Unions, Rank and File & Workers Political Groups
‘All that glitters is not gold‘ – ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by Shakespeare.
On that stretch of beach known for decades as Surfers by the locals and badged as the Gold Coast for international consumption hump back and western wright whales pass by every year in winter, more than in living memory.… Go to Article
In 1980 or 1981, Bjelke-Petersen went to University of Queensland guarded by Qld Special Branch. Joh’s visit was controversial as the questions from the news media suggest. We have secured historic footage of the event.
Standing behind Joh during the interview was Constable Gary Hannigan, previously from Sandgate CIB and the youngest ever undercover detective and member of the Qld Special Branch.… Go to Article
Europeans, you must open this book and enter into it. After a few steps in the darkness you will see strangers gathered around a fire; come close, and listen, for they are talking of the destiny they will mete out to your trading-centres and to the hired soldiers who defend them.… Go to Article
Mining company BHP Billiton is looking at cutting thousands of jobs from its iron ore operations in WA.
The miner has already announced the loss of 500 jobs in recent months, including 100 at its headquarters in Perth.
The ABC reports up to 3,000 jobs could go from BHP’s iron ore division, which currently employs 16,000 people.… Go to Article
Dawn To Dusk, E. H. Lane 1939
It is a far cry from the old worn-out beliefs of the conservativism and reactionary political policies of 50 years ago, to the virile working class movement that is to-day insistently smashing down the gates of capitalist imperialism and exploitation.… Go to Article
The wiles of Labour politicians – the futility of fearful and reactionary Labour leaders have been revealed in this record, and the lessons I and others so bitterly learned should preclude any further waste of time and enthusiasm in vainly endeavouring to make figs blossom and fruit on barren trees.
— Ernie Lane in Dawn to Dusk
[Editor’s Note: By request, I have decided to re-publish this work by Ernie Lane, a rebel who wrote a critique of the Labor Party before the second world war.… Go to Article
May Day – Workers Have the Power
On 1st May workers around the world gather to show solidarity with people’s struggles and hopes for a better life. We put forward our own independent working class vision of struggle and a future that’s not tied to the interests of capitalist and imperialist exploitation.… Go to Article
Oligarchical topography of Ukraine.
Andrei Fursov – Sociologist, Historian – 14 April 2014
Many domestic and foreign interests coincided to create the Banderite coup d’état in Ukraine. Andrei Fursov, historian and sociologist, explains who needed what out of Ukraine and how the events of 2014 had been in the making for years.… Go to Article
Thus capital presupposes wage labour; wage labour presupposes capital. They reciprocally condition the existence of each other; they reciprocally bring forth each other.(Marx 1978, 33)
To my friends in the union movement I say this: Every worker needs a successful company. To the business community I say this: No company is successful without an engaged, energised and motivated workforce.(… Go to Article
The May Day Group has organised a “workers inquiry” in association with the May Day celebrations.
It is to be held on Saturday May 3rd, and should be a new direction for those of us interested in developing the working class movement and struggles during the coming few years – which look like being some fierce attacks on workers and thier organisation.… Go to Article
The Newman government’s attempts to push public hospital doctors onto unfair individual contracts is an attack on our public hospitals and on the rights of all those who work in the Queensland public sector.
The proposed contracts will replace existing awards and certified agreements for 3000 Senior Medical Officers and the existing agreement for 800 Visiting Medical Officers.… Go to Article
The G20 may not make decisions that can be imposed on member states. It may not have a public service working for it that can monitor to what extent member states have implemented G20 recommendations. Yet it is the most significant economic forum in the world. It serves to streamline neoliberal policies across the 20 leading economies and is a very real threat to our communities and environment.… Go to Article
Telecom / Telstra
First they corporatised it — 1982 (Fraser)
then they did a partial sale — 1993-96 (Keating)
then they privatised it — 1996 (Howard)
then they sacked the workers — 2014 (Abbott)
… and the Labor Party-in-government sold QANTAS which is going to sack …. workers in maintenance, in call-centres, in baggage handling.… Go to Article
Jonathan Ogden (1970-2014)
By Jaime Mejia
Jonathan Ogden – socialist, unionist and former member of the ISO and Socialist Alternative died of a sudden stroke in his New Farm home sometime between 6 and 10 February 2014.
I have known Jonathan, or Jono as we used to call him affectionately, since I began my political life in Australia with the International Socialist Organisation in 1993.… Go to Article
(This is a guest post from a friend of The Word From Struggle Street Jon)
It was the 40th anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising recently. On the 17th of November 1973, tanks rolled onto campus, and in a bloody orgy of violence unwittingly sealed the demise of the regime of the Colonels.… Go to Article
The press hounds are baying again about union corruption. The Coalition can spare its budget the expense of another Royal Commission. All that it needs to do is to summarise the findings of corrupt bosses from Reports across 100 years
Nonetheless, some Reports show more than others. In mid-2004, the NSW ICAC found that corporations such as Transfield had bribed public officials to issue competency certificates while the Cole Royal Commission into the building unions was sitting.… Go to Article
[Editor’s Note: It was claimed by a speaker at a recent civil liberties meeting [https://soundcloud.com/ian-curr/q-a#t=31:30] that investigative journalism of the ABC’s Kerry O’Brien stopped Abbott from wining the 2009 federal election and that papers like The Guardian brought down Margaret Thatcher. Well here’s a story about the British Miners Strike. Unfortunately this piece is 30 years too late for the miners that were beaten, bashed and who never got their jobs back.… Go to Article
Is anyone interested in the union member’s perspective these days?
… there was no attempt in this article by Headless Thomas [The Australian] to 
find out what actually happened … no attempt to contact the 23 union members suspended and disciplined by BHP @ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/union-official-blows-whistle-on-cfmeu/story-fn59noo3-1226811602443
More grist to the Murdoch mill …… Go to Article
Sam Gindin, former advisor to the Canadian Auto Workers Union, on why unions need a left … http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2013/13_12_19.mp3… Go to Article
I want to try to spend tonight inspiring some of you to become reporters. What’s in a name? I use reporter because the word, journalist, is a too lofty for me – a name popularised by the self-important – journalists!
A tip. As a reporter I used my real name, Jim Beatson.… Go to Article
[Editors Note: No one talks about workers democracy anymore … why is that? Do people even know what it is? You know, going on strike, organising for better pay, conditions, for a better political system where workers have a say in what is produced … ]
Queensland’s Attorney-General has put forward new laws that would make it harder for you to cast your vote, cause longer queues on election day, and make elections more costly – but you can sound the alarm.… Go to Article
[Editor’s Note: As readers may know, there were many attempts by the Murdoch and Tory press to discredit Arthur Scargill when he was leader of the 1983 Miners Strike against Thatcher. Some were extravagant lies like the one by Robert Maxwell that Scargill and another NUM official had their flats paid for by Libyan leader Gaddaffi:
… Go to ArticleThe Tories hoped the media campaign would finally sweep away Scargill.
History is an angel being blown backwards into the future
He said: History is a pile of debris
And the angel wants to go back and fix things
To repair the things that have been broken
But there is a storm blowing from Paradise
And the storm keeps blowing the angel backwards into the future
And this storm, this storm is called Progress.… Go to Article
what began, as i saw it, as an historical storm in a tea-cup became, due to the frantic efforts of a few people, a lesson and rebuttal on rewriting history or the attempt thereof.
my following words and the articles that follow set out my beliefs most clearly.
but like all good tales we need to begin at the beginning.… Go to Article
Towards Peace – A workers Journey (PDF) by Phil O’Brien and Bernie Dowling [SHAPE – Social History Publishing Enterprise with LeftPress]
Tunnelling through the night, the trains pass in a splendour of power, with a sound like thunder shaking the orchards, waking the young from a dream, scattering like glass the old men's sleep; laying a black trail over the still bloom of the orchards.… Go to Article
On this week’s show Aaron Bastani and James Butler from Novara and Resonance fm discuss the ’3Cosas’ campaign and forthcoming strikes throughout UK higher education. Can the larger incumbent unions adapt and remain relevant?
This program was sent around by Dave Eden who spoke the 17 group this week.
“The End of the ‘High Wage, High Work, High Consumption’ Deal”.… Go to Article
| 04-Dec-2013Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Queensland based rank and file unionist and community activist Bob Carnegie. Writing on Facebook, Bob said:
“Just to let everyone know that I was advised by my lawyer tonight that AbiGroup has dropped all outstanding charges against me.
“This brings to conclusion a 15 month nightmare and an end to the legal assault against myself and my family.
‘… in my view populism is what we need, roughly speaking hanging bankers from the lamposts …’
– prof john quigan speaking
at the cloudland committee
inaugural forum
on 28 nov 2013
[1:07:37] in PShift
recording below
Review of talk given by prof quigan and organised by the cloudland collective.… Go to Article
