HOPE AND SACRIFICE?

2 Weekends ago there was the Marrickville by-election in Sydney for the NSW Parliament. The Evil fuckwits (aka the Liberals) decided not to run a candidate, so essentially the contest was between the other evil, though not as evil as the Liberals, fuckwits (aka the ALP) and The Greens. Despite the fact that the seat was a safe ALP seat, the ALP was worried. Putting up a homophobic candidate in Carmel Tebutt, the wife of ALP "left" (yeah right, ALP parliamentarians being left) powerbroker Mr Anthony "I can’t keep my dick in my pants for two minutes" Albanese, in an electorate with a large Gay and Lesbian population doesn’t help, but does show the arrogance of the ALP.

On election day there was a sense that an upset may be possible, and the booth I was working at more people took Greens flyers exclusively from me than took ALP flyers exclusively from the ALP volunteers. In the end the ALP got about 49% of the primary vote, the Greens 38% (though the booth I was working was won by the Greens). Obviously there was a sense of disappointment that the Greens didn’t win, but at the same time the fact that they got 38% of the primary vote is something to be positive and optimistic about. Slowly, but surely, The Greens vote is increasing. Is there hope for society after all?

I also recently got to meet and talk to the greatest living Australian: Jack Mundey. For those of you who don’t know who Jack Mundey was, he was the General Secretary of the NSW Building Labourers’ Federation (BLF). Under Jack and his cohorts Bob Pringle and Joe Owens, the NSW BLF was noted for the implementation of Green Bans that stopped the destruction of The Rocks, The State Theatre, the Regent Theatre to name a few and protected numerous parks and pieces of bush from being developed. They also protected low income housing in parts of Sydney from being developed into office blocks and luxury apartments. While this in itself would have made Jack, Bob and Joe great, they also lead the NSW BLF on greater social justice campaigns; equal rights for woman, homosexuals and Aboriginals, they fought against teams from Apartheid South Africa playing in Australia, and fought for prisoners rights. On top of that they also greatly improved the working conditions and wages of their largely unskilled members in the building industry. In the end they were destroyed by business interests, established political parties and their own federal leadership based in Victoria (bloody Victorians).

What contributes to them being so great was their commitment to democracy; the ideals weren’t imposed on the NSW BLF membership; all these actions were voted for and supported by the members of the NSW BLF. These people were largely unskilled, uneducated labourers, who were willing to sacrifice their wages for the greater good of all of society. But then again so was their leadership; when the members went on strike, the NSW BLF leadership agreed that they should not be paid also, and all elected positions were for limited tenure.

It was a remarkable time, and Jack was, and still is, a remarkable person. He showed that it was possible to appeal to the decency in people. I think about this as I sit at work on Sunday waiting to give a talk at a Free China rally this afternoon, after having to get up nice and early to give a talk for work. Maybe there is hope that through the sacrifice of some people, that a just, equal and fair society will emerge.