Socialist Alliance?
It is quite obvious that, due to media bias and reactionary politics, terms such as socialism, communism, anarchy, green and left have been effectively discredited in the minds of a lot of people.
The expression "Socialist Alliance" attracts only those who have an understanding of and positive regard for socialism, which is not the majority of the population. This has been the situation for a long time. I remember Harold Wilson's Labour government in England, in the '60s, still calling itself a socialist party, and the term was disturbing a lot of people then. Wasn't socialism what they did in Russia?
If it is going to get support, a radical new party of the left needs to call itself something that sounds familiar and is not threatening. "New Labour" is a label that has been used successfully in Britain and, while it has turned out to be a pseudonym for "Thatcherism in pants", there is no reason why it could not be used in Australia to stand for "Socialist Alliance".
A lot of conservative working people and traditional Labor voters, who would be turned off or feel threatened by the word "socialist" may well be attracted to the idea of a real labour party. Furthermore, currently elected Labor politicians with green left tendencies would find it possible to move to the left without necessarily disaffecting their electorates.
Michael Birch
Nimbin NSW
Missing the point
Peter Robson's article ("Poison pens scribble about M1, in GLW #450), misses the point of the editorial in this month's Opus completely. Matt Thompson has every right to criticise the name of the alphanumeric protests. Is it really necessary to give these protests a militaristic bent?
He also has a point about "ear bashing", which all M1 supporters, including myself, are guilty of. Putting up glossy posters around campus is not really enough to get people's support behind protests such as these. It is important to talk directly on these issues with people.
Another point I would like to make is the style of criticism. If you're going to react like that to all forms of criticism people are going to hate you. It is not by accident that the left has a reputation for being closed to all forms of criticism.
David Murray
Valentine NSW
Parliament of the streets
Long live the "parliament of the streets", as opposed to Janet Burstall's sterile "committeeism" (Write on, GLW # 449) and Paul Petit's confused parliamentarism (Write on, GLW #450). After Seattle, Melbourne, Prague, M1, etc., it is incomprehensible that these two writers can only express criticism for Alison Dellit's support of the mass actions against corporate globalisation around the world.
In her article, "Their parliament versus ours" (GLW # 445) Dellit rightly lauds how "in just three days" the combined effort of 50,000 protesters and hundreds of Third World delegates scuttled the WTO trade round in Seattle. She notes that Seattle and other such protests, like S11 and Prague, have caused serious problems for the institutions of the global elite.
Citing Lisa Macdonald of the DSP, Dellit said that the Socialist Alliance sought to "strengthen those movements, to broaden and deepen the power of the 'parliament of the streets', not be the most effective parliamentarists". To this Burstall retorts rather strangely that "the streets are not where the alternative will be made". She lectures that historically the workers' "parliament" is "councils or committees".
One wonders whether Burstall was at S11 or M1 where the picket lines were "councils" — councils that made decisions and directly carried them out. This is not to mention the innumerable "committee" meetings in the lead up to both actions.
Both S11 and M1 were real living experiences of working class methodology, and helped in building "the alternative".
Petit's parliamentary cretinism (he is very uneasy about describing the corporate elite's parliament as "their" parliament, implying a faith that it can represent "us") would be understandable even 15 years ago, when cynicism of parliament and politicians wasn't so rife.
Petit says that in confronting parliament we have "to start from where we are today". Socialist Alliance is doing just that in recognising that the disaffection for parliament and the rising anti-corporate movement represent an important opening, along with the new unity of the left, for socialists to use parliament in order to strengthen the revolutionary movement.
Petit's problem is that he wants to "start" not "from where we are today" but from where we were 15 years ago. Sorry, the genie is out of the bottle — and it likes the streets.
Ray Fulcher
Melbourne
[Abridged]
NMD
I found Eva Cheng's article on President Bush's National Missile Defence scheme (GLW #448) very informative, especially her use of official US statistics. I would like to suggest another angle for a story: the probability that this scheme will waste money.
You may have seen recent television reports on the cost and folly of President Reagan's Star Wars proposal. It seems that most of the ideas behind that scheme were generated from the studios of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic company. You could describe it as a case of Hollywood believing its own movies.
Keep up the good work, comrades.
Mark Hathaway
USA
Josh White
Just a word in praise of Josh White. Yes, I know there were problems with the HUAC, yet I consider myself most privileged to have been present when Josh White performed in my local town.
It was in 1948 or '49, I cannot recall exactly, when Josh White came on stage, a solitary man with a guitar yet he filled the stage. That night Josh played between sets of the Vic Lewis Big Band, who expertly played the powerful Stan Kenton charts. The contrast could not have been greater, yet he held this modern jazz audience in the palm of his hand as he sung the blues. Sure, his blues were sweeter, more polished than the traditional Delta blues. However, his stories of white oppression were from the Deep South.
He spoke of lynchings, bashings and denial of the most basic human rights. This was the first time I heard "Strange Fruit". He also encouraged all present to work for peace in a troubled world.
Being squashed between sets of powerful big band "white jazz", he was still able to capture an audience, a measure of the man and the truth of his stories.
Ken Setter
Miller NSW