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Letters may be e-mailed to guardian@cpa.org.au.
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Letters to the Editor:

Don't fall for fear and loathing

One of the worrying things about the horrible scare campaign by the 
Federal Government denigrating refugees is that all those lies about asylum 
seekers abusing their children and being suspected terrorists etc were what 
many people wanted to hear. Such a view arises perhaps partly from 
institutionalised racism and also from a failure to understand our own 
history.

We are, after all, a nation of refugees, made up of people from all parts 
of the world, a fact which we engage with in one way or another in almost 
every waking moment of our lives. That this does not strike a strange chord 
when placed beside the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers may be a 
tribute to that well oiled propaganda machine known collectively as the 
mass media.

Fear and loathing have long been the weapons of reactionaries, helping mask 
their nasty economic agenda by shifting blame for crises onto minorities 
and by turning people's focus from the true causes of their problems.

In this respect a front page story on the Daily Telegraph in Sydney last 
week was telling. "Exclusive" it ran, as though about to reveal some 
amazing and perhaps terrifying and hitherto unknown fact. "Puppet on a 
string — how a father is being cynically used as a pawn in a political 
row".

There followed a story about the father of the two Afghan boys who had 
escaped from Woomera detention centre and had sought asylum in the British 
consulate in Melbourne last week.

According to the Telegraph the father has been "hijacked" by the Refugee 
Action Coalition (RAC) whose members include "left-wing revolutionaries who 
advocate violence to achieve their objective".

It turns out that a member of the International Socialist Organisation is 
one of the leading members of the RAC. What a revelation. (By the way, the 
main message here, by inference, is that the RAC is a terrorist 
organisation.)

Again, the bleeding obvious arises: what is Australia's support of a US war 
on Iraq if not the advocating of violence to achieve their objective?

Perhaps we might help humanise asylum seekers in the face of their 
dehumanisation by government aided by the media, by answering the question: 
who is a refugee?

The 1951 UN Refugee Convention is the key legal document defining who is a 
refugee, their rights and the legal obligations of states. A major 
stipulation is that no refugee should be forcibly repatriated to a country 
where he or she faces persecution.

Around 143 states, including Australia, are signatories to this convention, 
which states that a refugee is "A person who is outside his/her country of 
nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution 
because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular 
social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail 
himself/herself of the protection of that country, or return there, for 
fear of persecution."

There are now many millions of such displaced people around the world and 
they will not just go away. In fact, thanks to the conflicts the US is now 
cooking up, with the aid of Australia, their number will increase.

In that context the struggle for justice for asylum seekers here in 
Australia takes on increased significance and importance.

Jo Dunleavy
Wodonga

It seems to me that the great never-ending season of selling Australia's 
main public assets, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra 1, Telstra 2 and now Sydney 
airport has a definite tune to it.

A government that creates people's aspirational hopes on becoming the next 
Rene Rivkin or Rupert Murdoch forgets to mention that there also is a 
downside to the share market.

This downside comes in the form of Brad Keeling, Jodee Rich and Rodney 
Adler. Don't forget the Old Man River Ray Williams and you have corporate 
collapses aplenty. And that's not counting what is happening in the biggest 
sharemarket, the old US of A!

Enron! There's a name to strike fear into even the most resilient, pig-
headed, trough slurring and greedy capitalists!

There are two main problems with selling off public utilities: 1) there is 
a reduced revenue base which only leads to a higher burden on the tax 
system. And you can bet your Mr Howard and his crew of filth won't be 
hiking up corporate or business taxes, so look out Mr RAYG!

And 2) the cost of using these utilities will rise, because these 
businesses will now report to shareholders who will be expecting a decent 
return for their investment so that they don't go the way of HIH, Ansett, 
FAI or OneTel!

So the increases will always be subject to, wait for it, GROWTH! 
Unfortunately the growth they will be talking about will be more akin to a 
tumour that cannot be stopped, not sustainable and worthwhile and not 
environmentally safe and worker friendly.

So, jobs will be cut and shares will be given to those who deserve them the 
least — CEOs, board members and major shareholders who do little to 
maintain the business, but get their heads in the business and so-called 
social pages proliferating the myth for aspirational voters that there is a 
way to the top!

But, alas, the average Australian suffers from one malady that allows this 
to continue: Apathy! So, my fellow Australians, prepare for the bleak 
future where we buy back the country with money lent to us by foreign 
lenders! Or bring on the revolution. I prefer the latter to the former.

Dave Hauser
Sydney, NSW

First it was the sheep industry, then steel now it looks as if the Wheat 
industry is the next trade sacrifice Australians will be forced to make for 
friendship!!!

Mary Jenkins
Underemployed People's Union (WA).