E D I T O R I A L

Chickens Come Home
For anyone who believes in karma, the events of the summer show how bad Australia's is right now.

F E A T U R E S

Unions: Winning the Heartland
John Robertson unveils new research on attitudes to refugees and argues it's time for unions to mount their own propaganda war.

Interview: Swan's Song
Federal ALP front-bencher Wayne Swan expands on his ideas for rebuilding the Party in the wake of the Tampa election.

Corporate: Lessons from Enron
Jim Marr looks at the shock-waves the collapse of a US corporate heavy-weight are having around the globe.

Politics: What We Did Last Summer
We look back over a summer when it all went pear-shaped. Some events, at home and abroad, look set to have ongoing ramifications.

History: Solidarity in Song
Mark Gregory looks back on the annals of labour songs and offers some hints for those planning a tilt at the Labor Council's worker anthem comp.

International: A Tale of Two Cities
New York and Port Alegre are poles apart – but they both played host to important conferences on the future of globalisation over the summer.

Poetry: Nobody Told Me
Labour academic David Peetz commits the Prime Minister's current woes to verse.

Review: Labor and the Rings
Tolkien’s epic tale provides a timely reminder that that there are forces of good and evil in the world – and that they are not necessarily where we expect to find them, writes Michael Gadiel.

Satire: Rafter Named Bermudan Of The Year For Tax Purposes
Australian of the Year Pat Rafter was last night also named Bermudan of the Year, in a simple ceremony held in Bermuda's Parliament.

N E W S

Unions' Commit to Battle for Hearts

Carr on Notice - Expectations Up

Mad Monk Sides With Angels … Briefly

Maritime Union Acts on Spy Scandal

May Day Play-Off for Workers' Anthem

Burmese Links Shroud Winter Olympics

New Phone Venture One.Tel In Drag

Two Million Face Rights Downgrade

Enron Collapse Hits Share-Owner Agenda

Corrrigan Snaps Up Rail Bargain

Kinko Clowns With Workers' Rights

MPs Face Security Checks

Telstra's Tragic Delays Of Its Own Making

Burrow Puts Case to World Economic Forum

Shangri La Protests Hit Melbourne

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Chinks in the Armour
The ACTU's Michael Crosby argues that Mark Latham's attack on the Labor for Refugees movement is the betrayal of Party values.

The Locker Room
Off-side in Korea?
With the World Cup set to kick off in a matter of months, South Korea's treatment of unions is under the microscope.

Week in Review
Cloak and Dagger
In the first of what will be a regular column, we place the week's labour news into a nutshell.

L E T T E R S

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Maritime Union Acts on Spy Scandal

The move comes as more and more evidence emerges that the government espionage was outside the national guidelines, a serious breach of privacy and an intrusion on legitimate union business.

"The government has not been able to justify these outrageous acts," National Secretary Paddy Crumlin says. "Senator Hill's statement raises more questions than it answers. He claims we were not targetted but this does not rule out we were spied on nevertheless."

Crumlin has also dismissed statements made by the Minister for Workplace Relations Tony Abbott questioning the unions' right to contact the ship.

"All MUA/ITF correspondence with the Tampa was in support and concern for the crew," said Crumlin. "We believed the ship's master was only upholding maritime tradition and international law in rescuing people at sea and we told him so."

All crew members on board the Tampa were affiliated to the ITF. Crumlin is an ITF executive board member and the MUA is an affiliate union.

Meanwhile the union is renewing it's call for a inquiry.

"We need to clear up whether this latest controversy is part of the ongoing government conspiracy against the MUA," said Crumlin.

"The High Court established we had a a case back in 1998. And since their unsuccessful attempt to remove the Maritime Union members from the waterfront the government has targetted our seafaring members, replacing more than 20 per cent of the Australian domestic fleet and crew with foreign shipping registered in tax havens employing third world labour.

"We have a right to know whether or not these latest allegations are linked to an overall government conspiracy against this union."

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005