At the end of next week a 'special symposium' will be hosted by Macquarie University to mark the three decades since the ALP-ACTU deal helped to elect the Hawke Government in 1983. The good and the great of the Accord era will be there (Hawke, Crean, Kelty etc) as will many enthusiasts from the academic community.
The Accord was Australia's odd experiment in corporatism at the national level. Odd because the labour movement (or at least its leaders) seemed to embrace corporatism at the same time and, at least on the political side, with the same enthusiasm as it embraced the neo-liberal agenda then sweeping the anglophone world.
The
ACTU’s adoption of independence and external lobbying involves a direct
rejection of the dependence and internal lobbying approach involved in the
social democratic style Accord arrangement. The adoption of union
revitalisation strategies is based in critiques of the impact of these social
democratic arrangements on union vitality and membership engagement.
In
fact, for the critics inside today’s union movement, the Accord is viewed
through the lens of a contemporary focus on re-building membership. The Accord
was good for working people, but it was, they say, bad for unions.
While a
few interviewees found merit in both the Accord and the organising model, seeing
them as appropriate responses to the circumstances of their times, most leaned
one way or the other.
Essentially we’re just applying the best of the resources of the early 21st century, to early 20th century community organising. But what that actually requires under the bonnet is a level of political information and analytics that’s never really been needed by a campaign before, so that it can be transformed into the knowledge required to enable the people with the real skills – our union campaign folks and our organisers – to achieve magnitudes of order more than they ordinarily could do without it.
(UK) Trade unions face difficult times, but challenges shouldn't be exaggerated - LSE
These are depressing times for trades unions, because we are facing a period of loss. However, its important not to get carried away with the sense of liquid fear that pervades unions in decline. The decline is not happening to the same degree at the same time everywhere, rather there are still opportunities for unions to secure real gains for working people. This might well mean moving from Marx to Freud, swapping one bearded bloke for another, and mourning the loss of a utopian dream of internationalism and decent work. However, such mourning would allow us to move beyond a position of denial and drop the stalled attempts at ‘renewal’, so as to work towards a more realistic goal of securing real gains for working people. This is a painful process for those of us who have invested so much in our unions, but it does then free us up to aim for a more achievable future. At a time when the magic solutions are running out unions need to play on their strengths, which include a pragmatic insistence that something is better than nothing and a realistic assessment of which unions can still deliver it.
More on the power broking in WA ALP - Sunday Times
It had been rumoured for months that union heavyweights Dave Kelly and Joe Bullock the respective bosses of the powerful Left and Right factions of the WA Labor Party had done a deal that would see both of them end up with cushy jobs in politics.
This week the deal was consummated when Bullock got the top spot on the Labor ticket for a Senate position guaranteeing him a job in Canberra at the expense of his supposed mate, WA Senator Mark Bishop, and Senator Louise Pratt, who has the No.2 spot.
Kelly's Left faction (United Voice) this week delivered the numbers for Bullock's ascendancy, at the expense of one of their own, Pratt, who is also part of the Left.
Bishop was stranded and will now retire from politics.
Informed sources say the Left's support for Bullock stemmed from the fact that the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union secretary delivered Kelly the numbers to stand for the seat of Bassendean, which he won.
Sources say Bullock also gave his blessing for Simone McGurk another of Kelly's union mates to be pre-selected for the seat of Fremantle.
"Bullock wanted the No.1 spot for the Senate so badly that he was willing to give Kelly control of the Labor caucus by having more Left-aligned MPs," a source said. "This has members of Bullock's own faction scratching their heads."
Labor has always seen itself as a community-based party engaged with people where they live and work.
The relationship between the ALP and our affiliated unions is at the heart of our vision for a Labor Party that speaks for, and seeks government on behalf of, working people.
The industrial and political wings of our movement can come together, campaign around this issue and deliver real dignity to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
In doing so, we can once again reconnect with working people at home and at work, and speak to their lives.
This is a challenge the union movement is united around – regardless of the election result on September 14.
But for the ALP, it is ultimately a choice.
Labor can choose to join us in that battle, and as Daniel Andrews indicated yesterday, Victorian Labor is clear in its resolve to do so.
But there is an alternative. That alternative is to turn inward, and play a divisive, futile blame game.
Make no mistake – that’s what our opponents want. They would love nothing more than to see the energies of the labour movement diverted away from organising and representing working people by a messy fight about the relationship between organised labour and political Labor.
This evening Sydney University's embattled vice-chancellor sent out this email to students:
Dear students,
As you will know, the proposed visit of the Dalai Lama to the University in June has been the subject of sensationalist and misleading media reports. Throughout discussions regarding the potential visit of His Holiness, the University and I personally have been consistently committed to the principle that academics can invite to the University anyone whom they believe has a legitimate contribution to make to public debate. It is not within the power of a Vice-Chancellor, or anyone else, to withdraw an invitation issued by an academic unit to an outside speaker, absent concerns such as public safety.
I am therefore pleased to advise that the Director of the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Professor John Keane, has this afternoon made the following statement.
“The Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (IDHR) at the University of Sydney and representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama have agreed to host an on-campus lecture for students at the University of Sydney, in mid-June 2013. This will be the first engagement of the Dalai Lama during his Australian tour.
The IDHR looks forward to hosting His Holiness the Dalai Lama under the theme ‘Education Matters’.
The University of Sydney and IDHR remain firmly committed to the principle that academics are free to invite to our campus anyone who has a legitimate contribution to make to public debate.
It is hoped the mid-June event will form part of a determined commitment of the University of Sydney to develop a constructive dialogue on matters concerning Tibet and the wider region.”
This is an excerpt from David Marr's recent Quarterly Essay on Tony Abbott, which was reproduced on Martin Whitely's website earlier this week after the WA ALP Branch pre-selected (yet another) extreme right wing SDAer, Joe Bullock, to help prevent the federal ALP caucus adopting a modern approach to issues like marriage equality:
…In those summer days in early 1976 the course of his (Abbott’s) political life was set. In the heady atmosphere of that secret forum young Tony was recruited for Bob Santamaria’s Movement. The men who did the work Peter Samuel, the Bulletin’s cranky political correspondent; Warren Hogan, the embattled professor of economics at Sydney University; and Joe de Bruyn, a hard-line Catholic union official about to assume lifetime (national) leadership of the shop assistants’ union (the SDA).
…Santamaria deplored the Pill, homosexuality, rampant materialism, married women in the workforce, environmentalists, drugs, abortion, anarchy on campuses, economic rationalism, dissident theologians, divorce without proof of guilt and their cult of moral autonomy of the individual. What he saw at stake here was the authority of family, church and state, indeed legitimate authority in every field of life.
…(Abbott) pledged his troth to Santamaria. It would be a year before he met the man face to face but he fell in love that weekend. “I have been under the Santamaria spell ever since.” He regarded him until his death in 1998 as “the greatest living Australian”.
…(Abbott) believed the path Santamaria was inviting him to take was essentially religious. In the old man’s obituary a couple of decades later he wrote: “His real role was to create a type of secular religious order, something like a band of political Jesuits, a group of men and women whose religious values translated into strong commitment, not necessarily to any political party, but to a set of social principles.”
The tactics were not so lofty. The Democratic Clubs (of which Abbott and Bullock were members) were small and their membership carefully controlled. The correct line was strictly enforced. They used tactics Santamaria developed to fight Reds in the unions: provocative campaigning, ceaseless leafleting and infiltrating rival organisations. They called themselves moderates but their position was extreme: as far to the right as the Maoists and Trotskyists on campus were to the left. They were accused of rough-house tactics and wrecking what they couldn’t control. The student newspaper Honi Soit reported: “This organisation has a long history of politically motivated violence – whether as vigilantes for vice-regals, smoke-bombers for Saigon, poster pullers for political reaction, or bullies for by-elections.”
…His (Abott’s) fellow warriors (in the Democratic Club) loved him in a slightly protective way. “Tony was a warm, sociable individual, a ton of fun,” recalls Joe Bullock, who is now state secretary in Western Australia of de Bruyn’s SDA union. “People warmed to Tony. He was very personable, very quick with the common touch he still has. But he was enthusiastically hated by those who hated him. He was seen as a very worthy opponent with a capacity to win. We all thought Tony would be a force to be reckoned with when he grew up and we’re still waiting.” Great things seemed to be at stake. Bullock says: “Everyone thought they were engaged in a bigger battle. I thought I was engaged in a battle between good and evil.” …His (Abbott’s) plan was to win presidency of the SRC (Sydney University Student Representative Council) and collapse it from above. He was well underway. In May, he had taken control of the campus Liberal Club. It was Joe Bullock’s idea: “I said we need a banner to fight under. We’ve got have something that can draw people to us. The Labor Club was extreme left. There was no chance of knocking it off. But the Liberal Club was a dreadful bunch of dilettantes and social climbers. And there were not many of them. So I said: “Let’s knock off the Liberal Club.’ But Tony was really reluctant. ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to join the Liberal Club.’ He made it clear his loyalties were to Labor. Eventually, I persuaded him against his better judgement to join.”
Senator Mark Bishop pulled out of last night's ALP preselection ballot that saw the most powerful left-wing and right-wing unions conspire against the resurgent blue- collar section of the party.
It is understood Senator Bishop may not have received a single vote if he had contested because of a deal between his right-wing retail workers union - the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association - and the dominant left-wing union United Voice.
Under the deal, SDA boss Joe Bullock, Senator Bishop's one-time friend and union ally, grabbed the top spot on Labor's WA Senate ticket, 109-61, relegating sitting Senator Louise Pratt to second.
I have worked in politics, public policy and strategic communications for over 30 years. I was recently awarded a doctorate in Australian politics at the University of Sydney. My thesis was on the (changing) relationship between the ALP and unions. I have been blogging since November 2003 and over the past decade I have written many articles on politics, public relations and social media for newspapers, magazines and websites. I love literature particularly John McGahern and James Joyce.
The header photo is of the Clarence River taken before dawn at Ulmarra in 2012.
