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Solidarity Forever
Another May Day, another year gone, another year to look back on our history and celebrate the past and talk about how we can make our movement strong again.
Interview: Staying Alive
CPSU national secretary Adrian O'Connell talks about the fight to keep the public service - and the union movement - alive.
Bad Boss: The Ultimate Piss Off
Wollongong workers on poverty-level wages are losing up to $5000 for taking toilet breaks, according to the union representing staff at a Stellar call centre.
Industrial: Last Drinks
Jim Marr looks at the human cost of the decision to close Sydney�s Carlton United Brewery
National Focus: Around the States
If Tampa told us that John Howard circa 2003 is the same spotted rabid dog from 1987, this week�s assault on Medicare confirms it reports Noel Hester in this national round up.
Politics: Radical Surgery
Workers are vitally interested in Medicare, not least because they traded away wage rises to get it. Now, Jim Marr writes, the Coalition Government is tearing apart the 20-year-old social contract on which it was founded.
Education: The Price of Missing Out
University students and their families will pay more for their education following the May Budget, writes Tony Brown.
Legal: If At First You Don't Succeed
Love is wonderful the second time around, goes the famous torch song. But is the same true for legislation? Asks Ashley Crossland
History: Massive Attack
Labour historian Dr Lucy Taksa remembers the general strike of 1917 to put the recent anti-war marches into perspective
Culture: What's Right
Neale Towart looks at a new book that looks at the failings of the Left, while reasserting the liberal project
Review: If He Should Fall
Jim Marr caught Irish folk-rock-punk legend Shane MacGowan at Sydney�s Metro Theatre. He was surprised but not disappointed.
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.
Satire: IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to monitor the Iraqi economy to ensure that the reintroduction of looting into the economy conforms with free-market theory.
 Mystery Men Behind Pan Bungle
Charities Brace for Medicare Backlash
Court Throws Out Cole Prosecutions
Child Actor Dodges Broken Voice
Rio Tinto: $40 Million for Boss, Eviction for Workers
Child Care for Oldies Too
Winning Poster Shouts at Freeloaders
May Day Tragedy Claims Union Lives
Westfield Cleaners to Down Mops
Question Marks Over Nursing Home
Burn Payout Highlights Compo Fears
Costa Blows Whistle on Canberra Raid
Hoops Bet on National Body
Tear Us Down, Buttercup
Activist Notebook
The Soapbox
What May Day Means to Me
Reader Marlene McAlear penned this tribue to May Day and worker solidarity.
Solidarity
The Toast
Labor Council secretary John Robertson's toast to the annual May Day dinner in Sydney. The Locker Room
The Numbers Game
In life there is lies, damned lies and sporting statistics, says Phil Doyle - but who�s counting. Postcard
Brukman Evicted
ZNet's Marie Trigona reports from the streets of Argentina in the rundown to last week's presidential election. Bosswatch
The Costs of Excess
Some tall business poppies had their heads lopped this week as the laws of economic gravity applied their always chaotic theory.
Is Labor History?
Bob Gould Sprays Gerard Henderson
War and Peace
A Strange Light
A Little History
Does It Have To Be?
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News
Winning Poster Shouts at Freeloaders
A poster asking workers whether they�d expect to drink all night for free has won the Labor Council�s May Day Poster Competition.
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Kayty takes home the money ... |
The poster, part of a series to address the issue of freeloaders and the union push for bargaining fees, was designed by PSA organiser Kayty O'Sullivan.
Kayty was awarded the $2,000 after the Labor Council executive unanimously voted her series the top of the pack.
Taglines in Kayty's posters included:
- 'Would you drink at the pub all night and expect someone else to pay? - Join your union today and stop bludging off the workers who fought for your rights and conditions'
- Would you ride a bus for free? - Join your union today and stop having a free ride on the workers who fought for your rights and conditions.
- Would you take out insurance just after your house burnt down? - Join your union today and stop benefiting from the workers who fought for your rights and conditions
- and Do you work alongside colleagues who fight for your rights everyday? - Join your union today and stop taking advantage of the workers who fought for your rights and conditions.
Announcing the winner, Labor Council secretary John Robertson said he would investigate adapting the posters for advertisements in hotels and clubs, as well as on public transport.
"Kayty's posters carry a sharp message, many unions are working with members to address the freeloader issue and these posters should get out there into the community," Robertson says.
Runners-up were Robyn McQueeney, a CPSU Organiser from Hobart Union Flag and Domenic Bartolo, who will each receive $1,000.
But wait, there's more...
If the May Day poster comp has whetted your appetite for social justice art, check out a new website by Make Art Not War at www.makeartnotwar.net.
The group is calling for early contributions to an online exhibition of peace art. The pieces are to be auctioned at a later date, with all money raised going to Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's appeal to assist the Iraqi & Kurdish victims of war.
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Issue 176 contents
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