(The Conversation has asked 20 academics to examine the big ideas
facing Australia for the 2016 federal election and beyond. The 20-piece series
will examine, among others, the state of democracy, health, education,
environment, equality, freedom of speech, federation,
and economic reform.)
There’s a phrase you sometimes hear about the workplace:
“leave your brains at the gate”.
Workers use it to summarise the dismissive view their bosses
have about the contribution employees can make – and about how much say workers
have in what they do at work.
Not all bosses are like that. But it seems most employees
want more say at work – sometimes called “voice” or “participation in
decision-making” or even “workplace democracy”.
Read the thoughts of a Professor of Employment Relations,
Griffith University, David Peetz on The
Conversation - “Ideas for Australia: Improving democracy for workers is not easy but it must be done.”
(Democracy and
climate change are intimately interlinked. However, something else, I’ll call
it “corporatocracy” – that is colonization
of the world’s economy by corporations, or plutocracy and ideals of democracy are nowhere to be seen, although we are told
repeated that the lives we enjoy are the outcome of democracy. Outwardly we have democracy, but something
rotten is happening and as we shout and holler at our television sets or cheer on our favourite sports team, we are being
carted toward the abyss, reassured comfortingly that all will be well just
as long as the profit continues to roll in and the bank balance of the 0.1%
continue to grow.
We need to reclaim
democracy, we need to reclaim our lives,
urgently – Robert McLean).
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