Voices
I would like to truly congratulate Angela Budai and Vivienne Porzsolt from Jews Against the Occupation their letter (GLW #679). Quotes such as, "We place an equal value on Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese lives and regard any loss of life as unnecessary and tragic", and "We regard the Israeli action in Lebanon as a violation of Jewish teachings, universal human rights and international law", are the kind of things we need to hear more of.
Identifying as half Christian, half Jewish, I hear a lot of reactionary right-wing voices on this issue coming from both sides of my identity fence. The most common is that the pro-Palestine movement is "Blaming the victim". To quote from an article in a previous issue of GLW: "Not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews." It is nice to hear voices of reason from you and your organisation.
It is imperative and urgent that these sorts of voices are heard. Those Christians and Jewish people who believe in basic human dignity for all need to stand up and say "enough is enough!" Unfortunately, our voices of dissent and reason are constantly drained out by the Zionists' voices, who constantly apologise for Israel's actions, and who constantly label the Palestinian solidarity movement as "anti-Semitic", and who should know better.
So to any Christian or Jewish folks out there reading this who, like me, are sick and tired of these acts of violence, murder, war crimes, hatred and discrimination being perpetrated in your name, it's time to take the bull by the horns. Let's fight! And let's say that it's time our voices were heard!
Athena Mandela
Hobart
[Abridged}
SSP crisis
I am relieved that Chris Edwards (Write On, GLW #680) has used your paper to raise arguments on behalf of Tommy Sheridan in relation to the current crisis in the Scottish Socialist Party.
This is an important discussion, and one that has implications for the left internationally. Yet such are the strength of the arguments put by Edwards, Sheridan and his supporters have quit the SSP and announced the formation of a second socialist organisation in Scotland.
Even on a local level, members of the Socialist Worker platform, who have thrown their lot in with Tommy, boycotted meetings of my branch where the subject would be openly discussed. At meetings where they chose to participate, they used their positions to bureaucratically close down debate.
No-one has denied Sheridan's historic role as the public figure at the head of the SSP. Yet this does not justify or excuse his abhorrent public attacks on the party leadership's democratically agreed actions.
If Sheridan and his supporters have such a strong case, why don't they stick around and put the arguments to an open and democratic debate at the SSP's national conference in October? Instead, they have divided the Scottish left.
Sheridan's new organisation is one based on lies, opportunism and an out of control ego. As such it is destined to fail.
Matt Preston
Glasgow, Scotland
Yellowcake
At least now we know why that rail line to Darwin was finally completed. So that yellowcake could be easily transported out of the country and nuclear waste could be more easily brought in!
Wayne Nattrass
Ringwood North
McArthur River
Last week's decision to overturn an environmental assessment which identified that there would be insurmountable harm in diverting one of the top end's major rivers, McArthur River, and to proceed with an open-cut mine, is a slap in the face for the NT's fledgling Environmental Protection Authority.
Despite the EIS, a less stringent Public Environment Report formed the basis for the minister shifting the goal posts to overturn her initial decision.
The NT Government's "Living Rivers" policy featured as a major plank of the ALP's environmental platform in an election dominated by environmental issues. But just as with Clare Martin's election promise to oppose new uranium mines, this commitment appears to have been discarded.
Given that McArthur would surely qualify as a Heritage River under the criteria of the Wentworth Group, what hope does this leave for the ongoing management of our other major rivers?
I used to resent living under the former Country Liberal Party regime with its blanket disregard for the concerns of Traditional Owners and the unique values of our precious natural estate. But now I'm learning to respect the fact that at least they were up front about it.
Justin Tutty
Darwin
Telstra
The federal government is claiming that more of its Telstra shares need to be sold to eliminate a conflict of interest between the government's role as telecommunications regulator and the government's position as Telstra shareholder.
The government is effectively saying here that it can't be trusted to regulate Telstra tightly enough when it is predominantly publicly owned because it wants strong dividends from Telstra to swell the budget coffers. However, the government knows perfectly well that it should be acting in the overall national interest and therefore supporting dividend-lowering regulation whenever the social benefits of this are estimated to outweigh the social costs associated with reduced budget revenues.
In any case, if the government is too tempted by the prospect of high fiscal inflows, further privatisation won't remove the problem. In such circumstances, the government is likely to subject Telstra to inadequate regulation when it offers it for sale, and after it is privatised, because it wants both good sale receipts and high tax returns from Telstra's private corporate profits.
Governments always have to balance different considerations and this banal truth provides no reason to further privatise Telstra.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere, NSW
ACTU
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is being rather insulting to the president of the ACTU, Sharan Burrow, by describing the ACTU secretary Greg Combet as the leader of the trade union movement in Australia. Since its inception in 1927 the ACTU president has always been the official spokesperson for union affairs.
The term "cynical" was used during a recent ABC Australian Story on the life and trade union history of Mr Combet but one can't help being cynical as to what is behind this grooming of Mr Combet as a future leader in politics. Mr Combet of course has denied any such ambition.
He stated that the new IR laws, now in force, would be a major point of the next federal election campaign. Too late, of course, the horse has bolted. If the ACTU had shown any leadership it would have begun its campaign with rolling strikes when those laws first passed the House of Representatives, culminating in a general strike when they passed the Senate.
The ACTU will perform its usual role of beating an empty drum, the ALP will come out with its usual bluster and, if it accidentally wins the next election, will find very good reasons to only tamper with the edges of any reforms — in the national interest of course.
Col Friel
Alawa, NT