Issue No 107 | 17 August 2001 | |
InternationalBrazilīs C.U.T. - When Big Is Beautiful
The CFMEUīs Phil Davey drops in on Brazilīs equivalent to the ACTU, the Central Unica Dos Trabalhadores (CUT).
************* I am sitting on the 7th floor of the CUT building, in downtown Sao Paulo. I am being awed by numbers. Im chatting with Sandra Rodrigues Cabral, CUTīs effervescent Director of Communications. She tells me CUT has 3,500 unions affiliated, representing 9 million union members. She tells me these unions combined have over 1000 media officers employed, producing over 1000 different journals. Her job is to co-ordinate this. To facilitate information flows between these journals and journalists. I think of my friend Peter Lewis at Workers Online. I wonder what he would think of co-ordinating 1000 media officers. Would this be a vision of heaven for him, or a vision of hell? Brazil and Australia have similar problems with media concentration. Where we have Packer and Murdoch, Brazil has just seven families that control virtually all the media, as well as much land and industry. These seven families own many politicians, who grant them ever more electronic media concessions. They crush independent journals and progressive newspapers- the seven families forced a CUT sponsored newspaper out of the market just a few years ago. But CUT is fighting back. Sandra outlines ambitious plans to build a daily electronic newspaper which can be accessed by affiliates and others, a sort of hyper-Workers Online. She nominates problems with affiliates feeding information quickly enough to the central body as her number one headache. Creating an electronic forum to do this will make things easier. CUT is also doing some interesting political work. It has placed itself in the centre of Brazilian resistence to neo-liberalism. CUT is in formal alliance with the MST (profiled last week) and a host of NGO, student, green and feminist organisations that use a muyriad of methods to defy the multinational agenda wreaking such havoc with their respective constituencies. In 1997 CUT helped mobilise affiliates for a march by this alliance on the national capital, Brasilia, which drew 100,000 people and electrified Brazil. CUT are also enthusiastic contributers to the World Social Forum, held in February in Brazil. CUT in Sao Paulo is 7 floors of frantic activity. Perhaps Ive been on holidays for too long, but I felt exhausted just watching the pace of work. It was great to spend some time with overseas unionists, to hear about the differences and similarities between our fights. CUT is bigger than anything we have in Australia, but we fight the same fight against the same elites- we have everything in common.
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Interview: What's The Deal? Labor's IR spokesman Arch Bevis explains how a Beazley Government will rebuild our broken system. E-Change: 2.3 The State of the Union White hope or white elephant? The future of trade unions is by no means guaranteed in the networked society. Industrial: Into the 21st Century ACTU President Sharan Burrow looks at the landmark deal delivering workers 12 months paid maternity leave. Unions: The Black Hole Jim Marr goes inside Stellar to discover the human cost of a management philosophy that says: you are on your own. History: The Age of Dissent The Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History has organised a Conference on Social Protest Movements and the Labour Movement, 1965-1975. Media: ABC and the Knowledge Nation Tony Moore looks at how the national broadcaster's fortunes are closely linked to the Knowledge Nation Agenda International: Brazilīs C.U.T. - When Big Is Beautiful The CFMEUīs Phil Davey drops in on Brazilīs equivalent to the ACTU, the Central Unica Dos Trabalhadores (CUT). Satire: Bracks Disputes Cabramatta tag Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has called for a national council to decide on a location for Australia's drug capital. Review: Globalisation Is Globalisation In an extract from his book, Christopher Shiel argues that the official Australian perspective on globalisation is strikingly narrow.
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