Write on: letters to the editor

Cuba and AIDS It amazes me that you keep running articles defending Cuba's worst aspects. Of course it is important to stand in solidarity with Cuba against imperialism, and it is correct to point to Cuba's primary health care system as an important gain for Cuban workers. Karen Wald's article about AIDS in Cuba (#214 Green Left) shows that there has been some progress away from "the dark side of a national AIDS care program". But her analysis lacks integrity, by obscuring the key questions about the quarantine system. Is all HIV testing voluntary, informed and confidential? To what extent are the sanatoria mandatory or voluntary at particular times for particular people with HIV? The discriminatory treatment of the various categories of detainees is omitted. Homosexuals and sex workers have been treated dreadfully within the sanatoria, and have been much less able to be granted time outside as a reward for becoming "responsible". The crucial clinical differences between HIV and other diseases are blurred. Why confine people with an infection that is only transmitted by blood or unprotected sexual intercourse, and who over the many years after becoming HIV positive require only episodic hospital care? Why the expense of establishing a separate stream of AIDS facilities, rather than provide treatment as needed in generalist services? Wald avoids the key questions of sexual politics in relation to AIDS in Cuba. Whatever happened to behaviour change, condom promotion and safe sex? Or does the Cuban government, like so many others, use fear of AIDS as a tool to reinforce messages about conservative morality? Cuba wanted a repressive and technocratic solution, and only later launched education campaigns. It is good that people with HIV can play public roles in groups such as GPSIDA. But broader democratic rights questions are posed by the epidemic. Can women, sex workers, drug users, gay men and people with AIDS organise independently? Have Cuba's draconian censorship laws been relaxed? Cuba's approach to AIDS was not "universally heralded for its effectiveness" — quite the reverse.
Ken Davis
Sydney NSW
[Edited for length.] Effrontery What effrontery the President of the USA has to tell the Irish people to reject the use of force while he sends 20,000 US troops to Bosnia to ensure the forced dismemberment of the Republic of Yugoslavia. The presumptuous arrogance of the US in not asking the Bosnian Serbs to participate in the peace talks is as obnoxious as the British Government calling for a one-sided laying down of weapons by the Irish Republican Army before talks with them can begin. The enforce a peace agreement on one of the belligerents without consulting that side requires that you first defeat them. That has not been done in the case of the Bosnian Serbs or in the case of the IRA.
C M Friel
Alawa NT Pen pal needed My name is Bryan Eric Wolfe. I'm 35 years old, a native Black American, who is currently on death row in the State of Texas. I'm looking for a pen-pal. I would like to write someone from Australia who's interested in writing to me. All I ask is this person be very understanding of my present position of Death Row. I'm a very open-minded person who enjoys lots of hobbies such as reading, craft works, arts and drawing, playing basketball, etc. I've been on Death Row for 2 years now and hopefully I can learn many things about the country of Australia.
Bryan E Wolfe #999079
Ellis One Unit/23-1-17
Huntsville, Texas 77343
USA Prince Charles Prince Charles, heir apparent to the English throne, is not just a State figurehead. Prince Charles is the serving Lieutenant-Colonel of the cherry-hatted Commando One, Parachute Regiment. This regiment was responsible in 1973 for an unprovoked attack on peaceful marchers in Derry City, Ireland, which left thirteen dead and many injured. The officer who led the regiment that day later said that the attack was unprovoked and that it had been wrong. Prince Charles, commander of the regiment, has never commented on the massacre, let alone utter a word of apology to the victims and their relatives. Needless to say, not a penny of compensation or medical expenses has ever dropped out of the bottomless Royal purse.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW China In the Sydney Morning Herald (30/11/95) under the News In Brief column is an item headed "Two executed". We are informed that China executed two female executives for involvement in the biggest corruption scandals since the 1949 communist takeover. It was a $380 million Xin Xing pyramid scam in central Wuxi city. State radio said, "Deng Bin and Yao Jihgi sentenced to death for illegal fund raising, bribe taking and other economic crimes". What else did the Chinese government, with its venturing down the capitalist path, expect to happen? They were merely being entrepreneurial in a restructured society. It is the kind of thing that happens all over the capitalist world, exemplified perfectly in "WA Inc".
Jean Hale
Balmain NSW Tarkine Since March this year we have been involved in direct action to halt work on the construction of the Road through the largest tract of temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, the Tarkine wilderness in North West Tasmania. We have trudged through mud, rain, sleet and sun for hours, and sometimes days, to reach remote camps in the forest. We've built tripods, bipods, blockaded boom gates, had shotguns pointed at us, and a bulldozer driver that took "Doze in a Greenie" to heart but, fortunately, failed. We've had tyres slashed, a hole in a petrol tank, abuse from passers-by. We've walked through forest that has not felt the human tread for a long time — and we've watched it crash to the ground. We've seen eagles soar and heard chainsaws roar. And we've seen support for the Tarkine grow and grow ... We've learnt a lot and are stronger and fiercer. Look out Groom! Look out Keating! We're going back to the Tarkine and we'll greet your dozers and police escorts. We'll be peaceful and strong, non-violent and loud. Get involved. Call the Tarkine National Coalition on 004 247 006.
Polly Sorensen
Tas
[Edited for length.] Letters to the editor In the week after Ken Sara-Wiwa's execution, only four letters of criticism were printed in the Queensland polysyllabic press (Courier-Mail/Australian), two by my wife and two by me. The point is only incidentally what a pair of smart-asses we were! In fact, it was precisely because my letter could have been a lot better, that I realised that they were probably the only letters to have been sent in on the subject when the papers were desperate for them. I completely sympathise with the comment in the 200th issue of GLW, that it is impossible to get the word 'Bougainville' into a Murdoch publication — nevertheless, at the right "newsworthy" time, it can get in, even with "CRA" printed next to it! GLW is everything Pilger says it is, and I hesitate to be critical, but beware the group habit of talking only to the charmed circle of the converted! Letters to the Editor are one of the most-read pages of local and mass circulation newspapers, and can supply desperately-needed pieces of the picture to an anxious public in anxious times. A lot of good people — the kind of "right wingers" who become allies and friends through dam or toll-road campaigns for instance — are lost to more wacky, divisive or dangerous explanations of the world, for lack of good plain English alternatives where they will come across them. People from all over the political spectrum find themselves looking at the same thing, and the word "multi-nationals", for instance, makes a lot of pieces fall into place for a lot of outwardly politically disparate people, who may actually wholeheartedly agree that a hole in the Ozone layer, woodchipping, or the World Bank are Bad Things. Like "Bougainville", I'm sure the "MNC" words has kept a lot of prose poems out of the public eye. But when Tony Blair's Guardian Weekly can feature a talk-fest on Multi-Nationals and Ethics, it may for instance be time to hit the papers with this issue again. These opportunities are rare and as with comedy, timing is everything!
John Braby
Conondale Qld David Martin Author David Martin will be 80 on December 22. He was born Laos Detsinyi into a middle-class Jewish family in Hungary in 1915. He was brought up in Germany (as Ludwig Detsinyi) during the period of Hitler's coming to power. He joined the Communist League of Youth when he was 17 and handed out leaflets under the noses of the Brownshirts. He then worked in Holland as a labourer in preparation for working on the land in Palestine (Israel). In 1937, still only 21, he joined the International Brigade and was a first-aid man at the front in Spain for two years. While there he wrote anti-fascist poems in German and nailed them on to trees. In 1939 he worked in London for the BBC, broadcasting anti-Nazi propaganda in German. In 1950 he visited Australia (and is still here). His play, The Shepherd and the Hunter was playing at the New Theatre in Sydney. It had already been shown in London. The play is set in Palestine in 1940 and is about "the conflict between Jew and Arab, about the tragedy of fanaticism and the bitter futility of violence". In Australia he joined the Communist Party. He left in 1956. His writing continued to be revolutionary. In 1954 he published a long satirical verse, Rob the Robber, the story of Prime Minister Robert Menzies robbing the people of Australia of their iron, oil, steel, coal, copper, gold and uranium. In 1968 he published another long satirical verse, The Idealist, the story of a clergyman who went on a hunger strike in support of old-age pensioners. All six of his adult novels are written broadly from the political Left viewpoint. He also wrote two collections of short stories, and six or so collections of poetry.
Elizabeth Martin
Beechworth Vic
[Edited for length.] Cuba It has been suggested to me that the edited version of my letter published in GLW #212 could be misinterpreted as implying that Cuba's revolutionary government made a mistake when it expropriated the capitalist class in the early sixties. This is not my view. Cuba, with its socialised economy, has achieved a lot in terms of health, education and many other areas. The current NEP-style concessions to capitalism have been forced on Cuba by the collapse of its main ally and trading partner, the Soviet Union. This illustrates one of the points I was making, i.e. that the choices made by revolutionary governments are greatly influenced by the objective conditions (national and international) in which they find themselves.
Chris Slee
Melbourne Nuclear tests Open Letter to supermarket managers: In common with the vast majority of Australian people, Hunter Action Against Nuclear Tests (HAANT) is very concerned about the continuing French nuclear testing program. Many groups in Australia and elsewhere are already boycotting French-made products and news reports suggest that they have resulted in, for instance, a 30% drop in French exports to Scandinavia. Effectiveness of the campaign depends largely on ordinary citizens becoming aware of which products are French-made and also which are French-owned. HAANT has drawn up a list of widely-available French-made and/or -owned products (see list below). The list includes some Australian-made products of French-owned companies for which there are readily available non French-owned Australian-made substitutes of comparable quality. HAANT seeks to have products on the list withdrawn from sale until France ceases its nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific and undertakes to permanently cease testing. We are asking your firm, as well as those of your competitors, to cease stocking the listed items or offering them for sale, and to display notices such as those that are available from HAANT HAANT has already approached many Newcastle outlets of a range of retail chains. In nearly all cases the managers, while expressing personal support, have pointed out that they lack the power to remove certain products from the shelves. Accordingly we seek your support at the State and National levels.
Bob Berghout and Jane Beckmann on behalf of Hunter Action Against Nuclear Tests
Newcastle Alcoholic Beverages: Bollinger, Dom Perignon, Moet et Chandon, Chatelle Napoleon, Courvoisier, Remy Martin, Benedictine, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Pernod, Coolabah, Craigmoor, Jacob's Creek, Morris, Orlando, Wyndham Estate; Water: Evian, Perrier, Vittel, Volvic; Cheese: Cradle Valley, Heritage, Lactos, Mersey Valley, St Claire; Pharmaceuticals: Ambre Solaire, Aspro, Rennies, Bic Razors, L'Oreal; Stationary: Bic Pens, Blu-Tac, Glu Stik, Rolla Stick; Adhesives: Seal-N-Flex, Multi Bond, Super Bond, Timber Bond, Contact Bond; Tyres: Michelin; Other: Air France, Club Med, National Mutual Life Insurance.