Excuses for Cuba
I am a regular reader of Green Left, primarily because I support the causes you support, and secondly because I find it an antidote to the mush we get from the so-called mainstream media.
However, I must take issue in the strongest terms to your paper's continuing and increasingly hysterical campaign in support of Fidel Castro. This is not to say that Castro doesn't deserve recognition for many of the great achievements of the Cuban Revolution.
But surely the time has come for progressive forces everywhere to say to Castro, enough is enough. The recent events in Cuba — the harassment of dissidents and the use again of the death penalty — should be condemned. I know it is tough to criticise friends, but surely this is part of our duty as members of the Left.
And please, put a stop to your apparent campaign of vilification against those inside Cuba — including progressives, Marxists and environmentalists — who are opposed to Castro. This week's (GLW #541) article by Kim Bullimore is the latest — and worst — example of this outrageous campaign!
Even if these people were receiving money from US agencies, their only "crime" was to run private libraries. To send them to prison (after a summary trial and for terms of 20 to 28 years) for this is beyond belief.
Please, stop making excuses for the inexcusable. Sometimes, it is difficult to fault those closest to you, I know. But to pretend that all is well when serious errors are made is worse.
Peter Frost
Sydney
David Hicks
While David Hicks now languishes in a cage at Guantanamo Bay as an alleged terrorist without legal any status (GLW #541), he must be pondering past adventures when he was on the side of the angels.
Hicks fought for a while with the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Albanian Muslim outfit which played a big part in pushing the minority Serbs out of what had been the historically Serbian province of Kosovo.
In these endeavours he was an ally of the US and NATO. He moved to Afghanistan and joined the Taliban, which had received covert US aid in its push to power.
Hicks did not become an official enemy until the US turned on the Taliban after the cataclysmic events of September 11. Now he's marooned in no-man's land, unloved and forgotten.
Phil Robins
Toorak Gardens SA
Matrix overload
Alex Bainbridge (GLW #541) misrepresents, and seems to miss a lot of the point of, GLW reviews of The Matrix (#364) and Matrix Reloaded (#539). Neither review argued that the series put forward a consistent analysis of capitalism and program for overthrowing it.
However, both argued that the matrix could be read as a metaphor for ideological mystification, and the rebel hackers as revolutionaries. Since this is how a lot of people are discussing the films, this is hardly "contrived". Both articles I think also aimed to use a film review to put forward some Marxist ideas in an entertaining way.
It's important for a radical reviewer to look at the social/political context of a film's production and distribution, what's influenced the film's content and how it's read — that is, do a bit of research as well as watch the film.
I argued that, on available evidence, that radical ideas were likely to be part of where the Wachowski brothers were "at", and part of what they wanted to sell to their intended audiences. If Alex doubts that a text can be influenced by diverse political, psychological and mystical ideas, and can be read as either (or both) radical or reactionary, he should reread Heart of Darkness and rewatch Apocalypse Now.
Nick Fredman
Rosebank NSW
No support from NUS
When a Resistance member in Hobart recently contacted the Tasmanian state branch of the National Union of Students (NUS) about organising against government attacks on higher education, NUS state president Ted Alexander told her that NUS would be happy to provide material support to any effort to organise collectives or actions around that issue, if only NUS were told what form of support was desired.
However, when, a few weeks later, another Resistance member contacted Alexander about NUS helping to build the June 4 national day of action against Liberal proposals to deregulate HECS fees, undermine staff and student unions, and increase the proportion of full-fee paying positions, Ted dismissed the protest on the basis that it was being held during SWOTVAC (the study break before exams) and wouldn't have anything to do with it.
If we're going to be able to effectively challenge government attacks on education and rebuild the student movement, it would help if the organisations that supposedly represent students and is meant to organise student struggles did more than give lip service and empty promises to activists interested in defending education and other progressive causes.
Bureaucrats who merely come up with pathetic excuses not to get off their arses and help with these initiatives when the threat to higher education is so urgent will merely be an obstacle to this happening.
Shua Garfield
Hobart
Silence over 'hollow logs'
Peter Costello is a wizard at balancing federal budgets, right? That's what the media has been telling us since May. The reality is slightly different and I've been waiting for the ALP to blow the whistle on his latest trick.
On November 20 last year, the Financial Review published a front page story about billions of dollars "salted away in 'hollow logs' across Commonwealth departments" that the government had just "discovered". This was as the drive to war in Iraq was beginning. No other news organisation covered it because the government announced a Bali-related security scare on the same day.
It was those billions of dollars, squirrelled away for a rainy day and harvested at the right moment that balanced the budget. I would expect no better from a mob of cynical Tories. But why has the ALP let him get away with it?
Barry Healy
Perth
Senate is representative
The PM's recent proposal to allow a combined sitting of both houses of parliament, without a double disillusion election first, if the Senate rejects a bill twice, should be opposed — at least while there is not proportional representation of parties in the lower house.
A small majority of votes can translate into a large majority of seats in the lower chamber so the Senate would very often be rendered powerless — despite the Senate's composition frequently better reflecting the party preferences of voters than the House of Representatives' composition does.
Mr Howard's claim that the Senate has recently become obstructionist is inaccurate. Overwhelmingly, government legislation is passed with no, or modest, amendments and Mr Howard conveniently ignores the Coalition's record in Gough Whitlam's day.
The Senate has saved the nation from some of the Coalition's more retrograde legislation and senators have a social duty to oppose bad legislation — not pass it just to please the government.
Mr Howard should try abandoning his unjust legislation rather than attempting to change the parliamentary rules to ensure that it becomes law.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
Hands off the Senate!
Thank heavens Australia has the Senate it has, vigilant, active, democratically elected and stopping the worst draft legislation our amateur governments dream up. It provides the only real opposition to the two-party tyranny of look-alike major parties which have long ceased to inspire the electorate.
A feature of the much praised but little understood Westminster system is directly responsible for the lack of quality of our governments. That is that ministers must be "in and of the Parliament".
Thus some 30 portfolios have to filled from roughly 100 elected politicians! What can one expect? It is a recipe for incompetence. Why not address that serious deficiency, the major cause of the problem?
Klaas Woldring
Pearl Beach NSW
[More letters at <http://www.greenleft.org.au>.]
Burglary in East Timor
I wrote the following letter to the NT News, owned by Mr Murdoch of course. It was not printed. The burglary referred to is a burglary of the home of the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Claire Martin — which was being discussed in the NT News. Martin's government is cooperating in the construction of a liquid natural gas plant in a mangrove area across a stretch of water from Darwin city, to process gas which comes from East Timor's side of the halfway line between East Timor and Australia — gas which is being taken from the people of East Timor, without anything being given to them in return. It's called imperialism.
"Dear editor,
"No burglary is minor? So true! Especially when it comes to the theft of billions of dollars worth of the oil and gas of the people of East Timor. And guess who's taking part in that daylight robbery, that robbing of the poor? Clare Martin, for one. And now she suffers a burglary? Is that not karma? Is that not justice?
"At least she was honest when she said, 'The break-in was not serious'. Compared to robbing the poverty-stricken East Timorese (of the means to pay for health care, education and other basic needs which we take for granted in Australia), the burglary of a few extraneous electrical items from a rich and powerful person is truly trivial.
"I do have compassion for Clare Martin (as well as for the hundreds of thousands of poor in East Timor), by the way. I know from personal experience what it feels like to have my house burgled. But I'd much rather that than be destitute and robbed like the people of East Timor are.
"The way people talk these days, it's got me wondering — have most people forgotten to admire rebels who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor — like Robin Hood, Ned Kelly, Salvatore Giuliano and Che Guevara? Do people admire the modern day villains instead, now?"
Simon Wood
Darwin NT
Howard flips the Senate
Why didn't Howard come up with this idea in the '80s and '90s when his insiders ran one of the most wilfully, petulantly obstructive, doltish and destructive Senates in Commonwealth history?
His "tax reform" was a grandiose money-grab for the rich and powerful; his "constitutional reform" is its twin — just another megalomaniac power-grab. Meanwhile he has assumed the trappings of head-of-state to boot, with Yarralumla the home of grey, compliant rubber stamps.
More Australians are starting to realise that Howard doesn't do anything unless it serves the interests of the grubby end of town, kicks battlers in the teeth and keeps him and Mummy in Kirribilli Palace.
We would be mugs to let him get away with it. Where are the real liberals?
Peter Woodforde
Melba ACT
Iraq: Before and after Saddam
Iraq has often been a source of concern for international policy-makers over the last 12 years. Of course, it should be noted that Iraq was never viewed as a serious threat in many Western political circles when it attacked Iran in 1980. On the contrary, even some optimistic politicians in the West were of opinion, the war might act as a double containment.
This means that Iran's religious fundamentalism on one hand, and Iraqi expansionism on the other hand, would be curbed simultaneously and automatically without a need for outside intervention! As a result, due to the weakening of the two countries and creation of a power balance between them, a lasting peace and stability would appear in the region!
No need to say none of the above dreams came true. In fact, all these pleasant fantasies were immediately evaporated by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. It was soon after that Americans opened their eyes and began to see Iraq and its former dictator as a real threat to their interests.
Perhaps, what mentioned above would suffice to reveal the importance of the matter. Who can really ignore the significant role being played by the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular in today's worldwide political bargains? These days, people all across the globe are indeed watching how US and its main allies on one side and France, Russia and Germany on the other side are closely involved in a fierce competition to seize more shares in Iraq's lucrative reconstruction contracts. This is of course another evidence to the importance of the case.
Before making any comment on the issue, let's have a brief look at Iraq's recent history. In this way, we can first obtain a better view of what is now going on in this war-damaged country. Second, it would be easier to make some predictions of its future.
At the threshold of the 19th century, Iraq as well as many other Arab countries were still provinces of the Ottoman Empire. During this century, specially, towards the end of it, Britain and France began to penetrate economically and politically into the old and ailing Empire. Before its full integration in 1918, most of the Arab territories had already been seized by the two powers.
Iraq was under British rule from 1917 to 1930. After the First World War, like many other colonies, mass uprisings in Iraq led step by step to its independence from the British Empire. However, the Iraqi monarchical rule remained under British mandate for a few decades. After several abortive coups, General Kassem accompanied by General Abdussallam Arif finally managed to overthrow the monarchical regime and kill King Faisal through a bloody military coup in 1958. Since then, Iraq witnessed several coups including Baath Party coup in 1963 as well as Hassan-al-Bakir-Saddam Hussein coup in 1968.
The Baath Party founded by Michel Aflaq could never achieve Iraqi people's sympathy for two main reasons. First, it was indeed a contradictory combination of socialism and nationalism ideologically. Second, Iraq consists of a complicated ethnic and religious combination. Consequently, the lack of popular support pushed the Baath Party gradually into more despotic and repressive manners.
Although the Baath Party played an effective role in achieving some economic and social goals in a specific period of time, its eclectic nature ultimately led to a horrible dictatorship. As a matter of fact, when Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979 the Baath Party sank completely into the quagmire of an irreversible military tyranny.
At first, Saddam's capricious and adventurous policies dragged Iraq into a devastating and useless eight-year war with neighbouring Iran. After that, under smashing economic and social woes he desperately invaded Kuwait, which was followed by the Gulf War and military intervention of the allied forces in 1990.
The Iraqi regime was near to collapse towards the end of the war. However, the US and its allies frightened by Shiites and Kurds uprisings left Saddam in power. This was actually catastrophic for the two religious and ethnic groups, because, thousands of them were cruelly massacred and buried in mass graves by Saddam's regime.
In the following years, under UN tough sanctions as well as US growing pressure through WMD (weapons of mass destruction) inspections Iraqi regime began to disregard international laws, which in turn ended in expelling the inspectors from the country. This was followed by US announcement of Iraq as one of the " Evil Axis" countries. All these developments paved the way for the recent war.
Today, Saddam Hussein, after 24 years of dictatorship is gone, but Iraq is still under the allied forces' occupation. People's jubilance and excitement caused by dictator's fall has to a great extent subsided and protests and attacks against the occupying forces are rapidly growing. However, there is still no evidence of the promised free and fair elections for setting up a new Iraqi government.
At present, the political and ideological vacuum caused by the sudden fall of a tyrannical regime is mainly being filled by a kind of religious extremism. In the meantime, occupation forces' obvious failure to overcome people's post-war difficulties helps strengthen radical religious views put forward by some extremist groups.
It seems, a future similar to or even worse than what was about Algeria awaits Iraq too.
Nasser Frounchi
Instructor of journalism, Torbat-e-Jaam University
Iran
From Green Left Weekly, June 18, 2003.
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