What's in the Workers' Liberty No 28 Dec/Jan 2002/03 magazine: Inside: Stop work to stop the war Socialist Alliance: „h Socialist Alliance in review „h Open letter to the International Socialists „h Trade union solidarity committee „h For a workers¡¦ government in NSW Forum „h Rural policy debate „h Farm hand or handouts? „h Gender, identity and sexuality Brisbane ¡V the Gully defended Argentina ¡V workers¡¦ democracy in action Anti-capitalist Globalisation: European Social Forum, what next? UK firefighters: FBU victory will be a victory for all workers
For the full issue: http://www.workersliberty.org.uk/index.php Editorial Stop work to stop the war Opposition to war is growing. In Australia there have been impressive demonstrations of anti-war sentiment in the major cities and regional centres involving tens of thousands. In Britain, Italy and the US several hundred thousand have marched against the impending US/UK war on Iraq. Opposition to unilateral action A number of ALP federal parliamentarians are openly against supporting unilateral US action. Tasmanian MP Harry Quick publicly stated his intention to "cross the floor" if necessary in opposition to any ALP support for unilateral US action. Right wing ALP MP Laurie Brereton writing in October in the Fairfax press stated that even if the UN supports an attack on Iraq, Australia should only contribute "bilateral intelligence" and not "lend the direct support of our defence forces". However Australia has for some time had a military commitment to leading the UN sponsored naval blockade in Iraq which over the years since the last Gulf War has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqi people. The ACTU President, Sharon Burrow, told a Sydney Anti-war rally on 30 November "the ACTU strongly opposes a unilateral declaration and Australian involvement in a war on Iraq." This is good as far as it goes. But that statement does not match the level of total opposition to war on Iraq either under UN or US leadership demanded by the many thousands who have marched for peace. It is encouraging that many union flags and banners were present at various anti-war demonstrations. This is a useful start to developing a rounded working class response to the war drive. What will be needed to bring a halt to the war is the action on the streets reflected in resolutions, meetings, debate and ultimately action on the part of workers to stop the war. One of the most useful early actions against the Vietnam War was a union ban by the stalinist led Seamen's Union of Australia on crewing the supply ships Boonaroo and Jeparit in the mid-1960's. This followed a tradition in the SUA of industrial action in support of political causes such as opposition to the Korean war and support for the Indonesian nationalist movement which fought the Dutch attempt to regain the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) after WW2. Many of these actions were carried out against the wishes of the mainstream union movement. But they could not have succeeded without thorough debate and support of the membership. It is always a hard task to fight against the current which supports "our boys" in Vietnam, Korea or (today)¡K¡K Iraq. War wagon rolls on Deputy sheriff John Howard is following faithfully along in the shadow of President Bush with his "Australian forces will be on the ground" to support unilateral action by the US. The Labor Opposition fails to condemn the war in outright terms and seems happy to support the war aims of the US if they are appropriately camouflaged with a UN Security Council sanction. Preparations for war are also growing with a massive US/UK military build up in the Gulf. In many respects the war has already begun with the US and the UK increasing the tempo of "softening up" bombing raids in southern and northern Iraq against air defence installations. Such bombing raids have been a feature of the US/UK unilateral low level military campaign against Iraq ever since President Bush Senior's 1991 Gulf War officially ended. Thousands of sorties have been flown resulting in the deaths of many Iraqis. War on civil rights One of the pillars of the "war on terrorism" is the parallel "war" on civil rights which is being carried out through new laws to boost the powers of police and intelligence agencies. These new laws have little to do with fighting the perpetrators of terrorism. There is already plenty of scope for the forces of 'law & order' to spy on, round up, detain and prosecute terrorists. The new laws recently passed by the Carr Labor government in NSW and those proposed by the Howard Coalition government are more intended to restrict hard won rights of protest and civil disobedience. Such rights are essential for the expression of minority views which do not find a ready outlet in the capitalist mass media. Ultimately such laws could be just as easily used against legitimate union activism as any alleged Islamist terrorists. David Bernie, Vice president of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties, described these laws to a public meeting called by the NSW Socialist Alliance on 6 December. He described how police, without a search warrant, under the new NSW law could strip search children over ten years old as terrorist suspects and people who refused to give their name to police could be jailed for 12 months. These new provisions are amongst other increased powers to search and detain suspects and their property. In April this year the ACTU warned a Senate Committee that under the Federal Government's proposed anti-terrorism laws: "that routine political and industrial activism could be criminalised as terrorism under the Howard Government's new security bill. High on the ACTU's concerns were that the new law could be used to limit the civil liberties of union members, to work against union activism and to weaken unions. Under the new law the activities that could be defined as a terrorist act includes any action or threat made with the intention of advancing a political, religious, or ideological cause. Acts include those involving harm to persons or property as well as acts which constitute a risk to the health or safety of a section of the public, or interference with an electronic system, including telecommunications, financial, essential services, public utilities or transport. Under this definition finance sector workers who 'jam the fax" of their CEO, or telecommunications workers who ban repairs to faults could be deemed to have engaged in a terrorist act, punishable by life imprisonment." United front needed As socialists fighting to build a large and effective anti-war movement we should not lose sight of our orientation to the working class. There has been a tendency to build the anti-war movement as broadly as possible around the simple slogans of "No war on Iraq" and "No Australian support for the war". Anyone agreeing with these slogans are made welcome to the speakers platform and the rallies. These are lowest common denominator slogans and if taken at face value could lead to socialists sharing the platform with anti-working class forces. Supporters of the secular butcher Sadam Hussein or the murderous Islamist regime in Iran could support these slogans. Would we be happy sharing the platform with such representatives of anti-working class forces? Socialists need to bring their political perspective to the struggle against the war. Building sheer numbers is not the answer. Socialists should be clearly stating that it is the working class which has the potential to stop the war drive and offer on that basis to link with other working class forces to build a broad united front against the war. How are we to build links with secular workers and their communities if we platform supporters of fundamentalist regimes or murderous cliques which have been responsible for the deaths of their sisters, brothers and comrades overseas. Surely we should make a priority of linking up with the more secular and working class elements of the communities under racist attack from the Australian state. It is a basic flaw to think of alliances, however temporary, with reactionary forces will lead to winning over a Muslim audience to socialist thinking. Those who are prepared to stand apart from the various anti-working class regimes and cliques whether secular or religiously based are more our natural allies. If we have a peace movement clearly based in the labour movement and on principles of democracy and international solidarity, then we can invite speakers from community groups - so long as they have no clear ruling-class links - without great problems. In Britain, for example, there are various anti-fundamentalist Muslim groups who were active in the movement against the Afghan war. The involvement of the Muslim Association seems to have driven them away from the current (Iraq) anti-war movement. On the evidence, you can't have both. The Muslim Association is not just fundamentalist, but plainly a ruling-class political outfit, financed presumably by some section of the Saudi elite. In Sydney the invitation of Sheik Taj Al Hilali, the leader of the Australian Muslim community, to speak on 30 November was seen as necessary in order to attract other more acceptable Muslim speakers. The Sheik has an unsavoury past and has been widely accused of racism. It is well known that the Sheik's Lakemba Mosque was partly financed by the ultra fundamentalist Saudi regime. The drive for the broadest possible numbers will not make for a truly united anti-war movement that can challenge the whole war-mongering power apparatus in Australia. For that we need to be sure that our anti-war movement is in solidarity with working class struggle in all affected countries, and clearly condemns our common enemies on all fronts - the US military, Howard's support for the USA, Saddam's dictatorship and political Islam. 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