Date: Thu, 04 Jul 1996 14:39:26 +1000 (EST)
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: A response to Zeynep's posts was Suicide bombs & Middle Eastern


At 04:47 AM 7/4/96 +0300, you wrote:
>
>I am a firm believer that the capitalists would never give up their power in
>any manner connoting peace. Si vis pacem, para bellum- you wish for peace,
>you prepare for war. So, age old dilemma - socialism in the West would be so
>much easier, whereas here it would be deeply problematic, to understate.
>But, it is places like this -and third-world pockets in the west I guess
>like South-central Chicago- that insurrections/riots of importance occur.
>
>So possibility and potential are divergent. 
>
>Zeynep


How to react to these posts?  Truly they almost defy words.  I am reminded
of the Robert Graves poem  The Cool Web of Language- (Children are dumb to
say how hot the day is...)

The poem makes the point that language takes away the terror of reality.
Without it we would go mad but we would also feel more.  So I have nothing
to say to Zeynep except for  the totally pathetic remark  that  I am with
her and the people.  Solidarity, comrade.  Always.

On a more philosophical levels Zeynep is  meditating on the uniqueness of
her situation and the gap  between possibility and potential.  Indeed the
dialectic is remorseless. Revolutions seem to occur where they have least
chance of success.

Here in Australia it would be just so easy to turn society around, to share
the wealth.  But no, in this half of the 20th century we have just elected a
conservative govt which is heading down the Thatcherite path.  What of
resistance?  Well before Ken accuses me once more of pessimism let me get
anecdotal.  

I have been having regular conversations with my older son, early in the
morning as he heads off to shit jobs in factories. I enjoy these moments
because they have brought us  close together. He knows I love to discuss
politics and he invariably brings the conversation around to this.

The other day he said that Karl Marx had led me astray and given me an
abiding faith in people. He can see no struggle, no resistance here in
Australia.  Now it is  true that I am fond of quoting the Yeats' line "I
have never complained of the people" and I never will but indeed my son may
be correct.  

Just yesterday an Aboriginal friend of mine came to see me.  She was in
tears because she had lost her job in the great purge of the Public Service
that the Tories are implementing.  In Brisbane alone some 600  people have
been sacked.  That makes 600 tales of misery.  My friend is a sole parent
and is trying to put her daughter thru school.  Now she is part of what the
govt says is the necessary pain to get the economy right.

I listened to my friend and felt deeply helpless.  I am absolutley choked at
the moment with hatred of Tories and what they are  doing to ordinary
people.  But what of the people themselves?  Why don't they head up the hill
and burn down the local headquarters of the governing Liberal Party?  Well
it is because they are working class and simply want to get by.  It is life
that is driving them to where once more they must chose to be exceptional or
submit.  The people Zeynep describes in the demonstrations have chosen the
former.  We shall see how the working class in Australia fares.

Regards

Gary



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