*****
Australia's leading super-sniveller, Piers Akerman, managed to find the lighter side of the Middle East conflict this week.
Piers took time out from his excruciatingly busy lunching schedule to pen a very witty satire in the pages of the Daily telegraph this week.
Passing himself off in a fair imitation of a deranged, coke addled buffoon, Piers The Hutt took the banality of evil to it's logical conclusion with a self deprecating soliloquy on the politics of the absurd.
Piers chief argument, that kiddies getting blown up was the kids fault, was right up there with Piers Commo mates in China charging the families of those who face the firing squad for the bullet.
It was good of Piers to open his new era of "integrated newsroom" at Uncle Rupert's shop with a tirade against those who cheapen their Australian citizenship.
Piers took the new style of "website first, paper second" at the appropriately named News Limited, to a new level by adding his own style of "thinking last".
In an astonishing vault face, Piers has embraced his bete-noir of identity politics, berating Lebanese-Australians for, well, being Lebanese - not that that is in any way racist, it's just judging people on the basis of their race.
"While this bunch of insufferable ingrates whinge and whine, the stressed and overworked team at the hard-pressed Australian Embassy in Beirut is pulling out all stops to arrange evacuation aboard a ferry chartered at extortionate cost to all Australian taxpayers," said the goat lover.
What Piers didn't appear to immediately grasp was that the "team at the hard-pressed Australian Embassy in Beirut" was being gazumped by some quick thinking Canadians.
Then again, Piers probably is the only Australian who would trust Alex Downer with anything greater than a five-dollar note.
"It is absolutely unreasonable in such circumstances to expect the Government to be able to organise a sea-lift overnight" thundered the malcontent, little realizing that every other developed nation managed to do it.
Piers believed that bombing the sovereign state of Lebanon, and no small number of its civilian population, back to the stone age was a reasonable response, any other
It's good to know that piers can find blowing up women and children laughable, as this gives us an indication of his secret love of terrorists, which joins his secret love of goats - two loves that dare not speak their name.
So now we know why Piers has a foaming attack every time he finds terrorists under the bed, he's secretly jealous of them. He wants to drink blood and eat the flesh of babies. Piers thinks this is manly. It's more fun than saving rabbits from pet shops.
He's probably also disappointed that the Isrealis and the Hezbollah haven't managed to blow up any cripples as well.
The poor man is obviously suffering from a pathological blood lust, no doubt fuelled by his failed editorship of the Herald Sun, where he is long gone, but there is still a Labor government in Victoria.
Although his argument that any civilian who stands in the way of a randomly directed missile deserves what they ruddy well get was pure Alf Garnett, Piers kept his best logic defying argument this week for last.
His column on the events in the middle east, penned as they are from first hand accounts from the back table at Machiavelli's, produced one of the great logic defying achievements of the twenty-first century.
"A recurring but telling image on the television news is of Israelis taking refuge in bomb shelters from Hezbollah missiles fired from Lebanon or those fired by Hamas from Gaza.
"Bomb shelters are built by groups at risk of attack. Pictures from Lebanon and Palestine usually show civilians running in the streets - no shelters - which probably indicates the lack of fear of sudden attack among Lebanese and Palestinians."
So there you have it. There is no fear of attack from Isreal because other people in the region don't have bomb shelters.
Under Pier's logic, our best defence against invasion would be to abolish our army, thus demonstrating how strong we are. So strong we don't need a military.
It is stunning stuff, but Piers should either go back on the medication, or go to Lebanon himself and see what life is like in a refugee camp, first hand.
And then put his theory about people in war zones deserving to get blown up into practice.
Proposals to do away with entitlements to annual, sick, shift and bereavement leave were listed for a hush-hush get-together between the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, on July 12.
ACCI boss, and former Peter Reith staffer, Peter Hendy, has denied the meeting took place but his agenda is clearly laid out in a leaked internal document.
It reveals that business wants Andrews to green light AWAs that supersede all minimum employment standards.
One ACCI constituent says most of its concerns would "be resolved if the government allowed AWAs to override the Standard".
Specifically, bosses are calling for:
- the ability to "completely cash out annual leave", effectively leaving Australians with no guaranteed annual leave at all
- the right to halve the WorkChoices entitlement to 10 days parental or sick leave a year through the use of take-it or leave-it AWAs
- a cap on entitlements to "paid compassionate leave".
- a block on the ability of NSW employees to utilise recently won casual conversion provisions. They describe the Secure Employment Test Case that delivered them as "draconian".
- get out provisions that would allow people to be employed for more than 38 hours a week without payment of overtime
- limitations on shift worker access to a fifth week of annual leave
The ACCI denial, co-signed by Hendy and Communications Director Brett Hogan, is illuminating.
It skites that "key measures" in government's WorkChoices package "directly accord with the policies of Australian employers, and are precisely the approaches we endorse as the way forward".
It denies employers had "sought to be able to have all annual leave cashed out" or "sought any changes to overtime pay, nor to change the 38 hour working week".
Yet each of those claims is outlined in a document that tells recipients they are "confidential items that ACCI will be raising with the Minister on 12 July 2006 in respect to potential amendments to the Workplace Relations Act".
ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, said the leaked documents were evidence the government planned another assault on working Australians.
In March, Finance Minister Nick Minchin told supporters at the HR Nicholls Society there was much for the government still to do on workplace reform, although he conceded, most Australians "most Australians violently disagree with what we are proposing".
AMWU WA secretary, Jock Ferguson, labelled the levies, imposed by United KG, at Kwinana, a �disgrace�.
"Employers owe workers a duty of care whether they are Australian, Chinese or any other nationality," Ferguson said. "It is fundamentally wrong to charge people so they can work in a safe environment."
The revelation came as Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, bowed to growing pressure for an audit of guest labour visas.
Vanstone announced a joint federal-state working party would convene on July 31 to examine skilled migration arrangements.
But Ferguson, who has brought a number of high-profile rip-offs to public attention, said the manoeuvre was "too little, too late" and demanded Vanstone's resignation.
"The Minister has to go," Ferguson said. "She has failed these vulnerable people and she has failed hundreds of thousands of Australians who have been denied training and work.
"We have given this Minister every chance. We have done the leg work for her and given the department case studies of people who have been ripped off and this is the best she can do."
Three years ago, the AMWU highlighted the predicament of more than 30 South African tradesmen brought to WA, with the involvement of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and paid less than half the rate of Aussies working alongside them.
Last year, it blew the whistle on labour hire outfit, KSN Engineering, which demanded payments of $8000 a head from 60 Korean welders. It alleged the Koreans all paid their fares to Australia, and settlement costs, in contravention of terms of federal 457 visas.
"These people then found themselves working up to 60 hours a week for a flat rate of $22 an hour. That is, between $8 and $12 an hour less than WA welders, before you consider overtime," Ferguson said.
Last month, WA's Department of Consumer and Employment Protection reported rip-offs by 78 percent of the guest labour sponsors it investigated over a two-year period.
Ferguson said 457 visas were central to the federal government's IR agenda to down wages. Employers who used them were under no obligation to pay going rates and could use AWAs to undermine negotiated conditions.
He said, since the Howard Government took office 350,000 "skilled" migrant workers had been admitted to the country while 300,000 young Australians had been turned away from TAFEs.
Last week, the Age newspaper, reported migration middlemen were charging skilled immigrats up to $15,000 for 457 sponsorships and threatening deportation if anyone complained.
Vanstone defended her government's guest labour system in an interview with the Australian Financial Review, last week.
"The 457 visas aren't a problem. They're a fabulous visa that is really assisting Australian industry to cope with the growth in the economy," she said.
Sari Kassis, a long time Australian activist, is appealing for help as hundreds of thousands of Lebanese families flee their homes.
"Internally displaced refugees are pouring into Beirut," says Kassis. "They are being housed in schools and mosques. All of them have been attacked by the Israelis at some point in time; all of them traumatised."
Kassis is working with NGO Al-Huda to provide water, food and medical supplies as well as baby's milk and nappies for young families.
Kassis, who recently returned to Lebanon to marry, reports the 750 people are expected to swell in number as air and missile attacks intensify in the coming days.
Former workmates at the Finance Sector Union report hearing the sound of exploding shells during telephone conversations with Kassis.
"We've been trying to keep in contact each day," says Chris Gambian from the FSU. "It's chilling sitting comfortably at home in Sydney while one of your good friends is contemplating the next missile strike.
The FSU has moved to raise $20,000 to support Kassis' efforts, with money donated through the FSU to be sent to Lebanon via APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad.
Offers of assistance and messages of support can be sent to Chris Gambian at [email protected] or by phone on 0438 898 198
Meanwhile APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad is appealing for funds to face the humanitarian catastrophe in Lebanon and in the Gaza strip.
"We are facing a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale. We ask all good people in the world to help us," says Olfat Mahmoud, the Director of Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's partner organisation, Women's Humanitarian Organisation (WHO). "The women, children and elderly are terrified and trapped after days of sustained brutal bombing of the entire area around our camp. There is no electricity, no fuel for the generators, no medical supplies and we are in urgent need of food and drugs for the children and the elderly."
"I have lived through all the wars in Lebanon since 1960 and this is the most horrific scene I have ever witnessed."
Donations can be made by calling 1800 888 674, sending to Union Aid Abroad, Level 3, 377-383 Sussex St, Sydney NSW 2000, or going to www.apheda.org.au and making a donation online
Firefighters were promised asbestos tests after revelations some were exposed to the deadly material during anti-terrorist training at Holsworthy army barracks.
But in a statement, the Fire Brigade said the tests were off.
"The NSWFB has recommended that staff approach their own doctors for advice," it said.
The NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union says it will sue.
"This is one thing that cuts deeply with firefighters who get exposed to enough dangerous situations and then they have to put up with a department not providing a healthy and safe environment,'' FBEU secretary Simon Flynn said.
Flynn said the incident at Holsworthy was not the only concern, with firefighters potentially facing asbestos exposure at many jobs.
Unions NSW called on the Iemma Government to step in and enforce an eight-point plan to protect emergency service workers who were involved in the Holsworthy training.
The plan calls for:
* a briefing, information booklets and counselling for all workers who may have been exposed and their families;
* a screening program be established through the Dust Diseases Board; and,
* a register and a surveillance program for all workers and families.
Adams broke ranks with big business colleagues to lash John Howard's move for a free trade agreement with low-wage colossus, China.
The intervention has been welcomed by AMWU National Secretary, Doug Cameron, who said business and unions should work together to protect Australian jobs and communities.
"We don't agree with Kirby Adams on everything but free trade agreements highlight how this government puts ideology ahead of people," Cameron said.
"It is anti-worker and anti-community to force us into direct competition with a low-wage giant that refuses to comply with basic labour standards and has an appalling safety record.
"What Australia should be doing is investing in skills, and research and development, so we have a high skill, high wage manufacturing sector.
"The AMWU will work with other parties who share that goal."
Cameron said his union had demonstrated its bona fides by driving the establishment of manufacturing councils, involving unions, employers and governments, at state level.
However, he said, the federal government had refused to participate, preferring to leave the sector to the vagaries of the market.
"That's not government," he said. "That's stupidity".
Adams, whose company made 250 Wollongong workers redundant last month, said Australia was caught in a "fantasy" it could lead the world to a "free trade nirvana" by unilaterally dropping tariffs while the rest of the world laughed at it.
"There are massive costs for Australia's manufacturers and for the millions of men and women employed by them," he told a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce, last week.
The AMWU has commissioned an academic report on the state of Australian manufacturing, from the National Institute of Economics and Industry Research.
It will be unveiled at this week's national conference in Sydney.
Cameron said it would form the basis for a fightback strategy to be decided by conference delegates.
"Our delegates will take the lead in developing concrete alternatives to the Howard Government model that is costing Australians jobs and opportunities," he said.
The report by the Education Taskforce, which is made up of state, federal and kiwi ministers, says schools need an extra $2.9 billion a year.
NSW schools need an additional $1 billion a year.
Acting President of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the feds should cough up.
"After ten years of neglect and undermining of the public education system, the Federal Government needs to take responsibility for a significant injection of funds," Gavrielatos said.
"Nearly 70 per cent of students attend public schools yet the Federal Government has cut its funding of public education from 43 per cent to 35 per cent of the total schools' education budget in a decade."
The Teachers Federation is this month running 'Public Education - Australia's Future' ads highlighting the situation.
The Federal Government is this year pocketed a budget surplus of $11 billion.
Alby Schultz, Member for Hume, is reported in the Yass Tribune saying he warned his colleagues country employment and services would suffer as a result of the Telstra sale.
"But my Coalition colleagues, particularly those in the National Party, who claim to represent rural and regional Australians, insisted on hanging their constituents out to dry," Mr Schultz said.
Schultz abstained from last year's vote to sell the Federal Government's remaining share of the telco.
"Since then we've seen Telstra shut down its Goulburn call centre, including the sacking of 20 staff, attempt to remove vital public pay phones in isolated areas and now this - the loss of even more field staff in an environment when complaints about fault restoration times remain high."
CEPU Postal and Telecommunications Secretary Jim Metcher said was on the money.
"Shultz knows all to well the serious impact on telecommunication services and skilled job losses will have on regional and rural Australia if Telstra Privatisation proceeds," Mr Metcher said.
"The Government needs to immediately step in and protect telecommunications services in the bush, by firstly directing Telstra to stop their job cuts programme and secondly halt any further plans to sell Telstra."
Telstra announced last week it would be shedding 207 jobs from regional NSW.
The AWAs, which would cost workers $200 a week on average, are being forced onto new starters and casuals at Carole Park, south west of Brisbane, who want to become permanent.
It is understood they are also being offered to current staff, involved in protracted enterprise agreement negotiations.
Hardies wants to force workers covered by the enterprise agreement at Carole Park and Meeanda, in Brisbane, onto site agreements which reduce the working week from a seven days to a five or six days, forgoing shift penalty rates.
The enterprise agreement expired in September last year, and workers have not had a pay increase.
"It's the old divide and conquer," said Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser Brendan Matthey.
Matthey said it was clear why Hardies had been stalling the enterprise agreement.
"They've been holding off for WorkChoices," he said.
The details of the Hardies AWAs have been kept confidential, but Matthey understands they are one-year agreements offering a four per cent pay-rise.
"In fact, I understand the conditions offered are not much more than the five minimum award conditions allowed under the new legislation," he said.
Hardies gained its corporate villain after stalling on compensation payments to victims of its asbestos products.
An employee of a western Sydney provider blew the whistle on a system that runs down staff and short changes the unemployed.
On the eve of welfare-to-work changes, she endorsed claims at the centre of a critical Queensland University study.
The study found massive discontent and high staff turnover, with three quarters of staff leaving in the past four years.
The report, by academics Greg Marston and Catherine McDonald, comes as the Federal government moved to introduce 'Welfare to Work' measures that will see unemployed people forced to choose between substandard AWAs or losing income support for eight weeks.
The predicament was highlighted recently when Spotlight in Mount Druitt used AWAs to slash the conditions of new starters.
The job network worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the system introduced to give "choice and flexibility" offered neither due to strict guidelines imposed by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.
"We're not supposed to use discretion," says the Job Network worker. "But you have to use discretion when people are in a difficult situation.
"Case managers are expected to spend quality time with job seekers, but, with an average case load of 150 clients, we're not spending quality time [with them]."
The worker also backed claims of high levels of bureaucratic administrative work hindering the core business of finding jobs for clients.
She backed the report's claims that staff were suffering high levels of stress and burnout.
Media reports claimed DEWR referred to clients as 'stock' at the start of a contract.
The Federal Industrial Relations Minister said Beazley's defence of the Stolt crew and Western Australian building workers showed contempt for the Commission.
"The AIRC has existed for over one hundred years as the independent statutory body charged with the responsibility of settling workplace disputes," Andrews said in a statement.
"Its effectiveness is undermined when parties ignore its recommendations, directions and orders, let alone when such defiance is encouraged by someone who seeks to be a future leader of Australia."
Andrews' comments came three months after he introduced laws which strip the Commission of power to make bind decisions on disputes, to make orders about unfair dismissal in firms with less than 100 employees, and to hear wage claims.
Last week, Beazley praised the crew of MT Stolt for standing up for Australian Jobs in a week-long stand-off in Hobart.
Despite orders from the Commission, the seamen refused to leave the ship because they were being replaced with cheaper foreign workers.
Beazley also criticised massive fines hanging over 107 Western Australian building workers for alleged unlawful industrial action on the Perth-Mandurah railway.
Workers have slammed the move that will see one third of staff at Purina PetCare factory, one of the town's largest employers, will retrench 44 workers by September 2006.
"First Cowra, then the Coles workers at Somersby, now workers at Blayney," Derrick Belan, NUW state secretary. "Under Howard's new harsh workplace laws companies sack large numbers of workers because the law allows them to.
"It is a disturbing trend, one which financially cripples regional areas as well as the workers involved and their families."
The NUW say they will be calling on the state and federal governments to intervene in Nestl� Purina's decision.
"We need to help our regional communities, not fracture them," says Belan. "John Howard may say it is easy for people to 'cross the road' to find another job, but in a country town like Blayney, the reality is very different.
Meanwhile Belan has labelled Coles latest moves in sacking warehouse workers at Somersby on the central coast as " an act of breathtaking bastardry", after the retail giant was caught out lying about the number of positions available for redeployment.
Coles executives have stated today that only 3 managerial positions and a handful of casual spots are available for the 440 ex-Somersby warehouse workers.
The casual positions offer reduced wages and no guaranteed permanency.
Coles have threatened warehouse workers not to speak to the media as this would be a "breach of behavioral standards"
"How can Coles Myer talk of 'standards'? This threat is a sick joke from a group of executives whose only standards is to shaft workers and then insult them with threats and hollow promises," says Derrick Belan.
The meeting, held in the workers' lunchtime, went longer than anticipated and Austral Bricks responded by docking the union members four hours' pay, in accordance with the Federal Government's new industrial relations legislation.
CFMEU national secretary Martin Kingham presented workers with cheques at the Craigieburn plant.
"They went out at about midday and came back about one," says Stephen Roach from the Brick Tile and Pottery Division of the CFMEU. "Because the company didn't like what Kingham had to say about them using a contractor who uses foreign labour on the construction site, they've decided to sock the blokes four hours pay through the government's Act.
Roach explained that the CFMEU used money from a hardship fund to ensure the workers were not out of pocket.
"When companies abuse this legislation, even though we don't support it, we are not going to sit back and allow them to rob their workers and set themselves up as judge jury and executioner."
The workers held a stopwork meeting earlier this month after the brick manufacturer awarded a contract to build a new kiln to French company Ceric.
Ceric is using 11 workers from the Czech Republic, employed through the Hungarian consultancy company, Fornax.
CFMEU workers at the site held a meeting to discuss concerns that the Czech workers were being misused, when security guards brought in by Ceric stopped communication between Austral employees and the imported labourers.
"The Australian workers at Austral bricks wanted to know what pay and conditions these poor blokes have and why have they been employed when local businesses who employ Australian workers also tendered for the contract," says Kingham.
Mr Kingham said it was outrageous the Austral workers had been punished for the meeting because of Prime Minister John Howard's Work Choices legislation.
The protest follows CFMEU meetings with the company that failed to resolve issues around the two Koreans; one, in the country illegally and, the other, on a Section 457 visa.
The protest will occur in front of companies that have contracts with the Kyo group; a Sydney cleaning and construction company.
One of the men, Mr Jae Sik Kim, was injured at work and his employer told him to go home and rest. Fearful that he would be unable to pay back the $10,000 Mr Kim ran away only to be picked up by immigration authorities and deported. He returned later from Korea to confront his employers and alleges\ he was kidnapped and beaten.
The injuries Mr Kim received from the alleged assault were so bad that doctors initially believed he would lose sight in one eye. The second Korean national, Mr Jung Sub Seo was also injured at work when the company car rolled in an accident.
Mr Seo was employed under the Federal Government's 457 or Temporary Business Long Stay Visa, and, though he was entitled to workers compensation, his employer has rejected his request and threatened to cancel their sponsorship of his visa, if he ever tried to make a claim for worker's compensation.
This is to let you know that radio KATE has begun transmissions katelundy.blogspot.com. Former CFMEU member, and now Senator, Kate Lundy's online audio blog takes the Aussie political campaign to a new level
Cuban Solidarity July 22, Saturday Cuban Trade Unionist speaks in Sydney 6pm CFMEU Building 10-12 Railway St, Lidcombe For more information: Hugo Nardini 0408 964 953 Nick Rawson 0414 691 732
CFMEU SOLIDARITY EVENING
A solidarity evening to support workers engaged on the Perth to Mandurah Rail Project in Western Australia. These workers had gone on strike for 12 days in February after their colleague Peter Ballard was unfairly dismissed. The dispute was resolved and the project returned to normal and no further disruptions have occurred.
On the evening of July 5th, 107 of the 430 workers were issued with summons for engaging in unlawful industrial action. Each worker is now facing a fine of up to $28,000 for protecting their job delegate. John Howard's Australian Building & Construction Commission has initiated this action against these workers.
One of the affected workers and his partner will be present at the solidarity evening. The details of the evening are as follows:
Date: Monday, 24th July 2006
Time: 5.00p.m.
Venue: Trades Hall Auditorium
Brissie APHEDA Fundraiser August 4, Friday, Trivia Challenge 2006 Happy Hour 6pm - 7pm, Trivia 7pm sharp 2nd Floor, TLC Building 16 Peel St, South Brisbane Teams of 8, $15 per person Drinks available at bar NOTE: Table numbers strictly limited to 25 To donate prizes or more info contact: Joan Skewes, Paula Rogers, or Beth Mohle on 3840 1444 Politics In The Pub Warm Up For Winter August 5, Saturday, "Warm Up for Winter" Annual Dinner 6.30pm Thirroul Railway Institute, Railway Pde, Thirroul $35 per head, Mike Deakin on piano, special guest David Field Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA NSW South Coast Activists Book now by calling 02 4229 6737 or emailing [email protected] Philippines Human Rights Tour Public Forum 4.30 pm Friday, 4th August 2006, AMWU Auditorium, Granville Speakers: Filipino Member of Congress - House of Representative from Bayan Muna Party - Joel Virador and KMU Union leader - Angelina Ladera Entrance Free Filipino Food available after the meeting Any further information contact Peter 0418312301 or Margaret 9897 9133 NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS FORUM 2006
Ends with cocktail evening
Fair Go From Here?
2nd in the 'Fair Go' conference series
Hosted by the Australian State and Territory Governments, this one-day event provides an opportunity for employers, workers, social commentators and academics to engage in constructive and open debate about the real impact of the federal Work Choices legislation on the Australian workplace.
The forum provides an affordable opportunity to hear a balanced and broad range of views from reputed experts in academia and advocacy and will discuss the implications of the federal government's industrial relations changes examine ways of working under these changes and the implications for IR in practice and explore ways forward in the new IR environment.
Date: Thursday 24th August 2006
Location: Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney
Time: 9.30am - 5.10pm
Conference website: www.iceaustralia.com/ir
Fair Go website: www.fairgo.nsw.gov.au/Conference/index.html
Conference Secretariat:
ICE Australia
Email: [email protected]
Pope Talks IR
Monday 25 September 2006.
Brisbane Work and Industry Futures QUT, and the Department of Industrial Relations Griffith University are convening a one-day conference that explores Work, Industrial Relations and Popular Culture.
David Pope, the cartoonist behind the Heinrich Hinze cartoons will be Keynote Speaker with his presentation - "Is the pen mightier than s356? Cartoons and Work" (www.scratch.com.au)
We welcome any paper that explores the manner in which popular culture is used by unions, management or policy makers or alternatively, how work and industrial relations is represented within popular culture.
Sub-themes for the conference include: - Policy, Influence and Modern Mediums - Which is Reality, Work or TV? - Popular Music: Is it the End of the Working Class Man? - Working in the Movies: What do we see? - Popular Culture as a Teaching Tool. Call for Papers. Abstracts are due 14 July 2006 Full papers are due 11 September 2006 Location; Southbank, Brisbane.
The convenors would welcome participants to submit proposed titles earlier to assist in preparations. For further information please contact Keith Townsend ([email protected]) or David Peetz ([email protected])
Rekindling the Flames of Discontent: How the Labour and Folk Movements Work Together
A Conference - Dinner - Concert
The Brisbane Labour History Association is holding a Conference/Dinner/Concert on Saturday 23 September. This event will explore the historical relationship between the labour movement and the folk movement in Australia with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
Why? To celebrate the history of the interaction between the Folk and Labour movements, and promote its longevity.
When? Saturday 23 September. Conference from 1pm. Concert from 7pm.
Where? East Brisbane Bowls Club, Lytton Rd, East Brisbane, Next to Mowbray Park
It is still in the formative stages, but to date the following are confirmed:
1-5pm CONFERENCE (will include music with the presentations):
Doug Eaton on John Manifold & the Communist Arts Group in Brisbane, Brisbane Realists
Bob & Margaret Fagan on Sydney Realist Writers
Mark Gregory on trade union & labour songs/music, nationally/internationally
Lachlan & Sue on international perspectives
5 - 7pm Drinks followed by DINNER
7 - 11pm CONCERT
Combined Unions Choir
Bob and Margaret Fagan
Mark Gregory
Jumping Fences
For more information contact the BLHA President Greg Mallory on [email protected], or Secretary Ted Reithmuller on [email protected], or Dale Jacobsen on [email protected]
Come on guys, bit of balance in your coverage, claims and offers of support for the people in the current crisis in Lebanon. We have families of both Lebanese and Isreali extraction here in Australia and it is not our place to fight their battle. It would appear, as with most strife, it's not the parties who are directly affected causing the trouble. Most sides are suffering the consequences and should be supported equally.
Kriss, NSW
I was revolted at the sycophantic behaviour of our labour premiers towards John Howard re the COAG meeting. Obviously anyone would support the vaunted $4 billion for mental health; if it delivers even one more psychiatric nurse, let alone, a new mental hospital and not just more paper in triplicate.
Are our ALP premiers so threatened by Howard and Costello's machiavellian double act, that they accept the first offer made by Howard, and 'crow' as if it were a victory. This is not a shining example of cooperative federalism. It is cooperative 'roll-overism'.
Back in the 1980's Premier Court snr of WA and Bjelke-Peterson of QLD used to threaten to secede from the federation, when the federal government of the day wanted to enact a policy when one of them thought threatened their states rights, or they just plain wanted to thwart Bob Hawke from enacting a piece of ALP policy. Sometimes it worked and either Hawke or, before him, Fraser had to give up on whatever they had planned.
It is a pity that none of our premiers used it, purely as a negotiating tool over either the recent IR legislation, to force some moderation, or with last years anti terror legislation. Again, not with any intention of actually leaving the federation, but as a tactic to force some watering down of the more draconian aspects. By this time next year we could well have two coalition state governments.
Any opportunity for all states acting together against Howard will be lost for at least three years, or they could've refused to hand over the GST revenue, for say 6 months, as an alternative tactic. The states had an opportunity of provoking some sort of constitutional crisis, to get a better deal. An opportunity was missed.
All governments seem to have a policy of diverting the public's attention from the above issues by providing a modern equivalent of the old, "beer and circuses" - now called the Commonwealth Games, Olympics, World Cup soccer, celebrity weddings, or weekly gladiatorial sporting contests, NRL and AFL, partly funded by Rupert Murdoch.
For reasons best known to itself the NSW Government allows the guts to be metaphorically and financially kicked out of Jeff Shaw; by a glorified Kangaroo court, that is judge, jury and sentencer. Shaw was not only one of the most brilliant ministers, but ironically, one the most ethical and decent.
I suppose that's considered part of the publics 'entertainment'. Magazines are filled with the life dramas, and weight loss crises of third rate celebrities, that hardly anyone has ever heard of, while our resources, and some industries are going overseas on the cheap. Like good ants we work ever harder for less wages on a one-way race to the bottom trying to earn less than our competitors in China. After spending more than ever on petrol we try to fill our homes with consumer goods and clothes made in China. I think there is some irony in this somewhere, but it's not funny.
F Mitchell, NSW
It's a bit like swimming against the flow - fighting WorkChoices and John Howard. We tend to live and work with people who think like us, but tiger country can be any country town.
Can you understand a boss of 35 people put a note in every pay packet informing his workers if Labor won the election they would not have a job?
It did happen and not all that far from the big smoke. My point is the Your Rights at Work bus is on the road again, and doing a great job. Why do some not go to see it first hand? Do not wait for others to carry your lunch box, you may go hungry.
Allan 'Belly' Bell
We are all much of one mind here except the Building Industry Task Force who gather here in an attempt to understand what the building industry is.
So we preach to the converted in our letters to the editor and stories we love to read. But convert few to our side.
Is there a printer on your PC? Could you print out say ten pages of the best stories?
Maybe drop one the table at work or on the sports clubs table? Last week the 2 page editorial spoke directly to middle Australia, along with the half page story about one man's multi-million dollar, 60 per cent pay rise.
We must try to bring the other half on board or face workchoices mark 2.
No last minute campaign to win office; no waiting for others to do it.
Union newsletters are part of our history. Once handed out after dark, lets make them part of our victory over WorkChoices.
Allan 'Belly' Bell, NSW
Vic Fingerhut earned his stripes amidst the stars of the US political constellation but what he's saying isn't exactly rocket science.
With a bit of license, it can be summarised like this - accentuate your positives and downplay your negatives.
Research, polling and election results have shown him that some issues are ours and some issues are theirs. No matter the quality of the candidate, it seems, the Right wins, in societies like ours, on managing the economy but, if you frame the question as managing the economy for ordinary folk, the good guys clean up.
The trick, apparently, is to get Kim Beazley comfortable with the phrase 'working people' because that's where he's strong.
Another part of this received wisdom is that the Right nails us on security. It's their issue, their territory, where our representatives should tread warily.
Which, frankly, is great news because if John Howard can be so abysmally inept at his strong suit imagine the possibilities when Kim, Bob and the Democrats get him on their turf.
Howard has won elections on his ability to talk the security talk. But, over this term, he has had the chance to walk and blown it.
Border security has been outsourced, on the one hand to the Indonesians and, on the other, to migration agents flooding the country with cheap labour.
After decades of tyrannical Saddam Hussein rule, a light went on in Washington, the same town, incidentally, that armed and propped him up for years.
Howard, of course, was in furious agreement and sanctions were imposed. Trouble is, his mates at the AWB, saw things differently and elected to prime the pump of trade.
Howard sent young Australians to war on the lie of weapons of mass destruction and it wasn't even his own lie. Worse, though, when one of them lost his life the country couldn't even return the right body to the grieving family.
Last week's embarrassment over the ship that wasn't in Beirut was cringe-worthy. Hundreds of Aussies - men women and kids - told by government representatives they were on their way out of a killing zone and the boat didn't even show up.
"Gazzumped" Downer harrumphed.
The problem for the feds in the blood and destruction being visited on the Lebanon is not just that they can't protect their own people. After all, Lebanon is a long way away and Australia is not a super power.
It's that thousands of Aussies, through no fault of their own, are in a hell sanctioned by their elected representatives.
When Washington shrugged its shoulders at the size of the Israeli attack, Minnie Me just couldn't help himself and went on television to give it the green light.
Call Security.
The Emperor's become an embarrassment.
- Jim Marr
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