German Greens
Congratulations to the very well-informed articles by Jim Green about the rotten German Greens. I almost wrote a letter in regard to his first article (GLW #444) because I felt that some enlightenment about the deeply bourgeois nature of the Greens and their political decline since the early '90s at the latest might be necessary.
As a long-term German political (also anti-nuke) activist, I couldn't have written a better article than Jim's current one (GLW #452).
But let me express my disgust about the nationalist spoon-feeding of Gaby Luft's letter (Write on, GLW #452), which provided no evidence about her "expert knowledge". Instead, it contains just the typical rhetoric of frustrated parliamentarians and excuses for their bad — or rather "worse than useless" — performance. Excuse me: "best compromise" — a guarantee for continuing to pollute us (e.g., leukaemia, etc.) for the sake of profits for the next 40 years?
It is in fact an "ideal outcome" — but for the corporations. The conservatives would have never dared to do what this pink-green coalition has done.
It's just not true that not many support a total halt to nuclear power — the last polls in Germany before the last horrible transport of nuclear caskets revealed a two-third majority for opting out of nuclear power.
Furthermore, Greenpeace's experts have clearly calculated how this can be done within just a year without any power shortage.
The German Greens ceased to be a progressive party long time ago, namely since Jutta Ditfurth and "her" left wing finally dropped out in the early '90s
Norbert Braumann, Marrickville NSW {Abridged]
Demonising
The demonising of Burma, China and North Korea in preparation for another disastrous military adventure by America is gathering pace.
Hard on the heels of attacks on Burma by some trade union leaders we have a report on the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program (June 20, 2001) from a well known pro-American journalist, Evan Williams, who uses as his source of information the leader of the Shan army. This army, well equipped and trained by the Thai army and United States special forces, is the cover for the major drug producers of the "Golden Triangle". Some reliable source!
This drug trade by the Shan and some sections of the Thai army is one of the main sources of clandestine funds for the CIA. Asking the Thai army to stem the drug trade is like putting embezzlers in charge of the treasury.
No evidence whatsoever was produced to substantiate the repeated allegation that the Burmese economy is dependent on the drug trade despite a farrago of hearsay evidence by one Desmond Ball.
This new propaganda campaign is simply designed to soften up the Australian people to be cannon fodder for another dirty war.
Col Friel, Alawa NT
Middle-class welfare
Despite hitting the jackpot in the federal budget, many "self-funded" retirees, with net incomes double or three times that of full pensioners, still want more — including all pensioners concessions. Who's paying?
Middle-class welfare might be acceptable if the middle-class finances it. But proper welfare for the poor — which we currently lack — always comes first. And the middle-class must not be allowed to shift the cost of its benefits onto the less-well-off.
The complaint from some well-heeled retirees that they are "asset-rich and income-poor" is absurd.
The family home is not even included in the pension assets test. You can live in a mansion and still collect the full pension.
More fundamentally, assets can, and should, be liquidated if people want a higher income. The reluctance of some retirees to do this is an attempt to have their cake and eat it too, whilst preserving a large inheritance for their undeserving heirs.
By the way, for "self-funded retiree" you can often read someone who was under-taxed before reaching retirement age.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW