Bikes for Timor
Some progressive people, such as Patrik, Ian M, Vaugn T, and I set out to rectify capitalism's extreme waste by collecting things and fixing them usually all by ourselves, without enabling ourselves to prioritise our work towards socialist revolution.
Such was the experience of the 1990s, when the environment movement won the argument that, yes, something needs to be done to save the environment. But people were deceived that the Marxist programme was wrong.
Patrik, after being released from prison, fixed push-bikes for needy children. More bikes came his way than he was able to fix and handle. The bikes filled the backyard, and peaked at around a number of 600. While he was away, the rotten capitalist system shat on him.
His co-tenant capitulated to the Housing Trust, and let their contractor remove all but five of the bikes. They ended up scrapped at Sims Metal, at about the time the massacre was at its recent peak in East Timor.
The lesson from this, is that we should demand that all items, such as push-bikes, collected from hard rubbish, be sorted into makes and models, repaired in publicly owned work-shops, at the expense of big business, and allocated to people who need them. Let's demand that hard rubbish push-bikes be taken to East Timor and that standard gauge railways be built in Dili, at the expense of companies that profited from the East Timor carnage. You can contact Nick I on (08) 8277 4273 and Vaugn T on (08) 8356 8874, (please ring late at night).
Ascott Park SA
Umbrage
Simon Stevens (CPA) and Nick Fredman (DSP) have taken umbrage at articles I have written on the referendum and East Timor.
The Weekly Worker has allotted them over one thousand words, and invited them to write more, it is unfortunate I only have 350 words in reply — hardly conducive to clarity.
Comrade Stevens has attempted to lampoon my articles. He writes: "Apparently we should follow [Larsen's] command and not support any peace-keeping force, but demand the abolition of [Australia's] states. Don't laugh; this man is serious."
I never counterposed action on one against the other. Simon exposes his lack of imagination by mocking the demand for the abolition of the federal monarchy system. My goodness, I will be calling for socialism next!
Abolishing the states is neither irrelevant nor some flight into leftism. It is achievable under capitalism, but extends democracy and thus room for initiative by the working class. If abolishing the states is so nutty, how does he explain its presence in ALP policy for years?
The referendum exposed the role the states play. Had the national vote been "yes", but "no" in three states, it would have gone down. The current system allows a conservative minority to block the majority. Intolerable.
East Timor. Fredman and Stevens remind me of the position of the Socialist Workers Party of Britain on Northern Ireland in 1968. For them the entry of British troops provided a "breathing space" for republicans. However, unlike the DSP, they never demonstrated for the troops to go in.
Australia's relations with the Indonesian regime are subordinate to imperialist access to markets and cheap labour. The main factor driving intervention in East Timor was not public opinion, but regional stability. The feelings of solidarity for East Timorese were thus incorporated into the ruling chauvinist consensus; the DSP tagged along with this propaganda campaign.
Fredman says Australian intervention was the only thing that could stop genocide. This is pure liberalism. Should Nato invade Russia to save the Chechens? Should Nato have bombed Serbia to save the Kosovars? Did you support the US invasion of Haiti (as did Noam Chomsky)? Why is East Timor a different case? Responses in the Weekly Worker are welcomed.
Communist Party of Great Britain
London
Economic rationalism
"A novel system, invented by economists, whereby ordinary workers' wages stagnate while shareholders and white-collar executives become richer than anyone in human history. Big winner: Michael Eisner, Walt Disney chief, who, in 1998 alone, earned $575.6 million. What could be more rational?"
The above item appeared in one of our local papers on October 9 and seemed to me to be as good an explanation of economic rationalism as I've seen. Perhaps someone who reads this could fill in with some financial details from the Australian scene.
Balmain NSW
Laughable
What an appropriate piece of juxtapositioning! The GLW editorial fulminating against the referendum result on the one hand and an article on Lenin's Left-wing communism — an infantile disorder on the other.
Hopefully, the editor is planning a follow-up article titled "Right wing socialism in Australia — is it just a front for the ALP?"
It is laughable to categorise the majority of the working class as supporters of reaction because they wouldn't accept a bodgy republic. What the "no" vote had going for it was not support for the monarchy but the patent contempt for the intelligence of the voters displayed by the succession of public advocates of the "Yes" case, including past Prime Ministers, living, dead and brain dead, at least one ex-Governor General who implied he wouldn't be seen dead standing for popular election as head of state and, of course, Malcolm Turnbull.
GLW might find it worthwhile to analyse the Victorian election result and discover why more than 90% of the vote went to the establishment parties rather than finding scapegoats for its own injured pride.
Alawa NT
Vegetarianism
With reference to the article on "Vegetarianism" in Resistance (#383), Ema Corro and Marina Carman should refrain from making rash statements like "consciousness is something specific to humans" until they have read Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan — the chapters "What is human" and "The animal within".
By actually observing animal behaviour, chimpanzees (who share 99.6% of our genes) have been seen to react with self-awareness when mirror-watching. Some, in the wild, do prepare and use primitive tools — indeed go to long distances to acquire a tool now for some action they intend to perform later (sticks they trim for termite fishing).
In a recent documentary, crows adapted to living in modern cities have learnt not only to drop nuts so moving cars will crush their shells, but have further learnt to drop them only on pedestrian crossings then wait until the humans cross, when it safe and there is time to collect the nuts inside.
While agreeing that our labours have made us human and that animals as a whole cannot liberate themselves, chimpanzees in zoos do try to steal the keys from the keeper's pocket. When successful, they often manage to open the lock and escape.
Findon SA