*THE
WORKER*
BRISBANE,
AUGUST 24, 1895.
Mail
Bag.
Wanted
– (to prepare the way for Socialism in our Time)
One
Adult One Vote.
Land
Tax.
Income
Tax.
State
Bank.
Shops
and Factories Act.
Eight
hours day where practicable.
Referendum
and Initiative.
Taxation
of every person according to ability to pay.
The
State to find work for unemployment.
The
State to fix a minimum wage.
Free
railways.
Free
administration of Justice.
The
WORKER does not hold itself responsible for the opinions of its
correspondents.
_____________
Fair
Play - Yes.
May
Day - Thanks.
W.
R. M. - Notes received.
L.
G., Melbourne – Thanks.
SHANGHRAUN
– Crowded out.
RICHD.
M'DONALD Received
R.
W., Gympie – May use later on.
MAGPIE,
Toowoomba – Letter sent you.
W.
R. M., Ipswich – Received. Will use.
P.
Langston – Very glad to hear from you.
R.
M'DONALD, Winton – Read and practice, and please send along part.
HANRAHAN,
Thargomindah – Made inquiries; find he is now at Coolgardie, W.A.
ROUSEABOUT,
Noondoo, writes complainingly of the mean actions of “White Wings.”
OLD
MINES, Pikedale – Glad to hear that the electors are going to get
rid of Foxton.
S.
writes that Civil Service is becoming too big for the sort of men in
power to manage.
BUSHMAN
writes to say that big fat kanakas can be seen driving teams through
Cloncurry laden with timber.
Tom
L. Mills, N.Z. - Thanks very much. Editor at present absent from
Brisbane; will write you on his return.
SHEAR-SLADE
– You do not mention the name of the station. All orders received
have been attended to. Fifty five copies sent Alice Downs.
J.
CANTWELL, Thargomindah – Your case has been no doubt a hard one.
There is very little justice for workers in bush courts under the eye
of the squatter.
LITMUS
writes to say if white men get a fair wage and a decent mode of
living they can do more work than coloured labour on plantations, and
he knows it from practical experience.
C.
M. HOSBACK, Murchison, W. A. writes that a strong branch of the
Anti-Asiatic League has been formed at the Island, Lake Austin. He
also forwards copy of principles of the League.
______________
DON”T
forget the WORKER Enlargement Fund?
ED.
WORKER – A hiatus occurs in the article “Law of Rent” in your
last issue. “Anderson's tract has the same relation to the
Spencerian theory of evolution” should have read, “Anderson's
doctrine has about the same relation to the Ricardian 'Law of Rent'
as the theories of Erasmus Darwin to the Spencerian theory of
evolution .” - MACAURA.
ED.
WORKER – Now that the co-operative store in Hughenden is such a
success, why not go a step further. Take up 20,000 acres and sheep
farm for profit. Taking into account that we have got, or can get,
the two principal factors – that is, labour and land – with a
small levy to buy wire with, we ought to make it a success. All hands
to improve it after Christmas. Far better than lying on creeks
reading “Deadwood Dick in Nevada,” or “The last Ride of Silk
Basso Sam.” - R. M'DONALD, Winton.
ED.
WORKER – A word for those men who gave their labour as cooks free
in the strike camps last year. This year there has been a lot of fat
cooks put on at some of the sheds in preference to them. This I
consider an injustice to the strike camp cooks, for I maintain that
the man who was good enough to give us his labour for nothing is good
enough to cook for us when we become employers. No matter if they did
not cook personally for you, they looked after your fellow unionists,
which is all the same. - JUSTICE.
ED.
WORKER – There are a number of names mentioned as likely candidates
to contest the seat for Carnarvon in the Labour interests against the
honourable and talented major. But, of course, the workers'
organisation will have to decide whom they will support; there must
be no clashing between parties. So it is to be hoped the workers of
Goondiwindi will assist in every possible way in the selection of the
man who is likely to get the most support throughout the whole
electorate. The committee of the workers' organisation here are
working energetically, and no stone will be left unturned to down
Foxton at the coming election. - STANTHORPE.
ED.
WORKER – Here is a sample of the questions asked at the Bowen Downs
inquiry; “How many strike camps have you been in?” “ Where were
you in 1891?” “Do you know who hoisted the black flag in 1891?”
All this irrelevant foolery simply shows that the police, who no
doubt take their cue from the higher authorities, have their minds
already made up on the matter and are merely attempting to force the
witnesses to prove their theory. Exactly the same line was pursued in
the matter of the late Mount Cornish fire. Nothing but what would
substantial to the police theory was listened to. This theory was
that the shed was set on fire in three places by incendiaries –
union men, of course. They could find no motive whatever for such
incendiarism. As is well known, Mount Cornish is a cattle station and
has been entirely free from labour troubles. The manager is well
respected by everybody in the district. If the police (here is the
straight “griffin” for the Hon. Tozer) had cross-examined the
black gins who are exclusively employed as domestic servants at the
beautiful homestead, and also further cross-examined the station
jackeroos as to their movements on the night of the fire, they would
have been much, very much, nearer the mark than they were. - ONE OF
THE DINGOES. Billabong.
ED.
WORKER – In the Legislative Assembly, on the 7th inst.,
Mr. John Cameron, M.L.A. is reported to have said “that the
conditions of the western men were never better than at present, and
at Barcaldine the men wanted for the bore and wool-scour could not be
procured nearer than Rockhampton though the wage offered was 10s. per
day.” We have on several occasions come into contact with John, but
have never heard of any remarkable instances of his veracity, but we
venture to say at this juncture that a more flagrant violation of the
truth was never perpetrated even by so shaky an individual as the
member for Mitchell. What are the facts? The bore employs an engineer
and three labourers at 10s. and 7s. 6d. per day respectively. It is
perfectly true that these men are from Rockhampton, having been sent
up by Sydney Williams and Co., the contractor (every local man who
applied for work having been refused). The only local man on the job
is the board's engineer. With respect to the wool-scour, the minimum
rate of wage is 7s. 6d. per day, and none but well known applicants
stand the slightest chance of gaining employment there. In the face
of such facts as these, which are well known to everyone here, it
seems absurd for even such an absurdity as John Cameron, M.L.A., to
try and distort facts so widely known. But it is only a further
instance of the shameless audacity and “front” usually displayed
in the political tactics of the enlightened and intelligent member
for Mitchell. - C. G., Barcaldine, August 13, 1895.
In the same speech he touted his great success in judicial appointments with the following words: “We’ve appointed a record number of judges who will defend our constitution and interpret the law as written. And we’re putting on to the bench a record number of judges. And in a short period of time, we are going to have probably the all-time record for the appointment of judges. And I’m very excited about that.”
This speech tells you exactly what you need to know about this president’s goal and his desire to define his legacy. As is well known by now, what he says yesterday he reverses tomorrow. At one time, Trump supported a woman’s right to choose. That is long gone. His goal today is nothing less that the undoing of Roe v Wade, the US supreme court decision that allowed a woman the right to obtain an abortion. He will not be satisfied until he can stack the lower federal courts – and eventually the supreme court – with judges who will overturn that precedent.
"Appointments to the federal bench continue to be the president’s most consistent success, a rallying cry for his base"
If the Republicans prevail in the midterm elections and retain control of the House and, more importantly, the Senate, the relentless march to appoint conservative judges will continue at record speed. Six months ago I authored an article for the Guardian titled ‘Trump’s new team of judges will radically change American society’.
At that time, the president had made 60 judicial nominations and 14 judges had been confirmed. Current figures reveal that the appointments to the federal bench continue to be the president’s most consistent success, a rallying cry for his base, and a campaign issue in the forthcoming election. They are poised to be his lasting legacy.
When Obama took office, there were 53 vacancies, equivalent to 6% of the federal judiciary. But because Republicans obstructed Obama’s judicial nominees in the hopes of providing a Republican president an opportunity to remake the federal courts, Trump began his term with 112 vacancies.
When Senate Republicans were in the majority from 2015-2016, they blocked nine Obama nominees from receiving a hearing because they had not received the consent of their home-state senators. Now that there is a Republican president, Senate Republicans have reversed their position and have advanced three Trump nominees despite their failure to obtain approval from home-state senators.
Thirty-nine Trump judges have now been confirmed, 15 for the circuit courts and 24 for the district courts. One hundred and sixty vacancies remain to be filled, with 71 nominations now pending before the Senate and 89 vacancies yet to be filled. This is more than 15% of the federal bench. As noted in a 22 May report issued by Senate judiciary committee Democrats, the pace of confirmations has set a record. Trump’s first 15 circuit court nominees took an average of 131 days to be confirmed, while Obama’s first 15 circuit court nominees took at average of 254 days to be confirmed – which is twice as long.
A record number of Trump nominees have received a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association (ABA), or the tepid rating of “qualified” as opposed to the “well qualified” rating of the vast majority of Obama’s nominees. Finally, Trump’s choices reflect a lack of diversity. Ninety percent of his nominees are white, and only 20% are women. Not a single African American or Hispanic person has yet been confirmed. Only 3% of pending nominees are African American and 6% are Hispanic.
Vitter routinely sought the toughest sentence against black defendants – including the death penalty – but not equally against white defendants. She often criticized judges who gave less than maximum sentences. She then spent one year as an associate in a law firm. She has only appeared once in federal court.
She then retired from practicing law for the next 20 years, spending those years working on her husband’s political campaigns. She has consistently opposed abortion rights, going so far as to claim that using birth control pills exposes women to sexual assaults and that contraception causes breast cancer. Neither proposition has any scientific support.
Finally, Vitter failed to disclose speeches and publications to the Senate judiciary committee that disclosed her virulent anti-abortion views.
Ryan Bounds, a 45-year-old lawyer from Oregon, and a longtime member of the very conservative Federalist Society, has been nominated to the powerful and influential ninth circuit court of appeals. He has failed to obtain the support of either senator from Oregon. Nonetheless, he was nominated on 7 September 2017 and had a Senate judiciary committee hearing on 9 May 2018.
He has received only a “qualified” rating from the ABA. While he did graduate from Stanford University and Yale Law School and has served as a federal court law clerk and federal prosecutor, he has left only a sparse paper trail. He was a deputy assistant attorney general in the George W Bush administration but papers from that era are not publicly available.
The available materials consist of many articles written during his student years that reveal deeply conservative views. He has belittled campus sexual assaults, attacked the concepts of multiculturalism on college campuses, called student affinity groups “feel good ethnic hoedowns” and mocked students engaged in pro-labor protests. In short, he fits well within Trump’s view of the ideological qualifications for a position on a court of appeals.
There are many nominees and confirmed judges who are similar to Vitter and Bounds. Many, if not most, are opposed to abortion rights, labor unions and gun control, and support limiting immigrants’ and prisoners’ rights. The damage to the federal judiciary that will take place in Trump’s four years is of great concern. The pace of confirmation will slow if the Senate flips to Democratic control – but the irreversible harm will be completely devastating should this president remain in office for eight years.