For the third time in a few months – fourth if you count the recent union delegates’ meeting and march on the 9th of April – construction and other workers marched through the city in a show of support for CFMEU Secretary Martin Kingham. By lunchtime of this, the first day of hearings proper, one of the two charges against him had been dismissed on the grounds it was essentially a duplicate of the other. At each of these marches, the representation of workers across the board has shown a widespread and growing awareness amongst unionists that this case brought against Martin Kingham is, as he said himself today, not about him at all, but part of a long-planned and systematic attack on the fundamental right of workers to organise. Unionists realise that a victory for the government over the CFMEU would be only a prelude to a devastating sweep against hard-won rights of all workers – nurses, teachers, the hospitality trade, the textile and clothing industries, emergency services and so on and so on.

[Martin Kingham cleared by magistrate – lunchtime Friday 2 May]