Relations of production
I agree completely with the article “How Socialism can be Won” (GLW #871). However, I urge Green Left Weekly readers not to forget the source of the socialist movement.
This is the ideas formulated by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels and set out in The Communist Manifesto and many other works.
There have been many attacks on Marxism over the years, a lot of them unfortunately coming from the political left. It has been suggested for instance that the computer has made Marxism obsolete.
But I think that the man who inspired the revolt in Tunisia was an unemployed computer science graduate should have put paid to that idea.
The computer is only another machine, part of the forces of production. It is the development of these forces that gives rise to the need to change the relations of production.
That might sound like a bit of dry academia, but it is a most important revolutionary tenet.
The “relations of production” simply means you and the boss. So read some Marxist literature and you'll find it an inspiration for when you go on the next demo or go on strike against the boss.
Ron Barrett
Mt Druitt, NSW
Refugee policy a blight on Australia
We should encourage our asylum aeekers to demonstrate and to leave the concentration [camp]-like compounds of Australia's detention centres.
These people have not committed a crime, they have not robbed or assaulted anyone. They are not a threat to the Australian way of life. They are seeking to secure their right to life, liberty and human worth by becoming Australians.
The Australian Labor Party stands disgraced — it was Labor who in 1992 introduced mandatory detention. The Australian Liberal Party, according to Tony Abbott, would tow these people back out to sea.
Two thousand four hundred asylum seekers on Christmas Island in overcrowded facilities, behind barbed wire, and treated like they are criminals, is a blight upon Australia's history and our national identity.
Gerry Georgatos
Harrisdale, WA. Abridged.
NSW Liberals could have ended Part 3A
Vote Liberal to ensure a state government that continues to piss in corporate pockets — if you want real change vote Green.
The Liberals, with support of the cross bench, had the numbers to knock back Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act after the second reading in the Legislative Council.
But the Coalition supported the government in voting for a third reading allowing the government more time to round up support from the conservative cross benches.
Tony Backhouse
Narraweena, NSW.
Missing in action
A packed-out St Peters Town Hall candidates meeting on March 14, hosted by Climate Action Newtown and Sydney Residents against Coal Seam Gas, heard from only a couple of the candidates standing in Marrickville.
Labor’s Carmel Tebbutt and the Liberal's Rosana Tyler were missing — despite the groups making every effort to fit in with Ms Tebbutt's busy schedule (since last year).
The groups had letterboxed around half the electorate and so should not be accused of only preaching to the converted.
The absence of the two major parties at such a community forum can only lead to the conclusion that they have something to hide.
Perhaps it's because they both intend to continue with pushing fossil fuel energy despite climate scientists and health professionals sounding dire warnings.
Pip Hinman
Socialist Alliance candidate for Marrickville
Newtown, NSW.
Arab uprisings are inspirational
While I am deeply saddened by the recent deaths in the rebellions in Egypt and Tunisia and the ongoing conflict and killings in Libya, I am also elated that these wonderful uprisings are happening.
For far too long the Arab peoples have suffered under cruel and corrupt dictatorships that enriched themselves while the people lived in poverty and misery. Many of these regimes were/are backed by outside powers that care only about strategic allies and resources.
Now the people are empowered and fearlessly defying their oppressors and striving for fundamental change. And that is a tremendous thing to behold.
Considering the dire problems the world faces politically, socially and environmentally, it is a tremendously inspiring and powerful thing to see ordinary people take effective action and change things. Perhaps in the potent ideals of people power there is real hope for humanity and our planet after all.
Steven Katsineris,
Hurstbridge, Vic. Abridged.
Greens preferences
I write to congratulate the Socialist Alliance on their decision to preference Labor before the Liberals.
Like many in the left, the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) has been frustrated with many of the policies of the state Labor government. However, there is now a real danger that the Liberals, Shooters and the extreme right will control the upper house of the NSW parliament.
The last time the Liberals controlled both houses of the Australian parliament, workers were shafted with Work Choices. We need as a movement to work collectively to avoid this scenario.
The CFMEU condemns the narrow-minded position of the Greens to not preference and therefore waste votes that should be used to stop the extreme right.
Unfortunately, just like there are many in the ALP that lack class politics, there are many in the NSW Greens, including candidates for the NSW parliament, who have no track record of commitment to workers’ rights.
In fact, a number of the candidates have not and are not even members of trade unions.
The CFMEU urges Socialist Alliance voters to preference our former Secretary, Andrew Ferguson, before the NSW Greens and help elect a real fighter for workers’ rights into the State Parliament.
Malcolm Tulloch
NSW secretary, CFMEU.
Uprisings could bring Palestinian justice closer
The recent insurrections in the Middle East must have some impact on the US and Israel. It could hasten the day when Resolution 194 of the United Nations that declared “the unconditional right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes” comes about.
John Pilger stated that Professor Ilan Pappe, who wrote The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is “Israel’s bravest, most principled and most incisive historian”.
For the reader who wants an objective and accurate account concerning Israel’s history before and since 1948, Professor Pappe’s well-researched book will completely fulfill that need.
Bernie Rosen,
Sydney, NSW. Abridged.
Libya
I am surprised and alarmed at the alacrity with which some people are endorsing the reactionary position adopted by interfering Western governments to establish a “no-fly-zone” over Libya.
This is a blatant grab for oil by the West and has nothing to do with democracy, as exemplified by the exact opposite position which the US is taking on Bahrain — that is, to support the government and even give tacit approval to the Saudi forces bolstering the government's position to suppress the opposition.
Enforcing such a no-fly-zone is virtually a declaration of war. France led the charge by announcing that it already recognizes the rebels as the government of Libya.
We know nothing about these rebels, such as the extent of their popular support, and whether they are progressive or tyrannical. The enemy of an enemy is not automatically a friend — think of the Taliban, and later, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
David Bastin
Nicholls, ACT.
Dershowitz inconsistent on free speech
Jay Fletcher’s great article, “Corporate Media Smear Wikileaks” (GLW #872, used a quote from Alan Dershowitz’s recent interview with German magazine Der Spiegel giving the impression that Dershowtiz is a supporter of “freedom of speech”.
It should be noted that he is no supporter of “freedom of speech” when it comes to Israel. In fact, he is the complete opposite of it as he has a history of preventing critical analysis of Israel, most recently in his crusade against Norman Finkelstein’s tenure rejection.
Kryten
Penrith, NSW.