Socialist Alliance activists in Melbourne took the opportunity in early September to hear activists from the Stolen Wages campaign speak and get behind the national postcard campaign. Socialist Alliance is backing the campaign by Indigenous workers to win compensation in full for many decades of unpaid wages.
Campaign coordinator Christine Howes and Indigenous community activist Lennie Lee Jackson drove from Queensland to Melbourne to deliver 7,000 campaign postcards hot off the press. The postcards are addressed to Premier Peter Beattie and secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions Grace Grace. They reject Beattie’s “lousy little offer” of less than 10% of money owed and urge the peak union body to continue its active support for the campaign.
Lennie-Lee, who was asked by her 74 year-old father to take up the stolen wages fight for him, spoke at an Australia Asia Worker Links meeting and addressed a meeting of the Victorian Trades Hall Council. She also addressed a Defend and Extend Medicare rally. Lennie-Lee also recorded interviews for 3CR and met with representatives of organisations actively backing the campaign including the ACTU, Radical Women and the MUA. She also met with a delegation of visiting South Korean unionists who took hundreds of postcards so that the Queensland government gets the message from far and wide!
Postcards are now available in Sydney through ANTaR National, in Melbourne through AAWL, VTHC and the ACTU, and in Brisbane through QCU or through ANTaR. Or click here to contact Christine Howes at: chowes@hotkey.net.au