Red Report Back - Week Ending 06/11/2022
Thousands Unite to Mourn Cassius Turvey
All across the nation last week, thousands gathered to mourn and remember Cassius Turvey. First Nations mob, joined by allies and supports, held vigils in nearly every corner of the country to express their grief and outrage over the reprehensible murder of yet another Indigenous child.
In attending the vigil held on Gadigal Country in the Town Hall courtyard, an array of guests spoke to the crowd of thousands who had gathered by candlelight to stand against the racial violence that is the foundation of the Australian capitalist state. Celebrities were joined by members of the Turvey family, as well as a variety of mob from Elders right through to student activists.
In an expression of solidarity and support for the grieving First Nations community, Community Union Defence League was on the ground to assist First Nations Response in providing food, tea and coffee to the mourners. With shameful deaths such as this occurring on what seems a weekly basis, the movement must be prepared to assist our First Nations comrades as they bear the emotional and physical burdens that come with their struggle not just for liberation, but survival in a hostile system geared against them.
We have a duty to assist First Nations workers who are suffering from housing injustice, educational disadvantages, food insecurity, the destruction of Country and all of the other calamities that capitalism and imperialism have unleashed upon them. In solidarity, we must fight against the system that perpetuates these injustices and misleads with piecemeal reforms that don’t address the real issues. There will be no justice through a Voice with no real power, nor through recognition in a Constitution fundamentally geared against the rights of First Nations people. For Cassius, and the thousands upon thousands of other Black children who have been killed in this land, justice will only come in fighting against this system. Rest in Power.
PIGS PREEMPTIVELY PUNISH PROTESTORS
Following the police brutality and severity that was unleashed upon activists from Blockade Australia earlier in the year, there has recently been a similarly unnerving move by pigs across the nation. In the lead up to the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), police from Queensland, Victoria, NSW and the ACT visited the houses of several people to intimidate them.
Of the 30 or so people who have been visited, many say they have never been arrested for protesting in the past, questioning the intelligence that was utilised by the armed forces of the state to prompt the visits. Counter-terrorism police have also intimidated several activists who were slapped with restrictive, draconian bail conditions that would see them jailed for entering the Sydney CBD.
In fact, it appears that IMARC itself was moved from Melbourne to Sydney specifically because of the harsher anti-protest laws in NSW that effectively make it illegal to engage in any meaningful form of protest that is not approved by police. This should concern anyone that has ever been involved in any type of activism
In Australia, the legal system of the capitalist state provides essentially no rights around free speech, the right to protest and the right to strike. Any of the laws that appear to enshrine these rights to some degree are farcical, and the state has shown it will not respect them anyway. However, as communists, we must shift the discourse away from this tame, legalistic approach. A protest is not meant to be approved by the enemy it is targeting. A strike should not be approved by the employers it is being waged against. Environmental activists should not be waiting for the approval of those who commit ecocide.
To challenge the capitalist system in all of the realms in which it inflicts injustice, we must do so outside of the shackles that they attempt to put us in. We must no longer try to win this boxing match while wearing a strait jacket. We must win by breaking free, taking the gloves off and putting the knuckle dusters on. We can either be a punching bag, or we can be the champ. The choice is ours.
TAFE TEACHERS TAKE ACTION
The New South Wales Teachers Federation is set to strike at 60 TAFE colleges across the state for 24 hours this week to fight for better working conditions and pay. President of the Federation Angelo Gavrielatos called out the Liberal government for their systematic dismantling of TAFE and attacks on staff.
He highlighted how this contributed to the skills crisis we are currently experiencing, noting that the 17,000 TAFE NSW teachers in 2012 declined to 8197 by 2022. Due to these cutbacks by the state government, remaining staff have suffered increased workloads for less pay, pushing many more out of the profession. He highlighted how existing pay rates had not kept pace with the cost of living, stating that “with inflation sitting at more than six per cent and growing, the government’s pay offer to the TAFE sector represents a pay cut”.
Once again, this action taken by unions highlights the disdain that the government has for working people. While millionaires and billionaires are given tax cuts, TAFE teachers are given pay freezes. While businesses avoid paying any tax, nurses and midwives suffer from chronic understaffing. In the end, the result is always the same - it is the working class who suffer most.
It is the working class who need the vital skills that institutions like TAFE provide if they want to be uplifted out of the poverty they have been forced into. We stand with the TAFE teachers taking action, for we know that an attack on them is an attack on the working class. Give them hell.
Tasmanian Teachers Take To The Streets
Much like their interstate comrades earlier this year, thousands of public school teachers in Tasmania are set to strike this coming week over low rates of pay and shameful conditions.
In summarising their motives, Australian Education Union state president David Genford said that though they recognised the strike would be disruptive, teachers were fed up with government inaction on high workloads and staff shortages.
In pursuit of a pay offer to offset these conditions, Mr Genford said “we do not take this action lightly, but the situation in schools is so serious that we feel as though we have no other option”. The government offered a 9.5% pay rise over three years along with bonuses, but the union has held its ground over the lack of measures taken to improve working conditions that help both teachers and their students.
Once again, we witness how the government attempts to pay off unions so that they forfeit the rights of members. This has been on display repeatedly in recent months, with the best example being the Perrotet government’s attempt to bribe rail workers from the RTBU in NSW with conditional pay increases if they dropped concerns about safety and secure working conditions.
As the cost-of-living crisis deepens and inflation climbs, workers are going to be forced into such similar positions with greater frequency. The capitalist state will dangle short-term rewards that may benefit a handful of workers for a while, but set back by decades other workers, now and in the future. Both as communists and workers, we must hold up examples of defiance, and remain principled in the face of government attempts to divide us. It is easy to sell off rights, conditions and safety, but it is damn near impossible for workers to buy them back. Stay strong, Tassie teachers. Teach those bastards a lesson for a change!