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Communist Party of Australia

Maritime Branch
April 15, 2013

457 Visas, EMAs!

Blame the bosses not the workers.

It is in the light of class relationships that we must deal with the 457-visa and EMA question currently facing the Australian labour movement. The CPA categorically opposes blaming any workers for any problems created by the use or abuse of work visas. Workers on work visas are part of the international working class and must be welcomed and organised. This is the task for the Australian Trade Union Movement. The CPA rejects any employer attempt to undermine unions who we have always strongly supported as the main mass organisations of the working class. We understand the anger of unions when employers use workers on work visas to undermine union coverage.

FOC
Equal rights should apply to all members of the Australian working class.
We recognise that there is a need for workers from other countries to work in Australia. There is nothing new or surprising in this. The history of Australian capitalism is based on everyone being foreign labour. Equal rights should apply to all members of the Australian working class. This includes workers on work visas. Visa holders should be afforded permanent residency after working in Australia for 12 months.

Working class power comes from organised workers and the only way to solve the problem of employer abuse of 457 and other visa workers is to organise the workers themselves. In simple terms any non-union operation is a threat to organised workers. Do we blame non-union workers or organise them? The choice is simple and obvious. We must organise workers on 457 visas and EMAs as well. This in itself negates the advantage for unscrupulous employers seeking to exploit workers. A Federal Abbott Government is highly likely. There will be no legislative fix around employer abuse of workers on visas. The only fix will come through struggle.

Clive rorts wharfies in QLD

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Makes $2 million an hour

path. Division of workers is the key tactic of the boss. They will divide along casual or permanent, they will divide on religion, they will divide on gender and they will divide on race. The ruling class and its compliant mass media promote racial, religious and social differences. They use every means to promote social and working class disunity. This is the current employer strategy with the temporary worker issue. Working class people must take care not to tumble into the employer agenda on these matters. Racism makes it possible for capitalism to sustain and continue its exploitation of Australias multi-ethnic working class. Lets organise together! As one working class in struggle against capitalism and its brutal exploitation we can make inroads into the power of the employing class.

We reject the term foreign labour and see all workers as part of the working class in the struggle between labour and capital. Racism is a weapon used by the enemies of progress to divide society by blaming ethnic groups for unemployment, social disturbances, drugs and even health problems. Racism and narrow nationalism blur class relationships and divert attention from the real causes of social problems. Current migration laws are part and parcel of neoliberal free trade policies, which are proliferating across the world at the behest of imperialist states and the corporations they represent. Corporations seek the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour, but only on their own terms. We must take care that campaigns around visas and visa holders are based on sound class principles otherwise we risk leading workers on a potentially racist and jingoistic

14 times more likely to die on the job!

A wharfie is 14 times more likely to die on the job than the average Australian worker. And still the stevedores would rather fill their fat bellies full of profit while workers continue to die on the job. Capitalists and their companies will only give workers safety if we fight for it. The MUA is fighting for a National Stevedoring Code of Practice (NSCOP) and rightly so considering the carnage on the Australian waterfront. The union has asked for community organisations and supporters to sign on in support of NSCOP and the CPA has done just that. Communists will fight alongside every worker for their right to come home alive.

We signed on for NSCOP You should too.

Go to http://www.mua.org.au/campaign/11/

Authorised by the CPA Maritime Branch