Write on: letters to the editor
Unions and the ALP
Referring to the recent Queensland elections and One Nation, Martin Thomas (GLW #321) says, "We have to turn around the trade unions to tackling the unemployment, poverty, and insecurity on which One Nation feeds" and that the unions "should positively use their weight inside the ALP politically".
He believes that there will be an upsurge in trade union struggle which in turn will cause a desirable change in the ALP. He doesn't think it's possible or necessary for socialists to pose a political alternative to the ALP; instead he thinks that we should plug away inside the ALP like he does.
Martin overlooks the ALP's political domination of the union movement. It is this that prevents unions from being able to take up the fight against "economic rationalist" policies which have created the fertile soil for One Nation, because this would require the unions to attack Labor's policies as well.
Creating fighting unions and popularising a socialist alternative to Labor's politics are not tasks that can be separated.
One of the striking features of the Queensland election is the very widespread and legitimate revulsion with "mainstream politics". In this climate, the task of socialists is not to herd people back into the arms of the ALP but to promote and popularise a real alternative.
Brisbane
[Abridged.]
Campaigns and the DSP
Paul Petit (GLW #321) says that he doesn't see the DSP building "ongoing campaigns". I'd suggest that the forum he has written to — Green Left Weekly — is one of the most important, successful ongoing campaigns in Australia and beyond, with the DSP as its backbone.
Through its pages, some people (like myself) have discovered their first source of progressive news and activism.
Some may have, like me, stayed up all night with that first issue, as the once blinkered view of society starts to disintegrate — and decided then and there that they must be part of the fight for a different social order.
Petit is right — the DSP is not "seen enough". We are not yet big enough to have GLW on every street corner. We are not yet big enough to force abortion law changes which make abortion free, legal and accessible. We are not yet big enough to bring a million people on to the streets to demand real land rights for Aboriginal people and an end to racist scapegoating.
But each day we fight these battles and build these campaigns. And each day we try to grow bigger and stronger, so that we can build the ongoing campaigns Petit wants to see. But we can't do it alone — so come on, Paul, join us!
Rozelle NSW
[Abridged.]
Ireland
Bernie Brian (GLW #323) mixes two aspects of Irish politics together and then proceeds to confuse himself. The first is the Northern Ireland Agreement, which Sinn Féin not only endorsed but actively sold to the nationalist community. The second is the assembly itself, which Bernie suggests could be used "to support the struggles of the nationalist community".
Whether the assembly is to be employed that way remains to be seen. We could just as reasonably ask Gerry Adams to take up his seat in the British parliament and use it "to support the struggles of the nationalist community". I equate them both as organs of British rule — as useful to the republican cause as Sinn Féin makes them.
It has become quite evident that the nationalist rhetoric the party employed through three successful election campaigns was suddenly dropped when the final draft of the agreement hit the table. Since Sinn Féin had trumpeted its commitment to the "peace process" and worked so hard to win itself a seat at the negotiating table, by Good Friday it was already in too deep to even consider any option other than signing the agreement.
At stake was the credibility of the Adams-McGuinness leadership. This leadership urged the party to support the agreement as the only option to that of continuing the armed struggle. With no other choice before them, the membership voted in favor of the agreement.
I think that decision was a major mistake and one that reflects the inability of republicanism to arrive at a consistent political strategy that can win Irish freedom. Furthermore, it is becoming evident to me that Sinn Féin is maneuvering to replace the Social Democratic and Labor Party as the major voice of the nationalist bourgeoisie in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, it is usually the members who are the last to realise that their party has been hijacked.
Brisbane
[Abridged.]
Immigration
I am appalled at the harshness of Pauline Hanson's immigration policy announced on 1 July, which, if implemented, would reverse the pattern of bipartisan immigration policy since World War Two and the non-discriminatory policy since the late 1960s. It would also reduce the rate of Australia's growth and would lead to an almost static population in a few years.
Does she propose to send the East Timorese refugees back to Indonesia, even though most of them have been here for longer than 10 years? Does she intend to send back the Chinese who were granted refugee status after the Tiananmen Square massacre?
Her policy of insisting that migrants do not significantly alter the ethnic and cultural make up of Australia would have denied a great many immigrants a place here in the past who have made a worthwhile contribution to Australia's culture and development.
It will also be seen as a return to the White Australia policy designed to keep out Asians, which was abandoned 30 years ago, and will adversely affect our relations with our neighbours, the tourist trade and will reduce the number of overseas students coming here.
This is not the Australia that I want to live in or leave to my kids.
Farrer ACT
[Abridged.]
Free speech
This letter was sent to the Adelaide Advertiser (and not printed) in response to a letter it published from a city councillor defending the imposition of fees on GLW sellers:
Adelaide City Councillor, Debra Mewitt (Advertiser 26/6/98) rejects the notion that council limitations on GLW are an infringement of freedom of speech. She suggests that democracy requires everyone to be treated with the same rules and thus GLW and the Advertiser pay a similar fee.
Is GLW the same as the Advertiser and should it be treated in the same manner? The Advertiser is owned by one of the richest media corporations in the world. It is funded through extensive advertising. The people who distribute the Advertiser in Rundle Mall are paid, have uniforms and their display trolleys provided by their employer.
GLW is maintained by its supporters through donations and fundraising activities. The distribution price is only a guide, yet does not cover costs. The people who distribute GLW are unpaid volunteers who catch an hour or two during their lunch break, between lectures or after work, in order to be able to offer the paper to those interested in alternative ideas.
The imposition of any fee, the cost of uniforms or display trolleys seriously hamper the ability of dedicated people to provide a valuable information source which contributes to our democratic process.
Freedom of speech and expression are fundamental to a healthy democracy because it allows for a genuine debate around issues of concern within the community.
Adelaide
[Abridged.]