*****
Federal Government minister and serial idiot Wilson "Ironbar" Tuckey came out this week and suggested that the 1000 Qantas staff set to lose their jobs in coming months should realise that it is in the best interests of workers and the profitable company. "It is very much in the interests of the workers," says Tuckey, who is currently the acting transport minister - which apparently doesn't involve acting intelligently.
To compound this striking no-brainer Tuckey alluded to the collapse of Ansett as a precedent for the airline staff's predicament. How a virtual monopoly is supposed to go broke beggars belief - to do that they would need someone of the calibre of Tuckey in a management role.
A profitable Qantas announced that 1,000 staff would be made redundant between now and June 30 because of the impact of the war in Iraq and the deadly SARS virus since airports turned into humorless, nail-scissor stealing cattle yards. The decision follows Qantas imposing a unilateral wages freeze on its staff; but greed knows no bounds so now the company must cut further.
It is significant that the war was used as an excuse to bash the workers as Tuckey's position is entirely consistent with the Federal Government's policy that the best way to save someone is to blow them into little bits. The war was further alluded to, with "Ironbar" referring to the decision as a "pre-emptive" response.
Tuckey, who engaged in a bit of intellectual gymnastics by describing the decision as "logical", showed the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the airline's position, and the tenuous link to any kind of Ansett like collapse, by stating that the staff cuts had nothing to do with the domestic market.
Tuckey, once a Fraser Government Minister, has form. He has had his snout in the public trough for some time now and gained his nickname for the manner in which he persuaded unwilling customers to leave the premises of a pub he owned in Carnarvon, Western Australia. An Aboriginal fellow who caught the sharp end of Wilson Tuckey's implement was none too happy and Tuckey copped a $40 fine - thus demonstrating what an egalitarian society we live in.
The bizarre thing is that Tuckey seems to revel in his reputation as a thug.
Tuckey has also been the Minister for Chopping Down Trees and during his stint at the lumberyard he suggested that it was OK for forestry workers to take matters into their own hands in order to defend their livelihoods. Yet on the issue of the Qantas workers Tuckey seems to believe that the airline employees should bend over and cop it.
Tuckey may well be as thick as two short planks and show a reckless disregard for the facts, but he's also a grubby opportunist who thrives on the misery of others. In keeping with his attitude towards Qantas workers it should be in Tuckey's own interest, and the interest of Australian's generally, if our tool of the week lost his own job as a Federal member of Parliament.
The Premier also vowed that the Department of Industrial Relations would have a stronger role in government, despite being absorbed into John Della Bosca�s new super-ministry of Commerce.
Carr delivered the plaudits to the NSW Labor Council's public meeting, recognising the contribution of trade unionists in campaign offices around the state.
But he gave his biggest bouquet to the public sector workers who will later this year begin negotiations for new pay and conditions.
"If we won comfortably, it is because of the excellence of the delivery of public sector employees who used extra resources and the policies we gave them," Carr said.
In the speech he singled out:
- teachers 'achieving the best literacy outcomes in any school system in Australia, doing it in NSW with the extra resources we gave them.'
- nurses 'like those I spoke to the Monday after the election in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital - outstanding results. Nurses full of idealism, commitment and ideals.
- rail workers - 'because the trains were clean, the service reliable. The commuters told me about it and it was the rail workers who delivered.'
- and police 'using the increased powers and the increased resources we've given them, getting results for the people.'
"In the end it was our alliance with the public sector workforce that achieved the approval of the people on March 22nd," he said. "We're partners with a great unionised public sector workforce."
In his address, Carr also committed the State Government to work with the NSW Labor Council to restore Trades Hall and transform it into a living part of the state's history.
And he said the victory would ensure that Tony Abbott's industrial agenda would not be imposed on NSW, ensuring that NSW retains its competitive advantage over Victoria where, without a state I/R system construction costs are 30 per cent higher.
The State Government flogged off Allandale Aged Care, near Cessnock, on April Fools Day. Eight days later, Calvary Community Retirement had only two registered nurses on deck, compared to the 10 specified by its own staffing profile � to care for hundreds of elderly residents.
The situation was so bad that the NSW Nurses Association dedicated one of its organisers to help drum up interest from Registered Nurses who might be able to plug the holes.
The crisis was brought under short term control by the use of agency nurses, some of whom had to be flown in from Sydney.
Nurses Association secretary, Brett Holmes, has undertaken an urgent trip to Cessnock to try and help the new owners find a way out of their dilemma.
Cuts in federal funding for aged care have made it the poor relation of the health system, offering inferior wages and conditions to those that struggle to retain nursing staff in other sectors.
"The situation is critical and can't be allowed to continue," Holmes said.
"It looks like another privatisation debacle in which all the guarantees provided by the State Government and the Hunter Area Health Service aren't worth the paper they are written on.
"This is one of the largest nursing homes in NSW and has provided top-level service in the past. I can assure staff, residents, and their families that the NSW Nurses Association is not going to let the government or the new management get away with this."
The Nurses Association fought the State Government on the issue of privatisation but is now committed to ensuring that the new owners, the Little Company of Mary, face up to their responsibilities.
Justice Goldring threatened PSA member, Beth Walker, with contempt of court after she indicated she would back a legal strike by workmates protesting staffing shortages.
When Walker, a prosecuting lawyer, returned to the court she made it clear she did so out of respect for the victim of the sexual assault, rather than the court, drawing attention to the judge's implicit threat to scupper the prosecution.
PSA spokesman, Stephen Spencer, says Goldring's actions will be referred to union lawyers.
"We fully support Beth's actions," Spencer told Worker Online. "We now need formal legal advice about how far protections extend when workers are taking legal industrial action.
"The law is clear on victimisation by employers but judges are not employers. Contempt of court is a serious issue for solicitors. It can mean losing their practising certificates."
Last week's 24 hour DPP stoppage was supported by 300 PSA members, lawyers and clerks, up and down the state. It was most noticeable in busy courts like Sydney, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Penrith where matter had to be adjourned.
In an unexpected display of solidarity, the DPP workers' action was publicly endorse by defence lawyers who said resourcing issues threatened the NSW criminal justice system.
The PSA has been negotiating over DPP staff shortages, a situation conceded by the director himself, for months. The situation came to a head with last month's decision to cut 15-20 temporary workers.
"The workloads are unsustainable," Spencer said. "We have situations where our members are presented with a brief at 5 oclock to be presented in court the following morning.
"There must be a question mark over the standard of prosecutions in this state simply as a consequence of the case load placed on each individual."
Perth Magistrate Paul Heaney has dismissed a range of charges against assistant state secretary, Joe McDonald, and organiser, Graham Pallott, confiming their rights to enter building sites.
CFMEU WA branch secretary, Kevin Reynolds, called the not guilty verdicts "a smack in the face for (Royal Commissioner Terence) Cole who brought down a whole range of findings against us on the basis of Right of Entry.
"It has been our contention for the last 10 years that we have been unlawfully prevented going about our business. It's something Cole tried to reinforce but this case has vindicated our position."
Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Abbott, has proposed a range of restrictions, including massive fines on workers and a Building Industry Commission, citing more than 300 "unlawful" findings in WA as justification.
A vast number of those findings stem from Right of Entry restrictions imposed in 1992 by controversial state Industrial Relations Minister Graham Keirath, whose IR regime has been described in the Murdoch press as the "most draconian" in Australia.
Magistrate Heaney said the McDonald-Pallot case, stemming from a 2001 picketline incident, was "very important" because it recognised the CFMEU's right to access construction sites.
He was scathing of police who brought charges of trespass, resisting arrest, escaping lawful custody and hindering an officer. Heaney ruled unionists had been wrongly arrested.
He said police had no training in industrial law and did not understand the Right of Entry concept. Further, that they had taken their instructions from representatives of the company, Pindan Construction, and hadn't bothered to check McDonald's claim that union representatives were entitled to be present.
The case was not without humour, especially in relation to the escaping charge laid against McDonald.
Officers said they had arrested and handcuffed McDonald before joining in the arrest of two other workers. When they returned for McDonald they couldn't locate him, despite a search of the site.
One of the officers said that the next time he had seen McDonald was at the East Perth lock-up where he had arrived, apparently, to return his "undamaged handcuffs".
"There simply is not one scintilla of evidence that he had escaped custody," the Magistrate said. "He was located at the lockup, someone must have taken him there.
"The charge against Mr McDonald of escaping out of legal custody must fail, and I come to this conclusion without even having to deal with the fact that he was not even in lawful custody because his arrest was unlawful."
A third union member, James Murphy, was found not guilty on charges of assault and resisting arrest but was fined $500 for assaulting a policeman for an action, during the melee, likened to a "rugby tackle".
Federal Court Sees it Differently
In another clash between judicial process and the extra-judicial inquiry, Cole made around 20 findings of "unlawful" action against no fewer than 15 CFMEU officers, arising from a dispute between Hanssen Pty Ltd and the union on Perth's Bluewater Apartments site.
The same issue, over the sacking of union members, had been resolved on October 25, 2000. The orders, made by the Federal Court of Australia that day, are reprinted below in full ...
"The Court Orders that:
1) The Respondent (Hanssen Pty Ltd) do forthwith reinstate:
1.1 Ross William Ludemann
1.2 John Thomas McGurk
1.3 John McCann
1.4 Philip Sean Mulne
1.5 Rory Michael O'Driscoll
1.6 Andrew Swarbrick
1.7 Stuart MacDonald
1.8 Nathan Dean Miller
The said reinstatement to be on the same terms of engagement that existed immediately prior to their termination on 26 September 2000.
2) The Respondent do pay to each of the Second Applicants and to Nathan Dean Miller, compensation for income lost between the date of dismissal namely 26 September 2000 and the date of reinstatement or in the case of Youran Nathan Lingham, the date of other employment. Such compensation to be calculated on the basis of the terms that the said Applicants were engaged on immediately prior to their termination on 26 Semptember 2000.
3 The Respondent do pay the Applicants' (the CFMEU's) costs of the action agreed at $20,000."
The new revelations compound concerns about a contract to supply textiles to NSW hospitals, with raw material to be sourced from China in a move that will put 35 union members out of work.
Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union state secretary Barry Tubner warns the contract to supply sheets and gowns undermines the NSW Government's own agreement to ensure prison labour does not come at the cost of full-time work.
That agreement, struck by the CSI Consultative Council of industry and union representatives, aims to 'load-up-' the price of prison work to have regard for other costs such as prison supervision. But with no such agreement in the privatised Victorian jails, prisons are able to quote a price that NSW cannot meet.
"In my view, the NSW Government needs to be clear about whether it supports Australian jobs and proper rehabilitation of prisoners in NSW or whether it is prepared to allow cheap overseas products and unregulated prison labour to undermine its own stated objectives," Tubner says.
Labor Council's Chris Christodoulou says the decision by bureaucrats in the NSW Departments of Health and Public Works makes a mockery of the hard work that's been put in to create a sustainable prison industry.
"Unions have supported this process because we want to ensure there is work to assist prisoner rehabilitation, without putting other workers' jobs at risk," Christodoulou said.
"By simply opting for the lowest price the Health Department has undone all this work and handed a contract to a system that the Carr Government claims to oppose."
Unions are seeking a meeting with new Health Minister Maurice Iemma to discuss the issue.
The re-elected NSW Government will stand-up to federal attempts to use hospitals, schools and roads to �blackmail� it into signing up to the code and key recommendations from the controversial Cole Royal Commission.
Della Bosca's pledge ensures work, worth of billions of dollars, on the Western Sydney orbital and Liverpool-Parramatta Bus Link will not be subject to Abbott's rules.
"Mr Abbott is attempting to blackmail the states and this will be resisted by the NSW Government at every step," Della Bosca said.
Della Bosca endorsed union criticisms of the Abbott agenda as political hard-ball that could threaten the viability of a multi-billion industry.
"This is an ideological obsession to the detriment of employers and workers," he said. "Mr Abbott is putting at risk thousands of building projects."
Abbott has threatened to withdraw billions of dollars in federal funding from schools, hospitals and roading projects if states don't subjucate their industrial rules to a Canberra-driven regime that would make it extremely difficult for unions to recruit, organise or pursue improved wages or conditions.
He wants harsh penalties on individuals and organisations, including prison terms and six figure fines, to replace state systems that have conciliation and arbitration through the Industrial Relations Commission at their core.
"I advise Mr Abbott to refresh himself with his own submission to the Cole Royal Commission which stated that the cost of construction in NSW was 20-30 percent less than Victoria, due to a superior industrial relations climate," Della Bosca said.
Victoria is the one state that has signed up for the unitary system that Canberra is demanding.
By contrast, Della Bosca pointed out, billions of dollars worth of Olympic Games infrastructure had been built in NSW "on time and on budget by a fully unionised workforce".
Rumours about the future of Broadway's iconic Carlton and United Brewery, with the likely loss of more than 300 jobs, were sweeping Sydney on Friday afternoon.
LHMU assistant national secretary, Tim Ferrari, said an announcement on the future of the five hectare site, a landmark on Sydney's southern fringe, was expected on Monday. He predicted 300 direct jobs would go with more to follow.
The reported moves by CUB to transfer beer production to Victoria, Queensland or elsewhere should, as far as the union is concerned, be put on hold while the ongoing needs of long serving brewery workers are taken into account, Ferrari said.
The LHMU has called on the NSW Government to examine this whole issue as a matter of urgency.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said greater stability and certainty was needed in the Australian aviation industry to protect employment opportunities.
Qantas this week announced 1,700 job losses that will bring its direct contribution to Australian unemployment to 5,200 places. The airline has implemented recent staffing reductions equivalent to 3,500 full time positions.
"The difficulties facing the aviation industry worldwide require greater consolidation and stability to protect existing jobs and ensure future employment growth," Ms Burrow said.
"The ACCC should consider the important public interest and economic impacts of any decision which could result in greater uncertainty and further job losses in the Australian aviation industry.
"Regional stability for aviation in two of the world's most integrated economies must be a central priority".
In its draft determination the ACCC signals it will deny a proposed alliance between Qantas and Air New Zealand. The ACCC will make a final decision after hearing further submissions on the proposal next month.
Ms Burrow said that the ACTU would make a submission strongly urging the ACCC to take into account future prospects for employment stability, including preventing the export of Australian jobs.
Meanwhile, the ASU will insist that Qantas honours EBA obligations to consult and examine other alternatives before shedding any of its members.
The union is also seeking advice on how the planned reductions will effect regional services run under the banners of Eastern, Impulse and Sunstate.
Michael Crosby, author of the infamous 'scary graph' of falling membership numbers, says last week's Australian Bureau of Statistics highlights the need for drastic steps to reverse the decline.
The ABS reported official union membership density down from 25.7 per cent in August 1999 to 23.1 per cent August 2002, with NSW membership down 60,000 in the last six months.
Crosby made the comments while pitching the upcoming ACTU Organising Conference ' 'Let's Get Real' to be held in Sydney from 7-9 May.
National secretary Doug Cameron was responding to estimates that 1200 jobs could disappear with the closure of Adelaide's only oil refinery. The South Australian capital is certain to lose 400 jobs as a direct result.
Cameron labelled the closure a "disgrace" at a time when the international oil market was unstable.
"The loss of 400 skilled jobs with another 800 indirect jobs likely to be impacted will have a devastating effect on the local economy," he said.
"Here we have one of Australia's state capitals losing key infrastructure and jobs and neither the Industry Minister or Prime Minister appear to be interested."
Cameron said the Government appeared more interested in talking up infrastructure rebuilding in Iraq than protecting key infrastructure in Australia.
The AMWU has written to Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane, urging him to convene a meeting of key stake holders in Adelaide, including unions, the oil company, state and federal governments.
The full impact of the deadly virus is being felt in aviation where 1000 Qantas employees have been given their marching orders and hundreds more face redundancy or reduced hours. Qantas says the war is partly responsible but blames SARS for pounding the final nail into the employment coffin.
Health care workers, community care workers and anyone dealing with an individual are also at risk. The World Health Organisation has documented 2671 cases of SARS in 17 countries, with a total of 111 known deaths.
Unions around the world are scrambling to ensure members are protected. But with new information coming to light almost daily it is hard to say how much risk workers face and the most appropriate precautions would be.
The Flight Attendants Association of Australia maintains that the actual risk to cabin crews of contracting SARS appears low but that while so many questions have yet to be answered it will support members taking precautionary measures, such as wearing facemasks or gloves.
The FAA is encouraging thorough and regular hand washing. It has also set up a dedicated webpage to share new information as it comes to light and to provide access to other SARS information sources.
The World Health Organization says that SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is a deadly strain of pneumonia first recognised at the end of February 2003. It includes in its list of early SARS symptoms fever, malaise, chills, headache and dizziness. Some victims also experience coughing, a sore throat and a runny nose, it says. The incubation period is believed to be from 1 to 10 days from the first exposure to the onset of symptoms.
The most common mode of infection is thought to be entry through mouth, inhalation and eyes, with the disease potentially transmitted through droplets traveling through the air when people cough or sneeze. It is not yet certain if it can also be transmitted through other bodily secretions but close contact with an infected individual does increase the risk of the virus being spread from one person to another.
Aside from the FAAA, many other unions are putting measures in place to support members and are pushing to ensure employers do the same.
Meanwhile, several hundred workers screening travelers at a Canadian airport were provided with protective facemasks by their union but were told to take them off by management. According to a Toronto Sun report five screeners, including a pregnant worker, were sent home for the duration of their shifts when they refused to remove their masks.
In Australia Qantas is now permitting its workers to wear masks and gloves.
FAAA SARS page: http://www.labourstart.org/sars/
The unanimous decision by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, applies last year's national decision on Reasonable Hours to state awards, recognising the pressures on workers with responsibilities as carers.
The decision gives employees the right to refuse to work unreasonable levels of overtime if:
- there is any risk to employee health and safety
- it impacts on the employee's personal circumstances including any family and carer responsibilities;
- notice given by the employer of the overtime is unreasonable.
Those covered by the decision include retail workers, clerical workers, hospitality and construction industry workers, teachers, nurses and public sector workers.
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson said the decision was a welcome recognition of the time pressures that many workers face.
"When it comes to working hours, Australia ranks second only to South Korea in terms of hours worked," Mr Robertson said.
"This decision is significant because it recognises the burden of long working hours and gives workers the grounds to argue their load is unreasonable.
"The challenge is now for unions and their members to organise around the issue to ensure that reasonable hours of work are a right for everyone."
The IFJ is calling on the United Nations to establish an urgent international inquiry to hold accountable those who knowingly target media personnel. The IFJ wants the inquiry to be conducted by the International News Safety Institute, a coalition of more than 100 organisations campaigning for a global news safety program.
The move has been prompted by news of three more journalist deaths this week and evidence that both sides have targeted media despite knowing they were civilians. The latest casualties included a cameraman working for Spanish television station Telecinco, a Reuters cameraman, and an al-Jazeera journalist who were killed in separate attacks on media bases by US forces.
Meanwhile, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance federal secretary and IFJ president Chris Warren is challenging Coalition assertions that only embedded journos could be guaranteed safety.
Reports are mounting of non-embedded journalists being discriminated against, unfairly restricted and in some cases forcibly removed by the US military.
In the case of Arabic satellite news station Al Jazeera, its journalists have now been pulled from the war zone after being singled out for attack by both sides. Iraq authorities banned one correspondent and asked another to leave. Meanwhile another of its journalists was killed in a US bombing raid on the station's Baghdad offices. The station was also criticised by the US and Britain for showing explicit images of the war.
Warren says combatant forces have a responsibility for all civilians, not just those traveling with them. "If we could only rely on the reports from embedded journalists and from official briefings from either side, we would only have a limited view of what is actually happening."
According to IFJ general secretary Aidan White there is "no doubt at all" that these attacks could be targeting journalists. "If so, they are grave and serious violations of international law."
Twelve journalists have now been killed in Iraq, including freelance Australian cameraman Paul Moran.
For more information visit the Alliance's website at http://www.alliance.org.au.
Union Aid Abroad is contributing towards the cost of a camp for displaced Iraqis and Kurds, predominantly women and children, in the region north of Baghdad. The money will be channelled through European NGOs - Noweigan Peoples Aid and Swiss Workers Aid.
Union Aid Abroad national programs manager, Marj O'Callaghan, said the most vulnerable were always always the major casualties of war.
"The groups running this camp have targeted their assistance at those people, predominantly women, children and the aged who had nothing to do with the fighting," she said.
United Nations figures suggested there were 200,000 displaced persons in the north of Iraq prior to the fall of Baghdad. NGOs behind the Apheda-supported camp are trying to raise at least $600,000 to build and operate the facility.
Her organisation is philosophically committed to long-term, self-help projects but has run successful emergency fundraising campaigns for East Timor and Afghanistan in recent years.
Australians can make donations to the northern camp by visiting the Apheda website at www.apheda.org.au or by ringing 1800 888 674. The organisation is the oversea aid arm of the ACTU.
I read Leonie Bronstein's fascinating article "Stalin's Legacy" with great interest.
We do not take Stalin's crimes seriously in this country. While Le Monde publishes a pull-out supplement and the anniversary features on the front pages of most Eastern European papers, here there is a distracted silence save for a SBS documentary. While some readers may find a comparison with Hitler offensive, Stalin actually killed more than 8 times as many people as Hitler's concentration camps. Alexander Yakovlev, an expert on Stalin's crimes, estimates that his victims totalled more than 130 million. To give some idea of the scale of this: Stalin's body count is the equivalent 35,000 11 Septembers. Yes, Stalin played a very minor role in defeating Nazism, but so would any Russian leader who had been attacked by the Reich.
One anecdote will have to suffice to give some sense of Stalin's contempt for human life. His wife Nadezhda began in the early 1930s to teach courses in textile production in an attempt to escape the misery of life in the Kremlin. She and her students carried out assignments in the Russian countryside, where she witnessed the degeneration of the peasantry because of Stalin's policy of forced seizures. According to the revered Marxist and Trotskyite historian Robert Conquest, 35 million people starved to death, and cannibalism became rife. Nadezhda's students were so shocked that they insisted on reporting back to the great leader Stalin. They did, and Stalin had them all arrested and executed for "sedition". Stalin had his wife murdered not long afterwards.
I don't raise this only in order to provide a diverting history lesson. I raise it because Stalinism lives. Nazism is now a movement confined to the outer fringes of politics, yet Stalinists still control several countries and rule over a greater population than George Bush. Even after 50 years, the malign ideology of "Uncle Joe" has yet to join him in the grave.
Peter Hartnell
I have read recently your article on unfair dismissal and would like to put the human side of the equation something that is lost in the legal and political envrons.
I have worked for a insurance company for 5 years and been retrenched with a injury that stills causes me problems (a neck injury,migraines,headaches,anxiety and depression brought on by my employers actions) which has been the subject matter of four years worth of workers comp action.
Upto 4 weeks prior to my retrenchment I was in the workers compensation tribunal for lost time which was awarded in my favour my employer then sought a further solicitors advise and then retrenchened me.
Call me cynical but I dont believe in coincidences.
Apparently if i make a unfair dismissal claim and win I will be taxed 30c in the dollar not only on any award made by the court but on the package aswell !!.
So I would be disadvantaged by making a unfair dismissal claim and winning - which seems stupid.
So I now find myself in a situation whereby having a workers compensation injury that my prospects of obtaining work are zip, I have been advised by two employment agencies that inurers would not employ me in view of this.
So here i am damned to continue in the ranks of people consigned to the whims of companys who turn a dollar over by handling workers compensation claims.
My doctor advised that most people are often made worse - health wise - by the actions of these providers and the employers.
Well I can tell you its true !.
I have been advised that I can obtain a section 43 payout for the residual problems with my neck,headaches,anxiety and depression but what horrors await me ?.....
Legal costs that will be in access of the payout ?.
Having to spend more money on treatments to overcome the problems for the next 25 + years ?.
The system presently in place is so biased to the EMPLOYER that employee is stands no chance of any justice or equity, and you tell me who is is least able to bare the cost.
regards
Stephen Coles
I attended the Books Not Bombs rally at the Town Hall
Wed 2/4. I saw the incident where one of the dozens of pain clothes detectives (are they terrorists too?) sprayed capsicum at a protester. (most likely unprovoked).
Whats all the fuss?
Labor should be supporting these people in their protest.
If there are a (very ) few participants who go overboard and start to throw some chairs and paint around, then get behind the organisers and give them some training and support to control these few in future.
Bob Carr's grandstanding and pumping up the fear factor does nothing to promoting the active democracy and civil disobedience which is necessary to wake the masses up from their petrol-driven slumber.
Peter Godden
*********
I was so distressed by the condemnation of the students' protest of 26th in the media and the ensuing melee at the Walk Against the War Coalition meeting that I resolved to assist the students on the 2nd April.My neighbour and I spent the day as 'Peace Moniters',ensuring the police were unable use intimidatory tactics.The only violence at the rally involved the use of pepper spray by an undercover policeman.The young people who attended the rally deserve praise not derision from all of us, working so hard in the peace movement.Time to catch up with the 'grassroots,'Labor Council and stop playing dirty politics.
Fiona Alcock
Dear Sir,
With the recent allegations of a cover up in relation to the exposure of City Rail users, and to possible fatalities caused by the continued use of the condemned bridge over the Nepean River at Menagle , should we the citizens of New South Wales resign ourselves to another 4 years of Ministerial musical chairs while singing "Nearer My God To Thee".
Only days into the Historical Third term and chaos reigns supreme in our Capital City, we have a collapsing infrastructure, a police force unable to provide basic safety for the population as seditious Australians run amok, attacking our Navy, vandalizing our Opera House and disrupting our lives, and all the while we are being treated by state politicians with contemptuous ignorance.
This continual use of "musical chairs" as a tactic in avoidance of responsibility, is not only immoral, it is illegal , and these Ministers must be made aware that they are subject to and responsible through continuing succession, and are therefore still retrospectively accountable and without statute of limitations. They should also, like company directors,be held accountable for any losses accumulated through their incompetence, negligence, ignorance and or lack of due diligence during their tenure with no statutory time limit for the prosecution of offences. For too long, these voracious consumers of the public purse posing as altruistic servants, have dined extravagantly without commensurate accountability covering up mistakes with taxpayer funded spin doctoring. Then when one gets too close to the truth that hoary old chestnut, Ministerial Prerogative, this is like the proverbial rabbit pulled out of the Hat with a poof of smoke, to cover up any incompetence and or in!
appropriate activities...
The leader of the opposition, John Brogden , should give no quarter when pursuing any that refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.
If nothing is done to curb this arrogance then this so called historical third term, will gain its fame from ignominy rather than length of tenure?
I like many others look forward in 2003-7, to seeing those familiar signs displaying the numerous allegations of corruption, and the accommodation of corrupt behaviors by political parties, and so prominently displayed out side the New South Wales Parliament, by the Gosford Foghorn Mr. Edward James , from Umina , and it is our hope that we and a proliferation of other determined individuals will without harrassment through a misuse of the guardians of law and order , join with him by promulgating our own visions for transparent public accountability from those who should not be permitted to within a coo'ee of the parliamentary piss boys' bucket , never mind be provided with a safe a seat.
As is our Democratic Right!
On the Federal political scene, and in response to the call by Simon Creans' only potential replacement, I support the member for Werriwa Mark Lathams' call to get behind Simon Crean, conditional on the use of his whetstone.
I will also as an open and public supporter of Simon Crean ,his leadership and the Australian Labor Party , in an attempt to assist the current free fall of public support , will make to Mr. John Howard , the Prime Minister of Australia , representations for Refugee status visas for Saddam Hussein and the remnants of his Ba'ath Party, this just might give Simon and Federal ALP some credibility , in that they will , we hope , come in below the ALP in the in opinion polls .
Tom Collins
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
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