May Day 2018 – International Workers’ Day

STOP THE WAR ON WORKERS

The Right to withdraw your labour has been criminalised!

Successive governments in Australia have consistently restricted the fundamental right for workers to withdraw their labour.

The right to strike has never been a “legal” right in Australia but workers have exercised their ability to take industrial action to advance their industrial interests.

However, this ability has been seriously undermined by repressive laws that protect employers’ interests and criminalise workers collective action. Workers and their unions are now threatened, criminalised and fined if they fight for their rights in the workplace.

Workers must fight back and fight for their right to strike.

The Turnbull government has:

Restored Howard’s ABCC and given it more powers

Ignored employers ripping off and injuring or killing workers

Outlawed and criminalised legitimate trade union activity

Increased penalties tenfold for breaking bad construction laws

Slashed penalty rates for 700,000 low paid workers

Banned the Eureka flag from government-funded construction sites

The Turnbull government will:

Restore individual, employer-dictated work contracts

Deny union officials right of entry and the right to organise

Abolish the minimum wage and penalty rates, gut Awards and EBAs

Outlaw all industrial action and pickets

Privatise Medicare and cut funding to public education

Cut $60 billion in taxes for big business out of public hospital, Medicare, school, welfare budgets

Tax the rich!

Tax is a class issue. The government’s ‘trickle down’ economic policies benefit the ruling class and provide a safe haven for multinational corporations to avoid paying tax.

More than 500 corporations pay little tax or no tax at all while social and community services continue to be privatised and funding cut. Even the Reserve Bank of Australia has spoken out about the low wages that continue to contribute to a weak economy.

At the same time there is bipartisan support for spending $1 trillion preparing to fight US wars, quarantining military spending from budget cuts, while cutting social security and pensions. The LNP persists with Centrelink’s Auto-Debt Recovery Program, attempting to reduce the budget deficit on the backs of the poor.

The Communist Party of Australia would:

Fully restore penalty rates, increase minimum wage by $50 a week and support union-negotiated Industry agreements

Abolish labour hire arrangements and put workers currently employed through labour hire and the gig economy on company books

Close the pay gender gap

Abolish the ABCC

Restore the right of entry, the right to organise and recruit

Protect the Right to strike by law without complex ballot systems

Create jobs with a shorter working week with no loss of pay and investment in public infrastructure

Divert the war budget to fund social needs such as public housing, health, education and transport

Make bulk billing of Medicare dental care universally available

Fully fund public schools and phase out funding to private schools

Abolish university and TAFE fees and fully fund them

Nationalise the energy sector and regulate electricity prices

Replace coal-fired power stations with renewable energy generation

The Communist Party

The only way to end poverty, unemployment, environmental destruction and war is to take society out of corporate hands and let the working class run it.

Communist: