Melbourne Workers protest Industrial Relations : Melbourne Indymedia

Sharan Burrow, President of the ACTU, said "Our determination has strengthened. We will not allow the rights, the wages and the working conditions that have been won over the last 100 years to be swept away. Together we must build a movement for change."

"We remember when Australia was a place where we valued democratic rights. But now, every single worker can be fined $6000 just for asking for protection against unfair dismissal. Unions can be fined $33,000 for asking for union-provided OHS training." she said. "These are disgraceful laws. They have no place in a democratic society. They are unbalanced, extreme and a threat to Australian values."

Sharan Burrow claimed three city train lines were disrupted in the early morning, which may account for some reduced attendance.

Greg Combet, ACTU Secretary, attacked the Government for IR laws that are taking away important rights similar to the inequality and disadvantage in the United States. "Our goal is not just to repeal these unfair industrial relations laws, but to replace them with decent rights for working people. A decent safety net of minimum pay and employment conditions. A right for people to collectively bargain. If a majority of workers want to collectively bargain with their employer, we believe that the law should require the employer to negotiate. This is a simple democratic principle that should be respected in Australian workplaces."

And then the electioneering began for the Labor Party. Greg Combet said "A new campaign starts today. Your rights at work are not just worth fighting for - they are worth voting for. We will campaign in the wider community and ask people to vote for change. What we do now is not just for us, but also for our children and for future generations."

"And it's not just IR that we need to change. The Howard Government has been divisive and deceitful. It took the country to war in Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. The Government lied about refugees throwing their children overboard. It is shameless about its incompetence over the bribes paid to Saddam Hussein. It has put the interests of big business above those of working families. John Howard knows that these IR laws are unpopular. He will try to con people by making some cosmetic changes. Please do not be fooled." he said.

And then we heard from Leader of the Federal Opposition, "bomber" Beazley: "Friends, I'm here to tell you today we are going to rip up these laws," he said, with cheers from the crowd crowd. "Our campaign is for the future of working families. The only way we're going to get rid of these extreme laws is to throw Howard out, the only way," he said.

At the end of speeches Jimmy Barnes came on stage and belted out a few numbers including the classic "Working Class Man" to the cheers and enjoyment of the crowd.

Then the tens of thousands of people streamed out of the MCG for the march to Federation Square. Though there may have been only 60,000 people, it was still an impressive crowd marching down Flinders street. The clouds also decided to melt away with brilliant sunshine greeting the marches. By Midday the crowd were bleeding away: back to home, restaurants, and some back to work.

And there we have it. The unofficial start of the Labor Party campaign for the next Federal election

If labor can be elected in every State and Territory in Australia then how come they can't win a Federal election?

If you can answer that question honestly and have me believe that Labor is going to save you from the wrath as well as return civil rights, the social dollar and stop warmongering etc.

Then it would have to be a bloody good argument!

The numbers quoted here seem a little on the high side and lets face it - many lamer leftist losers are world class liars. Split the difference with the corpse press and you get more like 45K.
Now I'm no expert but maybe they would have done better with an arterial bloc as well?
Couldn't have done much worse because imho until the workers get behind the rioting indigenous, the rioting rebellious non-racist bogans and the rebellious gray nomads/long term unemployed we won't get a decent united front off the ground here in this wide brown.

The idea floated that 100,000 would pack the ' G' after the shameful disgraceful betrayal of the radical G20 demonstrators flags yet another red flag about the center columns here at MIM.
While the overall consistent record is one of good faith, hard copy and damning facts in contrast to failure after failure of the Military-entertainment complex media, there are still these nagging exceptions.
Somehow, someone in the collective gets a rush of red malerial blood to the head and posts some crap totally divorced from reality. These examples are few and far between yet all the odder for all that.
The ' get-out-the-vote' center story in 2004. The ...I forget now...ask me later when I'm sober and todays anonymous cowards feeble effort.
Some lamer leftist loser in this gutless middle-class preppie collective is drinking Kool-aid...not healthy red Aussie or Chile wine.
This is dethplorable, dethspicable and other words I like to use when spraying salivia all over my opponents.
Lift yr game MIMsters.
Lift yr game - get wise to red fascist frauds running a game on youse or get the fuck out of business - like Brisbane, Darwin and Sunnyvalley Sydney.
You won't be missed.
Talk about yr 34 faceless men!
Take the chickenshit MIM collective - please.

pr, do you believe in anything ?

You wine like a 2 year old about anything anyone else does or says but offer no constructive alternatives.

Do the world a favour and get out of the way.

UPDATE ON JAILED IRANIAN UNION LEADER

We told you last week about the arrest of Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the bus drivers union in Tehran. Your response has been excellent -- over 2,500 of you have already sent messages to the Iranian President demanding his release.

We've now gotten some more details, and they make for grim reading.

We know that Oslanloo has been taken to Evin prison where authorities claim that they are "negotiating" with him. (How you can negotiate with someone who you've arrested is an interesting question.)

The authorities also claim that he will be allowed one visitor, his mother --
but no one has told the guards outside the prison. His mother waited in vain for a chance to see her son.

His family has not even been allowed to phone him.

Clearly the authorities are hoping to break his will -- and thereby weaken the emerging trade union movement in Iran. Remember that this is a movement which managed to completely shut down the capital with a transport strike earlier in the year, despite massive repression.

It is essential that we turn up the pressure and flood the Iranian government with more messages this week. Please make sure to send on your message today
-- and to pass this letter on!

English:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=167

French:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=169

Norwegian:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=168

Polish:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=170

(Other languages are coming soon.)

Could there have been a sadders sight than the ACTU symbolically changings its huge slogan on the MCG grass from "Your rights - worth fighting for" - to "Your rights - worth voting for". They have literally taken the fight out of the union movement and channelled it into a flawed electoral strategy. Greg Combet and Beazley and Sharon Burrows all keep repeating that voting for the ALP is the "only way" that these laws can be overturned. Six weeks in France was all it took. What is the radical left doing as the Union Bureacrats continue their historical sell out of the workers of this country?

Union initial crowd estimates: 264,000 in total (not including Perth and WA rallies): Melbourne - 60,000 people; Victoria regions – 5,000; NSW – 116,000 including 40,000 in Sydney CBD; Canberra – 4,000; Adelaide – 30,000; SA regions – 1,000; Darwin – 2,500, NT regions – 500; Brisbane – 20,000; QLD regions – 25,000.

"The ACTU said that significant numbers of workers rallied across Australia today despite intimidation from the Federal Government and strong pressure to stay at work from many employers."

"Under the new IR laws workers can be docked four hours pay for any unauthorised work stoppage and in businesses with less than 100 employees, workers have no protection from being sacked unfairly and can be sacked without warning." said the ACTU press release

Yes, sad but to be expected. They try to divert the workers' rage into a vote for the parasites in the ALP and the future political careers if the ACTU leadership.

It shouldn't be too hard to defeat these laws which are among the worst of any proposed in advanced industrialised countries. The fact that 50,000 bothered to show up despite the Beaser, Burrow and Barnsey show is a pretty good start.

The power is in your hands comrades. Organise on the job, go slow, occupy, build a new worker-directed union movement from the ground up, support striking workers, organise autonomous groups in universities and in the community, organise within your unions, develop networks, educate yourselves and others, plan for the general strike. Before we know it, the ALP and ACTU union bosses will either be forced to support us or become irrelevant.