Neoliberalism and Global Justice

This report is lifted from December's Industrial Worker. The terms "Wob" and "Wobbly" refer to members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). "Chooks" are chickens.

Melbourne Wobs participated in the
Second Latin American and Asia Pacific Solidarity
Gathering Oct. 21-22 at Trades Hall.
The conference sought to widen the cracks
in neoliberalism by building bridges between
grassroots organisations around the world,
which are fighting back in new and ever more
inventive ways.
IWW delegate Margaret Creagh spoke on
the opening day, beginning her talk with the
Wobbly Doxology. Excerpts follow:
“When the IWW was founded in Chicago
101 years ago, they said: ‘There can be no
peace so long as hunger and want are found
among millions of working people.’
“We were made criminals then and the
capitalists have plundered ever since.
“Ten years ago 176 bullshit world leaders
at the World Food Summit pledged to halve
the number of undernourished people by
2015. Yet 850 million are still hungry – some
18 million more than in 1996. ... Six million
children die from hunger each year, yet we
... have enough food to provide everyone
in the rest of the world with at least 2,720
kilocalories per person per day.
“Naming The Bastards: Monsanto’s empire
includes Dow Chemicals, infamous for
giving us the Vietnam War chemical Agent
Orange. ... Monsanto are now patenting
indigenous foods as privatised corporate
property; and genetically engineered soya
beans grown in Argentina are shipped here
to Melbourne for feeding chooks.
“Every year more of our class die due
to work-related illnesses and accidents.
Yet asbestos is still exported from Canada
and ‘Australian’ company James Hardie has
moved offshore to avoid liabilities here.
“Corporate crooks run amok. Climate
changed governments and capitalists are rebranded,
green-washed sustainable exploiters
of the planet. There is no right to food and
no right to water. In South Africa’s economic
apartheid slums you must get a pre-paid card
to get water from a tap in the street. That’s
profiteering in the 21st century. ...
“Military spending has gone ballistic
which means there is no more pretence at getting
rid of poverty in this world. When there
are ‘natural disasters’ ... the poor suffer the
most. ... Poor people who start climbing the
ladder to better conditions are outnumbered
by people who are facing worse conditions,
because of unemployment or more informal
employment. The abyss between rich and
poor increases daily in all countries.
“Where could be global justice?
“What if we join our community and
union forces to meet all the challenges of
today – we are millions, billions in fact.
Health and safety are the priority at work – we
cannot improve conditions and wages if we
get maimed and die. Here in Australia, April
28th is industrial work deaths and injuries
day. In the lead=up to May Day, May 1st, it is
a time to remember the dead and fight like
hell for the living.
“The International General Strike is coming
– Latin America can do it and Central
American can do it. In the USA, on May Day
of this year, millions of migrant workers went
on strike.
“Here in Australia the General Strike
defends and extends hard-won conditions
now under siege by the corporations and their
puppet governments.
“Before the invasion of Iraq began, several
unions, most notably in Italy and the UK,
made efforts to use their power as workers
to stop the transport of war materials. As an
IWW poet said years ago, ‘Without our brain
and muscle not a single wheel can turn.’ The
ruling class – international capitalism – needs
us to do its bidding. When we organize and
refuse its orders, we can start to define an
alternative to the ‘New World Order.’
“We can take over and lock out the employing
class and transform production to be
in harmony with Mother Earth, so six million
children do not starve to death again next year
and 850 million others are no longer hungry
and the bloody plunder wars cease.”