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Issue No. 162 | 22 November 2002 |
A Capital Idea?
Interview: Life After Keating Industrial: That Friday Feeling Bad Boss: Begging to Work Organising: Project Pilbara Unions: Off the Rails International: Brazil Turns Left Environment: Brown Wash History Special: Learning from the Past Corporate: Will the Bullying Backfire? Technology: Danger Lurks For The Passive History: In Labour�s Image Politics: Without Power Or Glory History Special: A 'Cosy Relationship' Culture: Blood Stains the Wattle Satire: Iraq Pre-empts Pre-emptive Strike Poetry: The Executive Pay Cut Review: Time Out
Drivers Pack Down For World Cup Howard Shrugs off Spanish Shame Hunted Teacher Tells of Colombian Terror Cole Bias Appeal Still On Cards Extra Care To Beat Terrorist Threat Strains Increase for Aged Care Trades Hall Welcomes Bracks IR Regional Job Loss Fear At Unis Canberra Get In On Outworkers ACT Hounding of East Timorese �Shameful�
Month In Review The Soapbox The Locker Room Indigenous Postcard Bosswatch
WTO Fallout Internet Surveillance Research Offensive Clowns
Labor Council of NSW |
Editorial A Capital Idea?
Those 75 years have spanned a World War, a Depression, a long, lean period in Opposition, two decades in ascendency where it seemed for a time the ACTU was part of the Executive and now another term in the political wilderness. It survived the Depression, the Split and the Cold War, helping create an egalitarian Australian society and producing our longest-serving Labor Prime Minister. Along the way its achievements have been significant: a 40-hour week, basic wages, leave entitlements, equal pay, superannuation, redundancy rights and the recognition of indigenous Australians. But there have also been defeats, none more so than the way the movement managed to lose half its base at the very point where its political influence was at its greatest. There's been another dynamic underpinning the ACTU's lifespan that reflects the broader tensions in the Australian polity between the States and Canberra. Like the Federal Parliament, it was actually state bodies that established the ACTU, principally the Labor Council of NSW recognising the need for a unified voice for the new nation. It's folklore that the Labor Council established the ACTU in Melbourne because if it succeeded it would be far enough away and if it failed it would be far enough away. As Australia's Federation has strengthened, so has the ACTU's profile as the focal point of the entire union movement; until the Accord era where the man at the peak of the apex sat down with the Prime Minister to determine the wages and conditions of a nation. But herein lies the ACTU's challenge, in an era when industrial relations has been devolved to the workplace, how can a peak national body ever be responsive to the needs of individual workers? At its best the ACTU is at the cutting edge of the national political debate, leading the charge on contemporary issues like paid maternity leave and reasonable working hours. Where it struggles is in complementing grass roots industrial campaigns being run by affiliates, helping to lift a local dispute onto the national stage by the stature of its office. Granted, the ACTU's Organising Centre is a laudable attempt to train individual unions to run campaigns; but this is really the role of state bodies far closer in culture to the state branches that eventually have to do the hard yards. It is in this light, that we call on the ACTU to mark its 75th Anniversary by relocating to Canberra, recognising that it is the lobbying of our national politicians that should be the its function. Along with the business, industry and employer lobbies, the union movement needs a permanent force in Canberra, not just to run the movement-wide agenda but provide a base for individual affiliates. Meanwhile, state branches should receive a larger slice of the pie to continue the organising agenda at a grass roots level, recognising that it is here that the real battles for the future of the movement will be fought. Done the right way, the move to Canberra could create a new type of hierarchy - less a pyramid and more a coat-hanger, less on the top and much more closer to the base.
Food for thought, anyway. So Happy Birthday, ACTU; but maybe it's time to get a new pad. Peter Lewis Editor
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