Marathon - Is Schacht a liar or just incompetent?

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. John Santich, back in 2007 that “we have essentially the approval of the state government – it’s supported it in every possible way”.

It seems that a close relationship of the crony variety with the State Labor government has either always existed, or at least, always been claimed by Marathon

Back in 2007 former Labor Federal Senator Chris Schacht (left) was a rather anonymous shareholder. After the environmental vandalism by the company at Mt Gee was discovered, he was elevated to the position of Executive Director.

We have commented many times on his role in lobbying for Marathon.

Most recently, Schacht was interviewed by ABC radio and stated that Marathon had merely “littered” the Mt Gee area by not removing plastic bags from waste before dumping it. He stated that the Mt Gee resource was the second largest uranium deposit in Australia after Roxby Downs, and that the waste dumped at Arkaroola was not radioactive.

The unknownSA blog gives detail on the interview.

Servethepeople makes the following comments:

1. It was not simply a matter of "littering". In addition to 22,800 calico bags containing exploration drill cuttings, there were 1500 empty green plastic bags. These were buried at Mt Gee East together with an "unknown quantity of general personal protection equipment (PPE) and other waste from the Amdel Laboratory in Adelaide...polystyrene tubing, cardboard waste and similar..." (Marathon EL 3258 Rectification Plan p. 6). Additionally, at the Hodgkinson dump, there were 16 steel drums and 4 plastic screw top barrels containing sample pulps returned from the Laboratory.

2. Marathon was not entitled to dump these materials with or without calico, steel or plastic covering. Marathon's own publication Learning from Waste in the Wilderness (p. 6) states that it was required to have "used filter cartridges and PPE in sealed plastic bags placed in steel drums to be then removed from the site and disposed of through the general waste system away from the Arkaroola site". The "excess bulk drill cuttings (should be) principally returned to the drilling hole". Material that could not be returned to drilling holes had to be buried in an adjacent sump and adjacent mud pits and covered with clean fill of up to 1 metre in depth.The emphasis, however, was clearly on the return of materials to drilling holes. Given the quantity of the material, 22,800 calico bags worth, this would have been a costly and time-consuming activity and Marathon chose to ignore it.

3. Chris Schacht claimed that the Marathon Resource was the "second largest" uranium deposit after Roxby Downs. Marathon has never claimed to have been more than the "fifth largest undeveloped uranium deposit in Australia" (CEO letter to shareholders 7 July, 2009). In any case, why should size matter (to coin a phrase)? The issue is that there should not be any mining in the Arkaroola Sanctuary.

4. Chris Schacht claims that the material was not radioactive. It was. It was described as low level by the Chairman Peter Williams on ABC radio on 11/09/08 after the Flinders Ranges Council refused Marathon permission to dispose of about 200 kilograms of material from the Mt Gee site. Williams said "in its current state the waste would not exceed radiation levels found in many naturally occurring circumstances". This material was subsequently disposed of at the Inkerman landfill, making this SA's first government sanctioned radioactive dump. Further, the Marathon rectification plan includes an Appendix D which is a radiation Management Plan. On p. 18 of the rectification plan, Marathon acknowledges that in the clean-up situation of an open air environment, both direct (external) gamma exposure and inhalation of radioactive dusts are matters of concern and lists seven points for reduction of radiation exposure during the clean-up (p. 19).

Chris Schacht is an experienced lobbyist and has, of course, a financial interest, which he acknowledges, in seeking to have Marathon's exploration licence restored.

Either he is deliberately misleading the public of SA, or he genuinely does not understand the issues about which he was interviewed, in which case one would have to question his competence to hold a Directorship in Marathon and to be a lobbyist on its behalf.

The interview with Schacht was prompted by indications from the government that it would renew the exploration licence on October 10 so long as there was no “ground disturbance”.

The comment was made in the Advertiser (29/8/09) that “Once the licence is renewed, the company can continue with exploration activities such as aeromagnetic and radio metric surveys…”

Yet the company declared in its Letter to Shareholders of July 6, 2009, that “we have recently undertaken the following work on EL 3258:

Gravity survey
Heli-magnetometer survey
Stream sediment sampling
Geological mapping
Radiometric survey"

It would appear that renewing the exploration licence would change very little in the way of the company’s activities; rather, it sends the clear message to the company and the community that the state government, which declares itself to be “pro-business, pro-growth and pro-mining”, is indeed holding the door open to eventual mining within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Resources Minister Paul Holloway (left) appeared to be justifying further exploration saying in the Advertiser (29/8/09) “all such results add to the state’s repository of geological information”.

Enough is known about what resources exist inside the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Enough is known about the geological, environmental and tourism significance of the Sanctuary.

The latter outweighs the former.

The state government ruled out uranium mining by Marathon on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

It should allow EL 3258 to expire on October 10, 2009 and introduce legislation, if required, to state parliament to determine, once and for all, that the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary be declared off-limits to mining.

Rallies for safety, equal pay and improved wages

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.

SA Unions state secretary Janet Giles addressed the rally, held in support of stronger health and safety laws. She was followed by the CFMEU’s Aaron Cartledge and a work-based safety rep from the Nurses Union.

The CPA (M-L) paper Vanguard provides a national perspective on this campaign (see here).

At 1pm, the Business and Professional Women (Australia) lobby group held a rally on the steps of Parliament House in support of pay equity. ABS figures show that as a combined result of the Howard government’s WorkChoices legislation and the current economic crisis, equal pay for women is receding.

Although organised by an organisation representing professional employees, the Liquor and Hospitality Union’s Assistant State Secretary Chris Field was welcomed as a speaker, and provided a summary of the Clean Start campaign which has won important wage and conditions gains for low paid cleaners.

At the same time, in front of the government’s administration centre, several hundred members of the Hospital Services Union were serving notice on the state government that they rejected Treasurer Foley’s announced 2.5% cap on public sector salaries. They were declaring the start of their current round of enterprise bargaining and seeking to bring their salaries in line with those of health care and aged care services workers interstate.

Hong Kong - capitalism without comment

The original source for the story below was the Hong Kong paper Apple Daily. I have taken it from the East West North South blog.

.....................

Here are the monthly rental rates (in HKD/square foot) at some of the more famous luxury high-rise apartment complexes.

The Harbour Side, Kowloon Station, HKD 31-42 per square foot

Hillsborough Court, Mid Levels, Hong Kong Island, HKD 27-42 per square foot

However, the winner goes to something completely different at the other end of the wealth spectrum.

Between April and June this year, the Society for Community Organisation interviewed 267 residents who live in "cage houses" and boarded rooms in the Shum Shui Po, Tai Kok Tsui, Yau Tsim Mong and To Kwa Wan districts of China.

The study show that the rent for 10.7% of units rose as a result of the financial tsunami, even as much as 40% in one case. The median month rental rate for "cage houses"/boarded rooms rose from 23.9 HKD/square foot in 2007 to 32.9 HKD/square foot. In particular, 20% of the units had month rental rates as high as 93.3 HKD/square foot.

The median area of a "cage" is 18 square feet. The public areas of toilet and kitchen are shared by 10 persons.

The survey also showed that 40% of the interviewees were unemployed, twice as high as in 2006. 24% of the interviewees said that their income as diminished by over 30% since the financial tsunami. Most of the "cage house" inhabitants are welfare recipients or low-income earners. Even among those employed interviewees, their median monthly income is 6,000 yuan, which is 40% less than the media monthly income for all Hong Kong. The interviewees pay 30% of their monthly income on rent.

The Society for Community Organisation director said that about 100,000 Hong Kong people reside in "cage houses" and "boarded rooms." Demand is always higher than supply. Therefore, the rent prices have not gone down during the financial tsunami. "The occupancy rate for "cage houses" and boarded rooms" is 100%, so the landlords are not worried about not having any renters."

Exploitation has increased during this crisis

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 0.8%.

In general terms, this has meant that there has been an intensification of work associated with the production of goods and services.

(Above, the shsare of GDP going to wages has declined overall by a factor equal to 10% of GDP. The blue line is real wages, the red line above is labour productivity. The gap between the two has gone to the rich).

In so far as human labour power is utilized to manufacture or produce saleable commodities, a value can be attached to the commodity by adding together the labour costs for which a worker is actually recompensed through wages, and which require a certain number of work hours to create, and any additional value created in what then becomes effectively an unpaid or unrecompensed number of additional working hours.

The latter is a surplus value and is the source of profit, but the sale of the commodity is necessary before the profit can be realized. And of course, it goes to the capitalist (corporate or individual) and not to the worker.

Essentially in this crisis, ways have been found to reduce the number of hours that a worker must perform before the value of his or her wages has been created – socially, with other workers in nearly every work situation.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, 117,800 full time male jobs and 3,100 full time female jobs were lost. At the same time, 39,500 part time male jobs and 49,500 part time female jobs were created.

That is, more and more workers are employed, just like parts being brought into a manufacturing plant, on a just-in-time basis. Pay rates for casual labour are notoriously lower than those for full-time permanent employees (into whose wages things like sick leave, holiday pay and other entitlements) are factored. Thus, workers don’t have to work so long to manufacture the value of their wages, and a proportionately larger amount of time can be extracted as surplus value particularly when a reduction of hours is associated with speed-ups, technological innovation and other work intensification measures.

The data also shows that “the share of the economy going to wages has increased…whilst the profits share has fallen”.

But this doesn’t mean that higher wages are being paid.

Surplus value has to be realised through sales.

At the moment, there is too much for sale, or overproduction.

At the same time massive amounts of purely speculative, fictitious capital held by banks and finance corporations in the form of credit default swaps, residential housing mortgages, collateralised debt obligations and a wide range of derivatives have been wiped out.

This restricts the capacity of banks to extend credit to worker and capitalist alike.

For the capitalist, it means getting rid of excess stock quickly and at whatever price it can be realised. The practice of running down stock inventories becomes widespread.

(Above, change in inventories 1995-2009, ABS)

On the one hand sales volumes drop because workers can’t get, or are unwilling to seek, credit. People become aware that their cards are maxed out and take a breather. (And they need to: the proportion of household debt as a percentage of disposable income had risen from 42% in 1980 to an overloaded, maxed-out 102% in 2000, and is higher again nearly a decade later.)

On the other hand sales values decline as prices drop to encourage the running down of inventories.

The combination of the two means that the realisation of surplus value through sales at a higher price is threatened. That means that profits drop. Although higher wages are not paid and real wages might even dip a bit, it is possible that the proportion of GDP going to wages increases ahead of that going to profits because the fall of the value of the latter outpaces the fall in the value of the former.

Hence, we can say that exploitation in Australia has increased during this economic crisis: the proportion of surplus value being extracted from Australian workers’ labour power has increased. The greater share of GDP going to wages as compared to profits is not because of higher wages or even maintenance of real wages measured against the CPI. It means no social or economic advantage to workers.

Why do we put up with this?

Marathon - a bucket of mullet gut

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”.

Isn’t the capitalist press wonderful? When workers go on strike, they are “thugs” and “wreckers” and “holding the community to ransom”.

But when the wilderness despoiler Marathon is helped back into the saddle by a compliant government department, the media surrenders its plain speaking demeanour and opts for the vagueness of an “Arkaroola area” (where…inside, alongside, next door to?….ssshhh…don’t mention Mt Gee) and tries to muddy the water with the technicality of a “Marathon subsidiary” (whenever in the past has it been necessary to hide Marathon behind the technical lease-holder Bonanza Gold?)

Maybe the latter is part of an evolving plan to get around the stench that is attached to Marathon’s name by allowing the lease to go to a nominal third party. This is not so fanciful. Bonanza Gold was a collaborator with Goldstream Mining NL until it was restructured several times to become IMX Resources. There is still a liability from whomever gets the Mt Gee lease to pay IMX royalties if anything is ever mined there.

Marathon appears to have structured itself so it can “hive off” EL 3258 (Mt Gee) at a moment’s notice if that becomes convenient. This was one of three measures countenanced in its 2007 Annual Report (alongside, next to getting more capital and/or reducing expenditure).

It would be convenient, for example, if:

1. Marathon can’t get an exploration licence to drill
2. If it can explore, but is denied the right to mine
3. If its directors suffer more public relations disasters (eg if a Queensland-style ICAC was to investigate…unlikely given the SA government’s opposition to an ICAC)
4. If Marathon remains on the nose with the public despite its extensive mea culpas and its elevation of “clean, green” Shad Lynley to the positon of CEO.

So what the hell is going on at the moment?

In an earlier post (Nov 29, 2008) we wrote: “Would it be too cynical to suggest that Chris Schacht and Mike Rann have a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to the effect that once the clean up of illegally dumped wastes is concluded, Marathon will have its exploration licence restored with ‘close monitoring’ by PIRSA to assuage public concern about further despoliation?”

Looks like that is happening!

And on July 5, 2009, following a Marathon announcement to shareholders that the company had not yet established the limits of uranium deposits inside the Wilderness Sanctuary, we added that the message “is really for members of the SA Labor government, and is intended to talk up the need for more exploration…”

Well, that message has certainly been taken on board, and providing they don’t disturb the surface, they are now assured of being able to continue with aeromagnetic and radio metric surveys.

And why would the government let this happen if they intended to do the right thing and ban mining within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary?

To ask the question is to answer it.

And how are we going to stop this?

A panel consisting of Arkaroola operator Marg Sprigg, Liberal Party federal Senator Nick Minchin, Liberal Party state parliamentarian Iain Evans, Greens Party state parliamentarian Mark Parnell and Wilderness Society spokesperson Peter Owens discussed this issue at a forum in the SA state parliament today.

Parnell and Evans are to be commended for convening the forum, which was well-attended by the media and by about 30 interested observers.

All stated their firm determination to declare Arkaroola off-limits to mining.

Evans stated “We should simply tell the mining industry…go look elsewhere!”

Minchin who, as Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Resources in the Howard government, approved uranium mining at the nearby, adjacent, alongside (“in the Arkaroola area”) Beverley mine, declared that “as a conservative I believe there are things that deserve to be conserved, that should be off-limits to mining…Arkaroola is one of them”.

Welcome statements all, and potentially part of a broad community movement that will succeed in blocking mining at Arkaroola, but this needs to be taken out of Parliament House and into the community so that a public and visible presence is established that will prevent the SA government moving from its commitment to restoring Marathon’s exploration lease to the further step of allowing them to mine.

Water pirates filching the common good

Two articles highlight the corporate exploitation of Australia's freshwater ecosystems.

The first is from the web journal Online Opinion and can be access here: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9340

I've added a comment to it.

The second is the text of a piece called "Stolen Waters" and exposes BHP Billiton's theft of water from the Great Artesian Basin, a theft which is due to multiply many times as the expansion of Olympic Dam into the world's biggest open cut mine gets underway (please note that the dollar amounts cited are constantly changing on the original site at http://www:thestolenwater.com ):


BHP Billiton, the world's richest mining company, plunders Australia's precious -- and FINITE -- artesian water resource without cost, oversight or regulation.

Australia is a desert land and the nation is presently suffering from extreme water shortages. The largest river system in the nation, the Murray-Darling, is in a critical condition -- outflows to the sea have all but ceased and vital lake systems are now dust bowls; YET the plundering Transnational, BHP continues to steal high quality water for its uranium, pollution producing mine, Olympic Dam.

BHP Billiton have helped themselves to
424,303,047,402litres

of FREE water from the Great Artesian Basin since 1982
Sydney households pay

$ 776,474,576

for the same volume of water

The massive theft of water is causing environmental damage through:
land and water salinisation
encouragement of the spread of pest plants and animals
reduced pressure in some naturally occurring artesian springs
Since 1999 the Australian Government has spent

$ 80,372,747

of tax payer money in an attempt to repair the damage


Related press & references
BHP: 30 million litres of water per day for free
Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative (GABSI)
Howard urged to make BHP mine pay for water

US imperialism can break our bodies but not fix those of its own people

US President Barak Obama is facing strong opposition from vested corporate interests to plans for improvements to medical and health services in the US.


According to international lobby group Avaaz, "US healthcare is run by large corporations - it's the most expensive in the world, but ranks 37th in quality, and 40 million Americans can't afford any care at all. It's an awful system for people, but corporations make enormous profits, so they're fighting to keep it."


Public health systems are not incompatible with capitalism as the experience of Australia, Canada and many European nations shows.


However, nothing can be wrested from the capitalist system without a struggle, and once wrested, as the history of Medibank shows in Australia, it must be continually guarded and fought over.

In the US, the big corporate monopolies that control medicine and health services play on public gullibity about "socialised" or "Soviet" medical services. This is only possible because the US media keeps the US public ignorant about public health services in other capitalist countries and of course, about the far superior models of public health in socialist countries.


So we have a situation in which the US imperialists have the most perfect systems for tearing apart the bodies of working people and anti-imperialist patriots throughout the world, yet one of the worst systems for restoring the bodies of their own citizens.


This is an irony developed in the following comment by former Cuban President, Fidel Castro:

Reflections of Fidel

The empire and the robots


(Taken from CubaDebate)


A little while ago, I wrote about U.S. plans to impose the absolute superiority of its air force as an instrument of domination over the rest of the world. I mentioned the project of that country possessing more than 1,000 state-of-the-art F-22 and F-35 bombers and fighter planes in its fleet of 2,500 military aircraft. By 20 years later, the totality of its warplanes will be robot-operated.


Military budgets always have the majority support of U.S. legislators. There are very few states where employment is not at least partially dependent on the defense industry.


On a global level and constant value, military costs have doubled in the last 10 years, as if no danger of crisis existed at all. At this juncture it is the most prosperous industry on the planet.


In 2008, approximately $1.5 trillion was invested in defense budgets. Forty-two percent of world spending on defense, or $607 billion, corresponded to the United States, not including war expenditures, while the number of hungry in the world reached the figure of one billion people.


A Western news agency reported two days ago that in mid-August the U.S. army exhibited a remote-controlled helicopter, as well as robots capable of doing the work of sappers, 2,500 of which have been sent to combat zones.


A robot marketing company maintained that new technologies are revolutionizing the ways of commanding war. It has been published that in 2003 the United States had next to no robots in its arsenal but “today it has — according to AFP — 10,000 ground vehicles and 7,000 aircraft, from the little Raven, which can be launched with one hand, to the giant Global Hawk, a spy plane of 13 meters in length and 35 in wingspan capable of flying at a great height for 35 hours.” Other weapons are listed in that dispatch.


While that colossal expenditure on technologies for killing is taking place in the United States, the president of that country is sweating blood in order to bring health services to 50 million U.S. citizens who lack them. The confusion is so great that the new president affirmed that reform of the health system was closer than ever but “the battle is turning ugly.”


“But now’s the hard part,” he added. “Because the history is clear – every time we come close to passing health insurance reform, the special interests with a stake in the status quo use their influence and political allies to scare and mislead the American people.”


It is a true fact that in Los Angeles, 8,000 people – the majority of them unemployed, according to the press – gathered in a stadium to receive medical attention from a free traveling clinic that provides services in the Third World. Most of them had waited there overnight. Some of them had traveled from hundreds of kilometers away.


“‘What do I care if it’s socialist or not? We are the only country in the world where the most vulnerable of us have nothing,’ said a woman from a black neighborhood and with higher education.”


It was noted that a “blood test could cost $500 and routine dental treatment more than $1,000.”


What hope can that society offer the world?


Congressional lobbyists are spending their August working against a simple bill that is an attempt to provide medical care to tens of millions of poor people — the vast majority of them black or Latino — who lack that service. Even a blockaded country like Cuba has been able to do that and, moreover, cooperate with dozens of Third World countries.


If robots in the hands of the transnationals can replace the imperial soldiers in wars of conquest, who will detain the transnationals in the search for markets for their artifacts? Just as they have inundated the world with automobiles that are now competing with humans for the consumption of non-renewable energy and even for foodstuffs converted into fuel, they can also inundate it with robots that will displace millions of workers in their workplaces.


Better still, scientists can likewise design robots capable of governing; thus sparing the government and Congress of the United States that horrible, contradictory and confused labor.


No doubt they would do it better and more cheaply.










Fidel Castro Ruz
August 19, 20093:15 p.m.

Rann, Marathon and crony capitalism

The following article is from the Murdoch rag, the Australian (20 Aug 2009).


On this occasion, we will not hold that against them.


The article underscores what this blog has been saying for more than two years: the stench of corruption hovers all around the Rann government and wilderness despoiler and uranium explorer Marathon Resources.


I won't repeat what I've put in previous posts on this issue (just hit the Arkaroola link to the right if you are interested).


Here's the report from the Australian:

Schacht lobbied Rann for miner

Michael Owen, SA political reporter August 20, 2009
Article from: The Australian

LOBBYIST and former Labor senator Chris Schacht was headhunted to join the board of a uranium exploration company, which was seeking to have a drilling ban lifted and its mining licence renewed by the Rann government.

After his appointment to the board of Marathon Resources, Mr Schacht lobbied Premier Mike Rann and Mineral Resources Minister Paul Holloway in private meetings and during trips to China, including one last October.

Mr Schacht, who company documents show was appointed to the board on January 23 last year, is a shareholder in Marathon and a former consultant for the company controlled by Queensland coal magnate Ken Talbot.

The Rann government refused to respond to inquiries from The Australian about its dealings with Marathon, including whether Mr Holloway had been lobbied by Mr Schacht or other company representatives.

Marathon chairman Peter Williams said after a board meeting in Adelaide yesterday that Mr Schacht had lobbied Mr Rann and Mr Holloway.

The company also employs a lobbyist firm, but Mr Williams refused to disclose the name of the firm.

The Rann government is under pressure because of its lack of action to regulate the activities of lobbyists and establish a lobbyists' register, as the Rudd government and other states have done.
Adding to that pressure has been the Premier's refusal to establish an independent commission against corruption, as every other state except Victoria has done, in the wake of events in Queensland.

Yesterday's revelations about the extent of lobbying by Mr Schacht, a Keating government minister and former ALP state secretary, comes before Marathon's mining exploration licence expires on October 10, and as the government prepares to consider lifting a drilling ban imposed in February last year.

The indefinite suspension on drilling came after the company was caught in December 2007 dumping uranium drilling waste in the environmentally sensitive Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, 700km north of Adelaide.

A month later, Mr Schacht was appointed to the company's board. Marathon aims to develop its Mount Gee uranium project in the northern Flinders Ranges, which is estimated to contain more than 40 million tonnes of uranium ore.

Conservationists and tourist operators want Marathon barred from the sanctuary and its drill sites at Mount Gee, a listed geological monument.

Company insiders said Mr Schacht had lobbied Mr Holloway and Mr Rann on behalf of the company during trips with them to China, and in private meetings, as the state government stood to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.

Mr Schacht said that as a company director he could not comment.

Mr Williams said there were "regular" meetings with the government, including with Mr Holloway. "We secured Chris's involvement before the problems came up ... Of course he's had lots of discussions with them (Rann and Holloway), and there's no undue influence at all".

Rudd and Gillard courtesy of Matt Walker

Adelaide photographer and graphic artist Matt Walker has pretty neatly captured the essence of social democracy in the two images above.

Social democracy is the political theory espoused by Labor politicians, a theory that says that capitalism can be reformed peacefully through parliamentary activity, and that only though this avenue of reform can there be improvements in the condition of the working class.

Even the term "class" is discarded by modern social democrats. For Rudd, the preferred term is "working families".

So-called "Labor" and "Social Democratic" parties throughout the world are parties of capitalism.

Capitalist countries generally have a conservative party that is openly reactionary and used by the ruling class to remove all legal and bureaucratic obstacles to their pursuit of profit. They also have an alternative party ("Labor" or some variation of it) that can be used to put in place legal and bureaucratic measures to restore balance between competing sections of the ruling class after periodic bouts of crisis. Traditionally, these parties have also been used to make concessions to the workers when the latter begin to assert their independent interests against those of the bosses.

Rudd, like Howard before him, is an apologist for, and supporter of, US imperialism.

Gillard as Deputy PM has ministerial responsibility for the two key areas of industrial relations and education. She has openly flaunted her commitment to Howard's savage anti-union creation, the Australian Building and Construction Commission. And in education circles, she is fast becoming known as Julia Dullard because of her ignorant championing of bad educational practice sourced from the US and England.

Matt's website http://www.mattwalkerphotography.com/ is temporarily offline but is a rich source of progressive imagery.

Ark Tribe case adjourned until October

(Dave Noonan, National Secretary of the CFMEU, promises a campaign of retaliation if Ark Tribe, about third from left in black top, is jailed)

As the song says, something like fifty men a year are killed in construction industry accidents around Australia, but I've never yet known a boss to go to jail for industrial manslaughter.

Yet a worker who took issue with slack safety standards on his job found himself required to answer questions about a meeting to discuss the issue: who said what, and to whom.



This is under laws bequeathed to the nation by the previous Prime Monster Liberal John Howard, and kept alive by current Prime Monster Rudd and his Deputy Julia Gillard, of the so-called Labor Party.

Ironically, both were put into office by an electorate demanding the protection of rights at work.

Ark Tribe attended his second court appearance yesterday, out at Elizabeth, north of Adelaide, charged with failing to appear at a compulsory interrogation.

The penalty for non-appearance at an ABCC interrogation is six month's jail!

Three hundred work mates, community activists and members of other unions were there to support Ark. It was a great turn-out for mid-morning on a working day.

As the supporters gathered, the Ark Tribe song was played over a scratchy speaker system.

State Secretary of the CFMEU Martin O'Malley described Ark as "this generation's Ned Kelly or Ben Hall...he's a hero."

He introduced speakers including SA Unions leader Janet Giles, and parliamentarians Mark Parnell (Greens) and David Winterlich (Democrats).

"Where's the bloody Labor Party," someone from the crowd yelled, to ironic cheers.

Then it was Ark's turn to again face the courts, his lawyers winning an adjournment to Adelaide on October 30.

Don't expect any bosses to be standing in the dock with him - that will have to wait until we've got people's courts and a people's legal system.

And it will be an Ark Tribe then who sits in judgement on the murderers and maimers of workers!

(Above, Rex with his "MUA - here to stay" flag: "they tried it on the wharfies, with scabs and thugs and lost..." To the far left, as you'd expect...brace yourself...it's Joe from WA!)

(Above, Bob with the Oath of the Eureka Stockade, still an inspiration in the struggles of today together with the Stockade's magnificent blue and white flag).

Prof James Anaya puts spotlight on racist "intervention"

Professor James Anaya, who holds the mandate for investigating and reporting on the rights of Indigenous people under the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will visit Australia in August.

A letter welcoming Prof. Anaya is being circulated (see below) and many individuals and organizations are signing in support of its call for the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in the Northern Territory.

The RDA was suspended by the Howard government to give effect to measures such as its quarantining of income payments to NT Aborigines.

It was claimed at the time that the measures were required in order to deal with the effects of alcoholism and of child abuse and neglect.

Whilst some individual instances of improvement have been noted, the measures have caused widespread resentment in Aboriginal communities.

The Rudd government differs little from its predecessor in its heavy-handed and paternalistic treatment of NT Aboriginal communities.

Both governments refuse to listen to and empower the communities.

There is continuing conflict around the takeover of town camps; attempts to restrict services to and drive people from homelands (“outstations”); removal of people from the CDEP scheme which, for all its faults, at least provides income in return for work; having to shop at designated stores with a “basics” card; suppression of bilingual education; failure to reduce the gap in health services and life expectancy; failure to improve and expand housing. The list goes on and on.

There is turbulence in the administration of Aboriginal affairs by the NT government. Aboriginal MP Marion Scrymgour (left) resigned as deputy head of government and minister for Indigenous Affairs and then left the Labor Party. Her replacement, another Aboriginal MP, Alison Anderson (right) threatened to resign when told that no houses had yet been built in remote communities, and that less than a third of the money in the program would be spent on housing. After giving her government a deadline for action, she followed through two days ago and resigned.

Rudd and Macklin compound the turbulence and resentment, saying that they will reinstate the RDA but continue the discriminatory and paternalistic measures of the Intervention as “special measures” allowed under the RDA for positive discrimination.

Hopefully Professor Anaya will see though all of this to what is essentially a land grab on behalf of mining giants and other business interests, and use his office to support genuine consultation with Aboriginal communities.

To sign the letter to Prof. Anaya send your name, location and email address to harrisme@bigpond.com .

……………..

Dear Professor Anaya,

Many Australians, Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal, are hopeful of your support in communicating the following views to the Australian government.

There is strong support for the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in a manner which complies with human rights principles, and does not impose ‘special measures’
‘Special measures’ in their current and proposed form are discriminatory and opposed to by very many Aboriginal people

‘Special measures’ were imposed on Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory in 2007. These ‘special measures’ are racist and would have been illegal had the RDA not been suspended.
The current ‘consultations’ process based on the ‘Futures Directions - discussion paper’ is flawed and any findings must be disregarded. The document is complex, biased towards preferred government policy, written in the English language and presented without the regular use of interpreters. Consultations are not transparent and no records of meetings are available.

Government must re-commit to the recently articulated principle that ‘one size does NOT fit all’, and provide choice to individuals and communities, including the choice to accept or reject any or all of the special measures.

Re-engagement in genuine negotiation with Aboriginal elders and their representatives must be commenced as soon as possible. The process must be transparent and independent facilitators should be engaged for the purpose. In this regard attention should be paid to the statement from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission:

“As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christians, representing many different denominations and backgrounds, we are united against the NT Intervention in its current form” and ask government to, ‘Recognise the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to negotiate agreements with governments. We stress negotiation as distinct from consulting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples about the implementation of policy and programs which have already been already been developed and decided on”. (4 June 2009)

Professor Anaya, we welcome you to Australia and we call on you to encourage our government to respect and recognise the views of all Aboriginal people through genuine negotiation and respect for human rights. Consultations in their current form are manipulative and are aimed at maintaining racist legislation.

Yours sincerely,

Traditional owners want Beverley Four Mile Stopped

The Coober Pedy Regional Times newspaper, in both its print and online versions, has been a courageous champion of the environment.

The report below is sourced from the online CPRT.



BEVERLEY 4 MILE CLOSURE DEMAND AS MINERS "JUMP THE GUN"



Posted on July 28, 2009 by Coober Pedy Regional Times

Traditional Owners call for immediate halt to uranium operations at Beverley 4 Mile



Vada Ardlanha (above) is a place close to the mine site where the spring water is constantly hot and in the winter has steam rising off it. Traditionally Vada Ardlanha is a religious site, intricately connected to Adnyamathanha understandings of radioactivity and the uranium ore.

Traditional Aboriginal owners of the country that includes the Beverley 4 Mile uranium deposit are outraged with mining operations having commenced prior to the completion of State and Federal approvals processes.

Last week Traditional Owners visiting the site were greeted by new fences and locked gates. They were advised by company representatives that future visits would require company consent and supervision as the mining site was ‘already operational’.

Community members believe the company has pre-empted the Australian approvals process as Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has not yet approved a Monitoring and Management plan, a Mine Closure plan and a Community Engagement plan, all of which are required prior to the start of mining works at Beverley 4 Mile.

Similarly Petratherm announced the commencement of drilling without community consultation being satisfied and without a Risk Assessment being obtained to satisfy community concerns of their intentions regarding chemicals use and contaminated waste disposal procedures.

“On the 4 Mile a number of important South Australian Aboriginal heritage assessment processes are also currently unfinished or incomplete. This was not the deal. The company has jumped the gun. Our community is being left out and our concerns are being ignored,” said Adnyamathanha elder Enice Marsh.

“We want the Federal and State governments to make this company stop work now.”
Traditional Owners and custodians are deeply saddened and angered by the position taken by the mining company Quasar Resources, an affiliate of the US weapons and nuclear energy corporation General Atomics (see attached statement).

STATEMENT FROM TRADITIONAL OWNERS

Adnyamathanha Elders Turned Away from Sacred Lands

CUSTODIANS TREATED LIKE DIRT OVER LAND GRAB

A disastrous Work Area Clearance under Native Title left one Adnyamathanha woman extremely distressed by the attitude of the mining company; as a result she went missing for hours and a full scale search was required.

‘This is not respectful consultation, this is extreme bullying and treating women like dirt’ says Enice Marsh who experienced this frightening event as one of the party went missing for hours.

‘And neither Heathgate nor the anthropologist has spoken publicly on this dreadful event that may have ended in tragedy; there’s just been a big cover up over the whole thing. And those of who took part in the site survey back in April 2009 have never received a copy of the Anthropological report, nor have the Native Title Named Applicants that represent Adnyamathanha.

‘We haven’t even seen the report in draft form, so we could make comment on it before the Anthropologist sent it off the Heathgate’ claims one person. We are just left out in the cold, used up by the mining company to make it look like they are doing the right thing’.

‘It’s the land that is precious to us, not the money that Native Title offers as a bribe. On a visit to the area last week we followed the route we used since we were small children living on the area with our parents … only to find that this route has now been fenced off and locked up. We were then told by employees of Heathgate Resources that the Beverley Four Mile mining site is ‘already operational’ so the only way we can visit is through the main gates as supervised guests of the company.

WHERE’S THE HONOUR MR. WEATHERILL?

Our reaction was one of shock and disbelief: ‘How can the extension at Four Mile Mine already be up and running? What about the heritage investigation that’s taking place’ said one distressed Elder.

‘We want to be able to visit our land in private, not have mining company people gawking at us as we share our stories of how important the land is to us and our old people that have passed on’ said another Elder. ‘Leave it then, let’s not visit … we will just have to sit around the fire back at our campsite. We have no choice but to sing our songs somewhere else, share our stories about our love for our Yarta (country)’

The heritage survey formally instigated by Minister Jay Weatherill is still underway, yet the mining proponent continues on, uninterrupted in their destruction of our lands.

Aboriginal people are only being employed in low paid and unskilled jobs; where are the apprenticeships and long term investment of money for our future generations? They are just not there.

This is the reality of so-called ‘benefits’ for locals – damage to our cultural sites, unrestricted pollution of the water and contamination of the soil, destruction of animal habitat – these can never be rehabilitated.

And due to lack of environmental best practice rehabilitation is simply not necessary in the eyes of SA government and the mining industry. Shame on the Rudd Labor Government for allowing mining companies to openly abuse the lands and waters of South Australia!

BLACK & WHITE COMMUNITIES SHAFTED IN THE SNATCH ‘N GRAB

‘The local people in the region are being shafted – black and white.’ says Mrs Marsh. ‘People are being forced into going along with the Native Title process on both sides and it’s time the public started to see the full picture. The precious little amount of water we have in our State is being polluted right under our noses, yet water is the lifeblood for people in arid Australia. And the only way people will get the full picture is from those of us who really care about the environmental and cultural value of the land in South Australia, from the local people. Our government Ministers are behaving just like the miners – it’s ‘snatch and grab’ and leave the mess behind for future generations to have to deal with’ .

ATLA – DUTY OF CARE A MOCKERY

The governing committee for Native Title known as ATLA did not make a submission when the Four Mile PER was out for public comment, yet there are many sites on the floodplains that have been identified by old people that needed to be properly protected. This should have happened before exploration started. ‘The female Anthropologist that went out with us recorded some of our sites, but we have not yet seen the final report. And we know now that the mining company is already in there under the Mining License’ says Mrs Marsh.

Old people say that ATLA has a duty of care to all Adnyamathanha yet it fails to act to protect our sites and speak up for the people that are subject to abuse by the mining company. ‘

Why should it be left up to the Elders to speak up for our country? When is ATLA going to start working for Yuras instead of the mining companies and lawyers?’

Relations between the Han and Uighur in Xinjiang

On the night of June 25-6 at the Xuri Toy Factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, a riot occurred between Han and Uighur Chinese over the alleged rape by a Uighur of a Han girl.

The deaths of two Uighur workers created tensions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. Violence by Uighurs against Han, and by Han against Uighurs took place.

The Chinese government blamed Uighur separatists and particularly the Uighur World Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer for stirring up trouble.

Kadeer’s credibility suffered when she held up a poster-sized photo of police at the Shishou mass incident in Hubei Province and claimed that it showed overwhelming police force in the Xinjiang capital, Urumuqi. “How could our people cause the troubles against force like this,” she asked.


Other separatist Uighur activists around the world used similar sets of photographs of incidents outside of Xinjiang in an apparently orchestrated attempt to demonise the Chinese government.

(Above, a photo of a car accident in Hangzhou last May waved by a Uighur separatist in Turkey as "evidence" of Government suppression in Urumuqi.)

The Western media, also ever-keen to demonise China, grabbed isolated images unrelated to Xinjiang to misrepresent events.

(The English paper, above, removed the accompanying photo, which it said showed Uighur women who had been attacked by police. The photo actually showed Han women who had been attacked by Uighurs.)

(Above: The New York Times ran with this photo allegedly showing Uighur victims of the police in hospital before someone pointed out that the name of the patient on the wall, enlarged below, showed that he was a Han.)




Whilst it is hard from a distance to get some sense of objective facts, the interview below from the Hong Kong magazine Yazhou Zhoukan provides some interesting observations on the events, and in particular of possible fundamentalist Muslim involvement.

The interviewee, interestingly, refers to Mao Zedong’s criticism of great Han chauvinism. Mao was conscious that relations between the Han and the more than fifty national minorities amongst the people of China were one of what he called “ten major relationships” that had to be handled correctly by the ruling Communist Party.

The primary responsibility for that particular relationship, he said, lay with the Han. They had to treat minorities with respect, and accord them equal status with the Han.

The advent of the ideology of “to get rich is glorious” has undermined the ideological authority of the Party. The goal of communist equality is no longer the motivation force for Han or Uighur.

Together with mass incidents reflecting social polarisation, ethnic disturbances reflecting Han chauvinism and ethnic separatism will continue for the foreseeable future.

..........................................

Heyrat Niyaz on the July 5 Riots in Urumchi
In its August 2 issue, the Hong Kong newsweekly Yazhou Zhoukan interviews Heyrat Niyaz , a Uyghur journalist, blogger and AIDS activist. In the interview, which another blogger has translated below, Heyrat tells of how he tried to warn officials that "blood would flow" in Urumchi on July 5 and gives his thoughts about the background to the ethnic rioting.
* * *
YZ: When did you feel that something could occur on July 5?


HN: After the incident in Shaoguan, Guangdong, I felt that something big would happen, that blood would flow. Before the Shaoguan incident, there were already seeds of a disturbance in Xinjiang. After the Shaoguan incident, I wrote a series of three blog posts analyzing the impact of the incident and, the more analysis I did, the more certain I felt about my prediction.


YZ: Do you believe the July 5 incident was organized and premeditated?


HN: Looking at it from today, it was certainly organized. As for premeditated, between June 26 and July 5, there was already plenty of time for that. But the most crucial thing was that the government did not take prompt measures to prevent deterioration of the situation. On July 4, I was continually listening to Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America. On that day, World Uyghur Congress President Rebiya [Kadeer] and others were truly a bit out of the ordinary on that day, with nearly all of the leaders going on the air to speak.


Around 8 p.m., I called a friend of mine in the government and said, "Something is going to happen tomorrow. You should take some measures." I gave him the URL of Rebiya's speech so that they could listen for themselves. They said they would report to their superiors.The next morning, I called again. At around 10 a.m., I went with a friend to see a high official in the regional government. I told him that as an ordinary person of conscience, I have an obligation to remind you that blood will certainly flow today. You should immediately take steps and mobilize emergency preparations. Then, I made three recommendations: First, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Chairman Nur Bekri must make a public speech before 12 noon. Second, notify Han merchants in predominantly ethnic neighborhoods to close shop early and go home. Third, mobilize as many troops as you can, cordon off ethnic neighborhoods and block and patrol crucial intersections. After the close of business, impose martial law.


At the time, the official said he would make a phone call to seek instructions. In the end, not a single one of these recommendations was taken. In fact, I was not even the first person to warn
the relevant government agencies on July 4. Just after 6 p.m. on July 4 another person had provided a warning.


YZ: You said that prior to the Shaoguan incident there were already seeds of a disturbance in Xinjiang. What do you mean by that?


HN: There are two direct reasons that led to something like what happened on July 5. First is the promotion of bilingual education, and the second is the government's arrangements to send Uyghurs away to work. These two policies were strongly opposed by many Uyghur cadres, but anyone who dared to say "no" was immediately punished.The first to bear the brunt of the bilingual education policy were teachers who had previously taught in ethnic languages. Tens of thousands of teachers faced being laid off because their Chinese was not up to standard, and this led to unstable popular feelings among grassroots educators.


As for sending Uyghurs away to work, in the eyes of [Uyghur] nationalists you can joke all you like, but don't joke about our women. Almost all of the workers initially organized to be sent out to work were 17- and 18-year-old girls. At the time, some elders said, "Sixty percent of these girls will wind up as prostitutes; the other forty percent will marry Han Chinese." This led to enormous disgust [among people]. In carrying out this policy, the government first failed to carry out proper education work and, second, failed to realize that such a small thing could have such major repercussions.


YZ: Before the promotion of these two policies, how were ethnic relations in Xinjiang?


HN: In the 1950s, even though Mao Zedong criticized "great Han chauvinism" in Xinjiang, contemporary ethnic policies in Xinjiang never led to a rupture. Ethnic relations in Xinjiang really became more tense over the past 20 years or so. After taking office, Party Secretary Wang Lequan adopted a high-handed posture that would not allow for any ethnic sentiment among minority populations. For example, if a ethnic cadre were to express the slightest complaint during a meeting, he would definitely not be promoted and might even be sacked. [Wang] overemphasized and exacerbated the anti-separatist issue. In fact, border provinces in any country that have cultural, linguistic, or ethnic ties with foreign countries are bound to have such tendencies. The current anti-separatist struggle in Xinjiang is not simply something [being carried out] by law enforcement agencies but has become something [carried out] in the whole society.


YZ: Have these tense ethnic relations led to increased thoughts of independence among Uyghurs?


HN: My father took part in the "Revolution of the Three Districts" [in which ethnic partisans revolted against Chinese rule in 1944 and established the second East Turkestan Republic] as a soldier. Logically, he should be a classic example of someone with thoughts of independence, but as far as I know not even someone like him is pro-independence—much less so someone like me.In fact, looking historically, the Uyghur people transformed early on from a desert-based [nomadic] people to an agricultural society and developed an extremely exquisite civilization. The nature of this people has become such that we don't spread or seek conflict. Even during its strongest point, this society was never expansionary. When the Khitan came, Uyghurs quickly surrendered. When the Mongols came, the Uyghurs basically surrendered without a fight. Historically speaking, Uyghurs don't like to fight and have no foundation for independence.


YZ: How do you view the issue of "East Turkestan"?


HN: This phrase "East Turkestan" is something invented by Europeans and not something that Uyghurs themselves came up with. However, it has been built up by the Turks and forcibly thrust upon us. We Uyghurs have no concept of "East Turkestan." From historic times to the presnt, Uyghurs have called Xinjiang "Land of the Uyghurs." No one has ever called it "Land of the Turks," much less "Eastern Land of the Turks."


YZ: If this is so, why do so many pro-independence types in Xinjiang make a fundamental claim for "East Turkestan"?


HN: At the time of the Silk Road, Uyghurs had opportunities to travel about in neighboring countries and their thinking was more open. Later, when maritime navigation became dominant, Uyghurs found themselves isolated and closed-off. In such a backwards circumstance, it's easy to think that "monks from outside can really chant the scripture" [i.e., outsiders have the answers]. It's just as when China first opened up, all sorts of ideas flowed in, both good and bad, and it wasn't clear which were good and which were bad. Moreover, over the past several decades local Uyghur elites suffered under the repression of the Communist Party's leftist policies and there were no opportunities to develop thought. The moment a few people shout "East Turkestan," many among our people have no idea what to think.


YZ: How do local Uyghur intellectuals view Rebiya [Kadeer]?


HN: They're not interested. Rebiya basically has no ideas.


YZ: For outside forces to be able to organize the July 5 incident, doesn't it mean that they have considerable influence inside China?


HN: Yes, definitely. I believe that the July 5 incident was organized by "Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami" [ILP, Islamic Liberation Party], an illegal religious organization that has spread extremely quickly in southern Xinjiang. I've studied this group, which was founded by an Afghan. When the Afghan died, a Pakistani doctor among his followers carried out a reorganization and recruitment drive. Whether in China, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, the ILP is an underground movement. In 1997, when the ILP had just begun to appear in Xinjiang, there were probably only several hundred members. According to statistics made public last year by the relevant agencies, the organization may now have close to 10,000 members in Xinjiang.


On July 5, I was on Xinhua South Road watching as rioters smashed and looted. More than 100 people gathered and dispersed in an extremely organized manner, all of them wearing athletic shoes. Based on their accents, most were from the area around Kashgar and Hotan, but I did not see any of them carrying knives. I suspect they were from the ILP because of their slogans. The rioters were shouting "Han get out!" [and] "Kill the Han!" Other than these [slogans], there was also "We want to establish an Islamic country and strictly implement Islamic law." One of the main goals of the ILP is to restore the combined political and religious authority of the Islamic state and strictly implement Islamic law; it is a fundamentalist branch.This organization is extremely disciplined and its composition rather unusual. It attracts young men around the age of 20, mostly from rural areas. In fact, this organization is extremely backwards, so that even among Uyghurs without any basic social underpinning, those with even a bit of education don't have any interest [in the ILP]. The influence of groups like this that have infiltrated from abroad is ultimately quite small, because they bring nothing to the table. A serious attack from the organs of state power could totally wipe them out. There's no need for anti-terrorism measures throughout society in Xinjiang.


YZ: What do you think is the main problem for Xinjiang at the moment?


HN: I don't think the main problem for Xinjiang is ethnic separatism. The key problem for Xinjiang is still economic development. Actually, so-called ethnic conflict is really conflict over interests. Last year during the "two meetings," I watched video of President Hu Jintao's meeting with the Xinjiang delegation many times. President Hu said that Xinjiang should emphasize development and only at the end did he say anything about stability. Subsequently, I decided to write a series of articles clarifying my views on this.

Clayton “regulator” endangers workers as well as ecosystem

The so-called “regulator” over the Finniss River at Clayton should have been finished a fortnight ago.

However, unexpected problems with its construction have delayed completion and placed project workers in danger.

In the first place, workers are being made to start early and finish late without any more lighting than that supplied by truck headlights.

(Above, dusk at Clayton and only headlights provide any lighting out on the "regulator").

Given that they are driving heavy trucks on a soft-walled structure this should require an on-site OHSW presence even in broad daylight.

But it is more complicated than that.

They are not dumping sand (taken by the private contractors from excavations for the nearby Hindmarsh Island marina) onto a stable base of bedrock, Instead, they are dumping it on a soft muddy base that cannot take the weight of the “regulator”.

On 19 and 20 July, sections of the end of the “regulator” collapsed. On another occasion, a truck slid off the edge and had to be “rescued” by heavy equipment.

The throwing of mud by a resident at a government spokesperson during a public “consultation”, and the arrest a couple of days ago of two women who prevented work on the “regulator” by standing at its end with a banner, has brought some much-needed media attention to the issue.

ABC radio broadcast from the site this morning and was there, just before 10am, to witness another collapse at the end of the “regulator”.

Broadcaster Matthew Abraham was talking when he suddenly said “Now there’s a hole at the end of it. The dirt has just disappeared!”

The person whom he had been interviewing described it as “an incredibly dangerous place…What if trucks had been driving across the hole when it sank?”

The “regulator” was promoted by the SA government as a temporary measure to prevent further exposure of soils along the Finniss River and Currency Creek to the atmosphere. The exposure creates acid sulphates in the soil.

Government sources claim the “regulator” is a response to an acid sulphate “emergency”, but regular monitoring of the two river systems has only shown the existence of local “hot spots” that can be dealt with by bioremediation and lime release.

With good rains throughout July and water flowing past the incomplete “regulator” into Lake Alexandrina, a consensus is emerging that there is no “emergency” and that work on the regulator should stop.

This is certainly the view of the Ngarrindjeri, the traditional owners and custodians of the Lower Lakes and Coorong. A statement by the Ngarrindjeri on July 29 reads:

STATEMENT FROM NGARRINDJERI REGARDING CLAYTON REGULATOR

(Tom Trevorrow, left and Major Sumner, right, representing the Ngarrindjeri people at the opening of the Clayton Fresh Water Embassy in June).

The Ngarrindjeri people of the Lower Murray River and Coorong have told the State Government that the construction of regulators will seriously damage Aboriginal sites. Ngarrindjeri has informed the Government that it considers there has not been adequate justification for the construction of the regulators. The State Government has acknowledged the pain and loss to Ngarrindjeri, but determined to proceed regardless. Ngarrindjeri has been placed in a position where it must bear witness to the damage, disturbance and interference to its culture. The State Government, by proceeding with this work, is responsible for its own actions in the destruction of the area.

In recent times there have been important and significant rains in the area. The water the partly constructed Clayton regulator was designed to block has been released into Lake Alexandrina. In light of this, the State Government should review its plan and to this end immediately stop the construction of the regulators. There is no longer, if they ever was, any environmental advantage to the Goolwa Channel, the Currency Creek or the Finniss River of the construction of these regulators.

Does the PM need new specs?

(Above, Malcolm Turnbull, leader of the conservative Liberal Party which introduced laws removing the right to silence from construction workers, under threat of six months jail, nevertheless claimed the same right for himself, under parliamentary privilege, when investigated over fake emails in the "Utegate" affair. The new "Labor" government has kept intact these laws that victimise construction workers. The following article is cross-posted from the Ark's tribe website.)

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in welcoming and thanking those who attended the Community Cabinet meeting at Elizabeth High School last night, made a point of praising his own government's economic achievements over the past year.

Ironically, the meeting was held not far from the magistrates court at which Ark Tribe will be facing a sentence of six months jail in less than two weeks time.

Besides other things, the PM pointed out the infrastructure package he and his team had developed which has assisted small business and kept workers employed. He highlighted the Northern Expressway and the bridge his minister had just opened as a good example of what his government is building. Overheard from a worker in the audience was, "I can't remember seeing any of that lot up the front helping us on the job".

Ark Tribe was also observed at the meeting along with about 400 other citizens.

When the Prime Minister had finished his speech, he asked for questions from the good citizens.
Ark Tribe was standing up at the back of the hall with his hand up. All the audience in front of Ark was sitting down. Many questions were asked and each question was meticulously answered by the PM and/or the minister concerned. Ark Tribe remained standing, hand raised hopefully on each occasion.

The PM called for the last question and Ark Tribe, still standing with hand up and everyone seated in front of him, still couldn't be seen by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

One would have to conclude that the PM deliberately ignored Ark or he needs new glasses.

At the conclusion of the meeting I approached Ark Tribe and asked him what question he wanted the PM to answer. He replied with the following:

"Why is it, that as recently demonstrated by Mr. Turnbull, he like most other Australians can exercise their right to remain silent, yet I as an Australian Construction Worker who only demands the same right, find myself in a situation where your government is trying to imprison me for 6 months?”

“All I want, Mr. Prime Minister, is a fair suck of the sauce bottle mate."

Stand Tall – for Ark Tribe

Come gather round and listen
To the thunder rolling in,
‘Cos the rich are trying to break us
And we’re not gonna let them win.

Well they tried it on the wharfies
With scabs and thugs and lost,
So how to break the building sites
Where the workers won’t be bossed?

“We own the law, we own the courts
And that’s the key to their defeat:
We’ll give the workers six months jail
For every time they meet!”

The workers met on safety
And Ark Tribe led the way,
So Gillard’s thugs decided
That he would have to pay.

“If your name it is Ark Tribe
Come to our interrogation –
You’ll have to dob your mates in:
That’s the way we run this nation!”

“Oh my name it is Ark Tribe
And I ain’t gonna talk to you.
My freedom flies with the Southern Cross
And there’s nothing you can do.”

“If there’s anything that I’ve done wrong
I’ll take your jail, that’s fine!
But killing fifty men a year
Is the bosses’ crime, not mine!”

“As for your Liberal and your Labor,
To me they look the same
With Howard’s rotten laws served up
In Julia Gillard’s name.”

“Well, I’d a-ridden with Ned Kelly
I’d a fought with bold Ben Hall,
‘Cos it was wild colonial boys like these
Who taught us to stand tall.”

Well, if Ark Tribe’s put in prison
By their “tough cop on the beat”,
The wild colonial boys and girls
Must get out in the street.

And we must ride like Edward Kelly,
We must fight like bold Ben Hall,
‘Cos it was wild colonial boys like these
Who taught us to stand tall!

Garrett's short Four Mile memory

Regardless of what one thinks of uranium mining, there can surely be no argument that the decision by Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to approve the Four Mile uranium mine in the northern Flinders Ranges area proves that parliament is the graveyard of principle.

We often talk of this or that political party “getting in to power” when they win an election. Really, this betrays an illusion about the workings of bourgeois democracy.

It would be better to say that this or that party “gets in to office” because the real power is with the giant corporations and financial institutions that provide the backbone of the ruling class.

Peter Garrett is the former lead singer with rock band Midnight Oil. The Oils were famous for their advocacy of social justice, of land rights and of the environment. They were famous for their opposition to multinational corporations, to US military bases in Australia, and to nuclear arms and uranium mining.

When the campaign to prevent the Ranger uranium mine was at its height, the Oils staged a concert at the edge of the mine territory (below).

Garrett became President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, was on the international board of Greenpeace and a founder of the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

The Labor Party recognized Garrett’s popularity and decided to kill two birds with one stone. By offering him a safe Labor seat and a front bench portfolio, they could benefit in the wider community at voting time by having a high profile pro-environment candidate on their team. And by having him “inside the tent pissing out” rather than “outside the tent pissing in” they removed him as a threat and neutered him politically.

In a pathetic echo of his former self, Garrett said the approval was “a difficult decision”.

“I am a team player,” bleated the man who went to the 2007 ALP Convention to argue for no expansion of uranium mining, and lost. And how could he hope to win when Labor’s continued occupancy of the government benches is conditional on them not upsetting big business, when in fact the party he represents is completely unblushing in its acceptance of its embrace of the business community and their needs. This is a party that has leaned well the lessons of the constitutional coup that toppled the Whitlam government.

Garrett is now a despised figure. He is hated as a hypocrite by a wide section of the community, yet is still regarded with suspicion by many in the business community.

Such is the fate of those who think they can make a difference by working from within the capitalist Labor Party.

Marathon - really, really, really wrong in every direction

Two items of interest caught the blogger’s eye today.

Firstly, the trial is continuing in Queensland of former state Labor government minister Gordon Nuttall who has pleaded not guilty to 36 counts of receiving secret commissions from Mr Ken Talbot, then CEO of Macarthur Coal and mining executive and former senior public servant Harold Shand.

Talbot is alleged to have “loaned” some $300,000 to the Labor politician. There was apparently no requirement for repayment.

Nuttall is alleged to have received the first of 36 payments just one day before the Queensland Treasury signed off on a $28.7 million “assistance package” allowing Macarthur Coal to develop a road and rail corridor to enable the expansion of its Coppabella coal mine.

Talbot Holdings is the largest single shareholder in Marathon Resources.

Talbot has a very “hands on” approach to management of Marathon. Sacked former Marathon CEO Stuart Hall has alleged that Talbot had demanded Hall be sacked and replaced by a “Talbot man”, Denis Wood, or Talbot would withdraw his financial support for a rights issue of shares in the company.

Blackmail as well as bribery?

Hall had also alleged that Talbot and his company were unhappy about his opposition to the promotion (by Wood in his capacity as a Marathon director) of Leightons Contractors to manage the pre-feasibility study for Mount Gee without the contract being put to tender in circumstances where opposition by Hall was in the best interests of the company.

As events unfold in the Queensland courts this week, further light may be cast on the personality and methods of Ken Talbot, such that if an Independent Commission Against Corruption was ever established in South Australia, Marathon might be high on its agenda of companies to be investigated.

The second item was the release on the company website of a letter to Marathon shareholders from its new (“clean and green”) CEO Shad Lynley.

Lynely makes direct reference to their exploration finding that they have not yet established the limits of the deposit in three directions - it might be bigger in any one of those directions, or in any combination of them. This is simply a way of asserting that if you think what we've found so far is big, then understand this - there might be more in any of three directions. It might be really, really, really big (three “reallys”, one for each dimension).

But Lynley’s message is not just for shareholders. It is really for members of the SA Labor government, and is intended to talk up the need for more exploration in advance of a government review of the decision to suspend their exploration license pending the clean-up operations of their unlawful waste disposal within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

That is what they are doing, and in so saying, they are hinting that if they don't get their license continued, then they'll be cut short in their prime of exploration, before they've had the chance to work out just how big it really, really, really is (three “reallys”, one for each dimension). And, who knows, it might be so big that they'd have other options for its development away from pristine eco-tourism areas, and if not, well maybe the question will not have to be answered until after the next state election(March 2010) while they look around in any of three directions.

The government would have to be pretty mean to deny them that, the chance to find out how really, really, really big it is, and to find a spot (not necessarily geographical, could be figurative) away from public gaze to work on it.

And shareholders will be wise to stump up some more cash for exploration, considering how big it is already, and how it might be really, really, really big, bigger than a rock wallaby or a wren. No, they haven't even found the limits in three directions, or perhaps in any direction for that matter.

Declaring that “the margins of the Mt Gee deposit are open in three directions” allows Lynley to avoid the hard asks - which are – “Where do they intend to mine?” (Answer, don't have to answer that just - don't know - still trying to find out how big this is) and “When will you mine?” – (Answer, same as before , plus saves us the trouble of asking the government in the lead up to the election, and we are still courting Spriggs. And we don't have the cash to mine anyway, and aren't game to ask, for the cash or permission, so better if we can drag things out some more, in three directions).

And when the state government doesn't just ban the mining – it will be “Because we don't know how really, really, really big (three “reallys”, one for each dimension) this mine’s contribution could be to the future of our state - we’d better let them keep finding out.”

Fair few directions possible when you think in three dimensions.

Let alone the fourth - do they have the cash? Or the fifth - do they have the permission? Or the sixth - can they get the permission, and the cash? Or the seventh - should they?

When you look at it like that they are really one-dimensional - buying time to avoid the seventh dimension.

POSTSCRIPT:

Lynley has already blotted his copybook with the ASX, having to re-issue his letter to shareholders after omitting to point out the actual composition of the "current combined and indicated resource estimate of the Mt Gee deposit".

The new letter to shareholders admits that only 4m tonnes of U308 ore carry the "Indicated" status, while a massive 47m tonnes is still only "Inferred", ie yet to be verified.

And given that this is all very, very. very low grade, it hardly deserves the claim that it is the "fifth largest undeveloped uranium deposit in Australia".

While Lynley eats a public humble pie following the previous day's braggodocio, company secretary Sam Appleyard has revealed that Lynley's salary as CEO is a mere $100,000. Daily paper the Advertiser says this is one third less than the salary paid to his predecessor.

Also noted is former Labor Senator Chris Schacht's decision to sell off 12% of his investment in the company.

The good ship Marathon has not yet sunk, but it's listing badly.