Media Release            Embargoed to - 17 May 2005 1.00 am

Unemployed Seek Lib/Nat Apology for Hate Campaign

Fortibus, recently created union of unemployed, underemployed and age discriminated workers, yesterday asked PM John Howard and his cabinet to apologise for recent ‘dole bludger’ remarks.

In its letter to Mr Howard, Fortibus says of the Lib/Nat ‘dole bludger’ bogey campaign that ‘a Government response that simply blames and taunts and further disadvantages the unemployed - the victims – is odious, incompetent, arrogant, divisive, negative and uncharitable - definitely un-Christian, definitely contrary to all doctrines of human decency and basic kindness. And sense.

Fortibus spokesman Hugh O’Connor said it is ‘a tried and tested campaign of promoting hatred and contempt for the unemployed, a cruel demonisation that denigrates the majority of unemployed and underemployed in Australia.’

‘I don’t intend lying down to die, or giving in to the very real pressure to suicide (from the effects of unemployment) that is magnified by your demeaning and hateful attacks, to accommodate your coalition’s apparently pivotal employment doctrine as expressed by Ebenezer Scrooge – They should die and reduce the surplus population.

The letter states that the present social-economic situation is one of unprecedented structural unemployment brought about by technological innovation such as extensive computer use in businesses, and de-industrialisation as producers and retailers source manufacturing capacity offshore to boost their profits.

‘These structural changes came about faster than any previous comparable changes, and on a massive scale, due to their nature and environment. Their effects were less foreseeable, being without historic precedent. And these effects pervade all aspects of our life today, they are here to stay, they may indeed become more pronounced. They must be remedied to alleviate this hardship on a huge scale, and possible social disintegration,’ the letter states.

‘Amongst the changes already obvious are large-scale structural unemployment and polarisation of income distribution. True unemployment in Australia is closer to 15% than the 5.1% official figure for end 2004. And underemployment  – those who have only casual or part-time jobs, or work outside of their skills set - adversely affects possibly another 15% of the workforce.

The letter says to the PM: ‘I know that simple mathematics is not a problem for you, unlike bad memory – that is the problem, I hope, rather than lack of integrity? Remember making the point that you would represent the interests of all Australians?

The letter calls for an increase in relief for the long-term unemployed – ‘enough to enable a normal sustainable level of economic existence. Enough to enable a person to eat properly, to replace worn clothes, to keep warm in winter, to pay for utilities and other services acquired on long-term contract, to avoid having to lose their households and possessions, to maintain human dignity, to ease the stress on family relationships.

‘We can not stop the technological change, nor would we – it is enhancing to individual productivity, it is essential to our continued economic viability and international competitiveness, and therefore desirable – it is a cause of the problem, but cannot be stopped or reversed, nor should it be.

‘And traders always seek immediate gains, without caring about long-term effects of job losses for local workers and thus of reduced spending capacity – although they are part of the traders’ market. Sadly, I see no solution for profiteers’ greed, irresponsibility and shortsightedness.

‘What has happened to the ‘fair go for all’ that was Australia? The true ‘workers’ nation’?’ the letter asks.

‘How sad it is that our graduates can’t get work while persons without adequate language skills are employed - in customer service roles, even in broadcast media? That a recent survey of Sydney CBD workers showed that one quarter of them had to work more than 49 hours per week? How sick is it to see plasma TVs advertised to the mass market for up to $7000, and domestic fridges for up to $5000, when we ‘dole drudges’ end up after paying rent with about $80 per week for food, clothing, transport and everything else?

‘How damaging is it that over 200,000 foreign students are encouraged to come here to economically prop up our degenerating education industry, incidentally becoming eligible to take over 200,000 casual jobs from locals? Not only do they drive down wage levels in the sort of jobs they compete for, they are almost all from societies with far lower workplace standards, and bring acceptance of these low standards into our workplace. Being students, with only short-term perspectives, they don’t join labour unions, they accept below-award treatment. So the locals competing for the same jobs are obliged to match these lower expectations. This effectively opens up the workplace for reintroduction of those abuses and tyrannies which our antecedent Australian workers fought so long and hard to abolish over the past two centuries.

‘Is your Government to be remembered as the one that wiped out two centuries of gains in our labour laws and practices, and in the human rights of workers?

‘We fault your Government for not implementing effective measures to decrease the trauma of this structural change amongst its victims. The problem is long term, and long term unemployment is poverty – nothing less.

‘The poverty I am reduced to, like many of my peers, is very close to death – only you continue to feel the pain, and it goes on, and on. It is miserable and hopeless, cold and friendless, bitter and comfortless.

‘We ask that your Government acts promptly and positively to address this current problem of structural unemployment, and to alleviate the suffering it is causing to us, the community of unemployed and underemployed.

‘If you and your Government will not take the appropriate steps needed to re-enfranchise us, and to ease our immediate poverty, complex and costly as they may be, we will fight, and I will organize and use our numbers to bring back true democracy and egalitarianism to Australia, to make it the great workers' nation that it was once, and should be again.

ENDS

TEXT OF ORIGINAL LETTER AVAILABLE AT – www.omnipotentia.com/40bus/

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

MEDIA CONTACT : Hugh O'Connor

email 40bus@omnipotentia.com

phone  0401 089 322 

website http://www.omnipotentia.com/40bus/