E D I T O R I A L

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Australia�s Most Wanted
The ACCC is the latest state agency to turn its guns on the construction union. National official, Dave Noonan, discusses the implications.

Industrial: The Fox and the Contractor
With new laws looming for �independent contractors�, Foxtel subbies have had the carpet pulled from under their feet, writes Nathan Brown.

Unions: Industrial Wasteland
A group of inner-Sydney veterans appear to be working to strip their families of retirement incomes. Jim Marr records their desperation.

International: Two Bob's Worth
German and British workers are participating in business decisions while WorkChoices locks Australians out of the conversation, writes Anthony Forsyth.

Economics: National Interest
John Howard claimed that interest rates would always be lower under a Coalition government than under Labor, Neale Towart crunchess the numbers.

Environment: The Real Dinosaur
Economic ignorance remains at the top and the critics are oblivious says Sol Power

History: Only In Spain?
The experiences of self management during the Civil War have been the one positive factor to come from that tragic event, and the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation thrives today.

Review: Clerk Off
Nathan Brown draws solace from some fellow social misfits.

N E W S

Death Sites Under Construction

Bank Pledge - Safe as Houses

Brush Big Business: Keating

Sydney the New Mumbai

CFMEU Blocks Vets Sale

Workers Go Cattle Class

Pay for Work Scheme Floated

Howard Blesses His Brethren

Uni Flunks AWA Test

Minchin Takes Back Door Route

Solid Group Goes Grassroots

Shrinking Act

Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

Legends
Westie Wing
MLC Ian West ventures beyond Macquarie St and into the desert of the eco rats.

The Soapbox
Testing Times
Former RLPA secretary and Newcastle Knights prop, Tony Butterfield, fires up over dawn raids.

Obituary
Dare to Win
The union movement has lost an inspirational leader of working men and women, writes Jeana Vithoulkas

Fiction
Tommy's Apprentice
Chapter Two - Tommy�s Tale.

L E T T E R S

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Seditious Intention

Seditious Intention

There is a new political correctness, in Australia. People are afraid to speak out publicly about the gradual dismemberment of freedoms.

A dismemberment that means terrorism works against any democracy that fails to hold fast to its intrinsic values.

George Orwell's 1984, spoke of the general hardening of outlook that set in, practices which had been long abandoned, like, imprisonment without trial, torture to extract confessions all were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.

Would I be liable, under our recent legislation, to being charged with sedition were I say for example that this Government has given itself powers, whose breadth and arbitrary nature, with lack of judicial oversight, should not exist in any democratic country?

If I remain silent would I be abrogating my duties as a citizen?

John Howard's apologists will accuse me of Howard hating. I don't hate him; I fear him and what he is doing to my country.

We can often be an apathetic, indifferent bunch, too easily intimidated into looking away from bullying.

It is way past time to stand up to speak out.

John Ward, Tasmania

Good Call

I just read your piece 'A Values Call' and I just wanted to applaud you on the tone and content of your article.

I currently live in California and I cannot tell you how many emails I get from what can loosely be called mid-America with alleged statements from that "great man Australian PM" honest John Howard with regards to the Islamic community and how the USA needs to adopt a similar tone.

It is very disturbing on a number of levels, not least because America has such a negligible Islamic population that is so well integrated to make the point moot.

However it is worrying more so because it paints the picture of Australia as this red neck, racist, intolerant nation. Then celebrates that. It reminds me of the Pauline Hansen period (I hope Honest and Bomber are not a common theme?) when I was living in the UK and trying in vain to convince English folk that "no Australia is a tolerant, liberal society".

Good luck in challenging the false logic of terrorism and US corporate capitalism as some kind of unquestionable inevitability.

Yours in solidarity,

Jonnie Cocks, NSW

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Last Modified: 29 Sep 2006