Editorial:

May Day 2004

May Day was first celebrated in Australia at Barcaldine 
(Queensland) in 1891. Why Barcaldine? Because the young trade 
union movement was made up largely of itinerant workers — 
shearers, timber-workers, casual waterside workers, stonemasons 
and builders. This was also before Federation when the 
Commonwealth was formed in 1901. The separate Australian states 
were still colonies of England.

By 1912 the first iron and steel mills came into existence and 
with them the beginnings of an industrial working class. During 
the next 60 years May Day celebrations came to the cities and 
reached a high point during World War II which was a period of 
great upswing in the progressive and revolutionary movements.

The Soviet Union became a hero nation in the war against fascism 
and the communist movement and progressive trade unions brought 
thousands of workers onto the streets in wartime May Day 
celebrations.

By the 1970s the composition of the working class began to change 
again with the decline in manufacturing and industrial unions and 
the substantial increase in white-collar and service industry 
unions. The number of teachers and professionally trained workers 
increased dramatically.

Irrespective of the designation of blue collar or white collar, 
all remain members of the working class and are exploited by 
capital. Many do not yet see themselves as such and are not so 
familiar with working class traditions and the significance of 
May Day as an international day of the working people.

Furthermore, there has been a decline in the influence and 
strength of the socialist and communist organisations and 
militant, class conscious trade unionism.

But change is on the way. The possibilities were shown in the 
large May Day marches in 1998 when the MUA struggle was at its 
height. May Day is a day of working class struggle and an 
occasion to spell out the many economic and political issues that 
confront working people.

In the forefront are the many issues that are going to 
drastically affect all working people if the Free Trade Agreement 
with the United States is implemented. No-one is going to remain 
untouched by this agreement which is all about implementing the 
interests of the giant corporations while imposing their selfish 
interests on both Australian and US workers.

Then there are the issues that were raised by the invasion and 
occupation of Iraq, the steady militarisation of the economy and 
the tearing up of many of the democratic rights that have been 
fought for and won in Australia and other countries.

The militarisation of the economy is going on apace and every 
extra dollar spent on armaments means less for hospitals and 
education and other essential services for the people. 
Furthermore, the new warplanes, naval craft and other weapons are 
intended for new wars that are always a tragedy for the people of 
all the countries involved.

Sometimes these issues seem to be a long way away from the issues 
of wages, health and safety and working conditions in a 
particular workplace or the problems confronting a particular 
trade union. But that is an illusion. It is these bigger issues 
that have their origins in capitalist globalisation, that 
underlie the fact that hardship in Australia is steadily 
increasing. Many families are living in poverty.

May Day is also the occasion to build a strong unity among all 
those who are involved in these struggles irrespective of their 
political outlook. This has been reflected in Sydney's list of 
May Day speakers. The list includes Andrew Ferguson from the 
CFMEU, Julia Gillard from Federal Labor, Lee Rhiannon, Australian 
Greens and Anna Pha, the editor of the Communist newspaper, The 
Guardian.

This is the way forward, yet it is amazing that some who might 
repeat the slogan "Unity is strength" object to this or that 
speaker or would deny participating organisations the opportunity 
to raise issues of concern to them. Unity does not rule out 
differences of opinion and building strength calls for all 
participants to join in the common cause of strengthening the 
working class and people's movements and organisations.