Analysis

Having ridden to power largely on the back of Australian people’s concern and anger over attacks on their rights and conditions at work, Labor have – a mere twelve months later – at last unveiled their shiny new proposed industrial relations legislation. So, what are we to make of it?
Green Left Weekly’s Zane Alcorn spoke to Sally Corbett, chairperson of the No Tillegra Dam group, which is seeking to have Hunter Water reverse their 2006 decision to build a dam comparable in size to Sydney Harbour near Dungog, about 90km out of Newcastle.
While governments worldwide push neoliberal policies including “free” markets, “free” trade (and lately “free” trillion dollar pay-outs to prop up businesses), new legislation from the Australian federal government indicates it does not want such freedoms for the population when it comes to what they may view on the internet.
The recent conviction and sentencing of Aboriginal man Lex Wotton has brought back into public discussion the shameful continuing suffering — and death — of Australia’s Indigenous people at the hands of the law.
“If these people can spend millions and millions on sending troops to fight other countries, why can’t they spend maybe a couple of billions just to save people, like ourselves; the marginalised, poorest of the poor. Why? Because we are taking the brunt, we are the victims of these green[house] gas emissions, the pollution made by industrialised countries.”
The following article is based on a speech given at the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance in Canberra.
“The surge in the vote for socialist candidates in the weekend Victorian local government elections shows that increasing numbers of working people are looking for candidates whom they trust to defend their interests as economic crisis looms”, Socialist Alliance Victorian State Convener Sue Bolton said on December 2.
The following is abridged from George Newhouse’s speech at the November 26 opening of “ARTicles — The Human Rights Declaration”, Amnesty International Australia’s 2008 art exhibition, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Green Left Weekly’s Simon Cunich spoke to Peter Kennedy, a coalminer and anti-coal activist and Graham Brown, who worked with Kennedy until retiring from mining last year. Both men were at a November 22 protest outside Eraring coal-fired power station, on the NSW Central Coast. Brown’s comments were recorded in September.
For all the misery it represents for ordinary people, there is at least one positive result of the current capitalist financial crisis. The idea of nationalisation is getting an airing again in the West, however squeamish capitalist leaders and pundits may be about using the actual word.
“Work Choices is tantalisingly close to being gone forever”, Labor’s workplace minister Julia Gillard said as she introduced the Fair Work Bill (FWB) on November 25.
Noel Washington is a senior vice-president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in Victoria. He has been a union organiser for 27 years. On December 2, simply for doing his job well, he faces a possible jail sentence under laws supported by the federal Labor government.