Write On: Letters to the editor
Entitlement fund
The bankruptcy of National Textiles, with unpaid workers and directors getting a bonus for increased productivity, has left workers and the public scandalised and angry. Job security is gone and will your wages and entitlements be there at the end of the week?
Surely it's time that the government opens a fund, government-guaranteed, into which all firms and businesses employing workers would pay workers entitlements.
The government could also pay a reasonable interest. This would be a large amount of money constantly coming in.
This would give workers security and also mean that firms such as National Textiles would have the cash ready to pay their employees all their dues.
The government could use some of it to fund schools and hospitals, deal with the unemployment problem, and so on. Bearing in mind always that if a depression comes the cash is there to meet the entitlements of workers.
The National Textiles bankruptcy demands that the government act to end such situations.
Balmain NSW
[Abridged.]
Stormont
James Dixon misses the central point of John Meehan's article (Write On, GLW #392). The "new" Stormont is characterised by Sinn Fein's increasing willingness to compromise in administering British rule in Northern Ireland.
Stormont's limited powers mean that they have the same foreign policy as the UK and Blair's neo-liberal policies are being implemented by Sinn Fein.
The politics of Sinn Fein have been compromised to the extent that it has even given up its policy of the Irish people deciding how they are governed. Accepting the unionist veto means accepting the partition of Ireland — a partition forced on the Irish people through a brutal oppression.
Sectarian discrimination is still an everyday problem for Catholics. This includes harassment by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and social problems such as unemployment, which disproportionately affect the Catholic minority. Has Sinn Fein any solutions to this discrimination?
Sinn Fein not only continues to compromise on the politics of a united Ireland, on decommissioning, on the violence enacted by the British state on the Catholic minority, it is also selling out on social issues — even the ones within its limited perspective. Sinn Fein's willingness to form a united government with the unionists, including the compromises that this entailed, is the most basic violation of its nationalist principles.
Turner ACT
[Abridged.]
God
So what if God "hates homosexuals and women" (Nick and Kate Carr, GLW #388)? It is not God who will make the revolution. Those who support the liberation of all oppressed groups are.
These are the people who socialists should seek alliances with. An individual's religion does not necessarily have any bearing on their political views.
A Christian may believe that homosexuality is morally wrong, but may at the same time support absolutely the right of all people to whatever lifestyle they choose, with the corresponding legal and social rights. As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
To judge someone by their religion is as good as judging them by the colour of their skin. Both are ridiculous generalisations which alienate and marginalise.
Both Nick and Kate Carr and Tom Flanagan are not so much wrong as missing the point. While sections of the bible, interpreted in a certain way, can be considered reactionary, this does not imply that Christians holding these views cannot be progressive, or cannot be allies in building a non-discriminatory society.
It is a person's politics, not their religion, that determines whether they are an opponent or a friend to the fight for socialism.
Blue Mountains NSW
Three Kings
The article "Three Kings and a million dead" (GLW #392) states: "it was a relief to see them [the realities of the Gulf War] in such forms". Perhaps it is a relief, but what are the hidden factors?
We all are familiar with the US belief that inequality is not a social malaise but, on the contrary, is a vital energy for economic growth.
It is said that US business people are "moderates" and show interest in egalitarianism. This is not to suggest that they are anti-capitalist; it suggests that profit can be made out of egalitarian sentiments, by manipulating them.
The film's message was, on the one hand, that people of other nations depend on US soldiers, not as invaders but " bastions of ethical values", and, on the other hand, that US soldiers treat others as either an enemy, a superior or an inferior, but never as an equal.
Most importantly, one part of the US population plunders, kills and massacres other nations, (remember Nixon, who was twice elected to continue the war in Vietnam?), while the other part speaks about ethics, justice and democracy.
The social psychology of the film is to conceal capitalism's anti-humane and unjust nature, impose US cultural standards and lifestyle, and distort the meaning of such values as democracy, freedom, equality and social progress. These were the hidden factors.
Mount Druitt NSW
[Abridged.]
Mothers
One of the most important myths in the anti-feminist repertoire is that the movement for women's liberation systematically devalues and ridicules mothers. Helen Lobato taps into this powerful mythology in her letter in GLW #391.
The real devaluation of a mother is to oblige her to take full responsibility, around the clock, year in year out, for the physical and psychological welfare of her children (and often her partner and parents, too) for no recompense and with no opportunity for a meaningful life of her own, outside her family responsibilities.
Real ridicule is those television ads which congratulate mothers for serving margarine or proclaim them heroes for cooking a meal. Women who are mothers are worth more than that.
Women's ability to give birth does not somehow make us more suited to cleaning ovens or working for no pay. The real message of the women's liberation movement is that all women, including mothers, should be freed from the household drudgery which has previously been assigned to them on the basis of their sex. We should be free to participate in public life, to exercise our intellects and our talents, and to interact with our partners and children as fellow human beings, not servants.
It's difficult to picture what life will be like when we achieve our liberation, but we can be sure that a woman who chooses to become a mother will not have to obliterate herself in the process. The children of the socialist future will know their mothers far better than we have known ours.
Brisbane