Supposedly there was an attack on Monday on the offices of the CFMEU in Melbourne by union members. Various news outlets like The Daily Telegraph, Herald-Sun, Courier-Mail, The Australian, various radio stations like 4BC, 2GB, 3AW, 5AA and the ever anti left Sky News Australia, were crowing about it as though this was proof that union members were turning in on each other. Sky News Australia was almost proud of the fact that union offices were being attacked; which is just gauche.
However, if you do any kind of actual journalism and bother to investigate the facts which are readily ascertainable, then the narrative that this was union members attacking union offices, starts to fall apart like a house of cards where the cards are made from ash.
Firstly there's the problem that this comes in the wake of anti-vaccination riots in Melbourne. On the face of it this might look like people are genuinely fearful and anxious about being in lockdown. This starts to look nonsensical when you consider that there were also orchestrated protests in the non-lockdown states of Western Australia and Queensland but not really in New South Wales or South Australia. Why protest against lockdowns in states where there aren't actually any lockdowns going on and why are these protests only happening in states where there are Labor state governments?
Secondly there's the problem that people like the far-right media personality and gym owner Avi Yemeni and Lizzy 'Bunnings Karen' Rose, were in attendance. There's was also the same lady with the megaphone from Saturday's protest in attendance. While I wouldn't say that it is impossible that they are members of the CFMEU or construction workers for that matter, it is highly unlikely.
I have other questions considering that in one of the videos, there is one speaker proclaiming to the expectant crowd "we are staring down the barrel of socialism". This is strange in the light of the fact that unionism is a socialist notion. Given that organisations like the CFMEU advocate for workplace health and safety, and in this case agree with vaccinations to protect workers from covid, then while union members have the right to protest this does appear to be counterproductive. Also, I would like a proper explanation of how vaccines lead to socialism.
Then there's the problem that most of the construction industry was working on Monday in Victoria. The protest against a lockdown and a shutout, doesn't make any sense in the light that the construction industry was only put back into temporary shutdown after these protests happened.
If there were in fact any genuine union members were there then I should expect to see the usual paraphernalia like Eureka flags, dirty hard hats with stickers on them, and in some cases other red flags and union patches. These are simply not in any of the photos and videos which exist.
Also, it seems ludicrous to me that you need to tell union members to “wear work gear” or to “blend in” to a protest. Most of the high-vis jackets and vests look way too clean to be sported by actual construction workers. If anything these anti-vax protesters look like they are cosplaying at being construction workers. It would be like me claiming to be a construction worker despite me having never been on a working construction site in my life.
Therein lies the biggest issue with this. This is different to union breaking by the use of scabs and blacklegs but rather the passing off of union members by people who have a very different agenda. If this was the sale of a product then this would be the tort of 'passing off' but when applied to the passing off of a grassroots movement, the term 'astroturfing' is appropriate.
Astroturfing, like other deceptive practices, is a concerted campaign which is designed to look like something else, order to convince people of something. In this case, this is an attempt to steal or perhaps undermine the unions' legitimacy in order to push an extreme agenda.
This isn't new at all. One of the favourite strategies employed by the Italian Facsist Party and Germany's NSDAP was the use of physical force and violence, precisely because unions which are highly organised aren't really susceptible to political attacks.
I don't like to use word fascist in the pejorative sense because it is mostly meaningless and is usually understood as 'something not desirable' rather than a useful technical political term for a set of positions and policies. However, political opponents on the economic right and authoritarian north tend to target strong left-wing unions because if the strong are neutralised, then who’s left to stop them?
As Monday rolled onto Tuesday, protests at the lockdowns moved from the offices of the CFMEU to shutting down expressways and movements in the street. Again, I haven't seen anything explicitly from any union in these protests.
This looks very much like the false flag operation that the NSDAP pulled over the burning of the Reichstag, in February 1933. NSDAP leadership claimed that the Communists were planning a violent uprising and that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. That won't happen in Victoria as the authoritarian right isn't in control of the parliament but this has all the hallmarks of that kind of plan.
A lie can run half way around the world before the truth has had a chance to get its boots on. In this case, an orchestrated attack on union offices will be reported as unions turning on themselves; with no regard for truth at all. I do wonder who organised this but I fear that they have already sped away upon a bicycle made of smoke.
History has a way of repeating its same stupidities upon people because human nature is both selfish and self-interested. Yet again the far-right act as predators feeding on fear and distress because they flourish in times of economic insecurity, and seed hatred among those who feel left behind or left out.
"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
- George Orwell, Politics And The English Language (1946)
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