ALP and preferences
Re Steve Robson's article, "WA election results and preferences (GLW, March 17).
As was published at the time, I resigned from the (WA) ALP in protest of the Serious and Repeat Offenders Sentencing Act 1992 and the WA Government's corrupt and often violent occupation and desecration of the Sacred Site of the Waugal on the banks of the Swan River.
Unlike the DSEL and Green candidates standing in the state seat of Perth, I could see no difference between a right wing Liberal opposition and a right wing Labor Government which had introduced a juvenile justice legislation which is not only racist in targeting Aboriginal children and is in breach of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody but is also in breach of various International Human Rights Treaties to which Australia is a signatory.
The Lawrence Government was widely condemned for this legislation. An Upper House standing committee on legislation brought down its report calling for sweeping amendments stating, "the legislation is irredeemably flawed by reason of the adverse impacts flowing from its basic scheme of mandatory indeterminate sentence, breaches of international obligations and administrative unworkability."
Despite the growing condemnation from Aboriginal, judicial, human rights, welfare, church and political groups, the (WA) Labor Government was stubborn in its resolve that the legislation would remain unchanged.
It would appear that in the name of political expediency the human rights of the child meant nothing to the Lawrence Government. In fact, as part of their political point scoring in the lead up to the State election they tried to outdo the Liberal party in calling for even harsher measures for offenders and their parents.
I was not standing as a party stooge and refused to direct preferences to a right wing Labor party for that reason. The WA Labor Government had proved that when it came to castigating the helpless (child offenders) and the oppressed (Aboriginal Land Rights) their blades were every bit as sharp as the Liberals.
For the above reasons I found it an impossible proposition to direct preferences to the WA ALP or to support anyone else who did so. The electorate had to choose its own poison in a straight split ticket.
Under such circumstances I feel you are misguided to believe it deserves any bouquets or pats on the back for directing preferences to the (WA) ALP because all that you will achieve is the delaying of any worthwhile "left reform" in the state of WA. Whilst like everyone else I breathed a sigh of relief when Hewson did not win the Federal election, I also feel apprehensive that the ACTU and Green/Left movement will jump straight back into the ALP's back pocket. After all, that's where "the power" is, which means we can all forget about the rebirth of any real Labour Movement.
Red or Blue — Right rules OK! (With a little bit of help from their friends!)
Kath Mallot
Independent Candidate, WA State Elections
Perth
Prisoners
In the USA there are over 2,500 prisoners on death row awaiting execution. Many of these were juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes, many others are black (African Americans) and were sentenced to death by all-white juries, some are mentally retarded. They all have in common the fact that they are very poor and were unable to afford adequate legal representation at their trials. Many of the court-appointed lawyers are inexperienced and have made mistakes, resulting in miscarriages of justice.
These prisoners live under very harsh conditions and most are locked up in small cells for up to 23 hours a day. I am looking for penfriends who would be willing to befriend these prisoners and should be glad to hear from your readers. Please write to me, Stephanie Wilkinson, PO Box 518, Seven Hills NSW 2147.
Stephanie Wilkinson
Seven Hills NSW
ISO and ALP
Parliamentary elections have always been acid tests for the left. Some use them to show their ability to reach out to people and begin building a real progressive alternative. Others simply show that they've "kept the faith" and accepted the domination of the ALP over left politics.
Such is the case with the International Socialist Organisation, whose electoral slogan was "Fight Kennett, Fight Hewson" and who explicitly called for a vote for Labor. The ISO went beyond simply classifying the ALP as the lesser of two evils and theorised their tail-endist position as being in line with the tactic of the "united front".
This tactic, most clearly put forward by Lenin and Trotsky during the 1920s and '30s, was aimed at accomplishing two goals: 1. achieving maximum possible working class unity around concrete demands that were in their interests and 2. breaking the hold over the working class of its dominant mis-leadership. In the struggle for the working classes' specific demands, the way forward would be shown, that of independent mass action rather than subordination to the pro-capitalist labour bureaucracy and the capitalist parties.
In contrast, the ISO's "united front" builds illusions in the ALP. Their united front (stripped of the thin veneer of "class struggle" rhetoric) consists in calling for the re-election of a Labor government — i.e. a capitalist government. It aids the ALP the defender of the working class and helps it direct attention from its real anti-working class record.
The ISO's united front in fact bears more of a resemblance to Stalin's Popular Front in 1930s Spain, which involved the subordination of the interests of the Spanish workers to the electoral fortunes of the capitalist republicans and kept their struggle within the safe confines set by the labour bureaucracy. There's more than a passing resemblance to this election's attempt to keep defence of working people's interests within the safe confines of the two-party system.
Sean Healy
New Farm Qld