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Issue No. 139 07 June 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

With Prejudice
For anyone doubting the ability of an incumbent government to control the political agenda, this week's sitting of the Cole Royal Commission into the Building Industry made fascinating viewing.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Class Action
NSW Teachers Federation general secretary Barry Johnson on Bob Carr's election budget and what he needs to do to win back the profession.

Safety: A Mother's Tale
Robin McGoldrick relives the tragedy that prompted her to confront Royal Commissioner Terence Cole over workplace story.

Unions: The Hottest Seat in Town
Nostalgia buffs should make a point of catching at least one session of Tony Abbott�s controversial, Royal Commission, playing to increasingly thin houses in Sydney. Jim Marr sat through the opening scenes.

International: Defensive Enterprise
How can men and women working in the unprotected "informal economy" be helped to better defend their rights? The ICTU grapples with the issue in The Congo.

Economics: A Super Deal?
Neale Towart looks at the debate raging within Labor circles around savings and investment.

History: A Radical Life
Stephen Holt gives an insight into one of the Australian Labor Party�s original true believers through his examination of papers held in the Manuscript Collection

Media: Cross Purposes
Stuart Mackenzie looks at the lines spun at the recent Senate committee hearing into media ownership laws.

Review: When the Force Is Unconscious
Cultural Theoritician Mark Morey reports on how a trip to the Sydney Writers Festival became a battle for intergalactic supremacy.

Poetry: Wouldn't It Be Loverly
For seven decades, Queensland aboriginal workers working under government control were 'paid' below-award wages which were placed into 'trust' accounts which were pilfered, levied, diverted and bled dry.

N E W S

 Grieving Mum Turns Cole Around

 Hamberger Grilled Over AWA Scam

 Government Shrugs Off Death Sentence Charge

 Action To Pay Foreign Crew Aussie Wages

 Jockeys Face Insurance Crisis

 Birds Get More Protection Than Workers

 Budget Delivers - But Not For DOCS

 Statewide Ban On Grain Loading

 Howard Soft On Organised Crime?

 UN Honours Building Union Drugs Program

 Award-Winning Poet Wins Right To Write

 Workers Out For Gay Games

 Mahathir Told to Release Labour Activisits

 Horta Backs Western Sahara Independence

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
It�s The Members, Stupid.
Those officials obsessed with union voting power in the ALP are missing the point, writes Luke Foley.

The Locker Room
Too Good To Be True
Phil Doyle castes his withering gaze over a week in sport that featured origin square-ups, the World Game in all its glory and a few drunken jockeys.

Bosswatch
In The Cauldron
It was another week of pull-outs, profits de-mergers and takeovers in the corporate world; but some bright news with a plan to make executive pay more accountable.

Week in Review
The Black Letter
Legal mechanisms, national and international, are throwing up challenges to all sectors of our community but the law is a beast of many shapes and sizes as Jim Marr discovers.

L E T T E R S
 Romeo and Juliet?
 Robbo's Rave
 Latham Ad Nauseum
 Our Home Is Girt By Wire
 Hands Off Hooligans!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Robbo's Rave


Both your Issue 138 editorial and John Robertson's soapbox article made some very valid contributions to the debate surrounding the future partnership between the Trade Union movement and the Labor Party. As both a committed trade unionist and ALP branch member I can see some fairly compelling arguments on both sides.

In my view the most important thing for the ALP to concentrate on should be getting on with the business of winning elections, this being the only way we can hope to make a real difference in Australia - by harnessing the power of the state. To this end, it is imperative that the debate over the 60/40 rule be resolved in one way or another in a decisive manner, and soon. I personally do not have a firm opinion either way and could be swayed by a good argument, but I do believe that by agonising over this issue in a drawn out and very public fashion, all we are doing is giving our opponents a stick to beat us with. The general public that we need to engage with are not interested in the 60/40 rule, and a quick resolution of the debate would enable both the party and the union movement to get on with the job of producing better and fairer solutions to today's problems.

John Robertson made some interesting points about a possible role for unions in the preselection process. It would be important if any such move were to be made to ensure that the unions were represented at the local level, rather than through a central union panel of some sort. There is always disquiet, if not open revolt, from branch members about "candidates being imposed from head office" and there is a danger that any move such as this could be seen in that way. Furthermore, individuals within the party who may make excellent candidates but do not have union connections may feel "on the outer" in such a process and decide it would not be worthwhile to stand - and we may therefore be depriving ourselves in this way.

The questions of how unions could be represented at a local level is a difficult one and one that I will admit I do not have an answer to. Possibly a plebiscite of local union delegates and officials could become part of the process, although this could leave the ALP open to negative feelings from its branch members who could feel that their say is now a less important one. This issue of "relevance deprivation" of local ALP branch members should not be taken lightly in an age where it could reasonably be said the party already does not have enough members to run campaigns and have debates as well as it could.

There is, however, no question that unions should not be made to take a "back seat" within the Labor Party. To this end, the consultative process with local unionists by MPs as described in the Wran report is an excellent idea and should attract wide support on our side of the political divide.

In Solidarity,

Marco Spaccavento


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