Facing the fire together
My speech to the WA launch of the Members First campaign
Comrades, the world is on fire.
The fires of genocide, war and climate disasters burn around us.
The world is on fire and many in our labour movement are frozen in fear.
Many hold tight to the illusion that if they keep their heads down, the fire will pass them by.
But there is no hiding.
The fires of fascism are on the march.
We smell the smoke. Our eyes sting. We know it’s on the horizon.
These fires are fuelled by a greed that cannot be satisfied. We pour our history, our lands, and our people into the greed and still it burns for more. If we let it, this greed will burn our future too.
The top down managers who cosplay as union leaders, the careerists who pretend to be comrades, those who demand solidarity with war criminals - they are unfit to meet this moment.
If things carry on as they are the next right-wing government will be radically authoritarian.
If will not hesitate to kidnap ordinary people off the streets. It will murder its own people. It will label unionists as terrorists. It will try to use its new found authority to kill the idea of an independent trade union movement.
Every union will end up like the CFMEU - under the control of a state appointee.
This is why now, why here, we must take a stand for a free and independent trade union movement. A union that puts members first.
This United Workers Union election — this is our time to put members first.
To beat back the fires of fascism, we must stand up and fight back against them, together by building a union that fearlessly puts members first.
A union that shows up in workplaces.
A union that backs in all members to take collective action, together.
A union where delegates are treated with respect — with well-funded delegate education, that backs in members with merch, and helps delegates get together to help and support each other.
A union where millions of workers experience solidarity with each other every day.
A union that is run not by patronage networks but by members. For surely as workers learn to run their own Union, so too they will learn to run their own workplaces, and the world.
Now is the time to put Members First. If we do not take this chance to stand up and fight back - we will wave the white flag of surrender to fascism. We will surrender our children’s futures.
This is why I am endorsing Louise Dillon for WA Secretary. Time after time, Louise has proven that she will stand up and fight back against corporate bullies. Louise has proven already that she will put members first no matter how hard it is personally.
Louise is a leader we need to face the coming fire.
She can’t, however, do it alone. No one can. We must face the fire together.
So, when workers are under attack what do we do?
CROWD CHANTS “STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!”
What do we do?
CROWD CHANTS “STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!”
Louder! What do we do?
CROWD CHANTS “STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!”
Get your phones out, go to membersfirstunion.org and sign up to volunteer, donate and follow the socials.
Comrades, solidarity forever or our time is up!1
In other news, the Australian Financial Review has this story, Major union split puts scrutiny on political spend for Labor which sets out how each ticket conceives of the world in its own language.
I close by quoting Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Solidarity: The Past, Present and Future of a World-Changing Idea (2023).
Good on you✊you struggle