Anti-union culture in Centrelink
Union activists working at Centrelink have traditionally distributed printed material on workmates' desks as a primary means of communication about workplace issues. This practice has now been prohibited by Centrelink management. This is not a consistent policy across government agencies.
Why are there anti-union policies still arising from government agencies in an era of a Rudd Labor government? Because the government has not repealed Work Choices, management has decided that union-busting business can proceed as usual.
The Community and Public Sector Union has taken the agency to the federal court and the agency has withdrawn from certified agreement bargaining even though this communication issue is not directly related. Union activists will keep Green Left Weekly up to date.
Karl Miller
Canberra
Women: activists not victims
The letter from Jay Fletcher (GLW #768) is a classic example of the criticism voiced in our letter (GLW #766) regarding the "it's them who do it to us" approach.
While of course there's no denying that, in women's magazines, TV ads, etc., great pressure is placed on women to "present" in a particular way, we believe it's necessary to move past the "woman as victim" kind of thinking. The media are not god almighty: in order for them to keep on plying their lies and fraudulent claims about women's physical appearance, women have to go along with this - in a sense, be in partnership with the media.
But this can only happen if both parties are in collusion; once one of them is no longer interested, media pressure also will disappear.
In current times there are at least some women who simply ignore these aspects of the media: they have abandoned waxing, make-up, hair-dying, etc., and wear comfortable, practical clothes.
So the task, as we see it, is not to just bemoan the current state of affairs and leave it at that; we need to encourage and support women in their day-to-day lives so that they can actively resist the fatuous images seen in the media.
In particular, in the context of the current batch of letters, we need to show that wearing the burqa in the case of Muslim women and wearing sexually oriented clothes in the case of Western women are merely two sides of the same coin, one through which men control women.
Anne Horan
Blackheath, NSW
& Alison Bird
Yungaburra, Qld
Refugees and the Taliban
While I admire Karl Miller's passion for refugee rights, he (like many) has checkered vision when comparing western and non-western governments.
Karl Miller asserted "our government deserves harsher treatment from us than even the Taliban". The Tabilan are war lords, they are not democratically elected, and anyone who does criticise them does so in risk of their life.
Why does Miller think there were so many fleeing the Taliban's regime? In contrast, how many flee the Australian government's regime each year?
Further, Miller argues the "racist anti-immigration" policies of western nations result in potential refugees "staying and dying" in their homelands. While this in itself is a stretch, but possibly true in a few cases, by making this statement Miller implies the primary responsibility for the potential refugees dying rests with the Western government.
I would ask Miller, who in fact is doing the killing? The totalitarian government from which that person is fleeing or the western government you are so ready to criticse? Thus, who does the primary responsibility rest with?
While I agree our government deserves criticism, let's not have checkered vision and ignore the many criticisms that can and should be made against other governments as well. In doing so, we will be standing up for the citizens of totalitarian nations who don't have access to the same freedoms we enjoy here in Australia.
Luke Vanni
Wavell Heights, Qld