Logging On

By National Secretary Paddy Crumlin

He's a fit old bloke our PM, and I don't mean as in fit and proper. I mean he carefully plans his way through government, and goes the distance. And he is a builder of walls. Walls to exclude. Walls to contain. Walls to separate workers from workers. A small man with little steps building nasty little things while making out they're much bigger and grander. At best he is a builder of prisons. In that oversized tracksuit of his, he continues to work away at his lame and lousy vision for Australia

ALL IN ALL

IN THE WALL

What does the boss's boy John Howard think about as he does that ridiculous power walk every morning in those oversized clothes do you reckon? Laying bricks in his reshaping of Australia, for mine.

Did he tick all the spaces, lay all the bricks in his little mind map on the morning before sacking 2000 wharfies and backing the mass employment of scabs at Patrick? Lay brick - Donald McGauchie to organise scabs - we can buy him off afterwards.

Unfortunately for Howard, Don the Con is doing the job on Telstra he was supposed to do on the MUA. Lay brick for scabs (ex military preferred). Lay brick on his media mates bagging and belittling stevedoring and maritime workers (bad luck Richard Carlton, 60 minutes is up). Lay brick on ACCC, they can always be relied on to eliminate any competition to monopoly capital.

Or on the morning walk before he lifted the lid on the shit can called Work Choices. Lay brick on all anti union lawyers signing that it was watertight. Lay brick ensuring workers are sacked if they don't like it. Lay brick on fines and legal thuggery if unions or workers fight it. Lay brick on stopping workers being able to withdraw labour when they get a nostril full of the stink. He must think of himself as a little master builder.

What about the morning he put his medium sized trackies on over his small physique and set off to tick off on guest labour? That must have been a particularly uplifting quick walk. National skills support framework stuffed - brick laid. New skills framework removed, no more trades - brick laid.

Employer responsibilities almost completely replacing national funded program (you can always rely on them to do the right thing - completely in their short term interest) - brick laid. New visa programs in place, you can come and work your arse off here but you'll never be an Australian, or be treated or paid like one - brick laid. Remove any legal opposition by existing Australian workers - finished that course already. Have employers exploit this situation to their gut-filled satisfaction - another course already laid down. Pack off any foreign ingrates back to their place of origin if they give too much cheek and actually start believing they can live here - brick laid. Use guest labour to drive down Australian workers' conditions - wall finished.

He's a fit old bloke our PM, and I don't mean as in fit and proper. I mean he carefully plans his way through government, and goes the distance. And he is a builder of walls. Walls to exclude. Walls to contain. Walls to separate workers from workers. A small man with little steps building nasty little things while making out they're much bigger and grander. At best he is a builder of prisons. In that oversized tracksuit of his, he continues to work away at his lame and lousy vision for Australia. Bad luck about not being able to ship all those West Papuans off to another concentration camp at Nauru. Maybe tomorrow's walk will give him a new plan.

Then if national events are getting us down, we can be cheered up by their other little construction site in the Middle East. Great plan up there really sorted the joint out for good. Great initiative brought the best out of everyone out up there. The New World Order, what a picture of peace and harmony it has delivered to the world.

I guess when you start these tough jobs, best to roll up the sleeves up and finish them for good. That's Iraq cancelled out, next stop Beirut. Can't have any nasties hanging around with their wives and kids, so they get the good old boys of the Israeli Government to do the right thing.

Now there's a government to warm the hearts of the Coalition of the Willing. No mucking around there. Someone kidnapped an Israeli solider? Let's level the country. Bit of collateral damage maybe, but can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs can they? Like about 1000 dead women and children and 100,000 without homes, food, water, sewerage or a future. And a country that has been strangled just as it got off the life support system after the last round. And what an honest and fine job Condy Rice and Tony Blair did to save innocent lives. Hearts as big as split peas.

It's enough to swell the heart of any good world leader, having mates like the Israelis. They must be a proud lot - Bush, Blair, Howard and co - having good mates like that. After all they figure they'll need them when Lebanon's fixed. Because then there's Iran, then there's Syria, then there's North Korea, then there's....?

ITF CONGRESS

FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS

Nothing the Howard government does is in isolation from what is known as the neo liberal agenda for globalisation of capital and its markets. They've been up to it for a long time elsewhere - the UK, the US, Europe. Everywhere really - crushing hammer blows against anyone or anything or institution that stands in the way of the untrammelled spread of global capital into each of the lives of the hundreds of billions who inhabit our world. Reaching out for us to buy, to exploit our labour (strange contradiction that one), in order to spread 'shareholders' value', mainly to the handful that own and manage those companies of course.

For workers all over the world and their unions it is really an old story with new touches. Margaret Thatcher had an early go at it in the UK. Brutal crushing of workers' rights, privatisation of all essential public assets including water, financial deregulation, guest workers. She even managed a little war of her own in the Falklands. Reagan was the poster boy of the neo liberals though and really consolidated the oil and other corporate cartels into the terrible monopoly of power that exists globally today and is visiting so much damage.

The International Transport Federation has stood relatively steadfast in the face of this global assault. We know transport workers have been in the front line of those affected by the new global conditions of trade.

Shipping, ports and wharves, rail, road and aviation are amongst the industries most acutely brought under the attention of the elitist and singularly focused World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its GATT agenda to deregulate any impediment to trade, primarily of course labour and other essential regulations. The Flag of Convenience campaign in shipping is recognised as one of the most successful international actions undertaken by the labour movement. The ITF Congress launched the Ports of Convenience Campaign to protect the working rights of dockers and wharfies bearing the same international pressure.

We in this country have been supported by our many brothers and sisters in the ITF and world trade union movement generally, just as we have never stinted on our support for working women and men anywhere that may be under the hammer. Our union and our membership are thought of as straight and true around the world, our determination and courage and solidarity unquestioned. Any member travelling to any country that has an ITF affiliate knows this through experience.

Notwithstanding the tremendous injustice, polarisation of power and wealth and often ruthless anti-union actions that have become politically acceptable under the new global conditions, when the terms and nature of the Howard government's anti-worker legislation was outlined to the ITF Congress, delegates from Kenya to Cairo, Tanzania to Tokyo expressed their horror and disbelief that workers' rights could be so brutally removed.

The ITF congress had over 1500 delegates and advisors and it was not lost on anyone that the MUA sent the largest delegation of nearly 40 rank and filers and officials. They congratulated us on our determination to see off the government responsible and pledged their support. This was a special pledge considering the Congress was held in South Africa. The new ITF President, friend and comrade of the MUA, Randall Howard, in his opening address to Congress, especially mentioned the role of our union in the economic, industrial and political embargoes that Nelson Mandela said were critical for liberation from apartheid. We don't seek recognition for our solidarity work, but it was a great moment for our delegation.

The courage of the country and its people to seek their freedom and democracy based on the principles of social justice remains an inspiration. I was one of the delegation and particularly proud to accept the honour on behalf of our great union to be elected unanimously as the international chair of the world dockworkers section of the ITF, along with being elected as vice president of the executive board representing all transport workers in the Asia Pacific region at this time of great struggle for working women and men.

ONE BIG MARITIME FUND

The National Council of the Union has unanimously determined that the two industry super funds SERF and SRF should be merged into one. This follows previous decisions by the membership that superannuation in the industry should be merged.

Both funds have a single investment advisor, Future Plus run by an ex CEO of SERF Terry Newson, and have been working closely together on an administrative merger for the last 18 months. The union has written to employers in the industry for this agreement, and both boards will then determine the merger on the basis of it having to be in the interest of the membership of both funds.

The union decision to seek a merger follows the massive reduction in the number of super funds in the country following the introduction of legislation and new licensing standards that greatly increase both cost and workload to individual funds. Full updates will be given to the membership of both funds as the process unfolds.