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| Sally McManus and the one and only Jimmy Donovan MUA |
Having bawlderised Mr Marvin Gaye's song...Belgo decided he needed to man oop and be an influencer in this election. Boot I drew line at wearing a string bikini and charging cafes thousands of dollars ter have me picture on instagram slurping me long black an covered in talcum sugar offa almond biscotti. Aye, social celebrity coomes hard. "Mr Belgo are yer on Facebook?...Am I Fook! Like". "Tweet? Nah, I'm not on twat." As for instatag and any other finger jamming app - nae bother.
However this were an election where Sally McManus made the call ter unions and many came ter campaign and be lifters not fence sitters. Well talkers not the silent majority. Like yer know, tell folk ter get out there and vote and make it count. Boot first off, think about issues and why this is a watershed election where voting could make a difference ter many lives of folks across Australia...fer young, indigenous, those disadvantaged by new start, poverty pensions, new migrants, refugees, regional infrastructure, drought, climate change (which only blind freddie and Tony still believe is a nonsense), school kids, women particularly those still being beaten ter pulp in their own homes, those with less superannuation from raising kids, all of folk in low paid gig economy jobs. This were meant ter be an election ter challenge white supremacists, nationalism, Plive Calmer and all the drooling ghosts of extinction - the paid oop members of neo-liberalism - old fashioned tories, capitalists and robber barons. The list joost grows and many of these issues are around fringes of public discussion but not central in reporting on electioneering or being addressed through the campaign foci of the major parties. So it was up to the unions to do what we do best; champion progressive issues and values and take them door to door in marginal electorates. As has Get Up.
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| This is what organised unionism looks like |
So leading up to this election me and me marra Mr Donovan went door knocking in Sydney ter talk ter folk about what is important to them in the here and now. It were a mixed bag over two Saturdays. Banks electorate where election results could cause yon coalition pain. Boot from my point of view this has not been a great campaign by yon progressives - except fer Get Up and the unions led by the formidable Ms McManus and her lootenent stolen from our MUA, the human dynamo, Mahla. That girl can inspire a donkey or pair of donkeys like Jim and I ter hit streets and use our grizzled charm ter have conversations with the good citizens in Banks. Labor has been a bit like taking part in a paint drying competition while one man schomo channels Trump while hiding Michaeleeeaargh Cash, yon minister who thought she could pummel the unions inta submission by denying oos our rights, and those other embarrassments from public scrutiny (The Belgian - and no, he's not in Belgo's Belgo bloodline). Minister for the Environment? Whadda ter think aboot climate change? Melissa Price last seen flogging Adani. Sports minister? On an endless round of sporting events probably. Dutton doing what Dutton does being mean hearted towards refugees. Although being held on a very tight leash. The Nationals? Better ask the country if the current crop inspire confidence in representation of bush and farms. The rise of independents speaks to that.
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| Ms Flood of CPSU talking with Ms McManus |
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| A room of unionists about ter hit the streets |
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| Anarchists...again boot I say vote and organise |
Boot by second Saturday I went on (11 May) folk were tired of election and many had already put in their postal vote and most have set in concrete how they are going ter vote. I think in Banks it will be the incumbent Liberal. As Jimmy D pointed oot, this whole area used ter be working class suburbs of housing commission. Labor to the core. Not now, McMansions of the nearly wealthy. Boot still a highly diverse cultural mix. Hard to know where some votes will fall. One man told oos he used ter vote Labor until he discovered he doesn't like immigrants, particularly not refugees - and Labor does. Yer kind of fall ter yer knees on that one and groan! Mr D spoke aboot how immigration is behind our current wealth...wasted breath and then our man launched inta that Labor were turning ocean inta a fish reserve where a man could nae go oot and catch his fish dinner...all the while the talk-back radio was blaring in background with ready made opinions, fear and scare-mongering and how real 'proper' science has shown there is nowt sooch a thing as global warming, joost too many folk all burning the toast. The man had facts at his fingers, joost not those that stand scrutiny. Fish stocks, according to him, are not taking a hammering and fortress Australia, if free of unwelcome refugees, will grow and prosper.
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| Them anarchists making their thoughts plain! |
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| MUA were oot in force ter door knock and campaign |
Aye it were a bit depressing this last week in campaign mode. I think Get Up has it right. They have caused a stir with some of their campaigning in marginal seats and with more stamina and people power than the anaemic right wing copy catters with their laughable Captain Get Up. Outside of this and the unions, progressives have been on the whole trying not to scare the voters - thoos fence sitting. Albo launched his obligatory attack on the Greens. Albo you sounded like a dickhead and lost votes on this and yer a better man than that. The Greens are at every protest and rally listening and talking and particularly ter young folk. They listen. not like Labor, who the youngsters know only pays them lip service.
Yesterdays radicals are often todays mainstream. Not quite true at present - as we progressives are losing ground on this. Our union radicals of yore are still seen as mad, outta touch mavericks, idealists, naive - not capable of being let near governing, otherwise yer might end oop with eight hour working days, five day week, sick leave, annual leave, work, health and safety - like. Ideas they fought for that became mainstream - sooch as is now with climate change seeing farmers in regions sounding like Greens feasting on lentil burgers and wearing flax underwear in their plastic free ute. This election shows them being pushed back - the so called gig economy, visualisation of labour and relentless eroding of work-place rights. If it were oop ter some bosses, we would pay them ter work fer them...oh, that's right - we have internships!
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| CPSU comrades |
Me I think it is time fer progressive leadership ter show the leadership part. Like Penny Wong, not only refusing ter shake Birmingham's hand boot looking like she needed a good spit ter get rid of taste of his propaganda drivel he'd spouted. Aye folk who believe ScoMo is a sound pair of hands with money - it doesn't stand oop when yer see how mooch we have been sold down river (dry) to prop oop surplus based on selling family jewels (resources) while rorting on a large scale (consultants ter government, banks, jobs fer the boys, wage freeze fer workers while obscene salaries an' bonuses fer those with a title sooch as CEO and privatisation of anything that was publicly owned that can be sold.) Of course he boasts of his fine employment record, more and more great big jobs by scorched earth jobs policies - except he neglects to explain they are not real, long lasting, permanent. More people are under employed (need more hours work on casual jobs to survive) and more yup, more jobs are casual with no future, Uber all in fact! Often without sick leave, annual leave public holidays. With no economic or sustainable strength. An 'agile' necessity fer those who need to keep increasing their profit on the sweat of labour. Scomo wringing his hands at green tape slowing down the business of capitalism while telling the country of the disasters ahead should we the electorate be gullible enough to vote in team Shorten. Unbelievable when he is standing on the wreckage of the Coalitions term of government. Way ter go ter build a country; asset strip, sell, slash and burn. Aye the blinding hypocrisy of the Libs yer can't trust Labor...was that blood spouting from Turnbull's back when his 'good friend' Scomo was alongside him saying "I've got yer back, I'm right behind yer Malc!" When Lib women raised the fetid breath of bullying...Scomo? "Nowt ter see in this bubble!". Selling a message of a united team with yon Barnaby chewing on barbed wire in corner of paddock plotting his next coup and that many retirements from Libs yer would have ter be daft ter think it were renewal rather than rats exiting a crippled ship turning circles pointing ter nowhere..
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| Mahla stoking oop her troops |
I were disappointed at issues which have not been raised and given political thought in this election:
- Indigenous issues, deaths in custody, lack of support and poverty in our remote communities; youth and Indigenous suicide;
- oldies (other than negative gearing and franking credits) boot what about aged care support and services; disability services;
- closing down Nauru and Manus and bringing those folk here; folk living in poverty in a country where there is plenty for all;
- Julian Assange (I know he is a gobshite in parts - boot that's not why he is being jailed and threatened with being sent ter Trumplands) - he is Australian - we own em when they are our sort - ignore them if they step on the toes of our ideological masters.
- free the Sri Lankan family from Bilolea who have been in detention for over a year. Their kiddies were born here. How we treat folk in these situations is heartless and all under the guise of national security.
- nowt mooch has been raised aboot the creeping rise of fascism in Australia;
- the Banks - tha they got away with Royal Commission and its findings - still vast profits and nae returns fer customers -yeah I know CBA posted a huge 28% loss this morning and only made 1.7 billion $ in profit on this quarter!;
- bullying and harassment being an Australian way of life - we say its not boot it is - the women who left parliament, the trolling of our younger women fer daring to have a voice;
- the destruction of our remote and regional communities, farming - where is the discussion in our cities about life in the bush and farmer suicides;
- veterans post traumatic stress disorder and suicides;
- boozing and fagging (why are more younger folk taking oop the fags?);
- mental health and well-being;
- the kids of the future and their future; our legacy ter them! And who protested about climate change and issues core to them - lower voting age ter 16 and get them involved in politics and give them a voice.
- the impact of everything America does that we slavishly follow - Venezuela as an example - will we send troops when America invades?
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| A gentler country? A nice touch in Sydenham xx |
However, I were cheered oop by how the combined unions campaigned. Under Ms McManus we had a range of unions working together. Representing some of the most marginalised workers as well as the stronger unions. Teachers, MUA, CPSU, Nurses and Midwives to name a few. Multi-cultural - young and old - In all I was involved in it were a cross section of folk representative of our community out grafting in their own time ter get message out and have 'conversations with folk.
Asking folk in Banks what was important to them showed we have more in common in what we want our future to be - what it should look like. We share a similar vision for a stronger, more diverse and more caring Australia that is away from the pitch of the Canberra spin machine. And above all a vision and plan fer Australia, inclusive of all. Aye Sco Mo talks aboot a fair go for those prepared ter have a go, under the coalition those that did well didn't pay tax or their workers - is that what the Libs model as a fair go? This has been a strange election campaign. The coalition as a one man ScoMo demonstrating the absence of women in their ranks. The extreme right kept in jam jars with the lid tightly sealed. The almost presidential campaign of Shorten only occasionally showing metal or teeth - mostly towards News Corpse. Labor has policies which could transform the direction of Government, if elected with sufficient a majority to implement them.
In this election campaign, in the mainstream media and through the PR of pollies bits of progressive thinking and vision come in and out of focus boot is drowned oot by need ter fence sit. Hard hats, factories, kindie photo ops ad nauseam. We are better than that. We need to recalibrate our progressive values and be a country that can lead by example of what a decent society can be and do. How would that look on the campaign trail? Where were the passionate speeches to inspire? The debates were placid, stage managed and as a result told oos next to nowt. Jacinda Arden showed oos briefly what is possible in politics and moral, ethical leadership. To listen. To share. To build and honour what we have and what we are. I hope this election goes some of the way down that road rather than being dragged inta mire of self interest and factionalism.
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| A Kiwi connection |
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| Aye, Albo has made sum pretty average statements on coal and the Greens this week |
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| On King Street Newtown |
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This is what it is all aboot...time to go ScoMo
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Ah weell, its three am, Ive emptied me bladder, Manchester City have won the premiership - again - all credit ter Mr De Bryne and Mr Kompany and the Pep. A cracker of a European cup final beckons, the un with Liverpool vs Spurs. The Toon had a thumping win at end of season, hang in there Rafa, Im off back ter bed and it's a new day!
Boot by second Saturday I went on (11 May) folk were tired of election and many had already put in their postal vote and most have set in concrete how they are going ter vote. I think in Banks it will be the incumbent Liberal. As Jimmy D pointed oot, this whole area used ter be working class suburbs of housing commission. Labor to the core. Not now, McMansions of the nearly wealthy. Boot still a highly diverse cultural mix. Hard to know where some votes will fall. One man told oos he used ter vote Labor until he discovered he doesn't like immigrants, particularly not refugees - and Labor does. Yer kind of fall ter yer knees on that one and groan! Mr D spoke aboot how immigration is behind our current wealth...wasted breath and then our man launched inta that Labor were turning ocean inta a fish reserve where a man could nae go oot and catch his fish dinner...all the while the talk-back radio was blaring in background with ready made opinions, fear and scare-mongering and how real 'proper' science has shown there is nowt sooch a thing as global warming, joost too many folk all burning the toast. The man had facts at his fingers, joost not those that stand scrutiny. Fish stocks, according to him, are not taking a hammering and fortress Australia, if free of unwelcome refugees, will grow and prosper.
Aye it were a bit depressing this last week in campaign mode. I think Get Up has it right. They have caused a stir with some of their campaigning in marginal seats and with more stamina and people power than the anaemic right wing copy catters with their laughable Captain Get Up. Outside of this and the unions, progressives have been on the whole trying not to scare the voters - thoos fence sitting. Albo launched his obligatory attack on the Greens. Albo you sounded like a dickhead and lost votes on this and yer a better man than that. The Greens are at every protest and rally listening and talking and particularly ter young folk. They listen. not like Labor, who the youngsters know only pays them lip service.
