Communist Party of Australia
by Anna Pha

The international meeting of Communist and Workers' parties
held in Athens last year (May 21-23) analysed at some
length the process of capitalist globalisation and it's
social and economic consequences for the people of the
world. There is no need to go over the ground again, except
to make a few comments.

We see globalisation as an objective process. It has its
basis in technological developments, international trade,
production processes, giant mergers and take-overs,
communications, the Internet, large scale migration, the
functioning of a variety of international organisations
and other factors. This process is largely under the
control of the transnational corporations (TNCs) of the
leading capitalist countries and the international
organisations that they have created -- the IMF, WTO, OECD,
World Bank and other agencies. Their objective is not only
the drive for maximum profits but for total control of the
world's resources including the labour force of all
countries and control over all governments. Our aim must be
to wrest control of this process from the TNCs and make it
serve the interests of the working people of the world.

Millions of working people around the world are
experiencing the lash of the TNCs as they attempt to drive
down workers' wages and working conditions, lengthen hours
of work for many while extending casual and part-time work
for many others. The task of the working class fighting
back against the attacks and going on the offensive is made
more difficult by the attacks on trade union and democratic
rights. Added to this is overproduction, high levels of
permanent unemployment, job insecurity and the ability of
TNCs to move enterprises, and hence, jobs around the world.
They deliberately create an environment where workers are
pitted against each other, on both a local and
international basis.

The present offensive of big capital, both foreign and
domestic, is aimed at the intensification of the
exploitation of workers. The rate of exploitation has risen
steeply in the last few decades and the profits of
corporations have reached dizzying levels.

Australian workers are feeling the effects of these
processes, as are the workers of every other capitalist
country, although each country will have its specific
experiences and situation the underlying processes, we
think, are common to us all and are well known. What is
also a common development is the rise of working class and
community movements against these policies and their
effects. There are strikes and demonstrations against the
attacks on trade union and workers' rights, for wage
increases, for shorter hours, for collective bargaining
rights, for health and safety on the job, against
privatisation, against cuts in services, in defence of
democratic rights, for women's rights, for national
independence and sovereignty, for the preservation of the
environment and so on.

In Australia the conservative and social democrat parties
have pursued the TNC agenda when in government. There is
considerable disillusionment and loss of confidence among
the people, who are disillusioned with the major parties.
The communist and other left and progressive forces at this
stage are not a strong enough force to be seen as a viable
alternative by the majority of the electorate. The Greens
and Australian Democrats (a liberal, pro-small business
party) and several independents have gained seats in State
and Federal Parliaments. At best they hold the balance of
power in some Upper Houses.

Most of the struggles taking place are around single issues
as they arise: a hospital closure, new anti-worker
legislation, the destruction of a forest, opening a new
uranium mine, cuts to a particular service, privatisation
of a public service, etc. Only a few of the struggles deal
with the bigger picture, become more politicised and bring
in the wider community. There are some noteworthy
exceptions.

One is the campaign to stop the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment, which had the support of environmentalists,
some small farmers and small business organisations, the
left and extreme right of the political spectrum, some
trade unions, church, aid and other groups. The stop-MAI
campaign drew together and gave a sharper focus for many of
the issues of concern to people.

The attempt in 1998 by the Australian Government and
employers to destroy the Maritime Union of Australia and
deunionise the waterfront was highly ideological and
political. It was also noteworthy for the sophisticated
tactical nature and the broad alliances that were formed.
International solidarity played a critical role. It is
highly unlikely that the MUA could have won on its own.

I want also to mention the demonstrations that have just
taken place in sympathy and solidarity with the indigenous
people of Australia. A quarter of a million people walked
across the Sydney Harbour Bridge only a few weeks ago in
what was undoubtedly the largest single demonstration every
to take place in Australia on any issue. It brought
together a very large number of organisations and
individuals in support of a single cause. There were other
very large marches in other main Australian cities.

Because TNC policies are also having catastrophic
consequences for small businesses, small producers and
small farmers, for teachers and doctors, for ethnic and
indigenous communities, the possibility for the working
class to win allies in what is often a common struggle has
greatly improved. Increasingly trade unions,
environmentalists, peace activists and other community
groups are finding it impossible to fight on their own. At
the same time globalisation is internationalising the
struggle against imperialism.

Since the last Athens meeting, there have been the highly
successful international actions in Seattle and Washington.
It is to be hoped that the representatives of the big
corporations will be met with an equally rowdy reception
and determined opposition when they meet in Prague and
Melbourne in September of this year. Trade unions and left
political parties are already mobilising to demonstrate
against the forum of big business leaders planned for
Melbourne.

We want to give one more example of a campaign -- an
international one being waged against the world's largest
mining transnational corporation, Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto has
63 operations in 40 countries, and an abysmal record of
anti-trade union and anti-worker practices, human rights
abuses and environmental destruction.

A network was established in 1998 under the auspices of the

International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and
General
Workers' Unions (ICEM). The network includes trade unions,
environmental organisations and indigenous peoples.

The strategy adopted by the network was based on a
scientific study of Rio Tinto including its assets, profit
sources, corporate structure, human rights abuses,
environment record, its buyers, investors, the unions
covering its sites, which sites are non-union, and a
detailed knowledge of working conditions.

One of the difficulties is that the company is very large
and powerful and workers and their unions feel isolated and
powerless to deal with it. The company has had considerable
success in arguing to unions and employees that each site
must compete with other sites, both inside and outside Rio
Tinto, if workers are to keep their jobs.

To overcome the isolation and build unity, the unions
undertook considerable networking, discussions with
indigenous and other groups, produced videos documenting
Rio Tinto's abuses of human and worker rights and their
damage to the environment across the world. Unions in the
USA, Indonesia, Namibia, Europe, South Africa and Australia
have been involved. Representatives of the Dayak people
(Indonesia) were brought to Australia.

Protests were held and embarrassing questions asked at Rio
Tinto's Annual General Meetings of shareholders in London,
Brisbane and Perth. The ICEM staged a "counter-AGM" and
launched a website campaign. ICEM produced two
stakeholder's reports which were distributed at company
Annual meetings - "Tainted Titan" and "Behind the Facade",
based on research by the Australian union and NGOs into the
company's record and economic performance. An infuriated
Rio Tinto management was forced to go into print to defend
itself. Rio Tinto was taken to the OECD for breach of OECD
Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and for its
illegal mining activities in Lassing, Austria, where 10
people died in a mining disaster.

In what is believed to be the first ever shareholders'
campaign conducted on an international basis by trade
unions, two trade union-backed resolutions put before the
recent AGMs of Rio Tinto attracted support of around 20
percent of shareholders' votes. The first resolution was a
demand around improved corporate governance and the second
resolution called for company compliance with ILO
conventions (e.g. on employment of child labour, for equal
pay, recognition of trade unions and the right to bargain
collectively in the workplace). Rio Tinto management
fearing the impact on share prices of the bad press and TV
coverage it received around the world, made a conciliatory
statement about recognising and negotiating with trade
unions.

The shareholder campaign was a cooperative effort of trade
unions in Australia, Britain, the US and South Africa.
Prior support was gained from a number of significant
shareholders, particularly institutional investors. With
the growth of pension funds the investment of these
workers' retirement savings has become an important part of
investors' equity in many companies. Where trade unions
have some say in the investment of these funds (as many do
in Australia), there is a potential to put pressure on
companies.

The MUA and ICEM struggles are significant for their
sophisticated tactical approaches in dealing with the
complexities of the conditions of each struggle and
adoption of new methods of struggle, while not abandoning
traditional ones.

They confirm the validity and necessity of winning allies
and of internationalism, not that these are new concepts.
There is a long history of internationalism in the labour
movement. In the past internationalism was primarily an
expression of solidarity as in the MUA struggle. The Rio
Tinto campaign moves on to a new form of internationalism
reflecting the new global divisions of labour and
socialisation of labour. The international participants in
the Rio Tinto actions all had a direct relationship and
common interest in defeating Rio Tinto and were involved in
the planning and carrying out of the struggle.

With globalisation and the deliberate efforts of employers
to pit workers in different countries against each other,
struggle on an international scale becomes an imperative.
This also raises the question of the organisation of
unions. Should trade unions consider being organised on an
international basis? This is already being considered in
some trade union circles. Perhaps this is a subject for a
future international meeting.

The Rio Tinto example illustrates the importance of
international struggles being specific, being launched
against specific TNCs. It is not sufficient to fight TNCs
"in general" or limit our struggles to opposition to the
policies of governments. In the past big corporations have
been able to say - "Governments come and governments go but
we go on forever." But now, their power and anti-working
class attitudes, their savage exploitation of the working
people wherever they operate, are being dragged into the
open.
Rio Tinto is now seen as the common enemy of the working
class in many countries and workers no longer feel that
they are alone. This is not, of course, an argument to
neglect the struggle against conservative governments doing
the bidding of the TNCs.

We cannot fight the TNCs unless we know of their operations
and policies in detail. These will vary from one site to
another and from one country to another. Capitalist
globalisation is bringing into existence working class
globalisation. The slogan of the Communist Manifesto -
"Workers of the world, unite!" is being given real
practical meaning.

In the course of these struggles there is need to challenge
the specific ideological arguments of the big corporations
- that everyone has to accept globalisation implemented by
the TNCs; that there is no alternative; that if the TNCs
are challenged there will be a flight of capital and they
will take their operations to another country and all will
lose their jobs; that public ownership doesn't work any
more because many shareholders are now ordinary working
people; that private enterprise is more efficient; that
governments should not be involved in "business"; and so
on.

Comrades, finally we would like to thank the Communist
Party of Greece once again for their initiative and
hospitality and in the knowledge that the cooperation of
the communist and workers' parties is as important as that
of the growing internationalism of the trade union
movement, and also in the knowledge that there must be more
such international gatherings.

The tremendous upsurge in the world-wide struggles now to
be clearly seen, places a great responsibility on all
communist and workers' parties, yet our internationalism,
the practical planning and implementation of our policies,
does not yet seem to have reached the same level as we are
beginning to see between some trade unions and their
respective Trade Union Internationals.

*End*