With the recent news that Anthony Albanese has requested a fresh takeover of the Victorian branch of the ALP, it should be obvious to everyone that neither of the two biggest stories around — the destruction of the CFMEU and the ramping up of AUKUS — have anything to do with building, corruption or national security. They are external expressions of internal Labor factional battles, as the party prepares for preselections in vacant seats in Victoria and for the federal election in general. Not only does it run deep in Labor. It is determining the direction of our foreign policy for decades to come.
Shorten Oddsening?
The simplest way to put it is that the forces who believe Billy Bob Shorten should be elevated to the highest office have been on the move for some time. They’ve been revving the tanks. Mr Shorten himself is a modest man, a minister currently charged with ensuring the welfare of sea lions, the smooth running of Ascensiontide and matters pertaining to Yass. Others dream of higher office for him.
They certainly have promising raw material. On RN Breakfast last week, Billy Bob sounded commanding, authoritative and spirited. Well-rested, perhaps, and with possibly a smidge of media training. For about three years, he sounded strained and weak, like an unhappy High St Armidale antique shop proprietor. That’s all gone. He has blood in his nostrils and the Xavier swagger back. Albo, after two years in office, sounds understandably tired, his slight thickness of speech not helping. All the weight has come back; at least he no longer looks like he fronts a Communards tribute act (though he kinda still does).
The Australian Workers’ Union and other groups around Shorten have “faded” in influence, as the mainstream wonks have it. But you’re only ever one renegotiated alliance from being back in the game. Labor’s sinking primary vote, the perception that Albo is a leader who can neither project command nor appeal to the bourgeoisie as a sort of officer-class type who could keep the party in order… well, for that, you need someone who was in cadets, even though Labor is not a dangerous Year 11 khakied rabble (though it kinda is).
The TWU-Somyurek war on the Right
Currently, Albo is in “power” through the support of the Transport Workers’ Union-centred right, identified with Richard Marles, Death Star resident Stephen Conroy, and former state member for Lara Johnny “Butterdish” Eren. Albo’s National Left stays in power by doing exactly what the TWU Right wants it to do.
That’s why, instead of once getting, in Tanya Plibersek’s offhand words, “schools and hospitals” (when asked what the ALP’s policies actually were), we are getting submarines worth hundreds of billions — the only purpose of which is US encirclement of China — and drawn into a Chinese civil war over the governance of Taiwan, turned into a world war for US interests.
To go toe to toe against this alliance, those suggesting that Billy Bob be, blushingly and reluctantly, dragged into power, would need some big allies. That would mean either the SDA, or a smorgasbord of the Industrial Left — the CFMEU and Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union chiefly — and possibly sub-factions of the balkanised Victorian Socialist Left.
These smaller groups have been courting the SDA for a decade or more, to no effect. A much better bet has been the CFMEU and its “Industrial Left” faction, which joined with the AWU in the Adem Somyurek-piloted “Centre Alliance-Industrial Left” alliance. Central to the success of that outfit was to takeover Victorian Labor branches controlled by the Conroy/TWU Right, such branches bulking out its rather thin union backing. That was the era of punch-ups in backyard branch meetings, minibuses of new members rocking up, their memberships paid, etc.
That attempt to destroy the TWU/Cons faction came apart when Somyurek was taped on high-quality surveillance video using the office of Anthony Byrne MP to organise branch, erm, recruitment. Byrne had been Somyurek’s mentor, so this was all very unfortunate, etc, etc. It all occurred just around the time that ex-senator Conroy joined the advisory board of ASPI, the defence industry lobby group, funded by the Australian offices of international weapons manufacturers.
Somyurek had spoken of “sacking councils” (in his capacity as local government minister), which some took to mean the Greens-controlled outfits. In fact Somyurek was probably going to wield the sword of administration over Labor-controlled councils accused of corruption. And if those councils happened to be a base for the TWU/Conroy faction — such as Brimbank in Melbourne’s north-west — well, that would just be rotten luck. No fear, no favour.
The CFMEU goes (factionally) rogue
Somyurek is gone, his Mods faction scattered, the Centre Alliance in disarray (though not that much disarray; there was always the sense Somyurek was a front for a pre-existing set-up). So, who else could, in alliance with the AWU and others, threaten the National Left/TWU-Conroy alliance? Well, the construction section of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU had gone through serious internal ructions over the question of how closely it should be laced into the ALP.
John Setka and the branch’s Croatian subfaction had been in favour of taking an independent course (the Setka-led state division slings political donations to the Greens, as the Greens are to the left of Labor on union rights; very far to the left now). The “Aussie” group within it didn’t, and that group included Emma Walters, the now very-ex Mrs Setka.
With the Setkas’ marriage dissolved, the CFMEU was free to set a course for indep… oh no! Suddenly there’s a series of reports in The Age and on 60 Minutes alleging… well, that’s not so clear. CFMEU members are members of motorcycle groups, and there was, shock horror, a six-hour safety-based stop work in a tunnel (reported a few days before Age journos went on strike during the Olympics. Gentleman professionals may strike when they wish; the proles should just keep digging).
The most recent story alleged the CFMEU was targeting a Jewish club on behalf of the building company it had contracted. The report suggested there was evidence the CFMEU would encourage pro-Palestine protesters. The evidence for this in the Nick McKenzie/David Marin-Guzman story:
Separately, a security source said NSW authorities had been advised of informal warnings allegedly issued by the CFMEU that if the protest action eventuated, the union might encourage pro-Palestinian activists to join the rally outside the site of the Jewish club.
An unnamed security source? Informal warnings of alleged threats? Wow, you really nailed that one, Nick! Earlier, the story noted its core allegations:
There is no suggestion police suspect that [construction company] Parkview was aware of [CFMEU official] Greenfield’s alleged corruption, or that the corruption allegations against Greenfield will be proven, only that the firm was willing to accommodate the union boss’s demands in return for his backing. Greenfield is awaiting trial.
This is what passes for investigative journalism in The Age now. Two intersecting rumours mashed together and with a headline suggesting the CFMEU is antisemitic. Everyone associated with this story should hang their heads in shame for spruiking it. Surely, they will have some actual named people doing corrupty things to other named people, or this is all going to look like a beat-up in pursuit of Walkley gold dust. So far the best documented act of workplace violence was former Nine chair Peter Costello shoving a journalist. Funny old world.
So, with the possibility that the Setka-led CFMEU might go fully rogue, it has suddenly been nobbled. But not just nobbled; Labor’s move to appoint a three-year administrator to the whole union prevents it from making any form of political donation, which knocks out its chance to throw its support behind the Greens, donate to the Victorian Socialists or independents, or run a trade union Senate list, which would have a good chance of getting a sixth seat in a couple of states.
The TWU night of the long butter knives
The antepenultimate act in this epic appears to have been the sudden revelations that Diana Asmar from the Health Workers’ Union, once a close associate of Bill Shorten, who may possibly no longer recognise her — few might; Asmar has ceased to dye her hair the sort of red that, for years, made her look like an exploded bottle of raspberry Fanta — is under investigation for the possible misuse of union funds. Oh noes! Why does this keep happening right now!
The penultimate act? Clearing out any opposition within the TWU. Anglo-Celtic politicians like Stephen Conroy and Richard Marles, who went from stupol and youf Labor to executive positions with the TWU, had never, you will be amazed to hear, actually driven a truck. But its many non-Anglo members have, and that was the basis of the other power within the union, the very wide-branching Suleyman family, a Turkish Cypriot clan, led by TWU powerbroker Mem Suleyman.
Turkish-Australian Adem Somyurek, ex-SDA, started his own “Mods” faction when he realised that the union’s Irish and Dutch-descended leaders would never let non-Europeans in, no matter how often they were bearded in the den (and one SDA official is very often seen with a beard). The Mods faction used the non-Anglo networks the SDA had relied on to organise against them and fuck them. Somyurek’s attempt to get everyone non-Anglo over to that side is what led to his confrontation in the Parliament House dining room with Conroy-aligned former Lara member John Eren, who alleged Somyurek waved a butter knife at him. Somyurek denies Johnny Butterdish’s allegations.
Their alignment is fanatically pro-US, pro-Israel, and networked into the global US security establishment. That establishment is about to give Israel carte blanche to knock the shit out of Lebanon if it needs to. Is it possible that, for this reason, or entirely other reasons, Suleyman would like his union back? He has certainly made a big drive to… oh noes! Suleyman is accused of harassment! Just like Somyurek was, when he quit the SDA, throwing out the factional balance in the Andrews government. Whatever the truth of these allegations, what timing!
The coming major party funding stitch-up
The ultimate act? All this is happening as Labor “reforms” political financing laws. It follows the model of the Victorian “reforms”, which authorised funding sources for the two major parties — unions for Labor and the Cormack Foundation for the Libs — and restricted individual donations for everyone else, thus hampering the ability to run Climate 200-style campaigns and match the major parties dollar for dollar through independents. That’s what Labor has planned, and the Liberals will support them. It locks out teals, Greens and conservative independents, and locks up the CFMEU’s war chest and much more besides.
With the triple lock of compulsory voting, single-member seat exhaustive preferences and public funding matched to primary vote, Labor now no longer needs a union or much of a branch base. It can be a self-contained party of a stupol university elite, handing out preselections to other mates, with strikes all but banned, and our national security laced into the US, with no regard to genuine national interest.
It is the process of an elite disdainful caste, rendering themselves inviolate from actual public action, and using those with a sentimental attachment to what Labor was, employed as a form of human shield. People could resist this. For Labor and the Australian political system, the bill is coming due. It is not yet totally destroyed as a democratic system. But it kinda is.
Correction: An earlier version of this article described the Suleyman family as “Lebanese Christian”. This is incorrect, they are Turkish Cypriots. The article has been updated to reflect this.
