Northern Ireland
Doug Lorimer argues that the Northern Ireland Agreement endorsed by Sinn Féin "does nothing to end the root cause of violence in Northern Ireland".
As far as I know Sinn Féin have never claimed it would. What Sinn Féin have argued is that it may begin a process to break the stalemate and be a "stepping stone" (we've heard that before) to an end to the violence and advance the civil liberties of the oppressed nationalist community.
Scepticism is understandable but I cannot criticise Sinn Féin's leadership for at least trying. Nothing else seems to be working.
Doug is wrong to equate this current agreement with Sunningdale. There are many differences, including the fact that Sinn Féin were much weaker in 1973 and were completely excluded from it.
I believe if Sinn Féin use the new assembly to support the struggles of the nationalist community and not become a proxy for British security interests then little harm will come of it. It might even help to drive a wedge into the loyalist community and put pressure on Britain to pull out. Maybe it won't but I think Sinn Féin would be damned if it didn't try.
Darwin
Hanson's hypocrisy
Congratulations to Sue Boland (GLW June 24) for her comprehensive article on One Nation party's policies. I am concerned about the hypocrisy of Ms Pauline Hanson's calls for an end to racial division, with all Australians treated as equals, regardless of racial or ethnic origin.
How can she justify her exaggerated claims criticising the number of migrants from Asia if all Australians including those of Asian ancestry are being treated as equals? How does she justify policies on Aboriginal land rights which are those of the pre-Mabo era (1992) based upon the discredited notion of terra nullius that the land belonged to no one before white settlement. She does not even recognise that native title exists based upon English common law, so how can she claim that Aborigines are being treated as equals if they have no land rights according to One Nation party Policy?
I applaud former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's criticism of the Queensland Liberal and National Parties over their decision to allocate preferences to One Nation ahead of the Labor Party in the Queensland election.
I am concerned that this folly could be repeated in the national scene if the Prime Minister decides to seek a double dissolution election held partly on the Native Title Amendment Bill, which would also be likely to result in one or more One Nation party senators.
Farrer ACT
[Abridged.]
Howard and One Nation
The Machiavellian scheme of Howard, Kennett and that ilk is obvious: they are clearly working hand-in-glove with One Nation, whom they claim to despise.
First they arrange the sacking of thousands of workers — teachers, public servants, bank employees, stevedores, textile workers, nurses etc. — building up a sizeable source of cheap labour, i.e. unemployed people eager to work at anything for any salary.
Then they try to convince the nation that these people are unemployed because immigrants stole their jobs. Not so. They are unemployed because of the mad hysterical unplanned rush to privatise, and get quick profits by having a smaller underpaid workforce.
St Kilda Vic
Queensland election
Referring to the recent Queensland elections, Martin Thomas (GLW #321) suggests that the Democratic Socialists made their "main election time activity on One Nation a march to Parliament House ... to demand that the Coalition 'put One Nation last' on their how to vote cards". Does Martin walk around with his eyes closed? Our main election activity was our own election campaign.
One of our slogans was "For a real opposition to Hanson", which we used to make the point that the policies of Labor and the Coalition are fuelling the One Nation phenomenon by exacerbating people's hardship and suffering, on the one hand, and because they too play the racist scapegoating game by blaming migrants and Aborigines.
In our election material we sheeted the blame for people's pain to where it really belongs: the corporate bludgers who run this society. We posed real solutions to the social and ecological crisis which involve taking economic and political power away from the rich and putting it in the hands of working people. At the rally Martin refers to, we distributed this material and had a speaker who expanded upon the points in it.
Brisbane
[Abridged.]
Irish republican attacked
Kevin McQuillen — International Secretary and Ard Comhairle member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, veteran of over two decades of struggle for Irish national liberation, ex-Republican Socialist prisoner of war, survivor of multiple attacks by loyalist death squads on his home — has lost the hearing in one ear, the sight in one eye and is recovering from multiple skull fractures.
What is far more troubling than these serious impairments of his physical well-being, however, is how he received the injuries. In his own words: "I was assaulted by a gang of Provos in a local [republican] club. Apparently they took exception to my presence and decided to expel me ..."
The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America call upon all those who support the struggle for Irish national liberation to join in making plain that we deplore this vicious and unwarranted attack by members of the republican movement on a leading member of the Republican Socialist Movement. Join us in calling upon Sinn Féin to see to it such attacks by its members on other Irish republicans cease immediately, that they make a public accounting for the behavior of these members of their movement, and apologize for this outrage to Mr McQuillen and the IRSP.
The nationalist community of the six counties and the Irish working class know what to think of those who attack the men and women engaged in struggle for Irish national liberation and they know whose interests are served by such attacks. They must not be allowed to continue, and they cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
San Francisco, USA
[Abridged.]