
Issue No 104		27 July 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Letters to the Editor

Botsman Bites Back

I am honoured to have been made a tool. Let it stand as a marker that I and the Whitlam Institute will be free of factions, free of any party political interest and will fiercely pursue ideas and issues without fear or favour. However, if only because of the company I am now forever compelled to keep in the infamous Rogues Galley, I feel the need to reply in earnest.

Your nominator caricatures a number of issues from my 'winning' radio discussion with James Valentine:

- As reported in Labor Net before, my contention is that the real challenge is for unions to link up with people (especially younger people) working in and starting up small businesses in some constructive way. This is one of the supreme organising challenges. It's where the future members are. The organising model is about a defensive older style industrial unionism. The services (credit card) model sells the union movement's strengths short and competes in an area where there are others with primary experience and skill. The seeds of an alternative model were talked about back in Unions 2001 and involve building workplace based expertise that anyone, be they in a big or small workplace, need and want. This is the secret of the union movements' that have high levels of union membership.

- Union membership has fallen to 25.7% of total employment from 41% of the total workforce, (let alone the voting population!) only a few years ago, yet unions continue to control as much as 50% of votes at various state conferences of the ALP. Should we ignore this fact because of some romantic notion of Henry Lawson chewing a piece of wattle up on the top floor of Labor Council? Does it suit some union bosses for membership to fall and influence within the party to effectively increase? Why don't we create some incentive scheme that rewards high participation and strong membership based unions to participate in conference rather than the reverse? Of course this is a principle that I acknowledge the ruling factions of Labor Council will find hard to understand. Bring back the felt hatters! The alternative way of modernising the party base is to strengthen other constituencies, if the Labor Party is to be reflective of the Australian community!

- There is an increasing danger that, what is now a minority voice of the workforce, through ill discipline and some crazy activist rationality, could lose Labor its chance to govern Federally (should we ignore the Aston by-election? and the AWU in Queensland made it as hard as it could for Peter Beattie in Qld during the last election, the National Party/One Nation/Liberal Party leadership meltdown neutralised the issue, but this will not be so Federally). Robert Menzies eat your heart out! The Labor Council's sensitivity on this matter must have been extreme because, in my comments, I don't think I adversely commented on the workers comp demonstration. If I did it was only to lament the research that Michael Easson wanted done many moons ago on funding workers comp in NSW! I don't think anyone supported him in that work! Instead he copped a few knives in the back, for being too concerned with research and ideas I suppose.

- As for think tanks and ideas, the community wants decent policy development, I don't want to defend Barry Jones particularly, he doesn't need me. But it was plain to see that just because his diagram could not fit into a media grab of five words, he was hacked to death. (Though not in the community I think.) The larger point is that policy requires years of work not a bout of opinion poll driven research papers. The union movement needs to invest in this process not be scared of it, yet how often do we hear of major voices within the union and labour movement suppressing research that they consider politically threatening. I have seen this across the right, centre and left of the party and the union movement. In that respect the tool is a tool.

- Gough, as John Faulkner said at the Roast last week, embodies the greatest strength, solidarity, integrity and moral courage of the labour movement. I understand that, and will not use my position at the Whitlam Institute to make criticisms of the union movement for gratuitous or self seeking purposes but I will not recoil from issues that I think someone has to bring up, probably from outside the fold. In that respect, tool of the week is funny, but you cant walk away from the issues I was discussing on the ABC so easily.

Finally let us wait for the day, when Michael Costa one day appears as a tool. I for one will be watching his performance in the parliament with keen interest and my nomination pen at the ready. Will the man whom Trotsky schooled only to become an honorary member of the Catholic mafia, ever make the grade?

Ed's Reply: Regular Tool Shed afficiandoes will know that Costa has already kept the Shed warm for a week

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 104 contents

Interview: A Super Agenda
Labor's federal spokesman on superannuation Kelvin Thompson outlines the challenges a Beazley Government will face in managing the nation's savings.

E-Change: 1.4 The Shifting Sands of Ideology
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel conclude the first part of their study of new politics by looking for core Labor values in a post-Cold War environment.

Corporate: Locking Horns
The same names keep cropping up in the business pages as the web of corporate control stays tied to a few big players. Georgina Murray has been looking at the extent and depth of the connections.

Unions: The Workers Bank
With banks on the nose, David Whiteley looks at how unions and super funds have got together to create the real deal � the workers bank.

International: Phil Davey's Amazon Postcard
The CFMEU's Boy Wonder has downed the megaphone for three months in South America. Here's what he's been up to.

History: Faded Vision of The American Bounder
King O'Malley was an American ex-pat who dreamed of a people's bank. Neale Towart looks at what happened to his vision.

Activists: The Big Gee-Up
With the big guns of the anti-corporate movement in town, Mark Hebblewhite goes looking for a definition of globalisation.

Indonesia: Where to the Workers After Gus Dur?
At the end of a turbulent week, Jasper Goss looks at the impact of the overthrow of Wahid on Indonesian workers.

Review: Mixing Pop and Politics
'The Bank' is a new Australian film that takes a contemporary political issue and transforms it into a piece of compelling popular culture.

Satire: Milosevic's Defence: "I Was Just Issuing Orders"
Disgraced former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has brushed off against charges for war crimes against humanity and mass genocide.

» Community Banks Are No Collectivists

» Labor Vows to Widen Royal Commission

» WorkCover Finally Fesses Up � Premiums the Problem

» Unions Launch 56 Hour Watch

» Call Centre Campaign Bares First Fruit

» Justice at Last for One.Tel Workers

» Entitlements Push Gathers Momentum

» Employer Dirty on Leave Win

» Rights Put In Too Hard Basket

» AMA Move on Doctors� Hours Welcome

» Aussie Post Workers Rally

» Strike by Airport Guards Lawful

» Workers Rejects Brough Deal

» Unions Will March at CHOGM

» Average Response to Robberies

» Coca-Cola Sued for Using Paramilitary Force

» Activists Notebook