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Interview: Head On
John Buchanan has been warning that WorkChoices would be a car crash. Now he surveys the damage.
Unions: Do You Have a Moment?
CFMEU Mining national secretary Tony Maher lets fly at the new industrial laws.
Industrial: Vital Signs
In his new book, Craig Emerson argues that destroying unionism will not be in Australia's long term interests.
Economics: Taxing Times
Frank Stilwell argues that there are progressive alternatives to the slash and burn approach to tax reform.
Environment: It Ain�t Necessarily So
Don't let anyone tell you that jobs and the environment are opposities, argues Neale Towart.
History: Melbourne�s Hours
Neale Towart reluctantly pays homage to Victoria's celebration of the eight hour day.
Immigration: Opening the Floodgates
John Howard is deciding more and more foreign workers should come into this country - without the rights of citizenship, writes John Sutton,
Review: Pollie Fiction
For someone barely 25 years Sarah Doyle has an enviable track record in theatre behind her.
Poetry: The Cabal
Poetry returns to Workers Online with this rollicking ode to employer power.
Politics
Democracy in Action
Former NSW Premier Neville Wran's speech to commemorate 150 years of responsible government. Politics
The Westie Wing
There has been activity aplenty in the NSW Parliament this month, reports Ian West. The Soapbox
From Chaver to Cobber
John Robertson, Unions NSW Secretary, hosting Passover at Sydney Trades Hall discovers the first comrades followed a bloke called Moses. Postcard
Postcard from New Orleans
Mark Brenner surveys the long-term impact of Hurricane Katrina on the regions workers. The Locker Room
My Country Right Or In Lane Five
Phil Doyle observes the golden shower at the recent Commonwealth Games, and asks what it means for the last great unpredictable drama. Obituary
Vale Bill Hartley
Unlike some of his comrades, Bill Hartley never departed from his position as a radical nor did he die rich in assets, writes Bob Scates.
The Cowra Clause
The plight of the Cowra meatworkers is a fitting illustration of the way the new industrial laws will fundamentally shift the balance of relations in the Australian workplace.
 Abattoir Boss Slaughters Andrews
More Slaughter in South Australia
Pickets Won't Face Cannon
Teens Win Thousands
Praise the Laws
Where The Bloody Hell Is Our Contract?
Building Crusade Raids Pockets
Workers Shows Its Hand
It's All Yellow, Mine Barons
Lismore Nine Breaks Ranks
Uber Bosses Clean Up
Howard's Skills Solution: Sack Apprentices
Spineless Companies Block Safety
Boxall in Sickie Backflip
Activist's What's On!
Crap TV
Social Action
French revolution
Fan Mail
Belly Spreads The Word
All Out!
Lying Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Help Wanted
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Poetry
The Cabal
Poetry returns to Workers Online with this rollicking ode to employer power.
The Cabal
Thrice we have hit the jackpot
now we have the upper hand
we can stand on our heads
and in a circle we sing and hop.
Round about the cauldron go
in the defiant unions throw
with strikebound workers
with go-slow proletarians
with battlers, with underlings
with country bumpkins
You are first to boil and learn
that all your demands for fairness
will for ever be damned and burnt.
Double double toil and bubble
fire burn and cauldron bubble
collective bargains, leave loading
public holiday loading, overtime
unfair dismissal laws, safety net
weekend rates, redundancy pay
in the cauldron boil and bake
with the bosses' curse incinerate.
We are an economy now
not a society you know
common good is so wastefu
l
the infirm, the disable, the mad
must work, chip in and be grateful.
Deregulate, deregulate
liberate trade, liberate greed
play the game of cat and mouse
the fittest must have their treat.
Privatise, privatise
give the wheeler-dealers
and the marketeers a chance
to throw wide their dice.
We have not squeezed yet the lemon dry
bring in the squeezer for another try.
We are rational, we are grand
for the economy and the bosses we stand.
Round about the cauldron go
bring in 'WorkChoices'
bring in individual contracts
bring in the 'Fair Pay' commission
cool them down with euphemisms
advertise to camouflage their sting.
So they threw workers in the gutter
and now some look at the stars
for a four-leaf clover and 'WorkChoices'.
Behold,
feel the tremor, hear a subterranean sound
it vibrates through the world clearly and loud
it's the drum of history, the voice of justice:
"Be aware
of the conniving mendacious cabal
they can lie sometimes
but cannot hide the truth all the time.
Mark my word
their cauldron will soon explode
and they will be puffed out for ever more."
Yota Krili
Jan. 2006
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