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Solidarity with MUA!
Green Left Weekly - April 22, 1998
[The following statement was adopted by the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in Sydney at Easter.]
This conference endorses and applauds the regional campaign of political solidarity with the Maritime Union of Australia initiated by the organisations represented at the conference.
In particular it notes:
1.The solidarity statement issued by the People's Democratic Party in Indonesia.
2.The picket actions outside the Australian embassy in Manila initiated by the trade union centre affiliated with Sanlakas, the Bukluran Mangagawa Pilipino (Filipino Workers Solidarity).
3.The picket actions being prepared by the Labour Party of Pakistan and its trade union allies outside the Australian embassy in Lahore.
4. The campaign of protest letters and messages, including the picketing campaign pledged by the New Socialist Party in Sri Lanka.
5. The campaign being prepared by the United Left in Spain to organise solidarity actions in Barcelona harbour against Australian ships, to move a motion in the Spanish parliament and solidarity resolutions to be moved at the Holden Barina factory in Zaragosa.
6. The pledge of support by the New Zealand Alliance to raise the matter in parliament and to investigate the possibility of a protest action during the rugby league tournaments.
7. The Trade Union Federation of New Zealand's attempts to investigate solidarity actions amongst its affiliates and to try to track down the source recruiting scabs and security guards to work on the Australian waterfront.
8. The comrades from Solidarity in the USA have begun to spread the need for solidarity and plan to work with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. There has already been a demonstration at the Australian consulate in San Francisco.
9. The activities of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance in helping to initiate the regional solidarity campaign coming out of this conference.
International solidarity is a vital fighting column in the struggles of the working class the world over. The conference recognises this and salutes the historic tole played by the MUA in supporting progressive struggles and causes - the 1945 waterside workers' ban on Dutch ships in solidarity with the Indonesian fight for independence, which continued until today with two Indonesian seafarers from the ship Unison winning $150,000 in back pay last year; to the 1960s and 1970s, when the waterside workers led protests against French nuclear testing, banning French ships and aircraft in 1972, to later fighting against US and Australian intervention in Vietnam.
Here in Australia all workers are in debt to the MUA for the conditions they won through organisation and struggles which often flowed on to the entire working class. This includes the historic struggles for the shorter work week, annual leave and more recently the 1995 solidarity actions with the Weipa workers, which were key to defeating Rio Tinto's push to deunionise the work force, and the threat of an MUA strike if scab coal was loaded in an attempt by Rio Tinto to break the miners' struggle in the Hunter Valley.
The recent sacking of its entire work force by Patrick Stevedores brings the fight between the MUA and the Howard government to a crisis point. The sacking lays down a challenge to the entire trade union movement and makes this one of the most significant struggles in the Australian labour movement in decades.
It's clear the Howard government's motive is to break the strength of Australia's trade unions, as the Thatcher government did with the British miners.
The threats by the Howard government to take the International Transport Federation to court if its affiliates around the world take solidarity action with the MUA is a further indication of the high stakes involved in the dispute for workers in Australia and internationally. It is an important struggle in the attempts by the capitalist class internationally to weaken the working-class movement through union-busting attacks.
Therefore this conference affirms that a victory for the MUA is a victory for all workers. We will do our part to strengthen solidarity with the MUA in this dispute and to help assure that victory.
Long live working-class solidarity!
Long live working-class internationalism!