Pamphlet
- Title
- The People Can Never Be Repressed - Defeat New Penal Powers
- Imprint
- Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) [This scan courtesy of Mike Williss], Melbourne, May, 1977, 7 pp
- Abstract
In 1976, the Fraser government amended the Trade Practices Act to stop unions from supporting each other. John Howard, as Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs took the lead in this. The new section 45d of the Act prohibited "secondary boycotts" and gave employers the right to sue unions which imposed "sympathy" bans or strikes, for damages.
The CPA (M-L) had been central to the 1968 defeat of the old penal powers through the refusal of its Vice-Chairman and Tramways Union (Vic) Secretary Clarrie O'Shea to pay fines imposed on his union. With Ted Hill (Chairman) and fellow Vice-Chairman Ted Bull (WWF Vic Secretary) and Norm Gallagher (BLF Vic Secretary), O'Shea countersigned this statement calling on workers to defeat Fraser's new penal powers. They were encouraged to rely on their own strength and not to be misled by Hawke, the ALP or the courts of abrbitration.
Mike Williss