Abortion
The August 21 passage through ACT parliament of legislation to decriminalise abortion is a welcome development. Its scope makes it a first in Australia. Not only does the law repeal sections 44-46 of the criminal code (which had made abortion a criminal offence), but it also annuls any common law ruling up until now or in the next 3 months that creates an offence in regard to inducing an abortion.
Women in the ACT have won the right to decide for themselves whether or not to terminate a pregnancy, without threat of criminality.
It is a victory for all who believe and struggle for the principle that women have the right to determine for themselves what happens to their own bodies and lives. It is a struggle that gained ground in the feminist radicalisation of the 1970s.
Wayne Berry and all who voted for the changes, and Options for Women and all who worked to get the changes through deserve congratulations and thanks, not just from people of the ACT, but around Australia.
This shows that abortion can be decriminalised in Australia, and leads the way for other states and territories to follow.
In the 21st century, there is no place for women's right to decide whether or not to continue a pregnancy to be considered a crime.
Kamala Emanuel
Hobart
CFMEU
It was good to see the NSW CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson launched the public advert condemning the Cole royal commission. This witch-hunt, like the government that launched it, is designed only to break solidarity between workers and the ability to defend jobs and conditions in the construction industry.
The Cole royal commission is passing off slander, hearsay and outright lies made against unions as facts and the CFMEU is right in making the public aware of this.
However I am angry that in trying to defend the CFMEU and workers from the distortions and one-sidedness of the commission, Ferguson sprouts the same crap as the Liberals about "illegals taking Aussie jobs". Wake up to yourself Ferguson!
The racist hysteria about "illegals" (mainly aimed at refugees) has been whipped up by the Liberals to divide society so they can be re-elected. This racism is also dividing workplaces where any non-Anglo is suddenly suspected of being an "illegal" despite the fact that most "illegals" are UK or US citizens. How the NSW CFMEU is going to unite its own members against the attack on the union when it's helping the government divide it along racist lines is beyond me.
Why don't you follow your Victorian branch's leadership on this issue, Andrew, and unite the CFMEU membership against both racism and the union busting of the Liberals.
Duffy Odbar
Gwynneville NSW
Gulf War
Thirty people attended a forum titled "why we must not go to war with Iraq" at the Hobart campus of the University of Tasmania on August 19. ALP member and former foreign affairs department policy analyst, David Morris, was the featured speaker at the meeting organised by the Salamanca branch of the ALP.
Morris described two broad trends within the Labor Party a pragmatic "realist" trend and an allegedly "idealist" trend. He argued that ALP members from both trends could see reasons to be cautious about heading into a war against Iraq.
Morris identified former foreign minister Gareth Evans (under whom he worked) as a proponent of the "idealist" trend and described the 1991 Gulf War as a triumph of "idealism". He argued that this was the case because the 1991 Gulf War was: a response to a violation of international law by Iraq (invading Kuwait); prosecuted by the United Nations (and not unilateral action by a single country); and military force followed the lesser step of sanctions.
As a member of the Socialist Alliance, I argued in the discussion that the war threat was also opposed by a genuine socialist trend on the basis of supporting justice and working-class internationalism.
The 1991 Gulf War was unjust because hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed and over a million have been killed by sanctions since and that the US had effectively helped the Iraqi military suppress a democratic uprising by the Iraqi people (exposing as a fraud the current concern about "regime change"). The ostensibly just rationale for the war ("liberation of Kuwait") was not the real reason for the war, demonstrated by the fact that other countries (such as Israel) had also violated UN resolutions but had not received the same treatment.
Alex Bainbridge
Hobart
Bakhtiyaris
The August 23 Melbourne Age's sensationalist front-page attack on Ali Bakhtiyari headed "The Truth Behind Bakhtiyari", creates the impression that he is neither of Afghan origin nor a genuine refugee. The article quotes without rebuttal Philip Ruddock's claim that the Bakhtiyari family are "Pakistani nationals". Yet the more detailed article inside the same edition of the Age, which fewer people would read, says: "The results of the Age investigation suggest he is originally from Afghanistan and definitely from the Hazara ethnic group."
The article by Russell Skelton also says: "To understand who Ali Bakhtiyari is and where he may have come from requires an understanding of the turbulent 23-year history of Afghanistan's bloody wars, which caused the constant displacement of people and the destruction of homes. More than four million people, including an estimated 600,000 Hazaras, have been driven into Pakistan, Iran and the republics of the former Soviet Union."
I would have thought that someone fleeing from 23 years of war would be considered a refugee. If not, is the definition too narrow?
Chris Slee
Melbourne
From Green Left Weekly, September 4, 2002.
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