Duck and cover
It is my solemn duty to blow the whistle: Green Left Weekly is within three months of a functioning nuclear weapons arsenal. Government sources, corroborated by national security experts, confirm that nothing repeat, nothing stands between GLW and nuclear holocaust, except a bomb design, fissile material, a delivery system, and a use for nuclear weapons.
Further evidence comes from the CIA's terrorist checklist, which includes "loosely affiliated extremists motivated by political beliefs", "left-wing groups which view themselves as protectors of the people against the 'dehumanising effects of capitalism and imperialism'", "anarchists and extremist socialist groups", and "special interest extremists" such as animal rights, environmental, and anti-nuclear activist-terrorists.
All GLW staff score several hits when judged against the CIA terrorist checklist. Editor Doug Lorimer scores a clean sweep except for the animal rights stuff.
Sure, we can't be 100% certain that GLW is building nuclear weapons, but can Australia afford to take the risk? Haven't we learnt the lessons from Hitler yet? Does anyone seriously doubt that GLW would use nuclear weapons once in possession of same?
And why are our troops harassing innocent asylum seekers when the real terrorist threat lurks in the GLW office in Sydney's CBD? For shame.
Jim Green
Chippendale NSW
Collapse of NZ Alliance
There is a story to tell and lessons to learn over the collapse of the Alliance in New Zealand but to date the vehicle is not Green Left Weekly, particularly if the article by Murray Addison (August 7) is any indication.
An analysis that is based on a claim that Jim Anderton represented a right-wing split from the Alliance leaving the left behind is both factually incorrect and prevents those who wish to learn from the experience from learning. I offer the following alternative observations:
1. The split was not on a left-right political basis. Both left and relatively conservative elements of the Alliance left with Jim Anderton and also remained in the Alliance. Both former deputy leader of the Alliance Sandra Lee and number-three ranked MP Matt Robson, for example, who left with Anderton have left-wing credentials as good as any of those who remained in the Alliance. In fact, the new deputy leader of the Alliance Willie Jackson has a militaristic position over Afghanistan that John Howard would envy while, in his capacity as an employer, a highly ranked Alliance candidate in the recent general election is having legal action taken against him by a union over unfair treatment of workers. It appears, although not verified, that more members of the "former Alliance" left to join the new Progressive Coalition than remained in the Alliance.
2. While there was a serious dispute over whether the parliamentary wing of the Alliance should have conditionally supported the use of special service New Zealand troops in Afghan- istan, this was not the cause of the split. The militarist position of the current Alliance deputy leader and his supporters outflanked this position by some distance on the right.
3. The split was much more to do with whether the Alliance should be a "broader church" of those who shared sufficiently common views in order to pursue progressive objectives or a "narrower church" centred on a stronger ideological unity. The latter had a preoccupation with re-inventing the Alliance in the image of them. Ultimately, this led to sectarian factionalism based on an undue emphasis on faction building and getting the numbers on the governing Alliance Council rather than party building and an insufferable environment for those of broader non-sectarian left-wing politics to work in.
4. The name of the new party, Progressive Coalition, had Jim Anderton's name on the general election ballot paper for one temporary reason only. The party had only been formed six weeks before the election and, unlike the Alliance, was not entitled to state funded television advertising. It was made clear this was a one-off measure and that his name would be removed after the election. Despite these difficulties, the Progressive Coalition managed to outpoll the Alliance.
5. Notwithstanding its short existence, arguably the Progressive Coalition is already New Zealand's third-largest party in terms of membership behind National and Labour, and ahead of the Greens and the Alliance, as well as the other parties of the right. More Alliance members appear to have gone to the Progressive Coalition rather than remain in the Alliance. Others went to the Greens while a significant number, perhaps the majority, appear to have simply withdrawn.
The split in and collapse of the Alliance is a political tragedy but can't be explained as a left-right split. The facts simply do not support this contention.
Ian Powell
Paekakariki NZ
Attack on Iraq
ABC news online reported on September 6 an attack by up to 100 US and British planes on "Iraqi military targets."
Military spokespeople were reported describing the attacks as "a routine operation", an alarming description.
The attack either represents an escalation of military attacks on Iraq, in which case we should be alarmed by being lied to by military spokespeople downplaying its seriousness.
Or if this really is "routine" (and although it hasn't been headline news, military attacks by the US and British on Iraq have been ongoing since the Gulf War of 1991 supposedly ended), we should be alarmed that such a quiet bloody undeclared war is already being waged.
How much more carnage will there be, all for US-British military, political and economic hegemony over this oil-rich region, when "real" war begins?
Kamala Emanuel
Launceston
Kiwibank
How interesting to find that the Greens really offer an alternative to the Labor of old policies such as Ben Chifley and King O'Malley would push.
I speak as a disenchanted Labor member and author of O'Malley, MHR, about that trailblazing foe that fine American Australian called "money mongers" and "frenzied financiers" the private banks.
Likewise, I liked your aim to present "news excluded by the big business media". I know all about the disinclination of newspapers such as the Age to publish anything on the most interesting reversal of bank privatisation offered by the NZ Labor government.
Did you know that the Helen Clark government, in alliance with an embittered ex-Labor politician called Jim Anderton, launched "Kiwibank" in February? It is winning a real niche more than there.
In all the columns in the Australian press leading to the return of the Labor government in New Zealand on July 27, I found nary a word on Kiwibank. Obviously because it offers a real threat to the burgeoning profits of private banks in Australia.
Larry Noye
Altona Vic
[Abridged.]
From Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2002.
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