Sydney, Australia Paper of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network 50c Vol.28 No.3 (204) Sept.- Oct. 2009 INDUSTRIAL SOLIDARITY FOR ARK TRIBE! Ark Tribe Rally P2; Growing Strong State P2; N.S.W. Railways News P3; State Transit Newsflash P5; Maritime Transport News P8 ; Victorian Railway News P9 ; Spanish Labour News P10 ; Britain Today P 12; Debate on Australian Shop Stewards’ Network P13; Sydney Bus Drivers Wildcat Strike P13; Anarcho-Syndicalist Perspectives For Countering The Accelerated Employer Offensive & Economic Crisis P 14; Bulgarian Anarchism P17; News & Notes; 2 Rebel Worker suburbs in Adelaide. 200 people I think, destroying rights for the rest of us. The Rebel Worker is the bi-monthly maybe nearing 300? Judging by us having only time I felt like heckling was “like Paper of the A.S.N. for the propo- given out 50 leaflets to less than a quarter Ned Kelly, he’s been pushed around, gation of anarcho-syndicalism in of the crowd in about 2 minutes.5 political forced to do things he shouldn’t have to..” Australia. forces made an appearance, including the where I was too shy to heckle with “but he greens, democrats, an independent, ‘free still hasn’t shot any cops!” Unless otherwise stated, signed Australia party’(newly formed party of Would have got a laugh or two, especially Articles do not necessarily represent ‘motorcycle enthusiasts’(for anyone inter- from the “motorcycle enthusiasts”. Any- the position of the A.S.N. as a whole. nationally, bikers have been targeted by way.. to my understanding a motion was Any contributions, criticisms, letters absurd state powers recently, and have passed at the ACTU (Australian Council or formed a political party) and Socialist Al- of Trade Unions) (amazingly..) congress, Comments are welcome. liance. Didn’t feel like the anarchist flag approving(not that it needed to be) na- needed to be paraded as such with only REBEL WORKER tion-wide industrial action should Ark two of us there, so we also didn’t make a Tribe receive the $22k fine or the 6 month P.O. BOX 92 point of our being there(a little shy). jail time. My analysis is 2 options for the BROADWAY 2007 NSW Young Labor didn’t seem to want to make state: One is that the charges are E-mail: voice of their appearance after the crowd dropped/suspended sentence, with the [email protected] chanted shame in regards to the Labor State not wanting to antagonise the situa- SUBSCRIPTION RATES: party’s stance on the Australian building tion because of obvious union supported & construction commission, and their fail- worker militancy. The other is that the AUSTRALIA: $12 a year ure of any Labor politician to make an ap- state will pull a Margaret Thatcher, and OVERSEAS pearance. That was funny, jokes all-round. take a stand against worker militancy, and $25 (Aus.) by Air And I think every union in the state had ‘stick by their guns’, something K.Rudd is $20 (Aus.) by Sea mail flags/members present. Speakers upheld always going on about. So as much as I Free to Prisoners an overall typical nationalistic tone(as don’t think Rudd/Gillard want to fight it Supporters Subs. $40 pa usual), such as ‘Ark Tribe is doing what out with the unions.. I just as much think every Aussie should be doing, standing up they do want to, to prove that they are in Receives copies of RW & ASN for their rights!’ ‘he’s an Australian hero, fact, almighty. Pamphlets as published. Send to the like Ned Kelly or (some other above as postal notes only & should bush-ranger),’ which is a strange state- By Gabs be made out to Rebel Worker. ment as it’s clear that all those ‘Aussie’ bosses and politicians seem hell-bent on Thanks to Libcom GREATEST THREAT Under Australian law three ministers of Solidarity For the Crown can unleash the Australian History has shown us the greatest threat to Armed Forces against the Australian peo- human freedom is the ability of the state to ple if they believe Commonwealth inter- Ark Tribe exercise power over its citizens. It is im- ests may be threatened. Members of the portant to remember the atrocities com- Australian Armed Forces are legally in- mitted by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot were demnified for anything they do (even mur- der) during this period. The Federal Ark tribe - 2nd person to be targeted by legal under their system of government. Attorney General can, at any time, ban any the ABCC’s (Australian Building & The removal of liberties and rights citizens organisation he wants to because he has Construction Commissioner) Gestapo have enjoyed for generations in Australia been advised that organisation may pose a powers - went to court on 11th of august is dependent on who exercises power in threat to Commonwealth interests. Citi facing six months jail. parliament. Over the past two decades - hundreds of pieces of state and federal leg- zens can be arrested, detained, interro- He was called to an ABCC hearing after gated and jailed for up to seven years signing a petition on a building site at islation have been passed that have re- moved our rights and liberties to protect us because they refuse to answer questions Flinders university regarding shocking because they may inadvertently have in- safety on-site. He didn’t attend the hear- from “terrorists” who hate us because of the freedoms we enjoy. formation ‘that may help the authorities in ing, which is why he’s facing jail time. their investigations. This is just the tip of Workers in most industries don’t have to The irony of passing legislation that re- the iceberg of a raft of legislation that moves our rights and -liberties to protect consider dying at work. There’s not much makes a mockery of the idea that Austra- in an office or fast food outlet that’s gonna our rights of inflation. and liberties seems lians live in a free society. kill ya. But the government insists in the to have been lost on governments around The problem is particularly acute in Aus- name of productivity, that construction the world that are falling over themselves tralia because individuals do not enjoy workers should have no right to organise to find new ways of stripping away rights rights in the Australian constitution. In against dodgey bosses.. and liberties millions of people have died for to protect individuals and minorities Australia the government giveth and the from the arbitrary exercise of state power. government taketh away. Maybe, just maybe when a future Federal government 11 /8/2009 Solidarity Rally The attempts by the Rudd Labor govern- for Ark Tribe with the help of a pliant Opposition, passes ment to further remove what few rights legislation in Australia’s parliament to in- and liberties Australians enjoy by intro- tern Australians first born to protect us Yesterdays Rally in solidarity with Ark ducing powers that give the Federal Police from some perceived terrorist threat, will Tribe, a building worker being prosecuted the power to conduct warrantless searches, Australians begin to realise what is hap- by the ABCC, was fairly huge(I thought) is just the last in a long series of legislative pening in this country. considering it was at 10.30am in a court- changes that have transformed Australia Thanks to the Anarchist Age house in one of the furthest metropolitan in the past two decades. 3 Rebel Worker N.S.W. RAILWAYS NEWS Rebel Worker: What’s been the latest at to be held in October of this year. Click on by workers dazzled by the bosses’ money. Central? your computer on the below link to view Associated with the 4% pa pay rise was Station Assistant: There were two rallies the media stunt. also large bonuses due to back dating pro- held in late June to protest Rail Corp’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kis56 visions. In some cases these bonuses planned massive staff cuts as part of the 7IcMqo amounted to $20,000. New people who City Rail Station Staffing Review. The RW: What is the role of the ALP Gov- came on the job at the time of the Olympics smaller was organised by local grassroots ernments in regard to cutbacks in the however missed the bonus and only re- activists and the larger was organised by railways over the years? ceived the pay rise. Later, RailCorp tried the union officials. At the union officials SA: ALP Govt’s have played an impor- to recover much of the bonuses via claims organised rally, there was a significant tant role historically in cutbacks like the of bogus overpayments. presence by police with sniffer dogs, and current station reforms. This was particu- RW: How are staff at Central respond- transit officers in uniform ing to the planned staff re- and plain clothes. As there view? were no disturbances, the SA: Many are doing their best police shortly departed. to keep their jobs. Whilst some There was also a signifi- have more a “laisser faire” and cant presence by the media say “let it happen”. In the hope camera crews and photog- of saving their jobs, some are raphers. Despite this me- providing the bosses with in- dia attendance there was formation which further down no coverage in the press or the track will lead to the aboli- the TV. The union officials tion of many more jobs. Cur- who addressed the rally rently we are facing massive presented the usual lame job losses of 100 out of 250 op- duck approach for us to erational positions with 100 contact our local members staff on shifts each day.