Middle East
Australia recently heard a senior Israeli official affirm his government's desire to achieve a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians in the occupied territories by the end of this year. Dr Yossi Beilin, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs spent several days here to press home the serious intentions of the Labor government to miss no more opportunities, and to trade land for peace with an independent Palestinian "neighbour state". His address to the national Press Club in Canberra on 27 April was broadcast on ABC-TV the next day, and further encounters with student groups reiterated the new attitude now openly adopted by the Israeli Labor Administration.
Yossi Beilin stressed the seven hundred thousand million US dollars (US$700,000,000,000) spent in the Middle East during the last 10 years was a total waste. These funds could have benefited the entire region had this stupendous sum been allocated to useful and peaceful purposes! The main danger now, he said, is radical Islamic fundamentalism — the last resort or refuge of hopelessness and despair for many Palestinians, who until now have been prevented from channelling their energies into constructive and peaceful projects. He prays that the current negotiations will lead to the prompt establishment of an independent Palestinian self government in the occupied territories. Concurrently the Golan Heights and South Lebanon would then be returned in an overall regional Peace Agreement.
Surprisingly, even the future status of Jerusalem, as a joint capital for peaceful neighbouring Israeli and Palestinian states, was regarded as possible.
For the first time in nearly 50 years genuine peace seems attainable. But the danger remains that right-wing fundamentalist and orthodox elements may seek to destroy the new peace initiative through deliberate provocations.
We fully support the present negotiations for the unconditional return of occupied territories to the Palestinians.
We would go further and insist that the Israeli Government owes basic human rights to all Palestinians now. This requires the re-opening of the occupied territories, as well as respect for the human dignity of Israel's Palestinian neighbours.
Sydney Jewish Left Executive Committee
Kim and Stephanie Cunio, Alf Liebhold, Lea Loeve, Vivienne Porzsolt, Fred Scheuermann
Sydney
Macedonian photograph
Accompanying my article on Macedonia (GLW May 5) was an unfortunate photo of a Macedonian demonstration in which is prominently displayed a placard reading "Macedonia, land of legend, land of glory, BUT NEVER GREEK". I want to very strongly disassociate myself from this, which I consider to be on the level of "Macedonia is and always has been Greek". I would not normally complain about the photo or graphic, but given the nature of the discussion, the prominence of this slogan on the page was most misleading. As a to such manifestations of chauvinism, from whichever side they come.
Michael Karadjis
Sydney
Broadside
The interview with Broadside editor, Ian Milliss (GLW 97), left me feeling frustrated after reading some of his gross generalisations and unsubstantiated rhetoric.
The left still has a long way to go when even a little mutual recognition of commitment and success is so hard to acknowledge. There is a need for genuine discussion and debate, but resorting to sectarian caricatures doesn't help our cause. Ironically, rather than his accusation of not being interested in politics, most of us are accused of being over zealous.
It is true that it takes a long time for any paper to really establish itself, but when there are two living examples that reason alone is an inadequate excuse. The reality that many people involved with Broadside and similar projects fail to grasp is the need for visibility. When we don't have the big dollars and glossy advertising of big business papers then we need to use other mechanisms to promote our ideas and reach out.
GLW has succeeded because the DSP and Resistance members have been prepared to back it with time and effort: getting out onto the streets to sell the paper. We have developed a niche over two years and become known and respected through that very important activity. We consistently strive to involve other groups and individuals in writing about their campaigns and views. This is also how we have managed to maintain a relevance for the activists, the left and concerned individuals looking for a voice.
Milliss suggests that trade union, institutional and other journals are all part of an alternative media. Alternative to what? I have read few TU journals in the past few years which have challenged the economic rationalism of the mainstream media, commentators and politicians. We need an alternative that offers an analysis in support of working people, women, Aboriginal rights, social and environmental justice.
Melanie Sjoberg
Hove, SA
[Edited for length.]
News sources
I write to express my sadness at the demise of Broadside, as others have done.
My main reason for regretting its passing is that it means there is one less publication giving decent weight to Australia's disgraceful foreign policy.
Listen to a day of Radio National, or watch a day of TV, any station, and you would not guess that places called Bougainville or East Timor exist. The papers are no better — GLW, the late Broadside, and a couple of others excepted.
I would like to strongly recommend one excellent publication that should be more widely known. It is the Pacific News Bulletin, a monthly magazine. A personal subscription costs $12. Send it to n, PO Box 489, Petersham NSW 2049.
Ultimately, the fate of Broadside may have had less to do with its "relevance" or its policy (I know its opinion on the Accord is different from GLW's), but with the method of distribution. It may just be that to get a reasonable circulation, you have to go onto the streets to sell the paper — as GLW people bravely do every week.
So keep it up. And if readers are interested in knowing what is going on in our region, support GLW as well as the excellent activist Pacific News Bulletin.
Stephen Langford
Paddington NSW
ALP prisons policy
We write to express our alarm at the recent antics of the state ALP over prisons policy. The ALP's constant political point scoring on crime and punishment is to us sheer political opportunism akin to that of former minister Michael Yabsley.
When there is a reported prison suicide the ALP demands that prisoners be deprived of dignified clothes; when there are reported breaches of day leave they demand that the system be "tightened up"; when there is an escape from a juvenile institution they demand that "security by tightened". Hundreds of prisoners are affected when one notorious prisoner is chosen for political treatment. These unthinking, knee-jerk responses only contribute to the growth of a more severe, more expensive and more socially damaging penal system.
In the last five years, the NSW prison population has been increased from less than 4000 to over 6200. Prison deaths have increased. Higher prison rates have not reduced crime rates. However in this time the ALP has not shown itself capable of expressing any constructive alternative corrections policy. The enormous rise in prison numbers was despite the Liberal-National Government's stated intention not to increase prison numbers, despite the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, despite the combined churches' campaign against the widespread use of prison, but also because of the ineffective opposition in this state.
The situation is not inevitable, nor is it the same in all states. From 1981 to 1991 prison rates remained stable in all other states except Tasmania, where the rate fell substantially.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent constructing and maintaining new prisons at a time of deep recession and cut backs in social services, in the face of all expert and considered opinion which tells us that prison is a bad and socially damaging institution which should be used only as a last resort. The ALP's own policy platform supports community corrections as the alternative to prison, but the parliamentary party is apparently afraid to publicly sell its own policy.
For the community's sake, we badly need a de-politicised approach to crime and corrections in NSW, one where political parties and the media recognise the great costs in an incessant, competitive and "macho" struggle to see which party can outdo the other in and punitive measures.
Rev Harry Herbert, Kevin Cook, Dr Eileen Baldry, Assoc. Prof. David Brown, Peter McGregor, Brett Collins, Blanche Hampton, Tim Anderson, Kylie Kilgour, Frank Mulheron
Sydney
Police firearms
To the best of my knowledge no judge in Australia any longer has the authority to sentence anyone to death.
Yet that option is implicit in the decision to allow Northern Territory police to carry sidearms whilst on general duties.
The recent shooting dead by a Hong Kong policeman of a driver who failed to stop after running a red light is typical of the irresponsible use of firearms by some police.
Police are in a privileged position when it comes to the shooting of civilians — these incidents are investigated by police, the dead person has no representation whatever at the inquiry and police findings are rubber stamped by coroners.
If our society is so dangerous that police require firearms to protect themselves then all citizens require them.
To look at it in another perspective, take as an example the lead-up to Jim Waley's Nightline News on channel 8, where a fugitive on foot is gunned down by Queensland police, an act unquestioned by authority.
Now let the fugitive be a uniformed policeman, gunned down by armed civilians. Would it be so unquestioned?
There is not a government in Australia that has any control over its police force and there is not a police force in Australia prepared to accept any restriction on their powers.
C.M. Friel
Alawa NT