E D I T O R I A L

Shock and Awe
And so it has begun, the cartoon caricatures are locked in; the cowboy and the tyrant his father created, locked in an endgame that will trash more than the infrastructure of Iraq.

F E A T U R E S

Poetry: If I Were a Rich Man
Through a distortion in the time-space continuum, we have found a recording showing how people a few years into the future will deal with health care.

Interview: League of Nations
ICFTU general secretary Guy Ryder on the war, core labour standards and why Australia is an international pariah.

Industrial: 20/20 Hindsight
A retrospective analysis of the Accord is needed to help develop future strategies. Is it worth trying again? And if so, what would need to be different?

Organising: On The Buses
A new rank and file leadership team is standing up for the harried bus driver in the run-up to the NSW State Election

Unions: National Focus
A gaze around the country reveals some inspiring and innovative organising initiatives, a fruitful connection with young workers in South Australia and some typically robust industrial campaigns reports Noel Hester.

History: The Banner Room
On the eve of it’s refurbishment, Jim Marr ventures into one of Trades Hall’s best kept secrets; the room that houses relics of labour’s halcyon days.

International: The Slaughter Continues
Chilling new statistics from Colombia's main trade union confederation CUT: nine trade unionists assassinated in the first two months of this year.

Legal: A Legal Case For War?
Aaron Magner looks at the legal implications of the crusade of the Coalition of the Willing

Culture: Singing For The People
When there’s a struggle for social justice, when a war is brewing or rights are being eroded, the first ones to pen, paper and protest are often the folkwriters.

Review: The Hours
On the eve of International Women’s Day Tara de Boehmler follows the tale of three women who would rather choose death than a life devoid of personal choice.

Poetry: I Wanna Bomb Saddam
Scarier than Star Wars, the latest weapon to be deployed in the battle for Iraq is the Singing Dubya.

Satire: Diuretic Makes Warne's Excuses Look Thin
Australian cricketer Shane Warne today admitted that he was still feeling the after effects of the diuretic he tested positive to.

N E W S

Peace Marchers Warn Off Provocateurs

Monk Ignores Job Losses

Trade Warriors Turn to Water

Gap, Target Pay Sweatshop Dues

Firies Douse Insurance Blaze

Kennett Delivers $2m Gas Bill

Vials Sparks Security Scare

Buggers Hit Six

Rail Towns Win Jobs Reprieve

Telstra Dotty Over Witching Hour

Crow Eaters Choke on Waste

CSL Boss in Political Pickle

Lawyers Push Super Class Action

Fair Clothing Activists Take Stock

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Workers Friend
Shock jock Alan Jones snubbed his Liberal mates to bucket the Cole Royal Commission and launch Jim Marr's book

The Locker Room
Boer Bore Boring
In the face of oppression Phil Doyle falls asleep in front of the TV

Guest Report
Dead Labor
The Hawke and Keating legacy is John Howard, Leonie Bronstein argues.

Seduction
Hands Off, Tony
John Della Bosca argues the NSW Industrial Relations System gives his State a competitive advantage.

Bosswatch
Groundhog Day
Another year, another round of corporate excess. Bosswatch returns from its summer slumber to find the same old dogs up to the same tricks.

L E T T E R S

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Shock and Awe

As we get our nightly fix of the war, more like a video game if you can get past the fact that people die when the fireworks hit their target, an overwhelming sense of doom descends.

It comes from the witnessing of the juggernaut in action; all the divisions of the US Empire combined - the military, the media, the government - to smash the rogue tyrant and give the world a taste of The Way Things Will Be From Now On.

The doctrine of Pre-Emption, risk assessed and addressed by one nation's leaders, will take our world into a new era of domination and subjugation.

There are two scenarios that can now unfold and neither of them are very pretty.

In the first, the USA and its conscripts do not have the quick and decisive victory they expect. Ground fighting leads to casualties among the soldiers and the civilian Iraqis they purport to liberate. Refugees starve on the Iraqi borders; those that remain are cannon fodder.

In the second, the war does go according to the Pentagon's script, Saddam's army is overwhelmed, casualties are kept to minimum and Iraq is 'liberated'. A US regent is put in place and American companies flood in to rebuild the nation's infrastructure.

For those who detest bloodshed this is probably the preferred outcome; but the long-term consequences could be just as damaging.

A quick victory would leave George Dubya vindicated and ready to spread his doctrine of Pre-Emption' to promote American interests everywhere.

In the long run, this scenario scares me more than the current war. A world with one power exerting its will is a recipe for excess.

The United Nations is compromised, perhaps fatally, trampled over by its strongest member; leaving a void in mediating the differences based on culture, affluence and creed that all global conflicts boil down to.

In its absence, it will be American values and American interests that will define what is right and wrong; power will become its own morality. Who will then be the next target: North Korea? Iran? Pakistan? The only certainty is that it will be for Bush's advisers to decide.

And this new dynamic will beggar a response from Europe and China and create its own dynamic of global instability.

Meanwhile, Australia, now linked to the USA to the extent that our Parliament does not even have a say in whether we go to war, will find itself adrift and exposed in its own region.

Those of us marching for peace do not do so in the expectation that our troops will now be sent home or that our misguided leader will reassess his blind adherence to this Extreme White House.

But we must continue to march to indicate to the world that we do not accept that this should be the New World Order. Our presence on the streets sends this message: our government does not speak for us, it does not listen to us and it is barely prepared to talk to us.

Let's pray for a short war; but let us also pray that the doctrine that has brought this war upon us does not become a template for managing all affairs. For if it does, Iraq could be but a brief skirmish in a war that may consume us all.

Peter Lewis

Editor

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005