CPA - The Guardian

TAFE funding has been effectively cut 35 percent by the NSW government between 1997 and 2007, to produce an annual shortfall of $550 million. At the same time the federal government cut funding by about $155 million. In ten years to 2007, NSW increased funding to TAFE by only 13.6 percent, while Australia overall increased funding by 60.5 percent. Professor Peter Kell (University of Wollongong) has warned that “Australia’s under-investment in vocational education has undermined its international reputation and taken its toll on an ageing workforce and infrastructure …”

Balmain residents rally to defend Ferry services from State government plans for Privatisation on Friday October 23.

The NSW government auctioned 1,200 megalitres of Great Artesian Basin water in the north west town of Walgett in July, amid protests from primary producers, who partially funded a cap and pipe program to save the water and had had irrigation entitlements cut, without compensation, to help recharge water supplies in the basin. The licences were for water from recharge areas traditionally regarded as among the most degraded in the entire basin. The sale netted the government $870,000.

Privatisation is one symptom of the status to which national and state governments have been reduced in a globalised economy where the largest corporations and their various cartels and state and financial institutions prevail, and the function of government is to hand over what remains of public property to big business, remove budget “black hole” deficits, maintain AAA credit ratings and create “investment opportunities” that are “attractive” to international investors.

Opposition grows

As the government proceeds with its sell-off offensive, resistance from workers and affected communities is growing as they fight for their jobs and services. For instance: public hospital workers at Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Taree, Gosford, Newcastle, Auburn and Westmead have staged stop-work meetings in the last few months, to protest against chronic understaffing and plans to privatise catering and other services.

Nurses are working closely with their community against the state government’s privatisation of the Wallsend Aged Care Facility. Nurses and local residents marched through the annual Wallsend Fair on August 9, with banners and signs. They have collected nearly 10,000 signatures against privatisation and await the NSW government’s response to their demands, first aired at a community cabinet meeting in the region in March.

The Save Our Sydney Ferries union and community campaign has declared it will target three waterside Labor seats, including Balmain (held by Education Minister Verity Firth), at the next state election. A rally at Cabarita (Drummoyne electorate) on September 18 drew the support of local ALP member Angela D’amore, who became the first government MP to publicly break ranks and oppose privatisation of the ferries.

The MP said residents have overwhelmingly told her they would like Sydney Ferries to stay in public hands. At another rally, at Parramatta on October 7, state Labor member for Parramatta Tanya Gadiel declared her support for a publicly owned and run Rivercat service. Gadiel has already publicly opposed privatisation of Parklea.

Capitalism has failed

In 35 years of neo-liberalism private economic interests have had priority over public good as governments made way for big capital and “free” markets. Around the world labour rights and working conditions declined, while the share of wealth going to profits soared and the rich grew richer and more powerful.

It has led us to the present global crisis, which is not only economic but environmental and social and affecting the future of all humanity.

Governments in Australia have already transferred billions of dollars of assets and services to corporations since the early 1990s, but are still keen to ransack what remains of public property, to further aggrandise corporate profits.

The Rees government does not serve those who vote for Labor, but those who seek to profit from government – the international cartels organised around gaining government contracts, assets and services. This is in line with the anti-public, “neo-liberal” thinking that has come to dominate mainstream economic thought and justifies agencies such as the World Trade Organisation demanding that governments around the world hand over public assets to the planet’s most powerful economic interests, in the name of creating a “free” world market.

Power to the People!

Only the organised power of the people can counter the grab by big business to get its hands on the people’s property. In New South Wales workers and the communities they live and work in are already mobilising in resistance to the government’s moves to privatise.

The community-union solidarity group, Power to the People, is playing an important role in opposing the Rees government’s privatisation plans. Since the beginning of the year it has held public forums and regularly set up tables in shopping centres and near rail stations to promote public awareness.

It is aiming to build popular resistance against privatisation leading up to the NSW ALP state conference in November, and is holding a forum on Saturday October 31 to boost support for struggles against the Rees government’s sell-offs, such as the struggle to keep Sydney Ferries in public hands.

It is calling on opponents of privatisation to rally outside the NSW ALP conference on Saturday November 14, to support a rank and file ALP delegation and union opposition to privatisation and is demanding, in an open letter to all parliamentarians, that they clearly and openly state their position on the privatisation of assets. The results will be made known in every NSW electorate.

The Communist Party of Australia, with other left forces, is also active in the campaign against the Rees government privatisations. Members are active in their unions and in the Power to the People campaign. CPA members and supporters staged a colourful demonstration in Sydney on Sunday October 4 in conjunction with the CPA 11th Congress.

Communists argue that the public sector must be strengthened. Both public and private enterprise must be made more accountable to the people, and workers must have rights at work and more say in managing our work lives. These measures strengthen democracy by extending public property and moving power to the people!

Next article – Uni of Qld strike

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