Broad anti-war coalition needed
I must disagree with Tariq Ali in his opening statement of the interview in Green Left Weekly #551 where he sums up the entire anti-Vietnam War movement.
I was a participant in that movement and in Australia I never felt that a clear majority "wanted victory for one side ... wanted the Vietnamese to win".
A significant section, including myself, supported the Vietnamese right to self-determination and promoted their victory but many others marched for a range of other reasons (pacifism, opposition to conscription, war weariness, ALP opportunism etc).
Many of us chanted "One side right, one side wrong, victory to the Viet Cong" but many didn't and those debates were the stuff of the movement.
Perhaps in Britain and other countries that didn't have troops involved it was pretty cut and dried, but here, and I believe in the USA, the movement depended on pulling together broad coalitions. The role of the true revolutionaries in those coalitions was to hammer out demands and methods of action that could draw the different elements together without losing the internationalist focus or mass action method.
Barry Healy
Darlington WA
Pauline Hanson
There is considerable merit in the letter by Melanie Sjoberg (GLW #552).
One Nation's initial success was due to excessive media coverage focused on Pauline Hanson so as to divert public attention away from the regressive legislation of the Coalition government.
Before the conviction of Hanson and [David] Ettridge, One Nation was steadily declining. Since then, the sentence that was imposed has aroused renewed interest in One Nation. This could have been prevented if fines were imposed instead of prison sentences.
If the electoral law that was used to secure their conviction has to be challenged and repealed, an appropriate time should be selected for this purpose.
Bernie Rosen
Strathfield NSW
Medicare campaign and Labor
Graham Matthews should be commended on the interview he conducted with Gary Harper about the significant successes of the Darebin Defend and Extend Medicare Group (GLW #552). But there is one point on which we would have to disagree with the article.
Here Graham comments, "Politically Harper felt that the ALP made a late entry to the campaign", and cites Gary, "The ALP was a bit slow to start with the campaign but they've taken up the issues".
Yet the 300-strong meeting which launched the campaign was convened after the federal ALP member approached the local ALP mayor for support. And its large size was at least partly due the active work of local ALP branches through street stalls and leafleting at stations. It was this active involvement by ALP forces that goes a long way to explain the greater success of the campaign compared to a comparable one in Moreland.
There can be no doubt that the weakness of the federal ALP leadership limits the potential for a fightback against Howard, and their refusal to stand against the health insurance rebate is especially appalling.
Yet this should not blind us to the potential of ALP members and supporters to mobilise around old labour values and in doing so shift to the left of their leadership. As the article points out, the Darebin campaign has taken a stand against the rebate despite the refusal of the federal ALP member to do so.
Tom Freeman and Patrick Mcliesh
Melbourne
Terrorism versus poverty
The World Health Organisation estimates over 1.7 million violent deaths annually, with about 18 million dying from starvation and preventable disease.
If only the US, UK, Australia and other Western nations felt the same outrage at all premature and unpleasant deaths worldwide as they did at the September 11 deaths in the US, just imagine how many more people would still be happily alive today.
Political philosopher Thomas Pogge recommends giving top priority to providing an expeditious path out of poverty to the great majority of all poor people whom we can reach without using violence, largely by changing global economic structures.
A genuinely economically rational person would know that this is likely to be far more cost-effective at prolonging life and reducing suffering than an expensive war on terrorism with no end in sight.
Apparently economic rationalists either lack economic rationality, have much less interest in non-Western lives or find exploiting people's fears politically advantageous.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
Barriers rather than bridges
One cannot but feel a sense of depression at the recent comments of Prime Minister Howard concerning reconciliation with Indigenous Australians.
Mr Howard told a meeting of government members that he felt there was no longer a need to say "sorry" to Indigenous Australians because there had not been any recent requests to do so.
I guess this telling attitude paints a clearer picture of John Howard the man, rather than the politician. Motivated by his deep reactionary nature, he would rather maintain a barrier than build a bridge. His reluctance to engage and create a better relationship with Indigenous Australians may enhance his standing with the section of our community which disagrees with any reconciliation process, but it also misses an opportunity. Any opportunity to bring Australians together, to reconcile and renew a relationship on the basis of mutual respect and understanding should never be wasted.
Mr Howard's emotional detachment from the struggle faced by Indigenous Australians may inspire anger in some, but for me it stirs a sense of pity towards him. He is a man without any warmth or sense of humanity. I hope that one day he will see that an apology is not a sign of weakness or capitulation but a sign of true leadership, but I doubt he ever will.
Paving the way for a more united society seems not to be on John Howard's agenda. However, it should be for the rest of us. As history shows us, the great gains in human endeavour have not been made by those frozen in time, but by those willing to move forward.
Mark Ptolemy
Labor candidate for Macquarie
Woodford NSW
Meanings
Now children, the meanings of a few words is our lesson for today. I noticed along the creek that the peach and nectarine trees were in glorious blossom. They are introduced orchard trees which have found an ideal spot in the moist soils of the creeks. It means it's spring, that time of the year. That's "palpable".
Aha! Palpable — it means obvious, obviously. Then I hear on the radio that Woolworths and Caltex have come to an agreement to become joint retailers at Caltex's 400 service stations in petrols, oils, etc.
They claim that this is for the benefit of Australia and the consumer. How "mendacious", what "mendacity"!
Aha again! Mendacity: means false, untruthful.
Now we have two words "Palpable Mendacity".
With the first letter of each word, we have — PM. PM! I'm not referring to "post meridiem", after midday — afternoon.
Palpable Mendacity — PM. There children, two new words for a current phenomenon among leaders.
Oh! And by the way, palpable mendacity is used by these leaders for our good, just as privatisation, rationalisation, take over amalgamations, etc, are good for us.
All obvious lies, don't you think children. Well if not so obvious, truth will come out in time.
Jim Knight
Kangaroo Creek NSW
Mbeki's 'backflip'
After four years of struggle against the AIDS-denialist administration of African National Congress President Thabo Mbeki, I do not trust its words and intentions about supplying essential medicines to people living with HIV/AIDS. There is no backflip on AIDS policy (see GLW #550) whatsoever, because the devil is in the detail.
These are the things needed to see a true change of heart — a backflip — by the Mbeki gang to at last face up to the terror of HIV/AIDS:
1) President Mbeki must make a serious apology for his misguided misdirection to his health ministers to pander to his denialist views.
2) He must apologise for pushing virodene (a poisonous concoction brewed in Pretoria to "cure" AIDS, which could not get Medicines Control Council approval) and tell us why he changed tack a few months later to attack the merits of AZT — a drug registered with the MCC for use against HIV/AIDS for over a decade.
3) He must withdraw his remark that "a small virus cannot cause a syndrome".
4) He must get the health minister to withdraw the comment that her policy is based on the "premise" that HIV causes AIDS, and state quite categorically that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS, a view based on scientific truth.
5) He must end the drive to privatise the health services by massive subsidies to the private sector through subsidies to civil servants' medical aid subscriptions and by pushing through so-called "public-private partnerships".
6) He must accept the best scientific estimates that there are 5 million HIV+ people in our country and that their lives can be extended and improved by the public availability of anti-retroviral drugs.
7) He must use the powers he already has to import generics and end the tacit agreement with [the big drugs companies] not to use those powers to import generic anti-retrovirals.
8) He must issue compulsory licenses to local pharmaceutical companies to manufacture generic copies of registered anti-retroviral drugs and provide them free through the improved public health system. All governments have the right, in the face of a medical emergency, to override patent rights to obtain cheap generics. It has been repeated over and over that these giant pharmaceutical companies have made huge profits over the decades. Lives are now more important than the royalties of these companies until the pandemic of AIDS is over.
9) He must apologise to Dr Thys van Mollendorf for his dismissal by the MEC Health for Mpumalanga Province. The doctor pre-empted the Cabinet decision to provide anti-retrovirals to rape survivors, and was fired for doing just that.
10) He must cancel the dodgy arms deals and divert what's left of the money to the war against HIV/AIDS.
11) He must dismiss the South African National AIDS Council and use the money to support our scientists rather than hacks which seek his endorsement for denialist views.
Once such things emerge from the Presidential Office, then we can say with far more confidence that a backflip has occurred and that we can now swim together in the clean water.
At the moment, all the hopes are once again built on false premises. The election is on the horizon and promises on the eve of such an event are very common indeed. They will be quietly or even spin-doctorally forgotten after the votes are cast unless the Presidential apology is made.
Costa Gazi
AIDS Babies Battling AIDS Trust
Vincent
South Africa
<http://www.abbatrust.co.za>
[More letters at <http://www.greenleft.org.au>.]
Perspective on Israel's racism
I refer to Dan Meijer's letter (GLW #552 web edition) asking for "perspective" in relation to Palestine. Meijer tries to equate Israel with Palestine as if they both were akin to 18th century England and France fighting over the colonial possessions of Pondicherry or the Deccan.
Regardless of Meijer's sophistry over land ownership in Israel, my historical "perspective" tells me that Israel is a racist state, created by the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian inhabitants. Israel still has an official policy of being a Jewish majority state and will import remotely Jewish immigrants from Russia or China, but will not permit the Palestinians to return to their land.
Regarding Sharon, it might be worth our while to add to Meijer's account of his biography — if only as a reflection of Zionist policies — Sharon began his blood-soaked career in the Hagannah and graduated to commanding Israeli army's Unit 101 in 1953.
In August 1953, he led the massacre of Palestinians at the El Bureig refugee camp — his unit lobbed bombs into huts and moved down men with, women and children as they ran out.
In October 1953, Sharon's unit reduced the Jordanian village of Qibya to rubble and wiped out the entire population. He demolished hundreds of refugee houses in the Beach Camp of Gaza Strip to build the Had'd Street.
Of course, Sharon's invasion of Lebanon, organising the massacres at Sabra and Shatila (September 16-18, 1982) has received more publicity.
Less well known are his extensions of Zionist settlements as Menachem Begin's minister for agriculture.
Coming to colour-coded licence plates, Meijer might like to explain why Zionist settlers and Palestinians — living in the same territories — have different coloured plates. If this is not the Zionist version of Nazi policies, pray what is it?
Narendra Mohan Kommalapati
email
Iraqi people must expel foreign invaders!
The US and its allies in Iraq have created a new killing field, a new holocaust in the Middle East. They invaded Iraq under false pretences and in the process killed and maimed thousands of innocent Iraqis. After defeating Saddam Hussein's forces, the US coalition has let down the Iraqi people again. Rather than providing security and stability, their presence in Iraq has acted as a catalyst for ongoing chaos and destruction.
The US, Britain and Australia didn't invade Iraq in order to free its people from tyranny. They invaded in order to further their own strategic interests in the region and to get rid of a dictator who long ago thumbed his nose at his US benefactor.
The US ignored pleas from the UN Security Council to refrain from invading Iraq. Following Saddam's defeat the US again thumbed its nose at the UN by refusing to allow it a significant role in the reconstruction of Iraq. Now the US administration has mud all over their faces. They know they have lost the peace, yet they have the temerity to go back to the UN for a new resolution calling on other member states to send troops. This new resolution also refuses to grant the UN the authority to control the proposed multinational force. What the US couldn't achieve through the Security Council prior to the illegal invasion, it is now seeking to do after losing the peace.
Iraqi guerrilla fighters will continue to grow in numbers because of the horrific treatment meted out to the Iraqi people both during the invasion and after it. The US embarked on a strategy to control both the military invasion and the post-war government in Iraq. They deliberately excluded other countries and the UN from participating in the awarding of lucrative reconstruction contracts funded by the sale of Iraqi oil. They set up a puppet Iraqi Governing Council made up of Iraqi exiles and wanted criminals. They excluded the possibility of the Iraqi people setting up a Muslim cleric state. They continue to illegally occupy Iraq despite the chaos and destruction that their presence ferments.
If the US and its allies want to avoid an ongoing bloodbath for which they will be held responsible, they must place their forces under UN control and dismantle the puppet institutions that they have established. They must place the reconstruction process under UN control and allow the Iraqi people to determine their own future, no matter how unpalatable that may be to them.
Adam Bonner
Meroo Meadow NSW
9/11 remembered
I'd like to tell Green Left Weekly readers how I see, and choose to commemorate, the second anniversary of 9/11.
I do not condone what happened in New York and Washington DC two years ago. But what I am saying is that everyone around the world is commemorating the deaths of 3000 Americans. While there is nothing wrong in that act alone, maybe we should pause to think about something else.
At least twice as many people died in Afghanistan from the war (at the end of 2001) as from the WTC bombing. And, Afghans continue to die because of ongoing conflict, and the fact that depleted uranium (DU) weapons were used, as well as many other things. Has anybody in the mainstream media, or in the community, stopped to remember those victims?
And then there's Iraq. Countless dead from the first Gulf War, not to mention the sanctions, enforced by the USA, which, in my opinion, was an ongoing massacre and siege of the Iraqi people. And then, there's the latest war and its casualties. Cluster bombs, DU weapons, no basic services, which is also causing countless loss of life, and ongoing conflict, all in the name of "fighting terrorism". Who stops to remember those people killed in atrocities?
We talk about 9/11 being a "tragedy", among other words of that vane used to describe it. It was, I'm not denying that. But who's saying that the atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are far worse than what happened in America two years ago, are a "tragedy"?
To me, it seems as if a white American life is worth more than the life of someone who lives in the Third World. It's racism boys and girls, pure and simple.
So, on this 2nd anniversary of 9/11, I would like acknowledge Green Left Weekly and John Pilger.
I am a regular reader of Green Left Weekly, and have also been onto John Pilger's web site. Both of you have reported the stories of the oppressed peoples of the world. The people, who are abused, dehumanised and silenced by imperialism and imperialist nations like America, Australia and Israel, among others.
You do remember the thousands killed in the "war on terror". It's outlets like GLW who tell the story of the oppressed, massacred, exploited and persecuted, and don't constantly dwell on the deaths of white people (which is not good either), when the loss of life in both Afghanistan and Iraq far outweighs that of America.
On this 2nd anniversary of 9/11, I choose to commemorate the people of Afghanistan and Iraq who have lost their lives at the hands of the American right, who have chosen to exploit their tragedy to bring tragedy to Afghanistan and Iraq. I choose celebrate both Green Left Weekly and John Pilger for reporting the loss of life that goes virtually unreported. The only time the right-wing media reports Third World loss of life is when it benefits the First World right.
And last, but certainly not least, I hope an international force does not go into Iraq. You know why? Because George Bush and his cronies went in there and made the mess in the first place. They made the bed; they should be made to lie in it.
Annie Mandela
email
Malcolm Jones MLC
Malcolm Jones, MLC for the Outdoor Recreation Party (OPR), is expected to be expelled from NSW Upper House on 16th September. He was elected in the 1999 "Tablecloth" election on the basis of a mere 0.2% of the primary vote plus a huge flow of second preferences from a series of bogus parties set up to mislead the voting public.
However, it was the subsequent rorting of his country allowance that got Jones into trouble. Amazingly, according to Section 22D (4) of the NSW Constitution Act, this expelled MLC could legally be replaced by another member of his ORP, provided one is available.
Thus, it appears that the draconian 1999 amendments to the NSW Electoral Act, claimed to discourage small front parties, do not prevent the ORP's continued representation after 16th September.
We ask: 1. What democratic right does ORP now have to be in the Legislative Council, one of the most active legislative chambers in Australia?
2. If no ORP candidate comes forward, what will the Government do to fill the seat?
Surely, the public is entitled to the 42 members of the Upper House. They have in fact been shortchanged for more than four years now. We certainly declare an interest in this matter as a Party that gained 1.6% of the primary vote in that election but missed out, conceivably, on account of Jones's deceptive behaviour.
Klaas Woldring
National secretary, Progressive Labour Party
Pearl Beach NSW
From Green Left Weekly, September 17, 2003.
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