Australian Labor government seizes control of CFMEU union – defend union democracy and fight for a militant programme!

In August, last year, tens of thousands of construction workers marched through capital cities across Australia. The mass mobilisation was in response to unprecedented moves by the federal Labor Government to seize control of the trade union CFMEU construction division. Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese actually referenced Margaret Thatcher in defence of his attacks on a democratic workers’ organisation; his government is not for turning! After the events that unfolded in the latter half of 2024 no union can remain affiliated with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). If the current crop of leaders are unable to disaffiliate from the anti-worker ALP union members need to replace these so-called leaders with those who will.

The CFMEU (Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union) has long been amongst the best defenders of their members, who have decent wages and conditions precisely because of the militancy of workers in that union. The leadership of the ACTU (Australian Congress of Trade Unions) and the ALP have led the attack on the CFMEU, following the rabid right wing media Murdock owned News Corp. Even the government owned ABC new agency has joined in on the attack on the union, spreading spurious lies that the union has had a role in increasing rental and property costs.

The accusations of infiltration of the CFMEU by criminal gangs should be investigated, first and foremost by democratically elected bodies of rank-and-file trade unionists that have the confidence of the CFMEU members and wider workers’ movement. If serious crimes have taken place the individuals involved can be prosecuted. However, where no cases have gone before the courts it is completely unacceptable that the government would take control of a workers’ organisation, firing people who have had no convictions, and denying members democratic control of their union. Where it can be shown that union officials have invited criminal gangs into the workers’ movement and cut deals with bosses those officials should be stood down. Importantly this should be a member led process, not run by administrators imposed by the Fair Work Commission. Not to mention the millions of dollars of CFMEU members money that is being siphoned off by these administrators.

When the banks were found to have engaged in criminal conduct through the banking royal commission no real consequences were faced by anyone, let alone any suggestion of appointing administrators. When the much anticipated corruption commission investigated the ‘Robodebt’ saga no charges were laid and again no one faced real consequences. It seems there is one rule for business and government, and another for workers.

The ALP was created by the militant unions during the huge industrial struggles of the 1890s. During the resurgence of industrial battles with workers winning better wages and conditions in the 1960s and 1970s, the Whitlam Government was elected in 1972. Based on the pressure of millions of Australian workers, that government carried out programs of radical reforms, including free education for all, banning university fees, removing the last elements of the “The White Australian policy” and ending a white only immigration to Australia. Whitlam’s government also established legal aid, whereby every Australian has access to free legal representation, and the establishment of Medicare giving all Australians access to free healthcare. These reforms were so hated by the Australian and British ruling class that they conjured up a constitutional crisis. The Governor-General of Australia Sir John Kerr dismissed the elected Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam failed to recognise the power of the organised working class, a common theme of his leadership of the ALP, a mistake which led to his eventual ousting from power.

Subsequent ALP governments, starting with Bob Hawk in 1983, reversed many of these reforms, such as reintroducing university fees. The ALP since Whitlam have continued to side with big business allowing introducing anti trade union laws and supporting billionaires to become ever richer.

The battle between conservatives and socialists in the Australian Labor Party and the unions has existed since the foundation of the labour movement. Even within militant unions there have been continual struggles between those who want to manage capitalism in Australia and those that recognise that only a radical break with capitalism will improve the wages and living conditions of all Australians in the long run. Even within the CFMEU, and its predecessors, there have been constant struggles as detailed by the brilliant book by Paul True “Tales of the BLF … Rolling the Right!’ The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and some state governments of the time. After this, the union renamed itself as the CFMEU.

Real criminals

The real criminals in this are the multibillionaires who rule Australia. Australia has suffered the biggest fall in living standards of all the capitalist countries. The University of Melbourne has found that 57% of Australians are now under serious financial stress, with the rapid rise in the cost of food, fuel, rents and mortgage increases. At the same time, the billionaire owners of the food industry, mining, petrol and banking sectors have made more profits than ever before.

The government led inquiries into the supermarket price gouging will find that Australian supermarkets have been profiteering on a massive scale. Even though that conclusion will be made the ALP will do nothing to stand in the way of the billionaires making ever more money while Australians suffer like they’ve never suffered before. Contrast this with the treatment of corporate criminals. A recent report found that ASIC takes action in less than 1% of insolvency cases where misconduct is reported. What happened when Rio Tinto deliberately destroyed the caves at Juukan Gorge, with their 46,000-year history of human occupation? No independent administrators were imposed and there was no discussion of dissolving the company. The disparity with the case of the CFMEU is stark and the hypocrisy reveals the anti-worker nature of the ALP.

All this highlights the real motivation behind the attacks on the CFMEU. The CFMEU is one of the few remaining unions that is willing to break bad laws in order to win decent wages and conditions. This is demonstrated by the determination of members to mobilise in response to the appointment of administrators. The Albanese Labor government was quick to label the action unlawful and call on the bosses to dock workers’ pay for participating in the demonstration.

The industrial landscape created by ALP governments, from Hawke to Gillard, have neutered the power of trade unions in Australia. Today this approach is personified by Tony Burke. An organiser for the retail and services union, the SDA , before entering parliament, Burke has led the attack on the CFMEU. The SDA has a history of signing Agreements that cut workers’ wages below Award conditions; a number of which have been struck off for being so bad they were found illegal once challenged by a decent union, RAFFWU.

A union’s power is based on involving all its members in decision making, on industrial action, and internal democracy through the election of its officials and leadership. Unions are very capable of taking care of their own internal affairs and keeping its leadership accountable to its members. It’s this workers’ democracy that scares the right-wing unions, and the Australian Congress of Trade Unions who almost never involve their members in decisions.

The calls to deregister CFMEU are shameful and should be resisted. Worse still are those calling for CFMEU Agreements to be struck down. That would immediately cut the wages of workers, with a dramatic and devastating impact on the lives of people who have committed no crimes and done absolutely nothing wrong.

Dutton has gone even further to demand that the CFMEU be banned from working on the Bruce Highway works being pledged by both major parties in the run up to the 2025 federal election. It’s not clear if this would be legal, even under the anti-union legislation brought in by the ALP under Rudd and Gillard. However, for Dutton this is more about looking tough. This tactic has successfully seen the ALP drift ever further to the right and conjures up another comment from Margret Thatcher – asked of her proudest achievement, she quipped that it was Tony Blair. Next to Albanese, Blair looks like a militant socialist!

The Australian Congress of Trade Unions (ACTU) has fallen over itself to condemn the CFMEU, disaffiliating the unions construction wing from the peak body. The key players at the ACTU are more interested in their political careers with the ALP than fighting for the wages of working Australians. The ACTU should be coordinating solidarity action across the union movement, with pickets, solidarity strikes, and other actions to be taken if any CFMEU Agreements are struck down or if the government moves to deregister the CFMEU.

Australians under financial pressure

While the great majority of Australians are now under more pressure financially than ever before, the Australian Labor Party has stood by and done nothing but tinker around the edges. There is no solution to the continued falling living standards under capitalism.

We must start the difficult process of building a new workers’ party based on socialist ideas. The CFMEU can start this process, with other left sections of unions and community groups; there is simply no other alternative. Industrial disputes remain at historic lows. It is this fact alone that explains the decline in living standards experienced by Australian workers. If you don’t fight, you lose! Until we reclaim our unions as fighting organisations and take back our share, our wages will continue to fall behind.

A socialist programme would bring into public ownership the large sectors of the economy, such as mining companies and the major supermarkets. As a first step, the Commonwealth Bank should be brought back into public ownership along with the Reserve Bank of Australia but under democratic control with representatives with the right of instant recall if they do not act in the interests of working class Australians. This would enable the reversal of all interest rates hikes to genuinely relieve mortgage stress. Small business could be supported with minimal low or zero interest rates.

There would also need to be a massive scheme of public housing building to relieve the stress on finding homes for people. It is not workers’ wages that are making housing unaffordable but decades of failed policy by both Labor and Coalition governments.

Importantly a socialist programme must scrap all anti-trade union laws. We stand for fighting trade unions, democratically controlled by their members, with full-time union officials to be regularly elected and receive no more than an average skilled worker’s wage.

Every one of the biggest companies must pay their taxes, not the low business taxes full of loopholes but the taxes at the rate that every Australian worker must pay. If they refuse this, especially in the mining and food industries, they should be nationalised and taken under  public ownership and democratically controlled by every Australian.

For the foreseeable future the ALP is and will be, a pro capitalist and anti worker party. There is now the opportunity to take back the Australian labour movement that is for all Australians not the few. The task now is for those in the CFMEU, the union movement, and those on the left to work together and create a new workers’ party.

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