Population and growth
Your "issues" editor lets your writers define terms in strange ways. Peter Boyle, "Why greens should be reds" in #267, seems to contradict both himself and Alex Bainbridge's "Self-sufficiency or self-determination?" in #262. Emphases in the following quotes are mine.
Alex writes "Socialists argue that ... Only abundance can ensure genuine and lasting social equality and, therefore, decisions made by the majority in their own collective ... The solution is a social system in which ownership and control of productive resources lies with the community as a whole."
Peter writes, "The objective is not to have the world's population living like people do in the industrialised countries. That would [not] be ecologically sustainable ... in a democratically planned global economy ... that is adequate to cover all current needs ... and able to ensure a plentiful supply of goods and services to all its people, there will cease to be any necessity for economic growth."
You would play with words if you implied that Alex's "abundance" and Peter's "plentiful supply" are the same as needs. These, Peter writes, are less than "people ... in industrialised countries" are used to. Peter's "people" must be average. He wasn't writing of upper middle-class or bloated plutocrats, else he would have called them that.
The majority of people in industrialised countries do not now lean to socialism. But are they not Alex's "community as a whole" in whose hands must lie the "ownership and control of productive resources" making "decisions ... in their own collective interests"?
When will they be ready to decide to do with (probably much) less? We still offer them the carrot of "abundance". If we hope they'll understand the word in its normal meaning, we deceive them.
We must stop basing our fight on a mere slogan, however valid it may have been in Marx's day. If the revolution had stuck to this schedule, a socialist government would have brought abundance and that abundance would have got all the people to be socialists. The dialectics of objective changes in the world's resources, population trends and pollution levels have passed that slogan by.
Brompton SA
Student solidarity
I was outraged to hear that some organisers at the March 26 national day of action against education cuts refused to allow a message of solidarity with East Timorese students to be read out from the main platform.
The National Union of Students in Adelaide said "it was of no interest to students". To argue that students shouldn't be or aren't interested in the fact that seven East Timorese students were killed and 38 wounded while campaigning for democracy in East Timor is outrageous. In Sydney, organisers refused to let the message be read from the main platform.
The East Timorese were killed doing exactly the same thing students in Australia were doing on March 26 — protesting. Shouldn't we stand up for their right to demonstrate?
The Australian government plays a major role in maintaining the Suharto dictatorship's annexation of East Timor by offering it military, diplomatic and economic support and therefore it must take some responsibility for the murder of these student activists.
It is important to make the links between our struggle here and that of our fellow students in East Timor. This is human solidarity. We need to highlight the hypocrisy of Howard and his cronies when they refuse to cut military expenditure and train Indonesian troops on Australian soil while they slash education.
Sydney
[Abridged.]
Thanks
I take this opportunity on behalf of myself, Barbara Nicholson, Cynthia Riley and our employees to give a big thankyou to you and your organisation for all your help over the years, but especially since September 1994.
Post-Easter a new management committee will be in control of the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and we wish them well. Barbara, Cynthia and myself are not seeking to hold any management committee positions after March 27 and most employees will terminate their services on April 1.
The Watch Committee has indeed come a long way — but it still has a long way to go. It is our collective belief that you and your organisation were very much a part of its success, however that may be gauged.
Sydney
Euthanasia
Supporters of voluntary euthanasia should not lose heart. Under Section 59 of the Australian constitution, Her Majesty the Queen may disallow any law within one year of the Governor General's assent. What is needed now is a massive campaign of letter-writing and petitions to Her Majesty asking her to disallow the Euthanasia Laws Act (the Andrews bill) on compassionate and humanitarian grounds.
Alawa NT
Overseas aid
The federal budget will be delivered on May 13. The Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) will be meeting throughout April to finalise the figures, looking for cuts in order to reduce the budget deficit.
It is necessary to let members of parliament know that many people in the Australian community are gravely concerned about drastic reductions in allocations to the overseas aid program, especially the 10% cut in last year's budget. Failure to demonstrate strong public support for the aid program will make it easier to cut the program again.
Please write letters to the ERC, to your local newspaper or a daily newspaper. Urge others to visit their local MPs, write letters to the ERC and to newspapers.
Points to make in your letters:
Last year's 10% cut was four times the average 2.5% cut across the budget.
Australia's aid fell to 0.29% of GNP last year, the lowest level ever and below the OECD average of 0.41%. The race debate, the abolition of DIFF, proposals to cut Radio Australia and quarantine defence from budget cuts for the second year in succession, are sending a message to the region and the world that Australia is not committed to engagement with the region nor playing a constructive role as an international citizen.
Australia must not follow the international trend of reducing aid. We are unique in that we live in the same region as most of the countries which are the recipients of our aid. They are our neighbours and trading partners.
Not only will Australia be seen as increasingly mean and selfish, but further reductions in aid are likely to cost Australia more than they save. For rich countries to fund programs which facilitate reducing poverty in developing countries is not only the moral thing to do, it is also in Australia's best self interest. Reducing the growing gap between rich and poor is essential for building a prosperous and safe world.