Hilton explosion
I am not quite sure of the point of attempting to maintain that what happened outside the Sydney Hilton Hotel on 13 February 1978 was not a bombing as Joan Coxsedge and Gerry Harant do in their article "Fallout from an explosion" (GLW 22.3.95.) The bomb may well not have been intended to go off, and it may well have been planted by a security organisation — indeed Terry Griffiths makes these point in our film — but it did go off and three people were killed in a bombing, accidental or not.
We spent two years researching and writing the film Conspiracy about the event, reading thousands of pages of documents and interviewing dozens of witnesses, and we could not establish, and nobody can, exactly what form of device was responsible for the explosion. We were, however, able to establish that the compacting unit of the garbage truck was not operating at the time the device was inadvertently placed in the truck by the unfortunate garbagemen. The man who was responsible for operating that compacting mechanism, truck driver Bill Ebb, has given sworn testimony that he had the mechanism off at the time of the blast. Today, Bill Ebb is still convinced the compacter was not operating. It is true that no detonation device was found in the aftermath of the bombing but as Joan and Gerry point out no fragments of any sort which could be conclusively shown to be part of the bomb were ever produced by the authorities.
The Hilton bombing is a massive story. We had only 58 minutes to tell a small part of it but a very important part. It is unfortunate that Joan and Gerry attack our film more for what is not in it than what we did cover — with the latter area I think we all have a great deal of common ground. There were always two suspect groups, the police said the Ananda Marga and others in the community said the security services themselves.
Our film shows that the evidence against the Ananda Marga was incredibly weak and now completely discredited. The film goes on to investigate other disturbing questions: Was the bomb itself made in a commonwealth government laboratory? Was a bomb disposal unit waiting nearby as part of a pre-arranged plan? Why were the Army bomb sniffer dogs called off just a few days before? Was there a police observation vehicle watching the hotel and did someone from that vehicle make the bomb warning call? Why were almost all of the bomb fragments simply swept up and thrown away? And why was a rubbish bin in a high security area left unchecked and unguarded? These questions remain unanswered.
Daryl Dellora
Director, Conspiracy
Collingwood Vic
PS. The photo you captioned "NSW police forensic shot of the garbage truck after the blast" could have reasonably given us the further credit "from the film Conspiracy". Without our not inconsiderable efforts it would still be buried in the NSW police archives.
Michele Turner
In March we had the tragic and completely unexpected news of the death by her own hand, of Michele Turner, author of Telling — Personal Testimonies from East Timor 1942-1992.
Michele was one of our most remarkable people, and one of our foremost activists. She was also a compelling and likeable person. She was loved by the East Timorese here in Australia. There were many East Timorese at the memorial service in Sydney on March 16, and they talked from the microphone about her, and her help to them. Our condolences go to them, and to her family in Tasmania. She leaves two daughters.
I want to correct a mistake in the obituary for Michele in the Telegraph-Mirror of March 24. Michele did take the microphone from Gough Whitlam at a human rights award ceremony in 1992, but she did not berate him for his behaviour at the time of the '75 Indonesian invasion of East Timor. She berated him for his attempt to get East Timor off the UN agenda in 1982. It is there still. When the East Timor issues is resolved, it will be no thanks to Gough Whitlam, or the present government.
As if to mock her, and all our efforts, Ali Alatas, Indonesia's Foreign Minister, has been awarded the Order of Australia. He is an apologist for the brutal regime that crushes ordinary people in his own country, and a defender of the occupation of East Timor.
We call on all those with a conscience who have received the Order of Australia, to give back their awards in protest, and/or publicly state their opinion about the Order of Australia being given to a representative of the Indonesian regime, Ali Alatas.
Stephen Langford
Secretary, Australia-East Timor Association NSW
World Environment Day
The third meeting of the Newcastle World Environment Day Convening Group on April 5 reaffirmed the decision of their first meeting to organise a rally, march and festival on Sunday June 4 for World Environment Day. Some members of the Wilderness Society and the Newcastle Uni Green Club had argued at the previous meeting that rallies were "unfocused", "uninspiring", "passive" and "uninvolving". Ideas that were contrasted favourably included surveys of businesses, politicians and the community to educate those concerned and to assess the level of environmental awareness; encouraging households and businesses to conserve water and power; and to try to arrange free public transport for the day.
The April 5 meeting affirmed that mobilising people in rallies and marches does not have to be in contradiction to festivals, which can play an important role in educating people about environmental politics (although there was not complete agreement about this idea).
I disagree with the idea that "the festival is much more important than the rally". I think both are important and complementary. However I believe that both in the rally and in the festival, and in the leadup to both, we need to not only involve people, but we also need to be political and have a campaigning focus.
The recent decision of the federal government regarding woodchipping and the continuing intransigence of the timber industry demonstrate that we need to organise and fight if we want to save our environment. We have tried to explain it logically to government and industry and they haven't listened. Now we need to turn to the forces that have the power to really change things: the majority of people.
Asking people to fill in surveys and to reduce their power consumption isn't going to stop the destructive practices of the big companies. By contrast, mobilising people around political demands, educating people about the state of the environment, demonstrating the power of collective action can all be effectively used to help build an environment movement that can win.
Alex Bainbridge
Newcastle
Campus censorship
As a member of the newly formed Curtin University Resistance club, I was shocked to hear that we would be refused affiliation to the guild (student council). Overseas, sporting, social and religious groups were all affiliated. Resistance was refused on the grounds that we are "political".
I went to a Student Association meeting to raise the issue. I argued that it cut across basic freedom of speech and even contravened the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It was quite ironic arguing against censorship when the chair promptly moved to "formal discussion" and disallowed me from speaking.
Although some sympathetic guild members indicated that Resistance could get rooms and run stalls, without affiliation this is tenuous and based on council members' whims. This was particularly apparent in the lead up to a No Fees meeting we had organised to help build the May 3 National Day of Action.
We approached the guild president to speak at the meeting on a panel with a lecturer and students. She was more concerned with criticising our leaflets for stating that "the ALP is cutting education funding", and informed us that the National Union of Students (West) had agreed not to mention the Labor Party by name in any of the guild's information. She also happens to be in the right wing of the Labor Party.
Since then she has instructed campus security to rip down our posters (although this has now been overturned) and that we should not be allowed to distribute 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly on campus. The student newspaper who supported the anti-fees campaign were keen to advertise the meeting. They were shocked when a guild member instructed them to get rid of the advert, which had already been laid out and was ready to print.
We are presently getting support for a freedom of speech petition from other student unions, civil rights groups and individuals. We will also be lodging a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission and intend to build a campaign for free speech on Curtin University itself. Those wanting to support the campaign or get copies of the petition can contact the club on (09) 227 7367.Arun Pradhan
East Victoria Park WA