Joining The Dots
ACTU secretary Greg Combet�s call for unions to develop a clear set of values to organise around on a broader social canvass is an important next step in the process of renewal.
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.
Combet Calls On Unions to Muscle Up
HR Honours Death List Author
Hotel Workers Trump Living Wage
Abbott Brushes Security Concerns
Rebates Thorn in Medicare Side
Bosses Infected With SARS Hysteria
Entitlements: Bargaining Chip Ploy Fails
Nelson Plan Faces Higher Hurdle
Public To Pay For Patrick Closure
Airline Ratbags Bigger Than Texas
Credibility Crisis for World Bank
Acid on Billion Dollar Banks
CSIRO Budget Fears
Activists 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.
The Workers Press
Massive Attack
Teamwork Tom
Solidarity
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News
Nelson Plan Faces Higher Hurdle
All non-government political parties have pledged their opposition to wholesale deregulation of the university sector, ensuring plans for full fee courses will not pass the Senate.
Representatives of the ALP, Australian Democrats and Greens made their commitments at a Town Hall meeting organised by education unions and student groups.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson's three-pronged attack on free and fair higher education would see:
- more places opened up for full-fee students
- research grants linked to individual contracts
- voluntary student unionism.
ACTU assistant secretary Richard Marles told the meeting that the plans represented 'dumb' public policy and would undermine Australia's human capital.
"Imagine if the Australian Cricket Academy followed the Nelson reforms? "Mark and Steve Waugh would not get in - although John Howard might."
"We were the Lucky Country, under the 80s and 90s we tried to become a Clever County. Now we risk becoming a Dumb Country and that could turn us into a Poorer Country."
Marles said that the proposal to link academics grants to AWAs would be turned over by the Trade Practices Act if they were offered in commercial world.
"The higher education policy reflects an ignorant view of the USA, which takes all the bad aspects without taking any of the benefits.
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