(Above and below: Construction workers' picket line at Griffith University, Queensland. They have accused construction company Laing O'Rourke of failing to pay allowances and entitlements according to Enterprise Bargaining Agreements.) Around the world capitalism is plunging into a deeper economic crisis. Governments and big business corporations rush to protect the super profits of the giant multinationals and big banks from the crisis. They do this by attacking the working people.
Millions of jobs have been wiped out or moved to countries with cheaper labour. Workers’ wages and conditions are slashed. Widespread casualisation and lower wages replace job security. Attacks on workers and union rights are stepped up. Government spending on public services, health and education is hacked while governments siphon off public funds to big banks and giant corporations to prop up their obscene profits. Economic hardships for the working people deepen and spread. The cost of living is sky rocketing, and more people are thrown into poverty.
The working people are not taking this laying down. Millions around the world are resisting big business’ demands to make ordinary people carry the main brunt of the capitalist crisis. Resistance grows and broadens in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Struggle is strongest in countries with the deepest economic crisis. Attacks on workers’ rights, democratic rights and civil liberties are intensified. Suppression by force is used more openly and savagely by the capitalist state. Parliamentary political parties are in turmoil in many countries of the capitalist world. The political disarray is most severe in countries with deepest economic crisis where governments are more exposed as servants of capital.
Australia's situationAustralia is not immune or protected from the global capitalist crisis.
Australia’s economy is completely entangled in a web of foreign capital and multinational corporations.
Australia’s big banks are dependent on international finance capital.
Multinational corporations and foreign capital dominate the economy. They make the main decisions for the country and exercise the greatest power over governments, Liberal or Labor, and the mass media. They do everything in their power to protect their mega-profits from the economic crisis.
Most Australian industries, from resources, agriculture, manufacturing, building and construction and transport are either owned by, or dependent on, foreign capital and multinationals.
Decisions are not made on what is best for Australia and people.
The peak bodies of mainly foreign corporations – the Business Council of Australia, the Minerals Council, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Australian Industry Group – are forcefully pushing for harsher measures against the Australian people.
They attack hard won wages, working conditions, entitlements and penalties, and demand widespread casualisation and longer working hours for less pay. Big business wants even more freedom to attack workers and their unions. Fair Work doesn’t go far enough for them. Public spending on services is cut, while the capitalist class demands cuts to company taxes.
Tens of thousands of jobs have disappeared from Australia in the past 6 months. Just in the past 2 weeks Qantas and BlueScope Steel have announced combined cuts to more than 2,000 jobs in Australia. And this is only the start for Qantas, with plans to move its main operations to Asia and cut thousands of jobs in next 5 years. Huge profits continue to be made by the multinationals and big banks.
Working people are looking to the trade union movement to resist capital’s assault and lead the fight against big business shifting the burden of the capitalist economic crisis onto ordinary people.
Working class is fighting back
The Australian working class and its union movement is fighting back.
The strength lies in building an independent union movement and action not beholden to the ALP.
South Australian workers and unions launched their fight in 2010, resisting the Rann Labor government’s austerity measures and attacks on the public sector workers and community services.
NSW public sector unions are organising a massive day of action on September 8th in defence of workers’ and communities against the onslaught of the O’Farrell government’s draconian attacks on public sector workers and services.
Victorian public sector unions are in the midst of a co-ordinated campaign for wage increases and improvements in conditions in the new EBAs.
The Victorian union movement is gearing up for a fight with the new Liberal government targeting attacks on unions, with construction unions on the front lines. Queensland workers have learned many lessons from their long fight against privatisation.
An independent, mobilised and fighting union movement is the only way for workers and working people to defend themselves against the immediate economic hardships and attacks on democratic rights.
From mass resistance to the capitalist economic crisis will emerge the longer struggle for a lasting solution: independence from foreign capital and multinationals, and building a socialist Australia.
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