E D I T O R I A L

Not So Happy Campers
It's a crude political truism: it's better to be inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in. At least for those on the inside.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Pulling the Pin
Victorian union leader Dean Mighell outlines the thinking behind his decision to quit the ALP and join the Greens.

International: At the Crossroads
From Germany, to Britain, to South Africa, Canada and the USA it seems union members are turning on their political partners � and talking about divorce.

Unions: A Case Of Lost Identity
Victorian Trades Hall secretary Leigh Hubbard warns that more unions could leave the ALP if the current policy review hits the wrong note.

History: Rocking the Foundations
There was not just one model of what a political wing of the labour movement should be, Don Rawson writes.

Industrial: Rocky Road
Thirteen hundred Rockhampton workers are putting cars and houses on the line in an effort to beat off bully-boy tactics from Kerry Packer-owned Consolidated Meat Group.

Economics: Cracking a Coldie
As Australian icons fall around him, Neale Towart charts the rise and fall of the Great Aussie Esky.

Poetry: The Right Was Wrong
A glimpse of history shows that waterfront workers deserve the high moral ground.

Satire: Heffernan�s Evidence Conclusive: Proves He's An Idiot
The evidence released by Senator Bill Heffernan to substantiate his allegations against Justice Kirby have proved conclusively that the senator is an idiot.

Review: Upstairs, Downstairs
Robert Altman's latest movie Gosford Park is hard yakka no matter what side of the class system you sit on.

N E W S

Giant Rat Fights Cole Commission

Dodgy Bosses To Get Life

Unions Back Rugby World Cup

Queue Jumper Abbott In Cash Grab

Refugees Face Bank Imbalance

Guards Act to Plug Leaks

Rabbit Fence Leads Reconciliation to Classroom

Spy Bill Under Fire

Council Takes Up Discrimination Challenge

Power Workers To Decide Own Fate

Thumbs Up for Super Deal

G-G Warned Off State Schools

Fee Pressure Builds on Beattie

Nobel Committee 'Subordinates' Union Rights

Columbians Level Death Charges

Call To Blockade Burmese Junta

Indonesian Threat To Unions

Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Dealing with Prejudice
Former Liberal senator Chris Puplick did not pull any punches launching a new guide for union reps dealing with discrimination issues.

The Locker Room
The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall
Phil Doyle tries to get sport off the front pages and back where it belongs ...

Postcard
Greetings From Lao
In the first in a new series, Union Aid Abroad's Phillip Hazelton, reports from Lao, where he is establishing a vocational training centre.

Cole-Watch
Go West
The Building Industry Royal Commission caravan has rolled into Perth.

Week in Review
Top of the Pops
Johnny Howard and his Masters of Deception kept the beat during a week in which secrecy took over from blatant fibbing as the dark art or choice, leaving the national Hit Parade looking something like this �

L E T T E R S

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Upstairs, Downstairs

By Tara de Boehmler

**************

Revolving around a large weekend hunting party in the 1930s, upper class guests, and their personal valets, arrive in droves. The guests come seemingly not because of any great affection for their friends, but rather as a desperate bid to break the boredom of their painfully easy existence. In contrast, big parties just mean hard work for the hired help.

The audience experience of Gosford Park is like watching events unfolding on both sides of a two-way mirror.

On one side exists the refined elegance of the hoity bloody toity dinner quests enjoying a supernaturally sublime party in wondrously ornate surroundings. They are completely oblivious to the effort involved in ensuring the weekend goes without a hitch.

On the other side the servants barely have time to break wind as they constantly toil to keep well oiled the cogs keeping the wheels turning smoothly behind the scenes. Each member of staff is painfully privy to events as they unfold on both sides of the class divide.

But don't think for a minute that life is easy for the rich. Most of them are so terminally bored that finding activities to keep them stimulated and stave off sleep provides a daily struggle for which they need every assistance from the hired help.

And when the boredom threshold is at its highest the servants get to see a side of their employers that would never be shown to people of higher station.

Yet for real hard yakka the plight of the servants, valets and other assorted members of staff stands alone.

For these people the hours are long, the work is sweaty and the employers often abusive. Shirts must be ironed, pressed, starched and stuffed within an inch of their lives. Employers' needs must be predicted and met at least 10 minutes in advance of them knowing it themselves.

Boundaries must be observed and respected. Except the boundaries of the servant-types because, as we soon learn, they have none. They can be called on at any hour of day or night to engage in all manner of tasks whether they be mindlessly menial, simply mundane, or so mammoth as to render them practically impossible.

Many are expected to provide sexual favours for their employers in addition to their usual duties. All are required to keep their employers' secrets, and listen intently, making all the right noises in response to the streams of poison frequently found escaping their lips.

And for poisonous one liners you can't go past the wicked old cow played by Maggie Smith, who reveals with a sigh that there really is "nothing more exhausting than wearing in a new maid". Smith's character may be a vile employer, but at least she makes entertaining viewing.

There are few such fun and games for the help. For them the punishment is summary dismissal should they forget their station and accidentally reveal themselves to be more than a one-dimensional convenience.

However on the screen, at least, one-dimensional is something director Robert Altman at no time lets the help become.

Full points to this movie for personalising the plight of the individuals sitting on either side of the class system. By the end of the movie there is a feeling of knowing them all.

This is a workforce in serious need of a good union rep to come in and sort out their dreadful conditions, read them their rights, grant them leave, loading and a salary increase. What ever they are being paid, it is not enough.

Score: 7 out of 10 (organisor's delight)

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005