Socialist Alliance
The discussion around left unity has left me wondering if some comrades think that we have to build the Socialist Alliance in a vacuum.
Phil Sandford (GLW #515) suggests that SA must "develop as an organisation in its own right" and that means being cautious about the proposal from the Democratic Socialist Party and the offer to use the pages of GLW and resources of the DSP to help build SA.
Does this mean that we should ignore the gains from decades of struggle by socialist activists? Do we start from scratch, rather than take advantage of what has been built up by the left in this country?
Tim Kirchler (GLW #515) says the various groups "can't simply cast aside differences" in the name of unity. Who has demanded this? Certainly not the DSP. In fact, I would suggest to comrades like Tim that the real challenge is to find the ways to extend political and theoretical discussion within SA branches so that its members have the opportunity to participate in developing the SA's political positions.
The reality is that revolutionary socialist groups, with a mixed bag of resources as well as theoretical positions, formed SA. We have been joined by more than one thousand others attracted to socialism or looking for an alternative. It would be a sorry contradiction if we did not use what assets the founding groups can contribute. What about viewing it as an exciting opportunity and throwing more energy into building SA?
Melanie Sjoberg
Kensington NSW
Resistance needed
On Monday, November 18, myself and Tilly Cakau face a charge of trespass on prohibited lands, at Bankstown local court.
On Sunday, July 14, we locked ourselves to the Villawood refugee prison fence, with a "Refugee Solidarity" banner. We were arrested and charged. We hope the charge will not stick. We hope also that there will be mass lockings along the fence and mass protests.
One of the worst things about the mainstream media, not about GLW thank goodness, is how the disgraceful (such as locking up refugees) becomes "yesterday's story", part of the political furniture we live with. Just as South Africa and apartheid became "normal", so here refugee imprisonment has become "normal" and "just the way things are", despite international condemnation.
The Nazi regime in 1930s Germany was not some huge monstrous evil descending on an unsuspecting population. Rights were taken away step by step. After every step, the regime looked around to see if it could safely take the next one. Like this regime, it used the politics of fear and loathing. There has to be resistance, organised resistance, or we will lose everything. Bravo to Resistance for organising so much of it.
GLW readers are very welcome to support us at Bankstown local court on the morning of November 18.
Stephen Langford
Paddington NSW
Church and state
Why is the "pro-life" movement regularly assisted by the capitalist press? And why do some religious people not accept the separation of church and state?
The problem with religion, as a basis for public policy, is that it sacrifices the well-being of humans and animals (without their consent) to satisfy what believers say is God's will when we lack rational reasons to believe that God exists, that His will is as claimed and that His will should prevail.
The assertion that God's supposed will coincides with the interests of terrestrial beings is implausible. Absolutist religious rules, like "don't kill", which apply regardless of the consequences, can do substantial harm.
Some extremists maintain that if we don't regard all human life as sacred we'll descend into Nazism or Stalinism. Never mind that abortion has been available for decades without civilisation collapsing and that it is obvious that adults killed under Hitler and Stalin had a substantial interest in ongoing life.
Without religious premises, there is no good reason to believe destructive embryonic research, abortion and voluntary euthanasia should be banned. And religious premises should never determine law.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
Terror attacks
The head of ASIO, Mr Dennis Richardson, has been reported as saying that terrorist attacks aimed at Australians, such as the Bali bombing, will continue.
They will continue because the Bali bombing was in retaliation for past actions of the Australian government, it was not a preemptive strike against possible future actions. Our involvement in the war in Afghanistan, details of which have always been kept from the Australian public, is an obvious cause.
As long as we are militarily associated with the United States in central Asia and the Arabian Gulf more such episodes of violent retaliation are assured.
Col Friel
Alawa NT
Snowy shame
As a migrant, I always had in my mind every time the Snowy River was mentioned, the beautiful mountains with their peaks and the snow caps shining in the clear skies.
A year ago we made the trip, as some members of the family had never seen the snow. Behind the beauty lies the ugliest site with a great environmental disaster which everybody in the area likes to ignore and the people in the cities don't know.
As we started walking, we saw an open cut mine with ponds of water with all the colours meaning great concentrations of heavy metals. Next, and on our way down, we saw a garbage tip that piles up to the sky and even the fence hasn't managed to keep the plastic bags in. They are everywhere, covering up trees, shrubs and the grass.
The next site, and nearest to the Snowy River, is a sewerage treatment plant built years ago for a mere 1200 population. Now it has to cope for 10 or 20 times that number of people and it doesn't cope!
When the rain and the snow melts, every dirty thing runs down. There are simple and easy solutions. We only have to know the problem and act before it is too late.
Maria Hilario
Randwick NSW
[Abridged.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 13, 2002.
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