
Issue No 113		28 September 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Unions

Are You a Terrorist?

Away from the talkback noise, Mark Hearn reports on how a Sydney workforce is taking up the cause of racial understanding and tolerance.


	"Here in BHP we work as brothers" from left to right AWU members Brian Elder, Dazim Ali, Amen Zoaki, Darek Barbour and Aziz Mohammed.

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Darek Barbour and his wife were walking in their neighbourhood in the same way that they have done for years. His wife, wearing a scarf around her head, attracted the ignorant bullies. Darek and his wife were abused and spat on. "I don't know what's happening", Darek says quietly. All the men sitting in the training room share the same distressed expression.

The shadow of violence and fear that has settled over the world since the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon has fallen across the lives of ordinary Australians muslims. For Darek Barbour and his mates at BHP Building Products, the workplace has been something of a refuge from prejudice and ignorance. As Aziz Mohammed says, "Here in BHP we work as brothers."

Making roofing materials and frames in a factory in Chullora, in Sydney's south west, seems a long way from the troubles of the world. Darek, Aziz and their eighty work mates are multicultural Australia. They are machine operators, members of the Australian Workers Union, who come from Lebanon, China, Fiji, Vietnam; they are Australians of the sixth generation and the first. As Amen Zoabi says, they all here for one reason: "Australia is a fantastic, tolerant country."

They fear that Australia is changing around them. Dazim Ali came from Fiji, a country torn by ethnic violence and political upheaval, in 1987. He felt Australia was a safe country; he felt safe in the workplace. Just a few days before in a Liverpool street his wife had her veil torn from her face. Every worker sitting in the training room has wives, mothers or daughters who are now afraid to walk in public. "If we don't stop this now, in the future Australia will be just like other countries with racial tension and disputes."

Brian Elder is a leading hand and the AWU's delegate at the factory. Brian has a Christian Lebanese background. He is neither Muslim nor Arab - he proudly explains that the Lebanese have a Phoenician heritage, the descendants of the ancient mariners who settled around the rim of the Mediterranean. Now he sees people watching him in the street, judging him by his appearance. "Are you a terrorist?", they seem to be thinking.

In his spare time BHP sales rep Amen Zoabi regularly attends a nearby Muslim youth centre. Since 11 September so do the camera crews, because it says ISLAMIC CENTRE on the front of the building. Amen feels the media want to trade in sensation and stir up fear. He would like to tell the media what Islam has taught him, his family and friends: "Islam doesn't teach us to kill innocent people - all we ask is to be judged by who we are and not by the events in America."

Darek Barbour feels that his faith and his identity have been hijacked by the terrorists and all those who play cruel games with peoples' lives; terrorists over whom he has no control. "Osama bin Laden never asked me", he says. Dazim Ali hopes that Australia will remain "a peaceful island. I work with Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. We work in harmony."

There is a murmur of agreement around the room when Amen says that the Australian Government has not done enough to ease the social tensions created by the bombings in America. "We don't care if John Howard visits us or not. He should get out into the community and preach tolerance."

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Issue 113 contents

Interview: The Custodian
Labor's arts spokesman Bob McMullan on the role government can play in nurturing national culture.

Media: Chucking a Wobbly
Veronica Apap meets Dan Buhagiar, the programmer of Labor Council's new online initiative, Wobbly Radio.

E-Change: 3.3 Unleashing a Networked Culture
Politics does not occur in a vacuum - it's is as much a product of its culture as it is an influence on it. In the post-Industrial Age how will this relationship change?

Unions: Are You a Terrorist?
Away from the talkback noise, Mark Hearn reports on how a Sydney workforce is taking up the cause of racial understanding and tolerance.

Organising: STAA Performers
Film industry workers are acting collectively to ensure they don't become Mexicans with Mobiles.

Workplace: Making Art Work
The Workers Cultural Action Committee is a community cultural development provider. What is this? And what does it mean for the union movement?

History: Creative Alliances
Neale Towart wanders through the archives to look at how unions' have worked with artists to promote progressive casuses.

Performance: Tales from the Shop Floor
Peter Murphy profiles Sydney's New Theatre and the role it has played in fostering working culture.

Review: Homegroan
In an extract from her new book, The Money Shot, Jane Mills argues that the local film industry needs more than patriotism to get bums on seats.

Satire: PM Pleads To Nauru: Take Our Aborigines Too
In the wake of Nauru�s acceptance of the Tampa refugees, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has struck a new deal with the small island nation to take our Aborigines as well.

» Abbott Stacks Commission on Election Eve

» Trades Hall to Be Fit for the Arts

» Olympic Builders Honoured in Oil

» Terror Shockwaves Hit Security Workers

» The Ansett Phoenix Rises

» 'The General' Makes Ansett Stand

» One Dollar Workforce Highlights Workcover Concerns

» Email Workers Saved

» Union Power Gets Tilers Paid In Full

» NSW Nurses (Pro)Claim Their Worth

» AOL Sheds Non-Union Staff

» Building Inquiry Faces First Test of Integrity

» Telstra Guilty Over Union Discrimination

» Paint Workers Finish the Job

» New Project Agreement A Template

» The Workers United, Need a New Slogan!

» Activists Notebook