By Andrew Hall, Canberra branch
The election result of 45.1% for Members First in the ballot for national president of the Community and Public Sector Union is another exciting development in building an activist, democratic, fighting type of unionism, and a real slap in the face to the conservative misleadership of the union. This is the best result militants have ever got over the years of running in CPSU elections.
Arguing for major change, our campaign provided a positive vision of a union that could once again take industrial campaigning, struggle and solidarity seriously. The result shows that discontent with the top-down, status-quo leadership policies continues to grow. It shows that large numbers of members do want to mobilise the potential power of our large membership.
The inspiration and increased confidence that the election result fuelled is reflected in dozens of emails Members First has received since. More people now see a better chance to turn around one of the largest unions in Australia. In the words of one activist, "The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter".
CPSU national councillor and SA member Terry Costello commented: "The exciting thing is that time is on our side in that we have two and a half years until the next elections. Time enough to strategically plan how we are going a convince CPSU members that; a) they do have the power if they decide to fight, and b) to win the hearts and minds of the membership, and toss the politics of defeat, appeasement and inaction into the dustbin of history."
For the first time in many years, days lost due to strike action have actually increased. Add to this that the amazing CPSU result follows victories for the WA MUA Rank and File, the militants in the Victorian CEPU P&T branch, various wins in the AMWU - the tide is definitely turning to the left in trade unions.
Socialist Alliance members played a leading role in the Members First campaign. They prepared MF’s well pitched leaflet, organised leafleting outside large workplaces, took up the email debates with our opponents and with demoralised union members, and helped build up the MF network by promoting our ideas in workplaces across the country. Our networks were expanded in many more areas where MF had not had much of a base before, with many more activists in the CPSU working closely together than we’ve seen in many years.
The result of 45.1% was an increase of 1,756 votes on the 33.4% that MF received for president only six months ago. This time we won two of the seven divisions of the union - Border Protection & International Affairs (52.7%) and Communications (54.9%), and came within a handful of votes in three more divisions. The Communications Division has been a priority area for recruiting to the CPSU, and the result in Border Protection and International Affairs was particularly pleasing because we strongly profiled my activism in the refugee rights and anti-war movements in our election material, including my position as coordinator of a Public Servants for Refugees network.
The key questions for us remains how to build a culture of activism in the CPSU and, in the process, draw together all members who want to build a democratic, broad, campaigning approach to defend and advance our wages, conditions and the public sector. SA members will have a big role to play in this.
Next year will be an opportunity to get more organised and practically involve members in developing a plan to increase membership participation in decision-making at all levels of the union. We will need to partly create the democratic activist structures of the union, and overcome the divisions within the membership by actively building a culture of solidarity.
An important focus for SA members in 2004 will be campaigning for MF’s motion to fight budget attacks, which we circulated this year. Taking broader campaigns - like that to save Medicare and to build the March 20 global day of action against the occupation of Iraq - into Members First, and into our workplaces, will help develop solidarity and struggle. And it will show Socialist Alliance as a serious alternative which is helping make a different type of unionism, and a different world, possible.