by Davey Heller, 24th August 2023

A shorter version of this article was published on Independent Australia

Karl Marx’s stated, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”.  In the past, Australian unions have launched industrial action against imperialist war, racism and to protect the environment. These actions sought to link the Australian workers movement to the best traditions of solidarity and internationalism. However, today we see history repeating as farce as major trade unions representing electricians, plumbers, construction and metal workers in Victoria threatening to strike against a proposed ban on the hunting of native ducks. These union bureaucrats are feeding a right wing “culture war” against environmentalists, fanning reaction in their ranks and diverting attention from the real class struggle.

The threatened industrial action takes place as the Victorian Labor Andrews Government holds a parliamentary inquiry into the duck hunting season. Half of Australia’s State Governments have already banned the hunting of native water bird species including NSW, WA and Qld over concerns of animal cruelty and a long-term trend of declining numbers of native wetland birds.

The Building Industry Group made up of the ETU representing electricians, CFMEU representing construction, forestry and mining workers, AMWU representing metal workers and the PPTEU representing plumbers are organising against the ban. In March, eight hundred members of the ETU walked off a government construction job at the Metro Tunnel over the issue.

On July 19th, the same unions paid for full page ads in the Herald Sun and The Age under the blaring headline “Outdoor Recreation Under Attack”. The ad whipped up fears of what was at stake…

”Outdoor enthusiasts deserve the rights to relax, adventure and unwind irrespective of their particular recreational activity without being demeaned, judged, despised or looked down upon….What will they come after next? The Melbourne Cup? Riding dirt bikes on public land? All forms of hunting? Or simply taking the kids and the family dog to the bush? Everyone should be entitled to enjoy the outdoors without layer upon layer of ridiculous unscientific and ideological red tape…..Many Victorians who enjoy outdoor recreation can see the writing on the wall – if they ban duck and quail season – what will they target next?”

In a statement issued by the unions on the 17th of August that again threatened industrial action they wrote “A Government that truly respected working people would not yield to niche, inner city activists but support the working activities of those they claim to represent”

Whatever one’s opinion on duck hunting the politics behind this union campaign are clearly right-wing. There is more than a whiff of US style far right Fox news culture wars with dog whistles about the inner city “greenie” elites coming to “threaten your way of life” and “take away your freedoms”. Such rhetoric has also been the mainstay of conservative politicians on the right, utilised particularly by the National Party but also smaller parties like the “Shooters and Fishers Party”.

In other public statements the ETU and CFMEU leadership have cynically cited the harsh working conditions their members work under them as a reason why duck hunting must be defended as duck hunting is supposedly a release outside work time for them.

This raises the question of why these union bureaucrats are not mobilising members a to improve these conditions instead ofe this distraction! The Metro Tunnel walk off is particularly galling in the context tunnel construction has been linked to a rise in deadly cases of silicosis.  The CFMEU is also currently playing a soft hand on the thousands of silicosis cases arising from the use of synthetic stone bench tops, only threatening to put a ban on them if the Federal Labor government fails to act by July 2024.

In contrast to these current threats of industrial action aimed at the “threat of greenies”, construction unions in Australia famously instituted the “Green Ban” movement of the 1970’s. The very first Green Ban was in June 1971 was actually put in place to save an area of native vegetation in Sydney known as “Kelly’s Bush”. The movement went on to save many important buildings and other areas of importance. The reactionary posturing over duck hunting is stands in contrast to words of Jack Mundey from the Builders Laborers Federation (BLF) in 1972:

“Yes, we want to build. However, we prefer to build urgently required hospitals, schools, other public utilities, high-quality flats, units and houses, provided they are designed with adequate concern for the environment, than to build ugly unimaginative architecturally bankrupt blocks of concrete and glass offices.’

Where is the unions concerns today for the public housing tenants, like Margaret Kelly, who was evicted from her home of twenty five years on the 18^th of August so that private developers could build luxury apartments. The ETU, CFMEU, AMWU and PPTEU can talk tough in standing up to the Andrews Labor Government on a fringe issue like duck hunting but are totally complicit as the same government privatises public housing. Talking tough to “inner city activists” is more expedient politically than challenging Labor and the big developers! There is no talk of industrial action over the housing and cost of living crisis currently facing the working class.

What is the political trajectory of the union bureaucrats trying to build their unions on the foundations of such reaction? It seems the CFMEU in particular has learnt nothing from recent history. During the Covid19 lockdowns of 2020/2021, the CFMEU lobbied the Andrews Labor Government hard to keep construction open. In doing so they fanned the flames of covid minimisation and opposition to public health measures within their ranks. Only days before their own offices were attacked by a fascist mob of anti-vaxxers including some of their own members, the CFMEU leadership backed a lunchtime protest occupation of city streets by construction workers against public health measures. Apparently, the self-destructive logic of fanning reaction in the ranks is still lost on John Setka!

On a broader level can we look forward to elements of the rank of file of these unions being wheeled out against future anti-war protests?  In the US in 1970 in New York construction workers viciously beat anti-war protestors and students in the “Hard Hat Riot”. Whilst some of the unions involved in threat of industrial action over duck hunting such as the ETU formally oppose AUKUS they are certainly not organising their membership over the issue. As the class pressures intensify and the war drive against China deepens can these same union leaders be trusted not to whip up nationalist reaction against those who oppose Australian and US imperialism?

The vast majority of the working class, including union members have the potential to be at the forefront of the fight against war and for their collective economic and political rights. In terms of both the threat of war and the declining standard of living we are clearly approaching a crisis point. This is precisely why there is an effort to reorientate a powerful section of the organised working class into the dead of a culture war fight. There is an equivalent movement in the “progressive” side of the trade union bureaucracy who is seeking to divert rank and file energy down ALP approved dead ends like the “YES” campaign for the Indigenous “Voice”. All factions of the trade union bureaucrats to this end serve their masters in the ruling class whose greatest fear is a mobilised working class fighting capitalist profit interests. We cannot let them divide and distract us from the real fight.