LL:ART: ABC STRIKE: SHIER DEFENSIVE AND DESPERATE

[Communist Party of Australia]

ABC STRIKE: SHIER DEFENSIVE AND DESPERATE

The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
December 13, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
Subscription rates on request.

PLEASE NOTE: The next edition of The Guardian will appear on
January 23, 2001, as the staff take a break over the holiday
season. A happy and peaceful New Year to all readers!
******************************

1. ABC strike: defensive and desperate, Shier clings on

1. ABC strike: defensive and desperate, Shier clings on As ABC management 
tried with increasing desperation to justify their privatisation-driven 
destructive policies, striking staff have been buoyed by support from 
members of the public, from community organisations and from the ALP, whose 
communications spokesman has stated that the ALP was "entirely sympathetic" 
to the strike.

by Peter Mac

ABC Chairman Don MacDonald and arch conservative Board member Michael 
Kroger were jeered when they arrived for the last Board meeting of the year 
recently, and workers constructing new extensions to ABC headquarters in 
Sydney also took strike action in support of ABC staff. The community group 
Friends of the ABC has been overwhelmed by members of the public seeking to 
join the organisation. The long-simmering industrial dispute was prompted 
by the recent sacking of <MI>Media Watch-- host Paul Barry, the non-renewal 
of popular newsreader Angela Pearman's contract, the disbandment of the 
highly respected ABC Science unit, further cuts to ABC News and Current 
Affairs (reportedly as high as $8 million), the commercialisation of parts 
of the ABC, revelations that 200 more jobs will go and the stacking of the 
ABC board with Howard government supporters ... Meanwhile, the ABC Board 
has approached the Federal Government for $40 million in extra funds (that 
is, a partial reinstatement of recent cuts).

This is not to say that they want to use the money to rehire sacked staff 
or reinstate axed quality programs.

Part of the money is to be used for new regional programs, new programs for 
young children (potentially one of the most lucrative areas of ABC 
multi-media production), and experimental programs for digital TV (also 
potentially highly lucrative for a commercialised ABC) -- to be largely 
produced by the private sector for the ABC.

However, perhaps the biggest sector of the new allocations is to be used 
for -- wait for it -- new multi-media programs for the business sector.

ABC management described this as "Distinctive television, radio and new 
media content about business, entrepreneurial activity and personal 
investment in the changing economy". In short, broadcasting for the rich 
and privileged minority. The request for extra funding has placed the 
Howard Government in ?an awkward position.

On the one hand the initiative is consistent with the commercialisation 
direction of the current management, which in turn reflects government policy.

On the other hand, the government can hardly provide additional funds for 
such an initiative -- particularly the business-oriented programs -- 
without inviting more condemnation from the public for its cuts and 
sackings to date.

Prime Minister John Howard last week stated: "The government has complete 
confidence in the Board of the ABC, but that does not mean that we will 
always share the board's view of the funding priorities that we have to 
meet in relation to government responsibilities." Media, Entertainment and 
Arts Alliance Assistant Federal Secretary Mark Ryan expressed his disgust 
that the Shier plan did not include funding for news and current affairs.

Anticipating further industrial action, the Secretary of the ABC section of 
the Community and Public Sector Union, Graeme Thomson, commented that: "No 
amount of additional funding is going to protect the ABC from Shier's plans 
for commercialisation and for the destruction of the specialist units on 
which the ABC's independence and integrity is firmly based."

ABC staff have now called for Shier to step down or be sacked, and for the 
ABC to return to its place as national broadcaster. On the picket line 
outside the ABC headquarters, the President of Friends of the ABC, Ms 
Penelope Toltz, commented: "I hope that the troglodytes that are supposedly 
in charge of this place understand that the people who make the programs 
and the people who listen to the programs are actually the most important 
people -- that we own the ABC, they [the troglodytes] do not own it."
END


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