Unionism in the public service
The feature on "Reith's 'compete or perish' plan for the public service" (GLW #264) was spot on in its analysis of the current agenda of both the Howard government and APS management. Many CPSU members see the history of agency/enterprise agreements as the ongoing dilution of hard-won conditions of service.
The only chance to have any impact on the government policy of attrition was tossed out by Wendy Caird's refusal to follow members' call to act in concert with the ACTU in calling a national strike to protest Reith's iniquitous IR bill.
There is one glaring omission from the log of claims put forward for consideration by members, and that is industrial democracy. What we have currently as an ID policy is merely token CPSU consultation.
One example is the (about to expire) ATO Agency Agreement 1996/7. As a result of this band-aid measure to "ensure our protection from an imminent Howard government", the door was opened in Tax to "flexible working patterns" (i.e. 13 hour and 15 minute shifts and work point sharing), reducing per capita space to 15 square metres and compulsory relocation. What Trojan horses will the next agency agreement contain, I wonder?
We need to put participation in management processes on the agenda. The ultimate goal is to gain equal CPSU voting rights in all management decision-making forums. A long, long way from our current position, but if we don't set ambitious goals, the future will be a projection of the recent past, in which our voices will become progressively less audible, our conditions of service, pay and promotion opportunities totally subject to the whims of local management and our ability to provide an effective public service to all our clients totally destroyed.
@auth letter = Noel Bird
Brisbane
[Abridged.]
Soros' big lie
In reference to George Soros' article on free market ideology, I am not convinced that Soros is concerned about the effects of robber capitalism on its victims on this planet.
I believe he is concerned about the exposure of the big lie, that he, the powerful churches and big Business' sophisticated marketing promoted.
Soros' equation of Nazism and communist Governments is a continuation of the big lie. Nazism was and is the militant arm of Capitalism.
The Socialist Governments saved the world from the Nazi hordes in the 1940s at awesome cost to their infrastructure and leadership force.
The task of ridding ourselves of global capitalism backed up by Nazism confronts ordinary people with a costly and unequal struggle ahead.
@auth letter = Doreen Lofthouse
Pottsville NSW
[Abridged.]
ALP cynicism
Why, one might wonder, did the ACT Branch of the ALP apply to the Electoral Commission to change its name to the New Labor Party? Was it to signal big changes in ALP policy that might address past wrongs and win back the heartland?
Was it their intention to re-regulate the banking/finance sector and replace industry protection policies which have so badly affected the rural sector and other struggling Australian industries? What about recognition of the state of our hospitals, schools and other ailing public infrastructure and the real effects of privatisation and corporatisation? Would the problem of unemployment, closely related to the destruction of the public sector and the demise of Australian industry be tackled in the new ALP vision?
Alas, such policy changes are not the intention of the ALP.
The name change is nothing more than a cynical attempt to thwart the democratic process by preventing a new party, the New Labour Party, from registering its name. This new party does indeed want to reverse the tide of economic rationalism and give Australians a real political choice where none currently exists. The ALP is attempting to deny that choice and protect itself from the threat of a real labour party.
If the ALP is to change its name, might we suggest the acronym, ALP, should stand for Another Liberal Party. The New Labour Party could then simply become the Labour Party and a more accurate reflection of the political scene would be presented.
@auth letter = Kerry Barlow
Convener, New Labour Party
Sydney Branch
All shapes and disguises
While Â鶹´«Ã½'s cartoonist did his usual brilliant caricature of Niugini Prime Minister Chan, and Spicer's murder teachers, it is salutary to realise that mercenaries, assassins and coppers come in all shapes, sizes and disguises. In fact uniformed police are something of a sight-screen behind which the invisible observers operate. The most unexpected person is the one most likely to effectively do their highly paid dirty "work."
Young comrades seeking an external representation of an internalised stereotype will search for a long time. For many years now you can find coppers and assassins with the total "hippy" gear etc. And when you get to a park after a march beware of the derro who sits down beside you as you talk off your tension.
@auth letter = Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
Whistleblower Singirok
The crisis-in-PNG talk of arresting PNGDF Commander Brig General Jerry Singirok is no more than vengeance, flavoured with malice. If America is the global village "cop", does that make Sandline/Executive Outcomes, the global thugs and/or the global "rackets" enforcers?
In this country boy's opinion, Jerry Singirok has done little wrong. As a good CEO or department head he has attempted to alert shareholders as to what is really happening. At the same time knowing full well he would lose his job. Whatever his motives are, they will come clear with time. This could well be one of the all time whistle-blower events in my life.
It will be interesting to see the "dogs of war" for what they really are and the extremes to which people will aspire in their want of mammon.
@auth letter = R.E. Fuge
Nardoo Coolac NSW
Nuclear boom
"Territory poised for nuclear boom" reads the headline in a leading Northern Territory newspaper, the NT News of 12 March, over an article by Mr Leslie Kemeny, described as a specialist in nuclear energy, the uranium fuel cycle and energy and environmental engineering.
Does this boom happen when we get our uranium exports back in the form of a nuclear weapons attack?
It is bad enough for Australia to be described as "already the world's premier coal exporter", in other words, a major global contributor to the greenhouse effect. Now Mr Kemeny wants us to be the top supplier of uranium to the world.
He dangles carrots — "Australia could be ... earning revenue approaching $1 billion per annum". Mixes carrots and gobbledygook — "This mining activity ... would increasingly support the provision of an infrastructure for tourism and environmental concerns" (What is an infrastructure for tourism and environmental concerns?). More gobbledygook — "a perception of sociopolitical liability" and "ecological liability". He misuses words — "quantise" instead of "quantity."
He speaks of a peaceful uranium cycle. What peaceful uranium cycle? Every one of those countries will be using electrical power to produce armaments and every nuclear power station will produce plutonium that can be reprocessed for nuclear weapons.
He refers to an "initially irresponsible environment movement" from which we can deduce that the present environment movement is now socially responsible — in other words it has been taken over by the right people. He might be right.
He gives no indication of the relatively short window of time during which uranium supplies will be exhausted, leaving humanity in the same dire straits that it faces with fossil fuel supplies.
The major omission from the article is any reference to the fact that there is still no way of safely storing the radioactive wastes from these proposed nuclear power stations, nor is there any reference to the major increase in the consumption of raw materials and the consequent waste disposal problems. It is very, very biased and very, very misleading.
@auth letter = Col Friel
Alawa NT
ISO and Indonesian political prisoners
I was very disappointed to discover at a recent Student General Meeting at the Uni of Qld that members of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) did not vote for a motion put by Resistance that the student union donate $200 to assist the Indonesian political prisoners defence fund.
After the SGM finished I asked two members of the ISO why they did not vote for this motion. Their response disappointed me even further.
They told me that Resistance was profiting from the campaign to defend political prisoners in Indonesia. This is extremely insulting and totally inaccurate.
Resistance is a major contributor to the campaign to raise money for political prisoners in Indonesia. Across Australia Resistance holds band nights, film nights, organises hunger strikes and collects donations for the campaign. We regularly support events and actions organised by ASIET, the main organisation campaigning for human rights in Indonesia. If the ISO were involved in the defence of Indonesian political prisoners, they might know this.
I was also told that the ISO did not want to support any front groups for Resistance. By this I can only assume that they mean the People's Democratic Party (PRD), the organisation who most of the political prisoners belong to. The absurdity of this is astounding.
The PRD is the most significant force campaigning for democracy in Indonesia. This is why they have been singled out for repression by Suharto, and are held in jail possibly facing the death penalty.
If the ISO mean the campaign to defend the prisoners is a front group then I invite them to attend the next ASIET meeting to find out the truth. If the ISO does not change its policy towards solidarity with the PRD, then I hardly think they deserve to call themselves international or socialist.
@auth letter = Zanny Begg
Brisbane Resistance organiser
[Abridged.]