick's docks. MUA secretary John Coombs says it would be unacceptable for non-union labour to move the supplies. "We won't be allowing scabs to bring it out. If they want us to go in and get the equipment that's fine. We'll go in, withdraw their scabs, withdraw their goons and our members will go in to work for nothing to get the medical supplies out. But first up they have to open the gate and get rid of the people in there that have taken possession of our area of work." If the supplies are urgent, one wonders why they were not air freighted in to Australia! ABC 18/4/98 "Honest" John meets the MUA "Honest" John Howard was jeered and heckled, and had eggs thrown at him when he came face to face with a 500 MUA protestors and supporters while opening an electorate office at Maitland, west of Newcastle. International Solidarity ILWU calls for a boycott of Australian farm produce The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has called on all union members across America to boycott Australian meat and farm products. This is only "phase one" of an industrial campaign by the ILWU in support of the wharfies in Australia. The union's President, Brian McWilliams, believes an attempt to break the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) is part of a larger global strategy by international shipping and stevedoring companies, and various national governments, to bust dock worker unions around the world. ABC 18/4/98 Japanese protests The trade fallout from the dispute increased last night when Japan's leading transport unions threatened to ban imports of Australian farm products, including beef. Sydney Morning Herald 18/4/98 ---------------------------- War on the Wharfies is an independent web page which contains: * News reports on the Maritime Union of Australia fight against the rightwing attack by the National Farmers Federation, waterfront bosses, and federal and state governments. * News on other union actions and progressive campaigns, or the general attack on workers rights or conditions Takver-AT-onaustralia.com.au War on the Wharfies Homepage: http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox/index.htm ---------------------------- Send a message of support to Australia's sacked wharfies and their families on the Leftlink Solidarity Message Board: http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi/mb63212 ---------------------------- Send a protest Fax: http://www.yll.org.au/mua ---------------------------- Visit www.yll.org.au/mua to send a free fax to John Howard.
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