Poor Sally

Poor Sally McManus, the new Secretary of the ACTU. She’s been pilloried from pillar to post by the corporate owned media, the government gelded ABC, the Turnbull led coalition government and disowned by Bill Shorten, the leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition for stating the bleeding obvious, the Trade Union Movement should consider breaking unjust laws.

The law in its simplest form is a rule binding on a community. In countries that have constitutional protections against the arbitrary exercise of state power against the individual, unjust laws are normally set aside by the judiciary. In countries like Australia which have no constitutional protections against the arbitrary exercise of state power against the individual, the only way to challenge unjust laws is by breaking them.

The concept of an unjust law is derived from the idea that human beings are born with inalienable rights and liberties no government can legislate away. What is a just and unjust law is outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration was formulated as a consequence of the Nuremberg Trials which were held after World War Two to prosecute war criminals. The single most important lesson derived from the Nuremberg Trials was the individual, irrespective of laws which stripped communities of their universal human rights, was ultimately responsible for their actions. The defence the person on trial was only following orders by implementing legitimate laws that clearly stripped sections of the community of inalienable rights and liberties they were born with, was not a defence.

The reason the new Secretary of the ACTU, Sally McManus, has been pilloried for claiming unjust laws should be broken is because the government of the day and the corporate sector know there are not enough jails to imprison people who break an unjust law if a community or the trade union movement decides to break that law. People normally obey the law because there is some community benefit in obeying most laws. There is no community benefit in obeying laws which strip individuals, specific communities and the country as a whole of their inalienable rights and liberties. Let’s hope Sally McManus keeps her nerve and encourages the unions affiliated with the ACTU to break laws which clearly make it illegal for workers to withdraw their labour outside of an enterprise bargaining period. A worker who does not have the right to strike, is a slave.

Dr. Joseph Toscano