Bill Game replies
As a show of evenhandedness, it would have been nice to be afforded the same opportunity by Green Left Weekly (issue #549) to contribute my thoughts on the present [WA CEPU/ETU] election bearing in mind I am held in high regard by some for my long time as a left activist:
- The Recharge team has avoided my offer to debate the issues before any meeting of members; Your candidate Anthony Benbow has served a period of time on the union's State Council and during that time has failed to raise any issues. This can be checked by reading the State Council minutes;
- The union's best shop steward structures are outside of the construction industry yet your article implies the opposite;
- I initiated the formation of independant rank-and-file committees in the contracting and lift industries. As well, we formed an unemployment register that was open to scrutiny of members. The Recharge team have failed to keep this service running in the contracting industry;
- I recruited and trained interested activists to became organisers. In fact, three current organisers were recruited and trained from construction industry by myself. The Recharge team have stopped this practice;
- I was the only state secretary who stood up to the giant Hammersley Iron mining company. Four unions had been served writs totalling $100 million. I faced constant opposition by other unions and the Recharge team;
- The final wash-up of the dispute ended with the ACTU congratulating me for my actions.
I could go on and on pointing out the failure of Recharge members to bring issues to State Council prior to the current election but would be satisfied if you publish this response and make an attempt to be even-handed next time;
I intend to circulate this letter to the rank-and-file members.
Bill Game
State secretary
WA CEPU electrical division
Perth
Capitalist land 'mobilisation'
Green Left Weekly (#547) quotes Solomon Islands bishop Terry Brown's suggestion that Vanuatu-style land registration be a solution to "an endless string of land disputes". But since when are those land disputes a problem? Ever since colonisation and imposition of a Westminster-style system of (good?) government.
Brown himself pointed to the real problem, when stating that the Solomon Islands "High Court ... treats the land virtually as if held by individuals". And the patriarchal attitude of the colonisers didn't let them realise that the Solomon Islands has matrilineal land ownership, i.e. land is inherited by the women. So it's the capitalist concept of everything being a commodity, of land being tradeable, which causes the trouble.
That is why the powerful anti-privatisation movement in the Melanesian neighbour state of Papua New Guinea has successfully campaigned against "land mobilisation", a term that the ousted former PNG government had coined, and which points to the reason why land registration is being promoted by (neo)colonisers like Australia. Mobilisation as euphemism for future sell-out. The Australian government will happily pick up Brown's suggestion.
Norman Brewer
PNG Solidarity Action
Sydney
Military recruiters in schools
On August 7, the army, air force and navy held a recruitment session on Hobart college campus. The publicity they got was amazing, it was announced over the PA and in the school bulletin. It made me remember back to the student strikes when students would be marked down as wagging if they went to the strikes and yet they let the military on to our campus to recruit for more imperialist ventures.
After hearing about the visit for the third time over the PA. I had had enough. So I made a few posters, with slogans such as "Join the army, travel the world, meet new people then kill them" and put them up around where the recruitment was taking place. Almost straight away, they were taken down, so I put more up. They were again taken down.
I went into the lecture that the military was giving and sat down. Almost straight away, one of the teachers asked me to leave the room without me even asking a question.
When I was out of the room I had a discussion with one of the teachers, who was quite accommodating in what she was saying to me. But what I didn't get was that she said that these were not the right people to ask political questions to, not in this instance anyway. So does that mean that when you join the military you become a walking robot that does not think about politics?
The teacher helped me make an appointment with the principal, to talk to him about changing school policy on having military recruiting on our school. If this fails, five people have said they want to help in a campaign.
When this was mentioned in my first class, quite a few people said how they were pissed off that the military were on our school trying to recruit.
Duncan Meerding
Hobart
[Abridged.]
Gay marriage
The Prime Minister has recently opposed gay marriage, claiming marriage, as we understand it, is about children and species survival.
Virtually nobody, however, regards a childless marriage as illegitimate. And one might be more concerned about actual or potential global overpopulation than species extinction.
How will gays marrying harm other people? Heterosexuals will continue to marry and reproduce as usual.
To defend his economic policies, Mr Howard appeals to notions of choice and voluntary agreements, despite the fact that deregulation and a lack of public spending can restrict the options available to the less-well-off who lack the resources and power to do well in the private marketplace.
But when it comes to more personal, private issues like marriage for gays and voluntary euthanasia, individual freedom is vigorously opposed by illiberal Liberals.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
Clarification please
Australia Post delivered the following letter to Green Left Weekly instead of the intended recipient, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen:
Dear Archbishop,
I have read your condemnation of gay relationships with interest following the proposed ordination of two gay bishops in the Church of England. Indeed, only in the last week both the Vatican and the Prime Minister John Howard have encouraged marriage only among those who are going to have children. Understandably, your condemnation of the abominable crime of buggery stems from the same Bible (see Genesis, chapter 19, verse 5). Given this, I was hoping that you would clarify the following biblical passages that have been troubling me of late.
The Bible says it is OK to have slaves, but foreign slaves can be kept forever, whereas local slaves can only be kept for six years (Ex: 21:1). I think that for this purpose Tasmanians and New Zealanders are foreign. Can you clarify?
If I beat my slave to death with a stick, I'm not to be punished if the slave doesn't die within "a day or two" (Ex: 21:20). With modern advances in medical technology, surely this rule doesn't apply any more?
If I work on the Sabbath, I'm to be put to death (Ex: 35:2). Does this apply to handing out leaflets at my local abortion clinic?
Last Sunday, I tried to make a sacrifice of a sheep at my local church and attempted to splash its blood to the four sides of the altar as required by Leviticus chapter 3, verse 8. My local vicar said that if I try this again he'll call the police. Am I obliged to put him to death?
None of us are getting any younger, and my skin is not as healthy as it used to be. I have also developed a cold sore. Does this mean that I need to wear torn clothes, leave my hair uncombed, cover the lower part of my face and call out, "Unclean! Unclean!" (Lev: 13:45). I think this is carrying things a bit too far, but I am keen to hear your advice.
Recently, I had an irregular discharge of semen. Do I really need to sacrifice two doves? (Lev: 15: 13). Doves are hard to come by and the people at the local pet shop are becoming suspicious. Will sparrows do?
I'm sure you know about the story of the scapegoat. This is when a person projects prejudices and bigotry onto a metaphorical goat (such as a minority group), and then sends the goat into exile in the belief that it will make him find favour with the Lord (Lev: 16:21). Do you think that this parable helps to illuminate your present views on homosexuality?
Dale Mills
Sydney
Australia-US Free Trade Agreement
Will the Howard government put this proposal before the public in a referendum? There exists no electoral mandate for any such proposal. There is no constitutional requirement for parliamentary approval either, another major shortcoming in the Australian constitution.
In the US, the Congress has to approve such a treaty. Although it seems to be presented as a gift to Australia, a reward for participating in the Iraq War (contrary to the people's wishes), the reality is that such a treaty would be not be approved by the Congress unless it is clearly in the interest of the US multinationals.
From what I have read about it, this treaty could be extremely detrimental to Australia's national interest.
Klaas Woldring
Progressive Labor Party
Pearl Beach NSW
Yes to same-sex marriages
Psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental-health professionals agree that homosexuality is not an illness, a mental disorder or an emotional problem. Over 35 years of objective, well-designed scientific research has shown that homosexuality, in and itself, is not associated with mental disorders or emotional or social problems.
There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation; most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. In most people, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. There is also considerable recent evidence to suggest that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality. It is important to recognise that there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people.
Human beings cannot choose to be either homosexual or heterosexual. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed.
Some therapists who undertake so-called conversion therapy report that they have been able to change their clients' sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Close scrutiny of these reports however, show several factors that cast doubt on their claims. For example, many of the claims come from organisations with an ideological perspective that condemns homosexuality. Those who think they have been cured of homosexuality are in fact repressing their own identity.
Howard should be shamed for his blatant act of discrimination.
James Kyriazis, Melbourne
We reap what we sow!
Howard and his cabinet colleagues had the opportunity to distance our country from the United States when the US decided to invade Afghanistan in 2001. Then, in 2003, Howard had the opportunity to use his influence with the US to urge restraint with respect to the unprovoked attack on Iraq. He failed on both counts. He sent our forces to war despite it not being in our national interest. He sent our forces to war despite the likelihood that it would result in us becoming a target for groups who oppose US hegemony around the world.
Australia's participation in the unlawful attack on Iraq will go down in history as one of our greatest mistakes. Akin in moral turpitude to the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their parents. We invaded Iraq and killed innocent people without justification and without provocation.
Howard and his cabinet are the main perpetrators of this horrific crime, but we apathetic Australians, who only long for the good life, are also responsible. We can't plead the "previous generation defence" because we stood by while our armed forces committed the atrocities in Iraq. We let it happen, and justified it to ourselves by saying that we were getting rid of a terrible dictator. What self-righteous crap!
Is it little wonder that many people of Islamic faith are angry with us. They have a right to be. We wronged them. We asked them to respect our Christian beliefs, and to accept the rule of international law, and then we invaded Iraq.
When you ask yourself why are we being targeted by groups like al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, you also need to ask yourself why did innocent Iraqi men, women and children have to die because our Government felt it necessary to remove Saddam Hussein?
Adam Bonner
Meroo Meadow NSW
From Green Left Weekly, August 20, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.