School uniforms
So the Queensland Teachers Union is trying to enforce school uniforms even after the Ombudsman has ruled such actions are illegal.
As a child who, luckily, never had to wear a uniform to primary school, but who was forced to wear one for high school, I, along with practically every child in Queensland, would want to see any teacher, headmaster, or union rep who fails to comply with the law, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If they can't be jailed forever, the law needs amending so they can be.
Further, charges should be brought against any teacher or headmaster who has enforced the illegal uniform laws in the past! They were only ever introduced so that companies could get rich producing school uniforms and charging parents whatever they liked, as they were forced to buy them. I would suggest that if the teachers union supports school uniforms, then I'd be looking to see just who's getting a kick back!
Canungra Qld
The politics of aid
Since the massive devastation of Hurricane Mitch, more than 11,500 people have died and more than 14,000 people are missing in Central America.
The Nicaraguan government is happy to accept donations from governments in Mexico and the United States. The deals Honduras and Nicaragua are making with the World Band and the IMF will send both countries spiralling into further debt. Nicaragua is at present having to repay three million dollars a day.
Recently, Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman refused Cuba's offer of humanitarian aid in the form of medical teams. At present 1500 Cuban medical specialists are serving in some 40 countries around the world.
First Lady Hilary Clinton will be visiting Honduras and Nicaragua soon. The level of hypocrisy is outrageous. During the Reagan administration CIA backed troops were sent to Nicaragua to murder and torture left-wing Sandinistas.
For years Central America was regarded as the United States backyard. The United States government has been instrumental in the exploitation of workers and natural resources in the region. When disaster strikes in one of the poorest regions of the world, the politics of right-wing opportunism raises its ugly head.
New Farm Qld
Injustice
In 1989, President Ceausescu of Romania was accused of genocide against his own people, and shot, with his wife, without any trial whatsoever. This was of course considered appropriate because he was a communist leader.
Augusto Pinochet, accused of the same crime by his people, apparently cannot be tried because he is a capitalist leader (and a good friend of the CIA and Henry Kissinger); it looks as if he will get off on a legal loophole. This is justice? Is Pinochet simply more cunning than Ceausescu?
And why does the Pope remain so suspiciously silent? Is it going to be another papal neutrality in the face of horror, like Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust?
St Kilda Vic
Unions lose green credibility
Woodchipping multinationals, union-hostile corporations, supported 50% of this continent's biodiversity to be wiped out — well done the CFMEU.
The forestry division of the CFMEU proved once more that it is the major impediment to responsible conservation decisions in NSW. Any pretension the union movement had of being somehow green has now been shattered.
The union movement's complicity in allowing the CFMEU to completely derail forest conservation shows just how cosmetic that green veneer is. Or is it that no one has the guts to stand up to Gavin Hillier?
Was there one union that stood up and protested the shortsighted support of woodchipping multinationals and, union-hostile, Boral? No, not one. Even when forest agreements in other states have failed to deliver the jobs promised, the unions still support them.
Unions also continue to ignore industry directions that would result in many more sustainable jobs and chooses to tie itself to a native forest industry that is suiciding. Wood supply agreements won't mean a thing when the wood supply is simply not there, not for workers anyway (industry will of course be compensated).
"Green-Left", does it really exist? If so don't let the CFMEU get away with wiping out 50% of this continent's biodiversity. Show the ALP that the union movement will not support this forest decision and that resource security for an unsustainable industry is just not on.
Newtown NSW
An attack on all women
I was extremely concerned to read of the decision by the Melbourne NOWSA collective to exclude transgender women from the NOWSA conference.
As a feminist who has struggled for years in the women's movement against the oppressive stereotyping of women, and now living in the Philippines where blatant sexist stereotypes are deeply ingrained in the behaviour of women and are constantly advocated in the most blatant manner by the church and the state, I have come to deeply appreciate some of the issues.
I have conducted "women's orientation" sessions amongst some of the poorest women in Philippine society. One of the first issues we tackle is gender stereotyping and notion of "the real woman".
To find arguments raised from within left-wing feminism (that transgender women are not real women) which in fact reaffirm these stereotypes, in a country which gave rise to one of the strongest and most advanced women's movements in the 1970s and which can still play an important role in helping to build a strong regional women's movement, is a major concern.
To imagine that such an argument — which is devoid of all politics and is based purely on the biological characteristic of a woman — could lead one to conclude that Pauline Hanson understands patriarchy and therefore has something in common with myself, an Asian Australian woman, sends shivers down my spine.
I agree with Emma Murphy and Sarah Lantz that this is an issue of crucial importance to the progressive movement as a whole and needs to be debated and discussed openly in the most comprehensive manner.
Progresibo, Philippines
[Abridged.]
Corporate welfare
Johnny Howard's "new image" reached new heights of ridiculousness last week, when he called on Australia's corporate community to contribute more money to charity, to "give a little back" — voluntarily, of course.
To be meaningful, it couldn't be forced out of businesses with nasty mechanisms like taxes. It should be given out of the goodwill of their hearts. He likened it to the principle of "mutual obligation" being applied to unemployed young people with work for the dole, which keeps them well under the poverty line.
What a breathtaking insult to ordinary people! I must say, I was stunned that Howard would even pretend that he thought business should return something to working people and the poor. After all, he's a defender of the wonders of the free market.
Business response? Thanks for the idea? An easy way to look a bit more friendly? Not as far as the Commonwealth Bank is concerned. The West Australian ran a front page article last Saturday with the headline "Profits come first". The Commonwealth Bank's chief, David Murray, revealed some never-before-released information: if banks did not make so much money, they couldn't serve their community! The $2 billion profits that many of the big banks have recorded in the past few years is apparently a good thing for everyone. The article didn't really spell out how the banks used that money to serve the community.
Mt Lawley WA
[Abridged.]
Commonwealth superannuation
Last financial year, Commonwealth employees received a negative return on their money in various superannuation funds. This is a serious social justice issue — more than just another example of weakness in the international financial system.
In 1997, Commonwealth Funds Management, which invests the funds of all Commonwealth schemes, including for defence and telecom workers, was privatised.
Thirty-one fund advisers were appointed, mostly multinationals like J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc.
In April 1997, over $1 billion in public service superannuation alone was transferred from Australians' investments to overseas shares, many in what were then called the Tiger Economies.
Much of this money has apparently now been lost, and the funds like the PSS and the CSS will now need to draw on reserves just to provide a zero rate of interest. Legislation prevents them from declaring a negative rate of return.
There was no consultation with members before the decision to invest 40% of their money in overseas shares — far higher than in most other superannuation funds. No thought was given to the ethics of investment. And at the end of the day the multinational advisers to the privatised fund could not even turn a profit.
All public sector workers need to press for greater control over how their savings are invested.
NSW
Pinochet — 20th century Macbeth?
I am not really trying to hog all the pages of GLW, but could you quote Shakespeare on the vile Pinochet (from "Macbeth", Act V, Scene 2).
A minor character says of Macbeth:
"Now does he feel,
His secret murders sticking on his hands,
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love,
Now does he feel his title,
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe, Upon a dwarfish thief."
I don't think Pinochet was ever in a real war, how come he is a general?
St Kilda Vic