UPDATES ON DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PACIFIC
Dr Jane Kelsey, Action, Research and Education Network of Aotearoa
(ARENA/NZ), to the International Coordinating Network WTO Preparatory
Meeting, Hong Kong, February 2005
The South Pacific may seem a strange starting point for an input on the
Hong Kong ministerial conference in December. It is about as far away from
Geneva as you can get. But its situation shows how the WTO reaches the
most remote parts of the world, including countries that are not and never
will be WTO members.
NIKEWATCH NEWS - March 2005
Challenging Sports Brands to Respect Workers' Rights
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This issue features debate between Nike and Oxfam Community Aid
Abroad regarding the dismissal of union members at MSP Sportswear in Thailand. Please follow the link and take action on this case.
There's also a profile of the Clean Clothes Campaign - part of our
aim of providing you with more info on the global movement for labour rights.
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1. Will Nike do the right thing at MSP Sportswear, Thailand?
2. Update on Indonesian FILA supplier - PT Tae Hwa
3. Prove that consumers care, send us your receipts
4. Three Years is Enough! Sri Lankan workers want their jobs back
5. For Sydney readers: Fabric of Society - Fair Wear dinner, 31 March
6. Big win for workers' rights in USA - Taco Bell boycott over!
7. International Campaign Profile: The Clean Clothes Campaign
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1.
Oxfam Community Aid Abroad recently wrote to Nike in support of three union leaders dismissed for forming a union at MSP Sportswear in Thailand. Nike's initial response was inadequate and they failed to take responsibility for the implementation of their own code. For more information on MSP Sportswear and to take action
********************************************************************
6. Big win for workers' rights in USA - Taco Bell boycott over!
On 8 March Taco Bell finally responded to a four-year worker and
consumer campaign by signing an agreement with the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers for a 'Penny a Pound' from Taco Bell directly to
agricultural workers' producing tomatoes for Taco Bell. It is
striking evidence that together, workers and other citizens can
pressure big companies to respect workers basic rights. Oxfam was one of many organisations that supported the campaign.
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The NIKEWATCH-NEWS mailing list
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Steve Forbes says the world?s business leaders can?t wait to come to
Sydney later this year.
?Sydney is getting a world reputation for being a centre of business
and for being cosmopolitan,? said the president and chief executive of US magazine Forbes.
?People began to look at Australia in a new way after the Olympics.
Everyone wants to come to Australia.?
Mr Forbes, who has twice nominated to be the US Republican Party?s
presidential candidate, is in Australia to promote the coming Forbes
Global CEO conference, which will bring together about 400 chief
executives.
International speakers at the fifth annual event, to be held in Sydney
between August 30 and September 1, include former New York mayor
Rudolph Gmliani, PriceWaterhouseCoopers global chief executive Samuel
DiPiazza, Lloyds TSB Group chairman Maarten van den Bere and Nobel
Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
The NSW government, one of the host sponsors, said the conference
should inject about $5 million into the state?s economy.
?This is a tremendous opportunity to showcase Australia?s strong and
vibrant economy as well as the great access we have into Asia,? said
NSW Premier Bob Carr.
Local speakers include Prime Minister John Howard, Visy Indus- tries
chairman Richard Pratt, Busi- ness Council of Australia president Hugh
Morgan and Macquarie Bank executive director Warwick Smith
The three-day conference at the Sydney Opera House is expected to
stimulate the luxury accommodation sector and also provide good
business for Sydney airport, given, the number of corporate and
private jets expected to arrive.
Mr Forbes said he no longer held serious political ambitions but he
would continue to lobby for the introduction of a flat income tax
structure in the US. ?I won?t be running [for nominated nation to be
the Republican Party?s presidential candidate],? he said. ?But I will
be an agitator - backing candidates, backing causessuch as tax reform.
?It seems that the former communist countries are getting [a flat
tax].A number in eastern and central Europe have adopted it.?
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The Anarchist Age Weekly review
Number 634
14th March-20th March 2005
NO GLOBALISATION WITHOUT DIRECT DEMOCRACY-ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE
'WE SWEAR BY THE SOUTHERN CROSS TO STAND TRULY BY EACH OTHER AND FIGHT TO
DEFEND OUR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES'-EUREKA REBELLION OATH 1854
IT'S ALL OVER RED ROVER
The Coalition's call for a free trade agreement with China and its recent
free trade agreements with the US, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, mark
the beginning of the end of the manufacturing and agricultural sector in
Australia. Since Federation, 'free trade' and 'protectionism' have
dominated the economic debate. It's only in the past 2 decades that both
major political parties have embraced 'free trade' as Australia's economic
destiny.
Media Release: VSU
VSU LEGISLATION MAKES NO ECONOMIC SENSE FOR UNIVERSITIES
March 16, 2005
Legislation to abolish universal membership of student organisations, introduced by the Government into the Federal Parliament today, makes no economic sense for universities and will severely undermine their efforts to compete in the multi-billion dollar international student market.
?This legislation is a disaster for universities and if implemented will make it extremely difficult for many of them to provide the type of essential services that domestic and overseas students expect as part of studying at a modern university,? said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
?Education Minister Brendan Nelson?s justification for the Bill in terms of the principles of ?fairness? and ?freedom of association? is a complete misrepresentation of what is at stake if this legislation is implemented.?
?The vast majority of universities already have some form of clause that allows students to opt-out of membership of their student organisation upon enrolment. What this legislation questions is whether universities should be able to charge students a fee towards the cost of providing a range of services, many of which are administered by student-controlled organisations.?
?The Government obviously thinks this should not be the case and is proposing to severely penalise any institution that tries to bypass the ban by charging their own fee to fund any facility or service that is not narrowly defined as relating to the academic nature of the student?s course of study.?
?Quite apart from the broader impact that this will have on campus culture and the fact that it represents yet another bureaucratic intrusion by the Government into affairs of universities, the legislation displays total ignorance about how a modern university operates and what constitutes an academic-related service,? said Dr Allport.
?For example, I would have thought that a single mother with two children who goes back to university to study would consider childcare services, which are often provided cheaply by student organisations, as very much related to her ability to progress academically.?
?Similarly, I imagine that an overseas student would consider access to cheap computer facilities or assistance from the student organisation to represent them in a dispute over marking, as essential academic services.?
?Universities face limited choices if they cannot charge a fee for these services,? said Dr Allport. ?They will either have to fund them from their own scarce resources, farm them out to private providers who provide them on a full cost commercial bases, or not provide them at all.?
?This legislation will severely damage the academic and broader cultural product offered by universities and severely undermine their ability to compete in the multi-billion international student market, where access to services provided by institutions is a major selling point for Australian universities.?
For information and comment
Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator: (03) 9254 1910
Emma Cull, NTEU Policy and Research Officer: (03) 9254 1910
----------------
The Australian Federal Government wants to scrap student organisations and unions. The Federal Government is today introducing anti student legislation which will mean that membership of student organisations is no longer automatically universal. Commonly known as Voluntary Student Unionism, this legislation is an attempt to silence students and reduce our rights.
There are many articles in the Australian media today about this proposed legislation. For example go to the Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au
All undergraduate students are currently members of the Student?s Representative Council through universal unionism. The Student?s Representative Council represents all undergraduate students at the University of Sydney and protects student rights through campaigns on issues affecting students, such as fee increases, course cuts and the cost of readers. SRC staff are available to all students to provide confidential and professional advice and advocacy on academic, legal and welfare matters such as Centrelink.
Voluntary student unionism is an attack on student rights and the organisations who fight to protect them. Hundreds of jobs are also under attack with staff of student organisations uncertain about their futures.
Support the rights of students, oppose the government?s legislation.
Vote ?no? in the readers poll, write to your paper and politicians, participate in talk back radio and encourage your union to support the National Union of Students (NUS) and National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) in the fight to oppose voluntary student unionism.
--
Charlotte Long
Welfare Research Officer
Students? Representative Council
University of Sydney
PO Box 794
NSW 2007
Telephone +61 2 9660 5222
Facsimile +61 2 9660 4260
The SRC gives students a voice - don?t let the Government silence them. Say NO to Voluntary Student Unionism.
http://www.src.usyd.edu.au
