May Day – Australian working class demands real change

Vanguard May 2010 p. 1

This year’s May Day calls on Australia’s working class and all ordinary people to unite, organise and resist the unprecedented attacks by big business monopolies on ordinary people’s hard won rights and conditions at work and in the community.

This year’s May Day comes at a time of the Labor government continuing to vigorously push the previous Liberal government’s vicious industrial laws against unions and workers. It comes at a time of record profits clocked up by the biggest corporations and the banks, and at a time of virtual wage freeze, full-time job losses and the spread of casual and part time work.

It comes at a time of working people are straining under the crippling burden of debt to meet the costs of daily necessities of housing, child care, health care, education and transportation for work. And it comes at a time of unparallel destruction of the environment by global capital.

Privatisation agenda
Relentless cut backs in government funding to public education, health, transport and other important community services and infrastructure prepare the way for their privatisation.

Not satisfied, big business demands that people’s taxes are shifted away from public and community services to pay for the servicing of big business and multinational corporations profiteering – port and rail transport facilities for the coal and mining corporations.

At the same time the Business Council of Australia demands increasing the GST and cutting back corporate taxes. They demand for themselves an even bigger portion of the country’s wealth created by the working people. But the main obstacle frustrating their grab for more profits is the organised working class. The big end of town demands the state to rein in people’s resistance to their profiteering.

Democratic rights
The main parliamentary parties’ lap-dogs fall over each other in the race to prove their loyalty to big business. They wheel out oppressive laws designed to chain up and paralyse working class struggle and resistance and abolish some democratic rights in the community. That’s what WorkChoices, Fair Work Australia and the ABCC are all about. That’s why many democratic rights are being removed from workplaces and communities.

Labor no friend of workers
Labor in government is especially useful to big business in suppressing people’s struggle. Its historical connections to unions and grass roots community activists create illusions of it being a friend of the battlers and ordinary working people fighting for justice.

The Gestapo-like, mad dog ABCC is simply an anti-democratic and anti-union device handed to big construction companies and developers to cripple building workers’ resistance to attacks on the hard won conditions in one of the most dangerous industries. History shows it will not work and workers will resist.

The Labor government’s attacks on building workers and their unions is now extended to teachers and their union fighting for proper government funding of the state school system that provides free, high quality education to all. Gillard’s recent manoeuvres to pit parents and teachers against each other by calling on the parents to act as shameful scabs is already back firing, further exposing Gillard and the Labor government. It exposes Deputy Prime Minister Gillard in full flight, frantically proving her anti-union and anti-worker credentials to the big end of town.

The gains made by unions over many years for workers’ health and safety on the job and hard won compensation for injured workers are now being trampled on by the Labor government, to cut costs and increase profits for big business and multinational corporations.

The ruling class cynically whips up a racist campaign blaming migrants and refugees for economic problems to divide the people and divert attention from itself.

Wealth for all
There’s enough wealth created by Australia’s working people to fix most problems in our public health, education, housing, environment, public transport, build environmentally sustainable manufacturing industry and much more. The only thing that stands in the way of this wealth being used to benefit the collective needs of the people and the whole society is a handful of the richest and most powerful local and multinational corporations who seized the country’s wealth to create more profit for themselves

On this May Day in the lead up to the national elections ordinary people know whichever main parliamentary party wins power nothing really will change.

Independence and socialism
Only organised resistance and fighting on the ground can roll back attacks on workers’ rights and the people. This will set the stage for more advances by working people. Ultimately, an independent and socialist Australia the working class will take charge of the economy and the whole of society, and put an end to monopoly capital’s assault on the working people.