this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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For those going to the CFMEU protest tomorrow, be advised the location has been changed to the Trades Hall due to expected large crowd.
I think it would be more politically astute to accept the charges
and protest outside of federal liberal party headquarters demanding equal action on political corruption
That would miss the point of the protest. It was a mass action from the community, where a broad range of unions and non-union organisations participated, to rally together and voice our response to the extreme administration bills. I've gone into a little detail on my perspective here. Overall, we must recognise the way this bill was handled as a knowingly-inappropriate response to the situation and a threat to the whole labour movement.
In case I need to state it, I'm not defending corruption, I'm not saying that there aren't people who should be charged and removed. There are real problems with the CFMEU and the members should be empowered to root it out of their union. Putting in a dictator with huge conflicts of interest with the workers is not how to do that. That's how to union-bust.
The Liberal party didn't do this. The protest is critiquing the Labor party and their attack on the labour movement.
The Liberal party also probably couldn't care less about the protesters, might as well be vegans threatening to boycott a butcher. Union reps are a major component of the Labor party, and union rank-and-file are a large part of their voter support base.
What's being protested
Here's a quote from the ETU:
* Note the venue has genuinely changed to Trades Hall as of about 11 AM today.
So their argument is: some other bigwigs were corrupt, and government stuffed up robodebt, therefore we should be allowed to continue being corrupt thugs on building sites! If thatβs the best argument theyβve got, theyβre in trouble.
No, that's not what they were saying. For starters, they're clearly pointing out that the hypocrisy is that "The CFMEU [is being forced into administration] on the back of a handful of rumours and allegations", contrasting that against the "damning findings" of the Royal commissions which were tolerated, not that the CFMEU "should be allowed to be corrupt" (where did that strawman come from?!). Also, the ETU are not the CFMEU.