Some Local skirmishes in the class struggle : Melbourne Indymedia

Friday May 4th Union Solidarity folks at a community protest were run down by a crane-truck out at Kilsyth by a psycho Boss named Anthony Elliott.
for backgrond see: http://www.unionsolidarity.org

AE has locked out his workers for 33 weeks at Yallourn in La Trobe Valley, set up dodgy shell companies MEC etc but finally after yesterdays little effort where he also crashed the cop car has been charged (at last!) AE drove along Canterbury Road with the deliberate intention of removing those still attached to his crane truck on bushes he swerved into.

Will be interesting to see how the "Fair' legislation updated by backfooting Howard and proposed by Another Liberal party will be relevant to this case of classic unfair Bossy boots behaviour !

Later yesterday the UnionSoli folks went to confront Howard at a Scout Hall being fitted with a water tank.....
When one of the Union Soli crew pointed out that the roof which would collect the water was asbestos.... and that it would be better to fund removing the hazardous material roof and replace it with a safer material for the kids
Howard's minders got a bit unsettled and Howard was moved on.

Howard showed up in the City to announce his nicer fairer masked workplace laws for the Election and once again UnionSoli and a large contingent of Nurses heckled him in a community building and celebrating effort -well done to all who rocked up.

Finally last night at the Atherton Gardens estate in Fitzroy an anti-fascist festival was celebrated with music food and community building after recent attacks on the resident's community by thugs, politicians and media hyped shock horror exposes.

Today Saturday there is a local UnionSoli event with locals out at Altona where a proposed heliport will be set to land 100 metres from residents backyards and fly the damned things across a wetland with heaps of birds and an endangered butterfly habitat - if people and birds struggle with the wind off the helicopter what would a butterfly be blown about like ?

Source of above news Solidarity Breakfast show on Radio 3CR talk-back 8.30am today. 3CR's annual fundraiser is on again in June and we need to consolidate this great community resource where else can you hear unionists and community activists speaking up for themselves and not cut up by Corporate and Government interests (if ever heard at all!) see http://www.3cr.org.au

Now for a song kids:

New Legislation

A Song by Catherine O'Brien and Allan Caswell©Catherine O'Brien and Allan Caswell 2007

http://bmuc.blogspot.com/2007/05/new-legislation-song-by-catherine.html

chorus:
freedom of choice with a gun to your head
your right to work hard until you drop dead
or we'll get some other fool in here instead
'cos we got this new legislation

the secretary's future doesn't look great
the boss says she showed up for work an hour late
besides she refused to go out on a date
and he's got this new legislation

the 4th year apprentice he's done well at tafe
he's worked real hard to make his future safe
but we've got to downsize son so you're on your way
cos we got this new legislation

your union card won't do you favours round here
cos we've smelt your breath and we think we smelt beer
and if you discuss it son you're outa here
cos we got this new legislation

we wouldn't say darlin' that you're overweight
we think you're lovely your work has been great
but we're all out of uniforms except for size eight
cos we got this new legislation

overtime's over the contract is signed
penalty rates mate are all in your mind
cos we've got your arse now on our bottom line
cos we got this new legislation

your right to life's over as soon as you're born
24 seven we've got you on call
your time's now our time that's no crime at all
cos we got this new legislation

what we said last year mate we can't recall
and that mutual agreement wasn't mutual at all
cos we made the small print incredibly small
and we got this new legislation
______________________________________

Many thanks to Cathie O'Brien and Allan Caswell for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.

Cathie and Allan met up one evening to write a song about the WorkChoices laws passed by the then John Howard Australian Government and its repercussions on the average worker.

They wrote the song from a social justice and Human Rights perspective.

Visit Cathie's website at: http://www.catherineobrien.com/

Visit Allan's website at: http://www.shoestringrecords.tv/Singersongwriterseries/allancaswell/caswellindex.html