CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION NATIONAL POLICY ON ART AND WORKING LIFE ART AND WORKING LIFE POLICY This document sets out the Policy of the CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION on Art and Working Life for the information of Members, Representatives and Officials. Included with the Policy is an introduction, which provides a background for the reading and application of the Policy. This Policy is binding on all CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION Members, Representatives and Officials. INTRODUCTION Trade Unions have been actively involved in the cultural activities since their inception. Such involvement spans the whole range of artistic endeavor not least promoting the craft based skills of members. Such skills have features prominently in floats, banners, journals and trade displays for over a century. Trade Unions have an historical right and responsibility to maintain the rights of members to practice, participate and access the full range of cultural activities. This should be assisted by bringing arts projects into the workplace, to increase worker's and their families' access to such activities in leisure hours and recreation outside the workplace. Unions have a responsibility to assist in the development and distribution of cultural activities and material, which has as its base the concerns and issues affecting workers' own lives. Furthermore, to support the acknowledgement and continuation of working class cultural tradition and the multicultural nature of that tradition. In today's climate there is an increasing need to expand and strengthen the role of Unions in such areas. The current anti-union campaign seeks to weaken the impact on Union activity and to severely reduce areas in which Unions operate. The claims of the New Right and their supporters regarding the appropriate realm of Union activity is totally and completely inappropriate. Active intervention of Trade Unions on behalf of their members is more urgent now than ever before, if we are to address areas of social and cultural rights and welfare. Unfortunately, the structure of present Australian life revolves around the need to boost corporate profits and increase consumerism. True needs of workers and their families are being neglected and for these reasons it is imperative Trade Unions continue to represent and protect the interests of workers and their families as one organised and powerful voice. The CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION recognises the crucial role which art and cultural activities can play. These activities positively assert the rights, identity and concerns of working people. The Forest and Forest Products Division also embraces the multicultural nature of the workforce and the particular circumstances of workers for whom English is their second language. The CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION endorses the statements in the introduction to the ACTU's "Arts and Creative Recreation Policy": "We therefore seek to strongly encourage art and creative recreation, from the simplified forms to the most profound and the most demanding so that daily life elevates social usefulness, egalitarian values, challenges stereotypes of the underprivileged, promotes freedom of expression and an understanding of the variety and depth in human personality. Congress believes there is a need to ensure a greater amount of challenging social comment in the practice of the various arts in Australia, and that there is a component that depicts the Trade Unions' contribution to Australian life". CFMEU F&FPD DIVISION AND THE CRAFTS The Forestry and Furnishing Products Division has strong historical links with the development of a distinctive Australian craft. The Timber Industry includes many aspects of craft production. The Forestry and Furnishing Products Division notes that historically the nature of the crafts industry, mainly through the circumstances of individual production, has mitigated against Union membership. It is proposed that the Union could seek to initiate discussions with crafts people in order to ascertain areas of mutual interest with a view to developing the Union's involvement and support in this area. FUNDING Sufficient public funding must be made available for art activities for the purpose of achieving greater cultural equity and increasing the involvement and participation of workers within the workplace and their daily lives. Cutbacks to public expenditure in these areas are shortsighted and ultimately hit Art and Working Life, community and multicultural art activities the hardest. The Government's responsibility for maintaining adequate levels of funding and support to such areas is particularly noticeable in times of economic hardship. During these times individual workers and their families are unable to maintain expenditure on cultural or recreational activities, or on any activities outside the basic necessities of life. Workers and their families therefore are more severely disadvantaged by cutbacks in Government expenditure than other socio-economic groups. The Forestry and Furnishing Products Divison seeks an increase in funding, support and recognition to projects that, in particular have as their base, the skills, crafts, interests and traditions of the mass of working people and to encourage the more profound development of their appreciation and their talents. The Forest and Furnishing Products Division supports the principle that Government funding and support for the arts should be based on broad and agreed principles, free from direct Ministerial control, political censorship or other government interference in the grant giving process. In supporting the principles of "arms length funding" and peer group assessment, the CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION advocates that the views and experiences of the Labour Movement (from where the greatest share of public funding is extracted) are recognised and represented on funding institutions and their various boards by people homogeneous to the Labour Movement. MAJOR FUNDING BODIES AND PRODUCTION FACILITIES. Publicly funded organisations such as the ABC and SBS have a major responsibility to develop programmes (and funding criteria) which reflect the wide range of views and concerns which make up Australian society. Many areas have in the past been actively denied a voice or passively discriminated against in the determination of criteria, selection panels or other pre-requisites. Despite Government objectives of equality, the representation of views and experiences from workers, Trade Unions, people from Non English Speaking Backgrounds (NESB), women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is disturbingly inadequate and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. The Forestry and Furnishing Products Division supports initiatives of community based media organisations such as public radio stations, community television projects, community newspapers and print groups. These groups are committed to the struggle to achieve more equal representation than currently exists through the dominant media. The Forestry and Furnishing Products Division believes increased Government support should be directed to such organisations which usually operate in extreme difficulties with inadequate staff, resources, equipment and wages. AUSTRALIAN CONTENT The CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION calls upon the government and its agencies such as the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal to increase the minimum level of Australian content in commercial, ABC and SBS operations in both radio and television areas. If Australia is serious about supporting the development of an independent culture it must support the industry, which sustains the culture. The local production of Australian programmes, documentaries, features and films is crucial in this regard. Employment for actors, technicians, designers, musicians, set and wardrobe constructors' etc, relies heavily on these initiatives. Increasing the minimum required Australian content is the most effective way of increasing employment in the entertainment industry. For these reasons the CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION also supports Actors and Announcers Equities policy with regard to regulating the importation of overseas actors to appear in Australian films. THE MEDIA The CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION supports the ACTU policy with regard to the media. UNIONS INVOLVEMENT WITH ARTS ACTIVITIES The Forestry and Furnishing Products Division of the CFMEU believes Unions have a right and a responsibility to encourage the development of an arts practice, which is informed by the concerns and issues affecting workers own lives, acknowledging the working class tradition and the multicultural nature of that tradition. The CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION will encourage the development of opportunities for workers and their families to gain access to the arts, and to enjoy opportunities for creative self expression and participation in cultural activities. To further these objectives the CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION will where appropriate: Seek government funding in support of appropriate arts projects and residencies; Directly commission appropriate works to promote the image and concerns of the Union; Employ artists where appropriate to increase the impact and relevance of Union campaigns on behalf of its members; Support the implementation of appropriate projects initiated by other groups or agencies; Continue to press, through various means for the increase in government support to such areas and for the rights of workers to relevant cultural activities; Take any appropriate means as its disposal to support these claims; Provide information to its shop steward structure and members regarding any such activities of the Union. The CFMEU FORESTRY AND FURNISHING PRODUCTS DIVISION has been consistently involved in the arts activities in several states. Given this experience and its potentially close relationship with workers in the crafts, it is appropriate for the CFMEU FOREST AND FOREST PRODUCTS DIVISION to consolidate its arts activities. Branches could consider the above courses of action and initiate discussions to determine ways to further develop resources. The resources May include employing resident artists, commissioning arts works, employing graphic artists to produce Union material, making banners, funding videos and films, supporting theatre and music productions touring performances and exhibitions to workplaces, running workshops or other appropriate cultural activities. Where appropriate shop stewards and workshop committees should be encouraged to actively participate or initiate such courses of action.