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  Issue No 45 Official Organ of LaborNet 10 March 2000  

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Letters to the Editor

Crosby Spot On


Michael Crosby's appeal to Australian unions not to lose their nerve is spot on. He is saying that we have barely developed organising momentum yet and he is right. Our movement is still dominated by a method of unionism which encourages "organiser dependency" which in its roots, if not in its intention, assumes that workers themselves cannot build unionism in and beyond their workplace. Sometimes in discussions about organising this assumption is explicitly stated. As often as not it is an unconscious assumption and all the powerful and undermining for that.

Michael is also right in saying that we have adapted the USA unions' 'organising model' into a uniquely Australian hybrid. In New Zealand there have also been great efforts by a small group of unions to build an organising culture in a hostile environment. The element we give more serious attention to than the Americans is union education.

I believe that there is still something missing from the organising model we are developing. That is, what sort of organising is capable of creating campaigns of an industry wide and society wide character. There are other countries where union movements are in advance of the Americans in this regard. Especially, I think there is a lot for us to learn from the Canadians, especially but not exclusively the Canadian Auto Workers. Why should we not learn from Canada where union density has remained in the mid 30 percents in a an environment as hostile to unionism as ours, if not more so, just across the border from the land of 14% density?

The CAW - and also other Canadian unions - have advanced some crucial question and encourage membership study of them: what sort of unionism are we trying to create? what is the purpose of organising? to fix our numbers problem? to get a better deal on the job? to determine the shape of the society in which we live? This means discussing and studying our values and principles - deeply. There is even less discussion of these and related questions in our labour movement than there is of organising, and this, I argue, is very dangerous.

And it means investigating the features, effects and causes of the exploitation experienced in common by workers across all countries on the globe. How does this exploitation link to the exponential destruction of the world's ecosystems? How does it link to the denial of land rights? Are these latter questions, and others like them, union business? >As I said, the CAW is not the only union around the world who take these questions seriously. Our movement desperately needs to join in.

Don Sutherland


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*   Issue 45 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Working Women
Nareen Young talks about how services are being delivered to our most vulnerable workers - and what unions need to do to make them their own.
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*  Unions: Into the New Frontier
IT professionals are part of the new workforce that unions need to win over - and while they are often contractors, they're workers too.
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*  History: Handling The Ladies
1943 - women were filling the gap in the workforce left by the diggers abroad and Australian managers needed some advice on how to deal with these strange creatures.
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*  Technology: Building The Hypermacho Man
In a stinging critque of the �Wired� culture, Melanie Stewart Miller argues digital cultural is creating a new super-Man.
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*  International: The Long March Home
Trade union women round the world used International Women�s Day to launch the World March of Women Against Poverty and Violence.
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*  Satire: Kerosene Dilution Racket
The nursing home industry has been rocked by a new scandal with the revelation that some unscrupulous proprietors have been diluting their patients� kerosene baths with illicit liquids.
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*  Review: Power and the Back Bar
In an upcoming book, Julia Gillard argues the ALP retains a male culture that is fast losing step with contemporary society.
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News
»  Services Threatened Over Olympic Bonus
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»  Games Edict: Dance for Free
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»  Revealed: Secret State Transit Corporatisation Plans
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»  Women Demand Better Pay from Faye
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»  Telstra, Banks Whack Rural Australia
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»  Casuals Inquiry Still On Union Agenda
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»  Shaw, Sams Pay Tribute to John Whelan
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»  Teachers� Website Mysteriously Blocked
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»  Cash Bonus for Bilingual Workers
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»  Women Demand Better Pay from Faye
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»  Shareholders Push Global Action
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»  Fair Wear Conquers Schools
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»  TWU Calls on Workers to Steer Clear of Woolworths
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»  Push to Strike Out Parrish Directors
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Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  TV Show Seeks Bankrupt Worker
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»  Crosby Spot On
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»  Confused About Workplace Rights
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»  Global Campaign Against Yahoo!
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»  Teachers Row
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