APEC protests
I am constantly outraged at the way the media and government label any protests at events such as the upcoming APEC summit as "violent". Two months ago they were already writing articles about the potential violence that will occur during protests at the summit. In response, I have set up a website (<http://www.pacivis.com>) where I am asking people to sign up their commitment to non-violent protest at the summit, with the aim of countering any sweeping generalizations of violence made by the government or media.
Tim Bryar
Via email
Housing crisis
I can't believe that in his article "How Banks Fuel the Housing Crisis" (GLW #721), Graham Matthews omitted the $14,000 first home buyers grant that the Howard government introduced in mid-2001. The first home buyers grant brought thousands of new home buyers on to the market, thereby shoving up house prices. This grant alone has been a major contributing factor to the current cost of home ownership.
Way behind in the polls and having just lost the Ryan Queensland) by-election, Howard introduced the grant, seemingly in desperation. Slowly, thanks to the grant, Howard began to claw his way back in 2001. Tampa and 9/11 did the rest.
Ken Cotterill
Mareeba, Qld
Veganism
Nick Pendergrast (Write On, GLW #721) betrays a very shallow understanding of sustainable agriculture (and it's opposite, capitalist agriculture) when he argues for veganism on environmental grounds.
Citing a UN report on the many problems with livestock farming is all very well, but it misses the point of the vast problems with modern agribusiness: it ships nutrients away from the soil they came from and it replaces them with artificial fertilisers, it relies on toxic pesticides and animal hormones and genetic crops, and so on.
The extravagant practice of eating huge slabs of steak and burger twice a day is ridiculous and unhealthy. The farming conditions that prop up this First-World luxury are inhumane and also unhealthy, not to mention environmentally destructive. Ocean fishing is destroying the marine ecosystem. That all has to change. Even on the very narrow basis of the quality of the food that is produced, we would all be better off if we had access to less meat but better quality. However, veganism does not follow logically from this.
In fact in a balanced, sustainable agriculture (which I think would roughly follow the ideas of the permaculture movement, as it has successfully done in Cuba) livestock play a crucial part. Poultry, pigs, and even cattle are very useful for eating waste matter and producing manure for fertiliser, and you can eat some of them (and their eggs, milk, honey) along the way. Further, many people have a lifestyle or even metabolism that is harder to sustain without high-protein food like meat and eggs. And despite the many virtues of soy products, they are hard to digest for many of us.
Agriculture needs to undergo a new revolution, and so do our diets. However, veganism is unlikely to be an important part of any future sustainable system I can envisage.
Ben Courtice
Melbourne
Federal election I
With the next federal election coming very soon, everybody who still values freedom and liberty should think very carefully before casting that vote.
John Howard is doing deals with an extremely dangerous, ultra right-wing religious organisation to obtain funding for the Liberal Party. But this organisation will provide the funding, provided that Howard implements some of the policies of this organisation into federal legislation.
Howard is feeding people false information that this organisation is not dangerous. This organisation shuns contact with the world. Not just with technology, books, radio and TV, but also other people. They do not vote, because voting allegedly interferes with God's right to ordain who rules. But Satan has infiltrated democracy and so they have started putting money and time into political campaigns.
They have also torn families apart and many young people in their filthy clutches have suicided.
Some of the officials of this organisation are under investigation by both the Australian Electoral Commission and the Australian Federal Police.
It is time that Howard comes clean with the people and tells them the truth. Given the above policies, this organisation will tear apart the freedoms and liberties which have been hard fought for over many decades. We have always been religiously secular, but our secularism will be destroyed.
Because Howard has done this, he must be punished at the ballot box when the federal election is called.
I am writing this to wise up as many people as possible about what Howard will not reveal regarding this disgusting and sickening ultra-religious organisation.
John Wickham
Cranbourne, Vic
Federal election II
Green Left Weekly caters admirably for its readers who are concerned with climate change, industrial relations, overseas events and repudiation of racism. As a federal election will soon be held, I would like to submit the following ideas for discussion and consider:
A $60 a week increase in aged and invalid pensions, and restoration of federal finance for dental care for pensioners and other members of the community who cannot afford dental fees. As the nursing staff in our hospitals are overworked, additional staff should be employed.
There should be additional scholarships for students. Free university education for those who require it and cannot afford it. Abolition of fees for TAFE students.
Trade union representation on the board of the Reserve Bank. Reduction of interest rates for home buyers and legislation to lower interest rates on bank cards. The abolition of fees for over the counter banking. The establishment of a people's bank to cater for the needs of people on small incomes.
Subsidies for struggling farmers to encourage them to continue farming. Federal finance for the construction of Housing Commission homes for people on small incomes. Accommodation for the homeless. There should be a substantial increase in child endowment.
Work for the disabled should be voluntary. Petrol prices should be controlled and prevented from constantly increasing.
If the ALP leaders and officials were genuinely labour they would be campaigning for all the policies contained in this letter. Their aim is to pander to the ruling class and win over the swinging middle class voter. That does not stop the Business Council of Australia, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Coalition government from demonising them.
All the evidence now available establishes the fact that the Socialist Alliance is the authentic party of labour because its aspirations and actions are inn complete accord with those of the working class and all people trying to survive on small incomes.
Bernie Rosen
Strathfield, NSW
Karl Rove
The news headlines that Bush has lost his "brain" with the retirement of his adviser Karl Rove comes as a surprise to most of us who are sure that Bush had lost his mind well before he became president. Reported sightings of Bush's mythical brain will be reported on You-tube and talk-back radio along with reports of Elvis, Yeti and UFO sightings.
Tony Backhouse
Dee Why, NSW