Posted by John, November 4th, 2009 - under Remembrance day, Revolution.

Tags: ATO, Australian Tax Office

In its Wednesday edition Crikey exposed the hypocrisy of the Australian Tax Office. The article is called The ATO’s business needs: lest we forget and is well worth a read to see how public service bosses really treat their staff.

The ATO sent a note to its Operations staff about reflecting on Remembrance Day on 11 November. The day commemorates the end of World War One. Traditionally there is a minute’s silence at 11 a.m.

Not in the ATO. Apart from jingoistic claptrap and the re-writing of history (more of which later) the note says:

If you wish to observe a moment’s silence you should speak to your manager, allowing them the opportunity to assess the business needs of your area prior to approving your request.

That seems pretty clear. You can’t take time off to reflect on the ruling class mythologies about the end of the first world war. You need to keep working unless you get your boss’s permission.

Well, that’s not a good look to the tens of thousands of Tax Officers for whom Remembrance Days means something. And to snivelling patriots like the HowRudd Government and the Turnbull Opposition, the ATO’s position would provoke howls of fake outrage.

The ATO looked like it could be heading for a PR nightmare.

So it sent out a second memo, and after a bit of groveling about how important Remembrance Day was, the Office went on to explain that:

in Operations many workplaces have ongoing high levels of phone contact with taxpayers that are often generated by taxpayers from other time zones. It is in these workplaces that it is important to discuss with your team leader, ahead of time, how the Remembrance occasion at 11.00am can occur in your particular workplace, so that everyone has an opportunity to reflect and pay their respects.

Ah, what a sweet way to climb down. Whoever wrote that should join Kev’s spin team.

Operations employs about 9000 of the 23000 ATO Staff. It runs, among other things, the ATO’s call centres, those battery cages of humanity.

Operations was the stalking horse last year for management plans to cut staff and hours to counterbalance the ATO’s budget blow out caused by the misnamed Change Program. That program is about technology organising humans. It has doubled in cost and is running a couple of years behind schedule.

At the time there was a backlash against what one union said would be the loss of 3000 Operations staff. Management retreated, although reducing labor costs is still their main strategy for dealing with the budget crisis.

Like all bosses ATO management wants to screw more and more out of their workers.

Hence their concerns about staff spending 60 seconds reflecting on the futility of war, the nature of imperialism, and the need for a new society based on co-operation rather than economic and military competition. Well that’s what I used to think about when the voice came over the Tax Office PA system in Canberra urging us to remember the fallen.

That’s the problem for bosses. National myths are OK except when they cut into productive work time. You could just imagine some of them asking why couldn’t the remembrance be at 11 pm instead of 11 am?

The ATO certainly mythologised how the war ended. Here’s what they said in their first memo to staff:

At 11am on 11 November 1918, four years of continuous warfare ceased as allied armies drove German invaders back after inflicting heavy defeats over the previous four months.

Here’s little bit of background the ATO didn’t mention.

The war deeply divided Australian society along class lines. The conscription referendums became a lighting rod for opposition to the imperialist battle. The Labor Party split. A general strike paralysed New South Wales. Some returning soldiers, radicalised by the war, helped build the newly formed Communist Party.

In Europe workers took power in Russia and revolutions broke out across the Continent. Here’s how I put it in Remembrance Day – the battle for the future:

The First World War – the War to end all Wars – created revolutions across Europe. The most well known is the 1917 Russian Revolution when workers created their own democratic organs of rule – workers’ councils – and took power. But how many readers know that it was the outbreak of revolution in Germany in November 1918 that forced the Kaiser to abdicate and the German equivalent of the ALP to declare a republic. The revolution, together with a worsening military position and the failure of the Spring Offensive, saw the German forces sue for peace and the Armistice declared from 11 am on 11 November 1918. A little background. The Russian Revolution – with its slogans of “all power to the workers’ councils” and “land, bread and peace” – inspired workers around the world, including German workers. For example in early January 1918 nearly half a million workers went on strike in Berlin for peace. The German working class was in ferment over the misery and destruction the war was producing. The worsening military situation heightened that ferment. In early November 1918 the German military ordered the fleet at Kiel to fight the British Navy. The sailors knew they would be going to their death, for no reason. So they mutinied, and within two days workers and the rank and file military ran the city. Within a week councils of workers and soldiers ran Germany. When workers took control of Berlin the Kaiser fled and the German ALP declared (against their will but under pressure from workers) the German Republic. Two days later the armistice was in place.

As the ATO missives to staff show, this is a message our bosses don’t want us to remember.

Instead of glorifying war, take that minute on November 11 to remember the great struggle of German workers that overthrew the Kaiser and ended the war.

And remember this. We have the power today to overthrow our rulers and their managers and create a truly democratic society where war is banished to the museum.