Critical Times

Below is a letter from Spirit of Eureka (NSW) to the Sydney Morning Herald contrasting ABCC’s treatment of building workers and unions (and Ark Tribe) with the treatment of Michael McGurk, Sydney’s multi-million property developer murdered in Sydney last weekend.

..

by Renfrey Clarke

Not in so many words, mind you – frankness has rarely been the strong suit of News Corporation journalists and editors. The editorial in question, published in Rupert Murdoch’s Australian on September 10, argued in support of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) – in other words, “clean coal”.

“By launching Australia’s Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute earlier this year,” the editorial intoned, “Kevin Rudd recognised that coal would continue to be our major source of power for decades to come….

An oldie but a goodie – Jensen sums it up nicely.

ZNet Commentary Last Sunday: Anti-capitalism in five minutes or less May 15, 2007 By Robert Jensen
[Remarks to the final “Last Sunday” community gathering in Austin, TX, April 29, 2007. For a PDF of all five of the talks in this series, write to rjensen@uts.

In a front page article in the national daily The Australian Marathon Chairman Peter Williams claims that Marathon has the “full support” of South Australia’s Rann Labor Government (Australian 7/9/09).

He is referring to Marathon Resources’ plan to eventually mine uranium from within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

This is similar to a boast made by then Chief Executive Officer Dr.

Source: The Guardian

by Anna Pha

For the second year in a row superannuation funds are reporting heavy losses in members’ savings. Depending on the types of investments made, losses range from a few percent to 50 percent or more. But these devastating losses only tell half the story.

Three threads of struggle were woven by South Australian workers in Adelaide last Tuesday.

Working class activists are determined to weave these threads into a powerful strand and to raise them high for the benefit of all workers.

At 12 noon, several hundred construction workers and representatives from a range of unions gathered at the foot of a major construction site in the city.

National Accounts data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today shows that whilst hours worked have fallen sharply in the past year, productivity has increased.

In the non-farm sectors, hours worked have fallen by 2.8% whilst productivity has risen by 0.

The Marathon saga continues to be as messy as a bucket of mullet gut.

On August 29 the local Murdoch rag ran a story in its business pages quoting the state government’s Primary Industry and Resources department (PIRSA) as saying that a “mineral exploration licence in the Arkaroola area held by a Marathon Resources subsidiary is expected to be renewed.”

It added that “the extension would not enable the uranium explorer to recommence its drilling program”.