Dockers
There is one talent which the British ruling class possess in abundance, and that is their ability to produce propaganda denigrating their opponents, whilst pretending that they are interested only in revealing the truth. The film Dockers, shown on ABC TV on December 1, was a typical example.
In 1997 my wife Mairi and I arrived in Liverpool just after the incident when the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union falsely declared lost a Conference resolution supporting the Liverpool Dockers. The film does not mention that the next day a reconvened Conference where that motion was re-put carried it and the resolution of support for the Liverpool Dockers.
These results were brought about mainly by the "unladylike" behaviour of some 40 to 50 members of WOW (Women of the Waterfront). Not only were these women involved in organising that the dockers and their families were fed and housed, but they were very voluble in the political decisions that were being made. Their fighting spirit made me very proud to be a member of the working class. The film was very disappointing in respect to the role the women played in the dispute.
Whilst I enjoyed the film, it did not really portray the true picture.
Shellharbour NSW
[Abridged.]
Christ-like
Tom Uren, who was in the 2nd AIF in East Timor, said in the Sydney Morning Herald on November 20 that Xanana Gusmao is "a Christ-like figure".
But Xanana Gusmao is still alive. There are 250,000 dead East Timorese who are the real "Christ-like figures". Their sacrifice, on the altar of commerce and profit, was sanctioned by all Australian governments, and, in 1975, by the Whitlam "bonzer government" of which the former soldier and comrade of the East Timorese was a Cabinet member.
Hawke, Uren, Evans, the list goes on, must come out and tell the truth about their complicity in this unspeakable crime against humanity. Dribbling attributions of divinity to Xanana Gusmao is not enough.
Wentworth Falls NSW
Single mothers
The knives are out for single mothers.
In the US, women with pre-school children and no job are being thrown off all social security after two years. Remarkably, the main response from liberals is that single mothers should still receive welfare whilst looking for work and that employment should be made to pay via child-care subsidies, etc.
Yes, but what about the right of single parents to stay at home with their child(ren)? Not working (outside the home) is an option for married women — with or without children — who have a husband in the work force. Why then should single mothers be forced into the labour market?
Haven't single mothers already suffered due to the breakdown of their relationship? Isn't bringing up a child alone normally harder than bringing up a child with a partner? Why should single mothers have work obligations — rather than work opportunities — that married mothers do not have?
Rydalmere NSW
East Timor
Sean Healy repeats Nick Fredman's assertion that "Australian intervention was the only thing that could stop genocide" in East Timor.
Watching a vicious attack on a people without immediately being able to directly intervene yourself is a reflection of the period we live in — the left is extremely weak. But does this excuse us chucking our principled anti-imperialism to fall in behind an imperialist-sponsored stability of the region?
Comrade Healy, Fredman and the DSP opposed NATO's intervention in Kosova. Why? The NATO countries have no territorial aims over Serbia. Surely, the Kosovan masses were too terrorised and outgunned to resist? Surely, the Serbian masses were "not yet up to it"? Was the Democratic Socialist "Party" about to send its own r-r-revolutionary platoon or two to save the Kosovans? Or are you saving them to invade Russia to protect the Chechens?
Come on comrades, your position is entirely inconsistent. You must either abandon your social-imperialist support for Australian/UN troops, or you must reassess your position on a number of other "humanitarian" imperialist interventions. Where do you stand?
Communist Party of Great Britain
London
[Abridged.]
Nuclear Y2K
The nuclear weapons industry is huge, with lots of jobs and prestige at stake in the countries possessing nuclear arms. In all my 74 years I have yet to meet the politician who will take action that might endanger jobs or prestige in his/her electorate.
I did think, however, that I was on a winner by asking that nuclear weapons be taken off hair-trigger alert over the Y2K period so that weapons would take hours or days to prepare for firing instead of seconds. This would not endanger jobs or prestige.
It surprises me that the nuclear weapons states are not even prepared to go this far to make our world a little safer. What surprises me even more is that our government is not only not prepared to cast a vote in the United Nations in favour of nuclear disarmament, but appears incapable of pressing for the nuclear weapons to be taken off alert status, despite the Australian Senate having twice called upon them to do so.
Australian Peace Committee (SA Branch) Inc
Adelaide
[Abridged.]
Profile?
The Australian women's soccer team, the Matildas, have taken their clothes off in an attempt to lift the profile of women's sport before the 2000 Olympics.
Interviewed on the Today Show, team member Amy Taylor admitted that it is a symptom of the poor profile of women's sport that this is perhaps the only way of getting substantial attention.
No doubt it will turn a few heads, but it will only serve to reinforce the double standards which govern men's and women's sport.
Men's sport receives the lion's share of air time and newspaper coverage; it is treated as serious sport. Women's sport is treated as more of a sideshow. Regardless of women's skills, the merit of women's sports is judged on the attractiveness of its players.
The Matildas calendar promotion is simply playing by the unwritten rules of women's sport, rather than finding the ways to challenge the double standard which keeps women's sport in the wings.
Perth
[Abridged.]