Workers Online
Workers Online
Workers Online
  Issue No 16 Official Organ of LaborNet 04 June 1999  

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Letters to the Editor

Language is Important


Thanks to Workers Online for printing my article on indigenous rights. However, your introductory sentence requires some comment.

Your statement: "Australia's treatment of its indigenous people is a problem that won't go away" raises two issues.

Firstly, many indigenous people do not accept the description 'Australia's indigenous people'. The language can imply ownership, possession, even acceptance of conquer and domination, of one culture over another. The assumption underlying such language is that of a society operating from a non-indigenous perspective -a white default.

Secondly, the issue central to the piece is one of equality and its yardstick. The 'problem' is not indigenous peoples entitlement to human rights and equality, the 'problem' is the Federal Government's failure to deal with the issue. Hopefully through action, the issue will 'go away' because the government will be forced, finally, to provide the justice to which indigenous people are entitled.

I know Workers Online would be at one with me on that, but I believe the importance of the issue requires that it not be left open to interpretation. For these reasons, the language of the introductory sentence is not that which I would agree with or use.

In unity

Tony Morison

Eds Note Another glitch was discovered in our presentation of Tony's piece. Unfortunately the hard copy wouldn;t print out. We'll re-publish his story next week ...


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 16 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Opening Australia
Lindsay Tanner talks about new ideas, new policy and new politics in the Information Age.
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*  Unions: An Educated Fightback
A visiting US trade unionist reveals how training better union delegates is the key to reversing the membership slide.
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*  Legal: A Fair Case for Free-Rider Laws
The proposal to enable unions to charge non-members a service fee for negotiating enterprise agreements is consistent with the principle of freedom of association.
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*  History: New Ideas in Labour History
See the latest from the May issue of Labour History, A Journal of Labour and Social History.
*
*  International: Tiananmen Square Ten Years On
We remember the massacre and the role that working people continue to play in fighting injustice.
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*  Review: Organising Our Future - What Use the US??
A new paper looks at what Australian unions can learn from the experiences of their American colleagues.
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News
»  State Wage Highlights Case for User-Pays
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»  Labor Hire Cowboys - the NFF Link
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»  Murder Call: Charge Bosses Who Kill
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»  Braddy Bunch to Lift Contractor Veil
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»  Rural Redundacies - Redeployment Confusion Reigns
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»  Woolies Shopfitters Win Back Jobs From Body Hire
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»  Political Payback: NSW Targetted in Costello Cuts
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»  Rio Tinto Buries the Truth
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»  Child Care Campaign out of the Blocks
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»  East Timor Mercy Ship heads for Dili
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»  Fabian Society Reforms
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»  Industrial Who�s Who Head for Geneva
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Columns
»  Guest Report
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Piers Watch
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Letters to the editor
»  Language is Important
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»  Kids Know Best
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»  Unions to Thank for Women's War Wages
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