Some information and activities.
1. The following is full text interview with lecturer, author and renowned
Palestine-Israel scholar Gary Norman Finkelstein in New York.

Press TV: Nearly a week of violence in Gaza. What do you make of the situation there?

Finkelstein: It is hard to make any definite judgments about the military situation. The goals of the Israeli government it seems to me are pretty clear. Number one Israel wants to reestablish what it calls its deterrence capacity. That is a technical term that the Israelis use. It basically means to restore the fear of Israel among the Arab states in the region.

After the defeat inflicted by Hezbollah and the inability of Israel to launch an
attack on Iran it was almost inevitable that they would attack Hamas, because Hamas is defying the Israeli will. According to the Israeli papers, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was planning the attack before the last ceasefire and they were just waiting for a provocation from the Palestinians.

On November 4, the Israelis broke the ceasefire with Hamas knowing full well that when they killed six militants in Gaza the Palestinians would retaliate and then Israel would have the pretext to invade. Therefore, the first goal was to restore the fear of Israel among Arabs by inflicting a bloodbath in Gaza.

Press TV: Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that Israel has affected almost
what it called the infrastructure of terrorism presumably meaning Hamas. This while apparently heavy civilian casualties have been incurred inside Gaza.

How do you see the imbalance in the loss of life in Gaza? How successful do you think that Israel has been in wiping out Hamas or the resistance if you will?

Finkelstein: Well the purpose was to inflict massive casualties immediately. The Israelis, after their attack on Lebanon in 2006, realized that their error was that they did not unleash the full might of their air force in the first few days. In the first two days of Lebanon war, they killed about 55 Lebanese and then they targeted the Dahia suburb of Beirut. After the war, they began talking about the Dahia strategy which meant to obliterate anything which went against their rule. And what you saw in the first couple of days in Gaza was the application of the Dahia strategy to commit a bloodbath and slaughter of such huge dimensions that they thought it would deter the Arabs in the future from defying Israeli rule.

Press TV: Speaking of deterrence, Hamas said that it would retaliate. How great a response do you thinK Hamas can give Israel? Could one expect something like the one Israel received from Hezbollah in 2006?

Finkelstein: I think it is impossible to predict those things. But, it is clear that Israel is faced with a dilemma. In the case of Lebanon during the first few days they apparently destroyed (Hezbollah’s) long-range and medium-range missiles, but they couldn’t destroy the short-range rockets being used against the Israel unless they invaded. They tried to invade, but they couldn’t and the rocket attacks continued. And now they have the same problem in Gaza.

In order to end the rocket attacks they have to invade and clear all the areas where the rocket launchers are located one by one. But, if they invade there is the possibility of them being caught in a guerrilla war which they plainly cannot win in Gaza. So they are not sure at this moment how to proceed.

Press TV: Israeli foreign minister (Tzipi LIvni) also says that Israel wants to
negotiate peace with what she calls moderate Palestinians. On the other hand, we see Mahmoud Abbas saying that peace talks are meaningless under the current situation wherein Israel is targeting all Palestinians, so where does that leave Israel?

Finkelstein: Well we have to be clear what Israel means by moderate Palestinians. The Hamas leadership in recent years has signaled that it is willing to negotiate a two-state settlement according to the June 1967 border and also the resolution of the refugee question. That means that Hamas has signaled to do what the international community has wanted Israel to do over the past 30 years.

Israel rejects such a two-state settlement because it wants to continue its control
of the West Bank. So for Israel a moderate Palestinian means the one who rejects all the terms proposed by the international community, a Palestinian who rejects the position of Hamas. For Israel a moderate Palestinian is a Palestinian who is willing to do whatever Israel wants: is a Palestinian who is willing follow Israeli orders.

Press TV: Observers say that a ceasefire is the best Israel can achieve from this.How is the war affecting Israel?

Finkelstein: It is hard to say that whether Israel is in a position for a ceasefire. If Israel accepts the ceasefire I don’t think Hamas would accept it if the Gaza blockage continues. It was due to the continuation of the Gaza blockade that Hamas rejected renewal of the truce with Israel. If the blockade is not lifted it is just a slow death for the Palestinians. If Israel agrees to lift this blockade along with a ceasefire then it will in effect have given in to the conditions that it refused last week. So it’s really unclear that Israel would propose a ceasefire that Hamas would accept and vice versa.

Press TV: Israel says that its war is with Hamas, but it has prevented the flow of
international aid into Gaza and prevented journalists from covering what is going on there. There is a saying Persian if you cannot help then don’t prevent help from others.

Finkelstein: Well we have to be clear that Israel’s war is not with Hamas but with the international community, including Iran. Israel is defying the international community, including Iran on the two-state settlement.

2. A solidarity report.

‘While we in the West were celebrating the start of a new year with all the hopes and resolutions, the skies over the Gaza Strip were let by the F16s fighting jets missiles being launched relentlessly at civilian targets. The media onslaught is also not relenting with Hamas and the Palestinians being
blamed for the Israeli attacks. Even the Government in Australia has joined the chorus and failed to speak out against the abuse of human rights, the occupation of Gaza, the continuous blockade and other bullying tactics by the Israeli government.

Almost 400 people have been killed and more than 2000 injured along with a total destruction of civilian infrastructure. Among the many targets are, the interior ministry building, numerous police stations, four mosques and a university to list a few.

Australians have been voicing their concern loud and a clear through a letter writing campaign, demonstrations in all major cities around Australia and through donation to charities that support the Palestinian people.

The Palestinians, like all of us, want to live in peace and that is not possible due to the 41-year occupation of their land. And when they resist the occupation and the blockade they are accused of being terrorists, extremists and fanatics who want to destroy Israel. We all have a moral
obligation to act and protect those who need our help.

1. Donate and help the Palestinians

http://www.anglicord.org.au/middleeast.html

Donate to the United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees

http://www.un.org/unrwa/

2. Sign a petition which calls to the end of hostilities.

http://www.petitiononline.com/pni/petition.html*

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=161553332&v=2605

3. Write and express your opinion

Writing to politicians and the media is an effective way for us all to help stop the bloodshed. The Government stand is shameful and one sided. How can an Australian Government condemn the killing of Israeli civilians and not extend the same condemnation to the killing of Palestinian
civilians. We all value human lives and so should our government.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
The Hon Stephen Smith
Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au*

Acting Prime Minister
The Hon Julia Gillard
julia.gillard.MP@aph.gov.au

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association

www.friendsofpalestine.org.au

“Why Palestine? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral
quest for equality and human rights” Edward Said.

3. SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKING PEOPLE OF PALESTINE & ISRAEL from US Labor Against War

We recognize that any statement on this crisis is likely to be controversial. The
situation in Palestine and Israel itself provokes strong feelings and heated debate.
But, as the statement says, silence in the face of such suffering is unsupportable
for an organization devoted to peace and social justice.

At the core of this statement is the principle of international working class solidarity, which does not take the side of any government but rather takes the side of all the working people of the region.

Just as we recognize that the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan are interrelated, we also understand that real peace and stability in the Middle East will not be achieved without a resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. The present crisis could easily spiral out of control and lead to a wider war. The role played by our government is central to this conflict
and its resolution.

We are greatly disturbed by the escalation of conflict in the Middle East,
particularly Israel’s military assault on Gaza, one of the most densely populated
places on the planet, and by its ongoing collective punishment of the people of
Gaza. The bombing that Israel has undertaken has led to the deaths of hundreds of
innocent civilians and the wounding of many hundreds more. Those who seek peace and
justice must not remain silent in the face of this aggression and the suffering it
has inflicted. We believe that such actions do not and will not serve the interest
of peace and greater humanity in the region. Neither Israel nor Hamas is justified
in attacking the civilian population of the other.

The U.S. government supplied Israel with the military means to carry out this attack
and has generously underwritten the Israeli government and military with tens of
billions of U.S. tax dollars. Our government’s failure to condemn this latest action
makes it complicit. The economic crisis which daily deepens in the US requires that
we seriously reorient our foreign policy and stop spending hard earned taxpayer
dollars on proxy wars and reinvest the needed resources right here at home.

The U.N. Security Council, issued the following call:

The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern at the
escalation of the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate halt to all
violence. The members called on the parties to stop immediately all military
activities.

The members of the Council called for all parties to address the serious
humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza and to take necessary measures,
including opening of border crossings, to ensure the continuous provision of
humanitarian supplies, including supplies of food, fuel and provision of
medical treatment.

The members of the Council stressed the need for the restoration of calm in
full, which will open the way for finding a political solution to the
problems existing in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.

We support the call for an end to the violence. We note, however, that the Security
Council’s inability to take effective actions to uphold the UN Charter, its own
previously adopted resolutions and international law - in great part due to the
objections of the U.S. - has been part of the problem.

We urge all parties to agree to an immediate cease fire and seek peaceful and
lasting solutions. Recent history demonstrates that bombings, rocket attacks,
blockades and military invasions won’t provide the best road to peace and security
for the peoples of the region. Quite the contrary, such actions perpetuate the cycle
of death, destruction, fear and heightened insecurity among the people of all
countries, including us here in the US, USLAW was founded on the principle of
international solidarity, opposition to militarism and respect for international
law. We reject the use of military means to resolve international conflicts. The
road to peace and security can never be paved with war.

We are guided by the belief that international working class solidarity offers a
path to mutual understanding and peace. Working people of the U.S., Iraq, Iran,
Israel, Palestine and throughout the Middle East must reach across the borders of
our differences to create a common ground for mutual understanding that will create
the peace, prosperity and security to which we all are entitled.
4, If Gaza falls . . .

Sara Roy

Israel’s siege of Gaza began on 5 November, the day after an Israeli attack inside
the strip, no doubt designed finally to undermine the truce between Israel and Hamas
established last June. Although both sides had violated the agreement before, this
incursion was on a different scale. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel
and the violence has not abated since then. Israel’s siege has two fundamental
goals. One is to ensure that the Palestinians there are seen merely as a
humanitarian problem, beggars who have no political identity and therefore can have
no political claims. The second is to foist Gaza onto Egypt. That is why the
Israelis tolerate the hundreds of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt around which an
informal but increasingly regulated commercial sector has begun to form. The
overwhelming majority of Gazans are impoverished and officially 49.1 per cent are
unemployed. In fact the prospect of steady employment is rapidly disappearing for
the majority of the population.

On 5 November the Israeli government sealed all the ways into and out of Gaza. Food,
medicine, fuel, parts for water and sanitation systems, fertiliser, plastic
sheeting, phones, paper, glue, shoes and even teacups are no longer getting through
in sufficient quantities or at all. According to Oxfam only 137 trucks of food were
allowed into Gaza in November. This means that an average of 4.6 trucks per day
entered the strip compared to an average of 123 in October this year and 564 in
December 2005. The two main food providers in Gaza are the UN Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the World Food Programme
(WFP). UNRWA alone feeds approximately 750,000 people in Gaza, and requires 15
trucks of food daily to do so. Between 5 November and 30 November, only 23 trucks
arrived, around 6 per cent of the total needed; during the week of 30 November it
received 12 trucks, or 11 per cent of what was required. There were three days in
November when UNRWA ran out of food, with the result that on each of these days
20,000 people were unable to receive their scheduled supply. According to John Ging,
the director of UNRWA in Gaza, most of the people who get food aid are entirely
dependent on it. On 18 December UNRWA suspended all food distribution for both
emergency and regular programmes because of the blockade.

Balance of article . . . . http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/print/roy_01_.html

5. Talking Points #63

The Gaza Crisis: December 2008

By Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies
28 December 2008

The death toll in Gaza continues to rise. The carnage is everywhere - city streets,
a mosque, hospitals, police stations, a jail, a university bus stop, a plastics
factory, a television station. It seems impossible, unacceptable, to step back to
analyze the situation while bodies remain buried under the rubble, while parents
continue to search for their missing children, while doctors continue to labor to
stitch burned and broken bodies back together without sufficient medicine or
equipment. The hospitals are running short even of electricity-the Israeli blockade has denied them fuel to run the generators. It is an ironic twist on the legacy of Israel’s involvement in an earlier massacre - in the Sabra and Shatila camps, in Lebanon back in 1982, it was the Israeli soldiers who lit the flares, lighting the night sky so their Lebanese allies could continue to kill.

But if we are serious about ending this carnage, this time, we have no choice but to try to analyze, try to figure out what caused this most recent massacre, how to stop it, and then how to continue our work to end the occupation, end Israel’s apartheid policies, and change U.S. policy to one of justice and equality for all.

* The Israeli air strikes represent serious violations of international law
- including the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.
* The U.S. is complicit in the Israeli violations - directly and indirectly.
* The timing of the air strikes has far more to do with U.S. and Israeli
politics than with protecting Israeli civilians.
* This serious escalation will push back any chance of serious negotiations
between the parties that might have been part of the Obama administration’s
plans.

Balance of Talking Points . . . . http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3994

6. Poll: Majority of Democrats Oppose Israeli Attack on Gaza

More oddities in the U.S. “debate” over Israel/Gaza
Friday Jan. 2, 2009 Glenn Greenwald

This Rasmussen Reports poll — the first to survey American public opinion
specifically regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza — strongly bolsters the severe
disconnect I documented the other day between (a) American public opinion on U.S. policy towards Israel and (b) the consensus views expressed by America’s political leadership. Not only does Rasmussen find that Americans generally “are closely divided over whether the Jewish state should be taking military action against militants in the Gaza Strip” (44-41%, with 15% undecided), but Democratic voters overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli offensive — by a 24-point margin (31-55%). By stark constrast Republicans, as one would expect (in light of their history of supporting virtually
any proposed attack on Arabs and Muslims), overwhelmingly support the Israeli
bombing campaign (62-27%).

Balance of article . . . . http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/02/israel/

7. Gaza today: ‘This is only the beginning’

By Ewa Jasiewicz Date : 12-28-2008

Throughout the course of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Ewa Jasiewicz, born in Poland but now residing in England, has been a stalwart supporter of the Iraqi workers movement and in particular of the Federation of Oil Unions. She has organized solidarity actions and support for the unions of Iraq and the people of Palestine. She was present in Gaza when the attacks occurred. Here she documents the human toll of the Israeli attacks.

As I write this, Israeli jets are bombing the areas of Zeitoun and Rimal in central
GazaCity. The family I am staying with has moved into the internal corridor of their home to shelter from the bombing. The windows nearly blew out just five minutes ago as a massive explosion rocked the house. Apache’s are hovering above us, whilst F16s sear overhead.

UN radio reports say one blast was a target close to the main gate of Al Shifa
hospital - Gaza and Palestine’s largest medical facility. Another was a plastics
factory. More bombs continue to pound the Strip.

Sirens are wailing on the streets outside. Regular power cuts that plunge the city
into blackness every night and tonight is no exception. Only perhaps tonight it is
the darkest night people have seen here in their lifetimes.

Balance of article . . . .
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=5f36cb2382cb6e2b413b88331d2223f1&offset=

8. Israel’s ‘victories’ in Gaza come at a steep price.

The Jewish ethical tradition means embracing Palestinians, too.
By Sara Roy

from the January 2, 2009 edition

Cambridge, Mass. - I hear the voices of my friends in Gaza as clearly as if we were still on the phone; their agony echoes inside me. They weep and moan over the death of their children, some, little girls like mine, taken, their bodies burned and destroyed so senselessly.

One Palestinian friend asked me, “Why did Israel attack when the children were
leaving school and the women were in the markets?” There are reports that some
parents cannot find their dead children and are desperately roaming overflowing
hospitals.

As Jews celebrated the last night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights
commemorating our resurgence as a people, I asked myself: How am I to celebrate my Jewishness while Palestinians are being killed?

More… http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0102/p09s01-coop.html

9. Hamas reiterates readiness for “cease-fire”

For the fourth time since the Israeli massacre on the Gaza Strip began on Saturday morning, the Hamas government says it will accept a “cease-fire.”

Although Hamas’s armed resistance wing, Al Qassam Brigades, is just one of several that launch crude weapons from the Strip, international claims of responsibility has remained in the party’s lap.

The Israeli and American administrations have referred to “Hamas rocket attacks” dozens of times as being to blame for the Israeli killing spree that has left 417 Palestinians dead as of 7:30 pm Thursday.

This time Hamas is again saying that it is ready to accept the Paris initiative,
which it also accepted yesterday when it was issued, and the day before when it was suggested. The Israeli administration refused the request for a 48 hour “cease-fire” to allow humanitarian aid into the Strip which came out of the European Union Foreign Minister’s meeting held in the French capital.

Balance of article . . . .
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4373&Itemid=35

10. Sign Petition to Stop the Bloodshed

Petition to the UN Security Council, the European Union, the Arab League and the USA:

We urge you to act immediately to ensure a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza
Strip, to protect civilians on all sides, and to address the growing humanitarian
crisis. Only through robust international action and oversight can the bloodshed be stopped, the Gaza crossings safely re-opened and real progress made toward a wider peace in 2009.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/98.php?

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  Posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 in ABCC Australian Building and Construction Commission - Comments: (0)
  On Monday, 27 October, a floor collapsed during construction of an office block in Canberra’s CBD. Such assaults were nothing new for the lead contractor, Leighton.
• Market meltdown
  Posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 in Capitalist Financial Crisis - Comments: (0)
  Canadians debate capitalist crisis See video.The current credit crisis rocking Wall Street may well be the largest market failure within the history of capitalism. The crisis is destabilizing the American economy, and also causing financial crises across the capitalist world.
• McQueen: the very right-wing Rev. Rudd
  Posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 in ABCC Australian Building and Construction Commission - Comments: (0)
  As part of his PR campaign, K. Rudd proclaimed that he had never been any kind of socialist. Instead, while playing Judas to his leader, he paraded his species of Christianity in an article for The Monthly.
• MPs pattern bargain but not workers
  Posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in ABCC Australian Building and Construction Commission - Comments: (0)
  In the Financial Review yesterday, DPM Gillard remains tough in Labor’s crack-down on pattern bargaining. Pattern bargaining – industry-wide industrial action in pursuit of an industry agreement or identical enterprise agreements – is like workChoices specifically prohibited by her Bill (sections 412 and 422).
• Not New York education
  Posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 in Social justice - Comments: (0)
  No, Julia! New York is Not WorkingNew York City Schools Chancellor and prospective US Secretary of Education, Joel Klein, is in Australia next week to spruik his school reforms.
• Nuclear disarmament?
  Posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 in Environmental crisis - Comments: (0)
  Nuclear Disarmament and Uranium Exports Inquiry. PM Rudd has a Federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, to examine the set of international nuclear treaties involving Australia - including Australia’s uranium exports bilateral agreements, and to report on how they may be made more comprehensive or effective and how they may advance Australia’s objectives in this field.
• Poor reduction target
  Posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 in Environmental crisis - Comments: (0)
  Geoff Lazarus points out that the essence of the GLOBAL WARMING problem is that current world Co2 levels are at 360 parts per million. This has already taken us through some of the tipping points that could lead us to an eventual catastrophic and irreversable climate change later this century.
• Rudderless in a Sea of Choices: The Defeat of Your Rights At Work
  Posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 in Featured - Comments: (0)
  Rudderless in a Sea of Choices The Defeat of Your Rights At Work—Analysis and a Possible Response by Harry Glasbeek The Federal government has laid out its proposals to revamp the federal industrial relations regime.
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  Posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 in Capitalist Financial Crisis - Comments: (0)
  The global financial crisis has dominated the headlines for months and has affected countries all around the world. Although, national governments have stepped in to prevent the collapse of the financial system, the world is heading for a major recession.
• How bad can get it?
  Posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 in Capitalist Financial Crisis - Comments: (1)
  The Portuguese Communist and Nobel Prize-winning author, Jose Saramago published Blindness (1995) a novel in which an entire society loses the ability to see. Everything goes white.

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The hypocrisy is that MPs, and CEOs pattern bargain but not only deny this freedom to unions, but want to punish unions making it unlawful.

This is not the repeal of WorkChoices and the ’spin’ of a fair balance is a cruel joke against YRAW activists.

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In the US…

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/315.html

X mas Gaza

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Unlike the Labor Contract Law, which has been criticized as being overprotective of employees, the Implementation Rules put more emphasis on balancing the interests of both the employer and the employee.

Technically speaking, the Implementation Rules do not change the core principles or orientation of the Labor Contract Law; nevertheless, it is still worthwhile to note that the Implementation Rules have made some considerable changes that will have an impact on employment relations and bring new challenges to the work of human resources departments. This Commentary will mainly discuss the notable changes in employment relations brought about by the Implementation Rules and their possible impact on foreign investors in China.

Compared to the Labor Law promulgated on July 5, 1994, the obvious change made in the Labor Contract Law and the Implementation Rules is that employers are encouraged to sign open-ended contracts with their employees. Previously, most employers in China tended to choose a one-year fixed-term labor contract and renew it every year. This method provided much more flexibility for employers because they could lay off the employee at the end of the one-year fixed-term labor contract without paying anything.

Under the new Labor Contract Law, this option is no longer available. Even though an employer can lay off its employees when the fixed-term labor contract expires, the employer still needs to pay severance pay to such employees as compensation. Under these circumstances, the human resources department of a foreign investor will need to devise a strategy to respond to this change of law. For example, the human resources department may need to customize each labor contract the company will enter into with its employees in order to balance the possibility of laying off employees in the future and to minimize the amount of severance pay to the employees being laid off. Specifically, human resources departments may need to carefully evaluate whether each potential employee is qualified for his/her job. They will also need to have a good understanding of the future growth of the company in order to envisage the need for additional human resources.

Generally speaking, if the position is of great importance to the company, an open-ended contract is acceptable, especially considering the ceilings on the severance pay under the Labor Contract Law.

For example, the statutory compensation to an employee whose salary is three times higher than the average salary of the city in which the company is located will be limited to three times the average salary of that city; in any event, the period for calculation of severance pay shall not be more than 12 years. This means that the maximum amount of the severance pay shall not be more than 12 times 3 times the average salary of the city. This will alleviate the financial burden to the employer when laying off high-level executives whose salaries are often considerably higher.

On the other hand, if the contract is for the lowest-level employees of a company and their working competence is still in question for the company, it would be more practical to sign a shorter fixed-term contract with them before determining whether to enter into a longer fixed-term contract. The purpose of such arrangement is to allow the employer more flexibility, in the case of employees of unknown quality, to terminate a shorter term labor contract upon its natural expiration instead of having to terminate on the grounds of incompetence and risk time-consuming labor disputes if the employee challenges the reason for termination.

Another issue arises from the application of Article 14 of the Labor Contract Law, which provides that an employer is obliged to sign an open-ended labor contract with an employee if the employee has served at the company for a consecutive 10-year period.

To avoid such provisions, many companies have tried to “zero” down the working years of the employees by changing the date of employment in the contract. However, this option has been closed by the Implementation Rules, which provide that the starting date of the 10 consecutive years shall be the date when the employee starts to work at the company, and not the date of signing the contract with the employer, and that the working years prior to the implementation of the Labor Contract Law will also be included. In other words, the calculation of “10 years” will start from the day when the employee begins to work in the company, which has nothing to do with the date contained in the labor contract. Such method of changing the starting date of employment in the labor contract, so as to avoid signing open-ended contracts, is now illegal.

To have a better understanding of the Labor Contract Law and the Implementation Rules, the concept of an “open-ended contract” needs to be clarified. It is not, as some people believe, a permanent contract. In fact, the employer may terminate the contract based on several conditions provided in the Implementation Rules. For example, Article 19 (3) of the Implementation Rules provides that an employer may terminate a labor contract if the employee is in serious violation of the internal rules of the company. Considering the content of the internal rules and the definition of “serious violation,” employers may have some degree of flexibility if they can prepare a set of internal rules that set up clear-cut and definite standards of responsibility and working requirements for each position, so as to provide a stronger position for the employer to lay off incompetent employees. Such well-drafted internal rules will act as persuasive evidence for labor arbitrators and judges to make decisions in favor of the employer.

Employers may also need to pay special attention to the definition of “serious violation” when formulating the internal rules. It should be noted that such standards should take into account the position of the employee, the financial situation of the company, and also the industrial criteria. In other words, since there is no statutory definition of what situation is serious enough to warrant the firing of an employee, in practice, this judgment will be made by arbitrators and judges, who may have their own interpretation if there is no clear-cut and reasonable definition in the internal rules of the employer. Therefore, an employer should have internal rules that try to cover every aspect of the employment relationship, including job descriptions, responsibilities, working requirements, and consequences for breach of the rules.

The Implementation Rules have also adopted some new requirements in relation to a company’s routine operation:

Compared to the Labor Contract Law, the Implementation Rules include provisions extending to branches of companies. Article 4 of the Implementation Rules provides that a branch of a company is entitled to sign labor contracts with its employees if it obtains a business license; otherwise, it can only sign labor contracts under the authorization of the company. Article 14 of the Implementation Rules also provides that if an employee works in a different location from the place of registration of the employer/company, the salary paid to the employee and all the employment-related standards (including labor protection, working conditions, industrial danger defense, and so on) should be in accordance with the local standards. However, it further stipulates that if the salary standard and other employment-related standards of the company’s place of registration are higher than those of the working location, and if both contracting parties agree so, the higher standards of salary should be applicable to the contract.

Another issue that needs employers’ attention is the new requirement on establishment of a systematic and up-to-date name list of employees. Article 8 of the Implementation Rules provides that a name list of employees must include information on the employee’s name, gender, citizen identity card number, residential address, contact information, nature of employment, term of employment, and the like. To further support this requirement, Article 33 of the Implementation Rules provides respective administrative and monetary penalties for a company’s violation of the Article 8 requirements. Therefore, it is suggested that employers who do not have such a detailed name list should prepare one as soon as possible.

Another notable requirement in the Implementation Rules is that only the statutory dissolution conditions will be recognized in order to dissolve a labor contract. Specifically, in Article 13 of the Implementation Rules, it is stipulated that employers and employees may not agree on other conditions for dissolution of the labor contract other than the conditions prescribed in Article 44 of the Labor Contract Law. This provision in the Implementation Rules clearly requires that the dissolution conditions of a labor contract are statutory, and that additional or contradictory conditions cannot be agreed upon by the contracting parties. Foreign investors should note that a labor contract in China is a special type of contract, and the general principles of the Contract Law are not applicable to labor contracts.

In addition to the above new requirements addressed in the Implementation Rules, the following issues should also be considered by employers when they decide to terminate a labor contract.
Employers are required to issue a certificate of termination of employment upon termination of the employment relationship. According to the Implementation Rules, this certificate should state the term of the contract, the date of termination, the position, and the period the employee has worked for the employer. Although there is no punishment specified in the Implementation Rules for noncompliance, it is suggested that an employer should prepare such certificate in order to avoid problems during any administrative examination and/or dispute resolution process.

The Implementation Rules have provided clarification as to the damages and compensation that are payable when a labor contract is terminated. Article 25 of the Implementation Rules provides that the employer is not required to pay extra compensation to the employee in situations where an employer terminates a labor contract in violation of the Labor Contract Law and damages have been awarded in accordance with the Labor Contract Law that are twice the amount of the compensation/severance pay due to the employee.

It is provided in the Labor Contract Law that if an employer legally terminates a labor contract, compensation shall be made to the employee by way of “salary payment.” Article 27 of the Implementation Rules elaborates on this issue and provides that the calculation standard of the salary as compensation shall include payable salary, award, allowance, and subsidy of the employee, which is a very wide interpretation of “salary.”

The Implementation Rules further clarify that if an employee refuses to sign a written labor contract with the employer within one month after the start of the employment, the employer is entitled to dissolve the employment relationship without making any compensation to the employee. If the period without written labor contract is more than one month but less than a year, the employer is also entitled to dissolve the employment relationship, but compensation shall be made to the employee on the basis of the actual working period. In the Implementation Rules, it is clearly provided that there is a grace period of one month for employers to terminate the employment relationship without paying damages to the employee, as stipulated in the Labor Contract Law, at the amount of twice the employee’s salary.

Article 10 of the Implementation Rules provides that if any employee was transferred to work in a new company by the employer, the working period with the old employer will be calculated into the working period of the new employer unless the original employer has paid up all the severance pay to its employees. Under this requirement, if any foreign investor acquires a Chinese company after the implementation of the Implementation Rules, it is suggested that the purchase agreement should include a clause to request the seller to pay the severance pay to its employees and deduct such amount from the purchase price. Otherwise, once the labor contract with the former employee of the seller is terminated or if the foreign investor wants to lay off any former employee of the seller, the foreign investor will incur additional expense.

Although we have addressed several topics that we think will be quite important for foreign investors to consider when they examine their human resources requirements and employment policy in China, there are still many issues that remain uncertain in the new labor law system of China. It is suggested that employers should take a closer view of the new law and implement a system of employment that is suitable to the company’s actual situation. It is also very important to set up a comprehensive and detailed file system of employment-related issues in order to be well prepared for any governmental examination and future labor disputes. An unavoidable result of the Labor Contract Law and its Implementation Rules is that the costs related to employment in China will definitely increase.

17 December 2008

http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=71600&email_access=on

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War is Over!

War is over

Holy Night

Santa Claus

X mas Gaza

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A mark of the power of his prose is that while I was reading Blindness, I became afraid to blink because that was one of the moments after which many of the characters lost their sight. Despite this response, by the time I was two-thirds of the way through Saramago’s 300 pages, it dawned on me that he had failed. His picture of a society in which no one could see was mild by comparison with what such a catastrophe would be like.

True, there is shit everywhere. Thugs retain their guns and try to rule it over the rest. Dogs devour corpses in the streets. There is no running water, no food supplies, no power, not communications. Were a plague of universal blindness to befall a society, minute-by-minute existence would be several times more intolerable than the one Saramago portrays.

To make any story possible, he had to keep one character able to see, a fact she conceals from almost everyone in the group she protects. I won’t spoil the plot by revealing the end, but it is of a piece with the understatement of the horror, the horror.

Since the global economy went into a tailspin, my mind has returned to Saramago’s novel and to these doubts about its portrayal of terribleness. Just as a creative writer could not represent the awfulness of universal blindness, so who among us can face up to how thorough-going the crisis in the accumulation of capital might become? This failure is widespread here with talk of Australia being the only country likely to avoid recession. At least, mush about riding out on the global downturn on the China boom has disappeared.

Still less are we able to imagine what everyday life would be like during a global depression that deepened throughout a decade. The worst that most of the Left are able to conjure up is fascism.
An Argentinean acquaintance gave me reminder of what happens when the banks close. A government guarantee of deposits is not the same as access to those funds on demand. Shortly after Wall Street began to implode in September, she remarked: “This is why we came to Australia.” She recalled the freezing of assets in her homeland; how no one had seen it coming; no one knew what to do day by day, or minute by minute. She lost most of her possessions in the battle to survive. She also lost faith in her country, and immigrated. That disaster was only in one country.

Now, she knows what to expect if the worst happens. She has put all the money she can muster into accounts from which she can withdraw instantly. At the same time, she is building up a horde of $2-coins and five- and ten-dollar notes: “They need to be small denominations because no one will have change.” And she is stocking up on dry goods.

Anyone who has looked disaster in the face will never forget it. Behaviours that appear bizarre are to people like her no more than the precautionary principle. If the worst does not happen, she can still spend the money and eat her tinned beans.

Measures to help a household through the first weeks of a total collapse are no help in forming collective action. Similarly, wallowing in catastrophes is no way to forge a program. Chanting “capitalism must collapse one day” leaves the Left no better placed to cope with that actuality than are the pundits who cannot accept that the past eighteen months has happened.

The policies needed to deal with 6 percent unemployment will be useless if the deflationary spiral drives that rate to 30 percent reached in the early 1890s and early 1930s.

Being able to conceive of the worst is a precondition for devising tactics and a strategy even for the medium term.

The analogy of universal blindness is not aimed at scaring ourselves witless.

The hope is that gathering the courage to stare the storm in its eye might prevent our being rendered sightless if the system is blown away.

Financial crisis and democratic public finance

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The convergence of social forces we call “globalization from below” has a lot of experience in how to challenge globalization from above.

Its various overlapping organizations and networks have played critical and globally visible roles in challenging the formation and further empowerment of the WTO; demanding debt relief for poor countries; opposing IMF structural adjustment policies; providing high-quality, high-profile critiques of the World Economic Forum, the G-7, and the international financial institutions; fighting for affordable AIDS drugs for the world’s poor; demanding protection of the world’s climate; contesting imperial adventures like the US attack on Iraq; and challenging the myth that “there is no alternative” to neo-liberal capitalism.

Globalization from below has become a kind of global social bloc, drawing together a diversity of forces around common interests and joint action.

It has depended less on formal organizations than on new forms of social networking that have allowed rapid coordination of thinking and campaigns worldwide. It has utilized asymmetrical methods to counter the centralized power of globalization from above with the linkage of thousands of grassroots movements, constituencies, and organizations around the globe.

The dense set of connections and dialogues that constitutes globalization from below provides a vehicle for responding to the emerging economic crisis.

As the “Beijing Declaration”, “The global economic crisis: An historic opportunity for transformation” indicates, the upcoming World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil at the end of January 2009 provides an opportunity to jumpstart the process. Here are some thoughts about objectives the Forum – and the wider nexus of social networks that interact with it – might pursue.

http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/

The movement can organize itself to play these mutually reinforcing roles .

Project a vision of an alternative. The Beijing Declaration provides an excellent starting place for articulating not only that “another world is possible” but many of that world’s concrete features. A follow-on statement can articulate its approach in a way that will make clear to millions of people the elements of such an alternative vision. Such a vision can then be used to position globalization from below (under whatever name) as the alternative in the global public debate to the catastrophe of globalization from above.

Expose the perpetrators of economic wrongdoing.

A high profile Global Economy Truth Commission could educate the world about the individuals, institutions, policies, and structures responsible for the global economic meltdown and the devastation of the common interests of humanity cause by “globalization from above.” This could be, not a single event, but a series of public actions around the globe on the model developed by the World Tribunal on Iraq which held nearly twenty locally organized sessions in countries around the globe, or the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals held on a variety of global justice issues in recent years.

Confront the perpetrators of the crisis.
Mass demonstrations and educational actions at international G-7 and IFI gatherings have been a crucial tactic for the movement from the Battle of Seattle against the WTO to the many actions to cancel third world debt. The first such demonstration of the new era was held in Washington in November to welcome the leaders of the G-20. We need to learn how to frame such events so that they attract large numbers of people who are affected by the economic crisis, show that the effects of the crisis are global, and project an alternative to that of the tattered establishment.

Develop concrete demands to put on world leaders that reflect genuine common global interests not corporate and financial interests. For example, demand that stimulus and bailout funding stop going to rescue banks and start going to rescue the planet from global warming and provide poor people a global safety net.

Delegitimize governments and politicians who won’t put people and the planet first. Politicians and government leaders who resist these demands, and who support instead giving more money to banks and corporations, should be identified for what they are: opponents of common human interests. This can be done at every level from local to global.

Develop allies in places of power. As the crisis deepens, more and more people “inside the system” will be considering alternatives, both for principled and for opportunistic reasons. The movement can benefit in power and legitimacy by reaching out to them for cooperation as long as it doesn’t let them call the shots.

Crumble off countries, constituencies, and institutions.
As the power and legitimacy of the dominant forces declines, more and more forces are going their own way. This has occurred dramatically in Latin America over the last few years. People can promote the emergence of similar independence in whatever polities, milieus, and organizations they find themselves in. They will thereby contribute not only to their own liberation, but to ongoing global transformation.

Provide an alternative “center of gravity” through which forces favoring transformation can connect. The World Social Forum and the nexus of networks it connects with already helps play this role. As the global economic crisis drives new individuals and groups into opposition, they need to be actively drawn in to what is in effect an emerging alternative global social bloc.

Help people at the grassroots meet their survival needs by organizing themselves and connecting with each other. Hard times force people to act on the principle “fight – don’t starve.” They often develop coops, barter, local currencies, and other forms of self-help. They often must turn to “squatting,” workplace occupations, strikes, general strikes, “IMF riots,” and other forms of direct action to survive – note the recent sit-in in Chicago.

Too often such actions are portrayed just as isolated, knee-jerk reactions of a marginalized rabble seeking at best to preserve their own privileges. Such actions should instead be celebrated as grassroots resistance to globalization from above and linked as part of globalization from below.

Address hard times with global solidarity. Define global economic problems as common problems of the economically disenfranchised, not as national problems to be addressed by a struggle among nations. Don’t treat other workers at home and abroad as the enemy. Don’t let national elites solve their problems and line their pockets through “beggar your neighbor” policies and international trade wars.

Project a new global consensus.

The “Washington Consensus” purported to be based on the idea that neo-liberalism, though propounded by global elites and their mouthpieces, represented the common interests of all. The Washington Consensus is now in shambles. Globalization from below should aim ultimately to produce an alternative consensus around the necessity to protect the well-being of people and planet, and the necessity of democratic control over financial and economic institutions to do so.
More Recent Articles
• A Global Program for Hard Times
• Globalization From Below in Hard Times
• Today’s Economic Crisis in Historical Perspective
• The G-20 vs. the G-6 Billion
• Things Fall Apart

This is from “Global Labor Strategies”

Financial crisis and democratic public finance

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Faith in the goodness of stock-traders persists. That scourge of corporate boards, Stephen Mayne, assured investors that there isn’t another Madoff out there. Isn’t that what Mayne would have said about Madoff before his arrest? Its more likely that there’s little but Madoffs out there. The more of them who are exposed, the more their edifice trembles, and the more desperate they become to find a Greater Fool to sell out to.

To understand why Madoff is no rotten apple in a spotless barrel, we have to recognise the distinction between the exploitation of workers as the essence of capitalism and the swindling of everybody as an inevitable consequence of that exploitation.

In theory, capitalists need never swindle their wage-slaves. The owners of productive property can exploit their workers if they pay them the full cost of the commodity that they bring to market, that is, their capacity to add value, (labour-power). By disciplining the workers, the owners can get them to produce other commodities of greater value than he price of their labour-power. The difference is known as surplus value.

Viewed in one way, this exchange is fair. The workers get the costs of reproducing themselves for sale. From another perspective, this situation proves why there can never be a fair day’s pay. The capitalists take the surplus value although they do not contribute to its production.

The surplus value is of no use to capitalists unless they can sell the commodities in which it is embodied. But to sell is to incur all manner of expenses from the wholesaler, the retailer, the banker, the marketeer, the accountant, the lawyer - not to mention the candlestick-maker. Each of these firms has to meet its expenses and then some. All those costs have to be taken from the surplus value. Even if all the intermediaries were honourable men, their fees might leave next-to-nothing for the original capitalist.

That gentleperson is tempted to overcome that problem by swindling his employees out of some of the wages needed to meet the full costs of their reproducing their labour power. Building contractors do this every hour of every day; Gillard keeps her attack dog in the ABCC to protect such thieves.

But the struggle between classes is not the only area where the tussle for a share of surplus value results in swindling. Capitalists fight their agents over he size of their returns. All parties soon learn that if they don’t grab more than they are entitled to, they won’t end up with enough to pay their bills. Hence, they pad their fees. Lawyers, for instance, charge for quarter-hours they did not work.

The competition for a portion of the results of the exploiting of wage-slaves generates a thousand-and-one schemes. Out of this brew comes an outlook which encourages ever wilder scams from people like Madoff who make no contribution to the realisation of the surplus value. Instead, they offer to increase the horde of money that has resulted from that cycle of investment, production and sale. “I can make you money out of money” is their catch-cry. “Don’t put yourself to all that trouble of disciplining workers and keeping an eye on your friends as they cheat you. Trust me with your cash.”

And they did, to the tune of $US50bn.

Exploitation of wage-slaves need not involve swindles but it cannot be made profitable without some. How unfair that the beneficiaries need not be the exploiter of labour-power. So the money goes round.
(15 December 2008)

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Leighton has led the charge to get the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) to strip workers of the capacity to protect themselves. In the week after the collapse, Leighton denied entry to the Construction Division’s National OHS official Martin Kingham because he did not have the right scrap of paper. By contrast, Leighton’s CEO Wal King is free to come and go despite judicial findings about him and his businesses.

NSW Judge Murray Tobias, in 1993, declared King to be “not of good repute, having regard to character, honesty and integrity”, and that he still did not “truly accept even now that the practice of the false invoices was dishonest.” Notwithstanding this assessment, Tobias could not bring himself to conclude that King was “deliberately lying” but rather had been “extremely busy”. In the end, Tobias judged King and a fellow executive to be “generally speaking, honest, industrious and honourable … generally respected and held in high regard in the commercial and personal circles within which they move.” That assessment tells us more about the morality of those circles than it does about King’s probity. “So are they all, all honourable men.”

King, nonetheless, felt “wounded” by the proceedings because, as he put it, he was “not in the habit of having to defend contracts publicly.” (Australian, 22-23 November 1997, p. 60.)

King justified his companies’ use of false invoices to conceal price-fixing as “the culture … and custom that had been longstanding in the industry that had been handed on for years.” This tradition is not part of the culture that Commissioner Cole and the ABCC are determined to stamp out.
[For Leighton’s collusive tendering see Royal Commission into Productivity, Report, NSW Parliamentary Papers, vol. XXII, Paper 273, pp. 99 and 130, and NSW Casino Control Authority, Report of Public Inquiry, 1994, pp. 31-35; for the corporate gloss, see Stephanie King, Leighton: fifty years, Technical Services, Sydney, 1999, pp. 96-97.]

The death in October 2000 of Leighton worker, Robert Sergi, led to fines of $325,000 four years later. In convicting the corporation, judge Gebhardt accused it of “gross shoddiness” and condemned its failure to mention the incident in its annual report. (Age, 4 and 28 May 2004, p. 3; the case did not appear in the “Legal Affairs” section of the Australian Financial Review.) The law did not permit any executive to be sentenced even to week-end detention or community service. Instead, they were given rehabilitation to become good corporate citizens. Leighton was not excluded from government contracts, which was the fate of any firm prepared to deal with the Builders’ Labourers’ Federation after its de-recognition in 1986. Leighton, however, did have to pay $90,000 to the children of the killed worker. That sum was one four-hundredth (0.25%) of the $36m. package that King took home to his five-car garage beneath a tennis court.

Notwithstanding these condemnations and performances, King and Leighton are permitted to dominate the construction sector. They call in the ABCC to combat the unions’ ingrained culture of safety. Gillard’s Construction Stasi is protecting Leighton. more than the Anti-Labour Party’s proposed OHS law will protect workers.

Sergi’s widow said it all: “Workers should definitely be heard on site, because my husband would still be alive.” (Age, 28 May 1904, p. 3)
by Humphrey McQueen. The historical and conceptual contexts for these activities and attitudes are available on ‘Framework of flesh, builders’ labourers battle for health and safety’, that is soon to be published. See also on this site ABCC.

Rights on site campaigns to abolish the ABCC

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