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The labour movement’s about as healthy as its tree

Julia Thornton

by Julia Thornton

03 May 05:30am

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Filed under: Alp, Labor Party, Labour Day, Queensland, Tree Of Knowlege

32 comments

It was a pretty cruel act: killing the Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine. Take away your own personal political views and the history of the tree itself, but the wanton vandalism of applying poison to a living thing to make a point, is mindless and cruel. Poisoning anything – tree, dog, rat, possum – is cruel and heartless.

The Labour Day march in Brisbane in 2009, er, I mean 1953

Maybe someone wanted to have a secret the rest of the world didn’t have.

Maybe it was someone who’d been groomed and trained to look at Labor election posters as flags of war – things to pull down, throw eggs at, gesticulate at or draw fangs and horns on. Maybe the person who killed the tree was a natural enemy of Labor - the child of a small business owner or a farmer.

But a part of me believes the Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine was killed by one of their own: someone who knew long before he or she applied the poison that the spirit of the tree had died already. Despite it being a senseless killing (as opposed to those trees which die for the cause of someone’s city or water view) maybe killing the Tree of Knowledge was an act of love gone sour.

Remember what the tree symbolised. Not the birth of the ALP, which was really just a copy of the British Labour Party formed by a group of Fabians. The Tree of Knowledge represented a conscious effort to maintain the egalitarian and peerless or untiered society that was Australia when those people sat under the tree.

They chose that tree because they didn’t have a drawing room or meeting hall to sit in. They were people who wanted to represent the little people, and they were little people themselves. People without money or titles or the connections both bring.

Well, so they say. There’s not much proof of it and it seems that it’s just myth and legend.

And so today is Labor Day in Queensland. The Tree is dead and long live the memorial in Barcaldine, which cost more than four school halls and a tuckshop combined.

Our Premier is overseas, boycotting/avoiding Labor Day, ‘though many of her staff keep saying ‘mayday’, it’s got nothing to do with the public holiday.

I’m not sure taking a first class seat in a plane is in the spirit of the Tree of Knowledge and the monument built to replace it…

Meanwhile back at the hospital, health workers are only two pay cheques away from losing their homes, and that was two weeks ago.

We’ll watch the parade of the Union Movement go down whatever street they’ve got permission to walk down, proudly carrying the signs of their comrades.

The Clerks with their calculators shining in the morning sun, pens clinking in the time honoured tradition; the CFMEU orange shirts blazing in the light; the Teachers Union brandishing signs condemning the latest tests we have to make our kids take to know they’re dumb compared with Finland or Germany.

And the Missos – I never know what to say about the Miscellaneous Workers’ Union except ‘and the missos’.

Afterwards, like war heroes, they’ll stand in pubs around the city, talking about the state of the worker and the sale of public assets.

This is their day. Their one day. On Tuesday, they’ll go straight back to falling in behind Premier Bligh and the rest of the Queensland caucus.

And the person who killed the tree in Barcaldine will smirk.

Most commented

32 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Nott says:

      07:55am | 03/05/10

      Well the Labour movement was healthy enough to smash Howard at the last election on Workchoices even while Howard - the -old-socialist was spending record amounts of taxpayer funds on convincing us his Workplace Reforms! And Howard was sooo Neo-liberal, he is sitting their on his fat state pension grinning like a hypocrite… heee haww

      Sure the unions are a bit run down but a fight between them and Tony Abbott? Well Tony is to scared to mention Workchoices this time around isn’t he?

      Thanks for playing!

      Reply

    • Mavis says:

      01:29pm | 03/05/10

      Thanks Nott, you have just told us why unions are no longer respected. You have just stated that they are dedicated to the survival of unions (not workers) and they will fight whoever stands in the way of the betterment of unions (not workers). You have long since forgotten what you are supposed to be fighting for, Nott. All your fancy slogans like “Neo-liberal” don’t hide the fact, Nott. You poisoned the tree.

    • John A Neve says:

      02:50pm | 03/05/10

      Mavis,

      The workers are the union and the union is the workers, you cannot have one without the other. The problem is, I don’t know how you define a worker thses day?

      But like it or not, Australia would not be what it is today without the unions, they aren’t always right, but by the same token they are more right than wrong.

    • Mavis says:

      04:41pm | 03/05/10

      John A Neve, your opening sentence is as incorrect as it is glib.

      Shop steward to union rep to political office to comfortable seat of power. It has nothing to do with Barcaldine. Think about it.

    • John A Neve says:

      06:17pm | 03/05/10

      Mavis,
      Firstly, I never mentioned Barcaldine. Unionism is not about trees, it’s about people.

      As to your supposed ladder climb, it’s as silly as saying, rich parents, university, lawyer “to comfortable seat of power”. It has nothing to do with community. Think about it.

    • Mavis says:

      07:32pm | 03/05/10

      John A Neve,

      Yeah sure, light on the hill, Barcaldine, the tree. Chuck em all out. “Whatever it takes”? That’s progress.

      Keep your head in sand John if you must, but unions no longer are the workers and workers are no longer the unions. They are entirely separate. Workers are the dog and the unions are the tick.

    • John A Neve says:

      09:12pm | 03/05/10

      Mavis,

      On what do you based your most profound statement “Workers are the dog and the unions are the tick”?

    • robert smissen says:

      11:35pm | 03/05/10

      There hasn’t been a Labor politician in over 40 years that has stood up for “working families”. They all have soft hands, wear suits & wouldn’t recognize a worker if they fell over one. Ben Chifley wouldn’t even get pre-selection in today’s Labor Party.

    • persephone says:

      08:52am | 03/05/10

      Or maybe - as has been also suggested - the tree was poisoned accidentally, by someone carelessly emptying a container near by without realising what they were doing.

      As for ‘a conscious effort to maintain the egalitarian and peerless or untiered society that was Australia when those people sat under the tree’ - the reason they were sitting under that tree was because they were objecting to a society that was far from egalitarian or peerless or untiered.

      They were saying things like, “When a man gets jailed for striking, it’s a rich man’s country yet” not “Gosh, we live in a society where Jack’s as good as his master.”

      Although I think the union movement will be with us a long time yet - and, as has already been pointed out, showed a fair bit of muscle during the last election campaign - it is a fact that movements die out or change as they achieve their goals.

      So we don’t have an active Women’s Suffragette Movement, an anti slavery movement, an anti child labour movement, or an Indian self determination movement any more either.

      It doesn’t mean the ideas they represented have become unimportant or irrelevant - quite the opposite.

      Reply

    • H of SA says:

      09:52am | 03/05/10

      The Union movement has been a victim of its own success. They slumber because the Aussie worker is treated ok in general. It takes someone winding back the clock and mistreating workers to galvanise it again (workchoices anyone?).

      Its nice to know its there though, when some CEO decides to gouge wages and put them into his own pocket, the unions still exist.

      Reply

    • Dingo says:

      01:59pm | 03/05/10

      So what do we do when the Unions gouge our wages for political advertising and the resulting Government makes workers worse off and the Unions stand by and do nothing?

      Then take a look at parental leave. What sort of workers representative thinks 18 weeks minimum wage is better than 6 months of your actually salary?

      It’s time for a new organisation to actually represent workers and not the ALP.

    • Zeta says:

      10:25am | 03/05/10

      Julia, your profile says you think you’re an iconoclast. You can’t be an iconolcast and mourn the passing of Labor’s Tree of Knowledge. That would make you an iconolater, or an iconodule if you were in Byzantium.

      Reply

    • julia says:

      11:21am | 03/05/10

      LOL Zeta. Did you study latin at university?

    • H of SA says:

      11:41am | 03/05/10

      Fair point Zeta - fair point indeed.

      You don’t necessarily need to be a latin student to know this - you could know this by being “well punk yeah”

    • BTS says:

      10:28am | 03/05/10

      The Labour Party ‘died’ when it turned it’s back on the workers, the very heart of where the party came from and why it was originally formed.

      Reply

    • Employer says:

      10:52am | 03/05/10

      @Persephone: do you think the fellas who sat under the tree would approve of what’s happening to the Qld health workers or Anna Bligh flying first class?

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      07:14pm | 03/05/10

      As Phillip Adams said when asked to justify his communism with ownership of a Ferrari “I think everyone should own a Ferrari”

      Posted for anthropological interest (thank you Les Murray), not out of any ideological commitment.

    • AdamC says:

      10:52am | 03/05/10

      H of SA, I broadly agree with your analysis. However, an additional explanation is required for the relatively low level of engagement with unions. Let’s remember that Australians are still perfectly susceptible to populist agitation when it comes to IR (see the unions’ ‘07 scare campaign). There are a few reasons why unions don’t benefit from this so much anymore.

      a) The genuine proletariat is now too small to be a political factor. Aside from some parts of the manufacturing industry and construction, proletarian ideals, modes of organisation and work practices have largely died. Newer unionised sectors like education have not adequately replaced the militant male manufacturing worker as the centre of the labour movement. 

      b) Unions have lost the leadership of the left. This follows on from a) above. The left of politics is now dominated by the welfare, entitlement (human rights) and cultural sectors. Much of this movement claims to represent the ‘Lumpen proletariat’ rather than the working class. As such, working class issues are sidelined.

      c) Last, and possibly most important, unions have lost their role in centralised wage fixing. Enterprise bargaining effectively killed the ‘protected species’ status of unions. Now, they actually have to add value to attract members and stay relevant. That is hard.

      Reply

    • H of SA says:

      01:05pm | 04/05/10

      I agree with you on the point that the proletariat is small, even the previous proletariat jobs like trades are now massive earners. The proletariat is now really 18 year olds in hospitality or retail who don’t necessarily understand their legal protection.

      Also yes, left politics has shifted so that the labour movement is only a small part of it.

      and utterly agree on point C - enterprise bargaining is the right balance between employer/employee

    • Pete says:

      11:12am | 03/05/10

      It’s ironic that Abbott and his plump band of staffers are lining up to decry taking money from the Mining Industry, when Abbott has his “MiningChoices” – sending the young unemployed to jobs that don’t exist on the mines. Arguably, another form of tax on Miners.

      But taxing the Mining Industry to build infrastructure (that the Liberals studiously forgot to build!)  to grow business and jobs elsewhere is not on!

      Perhaps the Liberals are conflicted and confused? Maybe they need to gather their schizophrenic thoughts into some distinct policy before they lose the 2013 election too?

      Why exactly would we trust the Libs and Abbotts recycling of greed-obsessed, Howards-Brutopia, to look after the ordinary workers that have worked hard to build wealth for our nation and companies profit margins?

      Huh?

      Reply

    • Ben G says:

      11:41am | 03/05/10

      “Poisoning anything – tree, dog, rat, possum – is cruel and heartless.”
      Wrong. Poisoning rats & possums is a great idea when your alternative is to live with them, poisoning dogs is necessary and humane when they’re done (you might call it “putting them down”) and poisoning trees is sometimes necessary too.

      Reply

    • stiffy says:

      12:55pm | 03/05/10

      Julia, there is only one way to kill a rogue oleander tree and that is to slowly poison it. the best way to get rid of a possum problem in Australia is to just release it on the otherside of a large watercourse.

    • facepalm says:

      11:48am | 03/05/10

      The labour movement, and unions alongside it, are fast becoming anachronisms. The future is in the deliberate displacement of human labour through automation, thus people who claim to “stick up” for workers are becoming a hindrance to human progress.

      Reply

    • Alexandra Williams says:

      11:52am | 03/05/10

      Caucus? Cactus more like it!
      Marching in Queensland! (Joh B-P forbade it!)
      The main thing wrong with poisoning this tree was that it wasn’t in someone’s million dollar view (like the ones along Lighthouse Road, Byron Bay!)
      With undertones of ‘underworld’, is the reward of $10,000 enough given the disparity of spending $5million on a coffin - me thinks it should at least be gold-clad!

      Reply

    • Jon says:

      11:54am | 03/05/10

      Or maybe the tree just died of shame, just as the Labor party has died. It values based on Western Secular philosophy have been usurped by the fluffy fashion of Cultural Relativism that preaches tolerance at the expense of justice, truth and freedom. Added to that is the reemergence of the religious left whose mantra is to transfer Christian guilt felt by many of the current religious crop of Labor politicians, to population at large to justify absurd public policy.

      Reply

    • robert smissen says:

      11:38pm | 03/05/10

      well said! ! !

    • Harquebus says:

      12:16pm | 03/05/10

      I would just like my representative who, happens to be labor, to represent his constituents and not the Labor Party.

      Reply

    • Michael says:

      08:23pm | 03/05/10

      His constituents voted for the Labor Party. I doubt more than 3 quarters of his constituency would know his name off the top of their head, or care that his name is on the ballot ticket. They look to see which party he represents and decide if that is where they want their vote to go.

      The Labor party raise the funds for his campaign, his constituents don’t. He gets voted in under the party banner, and therefore represents the Labor party who are meant to represent the constituency via their policies. The only option is to vote for an independant, who is unlikely (but not unable) to win a party-held seat, which will probably end up going to a party-politician. Even if the independant does win the seat, they are generally powerless anyway as the major party who takes Government usually does so with a ruling majority.

      Best of choosing a party who best suits you, understanding that you won’t like or agree with every move they make. But that’s democracy.

    • John A Neve says:

      09:21pm | 03/05/10

      Michael,

      I agreed with every thing you said until the last sentence. “But that’s democracy”. No, it certainly is’nt, what we have in this country is far, far from democracy.

    • monkeytypist says:

      06:37pm | 03/05/10

      Dear Julia,

      Er, what?

      Signed, the thousands of everyday people who marched and enjoyed themselves today.

      Reply

    • Joe says:

      07:39pm | 03/05/10

      The Labor party has sold out and is in bed with big business. They are no longer the cream of the working class, but the dregs of the middle class.

      Reply

    • Simmo says:

      09:54pm | 03/05/10

      You’re an idiot if you think the people who killed the tree were making a political statement, it was just a bunch of drunk idiots who thought it would be fun to kill the tree. Most likely the people who did this had no idea what was so special about the tree.

      And that memorial, absolute waste of money, Barcaldine youths are wandering the streets at night while the only youth centre in town has been falling to pieces for near half a decade due to neglect because the council can’t afford to do it up or even high a supervisor for it. A mere one percent of the cost of the memorial would have been more then enough for the youth centre and many other projects that would have provided more benefit to the town.

      get rid of the tree, put in a plaque and get over it.

      Reply
 
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