Red Report Back - Week Ending 06/03/2022

CUDL Crackdown

Just as they attacked the Adelaide and Melbourne street kitchens last year, now police are targeting CUDL’s community support activities in Martin Place, Sydney. Multiple fines have been given out by the ever-empathetic New South Wales Police Force for ‘crimes’ as minute as unloading on the footpath, erecting tables and stopping to unload for the homeless in the rain in a taxi zone.

As with previous attempts to push us out, we will remain resolute in the face of oppression. Our services provide for those that the state has failed, and much like other outreach programs, we will continue to meet the disadvantaged communities where they are. If the government dislikes seeing homeless and disadvantaged people receive support from providers like CUDL, then they can simply provide them the homes and assistance they need. Once they do this, we will leave. But until then, we will remain on the frontline assisting those most in need, and we will do so without begging the very politicians that cause the issue for assistance, permit or payment. Serve the People!

To get involved with your local branch of Community Union Defence League, follow this link.

Blue Hands, Black Blood

Just as last weeks’ edition of the Red Report Back was sent to the editor, another Black death in custody was announced. Cops from Townsville have been criticised for causing the death of Aboriginal teenager Robert Malayta, who was pursued into the Ross River by a police at 3:30am that Thursday. This comes not even a week after teenager Jai Wright was killed in Sydney after being rammed by a police vehicle during a pursuit. A fundraiser started by the Malayta family to help cover the funeral costs can be accessed here for those wishing to donate https://gofund.me/2d941b90

Bundjalung Floods

As the forces of the state react too little too late to the unprecedented flooding on Bundjalung Country, the community and its supporters have had time to reflect on many related issues. First Nations groups have criticised how despite always being among the hardest hit by these environmental disasters, they are often the last to receive assistance. Similarly, people are calling for the measly $1000 disaster payment to be doubled by taxing the coal and gas companies that many are holding accountable for causing these ‘once in a lifetime’ events every second year.

As the army arrives in the wake of the disaster’s peak to flash its fancy equipment for the cameras, an overarching lesson is drawn from the Bundjalung flooding debacle. The capitalist state is unable to address the impacts climate change has brought on the community, and will leave crumbs for the victims of these disasters, while throwing billions into supporting new coal and gas sites, as they are doing at the moment with Adani and Kurri Kurri. Don’t let the photo ops fool you – the major parties of Australia will sell out communities to maintain fossil fuel profits.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul - Stolen Generations Reparations

In a step towards reparations, Aboriginal survivors of the Stolen Generations in Victoria will now be able to access payments of $100,000 as part of the Victorian state government’s reparation package. Survivors who were removed from their families by the government before 1977 will be able to access the payments as part of a $155 million package that will open towards the end of March.

While no doubt of great importance to these survivors from the pre-1977 era of state-sanctioned removal, the hypocrisy of the Victorian government in lauding themselves as morally righteous fighters for reconciliation is ironic. This is the same government that decided to destroy sacred Djab Wurrung trees that were older than the Notre Dame Cathedral in order to build a minute-saving highway bypass, and actively arrested and harassed those who attempted to defend the sacred site. It will be interesting to see what precedent this sets, considering more Indigenous children are removed from their families now than at the peak of the pre-1977 Stolen Generations. The colonial state may have short memories, but they better have deep pockets too. All the wealth they’ve stolen from the land is going to be ripe for the picking.

Spit Hoods in the Territory

The colonial state’s inability to address its racism was highlighted again this week when an investigative journalist team in the Northern Territory revealed that spit hoods are still being used on children, despite the Royal Commission calling for them to be banned. As the Walker and Voller trials continue, it only goes to show the fundamental lesson of dealing with the colonial state: meaningful change cannot come from within a system that has its very foundations in racial oppression. From Adani illegally mining unceded land with the government’s assistance, right through to the armed forces of the state torturing incarcerated Black youths, Australia shows how the colonial state’s foundations rest on the violent suppression of First Nations people.

In Bed With Management - RAFFWU Exposes Treachery

A recent legal case has revealed that Woolworths broke the law when it attempted to bust a campaign by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU). The campaign began with a petition started by dozens of workers regarding safety lighting in the staff carpark. This petition was at first handed over to the rival, right-wing union, the SDA by Woolworths. After receiving this, the SDA did what it does best, and called the workers threatening their employment if they didn’t retract their signatures and apologise to Woolworths.

RAFFWU stepped in and fixed the safety issue, and it has now come to light that the SDA was in bed with Woolworths and supporting the store manager who refused to address the safety issue. This highlights a trend in which right-leaning unions cosy up with management to silence the demands of workers. It is the responsibility of members and delegates to hold their representatives accountable, and remind the bosses that the workers have the power.

Trainies Take Action

Workers and members of the AMWU took a 24 hour protected industrial action this week to fight back against growing attacks on Australian workers’ rights. The members work on the XPT regional trains that operate between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and which is due to be replaced in 2023 with a Spanish-built fleet that the government has sold off to be maintained by private contractors.

Workers have stood up to challenge the threat of privatisation in the workplace, and the offshoring of our transport infrastructure manufacturing and maintenance, which has been wholesale in recent years at the hands of the Liberal government. If anything, the recent cracked trams debacle in Sydney has shown that transport jobs should remain public, and the infrastructure should be made locally with the quality and safety standards the Australian public deserve. As long as the government continues to import cheap trash to save money, the wellbeing of Australian workers and the public will suffer.

Western Australian Nurses Under the Pump

The nurses of Western Australia are now suffering as the state prepares to enter its next stage of confronting the pandemic. The Western Australian nurses are now finding themselves to be suffering from the same issues that their colleagues across Australia have been confronted with for the last two years. Nurses have complained about unsafe staffing levels and being overworked, with impacts on staff morale, job satisfaction and safe nurse-to-patient ratios. Despite their relative isolation from the pandemic up until now, spokespeople for the Australian Nursing Federation highlighted how nurses are nevertheless at breaking point.

The chronic underfunding and unsafe conditions that assorted Australian governments and leadership have seen fit to allow to permeate the health system has led to this crisis. Nursing staff all over Australia are complaining of unsustainable conditions that burn out the workforce and jeopardise the wellbeing of the public. The government must act to fund and support this vital industry, instead of letting it fall victim to profit and key performance indicators. For more information on the nursing crisis in Australia, read our Pass the Mic interview with a member of the NSWNMA.

Funds for Guns

Our eager-to-please warmongering chief, Scott Morrison, has announced that Australia will be sending $70 million to fund military equipment in support of Ukraine and its fight against Russia. Morrison announced, without a shred of irony or self-awareness, that the ‘lethal aid’ deal of ammunition and missiles was to support the people of Ukraine in the defence of their homeland.

If Scotty and the rest of the political class in Parliament are such humanitarians with concern for sovereignty and displaced persons, why don’t they address the imprisoned refugees in Melbourne and those in offshore detention centres, and provide them the justice and humanity they deserve? Or, on a domestic level, why don’t they address the neglected needs of Indigenous communities and the ongoing Northern Territory Intervention, deaths in custody and the dozens of other issues that the Australian colonial state inflicts on First Nations people all over this land?

The hypocrisy of the ruling class knows no limits, and their crocodile tears for the people of Ukraine so that they can sell guns or boost their wealth in arms shares with their mates will not convince us otherwise. The politicians of this country have no respect for sovereignty or peace. It is only the working class who can protect either; we must not forget that.