F E A T U R E S

Interview: As They Say In The Bible ...
One the movement’s great characters, Public Service Association general secretary Maurie O’Sullivan, is calling it a day. He looks back on his career with Workers Online.

Industrial: Just Doing It
Sportswear giant, Nike, is the first company to sign off on an agreement that purports to protect Australian clothing workers, wherever they labour, writes Jim Marr.

Unions: Breaking Into the Boys Club
For a 23-year-old woman who has never worked in the trade, recruiting young construction apprentices into the union has its challenges, reports Carly Knowles.

Activists: Making the Hard Yards
Mal Cochrane came to the smoke as part of an Aboriginal avalanche that redefined the face of Rugby League. Today, he serves his community through the trade union movement.

Bad Boss: In the Pooh
What do you give a boss who makes his workers labour in raw sewage? A nomination for the Tonys.

Unions: National Focus
In the national wrap Noel Hester finds a Victorian Misso delo who is redistributing lucre from Eddie McGuire into workers’ theatre, South Australian unions taking that Let’s Get Real stuff seriously, an American unionist fronts up at a distinguished ‘meeting of the brains’ in Adelaide and a look at the line up for ACTU Congress.

Economics: Pop Will Eat Itself
Dick Bryan wonders if we can be insured against pop economists promising financial nirvana as well as financial market instability.

Technology: Dean for President
Paul Smith looks at how the internet is helping one Democrat candidate to the front of the primary pack

International: Rangoon Rumble
Union Aid Abroad's Marj O'Callaghan looks at Australia's weak response to developments in Burma.

Education: Blackboard Jungle
Lifelong learning shouldn’t mean cutting jobs, but that's exactly what the Carr Government is proposing, argues Tony Brown

Review: From Weakness to Strength
Labor Council crime-fighter Chris Christodoulou catches up with his boyhood hero, the Incredible Hulk

Poetry: Downsized
Resident bard David Peetz pens the song the Industrial Relations Commission needed to hear

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Cleaning Up
Rabbi Laurie Coskey from San Diego adds her voice to the global campaign for just for cleaners in Westfield malls.

The Locker Room
The Name In The Game
In an age of the sportsperson as celebrity it seems that names are overtaking the games, writes Phil Doyle.

Postcard
The Beach
Southern Thailand’s terrorist activities: facts or fiction asks HT Lee

E D I T O R I A L

A Recipe for Conflict
Without making any excuses, Tony Abbott’s hand wringing at this week’s airing of a secret video of picket line violence was a bit like watching Don King condemn boxing.

N E W S

Aussie Workers Cradle-Snatched

Morris McMahon Workers Say Thanks

Violence: Emerson Fingers Abbott

Cowboys Face Contracts Ban

TUTA Rises From the Ashes

Teased Teachers Fight Back

Labor Fails TAFE Test

Coke Called on to Stop the Rot

Bridgestone Drops Doughnut on Workers

AIRC Locked in Dark Ages

Maternity Breakthrough in Hotels

Labour Rights: Even Bush is Better!

Long Winter for Seasonal Workers

Activist Notebook

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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The Name In The Game

"I'm not great. I'm just a man trying to get along" - Joe DiMaggio

It's a sign of the parlous state of the nation when someone such as Llittle Lleyton can be the Young Australian Of The Year. Llitigous Lleyton was ignominiously bundled out of Wimbledon this year with all the poise and grace of Damir Dokic. Lleyton may or may not be bigger than the sport itself - that opinion would depend on whether you were talking to his parents or someone else - but he is a wonderful example of the aphorism that no one in sport is useless, they cam always be used as a bad example.

The bewildering events at Wimbledon followed a frank and open exchange of views in the L.A. Times between Anthony Mundine and Cathy Freeman. This, in turn followed on by an equally bizarre exchange between 'Gus' Gould and the Johns boy from the coalfields prior to the State or Origin.

League may or may not be a team game. That would depend on whether you're talking to a coach or a players agent.

The recent ructions at the Sea Eagles are a case in point. Peter Sharp has announced he will quit the club because he had the full support of the board. Meanwhile Ken Arthurson and Paul Vautin are fighting over the car parking space at Brookvale in another display of team ahead of ego that will bring pleasure to the hearts of many North Sydney supporters.

North Sydney was once a team. Then it became Jason Taylor. Then several other players also wanted to be Jason Taylor, or at least Jason Taylor's bank account, until the whole show was knocked down at auction to some clowns from the Northern Beaches and used as top dressing up on the Central Coast at a stadium that appears to be run by John Singleton. It used to be called Graham Park, but they had to get rid of the name.

In getting caught up in the celebrityfest that is modern sport we forget about some other names: The Forrestville Ferretts, the Warrilla Gorillas, The Maitland Pumpkin Pickers, The Parkes Spacemen and the Charlestown Butcher Boys are all real teams that compete in something called Rugby League.

Rugby League is a game played between thirteen players controlled by a referee. Not thirteen players, seven skills coaches, numerous trainers, a psychologist, a dozen PR flacks, several managers, a marketing guru, an overrated actor or three, two media Moguls and a partridge in a pear tree all controlled by market forces.

I think we can all take a leaf out of the Warilla Gorilla's book. They have some great players, but I have no idea who their names are.

Phil Doyle - catching his breath during a break in play.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005