Australia

Friday 15 March was a day of contrast in both Australia and New Zealand – exuberance and militant action by students striking for climate action in both Australia; followed immediately by immense sadness, horror and anger at the mass murder by a fascist at a mosque in Christchurch.

The best guess is that one and half million students, in over 120 countries, struck on Friday 15 March to demand that their governments start emergency action on climate change.

In London, the central rally of school students in Parliament Square was 4,000 or more. Everyone we talked with said there was no ongoing organisation in their school for the walkout. They’d found out about it on social media and come with their friends.

There were also sizeable groups of university students at Parliament Square.

Around 220 of the 1700 members of "Victorian Socialists" attended a conference to found an ongoing organisation on 16 February at the Maritime Union of Australia hall in Melbourne.

The "Victorian Socialists" coalition was formed to run candidates in the recent Victorian state election. It did quite well. The central campaign supporting Steve Jolly for the Victorian multi-member upper house Northern Metropolitan seat gained over 4% first preference votes.

Lilly Murphy, a year 9 student in Melbourne who was involved in the 30 November Australian school students’ strike for climate action, talked with Workers’ Liberty Australia.

Hutchison Ports, part of the C K Hutchison conglomerate, is one of the biggest container terminal operators in the world.
It has launched a new and big offensive against workers in its Australian terminals.

The ACTU's new campaign to "Change the Rules" indicts the fact that the "rules" of working life have shifted more and more against workers over recent decades, even if you take it into account the limited moves the Rudd and Gillard federal governments made between 2007 and 2013 to undo some of what the Howard coalition goverment had done.

The campaign is a positive move; but by itself not sufficient. The more active unions need to supplement it by a public campaign for the right to strike.

Workers' Liberty newsletter No 70 (Spring 2018) includes:
• The right to strike and Changing the Rules
• Morrison and Dutton: jackals of the ruling class
• What will it take to "Change the Rules”?
• Living Wage for working women
• RAFFWU Woolworths activist interview
• Student workers getting organised

"The silent minority" - minority, yes, that's what he said - "are fed up with bodies like the Civil Liberties Council and the Refugee Action Collective, and certainly the dictatorship of the trade union movement".

That was Peter Dutton in his maiden speech, who on 24 August forced Malcolm Turnbull to resign as Liberal Party leader. Dutton wanted rid of Malcolm Turnbull because Turnbull, though solidly right-wing on all the core economic issues, is a social liberal of the sort commonplace in most richer capitalist countries.

MUA Queensland Branch newsletter of 29 June 2018 carried this report on the log of claims for a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. Indonesian dockers leader Suryansyah Bahar from JICT Hutchison in Indonesia participated in the meeting. The unions intend to coordinate "a regional safety committee to build the capacity of wharfies to fight against Hutchison’s poor international safety record and union busting activities. The spirit of unity and cooperation between workers in Australia and Indonesia can only benefit both groups of workers."