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Issue No. 137 24 May 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

An Aussie Icon
The public deification of the Last Anzac, Alec Campbell, proves the adage that when you scratch the surface of an icon you'll invariably find a far more interesting reality.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Just Done It?
Nikewatch's Tim Connor gives his verdict on the global giant's latest innovation: ethics.

Tribute: Lest We Forget
Rowan Cahill goes looking for the real Alec Campbell and finds a story the Telegraph will not be publishing.

History: Solidarity Forever
Neale Towart looks at the enduring relationship between the union movement and the defence forces and finds it all comers down to solidarity.

Technology: Unblocking the Superhighway
Michael Gadiel argues the case for Open Standards as a way of breaking the grip of big business on the IT industry.

International: Gloves Off
Workers and their unions are facing a battering throughout South America as a wave of economic turmoil sweeps across the continent.

Unions: Out Of Work
Jim Marr travels to the frontline to witness the impact of the Howard Government's decision to close Employment National.

Review: Strange Business
Tara de Boehmler looks at a new flick that exposes the dark side of the Material World.

Poetry: The Lawyer's Lament
One of the big issues of recent weeks has been the explosion of insurance costs for public and community events, many of which have had to be cancelled as a result.

Satire: Government Mourns Loss Of Last Anzac
Treasurer Peter Costello has lamented the death of Alec Campbell, the last surviving ANZAC, bemoaning the lost revenue the government could have gained at his expense following the Budget.

N E W S

 Workers Honour Radical Digger

 Retailers in Outworker Spotlight

 Nurses, Teachers Snare Agenda

 Syd in Vicious Backpacker Stand-off

 Microsoft Monopoly Under Challenge

 Kiddies Not Exactly Having a Ball

 NSW ALP Faces Asylum Seeker Test

 Canberra Acts on Industrial Manslaughter

 Carr Delivers on Dismissals

 Santa Claus Strikers on Christmas Island

 Abbott Believes Management Should Dictate

 Low Paid Not To Blame For Beer Price Rise

 Casino Award Covers Eastern States

 Security Workers Want Bosses Sacked

 Sydneysiders Rally For Western Sahara

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The Cold Hard Truth
The Rail,Tram and Bus Union's Nick Lewocki argues our hard-hearted treatment of refugees is a betrayal of our proud immigrant history.

The Locker Room
The South Melbourne Football Club Pty Ltd
A spectre is haunting football; it is the spectre of revolution; a free market revolution, writes Phil Doyle.

Bosswatch
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Jobs are under threat in the textile and trye markets; but there's better news in the Newcastle mills and the Nike factories.

Postcard
Gas Treaty - The Raw Deal
East Timor is getting less then 40%�not 90% royalties from the oil and gas revenue in the Timor Sea, reports HT Lee.

Week in Review
Origin of the Species
Phil Gould, Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus may have buried the laughable notion that Rugby Union is the sport they play in heaven, but outside Stadium Australia life goes on, as Jim Marr discovers.

L E T T E R S
 Dancing With Trotsky? Not Bloody Likely.
 Your Tools Page is Down
 Big Dave Foster
 Give Us a Click!
 Will the Real Mark Latham Please Stand Up?
 Unified Labour
 The Last Survivor
 Not Hate Mail
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Workers Honour Radical Digger


Trade unionists today stopped work around Australia to pay tribute to the Last ANZAC Alec Campbell, not forgetting the specific contribution he made to the union movement.

As the conservative media and Tory politicians cashed in on Campbell's memory, workers on building sites, public transport, shopping centres and government departments paid tribute to the life of a true radical.

Addressing workers at the Walsh Bay construction site, CFMEU national secretary John Sutton said that working people should not let John Howard hijack his memory.

"Alec Campbell was a proud unionist and it is part of the story that workers should recognise when they remember his passing today," Sutton says.

Campbell emerged from World War One to live a long and radical life. He was a union activist in the Launceston and Hobart railway workshops; an activist with the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners (now part of the CFMEU); president Australian Rail Union (Tasmanian Branch) - 1939-1941; president Launceston Trades and Labor Council - 1939-1942 and a long-term activist with the Workers Educational Association.

The ACTU and the NSW Labor Council both coordinated memorial services across unions during the week.

HR Manager's Last Post

Meanwhile, Australia Post has emerged embarrassed after being forced to reverse an official rejection of workers calls for a minute's silence.

Union officials wrote to Australia Post requesting that staff be allowed to observe a minutes silence. They received a letter from the Human Resources Department saying this was in line with official Commonwealth Government policy.

It followed a similar rebuff when the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union asked for one minute's silence is respect of US postal workers killed from anthrax last year.

When news broke of the rebuff, Australia Post management quickly reversed the decision and denied the letter had ever been written.

"The result is that Australia Post staff in NSW and Vic at least will be allowed (even encouraged) to observe a minutes silence," the CEPU's Ian McCarthy says. "I think that there will be a HR Manager standing at 11am as his arse will be too sore to sit!"


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