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  Issue No 117 Official Organ of LaborNet 26 October 2001  

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Review

Red Rag Unfurls

By Rowan Cahill

Ian Syson is an upfront, knockabout bloke. He heads up a new, small, independent publishing outfit called Red Rag Publications.

 
 

I asked him what Red Rag is about. Across a beer he explained.

Red Rag aims to publish important political and historical books that don't get a look in elsewhere because of the structural bias of mainstream and corporate publishing.

"They will be polemical books from the Left. They will engage with crucial issues of our time and those of recent history which have a bearing on contemporary Australian politics and culture".

Dr. Syson is passionate about Australian working class literature. That is what his Phd was about. He also edits OVERLAND, the Left cultural and literary journal founded in 1954 by the dissident intellectual, the late Stephen Murray-Smith.

Syson was not always an academic. A working class lad with a Dad in the mines, Ian trained as an electrician; he followed that career as a unionist in the Mt. Isa mines, and around Queensland and New Zealand. Academic qualifications and teaching came later.

There is a lightness of touch and a sense of humour in Syson. Also steely resolve. He can go head to head and throw intellectual punches with the raw leather clouting power of a Jimmy Sharman brawler, or deliver rapier wit with ironic finesse.

Rightist skirmishers and ideologues, from the COURIER-MAIL to conservative

think-tankers funded by big business, have felt the weight of his words.

Witness his recent description of Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock: "The man who has expanded the notion of moral vacuity to new extremes of emptiness".

So what is in the Red Rag pipeline? Two books, twenty bucks each, on the politics and history of the Cold War in Australia; they will be launched during November at a Melbourne Trades Hall function.

MENZIES' COLD WAR is by Les Louis. For those who came in late, Les is the veteran historical polemicist whose patient detective work over the years has documented the secret Cold War agenda of the Menzies' government, including plans to intern Australian Leftists and their families.

Louis also uncovered detailed plans by the Menzies' government to provoke trade union militancy in key industries, so as to provide the excuse to use the military iron heel.

According to Louis, the Cold War in Australia was all about Menzies and his attempt to usher in a new capitalist era at the expense of labour, through the creation of a national security state.

The second Red Rag book is ARGUING THE COLD WAR, edited by Peter Love and

Paul Strangio. The editors explore some of the significant Cold War events and issues that scarred a generation of Australians and degraded the national political culture with simplistic certitudes.

In the process the passions, visions, and intense personal engagement of the period are brought to life, a salutary reminder in our current era of simplistic certitudes that politics can be about principles that matter.

For those who think the Cold War ended symbolically when the Berlin Wall came down, and later as the USSR fragmented and criminals took control with neo-liberal blessings, think again.

If you hadn't noticed, the War Against Terror has been served up by US propagandists as the New Cold War. And has been since September 11 when the Cold War nuclear term Ground Zero was attached to the World Trade Centre.

What is Syson's take on the Cold War?

"The Cold War is important because it has never really gone away. While the Cold War might refer specifically to the historic antagonism between the US and the USSR, it is a manifestation of a deeper underlying class conflict."

"The rhetoric and reality of armament and battle has been used by the ruling class to squash working class ideas and movements for a long time now. You only have to look at the insanity coming out of America at the moment to see what I mean. The first thing the ruling class did was declare war on an abstraction."

For more information about Red Rag publications, and ordering the Cold War books, write to Red Rag Publications, PO Box 68, North Carlton, 3054 Australia, or surf to .


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 117 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Brothers In Arms
Labour historian Marilyn Dodkin explains how she exposed ASIO ties with Labor Council's Cold War leadership.
*
*  Politics: Defending the Faith
Launching 'Brothers', Premier Bob Carr gave his own take on the allegations that union leaders worked with security agencies during the Cold War.
*
*  History: Surviving the Split
In this extract from 'Brothers' Marilyn Dodkin, looks at the manouverings around the establishment of the DLP.
*
*  International: Viral Attack
Postal unions in the USA are mobilizing to protect their members from the widening repercussions of an apparent bio-terrorist attack.
*
*  Unions: A Living Wage
The ACTU this week unveiled its claim for the 2002 Living Wage Case. Here's what they'll be arguing.
*
*  Campaign Diary: Week Three: Wave Them Goodbye
In a week when our boys and girls went off to war, Labor fought a desperate battle to fight the election on the home front.
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*  Human Rights: Colombia's 'Dirty War' Against Unions
It might be tough being an organiser in Australia under the Howard Government, but spare a thought for Colombian trade unionists.
*
*  Review: Red Rag Unfurls
Ian Syson is an upfront, knockabout bloke. He heads up a new, small, independent publishing outfit called Red Rag Publications.
*
*  Satire: New Hope for Labor: Mackerras Tips Liberal Win
The electoral hopes of the Labor party have revived dramatically, after the perennially unreliable analyst Malcolm Mackerras forecast a huge victory for the Liberals.
*

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