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Issue No. 128 15 March 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Why I'm Marching
If you haven�t guessed already, I'm no Labor apparatchik. In fact my entry into politics was through the old Nuclear Disarmament Party.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: The Wedge Buster
Labor's immigration spokeswoman Julia Gillard talks about her job of developing policy to blunt Howard's wedge.

History: Fighting for Peace
Was the first Palm Sunday parade a celebration or a protest, asks Neale Towart.

Unions: Rattling the Gates
When Pacific Power workers traveled from Newcastle to Macquarie Street this week life-long loyalties were on the line, as Jim Marr reports.

International: Facing Retribution
Serious fears are growing for the safety of Zimbabwean trade unionists after the tainted election defeat of their former leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web
Electrical power industry workers in Korea are relying on the internet, and mobile phones, to successfully organise a militant nation-wide anti-privatisation strike.

Industrial: Working Futures
Can an assortment of economists, lawyers, historians, industrial relations specialists, unionists, journalists, sociologists and psychologists help us develop a decent future for work and social relations in Australia?

Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble
To compress the full and exhilarating life of The Greatest to film-length is no easy task but Ali makes a reasonable fist of the job writes Noel Hester.

Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid
The hopes of embattled Governor-General Dr Peter Hollingworth took a battering last night, after he learnt that the rescue bid for his survival is being headed up by Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew.

Poetry: PSST
From Sue Robinson to Michael Kirby, some things in politics are constant...only the names have been changed to defame the innocent.

N E W S

 Girl's Maiming Sparks Entry Plea

 More Time Off for Babies

 Workers Break Bank Cartel

 State Law Push For Virgin Sites

 Outrage at Privatisation by Decree

 Woomera - Flames, Razors, Rope and Despair

 Bus Drivers Block ALP Funds

 Crean Gets on Front Foot

 Nurses, Teachers On The Money

 Asset-Stripping Sparks Walk-Out

 Opposition Grows Over Howard's Freedom Attack

 Heffernan Prompts �Right of Reply� Demands

 Della Dumps Dunny Blues

 Smith Flies Into Turbulence

 Guards Force Drinks Break

 Levy Struck to Support Rockhampton Meatworkers

 ACTU Assists former Ansett Staff

 Activist News

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The War on Terror - Impunity for Abuses?
Federal Labor MP Duncan Kerr argues that governments are using the fears of the post-Septmeber 11 environment for thier own ends.

The Locker Room
Oh, The Humanity!
So, sports people are human after all. Now there�s a headline.

Week in Review
Tomorrow, The World
Jim Marr picks over the entrails of a week in which world domination, or at least hegemony over that part of it in which the principal operates, is a recurring theme.

L E T T E R S
 Carr and the Fire Fighters
 On Inequality
 Harmony Day
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Tool Shed

Flying High


As the civilized world moves to put the waterfront war behind it, Dick Smith has flown into the Tool Shed by decorating it with dogs and balaclava wallpaper.


Any suggestions that the union movement holds a grudge at the expense of their members should have been put to rest this week after the ACTU welcomed Chris Corrigan's buy-in of Virgin Blue. ACTU secretary Greg Combet clearly signaled he was not about to go and re-fight the waterfront war and accepted that the deal improved the prospect of Ansett workers retrieving their entitlements and, better, finding new jobs in the industry. While suspicions about Corrigan remain, the fact that he was ultimately a pawn in a bigger political game and has worked well with the MUA since that time, means that unions will be able to work pragmatically to make Virgin Blue a long-time player. From what we hear, there have been similar constructive talks with rail unions since he bought Freight Rail from the federal government.

But if unions and Corrigan are prepared to allow sleeping dogs lie, it seems that Dick Smith wants to get out the muzzle, don the balaclava and open the war on a new front. He launched a remarkable attack on aviation unions in this week's Sydney Morning Herald, blaming them for the "unbelievable inefficiencies and high costs" in the industry and lauding Corrigan for confronting his workforce head-on. At a time when the aviation industry is experiencing unprecedented turbulence, with one airline collapsed and Qantas in the middle of complex negotiations with its workforce - it's hard to think of less constructive intervention.

It's also a strange message for someone who has set himself up a one-man industry for anti-global patriotism by establishing his own, modestly titled 'Dick Smith' line of Australian-made products. The problem is that Australian economic sovereignty is all about respecting our national culture, including our strong collective industrial relations system that has delivered the high wages and conditions which he now rails against for being 'inefficient' for effectively representing Australian workers. Indeed, Smith was himself the President of the private pilots union in Australia (AOPA) where he campaigned for this position on the basis that the incumbent leadership of AOPA was not militant enough nor tough enough with the government of the day. Now, by calling to tear down unionism in the aviation industry, he is also advocating an assault on the Australian institutions he purports to champion.

This is the man who as head of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority championed the idea of 'affordable safety', based on the premise that genuine safety was not economically viable. By the time he had resigned from his position he'd fractured the organization in two and been accused by his own department as being 'dangerous'. His latest salvo comes in response to questions from the federal ALP over his change of heart towards Transport Minister John Anderson. Twelve months ago, Smith described Anderson as the worst-ever transport Minister and even threatened to run against him at the federal election. Now they're best mates and Smith is on a high level CASA advisory board, where he has ample opportunity to run his anti-union agenda.

If you join the dots you can see where this vision inevitably lead an airspace system that allows aviation enthusiasts like himself to fly free of charge. The commercial aviation industry can pay for the national airways system. At the end of the day that means the passengers - and the down-trodden worker - subsidising Dick's adventuring.



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