>But police are, and always have been, scabs, traitors to
>their class. They can't be otherwise and remain police. That is part of
>their job description. Compare and contrast teachers and firefighters.
Nonsense, history suggests otherwise. Here are couple of examples from my memory. In the first example (the APPM dispute), the police had to be forced, by court order, to even pretend to break a picket line. But they made their real loyalties clear just the same, via a half-hearted job and by donating to the strike fund.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1992/59/59p6.htm
APPM dispute ends in stand-off
By Ian Jamieson
BURNIE -- Capping a tumultuous week, striking Associated Pulp and Paper Mill workers voted on June 9 to return to work, ending for the time being a strike widely described as Tasmania's worst. The mass meeting endorsed a recommendation from ACTU president Martin Ferguson to dismantle picket lines imposed three weeks ago in response to an assault on union rights by APPM parent company, North Broken Hill-Peko.
Earlier, tensions exploded on the picket lines on June 4 when 400 mill workers confronted 55 police and 15 scabs at the main gate. Police had maintained a low profile until the company obtained a court ruling that they should break the picket line. Twice on the morning of June 4, the cops were pushed back despite more than 30 arrests.
For afternoon shift, a larger number of police formed a flying wedge and, after a 15-minute melee, managed to get the scabs through the gate. One picketer was hospitalised after being crushed.
Far from breaking the strikers' morale, the police assaults strengthened their resolve. Hundreds more mill workers and their supporters poured onto the picket line for the next 24 hours, but the scabs had had enough. The few who did get through the gates were apparently too ill to work, and were sent home after two hours.
The strikers were elated after their victory in what many called the Battle of Burnie. The company had lost another round, and public support for the strike had grown. Messages of support and promises of funds poured in from around Australia -- with even the Tasmanian Police Association chipping in $10,000.
Another example is the MUA dispute, during which the employers were again frustrated by the refusal of police to effectively break the picket lines:
http://www.protglob.hss.uts.edu.au/p_wiseman.html
'MUA: Here To Stay': the battle to save unionised jobs
Mass pickets rapidly deployed at the gates of all Patrick's operations preventing trucks getting in or out. To evade legal action the MUA made sure the pickets were not called 'pickets' but rather 'Peaceful Community Assemblies'. Importantly the MUA strongly encouraged the general public to support the union and join the blockades. Patrick and the government had assumed that pickets would be quickly and easily swept aside by police action. While there certainly were attempts by police to move on the pickets they were unsuccessful in opening up Patrick's operations for a number of reasons.
The first was the sheer numbers of people involved (Gibson 1998a). On one famous cold autumn night in Melbourne early in the dispute, thousands of people converged on the docks in response to evidence of imminent police action. The next morning when the police began to move in they withdrew in the face of another thousand building workers who marched off building sites to the wharves. The combination of physical barricades and the constant presence of hundreds of people made it difficult to implement an effective strategy for breaking the picket lines, many of which became small communities complete with soup kitchens, toilet blocks and entertainment (Bachelard 1998). The dispute's signature slogan 'MUA Here to Stay' became a common sight on car stickers and posters in many cities.
A second factor may well have been ambivalent police views about the dispute. Police forces in many Australian states were themselves being threatened by regressive industrial relations policies and the MUA made concerted attempts to build rapport with police unions. The Australian Federal Police made it clear very early in the dispute that they would refuse to act as strike breakers (MacDonald 1998). When picketers shouted to the state police on the other side of the barricades 'join us - you'll be next' there is no doubt that they were heard.