
Issue No 33		01 October 1999

Piers Watch

Memo from HQ

Further to our theory last week that Piers is actually an enterist - a Resistance plant placed in the mainstream media to destablise the fascist state's means of communications.

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Memorandum: Resistance PolitBuro,Command Post,Chippendale

To: Comrade Operative 089221 aka Akerman

From: The Chairman

Re: Instructions for week beginning 27/9/99

Revolutinary greetings on behalf of the PolitBuro,

General Comments:

In recent week's you have been producing some of your best work. With the federal government floundering on East Timor your work at heightening hysteria has been most useful. Industrial action from the unions will also provide opportunities to provide a platform for the re-unionisation of the workforce. But remember, there's no room for complacency, these are revolutionary times.

Specific instructions:

East Timor: We need to create a climate of xenophobia, with maximum fear and loathing directed at Indonesia. This will force the government to build up an arms stock that can then be turned against the state. Play up any of the anti-Australia propaganda coming out of Jakarta, but be sure to match it with your own. Use of terms like "corrupt Indonesian military regime", "Nazi Germany", "Khmer Rouge regime", "apartheid" and "sleazy bunch of thugs" should be maximised.

At all costs defend the PM. He's our best chance of seeing some serious chaos develop on the home front. Even now we have operative within the defence Department formulating the Howard Doctrine Mk II - this is the one that castes Australia as the last bastion for western civilisation amongst the Asiatics. If we are serious about creating external threats to destabilise the domestic government, we must push Howard further. Your line on the "US deputy" was a nice one - but we must go further if we are serious about disengaging with the region.

Industrial Action: Our primary objective is to support the revolutionary struggles of our comrades on the railways. Sure, they may have alienated the public by calling a snap strike, but now we must help them. As usual your influence over editorial writers will be important in defusing the situation. Make sure they run the usual lines about "industrial bastardry" - this is important in polarising opinion and setting the scene for further unrest.

If you can, it would be useful to tie the unrest into a broader conspiracy by the union movement. Don't be scared to implicate Trades Hall. There's some proposal about pay-for-service unionism that you can throw in too. If you can slip all these elements in, the line will be so scatterbrained that it won't mean anything to anyone.

And don't forget to compliment any union that doesn't take part in the action, While this may seem out of character, it will ensure they are never tempted to take the same moderate position again.

Concluding Instructions

Comrade, as the bourgeois continue to wage their war of hatred and greed against the international proletariat it is important we don't get demoralised so that we may continue to wage our fight for the glorious socialist revolution. In the words of Leon Trotsky: "To face squarely, not to seek the line of least resistance, to call things by their right names, not to fear obstacles, to be true in little things as in big, to base one's program on the logic of class struggle, to be bold when the hour for action arises - these are the rules of communists today"

Your work is an inspiration to us all. We will be in contact again in seven days.

Yours in Revolutionary Spirit,

The Chairman

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Issue 33 contents

Interview: The Boys
Labor Party heavyweights Eric Roozendaal and Damian O'Connor will lock horns this weekend. They fire their first shots.

Economics: Reasons to Be Cheerful
Can we change the way we look at the economy to better reflect community happiness and well-being?

Unions: Breaking the Wave
ACTU President's submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Act.

International: The Wisdom of Solomon
A disturbing case from the Pacific where corporate lawyers are playing a deadly game.

History: Groundhog Day
Ghosts of Conferences past: some strangely familiar debates and decisions from previous state ALP conferences

Legal: Bad, Bad Things
Some of Australia's leading industrial lawyers argue that the Workplace Relations Act breaches basic international obligations.

Review: Tailing Out
As the BHP steelworks close in Newcastle a special book chronicles the stories of working live that have just become history.

Satire: Police Cut-Backs Lead To Drop In Organised Crime
An audit of the NSW Police has revealed that they have been seriously cutting back their operating budgets to ensure that they will be able to afford the increased security costs of the Olympics.

Work/Time/Life: It's Official: Aussies Work Harder
Australians continue to work long hours in contrast to a world-wide trend in industrialised countries that has seen hours at work remaining steady or declining in recent years.

» Station Cuts Derailed - But More Hits for the Scull

» Social Audit Backed by Community Groups

» Unions Take Common Priorities to State Conference

» Simmering Discontent Hits Boiling Point

» Public Sector Job Numbers Rubbery

» Timor Protest to be Dumped in Reith Wave

» Big Lunch Break for Stress-Free Day

» Arch Apologises for Youth Wage Debacle

» Clean Air Policy Up In Smoke

» Child Carers Stretched to the Limit

» Building Workers Won�t Settle for Half Pay

» Life, Art and Politics