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SYDNEY — Thousands of unionists and other protesters chanting “Stand up, fight back!” demonstrated here March 4 outside the Parliament of New South Wales. Similar demonstrations took place in other major cities around the country against threatened attacks on wages and social services by the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Anthony Abbott.
“Resistance is starting to grow in Australia,” Joanne Kuniansky, inset, right, Communist League candidate for Parramatta in the upcoming March 28 New South Wales state election, told workers as she joined the protest. She pointed to growing resistance worldwide, from Walmart workers in the U.S. fighting for $15 an hour and full-time work, to the national oil workers strike, to garment workers in Bangladesh fighting for safer working conditions. Contingents of nurses and construction workers walked off the job at city sites to join the rally. Real wages in Australia declined last year for the first time in 17 years and official unemployment topped 6 percent. Thousands of miners have been laid off following the worldwide slump in iron ore and coal exports. The bosses response is to propose lowering the minimum wage and “penalty rates” — higher pay for overtime and weekend work. The rally also opposed moves to privatize public hospitals, reduce nursing staff and introduce patient “co-payments” for national health insurance. |
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| — RON POULSEN |