Dear editor

Allen Myers, in his article “What are we waiting for?”, (Direct Action no. 36) says:

“The Russian Bolsheviks did not become a real mass party until after the February 1917 revolution”.

G’day Direct Action – RSP, a friend sent me a copy of DA some time ago now. My name is Jock Palfreeman, an Australian currently enjoying Sofia Central Prison’s hospitality. See freejock.com for further details, or Google. I know that money is a rare commodity.

Dear Editor,

It is with great respect that I must disagree with part of the article by John Pilger in DA#20, “Why the Oscars are a con”, in particular his dismissive critiques of Invictus, Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

Like many people the world over I am deeply distressed with the continual, tragic conflict and carnage in Palestine. It is therefore disheartening to read about more Israeli settlement building, the suppression of protests, arrests, beatings, detentions, killings and curfews and total lack of progress towards a just resolution.

I was disappointed to see that your centre spread entitled “Charles Darwin: the Reluctant Revolutionary” (November 2009 edition) was a relatively biased presentation of Darwin and the relevance of his revolutionary ideas.

A crackdown on a liquor-licensing law that requires two security guards to be present anywhere live music is provided could lead to a drop in the number of music venues in Melbourne. The 10-year-old law under the Liquor Control Reform Act requires all venues that host live music to hire licensed security guards after 9 p.m.

Pro-war, pro-coal spinmeister Kevin Rudd has done at least one useful thing in his appalling two years as PM – he has introduced the term “scum” into the language of public debate. Rudd has described “people smugglers” as “the scum of the Earth ... the vilest form of human life ... the lowest form of human life”.

On October 24, about 5200 actions occurred worldwide as part of a campaign organised by 350.org to demand that political leaders agree to aim to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm). I attended the event at the Sydney Opera House, along with what I would estimate to be around 700 others.

Earlier this year I criticised the decreasingly radical Green Left Weekly for echoing the conservatives’ claims about the “underlying causes of domestic violence” (see Letters, DA #8).

As a longtime anti-nuclear and anti-uranium campaigner, former member of MAUM, former state coordinator of the Nuclear Disarmament Party (Tasmania) and other organisations, I write to publicly express my utter disgust with Peter Garrett’s and the Australian government’s decision to open a new uranium mine in South Australia.

One aspect of the Democratic Socialist Perspective’s course of dissolution into the Socialist Alliance, analysed by John Percy in Direct Action #15, is the DSP’s increasing unwillingness to discuss politics, particularly with others on the left.

I found Sam King’s letter in the May 2009 edition of Direct Action to be slightly disingenuous.

I write in response to recent letters in the daily papers about fuel loads and control burning. These are only one small element of confronting the threat of firestorms. They are by themselves though not a lasting solution to the dry and hot climatic conditions we are experiencing and do not address the real problems we are facing.

The above letter from Brisbane Socialist Alliance member Adam Baker is an affront to a woman’s right to struggle for abortion rights. Baker fails to comprehend the significance of the seriousness of the attacks on women’s rights.

Tim Anderson is mistaken in thinking that there was a “split” in the DSP last year and that the existence of the RSP is the result of “sectarianism”.

On April 22 a protest action was held in front of the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide Attended by 35 people, the protest organised by Action For Palestine, a newly affiliated club at the University of Adelaide. Among those who attended were people from the Eco-Socialist, No War, the Young Greens and Resistance groups.

Dear DSP and RSP, I observed with alarm the split in the DSP [Democratic Socialist Perspective] last year, and the creation of another party, the RSP [Revolutionary Socialist Party], a minority faction which now competes with the DSP’s Green Left Weekly through a rival paper, Direct Action.

The Marxism 2009 conference held at Melbourne University over the Easter weekend was attended by 764 people according to its organisers, Socialist Alternative (SAlt). Around half of those attending came for the session with left-wing journalist John Pilger, which was sold out.

Conflict in Palestine

Unfortunately the present ceasefire in Gaza is no real solution to the conflict in Palestine. As long as the Israeli occupation continues and Palestinians have no homeland, the resistance and violence will go on.

Solidarity’s privatisation ‘campaign’ backflip

The October issue of Solidarity magazine shares the same sense of disappointment found in the most recent articles coming out of other far left newspapers like Green Left Weekly and Socialist Alternative – all of which hyped up the Unions NSW “campaign” against electricity privatisation – since new NSW La

George Bush

As the sun sets on an American empire sliding into recession, it is time to pay tribute to the enduring efforts of George Bush whose end of term rapidly approaches. Is he the greatest simpleton out of America to ever lurch across the world stage, or insane war criminal that has made America number one rogue state in his axis of evil jingoism?

Telling the truth or fostering false hopes

Kieran Latty (Letters, DA #3) claims there are two problems with my article “NSW Labor’s electricity privatisation plans” in DA #2.

Stand Fast

On behalf of Stand Fast I’d like to thank Direct Action for James Donaldson’s article [“Anti-war veterans group formed” DA #1] on our group. Already we have received positive feedback about Stand Fast via our website, www.stand-fast.webs.com, from readers of DA.