E D I T O R I A L

Weasel Words
We are living in an era where words are not always as they seem, and where language is used to shape the world rather than just describe it.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: On Holiday
Historian Richard White looks back on the Aussie vacation - and finds a way of life is under threat.,

Unions: One Day Longer
Nathan Brown travels to the Boeing picket line and find a group of workers with a steely determination to stick together.

Industrial: Never Mind the Bollocks
Jim Marr plays the Howard Government's industrial relations spin job on its merits.

Politics: Spun Out
Canberra’s latest campaign underlines the need for controls over government advertising, according to Graeme Orr and Joo-Cheong Tham

Economics: If the Grog Don't Get You ....
Evan Jones explains how the way we purchase alcolohol reflects the type of economy we live in.

History: Taking a Stand
Neale Towart looks at two books that chronicle how to build community support against social injustice.

International: The Split
Amanda Tattersal outsider's account of an insider's shake-out at the AFL-CIO Convention 2005

Legal: Pushing the Friendship
George Williams argues that the federal government’s constitutional powers are not sufficient to enact a comprehensive national industrial relations scheme

Poetry: Simple Subtractions
The latest blitz of taxpayer-funded advertising has revealed a crisis of arithmetic in government ranks has moved resident bard David Peetz to prose.

Review: Sydney Trashed
Sydney band SC Trash are on a mission to give new life to folk and country music – and the politics of common sense. Nathan Brown had a beer with them

N E W S

AWAs Bully the Sisters

Busted: Howard's 14 Percent Furphy

Top End of Town to Write IR Laws

New Laws Make Green Bans History

Hardies Dodges Responsibility

Blokes Wouldn’t Cop Child Care Wages

MPs Duck As Unions Hit the Road

Profits Do Not Mean Security

Dodgy Wagons Rolling In

Telstra: Death By 1,000 Cuts

Andrews Shafts Employee Safety

Indon Rail Workers Roll Paycut Plan

Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Our favourite MP, Ian West, goes away for a couple of weeks and look what happens…

The Soapbox
The Last Weekend
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson's speech to the Last Weekend - how the Howard government laws will undermine the Ausrtalian way of life.

The Locker Room
A Concept Is Born
In which Phil Doyle helps the proponents of the vision thing across the road.

International
Workers Blood For Oil
A new book by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson lifts the lid on the bloody reality of US backed democracy for Iraq's trade unions

Postcard
London Post
During his recent stay in London IEU industrial officer John Shapiro was living only a few hundred metres from the site of one of the bomb blasts.

L E T T E R S

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MPs Duck As Unions Hit the Road

Alby Shultz will extend his policy of abstaining from contentious issues, when he fails to join members of the Goulburn community to discuss the changes on Thursday.

The bright orange 'Rights at work' bus will set off from Sydney on Monday for the start of a six week odyssey which will see it take in dozens of regional meetings as it makes it way around the state.

From the beaches of the 'Gong to the highlands of Cooma, the bus will stir up public debate about the Federal Government's proposed workplace changes.

The first leg is the South Coast, taking in Wollongong, Nowra, Ulladulla, Bateman's Bay, Moruya, Bega and Merimbula before coming up through Cooma, Queanbeyan and Goulburn.

Unions NSW Secretary John Robertson will address meetings and workers in the towns will share their experiences with AWAs and their concerns about John Howard's workplace changes.

Coalition Members of Parliament have been sent invitations to face the people their legislation will affect - although to date none of agreed to front up. Robertson says there will be chair on stage for them should any change their mind.

"I'd like to think that local representatives will turn up to hear the community's concern and relay that sentiment back to the Prime Minister," Robertson says.

"My sense is that there are several Coalition MPs who are less than enthusiastic about the changes; but are not prepared to challenge the Prime Minister as he pursues his ideological obsession.

The South Coast is the first leg of the Your Rights at Work bus tour, which will visit the rest of NSW through September.

Robertson said the tour would aim to promote debate about the government's changes, as well as hear the concerns of workers.

It builds on the momentum created at the July 1 Sky Channel meeting, where massive turnouts were reported at regional venues around the state.

"There is strong campaign momentum across the state and we want to set up the structures in regional areas to make sure we can sustain the energy for the long term," Robertson says,

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