E D I T O R I A L

Safety First
This week's Safety Summit, called by the Carr Government, is a timely opportunity for the union movement to put occupational health and safety into a contemporary perspective.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Safe as Houses
Labor Council secretary John Robertson outlines the union movement's priorities in the lead-up to this week's Safety Summit.

Safety: Ten Steps to Safety
On the eve of the NSW Safety Summit, Workers Online went looking for the ten biggest workplace health issues and what needs to be done to address them.

History: Staying Alive
Neale Towart winds the clock back to discover that contemporary arguments that regulators should stay out of workplace safety and let the market do its business are nothing new.

Unions: Choose Life
While Commissioner Cole struggles with the concept of unions trying to improve workers’ wages, out in the real world, bosses daily thumb their noses at safety authorities, as Jim Marr discovers.

International: Seoul Destroyers
The rise and rise of the Korean national football team in the World Cup competition was more than matched by the rise and rise of the number of imprisoned Korean trade unionists.

Corporate: Crash Landing
Did Ansett workers’ productivity really crash Ansett? Jim McDonald weighs up the evidence.

Activists: The Refusenik
At 20, Rotem Mor has spent more time analysing how he will live his life than most people twice his age. A month in prison and another 18 serving in the Israeli army saw to that.

Review: Dumb Nation
Michael Moore's new book, 'Stupid White Men' exposes the rorts behind the Bush presidency with bitter humour, writes Mark Hebblewhite.

Poetry: Helping Out The Rich
From proposals to 'deregulate' (ie raise) university fees, to attempts to restrict workers' right to strike in the name of 'genuine' bargaining the Government's rhetoric about helping out the battlers is wearing just a bit thin.

N E W S

Redundancy Bonus for Members Only

Tax Office Backs CFMEU Case

Lib MP Named in Cole Commission

Sentencing Guidelines for Safety Breaches

Revealed: Costello’s Hit List

Virtual Cold War Over

Safety Lock-Out Enters Second Week

Unions Seek Talks With New Airport Owners

Journos Attacked by NRMA

Strip Bosses Face Dressing Down

Beattie Called Into Bargaining Impasse

Nurses Deliver Largest Ever Petition

US Braces for its Own Waterfront War

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Back to the Future
McKenzie Wark argues that the future of the book relies on the future of a sphere of public debate.

Bosswatch
Chain Reaction
The Big Australian discovers a uranium mine it never knew it had, a corporate fraud sparks a worldwide market plunge and the price of investing ethically.

The Locker Room
Three Colours Blue
After a World Cup that saw post-colonial cultural theorists chanting 'we beat the scum one-nil' on the Terraces of Inchon, it was the natural order of things that prevailed, writes Phil Doyle

Postcard
Poll Positioning
Unions Tasmania secretary Lynne Fitzgerald gives an overview of the State Election called earlier this week.

Week in Review
The Weight of Office
Apart from the Teflon John, power walking at his own pace, would-be leaders everywhere turned in shockers as Jim Marr discovered.

L E T T E R S

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Go Mark, Go

Dear Sir,

What utter hypocrisy and regurgitated bile as vented by the salivating media ostensibly eager for battle story between a fortuitous fornicator and a parliamentary prattler.

The member for Werriwa, Mr. Mark Latham, certainly expresses the thoughts of many, if not the majority of Australians in the usage without redundancy and through the descriptive and malleable language of the Anglo-Celt. A language adopted and embraced by the many waves of immigrants to Australia both English speaking and non-English speaking, creating a dialect/s much more colourful and full of allegory than any other dialect of English, as spoken by Anglo-Celts. This richness of culture probably being derived from the manner in which Australia was originally forcibly populated at the birth of its European influence and nurtured by the generations of common folk who emigrated to and now populate this land.

While there are a few dynastic families in control of some factions of labour politics , they are put to shame by the behaviour of those in the Liberal Party , who have assumed a born to rule stance that in comparison would make Louis XIV , the Sun King appear humbler than Father Damien of Molokai.

This arrogance of the Government "Cup Cake Bovver Boys" once again being displayed through their vilification of the common man because of the manner in which he speaks, this pseudo subtle attempt at silencing genuine dissent expressed in good faith, is a reminder of terrible deeds done during the Spanish Inquisition by those who believed they were touched by God, the Priests, Abbot, Bishops, Cardinals via their secular henchmen least they taint their hands with the blood of the innocent.

On the demise of the Inquisition, this behaviour being embraced by the Jesuits an order formed as the political arm of the church, with its tentacles spread across the globe, and there certainly appears to be more than a passing semblance to their tactics and those displayed by the government front bench.

Perhaps some meditation or visualisation as to how the reformations dealt with recalcitrant priests including many an Abbot , may assist the Member for Werriwa, in his honourable crusade ,or if he could by means foul or fair, procure the Abbots' copy of Libro Nero this may offer some advice on dealing with the evil ones ?

From a personal perspective, I am now enamoured by Representative Lathams' bravado, and unreservedly retract any previous criticism previously cast, and I now await the consequences of his final and pivotal attack on the enemy of the common man* as he, in the flamboyant style of T.E. Lawrence, as he charged the Turkish Columns, giving the command: - "No Prisoners" totally and utterly destroys the enemies of the people, and in doing so becomes the new praetorian centurion of the labour right.

Of course students of history will be aware of the postulated reasons as to why Lawrence had a personal hatred for his enemy, and it would be interesting to compare these reasons with the rationale for the hatred expressed by the Member for Werriwa for his enemy.

Remember Mark: No Prisoners.

Addendum

If I may on behalf of Simon, who has so far stuck to you like vegemite to a blanket, just offer you these brief words of empowerment;

"Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

Red Martyrdom** (Vow of Obedience)

"See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Mt. 10:16-20)

*Used in the Generic sense of Humanity.

**Not necessarily for Comrades.

Reverend Tom Collins

Universal Life Church

Och Mark! Just forget all this bull and ram it up them!

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005