Green Left Weekly $250,000 Fighting Fund 2006: The dance of the hypocrites

November 17, 1993
Issue 

Peter Boyle

Wasn't it nauseating watching Tony Blair and John Howard flattering each other in the Australian parliament last week? Two great fighters against tyranny, two stalwart defenders of democracy, the rule of law and justice ... blah, blah, blah.

"Me too, me too", pleaded Blair's best friend of 30 years Kim Beazley. "Tony and I have our policy disagreements but please, Tony, don't let that diminish our best-mateship". That was the gist of Beazley's embarrassed chatter as he joined in the dance of the hypocrites.

"We need to construct a global alliance for these global values", blathered Blair, and wage war against "Islamist extremism".

But how strange it is that British and Australian soldiers are helping prop up a regime in Afghanistan that was set to execute an Afghan man for converting to Christianity? How strange it is that a departing UN human rights chief has revealed that the regime "our troops" are defending in Iraq has systematically organised death squads to murder and torture thousands of people? And should we remind them about who financed and trained the Taliban?

Michael Shaik, a young Palestine solidarity activist who lives in Canberra, is use to hypocrisy, as he explained in a couple of very successful forums in Melbourne last week. In fact, the word pretty much sums up Western policy on the Middle East. Shaik is an activist with Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine, and this week he proposed that the group donate $200 to the Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund. Thank you AJPP.

Shaik knows GLW is a significant part of the real alliance for justice and democracy and he has a bit of company this week as our supporters have raised a total of $5868, bringing the amount raised so far this year to $47,913. This is 19% of our all-year target, and we should be at 25% or more. We've got to catch up.

We know what Blair does when his New Labour party needs money - he offers a few millionaires a peerage and they spontaneously "lend" his party $30 million! No connection between the two things, of course.

Oddly, when Blair spoke about the great values and traditions that Australian and British politicians share, he did not mention the British tradition of selling peerages. David Lloyd George, when he was British PM early last century, sold peerages for the modern-day equivalent of $36,000 each and it wasn't even illegal then. Howard didn't mention the "I-know-nothing" AWB bribery or BHP's candidacy for international-best-practice-bribing of foreign governments.

GLW looks to a different tradition when fundraising. It is the tradition of solidarity of the oppressed and exploited, the solidarity of the proudly seditious folk who dare to resist the institutional hypocrisy and corruption of the tyranny of the Moneybags.

To help keep that tradition alive give us a call on the toll-free line 1800 634 206 (calls from within Australia only), write to us at PO Box 394, Broadway 2007, or donate online at: .

From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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