AWU, Packer and Working Class Media : Melbourne Indymedia

The Herald-Sun reported last Sunday that the right wing Australian Workers Union has entered into a business partnership with Australia's richest person, Kerry Packer, in order to produce a new glossy union publication to be called "The Australian Worker". The AWU is to invest a fair amount of money, that is members money, into the scheme. Of course, Kerry Packer is little interested in doing things for nothing. He will be looking for a profit. So, we have the interesting situation whereby the AWU is investing its members money into a scheme that will profit Australia's richest man. If we had an Australian Workers Union that was interested in putting "members first" it would be little interested in helping to line the pockets of the rich.

As the Herald-Sun pointed out many fear that this publication, which will be available at newsagencies for purchase by the public, will serve to promote the right wing agenda of the AWU leadership. Of course, it is to be expected that Kerry Packer will not invest his money in a publication that will be characterised by left wing commentary. It is interesting to observe just how close right wing ALP figures are to the capitalist class; Barry Unsworth, John Ducker, Stephen Loosley and so on are all into big business. Graham Richardson's dealings with Rene Rivkin has become a matter of public debate in recent times. The latest round of infighting in the Victorian ALP owed in large measure to the very close links forged by the former secretary, David Fenney, who is closely aligned with AWU secretary Bill Shorten, with the corporate sector. Even Richardson had hailed Fenney's ability to raise corporate funds, claiming that he is much better at the task than he was. The secretary of the right wing National Union of Workers (formely in the right faction but forming the core of a rival right sub-faction) felt that the Fenney-AWU forces were interested in running a campaign against his leadership of the NUW; right wing elements attempted to take over my own union, the LHMU in what the LHMU publication had characterised as a well financed, but ultimately pathetic, attempt to over turn the leadership elements.

Where is the money coming from? Is it possible that the close links being forged between the corporate sector and the AWU is meant to ultimately turn the union movement and the ALP into an even more, if it is not enough already, right wing direction? Could this be a reason for the new glossy AWU publication? One thing is for certain, the new publication will hardly have any content that will criticise the secretary, Bill Shorten.

What will happen when the printing division of the AMWU calls a strike at Packer controlled PBL publishing? Will "The Australian Worker" provide fair coverage of the strike, giving prominent space to striking workers? Will "The Australian Worker" fully detail why, under our tax system, "Australian workers" pay more tax as a percentage of income than Australia's richest man?

There exists, unfortunately, a rather nasty precedent behind all this. The AWU played a critical, but ultimately disastrous, role in producing the tabloid and helping to propel Keith Murdoch and Frank Packer into riches. Perhaps Kerry wants to repay the debt to the AWU after one of its number, "Red" Ted Theodore, helped to shaft the AWU in a deal with Frank Packer that launched the Packer empire. The AWU has tended at times to play a fairly destructive role in the Australian labour movement. For instance early last century Anarcho-Syndicalist ideas were quite popular with the Australian working class, as reflected by the IWW and the vocal and popular demand for "One Big Union".

Ross McMullin in his, officially sanctioned, history of the ALP "The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991" writes, "by 1918 many radicals and unionists were convinced that the workers' salvation lay in the One Big Union (OBU) scheme. They welcomed the creation of a single all powerful giant union which would signal the demise of craft unionism, and were absorbed in agitating for its introduction. Conservatives eyed the OBU's IWW like rhetoric with a shudder. Boote hailed the scheme in the 'Australian Worker' as 'the greatest thing that had happened in the history of this country', but had to change his tune when his employer, the AWU, decided to throw its considerable weight against it. The AWU's decision, which most MPs supported as they considered the OBU too radical to be electorally popular, doomed the OBU scheme to failure and generated profound ill feeling".

The Australian working class, as a result of "neo-liberalism" and globalisation (the first major decisions towards which were the Whitlam Government's 25% across the board tariff cut and its last, Hayden, budget) has paid the price ever since; it is ironic that "neo-liberalism" should have been ushered, in part, by Murdoch and Packer empire propaganda. Union membership as a proportion of the labour force is in decline and the AWU is but a shadow of its former self.

However, in response to globalisation and the failures of the accord, which provided a break on the working class whilst ushering in a party for the rich (which workers had to pay for in the "recession we had to have"), there has been a growth in militant grass-roots unionism; from the election of "members first" in the Victorian AMWU, the increasing union-community activism of the CFMEU (including CFMEU support for such campaigns as the effort to save the Sunshine community local swimming pool from destruction at the hands of the "Labor" dominated Brimbank council in contrast to AWU elements which are increasing their political presence in the area for seemingly careerist reasons; the AWU supported local MP Andre Hearmeyer has been on record as supporting Bracks government plans to build maximum security prisons in the area, this is the reward the ALP is giving to people in areas where some booths report a 70-80% "Labor" vote), Western Australia has seen an explosion in labour disputes which the Gallop "Labor" government is trying to contain and so on.

Corporate managers are well aware of these facts and any publication such as the planned glossy right wing AWU publication that will rival the rise of militant unionism is of course welcomed by them. To be sure Anarcho-Syndicalism is not as popular as before, but beneath the surface it is not difficult to see that public opinion is characterised by these ideas (Bosses, Politicians and Union leaders like Shorten are amongst the most despised members of society), so that as militant unionism becomes revived so will the demand for "One Big Union".

A good step in the right direction would be the setting up of a rival publication to "The Australian Worker" by left unions such as the ETU, AMWU and CFMEU; a publication not straight jacketed by association with the Packer empire, that should have lively contribution and debate from members.

Australia needs participatory working class media; "The Australian Worker" will prove to be anything but.