*****
Colin Barnett came a cropper this week.
His grand plan for canal tours to the Kimberley left the Western Australian public less than whelmed.
Barnett announced his plan in an attempt to promote himself as some sort of visionary.
Unfortunately his visions were actually mirages.
When everyone picked themselves up off the floor and the laughing subsided it appeared that the cost would be the equivalent of a NASA programme, and share a similar orbit.
While Col assured everyone in earshot that his feet were firmly on the ground, his plan to ship dehydrated water from up north led some to draw other conclusions.
It was an intellectual dynamism not seen since the Parrot began to take his medication again.
Even so, "mad" Col Barnett had a plan for what to do with the said water when his unique take on the Tories trickle-down policy was implemented.
The water was to be used for water cannon that could be turned on unruly elements in WA.
Such are the heights to which a law and order debate will plumb.
It was also convenient that the company that was going to build the aforementioned canal also produced a handy range of water cannon that could be thrown in as a job-lot.
And what was going to pay for this extravagance?
The firm fiscal management that we have come to know as the hallmark of the Liberal Party.
Barnett - the man with a plan, the man who was going to make the young feel old and the old feel young, the man who would ensure that there was no holes in donuts and a policeman in every bedroom - had budgeted his vision down to the last cent.
Unfortunately he was out by a few billion cents.
Barnett is living proof that Peter Costello is not the only Liberal who can't count.
But it would be churlish to quibble over his budget being out by the odd several hundred million or so.
It was a common mistake. I'm sure we've all lost $200,000,000.00 down the back of the lounge from time to time. It's an easy mistake. Why not let him run the state?
Maybe it was a dirty tricks campaign? Black propaganda? In which case Colin Barnett can go down in history as the only politician to run a dirty tricks campaign against himself from out of his own office.
No doubt what was needed to get to the bottom of the matter was a canal probe.
Col's biggest problem, however, appears to be that no one actually wanted him to become Premier, least of all his colleagues in the Liberal Party.
At least Col did show the extent of Howard's electoral magnetism. He took every opportunity to stand beside dear leader Howard, flashing his goofy grin, and it appeared to be not worth much. The SS Barnett still sunk.
The Tool Shed salutes Colin Barnett: the visionary genius who managed to bring division where there could have been unity, chaos where there was once order, and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
In a move labelled "extraordinary" by the Australian Financial Review, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, is pushing anti-building worker legislation, including massive fines and prison terms, that will be back dated to an unspecified time.
The laws, specific to the building and construction industry, aim to hold down wages and strengthen employer moves to roll back family friendly provisions.
They will be reinforced by turning Nigel Hadgkiss' controversial Building Industry Taskforce into a permanent Australian Building and Construction Commission with sweeping coercive powers.
Key features of the Bill, to be introduced to parliament this week, include ...
- making it illegal to back date wage settlements, even if the parties want to
- making it illegal to campaign for people doing the same work to receive the same pay and conditions
- making lawful strike action contingent on time-consuming secret ballots
- declaring legal strikes illegal once they go beyond 14 days
- introducing fines of up to $22,000 for individuals involved in "illegal" industrial action
- making unions liable to fines of up to $120,000 for breaches
- giving Hadgkiss' Commission the right to investigate and initiate potentially crippling actions on behalf of "third parties"
- removing the right to silence from people interviewed by the Commission, and forcing them to produce documents, on pain of gaol
Thousands of building Industry agreements are due to expire in October and workers have already started talks with employers on a new round of deals.
Already, the Master Builders Federation has announced its intention to roll back the 36-hour week.
The Coalition will not gain control of the Senate until July and it is unlikely far-reaching legislation could be rammed through until August, at the earliest.
But Andrews office has been writing to building industry bosses threatening the loss of government contracts if they agree to claims for improved wages or conditions.
Now he has moved to further strengthen their resolve by announcing that penalties and sanctions in his Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill will be applied retrospectively.
Andrews has refused to say when they will be back-dated to.
Atlab, which recorded a $7.4 million profit last year, has refused to discuss a new agreement for employees who haven't had a pay rise for more than two years.
Workers are employed under the terms of a non-union agreement, drawn up by a Sydney law firm, that doesn't include many standard clauses and makes no provision for wage increases.
When the majority of Lane Cove workers voted to join the AMWU, Atlab turned on pizza and catered lunches but ducked behind federal legislation that doesn't require good faith bargaining.
Fortescue says if Atlab doesn't "lift its game" filmgoers will suffer.
"We want to sit down and negotiate an agreement but if Atlab won't even talk our members will have to escalate their action. They don't want to but, under this system, they don't have many options," Fortescue said.
Atlab members struck for a day in January and have imposed bans in support of their claim for a new agreement.
The hapless Taskforce copped another judicial spray as CFMEU secretary, Andrew Ferguson, revealed it had gone "missing" when industry participants closed ranks against an extortionist who threatened to kill union members.
The CFMEU, Multiplex and police shared intelligence in a bid to head off a standover merchant who said he would shoot crane drivers if their employer didn't hand over $50 million.
But Ferguson said the Building Industry Taskforce, headed by Nigel Hadgkiss, had shown no interest.
"The Taskforce was non-existent," Ferguson said. "When the industry was rocked by a major extortion racket and threats of murder, it was nowhere to be seen.
"They talk about zero tolerance for unlawful behaviour but, apparently, this didn't register on their radar.
"They are a one-trick pony whose only interest is intimidating workers and trying to hold down their living standards."
Australian taxpayers were left with the bill, after the latest Taskforce case against the CFMEU went belly-up in the Federal Court.
Last Friday, in the middle of the Multiplex scare, the court ordered the Taskforce to pay costs incurred by the CFMEU in defending allegations it had tried to force a Wollongong contractor to join up.
Justice Wilcox slammed the "hopeless" case put before him by Hadgkiss' organisation.
"Even on the view of the facts propounded by the applicants, their case was hopeless," Justice Wilcox said. "It was instituted without reasonable cause."
His comments came just four months after a Melbourne judge suggested Taskforce methods were "undemocratic" and "authoritarian".
Justice Marshall was critical of the Taskforce's failure to disclose the purpose of an investigation, during which it ordered workers to produce personal bank details.
"Such notices are foreign to the workplace relations of civilised societies, as distinct from undemocratic and authoritarian states," Justice Marshall said.
He challenged the Taskforce's approach after it admitted, in court, it "might not have suspicion of anything".
Justice Marshall ruled it did not have the right to access the bank accounts of CFMEU members on Melbourne's Concept Blue site.
Hadgkiss Backs Asbestos Abuser
Meanwhile, Hadgkiss has initiated legal action against the Victorian Government for refusing to grant a contract to a demolition contractor that dusted Yallourn with asbestos.
In documents filed in the federal court, Hadgkiss seeks fines of up to $33,300 for alleged breaches of Howard Government laws. He claims the company was excluded from a Gippsland tender process because it wanted employees to work on a non-union agreement.
But in a re-run of arguments heard before the Cole Royal Commission, workers say Able Contractors has an abysmal safety record.
"In the past this company imploded a chimney at the old power station, blowing asbestos all over Yallourn," said John Parker, secretary of the Gippsland Trades and Labor Council. "They let a worker fall through a sheet of asbestos."
There are also allegations that it blocked health and safety inspections by an independent hygienist, Worksafe officers and unions at the Lurgi Gas Plant.
Security officers marched Atlab employees out of the short film festival, last Sunday, after they tried to alert movie buffs to their wage predicament.
"Atlab is a successful business, making millions of dollars a year but it won't even sit down to negotiate with employees," the AMWU's Robyn Fortescue said.
"Unfortunately, it is just another example of problems in the Australian film industry. People like Mel Gibson, who trained at NAIDA, understand the difficulties, that's why he has poured a lot of his own money into giving something back."
After Tropfest organisers prevented union members distributing their leaflets, they decided to shoot for stars whose work they have processed.
They were writing to Kidman, Gibson, Crowe, Reeves and a host of other big names, this week.
Atlab is Australia's leading film laboratory and has been associated with hits such as Shine, Looking For Alibrandi, The Matrix, The Thin Red Line, Holy Smoke, Paradise Road, Star Wars, Harvie Krumpet, Getting Square, Peter Pan and Constantine.
Its employees also preserve of some of Australia's best known original films, including The Sentimental Bloke and Network.
Atlab, which recorded a $7.4 million profit last year, has refused to discuss a new agreement for employees who haven't had a pay rise for more than two years.
Workers are employed under the terms of a non-union agreement, drawn up by a Sydney law firm, that doesn't include many standard clauses and makes no provision for wage increases.
When the majority of Lane Cove workers voted to join the AMWU, Atlab turned on pizza and catered lunches but ducked behind federal legislation that doesn't require good faith bargaining.
Fortescue says if Atlab doesn't "lift its game" filmgoers will suffer.
"We want to sit down and negotiate an agreement but if Atlab won't even talk our members will have to escalate their action. They don't want to but, under this system, they don't have many options," Fortescue said.
Atlab members struck for a day in January and have imposed bans in support of their claim for a new agreement.
Orange miner, Brett Tamatea, is a member of the CFMEU but Newcrest refuses to discuss disciplinary action with his union, despite a clause in Tamatea�s AWA that says he can be represented by "... another person at any time during the fair treatment procedure".
Newcrest contended the NSW Industrial Relations Commission had no right to hear Tamatea's objection to a final written warning because federal terms over-rode state law.
But in a frontal challenge to Howard Government plans to swallow up state jurisdictions, the full bench of NSW IR Court rejected the company's notice of motion, after hearing arguments about the limitations of corporations power in the constitution.
In legal terms, the full bench of the IR Court is a "court of superior record", giving its judgements Supreme Court weight.
It considered CFMEU and NSW Government submissions that there were finite constitutional limits on how far the Commonwealth could go in using corporations powers to undermine state laws.
The federal government has flagged its intention to use the same corporations law to remove protections from millions of Australians whose terms and conditions are state registered.
States, including NSW and Queensland, have already flagged the possibility of a High Court challenge to a hostile federal takeover.
In rejecting Newcrest's submission, the IR Court found ...
- federal laws governing AWAs did not prevent the NSW IRC exercising conciliation powers, or issuing recommendations and directions
- federal AWAs cannot affect the rights of unions to notify matters to the NSW IRC and to pursue those matters on behalf of members
- Mr Tamatea's AWA did not preclude his union from separately initiating action in NSW
- that the CFMEU is entitled to have the dispute heard
The substantive case, about how far a federal AWA can wind back workers' rights, has been set down for conciliation.
CFMEU president, Tony Maher, said Newcrest's position exposed the "lie" behind AWAs.
"It shows up all the rhetoric about the right to choose and freedom of choice," Maher said. "Newcrest has demonstrated that AWAs are not about that at all.
"This case is about their argument that, under an AWA, an individual has no right to choose union representation."
Students report missing lectures, failing to hand in assignments and being too tired to study in the Unions NSW survey of 1200 undergraduates.
Student organisers Tim Chapman (UTS), Ben Chapman (UWS), Asren Pugh, Trish Marinozzi (UNSW) and Brendan Edghill (USYD) |
Twenty percent felt pressured to do unpaid overtime, and more than 70 percent wanted to know more about unions.
The survey results show unions need to increase efforts to educate students about their rights and recruit activists of the future, says Asren Pugh, Unions NSW student organiser.
Last year Unions NSW set up the Working Students Union Network.
Part time campus organisers put on forums, lectures and training workshops and ran a non-corporate careers day.
New student activists helped union members in last year's rail dispute, handing out leaflets and talking to commuters.
The program led to a doubling of applications to the peak body's "Union Summer" program, where students score short term internships with affiliates to gain practical experience.
This year the program has been expanded to employ four organisers on separate campuses and is targeting specific faculties to link students with their unions.
Nursing, education and media students are amongst the first to be targeted.
Pugh says union activists who are also students find it easier to organise their fellow undergraduates because they understand the structure of universities.
"Our aim is the get students informed and active around union campaigns before they get on the job," says Pugh.
"Ask that man to come and live in my shoes for just one day," says Andreia Viegas, who lost her husband in a Central Coast building accident last year.
"Ask him if he would feel the same if one of his family members were killed at work. I think what his doing is pathetic and he should get a better understanding of Industrial Manslaughter and how important it is for the family that is left behind to get justice for the death of their loved one."
Glen Viegas was electrocuted last year, leaving behind Andreia and his two children, Corey, 6, and Makayla, 13 months.
"Glen was a great dad, a great husband, son, brother and friend, he was full of life and energy and his family was his treasure," said Viegas. "Glen's workplace was accused of breaching safety regulations and letting a worker work in an unsafe place.
"Every Australian worker deserves to work in a safe work place and we need to introduce tougher laws for employers and we need to do this now."
Brogden has joined employer groups campaigning against the Occupational Health and Safety (Workplace Fatalities) Bill.
He has been labelled laws to gaol killer bosses as "draconian" and treating "every employer in NSW as a criminal".
"This legislation is not about sending bosses to gaol," says secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson. "It's about sending a clear signal that unsafe practices will not be tolerated."
Tamworth Campaign "Outrageous"
Workers have also described as "outrageous" a campaign in the NSW regional town of Tamworth against the legislation.
"This is the home town of Mr and Mrs McGoldrick, whose son Dean was killed at work," said the CFMEU's Andrew Ferguson. "Dean's employer was fined a measly $20,000, and has payed only $1,800 of that fine.
"It's outrageous."
Employer groups and business owners rallied in Gunnedah and Tamworth over the draft changes.
Read Andreia Viegas' full story at: http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200503/b_tradeunion_daddy.html
Beer is back on the menu for AMWU members near Rolleston, in Central Queensland, thanks to a 48hr strike.
Workers on the coalmine construction project were buying in their own drinks in a bid to stave off dehydradition and disease as temperatures soared to 45 degrees.
They demanded clean drinking water, phones, televisions, gym equipment and subsidised beer after diarrhea ran through their isolated camp.
Xstrata turned down those demands, provoking a stoppage by FIFO employees, flown in for up to a month at a time.
Since the industrial action, the company has installed water purification equipment, put the cleaners through plumbing, upgraded the food and agreed to provide cheap beer in the canteen.
AMWU organiser Terry Grieve, says in a hot, desolate environment it's not too much to expect a cold one after work.
"After a twelve hour shift, at 45 degrees, wouldn't you want a beer?" he asked. "Especially when the water tastes like shit."
New phone lines have also been installed so workers can contact families, and the company has promised to supply exercise equipment. Pay television has also been introduced.
"It's all good now, they've had a win," Grieve said. "It's just a pity they had to go out for two days to get it."
Victorian traffic fines are gridlocked as workers down mouses in opposition to their pay rises being made conditional on signing AWAs.
The processing of speeding fines and traffic infringements ceased as 120 admin workers at Tenix Solutions protested their right to a collective agreement.
"I thought Australia was a democracy," says one Tenix workplace delegate. "More than 80% of my workmates have voted that they want a fair collective agreement. But our employer can just say no.
"I think that's unfair, undemocratic and unAustralian."
The union representing the Tenix employees is calling on the company to listen and respect the decision the employees have made.
"The individual contracts the company is trying to get them to sign are not about meeting the needs of the individual workers, its about stopping them having a real say and real voice in the workplace," says Ingrid Stitt, secretary of the Australian Services Union. "We are It is time Tenix sat down with the union and negotiated a fair collective agreement.
"These employees have never taken industrial action before but feel so strongly about their rights to respect and a say in their workplace they are taking industrial action today."
Workers at the Tenix Spencer Street office had been asked to sign an individual contract if they wanted a pay increase, even though an independent ballot found that 83% of Tenix workers said they opposed the AWAs and wanted to be covered by a collective agreement.
"All these workers want is the right to choose what type of agreement they are covered by," says ACTU secretary Greg Combet. "Why should they be forced to sign an individual contract when almost every single one of them has expressed their preference for a collective agreement?
"Forcing workers onto individual contracts isn't about choice, its about workplaces where Australians are forced to work harder and longer for less, that's bad for employees their families and even their communities."
Qantas has turned staff insecurity into an artform in an effort to keep a low morale workforce under the thumb, says ASU assistant secretary Linda White.
The claim came in response to "another" management plan to axe thousands of jobs, despite the company posting a record $660 million profit last year, and a half year figure to December of $460 million.
The management plan dubbed "Simplifying the Business" could lead to Qantas slashing up to 10 percent of its 30,000 workforce
But an internal report leaked last week shows staff morale could hardly be eroded by the mooted cuts as it was already at record lows in some divisions.
The report found only 22 percent of long haul employees felt "engaged" in the company and it's future, compared to 75 percent at Virgin Blue, Australian Airlines and Hewlett Packard.
The morale findings were amongst the lowest ever recorded by international human resources company, Hewitt Associates.
Over 8000 staff participated in the six month survey.
White, who's 10,500 members work in administration across all divisions of the airline, says staff feel under pressure which creates insecurity, when by any industry indicator they are doing the best in the world.
Over the last five years the national carrier has used terrorist attacks, fears over SARS and, more recently, high oil prices and increased competition to keep the pressure on staff.
This year Qantas mooted shedding 7000 jobs amongst long haul staff in the middle of EBA negotiations.
"Qantas is a lean, mean fighting machine," says White "There is not an area which hasn't been touched in the last three or four years, there is no fat there, Qantas does not even replace people when they are sick."
"This happens year after year, it's a way to get people to accept less than what they are worth.
"They are crying wolf...after a while it wears a thin."
Four hundred Bunbury tradesmen who defied attempts to have them fined or imprisoned are on the brink of total victory in their battle for equal pay.
Days after contractors at BHP's Worsley alumina plant won Federal Court injunctions exposing 66 strikers to fines, or gaol, two key employers capitulated and agreed to equal pay for maintenance and construction workers.
Collex, which employs 48 of the workers, is now the only Worsley contractor holding out but workers have voted to stay out as a group until it folds.
CFMEU and MUA members from Perth joined a rally of over 400 tradesmen yesterday, characterising the action as the first major challenge to John Howard's IR agenda.
They arrived at Bunbury just in time to hear Downer Engineering EDI and total Corrosion Control had agreed to strikers' demands.
Bunbury tradesmen have been out since February 4 after contractors refused to cut permanent tradesmen in on rates being negotiated for the site's expansion project.
The contractors won Federal Court injunctions against maintenance tradesmen and, last Tuesday, orders for 66 named workers to return to the site, exposing them to prison or fines of $2000 a day.
Workers rejected both directions.
AMWU organiser, Tony Lovett, said maintenance tradesmen had voted "overwhelmingly" to ignore that sought to split them off from counterparts on the construction project.
"There is a longstanding history, over here, of people getting the same pay for doing the same work on the same job," Lovett said. "It's called a fair go and that's what these guys believe in."
Unions WA secretary, Dave Robinson, said the employers' use of punitive laws had lifted the dispute to one of national significance.
"What has come across is the determination of employers to target individual workers and that is what we expect Howard to encourage with his legislation," Robinson said.
"A lot of workers are saying, if that's the colour of his legislation, we are happy to be tested on it."
Early childhood experts are backing a campaign by childcare workers for new classifications that could see pay rises of more than $100 a week.
Professor Jennifer Sumsion, Co-ordinator of Research at the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University, has told a pay equity case that the childcare workers play a significant role in modern Australia.
"The need for their expertise and specialist skills cannot be overestimated," says Dr Sumsion. "The numerous decisions, judgements and choices that early childhood staff must make in their daily work have far reaching implications for children's development, learning and well-being.
"[They] must also demonstrate professional qualities that extend far beyond the qualities that uninformed commentators commonly assume and or assert are sufficient to provide adequate care for children."
The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) has lodged a claim for new classifications for childcare workers before the NSW Industrial Commission.
The LHMU says the childcare pay equity case will drag pay and conditions for the state's 15,000 childcare professionals out of the 1960s.
"The union is trying to build a new classification structure based on the needs of a 21st century profession which could see pay increases of more than $100 a week," says NSW LHMU president, Jim Lloyd. "Childcare workers - many with certificate and diploma training - have historically been undervalued.
"A growing number of industry professionals are joining the union. It is unfortunate that we have not been able to win over the NSW employers to work in a partnership with our members, their employees, to deliver quality standards based on community expectations.
The NSW LHMU is attempting to boost wages in a sector where workers are paid as low as $12 an hour.
Mildura Mums have won the first round in their fight against AWA's that will reduce their family budgets by $150 a week.
A Federal Court Judge ordered their employer, Merbein Mushrooms, to resume paying normal wages to the sacked women while they attend mediation.
The farm's owner, Geoff Izard, introduced AWA's to his workforce of 45 mushroom pickers after state law forced him to pay higher wages from January 1.
The AWAs cut penalty rates and bonuses, replaced hourly pay with "piece" rates and maintained all staff as casuals.
One picker, Sue Simes, said all the mushroom pickers opposed the agreements which meant average pay cuts of $150 a week.
But she believed many were coerced into signing after Izard conducted one on one interviews, and refused to negotiate or meet union officials.
The six staff who refused to sign were sacked and they took Izard to court for unlawful dismissal.
Last week the Australian Mushroom Growers' Association tried to defend the sackings in the media by claiming the six women "became redundant" because the farm "had more employees than was necessary."
But the court was told Merbein Mushrooms advertised for staff days before the sackings and actually hired employees a week later.
The case will continue on March 15 unless settled in mediation.
Pickers have also been hit by a lack of affordable accommodation and transport, and misleading conduct by some labour hire operators, according to unions.
Australian Workers Union (AWU) organisers are visiting the Mildura and Shepparton areas to act on complaints from seasonal workers during a two-week organising campaign last month.
Bill Shorten, AWU secretary, said stamping out exploitation of fruit pickers was essential to overcoming seasonal labour shortages that have led to plans to import "guest workers" from overseas.
The Sunraysia Mallee Economic Development Board announced plans earlier this year to import thousands of Chinese fruit pickers. The Federal Government is considering "guest worker" schemes.
"The AWU is working to improve occupational health and safety, accommodation, transport and Centrelink policies to make seasonal fruit picking more attractive,' says Shorten. "We are consulting with employer groups and government authorities about how to improve opportunities for local workers and build a strong future for the industry."
The AWU is also warning farm workers to check their rights before signing individual contracts or Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). Some growers are offering AWAs to avoid the conditions of the federal Horticultural Industry Award that came into effect across Victorian farms on January 1, as part the new "Common Rule" system.
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission will hear AWU cases against Mildura farm companies accused of exploiting seasonal workers.
Farm workers can contact the AWU for free advice by calling the toll free AWU Pickers Hotline during business hours on 1300 362 298 or e-mailing the AWU Pickers' On-line Service at any time on: [email protected]
US workers are suing Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over plans to reduce public servants pay and strip them of their freedom to bargain.
The lawsuit claims Rumsfield's new workplace rules, affecting more than 750,000 civilian Defence Department workers, contrave US law.
A coalition of federal workers filed the federal lawsuit against Secretary Rumsfeld on February 23, charging that new rules will "gut" workplace rights.
Known as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), the proposed new personnel rules are believed by unions to be a model for attacks on collective bargaining throughout the federal government.
Unions say the proposed new personnel rules would also end civil service protections, end meaningful collective bargaining for these workers, end seniority rules on layoffs and reductions-in-force and allow management to decide who gets raises and change work hours and civilian deployments at will.
The suit, filed by the AFGE, Teamsters, Laborers and other unions, charges Rumsfeld with violating a 2004 law granting the department authority to make personnel changes only in consultation with the employees' unions.
The suit asks for an injunction against implementation of the new rules, saying they were developed instead by "secret working groups".
The controversy of one man - Kisch in Australia
When Czech journalist and peace campaigner Egon Erwin Kisch (1885-1948), came to Australia in November 1934, he challenged a conservative Lyons government, caused a media sensation and won the hearts of many
Australians.
The renowned political activist will be remembered in a new exhibition - Kisch in Australia - opening at the State Library of NSW on 14 February 2005.
The exhibition tells the story of the man who publicly defied the government's ban on his entry to Australia by jumping overboard at Port Melbourne (breaking his leg) in his determination to reach the Australian public with his message of anti-Fascism.
According to State Librarian & Chief Executive Dagmar Schmidmaier AM: "The fascinating story of this extraordinary man will be brought to life through original items from the Library's renowned collection, including Kisch's hand-written notes used in his public speeches."
The exhibition panels also include newspaper reports of the controversy surrounding his arrival, rare protest posters campaigning for Kisch's release and letters written in defence of Kisch's freedom.
Dr Heidi Zogbaum, author of the recently published Kisch in Australia: The untold story (Scribe, 2004) said, "Kisch had the ability to give rousing speeches with limited English and drew enthusiastic crowds wherever he went."
"Kisch was convinced that his ban was the result of Nazi pressure on the Australian government," said Dr Zogbaum, "but he was quite wrong. The newly appointed Attorney-General, Robert Gordon Menzies had staked his reputation on keeping Kisch out of Australia."
After his return to Paris, Kisch worked tirelessly on behalf of his fellow writers who had fallen victim to the Nazi regime. Upon the fall of France in 1940, Kisch managed to escape to Mexico. He returned to Prague in 1946 and died of a massive heart attack in 1948.
"The memory of Kisch is kept alive in Germany through the renowned Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for journalism, which honours the "reporter of truth" in a most fitting way," said Dr Roland Goll, Director of the Goethe-Institut, Sydney, who initiated and is supporting the exhibition.
Kisch in Australia is a free exhibition in the State Library's Picture Gallery from 14 February - 24 April 2005. It will then travel to the Migration Museum in Adelaide.
STRUGGLES, SCABS + SCHOONERS is BACK!!
Now confirmed for 19th March 2005 from 3pm.
4 pubs. 4 struggles. 4 speakers. A lot of singing (with passion, not talent).
Join us as we celebrate our great movement - remember & learn about great struggles, drink great beer, and recharge our enthusiasm for the next battle.
Tickets are $30 (unless we change our minds or go broke at the last minute), which includes dinner.
If you wanna get on board the bus (walkers are welcome & free), please let us know ASAP - you'll have a confirmed seat if you get us the money before the day.
RSVP to Chris ([email protected] or 0438 898 435) or Michael ([email protected]) for more information.
2005 Palm Sunday March and Rally
Parramatta
Assemble 2pm at park opposite St Patrick's cathedral, Church St, parramatta
2.40pm March to Parramatta Town hall square
GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION
SUNDAY 20th MARCH
12 NOON AT TERRIGAL SKILLION
BRING : * PICNIC LUNCH
* WATER
* UMBRELLAS
* RUGS and a spare blanket or length of cloth with which we will form the word NO as a giant 'patchwork'.
* WEAR A WHITE RIBBON [
white ribbons are a symbol of our grief for all those killed in Iraq and our desire for the war to end. White is the symbol for peace in many countries around the world and the symbol of mourning in others.]
NO war
NO erosion of human rights
NO troops in Iraq
NO Australians in Guantanamo Bay
NO mandatory detention
NO forced deportations
NO deaths in custody
Sydney: Is Government Delivering a Livable City?
What sort of city should Sydney be? What challenges does it face? And is
Sydney a sustainable and livable city?
The NSW Fabian Society is conducting this seminar with:
Craig Knowles (Minister for Infrastructure & Planning)
Julia Finn (Lord Mayor of Parramatta)
Professor Peter Newman (Murdoch University)
The seminar will be chaired by Sean Kidney, Executive Member of the NSW
Fabian Society.
When: Wednesday 23 March from 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Where: Theatrette, NSW Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney
Cost: Free
Forthcoming Fabian Society Seminars
April: Could Chifley Win A Labor Preselection Today? - Getting Better Labor
Candidates
With: John Button (Former Federal Minister), Tim Gartrell (ALP National
Secretary), & Rod Cavalier (Former State Minister)
When: Wednesday 20 April from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
May: Do We Need A New Environmental Agenda?
With: Bob Debus (Environment Minister), Prof Mike Archer (co-author of "Going
Native") & Peter Garrett MP (Past President of the Australian
Conservation Foundation)
When: Wednesday 18 May from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Community Organising School
In light of the re-election of the Federal Liberal Government, reflecting on and increasing our ability to organise and work across movements is vital. We can gain strength if we learn new strategies for working with people from different sectors and experiences.
The Community Organising School 2005 is a part of a broader project that seeks to link experienced organisers from a variety of movements, including community organisations, the union movement, environmentalists and social justice movements, to learn together and to build our collective strength.
Details of the School
The School will be held at Currawong (Pittwater training facility) from Sunday April 3 to Wednesday April 6 2005. It is the first of a variety of cross-movement, capacity building projects to begin in 2005.
People attending the School will learn, share and build organising techniques for expanding our capacity and effectiveness for social change in Sydney and NSW. It will run sessions to draw out experiences and lessons on effective organising and social change practices from participants.
The School�s residential accommodation only allows us to provide 40 places and we are aiming to have a very diverse range of participants in the school. For this reason we are asking people to go through a registration process. If your or your organisation is interested in participating in the school, we request that you distribute the attached registration form to individuals in your organisation, or to other organisations that you work with, and encourage them to register for the School. Registrations are due by Friday 11 February.
The registration fee for the school will be approximately $300 per person (including three and a half days of training, accommodation and food). However we do not want costs to prevent people from registering. If your organisation cannot afford this cost, please indicate this on the registration form. We are seeking sponsorship from larger organisations to subsidise the costs of others. Please do not see costs as a barrier to attendance.
The Community Organising School is the culmination of a year-long discussion between union organisers, community organisations, adult educators and environmentalists. While the School is the first public project, it will be one of many opportunities provided to reflect and learn about community organising. To find out more about the School or to discuss how you can participate in this exciting and timely project feel free to contact either:
Tony Brown, Centre for Popular Education [email protected]
Christine Laurence, Western Sydney Community Forum [email protected] 9637 6190
Melanie Gillbank, Search Foundation [email protected] 0403 051 606
Amanda Tattersall, Unions NSW [email protected] 0409 321 133
Community Organising School Committee
C/- Centre for Popular Education, UTS
PO Box 123
Broadway 2007
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Community Organising School
3- 6 April 2005
Currawong, Pittwater
Aims
To increase our ability to organise and work across movements in order to build cross movement collaboration, by:
o providing the opportunity for organisers and activists to share their experiences with other organisers and activists working in different fields
o identifying differences while examining commonalities and opportunities for working together
o learning, sharing and developing organising techniques for expanding our capacity and effectiveness for social change
o discussing different approaches to strategic campaigning and community organising
The School will draw on the experience, knowledge and expertise of those attending.
Are you organising for social and economic change?
Concerned at the growing power of employers, the state and big business?
Concerned at the state of advocacy and activist groups to influence the agenda?
Wanting to turn the tide and re-build grassroots capacity in local communities and the workplace?
Wanting to build cross movement collaboration?
We are seeking organisers working in/with:
social movements,
young people,
environmental advocacy,
resident action
trade unions
popular arts, cultural development and education
migrant communities,
community organizing and development organisations
student organising
who are committed to working for social, economic and environmental justice.
What's in it for you?
The School will:
bring together organisers and activists from across different sites of activism who are focused on developing new ways of working to build strong and effective organizations,
enable participants to meet, learn from and work with organisers in different fields of practice,
provide an environment where organisers from a range of backgrounds can develop mutual respect, understanding and knowledge,
develop networks as a continuing resource of skills, expertise and influence, and
challenge you to think and act differently.
________________________________________
The program will run from Sunday afternoon April 3 � Wednesday April 6 2005. The Community Organising School is a residential weekend; applicants must be available to attend the entire event.
Of course Bob Carr should keep land tax.
Anyone with a second home is lucky and should be happy to pay a bit more.
Anyway most of them are baby boomers. One of the biggest problems we face is the lack of intergenerational opportunity i.e. baby boomers have lived through prosperous boom times forever and proceeding generations have not.
Generation X and Y should get some of the dosh. After all, we are the ones who will be paying for them all with our taxes when they are lolling indolently in their dotage.
And bob, while you're at it, why not slap on a bit more tax on homes worth over $2 million dollars, to catch the truly rich?
Timothy Rennie
Dear Comrades,
The news that Janet Albrechtsen has been appointed to the ABC board (Workers Online #253, Tool Of The Week) is chilling, but not be surprising.
The only disagreement I have with your story is the suggestion that it's a Howard Government celebration of "total victory" in the culture wars.
The most recent appointment to the ABC board is most decidedly NOT a total victory, because the war isn't over by a long way.
Rather, it should be seen as the Government reinforcing its troops so that they can prosecute the
war more vigorously.
The objective is to force all progressive and critical
thought out of the ABC and impose a definition of "balance" which means that powerful liars are not exposed and any idea that threatens the status quo
is, ipso facto, extremist, unbalanced and unbroadcastable.
When I was a child, the ABC was derided as a bastion of wealth & privilege, full of upper-crust toffs with plums in their mouths.
The popular insurgency of the 60s & 70s changed the ABC, but the Government is trying to turn back the clock. Howard & co won't rest until the ABC is once more a bastion of the Right.
In Solidarity,
Greg Platt
If I hear anything more about the tasmanian real estate agent who mortgaged herself to get a prize plot in the north of Europe I will puke.
Both royals in Australia should be arrested, stripped of their wealth and tried for the larceny and subjugation they have pressed upon their populations for hundreds of years. They are nothing but glorified gangsters.
And the toadies in the media who suck up to them should be banged up as well.
Timothy Rennie
Dear Editor,
For the record, I was raised in a house that supports labour and I have done so all my life!
Call me cynical, but given the NSW Government is suffering from 'leaking boat syndrome', I find it comical that Mr Carr would support a $20 a week increase in award rates for workers.
Mr Carr, it would appear is leading the fight against proposed IR reforms in July, and this is his strategic
point of departure?
Think about it, many of our systems have some major issues in need of reform, and here is Mr Carr trying to win the hearts and minds of workers by
increasing wages.
Yes, I admit - money talks!, However, NSW has some major house cleaning to do before firing off shots at the Federal Government.
Just how does he think this generous offer will really translate into increased credibility and support from workers? This is a Government in which hardly a
day goes by without another hole appearing?
Taking this into account how will the $20 a week translate into real value?
A dollar in NSW does not translate into the purchasing power of a dollar in other states, especially when a dollar in NSW is being quickly eroded by the
avalanche of taxes we already pay.
Don't forget, someone has to fund these increases as well as provide ongoing funds needed to fix the numerous problems we already have as a state.
Don't get me wrong, workers in NSW deserve an increase in wages just to keep up with the value eroding taxes, $20 a week, however, is an insult. Especially given the Government seems to be hell bent on taking more than this measley amount from workers (and mum and dad property investors) just to deal with the ongoing 'cock ups' it creates.
I could also be completely wrong about Mr Carr's Government?
Kind regards
John McPhilbin
The Labor movement has to ensure that the younger generations know of the achievements made to bring the working man out of gutter. Also a billboard in every capital city on 'Honest John's' pre-election promises, so all can remember the broken ones.
Brian Dayman
Now I'll make it harder. Who saw the finance? How did the All Ords go? What's the Australian dollar trading at? How's the Nikkei travelling?
These days the business reports are being presented like the weather - statistics that are presented as acts of God reeled off night after night until it becomes wallpaper.
It leaves us, as a community, with a very superficial understanding of our economy.
We know there are all these indicators, we know that a rising share market is good, interest rates should be low, unemployment and inflation are bad. But do we really take the time to understand the game?
Compare it with the way we follow our sports - it's not just the results that we are interested in, but all the intrigue and machinations behind the final outcome.
We pour over updates on our star player's knee injury; we follow the judiciary hearings as though they were a criminal trial; we wait on the team selections breathlessly; and we hold the coach to account for the ultimate performance of the team.
So how would we talk about the economy if we were to invest the time and energy we put into our sports and held the government to the same standards as the coach?
Well, we'd be start by ensuring our junior base was strong - we'd be investing in education to ensure our stars emerge on merit rather than who they know in the club.
We'd be making sure we had the right players for the right conditions - right now we have a skills shortage because our coach has failed to see the changes in the game and alter the training regime to match.
We'd be demanding the team played smart as well as hard - if it takes 120 tonnes of iron ore to buy a plasma TV, why are we digging holes rather than manufacturing high value products?
We'd be setting rules to ensure the team can play all the way through to full-time - at the moment we have a tax system that encourages real estate speculation which could see us run out of gas early in the game.
Finally we'd hold our key players to account, rather than allowing them to run roughshod and set their own rules, move their assets off shore and pull out of the club when we need them most.
And most importantly, we'd live by the universal sporting principle that if the side stops performing, the coach goes.
My point? If we spent the same energy analysisng our economy as we do our favourite footy team we may have a government that was as accountable for our performance as the coach of our footy team.
Such a government could not win office sprouting lies on interest rates; it could not hide unemployment behind low paid casual jobs and it could not get away with slashing our work rights as a diversion from the hard yards of building up a sustainable economy.
As long as we look at the economy the way we look at the weather, our politicians will get away with being as accountable as a metereologist - armed with all the stats, but invariably wrong.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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