Monthly Archives: December 2008

Rally: stop Israeli attacks on Gaza!

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 18 comments

Stop the Israeli attacks on Gaza!

End the massacre! Free Palestine!

RALLY

Saturday, January 3rd, 12:30pm

Queen’s Park (cnr Elizabeth & George Sts), City

Continue reading →

18 Comments

Posted in Middle East, No War, Recent, solidarity

Swindle Inc?

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | Leave a comment

Swindle Inc? (15 December 2008) by Humphrey McQueen

With the exposure of the $US50bn scam by NASDAQ chairman Bernie Madoff, another joint has fallen off the walking corpse that is real existing capitalism. This latest blow to confidence is astounding for its simplicity. Madoff paid dividends out of new investments. He could do so because of irrational confidence in his kind. Continue reading →

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Posted in News

How bad can get it?

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | Leave a comment

How bad can get it? (16 December 2008) by Humphrey McQueen

The Portuguese Communist and Nobel Prize-winning author, Jose Saramago published Blindness (1995) a novel in which an entire society loses the ability to see. Everything goes white. The blindness starts with a few cases, spreads, and becomes a pandemic. We can suppose that Saramago is thinking about ethical blindness. Nonetheless, for any moral to convince, he has to make us believe in the physical affliction. Continue reading →

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Posted in News

Release Montather al-Zaidi!

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 9 comments

The journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush has been taken into custody.

He is being held by the occupation forces in Baghdad.

He should have been freed without harm.

You can hear al-Zaidi scream as he is taken into custody! (see U-tube video below)

This is a call for anti-war activists, unionists, and journalists to defend al-Zaidi! To demand his immediate release.

He should not be punished for what he has done, he deserves a medal!

It is easy to duck flying shoes…

What did the Baghdad journo, Monthather al-Zaidi, say as he threw his shoes at George Bush?

We know that when the US military used the surge to stop the resistance, this did not work. Continue reading →

9 Comments

Posted in No War

Aside

Together with the images taken from the rally are two poems that were recited at the rally. To hear an audio of the rally click below and be patient. Sam-Watson’s- speech-on-human-rights — where Sam points out that little has been … Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted on December 13, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph

Workers BushTelegraph going into recess till Invasion Day, 26 Jan 2009

Posted on December 11, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 1 comment

Workers BushTelegraph is in recess from Human Rights Day 2008 (the rally and march is on Saturday 13 December 2008) till next year, perhaps Invasion Day on 26 January 2009, or later – March 2009 even. I am not sure.

If you have any more articles or missiles for 2008, please send them soon.

Thanks to all the contributors to Workers BushTelegraph in 2008. You are too numerous to name. This is because there have been over 1,000 comments posted on WBT since it started in July 2006. Thanks also to the people who have contributed to our feature articles — Ciaron O’Reilly, Jim Dowling & Anne Rampa, Humphrey McQueen and our eternal critic John Tracey. A special thanks to my partner who has put up with my long hours on the computer, day & night in 2008.

Finally a thanks to the LeftPress collective who have kept me grounded on our big project of the last 10 years – After the Waterfront – the workers are quiet.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in community, political economy, solidarity, Various

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Statement: Homeless World Cup Players

Posted on December 10, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 1 comment

Statement Concerning Homeless World Cup Players

10^Th December 2008

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre asks the media to respect the privacy of the players who may be seeking legal advice about their future. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in community, Middle East, News, No War

Human Rights: Stop the Siege of Gaza

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 6 comments

For several months, no years, the military siege of Gaza has been tightening.

Yet there has been near silence in the media in Australia.

However there are some reports from alternative news sources (in English) like Voice of Palestine, Al Manar, Press TV and Iraqi Beacon.

They all describe a grim situation for the people of Gaza.

Thanks to Sonja Karkar and Australians for Palestine for the video created on 9 December 2008 using images captured by various courageous photographers
on the ground in Gaza, and the haunting sounds of Sada (Echo), composed and played on the oud by Ahmad Al-Khatib.

Today, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 is Human Rights Day. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Middle East, News, No War

Solidarity public forum: what’s the future for childcare?

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 2 comments

Solidarity public forum

ABC Learning

Save the centres
Save the jobs

What’s the future for childcare?

Presented by Ian Rintoul (Solidarity)

7pm Tuesday 9th December

2nd Floor, TLC Building, 16 Peel St, South Brisbane

Organised by Solidarity, for more information ring Mark on 3891 5385

2 Comments

Posted in News

‘Something is rotten’ in the state of Victoria, in its University?

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | Leave a comment

Friends of Victoria University invite you to join National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members in largest ever mass-redundancy in Australian university history – 31 October 2008
industrial action.

This is a long running dispute. In February 2007 the NTEU issued a press release stating:

“Perhaps the worst aspect of VU’s behaviour is that it seems to be part of a consistent pattern of law-breaking by a number of universities over compliance with dispute-settling procedures. This is one of the reasons why the Union has launched this prosecution – university staff are entitled to have their Agreements adhered to, and to have disputes about their Agreements fairly resolved.”

See NTEU information at http://www.nteu.org.au//bd/vu and http://universitybargaining.com.au/vu-dispute/
Continue reading →

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Posted in political economy, Unions, Workers Political Organisations

Brisbane anti-war co-ordinating committee email list

Posted on December 6, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 1 comment

Rally against Israel's invasion of Lebanon in Queens Park Brisbane in Jul 2006 (organised by the Anti-war coordinating committee and Stop the War Collective)

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Anti-War Co-ordinating Committee in Brisbane, Australia.

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Email Address: BAWCC@googlegroups.com

The 17 Group discussion: George Orwell and Rugby League

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | Leave a comment

“Amor, morte, poesia, política, actualidade, futebol, efemérides, solidão, paz, humor, musica…tudo e nada;
Here we talk about life, love, death,
On this day in History, poetry, politics, football (soccer), solitude, peace, humour, music … nothing and all”

from Nothingandall

The Great Rugby-League-discussing December Meeting and selflessly Trotsky-endorsed Christmas Party (but don’t bring Trotsky) of the 17 Group –

Wednesday the 3^rd of December

at unit 6, 20 Drury St, West End

at 7 pm.

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Posted in News, sport

Tagged Working Class Culture

Australia-Cuba Friendship Society Invitation

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | Leave a comment

The (Brisbane) Australia-Cuba Friendship Society
invites you to our end-of-year movie

La Vida Es Silbar (Life is To Whistle)(1998)

Wed December 10
QCU Building
Level 2, 16 Peel Street, South Brisbane
ACFS meeting: 6:30 p.m.
Film: 7:00 p.m.
Bring a plate to share

An award-winning comedy about Cuban identity. Set to the music of Bola de Nieve and Benny More, the film dazzles us with a uniquely Cuban blend of absurdist humor and mystical realism. Continue reading →

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Posted in Film, solidarity

A small win against a bad law for workers

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 1 comment

There are many anti-worker laws out there. Also the way they are applied discriminates against workers.

One example is the case of customs officer, Shane Day, who won in the High Court against the tax commissioner on the issue of legal expenses incurred by him during his unfair dismissal case. Shane Day had to take the ATO commissioner to the High Court to win his legal expenses.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in News

The Voice of the Workers

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Workers BushTelegraph | 3 comments

Report from Building Unions Rally, Queens Park Brisbane on 2 Dec 2008.

: Building where her partner and fellow worker died

At the rally two women came up on stage – one was the partner of one of the workers

who had died after a fall of a swinging gantry at a Gold coast high rise (pictured) on 21 June 2008.

She asked her friend (the other woman on stage) to read out her statement about the lack of occupational health and safety that had killed her partner. Her courage matched her partner’s concern for the lack of safety on the job where he was working – where was the ABCC to prevent his death? Where was Kevin Rudd at the time? Well he was at “the Queensland Labor Party conference across the road from the site of the accident near the time it occurred” [See SMH article 25-storey death plunge]

“He offered his condolences to the victims’ families.” – Kevin Rudd as reported in SMH on 22 June 2008.

The day prior to the rally (1 December 2008) two workers were struck by a falling beam in a bus tunnel at Buranda in Brisbane (one died, the other badly injured).

What will be the response of government, courts and the ABCC to the partner of this dead worker and the partner of his badly injured mate?

Ian Curr
December 2008