This article first appeared in The Anvil, Vol 10 No 5, published 31 October 2021.
---- CFMEU Office Demonstration 21 Sept 2021 ---- Source: styleheavens.com(original source unattibuted) ---- The anti-vaxxer attack on the offices of theCFMEU in Melbourne last month is a stark reminder that class collaborationdoesn't come free. What looked like an opportunity to protect union members'interests through co-operation with the bosses and the State instead created evengreater dangers than the hard road of class struggle would have done.When the COVID19 pandemic hit last year, the Federal Government was compelled tointroduce wage support payments, known as Jobkeeper, for workers whose workplaceswere shut down by public health measures. Thanks to over a century of militantclass struggle, wages in the construction industry are amongst the highest inAustralia. Jobkeeper approximated to the minimum full-time wage. Shutting downconstruction would have thrown building workers into massive economic distress.That was a situation to be avoided.There were two possible responses. One was for the CFMEU to fight the bosses onhealth and safety at every step and to insist workers mustn't lose income fromany health-related closures. The other was to collaborate with the bosses to keepthe industry running, despite any risks to health that this might entail. TheCFMEU leadership took the second option.Collaboration to keep the industry running imposed its price. Members who raisedhealth and safety concerns were silenced. This validated the emerging movement ofCOVID denial and posed health orders as contrary to the interests of buildingworkers. Last year, COVID19 didn't spread particularly well on building sites.The emergence of the Delta strain, though, changed all this. Outbreaks atbuilding sites were mentioned in passing at the daily government pressconferences. Health and safety suddenly became a serious problem for the CFMEU.It either had to come out fighting or, by continuing to run dead, capitulate tothe Right wing forces of denial.The CFMEU leadership's out-of-character collaboration with the bosses has allowedanti-vaxxer and COVID denier forces free play amongst CFMEU members. When theState Government announced a vaccine mandate for construction workers, there wasa backlash that the CFMEU officials weren't equipped to deal with.On 21 September, a demonstration grew outside the CFMEU office to demand actionfrom the officials about the impending vaccine mandate. A large majority wereCFMEU members, their work gear identifying them as coming from strong unionsites. There were also ring-ins, attempting unsuccessfully to provide politicalleadership for the crowd. Much has been written of the way the crowd shouted downthe CFMEU Secretary and proceeded to attack the building. This was bad enough,but worse was the fact that several known Fascist identities attempted to leadthe demonstration. This is an ominous development. Fascists should be drummed outof the union movement - physically - whenever they dare to show their face.The demonstration next day was much bigger, but the composition of the crowd wasvery different. A whole pile of bosses, scabs and workers from other industriesjumped on the bandwagon, while every Right wing nut job in Melbourne put on abrand new hi-vis vest and pretended to be a building worker. Any actual CFMEUmembers present (there were probably a few) were dissolved in a general Rightwing rabble.Because of the September events, the CFMEU Vic Branch has a significant number ofmembers alienated in a Right wing direction, not because of the union being toomilitant in defending workers' rights, but because it wasn't militant enough.It should go without saying that Anarchist Communists defend the CFMEU againstbosses and the State, even when its officials haven't done the right thing. It'sup to the labour movement to clean its own house, so neither the CFMEU's failureover COVID19 nor the personal misbehaviour of the Victorian Secretary justifyState intervention against the union. Instead, the Melbourne Anarchist CommunistGroup calls on construction workers to learn the correct lessons from the COVID19debacle, clean out the ranks of the officials and bring the union under thedirect control of the members. The CFMEU is in danger. Only class struggle willsave it.NO SAFETY, NO WORKTOUCH ONE TOUCH ALLhttps://melbacg.wordpress.com/2021/11/19/cfmeu-victoria-fails-its-covid-test/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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