Anyone who has been through the Sussex Street doors has learnt Richo's old maxim on gauging support - "get them to look you in the eyes and swear on their mother's grave they'll back you and then cut the number in half". Then again, if the Balmain Boy had taken Richo's advice, he'd never have caused the spill that saw Chikka succumb to the same sword she had herself wielded so ruthlessly on Peter Collins before the 1995 election.
As it was, once he announced the challenge he realized that not all nods equate to votes. He then spent a madcap three days trying to shore up support for his coup d'etat, emerging victorious by a single vote. In the mad scramble he was forced to promise the world to all and sundry, leaving him with a front-bench crowded with former foes and being forced to dump one of the few Libs with any talent - Fatty O'Barrell - to the reserves. I guess a win by one vote is as good as a landslide, but in the vipers nest that is the Liberals, a new leader needs more than marginal support.
Now he's in the hot seat, how will he fare? Well no worse than Chikka who was up against it from Day One when she was caught out being prompted at a doorstop by Michael ('The Vertical Corgi') Photios. Brogden's looks and demeanor make for a mainstream, moderate campaign image. He only needs to look South to see what an unknown, but polite, challenge can do to a Premier seeking a third term.
His early days in the job have been intriguing. While he's continued to chase that tired old whore Laura Norder, promising to extend the police state into the schoolyard, he's also backed the union movement's opposition to Treasurer Michael Egan's plans to privatize the strategic arm of Pacific Power. In a total u-turn on the Coalition's 1999 election policy, the Boy from Balmain says he'll maintain the entire power industry in public hands. Whether this remains a core election promise is yet to emerge, but his initial decision adds to the confusion about what he's doing in the Tory Party to start with.
He can add to the confusion next week when he has the opportunity to block new regulations that would make it impossible for workers involved in armed hold-ups or other workplace violence to receive workers compensation. If he comes to the party on this one, he'll have convinced members of his old alma mata 'St Patricks' - including the Ferguson brothers and our own Mark Lennon - that he really is a stranger in a strange land.
Either way, any Boy from Balmain who joins the Liberals and then rises to its leadership deserves a stint in the Shed - he's either joined the wrong party or is a class traitor. Either way, he's a Tool.
And, with the bank having refused to complete a new enterprise agreement before the restructure, workers are also unsure whether their entitlements will be fully protected.
The National Australia Bank will this week announce its intention to cut thousands of jobs and close scores of branches in a 'Positioning for Growth' statement. Estimates of job cuts range from 3,000 to 5,000.
The restructure comes after NAB lost $3.6 billion speculating in the United States on the failed HomeSide lending venture. This includes more than $9 million paid to two US executives who presided over the debacle.
The Finance Sector Union says the $3.6 billion would have covered the wages of 5,000 NAB workers, on an average annual wage of $30,000, for another 24 years.
FSU state secretary Geoff Derrick says the cuts show the pitfalls of banks speculating on extravagant investment schemes rather than concentrating on services to the community.
"NAB has to work out if it is a bank or a gambler," Derrick says. "If NAB decides it's a bank it should commit to customers and staff, not shed branches and workers to make good its gambling debts."
Branches Disappear
The job cuts and closures follow a steady reduction in staffing levels over the past five years.
In 1997, NAB had 46,422 fulltime employees. By 2001 this was down 44,983, of which about half are employed in Australia. In this light a loss of 5,000 jobs will equate to 11 per cent of the bank's total workforce
The FSU says the NAB average profit per employee is now $98,000 per year.
The full list of NAB Branch closures is:
NSW: Culburra, Milton, Gunning, Bomaderry, Gulgong, Molong, Baradine, Boggabri, Warialda, Manilla, Coolamon, Bangalow, Brunswick Heads, Urunga
QLD: Sugarland, Toogoolawah, Wondai, Kin Kora, Babinda, Cardwell, Horne Hill
SA: Goolwa, Angaston, Maitland, Orroroo, Peterborough, Quorn
Vic: Merbein, Charlton, Birchip, Warrambool East, Koroit, Coleraine, Dimboola, Koo Wee Rup, Warburton, Pyramid Hill, Angaroo Flat, Sea Lake, Nyah West, Tongala, Violet Town, Elmore, Rushworth, Stanhope, Mortlake, Willaura,
Winchelsea, Avoca, Beaufort, Portarhington, Queenscliff, Anglesea, San Remo, Toora
W.A. Williams
The NSW Labor Council will this week ask the Opposition and minor parties holding the balance of power in the state Upper House to block a regulation to change the way psychological and psychiatric injury is assessed.
Council secretary John Robertson says the new assessment scheme - PIRS - has been discredited by the medical and scientific community and make it impossible for victims of armed hold-ups and other acts of physical workplace violence to claim workers compensation.
Unions want the previous assessment system, basing incapacity on the financial damage the worker incurred, to remain until a nationally accredited assessment system is put in place.
The changes to assessment of psychological and psychiatric damage was one of the cost-saving measures in the Carr Government's workers compensation changes introduced last year, despite bitter union opposition.
While the legislation was passed by the State Parliament late last year, several key aspects - including the assessment system - were left to be set by separate regulation. That regulation could be blocked by a majority vote in the Legislative Council.
"We'll be asking the Opposition and the cross-benches to block the regulation when it comes before the Parliament on Tuesday," Robertson says.
"To succeed we'll need the support of the new Opposition leader. He has the opportunity to send a message to workers that he will stand up for their interests rather than follow the Far Right agenda of bashing workers and their representatives at every opportunity.
Hold-Up Victims Locked Out of Compo
The Finance Sector Union says that since the new Act came into operation in NSW on January 1, 2002, there had been 28 reported armed robberies of banks in the state.
These include:
- a violent hold-up at ANZ Annandale on March 28 resulting in two staff members being taken to hospital.
- two hold-ups at Westpac St Leonards (January 31 and February 13). At least one staff member is still off work.
- the fourth attack in four years on the Westpac city bank on February 8, leaving three FSU members still under medical care.
"While many of the injuries suffered by our members are yet to stabilize, we are now advised that none of the victims of these incidents or any of the other 24 hold-ups reported to date will satisfy the new criteria," FSU state secretary Geoff Derrick says.
"This is a major issue for FSU members," Derrick says. "Without changes to the guidelines it is now apparent that victims of post-traumatic stress resulting from workplace violence will be denied fair compensation for their injuries."
Figures released in Parliament today confirm Building Industry Inquiry supremo Terrence Cole as the highest paid public official in Australia.
For his services, the Liberal Government is paying Cole triple the amount set aside for Justice Neville Owen who is heading up the inquiry into the HIH failure, the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history.
Credibility on the Line
Cole's Commission will get a chance to salvage credibility when it arrives in Sydney this month and is confronted by a dossier of genuine building industry rorts.
Unlike other states, the NSW branch of the CFMEU is putting industrial action on ice to give the Commission another chance to prove it is fair dinkum about shonky industry practises.
The CFMEU is giving Commissioner Cole an opportunity to hose down the perception he is running a politically-motivated sideshow by addressing safety, compo fraud, tax evasion, phoenixing and the abuse of migrant labour.
Construction has an appalling safety record, accounting for 12 percent of serious workplace injuries in Australia, and the death of one building worker every week.
The union estimates that 40 percent of sub-contractors are evading workers compensation cover for at least some of their employees. Some analysts argue construction tax evasion is costing the public purse as much as $1 billion annually.
Phoenixing, whereby a company or operator goes bust leaving workers, subbies and the tax office out of pocket then resumes business under another name, is escalating, along with the use of illegal immigrants as cheap labour.
Attack on all Workers
Unless these issues are addressed, CFMEU official Tony Pappas warns, Commission hearings will turn into a witch hunt from which no worker organisation will be immune.
"Abbott and Howard have an agenda against the building unions," he says.
"They have allocated $80 million for this exercise and the motive behind it is their desire to smash trade unions. At the end of the day, their target is not just the CFMEU and building unions, it is all of us."
Labor Council endorsed his call for a mass rally outside the Commission on May 3 and will co-ordinate the protest.
It will be part of a fortnight of public activity in defence of union rights which will confront the Commission, engineered by Employment Advocate Jonathan Hamberger and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott.
Scheduled protests include: Monday, April 29, building union delegates; April 30, injured workers and families; May 1, retired unionists; May 2, environmental groups; May 3, Labor Council and affiliates; May 6, sub-contractors; May 7, community groups; May 8, union occupational health and safety reps.
It's Stinky!
Meanwhile, the CFMEU's eight metre rat has a name. Just this week it was christened, Stinky, in response to a competition run by Workers Online.
Stinky will be out and about while the Commission is in Sydney, sniffing out dodgy practises that early indications suggest the Commission would prefer to ignore.
Labor Council's own Mark Morey won the naming competition from more than a dozen entrants. Other suggestions that troubled the judges included: John Winston, Eco (Rat), Sue, and Nat (in honour of the real King Cole).
The attendants are considering using budget day to highlight the failures of the Living Wage Case - and the way the Federal Government goes about ripping off the lowest paid in this country.
LHMU Victorian branch secretary, Brian Daley the Government might want to use the budget to portray itself as a sound economic manager but the hypocrisy of this claim is underlined by its consistent failure to support a decent minimum wage increase.
He says a likely option is for attendants to lock up carparks in Melbourne's CBD on budget day in mid-May - and bring the city to a standstill.
Daley made the announcement the same day the ACTU went before the Industrial Relations Commission to argue for a $25 a week wage rise for low income earners.
"If the Living Wage Case won't deliver decent increases then union members, such as our car park attendants will have to look at direct action," Daley says.
Car park attendants are paid $11.10 an hour .
The LHMU has worked with the city's car park attendants over the last 18 months to organise more than 200 into a united workforce committed to improving working conditions.
Struggling to Keep Above Poverty Line
Australia's lowest paid workers are struggling to keep their heads above the accepted Melbourne University Poverty Line, Daley told the Living Wage Case hearing.
"The Living Wage increases handed down in recent years, by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, have fallen way behind the increases needed if many of our members are not to be forced into poverty," Daley said.
"The system is structured in a way that it pushes the low-paid further and further behind acceptable living standards.
" We've invited Dr John Buchanan, the Deputy Director of the University of Sydney's Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training, to brief our membership with an analysis of past Living Wage Cases and why they have not delivered the decent increases Australian workers have a right to expect."
Dr Buchanan joined Daley, immediately after opening statements, to brief members on the latest ACIRRT data.
Dr Buchanan will also outline new research, which the LHMU has commissioned, to look at how LHMU members have faired under the Living Wage, and to test anecdotal evidence of members that they are falling further and further behind.
Following the PSA�s landmark victory, the Municipal Employees Union (MEU) is preparing a case that should boost the wages of community development managers, running council libraries, youth and child care services and the like.
The case is likely to go before the NSW IRC in June.
The news comes as unions grapple with how the pay equity prinicple, generally accepted in theory, can be spread in practise.
"There are many, many women out there where this is still a problem," Labor Council deputy assistant secretary, Alison Peters says.
"The acid test will come when we attempt to move the principle into the private sector. From all the procedings to date, private sector employers have been the most vigorous in raising concerns about the application of pay equity."
A hint about the short-term direction of pay equity may be gleaned from the occupations covered by the original NSW inquiry which focused on librarians, outworkers, hairdressers, fish processors, nurses, clerical and childcare workers.
Last week's IRC full bench decision effectively removed librarians from that list.
For more about the victory of librarians, library technicians and archivists go to: http://workers.labor.net.au/130/b_tradeunion_librarians.html
The NSW Labor Council last night passed a resolution calling on the leaders of both sides to enter a dialogue and urged peak union bodies form Israel and Palestine to play a central role in righting the peace process.
Speaking to the resolution the CFMEU's Andrew Ferguson said the invasion of Plaestinian towns and villages and the killing of innocent people would only generate more support for suicide bombers.
In backing the resolution, the LHMU's Andrew Casey - an active member of Sydney's Jewish community - warned delegates not to view Israel as a "monolith".
Casey said there were at least six active peace groups in Israel, including an anti-conscription movement of reservists refusing to cross into the West Bank. He said many Israeli's, including high-ranking military officers, were currently in jail for their beliefs.
The full Labor Council resolution reads:
The Labor Council condemns the latest escalation of violence and war in the continuing territorial dispute between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Labor Council calls upon the Israeli Government to immediately withdraw their military forces from the territories administered by the Palestinian Authority and especially to halt military action against civilians and requests both Prime Minister Sharon and Chairman Arafat to immediately enter into dialogue to seek a lasting peace in the region. Council recognizes that this process must involve the United Nations.
Further, Labor Council calls on all sides in the conflict to agree to a cessation of all violence including acts of terrorism by suicide bombers. Further, that the peace process and mutual dialogue between the parties be re-initiated as a matter of urgency.
The Labor Council praises the people on both sides including international activists who "against the odds" are working for a peaceful resolution, based on mutual respect and reconciliation, to this crisis.
Further, we note that relations between the Histradut, the General Federation of Labour in Israel, and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, have collapsed as a result of the current conflict.
We urge the two trade union groupings to re-establish relationships and, in the tradition of labour solidarity, play a central role in assisting with the resolution of the current crisis in the interests of all working people in the region.
Further, this resolution be forwarded to the Israeli Government, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and the General Federation of Labour in Israel.
Union Project Victim of Palestine Conflict
Meanwhile, Australia's Union Aid Abroad organisation (APHEDA) has deplored the recent destruction of the offices of its partner organisation, Ma'an Development Centre in Ramallah.
Peter Jennings, Executive Officer of APHEDA (Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad) said two floors of the Ma'an Centre were destroyed when the Israeli military raided and set fire to the Labour centre on the third floor of the Chamber of Commerce building in central Ramallah city. The Ma'an training rooms and offices on the above floors were also destroyed. Water was cut off and the fire brigade was not allowed access to fight the fire.
Since 1989 substantial AusAID funding and donations from the Australian community have been invested in Ma'an for skills training for the Palestinian people.
"This attack by the Israeli forces along with another attack on the Al Asra' building housing local non-governmental organisations and human rights groups is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli military to undermine positive local and international contributions to peace building," Mr Jennings said..
Ma'an director, Sami Khader, called for lifting the siege on Palestinian communities.
"There is a critical need for international peace monitors and emergency assistance. We have no water, food, electricity or access to medical services," he said.
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, the humanitarian overseas aid arm of the Australian Trade Union Movement, assists more than 50 skills training projects in 15 countries, including projects with Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
APHEDA supports the call for international monitors and the implementation of United Nations resolutions, starting with an immediate withdrawal by the Israeli military from the territories occupied in 1967.
Casuals employed under state awards will get the rises as casual loadings increase from 19 per cent to 23 per cent.
One in three Queensland workers is employed on casual terms, missing out on the job security, severance pay and various forms of leave enjoyed by permanent workers.
Queensland Council of Unions assistant secretary, Chris Barrett, reports increased employer interest in transferring workers from casual to permanent employment in the lead-up to this week's movement in loadings.
Barrett said the increased minimum loading was part of the phasing in of a landmark union court victory on casual pay rates.
"Unions are continuing to fight to improve wages and conditions for casuals," he said, "especially pursuing employers who have casuals for years on end and still deny permanent status.'
Queensland unions report a growth in membership amongst casual workers. Last year, in the state, casuals who were union members earned, on average, 16.2 percent, or $64, more than those who weren't.
" A rather over zealous Chubb official stood down our members for alleged acts of violence during the walk off," LHMU NSW assistant secretary, Mark Boyd, said.
"The fact that many of the stood down workers were LHMU delegates and active unionists made us very suspicious.
" The allegations have been proved false, and following talks between the union, Chubb and SRA the security guards have been reinstated on their rosters - after having spent nearly a week off, on full pay."
The walk-off before Easter by more than 400 Chubb security guards, working on State Rail trains, resulted in a quick win.
Stoppage wins amenities
Chubb and the SRA suddenly found facilities, which union members have been asking for, for a little over two years.
"The stoppage got overwhelming support from SRA security guards - both members and non-members," Boyd reported.
" Many non-members who showed solidarity have applied for LHMU membership since the walk off."
Chubb and the SRA have now provided access to clean facilities for LHMU members at Strathfield, Sutherland, Moss Vale, Lithgow, Mt Victoria and Central Stations.
Chubb has also agreed to provide dedicated guard facilities in Newcastle and Wollongong - while there are on-going talks between the union, SRA and Chubb about another 12 sites.
LHMU members at Victoria's three zoos have begun a campaign for better wages and conditions.
"Conditions have been eroded over the last 10 years, leaving our members amongst the lowest paid in the industry," Connie De Nino, LHMU Victorian organiser says.
"Pay rates are so low, that the outcome of the National Wage Case, which commenced today, will outstrip some of the rates currently paid.
" No wonder the zoo is finding it difficult to attract properly trained and experienced staff."
Seeking wage parity
Victorian zoo keepers and horticulturalists are seeking wages parity with other states, and are calling on the Victorian Government to take action before more world class expertise is lost.
De Nino says Victorian workers are paid up to 27% below their counterparts in other Australian zoos.
LHMU member, Jon Birkett, Keeper in Charge of Reptiles at Melbourne Zoo said: "I love my job and the animals I care for, but I've got my own family to care and provide for, and the current wages and conditions are not allowing me to do that properly."
Labor Council secretary John Robertson is offering to host a multi-party forum that will address the practical reality of getting Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders into meaningful training and employment.
"We should use our corporate contacts to get commitments on engaging local communities in developing structured employment programmes," Robertson says.
"Being a good corporate citizen is about more than signing a check and washing your hands of this issue and so is being a good trade unionist.
"If we are going to move beyond tokenism unions need to take a leadership role and part of that is ensuring that Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders are present at all levels of our own organisations."
Robertson was responding to an address from Kevin Tory, a trade unionist for 45 years, who convenes its Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Committee.
Tory asked Aboriginal Council delegates to identified themselves, an exercise which revealed just three of more than 100 worker representatives present were of indigenous descent.
His committee lists employment, training, education and pegging back frightening indigenous incarceration rates as targets for immediate action.
Building workers, who see one of their workmates killed in Australia every week, voted to honour the constable as four people appeared in court charged with his murder.
"Building work is a dangerous occupation, just like policing," CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson explained. "Flying these ribbons is an expression of solidarity between one group of workers and another."
At CFMEU instigation, Labor Council delegates stood for a minute's silence in Constable McEnallay's memory this week.
The NSW Police Association thanked both the CFMEU and Labor Council for their support.
Labor and Refugees to Lead or to Listen?
As the debate over the handling of refugees and asylum seekers matures, two markedly different views are emerging within the ALP.
Mark Latham has been a vocal defender of Labor's support of mandatory detention, stating it is in line with the attitudes of most Labor supporters. John Robertson is a leading light in the Labor for Refugees group and a critic of Labor's position at the last federal election.
They'll be asked to discuss the following issues:
- Was the strategy on asylum seekers adopted for the 2001 election the right one?
- What is the Labor road map for developing a policy on refugees and asylum seekers?
- How does refugee policy intersect with immigration, population and multicultural issues?
Where: Upstairs, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt 6.30pm
Admission: $10 and $5
When: 7pm, Wednesday April 17
More details mailto:[email protected]
More than 100 social workers, psychologists, radiologists and admin staff protested outside the city's Calvary Hospital this week over pay rates.
Under Liberal control of the ACT's health budget they have seen salaries slip 12-18 percent below those applying in NSW and nationally.
Community and Public Service Union president Matthew Reynolds says if that situation is not addressed the ACT system will crumble under an "acute staff shortage."
"These people can go to Quenbeyan and get more money for doing the same work. As a result, we are already seeing staff shortages in social work, medical imaging and psycholgy. Last year, alone, we lost more than 30 percent of our staff," Reynolds said.
This week's protest focused on the hospital's failure to make an offer since its Allied Health Professionals and Support Staff agreement ended in March of last year.
Mr Reynolds said workers' patience was "well past wearing thin".
They have elected a committee to consider industrial action and have called on hospital management to resume negotiations.
"The reality is, if we want to keep a decent health service in the ACT, we have to be 'salary competitive' with the NSW and federal systems," Reynolds said.
Following an application by Shangri-La management, the Ministry of Manpower dispute resolution committee (P4P) approved the dismissal of close to 600 of the hotel's workers in May, 2001.
According to the Jakarta newspaper Tempo, the Judges' Panel of the State Administrative High Court, "handed down four injunctions. The first rejected the demurrer of the Shangri-La management. The second overturned the P4P decision. The third asked the hotel to reinstate the sacked workers. The fourth required the defendants P4P and the Shangri-La Hotel respectively to pay court costs."
Since hotel management locked the workers out of their jobs over 16 months ago, Shangri-La workers have had to face injustice, assault and intimidation. The only "unacceptable act" Shangri-La workers ever committed was their desire to secure proper work conditions and exercise trade union rights.
Early in the dispute the management and owners of the hotel adopted a strategy designed purely and simply to crush any resistance from the workers. The hotel owners launched a lawsuit targeting five Shangri-La leaders, their federation representative and the Indonesian representative of the hotel workers international, the IUF.
The lawsuit claimed damages in the order of US$13 million. Despite widespread evidence that the workers had at all times acted within the law, the notorious South Jakarta district court awarded in favour of the owners and fined the Shangri-La workers and their fellow defendants US$2 million.
While this was well below the initial amount sought, the figure was nonetheless equally outrageous, as the seven affected workers face permanent indebtedness and will lose their homes and livelihoods if the fine is upheld.
The decision of the State Administrative High Court rectifies the previous decisions of the Indonesian legal system in this case. While the civil suit remains, the Administrative Court's decision reverses the sham procedure undertaken at P4P, which legitimised management's decision to fire the workers. As such, the ludicrous nature of the civil suit stands out.
However, the decision ordering management to reinstate the workers is yet to be implemented. The Ministry of Manpower has yet to confirm or deny whether it will appeal the Administrative Court's decision to the Supreme Court. The appeal lodged by the Shangri-La workers against the US$2 million fine from the civil court is pending. The management and owners of the hotel have responded that they will appeal the Administrative Court's decision.
This means the Shangri-La workers' struggle continues.
Yet the workers have made an important breakthrough. They have never broken the laws of Indonesia and have only ever asked the hotel's owners and management to respect those laws, which guarantees basic trade union rights. As Secretary of the Shangri-La workers' union, Odie Hudiyanto stated, "We will follow up on what the management always promised - that they would obey the law of Indonesia."
Commenting on research published in the 'Australian Bulletin of Labour', NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson says the notion of a 'fulltime worker' employed for 38 hours per week is becoming a "historical throwback".
The nationwide research shows part-time employment up 135,100 while the number of fulltime jobs fell by 59,700; total hours of work on average down 1.6 per cent and a 15.2 per cent increase in 'under-employment'.
Robertson says the figures shows that the Howard Government's only labour market success has been in hiding the real problems in finding fulltime work.
"More and more workers are being forced into precarious employment, which has repercussions for financial security and long-term employment prospects," he says.
The NSW Labor Council is addressing the issue on several fronts including:
- proposing a labour hire industry award to take away financial incentives for employers to shed full-time staff.
- increasing the rights of casual workers, including guaranteeing them permanency after a fixed period of service.
- extending full-time rights such as maternity leave to part-time and casual workers.
"What we have is an absence of leadership from the federal government. It is left to the union movement to provide structural support for people who are being left behind."
Normally only available to people with relatively high levels of income, the service is being provided at prices that allow anyone to turn up and be treated. What's more, you can also get your pets treated!
Providence Homoeopathic Medical Service is an initiative of the Sisters of Charity in conjunction with the Workers' Health Centre and members of the Australian Homoeopathic Medicine Association. It is situated within the Workers' Health Centre, Ground Floor, 133 Parramatta Rd. The clinic is staffed by qualified and insured practitioners who are giving their time free of charge so that we can offer a professional service to persons without sufficient means to approach fee for service practitioners. Obviously we need to have some income to help pay the rent and replenish consumables, so fee paying clients are encouraged too.
Who can come? Anyone - grandparents, adults, children, infants. Ring 9897 2188 and make an appointment. Initial consultations for humans take from 1 to 1 � hours, and follow up consultations approximately 45 minutes. Small animal phone consultations are available on request. If you have a Health Care Card or are a pensioner with medical entitlement your consultations will be free and medicines will be charged at the same rate as subsidised doctor's prescriptions. Prices for other clients are modest, and union members receive a discount. Family rates can be negotiated according to circumstances. GST applies. If you are covered by ancillary health insurance, then most funds offer rebates for homoeopathic consultations but not medicines. We will give you an appropriate receipt to present to your fund if required.
What is homoeopathy?
Homoeo-what? Well might you ask. No, it has nothing to do with sexuality. Homoeo in Greek means similar. Pathy is our pathology. Loosely translated, homoeopathy means a similar condition. The aim of homoeopathy is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health in the shortest, most reliable and most harmless way. It cures the causes of illness and does not merely relieve or suppress the symptoms.
Your GP treats your diarrhoea with medicines that cause the opposite effect to the symptoms you have. So he will give you kaolin or opium based mixtures in order to suppress those symptoms. If you took these medicines without the diarrhoea you would soon end up constipated, that is, in an opposite condition.
A homoeopath will try to find the one medicine that is an almost exact fit for your personal history and your physical symptoms. We believe and can demonstrate that like cures like. We can practice in this way because for the past 200 years homoeopaths have been conducting experiments on healthy persons with substances derived from the mineral, plant and animal worlds. The exact symptoms that followed taking theses substances have been meticulously recorded. This process is called proving. The symptoms of provers throughout the last two centuries are available in print and via electronic media to homoeopaths all over the world.
But knowing that onions make healthy persons' eyes smart and water and their noses run means that we don't just mince up an onion and give it to a person who in sickness has these symptoms. By the time you get Allium Cepa 30 as a homoeopathic remedy the humble onion has gone from the crude substance through a series of 30 dilutions. Starting with one drop of onion solute in 100 drops of alcohol it is shaken vigorously, then one drop of this goes into another 100 drops of alcohol and the process repeated as many times as is required for the potency (strength) sought. These days your homoeopathic medical practitioner will rarely hand make a medicine for you as there are pharmaceutical companies that produce these medicines for us according to strict homoeopathic and good manufacturing process standards. In this way the energetic potential of the crude substance is released, without the side effects.
The service is available Mondays to Fridays, from 10am to 5pm (public holidays excepted). Appointments are necessary. As well, it is possible to provide regular on-site clinics if your work place is within reasonable travelling distance of Granville. Call Carol Pedersen on 0409 152040 if you would like to explore this option. Feel free to advertise the service to your members in NSW.
Labor for Refugees Education Forum
Monday Night. Due to a time clash with a forum on at Labor Council (a speaker from RAWA) we have MOVED THE START TIME BACK. The forum will now begin at 7pm (although people will be there from 6 in case people come early). The details are as follows:
TIME: 6:45 for 7pm start (finish at 9pm)
WHERE: LHMU Auitorium (187 Thomas St Haymarket)
DATE: Monday 8th April
The speakers include:
John Robertson (Secretary of Labor Council of NSW)
Pat Lee (Independent Education Union)
Nick Poynder (Refugee Lawyer)
Amanda Tattersall (Labor for Refugees)
This forum will be an opportunity to find out more detail of the policies of mandatory detention and temporary protection visas, and explore other countries policies and practices for refugees. It will discuss the detail of Labor for Refugees demands for an end to mandatory detention and the pacific solution in the face of proposed changes to ALP Federal Policy. It will also discuss the nature of the campaign, and the kinds and types of activities Labor for Refugees should be initating over the coming months.
The kits that are being mailed out to people will be also be available for people to pick up.
Finally information about the "Show Mercy" gala happening on the 21st April at Sydney Town Hall will be available. We will be organising a Labor for Refugees Contingent to the event so people should let me know if they want to organise tickets at the forum (more information about the logistics of the event and what is happening at the Gala will be posted to the list soon).
ASIO Powers
Mr. Howard want to give ASIO the power to hold you for 48 hours without charge and with no right to silence. Say Hello to a Police State! Smash Racism and the National Union of Students is organising a public meeting about this proposed new "counter-terrorist" legistlation.
7:30 pm
WEDNESDAY, 10 APRIL
Newtown Neighbourhood Centre
1 Bedford st Newtown, corner of King st
Speakers include:
- Ray Jackson (Indigenous Social Justice Organisation)
- Tim Anderson (lecturer and criminal justice activist)
- Paula Abood (activist, film-maker & critic)
- Damien Lawson (Federation of Community Legal Centres)
- Kerry Nettle (The Greens)
For more information please contact:
0416 294 193 [Ben]
0410 561 474 [Manoj]
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The Latest from Pluto
GOODBYE COLIN HOOD
Sadly we report that Colin Hood died suddenly last week at his home in Sydney. Colin was the founding editor of this newsletter and contributed enormously to Pluto Press.
He will be particularly remembered for his enthusiasm and for being a constant font of ideas, especially for remaking Pluto on the internet.
A special tribute will be run in the next newsletter.
His funeral service will be held on Monday April 8 at 1.30 pm at the North Chapel of the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Delhi road, North Ryde.
A celebration of his life will begin at 5.30pm in the Soho Bar (upstairs Bar), 171 Victoria Street, Pott's Point .
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PLUTO SEMINARS AT READERS FEAST IN MELBOURNE
Our non-Sydney friends often complain that Pluto book launches and seminars are invariably held in Sydney. Well this is about to change with Pluto entering into an arrangement with one of Melbourne's biggest book stores, Readers Feast at the corner of Burke and Swanston streets, Melbourne to run monthly seminars along the lines of the successful Wednesday Politics at Berkelouw in Sydney.
The first seminar will be on The Future of the Left in May, followed by Australia's Relations with the South Pacific in June and The Australias that Could Have Been, a launch/seminar of new Pluto book, Neverland.
CANBERRA PLANS
In Canberra we are planning seminars beginning in May with The future of the Australian Public Service and Australia's Relations with the South Pacific.
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PLUTO AUTHORS AT SYDNEY WRITERS FESTIVAL
Pluto authors, Clinton Walker (Buried Country), Ghassan Hage (White Nation) and Graham Meikle (Future Active) will join scores of international and Australian writers at the 2002 Sydney Writers Festival from Monday 27 May to Sunday 2 June. A highlight of the Australian literary calendar, the festival always attracts huge crowds at sessions that are always stimulating and insightful.
Further information on the website: www.swf.org.au
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AUTHOR OF YENNI ON TOUR
Our authors usually don't get the opportunity of touring the country and promoting their books, but thanks to a grant from the Tasmanian Government, Hobart author Jenny Williams whose book, Yenni will be launched by the Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon on Wednesday June 12 at Fullers Bookshop, Hobart at 6.30 PM, will be touring the eastern seaboard in July.
In Yenni, Jenny Williams tells her story of survival - her childhood experiences of World War Two and the dismemberment of her country, Hitler and then the Soviet occupation and the oppression of her Hungarian language and culture, socialist youth rallies, the Prague Spring and Dubcek's reforms and the Soviet invasion of 1968 which led to her emigration to Australia.
"This is a survivors tale. After losing everything, leaving everything behind, what is left are the truly civilised, profoundly human values Williams carried within her when all outward accoutrements have been lost, destroyed."
Kathleen Fallon, author of Working Hot
Jenny Williams will be in Melbourne July 1 and 2; Sydney July 3 - 6 , Canberra July 4 and Brisbane July 7 -10. Details of her bookshop talks will be available soon.
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WEDNESDAY POLITICS AT BERKELOUW
Sponsored by the Pluto Institute and the Australian Fabian Society (NSW Branch)
FABIAN SEMINAR IN SYDNEY
7pm, Wednesday April 17
Berkelouw Books
Labor and Refugees to Lead or to Listen?
An off-the-record stoush over three rounds:
Between ALP Member for Werriwa Mark Latham
And NSW Labor Council Secretary, John Robertson
As the debate over the handling of refugees and asylum seekers matures, two markedly different views are emerging within the ALP.
Mark Latham has been a vocal defender of Labor's support of mandatory detention, stating it is in line with the attitudes of most Labor supporters. John Robertson is a leading light in the Labor for Refugees group and a critic of Labor's position at the last federal election.
They'll be asked to discuss the following issues:
- Was the strategy on asylum seekers adopted for the 2001 election the right one?
- What is the Labor road map for developing a policy on refugees and asylum seekers?
- How does refugee policy intersect with immigration, population and multicultural issues?
Where: Upstairs, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt 6.30pm
Admission: $10 and $5
Please note: No Media Coverage will be permitted at this event
More details: Peter Lewis on 0413 873285
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Pluto Institute Seminar
WEDNESDAY APRIL 24 6.30 PM
THE FUTURE OF THE LEFT IN AUSTRALIA?
What ideas connect the broad Australian left at the beginning of the 21st Century? What are the challenges for the Left in terms of policy, organisation and political strategy? How can the Left inspire the wider society?
Speakers: Boris Frankel, Swinburne University, author, When the Boat Comes In and the classic From Prohets the Deserts Come.
Peter Botsman, Foundation Director, Whitlam Institute, and former Director of the Evatt Foundation and Brisbane Institute
Helen McCue ,Community Activist and founder, Rural Australians for Refugee
Mary Zournazi, writer, philosopher and radio producer, author of Hope and Foreign Dialogues.
Summing up by Eva Cox. Lecturer, Humanities, University of Technology Sydney. Broadcaster, writer & Boyer lecturer.
Chaired by David McKnight, Lecturer, Humanities University of Technology, Sydney, author of Next Left and Australian Spies and Their Secrets
Venue: The Gallery, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
6.30PM
Admission: $20 and $10
Bookings: Email: [email protected]
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Pluto Institute Seminar
WEDNESDAY MAY 1
6.30PM
OPEN AUSTRALIA FORUM
A New Vision for the ALP
Lindsay Tanner MP, Member for Melbourne, Shadow Minister for Communications and author of Open Australia
Mark Latham MP, Member for Werriwa, Assistant Shadow Treasurer, author, Civilising Global Capitalism and co-author, The Enabling State,
Rebecca Huntley, lecturer, UNSW Law School and co-editor, Party Girls
Tom Morton, producer, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National
Guy Rundle Co-editor, Arena Magazine, writer of Max Gillies' smash hit, Your Dreaming.
Catharine Lumby, Journalist and columnist , The Bulletin, Associate Professor, Media Studies, University of Sydney and author Bad Girls
Venue: The Gallery, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
6.30PM
Admission: $20 and $10
Bookings: Email: [email protected]
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SPECIAL FABIAN EVENT IN MELBOURNE
Wednesday 10th April at 6.30 pm: Implications of the Heffernan Affair
Monash Academic Jenny Hocking follows up her biography of Lionel
Murphy with an analysis of what the Heffernan affair was about and
implications for constitutional safeguards.
International Bookshop, Trades Hall 54 Victoria St Carlton South 3053
tel 03 9662 3744 fax 03 9663 4755
www.nibs.org.au
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CONCERT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS CAMPAIGN
The Rights Campaign for Asylum Seekers and Australians for Just Refugee Programs invite you to
SHOW MERCY
An evening of music, satire, voices and theatre to raise awareness of those seeking asylum, to provide a forum for people to express their concern and to take action with the support of key human rights organisations and religious groups at
SYDNEY TOWN HALL
Sunday 21 April 2002, 4.30pm - 7.00pm
Huge cast and hosted by Julie McCrossin. Directed by Nigel Jamieson.
Special video messages from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Gustav Nossal and Dr Bryan Gaensler
You can book ($25/$15)
by phoning Ticketmaster on 1300 139 588
If Chris Puplick thought he was scoring some points for the Liberal Party by drawing the attention of the NSW Labour Council to instances of apparent union support for discrimination (Workers Online #129), he wouldn't be thanked by many of his more hard-headed colleagues.
Puplick was correct in saying that unions in Australia do not have a perfect record on the topic, since quite a few unions adopt a "don't rock the boat" attitude to prejudiced attitudes amongst the membership. Further, we must never forget that for decades the mainstream union movement supported the disgusting "White Australia" Policy. Puplick's mistake, however, was to forget the sole beneficiary of prejudice & division amongst the working class - the employers.
Racism, sexism, homophobia & other forms of discrimination are not simple "bosses' conspiracies", but employers often use whatever prejudices are around if they need to secure a cheap labour force, break a strike or undermine a common union front. In Australia today, a major way in which they do this is by exploiting prejudice against undocumented immigrants. By the use of open or implied threats of dobbing, bosses who employ undocumented immigrants can pay way under the award rate and impose shocking working conditions. They can only get away with this, however, if they can be confident that the rest of the working class will leave those workers in the lurch in the event of the dirty secret coming out. Any worker who refuses support to undocumented immigrants is giving the whole employing class a free kick by supplying employers with a horribly exploited workforce with which to undermine the position of the rest of the working class. Further, any union which goes along with this is betraying its membership &, in the long run, courting disaster.
Discrimination & prejudice serve the interests of the employers and thus you'll find Liberal hard-heads will run dead on the issue. Certain Liberals (who will remain nameless) even actively exploit it if they think they can get away with it. Workers, on the other hand, need solidarity, not division. The working class is so diverse, though, that it can only build that solidarity by returning to the foundation principle of unionism:
"An injury to one is an injury to all."
The working class & the employing class have nothing in common. By using our strength to fight racism, sexism, homophobia & other forms of discrimination, we will be building the new society within the shell of the old.
In Solidarity,
Greg Platt
Discerning people would not be surprised to hear that Kerry Chikarovski's colleagues voted for a male to replace her as opposition leader. Australia is backward in its attitudes towards women in politics.
The majority of political journalists are males who have never provided the opportunity for the citizens of NSW to get to know Mrs Chikarovski's intelligence and commitment to the interests and concern of families and women.
I think that as a mother of two teenagers Mrs Chikarovski brought life experiences that broaded the male dominated gorilla- like perspectives in NSW parliament.
Is it that as more men in positions of power and influence are being exposed for corruption and criminality some people may fear women in power? Women are not all squeaky clean but generally much less likely to be involved in bribery, violence, corruption, drug trafficking and paedophilia. Women who are mothers are much less likely to agree with the soft approach to illegal drugs being pushed by people like the 'mummy's boy' type who will replace Chikorovski as Opposition leader.
Women are most wasted resource in this country and as social problems spiral out of control blocking women out of power positions will yet bring peril for all of us.
Kathryn Pollard
Dear Comrdes
I thought the follwing report from the recent sucessful Socialist Alliance trade union copnference in the UK might flesh out your report last week on union disquiet around the world with labour and social democratic parties.
Regards
John Passant
Socialist Alliance's first UK trade union conference on Saturday 16 March was an outstanding success. The Camden Centre was packed, with 1,038 delegates registering for the conference. It was the biggest conference of rank and file trade unionists for two decades.
The morning session expressed anger against New Labour.
There was a general desire to see the trade union political funds democratised so that members could donate not only to the Labour Party, but also to other organisations and candidates who stood up for proper working class representation and union policies.
Medical secretaries from Sunderland on strike for decent pay received a standing ovation.
The morning plenary was followed by delegates meeting in groups in which all the major unions were represented. Fruitful discussion ensued on how to take the campaign forward in specific circumstances. Derek Simpson, the left candidate standing against Ken Jackson in Amicus, attended the Amicus union group discussion.
After lunch the conference debated supporting strikes and fighting privatisation. A standing ovation was given to 30 postal workers when they arrived from the CWU march & rally against privatisation of the post office.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary elect, addressed the conference in a personal capacity, calling for support for the May Day demonstration against privatisation and war.
Speakers from the Scottish Socialist Party, Rifondazione Comunista from Italy, and a speaker for the campaign against the anti-trade union laws were each given a rousing reception. Bob Crow, newly elected general secretary of the RMT, sent his apologies to the conference, wishing it every success.
The vast majority of delegates left the conference with spirits lifted, more determined than ever to take into the trade union movement the argument to end Labour's monopoly over the political fund. Many will be going on to campaign in the local elections for the Socialist Alliance - the embryo of a socialist alternative to New Labour.
Dear Sir,
The recent book by ILO publications and edited by A.V.Jose ,"Organised Labour in the 21ST Century" while a weighty tome of compilation by academics , has many easy to understand lessons for not only developing countries , but for activists in developed countries who have been unable to grasp the nettle of corporate trade unionism.
The extensive reference material, a world wide connection of trade union activists, and online discussion groups bringing together many diverse schools of thought give this reflective publication credibility on "Globalisation", and its effects on the labour movement world wide.
Australia was not one of the countries focused on, but, the difficulties facing the Trade Unions know no boundaries, and our isolation has continued to insulate us from the worst excesses of privatisation and our embrace of Globalisation by political parties of all colours, has been to our advantage.
If my memory serves me correctly, I believe Michael Gadiel a Labour Council Officer made several contributions to some of the online discussions which formed part of this study.
Perhaps Workers Online could once a week print some relevant abstracts from this publication, if only to give other perspectives to the generic problems that face Organised Labour , as it attempts to come to grip with Globalisation as a Class, Economic, and Socially fragmented entity.
Tom Collins
Ed's Reply: Thanks for the suggestion, we'll look into it.
This is in regard to the wine grape growers that are facing hardship and the government is doing nothing to help. The wine grape growers are severly disadvantaged to the effect that the wineries have all amalgamated to lower their prices.
Norman's going broke got the ball rolling and the wineries saw this an opportunity to resume paying lower prices and the few recent years they had been payiong reasonable prices for the wine grapes. This by the way was the first time in my recalling as I was born and raised in Renmark S.A.-Riverland all my life.
The good prices brought the value of the region up and encouraged new business into the area. The growers saw the opportunity for the first time ever to expand and 90% have all borrowed money and are in debt quite deeply thinking that the prices would of lasted at least for the next couple of years. How can the export market be booming and excelling even this year, yet they tell us here [and these are the wineries excuses]that they have an oversupply of this variety, or they didn't create the new market that they expected yet they are putting up new tanks for their juice everyday.
Next is the growers which their contracts run out this year,there is no indication what so ever some growers have been told that their contracts are not being renewed. This is giong to bring a bigger problem next year as a large percentage of growers will have no contracts next year and the problem is giong to be even bigger. You will have growers that are uncontracted with no home for their grapes as well as the uncontracted growers from this year. The prices will probably be even worse.
This year the harvest is well and trully underway and the prices were only released about 1 to 2 weeks before harvest. This is ridiculous, as the growers did not know what their budget etc. would be. Thewre are giong to be growers going broke declaring bankruptcy and going on unemployment benefits. It will cost the government $45,000 in grants per person and a family of two will recieve $760 in unemployment benefits one week and $320 for the children the other week.
The government allowed for the water to be given to the big developers and water has been cut back for us smaller growers. Now we are being told to conserve water and our water rates have risen. This whole thing is about politics and we need a voice that will not be cornered into some deal because of politics. The government needs to be persuaded to listen to us in a way that it will benefit them. They will have more unemployment rise and their populatity will fall and they will be out of pocket with the bankruptcy and many bussiness leaving very large amounts of money outstanding with not only with major banks but also with other business.It will not be good for anybody all round but the the one that will suffer the most will be the grower that has worked all his life to lose everything.
Name Withheld By Request
It is an undeniable reality that there is a crisis within and between the ALP, and the Trade Union Movement.
Fortunately in this diverse society we can call on the experience of many cultures to explain away our nightmares, and in this case , we must accept the Chinese myth of Crisis actually having a positive side to it . Is this the reason for Bob Carrs' visit to mainland China?
With the "Danger", comes the "Opportunity", and many have advocated, that the onset of a crisis, provides an opportunity for change and growth as well as a danger of regression or stagnation,"
This through the ages has been a documented fact, as many of those who we revere have only developed and bloomed through "Road to Damascus" awakenings through personal spiritual crisis, and others such as T.E. Lawrence through physical crisis, but the fact is; that those who survive the fire are much strengthen by it. This is much like our own land, where nature takes care of the weak and useless undergrowth, which provides the means of regeneration through providing the fodder for the fire which is required to free the seeds of most indigenous trees.
Sadly as I have oft repeated; in the ALP, and the Union Movement, the undergrowth resolutely refuse to carry out its natural function, thereby temporarily thwarting the universal plan. But in its futile attempt at eternal life it will eventually suffocate its very purpose of existence, and these economic perverts, like the stupid King Canute are trying to hold back the tide, rather than building channels to direct the floods of Globalization and Privatization, in to safe holding areas where they can be controlled, until more institutive and intelligent leaders are found for the common people and a clearer understanding of evolution is gained.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) stated, "The worth and value of a man is in his heart and his will: there lies his real honor. Valor is the strength, not of legs and arms, but of the heart and soul. Courage is not simply the mastery of fear through physical strength: it is that quality that springs from a certain type of spirit, honor, and integrity." Courage is habitual, contagious. "We become brave by doing brave acts,"
It is not the Maverick, Labor politician, or the loony left Union boss, playing to the gallery that displays these attributes, but it is true leadership that sees further that the few miles of arid, belt tightening desert that eventually leads to a cool and fertile oasis of economic growth.
To speak in the vernacular, these Union "leaders", need a good kick us the "Arse", and some "Harse" , words to given them a taste of reality.
While not an advocate of Mickey Mouse Politics, the Premier of NSW, Mr. Bob Carr, is one that has shown this leadership and while seeking consensus, has refused to withdraw on issues of State importance , e.g.: the appointment of Michael Costa , as a circuit breaker in Police Affairs .
This respect for strong leadership has been displayed by a continued popularity and re-election to office.
While this has been my "Oration", for many years, those that are not in the Union Business, for the members, should for the welfare their members and of the nation, Excise themselves, retire with dignity and join all the other Arthur Scargills in Union Paradise , lest they end up in the dustbin of history.
Tom Collins
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You were on Bob Hawke's staff in the eighties. How different is politics today in the 21st Century from 20 years ago?
Obviously things have changed in many respects quite substantially. In other respects, not a great deal, let me elaborate. The changes can be seen in large part in the way in which economic and international political issues have evolved over that period.
In 1983, the Soviet Union was still intact, the international world was seen in that bi-polar context to some degree and that influenced a lot of the international debate and national attitudes to those issues. I think also that the economic debate was more polarised than it is today with stronger differences about the contending ideas about how to manage the economy. So in that sense the notions of Left and Right, both between the major parties in Australia and within the Labor Party were more distinct than they are today.
The similarities however remain as they have for most of Australia's life as a nation. What the electorate looks for from its political leaders is a clear set of policies which will deliver for them better living standards and opportunities for them and particularly for their children into the future. So in some senses it's the same sort of basket of issues, but being discussed and analysed in a different context and framework.
A lot of people see government as having a lot less power to influence the big decisions today, that there is more power in the hands of the international corporates than there was when the Hawke government opened up the Australian economy. When you were involved in that decision making process did you see that trend coming?
Yes, people were very much aware of what was involved in, if you like, de-regulating or getting out of direct government decision making in a range of these areas. Interest rates, the exchange rate, and of course tariffs were all set to a very significant degree by government policy. The government and the bureaucracy played a much more deliberate role, a very deliberate role in setting the exchange rate. So, these were decisions that were taken out of the hands of Government and put pretty much into the hands of the market.
Now, to some extent the market had always had a say in those decisions, but this was a change in those circumstances and obviously you couldn't be certain what all the consequences would be. But, by and large you have to say that in terms of how the Australian economy has performed since those changes were made, you can make a pretty strong case for the benefits. These have come, not just for the economy as a whole, the incomes of people in the economy, workers in a whole range of industries, but also in terms of access to housing finance. It was a big set of decisions with a whole lot of implications. And while they may not have been understood absolutely as to how they would pan out, the general confidence was there with Bob and the senior ministers who took those decisions that they would be good for the country and good for Australian workers.
Moving to the present, your ALP review into the last Federal Election is moving apace, what as National Secretary do you want to get out of this process?
The terms of reference really identify the sort of areas that we'd like to see people talking about and proposing ideas to make us more effective and more successful both as an organisation, and also as a party contending to win Government.
There are six terms of reference and essentially they cover the range of things which people have been talking about, not just post-election, but over recent years.
- Firstly, the whole question of how we make sure we get the best possible candidate to contest Federal seats.
- How we make sure we get our policy review and development processes into the best shape, so that our policies are obviously, electorally attractive, but also policies that address the issues that concern people.
- Our relationships with the trade union movement and other community groups
- Strategies to see what we can do about increasing our primary votes and measures to broaden and increase the membership of the party
- And looking at the internal processes of the party to make sure they reflect appropriate and contemporary standards.
One would presume that any significant change would alter the power balance within the party. With the factional system still very dominant in terms of who gets into what seat, how difficult will it be to bring out any changes that go beyond window dressing?
Well I don't think that it will end up producing just window dressing. I think to some extent you've got to sort of stand back and look at the organization the party is over 110 years old and it's endured because it has adapted. We don't have to go back an awful long way in our history to think of things which the Labor Party wouldn't have a bar of today, but which were very central to some of the beliefs and attitudesin past times . So the Party has evolved and adapted, but in a structural sense, it is in many ways a bit like it was at the start: built around branch structures, with layers of reporting and all organisations need some sort of order and structure to them. I think we need a structure that is more flexible and more relevant to people in terms of the other organisations they might belong to or the other institutions they relate to in the community.
It won't be a window dressing exercise but getting change in the culture of an organisation takes time. It doesn't come because someone makes a decision or a group of people make a decision. It comes over time as you develop new ways of doing things. I think that in many respects is one of the most important tasks that Bob Hawke and Neville Wran have. Already we've had more than a hundred written submissions and it's getting into the thousands of contacts with people through forums and discussion. As many views of as many people as possible are being taken into account. We've just extended the cut off date for submissions until the end of May.
So it's not a hollow exercise, it's been more than twenty years since a review of this scale has been conducted and the fact that people are positive about it reflects that it does meet that need to modernise how we're structured and how we function.
On the organisational issues, as someone who is at the centre of the Party, what do you want to see branches delivering to the ALP?
I think the question is better put slightly differently, which is what sort of branch structure and membership involvement should we have so that people feel that membership of the Labor Party gives them a say in the affairs of the Party and in the sorts of policy debates that they may have an interest in?
what we want from branches are people t with energy,and ideas, people who have a commitment to the core values that Labor has and it bring to it their skills and contribution. What we've got to do is make sure that we've got a Party that allows them to do that.
In terms of trade union involvement, and I know it's under the microscope, what would the ALP gain from having a lower union influence?
Again I think we need to deal with this question in two parts. The first part is to say that the trade union movement has a vital, essential role in the Australian economy and society in its own right. The role that Trade Unions play in advancing the conditions and pay of working people and protecting those conditions and entitlements is absolutely fundamental and the Labor Party recognises the importance of that. Simon Crean is a former ACTU President as was Bob Hawke, so the link is pretty organic in that regard.
The debate about what role the Trade Unions play in the Labor Party is a different question. And I think that the two issues have sort of got, unfortunately, a bit tangled up. Simon said just the other day "I can't imagine the Labor Party without a relationship with the Trade Union movement". And I know from talking to Bob and Neville that they have a similar sort of fundamental commitment to that relationship between Labor and the trade unions.
But it is an appropriate thing to look at in the context of what Simon describes as "modernizing the Party". It's not the only element of the modernization that he wants to see, but it is an element. So I think it's quite an important part of the review, but it's not the only part. The other thing to stress is that in no way is anyone saying, by putting it on the agenda in this context ,that the reason we lost the last election was because we have a relationship with the trade union movement..
One of the things you've probably noticed over the last couple of years is the sliding Union membership has actually bottomed out now and that's been because of the fairly vigorous strategy of grass roots organising. Is that something you'd be looking at in terms of addressing the ALP own issues with membership levels?
Let me just use that as an opportunity to say that the other point in this discussion about Labor and the Trade Unions is the Trade Unions of course have got their own distinctive set of interests and their own distinctive agenda. Sharan Burrow and Greg Combet have been very effective as John Robertson has been in giving the Trade Union movement a contemporary relevance and importance and those figures represent that.
I think that the strategy that they follow is obviously one that has been effective for the Trade Union movement, but for the Labor Party I think the sorts of things that I was talking about before are probably going to be the most effective in getting the Party into a better shape in attracting and retaining members.
One of your responsibilities is to raise the money that funds the advertising campaigns around election time. Has the reliance on the corporate dollar effected the way the political parties operate in a detrimental way?
Well, I'm fortunate in having inherited a fundraising regime or fundraising set of practices which are guided by a fundraising code which my predecessor put in place. I'll make the point by way of a little detour. Some companies say - look we are happy to support you in terms of policy development and other general sort of development activities but we don't want to give you support for election campaigns. So you get different types of corporate support. With that code we've gone as far as we can. I think though, that you can always keep these things under review and try to make sure that there isn't an inappropriate influence through fundraising on party activity and policy.
There have been calls in NSW to actually sap the corporate financing of the party, would that be something that you would support?
I think that is an issue that we need to have under continual review. Clearly there have been instances in the past year or two where there has been very large donations and it's legitimate to ask questions about the appropriateness of particularly large amounts of money being given to political parties. By and large we depend to some degree, although not absolutely, on corporate support and I guess in the end I'm always open to discussions about that.
Finally, there has been talk in the press this week about the socialism principle within the ALP platform and the idea that someone needs to wrap up what Labor stands for in the 21st Century into a form of words that people today can relate to. As a former journalist yourself, have youe gone through this process - what in your mind what does Labor stand for today?
Any consideration of the socialism principle does bring you back to a fundamental consideration. I think that what we are about is what we have always been about. That is equality of opportunity, access, fairness, the sorts of things which find different ways of being expressed in different generations.
I think it probably isn't a bad thing that we are looking at how we formulate that statement of Labor principles and values in a contemporary way, I think it's got a lot of value both in terms of what we get in the end and what the process of talking about those things produces along the way.. So I think all of these are elements of the review process that we have initiated and I think the prospects are that it's going to be a very positive and constructive period for us.
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The PSA calls it a "historic victory" for women and the trade union movement. Employers have chosen to down-play its significance, while a newspaper, not a million miles away from News Ltd's Holt St bunker, queries its impact on state finances.
It is Pay Equity and the theory runs something like this - for decades the work done in certain industries has been undervalued because the majority of workers were women.
But, what does it mean in practise?
Well, for Sue Moir, a librarian with 16 years experience and twin degrees, it means she now earns as much as her 25-year-old son who has just graduated with an engineering degree.
Moir's salary has jumped from $53,000 to $65,000 because of the decision handed down by the NSW Industrial Commission full bench. And, she says, it hasn't come a day too soon.
"It's a victory for the people I work with and our profession," she says proudly.
"Finally, the value of what we do is being recognised."
Being a librarian, as the commission found, is not as simple as outsiders might think.
Moir works at the NSW State Library, along with around 250 of the more than 1000 workers whose wages will jump immediately, as a result of the PSA victory.
The library is a state treasure, holding books valued at up to $50,000 each, newspapers, historic photos, manuscripts, pamphlets, papers and increasingly, electronic publications.
It attracts all types - from those wanting to boost their chances at the casino or improve their marijuanna crops to writers, film makers and artists researching their subjects.
Peter Weir's researcher based the costumes and settings for Picnic At Hanging Rock on photos from the Allen Family Albums, while acclaimed novelist and Orange Prize winner, Kate Grenville, is in and out, collecting data for her next work.
The library backs writers festivals, literacy programmes and has vast Health Information, Family History and Legal Information resources on tap.
At the hub of the operation are the librarians, library technicians and archivists affected by the Pay Equity decision.
Moir, generally in charge of 11 other workers, has just been alloted a special four-month project on Australian Performing Arts. An offsider is hauling together the thousands of different legal advices and papers published on the web, cataloguing and archiving them for accessibility.
"Paper is a very friendly format," Moir explains, "but electronic documents are another story.
"In 20 years time, who will know what you were doing on your little website at the Labor Council? Unless it is being stored in a retrievable fashion, we are going to lose our history.
"We have people, upstairs, archiving all sorts of web sites and electronic documents. They are saving them for future generations."
With technology coming in and out of vogue, it's not just about collection and storage but ensuring data can be retrieved in 20, or 50, years time.
As more and more evidence was presented, Steve Turner the PSA officer who ran the Pay Equity case, started to wonder whether or not the women had been sold short.
"As things developed it became apparent the work they performed - primarily the storage and retrieval of information - was more akin to IT workers than the engineers we had claimed parity with," he explained.
Moir doesn't doubt some talents have left the library because of low wages but reckons their numbers would be few.
Why? Because, she says, most are driven by love for and commitment to the job.
She began agitating for better recognition years ago and filed her first formal submission more than two years ago.
But, she recognises, the battle for gender equity has been waged over decades. Former workmate, Lesley Payne, was pushing the issue in the 1970s.
"It's a great result," Moir says, "but they are the ones I feel sorry for, the ones who won't get the advantage. A lot of people worked here for a long time and have moved on or retired."
by Jim Marr
Joy Buckland |
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Graham James Ingliss is a big man with a red face and bull neck. He lives in affluent North Sydney and is a disciple of something called "breakout culture".
He introduced breakout culture to his domain at the ANZ bank immediately on being appointed district manager and it was "breakout culture", apparently, that made him see red when Padstow branch manager Joy Buckland appeared to put workmates ahead of the bank.
It mattered little, it seemed, that Ms Buckland was national president of a union, the Finance Sector Union, engaged in industrial action over failed wage negotiations.
Ingliss counselled and warned Ms Buckland, in meeting and by letter, that her position was in jeopardy.
He was in the Federal Court at Sydney, last week, defending his contention that when union and bank interests collided it was her duty to back the bank.
But back to breakout culture. What, in the name of all that's holy, does it mean?
Simple, according to Ingliss, embracing the values of the bank and being passionate about the organisation's goals and aspirations.
"It's trying to get people to think differently, to thing outside the square and be bold. It's the three words - perform, grow and breakout," he explained.
Or, as Justice Wilcox observed, three words where one would have done.
"It's just a great shame that ordinary English words can't be used. They are much more meaningful," His Honour lamented.
Mr Ingliss went on to tell the court that managers didn't only have to enact bank policies, they had to believe in them, That the bank's "values" must be applied to all their decision-making.
Ms Buckland appeared to have bucked these fundamental tenets by seeking to ensure stop work action was successful and, worse still, speaking to the media, as the FSU and ANZ locked horns over their EBA deadlock.
Other issues, too, fizzed in the background - overtime cutbacks, staffing levels and the ANZ's "flexible relief model" - code for using temps to cover employee absences.
Ms Buckland it seemed, not only failed to push certain bank positions but, sure as hell, she didn't believe in them.
His Honour asked Mr Ingliss if the union president was entitled to tell fellow workers she felt the bank was wrong "when she, on your own admission, probably knows more about the state of negotiations than you, because she was present and you weren't at the negotiating table? Is she supposed to say nothing even though she thinks what's coming down from the Bank's negotiation is wrong, and even though she's been trusted by her constituency as the head of elected representatives in FSU, to look after the interests of the members?"
"I don't believe," Mr Ingliss said, "that her role as a manager should be to pass those views on."
"You don't think you're a tad one-eyed about this, Mr Inglis?"
"I believe in what I'm doing."
Mr Ingliss was insistent, it was Ms Buckland's role to promote the bank's views, irrespective of the FSU's position on any issue. Her failure to do this, he insisted, was part of the reason she had been censured.
The district manager conceded that, in a heated post stopwork exchange, he had ordered removal of union material from a noticeboard inside the secure area at the Padstow branch and labelled the noticeboard "a shrine" to Buckland and the FSU.
But he ducked and weaved when it came to how a union representative might operate in his breakout culture-driven world. He hadn't, he said, even thought about the relationship between bank and union, nor, did he necessarily, think he should.
"If it happens a union spokesperson, an elected official, is a bank employee, you would expect them to do the right thing by their members by being prepared to speak out frankly, as needs be, would you not?" Justice Wilcox pressed.
"Look, I don't really believe I am qualified to answer that. I don't know what the union talk to their members about."
"That's not the point. We're talking about the principle. You'd expect somebody who represented you to speak out when the need arose to protect your interest, wouldn't you?"
"I'm not in a union."
Finally, he would, he agreed if his representative was a lawyer or MP.
The FSU is alleging five separate breaches of Workplace Relations Act provisions by the Bank in regard to various warnings and censures against its president, dating back to 1999.
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Rather than acknowledge that being a principle free zone cost Labor the last election, and that having democratic participatory processes that leads to policies that make a difference is the key to relevance, the spin doctors who first floated throwing unions out of their own party now are now advocating putting out the Light on the Hill, the ALP's Socialist Objective.
There are three possible reasons why you might argue that the Labor Party should dump the Socialist Objective:
1. You have not read it;
2. You do not understand its historic significance;
3.You are a Liberal.
In a world of increasing inequality where Labor's challenge is to reconnect with working people,the socialist objective is more relevant than ever because it provides a philosophical anchor for a reinvigorated Labor policy agenda.
Every Labor membership card contains the objective. It reads very simply. It supports the "democratic socialisation of industry, production and exchange, to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features."
The socialist objective is a recognition that it is the role of government in a democratic society to intervene to ensure that all citizens get a fair go and that we live in a decent society. Its focus is on outcomes for people, about eliminating exploitation and anti-social features. Market intervention is limited to the "extent necessary".
The pledge is a practical, flexible, commonsense statement of how a good government should operate for the best interest of all citizens. It contains 22 statements of principle including explicitly recognising the right to own private property. It speaks to all the issues of modern society as it has been regularly fine tuned over the years. In contrast, opponents of the pledge appear ideologically obsessed with painting a picture of a tired, outdated Marxist manifesto rather than dealing with what it actually says.
Those against the pledge have to ask themselves: are they against eliminating exploitation? Against eliminating anti-social features in society? Or are they just against challenging unfettered free-market ideology? If they are not prepared to challenge the market for the good of the many, then they are against the very reason Labor exists.
Labor's historic reason for existence is to create democratic institutions that protect ordinary citizens from exploitation by corporate power. The socialist objective statement of its reason for existence talks of "the aspirations of the Australian people for a decent, secure, dignified and constructive way of life" and the necessary historical struggle of unions for this aspiration that gave birth to party
It is a simple assertion that a fair society is more important than a market ideology. It could not be more modern or historically relevant. Why throw this away?
Nothing sets Labor apart from other parties more than its grand history. It's birth so dramatically altered the public debate about the role of government that the early Liberal leader Alfred Deakin declared "we are all socialists now". Labor carried the Australian ethos of a "fair go" into areas as diverse as work, health care and pensions. From the conscription referendum to the dismissal, from the depression to our leadership during World War II, the influence of Labor values has been the decisive force in our nation's political life.
To throw this all away on the glib advice of a few spin doctors would be as disastrous as throwing South Sydney out of the National Rugby League. Take away the team colours and the supporters won't recognise the team. Labor, after its lowest primary vote since before World War I, needs to reconnect with its potential supporters, not further confuse them.
Simon Crean's Labor must draw on its fundamental principles to create an agenda that connects to real issues faced by ordinary Australians in the same way Whitlam did before 1972. The fact that Chifley and Whitlam could respond differently in different times places them in the Labor tradition of practical application of principle. They did not need to throw out the principle.
A policy of offering nothing different cost Labor the election. Those who want to get rid of Labor's principles and kick out the unions who started the party are part of the problem, not the solution.
Labor in New Zealand went back to first principles and advocated setting a peoples bank. The aspirational voters in the marginal seats loved the idea of lower fees and better service and Helen Clark is know the Prime Minister. Citizens who feel insecure for economic reasons actually want the government to do something.
In age where the collapses of the Enron and HIH' are destroying people's lives, the objective's historical commitment to stand up for the Australian Citizens against the big end of town is an electoral asset not to be thrown away.
Labor's opportunity is to do what is has always done: argue for economic and social policies that benefit the many, not the few. Within this framework of Labor principle there is opportunity for debate as to the best way forward. For those who don't like Labor principle, they can always join the Liberal Party.
Paul Smith is a Labor Councillor on Sutherland Shire Council, the secretary of the NSW Fabian Society and an ASU activist in the IT Workers Alliance.
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James Tobin said "I have nothing in common with these anti-globalization rebels." Tobin has passed away but the Tobin Tax lives on as a powerful symbolic idea.
The break between man and idea happened some time ago. The Tobin Tax is now a powerful symbol for many NGOs and activist networks around the world. The best know is the French based ATTAC (now translated as Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions To Assist the Citizen) that was launched in 1998. ATTAC was the prime mover behind the first World Social Forum at Porto Allegre in 2001.
James Tobin himself disowned the politics of people whose ideology he didn't agree with. In this he was like the man whose ideas inspired his interest in economics - John Maynard Keynes. Tobin has described himself as a disciple of Keynes and as with Jesus Christ's' disciples, he had more flaws than his guiding light.
Keynes' Ideas and What Became of Them
Keynes too was very opposed to leftists, although he did flirt with the British Labour Party at one time. Keynes was a person who early on felt that managing international finances was best left to a few good men in the City. Perhaps if they had the same enlightened views as Keynes this may have been almost a good idea. However this was a political impossibility given the sensitivity of politicians to lobbying from certain quarters. It would also be a removal of any prospect of democratic input into monetary and fiscal policy (faint hope such input would have of a hearing notwithstanding).
Later in Keynes life, after World War II when international financial institutions were taking shape, he also saw that this was a dangerous idea, as he fought unsuccessfully to prevent the IMF and World Banks taking the form they did. The world system and these institutions have been described as Keynesian since 1944 and Bretton Woods, but as George Monbiot points out "in truth, Keynes bitterly opposed them. He predicted that if the world economy was managed by these means, the wealth and power of the creditor nations would be massively enhanced, while the debtors would sink ever further into poverty and dependency. He called instead for an "international clearing union" which would automatically redeem imbalances in trade and cancel debt, by the ingenious means of forcing creditors to pay interest on their international currency surplus at the same rate as debtors.
Once again, the United States objected. It threatened to withhold its war loan if the British delegation, led by Keynes, persisted with his proposal, and he was forced to back down and agree to the formation of the bodies which later became the World Bank and IMF. In a letter to the Times soon afterwards, Keynes conceded that the commercial policies the new bodies would permit may prove to be "very foolish" and "so destructive of international trade that, if they were adopted, Bretton Woods will have been rather a waste of time."".
Tobin was a classical US liberal establishment figure and as with Keynes in England, he had strong links to the US establishment and worked closely with the Kennedy administration and was an advisor to George McGovern during his unsuccessful run at the Presidency in 1972. This was also the time his idea of a tax on international currency transactions came out. The Bretton Woods system was in crisis, largely because of the way the US had financed the Vietnam War, and currency speculation was developing as computer transactions were beginning to dominate. So he suggested a tax of 0.1% to 0.5% on foreign exchange transactions. With foreign exchange trading now running at about $2 trillion per day, the finances here are enormous.
Ideas On The Loose
This was the idea that has been taken on by what Tobin called "the wrong side" in an interview he did with German magazine Der Spiegel. "I have nothing in common with these anti-globalization rebels" he said.
This is where the establishment economist reveals his alarm about how what he thinks is "his" idea being taken over by others and also his difference from Keynes. He says he supports the IMF and World Bank and the WTO, all institutions that ATTAC is calling for the abolition of. He says that the revenue from his proposed tax should be put at the disposal of the World Bank. I think ATTAC would see this as the drunks in charge of the hotel. Tobin states that he believes in the market and free trade.
Daivd Moberg in InTheseTimes.Comquotes Susan George, spokesperson for ATTAC and long time critic of the power of transnational corporations and the world economic system, who looks at thinks very differently. "People feel that there's a public sphere, a social sphere - something outside the market". They want freedom from the "dictatorship of the market" imposed by "financial globalization." Tobin called for the IMF to be strengthened and broadened. Here the key difference is the small liberal regard for their own intelligence, and the general disregard for discussion of their views with people. In his Der Spiegel interview, Tobin says that ATTAC did ask him to speak with them, but he refused.
Tobin did advocate the reining in of the markets, particularly in comments made after the 1997 Asian crisis. He lauded the role played by Greenspan in the strong expansion of the US economy since the early 1990s, another example of his faith in economic experts to know what's best for the rest of us.
The Tobin Tax idea has been supported by moderate politicians from some European countries and Canada. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin seems to favour the idea, much to the horror of the British Labour Party. While the French left parties aren't exactly wildly radical, Will Hutton compares the politics there very favourably with the situation in England - "the dreary laws of Gradgrind economics that we accept as axiomatic ...are being disproved daily by our old rival....Vive smart regulation. Vive the social contract. Vive high public spending. Vive la France."
The tax itself, as Tobin himself saw later on, has great implementation problems and the main economic critics of it see this as the great stumbling block, apart from neo-classical economic opposition to its interference with efficient market mechanisms. For a good rundown on the practical and political arguments over the Tobin Tax, and its prospects see a paper from Oxfam by Heinz Stecher
Stecher gives a brief rundown of the groups who are using the symbolic idea of the Tobin Tax as their organising focus, including ATTAC, but also the Canadian Halifax Initiative, the Californian-based Tobin Tax Initiative and many other US groups, the UK based War On Want, several NGOs in Brazil such as the Rede Bancos network, and the coalition of Catholic development agencies, CIDSE.
Moberg and Susan George see the key to ATTAC and similar organisations as beginning to counter the main barrier to organizing on the left, the "sense of inevitability" about contemporary capitalist globalisation, by raising hopes that "another world is possible."
For an overview of James Tobin's life and work see Godfrey Hodgson in The Guardian
by Andrew Casey
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Italy's big three national trade union centres, representing about 12 million members, have called a one -day general strike for Monday week ( April 16) against the right-wing Berlusconi government's plans to introduce new laws which will make it very easy to sack workers.
The general strike, the first in twenty years, is expected to get overwhelming support from the union movement's membership.
Until Silvio Berlusconi's arrival on the political scene Italy has always had a strong tradition of consensual government, and the labour movement has always had a strong influence in the running of the country.
But Berlusconi's political heroes are Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher.He emerged victorious in elections last year, with the promise of overhauling labour laws, and cutting back the traditional power of the union movement.
Ironically Berlusconi's greatest current ally in Europe is Tony Blair, the UK Labour Party's PM - while the German and French political leadership look on askance at what Berlusconi is doing.
The major left national union centre, the CGIL, demonstrated the mass anger at the government's employment policies at the end of March when estimates of between 1 million and 2 million people turned up to a rally in the streets of Rome.
The CGIL demonstrators, brought in from all over the country on 9,000 buses, 60 trains, three ships and two planes turned the city's Circus Maximus - the site of ancient Roman chariot races - into a sea of red flags and banners.
The Left was also enraged because Ministers in the Berlusconi government had suggested that a political murder - four days before the rally - of a government labour adviser had happened because of the urgings of the trade union movement.
Marco Biagi, who had been killed by an off-shoot of the Red Brigades, was the controversial author of the new laws which are strongly opposed by all sections of the union movement.
As a result of the huge turnout at the Marc rally trade union leaders are confident that the general strike will get huge support .
The other - national trade union centres, the CISL and the UIL - which did not support the CGIL March Rome rally, are backing Monday week's general strike.
Sergio Cofferati, the CGIL head , committed his union centre to organising the successful mass rally in Rome, which was described by some Italian newspapers as the biggest of its kind ever to take place in the country.
The extraordinary success of the rally is now being seen as a personal victory for Cofferati.
He is now being hailed as the man who could at last bring unity to the divided and bickering ranks of the Italian Left and turn it into an effective opposition to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Many of his political allies, and opponents, warned against holding the March rally saying the Left would be wrongfooted by the tragedy, and would find it hard to mount a determined protest to laws designed to give employers much greater freedom to fire their workers.
But Cofferati had different ideas.
"We are here to fight terrorism, to support democracy and to show the government its intentions are wrong," he told the demonstrators.
"With your courage and your passion, we will realise our dreams."
Cofferati's CGIL has 5.3m members, a mainly blue collar union grouping with its roots in the industrial north. It had close ties with the former Italian Communist party and now its modern heirs, the Democrats of the Left and the far-left Communist Refoundation party. Founded in 1906, it is by far the oldest of the three Italian national union centres..
Savino Pezzotta's CISL, with its 4m members, is a more centrist, predominantly white-collar union grouping, strong in the south and in public administration. It was closely linked with the defunct Christian Democrat party which dominated post-war Italian politics until brought down by the bribes scandals of the early 1990s.
The smaller UIL, led by Luigi Angeletti, is about half the size of the CISL. It has a more balanced territorial and occupational make-up than the other unions, with a significant membership among middle management. Politically, it was tied to the Socialist party which had its heyday under Bettino Craxi in the 1980s and also disintegrated under the corruption probes
by The Chaser
The Chaser |
But the victory comes amid concerns that the judging process may have been tainted.
Several members of the nine-man judging panel expressed surprise at the 438 to 9 vote outcome. However, 78-year-old Mugabe explained the freakish result by saying, "What I may lack in youth I more than make up for with bootyliciousness."
Mugabe was warmly greeted by his supporters after the victory, including Miss South Africa and Miss Nigeria, who described Miss Zimbabwe's masculinity and long-lasting marriage as "minor administrative oversights".
The dictator raised eyebrows early on in the pageant, answering the question, "If you were crowned Miss Zimbabwe what would you try to achieve?" with, "World domination and the mass slaughter of white farmers." But he easily won the field over in the talent section when he demonstrated his ability to exterminate all who oppose his agenda, using two of the judges and all of his competitors as examples.
Fearing Mugabe may compromise the integrity of the beauty pageant, world monitoring body Entertainment Tonight sent several observers.
Their interim report cited several instances of judges' free will being impaired, including descriptions of lengthy, desperate queues being stalled at the emergency exits just before Mugabe took part in the swimsuit section.
The report went on to warn that a failure to discipline Mugabe could damage the credibility of the Miss Universe Pageant as the pre-eminent beauty competition in the universe.
by David Peetz
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These days, however, many towns are strangling as services, led by the banks, are being withdrawn. With yet another round of cuts announced this week, it seems the banks now have a new theme song of their own.....
Flick Go The Branches
Down in the Board,
the old banker stands,
Grasping his pen
in his thin moneyed hands;
Fixed is his gaze
on the staff list below,
Glory if he cuts them,
won't he make his bonus grow!
CHORUS:
Flick go the Branches!
Flick! Flick! Flick!
Wide is his blow
And his pen moves quick,
The Staff look around
Being beaten by the blows,
And cursing the old banker
In his Rolls Silver Shadow!
In the middle of the flow
In his soft velvet chair,
Sits the boss of the board
With his scalps everywhere,
Notes customers he's fleeced
As they come up on his screen,
Paying strict attention
That his bonus isn't seen.
CHORUS
The HR Boy is there
Waiting in demand,
With his blackened list of closures
In his trembling hands,
Spies one branch that's open,
Some customers are back,
Hears what he's waiting for
It's "Close it down, Jack!"
CHORUS
Now the round of cuts is over,
We've all got our cheques,
So pack up your belongings
We've been told to go to heck;
The bosses close the doors
And then behind them have a spree,
They open up the champers
And it's "have a drink with me!"
CHORUS
David Peetz
David [email protected]
Alistair Hulett |
The album deals with the emotions and trials of a radical time in the history of Scottish workers. We caught up with Alistair to discuss the album, folk music, and working class politics at the National Folk Festival in Canberra over Easter, an event sponsored by the CFMEU A.C.T.
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Alistair, your new album is called 'Red Clydeside'. Could you give us a bit of background on why you chose the stories of the Red Clyde of 1915 as the theme for your album?
It's a history of Glasgow that many Glaswegians are even unaware of. And I think it's a very important history to be told. 'Red Clydeside' erupted virtually with the declaration of war in 1914 and it was centred amongst the munitions workers and the shipbuilders. It began as a revolt against the level of wages and conditions and escalated, because of the influence of a number of socialists, into a revolt against the war in itself. There are a lot of very important lessons to learn from 'Red Clydeside'; lessons of how it was built and lessons of why it failed. I think they're all important and that's what I tried to explore through this album.
On listening to the album, one of the big themes that came out was the power of an active and unified workers movement. The work of Match Girls and rent striker Mrs. Barbour were all a reflection of workers coming together. How do you think this level of unity came about in Glasgow?
Well, Red Clydeside didn't appear out of a vacuum. There was a massive depression in 1908 that politicised workers all over Britain. By 1910 through until the declaration of war there was a period known as the 'Great Unrest' and the rulers of Britain were absolutely terrified by it. It was in the words of the leader of the 'Red Clydeside', John MacLean, he said that the workers of Britain were "entering the rapids of revolution", Red Clydeside was really a continuation of the 'Great Unrest'. Elsewhere because of the patriotism and the jingoism that was being promoted, the working class elsewhere succumbed to all that propaganda whereas in Glasgow it actually intensified the struggle. The reasons for that are too complex to go into here, but I think the most significant factors were the large numbers of Irish and highland refugees who were no friends of British imperialism for obvious reasons. But I think the most significant thing was the presence of so many militant socialists and trade unionists. That was really a happy coincidence that they happened to be there at the time. If it hadn't been for people like John MacLean and Mrs. Barbour who lead the rent strike of 1915 then the anger would not have been as focused but by being there they were able to direct the anger and actually turn an industrial strike into a political strike.
The linking of the industrial and the political is an important element of 'Red Clydeside', and your album isn't just historical reflection, it also serves a political purpose. How would you describe that political purpose in rejuvenating that 'Red Clydeside' spirit?
Well I think 'Red Clydeside' is a very inspiring story but we can't just leave it at that. I think it's good to reflect on the struggles of the past but the point is to learn from the past in order to make it happen in the future and in the present and to learn the lessons. For me that's what folk music is all about. It's the unrecorded histories, and folk songs are full of unrecorded histories and often that's the only way we can learn because workers don't write the history books. Folk music is actually the oral history of the working class.
Just to tap in on that, Folk music has often given form and expression to working communities needs and desires. How do you see yourself fitting into the modern folk scene and what place do politics have in the contemporary scene?
Huge question Nick
We ask all the big ones in 'Workers Online'
All strength to you. I think that in the present we are in a period very similar probably to just before the 'Great Unrest'. Where there's a lot of widespread anger, for instance, against globalisation and privatisation but the anger and the bitterness is not yet quite focused. I think it's the task of socialists to do what John MacLean did and give it a focus. Everytime there is a closure of a factory we have to be there agitating and saying that we can actually win if we fight back. In the instances where socialists have played that role, for instance in England, with the closure of the Rover car plant outside Birmingham, it was the Socialist Alliance I think which was able to connect with the militant shop stewards. If it had been left to the official trade union movement the aim was to have a large march and then go home. But it was actually the socialists and shop stewards who argued that there had to be a march to Westminster London. The response was that the Blair government was forced to find the money to keep the car plant going. I think that's hugely significant. That was huge victory and we can't speak about it often enough.
Alistair, you finish 'Red Clydeside' with a reference to the anti-capitalist or anti-globalisation movement. And you must see this as a contemporary expression of some ever present values, how do you see the movement as fitting into the political sphere of the Left?
I think the traditional Left, the old Left, has been far to slow to respond to this because it hasn't recognised it. These young people are not necessarily adopting the forms we are familiar with and they refer to themselves as 'swarms' and they use a new terminology but in actual fact, what they're doing is very similar to what has been done in the past. It's just finding a new vocabulary for it. I think that socialists need to interact with these people and not try to take the movement over but follow and learn from it. Not direct it but be in there with our input and our experience. We also have to do it with a degree of humility as well and see that these people, these young kids, after years of us saying the struggle's over and the working class are not going to fight back, suddenly they caused Seattle to erupt. I couldn't believe it when I turned on the television and saw these young people coming together with the organised trade unionists, especially the teamsters and the steelworkers, that was what made Seattle flare. And that is really what we must try and build, we must build links with the 'swarms'.
Just to change tact a little bit Alistair, I wanted to ask you about your involvement in workers struggles here. Some of your fantastic songs have raised occupational health and safety issues like the asbestos question in the Wittenoon mines in Western Australia. This obviously is linked into criticising an agenda perpetrated by employers in the field, but maybe you'd like to give us a run down of some of the influences and inspiration of some of these disputes.
There's been a few struggles in Australia I'm very proud to have been involved in. There was a strike on Cockatoo Island back in the early 90s and we organised quite a few concerts and so forth and were able to build links with the workers. Rather than having any direct influence on the outcome of the strike it had an impact on the political struggle. What it did was politicise our audience which at the time were predominately young people unfamiliar with trade unionism and often hostile to it from an anarchist perspective. Bringing them into contact with organised labour was an educational process for us all. I think it was good for the people involved in the strike as well. It feels a bit grandiose to imagine as a political songwriter I'm actually able to shape history. I think it's the forces of organised labour which shape history. As a songwriter I stand on the sidelines and try to comment on it and celebrate it.
Alistair, final question, you've got a couple gigs coming up here. One in Melbourne and one in Bathurst, what should people expect from your upcoming gigs?
I'm doing a few gigs but those two are going to be devoted to the 'Red Clydeside', which I performed at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. In these shows, unlike in Canberra, there will be time to breath between sentences so it won't be as panicked or rushed! But hopefully people will find it an inspiring story.
Fantastic. Alistair Hulett, thankyou very much for your time - Dare to struggle, dare to win?
Absolutely!
Copies of Alistair Hulett's CD 'Red Clydeside' are available at his shows across Australia. Or by mail-order at www.folkicons.co.uk mailto:[email protected]
Tour Dates:
Thurs, 4th Braidwood Folk Club
Fri. 5th Sydney: The Harp Irish Pub
Sat. 6th Stanley, Soldiers Memorial Hall
Sun. 7th Tyers Hall, Nr Traralgon, Vic
Thurs. 11th Sth Coast Folk Club, Noarlunga, SA
Fri. 12th Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
Fri. 19th - Sun. 21st Fairbridge Folk Festival, WA
Tues. 23rd Katomba, NSW, Clarendon Hotel
Fri. 26th Merry Muse Folk Club, Canberra
Sat. 27th St Albans Folk Festival, NSW
Sun. 28th Sydney: The Harp Irish Pub
Further information from Jane or John, 03 9387 3376
At a recent forum organised by the Fabian Society, senior Liberals were decrying the fact that the modern party had little connection with the principles of Liberalism.
Dumped candidate Greg Barnes flailed the party for its position on asylum seekers, mutual obligation and work for the dole, arguing that none of these polices have anything to do with the ideas that spawned his party.
And Liberal stalwart Billy Wentworth sounded more like an anti-globalisation activist as he railed against the way governments had abrogated their responsibility to the people by deferring to the whims of the corporate giants.
As these principled Liberals spoke, I couldn't help thinking that the crisis of ideology had crossed the political spectrum. You could have substituted 'Labor' for 'Liberal' and had a very similar debate.
Today, both the major political parties see corporate globalisation as inevitable, yet neither has developed a roadmap for dealing with the complex dynamics that govern the process.
Both take the view that we should accept the pain is doing us good, without caring to quantify the benefits. The only difference today appears to be in the extents they help the victims deal with the pain.
With the National Australia Bank poised to embark on a mind-boggling series of job cuts and branch closures, politicians of all colours will feign outrage; yet the market will reward NAB and its shareholders.
As Geoff Walsh concedes in this week's interview, government has less power than it did 20 years ago when it opened up the economy; the challenge is how to harness what influence it retains.
While some in the party call on the ALP post-election review to dump the 'Socialist principle', the real challenge is to come up with a story that melds the simplicity of the Labor project - egalitarianism, equity and a fair go - with the complexity of the age.
If our political parties can not grapple with these issues and instead continue to follow the polls and pander to the prejudice and fears fueled by the forces that it allows to run unabated their future is certain.
No contest of ideas, no reason for people to get involved and, ultimately, no one to support them either.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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Yesterday I witnessed a manifestation of the death of liberalism in our country. I visited the Villawood Detention Centre here in Sydney. It is bleak, Dickensian in its tone, and the air is filled with a palpable sense of injustice.
Many of those I spoke to - refugees from the Middle East - are articulate and intelligent. They have been waiting to have their cases resolved by the overtly political system that passes for legal process for over two years in some cases.
Their stories are a testament to the indomnitability of the human spirit.
One of those people who went to Villawood with me is a mother of seven - a brave woman who cares particularly about the plight of the children who live their daily lives behind barbed wire. She has been put on the 'banned from entry' list at the Centre - it is alleged, with no evidence apparently to support the assertion - that she once took a camera into a Detention Centre in Port Headland.
Whilst I spend time with refugees in the visiting area - a paddock with a few desultory trees and the ever-present razor wire fence - officers of the company that runs this prison - ACM - stare at me with suspicious eyes. No doubt my presence is reported to the Department of Immigration official who works at the Centre.
My experience, and the experience of many others who have visited these 'hell-holes', confirms that Australia is losing its liberal soul. If it ever genuinely had one - that is.
The failure of genuine liberals to stand up to the creeping Victorian conservatism that is part and parcel of policy development means that Australia, in my view, is a more brutal place today than it was twenty years ago.
This evening, I want to outline how this is so but to propose that the liberal project - one that began in the 18th century and which has been the only genuine civilizing force in the world - is still with us but in desperate need of resuscitation.
A Hardening of the Heart
Let me first make the point that the social conservatism that pervades social policy today is not something upon which the non-labor side of politics has a monopoly. New Labor in Britain and Clinton's Democrats, and in this country, the utterances of Labor thinker Mark Latham, bear witness to this fact.
In two areas, welfare policy and employment policy, - the social safety net that was once the great accomplishment of the liberal ideal, is in danger of being ripped wide open. Into the hole created by that ripping will fall millions of disadvantaged people.
Let me take first the welfare reforms begun by the Labor government of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, but vastly accelerated by John Howard's government. These are reforms built on the notion of 'mutual obligation.' It is a term much loved by Britain's Tony Blair and it has within it a 19th century religious undertone that divides the poor into the 'deserving' and the 'non-deserving.'
Mark Latham, in a recent speech, used a phrase that sums up what this concept of 'mutual obligation' is about - "the shared expectation that people are responsible for their own behaviour."
Whilst no-one would deny that to live in society an individual must act responsibly and in a way that maximises community well-being and social and economic prosperity, account must be taken of an individual's emotional, social and economic circumstances in meeting that responsibility.
This is why the criminal sentencing process that our courts have developed imposes a range of penalties on wrongdoers and tries to ensure that the punishment fits the crime. To have it any other way would lead to manifest injustice and a more inhumane society - despite what ill-informed 'law and order merchants' might argue.
The extent to which the doctrine of 'mutual obligation' is illiberal in the sense of it imposing penalties on individuals with little regard to their own unique situation was recently illustrated by the release of the Pearce Review on social security penalties.
I should note, as an aside, that the members of this Review, Professor Dennis Pearce, Heather Ridout and Professor Julian Disney, are certainly not the type that one would find at an S11 type protest! They are essentially fair-minded Australians who didn't like what they found.
And what they found was a welfare system that imposes 'penalties' of up to $1450 on individuals who breach the conditions of their social security support. They found that it 'is astounding that the system designed to support Australians in need could trample over the rights of the most vulnerable in our society.'
The Minister responsible for this area - Senator Vanstone, a highly intelligent and thinking Liberal, on this occasion sounded a little too glib in response to this Review. I heard her on the ABC's 7.30 Report note that the job of job seekers is to get up each day and look for work. That means that if they have an appointment with Centrelink or a job network provider they must be there at the appointed hour.
Fair enough on first blush Senator. But what if you are job seeker or other welfare recipient who is schizophrenic or suffering from the malignant sadness that affects too many in Western society - depression. Those with such illnesses find it just as hard to get out of bed or the house each day, as does someone with a bad case of the flu.
In other words, is the concept of 'mutual obligation' respectful enough of an individual's own circumstances. Are their fundamental human rights being accounted for adequately in a system that seems to more about stick than carrot? Have we, in reacting to what was seen as the failure of the post-war welfare state, moved too far in the direction of self-reliance?
In relation to the last question, the answer seems to be yes. And this is illustrated by the second example I want to talk about tonight - the Howard government's bold social experiment in labor market reform. The privatisation of the job-seekers market.
The creation of government run employment networks and the creation of training programmes to skill those who needed skilling was a much-lauded reform of the post-war era. The last manifestation of such a philosophy was the Keating Government's 1994 'Working Nation.'
The Howard government has taken this area of policy in a radically different direction. It abolished 'Working Nation' and replaced it with a program whose name is designed to make middle Australia feel as though at last those lazy dole-bludgers are being kicked in the butt - "Work for the Dole." And it has privatised the Commonwealth Employment Service so that now job-seekers must sign on with a private sector job provider who understandable wants to make a profit out of running such a business.
Taking firstly, the 'Work for the Dole' program. If one accepts that the role of a government acting according to liberal principles is to enhance the education and social and material well-being of an individual, how does this Program fare?
It is certainly a Program that provides an individual with capacity to develop working skills such as participating in a team environment, and it enhances a sense of responsibility to one's employer and fellow workers. But where it falls down is in enhancing the educational capacity of individuals. 'Work for the Dole' is essentially a community work program - painting fences, creating walking tracks, planting trees. In this sense it is failing our young people because these tasks are hardly equipping one to work in a world where technology and value-adding are the name of the game.
Sure, the Program is popular with voters - and I cynically surmised why a little earlier. But it is not an expenditure of taxpayers' money that is going to make us a cleverer Nation and more importantly, ensure that those who might have been failed by the education system are given at least an opportunity to share in the benefits of that cleverer Nation.
As for the Job Network here the issue of a liberal response is clear - a liberal will want to ensure that, the human rights of the individual, which includes the right to work, will be paramount in any system that has been designed to meet that right.
The Howard government's Job Network has recently been the subject of a Productivity Commission Inquiry. As in the case of the Pearce Review, again the participating organisation in this Inquiry is not a paid up member of the anti-capitalist society!
The Productivity Commission's interim findings are of interest to a liberal who applies the principles mentioned earlier. Whilst the PC 's report indicates that the arrangements are an improvement on the previous government monopoly, there are disturbing trends emerging in relation to the most disadvantaged members of the job-seeking community.
The report includes this comment about those job-seekers who, for a myriad of reasons, may be harder to place in a job.
'There is evidence that some job seekers receive little direct assistance after referral to Intensive Assistance...some [job] providers acknowledged they were unwilling to invest time or resources in job seekers who they felt would be unable to help achieve an outcome..." This is from the Government Department that oversees the Network!
And there is this from Centrelink - 'there is anecdotal evidence that some vulnerable people are being breached...the impact of increased breaching levels has had a significant impact on the social and economic hardship experienced by disadvantaged jobseekers, according to the main welfare agencies."
In short, this privatised system of welfare delivery is exhibiting signs of market failure. A liberal response to this would be for the government to step in to ensure that it meets its wider responsibility to the community (as opposed to the private job-seeker's profit motive) and creates an organisation that can help those people who are vulnerable to obtain meaningful employment.
The Liberal Project Reborn
In the examples I have cited tonight we have evidence of a philosophical approach to governing that panders to middle class insecurity, and is thus not universal in its concerns, and Victorian religiosity. It is not an approach to government that is consistent with the liberal project. The liberal ideal as espoused by its founders, Locke, Mill and Burke (a man mistaken for being a conservative but whose support for Irish Catholics in the 1780's marks him as a genuine liberal) and Kant, is one that believes that the humanity of the individual is an ideal that must cross all classes, religions, and systems of government.
It is an approach that one finds in the English magazine, The Economist - to wit, its editorial this week on the need for democracy in the theocratic societies of the Middle East.
In Australia the application of liberal principles would see a closing of the gap between rich and poor and a respect for the human rights of those who are currently the victims of a new found and corrosive orthodoxy of self-reliance. Corrosive of community in that it encourages dis-engagement from the continual fight to ensure justice for all is more than mantra. And corrosive in the sense that it does not foster understanding of the vulnerable and over-emphasises economic security and thus self-interest.
Mark Latham seems to me to fall into this trap with his statement that 'politics on the fringe [the outer suburbs of Western Sydney] follows two golden rules:
The Party that backs economic aspiration ahead of economic envy will most likely win; and
The Party that has the longest list of excuses for people who do the wrong thing will most likely lose.'
If we are to be a society that puts value in the notion of equality then this will require policies that have as their centre point a liberalism that encourages the community to value a sense of individuality, diversity and responsibility equally.
This the liberalism that stems from Aristotle and is overlayed with Locke and it is the liberalism that will result in a much greater sense of community cohesion than the current narrowly-defined self-centred conservatism. Instead of trampling on an individual's humanity through locking them for years in detention centres when they have committed no crime, or crushing their self-esteem and stretched financial circumstances through the imposition of draconian fines and parking them at the need of the job-seekers' queue, we should formulate policies that provide individuals with an opportunity to be human.
By this I mean, we must allow for human fragility and vulnerability. We must take the time and the care to make sure that we maximise the potential in all of us - this means spending time and resources on those who find it difficult to sustain work, or who require strong psychological support to get through each day. And it means allowing those who come to our shores seeking freedom the opportunity to share in our society quickly - particularly women and children.
This is a liberalism that declares war on prejudice and poverty.
It is a liberalism that encourages our Nation to embrace the world and not reject it through cuts in foreign aid, disengagement with our region or prison camps for vulnerable people who go through personal hell to experience that right that belongs to all humanity - freedom.
It is a liberalism that alone can deliver socially equitable outcomes by ensuring that no one ideological obsession -be it privatisation or mutual obligation - should be applied to every policy initiative despite the fact that to do so is ripping apart social fabric.
It is a liberalism that refuses to pander to powerful interest groups' insatiable demands for the community to pay more for the product of their inefficiencies - the South Australian car industry or the refusal of unions to even engage in dialogue about appropriate and sensible outsourcing or privatisation, spring to mind here.
Above all, it is a liberalism that works - it is still, as Tibor Machan of Auburn University has put it, 'a promising answer to the common political problem human beings face, namely, how to live together without diminishing our individuality or the shared characteristics of the lives we forge with many others.'
Thank you.
Greg Barns is a former senior advisor to the Howard Government and Chair of the Australian Republican Movement. Greg was disendorsed as the Liberal Candidate for the Tasmanian State Seat of Dennison due to his vocal criticism of the Howard Government's policies on Refugees. This paper was presented to a forum organised by the NSW Fabian Society
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'The five of us where nervous and I tell you that's a fact, for you should have seen the bastard who was carrying the axe' - 'A Tale They Won't Believe' Weddings Parties Anything
David Foster has a shop at the Sydney Easter Show.
Never heard of David Foster? Well you're missing out. David is Mr. Woodchopping in this country. With 178 World and 165 Australian titles to his credit it's surprising to learn that David has a fear of heights.
But if you thought that was the strangest thing about woodchopping you'd be surprised.
Watching the simian forms of the Northwest Tasmanian Axemen tag team (I kid you not) slouching through the showground it's easy to see where those jokes about Taswegians with close family ties come from.
But your modern axeman defies the stereotype of a swarthy bloke looking for some feral to knock some sense into.
Jason Wynyard, a fulltime axeman from New Zealand lists his favourite music as 'anything with rap'; while Harold Winkel is into cycling and restoring cars and likes Beethoven; Steven 'Chopper' Kirk is into Linkin Park; while the new age Dale Ryan is into Thai food and Madonna.
Then again there's blokes with monikers like Kerry Head, aka Heady, who lists his hobbies as woodchopping and shooting, while Laurie O'Toole who has been the Victorian champion for 20 years straight hates rap music.
These guys, with forearms like Mal Meninga's thighs, have been going toe to toe for the last fortnight at the Charles Moses Stadium at Olympic Park. When the woodchips fly it's no illusion that what you are seeing is a bit of honest graft turned into a competitive activity.
It's an interesting idea this work as competition.
It sure beats the over four billion (a rough estimate) horse events that feature on the arena next door.
They say that people resemble their pets, or the other way around, and this is never better illustrated than when the landed gentry gather across the river from Riverview for the annual horsefest at 'The Show'. Herds of whinnying horsey types with the regulation collars turned up have been wandering the showgrounds amidst the sugar coated, red-cordial, carny mayhem.
Buggies are big - with arcane events like 'Best two wheeled buggy and pony over fourteen hands but not greater than fifteen hands that's never been further south than Taralga'.
Still, it's better than the rest of the shite that's on offer at the madhouse that Is Olympic Park over the fortnight around Easter.
Horses deserve better than human beings, this is for certain. Tie The Knot has done more favours for this column's budget than was necessarily deserved or earned through the sort of hard graft that set David Foster on his way.
He is a champion horse. His win in the Chipping Norton paid my first two weeks rent upon moving to Sydney earlier this year.
He will be sorely missed.
He is retiring to a paddock down in the Riverina apparently, which is a better fate than that which awaits the 99.9 per cent of horses that make up the racing 'industry'. If you're wondering what happens to them then look up on your wall and see if you use any Blu-Tac. If you do there's probably a bit of racehorse under that poster up there.
It's been a big week for crowds. Not only have they descended upon the Show in their droves they're also back at the Rugby League, with the goodwill from the re-emergence of Souths and the surprising form of the Balmain Magpies being big draw cards.
From all accounts Leichhardt Oval has an atmosphere that hasn't been seen since the days of Blocker Roach and Garry Jack. It's a place to get along to some time this year. While the Canterbury Poodles have become a predictable non event.
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**************
Hundreds of Israeli tanks roll into West Bank settlements as Ariel Sharon declares his version of "jihad" against Palestinians. Shops and businesses are bombarded; civilians die in hospitals and homes while occupiers round up those suspected of attacking the Israeli state.
Foreign media are banned from the occupation zone; water and electricity supplies are shut down; an Australian woman protestor is shot and Ramallah hospital workers utilise a lull in fighting to bury 18 victims in a mass grave. Sharon gives elected Palestinian Authority leader, Yasser Arafat, his one-way ticket ultimatum, saying Israel wants to negotiate with someone else.
The Easter blitzkreig reduces the world's lone superpower to policy incoherence. First George Bush says Yasser Arafat is not a terrorist under the Bush Doctrine because "he had agreed to a peace process", next he green lights Sharon's push by putting the onus to stop Middle East violence on Arafat.
Then, presumably after consultation with Israel, it seems Arafat may be a Bush Doctrine terrorist after all. White House officials concede the various messages are not exactly "crisp".
..... ..... ......
Closer to home, unreconstructed class warrior Tony Abbott is on his favourite battleground with allies from the HR Nicholls Society.
In a speech to the extremist organisation, Abbott fails to let facts get in the way of his holy war against Aussie workers.
He calls on company bosses to make industrial relations their first priority, rather than leaving it to IR specialists, saying, and we quote, "war is too important to be left to the Colonels - the Generals need to be involved as well".
On the matter of facts: Abbott cites "a recent $200,000 fine (against a union which) went unpaid for months". Truth is, it was overturned last year and the matter was set down for reconsideration on May 16.
Despite that, Abbott insists "one way or another, this Government will make them pay".
Abbott goes on to misrepresent wage stats to claim workers are better off under AWAs than collective agreements. He bases his spin on a May 2000 ABS survey representing managerial, where there is a preponderance of AWA employment, and non-managerial workers.
Just goes to prove the old adage about truth being the first casualty of war.
... ... ...
The battle to save Australian shipping returns to the Federal Court where maritime unions contest the right of CSL to reflag the bulk carrier Yarra and return it to coastal trading with foreign workers, labouring under Third World conditions.
Battle lines were drawn when the Canadian owners announced they would transfer the Australian ship to the Asian arm of their operation. They pulled the same stunt with the CSL Torrens, returning it to Australian waters with a Bahamas flag and Ukranian crew.
Alongside the Federal Court action, maritime unions move against CSL in the Industrial Relations Commission, seeking to have Ukranians crewing another vessel brought under the Australian Award. True to form, Minister Abbott intervenes to support foreign capital against Australians workers.
... ... ...
The PSA fires a missile into the crumbling walls of gender-based wage inequality, winning pay rises of up to 26 percent for more than 1000 librarians, library technicians and archivists.
In addition, the abolition of age-based entry level salaries will see some young library technicians get an effective pay rise of 92 percent.
The Test Case decision, under NSW's Equal Remuneration Principle, is handed down by the Industrial Relations Commission full bench. It finds that not only had the responsibilities of affected workers been under-valued but there had also been significant recent increases in demand, skill and output.
... ... ...
The ACTU signs up for the war on poverty, throwing time and resources into a push for Australia's lowest paid workers to get a $25 increase.
Hotel cleaners, battling to feed, cloth and house their families on as little as $416 (gross), state their support as the Living Wage Case hearing opens in Melbourne.
Employers, representing Kerry Packer, Rupert Murdoch, Jodee Rich et all argue the claim is excessive.
They win support from the afore-mentioned Abbott, weekly salary approx $3750.00, who argues that any increase should be limited to a maximum of $10, before it is taxed. When it comes to class war, you've got to admit he's consistent.
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This Article does not represent the views and opnions of Workers Online or the Labor Council of New South Wales. Any comments and opinions within the Article are those of the Author only.
The sensational reports coming from the Woomera protests over the weekend have sparked new debates and perhaps signalled a turning point in the growing campaign to bring about the end of detention centres in Australia.
Coming just a few days after the successful Palm Sunday rallies around the country, the fact that over a thousand people of all ages travelled to a remote part of the South Australian desert to protest is a clear indication of the actual depth of support for the plight of refugees.
But in the wake of the inevitable condemnations from Howard and Ruddock, police allegations in the media regarding "violence", and amid talk of a possible "backlash", of concern to some refugee campaigners and supporters is the decision of protesters to adopt the tactics of direct action.
As one of those who travelled thousands of kilometres to take part in Woomera 2002, I think it's important to describe briefly what actually went on, and why those who were there regard the action as an important success.
The thing that strikes you as you arrive near the Woomera detention centre is the sheer remoteness of the place. Surrounding the facility, beyond the small Woomera township, there is nothing but dry, rocky desert terrain and patches of small spiky shrubs as far as the eye can see. This is where people - who have committed no crime - remain locked behind razor wire.
Here they wait for months or even years while their applications are processed. Hundreds of children suffer the same fate. The result is often great psychological damage and suffering for many of those who are fleeing torture and repression in their countries of origin.
And despite widespread international condemnation, notably from the UN Human Rights Committee, the Liberals, often with the support of other mainstream political leaders, are intent on continuing the unjust incarceration of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
It was, quite simply, to help put an end to this inhumane situation that over a thousand people had gathered over the Easter long weekend.
A number of organisations brought people to Woomera, including the Refugee Action Collective, No-one is Illegal, the Greens, the National Union of Students, anti-nuke and other activist groups. Many others had simply made their way as individuals or with groups of friends.
In the lead up to the weekend had come local and international messages of support and solidarity for the protest from Greens Senator Bob Brown and "No Logo" author Naomi Klein. Reports of planned solidarity actions were received from Germany, Spain, Japan, the US and elsewhere.
It felt "big".
But on the afternoon of Good Friday, as people gathered at the rapidly growing campsite, no-one expected that we would shortly be arriving at the front gates of the Woomera detention centre, much less witnessing a breakout by detainees.
The original plan was to attempt to march as close as possible to the detention centre and hopefully make enough noise to be heard by people inside.
But as the march approached the initial line of fencing it became clear that it would be almost ridiculous to have travelled so far to stand a kilometre away chanting and waving flags in the hope that we may be noticed.
And so the fence came down.
When the protest reached the front gates protesters were able to get close enough to shake hands with the detainees through the bars, speak with them, pass through flowers, books and messages of support.
It was then that a number of the detainees made a successful attempt to pry open the fence with an iron bar to escape, and while the few police scrambled, people jumped free into the crowd.
This was certainly not the violent "highly planned" operation that the government would have people believe. It was spontaneous, it was unexpected, and it was chaotic. And as with a previous breakout at Woomera in June 2000, it was clearly a major embarrassment to Ruddock.
It all happened in only a matter of a few minutes but we were soon on our way back to the camp with forty or so refugees - men, women and children - among us. In the next hour or so, police made their way through the camp to apprehend as many of the escapees as they could.
When night fell and the camp had settled down, there were still over 20 escapees who remained in the camp.
Over the next couple of days - in clearly unexpected circumstances - a number of often tense "spokes council" meetings of group representatives took place to discuss and decide tactics. Emotions were running high, but after lengthy discussion a consensus was reached that the camp would remain, the protest would proceed and the refugees would, for as long as possible, remain free.
A number of people took responsibility to ensure that those who had escaped would stay outside as long as they could manage. People were elected to speak with the escapees and communicate to the media their stories and personal circumstances. Discussions took place about possible actions over the next couple of days.
Importantly, meetings were held with the traditional owners of the land around Woomera - the Kokatha people - gaining permission for the camp to remain and their blessing for further protest.
On the Saturday, with kites flying, banners and flags waving, amid drumming and chanting, protesters marched peacefully to the detention centre gates to deliver almost $3000 worth of toys which had been donated for children inside. The toys were loaded into boxes and, to the cheers of the crowd, it was negotiated with representatives from Australian Protective Services for them to deliver them to the detainees.
Later that afternoon, protesters marched to within a couple of hundred metres of the main fence to make as much noise as possible, to show those inside that we were still there and that the protest was continuing. It became clear, though, that there had been a "lock-down" and the detainees most likely had been unable to hear or see us.
On Sunday, then, it was agreed that we would attempt to march around the entire perimeter of the centre - as close to the main fence as possible - to ensure that those inside heard us.
The next two hours would see the march moving around the perimeter of the centre, taking a message of solidarity and support to those inside.
It was this action which I and many others feel made the Woomera 2002 protest the important success.
For if you set to one side the media hype and untruths - the inevitable condemnations of "violence", the images from police of alleged "weapons" , the bizarre stories of spitting blood and throwing bottles of urine - you see action which has not only instilled confidence and resolve in thousands at Woomera and beyond to continue the fight for refugee rights.
The desperation and sense of isolation of people at Woomera is disturbingly clear. From behind the bars and razor wire, children waved and screamed "help us!". An Iraqi mother cried "we are not animals; there are no animals here!". People told us that they only want "freedom" - "aazaadi" in Arabic - that some of them have been locked up for three years. Others cried out "thank you Australian people" and chanted "where is human rights?".
On the weekend hundreds of protesters and refugees faced each other, waving and chanting, in the common recognition that what is happening is not only unjust, it is criminal.
Behind the bars we did not see the "illegals", the potential terrorists that the government would like us to see. We saw ordinary families locked up in a camp in the desert by a country which ironically proclaims as one of its core values "a fair go for all".
In the weeks ahead we may come to see the Woomera 2002 protest as a turning point in the campaign for refugees. As the Sydney Morning Herald editorial of April 2 said, "As acts of civil disobedience go, this one was so remarkable that it cannot be lightly dismissed".
What the Woomera facility and others like it around Australia and the Pacific represent is the darker side of economic globalisation and the neo-liberal policies being embraced by governments the world over - policies which put the needs of big business before social needs and human rights.
In particular, the policy of detention and the determined scapegoating of refugees being pursued by the Liberal government - as we saw during the last election - threatens to divide the community at a time when the government is also pursuing a broader agenda which includes a concerted campaign against the union movement.
Vince Caughley is a workplace activist and a member of the ASU
This Article does not represent the views and opinions of Workers Online or the Labor Council of New South Wales. Any comments and opinions within the Article are those of the Author only.
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