News

Workers Seek Security on Back of Living Wage

The NSW Labor Council will immediately apply for the wage increase awarded to the low-paid on federal awards to flow on to the two million workers whose wages are set by the state system.

But it will also give notice that it will seek to have a job security clause inserted into all awards, giving part-time and casual workers the option of upgrading their employment status.

The two-pronged approach reflects general disappointment with the Living Wage decision, while recognizing a state Commission is unlikely to award a higher quantum.

Workers Go Backwards Under Federal Decision

The ACTU says most workers will experience real wage cuts under the decision - handed down in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The AIRC awarded increases ranging from $13 per week for workers on the minimum federal wage of $400 per week, to $15 for those earning between $490 and $590 to $17 for those on weekly wages above $590. The ACTU had argued for $28 per week.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow said after the impact of the GST, petrol prices and pother taxes, the Commission had given workers a pay cut.

"We welcome any decision that puts more money into the hands of the lowest-paid," Burrow says. "But too many working people and their families are falling into poverty because prices are rising faster than wages.

Bottom End of Market Hit Hardest

In its decision the AIRC also cited evidence from State Labor Governments that "with the growth of part-time, casual and contract work, low paid workers are more likely to be entrenched into a future of low paid work."

Labor Council secretary-elect John Robertson said these comments would form the basis of an application to specifically address the plight of these classes of workers.

"We will be seeking a general clause to improve job security for people in precarious employment," Robertson says.

"This could take the form of a clause requiring employers to offer extra work to existing part-time and casual staff before taking on new workers.

"It would also look at ensuring where there is use of labour hire firms, that they pay the site rates, rather than undercutting the existing labour force."

News

Temple Workers Return to India Victorious

The temple workers' struggle became a symbol of the federal government's mishandling of the working visa system, when it emerged they were being paid just $45 per month to build a Hindu temple at Helensburg.

Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock came under public pressure for his Department's failure to ensure that guest workers, brought in because of skill shortages, are paid Australian wages and conditions.

While the temple operators claimed the workers were motivated by their 'spiritual commitment' and were sending home $100 per week to their families, the workers went on strike when they learnt how much they were being underpaid.

This followed a visit from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, which - acting on a top-off - raided the site, signed the members up and took up their case publicly.

Deal to Remain Confidential

After three months of tough negotiations, the workers have been given a lump-sum payout by the Sri Venkateswara Temple Association.

The terms of the agreement will remain strictly confidential, but the workers say they are pleased with the outcome.

The 12 workers last night personally thanked Labor Council and their affiliates for their support and vowed to spread trade unionism in their home state of Tamil Nadu. They also presented CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson with a statue, which they carved while

Ferguson last night paid tribute to the workers 's courage in taking up the fight on behalf of all guest workers.

During the dispute, the Indian temple workers also added their support to other workers' - famously when they challenged the grenadier clothing workers to a game of picket cricket.

News

Unions Get Down to Workers Comp Talks

Working parties canvassing specific areas of concern were held every day this week, where unions detailed how the current package would leave injured workers worse off.

Tuesday looms as a vital day next week, with Industrial relations Minister John Della Bosca due to formally respond to the trade union concerns.

A campaign committee is planned for Tuesday afternoon when a decision will be made on whether to reignite rolling industrial action

The key areas of concern with the legislation remain:

- the binding nature of the proposed medical panels

- the US-based injury assessment guidelines

- the increased common law thresholds

- and the absence of measures to address non-compliance by employers and workplace safety.

Related Action Continues

While the talks have been continuing, bans on parliament House - including beer deliveries and lift maintenance - have remained in place.

And the Transport Workers Union ramped up its campaign to have WorkCover properly police the trucking industry with a blockade of the city's streets Thursday.

An estimated 200 trucks drove through the city in morning peak-hour bringing the city's traffic to a crawl.

TWU state secretary says the action is to draw attention to the 176 lives lost through trucking accidents every year.

News

Firefighters Hand Hoses To Politicians

The state wide walkout ion Wednesday was an escalation in the long-running campaign for comprehensive protection for the state's 6,000 professional firefighters.

"NSW politicians receive better protection from death and injury at work that firefighters," Fire Brigade Employees' Union state president Darryl Snow says.

"Because politicians are better protected when risking their lives, we decided to leave them in charge for a day," Snow says

City crews detoured past Macquarie street

"It would take just a four per cent increase in fire fighters wages to give our members full protection," Snow says.

The walk-out coincided with the launch of a newspaper and radio advertising campaign

News

Unions Back Corruption Fight

And it's warned the Howard Government that any attempt to cash in on internal union affairs by running a Royal Commission are likely to back-fire.

Addressing the Labor Council, CFMEU national secretary John Sutton outlined how elements in the union associated with the discredited BLF are "working in concert with criminal elements seeking to increase their influence" in the industry.

Sutton said these elements were working to get a foothold in the scaffolding and crane industries.

"If a trade union doesn't have a good reputation for being corruption-free, then it has nothing," he said.

Total Support from CFMEU

Delegates to the Labor Council backed a resolution from the Maritime Union of Australia, placing on record its recognition of the support the CFMEU has given other unions.

MUA state secretary Bob Coombs said the support in his own union's dispute with Patricks on the Waterfront was only one instance amongst many where the CFMEU was at the barricades.

Meanwhile, Labor Council secretary Michael Costa warned federal workplace relations minister Tony Abbott to back away from his call for a Royal Commission into the Industry.

Costa says neither the federal Painters and Dockers Royal Commission or the Gyles Royal commission in NSW had found any evidence of corruption amongst trade union officials.

"Previous Royal Commissions have proven only one thing - that there are corrupt employers in the building industry."

News

'Workers Bank' Protest Rally Backs Cleaners

by Andrew Casey

Several unions sent representatives to the rally to show solidarity with the LHMU Cleaners Union who are at the centre of a nearly six week long dispute at the Collins St Melbourne head office of AXA.

On Thursday night the Victorian Trades Hall Council discussed the dispute and its ramifications for a continuing relationship between the union movement and Members Equity.

ACTU President, Sharan Burrow, has said she supports the LHMU in this dispute even though AXA Australia is playing a key role in helping the ACTU and the Union Super Funds to set up Members Equity as a 'workers bank'.

ACTU intervention with senior AXA Australia people has not helped to resolve the dispute.

" AXA Australia - a French-owned multinational finance conglomerate - is earning millions of dollars off the backs of working peoples' super funds, but they want to get rid of nine LHMU cleaners and save $200,000 in cleaning costs," Vaska Dervisovski, the LHMU Cleaners Union organiser said.

Talks collapse

" Our rally was organised following the break down of negotiations yesterday between the union, AXA Australia, and the cleaning contractor, the Australian-owned Prestige Property Services. "

Talks started on Tuesday - May Day - between the union and the companies involved in the dispute, but they have now completely collapsed.

" Even though the dispute is nearly six weeks old Tuesday was the first time that AXA Australia representatives agreed to meet with the union and the cleaning contractor," Vaska Dervisovski said.

" Despite AXA Australia's claims to the contrary they are directly responsible for the working conditions of the cleaning workers. It is the finance company who sets the conditions under which the cleaning contracter operates, " Vaska Dervisovski said.

" The continuing crisis at AXA Australia reflects badly on the image of AXA as an employer who boasts close links to national union leaders."

The LHMU Cleaners Union members have been involved in an almost daily protest outside the AXA office ever since the company decided to order the cleaning contractor, Prestige Property Services, to cut the hours and the number of workers employed.

Second AXA dispute

This is the second time this year that the LHMU has been involved in a dispute with AXA Australia.

In Sydney, the company sold for $108 million the upmarket Wentworth Hotel. As part of the 'sale price' AXA Australia agreed to sack 20 hotel workers before the new owner took over the hotel property.

In February, after vigorous protest and community outrage that workers jobs should be sold as a condition of the sale, AXA backed down.

The Melbourne dispute has seen some quite imaginative campaigning.

LHMU Cleaners Union members hand out latex gloves, and on other days green garbage bags, stapled to information leaflets - informing the 1600 office workers in the building of new possible health hazards caused by the cutbacks.

Support for cleaners

Inside the building Finance Sector Union activists have lent their support by sending out e-mails to all the 1600 workers giving them regular updates on the LHMU Cleaners Union dispute and suggesting imaginative ways they can show their support to the cleaners.

The cleaners have even received international support. The dispute in Melbourne was raised by a French union delegate at the AXA European Works Council, which is a legally established forum of union and management representatives.

The Swiss-based international federation of unions - UNI - with 1000 world-wide affiliates and 15 million members represents both cleaners' and finance workers' unions.

UNI has sent a number of protest notes to AXA Australia supporting LHMU cleaners. They have noted that AXA is a French multinational, with UNI affiliated unions representing their workforce, and they have AXA members around the world who are closely watching the Australian dispute.

Send a message to AXA

You too can show your support by sending a message to Les Owens, the boss of AXA Australia, by clicking here.

And don't forget to send a copy of your message to the LHMU's Vaska Dervisovski at: mailto:vaska@lhmu.org.au

Letters to the Editor

And Macca Replies to Lee ...

Dear Editor,

I wish to respond to the erroneous statements once again made by NSW Greens MLC, Ms Lee Rhiannon recently published on Workers Online.

The facts are clear - Ms Lee Rhiannon voted to support debating a motion by Michael Gallacher, Liberal Leader in the NSW Legislative Council.

This motion sought a Judicial Inquiry into the deficit in the workers compensation scheme, the cost of workers compensation premiums in comparison to other States, measures to reduce fraudulent claims and the impact of workers compensation costs on employment in NSW.

I have included for your information a copy of Hansard establishing the fact that Ms Lee Rhiannon voted to support this Liberal inquiry being debated. Given the views of some independents this motion has a very strong chance of succeeding.

Secondly I have included the full text of the Liberal's motion that Ms Lee Rhiannon supported being debated.

The Motion was clearly an attempt by the Liberals to open up an anti-worker Inquiry that would jeopardise positive initiatives such as the provisional acceptance of liability by insurers. It would have also lead to erroneous and sensational claims of worker fraud being aired - and would have only undermined Labor Council and Unions attempts to have the current reforms sensibly and constructively amended.

Ms Lee Rhiannon went one step further in her attempts to support the Liberals. When the President, The Hon Dr Meredith Burgmann MLC, ruled the inquiry motion out of order the Liberals took the extraordinary step of moving dissent on Dr Burgmann's considered ruling. Ms Lee Rhiannon abstained on this crucial vote, thus exposing the Labor President to a potentially rare and damaging dissent. Fortunately 11 other Cross Benchers voted against this unwarranted attack on a Labor President.

Ms Rhiannon has once again been caught out playing cynical politics on workers compensation. This is in keeping with her approach to Labor Party MP's. She is cynically attempting to undermine the strong links between Labor MP's and Unions.

Yours in solidarity,

The Hon Ian Macdonald MLC

******************

HANSARD EXTRACT 4 April 2001

VOTE TO DEBATE THE LIBERAL'S WORKERS COMPENSATION INQUIRY

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

Page: 13072

Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders

The Hon. M. J. GALLACHER (Leader of the Opposition) [11.10 a.m.]: I move, according to contingent notice:

That standing and sessional orders be suspended to allow a motion to be moved forthwith that Private Members' Business item No. 89 outside the Order of Precedence, relating to the judicial inquiry into the system of workers compensation, be called on forthwith.

Question--That the motion be agreed to--put.

The House divided.

Ayes, 22

Mr BreenDr Chesterfield-EvansMr CohenMr CollessMr CorbettMrs ForsytheMr GallacherMiss Gardiner Mr HarwinMr M. I. JonesMr LynnMrs NileReverend NileMr PearceDr PezzuttiMs Rhiannon Mr RyanMrs Sham-HoMr TingleDr WongTellers,Mr JoblingMr Moppett

Noes, 14

Ms BurnswoodsMr Della BoscaMr DyerMr EganMs Fazio Mr Hatzistergos Mr R. S. L. JonesMr KellyMr MacdonaldMs Saffin Ms TebbuttMr TsangTellers,Mr PrimroseMr West

Pairs: Mr Gay Mr Johnson Mr Samios Mr Obeid

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Motion agreed to.

VOTE TO DISSENT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT'S -

(DR BURGMANN) - RULING

MS LEE RHIANNON ABSTAINED AND

THEREFORE DID NOT RECORD A VOTE

The House divided.

Question--That the motion be agreed to--put.

Ayes, 11

Mr CollessMrs ForsytheMr GallacherMiss Gardiner Mr HarwinMr LynnMr PearceMr Ryan Mr SamiosTellers,Mr JoblingMr Moppett

Noes, 24

Mr BreenMs BurnswoodsDr Chesterfield-EvansMr CorbettMr Della BoscaMr EganMs FazioMr HatzistergosMr M. I. Jones Mr R. S. L. JonesMr KellyMr MacdonaldMrs NileReverend NileMr OldfieldMs SaffinMrs Sham-HoMs Tebbutt Mr TingleMr TsangMr WestDr WongTellers,Mr DyerMr Primrose

Pairs

Mr GayDr Pezzutti Mr JohnsonMr Obeid

Question resolved in the negative.

Motion negatived.

*******************

LIBERALS MOTION FOR A JUDICIAL INQUIRY INTO WORKERS COMPENSATION

House Papers - Notices of Motion - 4 April 2001

89. Mr Gallacher to move--

1. That this House requests the Government to appoint the Honourable Justice Peter Aloysius McInerney be appointed to chair a Judicial Inquiry into the system of workers compensation in New South Wales as established under the Workers Compensation Act 1987, and the Workplace Inquiry Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998, and in particular:

(a) the deficit in the workers compensation scheme

(b) the Government's decision making in relation to proposals for private underwriting of the compensation scheme

(c) the cost of workers compensation insurance premiums in New South Wales, including comparisons with workers compensation premiums in other jurisdictions

(d) options for future reform of the workers compensation system in New South Wales, including:

(i) the manner of determining workers compensation premiums

(ii) measures to assist the return to work of injured workers

(iii) the functions, structure and operations of WorkCover New South Wales

(iv) measures to reduce the level of fraudulent claims

(v) the impact of workers compensation costs on employment in New South Wales

(e) any other matter arising out of or incidental to these terms of reference.

2. That written and oral submissions be received from interested parties, including but not limited to employers and their representative organisations, trade unions, the New South Wales Labour Council and any individual the inquiry determines.

3. That the Inquiry deliver a final report in writing on the results of the inquiry as expeditiously as possible.

(Notice given 3 April 2001)

****************

ED'S NOTE: OK, much as I'd like to keep this exchange going, I think it might be time to end the Ian and Lee show. No more ocrrespondenc ein this subject, please guys.

Letters to the Editor

What About the Workers?

As the title of Barry Cohen's last book reminds us, many workers in large organisations are often the last to know about major decisions affecting their future.

In the recent HIH debacle where the insurance giant went belly up, insurance workers were left in the lurch for some time by management as to the fate of their entitlements.

As you know, Ansett is another large organisation that has been feeling a little heat of late.

Travelling to Adelaide on Ansett last week I was surprised by the high level of staff morale and quality of service provided by the Ansett flight attendants despite the recent adverse publicity about safety on this airline.

For we must remember in every situation where a large organisation is placed under public scrutiny and pressure, it is often the front line workers who have to deal with this scrutiny and pressure.

So when you are out there publicly slagging some of those largeorganisations, just think to yourself "What about the Workers?"

Cheers

Zanga

Interview

Global Action

by Peter Lewis

	John Maitland

Can you briefly outline the experience your union has had working as a shareholder with the Rio Tinto company?

We had a very serious industrial dispute with Rio Tinto, which commenced almost immediately after the election of the Howard Government.

They obviously were intent on implementing the hard line approach of Reith and essentially commenced a process of attempting to get workers off collective agreements and onto individual contracts. Now, there was a reason for this because - I suppose it's a conspiracy theory - but it is borne out by the fact that the taskforce Peter Reith put together to produce the Workplace Relations Act had on it a senior industrial relations person from Rio Tinto, whose name was Michael Anguin.

So we had to respond to this very aggressive, very well resourced attack by Rio Tinto, and we laid out a fairly elaborate plan to deal with it, based on our history and tradition of militancy and our usual responses in times of challenge.

However that traditional method of dealing with major challenges wasn't working. It wasn't enough in itself to be able to bring Rio Tinto to the table. So we started considering other ways of dealing with the matter. One of the first things we decided to do to supplement the support we had going in the Hunter Valley and in Queensland, was to contact our International union body

One of the things that arose in the discussions was the possibility of actually undertaking a shareholder campaign, a proxy battle over workers' rights and corporate governance. Corporate governance first - that was the first issue - and workers' rights. The reason why we looked at corporate governance was that we believed the company's directors were making bad decisions about their human relations approach. We believed we could highlight that the structure of the Board in terms of its executive directors when compared to the non-executive directors, would show that there wasn't enough independence of thought in there. They were actually making too many decisions that were borne out of the views and attitudes of management of the company.

That was the first issue, and the second issue was the labour rights issue.

In terms of the mechanics, you actually started gathering shareholders from around the world and asking these questions in the forums that are provided for shareholders?

Having decided this was one area we could explore, we then looked at who had most experience in this area. We didn't have to search far. I have had a long term relationship with some of the senior people in the AFLCIO including the Secretary/Treasurer Richard Trumpka, who was formerly a Vice President with me of the International Miners' Federation. So I had some idea about the expertise that the AFLCIO had to engage in this and we were fortunate that the AFLCIO, through Richard, were very quick to offer assistance. First by way of providing a number of their people to come to Australia and to take us through a corporate campaigning, proxy campaigning seminar, which we did in February of 2000.

And from there you basically just ramped up the pressure over a period of time?

What we had to then look at, after having been given some very significant information on what we should do, we then had to look at the structure of the company, recently listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Sydney Stock Exchange. We had to look at how we would approach institutional investors in the United Kingdom and in Australia.

Now, as they were listed on the London Stock Exchange we immediately said, well, we have a good relationship with the British TUC, and we spoke to the British TUC to see whether or not they would be interested in being part of a global coalition of unions, to pursue this campaign. When they agreed, we nominated people who would essentially be the spearhead, responsible for putting in place the appropriate mechanisms to carry this through. We got the British TUC and the AFLCIO to nominate a person for the campaign. In Australia we had the ACTU nominate Linda Rubinstein, and of course Peter Colley from our National Research Department was the operative for us.

What did these individuals do?

They were responsible for putting the resolutions together. That might sound a pretty easy job, but it was a pretty difficult job because you had to pitch and word the resolution so that the major institutional shareholders would be interested. Putting the right sort of language into them was a fairly significant challenge because we are dealing with investments of billions of dollars, so people are very cautious when dealing with issues such as changing the balance of Boards of Directors. When you have a very large and relatively successful mining company, you find that a lot of investors are quite happy to see a greater number of executive directors, rather than independent directors. So we needed to make sure that the big institutional investors, who really do have regard for independence and do believe that there needs to be more independent directors than executive directors, would be supportive of the sort of things that we put up.

A second task was to actually look at how solicitation could take place. How could we get out and talk to the institutional directors. We had to find out what funds had shares and who were the major shareholders and then allocate resources so that people could go out and approach them. They then reported back on the success or failure rate in those discussions, and what was the feedback, what were people thinking about the proposal for us to have these resolutions on the agenda of the Annual General Meetings in London and in Australia for the Year 2000.

So these people you have been out there talking to aren't necessarily union super funds? They are the top end of town, and you have got people going in there saying, look, your company in the long term is going to be better if they treat their workers with some sort of respect?

In Australia we employed Susan Ryan, the former Federal Minister, to actually do our solicitation because Susan has a great deal of experience in the superannuation industry. We put this team together, and essentially their task was to flesh out all these issues. We had one window for us to actually lodge the resolutions so that the company would have to put them on the agenda. The reason they had to do it was that we complied with the company requirements for resolutions not from the directors, but privately sponsored resolutions.

In order to do this we had to get so many shareholders and a certain value of shares held by these shareholders. The union had to go out and buy quite a considerable amount of shares in Rio Tinto and also allocate those shares to staff. So we had all these CFMEU people with shares who were petitioning for these resolutions to go on the agenda.

It was fine getting them on the agenda, but when the agenda papers come out you generally have a series of recommendations by the directors, and in the case of our resolutions they unanimously recommended rejection of our resolutions.

And was that the end of it?

No, that wasn't the end of it. What we did of course was work very hard at it with Susan Ryan soliciting for us here and with professionals allocated to solicit in the United States and also in London.

Theb outcome? We got 20 per cent of the shareholders to vote for our resolutions, even though they knew that the directors were against the resolution on corporate governance. But not only was that a significant feat, we were able to convince another eight per cent not to vote in favour of the company's recommendation, even though they didn't vote for ours. So we had 8 per cent of the shareholders actually abstain from voting on those two resolutions. So that was 20 per cent of the corporate governance one and we got 17.5 per cent on the labour rights, with similar abstention of around eight per cent. That was a huge vote in favour of our resolutions and that has led now to the company having more non-executive directors than executive. They actually moved to try and quell the concern about the structure of the Board and they have done that by introducing more independent directors.

However, we still don't believe it is independent enough. A couple of directors are not executive directors, but were formerly employees of the company. We believe that they are not truly independent. There is still a bit of work to be done there, and I'm not sure that we are going to revisit it, but at this stage there has been changes.

So how much money did you actually spend on the campaign and how do you judge whether that was money well spent?

Put it this way: In terms of the money that we spent on the campaign it was a lot less than we were paying in strike pay and assistance to our members who were on picket lines, and the legal costs that we were incurring by going through the Industrial Relations Commission, the Federal Court and the High Court.

So, you have actually found a new way of doing your industrial action?

Well, I wouldn't say it is a new way. What we have done is add another weapon to our armoury. We have got an arsenal of weapons and one is the traditional bans and limitations, strike action. Another is picket lines. Another is political agitation - you know, getting people to raise things in Parliament. You've got those, and we have just added this one, which is essentially corporate campaigning or shareholder campaigning. It is not something you would use on every campaign. Similarly, going on strike is something you would use in every campaign.

Was it worth it? Well, when we commenced this action we had no collective agreements with Rio Tinto and no prospect of getting collective agreements with Rio Tinto. That's union collective agreements, I mean. And now we have union collective agreements at every operation.

And at the shareholders' meetings that took place last year, and after the first meeting in London where they saw such a large vote coming in, the company actually started to talk about reconciling their differences with their employees and the union.

Mining has always been a very global industry. What do your members think about the current globalisation debate?

We have been exposed to international competition in Australia since the late seventies. The minerals boom of the seventies involved coal and iron ore for steel production in Japan, so mine workers, particularly in the coal mining industry have been very much aware of the arguments about their competitiveness, the need to be in the lower quartile of cost and be effective, productive and profitable.

This is something that we have been debating for a long period of time. It is not new to us, but neither could I say, is the argument about the share - the share of wealth being generated by global activities, because we have been arguing for a long time that the Australian resources industry has been ripped off by the Japanese. That we weren't getting our fair share from the international trade. We argued that there were cartels of buyers who were depressing prices and that the coal companies were being taken advantage of.

In this day and age, in the year 2000 and 2001, Rio Tinto and BHP and the others are now saying that the restructuring of the coal industry - the consolidation of the coal industry - will help them break the cartel monopoly that the buyers have had in the past.

They would never concede that during the eighties and nineties when we argued for a strengthening of export controls. But now, when there are no export controls and when they themselves are driving hard for a consolidation in the industry, they are acknowledging that there has been a cartel there all the way along.

We are very enthused by the challenge to the current form of globalisation because it is something we have been arguing about for a long time. That is one of the reasons the CFMEU is so supportive of the coalitions of groups that are getting out there and protesting, in the case of the mining industry we have been working with coalitions for a considerable period of time, dealing with these issues.

Unions

Sisters United

	Pat Ryan

**************

May Day is celebrated throughout the world as a day when workers gather and march to bring attention to their struggle for world peace, improved wages and conditions, protection of the environment and a greater say in the sharing of the wealth they produce.

Over the many years of May Day Celebrations women have joined the marches with banners proclaiming their demands for equal pay and conditions, equal opportunity in the workforce, child care and for a greater say in the decision making of Governments.

It is important to note that in 1961 at the age of 95 our famous Australian Writer and poet Dame May Gilmour was the first woman to lead the May Day march. Dame Mary was an outspoken champion of workers rights and her writings reflect this.

It is to those women who have marched on May Day and International Women's Day, and struggled at work and at home in order to win what we have today that we owe a lot.

In spite of the opposition they faced women have won many victories include the most basic human rights - the right to vote, the economic independence and the right to control our bodies.

In my own Union women entered the industry in 1942 on the Union's condition that they receive equal pay. However it was not until the 1970's and 80's that the women bus workers won the right to full equality in their workplace, including the right to drive buses and to remain on the job while pregnant.

Now when women enter the bus industry they do so in the knowledge that they have full equal rights in the workplace, because the women who preceded them had the courage and determination to end the injustice of the many forms of discrimination they suffered on the job.

We now have Equal Opportunity Legislation and laws to end all forms of harassment.

We have greater representation of women in our Parliaments, on Local Councils and on boards both in Government and in the Private Enterprise.

Women also hold positions as Union Leaders, including leadership of the ACTU. While these are important achievements we still have a long way to go.

As the leadership of our Unions are still predominately male, the concerns of women are not taken as seriously as they could be and therefore, not addressed, as they should be. Some Union leaders even believe work based childcare is not an issue for Unions!

Issues important to women can only be placed high on the agenda of Union demands when women are not only encouraged to join the Movement in formulating policy that takes into account the need for women's dual commitment to work and family. We also need to make greater efforts to ensure that our men also take up their share of family responsibilities.

Unions today face many challenges to their role in protecting the democratic rights of workers and their families.

There are those in Governments and Business who want to roll back the gains we have made. In order to do this they continually attack workers and their unions. We have witnessed the vicious attack on the Maritime Union. However in other industries, workers, many of them women, have been locked out by their employers for months on end and have lost their jobs and entitlements, when companies go broke. In many ways they want to force us back to the nineteenth century.

There are a growing number of part time and casual workers, mainly women whose take home pay leaves them living below the poverty line. Access to welfare benefits has also been made harder, and people who rely on welfare have been hounded by governments and their lackeys in the Press.

At present we have an attack on workers compensation rights by a State Labor Government in NSW.

Our hospitals, Schools and universities are starved for funds and there is a very real threat to dismantle Medicare and Medical Services.

The selling of assets owned by the Australian People, and the deregulation of industry and services has led to major concerns about safety and damage to our environment as companies and their shareholders put their profits before the needs of the people.

Globalisation and economic rationalisation driven by Multi National Companies and supported by Governments is rightly seen by workers all over the world as the most serious threat to their standard of living and the environment.

Women workers in Australia are the victims, as many of our jobs disappear off shore to third world countries, where women and even children in those countries work under the most appalling and cruel conditions. Working long hours for a pittance of a wage, suffering abuse harassment and even death, in order to feed themselves and their families.

The world demonstrations against globalisation and economic rationalisation are to protest and highlight what we see as the growing division between the greed of the wealthy and the increase in unemployment and world poverty.

I congratulate the organisers of this May Day March and I am sure that future marches will see a growing number of people marching to defend the rights they have won and to support future gains for the Australian People. We are marching as well to support workers in other countries in their struggle to gain a decent standard of living, and democratic rights, including the right to belong to independent trade unions.

If we stand united we will win, divided we will fall. Our solidarity will prevail and while our enemies try to take us back to the past, we know the future belongs to us.

Politics

M1 and the Trade Unions

****************

I confess I made a wrong call with the May Day "M1" protest this week. I predicted with great confidence a few days before that M1 would max out at maybe 1,000 protestors.

The march from Bridge Street to Martin Place at lunchtime May 1 though would have had a good 5,000 people at it. The overwhelming majority of them under 25 years of age.

What exactly is going on here? Writing these people off as "ferals" or "trots" (short for "Trotskyists") as some do is becoming increasingly absurd. There arent 5000 ferals in Sydney and there isnt 5000 "trots" in Australia, possibly in the world.

Without wanting to be a smartarse about it, there also isnt too many Unions in this state which could put 5,000 people on the street.

The movement against corporate power, is growing at a rate that is catching everyone off guard.

It is a rainbow alliance which includes our core constituency (I saw many, many ASU, ETU and CFMEU members at "M1") as well as just about everyone else under the sun who has an ounce of progressive politics.

The Union movement has made a great contribution to this movement since its inception some 18 months ago- Sydney Unions participated in "S11" and Melbourne Unions in "M1". But some remain uneasy at the thought of a heightened involvement.

This is unfortunate as this embryonic movement articulates almost exactly the same world view as we do! Being "anti globalisation" means simply that you are anti corporate dominance of our society -ie. anti bosses and their filthy greed. The primarily young people in this new movement are even copying "our" tactics. No one has been able to explain to me yet the difference between a "blockade" and a "picket".

The Union movement NEEDS to engage with this movement. If we don't then we are simply alienating the next generation from our own almost identical cause and abrogating the leadership by default to the extremists amongst us.

The suddeness and urgency of the Workers Compensation emergency here in NSW meant that most progressive Unions in NSW sat "M1" out. But we need to systematically engage with the next generation of progressives coming through on our issues (which are their issues) using our tactics (which are their tactics) and not let the odd dreadlock or the odd trot put us off.

At the end of the day its only peoples programming and irrational fears which divides us and keeps us from the promised land. Lets play it smarter.

Warmest congratulations to all involved with M1 and happy May Day to all!

Phil Davey works with the NSW Construction dvision of the CFMEU

History

Il Duce Roberto?

********************

Eight days after the start of World War II, Prime Minister Robert Menzies wrote a letter to Australia's High Commissioner in Britain, former Prime Minister and Left basher Stanley Bruce.

Menzies confidently expressed his opinion to Bruce that Hitler "had no desire for a first class war" and would offer peace talks after defeating Poland. In the words of Menzies, "nobody cares a damn about Poland".

The full letter became public a fortnight ago as part of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Lecture given by the historian and economist Dr. John Edwards.

One Glass Too Many

Springing to the defence of Menzies, his biographer Allan Martin was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald saying that the letter was probably the result of a reflective mood by Menzies "late at night with a glass in hand", suggesting it did not warrant serious attention. Possibly one glass too many, Allan.

Rightist think-tanker Gerard Henderson noted that the letter was surprising and unwise given the outbreak of hostilities, but pointed out that Menzies "was an appeaser before the war, like nearly everyone else". Quite right Gerard; there was an active, if persecuted and prosecuted, anti-appeasement and anti-fascist Australian Left, though I think you scrimp on its magnitude.

Rather than a surprising tippled lapse by Menzies, the letter from the Prime Minister's Canberra office on 11 September 1939, is a clear statement of a political position conservative myth makers have tried to hide from history.

Nazi Tour

Robert Gordon Menzies, Liberal Party founder and hero of John Howard, liked strong government. On 6 November 1938 he told a Presbyterian church audience that a government "founded on licence would destroy itself ", and went on to call for more "national powers" to help the development of a "national spirit".

A fortnight earlier he had told a Melbourne audience that the enthusiasm for service to the State evident in Italy and Germany "could well be emulated in Australia". His comments were based on his European tour earlier in 1938 which took in Nazi Germany, and high level Nazi briefings courtesy of the recommendations he received from the Nazi Consul-General in Sydney and the Nazi Ambassador in Britain.

Menzies was an appeaser of considerable magnitude. In London on 3 March 1941, as part of a four-month visit, Menzies told an international audience of business representatives, journalists, and diplomats, that Australia had no quarrel with Japan, and wanted to "draw closer to Japan and appreciate its problems".

In mid-1940 his government had pressured Britain to close the Burma Road, effectively starving China of vital supplies required for its struggle against Japan. In 1938 Attorney-General Menzies had used draconian powers to smash the ban by Port Kembla (NSW) wharfies on the export of pig-iron ("war supplies") to an aggressive, expansionist Japan. It was during this dispute that Menzies earned the derisory nickname Pig Iron Bob.

Harassment of the Left.

A vocal, growing and energetic Australian Left increasingly opposed fascism, Nazism, Japanese militarism, and appeasement during the 1930s.

Conservative Federal and State governments retaliated with harassment, including special legislation, extensive use of security services and police, prosecutions, imprisonment, the curtailment of civil liberties, while the thuggery of anti-leftists was tolerated.

Censorship was a repressive feature of Australia during the 1930s. Some 5000 titles were banned, including many left-wing works. Australia ranked as the most repressive English speaking nation.

Menzies, either as Attorney-General or Prime Minister, was in the vanguard of this overall authoritarian process.

The Hidden Appeasers.

Australian pro-Japanese appeasers included respected public figures, influential media personnel and academics, and prominent members of social, business and financial elites. Dr. Drew Cottle has studied these and, with patient archival detective work, demonstrated their collaborationist potential and intent (The Brisbane Line: a reappraisal, PhD thesis,

Macquarie University, 1991).

Unlike fellow well-heeled collaborationists in Europe, however, history and the Curtin ALP government denied them the opportunity to show their colours.

It serves Rightist purposes to gloss over the closeness with which Robert Menzies sailed to the fascist wind in the 1930s, as it does to keep the extent of highly placed collaborationist sentiment in the political closet. A great deal of Liberal Party and Rightist "legitimacy" depends upon it.

International

Cuban Call for Global Labour Rights

by Liam Phelan

Unionists from around the world detailed how globalisation was affecting workers in their countries and called for an international campaign to stop the erosion of working conditions.

The conference specifically focussed on the proposal by the US for a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

World Economic Research Centre Director Osvaldo Martinez described this as 'integration between the shark and the sardine.'

Martinez said Mexico was an example of what the FTAA would look like.

'You have 90 per cent of people living in poverty, a halving of the rate of economic growth and six million people losing jobs in the agriculture industry,' he said.

Martinez said the FTAA proposal was driven by an expansionist US economy which was battling against its own internal instability.

'The ghost of 1929 is haunting the American economy. Capitalism is in crisis and the only way it can survive is by exploiting the developing world.'

Unionists from 58 countries attended the conference and every speaker demanded more action against FTAA.

A delegate from Venezuala called for an international meeting to be held next year to finalise a campaign of opposition to the FTAA.

Meanwhile, Pedro Ross, leader of the Cuban trade union group, said a further meeting would be held in Habana on July 24 on the same issue.

All of the delegates who spoke at the conference called for an immediate end to the economic blockade of Cuba by the US, which one speaker estimated had cost the Cuban economy $US67 billion

Around 800 unionists were attending the International Tribune in Solidarity with Cuba and against Neo Liberal Globalisation in Habana on May 2. The meeting followed a massive May Day celebration in Plaza de la Revolucion the day before. A huge crowd chanted 'Annexation, no, plebiscite si' after Cuban leader Fidel Castro called on the people of Latin America to be given a say in whether their countries joined FTAA.

Liam Phelan attended the Tribune and May Day celebrations on behalf of the CFMEU.

Marta makes a big impression as she calls for justice

Barely tall enough to be seen over the rostrum, American textile worker Marta Bonilla made a huge impact on a hall of international unionists at a Cuban conference.

Speaking in Spanish, Marta explained how she and 450 other workers from the Hollander Home Fashions company in Los Angeles were sacked without warning.

They were negotiating with the family-owned business for decent superannuation when the company locked them out and brought in scab labour.

Marta said the Hollander workers have been on strike since 8 March, but the picketers faced violence and intimidation.

'The company ordered 40 peaceful strikers to be arrested. Three others have been hit by cars or trucks breaking the picket line. I myself was arrested and locked up. But I refused to be intimidated and, like many others, will continue to fight.'

Marta pleaded with the 800 delegates representing 200 trade unions from around the world for support.

'We are very determined to keep fighting. But we need your support if we are to win,' she told the International Tribune in Solidarity with Cuba and against Neo Liberal Globalisation, held in Habana on May 2.

Write to the Hollander Family and demand they give their workers a fair go: Hollander Home Fashions Corporation, 6560 West Rogers Circle, Boca Raton, Fl 33487, USA.

Or visit the textile worker's union, Unite, at http://www.uniteunion.org for more information.

Economics

The G-Word

*****************

Globalisation has become such a broad concept that it's now being used as a general term of abuse for the excesses of economic rationalism. At the same time, the spruikers of new technology businesses are employing it as a cutting edge promotional slogan.

But if globalisation's economic meaning is understood simply as the rapid growth in international trade and investment flows, and a corresponding rise in the influence of multinational corporations, then governments must develop clear policies to ensure the benefits of growth are shared by all in our communities.

Unions internationally have been responding to the negative aspects of trade liberalisation by calling for fairer global rules to protect people. A consensus based on four policy requirements would guarantee core labour standards, environmental protections, the sovereign role of national governments, and public and consultative negotiations on international agreements. These measures should underpin bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, including WTO rules.

The corporate argument against such measures - that they would threaten economic growth - is plain wrong. Perfect competition rarely exists in the real world; pure free markets are only a theory. The corporate community demands rules to protect its own interests. All trade and national economies are regulated to achieve outcomes that the market alone cannot deliver.

For national governments, the union-backed guarantees have the political advantage of addressing the concerns of working people and the legitimate concerns about globalisation being expressed across communities more generally.

At the protest-marred third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City last month, unions from across the continent united to lobby for these guarantees as a pre-condition for the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The Quebec summit came on the heels of Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile's visit to Washington where he talked up the prospect of a bilateral Australian-US Free Trade Agreement. The promise of vastly increased markets for Australian exports makes a good news story, but our lamb and sugar farmers are hard-headed enough to know that the real chance of a fair go from their competitors in those States that elected George W. Bush is virtually zero.

The ACTU and our American union counterparts two weeks ago reached agreement on guarantees for inclusion in any Australian-US trade deal. The union proposals are not radical or new. Western governments have been legislating to protect national interests and individual rights from business excesses since at least the 1830s, with the English legal origins of such controls stretching back to the organisation of the court system under Henry II in the 12th Century. Unions have been working for basic employee protections for more than a century.

What is new is the way powerful vested interests have been able to use the so-called free trade rules adopted by the WTO and in bilateral or regional agreements over the last decade in order to ratchet up pressure on national governments to minimise such controls. This is the real threat of globalisation. The fact that the same vested interests are tirelessly seeking government intervention to minimise entrepreneurial risk and maximise corporate profits is conveniently absent from their free trade rhetoric. The millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies granted by Australian governments this year to multinational companies is just the most recent example.

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's contortions in trying to explain why he blocked Shell's takeover of Woodside Petroleum on national interest grounds last week demonstrated just how difficult it is for our elected leaders to manage these issues without transparency.

The Business Council of Australia two months ago issued a paper calling for more corporate tax breaks and a watering-down of consumer protection and competition legislation in a campaign dressed up in patriotic concern about the threat of Australia becoming a "branch office" economy. When business leaders talk about economic reform, we can be assured that they are considering profits before people.

The highly successful business campaign to de-regulate world trade and investment has provided a perverse incentive for governments to abandon commitments to the rights of people and sacrifice their natural environments.

The lauded "trickle down" benefits for the poor have been exposed as a myth. The ACTU and unions around the world propose a fairer set of global rules that protect people, the environment, and our democracies.

Media

Birth Of A Nation

by Hamish McDonlad

	David Dare Parker

About the middle of last year in Dili, two United Nations policemen trying to bring some sort of order to the city's traffic made the mistake of pulling over Rosa Garcia for some infringement as she was driving out to a reporting assignment. Garcia, a slight figure with a toothy smile and black-rimmed specs who admits to a body weight of 45 kilos, argued her case so strenuously that the police, a New Zealander and an American, felt obliged to restrain her with handcuffs before charging her.

The Rosa Garcia case then occupied columns of space in the two daily newspapers of East Timor, hours of time at the weekly press conference held by the UN transitional administration, and when it eventually came before a magistrate was thrown out as too trivial. While the case might look like an example of media self-importance almost anywhere else, disrespect by journalists towards authorities in East Timor has got to be taken as a positive sign as this tiny tropical half-island gropes towards its own democracy, after 400 years of Portuguese rule and 24 years of occupation by Suharto-era Indonesia.

When some 130 practicing and would-be journalists got together in January for the inaugural congress of the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association it was clear that the local profession has a lot of work ahead of it. Held in the former teachers' college that was the famous UN headquarter and refugee asylum during the 1999 sacking of Dili, the congress was beset by the tropical downpours and frequent power cuts that make deadlines and printing schedules necessarily flexible in the wet season. Not that available printing presses are that reliable: on some days the papers come out as A3 photocopies, a feasible short-term substitute given that top circulation is only about 1200 copies a day for Suara Timor Lorosae and its rival Timor Post.

Hope of a more stable printing base comes from the redoubtable Bob Howarth of Queensland Newspapers, who has located a surplus Heidelberg press in Brisbane, and is cajoling funds from Australian media groups to have it refurbished, shipped up, and installed as a common facility in Dili.

Then there is language. There cannot be too many eight-page newspapers that employ four languages in each issue: the Bahasa Indonesia that most educated young people understand; the Tetum that is the most widely-spoken local language; the Portuguese chosen by the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) as the official language; and the English used by resident foreigners and most liftable from websites.

When Mario Carrascalao, a deputy to CNRT leader Xanana Gusmao, came along to give the inaugural address, his hour-long speech -- judging from the hum of conversation -- went past the ears of his young audience. Carrascalao was then prevailed on to give it again, in Indonesian, and this time it was marked by laughs and clapping in the right places.

Three periodicals -- Talitakum, Lalenok and Lian Maubere -- are trying to gain a readership for Tetum journalism, with the help of several foreign agencies, but their editors admit it is a pioneering business that involves building up a language that so far has not much of an abstract dimension. Many of the young journalists, like the newly recruited judges and other officials of the emerging state, are engaged in intensive Portuguese language study -- which Lisbon is funding in a burst of post-colonial generosity and guilt -- but clearly this generation will live and think in Indonesian. This is not necessarily a cultural ``sleeper'' left behind by the former occupiers, as the young Timorese are connected to their ``reformasi'' counterparts across the border rather than authoritarian elites, but it does point to a lasting source of tension in local political circles.

Nor can the fourth estate always look to enlightened attitudes from former freedom fighters or the guardians of universal human rights. As the congress was under way, delegates were aghast to learn that one UN foreign expert was demanding that all local newspapers provide a full set of clippings relating to her field of work --- and threatening to have any operating permits withdrawn if they did not. But aside from that, East Timor's young journalists are characterised by energy and curiosity, with several foreign journalists from Australia, the South Pacific, Indonesia, south-east Asia and Portugal invited to speak and field questions.

The sessions covered subjects such as globalisation, media ownership, rights of journalists, investigative reporting, the role of women, ethics, and broadcasting law. Touchingly, the delegates spent many hours listening to accounts of how the world's journalists covered their own tragic history. In my case, it was a thorough quizzing about the Balibo case, arising from the recent book written with Desmond Ball, and one young Timorese quickly cut to the chase: ``Who is guilty of killing the Balibo five?''

On the final day, the congress packed itself into a motorcade of borrowed vehicles and motorbikes, and headed up to the top of town to rename one of Dili's main streets as ``Press Freedom Avenue''. We all stopped 10 times in the rain to dedicate a new street sign to each of the 10 journalists who were killed covering East Timor's struggles in 1975 and 1999. At the end, where the avenue reaches the main Dili market, it was my turn to say a few words about Roger East, the Australian freelancer who refused the offer of evacuation ahead of the December 7, 1975 , attack on Dili by Indonesian forces and was captured and executed the next day.

Although I was unable to stay on myself, most of the congress participants went on the next day to Balibo itself to look at the site where the five newsman from Australia's Seven and Nine networks were killed in October 1975, and to join local people in viewing films made about that incident.

East Timor will continue to be in the news for Australia this year, as elections are due on August 30 -- the second anniversary of the vote for independence -- for a constituent assembly that will adopt a new constitution and then form itself into the new state's first legislature. After that, it can be predicted that interest will wane, unless there is serious political violence or militia challenges to the Australian and other foreign peacekeepers along the borders.

It would be shame if this is paralleled by any falling away of the support we are giving as journalists or media groups to the emerging fourth estate of Timor Lorosae.

* Hamish McDonald is foreign editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He covered the Indonesian annexation of East Timor as a freelancer in Jakarta in 1975-78, and then was part of the Walkley-winning team that covered the 1999 ballot for the SMH and The Age.

************

JOURNALISTS SUPPORTING JOUNALISTS

Fairfax journalists' contributions to the IFJ Safety Fund are aiding media development in East Timor.At the urging of media outlets struggling to function and survive with minimal resources, an allocation of more than $35,000 of Fairfax-raised funds from 2000 was given to support the establishment of a media resource centre in East Timor and to provide training for Timor journalists and the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association.The media centre project, which is being organised with APHEDA, will help forge new and independent print and broadcast media, was also able to assist with the inaugural congress of the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association in January 2001.The media centre support project has obtained mobile media broadcast and training equipment, provided email access, a library of document and equipment resources, and facilitated workshops towards the development of East Timor¹s new broadcast legislation.Under the Alliance program, Australian journalists will be involved in the ongoing training and support for journalists and organisers in East Timor. If journalists would like to volunteer for short term placements in the media centre, contact Jacqui Park on (02) 9333 0941 or at jpark@meaa.aust.comIf you would like to contribute to the IFJ safety fund please send a cheque or money order to the IFJ Safety Fund, c/- MEAA, 245 Chalmers St, Redfern NSW 2016.

Review

The Tremulous Hopes of the Fifties

by Harry Knowles

***************

As someone who grew up during the Fifties, I tend to remember it as a time when I surfed with my mates at unpolluted city beaches on balmy sunny days and always had enough pocket money for a Coke or milkshake and entry to the 'pictures' on Saturday afternoon. The country seemed to run itself. I was always outfitted neatly for each school year and I don't remember my parents wringing their hands over the prospect of rising interest rates, high inflation, unemployment or an imminent Communist invasion. My lower middle-class parents were not 'well off' but I cannot remember ever wanting for much.

This is a false impression of what Australia was like in the 1950s. It is in many ways a mythical depiction of middle-class Australian society as John Murphy reveals in his absorbing account of the period. I don't remember Barbara Porritt or her husband, Dennis. Barbara 'was' our one-millionth migrant to arrive since the War. She and her husband, a young couple from Yorkshire, arrived on the liner Oronsay in Port Phillip Bay on 8 November 1955.

Once docked, some 60 journalists and cameramen representing newspapers, radio and newsreels boarded the ship for interviews and photographs. Harold Holt, the Minister for Immigration was there to officially welcome the couple.

Over the next few days, Barbara was presented to a 'Pageant of Nations' in the Myer department store, greeted by Scottish pipers and a guard of honour of women in the national dress of some twenty representative countries. There was an official welcome by the National Council of Women and attendance at special church services marking Immigration Week. Yet as Murphy tells us it was not coincidence that Barbara was British, a nation which accounted for a mere quarter of net migration. She had in fact been pre-selected by the Immigration Advisory Council who determined that the millionth migrant should be "pre-selected from within Great Britain" and should ideally be "a Scotsman and his family". This latter criterion Murphy ascribes to 'a knee bent to Menzies' own Scottish heritage' although it was later altered to permit anyone from Britain. Barbara was chosen by the chief migration officer in London. As Murphy observes, the manner of stage-management was "part of a broader pattern of managing public acceptance of social and cultural change".

Murphy uncovers some fascinating debates in women's magazines of the time on matters which we've more or less been led to believe were taboo for the period - questions of sexuality within marriage and the career-woman versus the homemaker. So too in the realm of economics. Murphy exposes the economic crises of the early fifties: high inflation (18% in 1951), a 'horror' budget, a recession and a balance of payments crisis saw Labor take a 16% lead over the Menzies' Government in a mid-year opinion poll in 1952. The lead was a satisfying 9% a year later and most of the dissatisfaction was amongst conservative voters. So much for the fifties 'boom'.

Imagining the Fifties is about a generation shaped by the experiences of the Depression and a world war who invested "in domesticity and responsible citizenship with tremulous hopes of security and prosperity. This generation was then moulded into a "constituency for liberal conservatism among the middle class". Murphy ably demonstrates the extent to which its private sentiments influenced the political culture.

John Murphy, Imagining the Fifties.

Private Sentiment and Political Culture in Menzies' Australia, (UNSW Press, 2000)

Satire

Teen Angst Poems a “Danger”

by The Chaser

Department sources claim that one student had written "subversive" and "homicidal" lyrics such as 'The principal has made me sad/ I think I could do something bad'. The department took the threat seriously following reports that the student had been stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and naming them after Beat Poets.

Another student had threatened to poison her classmates with "all the anger I've been storing up inside".

The widening scandal follows revelations last week by NSW Education Minister Mr John Aquilina that a boy from Cecil Hills High had been plotting to murder his classmates with his father's gun. Police deny the boy had access to a gun.

The boy's family immediately called for an apology. "Look, we admit our boy's a psycho," his father said, "but he's no gun-waving psycho. That was going too far."

Teachers at the Cecil Bay High say they were happy with the boy's work. "His creative writing contributions were exceptional," said Miss Parker, his English teacher. "In my line of work you get used to teen-Satanists and gang-banging, but he had a really vivid mind. I've never had such a revealing essay on 'my favourite animal'. It takes real imagination to think up all those things to do with a single cat."

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has called for a Royal Commission into Adolescent Angst. "Frankly, I'm sick of being the target of HSC lampoons. The government as a whole is very concerned. After all, protest poems killed Thatcher."

The Soapbox

Bob Ellis' May Day Toast

	Ellis Rallies the Comrades

**************

The Beazley victory nears, and its work daily eroded as the frantic wriggling, backbiting Tories go down with all guns blazing. Wrecking and laying waste and shuffling off our shrinking billions to swine like Doug Moran, big oil companies, smashing the ABC and starving the universities and shaming the civilisation.

Every time George Bush says jump - and they jump.

Six months after the Olympic Games, when we proved we could do anything and that we are all better than anyone on earth, the cultural cringe is back - is suddenly back - and the self doubt and the excuses and the drunkenly tottering dollar shows Costello economics has reached no high point and stands with a couple of pencils hoping for the kindness of strangers. Presenting a nation that is so unkind to its own people, and so cruel to refugees, does not attract the attention of those of greater stability who, when asked to buy our dollar and prop it up, say "No thanks" - and rightly so.

What we have lost is immeasurable. Millions of happy childhoods and families forced to sell up and move. Hundreds of thousands of marriages ended by despair. Tens of thousands of university places - tens of thousands of good teachers walking out in disgust from their public, schools, and TAFEs and colleges no longer worth their passion.

Hundreds of millions in golden handshakes or government handouts to men as worthy as Chris Corrigan or Jonathan Shier.

Thousands of destroyed young lives to heroin, alcohol and adolescent suicide - in which we lead the world.

And worst of all that minimal of hope - of reasonable hope - that good times might be eventually coming, that would essentially make bearable most Australian lives. Though some things can be retrieved from the wreck, this most precious national boon I fear cannot, and things are different now.

And we are in deep trouble and the sorrows of Hanrahan are now ours. Our dream has gone sour and no sugar coating of appropriate fine phrases can sweeten it anymore.

All over the world today MAY DAY. A word that in French means "help me". The gold plated scum at the heart of our terror are being rightly and impotently accused of all the wrong and sorrow that is on us. But they will not be moved I think by a few bearded scufflers seen on television so briefly, and so soon gone.

They will not be deprived of the billions they have grown fond of, merely because it is said on Four Corners that what they do is cruel. They will fade into oblivion under retrospective curses of history, only by thousands willing to take some heat for a while, as the New Zealand government is. Till the enemy towers of the megapolis begin to totter as the seismic movement spreads its cracks and groanings to the corners of the world.

We are not helpless but we are not well armed. When the most successful globalist in mankind's history, Rupert Murdoch, is running most of our newspapers and much of the world's cable media, and even in theory he owns that greatest of Marxist propaganda tools - the Simpsons. When even our national broadcaster is in the hands of a hydrophobic dwarf, who as a young, Liberal president in Victoria, back when Alston was his vice president - we cannot truly be said to have a voice. Freedom of speech involves the freedom to be heard, and when all of our speakers are down, and all the headlines erased from history, we cannot truly be said to have a voice, a face, a being, a story to be told.

Where we can be heard, or I think we can be heard, is in the council of the Labor Party, or what is actually called the Labor Party.

When Mark Latham is not telling me that his model does not include the union movement. In this, their run up to certain victory from a standing start in Ryan - that extrapolated across Australia would give them 120 seats out of 148.

The Labor Party must be told, and eloquently told, that there is no honour in a world system that says that if we are to compete with slaves we must become slaves ourselves.

The Labor Party must be told - and I'm not entirely convinced that they will listen - that the level playing field is just another flat earth theory! And there never was, and there never could be a way that Mynor cordials could compete on an equal playing field with Coca Cola, or an Annandale animation company with Disney - or Impulse with Qantas - or The Chaser with Kerry Packer!

The Labor Party must be told that the people, the common people, are being spun a wicked fantasy that there will be joy in the morning when everything settles and the rich man's crumbs trickle down to the fakirs at his feet. And nothing that leaves this country in billions in say, Kerry Packer's fat wallet, or Kerry Packer's credit card, and is lost in a gambling den in Soho, somehow by osmosis comes back to us.

Globalism is a way of getting out of us the most possible work for the least possible wages. Globalism is built on the certitude that there will always be a country poorer than ours that will do the work for even less. Globalism is a way of ensuring internationally that no apples grow anymore in Tasmania; and no sugar cane in Queensland; and no cows are milked anymore in New South Wales; and no clothing made in Victoria - because out there in a wondrous international playing field, competitors on $20 a week or $14 or $10, are more efficiently producing food and clothing and radios, and wondering why there is no one with money anywhere to buy them.

Well, I can tell them why this is. If you don't have wages, then you don't have customers, and if you don't have customers you don't have industries; and if you don't have industries you pretty soon have this Banana Republic we had to have - this nation of peasants transformed in only three generations to a nation of wankers!

And this ghastly, constant feeling that we do not really know where we will be living in three months time, and what will be our income and who will be our dependents, and what will be the humiliating job (if any) by which we earn our scrap of toast and vegemite; and disappoint our children at Christmas and school, and through their shocked and desolated lives of change; and parents fighting and drugs and petty crime and early death my misadventure.

You have got to just wonder why people this month and last month are not out and spending. Why would they be? People are more like children I think and less like robots than economic theory would have us believe. If they are struck they bruise. If they are bashed they bleed. If they are starved or scared, they crawl away to their bedrooms to hide their heads beneath the blankets, hoping the nightmare will pass. And if it does not they weep and they despair.

Australia is back in despairing stage now - six months after the Olympic Games, because a hydrophobic government in its penultimate frenzy, biting off its own limbs and bleeding all over the house, does not understand where it is going, and cannot comprehend the chaos and the suffering it has wrought. And it has no future. John Howard will lose his seat. And Peter Reith will lose his seat. And Alexander Downer will lose his seat to a Democrat! And John Anderson will lose his seat to an independent! And Peter Costello may lose his seat - it's possible.

If the election ride here is on July 8th and it may well be that on July 9th a Liberal Party as small as the Queensland Liberal Party made up of Petro, Georgio and Brendan Nelson and Chris Gallup, and no one else, will begin a titanic shuffle for the leadership of the Party.

And it will all seem fine for a while until the Beazley government and its multitudinous backbenchers will have to bite the bullet and do the obvious and protect or not that which must be protected. And re-acquire or not that which must be re-acquired - like 10 more percent of Telstra; and 20% of Qantas, and 50% of the Commonwealth Bank. And having these very basic things with Labor - raise taxes and raise tariffs and whatever trade bans on countries that enslave their people are necessary - and finance the inevitable expense of the civilised nation that we remember and want back.

For this end will come. Our democracy in all its parts is demanding it. And if it is a deal with a passion and an aim that does it, or a deal with a newly emerging Save the ABC Party, holding in the Senate the balance of power, it will come, however much the rationalist fantasists of Beazley's office try and put such thoughts from their mind, however much that fervent Young Liberal, Mark Latham, writing in the Telegraph, of an all wide market that is merciful to all, the end will come, and if the end begins in New Zealand or Russia, or Malaysia, or an independent Scotland or an independent state it will come.

The great thing about globalism is that if two countries are not in it, it isn't globalism anymore. And like the Holy Roman Empire it becomes a ghost, a sham, a memory, a misty nothing. A religion proclaimed but unserved. And the end may be soon. I said this in 1992, and I cannot in this be trusted, but hope has a way of rising and rainbows briefly appearing then soon are gone.

We have at any rate no choice but to do what we must in the time that we have and fight the good fight under the ever-fluttering Red Flag against the powers who flinch and the traitors who sneer, and the Lathams who turn from angels into gremlins and poisonous beasts.

To fight the good fight with the weapons we have and to use the songs and shoe leather and spoken word as it passes from soul to soul and stirs a moment of hope or rage and bears fruit and fire and eventual change.

It is hard to put a date on the coming of the good, and it is always unwise to hope too much, but it will come, it is destined - or if it is not, it is in our power to speed its moment, to glow in the coal of the heart of people, to ignite the eternal flame of the rage for change that is finally revolution.

Something is happening here and you don't know what it is do you Alan Jones?

Pray God that we can see the day at last. The May Day that we love and here exalt and make it our own. And sing this to any stupid theme. See they are the True Believers, seize the hour and seize the day, seize the moment that man's hope is high and that moment filled. May that moment live forever more, whatever price you pay. Keep it bright and keep it burning on - the light on the hill!

The Locker Room

Yoga: Our New National Sport

by Anne Lawson

And name a sport that has more practitioners. If you're not a yoga junkie yourself, your partner, friends, family surely are. If not, who are you ... WHAT are you??

Okay, in its current form, yoga is not exactly sport in the truest sense. But then again, we found a place for synchronised swimming in the Olympics.

With a few simple rules and complex scoring system administered by very relaxed men in white coats, we have a game.

With yoga, every man, woman and her dog is a winner. It's a game where bulk is not an issue, nor speed, nor the ability to whip up a sweat. John Hopoate starts on a level playing mat with Blanche D'Alpuget.

Player motivation and competitiveness is always a problem with yogis. It's getting them to move beyond concepts of internal and individual balance, and to see the other players as interlopers, the enemy rather than some harmonious manifestation of world balance. But this can be overcome. Opening their eyes and checking out what the other competitors are doing would be a good start. Down, Hoppa.

The game will be based on the execution of a series of ancient asanas (poses and postures) and pranayama (meditation) that will have players literally head-over-heels. Unlike other sports where speed and might is the winning concept, points go to the player who get to the post with the least hullabaloo. It's subtle, but worth the effort!

So how do we identify the players. The yogis are bound to object to a traditional numbering system as hierarchical, and colour coding as mood altering. Perhaps players can be distinguished by Sanskrit symbols on their foreheads.

With the footy season in full swing, we're used to having commercial breaks after every goal. So, when Jonathon Shier spots the potential in a yoga-led recovery for the ailing ABC, it will be no problem to accommodate the restful bout that follows each activity sequence. It's that balance thing again.

Crowd control should be a breeze! Finally a cure for those rugby league fans banished for their overzealousness. Bulldog aficionados can fill the yawning gap in their lives with the Saturday afternoon yoga game.

Try trashing the Bankstown Express after two hours of deep breathy silence .... Because of course the spectators will have to remain silent. We did it for during the Paralympics handball (or was it soccer) for the blind, when the players had to respond to the tinkle of a bell.

I'll be looking forward to the inaugural Yoga Test Series against India. We might have as little competitive success on the sub-continent as Australian cricket teams of the past 30 years, but at least we can 'lose' without the sledging, the tantrums and the betting scandals.

Anne Lawson is a Director of Lodestar Communications

Trades Hall

Paul Howes’ Week on the Web

Teachers Start Election Campaign Online

The National Office of the Australian Education Union has just launched a Federal Election website aimed at providing information about public education in the lead up to this year's Federal Election.

Located at http://www.aeufederal.org.au/election the site is lacking in ascetics but comes through with plenty of info. It seems that the Nation Union of Teachers in the UK have also latched onto this idea and launched an election website in the lead up to the UK General Election this year http://www.education-election.org.uk/.

M1

Well it's now clear that capitalism survived the M1 mobilisation outside the Sydney Stock Exchange, it seemed for a while when the protesters moved into Pitt Street that capitalism might crumble, but at the last moment the bourgeoisie rallied their forces of global capital and defeated the working class martyrs of M1. Such is life.

However if you missed the revolutionary uprising you can check out the highlights online at the M1 website http://www.m1alliance.org. Is it just me or isn't it ironic that the anti-globalisation protesters use the tools and benefits of globalisation to organise?

Netslaves

Netslaves have done an interview with our very own editor Peter Lewis which is worth checking out http://www.netslaves.com/comments/988711484.shtml, it deals directly with the Labor Council's proposal to build and I.T. Workers' website http://www.labor.net.au/forums/itworkers/ and addresses other issues to do with LaborNET and Workers Online.

Big Brother, Big Bore

With the Big Brother craze sweeping Australia, I thought I would take some time out to check out their website http://www.bigbrother.com.au. It's a good site obviously had plenty of cash pumped into it, but frankly I find the whole concept boring, in fact I'm think about starting a petition to get Channel Ten to put the Seinfield re-runs back on instead of watching 12 pretty freaky people run around in a Branch-Dravidian style compound scratching their arses on national television.

Inside North Korea

Not many sites exist that provide information on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea more commonally known as North Korea but I did find a view and they are well worth checking out for entertainment value.

"The People's Korea" http://www.korea-np.co.jp/pk/ site is run out of Japan and features lots of classic 1950's Stalinist propaganda on the Great Socialist Paradise that is North Korea.

"The Korean News" http://www.kcna.co.jp/ is another site run out of Japan but is the Official mouthpiece for the Central News Agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Check out all the news and gossip from Pyongyang in news items such as "EU delegation gives luncheon for Kim Jong Il" or "Kim Jong Il inspects KPA unit no. 655" and "Kim Jong Il's birthday celebrated"

If you have a site you want Paul to review let him know mailto:p.howes@labor.org.au

Tool Shed

Shane Stone – Soft Touch

Let's face it, it's all very well to accuse Howard, Costello and Co for being "mean, tricky and out of touch". But this is just a positive gloss on their performance of the past five years.

We at Workers Online have received yet another leaked memo from a source not far away from the office of Stone, where the real feelings of the Queensland MPs are chronicled.

Far from being a hard-hitting expose, this document exposes the Stone memos as a snow-job, glossing over the real problems the Howard Government faces.

Here are some extracts:

John Howard is a limp-wristed pansy. He is soft on drugs, soft on im'grants, soft on Ab'rignles and his position on guns is down-right tree-huggin'.

And if they don't like the message, we challenge them to a boat race and an all-in brawl. Then we'll see who's tough.