From the First Fleet

Are We to be Condemned to Repeat the Past:

Philosopher George Santayana once said; ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ It is not that long ago when working people were once at the mercy of an employer and could be considered criminal if he did not submit to the employer’s demands. A servant in early Melbourne, for example, could be brought before a magistrate for not turning up to work.

The Howard Government told us constantly that its IR reforms along with its other economically driven policies were to get rid of an old system and to put something in place that suited present day’s needs. In fact, it was an attempt to repeat history and swing the scales back in favour of profit makers. If we choose not heed the past we will be condemned to repeat it in a way not in our favour.

The spoils of misery:

When the first fleet arrived in Sydney Cove it came with the loss of twenty four people. When the second fleet, with a similar number of people on board, arrived it had 397 people dead or dying. The difference was that the people of the second fleet were left in the hands of a private contractor whose profit was in the cargo of people. The contractor was paid seventeen pounds per person to provide passage and provisions, and the less of that seventeen pounds spent the more profit made. When Wadkin Tench, who came on the first fleet, saw the cargo of people unloaded from the second fleet, he said; ‘…there was reason to believe that some had… violated every principle of justice, and rioted on the spoils of misery…’

When the masters and merchants of the second fleet saw the desperate situation of the people already at Port Jackson, they opened up their holds to reveal all that the new colony desperately needed. Watkin Tench again; ‘Although the convicts had landed… with every mark of meagre misery… several of the masters of the transports immediately opened their stores and exposed large quantities of goods to sale… at most extortionate prices…’ The merchants capitalized on the desperate state of the people and maximized their profits. This was a policy of profit driven economics feeding off a new Australian society. The Howard Government twenty first century policies were also profit driven, creating opportunity for twenty first century masters to exploit Australian society; creating desperation with its IR policies and causing history to repeat itself by providing less for its people so that profit makers could continue to make more profit.

Individual contracts:

In the economic crash of the 1890s, people became desperate for employment, and employers pushed for individual contracts. People fought back, through their unions and the Great Strikes; but the free trade government of the day smashed the unions and the people by using military force. The voice of the working people and their rights to a fair go were crushed. In the twenty first century Peter Costello openly said the Howard Government aim was to get all of today’s workers onto individual contracts and, in support, the Government had created new laws and an industry task force to intimidate workers who fight back.

Labor roots:

In the 1890s people were not willing to submit to such master-servant thuggery, and in a new strategy, unions began to put people into parliament who would vote together to change the then ‘employer favourable’ laws. They created a labour party. Now people are being condemned to repeat that past because in today’s political system, people and their unions, are again, having to influence the parliamentarians to force them to represent the working people before the profit makers.

The Labor Party is not leading the fight to protect working people’s rights but is being dragged along by the union movement. At the same time, the conservatives are saying it is wrong for unions to be part of politics while saying nothing of merchant bankers such as Malcolm Turnbull being part of their political party or of their politicians taking tea with the super rich and privileged. The political climate is being pushed back to the old ideas of masters and servants.

Survival of the strongest:

Throughout the 1800s it was a ‘survival of the strongest’ industrial environment and the people proved to be strong. By 1901 society was demanding fair industrial laws though politicians who were clear about who they represented. By 1904 there had been enough political influence to cause Justice Higgins to create the Arbitration court where industrial arguments could be dealt with in a court that showed no favour, and the people could put their case on equal terms. A minimum wage was set by that same court, in 1907, recognizing an honest minimum standard of recompense for a fair day’s work. Now, at the beginning of the twenty first century, the employers have got industrial laws back in their favour and their free trade conservative government has replaced the fair court for one of their own. These are not new ideas or twenty first century policies but merely recycled nineteenth century thinking brought back because of opportune times.

So now, are we to be condemned to repeat the past or remember it and stay solidly together in order to influence a system to creates a better future?