Remember the last time an expatriate Austrian came to a position of power?
This week California elected a condom full of walnuts to the position of Governor.
Arnold Schwarzenegger brings with him the ability to learn lines and stand around looking like a more sullen version of a Chesty Bonds commercial. How this is supposed to help California's economic crisis is not apparently clear.
Just when the world was coming to terms with George Dubya's Wild West view of the world, US Politics has decided to throw up another crazy white supremacist.
Much has been made of our Tool Of The Week's rise from the cave in Conan the Barbiturate, but that's where it seems Der Gropenfuhrer left his attitude to women - boasting in a magazine interview of the jolly good time he had pack-raping a woman back in his seventies heyday.
When Schwarzenegger was married in 1986 he made a very lavish and glowing toast to one time Waffen SS Nazi, Kurt Waldheim. In the past he has also praised his fellow Austrian Adolph Hitler and the former apartheid regime in South Africa.
He's also an admirer of that contemporary Austrian right-wing nutter, Jorg Heider.
Our Tool Of the Week may have to entitle his next movie "Triumph Of The Will".
Black former body-builder and Mr. Universe Rick Wayne has spoken of the racist comments he said were made to him by Schwarzenegger in the 1970s.
The election of Schwarzenegger is a victory of style over substance. It's the difference between a man standing at a rally with a straw broom promising to "kleen haus" up against an incumbent who has done more to alleviate the position of California's low paid than any Governor in living memory.
It comes as no surprise that trade unions in California campaigned heavily to save Arnie's opponent. They know that this lunatic spells bad news for anyone who doesn't shop on Rodeo Drive.
US Unions have copped this before - when ex-wrestler Jesse Ventura became the spectacularly disastrous one term Governor of Minnesota. Just because it sounds good on a late night chat show doesn't mean its good policy.
What does Arnie stand for? A glib populist fascism that will see the working conditions of California's state employees run into the ground. The interests of Texan power moguls protected; a green light for the big end of town to go on a bender.
And the media have lapped it up with all the critical engagement of a carnival spruiker.
It may prove to be the high water market of politics of spin.
As the poet Richard Rodriguez said, Los Angeles was a Mexican city long before it became a blonde American city. Now the Aryan master race is ensconced in a smug position of power while democracy is hung out to dry as a beauty contest and real ugliness is hidden under layers of dross and spin.
To see popular culture junkies lap this sort of stuff up is enough to make any thinking person throw up. We are a culture so star struck that we give credibility to people on the strength of their ability to remember a prepared script. It's not about ideas. It's not about policy. It's about a big smile and an acting career.
If this is the future of western politics then we are all headed for hell in a taxi.
Could it happen here? Probably.
We are as captive of the cult of celebrity as anywhere else in the western world. The Tall Poppy Syndrome isn't popular in some circles, but it's an important check for a society being led down the garden path by showmen, egomaniacs and Malcolm Turnbull. Its about making people realise that famous does night necessarily mean right; and that we have good reason to be suspicious of people who think that they're superior to us.
Bad news loves company. The one redeeming feature of Arnie's election was his ineligibility to follow in Ronald Reagan's footsteps and run for the presidency. Now even that hurdle is being challenged by US lawmakers.
While Arnie may have been all over our TV screens and newspapers last week the truly scary thing is...
...he'll be back.
Isabelle Wilks who told Workers Online of being urinated on, spat on and physically assaulted in the course of her job, blamed the knock back on her decision to go public.
"All the front line workers for State Rail have had enough. We're going to take a stand against this," says Isabelle Wilks, who refuses to be silenced on the issue.
Mills, a State Rail train guard, was assaulted again at Maitland on the Monday of the October long weekend when she was attacked by a passenger.
"We pulled up and there was a guy running from the train. He was drunk and I told him he couldn't bring his alcohol onto the train. He pushed me back into the train so I called to the driver for assistance," explained Wilks. "The driver came out to assist me, and then this guy came flying off the train and, for whatever reason, started attacking the first passenger."
Mills and the driver were then forced to witness a brutal and savage attack that left the initial passenger unconscious.
After a previous attack Wilks tried in vain to access a doctor in the semi-rural part of the Hunter valley where she lives.
"It took me about twenty calls to ring around and try to get a doctor," said Wilks. "It's basically the country here. We simply don't have the doctors."
Wilks' claim for workers compensation, arising out of injuries sustained in an earlier attack, was then knocked back, with the rejection citing "insufficient medical information" and the "insignificant" nature of her injuries.
Wilks was astonished by the response, but attributes it to her outspoken stance.
"I have never had a letter like this in my life,' she said.
Wilks is angry that State Rail management has done nothing to improve the security situation for rail workers.
NSW Public Transport Workers are conducting a campaign to improve safety and protect all workers in the industry from violence.
Stop Press
A State Rail Authority spokeswoman has contacted Workers Online and assures us that Isabelle's claim has not yet been rejected.
"We are awaiting a receipt of the required medical paperwork to allow how claim to be determined," she said.
In one convoluted sentence the head investigator gives the lie to claims the $60 million inquiry was an open, even-handed investigation of all sectors of the construction industry.
"I'll tell you what we're about," he tells contractors on a building site out of Adelaide. "The Royal Commission is investigating lots of activities in the building industry where coercion is used to make people join unions, or where subbies have to pay slings, and all that sort of stuff."
That's it. There is no mention, much less question, of key employer rorts - safety, underpayments or tax evasion - in a sector which claims 50 Australian lives a year, has coughed up more than $10 million in back pay claims, and is said by the ATO to "hide" billions of dollars.
The tape reveals strong anti-union prejudice amongst those the Federal Government paid to gather and present evidence.
The head investigator, whose identity is being kept secret for legal reasons, characterises union concern for ripped off workers as self-serving.
"The reason that unions don't like all-in rates is that subbies don't want to join unions, you know, and it affects their membership base, that's all. Quite honestly, they don't give a rat's arse, in 40 years, whether you have any super in the bank," he says.
He also dishes out advice to the trio, all CFMEU members, on how they can quit the union.
"When you resign, you have to do it by registered post so you can prove you resigned because they will dud you every time," the investigator warns.
"In the eastern states, they chase the shit out of people for fees, you know, back fees, but you can often deal with it. Say you owe three or four years you can often do a deal with them and pay six months more in advance and they will write off the debt.
"Then you resign properly.
"It's a bit red hot, isn't it? It's in their rules."
The tape also lends weight to claims the whole Cole Commission process was crook.
Commentators and union spokespeople have repeatedly claimed key witnesses were either never interviewed or not called by the Commission because their evidence would not have been prejudicial to the CFMEU.
The three Adelaide contractors were interviewed on tape about allegations the CFMEU had coerced Sydney-based ceiling fixers into joining the union in South Australia on a job on which the contractors had been employed.
Investigators repeatedly tried to get endorsement of their claims, without success.
"The CFMEU said you weren't allowed to bring people from other parts of the world, you know, as if it was another country?" one investigator says.
"The union guys demanded that the Sydney guys had to finish first, before anyone else could finish.
"Were you aware of any of this stuff?"
"Not really," one contractor responds, " I did know that when the Sydney guys came down the unions tried to get them a living away allowance.
"All the other stuff about they had to leave first," another says, "I think a lot of guys probably finished before they did."
"Did they?" an investigator interjects.
"We left before they did as well," the contractor confirms.
During the Royal Commission three ceiling fixers gave evidence they hadn't been allowed onto the site until they joined the South Australian branch of the CFMEU.
In his final report, Commissioner Terence Cole found the CFMEU had coerced the building company, Chadwicks, into forcing interstate ceiling fixers to join its South Australian branch.
"No reason was advanced not to accept it (the ceiling fixer's evidence)," Cole said.
None of the men spoken to on the tape was asked to give evidence to the Royal Commission.
Bjorn Hoekstra�s talents in the middle saw him given a first-class call-up by cricket authorities but TeleTech�s Moe management had other ideas, even though the required leave had been cleared through the company�s Melbourne head office.
The decision by local TeleTech management comes amidst claims of staff money going missing from a social fund, management blocking child care proposals, and an attempt to force employees onto AWAs.
The plight of TeleTech workers came to light as the ACTU blitzed more than 70 call centres nationally.
The effort of a cricket umpire from the battling La Trobe Valley to reach the highest level of the sport in Australia is an outstanding achievement. First Class umpires can go on to officiate at test and state level.
Hoekstra had arranged time off through the company's human resource managers in Melbourne but local management refused the employee's request for Saturdays off.
Local TeleTech management is also opposing a move by the Moe Council to place a childcare centre in the facility which TeleTech shares with the Department of Community Services and a university.
Staff are also trying to trace where money paid weekly into a social club has gone. Staff are currently unable to account for or locate funds from the social club. The social club's treasurer is the local TeleTech manager.
The attempt by TeleTech to pressure its employees onto AWAs is an attempt to avoid meeting the conditions of the Contract Call Centre Award according to Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) organiser Gail Drummond.
"TeleTech management are putting their head in the sand hoping we will go away," says Drummond. "We are not going away."
A majority of staff at TeleTech's Moe facility are union members.
"They know its normal to join a union," says Drummond. "TeleTech are trying to avoid being a part of the Contract Call Centre Award, which would give employees penalty rates and better conditions. Well we're going to make them a part of the award."
TeleTech's Moe operation, which employs around 400 people, has had a staff turnover of 25% of the La Trobe Valley's population in the last two years.
The ACTU week-long organising blitz on call centres - dubbed the sweatshops of the 21st century - involved activities ranging from mass meetings, petitions to management, stop work meetings, wearing stickers to BBQs and more.
As well as the CPSU the main unions involved included the Australian Services Union, the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union, the Financial Sector Union and the National Union of Workers.
A Call centre Hotline set up by the ACTU recorded complaints including unpaid training, harassment and bullying, petty time-keeping and performance monitoring and humiliation when unrealistic targets for sales and call times not met. Call centre employees called for the right to be covered by the new Contract Call Centre Award - offering pay rises of up to $1,000 per year, the right to join the union and the right to permanent status for long term casuals.
The ACTU Call Centre Hotline is 1300 365 205
"The stories we've heard this week show the need for better regulation to achieve decent minimum standards in the call centre industry," says ACTU campaign coordinator Belinda Tkalcevic. "It's been amazing to hear the relief in people's voices when they realise the union can help them resolve problems at work."
Under the changes, outlined at the NSW ALP Conference, employers would be prevented from spying on workers emails and blocking union access to the workplace during industrial disputes.
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson said the protections place NSW at he forefront of international law with regard to electronic surveillance.
Under the changes, first proposed by the NSW Labor Council in 2000, employers would be banned from secretly scanning their email traffic and could only monitor usage through an agreed process.
If employers wanted to covertly monitor email usage they would need to seek a warrant through the Local Court. Unauthorised surveillance would be a criminal offence.
"Unions have been arguing for several years that the law had not caught up with technology when it came to emails," Robertson says.
"We have had numerous examples of employers inappropriately monitoring emails, including blocking off email access for unions during industrial action.
"This is a significant break-through for workers in NSW and means they can use emails for reasonable private purposes from work without being spied on.
"There�s plenty of empty containers for our members to camp in," MUA secretary Robert Coombes warned after the protest vote.
"We suspect the move is just a ploy to get rid of people and until we get some sort of guarantee we won't be going anywhere."
Premier Bob Carr shocked union affiliates by announcing the closure at last week's state conference, prompting calls for his administration to come clean on who would benefit.
Coombes said the decision, which flew in the face of previous assurances from the Premier and Transport Minister, raised four issues the Government had to address ...
- jobs: Coombes says the plan with cost 400-500 direct jobs. The TWU estimates up to 2000 other transport workers will be affected, including owner drivers with hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in equipment
- consultation: "there has been a huge amount of consultation with employers, particularly Patrick and P&O Ports, but the relevant union, the MUA, seems to have been forgotten," Coombes says.
- Sydney: the city's history is based around more than 200 years of growth around a working port.
- community assets: "people, in general, are sick to death of seeing these valuable pieces of land handed over to the big of town, the few who can afford them, and taken away from the majority."
P&O Ports was the first to pick up on Carr's announcement confirming it would close its White Bay terminal in November.
Watersiders at the site voted to stage a sit-in when closure comes, bunkering down and refusing to move until employment guarantees are given.
Half of the 120-strong White Bay workforce is casual with no job security, or redundancy provisions, to fall back on.
Coombes described the lack of consultation with worker organisations as "appalling".
"Jeez, what do you do with this mob?" he asked NSW Labor Council delegates. "They do some good things but they keep dropping the ball.
"They are a side that needs consistent coaching."
Principals of Harvey World Travel, Darwin, own Timor Air Services, the company which has sacked two local union delegates and ignored repeated reinstatement directions from that country�s Labour Department.
Killick, who has been in East Timor for a year helping establish a Maritime and Transport Workers Union, was arrested by an American UN policeman on October 4 and held in Dili gaol for three nights.
The arrest came on the first day of a strike after Timor Air Service had refused to negotiate a collective agreement and sacked workplace representatives, Sabino Adornia and Clementihno Pereira.
Workers opted to strike after repeated attempts to win the pair's reinstatement, including three separate instructions from the Department of Labor, had been rejected by the Australian-controlled company.
Killick was arrested by a US badged UN policeman who accused workers of "civil disobedience".
When the Australian asked the UN officer to explain the term, he was thrown to the ground and hand cuffed.
Timor Air Services has imposed a wage freeze on Dili staff for more than two years.
Australians associated with Harvey World Travel, including operators of its Darwin agency, Lorraine and John Thompson, are key players in Timor Air Services which contracts to Qantas, the Australian Defence Forces and Harvey World Travel.
East Timorese, Australian and international unions are urging supporters to demand justice for Timorese workers and respect for Timorese law.
They also want the UN to drop charges against Killick and investigate the policeman who arrested and injured him.
Contact Harvey World Travel, Darwin, on 08 89816777 or [email protected]
Contact Harvey World Travel Head Office on 02 95676099 or [email protected]
The ITF is urging people to send copies of any emails to East Timorese workers c/- [email protected]
The telecommunications giant did not return calls from Workers Online last Friday but industry sources insisted IBM GSA contracts had been terminated with the work going to Infosys and Aventail, both based in India.
The development confirms union accusations, reported in Workers Online, and opens the floodgates for a wholesale export of Aussie jobs by the country's most profitable company.
Industry players hold "grave fears" for as many as 15,000 Telstra-associated call centre jobs, based on the American experience which saw high-tech jobs used to gauge levels of community opposition before telcos sent call centre work offshore.
The paper - and yes we can really call it that now! - will be launched at the Trades Hall Tavern on Friday October 24 and all our subscribers are invited to join us for a celebratory drink.
The edition will showcase some of the highlights of Workers Online's last 100 issues and demonstrate how a quality tabloid union journal might one day look.
The launch will be held between 6.00pm and 8.00pm, with the hard copy to be launched by Labor Council secretary John Robertson and CNNNN's investigative reporter Charles Firth.
If you want to attend, let us know by emailing [email protected]
The increase was awarded by the full bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission in the face of staunch opposition from representatives of for-profit operators.
The bench awarded the full amount to NSW community and disability workers earning $731 a week or less. Colleagues earning more will get a $15 increase.
ASU president, Sally McManus, said the decision was a rebuff for Employers First who had demanded that community workers trade off conditions.
"This is a significant victory for people amongst the lowest paid workers in NSW," McManus said. "They will now receive what other workers in this state are entitle to, without bargaining away hard won conditions."
She highlighted the support of "decent" community service employers, including the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations and Jobs Australia, in the union's battle for a fair wage outcome but warned Employers First would continue to try and undermine the living standards of sector workers.
"It's a signinficant first round vitory despite an attempt to undermine our award by hard-right ideologues who don't have the best interests of community services at heart," McManus said.
"It's a shame Employer's First want to bring hardline private sector tactics into community services because they hurt employees and employers alike.
"We expect them to continue their attacks on our working conditions but at least they do not have the State Wage increase as bargaining chip."
Twenty five-year flight attendant Robbie Holdaway, from northern NSW is even worse off, out of pocket $90,000 on money earned during her time with Ansett.
ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, highlighted the trio's predicament in a call for the Howard Government to release $260 million to the people travellers believed it was being collected for.
Federal Government imposed the $10 slug on air tickets when Ansett collapsed, pitching 15,000 Australians out of work.
Combet accused Canberra of profiting from their misfortune.
"My office gets many calls from former Ansett workers who are still out of pocket, despite the Howard Government holding $260 million collected from the Ansett ticket levy," Combet said.
"Soon it will collect another $190 million from Ansett's administrators.
"Why is it that sacked workers remain unpaid while the government stands to make a profit of between $115 million and $260 million from the Ansett collapse?"
The $400 million admistrators have raised by sales is frozen because of court action by one of the superannuation funds. But the first $190 million of that money has been ear-marked to repay the Federal Government's contribution towards workers' entitlements.
With the ticket levy, having raised $305 million, Combet says, a worst case scenario will see Canberra profit from the exercise by $115 million.
If, as seems likely, sell-offs realise more funds, however, it could reap a windfall of as much as $260 million.
Combet said the Government's "double dipping" meant there would be a shortfall in funds available to pay outstanding entitlements to thousands of former Ansett employees.
The likelihood of a significant Government profit has been confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, who says the surplus is likely to be directed to a "tourism fund".
Peace, trade union and social justice campaigners have joined forces to organise a mobilisation that will be headlined by a string of comedy acts.
Peace and Justice Coalition co-convenor, Bruce Childs, is calling on Sydney people to sharpen their wits and bombard the president with salvos of "creative ridicule" at the Bush-Whacked demonstration.
Childs announced that $100 prizes would be given for the day's best banner, the best display by adults, by school students, and the best limerick.
Intelligence whistleblower, Andrew Wilkie, Teachers Federation president, Maree O'Hallaran, will speak at the gathering.
Childs said organisers hoped to recapture the spirit and humour of massive anti-war protests in Sydney before Bush launched his attack on the people of Iraq.
"Who can forget the many logans and images of Bush and Howard which were broadcast around the nation then?" Childs asked.
"Now, four months after Bush declared an official end to hostilities, all the evidence says we were right and that Bush, Blair and Howard lied. They were wrong then and they are still wrong."
Bush Whacked will be staged at Prince Alfred Park, near Central Station, on Sunday, October 19.
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission found the assault could have been prevented with adequate staffing levels.
"We are pleased with the result," says John Cahill, Public Service Association Acting General Secretary. "PSA members work in lots of dangerous places; gaols, juvenile detention centres; and even places like the RTA where public counters have the potential to be violent [places]."
"We will continue to insist that employers provide a safe working environment for everyone."
The PSA, who had prosecuted the Education Department, was awarded 70 percent of costs and 50 percent of the fine.
The incident occurred at a special needs school when a teachers' aide was left alone in charge of a number of physically and intellectually disabled students, some of whom were known to be particularly violent. The aide had requested that a teacher be present to assist in the supervision of the children. Her request had not yet been met when a 15-year-old student attacked her. After further assaults she now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and has not returned to work.
The PSA stressed that they apportioned no blame to the intellectually disabled student.
In handing down the sentence Justice Michael Walton of the NSW IRC said that the risk to safety posed by the inadequate staff levels "was not only reasonably foreseeable, but the risk of assault was 'known and avoidable'."
Justice Walton said the provision of a portable duress alarm, as an alternative to the fixed telephone in the classroom, was an "obvious and practical step" that the Department could have taken to minimise the risk of assault.
The case sets a precedent for more prosecutions by recognising inadequate staff numbers as a legitimate OHS hazard.
Seven unions covering university staff across Australia will be supporting the October 16th higher education strike to protest the Government's proposal to deny universities access to $404 million in funding unless they adopt a series of hard line industrial conditions.
"The decision represents an unprecedented level of cooperation on the part of trade unions in the university sector," says Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary. "[It] demonstrates to the Government and university management the determination of academic and general staff to resist Commonwealth meddling and protect the independence of our public university system."
The defiant note was echoed by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), who represent the general staff that work in universities.
"The Government's industrial requirements, including forcing staff onto Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), would leave nonacademic staff without many of the protections union negotiated agreements provide such as maternity leave, overtime and penalty rates," says David Carey, CPSU Federal Secretary.
"The Government's requirements do not deal with the real workplace issues facing academic and general staff," says McCulloch. "Forcing university staff onto AWAs and lifting limits on casual employment, will make the situation worse and erode the quality of education provided by our public university system."
The strike comes on the heels of Sydney University staff shutting down their campus on October 7 in response to management buckling to pressure from the Federal Government. In September Sydney University management were set to sign off on a new EBA but backed out at the eleventh hour in response to the reforms announced by the then Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott and Education Minister Brendan Nelson.
In addition to the NTEU and the CPSU, the trade unions that have officially indicated that they will be supporting the October 16 strike are the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union; Australian Education Union; Australian Services Union; and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
In Sydney the Higher Education Unions and their supporters will be rallying in Belmore Park at 1pm on October 16.
Meanwhile the NSW Teachers Federation has slammed the NSW ALP Government for ignoring Labor Party policy on TAFE.
Despite a recent backflip from the NSW Government over fee hikes for some of the most disadvantaged people in the community, many thousands of people will still be unable to access TAFE courses. ALP Policy is that TAFE courses should be free.
The Teachers Federation also called on the NSW Government to reverse a proposal to slash 1000 jobs from the Department of Education and training and TAFE.
Marchers heard a passionate address from Tamworth Mum, Robin McGoldrick, whose teenaged son, Dean, was killed on a building site. Mrs McGoldrick, who has just been through drawn out legal action over her son's death, endorsed union calls for industrial manslaughter legislation.
Under legislation, proposed by the Federal Government, workers' rights to oppose unsafe working conditions would be greatly reduced.
The Bill, introduced by former Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott, would block union safety officers from sites until 24 hours' notice had expired. The legislation weakens the right to strike against unsafe conditions and proposes $22,000 fines for individuals who take industrial actions outside proscribed limits.
The union will also be weakened by the laws reducing the capability to collectively bargain as they require all workers to approve of a "bargaining period" by secret ballot, effectively disallowing project and site agreements that were only last month endorsed by the NSW IRC.
CFMEU secretary, Andrew Ferguson, called the proposed laws the "most serious attack on the rights of building workers that we have ever seen in this country". He said they were designed to limit the union's ability to collectively bargain, enter construction sites and strike.
Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, said the legislation was only the most recent evidence of the Howard Government's intention to eliminate Australian unions.
Paul Bastian of the AMWU contrasted Government's attitude to negotiations with construction unions to talks with doctors over the medical indemnity crisis.
"It's all about the car you drive," Bastian said. "If you drive an Audi they'll talk to you, if you drive a Falcon they won't".
The rally also included a minute's silence in memory of construction workers who had died at work.
Public servants and other workers struck to attend the meeting which was addressed by Leeton Shire mayor, Joe Burns, Narranderra deputy mayor, Shirley Hocking, Griffith mayor, Mike Neville, and a range of PSA representatives.
The town's call to action resolution was formally moved by Leeton Shire general manager, Ray Plius.
The call to keep the issue alive through leaflets, petitions and a multi-media campaign, was enthusiastically endorsed.
The Department of Education and Training intends moving 44 jobs out of Yanco's Murrumbidge College of Agriculture and cutting residential courses.
Townspeople called on the Government to put a 12-month moratorium on the shutting of courses and transfer of staff, while it undertook a thorough review of the impact of its policies on rural communities.
REPORT BACK ON WTO MEETING
Whither the WTO after Cancun?
Reports from community organisations on the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun
When: Tuesday October, 14th 5.30pm
Where: Room 814 Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney
Chair: Andrea Durbach, Director, Public Interest Advocacy Centre
Speakers: Geoff Atkinson, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, reporting back for Andrew Hewitt, Executive Director, Dr Patricia Ranald, Principal Policy Officer, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, and Convenor, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET)
For further information contact Margaret di Nicola at Oxfam Community Aid Abroad on 8204 3902 or email [email protected] Louise Southalan at AFTINET on 9299 7833 or email [email protected]
ME NAM : Rivers photo exhibition
2003 international Year of Fresh Water
ME NAM : Rivers is an exciting photography exhibition to celebrate waterways and communities activism to protect them, in Australia and in the Asia Pacific Region.
Through the immediacy and realism of some of Australasia's most renowned artists and the fresh photography of environmental and human rights activists, ME NAM : Rivers provides an intimate glimpse of life evolving around rivers, while leading the viewer into a journey that explores political and corporate efforts to commodify and control our water resources.
ME NAM : Rivers, to be held at NSW Parliament House in October, will be opened by former lead singer of Midnight Oil and renowned environmental activist Peter Garrett.
Artists include: Paul Blackmore, Gordon Undy, Peter Solness, Ruby Davies, Vince Lovecchio, Maylei Hunt Guerra, Japan's Yoshiaki Murayama and Taiwan's Hong Tien-Jun.
Inspirational and at times confronting, ME NAM : Rivers will leave you with a desire for action, environmental righteousness, and understanding of the politics and controversy behind the world's fresh water crisis.
PUBLIC LAUNCH: host speaker Peter Garrett, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation
WHERE: NSW Parliament House, Jubilee Room, Macquarie St, Sydney
WHEN: Tuesday, October 14 - 2003
TIME: 7.00 pm
ENTRANCE: free
Exhibition will run October 7 - 17, 2003. Weekdays 9.00 am - 4.30 pm
Refugee fundraiser film screening: "Mollie & Mubarak"
A fundraiser to support Mahboba Rawi, the Sydney based founder of
Mahboba's Promise, a charitable organisation that raises money to
support orphans and widows living in refugee camps in Afghanistan.
Friday 17th October
7:30pm for 8:00pm start
Gordon Library
Pacific Highway, Gordon
(1 minute walk from Gordon Station)
$15 full / $10 concession
A documentary by Tom Zubrycki about Afghan temporary protection visa
holders working at the abattoir at Young in regional NSW. It's a moving,
personal insight into the effects of Australia's cruel refugee and
asylum seeker policies. After the film, Tom Zubrycki will speak about
his experience making the film, followed by a light supper. Please come
along to see a terrific film and support Mahboba Rawi in her work with
Afghan widows and orphans.
Contact: Susie Gemmell 9943 6222, or [email protected]
WE'RE BEING BUSHWACKED: Give George the Welcome he Deserves - Sun Oct 19, national day of ridicule.
Muster at Prince Alfred Park (walk south from Central down Chalmers St)
Sunday 19th October, 2-4pm
Comics, music, world's first protest "line dance. Creative Ridicule competition - rewards for best placard and best display. Costume competition, come as the best red-necked Texan!
Organised by the Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition, more info call Hannah 0418 668 098, [email protected]
http//:www.nswpeace.org.
Fairwear!
Is your organisation involved in merchandising? Do You Buy clothing to sell with your message? Do You Know if the workers making those clothes are receiving their legal wages? If you want to Be Sure that the clothing you sell is being made for fair wages, under fair conditions then this is the training for you.
Fair Wear is providing a free training day on how to get your clothing supplier accredited to the Homeworkers Code of Practice. This code was developed by the Textile/Clothing Union together with representatives of the retail and manufacturing industries. The code is a self regulatory system that monitors the production chain from retailer to outworker to ensure legal wages and conditions. Some outworkers have been paid their Award entitlements for the first time as a result of the accreditation process.
Once accredited, suppliers can display the No Sweatshop label: a sign of sweatshop free production. As organisations you have the power to demand companies you source from commit to sweatshop free conditions, and through demanding accreditation you can be directly involved in improving the conditions of outworkers in the Australian clothing industry.
Fair Wear is calling on all NGO�s, charitable organisations and community groups to get behind the No Sweatshop Label and get their suppliers of T-shirts, windcheaters or any other garments, accredited to the Homeworkers Code of Practice.
Where:
Labor Council 377-383 Sussex St Sydney.
Executive Board Room, Lvl 9
When:
Wednesday 5th November. 9am - 12.30
Contact:
Dez Karlsson;
ph: 9380 9091
fax: 9380 8159
mob: 0403 128 013
www.fairwear.org.au
SPREADING THE MESSAGE OF WORKERS RIGHTS
Bankstown City Radio is seeking to establish a weekly program to be produced and presented by NSW workers and unionists that addresses issues and concerns surrounding workers rights.
Such a program would provide an opportunity to examine work and industrial issues from the perspective of those who know this area best - working people and our unions.
It will allow workers to have a say about current disputes, government proposals and industry attacks and most importantly educate the wider community about workers rights.
We are looking for volunteer producers and presenters with a solid background in workers rights who could spearhead this exciting new broadcasting project.
ESSENTIAL:
Good communication, presentation and interpersonal skills
Sound program and editorial judgement
Knowledge and experience of work and industrial issues and NSW unions
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As the busloads of angry potential voters rolled down the freeways to the big smoke last week. Seeking the publicity their obvious needs require. In an attempt to get some understanding from those State and Federal politicians elected to represent them. They should beware and not enjoy any perception that they are achieving something, not until it is in the legislation.
I look hard for political opportunities that may present themselves to me.
In 2000 we should still remember it was the Libs who flattened particularly small businesses across the country with GST an unbelievably complicated tax! In doing so they have turned over worked small business people, into proxy tax collectors. Making police out of people who don't habitually dob their mates.
There are always deals made. And when politicians start to squirm, political opportunist come out to put spin on what is taking place.
In Mondays Telegraph the NSW Labor Premier Carr is quoted a lot, to the effect that his opposition are a lazy lot. And we the thinking voters understand a lazy opposition allows the incumbent party to virtually do as it pleases. Premier Carr explains to the converted at the Labor congress in Town Hall "They (Liberal coalition) don't understand that opposition is a work place" Has Bob the Builder overlooked that this could be said equally about his Labor cronies in the Federal Parliament!
While we the overtaxed multitudes carry on like penned stock, there are things of far greater importance going on behind the smoke and mirrors. Perhaps many of you have never considered the beauty of of our harbour, or the value of a workplace close to where you live. Or perhaps something like Vaucluse House designed to sit comfortably on an acreage. And our Heritage Observatory sited near to the Harbour Bridge approaches on the southern side.
Public land, open space is a one time opportunity I haven't forgotten the flats proposed to be sited on open crassland near to the lighthouse on south Head, the hotel for the Quarantine station on North Head. There are ofter too few degress of seperation between our public property and the comfortable arrangements with Public Priviate Partisapation. We the people are the power base that our elected representative talk about when they use the word "mandate". None of them have a true Mandate to take us down the road we now travel.
Edward James
An Honest Job
If Bush sets foot on our shores and speaks in our parliament who knows what he is going to say. Will it be monitored or filtered or does he have free reign as the worlds policeman?
Can our Journalists objectively question him or will it be a repeat of Sinatra?
I suggest Margo Kingston, Ross Gittens, Ken Davidson, Matt Price, Phillip Adams to lead the delegation and Mungo McCallum to come out of retirement on standby.
Stay at home Andrew Bolt and Terry McCrann and continue to suck up to Honest John Howard, Honest Peter Costello, Honest Phillip Ruddock, Honest Anthony Abbott, Honest Peter Reith, Honest Bronwyn Bishop, Honest Amanda Vanstone , Honest John Anderson, Honest Peter McGauran etc.
Emma Tom can continue writing of important events such as string bikinis on Bondi or on how cross dressers dress.
Steven Presley.
I bring you sad reflections from the formerly Golden State of California, now referred to as Foolifornia. Yes, my friends, many of our voters here have been fooled into electing Herr Arnold to manage governmental affairs for us. The guy who admires Hitlers ability to manipulate so many minds without question. Fool's gold indeed, as we have surely been had. Can you imagine agreeing to a contract with management before you even read it? Well, in essence, that's exactly what voters here did. No details, no answers, no specifics...just lot's of smiles, sound bites and charisma and the balls to tell us to just elect him and trust him. It just leaves us groping for answers (couldn't resist).
I write to place you on guard. On guard because this is the first election in next year's US presidential race and our side lost this round. California, typically votes progressive, but has somehow lost it's way, putting our huge state in play for next year. Anybody wanting to come over and play in our politics for awhile would surely be welcome. We need help keeping not only Arnold accountable, but all those voters who elected his sorry ass, they need to be held accountable for the the duration of his term, not just the ten minutes of civic action it took for them to vote. It's like the guest who walks their dog to shit on your lawn, then leaves without cleaning up the mess.
Speaking of dog shit, with California in play, we have a real possibility that Bush may get elected for another term.
Bring those Aussie accents, your good cheer, teach us to play real footy, leave Howard in the Bush, don't just ski our slopes, but work our precincts. Your jobs may depend on our victories as well.
Take it easy from the epicenter, Sacramento California,
Ken Casarez, International Representative, Laborers' International Union of North America
Those mobilising the Weapons of Mass Derision rally next Sunday have the right idea - turning the President who never won an election, with a cartoon view of the world and childish notions of good versus evil, into a joke is the only constructive response.
And in making a joke of our own Prime Minister's genuflection, we are calling for an Australian leadership with the strength to represent our national interests rather than blindly following its dominant ally.
That said, we would be foolish if we turned our protests into a round of yank bashing, because in doing so we would be attacking many of the principles of freedom, democracy and individual liberty that we also take for granted.
Anti-American protests only detract from the anti-Bush message - and that is, his policies are the very antithesis of this American ideal.
In taking to the streets against the US President, we are protesting Bush's policies of pre-emption and unilateralism; as they manifest in military action, trade negotiations, environmental and in terms of cultural imperialism.
And in doing so we join an increasing number of Americans who are rejecting Bush and the values he represents.
Americans like Michael Moore who famously wrote to Bush: "Instead of having to earn it, you have been handed the presidency the same way you've come by everything else in your life. Money and name alone have opened every door for you. Without effort or hard work or intelligence or ingenuity, you have been bequeathed a life of privilege."
American's like the Dixie Chicks who were pilloried by the Right for stating they were embarrassed to share a home state with the President, yet rewarded by fans with huge increases in sales.
And Americans like General Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander who knows more about war than Bush ever will and knows that pre-emption is dangerous and short-sighted and only this week stated:
"We are in a crisis in our relations with the rest of the world. Today, at a time when we need friends and allies more than ever, resentment of America has never been higher, and that makes every American less safe at home and abroad."
If the anti-Bush protests make Australians - and the world - laugh at Bush's ignorance, they will play a small part in strengthening the hands of the only people who can remove him from power - the American people.
But if they become an attack on America they will only add to the siege mentality that began on September 11 and continues to provide Bush with the cover he needs to promote all manner of madness and ignorance.
Peter Lewis
Editor
PS. There will be no Workers Online next week as we prepare for our 200th edition. See the news pages to join the celebrations.
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