Building struggle around an independent working class agenda is the key

Written by: Nick G. on 21 November 2025

Journalists for the ruling class media are excited to have found internal dissension within another important union.

They are digging deep into the internal affairs of the United Workers Union amidst allegations of an official’s links to what they call an “electoral slush fund”.

The allegations go back to a time when the official belonged to another union which subsequently amalgamated with what is now the UWU.

For our part, we refuse to interfere with or comment on the internal affairs of unions. It is better that problems are left to the members to sort out without interference.

In a general sense we can say that the attraction of union officialdom sometimes rewards the wrong sort of person.

Before the moves imposed by the ACTU in the 1980s and 90s to reduce the number of unions, it was usually the case that union officials were people who had come up through the ranks. Many unions were small outfits that operated out of rented premises and did not have the means to acquire and accumulate assets. Often union officials and organisers worked from their cars parked outside their members’ workplaces.  As an official with the BLF, and later President of the CFMEU – Victorian Branch, John Cummins was rarely inside his union’s office building, but typically found at a building site or outside the gates, organising workers.  Of course, there were careerists who sought to be bumped into parliament, but cases of large-scale financial corruption were rare.

Today’s unions are larger and their capacity to attract people straight from university courses into well-paid leadership positions has disenfranchised many of the rank-and-file from senior leadership positions.  Officials have union cars and union credit cards. The unions have their own property portfolios and investments to generate additional funds.  They have a lot more to lose than our chains when push comes to shove. As one retired union official with many years of intense militant struggles behind him, reflected recently, “Comrades, we (unions) have been co-opted.”  The further union officials are from their working class base the stronger the pull of capitalism.

Some take the easy way out. Much of this is tied to the particular Labor Party faction with which the union is aligned, hoping that the ALP will accept electioneering support in exchange for wage rises. Campaigns in sectors where workers’ wages are effectively funded by ALP governments take precedence over campaigns in the private sector. Some hope that by delivering workers’ vote to the ALP it will win them pre-selection into parliament.

This has worked with many sectors winning significant wage increases as either directly employed government workers, or through wage parity with government workers where the direct employer has been a contractor.

But it creates a reliance on the Labor Party in terms of both the immediate interest of the official and his/her longer-term political aspirations.

Essentially, problems in unions arise because the official union movement (ACTU) and their state bodies have not embraced an independent working-class agenda but maintained dependence on the ALP in government.

Workers must demand their unions pursue an independent working class agenda.

That means the pursuit of demands that reflect the needs of individual sectors of the working class as well as the overall interests of the whole class of workers, and in both cases going beyond what the ALP is prepared to sanction.

It means preparedness to go beyond the economic demands and to embrace the big political issues of the day.

It means maintaining the capacity to fight on issues regardless of which party holds office.

It means establishing workers’ right to withdraw their labour at a time of their choice.

It means strengthening rank-and-file leadership on the job, and demanding accountability by officials to the membership.

It is time to push past the barriers and restore the integrity of class struggle.

The key is the promotion of an independent working class agenda, not dependent on any parliamentary party.

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