E D I T O R I A L

Work and the Meaning of Life
The high-profile case of Kamal El-Masiri takes the debate over the intersection of work and family onto an altogether higher plane.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: The Wet One
NSW Opposition industrial relations spokesman Michael Gallacher stakes out his relationship with the union movement.

Bad Boss: Like A Bastard
Virgin Mobile is sexy and funky, right? Well, only if those terms have become synonyms for dictatorial or downright mean.

Unions: Demolition Derby
Tony Abbott likens industrial relations to warfare and, like a good general should, he is about to shift his point of attack – from building sites to car plants, reports Jim Marr.

Corporate: The Bush Doctrine
For the powerful, consumerism equals freedom, and is all the freedom we need, writes James Goodman

Politics: American Jihad
Let’s get real. The origins of modern Islamic terrorist groups are in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Langley, Virginia not Baghdad, argues Noel Hester.

Health: Secret Country
Oral history recordings are an inadequate tool in trying to find out what happened to Aboriginal stockmen and their communities on cattle stations in Northern Australia, writes Neale Towart

Review: Walking On Water
On the 20th anniversary of the first AIDS-related death, Tara de Boehmler witnesses the aftermath of losing a loved one to the illness in Walking On Water.

Culture: TCF
Novelist Anthony Macris captures life on the shop floor in this extract from his upcoming novel, Capital Volume II

Poetry: The UQ Stonewall
The University of Queensland has sought to join the ranks of union-busting companies like Rio Tinto in trying to sack the president of the local union - and made the mistake of thinking they were dealing with an array of acquiescent academics.

N E W S

Muslims Snubbed in Discrimination Laws

Workplace Racism Rife Post S11

Mad Monk’s World In Turmoil

Qantas Directors Bust Wages Freeze

Deregistration on Cole Agenda

Aussie Wharfies Save Farmers

Victorian Libs Block Pay Rise

Dad’s the Word For Steelworkers

Funeral Workers Dig in Their Heels

Unions Expose Truth Of McDonalds’ People Promise

Gay and Lesbians Workers To Meet

VTHC Urges Compassion For Colombian Refugees

New Zealand Workers Win Paid Parental Leave

WorkCover Inspectors Off the Road

Mine Guards Shoot Own Workers

Unions On Call For Working Young

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
I Walk The Line
American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has weighed into the Hilton Hotel dispute with this special message to the workforce.

Postcard
Mekong Daze
Union Aid Abroad's Phil Hazelton fires off a missive from Laos where he is spending a year working with the community.

Month In Review
Bush Whackers
It was a month where the world teetered on the brink of peace, no thanks to the leader of the free world, writes Jim Marr

The Locker Room
The Laws Of Gravity
Phil Doyle goes looking for the fine line that separates sport from an exercise in time-wasting

Bosswatch
Snouts in the Trough
It’s AGM season in the corporate world, and deal after shady deal is being exposed as highfliers treat company accounts like the proverbial honey-pot.

Wobbly
Songs of Solidarity
There has been a proud history of pro-worker tunes dating back to the early days of the 20th century, which will be continued in a new CD, writes Dan Buhagiar.

L E T T E R S

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Iraq is a Gobalisation Issue Too

Corporate malfeasance and take-over aren't going to be the topics of debate in this fall's election, in fact they probably won't even been brought up.

The war in Iraq on the other hand will be a top contender, and as usual the debate will be archaic and flat, with a dash of gun rights and abortion snaps. The general public will go on their daily lives and not notice that the war against Saddam is a war for the US economy, and the price will be paid with the blood of soldiers and innocents alike. This same blood could be compared to the sweat and tears millions of people throughout the world have shed as a result of our corporation's never-ending grasp for cash, and this war is no different.

The mainstream debate about Globalization has so many facets and layers that the critics (myself included) have a tough time keeping up with them. This debate has been so greatly muted that the connections between war and global governance have not be dissected accurately.

We have to realize that the outcome of the proposed " Iraq regime change" is not for humanitarian reasons, and not about terrorism; but about placing a friendly government in Iraq that will allow our corporations to start moving their oil tankers. In the last years of Clinton's presidency Dick Cheney was lobbying on behalf of Haliburton to get the administration to press the UN to drop sanctions against Iraq. I find it hard to believe that only 3 or 4 years later, Dick and company don't have any corporate interests in Iraq.

Has Karl Rove so brainwashed us that we are unable to see past the "weapons of mass destruction?" Are our foreign policies not weapons of mass destruction in their own right?

Global dominance fashions itself in many ways; from trade agreement to loans, to war and government control. The war against Iraq is just one more puzzle piece in a collage of corporate take over that has plagued the earth for decades. We must oppose this war with as much vigor and pride as we have opposed the IMF and WTO cabals. Lies and deceit have flooded the public discourse, so those that know the truth have a responsibility to speak up. For if we don't, we are as much to blame as the Democrats and Republicans, who are worried more about their re-elections, then the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be lost as a result this conflict.

We cannot afford to sit silent any longer.

Josh Frank

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005