Refugees
Congratulations to the Liberal and National Party members who are speaking out for refugees and asylum seekers. Abuses of powerless people occur when they are isolated from any help and placed in the care of a "prison type" system.
It would be bad enough if this was the treatment we dealt out to enemies, but to do this to innocent men, women and children, who have fled oppression is exquisite cruelty.
This cruelty needs to end, and there needs to be a full enquiry into our treatment of these people who have come looking for safety.
Dr Geoff Smith
Laurieton, NSW
Venezuela
Well, I'm gobsmacked! An article on Venezuela in the latest (May) issue of Socialist Worker, newspaper of the Australian International Socialist Organisation, is titled "Chavez a hit with the masses but the left is nowhere to be seen". A million workers march on the streets supporting radical change and calling for socialism and Socialist Worker can't see "the left" — talk about not seeing the trees for the forest!
The article briefly, and condescendingly, describes the million-strong May Day march in Caracas as "a cross between a militant demo and Macey's Thanksgiving Parade". I mean, really, what will it take to get these people excited about the masses in motion? Didn't a well-known Russian leftist once describe revolution as the "festival of the oppressed"?
The author actually writes that the "noticeable omission from this M1 was that there was no presence of any political movement outside of the unions and the MVR",i.e., there was no presence of a "political movement" outside the majority of the organised masses!
He goes on to claim, unbelievably, that "there was not even one small left-wing group selling papers in sight". As though this were the litmus test for a successful May Day or revolution!
Disturbingly, the author later laments "the complete absence of any left opposition in Venezuela". Left opposition to what? — the million pro-socialist workers on the streets? the revolution?
Look out Venezuelan masses you may get a franchise of a "small left-wing groups selling papers" from London if you're not careful.
Ray Fulcher
Melbourne
Questions
What? Why? Can anyone enlighten me on two questions that have puzzled me for some time, and no-one I ask has the answers:
a) What exactly are the religious differences between Sunnis and Shiites within Islam?
b) Why has Saddam been kept in prison since December 2003? Why can't he be tried in a fair international court like Milosevic (where of course poor old suffering Pinochet should also be tried)?
Rosemary Evans
St Kilda, Vic
Curfew
My local council, the City of Casey, located in Melbourne's outer south-east has some really draconian legislation in the pipeline, to attempt to put a stop to teenagers being out late at night and vandalising the area in the jurisdiction of the City of Casey. They are proposing to introduce a curfew, or martial law if you like, between hours late at night which have not yet been finalised.
This kind of legislation will only make the problem even worse and many people, not just youth, are going to get hurt. There is no prize in guessing which group in our community is going to love such legislation and they will make people suffer under it. I am personally disgusted at this proposal, when there is a more humane alternative approach to the problem available.
Anybody reading this should contact the City of Casey and voice your objection to such a disgusting proposal. Watch out: Youth curfews could be heading your way.
John Wickham
Cranbourne, Vic
Anti-war movement
We are a group of left activists based in Pune, India. The name of our group is Lokayat. We attempt to create awareness and organise people on various issues like communalism, casteism, women's issues, impact of imperialist-capitalist globalisation on various sectors of the Indian economy, against the US invasion of Iraq, etc.
We strongly feel that the global movement against the US-British invasion of Iraq must raise the following demands:
1. Withdraw US and British troops from Iraq immediately.
2. The US must pay full compensation to Iraq for damages done to life and property during the illegal invasion in 1991, the economic sanctions imposed thereafter and the conquest and occupation in 2003.
3. File suit against the US president and the British prime minister in the International Court of Justice as war criminals.
4. Do not alter the status of ownership and control of any Iraqi nationalised resources in any fashion.
We would like to have your views on such a campaign, whether you agree that such a campaign should be taken up by all of us. And if you agree, then we would like to have your suggestions on what should be done so that it can become a global campaign.
One of our suggestions is that it be taken up as a worldwide signature campaign, especially the demand that Bush and Blair be prosecuted as war criminals. Comments can be sent to us at D-4/18, Guru Ganesh Nagar, Kothrud, Paud Road, Pune, 411 038, India or at <neerajjain_61@yahoo.co.in>.
Neeraj Jain
Pune, India
Torture
I would like to commend Ray Fulcher on his article on torture (GLW #627). The academics he speaks of who support torture, Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke, seem to do little in their argument than rehash what has been said for some time by Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz. In his book, Why Terrorism Works, Dershowitz went as far as to recommend the use of needles underneath fingernails as a way of inflicting torture (lots of pain, small risk of permanent physical injury), with universities putting on special courses to teach special torture techniques.
Although fond of the captured-terrorist-and-the-ticking-bomb scenario, this is rarely how torture is employed. In reality, torture is employed to physically and mentally destroy people on a significant scale as part of a systematic process to intimidate a civil populace. Discussing the acceptability of torture should really be dismissed as nonsense, along with denying the holocaust or arguing that the Earth is flat.
What is of more interest is why academics such as Bagaric, Clarke and Dershowitz can drift so far to the right and become so panicky when a bit of pressure is put on us all by governments chanting the holy mantra of "terrorism" and "national security".
Dale Mills
Sydney
From Green Left Weekly, June 1, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.