File spoon-archives/marxism-news.archive/marxism-news_1998/marxism-news.9804, message 56


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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