Write on: letters to the editor

Write on: letters to the editor

Capitalist racketeers

On January 18 in the Brisbane Federal Court, a fire protection company
was fined five million dollars with $200,000 costs for price fixing with
7 other firms including James Hardie Industries and Chubbs (Chubbs were
fined 3 years ago for billing hundreds of clients and failing to give any
service at all).

ABC, SBS-TV and I think Channel 10 gave it coverage and the Brisbane
Courier Mail reported it in a pocket-book size item on page 5. I
searched the Weekend Australian and Sydney Morning Herald.
They had pages of fascinating reports of how many sugars Mr and Mrs Clinton
and George Bush like in their tea but not a word about the biggest fine
ever of Australian capitalist racketeers.

Can you imagine the front-page publicity if a known environmentalist
or peace worker were convicted of some small technical breach and fined
a couple of hundred? But the $5 million fine was hidden from the
public.

In Iraq last week a teenage unmarried mother was whipped one hundred
lashes four months after the birth of her child. The father's name wasn't
even mentioned. Such legal barbarity staggers and appals me. Please protest
to the Iraqi Embassy in Canberra

Simon Bracgirdle

Kelvin Grove Qld

Blackbirding

Jean Hale, in her letter( "Black Sugar" GLW #432) exposes a dark
chapter in Australia's "blackbirding" of Kanakas from the South Seas
islands to provide cheap labour in the sugar cane fields of Queensland.

In a word it was nothing but slavery although the term "indentured
labourer" was used. After they had been here for a certain time they were
then called "ticket boys", the indignity of mature men classed as "boys".

There is no doubt they did not come to Queensland willingly as accounted
for by one of the sea voyagers. "Charlie said 'this fella he cranky cranky
man. He play up all the time. Bye and bye they gettum on ship alonga sea.
He still cranky. Bye and by they heavem along sea'. My father said 'He
swim back to island all right Charlie?'. 'No fear Boss. Too many sharks
alonga sea' said Charlie."

Last year with reconciliation between whites and Aborigines on the agenda
I wrote to the Prime Minister about the Kanakas suggesting that they not
be forgotten. Not surprisingly I did not receive a reply!

Barry Hebbard

Devonport Tas

Banks

Banks having shut branches, cut staff and no doubt restructured have had
a good prosperous year. Profits up by 18% amounting to millions of dollars.

There could well have been "rorting" going on, which one understands
is helpful in tax cutting.

Workers who pay their taxes before they get their wages in this new
age of "restructuring" are to receive, if lucky, an '8% pay rise over
three years. Gone are many conditions fought for over many years.

Why should workers have to wait three years for a long overdue rise
in their wages and very importantly, restoration of vitally necessaray
conditions in a so-called humane and civilised society.

Jean Hale

Balmain NSW

Privatisation

An article in a Dutch newspaper mentioned the privatisation of the railway
system and one of its conditions: A fine of 1000 guilders for every minute
being too late!

An article in an Australian newspaper described the upheaval in England
with some trains being four hours late!

Prebooking necessary, as well as standing places only! Then there are
the crashes of Hatfield and Paddington, caused by cracked rails and running
a red light signal!

Could these too examples of privatisation be a warning for any and all
privatisation going on in Aussieland? Jail systems and refugee camps included!

In a true democracy public input is of paramount importance! Be at it!

Josie Leeden

South Perth WA

Malcolm Fraser and East Timor

May I remind your readers that the Fraser government gave the green light
for the Indonesian military regime to continue a program of genocide against
the people of East Timor.

Also, this government offered "de jure" recognition of Indonesian
sovereignty over East Timor, the only government to do so.

It is my view that Mr Fraser has no right to take the high moral ground
on human rights. The action of his government in part led to the deaths
of 300,000 East Timorese people!

L Nightingale

Oxley Qld

Vilification of men

I basically support all of the campaigns promoted by the DSP.

However, I cannot understand why, in this day and age, males are being
vilified in your publication. It would seem to me that rather than promoting
feminism you are alienating the very people you should be converting. It
should also be pointed out that males too are in need of liberating and
are just as much victims of corporate despotism, media, etc. (ever read
a book called Stiffed?)

Bruce Terry

Hobart Tas

Palestine and Israel

I wanted to add my thoughts regarding the letter titled "Palestine and
Israel" in GLW #432. The author claims that Green Left is
"absurd" when it refers to Israel as occupying Palestine and urges GL
to look into the facts.

The facts regarding Palestine are that the description of the Gaza Strip,
the West Bank and East Jerusalem areas as occupied is not absurd but completely
accurate and that this description could be used in reference to
the territory under the rule of the State of Israel: That Palestinians
now residing in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Occupied Territories
who left Palestine in 1948 were mostly from northern Palestine, Accre and
its surrounding villages. These people were either forcibly removed from
their homes or fled, fearing massacres such as those which occurred in
Al Tantura.

My father-in-law still poses the title deed to his parents home and
the front door key. The land, home, and property of his family were not
sold, nor voluntarily relinquished, but appropriated illegitimately. His
case is not an isolated one. Israeli government departments have admitted
that the ownership of 70% of the land within Israel's 1967 borders is under
dispute, with title deeds issued by the English or Turkish forces prior
and to 1948 which have not been voluntarily relinquished, and separate
titles issued by the Israeli government which acquired "ownership" through
violence and theft.

The current situation in the Occupied Territories, East Jerusalem,
Gaza and the West Bank, is most certainly one of a particularly severe
occupation.

There are so many points that I could list, but I fear I will be considered
prejudiced. So, read it "from the horses mouth" and check out the web
sites of the Alternative Information Centre (AIC), the Other Israel and
the Independent Media Centre or the web sites of various Israeli human
rights groups who campaign for an end to the occupation, such as
Peace Now, Gush Shalom, Women In Black, Rabbis for Human Rights and bat-shalom.

Nicole Berrell

Beirut

Lebanon

Abridged