Australian government prepares to revive “blackbirding”

[Aidoneus]

Pacific Islanders to be used as cheap labour
Australian government prepares to revive “blackbirding”
By Paul Bartizan
3 November 2003

One aspect of the Australian government’s neo-colonial policy toward the island nations of the South Pacific is a proposal to exploit the region’s people as a source of cheap labour—a practice which has a long and sordid history. In the second half of the 19th century, tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were dragooned to Australia to work as cheap labour on sugar cane plantations in the tropical north east of the continent.

The recruitment of island labour was called “blackbirding”—after the term “blackbird shooting,” which referred to the barbaric practice of English colonists who hunted down Australia’s aboriginal population. The term “blackbird-catching” was also used to describe the African-American slave trade.

The proposal for a modern-day revival of “blackbirding” is contained in the recent Australian Senate committee report “A Pacific engaged: Australia’s relations with PNG and the island states of the South West Pacific.” In a section titled “Labour mobility” the report recommends that the Australian government “support Australian industry groups, State governments, unions, Non-Government Organisations and regional governments to develop a pilot program to allow for labour to be sourced from the region for seasonal work in Australia.”

The Senate cites a number of submissions to its inquiry in support of such schemes. The Queensland Fruit and Vegetable Growers claimed labour shortages at harvest time were causing them losses and that working tourists or backpackers were not reliable enough as a source of labour. Mr Nielsen, who runs a piggery and asparagus farm, claimed he had been unable to harvest 30 per cent of his asparagus, worth $1 million, due to a shortage of pickers. The peak union federation in Australia, the ACTU, outlined its talks with a Fijian business association to set up “a pilot project bringing into Australia on short-term contracts, workers from Fiji to assists in harvesting fruit and vegetable crops.”

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/blac-n03.shtml

interesting account of Australia's version of using slave labour..

[seekerofwisdom]

1. cheap labour the curse of capitalism?

I suppose its the crux isn't it. Corporations want the cheapest labour in order to make the highest profit. Worker's want good wages to maintain a standard of living. A balance is normally reached..i.e. minimum wage.

What we see here is an arguement that because the work is low paid (hand picking of a crop is labour intensive yet low return on produce) there are very few workers. In order to get more workers instead of paying higher wages they resolve it by bringing in migrant/visa workers who are prepared to work for little.

I'd like to see a break down of wages versus return on the asparagus crops. If the return on the produce is low then perhaps rather than being a labor issue it should be a market issue (cut out the middle man).