El Salvador
Our people, after a tough and heroic struggle have achieved peace in El Salvador, with the signing of an important round of agreements that have changed our situation, and despite the difficulties, it has only been necessary to fight to ensure the compliance of each and every accord.
The main activity of the Salvadoran people is focused on the forthcoming elections to be held in March 94, called the "elections of the century" because they are the peak of the peace process and will define whether our country puts an end to a century of authoritarian regimes and enters a new, advanced stage of democratisation. As well as the real possibility to include the participation of all political sectors, all levels of political power are at stake.
Therefore, our efforts are being directed to achieving the victory at the polls as it will allow for the continuation and deepening of the gains so far made. The Government and/or Legislative Assembly, in the hands of a popular majority will increase the viability of the historic vision of a prosperous country that develops through democracy and social justice.
We are carrying out an enormous effort to achieve the enrolment of close to 800,000 citizens who presently do not have any electoral documents. The gains so far are extremely important.
The opposition coalition Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front/Democratic Convergence (FMLN/CD), is now united, and the presidential ticket of Dr Ruben Zamora and Dr Francisco Lima, has begun to gain strength, so much so that the public opinion polls now place us in second position.
With this outlook, we hope that our friends throughout the world accompany us in this new struggle for peace and democracy in El Salvador, by donating financial or material support (communication equipment, computers, transport etc.) as our struggle will be tough and will require an enormous investment.
The membership, number of sympathisers, and collaborators of the FMLN is ever increasing and we are in position to achieve victory.
The ideal channel for assistance is through the Salvadoran Association for Peace and Democracy (ASPAD), which is a civilian NGO that is assisting us in this effort and which represents all the forces within the FMLN. Its united character guarantees a solid organisation to receive any aid. ASPAD telephone and fax is 0011 503 265830.
Schafick Jorge Handal
Coordinator General FMLN
Not ignored
I was very upset to read Val Plumwood's most recent letter (issue #121), in particular her claim that Green Left Weekly ignored the Katherine Street squatting action by Direct Action Against Homelessness (DAAH) in Sydney.
I was actually the person who covered this particular action for GLW and my article on the DAAH campaign was published in issue #105.
When GLW received the faxes from DAAH they asked if anyone could get down to the action that day because the squatters thought that they may be evicted immediately. Because I was in the office at the time, I volunteered and spent quite some time down at the action, interviewing the main spokesperson Natalie and offering moral support from GLW and the youth organisation Resistance, of which I am a member.
I have written a number of articles for GLW over the past couple of years and I'm quite accustomed to only a number of these being published or shortened due to space constraints. GLW receives more material each week than it can possibly publish. I think this is a reason why GLW should have more not less of our support.
I appreciate a resource like GLW and spend a great deal of my time helping to distribute and build the profile of the paper. GLW is a resource to all the progressive movements in Australia, and I believe that the effort the Democratic Socialist Party puts in to sustain its existence and to provide an opportunity for many community groups to have their views/campaigns publicised is commendable.
Let's make GLW the kind of resource we can all use in our campaigning work and realise that the "perfect coverage" we desire for issues which are close to our hearts is really up to us.
Carla Gorton
Sydney
Transport costs
The bus crash outside Wangaratta on Tuesday November 2, with the loss of many lives, is an illustration of the shortsightedness of many of the decisions made by governments today with easily recognisable costs being the only consideration when money is cut to transport.
This accident, between a bus and a semi-trailer transporting cars between Sydney and Melbourne, occurred within metres of the main Melbourne-to-Sydney train line. Neither of these two vehicles should even have been on the road. With adequate organisation and funding, the railway should have been the method of transport for both the people and the freight involved in this accident.
Even if one were to look purely at the financial side of the aftermath, there now will be millions of dollars in medical expenses and lost work, which is simply wasted. This money would have been better spent in upgrading (not downgrading) the railway freight and passenger network.
There now, no doubt, will be many cries for safer buses, with seat belts and the like. None of this would have saved one life on Tuesday November 2. However, all those people would have been alive today if either they or the cars on the semi-trailer had been transported by rail.
Dr Mark Radnor
Wangaratta District Base Hospital
It was a street kid
Everyday people are mugged for money, shoes, clothes, and other valuables. It happens to people of all races, sex, religions and class.
The most common thing in all muggings is the question, "Who did it?"
As society is now run by stereotyping people into specific categories, it is automatically a street kid.
A street person is viewed as a dirty druggo, alcoholic, low life, a threat to society.
A street person can now be classed as a radical.
This narrow minded impression is passed through the media in an attempt to rid society of outcasts.
Are you prepared to accept that a street kid took your wallet? If not, then who was it?
People do not know that most violent acts such as muggings are done by street-wise people who live with parents or friends. People that buy $120 shirts and $200 shoes. People that buy ounces of marijuana and cases of beer.
Still continued to be said is, "It was a street kid."
People still continue to deny the determination, strength and beauty which fills the minds of street kids.
Imagine living on the streets as a youth. Put yourself in their position. Open your eyes and see what it's all about.
Adrian Atkinson
Sydney
Public transport
Congratulations to Karen Fredericks for her feature (GLW, 3.11.93) on the need for better public transport in Australian cities.
The stories presented of government and freeway planning logic from Brisbane and Sydney are by no means exceptional in the Australian context. Melbourne is threatened by diabolical road proposals and Perth is currently experiencing a fight with the so-called Burswood Bridge and Road (former City Northern Bypass, which was the former City Northern Freeway).
The current proposal to spend $235 million (the West Australian government's own 1993 figures which are likely to be substantially underestimated) for 7.5 kilometres of trench, bridge and road through the middle of the main cultural area of Perth represents in excess of $130.00 for every resident of the entire state. Viewed another way, the West Australian government proposes to spend at least $313 per centimetre of length of freeway.
The obsession with roads and cars is not only ecologically perilous and socially inequitable in many ways, but it is also poor financial management. While public transport is often claimed to be too expensive, the full costs of road policies are rarely put forward for public scrutiny.
The 1960s freeway planning of American consultants such as De Leuw Cather should be consigned to the dustbin of history. Unfortunately, it is these outdated plans that are currently being implemented in our cities. It is time to restructure transport organisations and push for sustainable access, whether by integrating facilities, using telephones and faxes, walking, cycling and public transport. The car should be the option of last resort, not the first and only option.
Phil McManus
Perth
Royal tears
Prince Charles sheds tears for "Marsh Arabs" murdered by Saddam Hussein. Prince Charles is Colonel of the cherry-hatted, Royal Parachute Regiment, who shot dead 13 Irish people in 1973. These people were holding a march in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland, for civil rights, and equality before the law. Prince Charles, like Queen Victoria, prefers to talk up other people's crimes, and sweep his own under the bed. When the Irish were falling in swathes from famine and fever, in the 1840s, Queen Vic posted them a five pound note for the Famine Relief Fund.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
Government blackmail
Just how much pressure is a government body allowed to use on people before the pressure can be called blackmail? It seems that the NSW Government treads a fine line on this sort of issue, more than once overstepping this line.
A series of questions is on notice in state Parliament, pertaining to this issue. Ron Phillips, Health Minister will have to answer these questions.
Some government officials have been known to threaten people with losing their jobs, but even this pales when compared with the behaviour of a senior Health Dept official, talking from prepared notes, who threatened members of a community group with the loss of large sums of money, if they proceeded with a landmark Freedom of Information case against the Health Dept.
If this had occurred in Sydney or Canberra it would have caused a lot of noise. When senior Government officials can threaten the people, not once but twice, and show not one ounce of shame, or even bother to hide their threat, then something is going seriously wrong.
The people threatened are members of the management committee of the Port Macquarie Hospital Action group. They have always acted responsibly and with a care for their community. They are ordinary people who were treated despicably and with contempt. That the Health Dept thinks in it arrogance, it will get away with these deplorable tactics shows lamentable judgment. Bad judgment seems to be par for the course for NSW Government these days.
When Ron Phillips attempts to answer John Hatton's questions in Parliament, I would hope that all those who do not wish to be treated likewise, or who care about honest government will listen to his answers, and see if they make any sense at all.
Therese Mackay
Port Macquarie NSW
Human rights
When I heard that a Professor Ross Garnaut had accused the Australian government of being too "raucous" on human rights issues in Asia (Sydney Morning Herald 28/10/93) I nearly choked on my muesli. It was the cue for Senator Gareth Evans to posture, incredibly, as a defender of other people's rights.
Is Professor Garnaut serious? Is he talking about the Australian government that conspires to hush up the Indonesian regime's conduct, at the U.N.? The same government that signed in our name the Timor Gap Treaty, to divide up the spoils of the 1975 invasion of East Timor? It will be interesting to see if any fellow Australian professors can sum up some coverage and integrity and challenge his words, as the Paddlers for Peace so valiantly challenged the three Indonesian ships in the harbour on Sunday, October 24.
For the sake of money the Australian government is saying what racist Europeans have always said, non-European lives are cheap. As if it is different for parents when their child disappears, depending on where they come from, or that non-Europeans somehow don't mind living in fear. The fact is that the collaboration with the Indonesian regime since the 1975 invasion of East Timor, has dragged Australia's name through the mud, internationally.
I know there are many worthwhile causes that deserve support, but I urge all GLW readers to join an East Timor solidarity group. The one I am NSW branch secretary of, is the Australia-East Timor Association (AETA). We have monthly meetings in Sydney and Melbourne. To join send $10 ($5 concession) to AETA, PO Box 93, Fitzroy, Vic 3065. You can phone me on (02) 331 5986.
Stephen Langford
Paddington NSW
Corsets
In "Write On" 13/10/93 I described how Freud was unable to find a physical explanation for his female patients' symptoms, so he proposed a psychological cause, but I suggested they were due to the then fashionable whalebone corsets which compressed or displaced internal organs.
In reply Ms Hanna Sharp (Write On 27/10) has assumed that I am unaware of the wider criticisms of Freud, however I can assure her that that is not the case.
I can also assure her that I was not belittling the distressing symptoms of hysteria by suggesting a physical basis, but was merely identifying and emphasizing the primary cause. For example, corsets interfered with breathing and circulation, so I suggest that women were constantly on the verge of fainting, and would hysterically faint in response to the mild emotions which would have little, or no effect on non-corseted women. The faint was relieved by unlacing the corset.
Ms Sharp also asked if tight bras are responsible for hysteria nowadays, but I suggest the ribs would somewhat protect the chest from their effect. Nevertheless last century the Russian military uniform included pantaloons buttoned tightly at the top and because that caused so much disease in soldiers, the wearing of suspenders was made compulsory.
Today, tight belts and girdles could have a similar effect, as could poor posture or the enlarging womb of pregnancy.
I also suggest that massive shockwaves from exploding bombs could displace internal organs, nerves and veins to produce the various symptoms of combat hysteria (shellshock) and the g-forces of violent car, train or ship collisions (e.g. the Voyager) could account for post traumatic hysterias.
M.A. Banfield
Modbury SA