Sydney, Australia Paper of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network 50c Vol.28 No.2 (203) June - July 2009 Employers Use The Cloak of the Global Downturn for Accelerated Job Destruction & Speedups! NATIONAL NEWS; N.S.W. RAILWAY NEWS; STATE TRANSIT NEWSFLASH; SYDNEY WHARFIES’ NEWS; SHIFT WORK SAFETY; VICTORIAN RAILWAY NEWS; BRITAIN TODAY; NEW ZEALAND; SOUTH KOREA; ISRAEL; MAY DAY; BOOK REVIEW CORNER “CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM”; SELF MANAGEMENT OR WORKERS CONTROL?; NEWS & NOTES; PLUS MORE! 2 Rebel Worker I expect corporations to wheel and deal to vestment schemes provided employment Rebel Worker is the bi-monthly make a buck that’s capitalism If a com- to a significant number of people. The col- Paper of the A.S.N. for the propo- pany doesn’t make a profit it normally lapse of these two groups will have impli- gation of anarcho-syndicalism in doesn’t take long for it to go bankrupt I do cations for rural and regional Australia expect governments not to be a willing that will be felt for some time. Australia. participate in schemes that cost the tax- The tragedy about this whole fiasco lies Unless otherwise stated, signed payer billions of dollars The legislation directly on the shoulders of the Howard Articles do not necessarily represent surrounding managed investment schisms government that passed legislation that al- the position of the A.S.N. as a whole. was Sawed from the very first day. The lowed a flawed scheme that gave people Any contributions, criticisms, letters or collapse of Great Southern and Timber the opportunity to legally minimise their Comments are welcome. Corp. will have a significant impact on the tax by investing what normally would regional and rural economy. In an era REBEL WORKER have been public money, into dubious when more and more family farms were non-sustainable private corporations. P.O. BOX 92 feeling the squeeze and regional centres BROADWAY 2007 NSW were losing population, the managed in- E-mail: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION RATES: VIC. HUMAN RIGHTS ? rights that you believe has been commit- AUSTRALIA: $12 a year ted by a state entity (eg a Government de- OVERSEAS partment or a statutory body) you may You may remember that recently I sent a contact the Victorian Ombudsman who $25 (Aus.) by Air letter on behalf of the Wednesday Action $20 (Aus.) by Sea mail has the power to investigate alleged hu- Group to the Victorian Equal Opportunity man rights breaches by such entities”. Free to Prisoners and Human Rights Commission about a problem we were having distributing leaf- Just in case you’re wondering what the Supporters Subs. $40 pa Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Receives copies of RW & ASN lets outside Southern Cross Station (Mel- bourne’s main railway station), with the Rights Commission actually does: Pamphlets as published. private corporation that manages the sta- “Functions include providing education Send to the above. Only Postal orders tion on behalf of the Victorian State gov- about human rights, intervening in court should be made out to Rebel Worker. ernment. Successive Victorian State proceedings where questions of law arise governments have a habit of entering into about the application or interpretation of public private partnerships that alienate the Charter, and reporting annually on open public space from people. how well State and local government So far, so good. In 2006 the Victorian gov- comply with the Charter”. NATIONAL ernment, to much fanfare and mutual back It seems the Victorian state government slapping, introduced The Charter of Hu- has gone to a lot of trouble and expense to man Rights and Responsibilities Act ensure that no one is able to exercise their NEWS 2006. Before you pop the cork on the rights and if they’re arrested for doing so, champagne bottle to celebrate, it is impor- it has done a very good job of ensuring tant to know; they will never be able to obtain legal re- dress for doing so. I’m afraid the Victorian CORPORATE COLLAPSES “The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission does not have Human Rights Charter in its current form the power to receive complaints about wouldn’t look out of place in The collapse of yet another agricultural breaches of the CharterofHumanRights Machiavelli’s political treatise — The managed investment scheme highlights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the Char- Prince. the limitations of Australia’s corporation ter)". Thanks to the Anarchist Age and taxation laws. Great Southern col- lapsed in mid May leaving debts of over It gets better... “The Charter does not pro- vide an individual with the opportunity to 750 million. Timber Corp, the other debt laden timber plantation group collapsed a take a breach of his month ago leaving debts of over 650 mil- or her human rights to a court or tribu lion dollars. - nal as a separate Over 70,000 investors in both groups lost case of action. A everything and shareholders in the compa- human rights argu- nies have been left with shares that are vir- ment can only be tually worthless. I have little time for the raised by an indi- investors and shareholders as both Great vidual to support an Southern and Timber Corp were vehicles already existing that were marketed as taxation havens. claim or matter Federal taxation laws allow people to le- which is to be gally minimise their tax by investing in brought before managed investment schemes that invest such a court or tri- in agriculture. My concerns revolve bunal”. around the nine billion dollars in possible It gets even better... taxation revenue that’s been siphoned from the public purse into debt ridden “If however, you managed investment schemes that have wish to make a complaint about a little to show for the investments. breach of human 3 Rebel Worker N.S.W. RAILWAYS NEWS Rebel Worker: What are your thoughts Day, that there would be no trade off’s as- Duty Managers to compensate them for on the recent furore over the issuing of sociated with the pay rise and enterprise the reduced hours associated with the in- the Gold Card to Nick Lewocki, RTBU agreement. As a result, they followed the creased number of unattended stations and (Rail Tram & Bus Union) NSW State union officials’ recommendation to vote multi control of stations from one central Secretary? for the E.A. station. The bosses are also proceeding Station Assistant: In late March there was Likely outcomes of the massive staff cuts with savage staff cuts on the weekends. In a front page story in the Telegraph regard- will be major speedups in our jobs, work- the case of Lidcombe Station there is one ing the issuing of the Gold Card to ers being pushed around to work in differ- station assistant to monitor 4 platforms. Lewocki due to the intervention of the ent parts of the system and the cutting out RW: What’s been the union officials’ Rees NSW ALP Govt. despite, his lack of of overtime. response to this outcry from the grass- 30 years of employment on the railways. A petition is now circulating on the job to roots? As he became a full time union official the effect that the enterprise agreement SA: They have held meetings on the job since 1979 and has been on leave without cannot be considered enforceable as work- and spread the story that they have things pay since that time. The media also ex- ers were misled by the union officials into under control regarding preventing the posed the issuing of the Gold Card to a agreeing to it on bogus guarantees. A staff cuts, the bosses are demanding. manager who had had become an acting Member of Parliament is also being ap- Workers don’t believe it, as the EA was senior executive with 13 year’s service in proached to raise the duplicity associated signed off and they have been paid the pay this position and should have entitlement with the enterprise agreement in parlia- rise. The officials are saying they are try- to the Gold Card. Why hasn’t this breach ment. Whilst workers are being encour- ing to convince management that the staff of RailCorp regulations been picked up by aged to not vote for the ALP at the next cuts to stations shouldn’t go ahead on the internal RailCorp audit? Given few work- state election as a result of the treachery. basis that it poses a threat to passenger ers these days last 30 years on the job, the The amount of money the Govt. will save safety. However, management can coun- union needs to push for the length of ser- from the proposed job losses as part of the ter argue that the transit officers will do vice required for the issuing of the Gold station reforms is between $10 mill. to $30 roving pickets at stations and other mea- Card to be reviewed when each enter- prise agreement is negotiated. RW: What’s the latest with the Transit Officers? SA: Most of their work is being taken over by the police. Under 200 will be guaranteed jobs in RailCorp. As a re- sult, most are in a state of limbo in re- gard to their future employment prospects. This decision appears to have been made by a bureaucrat who has now moved to some other depart- ment leaving carnage in his wake. The previous system of railway police who were highly trained for the job was much more satisfactory. The current system of Transit Officers is contradic- tory as they play a customer service role which clashes with their security role as they have power to arrest peo- ple.