Protestors must be clear that anti-GW Bush does not mean anti-American

Bush-Whacking

Those of us preparing to protest US President George W Bush's visit to Australia must tread a fine line - between condemning the policies of an illegitimate president with a dangerous agenda and damning an entire nation.

Those mobilising the Weapons of Mass Derision rally have the right idea - turning the President who never won an election, with a cartoon view of the world and childish notions of good versus evil, into a joke is the only constructive response.

And in making a joke of our own Prime Minister's genuflection, we are calling for an Australian leadership with the strength to represent our national interests rather than blindly following its dominant ally.

That said, we would be foolish if we turned our protests into a round of yank bashing, because in doing so we would be attacking many of the principles of freedom, democracy and individual liberty that we also take for granted.

Anti-American protests only detract from the anti-Bush message - and that is, his policies are the very antithesis of this American ideal.

In taking to the streets against the US President, we are protesting Bush's policies of pre-emption and unilateralism; as they manifest in military action, trade negotiations, environmental and in terms of cultural imperialism.

And in doing so we join an increasing number of Americans who are rejecting Bush and the values he represents.

Americans like Michael Moore who famously wrote to Bush:

Instead of having to earn it, you have been handed the presidency the same way you've come by everything else in your life. Money and name alone have opened every door for you. Without effort or hard work or intelligence or ingenuity, you have been bequeathed a life of privilege.

Americans like the Dixie Chicks who were pilloried by the Right for stating they were embarrassed to share a home state with the President, yet rewarded by fans with huge increases in sales.

And Americans like General Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander who knows more about war than Bush ever will and knows that pre-emption is dangerous and short-sighted and only this week stated:

We are in a crisis in our relations with the rest of the world. Today, at a time when we need friends and allies more than ever, resentment of America has never been higher, and that makes every American less safe at home and abroad.

If the anti-Bush protests make Australians - and the world - laugh at Bush's ignorance, they will play a small part in strengthening the hands of the only people who can remove him from power - the American people.

But if they become an attack on America they will only add to the siege mentality that began on September 11 and continues to provide Bush with the cover he needs to promote all manner of madness and ignorance.

The Monk Off Our Back

It should come as no surprise that Tony Abbott has been dragged from his workplace relations portfolio just as his $60 million assault on the CFMEU finally unravels.

This week's revelations that Cole Commission investigators vigorously led witnesses to incriminate the union, follow last week's leaking of the secret report volume exposing the very shaky foundations upon which the report's recommendations were based.

This left the government with next to no chance of getting Abbott's building industry legislation through the Senate, meaning the Monk's "reform agenda" of turning building workers into criminals would fall into a very expensive hole.

Like his predecessor Peter Reith, Abbott will be remembered as a minister who bought ideological warfare to a portfolio that should really be about compromise and cooperation.

Like Reith and the waterfront, Abbott put much vigour into "breaking" an effective trade union only to find himself caught out by his fundamental blind spot - that not everyone views the world as he does.

It is a failing that has afflicted many a preacher man, for that was what the Mad Monk ultimately was, a deluded zealot bashing away at the pulpit.

While Abbott preached choice, he practiced his own breed of compulsion, refusing government funding to universities who would not push individual contracts at academics.

While he preached family values, he sat back as workers were screwed harder and harder, with less time for their families and communities thanks to the flexibility he championed.

And while he preached the "rule of law" he contrived to turn workers into outlaws, forcing them into long and heated lock-outs by stripping the industrial umpire of the power to resolve disputes.

Abbott's period in industrial relations must ultimately be viewed as a failure because he has left a system that exists to manage labour relations fundamentally weaker.

The fact that the Mad Monk has been given a promotion to the health portfolio rather than a spell on the sidelines should not only send shivers through the spine of any sick person, it also says much about the mindset of the Prime Minister.

If Abbott takes his approach to the workplace into the health portfolio, one can only wonder at the conflict he will create - between rich and poor, public and private patients, and the sick and the healthy.

If ever there was a man to drive a wedge through the health system, here he is.