Anti-war movement and union action
In GLW #560, Bryan Sketchley argues that the massive worldwide anti-war protests went unheeded by US imperialism and that the anti-war movement needs to be reoriented away from mass street protests towards pleading with unions to take industrial action against the Iraq war.
However, Sketchley misses the point. The question of union action against the war is integrally related to the size, breadth and depth of the mass anti-war movement, as evident through mass street protests.
Sketchley mentions the example of the Scottish train drivers who refused to drive trainloads of ammunition for the war. The train drivers weren't organised by their union to take this action. They acted as individuals, exercising their right as conscientious objectors. No doubt, the mass anti-war demonstrations, which were much larger in Britain than in Australia, gave the train drivers the confidence to take this action.
The actions of the train drivers also had the effect of inspiring more people to join the demonstrations and it gave people a vision of how the war could be stopped.
In Italy, where the mass anti-war demonstrations were also very large and broad, the unions covering train drivers and dockworkers combined with anti-war protesters in an effort to block the transport of ammunition for the war.
During the height of the anti-war campaign in Australia, we did have a chance to convince workers in some unions to take industrial action against the war. The WA branch of the CFMEU took strike action against the war, and some Victorian CFMEU members took strike action against the war.
However, many union leaderships got spooked by Rupert Murdoch's headlines about unions betraying "our troops" before we were able to initiate serious discussions within unions about industrial bans.
Union leaders got spooked because there were 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of their membership who supported the war. Even for the more militant union leaderships, they needed the assistance of a mass anti-war movement which was visible on the streets to assist them in arguing the anti-war line among their members.
It is highly unlikely, even with revolutionary leadership of unions, that union members would be convinced to take industrial action against the war unless there were also mass anti-war protests happening on the streets at the same time.
Sue Bolton
West Brunswick Vic
Iraqi economy
The Iraqi people have been denied the opportunity of electing their own political representatives by the US-led coalition, and now they are being denied a say in their future economy.
The US appointed Iraqi Governing Council has approved a free-for-all approach to foreign investment in that country. The US won't open its own markets to free trade and competition, but it doesn't mind taking advantage of the Iraqi people by allowing that country's markets to be open to all comers.
Following the invasion of Iraq, the US announced that lucrative reconstruction contracts would be awarded to companies belonging to the victor nations, and that these companies would be paid out of the sale of Iraqi oil. Then the US appointed an Iraqi Governing Council made up of exiles and a wanted criminal in Jordan.
Now the US, in consultation with its own puppet IGC has decided that all sectors of the Iraqi economy, with the exception of oil, will be open to total foreign ownership. They wouldn't open up the Iraqi oil market because that would deprive them of control of this lucrative asset.
The US didn't even have the decency to wait until the Iraqi people had been given an opportunity to elect their own government before deciding how the Iraqi economy would be run. Is it little wonder then that the Iraqi resistance is growing by the day? Shiites and Sunnis alike want the invading occupiers to leave their country and more and more of them are willing to fight in order to achieve that just goal!
Adam Bonner
Meroo Meadow NSW
Abbott and health care
Contrast Tony Abbott's approach to doctors and the unemployed: The jobless were required to fulfil additional obligations under threat of losing all or part of their ungenerous allowance; far-better remunerated physicians, however, have been offered a carrot rather than a stick.
Former health minister Kay Patterson proposed bonuses for GPs who bulk-bill all concession card holders. But Abbott, known for his authoritarian attitude towards the unemployed, found this "very prescriptive". So some GPs who don't bulk-bill all card holders may also get a pay rise.
Abbott attempts to justify increasing GP charges by saying other health services cost significant money too. But two wrongs don't make a right. People must already pay for dentistry and other efficacious services, medicines, equipment and nursing homes.
It is inconsistent for nursing home and hostel patients to be charged huge sums while most GP visits are fully publicly funded. The goal should be to have all cost-effective healthcare available free (or at low cost to those on higher incomes when taxation is too low), not to endorse the spread of patient charges to ever more services.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
NT government
As the Northern Territory government continues its ferocious attacks on our civil rights, to the loud applause of the neo-Nazis in our midst, I am reminded of a quote from Pastor Niemoller of Germany in 1945. He said: "When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church and there was nobody left to be concerned."
This government, in its determination to drag society back to the Dark Ages, has attacked the rights of illicit drug users — as an emphysema sufferer from the use of a legal drug the hypocrisy of the government and the Northern Territory News appalls me — has attacked the rights of prisoners serving life sentences in a manner completely anti-human, has filled our jails to overflowing, has attacked the rights of left-wing trade unionists and grassroots political activists with its terrorism laws. It has also continued to attack the environment in the name of development and is introducing legislation to cement in law all the bigotry and hate associated with sexual offences, laws which will have the definite effect of deterring male teachers from entering that profession for fear of getting a life sentence because of the allegations of some sexually mature but rejected adolescent student.
This government must go and because of the failure of the opposition to act to defend human rights it must go also.
Col Friel
Alawa NT
Inadequate
John Della Brasco (AKA Della Bosca), minister for deteriorating labour relations in the Carr government, says that "industrial laws are adequate" to pursue bosses guilty of murdering their workers on building sites. He said this on October 27, after 10,000 workers filled Macquarie Street, in protest over the tragic, unnecessary death of 16-year-old Joel Exner. One worker dies every two days. The carnage does not stop. If the laws are "adequate", as John Della Brasco says, why aren't bosses charged with murder? Or is it John Della Brasco who is entirely inadequate?
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
Not green
I have a problem with the green in "Green" Left Weekly. Number 559, October 29 is a classic example, not one article on green issues!
Here in the Otway forests, one hell of a battle is being fought between activists and the timber industry. We are now in hopefully the end game in creating a Greater Otways National Park. A great number of blockades, court actions (a 50-day court case is currently in progress with blockaders standing to lose millions) and incidents go unreported. What is happening in Cape York, as sub divisions eat into magnificent forests?
What is happening in the old growth forests in Northern Tasmania?
Why is Recherche Bay (the site of the historic French landing) threatened by logging? Bob Brown knows. These issues are largely ignored by "Green" Left Weekly, and that diminishes us all .The fight for the environment is very much a fight against imperialism, capitalism and injustice. It is time that "our" paper realised this and started giving it the coverage it deserves!
David Harris
Bambra Vic
Hanan Ashrawi
Australian Zionists seem to have hit a self goal with their attempt to smear and slander Hanan Ashrawi — a Palestinian prepared to live with Zionist racism in the two state "solution". All that the Zionists have achieved is focus attention on Israeli policies and expose the ugly nexus between right-wing politicians, commentators and the champions of Israeli apartheid in the corporate elite.
All praise to NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen for exposing the true face of both the "Liberals" and the Zionist lobby.
As Uri Avnery once observed, the problem with Zionist colonisation is that it is two centuries too late. One can expect Zionist propaganda and smear tactics to fetch further negative returns.
Narendra Mohan Kommalapati
Canberra
Live animal exports
I have just telephoned the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra, to find out if New Zealand exports live animals. I was told that they do not: New Zealand farmers themselves decided some time ago that the treatment of animals on long voyages was too cruel, and therefore stopped exporting them. Pressure was not brought on the farmers by the government; it was the decision of the farmers themselves.
Can't Australia learn from this? These last few days there has been an ominous silence in the press about the poor animals' fate. The cruelty is horrendous. When will we learn that we are on this earth to share it with animals?
Rosemary Evans
St Kilda Vic
'Road Map'
Israel's recent air raids on Syria followed by its incursion into Lebanon and Gaza have obviously opened a new chapter in the long history of Arab-Israeli conflict casting remarkable doubts on the peace plan known as "Road Map".
The Road Map, which is mainly considered as an American plan, was widely hoped to put an end to the ongoing violence in the Middle East and bring a lasting peace to it. However, in practice, the events developed in an undesirable way and the peace process was seriously hampered by a number of expected and unexpected hurdles.
Although the American and Israeli leaders in general have been simply blaming the Palestinian militants for these hurdles, an exact and impartial investigation into the matter would certainly lead to more complex results.
Perhaps, a considerable number of obstacles in the peace process are primarily related to the US foreign policy towards the Middle East in general and its mediation efforts in particular.
The occupation of Iraq by the US-led coalition forces can be also regarded as a remarkable obstacle in the way of peace, for it has doubtlessly damaged the US reputation and peace-making efforts throughout the world particularly among the Arab States to a great extent. How can the US be opposed to the Israeli occupation in the peace negotiations while it is an occupier itself?
The last obstacle in the Middle East peace process is concerned with the religious extremism of any kind whether Jewish or Islamic; the fact is that both Jewish and Islamic extremists are often unable to grasp the world's existing specific conditions. Therefore, they oppose every peace attempt and ignite the enmity between Jews and Muslims as much as possible.
Nasser Frounchi
Tehran Iran [Abridged]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 12, 2003.
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