Write on: Letters to the editor
Beauty
Trisha Reimers' article "The ugly side of beauty" [GLW #343] links problems affecting women such as Anorexia and Bulimia to the beauty industry. I've heard and recited this argument many times but I now wonder if it's simplistic. Is the ultra thin super-model a universally accepted notion of beauty, held across class and ethnic lines? There seems to be many competing notions of beauty.
I also wonder if the beauty industry has become a scapegoat for more profound problems in society. Many psychologists believe that Anorexia and Bulimia are related to family anxiety. Women are taught, as Reimers states, to aspire to impossible demands of beauty but are also taught a sense of shame about their own bodies. We live in a society that denies children a sexuality.
The beauty industry surely reflects aspirations we have about projecting ourselves of sexual beings. Capitalism has indeed twisted and exploited this desire but the demand seemed to pre-exist Cindy Crawford.
Socialists and feminists have to do more than critique sexuality under capitalism, we have to take account of desire. We need to articulate an alternative vision and develop an erotic sex-positive language that will empower everyone.
[Abridged.]
Flannery and BHP
Like Bernard Wunsch (GLW #344), I found Tim Flannery's book Throwim Way Leg enjoyable, even inspiring.
The only bone I have to pick with it is Flannery's comparison between the operations of the US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine in Indonesian-occupied West Papua and the operations of BHP's gold and copper Ok Tedi mine (Flannery never actually says the mine is run by BHP) at Tabubil in PNG, both of which financed Flannery's expeditions to search for rare and unknown animals of New Guinea.
Flannery devotes a whole section to West Papua, a substantial part of which deals with the havoc wrought by the Freeport mine on the people and the horrors of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua.
Flannery only devotes one paragraph to the seriously negative impacts the Ok Tedi mine has had on the people who live near the mine. Deliberate disposal of tailings and mine waste, including arsenic and cyanide, into the Ok Tedi River has destroyed a vital part of these people's livelihood.
For Flannery to say that Ok Tedi fosters an environment which "induces mutual respect and understanding" between the people from different backgrounds who work there, whereas Freeport's operation constitutes outright oppression, smacks of sycophancy. After all, you can't burn all your financial bridges!
What Flannery is ultimately saying is that Ok Tedi is an example of benign, white Australian-controlled exploitation, or as the small "l" liberals (and a lot of rabid right-wingers) call it, "civil" capitalism. Has Flannery ever heard of Bougainville?
North Fitzroy Vic
[Abridged.]
Wickham protest
It was with much surprise that we read the letter by Andy Gianniotis in the final issue of GLW 1998 regarding the Wickham protest.
This letter raises several points: 1. Resistance neither "organised or endorsed" the protest 2. Only some patrons perceive the performer to be sexist and racist. 3. The aim of the protest was censorship 4. The protest was "ultra left".
The first point raised is misleading. Resistance formally participated in this protest and covered this participation within GLW. Resistance since changed from a supportive position to one of disapproval.
It is the second point we find most indefensible. Surely Resistance has not embraced post-modernism in this privileging of subjectivity over objectivity, but we can find no other explanation for this point. We believe that sexism and racism objectively exist and are baffled by a Marxist-Leninist organisation attempting to forward an argument around the concept of "perception" and the impact this has on the legitimacy of a protest.
Finally, to address the issue of censorship and the accusation of "ultra left". This protest was a consciousness raising action. It did not aim to silence Lidia Box, but rather to draw attention to the fact that the promotion of her sexist and racist performances by management was unacceptable. Resistance has participated in many such "picketing" actions.
In responding to the Brother Sister editorial, Resistance had an opportunity to constructively contribute to the debate as to how the aims of this protest may have been better realised, whilst exposing the motivations of the editorial which clearly are the protection of advertising revenue. Such a contribution could have cemented the strong ties forged between protest participants and Resistance in the area of Queer activism, an area in which Resistance has previously not been active. We would like to express our disappointment and anger that Resistance did not do this.
Kate Carr, Tim Walgers, Sean Walsh and Tim Plaisted
Brisbane
[See Resistance's comment on page 10 — editor.]
Vietnam
Having been away from Australia for two years it is encouraging to still be able to buy a newspaper that provides readers with an analysis of the real hard issues affecting the lives of millions. I appreciated the article by Reihana Mohideen on "Land Reform and food security in Vietnam" (GLW #342).
In large part the article accurately reflected the serious food production and distribution problems being experienced by most ASEAN countries. However, there may have been some over-enthusiasm on the part of the author in seeking to explain how Vietnam is weathering the regional economic storm better than some.
In particular the statement that "the bulk of agricultural land in Vietnam is cultivated through a system of communes based on cooperative labour" has not been the case now for over a decade. Indeed, it was predominantly the failure of the highly centralised agricultural system to deliver adequate food to the "toiling masses" that brought about major economic reforms in Vietnam in 1986-87.
There is insufficient space here to explain in detail how the current land ownership and usage system in Vietnam operates. Important aspects of the system in Vietnam probably do provide rural people with a better chance of survival than in other ASEAN countries. There are, however, serious concerns about the limitations of the government's social justice program in rural Vietnam and the long-term impact of the SRV's current foreign investment strategies.
Darryl Bullen
Goodwood SA
Manjimup blockade
I have been at the Manjimup blockade [in Western Australia] for two days now. It isn't easy stopping the logging because we don't have a very large number of people to set up road blockages and tree platforms. We also need equipment such as climbing equipment (ropes, harnesses, karabiner, gloves, etc.), building materials for tree platforms (scrap wood, metal etc), tools and tarpaulins.
We urgently need support! If you are able to come and join us, free transport can be arranged (ring the WA agricultural department). You will also receive free camp accommodation and meals.
Or you can help by other means, such as supplying equipment or food, making posters or web sites, giving others a lift here, or simply spreading the word! Every effort has a positive impact.
By coming down, you will be able to see the beauty and tranquillity of the old growth forest, which may not be here much longer.
Como WA
[Abridged.]
East Timor
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says that he won't support independence for East Timor because it might lead to the fracturing of the Indonesian nation.
Indonesia is not a nation, it is an artificially created empire and like all previous empires it will disintegrate — and the sooner the better. It is held together only by armed force, by an army of occupation in point of fact.
Like West Papua, East Timor is entitled to be a free and independent country if it so desires.
Alawa NT
Marie Pitt
I was pleased to read the article by Julia Perkins in the December 2 issue about the grant awarded to Tasmania's Rosebery Miners and Axermen's Bush and Blarney Festival for a community theatre project based on Marie E J Pitt's poem The Keening. This poem is a strong indictment of a system that placed little value on human life. It is also the poem that led me to do a biography on Marie Pitt, nee McEwan, Doherty's Corner, 1985.
Marie Pitt was born in Bulumwaal, Boggy Creek, north-east Gippsland in 1869. After her marriage to William Pitt they lived for 12 years in the rugged mining communities of Tasmania's west coast. The appalling working conditions endured by the miners and their families, as well as the landscape, inspired many of her poems.
There is, however, an error in the article. The family moved back to Victoria in 1905, because her husband had contracted the miner's lung disease, phthisis. They eventually settled in Melbourne and Marie Pitt joined the Victorian Socialist Party. She didn't join the Communist Party as it didn't exist at the time.
She contributed many articles to the VSP's newspaper, The Socialist, and was one of their most outspoken and controversial writers on issues such as class war, the plight of the miners, lack of workers' compensation and domestic violence.
For anyone interested to know more about Marie Pitt there are still copies of the biography available. Enquires can be directed to 126 Lennox St, Newtown NSW 2042. The book also contains a selection of her poetry. The price is $12, including postage.
Newtown NSW
[Abridged.]
Farce
Xmas is always seen by some as a religious farce, but it is an even greater farce if it is celebrated while a barbaric assault is waged on Iraq's men, women and children, thousands of whom will die under an attack by American bombers. And unfortunately, Australian Richard Butler is prominently involved.
A second farce involves Palestine and Israel. A headline in the newspapers read: "Israel reneges on peace draft". [Israel] exposed yet again its customary arrogance and intransigence, illustrating that its word is worthless. Arafat has accomplished nothing and a situation of mutual hatred now exists.
The great danger to world peace stems from the fact that Israel is not only a nuclear power but extensive preparations for chemical warfare have been made by the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Nes Ziona near Tel Aviv. The IIBR is Israel's front organisation for the development, testing and production of chemical and biological weapons.
Such is US bias in favour of Israel that it never refers to this, though it is the region's largest development of its kind. Instead of continuing to support the right-wing Israeli government and its religious fanatics, the US should try withdrawing its financial support, amounting to billions of dollars a year. This would produce a dramatic reduction in Israeli intransigence.
Henley Beach SA
[Abridged.]
War-time experiences
Wanted: War stories from select people being non-heroes.
I a currently writing a book titled Australia — don't forget about us, and I would like to hear from civilians who worked behind the lines on production for the war effort. I want to hear from widows and housewives whose husbands and sons went to war. Also, I want to hear from ex-servicemen and women who were the general soldiers, sailors, cooks, transport drivers, stokers, signalmen, navigators, nurses and gunners etc.
I need to know why you joined up, what your job involved and any experiences or stories you would like to tell me.
Your stories can be a page or lots of pages and if they are used in my book, then your name, town, state will be published unless you advise me not to. Please send stories to: Jim Faggotter, Private Mail Bag 11, Rockhampton Mail Centre, Qld 4702. All replies answered.
Rockhampton Qld