Australia

What is the feeling within the Australian Labor Party about the campaign against the Howard government's industrial-relations laws, and about the weakness of the ALP leaders' statements about what they will legislate as an alternative? Today (4 November) I went to the local ALP members' conference (for the electorates of Brisbane, Moreton, Ryan, and Griffith) to find out. A presentation by an organiser from the ACTU's Your Rights At Work campaign, Andrew Ramsay (from CFMEU), was given top billing in the conference, and several people were wearing YR@W t-shirts. So, the issue is certainly live...

The imam of Australia’s biggest mosque, in Lakemba, Sydney, recently caused an outrage after being reported as having “told a service at the mosque that women who do not wear the hijab, or headdress, are like uncovered meat.” In an apparent reference to the (actually 55 year) sentence given in a notorious gang rape case Sheik Hilaly was reported as saying: “Sheik Hilaly said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years." The Australian, 26 October. Pip Hinman, of the Castroite Democratic...

The ACTU congress in Melbourne on 25-26 October adopted a strong policy for workers' rights as its alternative to John Howard's "Work Choices" and Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act. The big question now is whether the unions will really fight for this policy, or leave it in the minutes-books and go along with the Australian Labor Party adopting a watered-down version which looks similar from a distance, but will in practice leave vastly more scope for union-busting and exploitation. The ACTU policy includes: 1. Union recognition as a right for every individual worker...

A rally for workers' and civil rights, on similar lines to the September event in Brisbane which drew 500 people, has been organised for 1 November in Sydney. 6.00pm, Wednesday 1 November 2006 NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium 23-33 Mary Street, Surry Hills Speakers include John Robertson (Unions NSW secretary), Andrew Ferguson (CFMEU), anjd Julian Burnside QC (tbc). More details .

A discussion contribution from Martin Thomas . The left, in my view, should pick up and run with the proposals recently published by the ACTU, "A fair go at work: collective bargaining for Australian workers". They need to be supplemented, but they include provisions which would give Australian workers a workable legal right to organise, gain union recognition, and get union-negotiated agreements. The Australian Labor Party has promised to repeal the industrial relations legislation of John Howard's conservative government, but remains vague about what it will put in its place. ALP leaders'...

By Colin Foster "Employees engaged on the Portside Wharf Development construction site at Hamilton [Brisbane] attended a stop work meeting. The meeting commenced at about 6.30am and concluded at about 7.00am... "This meeting took place during working hours and may amount to Unlawful Industrial Action contrary to the provisions of the Building And Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005... Individual workers... fines up to $22,000. Corporations [employers and unions]... fines up to $110,000. "Further, should any worker who took part in this stoppage receive wages for that period, the worker...