Pip Hinman
Maureen has worked hard all her life, beginning at age 15 at the giant vegetable cannery Edgells, and later as a nurse. It’s only been in her middle age that Maureen has been able to tackle her tertiary preparation certificate at TAFE, and it was there that her contemporary Australian history lecturer introduced her to Green Left Weekly.
“My father also worked for Edgells”, she told me. “He was the union rep there. We all worked very hard at that factory, and, of course, the conditions for women were very bad.” Maureen, like millions of others, is incensed that the PM doesn’t think workers should be getting wage rises. “What right has John Howard got to say that when he’s getting more than his due?”
Maureen said that when she first saw Green Left Weekly she was amazed, “because it addressed so many of the things I’m concerned about”. It’s also opened a window into a new world of struggle: she’s very keen, for instance, to find out more about the revolution unfolding in Venezuela, so much so that she’s prepared to hop on a bus and travel many kilometres to hear the new Venezuelan charge d'Affairs, Nelson da Davila Lameda.
Green Left Weekly is the only Australian newspaper with a bureau in Caracas, something we’re very proud of. (The establishment media don’t seem to think that the revolution in Venezuela is newsworthy.) Our barefoot journalists are having a life-changing experience there (see page 11) and sending so many stories we’re having trouble fitting them all into the paper each week (although they are available on <http://www.greenleft.org.au>).
It’s been an eventful year — we’ve attempted to illustrate some of its up and downs in the centre pages. Venezuela has given a massive injection of confidence that fundamental change can happen in the 21st century. And the massive November 15 protests against Work Choices revealed, once again, the possibilities for struggle and change here.
This is our final issue for 2005 — and we’d like to warmly thank all those who contributed to our emergency fund appeal (which took us over target!) and those, like Maureen, who took a small bundle of papers to distribute each week. The first issue for 2006 will be dated January 18.
If you’d like to pitch in, as Maureen is doing, in 2006, please get in touch at <piph@greenleft.org.au>. Finally, if you want to help ruin John Howard’s Christmas, take out a subscription to Green Left Weekly for yourself or a friend (go to <http://www.greenleft.org.au/subscribe.htm>).
Seasons greetings!
From Green Left Weekly, December 7, 2005.
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