Union denies ship sabotage From AAP 04jan02 THE seafarers' union has denied sabotage aboard a ship at the centre of a row over plans to replace its Australian crew with cheaper labour from Ukraine. Federal police are expected to meet representatives of the Australian-registered 30,000-tonne bulk carrier, CSL Yarra, when it docks in Adelaide on Sunday to investigate allegations of sabotage. The Yarra's captain said someone had opened a fire hose that pumped water into the ship's residual cargo hold containing 700 tonnes of cement which had set hard. The ship is at the centre of a Federal Court battle between CSL Australia and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) over plans to replace the local crew with Ukrainian sailors. The Yarra left Brisbane three days ago and was sailing off the NSW south coast en route to Adelaide at the time of the incident. MUA South Australian branch secretary Rick Newland said the culprit was a leaky fire hydrant and not sabotage. "I dispute the use of that word simply because we're about saving that vessel and maintaining it to work on the Australian coast carrying Australian cargoes with Australian seafarers," he told ABC radio today. "To the cynical it would look at though there was something quite deliberate that happened. "I believe there will be an inquiry simply into the mechanical faults of that fire hydrant, on arrival in Adelaide, and we welcome that outcome." He said sabotage at sea was outside seafarers' view of life. Mr Newlan said the union was legitimately seeking to protect employment opportunities for Australian seafarers on Australian vessels. "We're not promoting the Australian coast to be open to Third World seafarers who are certainly not up to the skills." Open end the star system!, December 27, 2001 (from Amazon... >http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0900384409/qid=1010135372/ sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_8_2/102-1712066-7776933< Reviewer: professor rat (see more about me) Like the Abel Paz classic,"Durrutti,The people armed."This is one essential book.Second only to Durrutti in time.The place for the drama is the Ukraine,circa,1917-20.The history of the Makhnovista's is truly epic,gut wrenching and incredible.It is almost totally forgotten or ignored now,yet,this is one of those points in History with a capital H.The ripples of these extraordinary events and superhuman feats are still rippling outward in spite of several genocides wreaked on this reigon.The writers style seems a little old fashioned and unusual,yet, you get drawn in by the human interest story of the education and stellar rise of a genuine working class hero and revolutionary Icon,"Batko",Nestor Makhno met the author in prison and learnt the basics of anarchism from him.They were released in the febuary revolution and their battles in the south against tyranny's of white and red armies have become the stuff of legend.The study of what ordinary people actually do in revolutionary periods is intrinsically interesting.I would suggest that close study of the makhnovist libertarian socialist revolution should be rewarding,if only for entertainment.(Its 70mm cinematic.)