Rights Rollback: Canberra's Continuing Quest To Crush Resistance
Bill Posters
After the ABC published stories based on leaked documents showing that Australian special forces in Afghanistan were killing unarmed men and children and collecting grizzly trophies such as amputated hands from their kills 1, the AFP raided the ABC’s headquarters and seized documents related to the stories. Federal police also raided the home of a News Corp journalist who published a story based on leaked documents exposing the Federal government’s plan to allow the digital spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, to directly and secretly access citizen’s private data 2. The AFP haven’t yet pressed charges against the journalists involved, but the raids, combined with stricter anti-whistle-blower laws, will likely cause potential future whistle-blowers to think twice about sharing their knowledge with the media.
Since the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raid on the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in July, news outlets have been breathlessly denouncing the sorry state of press freedom and solemnly chanting that a “free” press is essential for Australian democracy. However, the sturm und drung style reporting misses something that is obvious to working people: the democratic rights of the working class, especially the right to association and expression, have long been under attack.
While increasing police and spying powers have shocked news outlets and sheltered intellectuals, working class Australians are already well acquainted with the reality of freedom under capitalism
In the wake of the raids, Australian media conglomerates banded together to criticise government interference with press freedom, even conducting a joint protest by blacking out the front pages of their newspapers 3. On the day of the ABC raid, John Lyons, ABC News Executive Editor said “I have never seen an assault on the media as savage as the one we’re seeing today at the ABC” 4, while David Anderson, managing director of the ABC, later stated, “Australia is at risk of becoming the world’s most secretive democracy” 5. While increasing police and spying powers have shocked news outlets and sheltered intellectuals, working class Australians are already well acquainted with the reality of freedom under capitalism.
In 2017, Federal Police raided the headquarters of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) in what the union called a politically motivated attack 6. Media outlets gleefully covered the event, fed by the employment minister’s staffers who tipped them off in advance 7. Unfortunately, police raids were the least of the union movement’s problems. The secretive Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), affectionately known by construction workers as the “Building Gestapo”, stripped workers of fundamental “rule of law” rights. The ABCC held the power to coerce construction workers to attend secret hearings where they would be interrogated with no right to silence. Refusing to attend, refusing to answer questions or even telling anyone you were interrogated could result in a massive fine or 6 months jail time 8. Further government intervention, such as the National Code of Practice and the “Ensuring Integrity Bill”, has stripped Australian workers of their right to association, i.e. their right to form unions and defend their pay and conditions. Striking, secondary boycotts and even leaving work to protest are now effectively illegal in Australia.
The growing list of crimes committed against the rights of working Australians by successive governments, both Liberal and Labor, is too long for a single article to cover
Not satisfied with reducing Australian workers to silent slaves, Federal and State governments are busy removing rights to protest, demonising protestors and ramping up violence against those brave few who stand against an increasingly authoritarian government. Queensland’s Premier announced police will be given new powers to search protestors based on claims by Queensland police that protestors are booby trapping lock on devices, despite providing zero evidence of this ever happening and not charging a single protestor 9. Government rhetoric has become increasingly intolerant of protest.
Peter Dutton, called for mandatory jail sentences for protestors who disrupt traffic and the cutting off of welfare payments to recipients who participate in demonstrations 10 and the Prime Minister announced that he would seek restrictions on protests and boycotts targeted at resource companies 11. There is open discussion about the use of the military to suppress protest on the streets of Australian cities.
The growing list of crimes committed against the rights of working Australians by successive governments, both Liberal and Labor, is too long for a single article to cover. What’s important is to understand that the democratic rights that working people do have under capitalism aren’t gifted by the ruling class; these rights were won through arduous struggles and the blood, sweat and tears of the working class.
Rights are not forces of nature that exist independent of people, nor are they something we have merely by asserting them. Rights are a form of relation that represents the balance of power between different classes at any given time. Unless these rights are constantly defended by working class political action, then capitalist governments will naturally roll back any previous gains. The Australian government’s recent actions demonstrate this clearly.
The rights of the working class cannot be guaranteed within the capitalist system. Working people should seek to use the space granted by the democratic rights they have successfully wrung from the class enemy to better organise and spread the message of working class liberation. Once capitalism has been consigned to the dustbin of history, then all working people will have finally secured inalienable rights.
References:
1 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-11/killings-of-unarmed-afghans-by-australian-special-forces/8466642
2 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/04/federal-police-raid-home-of-news-corp-journalist-annika-smethurst
3 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50119559
4 https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3013146/australian-police-raid-public-broadcaster-crackdown
5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/21/australias-leading-newspapers-black-out-front-pages-protest-governmental-media-restrictions/
6 https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/cash-cleared-of-wrongdoing-but-judge-rules-awu-raids-were-invalid-20191011-p52zqz.html
7 ibid
8 https://www.cfmmeu.org.au/sites/cfmeuvic-7-x.com.au/files/uploads/ABCC_Factsheets_NoCrops.pdf
9 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/21/queensland-government-accused-of-fabricating-claims-about-climate-activists
10 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/03/peter-dutton-accused-dictator-urging-welfare-cuts-protesters
11 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/01/scott-morrison-threatens-crackdown-on-secondary-boycotts-of-mining-companies
