{"id":402921,"date":"2019-04-11T20:27:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T19:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/australian-trade-unions-hold-pro-labor-change-the-rules-rallies\/"},"modified":"2019-04-11T20:27:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T19:27:17","slug":"australian-trade-unions-hold-pro-labor-change-the-rules-rallies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/australian-trade-unions-hold-pro-labor-change-the-rules-rallies\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian trade unions hold pro-Labor \u201cChange the Rules\u201d rallies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Australian trade unions hold pro-Labor \u201cChange the Rules\u201d rallies<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Patrick O\u2019Connor<br \/>\n    <br \/>11 April 2019<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>Australia\u2019s trade unions staged a series of rallies yesterday as part of their \u201cChange the Rules\u201d campaign to promote the election of a yet another Labor government that will implement the demands of big business.<\/p>\n<p>The largest demonstration was in Melbourne, where tens of thousands of workers rallied, though attendance was notably lower than previous \u201cChange the Rules\u201d events in that city. Smaller rallies were held in fourteen other state capitals and regional centres.<\/p>\n<p>The unions made no attempt to publicise or build the majority of these events, including a protest in Sydney that was only attended by about 100 people. This underscores the fear of the union bureaucracy that it could rapidly lose control of any mass gathering of workers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageFull\" style=\"width:480px; oveflow:hidden;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/asset\/6131b2f9-ce43-4d2a-b3a2-923df1b803bJ\/image.png?rendition=image480\" srcset=\"\/asset\/6131b2f9-ce43-4d2a-b3a2-923df1b803bJ\/image.png?rendition=image960 2x\" width=\"480\" style=\"width:480px;\" \/><span>Part of the Melbourne rally<\/span><\/div>\n<p>The union campaign has sought to divert deeply felt anger within the working class\u2014over social inequality, corporate tax evasion, low wages and insecure working conditions\u2014behind the Labor Party.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the unions\u2019 determined efforts, however, there is no enthusiasm among workers for the election of the Labor Party and its leader Bill Shorten.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s rallies were scheduled to coincide with the beginning of the federal election campaign. Union bureaucrats in Melbourne led chants promoting the Labor Party, including \u201cWhat do we want? An election. When do we want it? Now.\u201d And, \u201cThe Liberal Party thinks we\u2019re fools. Vote them out and change the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The march from the Trades Hall building to the Victorian state parliament was headed by Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Michele O\u2019Neil, state Premier Daniel Andrews and federal Labor parliamentarian Peter&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2019\/04\/11\/actu-a11.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Australian trade unions hold pro-Labor \u201cChange the Rules\u201d rallies By Patrick O\u2019Connor 11 April 2019 Australia\u2019s trade unions staged a series of rallies yesterday as part of their \u201cChange the Rules\u201d campaign to promote the election of a yet another Labor government that will implement the demands of big business. The largest demonstration was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-402921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}