En Passant

My own view is that to win this fight to free the refugees will require the movement, which about 30% of Australians agree with, needs to move from passive protests to mobilisations that do change minds and actions. That means civil disobedience.

It means shutting down the centres of the major towns with thousands occupying. It means thousands turning up to stop the deportations to the concentration camps. It means unions banning anything to do with the concentration camps. It means building a radical edge to the movement to do that and to bring the thousands and then tens of thousands in to build that militant campaign of workers and protesters.

The Australian government’s attacks on refugees have operated as a distraction while union rights, jobs and hard-won conditions and wages are under attack. Unions have always been at the forefront of campaigns for social justice, and they play a vital role in the fight for refugee rights. Please join us for the launch of Unionists for Refugees at a public meeting with ACTU President Ged Kearney from 6.30pm, Tuesday 3 March at the Belconnen Labor Club (Fred Daly Room), Chandler St, Belconnen.

ACTU President Ged Kearney will launch Unionists for Refugees at a public meeting at 6.30pm, on Tuesday 3 March at the Belconnen Labor Club (Fred Daly Room), Chandler St, Belconnen. Publicise this meeting as widely as possible.

Ged Kearney, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, will launch the group Canberra Unionists for Refugees on 3 March. More details to come  as we organise rooms and times etc, but it is likely to be around 5.30 pm or 6 pm somewhere in Civic.