The Official Organ of LaborNET
click here to view the latest edition of Workers Online
The Official Organ of LaborNET
Free home delivery
Issue No. 174 11 April 2003  
E D I T O R I A L

Might Does Not Mean Right
So the Americans have removed the dictator Hussein, the right wing press are firing more pot-shots than the Republican Guard and George W. Bush can ride into the sunset having liberated the Middle East. Game over � or is it?

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Picking Up The Peaces
Walk Against the War Coalition convenor Bruce Childs outlines the challenge for the peace movement in the lead up to Palm Sunday.

Unions: The Royal Con
Jim Marr argues the Cole Commission can only be taken seriously by people kept ignorant of the way it actually operated.

National Focus: Around the Grounds
Unions maintain the pressure for peace as the upcoming organising conference takes on added significance, reports Noel Hester.

Economics: The Secret War on Trade
Overseas-based multi-nationals are coming after our film industry, electricity, water, pharmaceutical benefits and even childcare. Or are they? Nobody knows, as Jim Marr reports.

International: United Front
Workers and their unions around the world have possibly never been as united in their commitment to campaign together against the War in Iraq, writes Andrew Casey

History: Confessions of a Badge Collector
Bill Pirie has one of the largest collections of trade union badges in the world. After 20 years the collection now numbers some 6,000 badges.

Politics: Stalin�s Legacy
Fifty years ago last month Josef Stalin died. How could it be that a democratic and socialist revolution produced one of the monsters of the twentieth century, asks Leonie Bronstein.

Review: Such Was Not Ned�s Life
The life of Ned Kelly is what we in the world of journalism term a �ball tearing yarn� so why have writers of the movie adaptation felt so impelled to dress it up with fiction, asks Tara de Boehmler.

Poetry: Osama's Top Recruiter
Through our extensive intelligence networks, we have managed to track down the top recruiter for the global terror network of Osama bin Laden.

Satire: Woolworths CEO Denied Bonus After Company Posts Profit
Woolworths chief executive Roger Corbett was devastated today to report an 18.3% rise in profit under his management over the last year.

N E W S

 Carr: Workers Won It For Me

 Nursing Crisis Bites Elderly

 Judge Puts �Predator� Before Workers

 WA Court Undermines Cole

 Mexican Chain Gangs Win NSW Work

 Della Muscles Up to Abbott

 STOP PRESS - Brewery Goes Flat

 ACCC Urged to Consider Jobs

 Unions Stats Track Armageddon

 Cameron: Feds More Interested in Iraq

 SARS Lays Jobs Low

 Working Hours Benefit Millions

 Journos Urge War Crimes Prosecutions

 Unions Support Displaced in Iraq

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Factional Free-For-All
Chris Christodoulou looks at the fallout from the selection of the new Carr Ministry and what it means to the factional warlords.

The Locker Room
The Best Season Since Last Year
Phil Doyle goes trudging through the mud in search of the heart of the matter beneath the corporate biffo

Culture
Books on Bombs
In times like these, reading inevitably turns to America and war. Chris White wades through Pilger, Chomsky, Eco, Moore and Vidal.

Postcard
Postcard from Harvard
Labor Council's Michael Gadiel was elected to give the valedictory speech to this year's Harvard Trade Union Program.

L E T T E R S
 Taking Stalin's Crimes Seriously
 Unfair Dismissals
 More Angry Trots
 Tom's Tirade
WHAT YOU CAN DO
About Workers Online
Latest Issue
Print Latest Issue
Previous Issues
Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation


Labor for Refugees

BossWatch



Editorial

Might Does Not Mean Right


So the Americans have removed the dictator Hussein, the right wing press are firing more pot-shots than the Republican Guard and George W. Bush can ride into the sunset having liberated the Middle East. Game over � or is it?

In the war script being written by the Murdoch press, the US victory in Iraq has not only blown Saddam's regime out of existence, it has also cluster-bombed the peace movement, leaving only a bunch of extremists, cowards and misguided apologists for a despised despot

This view is reinforced by images of cheering Iraqis, those who survived their 'liberation', who now dance on the ruins of their oppressor's treasures and choose to welcome the Marines rather than offer themselves as target practice.

All of which leaves this weekend's Palm Sunday peace march looking a little past its use-by date.

Surely the deed is done, we can get back to normal life under the American Empire and spend our Sunday at SCG watching the Swans get beat. Attractive as this is, I will still march on Sunday.

I will march for the thousands of Iraqis killed in the process of the liberation, of the children maimed and slaughtered in the military mismatch of the century.

I march for the journalists taken out in the cross fire - and some in the cross-hairs - to give voice to my anger that the champions of democracy have committed these calculated crimes against the Free Press.

I will march because it is now so apparent that Iraq's much-hyped weapons of mass destruction, if they existed, were possessed by a tin-pot dictatorship that lacked any capacity to use them.

I will march because I do not want to live in a world where the international order is defined, set and enforced by a cabal of executives straddling the corporate and political wings of North American society.

And I will march because I'm frightened by what a world without a global consensus mediated through the United Nations holds in store for this and future generations.

I may not be joined by the hundreds of thousands who took to the street before the war, but I will be there, because my concerns about American unilateralism have only been reinforced over the past few weeks.

I will be joined by religious leaders, of all denominations, who have led the moral stand against this adventure.

I will be joined by those in community peace groups who have not been swayed by the propaganda dished out by embedded journalists and their media masters.

And I will be joined by my comrades in the trade union movement, who see internationalism - not imperialism - as a condition precedent for improving the working lives of their members.

The War in Iraq may be coming to end, but there is still a Peace that must be won - it involves humanitarian relief, a massive rebuilding of infrastructure and the creation of workable government - rather than another CIA-installed despot.

There are many uncertainties ahead; the impact of the fall of Saddam on the ethnic mix inside Iraq, particularly the Kurds; the effect of the injection of US capital to rebuild what they have destroyed; the grab for oil riches and, of course, the unresolved issue of Palestine.

The way these issues are handled by those in control will have a big impact on global stability for the coming decade. On their performance to date, there is little ground for confidence.

We were right to march against the war on February 26 and nothing that has happened since then has made us wrong.

We must continue to speak out to demand our leaders act with vision, intelligence and decency to address the world's problems, rather than use mismatches of power to impose their will like a lone gunfighter in some warped version of a global corral.

The need for a vibrant, vocal and committed peace movement is more urgent today than ever before.

Peter Lewis

Editor


------

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 174 contents



email workers to a friend printer-friendly version latest breaking news from labornet


Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/174/editorial_editorial.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005

Powered by APT Solutions
Labor Council of NSW Workers Online
LaborNET