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A Dry Argument
It�s interesting to watch the way the mainstream media has handled the devastating drought that has laid waste much of rural New South Wales.
Interview: Life After Keating
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd looks at the world and wonders what might have been ...
Industrial: That Friday Feeling
Anthony Stavropoulos has been working six days a week for the last eight years and now he wants his weekends back. �Remember that Friday feeling?� he asks. �You just don�t get that anymore.�
Bad Boss: Begging to Work
They may put themselves about as the Saints of the Fourth Estate, but bosses at the Big Issue Magazine have been nominated by their own vendors for this month�s Tony award.
Organising: Project Pilbara
Sydney University�s Bradon Ellem reports on how unions are bouncing back in Rio territory
Unions: Off the Rails
The Federal Government is attempting to turn NSW Railways into a political football with a proposal that threatens the safety of freight and passenger trains in NSW and life in our rail Towns, writes Phil Doyle.
International: Brazil Turns Left
Union stalwarts throughout the American hemisphere are cheering the election of Lula � the peanut seller and shoeshine boy, turned union leader - who has been elected as the first working-class President of Brazil.
Environment: Brown Wash
Stuart Rosewarn argues the Johannesburg Sunmmit was a gripping showcase of Australia�s lack of a strategic vision.
History Special: Learning from the Past
Ray Markey looks at union membership growth in the 1880s & 1900s to argue that today�s unions must engage to grow.
Corporate: Will the Bullying Backfire?
Job insecurity, unemployment, a growing gap between rich and poor, massive global poverty and environmental danger are the big issues for the protests at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Sydney.
Technology: Danger Lurks For The Passive
If unions fail to exploit opportunities on the web to gain members, other organisations are likely to fill the void and provide services to workers on the internet.
History: In Labour�s Image
Neale Towart looks at a long-overdue initiative to around NSW through the eyes of the workers.
Politics: Without Power Or Glory
South Coast contributor Rowan Cahill gives his take on the Cunningham by-election result.
History Special: A 'Cosy Relationship'
Barbara Webster looks at Rockhampton between 1916 � 1957 to debunk the �dependence� theory of trade union growth.
Culture: Blood Stains the Wattle
Former Queensland Treasurer Keith De Lacey has turned up in print with a rollicking tale of life during the famous Mt Isa strike of the 60s.
Satire: Iraq Pre-empts Pre-emptive Strike
Saddam Hussein has launched a pre-emptive strike on the United States to prevent it from pre-emptively striking Iraq first.
Poetry: The Executive Pay Cut
Executives accepting pay freezes, or even pay cuts? This outrageous proposal has been put on the table by some capitalists themselves, and taken up by our bard.
Review: Time Out
When a family man invents a new life after losing his steady job, Tara de Boehmler watches his charade escalate until there is no turning back.
 African Immigration Scam Widens
Unions in New Economy Breakthrough
Water Workers Told to Stay Home
Rural Campaign Against Rail Carve-Up
Seven's Deadly Sin: Email Access Denied
Vic Election: It�s Bracks �v- Jeff junior
Aboriginal Health Workers Denied Minimum Wage
Zookeepers Settle But Pay Stink Continues
Nurses Gear Up for Aged Care Action
Stoppage Over Rubbish Protection
Nurses Care For Themselves Too
New Roster Undermines WA Prison Security
Strike Rocks Israel
ICFTU: Japan No Workers� Paradise
STOP PRESS: Libs Plan $70m Arts Heist
Activist Notebook
Month In Review
War and Pieces of Work
The Bali Tragedy dominated the news this month, leaving many questioning the motive and wondering if this is fallout from Australia�s unquestioning support of George Dubya�s �War On Terror�. The Soapbox
Beware of Greeks Bearing Historical Allusions
Roland Stephens argues that the current popular line that the USA is a modern day version of the Roman Empire is flawed. The Locker Room
Over The Fence Is Out
Phil Doyle warms up for another season of hard hitting and fast bowling in the park, making the rules up as he goes along. Indigenous
The Sea of Hands
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation are five years old. Spokeswoman Dameeli Coates addressed labor Council to mark the event. Postcard
Tokyo Youth Call
Tokyo unions are relying on young organisers to infiltrate workplaces as part of a major organising campaign, which focuses on non-unionised companies, reports Mary Yaager. Bosswatch
Still Crazy After All These Years
With new research suggests CEO carry similar personality traits to psycho-paths, the AGM season is proving that there�s little room for logic in our nation�s board rooms.
Official Green Hatemail
More Power To The Workers
Us V Them
In Name Only
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Tool Shed
The Great Pretender
Victoria�s would-be Premier Robert Doyle slinks into the Tool Shed after unveiling a Reith-ian vision of industrial relations where police bust pickets and governments bust unions.
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Down Victoria way they're scathingly dismissive about the Liberal Party leader. Dull as an Ashes series seems to be the consensus on the hectoring former school master who relies on stints at elite establishments like Lauriston Girls and Scotch College for his street-cred. An "absolute toff" was the assessment of one Victorian commentator. But Doyle appears to have at least one politically-valuable asset - ruthlessness. He was impressively single-minded in his stalking and undermining of ineffectual predecessor, Denis Napthine, before knocking him off just weeks out from the State election.
But what does this man stand for, you ask? Early indications are he will stake his campaign on an aggressively, right wing approach to industrial relations. No surprise there, and nothing revolutionary either. In fact, rather than portraying himself as a little Jeff Kennett, Doyle appears to be positioning himself as a miniature Peter Reith or Tony Abbott. Given that his chief advisor is no less than former Reith flak Ian Hanke, it's unsurprising that Doyle's IR policy is couched in the familiar double speak of his mentors.
He has already embraced the Building Industry Royal Commission, saying it shows the Victorian construction industry is "riddled with standover tactics, cheque book industrial peace, disregard for the rule of law, unnecessary delays and the use of occupational health and safety as an industrial tool". The Commissioner is currently fighting a Federal Court case, insisting that he has made no findings at all, and won't until next month. So it is remarkable how specific people like Abbott and Doyle can be about what will be contained in his final report. Regardless of the legal formalities, Doyle is promising an Industrial Inspectorate to complement the work undertaken by Abbott's Building Industry Taskforce in order to "clean up an industry plagued by union thuggery".
A Liberal Government, he promises, will also abandon Labor plans for a Fair Employment Bill and the introduction of Industrial Manslaughter legislation. But they are just the opening salvos in "Me Too Doyle's" IR program. Think about his specific promises and try to remember where you've heard them before. The Doyle Liberal Party will throw in the all the nasties that made Peter Reith the testament to class warfare he is today. Doyle's 'initiatives' include using police to break pickets, backing a single IR system and abolish the Victorian Commission
Sounds familiar? The fingerprints of Reith seem to be all over this agenda - and in this case the evidence will not be wiped cleaned by a Hanke. In fact, the bald-scalped backroom boy who orchestrated the war on the waterfront, the children's overboard affair and the phone card fiasco can only add to the evidence. This man is the sort of ideological warrior that has turned the word Liberal into an oxymoron.
So while Doyle might share the big hair and small ideas of his NSW counterpart, John Brogden, they differ in one important respect. Brogden's offend-nobody approach to IR might not be an example of original leadership but it is a sight more honest than pulling together all the known thoughts of Peter Reith and Tony Abbott and passing them off as your own.
Show Us YOUR TOOL!
The most inspiring interpretation of this week's tool get's a souvenir edition of Ship of Tools. Deface the Tool of the Week, click the button above to post your artwork, fill out the form and send your entry in and we'll post the winners next week in the Tool of the Week Gallery.
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Issue 160 contents
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