SUB-CULTURE: Where the bloody hell are ya?
by Adam Maynard Friday December 01, 2006 at 01:16 PM

The "Fill the G" left a lot of questions, perhaps the most important being "where the bloody hell was everyone?"

Where the bloody hell are ya?

The Fill the G, this was meant to be the centerpiece in a nationwide campaign against the WorkChoices legislation. But instead of a powerful message to the Howard government telling them that the people would fight back against tyranny from Canberra, was a half empty stadium and the burning question “where the bloody hell are ya?”

So where was everyone? The million-dollar question. A year ago a hundred thousand marched through Melbourne and swore an oath to keep up the struggle. The last union rally in July attracted eighty thousand. Yet on this day, only just barely did half that number show up to yell half hearted cheers while the Coalition government crowed their victory in the parliament-debating chamber.

Where the bloody hell are ya?

They were at computers, they were on construction sites, they were at work earning their living. That’s the easy question to answer; the harder is why didn’t they show up?

The reasons are as varied as those absent “Thursdays are hard, I couldn’t really take a Thursday off”, “I thought everyone else would show up”, “I didn’t realize anything was on” or worse of all “I couldn’t be bothered”. Perhaps the most damming answer is the simplest, human nature has come to the fore and everyone is sick to death of hearing about the horrors of Industrial Relations.

Like the boy who cried wolf, the ALP and the Unions have cried “WorkChoices” and everyone rushed to the rescue. Only to find ghost and shadows, no danger to chase away. That is the insidious part of the WorkChoices legislation. It will not induce a sudden societal change, inciting everyone into action. No this decay will be slow and steady. The sky will not fall tomorrow, but can you feel the ground being dug from out under your feet?

Individual contracts are forced on to workers in dribs and drabs. Meaning that by the time the dribs are getting it the drabs are already over it. Even with one of the larger employers, the Commonwealth Bank now moving to AWAs, they are smart enough to “maintain” the foil of the Enterprise agreement as a sop to employee anger.

This leaves the question of where to next, the ALP and Unions are right to cry “WorkChoices”. What this act will do to the rights of working Australians cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately we are all just human, and as with all humans show us horror long enough and it becomes the ordinary.

The struggle should not end here, it cannot end here, but as to what we can do next?

I do not know, do you?

Adam Maynard

They may have all the power, but we have all the people. Which is kind of the problem and solution in one tidy bundle.

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