Â鶹´«Ã½

NSW transport plan

The State Government's Integrated Transport Plan is a cynical exercise in futility. It utterly fails to address the issue of traffic congestion in Sydney in any meaningful way.

Building more roads induces additional traffic, as recent research in Britain and the United States has demonstrated. Public transport and non-polluting alternatives such as bicycles are afforded such cursory attention in Mr Scully's plan that one wonders whether the plan itself was written by the Roads and Traffic Authority, or worse yet, by their masters in the petroleum, asphalt and concrete industries.

Scully has cynically and openly put the interests of the RTA's business cronies ahead of the health and other social capital needs of the constituents who voted him into power. I am not alone in believing that he is running the risk of getting thrashed like a dog at the next election.

Tony Savdie
Marrickville NSW

GST

Our PM Howard claims he has a mandate to introduce the GST because he made it clear to people that was his intention if elected.

So, did Herr Hitler, who in his book Mein Kampf made clear his intentions, have a mandate from the German people to carry on as he did when he was voted into power?

The GST is a dishonest tax because all wage and salary earners have their income tax deducted from their wages before they are paid. So they will be doubly taxed.

I don't see how you clear up lurks and perks by bringing in the GST.

The solution could be to pass a law clearly stating that if you earn your money in Australia, you pay your tax at the Australian rate. No getting away with being registered in safe havens such as the South Pole or Timbuktu.

Jean Hale
Balmain NSW

Brother Sister

The editorial of the November 26 issue of Brother Sister criticises Resistance for a protest against Lydia Box, a drag queen at the Wickham Hotel in Brisbane. The action, in which a handful of protesters stormed the stage with placards condemning what some patrons perceive as racist and sexist comments by the performer, was reported in GLW #342.

In fact, Resistance neither organised nor endorsed this protest action. Resistance believes that the fight against racism and sexism can only be won by convincing masses of people to support people of colour and women's demands for justice, not by ultra-left actions which attempt to censor racist or sexist ideas.

Resistance has been a consistent fighter against sexism, racism and homophobia. We are committed to the struggle to end the discrimination which prevents women, Aborigines, non-Anglo migrants, lesbians, gays and transgenders from participating equally in society, and since our inception have organised and supported rallies, marches, public meetings and campaigns to this end.

Most recently, we have been at the forefront of opposing attempts by other Â鶹´«Ã½ of the left to exclude transgender women from full participation in the women's liberation movement.

The editorial states that Resistance, as a "straight" organisation, has no business in the lesbian and gay community. Resistance is neither a "straight" nor "queer" organisation. We do not ask about or pass judgement on people's sexual preference before they join, or at any other time.

Sexism, racism and homophobia can be defeated, but our unity in these struggles is our greatest strength.

Andy Gianniotis
Brisbane Resistance organiser[Abridged.]

Labor and the unions

Re: "ETU to challenge Labor's industrial policy" (GLW, November 25). The ALP 10-step rescue plan was nothing more than a sweetener to capture the trade union vote, leaving in place some very important anti-union provisions.

The Accord 1-6 was a disaster for the working class and set the wheels in motion for the Coalition government in 1996. The matter of union disaffiliation is to be lamented given the historical relationship of the Labor Party with the trade union movement.

The British Labour Party has had a fundamental breakdown in its relationship with the unions — the Blair government pledging not to work closely with them. New Labour now receives around 30% of its funds from trade unions: a figure that was closer to 90% in the past.

Ernest Bevan created the biggest trade union in Britain — the Transport and General Workers' Union. He was its architect and surveyor; its builders, the rank and file of 14 unions — a structure strong enough to match the most powerful employer or combination of employers, or government. That is to say it put the weakest section of society permanently on equal terms with any authority that might oppress it.

Go for it Dean Mighell. Apply the lessons of all the successes and failures experienced so far, to withstand the most severe battering.

June Ayres
Para Hills SA

Chinese Indonesian refugees

The Chinese refugees from Indonesia are genuine refugees and should be treated as such.

There can be no doubt that these refugees have a "well-founded fear of persecution". There can be no doubt that returning Chinese risk violence and death. There can be no doubt that Indonesia is disintegrating.

The once unifying force of resistance to Dutch colonialism has long since waned. Now the unifying force is the power of the military.

No Indonesian government can survive without the support of the armed forces. Once the unity of the military goes, as it will go, and the economic conditions worsen, as they will worsen, the scapegoating of easily identifiable ethnic and religious minorities will increase.

We should offer these people the hand of friendship, accept them as genuine refugees and reduce the migrant intake accordingly.

Col Friel
Alawa NT