General Strike Block Heckles Hacks at IR Rally : Melbourne Indymedia

Today at the IR Rally in Melbourne approximately forty members of the "General Strike Block Fiesta" met at the Bourke St Mall to call for a General Strike and a real campaign of industrial action to defeat the IR Laws.
A nice position was found for the block in front of the stage. They carried placards such as "General Strike", "More strike - less talk", "It worked in France - strike!". As we waited for the rally to begin we warmed up with drums, whistles and chants. Various soccer chants and even the odd Cliff Richard song were adapted into calls for a General Strike. Soon the rest of the marches arrived and along with them came a veritable sea of ALP and Union Leadership hacks. Bracks, Burrows and Beazley all took to the stage to lecture the crowds on how voting for the ALP at the next election is their only hope of salvation. Throughout these speeches members of the block heckled and kept up their chants for a General Strike. This succeeded in bringing the wrath of various slick and scary looking “Young Labor” types who attempted to cover our signs from the cameras with their ALP signs, manhandling a few of the block and telling us to “get a job” and other sophisticated strategies. One hack told me to shut up during Brack’s lame speech on the grounds that it was a “privilege to hear the Premier”. Despite this harassment and the wave of ALP electioneering from the stage ourspirits remained strong.
The strategy of the ACTU/Trades Hall was best summed up by Sharon Burrows who finished this speech with this empowering quote

"We are going to talk about this `til there is no other issue but decency and fairness in workplace rights as the next election issue," Ms Burrow said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/IR-protests-patriotic-says-Beazley/2006/06/28/1151174241377.html

Wow – the unions are going to keep “talking” until Beazley hopefully wins the election and then hopefully winds backs the new laws. This gem was greeted with the chant “Less talk – more strike”.

Unlike the inspiring campaign recently fought and won in France with a series of General Strikes and other direct actions, the Union Leadership is determined to herd the workers into an electoral strategy alone based on electing the ALP. There is no faith that the Union Movement can protect itself industrially. There is no thought to what happens to the workers of this country if Beazley is not elected.

The only good thing that came from the stage today was when a descendant of the women who sewed the Eureka flag took to the stage and the crowd together took the Eureka Oath "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties". We need to take these words seriously today and take a stand like the Diggers by calling for and promoting a General Strike against these laws. . The March 29th Trades Hall Delegates Meeting called for Unions to consult their members on a General Strike. We can’t afford to let Trades Hall ignore and squash these calls for real action.

The General Strike Block today was endorsed by Eureka Sedition and the Melbourne I.W.W. Most of the people who attended the block seemed to come from various Melbourne anarchist groups. Socialists and Union Solidarity would not touch the Block with a barge pole. These groups need to get their heads around the fact that if they continue to uncritically support the ACTU/Trades Hall electoral strategy and don’t openly start campaigning for real industrial action they will be complicit in helping to sell the workers of this country down the river.

Today’s General Strike Block was admittedly like a flea on the giant arse of the Union Movement but calls for a General Strike need to grow if there is any real hope to defeat these laws. So between now and November talk to your friends, union comrades etc and join the General Strike Block in November. Even if we don’t succeed in getting a General Strike of the ground at least you wont feel like a dick as you stand there and listen to yet another crappy speech from Greg Combet.
Remember GENERAL STRIKE WANT YOU!

Thanks to all those who made it today and sang, made music/NOISE, chanted heckled with wit and broke the ALP's hypnotic spell for a while.

Like the huge anti-war marches if there is no civil disobedience, workplace direct action then alas we are marginalised and ignored by the Politicians and their masters the Corporations of War & Plunder.

VW

"Socialists and Union Solidarity would not touch the Block with a barge pole."

Not true Davey

Union Solidarity advertised the General Strike Bloc on their website. I know that you know this Davey.

see: http://www.unionsolidarity.org/upcomingevents/2006/05/join-general-strike-bloc-fiesta.htm

Most Socialist groups believe that there should be more direct action, a 24hr national stoppage, defy the law now etc.

Davey your task is not to succumb to sectarian postering but win people over to your position. The following is inaccurate and not helpful.

"These groups need to get their heads around the fact that if they continue to uncritically support the ACTU/Trades Hall electoral strategy and don’t openly start campaigning for real industrial action they will be complicit in helping to sell the workers of this country down the river."

While not a member of the Socialist Party, DSP, ISO, Socialist Alternative etc, I need to defend the truth here. None of these groups "uncritically support the ACTU/Trades Hall electoral strategy". It's a joke to suggest it.

Davey by your own admission only 50 people turned up to the block. Most of the above groups would have been trying to talk to the 150,000 other workers present, this was the correct position. I know Anarcists who supported you but didn't turn up to the block, they felt they were need elsewhere.

Maybe a few Socialist and Union Solidarity members should have been at the block, but this would have been a token effort. There absence doesn't equate to selling out, its insulting to suggest otherwise.

Davey I have organised numerous events and been on countless picketlines where you haven't been sighted. "Where were you a few week ago when...." I could go on and on, hopefully you get my point.

Yours in Solidarity
Keep up the good work.

It is totally ridiculous to say that "socialists need to get their heads around the fact that if they continue to uncritically support the ACTU/Trades Hall electoral strategy and don’t openly start campaigning for real industrial action they will be complicit in helping to sell the workers of this country down the river"

The Socialist Party has been campaigning hard for a 24 hour general strike for nearly 18 months and has been highly critical of ACTU/VTHC. They did not get involved because they dont support general strikes but because they thought it was was more effective to be out in the crowd distributing litriture and raising money to keep the campaign going. (hundreds of papers and thousands of stickers sold raising thousands of dollars for the campaign!)

Other comrades also need to look at their demand. A call for a general strike is a serious one and if you are not being precise you must be calling for an ongoing strike. This posses the question of power (as in every revolution) SP in particular whilst calling for a 24hr general strike as the next step in the campaign thinks it is incorrect to call for an ongoing general strike at this stage.

Precision is crutial in working class politics.
Congratulations to all who attended the rally and to those who were in the General strike Bloc.
Lets continue to push the fact that the rank and file need to be involved in the discussion and not shit can others who are working hard to build militancy in the movement in ways different to yourselves.

http://www.socialistpartyaustralia.org

To Loose Cannon - happy to be corrected about the Link on the Union Solidarity Website. This had been mentioned to me - so sorry if you thought my statement was unfair but I guess I was referring to being associated in the flesh today.
I am not suggesting for one second that groups such as the Socialist Party or Union Solidarity are not doing some great campaigning on this issue nor I am pretending to be the most committed or active individual on this issue. I am not.
However I am critical that these groups chose to not be associated in the flesh, in public with calls for a General Strike at the rally. This was an opportunity to directly and publically challenge the ALP and Union Leadership on their strategy of diverting worker anger into an electoral campaign for the ALP. Its great to talk about these things elsewhere and in literature etc but today was an opportunity to directly and publically make this point. We dont have all the time in the world on this one- as each month goes by - it becomes harder and less realistic that this campaign can be turned into one that involves real direct action on a mass scale. If everyone at the rally who supported a General Strike had come then there would have thousands or at least hundreds of people making this call publically.
I am not counterposing actions such as today with the ongoing hard work that Union Solidarity and Socialist Party etc are doing - it was just a way to raise debate on the tactic of a General Strike and make the point publically. However I still think - unless these public opportunities are taken to directly confront the ALP/ACTU leadership- we will witness the sell of the workers of this country on a grand scale.

Action is Crucial!
by marcusneofitou@hotmail.com Wednesday June 28, 2006 at 10:35 PM

Yes, Union Solidarity did post the General Strike Bloc on their website which was nice.

Also the Socialist Party is talking about a General Strike in their journal.

This is not enough. Admittedly, the Socialist Party and Union Solidarity are doing admirable work but I think what Davey is saying that people really need to talk up a General Strike (24hr or otherwise) in a more public, vocal and fearless way.

At the moment it seems that groups ie Union Solidarity and others are scared of alienating the conservative union bodies, ie ACTU, VTHC.

The totally flawed strategy, ie. sellout to the ALP, needs to be openly and regularly critiqued and the alternative writ large-GENERAL STRIKE!

We all know that the ALP will not get into office next election. There is no alternative to real and effective industrial action. This truth needs to be shouted from the rooftops!

The Federal Workplace Relations Minister is defending the latest wage increase granted to politicians.

Boooooooooooooooooo

As someone with a long memory back to the Cain lead ALP Victorian State Government and the Hawke-lead ALP Federal regime I reckon it was great that the ALP copped a serve today ... some of my former tramway mates and railway station assisitants and train guards who also got done over by the ALP also despise these class traitors!
I know the Airline Pilots and BLF members who also got smashed are not exactly silent when the Labor Part gets a profile either.
It says a lot about Trades Hall and the ACTU that they are tied to the ALP eg AWU too Bill Shorten with a career like Martin Ferguson or Simon Crean etc. the last "leftist" in the ALP turned out the lights long ago when they departed too in disgust.

It may be more important to 'sell the paper and build the Party' for some Socialists but do not substitute yourselves as a delusional vanguard please!
We had that with the Maoists and the old CPA for decades with their "united front" vote critically for the ALP lines etc. A few generations of workers since have walked away from "politics" as performed by those competing "politicians" and only ever come out to big events like Nurses vs ALP in 1986; BLF vs ALP in 1986; Trammies vs ALP in 1990; Airline Pilots vs ALP in 1990, MUA vs Howard & Reith/Corrigan in 1998, community vs Liberals & ALP over East Timor in 1999, Crown Casino blockaders vs ALP State Govt of Bracks & Liberal Federal regime in September 2000; Easter Woomera direct action fence down; anti-War on Afghanistan then Iraq in 2003 etc etc.
Workers mostly go to these big events to feel the power of their class and to marginalise the would be competing Leaders who cannot cooperate but compete like dueling Corporations a lot of the time eg Socialist Party vs Socialist Alliance vs Socialist Alternative etc really !
Union Solidarity has tried to bridge between all the fraktions and this has worked mostly depsite the fevered egoes who would try to over-run that COOPERATIVE project.
These are very serious times for workers: escalating domestic violence, substance abuse and the growth of gangster culture, racism and suicides by desperate and despondent workers.
This breakdown will overwhlem most working class communities as it has the indigenous survivors in the bloody country unless there is a really effective challenge to the Bosses massive attack via Howards IR union-busting.
Andrews was crowing on the media tonight knowing the fear is eating away at people's confidence and that with Beazley lead ALP running as our "opposition" just as he did (NOT!) with Tampa, the War on Iraq and soon Uranium mines and exports to those union busting bastards who run China's sweatshops ! Where is the internationalism of the unions and the ALP when it comes to strike-breaking regimes like the Chinese in 1989 only community & workers pressure made Bob Hawke accept the dissident students and slow trade down...which the American marketeers took over rapidly soon enough so Wal Mart and the $2 shops of the world could get imported cheap sweated crap !
Heckle the ALP loud and long fellow workers!

King Money Maggot Kerry Packer when asked the difference between ALP and Liberal Politicians said "Labor are cheaper" and he should have known because between elections guess who the ALP sucks up to not the electorate (except at "core and non-core promises" time) they have a blank cheque from the voters for 3 years.

The General Strike in 1969 was a trap fallen into by the militant unions and they in turn paniced the Trades Hall who were dragged kicking and screaming with the ALP politcians upset that the employers would not be happy about this (oh dear!) trams blockaded the City and it was on!

In 1975 when the Governor General sacked Cairns and Gough's crew there were walkoits across Australia but the ALP's ACTU sellout artiste extraordinaire Bob Hawke told us all to go back to work and vote at the next election which got us Malclom Fraser as PM instead as Mr Murdoch & Packer wanted.

Starting to see a pattern here in the seond half of the twentieth century ? don't trust the ALP seems to be the lesson to me.
Back in the First World war period it was the Industrial Workers of the World who opposed the bloody trade war that got made illegal by the ALP lead by Billy Hughes. Same century same lesson before they will really challenge Capitalism they will send workers to jail.

If Billionaire Rupert Murdoch reckons Howard is due to retire it shows in the right wing Governor General, Military and Police Chiefs, High Court Judges etc Howard has appointed to carry on his policies after he has departed which Beazley and crew will avoid confronting. Just like they will not make public again all the industries privatised during Hawke, Keating, Howard thus what will really be different ? Nothing that might upset the rich that's for sure so heckle the ALP loud and long fellow workers.

Money doesn't just talk it swears and struts tough as Bossy boots all over the collective effort of generations of wage-slaves.
It was the Eureka oath today which came a bit close for comfort to many of the bureaucrats on stage they don't know the words so mumbled and looked at their feet and did not clench their fists and yell for the media as te rest of us SHOUTED:
"We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other
and defend our rights and liberties."

Nighty night
sleep tight
tired little radicals
and don't let the Rudock bugs bite !

"Never let them fool you or take you by suprise,
The dirty smell of the politician, the man with the greed in his eyes.
One big union, that's our plan!
And the IWW is your only man,
The flames of discontent we'll fan for the cause that never dies."

Socialist Alternative fielded a red block with placcards reading

"Mass strikes to beat Howard"

and

"Dont wait for labour"

Lets be realistic. To get a general strike to happen, we need one of two things, or the two in interconnection.

a) Left-wing activists in the trade unions in larger numbers than exist now. To this ends, Socialist Alternative want to grow. I immagine that the other socialist groups out there share some version of this

b) A mass radicalisation, ala-France, in which the rank and file spontaneously calls a general strike.

Neither of these possibilities are created by 40 anarchists who heckle. If any comrades are interested in helping with this project:

http://www.sa.org.au

Against all odds an actual discussion on Indymedia !

Again just for the record, it is easy to slander everyone who did not stand with the "general strike block" to hackle Beeeeezley and Bracksey.

Maybe some of us were leafleting the rest of the rally, and discussing politics strategy and tactics with union members and delegates.

Maybe we were organising contingents, marshalling or chanting.

Maybe we have some disagreement with uncritically using the Eureka flag, (forgetting its history of flying at Nazi demonstrations cheering the Lambings Flat massacre of Chinese workers and in support of Pauline Hanson). Perhaps it's OK to fly the Eureka flag now because the so many unions use it, but perhaps organisations like the IWW could be a bit more careful with its difficult history.

Maybe we know that the general Strike, as important as it is, is a tactic, not some sort of miracle remedy that can be fed to the workers' movement at any moment.

A general strike could win, but it could also lose, and that would be a serious problem. Maybe more needs to be done to build workers' organisation politically and in terms of actual structures. Maybe a general strike is not just built through the "general strike block" but in many other ways, principally through coordinated intervention in our unions, at many levels.

Maybe try to see the whole picture of a big and complex movement, in a historic struggle, instead of just your group, your perspective and Beeeeezley and Bracksey in front of you.

For class unity, Struggle & Solidarity

The General Strike Bloc was not all about heckling. It was about raising awareness about an alternative strategy to voting for the ALP. I believe that in in some small way it succeeded in this.

It was an opportunity for different groups and individuals to come to-gether rather than exclusively recruiting for one group or another.

To be honest most workers would run a mile from the 'red bloc' as centralised, authoritarian forms of Government have been roundly discredited over the last century.

The Eureka flag should not be thrown away as a valuable unifying symbol of dissent and rebellion because a handful of facists have misappropiated it.

The Eureka flag was born with the spirit of internationalism-"A refuge for all the oppressed of the world"-Rafaello Carboni November 11th 1854.

It has predominantly been used as a progressive symbol by the union movement since. Is every union and union member who proudly wears and waves the Eureka flag-racist?

I think not!

I am not saying that a General Strike is the panacea for all of society's problems. However, in 1969, it was a very successful tactic against anti-union legislation. One million workers were mobilised in defiance of the NSW Labor Council and the Victorian Trades Hall Council.

If we can't even talk up the tactics that at least have a chance of winning than we are doomed from the start.

I'll bet that plenty of workers would be up for a General Strike. The trouble is that the grassroots are not consulted by the union hierarchies and other various Working Class Experts.

I was proud to be amongst those 40-50 Anarchists. At least they had the guts to take it up to the people selling us all out.

I began writting this poem/song after the rally. It goes to the tune of the Korean Struggle Song. I felt the Struggle Song whilst being sincere doesn't reflect what's happening in the Australia union movement today. I feel these new lyrics do. To be sung loudly and druken parties.

The new struggle song

Workers don’t be frightened
The solutions well at hand
Evil it is rising
But Kim Beazley is our man

Dare to vote! Dare to win!
March together pen in hand
With the ballot box behind us
We don’t need go on strike

John Howard he is evil
We all need a new Christ
Kim Beazley is our savior
We don’t need a general strike

You can’t vote if your in prison
You can’t vote of feeble mind
But if they stop the jobless voting
Then we’ll need a general strike

Dare to vote! Dare to win!
March together pen in hand
With the ALP to guide us
We don’t need a general strike

Some of you will doubt this
Doubt the ALP will fight
If doubt Labor will save you
Then let history be your guide

Dare to vote! Dare to win!
March together pen in hand
With the ALP to guide us
We don’t need a general strike

With the ALP to lead us
We don’t need a go on strike

Loose Cannon, June 28 2006.

Good Song!
by marcusneofitou@hotmail.com Thursday June 29, 2006 at 11:57 AM

We should sing at the rally in November. Seriously.

The attitude of the ACTU/Leadership is obviously one of defeatism in that they seem to have no faith in a victory over the IR Laws using industrial action. This air of defeatism seems to have permeated the Left and Union activists as well. This has been my experience with discussing the issue with other activists and Uionists.
This seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Workers in this country are not aware that there is another way to electoralism as a strategy. They do not appreciate the power they possess. The campaign in France was won in about six weeks - why could that not happen here. The Union leadership talk of a campaign lasting years which is just code for "till the next Federal Election". Whilst activists say we will have to work within the Unions for years to build the structures necessary for a General Strike.
I ask a few questions - do we have years to do this work? I believe that if these laws are not countered quickly by a wave of direct action then the Union movement will be fatally injured. These laws are extreme as we all know. If the Union movement cannot mobilise industrially to protect these rights then we are screwed. I ask if not now when? As the years go on - more and more workplaces will become atomised with the introduction of AWA's. The position of workers will become weaker and weaker. If you do use your rights 0 you lose them. If the Union movement does not use strikes in the face of these extreme attacks - they will have basically given up the right to strike at all. The ship is going down as we watch so I believe the role of the radical left in these dire circumstaces is not be so worried about being "sensible" or "precise" but to say it how it is - without massive industrial action and quickly - the workers movement in this country is screwed. Obviously the place to start is with a series of one day General Strikes - this is all it took in France.
If we must make these calls and in a way which confronts the electoral strategy of Trades Hall/ACTU head on. Our role needs to be talk about the power of workers industriallyand to confront the air of defeatism. If we dont do this and most of our campaigning goes into building the "Days of Action" and into simply highlighting the injustices of the law we are just playing a minor role in the electoral strategy of the ALP. Let the ACTU do their own legwork and the radical left both anarchist and socialist needs to concentrate on urgent calls or industrial action. I am not claiming to have the answers but I do know that unless something changes quickly ie in months not years then the workers of this country face a dark future. "we were there" says that we could lose a General Strike - thats true but I am not sure how the Union movement would be in a worse position after such a lose - what could the government do which could be worse for workers than WorkChoices?
P.S. I also loved the song
P.P.S. It is great to see Indymedia being used as a place to respectfully engage ideas on strategy
P.P.S. I am not trying to slander anyone - respect to anyone working on this issue

I would like to change a line in the New Struggle Song.

In the verse..
You can't vote if your in prison
You can't vote if femble mind
But if they stop the jobless voting
Then we'll need a general strike

It makes more sense to say

But if they stop sacked workers voting
Then we'll need a general strike.

The point being by the time the next election comes around many more workers will have been sacked unfairly. The ACTU's answer, "that's horrible, vote Labor".

I have also wrote a "bush poem" version of the song,

All the best

hi i wrote this ( se below ) a while ago nothing got of the ground with it. i
>have posted it to you as you have been involved in the fiesta and may circulate
>it. I think the ideas are still good one and people seem keen to do this at
>work.
>
>in regard to the precarity stuff, i think this is an idea around which to
>organise. iww'-ish types have used this on a massive scale in europe -
>organising with super-exploited 'casual and precarious
labour'
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarity
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromayday
>http://www.euromayday.org
>http://www.libcom.org/blog
>https://www5.autistici.org/pipermail/euromayday/2006-June/000227.html
>https://www5.autistici.org/pipermail/euromayday/
>see below
>
>----- Forwarded message from
>
>
>
>ho hum another rally, alp vote blah blah.
>
>other than ' general strike fiesta ' go iww !!!
>
>anything else happening, some comrades have discussed it a little at
>
>http://www.libcom.org
>in the oceania forum,
>
>- links to 'precariat' uggg. breaking from the unions, a wider critique, if i
>get off my arse i might try a leaflet.
>
>I had a great idea about doing, public banner and placard and fancy looking
>stuff in lunch breaks in the city where workers and others on lunch can join
>in. a kind of theatre thing, providing markers, cans of paint, sheets etc and
>fliering and talking to them about the anti-cpe struggle.
>
>but realised i just dont have the time on my own to actualise this thing. i know
>maybe one other who
is off sick at the mo', but perhaps if there are others we
>could do something like this...
>
>a little something to break the death marching and boring speakers.
>
>another idea, but you might get your head in would be to have a 'rebel/pirate
>open mike stage/platform '
>
>cut>
>

Really good to see some constructive discussion on Melb indy media. Below is a report of the rally from the UNITE website.

Close to 150 000 people attended the mass demonstration in Melbourne as part of the June 28 national day of protest against Howard’s IR laws. Large contingents of workers from both blue and whiter collar unions were in attendance. Many families and young people also attended due to the fact that it was school holidays in Victoria.

The mood of the demonstration was notably more sombre than the previous mass protests of June and November last year. The turn out was also somewhat smaller especially compared to the demonstration of last November. Industrial Relations Minister Kevin Andrews jumped on this point saying that the smaller than expected turn-out was a disappointment to the unions and reflected their irrelevance to most ordinary Australians.

Whilst this is obviously not the case, 150 000 people on the streets in Melbourne and 300 000 nationally is nothing to be scoffed at, but the reasons as to why the protests were smaller needs to be raised in the movement. Discussions with workers on the march revealed that many workers were somewhat disillusioned with the current campaign strategy of Trades Hall and the ACTU. Trades Hall secretary Brian Boyd said three more rallies were scheduled for the next 18 months, with up to five possible before the next federal election.

Many workers are asking “will continued protests be enough to defeat the laws?” Many more seem to have already concluded that this will not be enough and have decided to stay at work. Mass demonstrations are a key part of the campaign but these alone every six months linked to a marginal seats campaign to re-elect the ALP is by no means enough.

Kim Beazley and less so Steve Bracks received a reasonable response from the crowd when they spoke from the main platform in Bourke Street.
This was mostly due Beazley’s recent announcement to scrap individual contracts should the ALP win the next federal election. Beazley’s back flip on individual contracts should be welcomed and has without a doubt increased support for the ALP in the short term. But still many workers are not comfortable with the idea that the ALP will save us. Memories of the previous Labor federal government and the fact the ALP state governments continue to attack workers leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many trade unionists.

This was highlighted by the contingent of fire fighters who were less than impressed with Bracks’ hypocritical speech. Bracks said he was there to speak up for the rights of Victorian families, declaring that penalty rates, annual leave and overtime entitlements were all under threat. At the same time the state government is in dispute with the fire fighters over pay parity for country and metropolitan workers.

By far the best response on the day was for the rank and file speakers who shared their horror stories about the IR laws in effect. While Labor has received a short term boost in support, amongst active trade unionists and more generally throughout the working class, support for a principled left opposition to the ALP is still growing.

The demonstration on June 28 was a fantastic show of workers strength, even the bosses’ organisation VECCI said the rally cost $30 million in lost trade and absenteeism. But the movement now needs to seriously discuss how to best take this campaign forward. If the campaign is not escalated workers will quickly become demoralised and withdraw from activity. To succeed in defeating Howard’s IR laws the good work done so far on the propaganda front and the mass demonstrations need to be linked to a serious campaign of industrial action.

http://www.unite.org.au

I was demoralised after witnessing the ease with which the government could commit this crime. I have hope again. This movement can work. These laws could go. I'm willing to fight for it, who's with me? Even if your not a Labour voter, if you work or know someone who works, you're going to be this coming election.

whoa. second thought, is it worth it? Beazley has adopted a stance against these laws, and the amount of people voting against them this election c o u l d see him voted in. But would he have senate power to change them anyway? Maybe I should just stick to the greens.