Tomorrow ... defended
"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." — Bertholt Brecht.
Did Phil Shannon [book review, GLW, June 4] forget? Tomorrow ... was not a history of the Communist Party of Australia. That has been written. It was not a novel representative of "the real people who lived their lives in dedication to their ideal". My Preface to the novel says so explicitly. It does try to find some of the reasons why the visions of a new and fairer world which 80,000,000 people once believed in, failed. The novel finds one of many answers in the human frailties of the characters of the fifty years which it spans. They are fictitious; but each one of their lives is drawn from reality. It did happen like that.
Self-criticism was once an essential discipline for those who had committed themselves to the goal of a socialist future. The failure to admit error, or to see it, in the actions of "the first land of socialism" was one of the reasons for the collapse of the great ideal. To deny the failures of the past, or to excuse them by making the minor successes achieved a justification for the betrayal of the hope of an attainable socialist future would be to allow those same mistakes to be made again — and again.
Tomorrow ... does not deny the minor victories achieved by the CPA, but trade unionism, Aboriginal rights, unemployment, and civil liberties are not the future that Marx promised. They are "the moments gained", the "many good things achieved" which my Helena speaks of. And it is the volume of Socializm Jutra, socialism tomorrow, which she recovers from the Party book shop that she and Dave promise to find a place for somewhere, in the last lines of the book.
Perhaps the symbolism was not sufficiently thumping for Phil Shannon, but does he believe that the old style socialist realist optimism-over-all would be relevant to a story of those collapsed ideals, or worthy of the men and women who tried to make them true, or chose a different way to the future?
Considered criticism has an important role in literary creativity, and in cultural dissent. Misrepresentation has none. The critic who prefers the other book, that might have been written is welcome to have a go at writing it himself.
Ainslie ACT
Free speech
The principle of free speech and the defence of that principle are far more important than anything Pauline Hanson, Gerry Adams, David Irving or Lorenzo Ervin can possibly say.
If we fail to uphold the right of our political opponents, and others, to say what they think then we are heading down the road to fascism. It is disgusting to hear Pauline Hanson calling for the expulsion of Lorenzo Ervin, who after all is speaking against racism, while she barnstorms the country preaching the opposite.
We tend to forget that freedom of speech allows people to preach a doctrine of the infallibility of a non-existent supernatural being in houses of worship all over the country without hindrance and without much effect on most of us. Let them say what they will.
Alawa NT
Ignoring Hanson
The people who say we should ignore Hanson because protesting only gives her legitimacy are wrong. Our protests are part of building an ongoing movement against all racist policies which is the best way to challenge racism in this country.
Hanson has been making outrageous racist statements and has been travelling around the country to establish a racist political party. John Howard and his government have been implementing outrageous racist policies and he already has a nationally established racist political party. What do we do about him? Ignore him and hope he will go away too?
Newcastle
Party building
The 1990s have given us a swag of new parties in this country, each with their own special shibboleth and formula for success. This may be all very fine but the new kids on the block — the Greens, Australian Women's Party, New Labour Party, No Aircraft Noise Party, etc. — have failed to fulfil their founding charters and blossom.
There's more to party building, I suggest, than copyrighting a colour or a name. If these outfits were deadly earnest about their business then they would study the way Pauline Hanson and her cohorts go about the exercise.
The One Nation party doesn't premise its formation on who it excludes. There are members of the National and Liberal parties, National Action and the League of Rights, who hold joint membership.
The One Nation project has done on the right what the left seems incapable of doing: draw together and organise a viable alternative political force. I think the Hanson example is a superb lesson in party building and well worth emulating.
Brisbane
Labor Party
I have been a subscriber to GLW for about six months. I have greatly appreciated the wide range of comment this paper publishes. I have been extremely interested in the comments made about Labor and concur with much of the criticism, particularly in relation to comments about Labor's record on education.
However, much of the criticism is simply negative and offers no positive solution. The ALP sub-branch of which I am president, the Gosnells-Thornlie sub-branch in Perth, has formed a committee to examine the constitution of the ALP in order to improve the role of the rank and file party member. We believe that to create a strong channel of two-way communication between the grassroots supporters and the party leadership will dramatically improve the performance of the ALP.
I challenge any of your readers who are dissatisfied with the Labor Party's past performance to join our push for change by joining the party and agitating for change from within.
Thornlie WA
[Abridged.]
NUS and ISO
I attended the National Union of Students' National Education Conference in Brisbane on July 5-6 and decided to attend the workshop on occupations given by the International Socialist Organisation.
What became clear from their presentation was that the ISO were not so much interested in building a mass movement as in building a "militant core" (as they put it). Their desire to restrict the movement to this militant minority was based on a theoretical attempt to equate students with workers.
Students can't go on strike to damage the university economically, but "occupations were the closest thing we have to a strike" because it "costs the uni money if we close down the admin building", they said. The ISO argued that the first step in any campaign was to ensure there was going to be an occupation because "if we don't have occupations we can't win". Apparently politics, demands and including people come second.
The ISO condemned "passive rallies" saying "big numbers are not necessarily going to win for us". How small their "militant core" had to be to win they didn't say. But we can get an idea from the Melbourne University occupation, where to occupy wasn't militant enough and the "core" had to be whittled down even further by driving out those not willing to throw anything from files to computers out the window.
Melbourne
[Abridged.]
Jobs campaign
At the joint CEPU/AMWU stop-work meeting in Perth on June 26 we launched a campaign for more jobs, which in these times of rising unemployment is a welcome thing. The continuing decline of local manufacturing in the middle of a supposed "resources boom" is a glaring contradiction.
But I can't see how a "jobs summit" or a register of "Un-Australian companies" will help us go forward. Over the past 10 years we have given companies much extra: 12-hour shifts, annualised salaries, enterprise-based agreements — and still the jobs go offshore. Now we're calling on the bosses to build at Jervoise Bay, not the Middle East or South-East Asia, or wherever.
Does that mean we think workers in Indonesia, or the United Arab Emirates are better off because of investment there? WA unions should know better than that, having been strong supporters of the Indian Ocean union conferences and the campaign to free jailed Indonesian unionists.
Offshore investment flows to places where the job can be done cheaper — usually because workers' wages, conditions and rights to organise are brutally suppressed. And some of the most "Australian" companies are the worst offenders. Why wrap ourselves in the flag, like Pauline Hanson?
Our campaign should focus on the brutal "anti-worker" record of all companies, Australian or otherwise, and stepping up the solidarity work with all who are exploited by them. We should fight WA and federal government support for such exploitation. Otherwise sitting down with the bosses will end in more of the same: trade-offs, not jobs.
WA CEPU state council member
Mt Lawley WA
[Abridged.]
ACT CPSU
In relation to the resignation of the branch secretary of the ACT CPSU branch:
Mr Jarman was elected as Branch Secretary with an election platform that said, "it is important that members are always listened to, because a union's leadership exists to serve its members, not to force it's views upon them".
Why then did he decide not to pass union bulletins on to members? Why did he decide not to call members' meetings on those bulletins? Why did he invite letters from members for the branch journal and then not publish them? Why did he ignore repeated invitations to attend regular members meetings in agencies? These repeated failures to meet his pre-election undertakings had nothing to do with factionalism in the branch.
As an ordinary member of the CPSU interested in ACT Branch affairs, I greet his departure with a sense of sadness and relief.
Sadness, for the inaccurate and inflammatory comments addressed by Mr Jarman to members of a union under pressure, ordinary members who have done their best to shoulder responsibility and make their views known to a Branch Secretary who stood for election on a platform of responsiveness to members.
Relief, that CPSU members now have a fresh chance to choose a Branch Secretary who can show responsible, principled leadership regardless of factionalism.
I commend ACT CPSU Branch office staff for their swift action in appointing an Acting Branch Secretary to carry forward the industrial affairs of the branch until a fresh election can be called. The speed, competence and temperateness of their approach demonstrates their commitment to serving the entire union membership.
ABS Central Office ACT
[Abridged.]