The plea has come via Australian East Timor support groups to the union aid agency, APHEDA, which says the killing of independence supporters is continuing in West Timor, Bali and other parts of the archipelago.
APHEDA executive officer Phil Hazelton says independence supporters who managed to escape the militias are now in hiding and without adequate travel documents to get out of Indonesia.
"The Australia Government must take steps to protect the people of East Timor and offer safe refuge in Australia until peace is restored. It is obvious there is a 'clean-up campaign' under way right now," he says.
"The whereabouts of one of Fretilin's key negotiators Mr Mahudu and his wife and family are of particular concern. We have heard that after a meeting Kapung with the leadership of the Indonesian military, Mahudu was taken into custody and has not been heard of since.
"The security of the East Timorese leadership must be investigated," he said.
UNAMET has the mandate has the mandate of the intenrational community until November 30. APHEDA is pushing for an extension of this mandate to include the repatriation of more than 150,000 refugees in camps in West Timor - fearing they will be refused access back to East Timor and be dispersed elsewhere in Indonesia.
"One third of the Timorese population has been forcibly taken to West Timor - the UN has a responsibility to these people," Hazelton says..
"No one really knows what has happened in East Timor -we're very fearful of extent of killings and loss of leadership of Independence movement," he says
APHEDA is preparing to assist technical training relief and rebuilding capacity of the East Timorese, including:
- working with nurses association on securing medical supplies (see separate story)
- training for Timorese.
- health and education programs
- running a general appeal - dial 1300 362 223 to make a donation.during business hours or visit theAPHEDA website on http://www.apheda.org.au.
Proof of Atrocities
Below are three websites with photos said to be taken by the Indonesian military. These photos are very graphic and shocking. Don't go there unless you have a strong stomach.
http://www.easttimor.com/html/gal_women.html
http://www.easttimor.com/html/gal_indonmil.html
http://www.angelfire.com/pe/Timor/
Upcoming Events
Every Night - 7.30pm Pax Christi Mass at vigil outside UN office - 43 York St Sydney - contact CFMEU organiser Gary McCarthy 0412 733 486.
Saturday 18th September -11am - Major Rally and march beginning at Hyde Park North immediately following rally - fundraiser for CNRT (National Council for Timorese Resistance) CFMEU building 361 Kent St. Great food, drink, music
* 5.30 pm start for 6pm - special screening of the acclaimed film "Punitive Damage" (about the Dili massacre) at Chauvel Cinema, Paddington Town Hall - All proceeds to Community Aid Abroad's Emergency Fund for East Timor.
* 8pm - Dave Steel fundraiser - Rose, Shamrock & Thistle Hotel, Evans St Rozelle
Monday 20th September * 6.30am Free buses leave CNRT office - 30 Scott St Liverpool for demonstration in Canberra outside Parliament House & Indonesian Embassy. Contact CNRT office 9822 8225.
* 7pm East Timorese Volunteers meeting - Annandale Hotel
Tuesday 21st September * 6pm Amnesty International Vigil - First Fleet Park - Circular Quay
Thursday 30th September* 6pm "Timor Nia Klamas" (Soul of Timor) art exhibition. New GuineaGallery 8th floor Dymocks Building 428 George St City - ph 9232 4737
Volunteers are urgently needed to staff the office at the CFMEU building and distribute leaflets. If you can spare a few hours please give a hand. It would be much appreciated
The support organisation, Australia East Timor Association has suggested the following actions:
- Chinese Consulate 9698 7929 - ring and complain about stalling at Security Council
- Japanese Consulate 9231 3455 - ring and complain about their support for Indonesian Army as peace-keeping force
Consumer Boycotts Spread to North America
Consumer boycotts have for many years been used - very successfully - by the North American union movement as a major industrial weapon .
The Canadian Labour Congress has now turned this weapon onto Indonesia, in support of the East Timorese struggle.
Check out the Canadian Labour Congress Made In Indonesia site. http://www.clc-ctc.ca/campaigns/indo.html
While you are there the CLC helps you to link to company websites so that you can complain to Nike or Crayola crayons to tell them what you think of them operating in Indonesia, using cheap labour and working with a regime which has allowed its military a free hand to slaughter innocents in East Timor.
Canadian and US unions regularly update and distribute lists of products which they ask union members and their families not to purchase while unionists are in dispute.
Because of a long tradition of consumer boycotts they find that generation after generation have happily taken note of this union advice. Employers have been known to beg the union to take their name off the list, because they can see the boycott is effecting their bottom line.
The AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress have sections in their offices dedicated to researching and regularly updating these consumer boycott lists - and then they go out and actively publicise these lists among members and families.
After the dispute is over the union - or the national union centre - releases an official notice to say it is now AOK to buy that product.
The union has contacted hospitals, nursing homes, health facilites and pharmacies to provide a list of needed medicines for APHEDA, the trade union aid agency.
Nurses Association secretary Sam Moaitt says extra staff have had to be rostered onto the switch boards to field offers of assistance.
APHEDA has asked registered unions at the union to co-ordinate the urgent collection, checking and dispatch of the required material to Darwin.
Nurses are seeking the following equipment:
- the oral antibiotics Amoxycillin and Flucloxillin
- the anitmalarial Chloroquine
- antiseptic Iodine
- Chloromycetin eye drops.
- Paracetemol
- dressing packs
- crepe bandages
- field bandages
- oral rehydration therapy
- and packs containing artery forceps, nylon sutures and scissors.
These materials can be delivered to Nurses Association offices in Sydney: 43 Australia Street Camperdown (ph Lynne Ridge or Kate Adams on 9550 3244) or Newcastle: 120 Tudor Street, Hamilton.
ACTU to Lift Industrial Bans
Meanwhile, the ACTU has recommended that industrial bans placed on Indonesian interests be suspended from the time of arrival of peacekeepers in East Timor.
The ACTU says it remains prepared to recommend a reimposition of the bans should Indonesia not uphold commitments given to the United Nations in relation to the peacekeeping force entering East Timor.
With trade unions controlling 60 per cent of the floor, the development could tip the traditional Left-Right balance if unions unite on key issues.
The move comes amidst growing disillusion with the Carr Government's public sector policies, such as contracting-out and competitive tendering.
In the past week, local government workers have rallied on State Parliament and bus drivers have stopped work for four hours. A further rally by TAFE staff is scheduled for this week.
Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says the unions will caucus on three key areas:
- industrial relations policy - given the government's failure to introduce reforms limiting the use of labour hire and independent contractors, as well as allowing unions to charge a service fee to non-union members.
- competitive tendering; being pursued by government agencies and departments as a means of driving down costs.
- support for a social audit to chart the distribution of government services across the state, particularly in rural NSW.
The Caucus will also discuss a post-conference strategy to ensure that pressure is applied to hold the Carr Government to the ALP platform.
Union Anger Over Government Policy
* Six hundred local council workers employed from around the state rallied on State Parliament on Thursday to protest the Carr government's competitive tendering of council work, include road maintenance. The workers have called on the Carr Government to conduct a social impact study into the effects of competitive tendering on rural communities across the State.
* The Rail Bus and Tram Union held stop work meetings Friday between 10am and 2pm to discuss State Transit's log of claims served on bus and tram drivers (swwe Workers Online Issue 29). The drivers voted to commence an industrial campaign against State Transit's use of the Reith industrial laws to attack workers' conditions - including back annual leave and sick days.
* Next Wednesday unionists employed in TAFE will rally outside NSW Parliament House between 12 noon and 1.15 pm to protest cuts to staffing within the organisation.
Presenting the Sir Richard Kirby lecture in Wollongong this week, Lees said the service fee was one way of dealing with the problem that fewer workers were represented in wage negotiations.
"The award system is central to Australia's wage equity system. The fact that up to 40 per cent of private sector workers might be outside the system is deeply disturbing to anyone interested in wage justice," Lees said.
"Given that union membership is now down to just 20 per cent in the private sector, and as low as 11 and 13 per cent in the fast-growing hospitality and business services sectors, it's time to ask whether the responsibility of maintaining awards should be left solely to the unions."
Along with the service fee, Lees said the Democrats supported establishment of an Employee Advocate to represent non-unionists.
The service fee was raised as part of a spirited defence of the Democrats performance on industrial relations since 1996. Claiming that the real "first wave" of industrial reforms occurred under Keating and Brereton, Lees argued that the Reith 1996 package had delivered a fair outcome - largely because of the Democrat amendments.
But she warned the Howard government not to expect the same level of co-operation this time around.
"The political context for the 1999 bill could not be more different than that which we faced in 1996," Lees said.
"There is no prospect of this bill forming the basis of a double dissolution election. We can and we will consider this bill solely on its merits. We will ask the question: is this bill a fair and reasonable legislative response to the workplace relations issues of the moment?.
"At first glance, the bill appears to contain many provisions that are unnecessary, unfair or unbalanced. If passed in full, the 1999 reform bill would significantly reduce the powers, standing and independence of the Commission. It would also reduce the capacity of unions to protect the rights of their members."
The Reith Second Wave package will be considered by a Senate Committee later this year.
A full bench of the Federal Court ruled that workers at a Byron Bay bank who moved to a pharmacy when the branch closed should have taken their bank sector wages and conditions with them. Instead they were employed under an inferior pharmacy award.
The Finance Sector Union says the big banks are planning to establish hundreds of so-called "bragencies" around rural Australia as a cost-cutting measure.
But by ruling that the outsourcing amounts to a "transfer of business" the Federal Court has taken one of the key drivers - reduced labour costs - out of that equation.
FSU national industrial officer Michael Clifford says the Byron Bay case was a stark one. The bank staff who transferred from the St George branch to the pharmacy next door kept the same counters, the same uniforms and served the same customers.
"The builders came in over a weekend, tore down the wall between the bank and the pharmacy and the workers were offered the option of the new job or the prospect of unemployment," Clifford says.
"The problem was, they were told they were now under an inferior award - with lower penalty rates and other lesser conditions."
In light of the decision, Clifford says the union will examine outsourcing operations by all the major banks, predicting hundreds of workers may be able to recover money following the decision.
The Transport Workers Union says the Employment Advocate is approving Australia Workplace Agreements that base rates on truck drivers travelling at 90 km per hour, up from 75 km hour under the Award.
"These new speeds are unachievable," TWU state secretary Tony Sheldon says. "It's impossible to sustain a speed of 90 kms per hour on out road networks."
"To maintain their livelihood a driver has little choice but to speed or stay behind the wheel longer."
Details of the AWAs are included in the TWU's submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Act.
In the submission, the TWU says it is not uncommon for long distance truck drivers to work in excess of eighty hours a week, in some cases up to 100 hours behind the wheel.
Sheldon says its no coincidence that there's been a five per cent increase in the number of fatalities involving articulated trucks in 1998.
"This is clearly a failure of the Australian industrial relations system," Sheldon says. "Agreements are being allowed to pass the No Disadvantage Test despite drivers being forced to put their lives and the lives of all other road users at an unacceptable risk.
"How can it be in the interest of drivers or the general public for drivers to be on the road longer, drive faster and become increasingly fatigued?"
by Dermott Browne
Mr Reith made this 'surprising' pronouncement at the 1999 Corporate Work and Family Awards in Melbourne earlier this week.
Malcolm Larsen, CPSU NSW Branch Secretary, said, "Mr Reith's comments are welcome, if a little unexpected. We are calling on him to put his new found concern for workers to practical use by overhauling his Second Wave legislation to improve job security and give workers a real voice."
The CPSU praised Mobil and the other award winners for their efforts in making it easier for their employees to balance work and home responsibilities, but warned that there is still much to done on the issue.
"Unfortunately not all employers are as enlightened as those who won awards, which is why we need legislation that protects - not attacks - workers rights."
"We are concerned that research continues to show that for most people, hours are becoming increasingly 'unsociable' and many are experiencing serious health problems as a result,"
"Reports by the ACTU and the Social Policy Research Centre at NSW University reveal the extent of the problem. We believe there is direct link between decreasing staff numbers and people's ability to balance their work and family commitments,"
"Our members tell us again and again that the problem is simply that they have 'too much work and not enough staff to do it'.
If he has the political will, Mr Reith can turn this situation around."
The deal covering staff at Westpac's finance company, AGC, was the result of a hotly contested ballot earlier this year. The Finance Sector Union campaigned against the deal on the basis it would undermine industry standards.
Now the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has agreed, ruling that the agreement used the wrong award as its reference point.
The FSU had argued that AGC should use the Westpac Enterprise Award as the benchmark for conditions - given that AGC employees did the same work as Westpac staff and even wore the same uniform.
Instead AGC had sought to base the agreement on the Clerks (Finance Companies) Award which had not been updated since 1990. An application by the Clerks Union to actually scrap the award altogether is currently before the Commission.
The Commission decision means that the AGC deal is likely to fail the "no disadvantage" - designed to ensure that non-union deals do not leave workers worse of than the relevant award.
FSU state secretary Geoff Derrick says the ruling should force AGC to negotiate a fairer deal with 1999 standards and conditions.
"We reckon it would be unfair for AGC to go about offering 1990 leasing arrangements to its clients in 1999, because they would be out of date if not unfair," Derrick says.
"By the same logic it should also be unfair to compare the 1999 AGC Agreement with a 1990 Award."
Leaked internal management documents indicate the company is in turmoil over the findings. They contain instructions to line management about what to tell staff, stating that the decision "makes no sense to us."
The leaked documents indicate that AGC will appeal the matter, rather than attempt to fix those aspects of the agreement that fail the test.
"We are calling on AGC to stop arguing the toss, and to put the promised improvements to AGC employees' conditions into place now," Derrick says.
The Department has released a list of items that no longer need to be classified as "clinical waste" - including sanitary bins in hospitals, shopping centres and nursing homes, which often contain used syringes.
The TWU and HREA have raised concerns about the dangers their members - responsible for removing and transporting the waste may be exposed to.
They claim the change in policy is driven purely by dollars, with general waste costing six cents per kilo to dispose of - compared with 90 cents per kilo for clinical waste. That's because general waste is dumped as landfill, whereas clinical waste must be incinerated or dropped in acid.
The unions have called on the Department of Health to immediately halt the changes, which were introduced with no consultation with the affected workers.
""The safety and environmental implications of this new policy are horrific," the unions say in a letter to Labor Council.
"Clearly items assigned from a medical institution as clinical waste and noxious, potentially infectious and highly dangerous to those people handling it. To disguise such substances by mixing it with general waste exposes workers to obvious unnecessary health risks."
The unions are also concerned the dumping of extra waste contradicts the Government's stated policy on reducing landfill.
Commissioner of Corrective Services Leo Keliher ordered this week ordered ten computers, provided through the Prisoner Computer Project to be returned to Justice Action, the organisation that had raised the money to purchase them.
But Justice Action's Brett Collins says he's refused to receive them, leaving the valuable assets in limbo.
The Prisoner Computer Project was established to allow inmates to study in prison and prepare their defences when on remand.
Under the scheme two computers had been delivered to the maximum security section of Long Bay, four to the Mullawa Women's Maximum Security section and four more to a minimum security section of Long Bay.
Collins says the decision is out of step with notions of rehabilitation. And he says it will prevent accused people being held on remand who can't afford legal representation from preparing their own cases.
by Andrew Casey
It is part of a major trend for the private sector to move into welfare services work traditionally done either by Government welfare agencies or not-for-profit community, church or charity agencies.
Just months after President Clinton introduced his controversial 1996 welfare reforms the New York Times ran a Page One article stating that a Lockheed Martin subsidiary had put in a $563 million tender to bid for the management of Welfare-to-Work operations in Texas.
Lockheed, a defence armaments corporation, sent shock waves through the not-for-profit community, who accused the US giant of 'poverty profiteering'.
Lockheed failed in its Texas tender, but it is now one of the biggest providers of Welfare-to-Work services in Florida, and has more than 20 contracts in four US states. American unions have expressed concern about this trend.
Australian unions also need to study the trend as already some multinational profit-takers have tendered successfully for the Job Network - and they may soon start tendering for other Australian welfare work contracted out by the Government sector.
Jobs Network Conference
Harvard academic William Ryan will be in Australia in November to discuss this trend at forums in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, sponsored by JOB futures the largest not-for-profit employment agency in the Federal Government's Job Network.
One Australian union is sending out leaflets about William Ryan to their activists, so that they can register for these JOB futures forums.
Activists can register on line to attend either the Sydney forum on the afternoon of Thursday November 4 or the Melbourne forum on the afternoon of Monday November 8. The Canberra forum arrangements are yet to be completed.
In his presentation William Ryan outlines the trends currently affecting the funding and delivery of US welfare services.
He will discuss how not-for-profits can adapt to the competitive tendering environment and will identify the risks of adapting.
His presentation will be followed by a panel, comprised of prominent local advocates for community organisations, who will provide a local perspective on the issue and respond to Ryan's presentation. Questions from the floor will be welcome as a conclusion to the forum.
Tony Sheldon's view that Transport Workers Union bans on Garuda flights are "counter-productive" as a response to the East Timor crisis is way out of touch with the Australian people and his own members. He suggests that the bans are passion without thought.
On the one hand, he overestimates the impact of the bans, as if the Garuda bans would somehow loom larger in the mind of General Wiranto and his criminal mates than the looming UN military intervention in East Timor.
On the other hand, he underestimates the need to vigorously protest against a massive crime against humanity on our doorstep, committed against a people whom our government promised to protect.
TWU bans on Garuda, like MUA bans on sea cargo, and telecommunications bans, are all part of a powerful democratic response from the Australian people, which has had a measurable impact on our government and world opinion, and helped to get a UN military intervention now, belated as it is.
In fact, the MUA bans and TWU bans had a very positive moral effect of stimulating a very broad public movement for action, because the bans were tangible action at a time when our political leaders could barely come to grips with the crisis. So the union bans were passion plus smart thinking.
In this context, Tony Sheldon's comments in last week's issue, and John Allen's press release on September 16, which actually attacked other unions for their bans, have let us all down. In particular, they let down the East Timorese leadership who have been asking for the bans, and expressing huge gratitude when they have been placed.
On Friday September 10, when over 600 East Timorese, building workers, church activists and other unionists blocked the Garuda flight from boarding at Sydney Airport, the TWU members there also refused food and fuel to the aircraft. Perhaps Tony and John should listen to these members too.
Think back. Were people right to boycott German products after the Chrystalnacht in 1938? Was that boycott counterproductive? Were Australians right to boycott Japanese goods after the invasion of China in the 1937? Did those boycotts provoke Japanese aggression, or were they the right response from thinking people?
Think forward. Tony Sheldon is promoted as one of our most dynamic union leaders. Just where would he take us?
Peter Murphy
Having spent the month of August 1999 in Canada I was surprised to see the level of interest Canadians displayed in the push for a Republic in Australia and in the impending referendum. Even Conrad Black's right wing " The National Post " ran a well-researched and considered piece on the issue.
Yet some of the detail was not readily apparent and doubtless the tyranny of distance played its part. For example in my discussions with Canadians, there was genuine surprise when the ARM model was described.
In fact interest waned when the two thirds voting by the politicians was explained. There was general amazement expressed to the fact that the President is not to be elected by popular vote.
It would appear not a lot of Canadians identify with the Monarchy.
However in the context of changing to a Canadian Head of State, a popular vote is seen as an inherent right.
When the hoax that is the ARM model became clear, events Downunder didn't seem that seminal come November, after all.
Yours faithfully
ANDREW WILLIAMSON
Given that Workcover is meant to police workers compensation premium issues as well as basic OH&S issues why do they not prosecute those multinationals which avoid these premiums? Why are they more conerned with samller operations? Is it a case of them not having the fight? If the Labor Government were made aware of these issues, would they instruct Workcover to do something?
What do others think of Workcover's ability to provide a safer environment for employees? Or is it the case that unions have to continue to do all the leg work? Workcover is certainly not accountable to those who make complaints to it. As an organisation I think workers think Workcover is bullshit. And given its record they would right. Perhaps it is a fatalist tendancy that giudes my thinking, perhaps they have got their act together somewhere. Could you or your readers perhaps illustrate this?
Thank you for your time.
Yours, Geoff Southern
The NSW Department of Education and Training has done more over the last week to attempt to destroy the status of teachers in the community and further reduce the level of goodwill that teachers have to their employer.
This has occurred following the political propaganda campaign D.E.T have run in the press, and through disgraceful letters sent to Parents through their children at public schools.
The misleading information would have people believe that 80% of teachers are on close to $88,000 salaries (the top high school principal earns $81,000, if they have in excess of 910 students at the school. This is about 0.3% of all teachers.)
They also claim that teachers are seeking a 30% pay increase, when in fact it is only 7.5%. This amount has already been granted to independent private school teachers from 1st May, 2000.
Why are they doing this? They are trying to make out that teachers in public schools have it good:- Holidays , leave entitlements, great salary.They think that by attacking teachers in the tabloid press they will polarise public opinion to match their own.
They forget about the ever increasing workload, the difficulties obtaining appropriate resources to deal with behaviour disordered pupils, minimal training and development, a casual teacher shortage and difficulties attracting HSC students to take on teaching as a career.
The Minister and Director General will stop at nothing to try and discredit the public school teachers in N.S.W. Their tactics mirror the worst used in the Greiner/ Fahey/Metherill years.
To choose to attack teachers prior to education week was nasty. However, it's typical of an employer looking for any excuse to avoid negotiations that may lead to paying teachers appropriate salaries.
This government knows that to give teachers a pay increase will lead to a flow on to other public sector employees. It appears we will all have to endure a wage freeze to 2001.
M.Berg, Teachers Federation Representative.
by Peter Lewis
What is your evaluation of how the Howard Government has handled the East Timor situation?
Looked at over the course of this year it must represent the greatest foreign affairs blunder and debacle that we've seen - certainly in our life time. It was Australia who campaigned against peacekeepers, who insisted internationally that Indonesia should be entrusted with security over East Timor before the ballot, during the ballot and after the ballot, up until November of this year. In the process they gave comfort to the Indonesian military, who have now been deeply implicated in this genocide on our doorstep.
East Timor has been destroyed. Most of its people are either hiding in the hills or have fled the territory. All of its infrastructure as we know it has been destroyed. There are no houses or businesses left. This is the result of the complete failure by the Australian Government to see all the signs and to understand all the many warnings that were given. And the warnings started from Xanana Gusmao himself, and from Ramos Horta and from Bishop Belo at the start of this year. They all called for a gradual process involving reconciliation without rushing headlong into the process that was finally undertaken.
The Australian Defence Intelligence, in the very clearest of terms, indicated to the Howard Government the extreme dangers involved in going down the path and they reported to the Australian Government on 4 March in a now leaked, secret Defence Intelligence Organisation Intelligence Brief, that the Indonesian military were condoning the activities of the militias and further violence was certain and Dili would be the focus. They indicated in secret information that the Army were protecting, and in some instances operating with the militias, that they could easily be apprehended or controlled but the Army had decided not to do so, that they were, at the very least turning a blind eye to many of these operations, and that, unless Jakarta took firm action, the military would continue to support intimidation and violence, or at the very least would not prevent it.
Now, all that was known, in secret intelligence briefs prepared by our DIO and passed to Prime Minister Howard on 4 March. That's the one we've seen leaked. There are many, many others as well, we are led to believe. And in spite of all the warnings, and in spite of our repeated calls upon the Government to insist on peacekeepers the Australian Government literally campaigned against them.
Can you understand at all why they have taken the course of action they did?
Because they were completely blind to the potential disaster. Even when they saw 58 men, women and children slaughtered in a churchyard in Licquica in March of this year, they still remained blind. Even when the UN convoy itself was attacked by the militia and Bishop Belo held up, they still remained blind. Even when the UN was forced to pull out of Licquasa, as they did in the middle of June, they remained blind. This is a collective blind spot which represents a disastrous failure of analysis in understanding, and its consequences for the people of East Timor are nothing short of a genocide.
If you could pick one point where they have totally gone wrong, what would it be?
I think in having a deadbeat for a Foreign Minister, and having a disengaged Minister for Defence. The Minister for Defence has spent the last few months arguing about how he could go about sacking the Secretary of his own Department. He obviously hasn't been on the job, and Alexander Downer, tragically - tragically, went out of his way to deny that this could ever happen. Every time I called for peacekeepers he said "you couldn't have peacekeepers until there was a peace to keep." Everytime we called for peacekeepers he said it was completely premature.
I repeat, this represents a failure of monumental proportions with catastrophic repercussions. And can I say that another grave mistake has been made in New York this week with the decision to send in peacekeepers without arguing for the rapid withdrawal of the Indonesian military. These are the people who have organised, armed, orchestrated and managed the affairs of the militia. They have been responsible for the violence. They will now be working alongside Australian and other international troops. They will have a deep knowledge of our troop movements, and they certainly can't be trusted. They mustn't be trusted and we need them confined to barracks and withdrawn from the territory. I think that is the next round of complete miscalculation by the Howard Government.
So, how do you see the situation playing itself out over the next weeks?
Well, we'll have to wait and see, but the first priority is for us to support the international presence and to get the aid distributed on the ground, and to knock over the militias. To bring some aid and comfort to the people of East Timor to make up for the commitment given by the United Nations before the ballot, that they would be there after the ballot - a commitment that has been dishonoured with the complete withdrawal of all but 12 United Nations officers, which is the current position.
Clearly in the future we will have a huge humanitarian challenge ahead of us and we'll have to be very generous in committing ourselves to rebuilding the health and the lives of the East Timorese people. There's a huge bill running into many billions of dollars as a result of the devastation brought about by these criminal thugs in the course of the last 18 days. So East Timor will have to be rebuilt as well.
And to what degree is it Australia's responsibility now to rebuild the country?
Well, Australia has a special relationship with East Timor. It's a special relationship that we have not always lived up to and they have rightly felt very let down at the blind eye that Australia turned to the Indonesian invasion at the end of 1975, and the subsequent recognition by Australia of Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor. It is a tragedy that for 24 years of occupation - it wasn't until this year that either a Minister for Foreign Affairs or a Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs ever visited East Timor. Alexander Downer visited it this year for a few hours one day. I visited it for a week as part of the United Nations Observer Group, looking at the election process.
And Australia has not lived up to the obligations that we committed ourselves to in 1942, when 30,000 East Timorese, in what was neutral Portuguese territory, chose to fight beside Australian Diggers and paid for that with their lives. We were the ones who trained their guerillas; we were the ones who leafleted from the air the Territory of East Timor in 1942, saying that "we will never forget you." That's where the great debt began, and we now, and in the future, must make up for all the disappointments and all of the disillusionment and help them build a free, fair and democratic East Timor. A free East Timor as a new, independent nation in our region.
There has been debate within the union movement about the usefulness of industrial bans. First up, I would be interested in you view on whether that has been a good thing or not, and also what can ordinary people and ordinary workers do, who feel outraged about the situation over there?
Well, I think the extraordinary concern demonstrated by the Australian electorate over recent weeks has been a very real factor in pressing the Australian Government to finally live up to our responsibilities, and I welcome that. I think the demonstrations and the protests have given the Howard Government a clear indication of the extraordinary distress; the sense of frustration and the shame that is felt by so many Australians. And if that helps them to not make any more blunders in the future it will be a very good outcome indeed.
Personally, how have you felt watching the situation unfold, but not having any real input into the decision-making process. How has it been for you over the last two weeks?
I probably feel more frustrated than at any time in my life. To have been following this so closely and yet to have to admit that I've not managed to save a single life, makes you feel very sad, and politically impotent. That's what happens when you lose elections.
And given what's unfolded, if you had your time over again would you have pushed so hard for the Government to move on East Timor?
Well, I would certainly have been pushing for an act of self-determination, but we certainly would not have allowed it to go ahead with Australia's backing without adequate security to guarantee that the United Nations' commitment to the East Timorese could be met after the ballot. And for there to be the availability of speedy intervention by the world community in the event of a breakdown of security. For us to have been involved in this mad scramble for the last two weeks indicates the complete lack of preparedness. It's inconceivable that Kim Beazley as Minister for Defence would have been unprepared for such an eventuality. And certainly as far as I am concerned, I have warned repeatedly that this was likely to happen, and of course, it has all come to pass.
From a personal point of view, there's a particular sadness in knowing that so many of the people one has worked with in support of a free East Timor, have paid for it with their lives.
People like Leandro Isaacs, who sat with Tim Fisher and myself and Ambassador McCarthy the night before the ballot - the principal spokesman for the CNRT in Dili - who said that if they won the next day independence, he'd been told he'd be on a death list. And we asked him what he was going to do. He said:"I'm going to vote and go to the hills." And of course 78.5 per cent of East Timor voted for Independence - and the following Tuesday he was assassinated. And when you are dealing with people like that - real people who had tears in his eyes as he left us on the eve of the ballot, saying "I don't know whether I'll ever see you again. I hope I will." - you get some idea of the personal impact of this.
When the elderly nun who handed out Holy Communion at Bishop Belo's compound on the Sunday - the day before the ballot - is murdered, and when the head of the Caritas relief agency, Father Francesco Renta, who sat here in my office and Alexander Downer's office earlier this year and told us of his dread and foreboding of what would happen in the absence of international peacekeepers -. it leaves you with an overwhelming sadness. But also with a determination that we must never again betray the East Timorese people.
'This is the best result, a true result given by the people...For myself I am already a winner. I am not afraid to die today or tomorrow.'
These were the words of local Timorese journalist Rosa Garcia after the announcement of the result of the Timorese referendum on Saturday 4 September where 78.5% of the voters voted for independence. It was the last time I saw Rosa. Shortly after that statement a scorched earth policy was embarked upon by the Indonesian military.
Sitting in a room in Darwin I am trying to recall the events which took place from Saturday 4 September until my forced departure form Dili on Friday 10 September.
In that short period I have witnessed the willful destruction of a city, the forced repatriation of over 2,000 refugees from the International Red Cross (IRC) compound next to the hotel where we were staying, armed militia gangs roaming the streets unchecked by the military (TNI) or the
police, road blocks set up by the militia and our forced ejection from two hotels--the Makota and the Tourisma before ending up in the compound of the UNIMET HQ.
When I arrived in Dili on 29 August there were over 600 media people in East Timor. By the time I got to the UNIMET HQ on Monday 6 September there were less than 30.
The exodus started when BBC charted a flight out of Dili on Friday 3 September. By Sunday 5 September all the big player--CNN, ITN, AP, Reuters and all TV crews have left town preferring to do their reports from Bali or Jakarta. The TNI's aim of spooking the foreign press had worked to plan.
The whole operation is a military one--the best organised 'disorganised anarchy' planed and executed by the TNI. The militias were just carrying out orders.
I spent four days at the compound with the 2,000 odd refugees; the 200 odd Civipol (civilian police), MLOs (military liaison officers), UNIMET international staff, and UNHCR workers; 300 odd UNIMET local staff; and the 24 die hard or 'slightly mad' journos who decided to stay behind.
For two days we used our mobiles to contact the outside world. Photos and videos were smuggled out to Darwin. On Tuesday night 7 September, as Dili was burning our phones went dead. Our easy communications with the outside world had come to an end. We had to rely on the few satellite phones available.
Had we have live TV coverage we would have been able to alert the world live what was happening in Dili.
We spent a lot of our time gathering information from the refugees and speaking to the UNIMET staff, Civipol and the MLOs. From these we were able to draw a picture of the systematic destruction of East Timor unfolding before our eyes.
Forced movement of refugees was taking place, properties and houses were being destroyed, an ethnic cleansing was taking place, nothing was sacred not even churches or hospitals run by nuns.
On Wednesday night we were told we would be evacuated the following morning. The local UNIMET staff might be coming with us but not the refugees. We received the news like stuned mullet. We knew as soon as we left the compound the militia and the TNI will raised the compound to the ground and slaughter all the refugees there.
That night must have been the worse experienced I have ever had. Going through my mind was how can I leave them behind to face the slaughter. I was thinking of those kids I have been photographing for the past few days. What will happen to them? Its just not fair I keep saying to myself over and over again.
As I walked through the compound in a daze watching members of the Civipol, and MLOs giving away their food rations, rupiahs, and other personal items to children, a little girl called out to me saying 'mister, mister,' I turned around and there she was trying to give me back my swiss knife which had fallen out of my jacket.
In the mist of all the turmoil and knowing we were going to leave them behind this little girl will not take anything from us unless we gave it to her. Such is their honesty and even as we were about to abandon them they bore no ill feelings against us. I looked at the little girl said thanks and gave her my swiss knife. She has taught me a lot.
That night all the remaining journos signed a petition urging UNIMET Head of Mission, Ian Martin not to abandon the mission. At the same time over 70 international UNIMET staff volunteered to stay behind and at least six journos indicated they would do so.
The decision to evacuate was postponed for at 24 hours.
In that period an agreement concerning local UNIMET staff was reached--they will be relocated to Darwin. About 80 UNIMET staff, Civipol and MLOs will remind behind.
The UNIMET compound will not be abandon and the refugees will be given safe conduct to Dare some six kilometers out of Dili.
The remaining 24 journos who stayed behind to get the news out had to leave Dili. We were told if we do not go we will have to leave the UNIMET compound.
The refugees who were to go to Dare are all now in Darwin as refugees, some 1,500 of them. These are the lucky ones. There are still hundreds of thousands of refugees in East Timor.
I toured the camp at Tent City Darwin on Wednesday 15 September. The traumatised faces of the children I saw in Dili are slowly giving way to smiles.
I found little baby Pedrio UNIMET, the first child to be born at the UNIMET HQ compound in Dili. It was good to see him again. Every one thought I should be his god farther as I was the one who photographed him hours after his birth.
I am still searching for the crying kid I photographed In Dili. The photo appeared in the front page of last Saturday's SMH and the Age. That photo sums up what is happening in East Timor.
I have been one of the few lucky foreigners to have been given the privilege to share those moving moments at the compound with the courageous East Timorese. All of us who stayed back have been touched by them.
As the peacekeepers gather in Darwin to enter Dili our thoughts must go towards the reconstruction of East Timor. There are massive things to be done there and we can all chip in.
We can start with this slogan when we plan our next vacation: 'Dili not Bali.'
In the context of this great national debate on the Australian Republic, I'd like to make a general comment about the Australian trade union movement.
In the coming weeks leading to the referendum on November 6, we'll be hearing a great deal about long-established institutions. We'll hear a lot about the way old and well-tried institutions help keep the fabric of the nation together.
Well, the fact is, ladies and gentlemen, that, in any list of authentic Australian institutions which have substantially shaped the Australian way of life, the organised union movement stands right at the top. After all, when we talk about the union movement in Australia, we are talking about a continuous unbroken development of more than one hundred and fifty years - far older, for example, than the Australian Constitution itself.
Now I don't suggest for a moment that mere age guarantees anything.
And I've had my fair quota of stoushes with unions.
But I want to take Australian conservatives head on, and at their own word.
Because, by and large, the people who are most vocal about keeping the monarchy as Australia's Head of State, by virtue of its being an old established institution, are the very same people who are most venomous against the Australian union movement.
And those people will never acknowledge the fundamental role played by the union movement in maintaining the stability and the steady forward march of Australian society and Australian democracy - something it has done for more than a century.
It is the typical double standard - the pretence, on the one hand, about conserving established values and traditions, and the reality, on the other hand, of a radical attack aimed at destroying one of the great anchor institutions of this country, the trade union movement.
And you are entitled to ask just why it is that this new and destabilising attack on trade unionism should come at this particular point in our history?
Why now, after 16 years of unprecedented responsibility and restraint on the part of the trade union movement?
Let me quote an editorial from the most conservative journal in Australia, the Financial Review. Only last Friday, 10 September, the Financial Review said this:
"The union movement deserves credit for the important part it has played in the transformation of the Australian economy in the past few years, with labour market reform ensuring moderate wages growth, greater flexibility in the workplace and low levels of industrial disputation, fostering strong growth in productivity."
Now, friends, this is the true picture of Australian unionism in the 1990s.
Yet, by its attack on the basic principles of unionism-indeed, an attack on their very right to exist-Peter Reith seeks a return to the confrontationism of the 1950s.
And I suggest, ladies and gentlemen, there is a lowest-common denominator in his attitude to both industrial relations and the Republic.
It is this hankering after the 1950s; this refusal to accept that Australia and the world have moved on since the fifties; that the unions have changed; the needs and aspirations of the people have changed.
*************
But I'm not at all embarrassed in saying that we also want the support of true Australian conservatives, as well-that is, the support of everyone who genuinely wants to protect Australia's institutions and the Australian style of democracy.
More and more, true conservatives are coming to realise that far from safeguarding the stability of our society, an absentee Head of State undermines it.
In what conceivable way now, as we enter the 21st century, does a Head of State chosen from among the descendants of Queen Victoria, provide Australia with a symbol of national unity or national identity, or even a focal point for traditional values and loyalties?
And the organised monarchists have no answer to this question.
They didn't try to answer the question in their campaign for the Convention on the Republic in December 1997.
They didn't try to answer it at the Convention in Canberra in February 1998.
And they don't attempt to answer it now in 1999.
In fact, the monarchists never mention the monarchy. There's not a word about the monarchy in their case being sent out for the referendum.
Talk about Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark!
And stripped of all the scaremongering and red herrings, their argument now boils down to a single proposition.
It is the line provided for them by the Prime Minister. And it runs as follows: "The Constitution isn't broken, so why fix it?"
This is now really their only argument, the case for the status quo in a nutshell.
And, of course, it completely misses the point. Because, when the monarchists say: "The existing system has served us well", they are not talking about the monarchy at all.
They are talking about the parliamentary system and the Australian Federal system.
And the Monarch of the United Kingdom has absolutely nothing to do with the actual operation of the Australian parliamentary system, or the success of Australian parliamentary democracy.
The fundamental reason for the success and stability of Australian parliamentary democracy is that we have built a strong and effective party system.
And I have yet to learn of any contribution made to that success and stability by any of the heirs and successors of Queen Victoria.
This is an extract from the Whitlam Lecture presented by Neville Wran in Adeliade this week. For a full transcript visit the ACTU's site : http://www.actu.asn.au
by Kerri Carr
Teachers Federation General Secretary John Hennessy and Labor Council Secretary Michael Costa recently visited Long Bay Gaol Complex, a maximum security facility, to look at how funding is being spent in the criminal justice system.
Corrective Services Teachers Association President Peter de Graaff showed them around the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre and Long Bay Hospital, two of the gaols in the complex. He is the Senior Education Officer for the Adult Education and Vocational Education Training Institute (AEVTI) at the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre/Long Bay Hospital.
While Mr de Graaff advocates more of the money spent on keeping people in correctional centres should be spent on social justice, he said a greater percentage of the Corrective Services budget should go to education and other rehabilitation programs.
The Corrective Services budget is about $350 million, but only $4.2 million is spent on salaries for face to face teaching (mostly casual teachers), representing the bulk of funding spent on education.
As maximum security inmates spend 17 hours a day in their cells, education is seen by many of the inmates as an outlet, but education faces a battle in the Corrective Services Department when the primary concern is the custody of inmates.
Mr de Graaff said lockdowns interfere with courses, becoming a disincentive to participation. Education areas are often closed when there's not enough prison officers due to staff shortages.
He said education faces fewer problems in some correctional centres as opposed to others.
Recently, the way education funding is allocated by the Department of Corrective Services changed.
Originally education had its own budget where senior education officers submitted proposals to AEVTI which would be passed on to the Director of Finance for approval.
Under the new system there is no separate budget, with funding for education, welfare, drug and alcohol counselling and psychology funded under the Inmates' Services and Program Plan.
In the implementation of the new system, some of the traditional education funding was given to other areas.
The 1999 NSW Drug Summit recognised that "there is a relationship between poor school performance, low self-esteem, failure to complete secondary school, unemployment and being at risk of abusing drugs".
According to the Department's annual report about 85 per cent of inmates have never completed year 10.
"The Government should adequately fund education in correctional centres as well as other rehabilitation initiatives such as drug and alcohol programs," Mr de Graaff said.
"Funding for one area should not be at the expense of other areas."
The Department of Corrective Services employs 90 permanent and 220 casual teachers across the state. They teach pre vocational courses such as literacy, numeracy, ESL and oral communication.
In addition, the Department of Corrective Services has a Memorandum of Understanding with TAFE where TAFE teachers come into the correctional centres and teach specialised vocational training.
AEVTI campuses exist in all NSW correctional centres and all inmates have the opportunity to access them. Courses provide inmates with nationally recognised training. If a prisoner is transferred to another correctional centre, his/her education file is sent on to allow continuity in his/her course.
At the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre inmates can do a Certificate of General Education for Adults. Subjects include reading and writing, English as a second language, oral communications, numeracy and mathematics. Options include legal studies, introduction to computers, music and conflict resolution skills.
Inmates can do a Certificate in Fine Arts. Subjects include drawing, ceramics and pottery, painting, printing and sculpture.
Vocational education courses offered include desktop publishing applications, sound engineering, fitness instructor, mentoring in the community, Aboriginal Arts and Cultural Practises, Aboriginal Peer mentoring, first aid, pre-employment/pre-release skills, painting and decorating.
In the past catering and landscaping courses have been offered.
Most of the courses offered are at year 10 level. Some students also do courses through distance education.
There are about 330 inmates at the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre at present and about 60 to 70 per cent choose to participate in a course.
Classrooms at the Metropolitan Medical Transit Centre consist of some converted cells, and some demountable classrooms which are near condemned.
The education facilities at the correctional centre also include a general reading library and law library for legal research.
Mr de Graaff said inmates on remand or appeal use the law library to research their defence.
"We've found it helps them communicate with their solicitors better," he said.
"We've had some cases where some inmates, through their own research, have been able to win their cases and others who have pleaded guilty after doing their research."
In 1997 the AEVTI campus was presented with an Adult Learners Week Award for outstanding program in NSW in recognition of the legal literacy/law library program.
As an educator in a system where education is not the primary goal, Mr de Graaff is frustrated by several key points and would like to see improvements in several areas.
"Education doesn't get enough money," Mr de Graaff said.
"You can't just run a course, you have to resource it."
He explained how he convinced the correctional centre to buy paint for the painting and decorating course, and in return the students have been painting the correctional centre.
Mr de Graaff said it was frustrating that some long-term teachers were still casual. "Federation is campaigning to get many contract people converted to part-time permanent status.
"I think the Department could get more licences for more curriculums," he added.
Mr Costa and Mr Hennessy saw the need for increased funding to education in correctional centres during their visit.
Mr Costa said he was impressed with the educational activities he saw. "But with more resources more could be done to educate prisoners, helping them to adjust to a normal life when released from gaol."
Mr Hennessy said the Education Officers at Long Bay, and other correctional institutes he has visited do a fantastic job with somewhat limited resources.
"If governments were genuinely committed to rehabilitation of offenders, they would commit more resources to these institutions," Mr Hennessy said.
The Federal ALP Shadow Minister for Finance, Mr Lindsay Tanner, will deliver the opening keynote address of the 6th National Labour History Conference, to be held in Wollongong over the Labour Day long weekend, 2 to 4 October 1999.
The theme of the conference is 'Labour and Community', and conference organiser, Associate Professor Ray Markey, anticipated that up to 200 delegates would attend from all over Australia and overseas.
Professor Markey said that the organisers were thrilled to have Mr Tanner as a keynote speaker, because 'he has played a major part in rethinking the program of the ALP for the 21st century.
"This is consistent with our intentions that the conference should not only celebrate the past, but also contemplate the role of Labour and the Community beyond 2000'.
Professor Markey says the Community theme of the conference would be evident in the subject matter, activities and participants of the conference in ways which represented a new departure for conferences of this kind.
He said that 'we mean community in its broadest sense, to include the notions of workplace community, regional and civic community, racial and ethnic community, republicanism and a national community, and the international community of labour - from "workers of the world unite!" to "globalisation".
Whilst we recognise the importance of unions and political parties as an expression of the labour movement, we also wish to broaden the focus to other community organisations such as cooperatives, friendly societies, church groups, and the business community'.
And Professor Markey emphasised that 'we wish to encourage broad community participation, as well as the normal academic style of paper giving. Our fee structure is designed to make attendance affordable for everyone'.
Activities will include formal and informal papers, cultural events, including a 'Songs of Struggle' evening with the Illawarra Folk Club on the Friday night preceding the conference, performances by labour and union choirs, films, a special art exhibition at the Wollongong City Gallery to be launched at lunch time on the first day, local tours of the steelworks, harbour, and significant labour history sites, and book launchings.
'The conference is intended to be a festival - a historic and cultural event in its own right', claimed Professor Markey.
The other keynote speakers are:
- Dr Pat O'Shane, Chancellor of the University of New England and Magistrate of NSW, speaking on 'For the People? Australian Democracy in Crisis - a Layperson's Viewpoint', 9.30 a.m. on Sunday 3 October, and
- Professor Eileen Yeo from the University of Sussex,speaking on 'Labour & Community, Past & Future: or Why Merrie (White, Male) England & Mateship Are not Enough', at 9.30 a.m. on Monday 4 October.
The University of Wollongong has provided extensive financial and logistical support for the conference, especially through the Vice Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton, and the Department of Economics, and the Labour and Human Resource Program of the International Business Reasearch Institute. Sponsors include the AMWU, Australian Education Union, Joint Coal Board, Labor Council of NSW, NSW Nurses' Association, Grand United Order of Oddfellows, Illawarra Arab Sports Association, and Croatian Democratic Unon.
The conference is hosted by the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, and will be held in the old Wollongong Town Hall and Community Centre, in the centre of the city. Conference registration commences at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday 2 October. Lindsay Tanner will speak at 11a.m. on the Saturday.
Registration brochures and full details may be gained by contacting Rob Hood or Nadyne Smith at: Department of Economics: Phone: 02 4221 4105/4221 4156, Fax: 02 4221 3725
mailto:Robert [email protected]
Or go to the website for registration forms and information: http://www.uow.edu.au/commerce/econ/labcon99.html
The first ever Australian reprint of Bobbin Up is being published by The Vulgar Press to celebrate the 40 years since the first edition.
The present edition contains a corrected text of the first edition and includes a new introduction by the author as well as her introduction to the 1985 Virago edition.
Stephen Knight's important essay, 'Bobbin Up and the Working-Class Novel' and Nathan Hollier's look at the 40 years of Bobbin Up's critical reception are also included to make this edition appeal to both casual and scholarly readers.
*************
Dorothy Hewett, born in 1923 in Perth, Western Australia, was bought up on an isolated sheep and wheat farm, educated by correspondence and later at Perth College and the University of Western Australia.
She worked as a journalist on the Perth Daily News and the Communist Party newspaper The Workers' Star. Shifting to Sydney, she worked for one year as a mill hand and for two years as a advertising copywriter, then, back in Perth, for nine years as an English tutor at the University of Western Australia.
Her first full length public work was Bobbin Up in 1959, based on her experiences in the Alexandria spinning mill in Sydney, and nine years living in the inner city suburbs with a boilermaker named Les Flood and their three young sons.
Bobbin Up was first published by the left wing cooperative, The Australasian Book Society, translated into five European languages and republished in English by Seven Seas Books (Berlin) and the feminist publishers Virago. Since that time she has published 13 plays, 9 poetry collections, an autobiography and a second novel. Her twenty three year membership of the Australian Communist Party ended when the Russians marched into Czechoslovakia in 1968.
She has an AM for services to Australian literature, a Doc. Litt. from the University of Western Australia, and a lifetime Emeritus Grant from the Literature Fund of the Australia Council for the Arts. She now lives in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney with her husband the writer Merv Lilley. They have two daughters.
For more information contact Ian Syson phone (03) 9348 2140 fax (03) 9348 or mailto:[email protected]
by The Chaser
"21% is a great figure to work from," said one Indonesian official. "Sure, it's not 50%, but it's getting there. Hell, when we invaded back in 1975, nobody supported us.
Now it's up to 21%." Indonesian officials have reported a strong surge in support for Indonesian rule in Dili, particularly since they took control of the capital's streets.
"I used to think East Timor should be independent," said one Dili resident. "But the pro-Jakarta militias have shown such a caring attitude towards us in the last few days that, well, quite frankly, I've changed my mind. Bring in more of those gun-wielding maniacs, that's what I say."
The Indonesian government claims that the numbers supporting integration would have been higher had there not been such a culture of fear. "Many people wouldn't dare vote for integration for fear of being questioned by Richard Carleton," claimed President Habibie.
The Indonesian government has decided that they will react conservatively to the poll results. Rather than taking the rash step of changing the entire numeric system to ensure that 21 is more than 79 as proposed, the government will instead support the militia's murderous rampage until the 21 per cent repesents over half of the East Timorese population.
"After all there's no need to go overboard," said General Wiranto of the Indonesian Army.
Meanwhile, in East Timor, Bishop Carlos Belo has gathered East Timorese faithful to pray for a new investigation into the sexual indiscretions of US President Bill Clinton.
"The need for a distraction from Clinton's private life is the only way that the US government will be drawn to military action before the militias overrun our country,' he said.
Belo has sent emisarries to the trailer-parks of the United States in the hope that he can convince another of Clinton's lovers to come forward
We live in a New Economy - one "all about ... the ability to transform [organizations] into new entities that yesterday couldn't be imagined and that the day after tomorrow may be obsolete." (Tapscott; 43)
What a remarkable New World in which Organized Labor must find its way!
Imagine how farther along all this may be just a few years from now. By 2005 or so our insatiable appetite for information may have us -
*wear a compact picture-phone and computer on our wrist and dictate to it by voice, even as we enjoy listening to its "voice" in turn;
*use it to access any type of information, anywhere, at anytime;
*use it to stay "in the loop" and stay in touch with significant others all the time;
*use it to send and receive messages in and all languages, as if our own;
*use it to surf the Internet and Web with the stressless help of "smart" software that provides useful information even before we ask for it;
*and, feel empowered by these information aids as never before!
Even if only half of this is realized in the next few years, the rest is likely to be close behind, and the impact is likely to prove mind-boggling.
A remarkable information future beckons - though some will make far more of it than others. Labor can turn it to advantage, both for itself as a social movement and for its individual members, but the doing will not come easy, and the hour grows late.
Labor at Bat
Labor is challenged to renew itself once again, as not since the 1930s, when it had to "invent" large-scale industrial unionism, and the mid-1990s, when it opted for the invigorating "New Voice" vision of the Sweeney team. The head of that team, after taking "the hitherto taboo step of saying that labor is in danger of becoming 'irrelevant,'" authorized an immediate step-up in the use of informatics. (Heckscher; xv)
Accordingly, in 1996, the AFL-CIO held its first major meeting to discuss Labor and the Internet. In 1998, an ad hoc committee of 12 Information Technology officers of the most progressive unions published a White Paper on making the most of computer uses. Similarly, a group of specialists inside the AFL-CIO were busy that year studying how to offer an "Intelligent Agent" to unionists.
Many American unionists, perhaps as many as 4-million, are on-line. At the same time, however, of the 74 international unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO, as late as the Fall of 1998 only 44 of the largest and most progressive variety had Web sites. Nearly half (30) were not yet participating in the biggest change in communications in modern times.
Accordingly, by about 2003 or earlier the matter should be clear: The American labor movement will either be employing computers with enviable finesse, or it will have become an inconsequential has-been, the organizational equivalent of "road kill on the Information Superhighway."
Gains To Date
Many gains have already been won, gains of which Organized labor has much reason to be proud: Consider this account from a very computer-savvy Research Director of a major international union:
"I've saved thousands of jobs, thousands! We come into bargaining knowing more about the company than they do, by far. We've researched everything, I mean everything - their return on investment, their philanthropy profile, their executive profit-sharing payout like, I mean, everything!
When they say they can't afford this or that, we come right back and show them how they can - and we show them what they will gain if they do. We
give them a better analysis of their ability to pay than they ever thought possible.
And when we've got the contract we were after, we sell it to our members, and begin to prove to the company they were right all along to go along."
Similarly, an activist with whom I talked after I gave a workshop on union and computer possibilities proudly explained his own situation:
"Does it help? You bet it does! I've got my entire office in this little machine, all of my data decks. I can help a member right on the spot, no waiting, no fuss. They really are impressed, and I feel good about it. Heck, I've been a computer
nerd since the 1970s, and I keep upgrading my stuff, so it's easy for me now. I can't remember how it was before I took this way, but it couldn't have been good enough."
Accordingly, Labor's record to date, put as a bumper sticker, might read -
"Extraordinary possibilities under development."
Problems persist, of course, what with only 25% of unionists on-line, and even fewer clicking on Web sites other than that of their local or union. As well, all too many such Web sites are dull, static, top-down billboards, and far too many leaders (and large numbers of members) are comfortable with that.
Deep-reaching questions abound, as in this thought from the sage head of a very impressive computer-using local:
"Part of what's happened is that the Labor Movement hasn't really decided how it wants to be, or what it want to look like. And so, it has a hard time setting up computer support systems. Because it is not sure what it wants to be."
Far more, in short, is required if Organized Labor is to soon maximize the potential of computer use, an adoption on which its survival may largely hinge.
A Division of the House
Three types of unions are evident today vis-a-vis uses made of computers. The first, which I call Cyber Naught unionism, involves a bare minimum employ of computer potentialities. It is generally restricted to staid reliance on a mainframe for bookkeeping of dues and benefits data. The second, Cyber Drift unionism, moves spastically first in this direction, and then that one, lacking any rhyme or reason in its rudderless efforts. It stands out in its combination of aimlessness with thoughtlessness. The third, Cyber Gain unionism, is a proud model to aspire to, and one which sets the stage for the emergence soon of its 21st century successor, Cyber Unionism.
Cyber Naught unions and locals seek to preserve and persist, rather than update or innovate. Where computers are concerned, they employ them only or primarily to satisfy traditional business needs, as in accounting and bookkeeping (dues and benefit records; payroll data; etc.). They are content to use data processing systems to keep track of things and to codify standard business practices. Most are indifferent (the others, hostile) to what upgrades here might otherwise do to support people, plans, and progress .
The issue, then, is not as simple as whether or not a union or local uses computers: Rather, the issue is why and how. Put starkly, Cyber Naught unions and locals use computers to get through the day, and do so in as flat and uninspired a way as is possible. Officials settle for inertia and quietism.
Much of the problem is rooted in conceptual inertia: Out-dated habits of mind have far too many of these labor leaders preferring form to function, protocol to results, and rhetoric to risk-taking. This is not only about failings of intellect; it is also about failings of the spirit. For if, as Orwell warned, poverty annihilates the future, so also in its own way does poverty of vision.
Cyber Naught power-holders want the future to be like the past, only more so. They treat unionism as if it can only be a passive institution, and they act as a deadening hand on change. In consequence, their unions and locals sleep-walk when they might stride, and they remain vulnerable in ways they hardly realize.
Galloping off in All Directions
Cyber Drift unions or locals move aimlessly, like a cork bobbing on a turbulent sea, though with far less likelihood than a cork of staying afloat. Bewildered leaders look on as if in a daze, union officers to whom things happen rather than people who make new beginnings. Caught in this hapless course, Labor's effort to use computers falls far short of its potential.
Computerization is persistently prolific, as it moves from stand-alone PCs to networks, and from computer-oriented humans to human-oriented computing. Its record affirms we are in the midst of a revolution, not an evolution. But you would never know this from the inchoate and directionless plight of a Cyber Drift union. These unions and their locals are seldom the adequate and inspiring organizations they want to be thought of, much to the rue of all who really know them and understand how much more is possible.
Labor's Best Hope - for the Moment.
In contrast with Cyber Naught types, Cyber Gain unions and locals make much of computer possibilities. The good news is their number appears larger with every passing year; the bad news is their ranks remain far too small for Labor's good. Worse yet, they are often thought the end-all, when in fact - for labor's sake - they must prove way stations on the way to becoming CyberUnions.
Cyber Gain unions and locals employ computers to support people, plans, and progress, as well as to keep track of things (traditional business operations). They pour new wine into new bottles. Their use of computers can be creative (though as I shall argue later, it still does not go far enough). Officers, staffers, and activists alike appreciate how much can be done, and they enjoy adapting gains made elsewhere in and outside of Labor.
Much success here can be traced to conceptual advances. Progressive habits of mind have Cyber Gain labor leaders, staffers, and rank-and-file activists preferring function to form, results to protocol, and risk-taking to rhetoric. In consequence, their unions and locals are dynamic operations, supple and original in ways in which they take justifiable pride.
Reality Check
Before too glowing an impression is given, it should be noted that Cyber Gain unions and locals have many telling weaknesses. To begin with, most have little or no knowledge of the existence of one another. In keeping with the costly isolation of unions from other unions, they are busy re-inventing the wheel instead of trading good ideas back and forth. Despite conferences the AFL-CIO has run to encourage cross-fertilization, workshops held regularly at the George Meany Center, and the efforts computers specialists of 12 or so major unions are making to stay in touch, it is as if the organizations were ships passing at night.
Second, Cyber Gain unions and locals often try to do it on the cheap. Many are reluctant to pay the annual maintenance costs required to keep a complex, multi-machine system up and going, better yet constantly upgrade it. In consequence, they often flounder trying to best computer problems they should not have had in the first place.
Finally, and most telling of all, the Cyber Gain unions I studied had too little in the way of an overarching vision. Many seemed to have lost sight of why they had started using computers to begin with. That is, they were not asking good questions about the desirability of this or that use with reference to the organization's well-being, with reference to what the rank--and--file might get from it (or lose to it). Instead, they were weighing computer uses in small--minded, rather than in grand ways, and they were missing transformational opportunities.
More specifically, where computer applications are concerned, Cyber Gain unions and locals often remain frozen in the first generation of Internet use. They are preoccupied with meeting straight-forward informational needs. Their Web site typically offers their logo and basic facts, a static display critics dismiss as "brochure ware" or "billboards."
They fail to understand, or decline to value the fact that second generation applications are quite different: Known as transactional, they emphasize the dynamic participation of the parties, rather than accept passivity, as at present in far too many Cyber Gain organizations.
While the Cyber Gain model is clearly superior to the Cyber Naught and Cyber Drift options, it will not suffice. It rebuilds, but it does not adequately renew. By failing to take the full potential of computerization boldly into account, Cyber Gain organizations do not so much deal with the future as they streamline the past. Only a far more ambitious use of informatics in general, and computers in particular, will do the job. I think it will be adequate for only a few more years. The early 21st century requires far more.
Getting to a Third Wave CyberUnion F-I-S-T Model
I am persuaded Labor's overdue use of computers, while necessary, is insufficient. If Labor is to reinvent itself as rapidly, as thoroughly, and as meaningfully as appears necessary, far more than Cyber Gain unionism seems required.
Specifically, early 21st century unions must experiment with an ambitious and creative alternative to the Labor status quo, one that dares to incorporates futuristics, innovations, services, and labor traditions (F-I-S-T) - all of which go better when they build on creative computerization.
The first such aid, futuristics, empowers as only foreknowledge can. The second, innovations, energizes as only creativity can. The third, services, engages as only rewards can. And the fourth, traditions, bonds as only emotional ties can.
Labor urgently needs the rewards possible from reliable forecasting. And the rewards that innovations, such as computer data-mining, uniquely offer. And the rewards that computer-based services, such as volume discounts on PCs, can provide. And the rewards possible from the computer-aided modernization of traditions (as in the production of inter-active software rich with labor history material).
Why this unusual F-I-S-T set? Because as a futurist, a professional forecaster, I think Labor must take advantage of this ancient, and yet also avant garde art form. Similarly, as a labor educator, I believe innovation a resource labor urgently needs to make more of. And like most labor educators, I champion both the extension of union-offered services and the celebration of Labor traditions, for goods and lore can make a powerful combination - especially if facilitated by new-finagled computerization aids.
Together, then, these four additional items (F-I-S-T) should provide Organized Labor with the foresight, the dynamism, the appeal, and the heart necessary to build on its Cyber Gain strengths and reverse its long-term decline.
The Labor Digerati to the Rescue!
Fortunately, a new generation of Web-faring union activists are eager to get on with it. Labor's "digerati" types have lives steeped in Information Age technologies, and are living ever more effectively in a net-worked world of union boosters. Forward-thinking and visionary, these techno-savvy men and women have a hefty dose of indefatigable optimism.
Unlike many of their peers, their expectations concerning the renewing of Organized Labor are almost without limits.
When such activists envision the years ahead, they expect computers to soon secure unprecedented access of everyone in Labor to everyone else officers to members, members to officers. unionists to non-unionists, nd vice versa. Rapid polling of the membership. Galvanizing of rallies or e-mail protests. Spotlighting of models worth emulating, and wrongs for the righting. Libraries put at a unionist's beck and call, along with valuable arbitration, grievance, and mediation material. Open chatrooms and bulletin boards for unfettered telling and listening, for the creation of a High Tech electronic (virtual) "community" to bolster High Touch solidarity among real folk.
As if this was not enough, the vision of Labor's digerati includes a quantum increase soon in the collective intelligence and consciousness of "global village" unionists in a global International. Unprecedented cooperation across national borders. The first effective counter to transnational corporate behemoths. And, going out a year or two further, possibly even Intelligent Agent software housed in computer "wearables," empowering unionists as never before.
Guided by this growing cadre, Labor can soon move more unions and locals into computer use status. And thereby invigorate the membership. Draw in new members. Intimidate opponents. Intrigue vote-seekers. Meet the aspirations that union "netizens" have for the Labor Movement. And in other valuable ways, significantly bolster Labor's chances of moving especially advanced unions and locals up to CyberUnion status early in the 21st century.
Reality Check
Labor's sharp-edged possibility - either informatics mastery or fade out - is not the same thing as saying computerization can or will save Labor. As one of the most extensive pioneering users of computers, a federation of 403 union in 113 countries, maintains - "The computers are one possible medium, not the message." (ICEM; 56)
Computerization is no "silver bullet." It is a complex, demanding, and often exasperating tool, only as reliable and effective as the humans in charge. As well, it is no solo star. It works best when part of a mix that includes militancy, labor law reform, political action, and so on. It works best when aiding such "high touch" efforts as "one-on-one" organizing, "shoe leather" vote-getting, "button hole" lobbying for labor law reform, and so on. It works best when kept as an accessory and an aid, rather than allowed to become a confining and superordinating system.
It would be a costly mistake of unionists to confuse computerization with a magic remedy, almost as costly as present-day under-utilization by Labor of its remarkable potential. Which is to say, that while it cannot "rescue" Labor, unless Organized labor soon makes the most creative possible use of it, as with the F-I-S-T model, Labor probably cannot be rescued.
Summary: Labor Union Prospects?
Unions five years from now are likely to be very different from the present: Either their hallmark will be their irrelevance, or they will draw handsomely on what I call CyberUnion attributes (F-I-S-T). Either they may be ossified relics, or they will command respect as mature information-intensive power houses, fully the equal (and possibly the better!) of anything the business world boasts.
Unless and until Labor makes more creative use of computer and cyberspace possibilities, it's long slide into irrelevance may be slowed, but it will not be reversed. Murray Kempton, one of the most insightful of recent writers about unionism, wistfully notes of seemingly appealing reforms -- "One sees at once that here is the way to get at the thing, and wonders why, with the sign painted this plain, the road has been so seldom followed." (Kazin)
It is time to heed signs pointing toward the CyberUnion, and move to give this Information Age labor organization a 21st century trial.
Art Shostak is author of the recently released book "CyberUnion: Empowering Labor through Computer Technology" to be published this month in Australia by DA Information Services in Mitcham, Victoria.
And I can only hope that in this one last attempt to give the fans their say, that you'll come out in your tens of thousands for a rally planned for Sunday, October 10, at Randwick racecourse from 11am.
On Friday, representatives from Souths and Norths, with support from Manly and Newcastle, held a media conference to announce details of our protest rally and our intention to fight the NRL all the way down the line.
together with shadow foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton and State MP Deirdre Grusovin, the conference was also attended to by Norths Captain Jason Taylor and Federal Assistance Finance Minister Joe Hockey and was presided over by Andrew Denton.
It was a real show of strength and determination as each speaker outlined the inequities of the NRL criteria and the depth of feeling against what the NRL is trying to do to our clubs and our game. I don't think you could do a better job of sabotage if you tried.
But one thing became very clear at this conference. If anyone dares kick any team out of the competition, there'll be hell to pay.
We know this because since the media announcement, our fax machines at Souths have gone into meltdown. and our E-mail is even more clogged with thousands of messages of support from people all over the country.
this hasn't just come from Souths fans, but the rugby league public who are sick and tired of the NRL's tyrannical running of our game. The pledges of support come from fans of many of the former super league club whose futures are secure because they have the backing of New \s Ltd.
And each and every one of these messages from an angry and frustrated public is being forwarded to the NRL. As I've said many times before, people power is unstoppable. It can change governments and overthrow dictatorships and it can stop a community tragedy from occurring - the axing of any more clubs.
Our protest rally is a broad-based event and has already attracted very wide community support. The powerful Trades and labour Council in NSW has voted unanimously to support our efforts, so too have religious leaders, parliamentarians, media personalities, businessmen, tradesmen and the forgotten group in this whole debacle of the NRL - the fans.
I am a Souths person first and foremost, but I also believe supporters of other clubs have rights the same as us. They have the right to exist. After all, we have all contributed to propagation of the game.
If not for clubs like Souths, Norths, Manly and Penrith, this game would not hold the prominence it does in our part of the world.
If we have contributed to the betterment of the game, and there's no doubt about that, then we are all entitled to reap the rewards - and that is to have our community based club in the competition without unwarranted threats of death.
If the people speak, they can only be ignored at the NRL's peril. I am confident they won't just peak, but will scream the message so loudly it will deafen those who have so far refused to listen.
GST taxation payable on union income
Unions will be subject to GST on goods and services provided in respect of periods after 30 June 2000. Income which will be subject to GST includes:
� Membership fee income
� Rental of leased premises (unless residential)
� Advertising in union journal
The GST impost on this income, and other income subject to GST, is referred to as output tax, which equals one eleventh of the income received.
Interest on investments will not be subject to GST and some other income also may not attract a GST output tax liability . Unions should seek their own advice in respect of other forms of income they receive.
GST incurred by unions on goods and service acquired
Unions will be paying GST at the rate of 10% on most goods and services acquired after 30 June 2000. Generally, (subject to certain exceptions), unions will be able to recover this tax, by claiming it as an input tax credit, offsetting it from the output tax referred to above and paying the difference to the taxation office.
It is most important that unions take advice in this area so as to ensure that they claim all the input tax credits to which they are entitled, but no more. It is equally important to ensure that the necessary documentation is kept on hand in order to establish, to the satisfaction of a tax office auditor, the entitlement to the input tax credits which are claimed.
Transitional issues - supplies spanning 1 July 2000
Where a membership receipt covers a period which spans the GST commencement date of 1 July 2000, the proportion of the receipt which relates to the pre commencement period is GST free and the balance which relates to the post commencement period is subject to GST.
Fees received from members on or after 1 July 2000 in respect of periods prior to that date are not subject to GST. Fees received from members before 1 July 2000 in respect of periods subsequent to that date are subject to GST.
A typical situation is where a member pays for the whole 2000 calender year in one payment. An apportionment will be required irrespective of the date of receipt.
Similarly, contracts which span the GST commencement date, such as leases of property or service contracts, will need to be reviewed in order to establish the GST impact.
Registration of Branches
Where unions operate through divisional or branch structures, they may account for GST on that basis (subject to certain conditions which most unions would satisfy).To take advantage of this, the Federal Office will need to apply to the Commissioner of Taxation for branch registration.
Where the branch approach is adopted, each branch will be treated on a stand alone basis for GST. Transactions between the Federal Office and branches will be treated for GST as if they were with external parties. Thus sustentation fees paid by branches to the Federal Office will be subject to GST. This does not result in tax being paid on 'internal' transactions as the branches will have the benefit of an input tax credit.
Cash or Accrual Basis
Unions with an annual turnover of $1m or more are required to account for GST on an accrual basis, unless the Commissioner of Taxation approves the cash basis. The accrual basis would result in the GST output tax payable in respect of membership fees becoming due at the time members are billed. Clearly, this would be unsatisfactory for many unions.
The Commissioner has a discretion to permit cash accounting if he is satisfied that it is appropriate, having regard to certain criteria specified in the GST legislation.
Our auditors, in conjunction with the ACTU, have prepared a submission to the Taxation Office seeking approval, in principle, that unions be permitted to use the cash basis.
Accounting for GST
The recommended accounting treatment for GST in your accounting records is to use a general ledger clearing account.
It will be necessary to identify payments for acquisitions on which GST has been incurred. One eleventh of the consideration (which represents the GST paid) is allocated to the clearing account with ten elevenths being charged to the normal expense or capital account.
Similarly, one eleventh of the consideration received in respect of GST taxable income (including membership contributions) will be credited to the clearing account with the balance being credited to income.
The balance of the clearing account at the end of each GST payment period will represent the amount payable to the Australian Taxation Office. If the annual turnover of the union is less than $20m, GST will be paid quarterly. Where turnover exceeds $20m per annum, the frequency is monthly.
Adjusting membership fees
Most unions will find it necessary to adjust fees as from 1 July 2000 in order to recover the GST. The increase needed to preserve the union's pre GST financial position will be 10% less the savings which should result from the removal of sales tax on many of the goods which the union presently purchases. This sales tax may be the amount of tax added directly to the cost of goods (and often shown separately on supplier's invoice) and also the sales tax embedded in supplier's charges (that is, sales tax paid by the supplier which is built into his selling price). Failure to take account of sales tax savings will mean that unions are contravening the price exploitation provisions which have been introduced into the Trade Practices Act.
It follows from the above, that overall increases in membership fees should be something less than 10%.
Conclusion
These are just some of the GST issues which are expected to impact unions. Unions are strongly advised to become conversant with these and other issues and to address them as soon as possible, seeking appropriate advice as required.
For further information, contact the Labor Council or Peter Wales at A J Williams & Co (telephone 9286 5555)
Disclaimer: This information is issued exclusively for the general information of unions, their officers and staff. The contents are not a substitute for specific advice and should not be relied upon as such. Accordingly, whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of the information, no responsibility is accepted for persons acting on this information.
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