UNITED WE CAN STOP THE SELL-OFF!
Dear power industry delegates and workers,
The people who have signed this letter are active in the campaign against electricity privatisation: we are workers, unionists, professionals, students and pensioners.
We are writing to tell you that power industry workers are not alonethe vast majority of the people of New South Wales support your struggle against electricity privatisation. All the opinion polls show they see your fight as their own.
In this dispute the small, isolated minority is premier Morris Iemma, treasurer Michael Costa, their cabinet, and the Labor MPs who still back the sell-off. Even though the NSW Coalition has finally decided to come off the fence and join the Iemma-Costa pro-privatisation club, the sell-off remains totally unpopular within the broader community.
The pro-privatisation minority claim that the massive 702-107 ALP conference vote against privatisation was dominated by the unions and was unrepresentative of broader public opinion. They dont even believe that themselvesif they really did they wouldnt hesitate to put electricity privatisation to a referendum.
The truth is that the ALP conference vote simply and accurately reflected wider opinionat least 80% oppose the sell-off.
Iemma, Costa and Co. didnt just lose the vote at the ALP state conference, they lost the debate. The rank- and-file delegates understood their argument and werent convinced. And whenever and wherever that debate gets repeated, so will the result.
Now the desperate supporters of the power sell-off are resorting to political terrorism. Labor MPs are being threatened with an end to their careers and ALP figures from the pastwho have all shifted to the big end of townare being wheeled out to explain that if the sell-off fails Labor will end up in the political wilderness.
That's rubbish Labor is guaranteed to end up in opposition if it carries on with the sell-off against majority opinion. It will suffer the same fate as other governments that privatised electricity, like Jeff Kennett in Victoria and John Olsen in South Australia.
Those who have signed this letter are committed to continuing the Stop The Sell-off campaign in our workplace, unions, political and community organisations and anti-privatisation groups.
We say that if we turn community opposition to the sell-off into a new, more powerful, phase in the Stop The Sell-off campaignof mass rallies, protest meetings and industrial action as neededit cannot lose! We give 100% support to your defence of your jobs, working conditions and rights at work in a publicly owned power industry.
Keep NSW electricity public!
In solidarity
Sign this statement!
