Australia
The Chinese mining industry - cheaper lives mean cheaper coal; so Australian bosses threaten relocation
Last week the Chinese media reported that on average one mining accident every week is being covered up by management.
Quote:
[i]Those responsible for safety had sabotaged scenes, destroyed evidence and moved bodies, Xinhua News Agency quoted Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, as saying, adding that most had been brought to justice.
In one 10-day period last month, 72 people were killed in four separate accidents.
Australia: three-day lockout at Bridgestone ends
Union members at the tyre maker, Bridgestone, in Salisbury, South Australia have returned to work after a three-day lockout without pay.
There has been no progress on their pay dispute as the company refused to negotiate in good faith.
“The company is refusing to negotiate with its workers and their union, and is hiding behind Howard’s laws to deny their workers a collectively negotiated agreement.”
Duke, James Herriott, 1939-1992
A short biography of Australian anarchist poet, James Herriott Duke, who also lived in the UK.
Remembering Jim Duke
"I started performing poems as a timid person with a stutter but the spirit of the times soon converted me into a bellowing bull." Jim Duke
“The voice played like a human saxophone.” Nicholas Zurbrugg
Australia: Railway workers walk off over safety
Pacific National railway workers went on unofficial strike on Sunday, reportedly over safety issues.
Alison Ribbon reported that the strike was apparently unplanned and dubbed a "wildcat strike" by the railway union.
Safety issues surrounding Pacific National have been in the headlines recently, with three derailments involving the company's trains in less than a year.
A train carrying paper from Hobart to the Burnie port derailed near Ulverstone a week ago.
1914-2000: The Australian IWW and 'Direct Action'
A history of the once highly-influential Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union and its publication Direct Action in Australia.
Direct Action, later a monthly magazine, was first published by the US-founded Industrial Workers of the World union in Sydney in January 1914. They borrowed some dough from a member and bought themselves an archaic printing press so that all restraints upon expression of ‘clear cut revolutionary principles’ were removed.
1883-today: The radical history of Aussie rules football
A history of Aussie rules football and its intersection with working class politics since the first football strike in 1883.
Scabs, coppers, strikes and footy
1989: Australian pilots strike
An account of the 1989 strike of the highly democratic and self-managed Australian Federation of Air Pilots union, which was the biggest industrial struggle of the period.
John Pilger in his book Secret Country wrote about graft and corruption in Australia Today. He mentions several various powerful individuals. These same individuals – Sir Peter Ables, Rupert Murdoch, Bob Hawke all were involved in the conspiracy to smash the Australian Federation of Air Pilots.
1986: Victoria nurses' strike
The history of the second state-wide strike of nurses in Victoria, Australia against cuts and over wages, conditions and staff/patient ratios, which won its demands, with the solidarity of other workers.
Nurses are often seen as the archetypal ‘handmaidens’ of men. Yet if there was ever an experience that demolished this image, it was the Victorian nurses’ strike of 1986, in which a predominantly female workforce took on and defeated the State Labour government.
1985: Victoria nurses' strike
The history of the first state-wide strike of nurses in Victoria, Australia over wages and staff/patient ratios.
It ended in a partial victory, despite the unions' lack of militancy and more importantly layed the groundwork of rank-and-file organisation which was to play a key role in the 1986 nurses' strike.
1981: Kortex sweatshop strike
The history of a victorious strike of 300 mostly female immigrant workers in an ultra-exploitative textile sweatshop in Australia.
Sweatshop rebels
How quickly people can change. The December 1981 Kortex strike illustrates how women’s oppression and their exploitation as workers combine and interact. A struggle in the workplace can spill over into the home and family life, with remarkable consequences.
