@letter head = Sustainability solutions
I'm pleased that in Peter Boyle's letter "Socialism and sustainability" (GLW #274), he writes that I'm right. He may be astonished to know that I heartily agree with him, from my own observation, about "the exceptional creativity and energy of popular power unleashed in a conscious struggle".
This highlights that, whether they use bourgeois logic, dialectical materialism, revolutionary consciousness or instinct, most people, including experts, don't know what they'll get until they've got it. By then, it's often too late to regret it. Sustainability is a case in point.
Example: use electric traction for mainly public transport instead of fossil fuel for mainly private cars. Right now, we would still need to use fossil fuel to generate most of the power, even if away from the point of application. Conversion from one form of energy to another, plus transmission losses, would absorb most if not all of the energy saved by the social change.
Solar energy instead of fossil fuel? Applications on the relevant scale must, so far, use methods that increase the atmosphere's heat absorption, hence more greenhouse effect.
I'm not saying there are no solutions, just that there are many that we haven't found yet and there's no telling how long we may have to wait — or what their unforeseeable results may be.
We rightly blame the capitalist system for social evils. We must not claim that its replacement with socialism will instantly or soon solve all our problems. The best we can claim is that we'll go flat out to fix them and that errors in doing so will not become corporate or government secrets, but will get prompt and full scale attention. I also hope that genuine errors will not lead to sanctions against their perpetrators, least of all the show-trial followed by the gun-shot or the Gulag.
Brompton SA
[Abridged.]
@letter head = Censorship
In my article last week "The moral right are on the move", a sub-editing error inadvertently changed the correctness of the article.
I referred to the Howard government's banning of R-rated material from broadcast pay TV, a world first. In the final article, this was reduced to "Australia is the only country in the world to ban R-rated content from pay TV".
R-rated content has only been banned from "broadcast" pay TV, not all pay TV. It is still possible to access R-rated material on "narrowcast" pay TV, via a special pin number and with more restrictions on access.
This is only a minor error, and I would like to congratulate GLW on being one of the few media sources to carry consistent critical content on the censorship debate.
Sydney
@letter head = Campaign against racism
I attended the Community Aid Abroad vigil for indigenous Australians' rights in Perth on May 27, to sell Green Left and hand out leaflets for Action Against Racism's speak-out against racism. I handed leaflets out to the people at the vigil and those going by and the response was generally good.
I never got to distribute Green Left, however, because after 15 minutes Community Aid Abroad asked me to leave. Their argument was that they had organised the vigil around the injustices committed against indigenous Australians and did not want me distracting attention from it. This was despite the leaflet building the anti-racist movement in Perth, and Green Left Weekly providing an outlet for anti-racist viewpoints. The evening before, Community Aid Abroad members had invited members of Action Against Racism to attend.
In the face of the current racist attacks by the government it is important that anti-racist groups and organisations work together to build a strong community fight back. This attitude of Community Aid Abroad members only weakens the anti-racist movement. If Community Aid Abroad could explain their position in regard to other organisations, especially Green Left Weekly and Action Against Racism in Perth, it would help clarify how we can work together.
Perth
@letter head = Fighting racist policies
Reconciliation is not the answer. The answer lies in struggling in solidarity with the indigenous community. Attending anti-racism committee meetings and forums, promoting more rallies against the racist policies of conservative governments are realistic strategies to combat racism. "Apologists" only justify the power of Labor and Liberal politicians to continue their policies that serve the wealthy minorities.
Brisbane
@letter head = Zionism and the Jewish question
Doug Lorimer (GLW 274) replies to my letter by arguing against points I didn't make and tries to prove that Zionism cannot solve the Jewish question. Let me state categorically that I agree and have always agreed with that proposition.
I argued against certain over-simplified and dogmatic points used by some readers (including Doug Lorimer) in their arguments against Mendes, and if you like against Zionism.
To make it clearer, I made three simple points:
1. It is false to reduce the Jewish question to a religious question.
2. It is false to reject the term "Jewish nation", and that Trotsky repeatedly used it.
3. It is not Marxist to stick to formulae used by Marxists 80 or more years ago if facts have changed. And I quoted Trotsky in that context.
I cannot in a short letter develop my views on Zionism, on Israel, on the Arab-Israeli conflict, etc., but I note that some years ago, Direct Action claimed to have similar views to the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (of which I have been secretary since its foundation) on the Middle East conflict.
In my previous letter, I allowed a typing error to get past me. Where it read "Trotsky argued with Lenin" it should have read "agreed with Lenin".
Lower Templestowe Vic