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| Issue No 121 |  |
30 November 2001 |
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NewsUnion Journo on Death List
Trade union journalist and regular Workers Online contributor Paddy Gorman has been told by ASIO that his name has been found on a loyalist paramilitary death list in Northern Ireland.
The CFMEU Mining and Energy Division national media officer is also New South Wales President of Australian Aid for Ireland. He has been a high profile and leading supporter of Sinn Fein's peace strategy and the resolution of conflict in Ireland through political means. He has also been a constant advocate of breaking down sectarian barriers between the nationalist and loyalist communities through the development of an unbiased understanding of the history of conflict in Ireland and the common interests shared by both communities in the future development and prosperity of a united Ireland. Last week he was contacted by ASIO officers who told him that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had informed ASIO that a well-known loyalist had been found in possession of a list. Paddy's name was on that list. In response to questions by Paddy, the ASIO officers advised him that no other Australian was on the list. However, people from other countries, apart from Australia and Ireland, are understood to be on the list. Despite this, Gorman, an Australian citizen, is still trying to get full details of the list. He wants to know when the RUC became aware of it; the details contained about him on the list, what the RUC has done about this discovery and whether anyone haqs been charged in relation to the list. Gorman's lawyers have now twice written to the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, to pursue these questions but so far there has been no reply. Gorman has told Workers Online he's disgusted by the tardy response from the Howard Government. "It's outrageous when the Australia soccer team were abused on their arrival in Uruaguay, Downer carpeted the Uruaguyan Ambassador immediately. Yet, while ASIO inform me that I'm on a loyalist paramilitary hit list, there is no response". Gorman said that he was treating the threat as very serious. "The RUC thought they were serious enough to pass them on to ASIO and ASIO obviously believed they were serious enough to inform me about them", he said. The story has been picked up in the Australian media with ABC TV's Lateline running it with an interview with Gorman and Labor MP Paul Lynch. The elecronic media and the press have also run the story nationally. Addressing NSW Parliament on the issue this week, MLA Paul Lynch said the last recorded assassination attempt in Australia involving republicans or loyalists was in 1868. "There is no history of violence at all in Australia by either republican or loyalist traditions," Lynch said. "Indeed, both traditions have recently had significant figures visit Australia quite openly, including Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and David Ervine. " "Not only has no violence been associated with these visits, there have not even been any demonstrations. "In my view, in Australia both traditions respect and cherish Australian principles of tolerance, despite their passionate commitments to their traditions. I believe that there is widespread support within both communities for the Good Friday Peace Agreement." Paddy Gorman has the full support of his Union and says he has been inundated with calls from colleagues in other unions and the community in support of him.
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   Interview: Back to the BattleFederal Labor's new industrial relations spokesman Robert McClelland outlines the challenges for the next three years. Politics: The Baby and the Bath WaterACTU secretary Greg Combet gives his take on the debate over the ALP's relations with the union movement. Unions: We're SolidBradon Ellem charts the history of the Pilbara dispute, and finds a revitalised grass-roots unionism challenging BHP's individual contracts bulldozer Organising: Benidgo Pioneer Comes Up TrumpsACTU Delegate of the Year, Leonie Saunders, is living proof of the way unions are adapting to life under the strictures of a hostile Government. Technology: India: Cricket, Computers and CorruptionRussell Lansbury cuts through the hype to look out the so-called hi-tech revolution on the sub-continent. International: Soul SearchingThe party of labour in Canada � the NDP - is right now undergoing a massive struggle for its heart and soul. History: A Timeless DebateThe ALP and unions - it's a debate that's raged for years as this extract from a 1947 Lloyd Ross pamplet shows. Review: In Fear of SecurityLaunching his new book, Anthony Burke argues that the cry of "security" is the last refuge of the political scoundrel
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