Australia- Workers Solidarity Network

butcher · May 25, 2010

Next Melbourne meeting (sorry dont have Canberra or Sydney details) is 6pm, Tuesday 1st June @ Trades Hall.

For Sydney crew, contact Jura, i think they know whats up.

Nobody ↑ :
WSN is a project which emerged out of discussions last year in a range of forums, including radical conferences in Melbourne and Sydney. Comrades in other capital cities were also involved and kept in contact via an email list. The discussions centred around how rank and file unionists in various industries could support each other in struggle.

WSN is already operating in Sydney and Canberra, and possibly in Wollongong. The Canberra group is only small but they are already involved in supporting bus drivers in a dispute up there.

In Melbourne, we should remember that during the years of the Howard government a similar project was born called Union Solidarity. US had a large degree of success, especially in challenging new, anti-union draconian laws during the Boeing dispute of 2008 for instance (see the IR news section of http://www.unionsolidarity.org for details of their activities during this period). However, roughly a year after the election of the federal Labor government, US was disbanded. The website cites a lack of resources and that, “the demands on... one small and centralised list of union activists [had] proved unsustainable.”

One of the best aspects of the new WSN idea, is the focus on a change in organising structure. In Melbourne, it was agreed that a committee of five would be elected at the following meeting, who will be recallable by the membership at the monthly meetings. This committee will perform an essential task in any organisation like this, to be on call and to make certain decisions as they are immediately necessary. From a libertarian perspective, this is basically the role of a recallable committee in an anarcho-syndicalist union charged with such a responsibility. However, it should be noted that unions with a developed libertarian critique such as this employ even stricter controls over delegates (rotating them at defined intervals for instance). A committee of five will be hopefully be large enough to train up younger people, with the experience of older unionists behind them. It will also share the burden of a voluntary organisation more widely.

In setting up this general structure, that will no doubt excite people of a generally Left libertarian perspective, WSN nevertheless allows a wide range of people to be involved. Obviously the point is to build a large network of rank and file unionists who can support each other. This includes those parties we call authoritarian socialists. One comment at the last meeting was that WSN is a “limited project,” allowing participants to pursue our own strategies, elsewhere. It does not negate our attempts to build anarchist groups, anarcho-synidcalist unions, and to argue for radically democratic, libertarian organising structures within the Left. But by the same token, if members of political parties want to pursue their strategy of having their people elected into union hierarchies and similar policies, let them. So long as the WSN caucus itself remains a place where workers can gain practical support for direct action they are taking, regardless of whatever other strategies they are involved in, and regardless of whether they are inside or outside of Labor Party controlled unions, WSN will fill a large void in the present union movement.

And yet, for anarchists, the general emphasis of the WSN idea does have an inherent politics. It would be wrong to try to define the exact politics of WSN at the present time, and certainly wrong to call it anarchist. But any association does inevitably have politics. This appears currently limited to a general agreement and emphasis to provid practical support to workers in struggle, while not being beholden to Labor Party controlled union hierarchies. Anarchists can complain about those union hierarchies (which start with your union dues and end with Kevin Rudd refusing to demolish the ABCC) until we're blue in the face. But at the end of the day, anarchists need to be more involved in every day struggles of the union movement. If this does not mean supporting Left tickets in union elections, we need to define how it is that we are involved. WSN offers a good forum for anyone wanting to become active in their workplace, particularly if their official workplace union is a dud. But it should be of particular interest to anarchists, because its structure and general focus on direct action is a step in the right direction.

The call out (available at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119548638080411) details that the WSN would:

- “give support to and work in conjunction with workers fighting for better wages and conditions against attacks by bosses and governments;”

- “have a large list of members who would receive communication via sms text message and emails when their support is required at workplace actions;”

- “a committee of five people would be appointed to make decisions about which industrial actions the network would partake in. This would allow for fast decisions in situations where workers need to mobilise support quickly.”

- “all members of this committee would be directly recallable and accountable to a monthly meeting of all network members.”

- “Assist workers that are organising important actions that require broad support, whether those workers be organised inside or outside of official union structures”

- “be funded by and accountable to members.”

Click to expand...

An exciting project, esp for us Melburnites craving the resurrection of a Union Solidarity-esque network, and moreover, WSN appears to have learnt from the mistakes of US, so yeah, radness.

QueerPunk · May 26, 2010

I sense a potential recruitment drive for the local IWW lol.

But yes I will be involved in this...too good to miss.

butcher · May 27, 2010

QueerPunk said:
I sense a potential recruitment drive for the local IWW lol.

But yes I will be involved in this...too good to miss.
Click to expand...

Pfft, whatever. You don't even have yr songbook yet!
no recruits for you!
oops, probs shouldn't encourage you....

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