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Issue No. 127 08 March 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Power Plays
Depending on where you sit, the decision by a State Labor Government to sell off the division of the power industry responsible for its long-term planning is either bold or reckless.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Still Flying
ACTU Secretary Greg Combet looks beyond the bid to save Ansett to a broader union agenda for 2002.

Women: Suffrage or Suffering
Alison Peters marks International Women's Day by surveying the achievements - and shortcomings - of a century of female suffrage.

Industrial: No Coco Pops For Brenda
The working poor get short shrift from the hypocritical Minister For Workplace Relations says Noel Hester.

Unions: Back to the Heartland
Lidcombe, western Sydney. A boring cultural desert, right? Wrong, wrong and wrong again according to CFMEU officials who talked to Jim Marr about relocating their headquarters to a working class base.

Activists: Getting to the Point
Rowan Cahill reports on a development battle that has fractured a South Coast community and the role the union movement has played to drive a just outcome.

International: Push Polling
On the eve of elections in Zimbabwe, trade unionists are paying the price for their commitment to democracy.

Economics: Debt Defaulters
Amidst the colour and movement of CHOGM little was said about the pressing issue of debt relief, writes Thea Ormond.

Poetry: Those Were the Days
The Golden Wing lounges have closed. The last of the commiserating Ansett workers have long since departed those makeshift taverns.

Review: Black Hawk Dud
If you want to find out exactly what went wrong during the US Marines' 1993 peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu in Somalia, do not see Black Hawk Down.

Satire: Fox-Lew Launch Rescue Bid for Beta Video
Businessmen Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox have shocked the financial sector with a daring bid to rescue the communications giant Beta Video.

N E W S

 Egan Sells His Brains

 Spying Bill Targets Strikers

 Dunny Wars: Will Workers Carry the Can?

 Drivers Appeal To Commuters

 New Tack on Asylum Seekers

 Go Forth and Multiply � Unions on Women

 Howard Shuts Workers Out Of Steel Talks

 Questions Remain As Rio Rings Changes

 Labor Hire Swifty Exposed

 Unions Fight 'Industrial Blackmail'

 AIRC in Contracting Debacle

 Mayne Chance For A Wage Deal

 IT Workers Get Their Own Geek Scopes

 PNG Women Visit Australia

 Brazilian Unions Study Aussie Experience

 No Shangri-la in Jakarta

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Love Thy Neighbour
Bruce Childs explains why he's reactivated the Palm Sunday committee to take a stand for refugees.

The Locker Room
Debt Before Dishonour
In a week that featured allegations of drugs in footy, fast horses and faster cars, Phil Doyle struggled to keep up.

Week in Review
Bullies Rule, OK?
Jim Marr considers a week which highlighted the absolute joy of being big, rich and powerful in a lassez faire world.

Tool Shed
Leader of the Free World
George W Bush barricades himself in this week's Tool Shed with the sort of double standards that gives world domination a bad name.

L E T T E R S
 How to Beat the Banks
 Collins Goes Cahill
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Tool Shed

Leader of the Free World


George W Bush barricades himself in this week's Tool Shed with the sort of double standards that gives world domination a bad name.

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This is a man who leads a country that bullies weaker governments to lift protective barriers to allow his captons of industry unfettered access. And not just commodities - let's face it, the West has been raping and pillaging the developing world for centuries. No, the American vision of Free Trade extends to access to public infrastructure, even government services, all on the back of the 'Free Trade' rhetoric that at times assumes fetish proportions.

This is a man who campaigned for office on his free trade credentials. "I would be a free trading president, a president that will work tirelessly to open up markets for agricultural products all over the world. I believe our American farmers can compete so long as the playing field is level. That's why I am such a strong advocate of free trade and that's why I reject protectionism and isolation because I think it hurts our American farmers."

This is a man who elevated free trade to an ideological virtue, stating on return from a trip to China: "I'll never forget the contrast between what I learned about the free market at Harvard and what I saw in the closed isolation of China. Every bicycle looked the same. People's clothes were all the same. A free market frees individuals to make distinct choices and independent decisions. The market gives individuals the opportunity to demand and decide, and entrepreneurs the opportunity to provide."

And this is a man who, on attaining office, vowed to "end tariffs and break down barriers everywhere, entirely, so the whole world trades in freedom. The fearful build walls. The confident demolish them. I am confident in American workers and farmers and producers. And I am confident that America's best is the best in the world."

So what does this man do when confronted with the reality that - with a massive hike in demand for steel on the back of his commitment to the war against terror and subsequent reinflation of the military-industrial state - overseas steel producers from countries like Australia will be able to offer a better and cheaper product? He turns his back on his only core value and hikes up the tariffs 30 per cent.

Now we've got no fight with the US steel-workers - they're standing up for their jobs and using their influence in the run-up to Congressional elections effectively. They have their own justifications - such as the large-scale dumping of cheap steel on the US market in the wake of the Asian crisis. Good luck to them. But let's not kid themselves they come from the Land of the Free.

The Americans' stance on trade is a metaphor for its broader view of the world. It sets standards that it applies to everyone but itself.

- The largest holder of weapons of mass destruction accusing others of dealing in terror.

- A nation with a long history of displacing Left-ist governments through covert interference, trumpeting about democratic freedoms.

- A nation that consumes more fossil fuel than any other, but refuses to join world efforts to reduce the damage it is doing on the globe.

- A nation that invokes the United Nations for its convenience, but is billions behind on the rent.

- A nation that imposes its culture its values and even its economic system on the world; and then plays by different rules itself.

- A nation that is so self-obsessed that it can not see its relative privilege and, thus, can not understand how those without it would ever wish it harm.

As the sole remaining world super-power, the United States has ability to shape the future like no other country. If the American president is serious about freedom on trade, he should practice what he preaches. Otherwise he should be honest enough to develop a new maxim for the 21st Century. Something like: Only the Strong.

NB - George W Bush quotes courtesy of Crikey, who this week settled its defamation case with Steve Price. Do ya Best!



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