E D I T O R I A L

The Hijacking of May Day
Unionists watching the shambolic and violent affair that was the M1 protest could be forgiven for wondering what has become of the traditional workers' day?

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Youth Group
Federal Labor's youngest frontbencher, Nicola Roxon, on how the ALP can win back the hearts and minds of the young.

History: Back To The Future
As building unions put old animosity aside, Neale Towart looks at the history of the 'demarc' - and the steps taken to avoid them.

Industrial: On the Street
Jim Marr looks at the human cost of Treasurer Peter Costello's refusal to fund a pay rise for community workers.

Unions: The New Deal
Adam Kerslake outlines the importance of the ground-breaking pact between unions in the building and civil construction industries.

Legal: The Police State Road
Rowan Cahill argues that the Howard Government's new anti-terror laws carries echoes of a more sinister past.

Women: What Women Want
When 300 ALP women from around Australia converged on Canberra for the National Labor Women�s Conference they had more than quotas on thier minds, Alison Peters reports.

Politics: Street Party
Paul Howes looks at how May Day was celebrated around the Globe by those involved in trade unions and those who are not.

International: The Costs of War
Ariel Sharon is facing growing pressure from Israeli unions over the conduct of his war on Palestine, reports Andrew Casey.

Review: Songs of Solidarity
It had rock, grunge, pop and rap. The May Day union anthem song contest had everything, including an element of surprise thanks to competition winner Swarmy G.

Satire: Bono Satisfies World Hunger for Preachy Rockstars
U2�s lead singer Bono has launched a daring solo mission to end the world�s hunger for rock stars who use their high profiles to crap on self-righteously about charitable causes.

Poetry: Woomera
Divide and rule, that age old tactic...the lips of defence personnel inexcusably sewn to dehumanise an imaginary threat, the lives of asylum seekers incomprehensively dehumanised so as to defend a threatening image.

N E W S

Yarra Seamen Take Border Stand

War on Terror Targets Unions

Year Zero for Building Unions

Kinkos Copies Anti-Union Script

Nike Told to Shoosh on Sweatshops

Rapper Wins Wobbly Anthem Prize

Technicians Take Aim At Canon

Unions Target Labour Hire Bidding War

Rally Targets Tight-Arse Costello

Councils To Be Audited On Language Allowance

Scope For Payback In Privacy Limitations

Heavyweight Push For Medibank Private To Stay Public

What About Dad? - TWU

East Timor MPs Question Timor Gap Plan

Artists' Union Bans Voice For Peace

Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Maurie on May Day
PSA supremo Maurie O'Sullivan had them in the palms of his hands when he delivered the traditional May Day Toast.

The Locker Room
Impractical Punting
Most of life is six to five against. That is, unless you know a Packer or a Waterhouse. Phil Doyle expands.

Bosswatch
Show Me The Money!
It may be May Day - but life in the banking industry has never been sweeter - unless you're in the gambling caper.

Week in Review
Two Bob Each Way
The double standards of modern life have left Jim Marr scratching his head.

Tool Shed
Border Insurgent
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson has blockaded himself into the Tool Shed this week for opening Australia's borders up to flag of convenience ships with Third World crews.

L E T T E R S

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Border Insurgent

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

As the Howard Government continues to extract maximum political capital from it's duel commitments to border protection and the war on terror, Anderson has been doing his bit to make out coastline an 'Access All Areas' zone. As Transport Minister, he is charged with enforcing the Navigation Act, in particular clauses that provide for shipping services between Australian ports to be serviced by Australian ships with Australian crews. It is in this capacity that he holds the power to exempt foreign lines from these provisions - and it's a power he's been exercising with increasing regularity.

Since coming to power, the number of Continuous Voyage Permits issued by the Howard Government has tripled. In fairness it was a trend that began as one of the excesses of the Hake-Keating Labor government's fetish with economic fundamentalism, peaking with Laurie Brereton's decision to sell of the Australian National Line. Ironically, the ship at the center of the current stand-off, the Yarra, was built with taxpayers money and was part of that fire sale. But if Labor got the ball rolling, it is Anderson who has done nothing to stop the shipping industry becoming a floating tax evasion scheme, with vessels registered in small nations controlled by dictators and employing crews on Third World conditions suckling millions of dollars out of the Australian economy without putting a cent back in.

This is about more than seafarer jobs. For a government who wants to rev up Defence spending to meet the real or imagines threats on our doorstep, the decimation of the merchant navy is extremely short-sighted. In times of war, it is the Australian merchant fleet that has been enlisted as supply vessels to the navy. It happened in WWII and in Vietnam, the contribution of the merchant navy was invaluable. Indeed, in the USA, the country our economists would have us mirror, the national merchant fleet has actually been strengthened by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Under the Jones Act the US Government subsidises US shipping, because it realizes that it is an essential part of its arsenal. To give up the merchant navy to ships of other nation's is akin to outsourcing our Defence Forces to the Panamanians or Liberians.

Meanwhile, evidence is building that these same Flags of Convenience ships are responsible for the bulk of the illegal importation of drugs and hand-guns which ravage our towns and cities. And if you care about the Great Barrier Reef, you'd have to wonder about the wisdom of allowing rust buckets from a tin-pot dictatorship chugging up and down the coast.

So no one should kid themselves that the 17 seafarers' holed up on the Yarra at Port Pirie are an isolated incident. For generations mariners were the globalists of the working class, now they are fighting to protect our borders from its worst excesses. Make no mistake, if third world workers can run our coastline on inferior wages and conditions, there'll be no stopping businesses bringing them further into the economy workers on road, rail, service sector, rural sector, building sector and IT, the list is endless. Until we become a shell nation, dominated by the shell corporations that have stripped themselves of assets and run a global auction for the cheapest contract labour.

It's a grim outlook for the future and one that raises very real questions about national security in all its complexity - not just a few hundred sad and degraded souls seeking a lifeline. Black Jack McEwan, the Country Party leader who dedicated his career to protecting Australian jobs would be spinning in his grave. Anderson has betrayed his party and his people.

Show Us YOUR TOOL! The most inspiring interpretation of this week's tool get's a souvenir edition of Ship of Tools. Deface the Tool of the Week, click the button above to post your artwork, fill out the form and send your entry in and we'll post the winners next week in the Tool of the Week Gallery.

Ship of Tools - All the tools in one shed!

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005