Wednesday, July 24, 2019

EMBASSY REPORT : WHERE UPE CAME FROM AND WHERE ITS GOING NOW

Though we have put out various background pieces on websites and blogs about how the physical site of the UPE happened and about its projects operating since – the reason for setting up that organisation hasn’t really been published in much detail. The basis for deciding to create it was partly motivated by a move at a meeting at the Sydney Uni old “Tin Sheds” to form an Unemployed Workers Union (UWU).

The soon to be President of the UPE had organised a project called the Odd Job Co-op – initially operating from about 1978 in the vacated attic of 41 Phillip St Sydney, where he had been renting from the Head Tenant there since 1975 for an alternative media project. The Tin Sheds meeting was of the Campaign Against Poverty and Unemployment – which we liked as a political movement, because it didn’t pretend to be run by only jobless, but allowed other interested groups to be involved.

Some of our initial group went along – probably even in our Odd Job Co-op light blue T shirts but we horrified to see that other various activist organisations would be sidelined by calling it the UWU. Sure that might get it some money donated by (actual) Unions – but it was sure to go all politically straightjacketed , especially given the well known antipathy of the wider union movement to casual workers and a general exclusion of non-jobless activists.

We had been particularly campaigning to have the amount the jobless could earn - raised from $3 a week (under 21 ?) and $6 if you were older than that. We could already see that having a casual work collective in a welfare rights campaign was the real basis for being able to talk about unemployment with some credibility. The dole back then wasn’t so hard to live on – thanks to it being raised by the Labor Federal Govt under PM Gough Whitlam (1972-5) and also given that there was quite a lot of fairly cheap housing (at least in inner-city areas).

Therefore, we decided to just set up the UPE – starting in 41 Phillip St, which was now emptied of other non- residential tenants. This was for a Sydney City Council road-widening of Phillip St by demolishing the 5 historic terraces to the corner of Bridge St – where the 1788 site of the First Govt House was a car park. Ironically, the union movement itself had its reputation revived by the Builders Laborers Federation (BLF) under Jack Mundey and that other guy – because of their Green Bans, which saved the Rocks and other historic precincts from demolition for gross high-rise overdevelopment.

The “union” model for a jobless rights organisation has never been effective since, unless there is mass unemployment – the actual Unions aren’t actually scared of losing their working members to much of a degree. Only when jobless officially cracked 10% by about 1981 – was their any serious demonstration of the union movement against unemployment (eg in Belmore Park – next to Central station in Sydney). Afterall – unemployment was mostly only affecting school leavers – not the better paid older workers, whose membership dues were bankrolling the union movement.

Interestingly, the usual age of new members of the UPE were 19 year-olds plus they were usually from the outer Western suburbs – theoretically the key demographic of not only the Unions – but the ALP itself. Still, neither the short lived Sydney UWU ever approached us – even after we were put on SEPARATE Channel 9 Midday Shows on an unemployment top around 1980 (we have video of it) and even the big religious Charities – never directly assisted us – though some half-hearted offer of use of some farm land was later made to us, after we got a “lease” of some from Dept  Housing NSW for our Arts Farm project  (in outer Western Sydney). 


MORE RECENTLY:      our    TELEVISION UNDERGROUND    (TVU) project

Gets its own Blog:  TVUnderground

Read about its attempts to get local MOVIES shown -  at:

https://www.timestreamproductions.blogger.com

Friday, June 28, 2019

"THINGS THEY DO SEEM AWFUL COLD" - so therefore ...(you fill in the rest)


BOOMERS BASHED AGAIN – NOW BY YOUNG GEN

In a SMH article (27/6/19) on the Aged Care Royal Commission, writer Julie Power – can’t get past the second paragraph without running the usual type of cliché about the supposed self-indulgent Baby Boomers. She says they think they’ll “never get old” – but they’ll soon “flood” aged care. However, is it actually right that Boomers will require such high level care at the traditional plus 50 “aging” time of life. Is 70 the new 60 and can many people expect to live longer than 80 in good health ?

The lyric quoted above is from The Who’s “My Generation” 1960's hit song (by Peter Townsend)– where the line after that is constantly taken out of its context. So when that line goes “I hope I dei before get old” its really saying that the parents/elders of his (War Baby) generation were really nasty to him as a teenager – so he doesn’t want to become like them. Teenagers then were a minority - like older people also usually were. That all changed when the Baby Boomers hit their 20's in the 1970's and were the MAJORITY. 

Those same, now older Boomers are now suffering from a World they changed to emphasis the rights of young people. Now we need to campion older peoples rights - since we are now making THAT a majority of the population. It is a reasonable ambition to stay thinking quite young and maintaining strong mental and physical functioning ? The parents of the Boomers seem to have problems with the idea that the next generation would likely live as long as they have been doing. On the other hand, those parents of Boomers (born before WW) were living often decades longer than their own parents.

Politicians have been quick to point out that the 60 year Age Pension level was based on people usually not living long past that age. Boomer grandparents didn’t usually make it into their 70’s. Therefore, the Age Pension was raised to 65 - only decades ago and now it’s up to 67. 


The newly re-elected Coalition government had balked at raising the Age Pension to 70 – perhaps fearing that could lose it the 2019 Federal Election, using the excuse that up-skilling of the Boomer generation for further employment - was not yet being catered for in the obsessively youth-oriented Education system. 

We have documenting that brutal age discrimination against mature-age students for a number of years in our own journal – with specific examples. Not all countries are writing off its population’s contributions – once they became even just 50 years old. The Boomers aren’t so unfamiliar with deiing though, apart from often losing their grandparents in their 60’s – there was also the Vietnam war draft in Oz and the US.  Young guys, still in their teens – were sent to Asia against their will by a much hated Draft.  Many didn’t come back or where scarred for life  - including mentally. 

The younger generation can be more blasé about it – because they’re usually never had to face their mortality so personally. Boomers were the last generation from the 20th Century that still felt another World war could happen once again – and they could end up in it. That could have been a Nuke one too. Boomers mostly already understand that they can dei – yet they’re now being unfairly branded by younger generations as being unaware of mortality. In fact, the Boomer fuelled huge anti-war movement that stopped not only the Vietnam War but another conventional World War happening.

This has now changed how politics operates in the world -especially since the rise of the internet.  People now want more say in how things are run now – but the commercial forces that profit from things not improving, are still hard for true democratic decision-making to counter Big Money. A 1960's movie with Peter Cook and other Brit satirists called "The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer" predicted how participatory democracy would finally rise one day. Sadly that wonderful movie seems impossible to buy these days. 

Like with the true history of the alternative culture in Australia - circa late 1960's and 1970's organisations like our are struggling to preserve and circulate shorter movies and docos we've made about it, Where's the funding and support for that ? NOTE: We hope readers will excuse our deliberately misspelling of the key word in this article - otherwise known as the Big Chille. Older people are understandably more sensitive about such words - as Boomers were when they faced losing their lives because of the then Coalition Govt wanting to go All The Way with the USA. 

We now ask younger generations to THINK about what they saying to their elders on "age care" issues - and remember, we still have most of the votes (just think Trump and Brexit). Baby Boomers still have the electoral power to help protect them from cruel ageist policies that are now circulating. Excluding older people from the workplace - is one major barrier to them that WILL CHANGE. 

Thursday, June 13, 2019

RECENT "DOLE NEWS" REPORTS PULLED OFF GOOGLE SEARCH

We are puzzled by the sudden disappearance of this thread of Dole News from the various other posts made  by others, about its publisher - the Unemployed Peoples Embassy and its activities in the community. Luckily, earlier Reports on other Dole News blogspot addresses - can still be found, but not by simply googling "unemployedpeoplesembassy".  This now removes ALL Dole News editions from such a mainstream search. As usual the HRC awarded Dole News title - is never brought up by just googling it - though there is a curious notice there about "Dole News", saying something about it not being there. That at least shows a fairly new hand at work - to suggest this publication no longer exists.

Maybe we'll have to continue this long-time social justice publication, now mostly online - by using another thread with a slightly different address that is now more readily located online.  In any case, this thread could be found by us typing in its particular address into that more easily accessible thread of Dole News. Either way - the heavy hand of censorship seems at play - likely from Australia, which we obviously criticise the most. This particular thread address may be relegated to being our underground edition. Perhaps this country is emulating China policies of unrestrained Capitalism in more politically direct ways,

Certainly personal and social justice emails and websites seem no longer safe - given recent Mousy Govt legislation. In terms of our recent articles posted here - our article on the radical matriarchal takeover of major Govt designated institutions, may be the reason for this really major removal of easy public access to Dole News. On the other hand  - Google itself  seems to own blogger.com, so external interference related to out content, seems to be a likely culprit.  As history tells us - when the Govt cracks down on Freedom of Media political comment WATCH OUT. Already mainstream Media is increasingly trivialising  NEWS reports with Bleed to Leads formula and lack of local issues

Friday, June 7, 2019

LABOR LOST THE PLOT AND UNLOSABLE ELECTION: ASK US HOW !

Were the cheap "policies" - like Teach Kids Computer Coding and lately Make Half Cars Electric within a decade or so, not clues enough ? The ALP model of being a Mass Party where great ideas percolate up from its huge membership - is simply just a fantasy, like restoring mass Union memberships ? New "leader" Elbo (the Engineer) can only publicly urge more people to "join" the Party. Have YOU tried to "join" the ALP - its like trying to send the ABC some ideas by email, very bureaucratic. It seems you have to be a union member just to get to fill out their application form

We pointed out ages ago the folly of rolling out middle class benefit cuts before the election - like cutting back Negative Gearing and "retirement" superannuation rorts, used for their kids estate planning. A great use of taxpayers money huh, as political guru Johnny Coward actually spruiked during the election campaign. So what sort of lies did the Coalition and their backers use to fight these reasonable cutback's effecting only thousands of people  - why "exposing" a supposed ALP "plan" to reintroduce Def taxes. This sort of crap was all over WeChat and various internet sewer pipes. Certainly a lot of Australian Chinese were sucked in by this non-media propaganda.

On the other hand, the NSW Gladdy Govt shucked off its non-delivery of its really stupid rail'n'road privatised "infrastructure" to cream in its re-election. Better to delay and cost overrun really unsuitable rail projects - then bring them on after the election, with four years to the next election for people to "get used to them". A tram that destroys the long term main street shopping precincts and rare tree lined Café strips of Sydney city and Parramatta plus yet another gauge of rail for the driverless trams to takeover the heavy rail two storey carriage network - will be regretted fordecades to come.

Meanwhile, middle-class commuter transport of gold plated tollway express roads and more International Airports are rolled out - though Very Fast Rail land purchases are only promised by Elbo just a week before the 2019 Federal Election. We urged the ALP to make VFR their key promise - but they only whipped it out at the last moment when the fake Opinion "Polls" had convinced them they were going to win the election, big time. In other words, the ALP can no longer rely on its shrinking membership and the increasingly boutique (and feminised) Unions as a brain- trust.

 Its National Conferences should open up wider to innovative thinking in the community - such as from Universities and Think Tanks (and dare we say it community based organisations like ours), to refine its policy ideas. Certainly the Greens and Get-up are just as limited in their thinking as the Union movement. For instance, who was the genius in the ALP who thought a Welfare Inquiry, without flagging a decent dole and Austudy rise - was a good idea. Surely a wider Inquiry including Middle Class Welfare is needed.

Certainly the ALP Right is now pushing the idea of Wealth Creation (ie the growth mantra) over handouts to everybody - but surely there would be more support for cutting back on Capital Gains/investment house portfolio Gearing/super rorts, if people saw those savings going to welfare and job creation for the long term jobless. The ALP however has a least come up with some policy ideas that it can try and repackage - once the Mousy Govt gets really nasty with harder economics and gets kicked out. The Coalition still bluster about the Drudd Govt flawed but effective stimulus package spending. Any mass unemployment returning with a predicted Recession - will have Mousy Govt pushing the jobless off to Gilligan's Island or worse

Certainly the ALP needs to look at its supposed its Identity Socialism madness - where the likes of Tanny, ex ALP Deputy, was taking about "toxic men". Let's hope we won't see anymore the DV TV ad with the guy standing over wife - suddenly turning into a little boy. A lot that sick toxic Ad must be doing to the booming 13 pubescent male suicyid rate. Looks like the ALP has already kicked the Revenge Feminist 50%  leadership into the Senate loony bin - usually mainly a retirement home for ex union officials and other "representatives" of no-one in particular. Maybe we'll hear less rubbish about how ALL "survivors" must be believe, since If that's the case - the Courts will truly be operating a reverse Inquisition.

The recent Caitin case showed how a woman lied about being sexually assaulted by a Good Samaritan middle-age guy who came to her rescue to fix her car. CCTV footage exposed her lies. The guy had been put in jail, lost his wife and suffered greatly. He wants to sue her for One Million dollars. We know your pain mate -  false sexual claims are routinely made against human rights activists, such as Martin Luther King and some rather sub judice cases that will be fully reported some day.

Friday, January 25, 2019

"MIGRANT DAY" FOR 26 JANUARY OR MOVE "OZ DAY" TO 25 APRIL

We have been suggesting for some time that "Australia Day" move to 25 April - partly to keep some kind of Anzac March going from the Dawn Service and through the morning. Therefore the Citizenship ceremonies could happen after the usual lunch BBQ's (and 2 up?)

However, the immigration rate is so huge - that it not only currently overshadows even the biggest Invasion Day marches, but fans of the Diggers marching on a new "Australia Day" on 25 April - may wonder why so many boys died overseas early to mid last century.

Were the Germans really thinking of invading our country - when the Swedes did a much better job with IKEA stores? The Japanese only got as far as New Guinea and Timor after bringing in a work-till-you-drop Light Rail project through Asia for our Boys. Why do we now have the world's highest rate of immigration - without the Very Fast Rail infrastructure to decentralise our main cities ?

Then again the Japanese have NO immigration into their now very peaceful country - where they did very well economically from LOSING the War. In other words - what is "Australia Day" and "Anzac Day" about, in terms of our History and our Future plans? Why have we now got PERMANENT very high migration - mainly congesting Sydney and Melbourne. Anything to do with the greedy multi -- national high rise flat Developers - who fund our major political parties ?

Its up to us citizens to decide whether we finally grow up and become a Republic - where we can elect our OUR Head of State, and start to find ways to make our own decisions on where our country is going. Certainly our Compulsory Elections " democracy, isn't producing ANY politicians who think ahead - beyond the next time they FORCE you to vote for them.  

We're just saying this to try and get people to THINK about where this country is going. We need to demand a real say in decisions about our Future - or else we won't have much of a future, just a mess.

 Lots of fish dying in outback rivers, failure to recycle and not waste our precious water supplies and stupid transport "infrastructure" decisions (like inner city underground tollways, tramways destroying historic shopping precincts like George St and Devonshire St and in Parramatta soon, International airport in the middle of Sydney with no curfew) show that the political system and the Media - or no longer democratic and fit for use.