Rise Like Lions
Although I was prepared to accept criticism of Rise Like Lions in a review published in GLW, I feel a response to the thoughts of Jonathon Strauss is justified. I was somewhat offended at being associated with nationalism and utopianism, and a little bemused at being criticised for being less than revolutionary.
Perhaps an extract from an article by S11 spokesperson David Glanz in the November issue of Australian Options will clarify the issues. He wrote: "A clear Marxist analysis cuts through this confusion. While we need to fight every manifestation of injustice or of environmental damage, we must link these struggles to a global challenge to the system. We have to move beyond protesting against the symbols of the system and begin organising against the system itself. We need to link the vitality of the new generation of activists to the power of the organised working class. We need to give the old slogan 'think globally, act locally' a new meaning — encouraging those horrified by the impact of the market in the developing world to take up struggles here. At the same time we need to make explicit how every local, partial fight against Howard or the bosses forms part of the bigger picture."
I could not agree more, and there is nothing in Rise Like Lions that undermines these objectives. Furthermore, I believe that a restoration of a modernised form of the Australian System would deal global capital a body-blow that in the present political climate could certainly be described as revolutionary.
Steve Davis
Bowen Queensland
'Black Sugar'
Further to the development of the British colony of Australia and the fate of the Aborigines is a book named Black Sugar.
It's the story of how the sugar industry in Queensland was in danger of collapse due to a labour shortage. So ships went out recruiting black labour from islands in the Pacific.
Once they were hired out at low rates of pay to cut the cane, the shortage ends. Plenty of whites now available to the job. So the White Australia Policy is born.
The black islanders have to go back to their homelands. Trouble is that nobody knew where that was. They were loaded on ships and dumped at sea and, if lucky, not too far from land.
One of the firms that built up a good little business is still in business.
You see among the problems the early settlers faced was, I'm told, the fact that local Aborigines wouldn't work for them.
Jean Hale
Balmain NSW
Misleading
The article in GLW (November 29) entitled "A tragic decline in living standards" is misleading. Yes, there is a tragic decline in living standards, but statistics show this is overwhelmingly on the side of custodial parents (usually women) and their children. In fact, 60% of men do not pay child support.
The system has yet to find an efficient way to collect money from men who are self-employed. Not only this, a law has just been passed that takes a percentage of family allowance from the custodial parent if the children are in the care of the non-custodial parent for little more than a handful of days per year. not bothering to take into account whether any child support is paid.
The right-wing Lone Fathers Association, as with the private school lobby, carry much more weight with the federal government than their numbers or the morality of their cause justify. The ever-widening gap between rich and poor is aided and abetted by conservative self-interest groups such as these.
Women need to get angry and organise against the injustices of the Child Support Act.
Kathie Herbert
Katoomba NSW
Israel and Palestine
I was appalled at the absurdity of your December 6th headline "UN should force Israel out of Palestine". There are two very obvious mistakes with a comment as ignorant as this:
1. Israel does not occupy Palestine. So how can they be forced out? Israel controls borders between Palestinian territories and Israel. They are forced to out of the major security risk that the Palestinians pose to the Israelis. The UN in 1948 voted to hand Israel over to the Jewish people for the greatest breach of human rights that the world has ever experienced ... the murdering of 6 million Jews in Europe. I am shocked at your sickeningly short memory. Do you expect the UN to withdraw the implications of their 1948 vote only 52 years later?
Yes, Palestinians are forced to fight armed Israeli soldiers with stones. It is an atrocity. Do you think that it is a position the Israeli Defence Force enjoys taking? Shooting at children with rocks. Why do you not consider what a difficult position Israel is in? Without tight border controls that are virtually inviting a suicide bomber into Israel. I found the article disgustingly narrow minded for a left-wing newspaper.
2. Palestine exists this far only in the minds and hearts of the Palestinians. I am in support of the existence of a Palestinian state, and obviously so is the Green Left. However, Palestine officially doesn't even exist. The lack of insight into the truth of the political situation in the Middle East is disappointing. I think you are underestimating the complexity of the situation.
Jocelyn Lippey
Cooks Hill NSW
Toxic waste questions
Who owned the toxic waste in the "Malaysian" ship Bunga Terati Satu that got stuck on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, one of the wonders of the world? Who owned it? Who sold it? Did it come form Malaya? Or had they bought it elsewhere, and were selling it on?
The dangerous toxic waster cargo was going to Sydney. Where would it be unloaded? Where would it be buried? Why are Australian companies buying toxic waste? How many thousand tonnes of toxic waste are brought and buried in Australia every year? Where does the waste go? Does it explain the numbers of part-limbed infants in Sydney's West, viz. the special ward for them in Westmead Children's Hospital?
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
S11 tale
Margarita Windisch's "Tales from the blockade" (GLW #428) is exactly that, a tale. It does little but praise her individual role in S11. Her criticism of other groups is one-sided, inaccurate and destructive to the growth of a people's movement.
As a member of the Adelaide S11 Alliance diverted from the stage area by the Socialist Alternative (SA), I offer a counter view. My observations are impartial in that my contact with the SA remains confined to the Monday September 11 blockade of City Road. I dispute Windisch's opinion that on this occasion the SA "attempt[ed] to introduce chaos" and "provided no information whatsoever".
To the contrary, the two female and two male marshals imparted much information and managed to unite many people of diverse backgrounds in a successful action. The experience was empowering and, just as Windisch received compliments for her role, the SA were also given praise.
Windisch and others should heed that much of the strength of S11 lay in individuals and groups doing "their own thing". The role of the stage was vital but it was only one part; a Festival of the Oppressed cannot be entirely stage-managed.
Sue McKay
Mile End SA
Work for the dole
We are seeking for information concerning the legality of the "work for the dole" scheme. We believe that the scheme contravenes the Geneva Convention which states nobody should be forced to work for welfare payments? Does anybody know of any legal actions over this matter? It would be great if you have some info to let us know via e-mail at <schiz_fly_run@hotmail.com>.
Gabriele Bohnet and Aaron Campbell