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Issue No. 270 01 July 2005  
E D I T O R I A L

After the Action
After a National Week of Action that has had everything from mass rallies in all capital cities to IR chat rooms opening on the Vogue Magazine website it�s fair to say that the first objective of this campaign � to raise public awareness � has been achieved.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Battle Stations
Opposition leader Kim Beazley says he's ready to fight for workers right. But come July 1, he'll have to be fighting by different rules.

Unions: The Workers, United
It was a group of rank and filers who took centre stage when workers rallied in Sydney's Town Hall, writes Jim Marr.

Politics: The Lost Weekend
The ALP had a hot date, they had arranged to meet on the Town Hall steps, and Phil Doyle was there.

Industrial: Truth or Dare
Seventeen ivory towered academics upset those who know what is best for us last week.

History: A Class Act
After reading a new book on class in Australia, Neale Towart is left wondering if it is possible to tie the term down.

Economics: The Numbers Game
Political economist Frank Stilwell offers a beginners guide to understanding budgets

International: Blonde Ambition
Sweden can be an inspiration to labour movements the world over, as it has had community unionism for over 100 years, creating a vibrant caring society, rather than a "productive" lean economy.

Training: The Trade Off
Next time you go looking for a skilled tradesman and can�t find one, blame an economist, writes John Sutton.

Review: Bore of the Worlds
An invincible enemy has people turning against one another as they fight for survival � its not just an eerie view of John Howard�s ideal workplace, writes Nathan Brown.

Poetry: The Beaters Medley
In solidarity with the workers of Australia, Sir Paul McCartney (with inspiration from his old friend John Lennon) has joined the Workers Online resident bard David Peetz to pen some hits about the government's proposed industrial relations revolution.

N E W S

 Don't Get Angry, Get Organised

 Feds Threaten Hardie Battlers

 Beasts of Bourbon Play Dog

 Churches on Workplace Mission

 Unions Are The New Black

 Muster Has Bosses in Fluster

 Workers Flood to Protests

 Official: Libs Don�t Know Own Laws

 Schools Out For Uni Bosses

 IR Campaign Taxing Andrews

 Air Safety at Risk

 Carr Runs Over Lib Laws

 Aga Khan Workers Gaoled

 Activists Whats On!

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
State of the Union
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson lifts the lid on �The Nine Myths of Modern Unionism�

The Locker Room
Wrist Action
Phil Doyle trawls the murky depths of tawdry sleaze, and discovers Rugby is behind it all.

Culture
To Hew The Coal That Lies Below
Phil Doyle reviews Australia's first coal mining novel, Black Diamonds and Dust.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Our favourite State MP, Ian West, reports from Macquarie Street that the Premier is all the way with a State Commission.

L E T T E R S
 Workers Give In FNQ
 Power and the Passion
 Mao and Then
 The Third Way Hits A Dead End
 Unfair For All
 What Is To Be Done?
 Black Hawk Up
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Schools Out For Uni Bosses


School kids and their parents are being enlisted in a campaign to save 450 jobs from the axe at Newcastle Uni.

University workers are running targeted radio ads on local FM stations popular with teenagers spelling out what the impact of the job cuts will be.

"This will take us back 30 years," says Bert Groen of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) of the job cuts. "People will have to leave Newcastle to get an education. I had to do that. I don't want my kids to have to do that.

"The federal government is trying to dumb down the Hunter."

Over 200 people rallied at Newcastle City Hall last week to express their concern.

The University of Newcastle has earmarked 450 jobs for the chop to deal with budget problems.

Speakers pointed out that this problem stemmed from a lack of federal funding, slamming the government's move to tie funding to controversial IR changes with Senator Kerry Nettle describing the move as "economic blackmail".

Newcastle students and staff maintain there are more sensible means of addressing the deficit caused by years of chronic under-funding by the Federal Government.

"The stalls staff and students organised over the weekend were a resounding success, with people queuing up to sign the petition".

"It is also fitting that this public meeting is being held in a week in which the union movement nationally is campaigning against the Howard Government's attacks on the workplace rights of all Australian workers and their families. It is an example of where another area of the Government's policy, that of higher education funding, has led to a very real and immediate threat to the job security of so many workers in Newcastle and the Central Coast," says Groen.

Groen will be part of a delegation to Local federal MP Bob Baldwin


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