Kevin Rudd has made his intentions clear: His government would ban strikes "outside the bargaining period", strike pay and pattern (industry-wide) bargaining. This would mean a continuation of anti-strike provisions in the Work Choices legislation.

Kevin Rudd argues, "there can be no going back to the industrial culture of an earlier age."

But the right to strike did not even exist in Australian law until 1993. The Howard government has effectively banned the right to strike, despite Australia remaining as a signatory to an international treaty that upholds this right as "universal".

The point of striking is not to "hurt families, communities and the economy" as Rudd argues-it is to defend workers' basic rights and conditions. Equal pay for women, caps on working hours, holiday pay, and other basic rights were only won after workers united in strike action, often in defiance of the law.

These gains have been undermined by a decade of the Howard government's policies. So it's really important that we get rid of Howard at the election.

Unfortunately, many people argue that we have to go quiet about Rudd's rightwing policies in order to ensure this. But there is no point going quiet if Labor's policy is bad.

If unions fight now, it will make it harder for Howard to win. An industrial campaign can also put pressure on Labor to offer a better policy.

It will only demoralise our movement if a newly-elected Labor government is allowed to drive through a rightwing policy platform without resistance. Going quiet is no strategy for building the unions.

That's why every Labor supporter and trade union member should support calls to defend the right to strike.

Tom Barnes