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Sustainable population The reference to the Australian Democrats in the article "Racists exploit population debate" on December 13, 1995 borders on libel. The Australian Democrats have a long and proud history on immigration and race issues based on humanitarian principles and multiculturalism. Consider last year: we voted in favour of the racial vilification bill while the WA Greens voted with the Liberal Party to defeat it. We fought for the rights of refugees in Australia, the rights of migrant workers and attempted to increase funding to ethnic broadcasting. Your implications that the Democrats are anti-immigrant is untrue. Racists do exploit the population debate, however the prominence of this statement on the cover insinuates that all people who speak of sustainable population levels are racist. This is also untrue. Although the world produces enough to feed and clothe everyone, this is no argument that we are living sustainably. This ignores the fact that the top ten species of fish eaten by humanity are either depleted, exploited, or over exploited, and that land degradation due to poor agricultural practices is such that there are tributaries of the Murray that are two to three times as salty as seawater. Greenhouse gas emissions, loss a species diversity and deforestation are all indicators that we are not living sustainably. Furthermore, world population levels are not just at levels unseen previously in history, they are growing. We must ask at what level will population levels be sustainable? How we achieve sustainable population with social justice is the question socialists need to answer, not whether or not limits exist. Of course it involves contraception and regional population policies as well as equitable distribution of wealth and power. Human beings are no different to other animals, in having a maximum sustainable stocking rate. These levels are related to consumption and technology, and thus we need to ensure that out estimates of sustainability include consumption rates that enable fulfilling lives. People need to have enough living space around them to have choices in their lifestyle and livelihood and to be free from crowding stress. All people should be able to experience occasional decadence, even if it is only in the form of tasting exotic foods. All people should be able to travel to experience our natural environment,and cultural and political diversity. If all of this is rightfully given to everybody in the world, it may be the world is already overpopulated. We need to determine whether the sustainable population of Australia is 10 million or 20 million as all nations should. This figure needs to be worked out at current rates of consumption, because to base population on potential rather than actual consumption can lead to overpopulation. The Democrats' policy is based on the precautionary principle and is to aim for zero population growth now, calculate population limits using an open and scientifically based process and then not exceed this limit. We need to do this soon and it should be a regular government task. Social and environmental considerations sometimes contradict one another, and in these cases we should promote environmental considerations. Of course we should always look for creative alternatives that satisfy both, and share the benefits and burdens. Most of all we need to ensure that we don't let political correctness prevent us from honestly addressing what is the most important environmental issue of our time.
Brad Starkie
Democrat environment spokesperson for Victoria and candidate for Hotham
Oakleigh Vic Feminism I'm writing in response to the argument that women are unhappy because of feminism and what it supposedly forces women to do. The argument goes that women now have to go back to work too soon after they've had their babies, if they want to keep their jobs. Calling for increased child care is therefore not enough because women want to stay at home with their children. This line of reasoning seems to me to be falling into line with ruling class backlash ideology — of calling our partial gains feminist victories, and then blaming feminism with their inadequacies. Surely, though, feminism is about increasing the limited choices available to women. If women want longer at home with their children we ought to be organising to fight for longer parental leave, with a guaranteed job at the end of it. Regardless of whether we call on the state or employers to pay for it, and whether the demand is for an extra year or until children are at school, we ought to be organising a struggle to extend women's options. We shouldn't blame feminism for the partial gains that mean women now have more job opportunities. And at the same time we ought to recognise that not all women want children, and not all want to be at home with them. We should not let any extension of parental leave be translated into an obligation to accept it. Bringing up children is a social task that society ought to be responsible for. If feminism is about extending choices for women, and the capitalist state is working to privatise social tasks onto the family, it is the state and not feminism that we ought to criticise and fight.
Kamala Emanuel
Hamilton NSW Fluoridation and freedom What on earth is happening to Australia? Our Anthem says that "we are young and free". Yet we read in Therese Mackay's letter of 15/11/95 that Tasmania is trying to pass legislation against Freedom of Assembly and Free Speech on Fluoridation by prohibiting the holding of meetings in private, public, councils, legal parties and schools. The mind boggles! Who are they afraid of? Tasmania hasn't even had the guts to call it a Fluoridation Bill. They've disguised it under the name of the Consequential Amendments Bill. We repeat — who are they afraid of? We know that Fluoride is an enzyme poison and that swallowing it involves "significant risks". Has the topic of Fluoride poisoned the minds of those whom we elect to work in our best interests? What are they afraid of in Tasmania and New South Wales and Victoria? Are they afraid of the truth? Why do Japan and more than a dozen European countries refuse to mass-medicate their people? Is Tasmania so much more scientifically advanced than these countries? We are honouring our heroes who died on so many battlefields or were tortured in prison camps. They offered their lives for our freedom. Surely they have not died in vain. We must each lift a voice in the defence of freedom in any possible way which is within our individual capacity. Are we not a signatory to the United Nations Charter of Human Rights?
Dr F. & M. Clutterbuck
Wynnum Qld Racism Farrakhan, for all his faults, should not be chastised for calling African Americans to take personal responsibilities on many of the problems that had burdened them. The conservative right wing had, in general, maintained a philosophy that economic problems come about as a result of an individual not taking responsibility for themselves — hence the popular stereotypes of the "dole bludgers". The liberals, and I think many members of the left in general, maintained a philosophy that economic problems come about as a result of flaws within the system — i.e. the problem is not personal but systematic. I won't let myself be confined by these two paradigms only (though I guess many would take issue with the way I constructed the paradigms). This is particularly so regarding the issue of racist oppression in America. I believe the evil beauty of the American system so far has been in its "emasculation" of the African-American people (this should be familiar to those who have done some African American history). This "emasculation" has in the past meant slavery, apartheid, dehumanising portrayals of African-Americans in films and books, taking away from them human dignity and independence. (For a narrative portrayal of what I mean, read The Invisible Man by Richard Wright, and The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun for a penetrative insight into a similar situation in the settings of China in 1910.) This sense of dependency I think is still plaguing the African American communities, and there is a desperate need for the African Americans to help themselves to get out of the cycles of dehumanising dependency. The first step to this is to take one's share of the responsibilities. The key to the whole situation, I think, is in clearly defining the extent to which the socioeconomic problems of the African American communities can be traced to the individuals, and the extent to which they can be traced to the profit-driven and white-dominated capitalist system.
Aston Kwok
Sydney @letterhead = Jobs and bonuses SA public servants received a very merry Xmas present. Two days before the traditional festive party season the Advertiser reported that many Chief Executive Officers of government departments were to receive a bonus for meeting the "budget targets". These bonuses ranged from a paltry $10,000 to $100,000! What this meant, in effect, was that the Liberal government was providing a pay-off to the CEOs for cutting jobs. Thousands of public servants have been offered Targeted Voluntary Separation Packages during the past twelve months. The biggest insult was to School Services Officers, who have been waging a strong public campaign to prevent cuts in Education. December 22 was the date when many of them finished up or did not have their contracts renewed. It is an absolute hypocrisy for the Liberal government to continue to demand that ordinary working people suffer the brunt of their economic rationalism, while they grant themselves pay rises and line the pockets of their key head kickers without a blink of the eye. This is a further demonstration of the need for accountability and the right of recall for elected parliamentarians and a genuine democratisation of the public sector.
Melanie Sjoberg
Dover Gardens SA Silicone implants Having assisted a surgeon removing silicone implants from the breasts of a woman recently Dr Dumble's (December 6, 1995) expose of this scandalous product was warning for us all. The fibrous tissue reaction described by Dr Dumble was considerable in both breasts. The "sac of toxin" ruptured prematurely with the force of the surgeon's probing gloved finger while still in her body. Suction was available, as the gel spewed like lava into the incised breast tissue. Silicone implants can rupture with minimal force. Epidemiology can only confirm the prima facie hazard silicone implants represent The pharmaceutical and medical "industries" must make the fundamental principle primum no nocere (first do no harm) the basic peg upon which they hang their professionalism.
Graeme Johnson
Norman Park WA Social Darwinism Prompted by news of a merger between two of the biggest mining Companies in the world, notably RTZ and CRA I decided to attend a shareholders' meeting at the Wesley Centre. I attended for several reasons. On a personal level, a relative who had worked in Bougainville had returned to Australia with disturbing stories of the human suffering, cultural dislocation and environmental degradation that was rapidly taking place as a result of mining practices at Panguna. From a moral and ethical stance the recent death in Nigeria of nine environmental and human rights activists who were outspoken, challenging the practices of Shell Oil Company seem a viable reason to seek a response from these two huge multinational organisations as to their own human rights policies. After all the shareholders could be concerned to know that possibly their investments were not worth the profits. Expressing my concerns and displaying books, one written by the World Council of Churches on the atrocities suffered by the peoples of Bougainville, I was devastated by the Managers of CRA's response. It seems that the "natives from New Guinea", who have darker skin and frizzier hair than the Bougainvilleans, plus the complexity of their independent cultures have contributed to what appears to be merely acts of "warring tribes". Shaken by this response I sunk deeper into despair. It would appear that a Social Darwinist mentality, embraced by these corporations will explain away self-determination struggles of the world's indigenous peoples. Could these attitudes in the long run contribute to the perpetuation of racist social divisions? Could they act as consciously necessary corporate strategies aimed at deflecting criticism from the practices of global mining profit-making corporations? Are the biological determinists laughing all the way to the Bank?
Josephine Faith
Erskineville NSW Enemies and friends I viewed with abhorrence the picture on the front page of the Brisbane Courier Mail (19/12/95) of the Prime Minister Paul Keating warmly shaking hands with President Suharto. Who'd shake hands with a murderer? You'd need to be pretty low to do a thing like that. It's marvellous how time can transform a murderer into a "Saint". Suharto is a mass murderer. His hands drip with the blood of hundreds of thousands of political opponents murdered during the 1965 coup. Plus tens of thousands murdered in East Timor. Suharto is a man of violence, his government is still murdering people in East Timor and Irian Jaya. Is he the type of man we need a security pact with? To share our knowledge and intelligence? The answer is NO. There can be no security with a national bent on the use of violence. If we need friends, then let us be friendly with the people who are being persecuted by this evil nation, not with their persecutor.
W.G. Fox
Brisbane Thugs Ed Campion (SJ) quotes from the writings of Jim McClelland and Anna Short in his SMH article praising Laurie Short, on his 80th birthday. As for Laurie's contribution to workers in steel mills in New South Wales, I'll wait to hear the story from them, from "the horse's mouth". Father Campion cannot quote his own experience in the Trade Union movement, because he hasn't had any. The Society of Jesus is not a Trade Union, and few of its members have fought for trade union rights. Most of these got the sack from the Church for their trouble. Omniscience, a papal attribute of thinking that you can know everything just by thinking, should not be self-attributed even by a person as universally-respected as Father Edmund Campion. And what of the "democracy' inside the Society of Jesus? Benign autocracy would be a closer description. Father Campion, who wields the "communist trade thug" tar brush with the best, would be reminded that the NSW Royal Commission would not find any Trade Union "thugs" in the building industry, but found a number of high-paid Boss's thugs. The Commission cost the tax-payer 20 million or so. It was set up by Nick Greiner, a master of capitalist business ethics, to fill the pockets of the legal profession and smear the Labor Party. Nick's a product of the Jesuit college, Riverview, Sydney.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW Indonesian lickspittle Has Paul Keating committed this nation to supporting aggressive military adventures at the behest of Indonesia by signing a pact of military alliance in the name of regional security? Bob Menzies was called a British lickspittle and Bob Hawke was called an American lickspittle — do we now have an Indonesian lickspittle? Why can't Australia have an independent foreign policy? Why should we, the strongest military power in the South Pacific, align ourselves with a bloody-minded dictator who continually breaches those fundamental human rights to which our government pays lip service? How disgusting to see Alexander Downing giving Opposition support to this misalliance. At least the Australian Greens remain committed to a non-aligned foreign policy.
Col Friel
Territory Greens
Alawa NT