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February 2003   
F E A T U R E S

Interview: Agenda 2003
ACTU secretary Greg Combet looks at the year ahead and how a union movement can keep the focus on the workplace at a time of global crisis.

Peace: The Colour Purple
Local communities across Australia are taking stands against war by displaying purple banners. Jim Marr visits one.

Industrial: Long, Hot Summer
As Workers Online took its annual break, the world kept turning � at an increasingly alarming velocity.

Solidarity: Workers Against War
Joann Wypijewski reports on how union locals in the USA are fighting the hounds of war at home.

Security: Howard And The Hoodlums
With all the talk of terror, the Howard Government�s Achilles heel is its tolerance of Flags of Convenience shipping , writes Rowan Cahill

International: Industrial Warfare
Scottish freight train drivers have already acted to disrupt the war effort in the UK with crews of four freight trains carrying war supplies to ports walking off the job, writes Andrew Casey

History: Unions and the Vietnam War
The Vietnam experience steered some unions towards social activism for the first time. Unions are today key players in the anti-war movement, writes Tony Duras.

Review: Eight Miles to Mowtown
Mark Hebblewhites looks at two summer movies that tap into different sounds of American culture - white boy rap and motown blues.

Poetry: Return To Sender
Resident bard Divd Peetz discovers that Elvis has become the latest shock recruit to the peace cause.

Satire: CIA Recruits New Intake of Future Enemies
CIA Director George Tenet announced today that the agency has begun recruiting future enemies for the year 2014.

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Getting On with The Job
Premier Bob Carr chose Trades Hall as the venue to launch Labor's IR policy for the upcoming state election.

Postcard
Justice in Bogota
Sydney lawyer Ian Latham knows how to pick them. He�s gone straight from the Cole Royal Commission to justice Colombian-style.

The Locker Room
Heart Of Darkness
There is a school of thought that there is, in fact, only one World Cup - and it doesn�t involve cricket, writes Phil Doyle.

Politics
Danger Mouse
John Howard's politics have trapped him into supporting an unpopular war. He is in political trouble, Leonie Bronstein argues.

E D I T O R I A L

A Call To Arms
Workers Online returns from our summer break to face a world on the brink, the structures of global cooperation being crushed by the iron will of the earth�s last remaining superpower.

N E W S

 The Cuffe Link � Taxpayers Cough Up

 Carr: Secret Lib Plan to Slash Public Sector

 Abbott Comes Out Swinging

 Thanks a Million: Cole�s Lawyers Clean-up

 Corrigan Dogs On Jobs Promise

 Gnomes Fess Up � Unionism Best For All

 Owens Survives 30-Year Ban

 Ribs and Rumps Something for Government to Chew On

 Badges of Honour

 Guards Rail Against Assaults

 Workers Online Scoops Global Prize

 Currawong Must Pay It�s Way

 Let�s Get Real! 2nd Australasian Organising Conference

 Guard Knocked Out in Villawood Escape

 Activists Notebook

L E T T E R S
 Bouquets and Brickbats
 War Talk
 A Tale of Two Malls
 Talk Back Tom
 On The Beach
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Poetry

Return To Sender


Resident bard Divd Peetz discovers that Elvis has become the latest shock recruit to the peace cause.

As requested by the Government, Australians have been writing all over the $15 million of anti-terrorist fridge magnets sent to every household. Unfortunately, instead of writing useful anti-terrorist messages like "location of water meter" and "nearest hospital" sought by the brilliant authors of this campaign, they have mainly been writing "return to sender".

Naturally, we went back to the song by this name, made famous by Elvis himself, to summarise our feelings. If you don't know the tune, written by Otis Blackwell & Winfield Scott, you can listen to a midi version of it at http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/6472/elvis.htm.

And if you're looking for other songs to sing on the peace marches this coming weekend, you could do worse than John Robbins' parody, "If you're happy and you know it, Bomb Iraq!", available at available at http://www.english-atheist.co.uk/clap.htm and many other websites.

Happy marching.

RETURN TO SENDER

by David Peetz

I got a package from the postman,
he pulled it from his sack.
But it made me quite alarmed,
So I alertly sent it back.
I wrote upon it:

Return to sender, address unknown.
No more fortress, no war zone.
But then the next day, it came right back
And what a shock I got when its contents I did unpack

It was a little John Howard doll
Waving arms and shouting whoosh
And the little card inside said
"Oil my love, George W Bush"
I wrote upon it:

Return to sender, address unknown.
No more bombings, no war zone.

This time I'm gonna take it myself
and put it where it belongs.
And if it comes back the very next day
I'll know there's still something wrong
I'll keep on writing:

Return to sender, address unknown.
No more bombing, no war zone.
Return to sender
Return to sender...


------


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