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Demonising Unions
There's a common streak running through the Liberal Party's prosecution of its witch-hunt of the building industry unions and the federal ALP leader's push to reduce the influence of trade unions within the Party. That's the view that unions are on the nose.
Interview: The Star Chamber
CFMEU national seretary John Sutton surveys the limited progress of the Cole Royal Commission.
Politics: The Odd Couple
After spending years yelling at each other, a couple of young factional players started talking to each other in the name of refugees.
Tribute: I-Conned
A rogue priest and Philip Ruddock have combined to leave master artist, Rados Stevanovic, living in a suburban park, as Jim Marr reports.
Media: Audiences Before Politics
The real challenge facing the new managing director of the ABC is how to make audiences central to what the national broadcaster does, argues Tony Moore.
International: The Off-Side Rule
It may be kick off time at the World Cup but unions in South Korea and around Asia are using the world�s biggest sporting event to focus attention on workers� rights, as Andrew Casey discovers.
Economics: The Fake Persuaders
Companies are creating false citizens to try to change the way we think, writes George Monbiot.
History: Terror Tactics
As the Howard Government prepares terror legislation to ban organisations, Neale Towart remembers a similar attempt at censorship in the name of security.
Poetry: Food, Modified Food
That old school yard joke "what do you get if you cross a ... with a ...?" is becoming startlingly true. The latest development is a featherless chicken.
Review: Spiderman Spins Out the US
Red Pepper's Rick Giombetti scales the big screen and puts Spiderman in his place, flying in the face of right wingers who would claim the Marvel Comic legend as their own.
Satire: England's World Cup Disaster: Star Hooligan Breaks Foot
The English World Cup 2002 campaign is in tatters after star hooligan Gerard Wilson of Chelsea broke his foot.
 Cole Suffers Credibility Crisis
Councils Armed To Drown Sweatshops
Miners Win Record Payouts
Bracks Crew Not Family Friendly
Time to Charge Directors
Waterfront Truth One Step Closer
Speedy Flow-On for NSW Workers
Star Sin-Binning Prompts Inquiry Call
New Chief Puts ABC Back In The Picture
Getting it Wrong on Training
Gravy Train Gets Richer For Max and Mates
Reward For Delegate Who Stood Up
Casino Workers Hit Mat Leave Jackpot
Drug Haul Sparks Security Warning
East Timor�s MPs Take Australia On
ACTU Officials Denied Visas Into Fiji
Commemorate 100 Years of Votes for Women
The Soapbox
Modernising Labor?
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson argues that genuine reform of the ALP would go beyond the 60-40 rule, to increase the voice of unions within the Party. The Locker Room
Juego Bonito
Forget the dour contests of the Premier League and Serie A, it�s the World Cup which transforms football into the beautiful game. Noel Hester analyses the form. Week in Review
He Who Pays The Piper
Money comes in all colours but, in politics, the hue is usually blue, as Jim Marr discovers � Bosswatch
Rich Pickings
Australia's wealthiest were on display this week as BRW released its annual Rich 200 list. Postcard
About Last Night
The CFMEU's Phil Davey, on an APHEDA -Union Aid Abroad delegation to Palestine, recounts his experience trying to get back to his hotel after dark.
Simon and the Creanites
In Defence of Latham
Swans A Pathetic Con-Job
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Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
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Letters to the Editor
Swans A Pathetic Con-Job
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George Piggins |
Re: The South Melbourne Football Club Pty Ltd
Isn't it ironic that the "sports club" who became the darling of the Sydney intellegentsia's fashionable flight towards engagement with sport in the mid 90's, the same intellegentsia that holds the values of democracy as an article of faith, is itself undemocratic and merely another corporation masquerading as a sports club.
The Swans are nothing but a business entity, interested only in profit, transplanted from the carcass of a Melbourne sports club with no soul, other than a mass delusion shared by middle class wankers who wouldn't know the feel of real club even if it got up and smacked them in the face.
On the other hand, the very unfashionable South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, a working class, community owned club from a sport derided by the intellegentsia, bar a few true radicals, is wholly democratic and far more politically credible than the Swans will ever be. Us members elect the board and can even become board members ourselves!
How does anyone, with a brain and not in denial, seriously think that a club founded on opportunism, media spin, pink helicopters, Geoffrey Edelsten, bankruptcy and the joke of a no neck in Barry Round in the era of corporate greed, could think of the Swans as a club worth having anything to do with is beyond my comprehension.
I've only ever followed one football side and always will, and it amazes me how you could somehow just wake up one morning and say to yourself, "OK - now I'm a Swans supporter". What was this, some media induced epiphany?
When I see Swans supporters walking to the SCG in their lycra red & white I see gullible customers, not members of a club from a community with roots, tradition and spirit. And I can't help but think that these people are a lost tribe of media victims from urban Australia.
The Swans are impostors and if they survive it will not be because of any laudible attributes they may claim to have, but merely because a chunk of Sydney has lost its way and fallen for a pathetic con-job.
Mark McGrath
Member Number 5184
South Sydney District Rugby League Footbal Club
 Visit The Rabbitoh Warren
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Issue 138 contents
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