DOUBLE STANDARDS ON PAULINE HANSON

CREAN RAPPED OVER THE KNUCKLES

Almost as though to emphasize the point, A.L.P. leader Simon Crean has been taken to task from the most surprising quarter - sections of Australia's Jewish population. His crime? Gagging members of his own party on the question of Israel and the Middle East.
Under the headline JEWISH ANGER AT CREAN GAG ON PRO-PALESTINIANS, The Australian (20/8/03) reported:
"A prominent Jewish leader has urged Australian Jews, including many active members of the ALP, to protest to Labor leader Simon Crean about censorship of pro-Palestinian Labor backbenchers. Melbourne-based Jewish activist Sol Salbe urged 100 people, many of whom are members of the ALP and active donors, to apply pressure on Mr Crean by "flooding" him with letters of complaint to demonstrate that the Jewish community has diverse views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At least three Jewish organizations will meet over the next few days to plan a formal response to Mr Crean's move to stop two pro-Palestinian backbenchers from speaking on Monday in a parliamentary debate on the Middle East …."

Which raises interesting questions, quite apart from the Middle East issue. Isn't the move by a party leader to stop an elected member of parliament from speaking his or her mind an interference with the duty of a member? And why would a leader do so, other than in subservience to some outside pressure? Spokesmen for the Jewish community have pointed out some time ago that they are the heaviest donors to party funds in Australia. Surely, this is a dangerous interference with the parliamentary process, likely to produce a result like that in America, where the Jewish pressure group AIPAC boasts it controls Congress with its financial and media patronage?

Wouldn't the efforts of the Electoral Commission be far better spent openly investigating the whole effect of money and media on the role and integrity of members of parliament, than hounding a woman for technical breeches which, whatever else is said, never compromised the integrity of elected members? The Electoral Commission "strains at a gnat and swallows a camel", and has much to answer for. No wonder electors have so little trust in the voting process and the type of representation they're getting.
It is heartening and commendable that sections of the Jewish community are prepared to demonstrate even-handedness. If the frightful Middle East conflict is ever to be solved, it is going to be through the efforts of moderates on both sides who genuinely provide a lead for peace.
Congratulations to those Jews who are prepared to speak out for genuine, open debate in Parliament!

THE FORTY-EIGHT-HOUR WEEK

It's hard to believe, but the ACTU has run into heavy weather in its demand for a forty-eight hour week. It wasn't so long ago that the 40-hour week was accepted as the norm. France has opted for the 35-hour week, and seems to be surviving!
With more and more Australians either faced with unemployment, or else casual part-time employment if they're lucky, those still in full-time jobs are working harder, with longer hours each year. One reason is that employment benefits don't rise with the number of hours worked. Medical, superannuation, holiday-loading and insurance remain the same whether a worker toils for 40 or 50 hours. The more hours squeezed from a worker, the lower the indirect overheads associated with employment.
The Unions have agreed to fight for a 48-hour week, including overtime, and a 35-hour week in the building and manufacturing sectors.
It is a desperately myopic policy. There is nothing wrong with trying to maintain and, if possible, improve incomes. But in reality this is an attempt to ration a diminishing amount of work.
The whole economy has shifted from the original wage-type system, firstly to a "service" type economy, as productive jobs fell; and, secondly, to an increasingly expanding "part-time casual" economy - all described by the government, for the sake of convenience, as "full employment".
The problem has been increased even further by the fact that families can no longer live on one wage, with more and more women forced into the work-force for the sake of survival, producing a host of youth problems in the process.
The final straw has been the shift of IT jobs overseas to such places as India and the Philippines, plus the importation of labour forces from overseas in certain sectors, 'expatriate labour forces' who work for a fraction of what Australians are used to. All this has happened as a result of the global free market, and will be made worse under such international treaties as GATS - the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

The Editorial in The Australian (20/8/03) was starkly realistic about the result:
"The ACTU's idea of inserting a clause into industrial awards capping the working week at 48 hours, including overtime, is a bad one: bad for the economy, bad for workers and above all bad for those seeking work. …. It is a job-killer …."
Quite right. But the solution offered in the Editorial - better productivity in a more flexible work force - begs the question. Better productivity in a highly automated world has been attained year after year by cutting the workforce and reducing real wages. As the WTO delegate from China pointed out at the Melbourne World Economic Forum conference, we are now competing with giant economies that can undercut our wage-rates by as much as a factor of 30!
True efficiency, in the jargon of globalism, would mean reducing the standard of living in Australia to Third World levels - a bowl of rice each day, no home-ownership, and slave-like conditions. This problem is bursting in industrial economies throughout the world, with levels of poverty and hunger never disclosed in the figures for GDP.
The August New Times Survey contains some detailed and horrible evidence about the burgeoning poverty in the United States, where as many as 40 million people are going hungry, homelessness is a desperate problem, and unemployment rising. The problem has been compounded by huge illegal immigration, greatest in the California which has just gone into insolvency.
New Times Survey, August 2003, $5 posted from our Melbourne office)

The problem is vastly greater than the attempt to share the limited amount of work. The ACTU, whose intentions are obviously to protect the worker, is in reality contributing to greater unemployment, and a rise in the number relying on part-time jobs that are inadequate for reasonable living. The idea of the "full employment" economy, with its corollary of "no income without a job" has been redundant for some time. To pretend it is still a valid objective is a denial of reality.
How much greater must the problem of inadequate employment and poverty in Australia become before we re-examine our options? Surely the two main questions we should be asking are "Are we capable of producing enough for all? Even with such a small productive workforce?" and "If so, how do we distribute the abundance at our disposal if we don't need everyone working?" This takes us back to concepts we haven't really considered since the early years of the 20th Century - that of the Distributive movement, and then the Social Credit idea developed by Clifford Hugh Douglas.

The strangest and most ominous silence is that of the Christian church, which has evaded this question so successfully that it now doesn't even know it exists. It once pronounced strongly on such questions as "usury", "the Just Price", the alleviation of poverty and much else. Now, the Church passes by on the other side, debating endlessly such issues as homosexuality and abortion which, important though they may be, are symptoms of a larger breakdown in the whole structure of society itself. Even sections of those in full employment are hard put to it to make ends meet. What of those who have been made redundant by technology, overseas competition and cut-throat labour conditions? They have the makings of the largest social revolution in history.

MODERN 'RELIGIOUS' BELIEFS

AMERICA IS A RELIGION

by George Monbiot:
U.S. Leaders Now See Themselves as Priests of a Divine Mission to Rid the World of Its Demons.
https://www.commondreams.org/views03/0729-11.htm
"The United States is no longer just a nation. It is now a religion. Its soldiers have entered Iraq to liberate its people not only from their dictator, their oil and their sovereignty, but also from their darkness. As George Bush told his troops on the day he announced victory: "Wherever you go, you carry a message of hope - a message that is ancient and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, "come out," and to those in darkness, "be free".'"
So American soldiers are no longer merely terrestrial combatants; they have become missionaries. They are no longer simply killing enemies; they are casting out demons. The people who reconstructed the faces of Uday and Qusay Hussein (claimed to be the sons of Saddam Hussein…ed) carelessly forgot to restore the pair of little horns on each brow, but the understanding that these were opponents from a different realm was transmitted nonetheless. Like all those who send missionaries abroad, the high priests of America cannot conceive that the infidels might resist through their own free will; if they refuse to convert, it is the work of the devil, in his current guise as the former dictator of Iraq.
As Clifford Longley shows in his fascinating book Chosen People, the founding fathers of the USA, though they sometimes professed otherwise, sensed that they were guided by a divine purpose. Thomas Jefferson argued that the Great Seal of the United States should depict the Israelites, "led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night". George Washington claimed, in his inaugural address, that every step towards independence was "distinguished by some token of providential agency". Longley argues that the formation of the American identity was part of a process of "supersession".
The Roman Catholic church claimed that it had supplanted the Jews as the elect, as the Jews had been repudiated by God. The English Protestants accused the Catholics of breaking faith, and claimed that they had become the beloved of God. The American revolutionaries believed that the English, in turn, had broken their covenant: the Americans had now become the chosen people, with a divine duty to deliver the world to God's dominion.
Six weeks ago, as if to show that this belief persists, George Bush recalled a remark of Woodrow Wilson's: "America," he quoted, "has a spiritual energy in her which no other nation can contribute to the liberation of mankind."
Gradually this notion of election has been conflated with another, still more dangerous idea. It is not just that the Americans are God's chosen people; America itself is now perceived as a divine project.

In his farewell presidential address, Ronald Reagan spoke of his country as a "shining city on a hill", a reference to the Sermon on the Mount. But what Jesus was describing was not a temporal Jerusalem, but the kingdom of heaven. Not only, in Reagan's account, was God's kingdom to be found in the United States of America, but the kingdom of hell could also now be located on earth: the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union, against which His holy warriors were pitched."
(It was the great Russian Christian writer and patriot, Aleksandr Solzhentisyn, who repudiated Ronald Reagan's claims by pointing out the obvious: "The Russian people do not have a monopoly on evil."…ed)

America the divine
"Since the attacks on New York, this notion of America the divine has been extended and refined. In December 2001, Rudy Giuliani, the mayor (I'm told of Italian background, and a Jewish-American …ed) of that city, delivered his last mayoral speech in St Paul's Chapel, close to the site of the shattered twin towers. "All that matters," he claimed, "is that you embrace America and understand its ideals and what it's all about. Abraham Lincoln used to say that the test of your Americanism was ... how much you believed in America. Because we're like a religion really. A secular religion."
The chapel in which he spoke had been consecrated not just by God, but by the fact that George Washington had once prayed there. It was, he said, now "sacred ground to people who feel what America is all about".
The United States of America no longer needs to call upon God; it is God, and those who go abroad to spread the light do so in the name of a celestial domain. The flag has become as sacred as the Bible; the name of the nation as holy as the name of God. The presidency is turning into a priesthood.
So those who question George Bush's foreign policy are no longer merely critics; they are blasphemers, or "anti-Americans". Those foreign states which seek to change this policy are wasting their time: you can negotiate with politicians; you cannot negotiate with priests.
The US has a divine mission, as Bush suggested in January: "to defend ... the hopes of all mankind", and woe betide those who hope for something other than the American way of life.

The heaven-sent mission
The dangers of national divinity scarcely require explanation. Japan went to war in the 1930s convinced, like George Bush, that it possessed a heaven-sent mission to "liberate" Asia and extend the realm of its divine imperium. It would, the fascist theoretician Kita Ikki predicted: "light the darkness of the entire world".
Those who seek to drag heaven down to earth are destined only to engineer a hell."

Editor's comment
There is an ever-widening, ever-deepening chasm between the ideas and beliefs which motivate western leaders and the traditional Christian Faith - the Faith upon which this much-afflicted and 'sick-unto-death' civilisation was once founded and developed. Somehow, we think we can continue to reap the benefits, that is, the good fruits, which have been obtained from the application of that Faith over the centuries, whilst at the same time, sowing and cultivating alien ideas, alien seeds.
We were told, "What you sow is what you will reap… You sow thistles - and thistles you will reap; you sow figs - and figs you will reap."
Many are struggling with their faith and would relate to the words of Sir David Kelly in The Hungry Sheep:
"People want guidance and are deprived of it by "the treason of the clerks," the orthodox academic intellectuals who can pick holes, analyse, quote each other, snigger at the now unorthodox traditional values, but too often are happy in a purely negative role and boast that they can give no coherent inspiring message.

Though Milton meant the words in a very different sense to mine, they are not inappropriate today:
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swoln with wind, and rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.

CHRISTIAN SERVICE

Catholic Daniel Neyer used the language of poets to sketch the Christian knight's ideals of service to his King. The Christian knight would do battle for the protection of the weak and the advancement of all righteous causes:
"(Alfred Lord) Tennyson's Arthur is a saint while Malory's Arthur is a pagan with a few Christian trappings. Mere fighting skill is not sufficient - the knight must be fighting for those causes that support His (God's) reign of charity (love)…
This is expressed well by Thomas Hughes:
'Here all likeness ends, for the muscleman seems to have no belief whatever as to the purposes for which his body has been given him, except some hazy idea that it is to go up and down the world with him, belabouring men and captivating women for his benefit and pleasure, at once the servant and fermenter of those fierce and brutal passions which he seems to think it a necessity, and rather a fine thing than otherwise, to indulge and obey.
Whereas, so far as I know, the least of the muscular Christians has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief that a man's body is given him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, and advancement of all righteous causes… He does not hold that mere strength or activity are in themselves worthy of any respect or worship, or that one man is a bit better than another because he can knock him down, or carry a bigger sack of potatoes than he.' (emphasis added).

And what are the works of (Sir Walter) Scott if not an attempt to bridge the scholastic-created gap between God and men by way of chivalry? The fair damsel was imprisoned in the Darwinian tower and guarded by a capitalist dragon. (Yes. I know Scott wrote before Darwin's thesis, but the scientistic worldview that spawned Darwin was present when Scott wrote.) It was left to the knight with "But the greatest of these is charity," engraved on his shield to rescue the maiden from the dragon."

Further reading:
"The Nineteenth Century Counter-Attack" by Daniel Neyer; New Zealand "On Target" May-June 2003, on the League website. www.alor.org/
"The Australian Heritage Series," Chapter 3, "The Church and the Trinity" by Dr. Geoffrey Dobbs. Addresses the importance of the Christian teaching in relation to any consideration of the realities of politics and the principles governing human associations.
Available from all League Book Services.

SICK U.S. VETS SUE COMPANIES, BANKS

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

SEPTEMBER 11: AN ANALYSIS

From my observations (I watched it live) and also using my somewhat rusty technical knowledge (I am a marine engineer by profession) I have come to some drastic conclusions. If I am correct in my belief that the buildings were not knocked down by the impact of the planes, but demolished with explosives, then it means that the enemy have exposed their hand in a manner never done before. They have possibly made a major blunder which, at the very least, could be the means of getting a lot of people looking at the political scene at a much deeper level. I am suggesting in the strongest possible terms that this needs to be followed through.

Everyone remembers September 11. The dramatic images will be imprinted in the memory for a long time. Perhaps it is time to look back and put these events in perspective, particularly with reference to the history changing world-wide events which followed. It is also time to ask some penetrating questions. Who Gained and Who Lost?

What has America gained? Clearly nothing, but the losses have been enormous. The World Trade Centre buildings were an important status symbol. America has lost face, particularly in the eyes of the non-Christian world. America sees itself threatened as never before and is in a very aggressive mood, ready to lash out at any perceived enemy. Most are agreed that the events of Sept 11 precipitated the war on Iraq.
Who gained from the events of Sept 11? Clearly Israel. Israel's major enemy Saddam Hussein has been removed from power and the Arab/Muslim world is directing its venom increasingly towards America.

Demolishing the World Trade Centre.
With this perspective in mind it is time to examine closely the events of Sept 11. The dramatic pictures of commercial aeroplanes plunging into the sides of the WTC buildings cannot easily be forgotten, but people with engineering training must be left wondering - the whole thing is too "pat". The buildings clearly withstood the impact with ease; there was no obvious sway, shudder or vibration. There were no external signs of major damage beyond the immediate impact area. If the impact of the planes had been sufficient to bring the buildings down they would have toppled sideways and immediately. This clearly did not happen. The buildings collapsed vertically - straight downwards - some time later.

Let us look closely at the sequence of events.
1) The planes impacted, parts passing right through in some cases.
2) Intense fires broke out.
3) An enormous cloud of dust blocked all vision at street level and then rose to the uppermost levels of the buildings.
4) The buildings collapsed. At first sight it appears that the cause of the dust cloud was the collapse of the buildings, but this view does not fit the sequence. The buildings collapsed down into the dust.

Further, the popularly held view that the heat of the fires caused the buildings to collapse does not stand up to close examination.
1) Such heating would have to have been perfectly symmetrical for the buildings to collapse as they did. Random fires would cause uneven heating and a lopsided collapse.
2) Heated steel gives slowly as the temperature rises, it does not suddenly let go. The effect would be for the areas suffering the effect of the fire to slowly subside on to the floor below. This action could not cause the enormous quantity of dust so clearly visible.

What Really Happened on Sept 11
There is only one realistic scenario which can adequately account for the sequence of events described above
1) Impact.
2) Fire breaks out.
3) An intense explosion in the basement, destroying the foundations and generating the enormous dust cloud.
4) Building collapses.

The Reason For The Attack
Clearly the attack was carried out to generate the maximum dramatic impact. Just driving a plane into the side of these buildings was not sufficient for the purpose, the buildings had to come down. To be absolutely certain that they were demolished, the foundations must have been set with explosives long before the attack. What we were watching here was a highly professional demolition exercise, and also another Pearl Harbour… an event of such magnitude that America could be catapulted into a war against any perceived enemy. This also explains the stream of false intelligence clearly aimed at convincing Bush that Iraq was a major supporter of al-Qaida and Iraq was preparing to launch all-out war with Weapons of Mass Destruction. The finger of suspicion in all these events points squarely at Israel.

Implications Of The Attack
Whoever carried out this monstrosity obviously had resources far beyond that of a small group of Muslim extremists from the hills of Afghanistan. Given the fact that the WTC had previously been subject to a bomb attack, security would be extremely tight. Getting explosives into the buildings would have required large resources and contacts in very high places, not to mention the high level of expertise. It would have to be an "inside job" carried out by highly professional people. However the major question arising from these dramatic events regards the role of the American media. Given the relatively low level of technical knowledge required to understand the contradictions between the generally perceived scenario and the technical problems which arose from this view, there must have been hundreds of people who became aware of these flaws. Where are the letters to editor? Where are the investigative journalists? Where are the screaming headlines? All we have is a deadly silence.

The most logical answer to this question is that.... the hidden hand behind these events has almost complete control of the American media.
Yours faithfully, Bob Dewar, Samson, West Australia. 12th August 2003.

VALE ARTHUR TUCK

BASIC FUND

NATIONAL WEEKEND COMING UP

MAYO TAPE LIBRARY

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

Candle of Light by Thomas L. Fielder.
A leading activist all his adult life, Thomas Fielder presents a great example to the younger generation by his dedicated service. His outline of the constant pressure by exponents of global control makes one realise the constant vigilance that is required by those who value freedom. The book is a study of modern history and the manipulation of mankind to conform to a long mapped-out programme of control. Tom served in the R.A.A.F and in 1944 was shot down over Italy, spending the rest of the war imprisoned in Germany. Challenging and informative reading.

The Great Harlot: the Prostitution of the Role of Money in the Market Place by Peter Lock.
The author directs attention to the importance of a money system - that which reflects the real wealth of the nation: our natural resources and talents. It is a violation of the good of the community to monopolise its creation, and manipulate its planned scarcity, for base personal profit and power. When a nation loses control of its credit creation, it matters little which political party is in power and who makes the Laws.
When Christian leaders ignore the misuse of money in society they have little effect, and even less credibility, when proclaiming a 'solution' to poverty, social justice and/or morality.
The Great Social question is: Who is the rightful owner of the financial credit, and who should estimate the real wealth of the nation? Does it belong to the people whose creative talents and toil have produced the real wealth, or, does it belong to a banking system?
The banks' "make believe" ticket entitlement to the real wealth of the nation, is created out of nothing, put into circulation, as their "own" commodity, and repayment is demanded - with interest, thus keeping the people in perpetual servitude. These issues are vital to the well being of all Australians.

The Cane Toad Republic by Professor David Flint.
This well researched book gives all the reasons why the Republican case failed in 1999, and will fail in the future. The analysis of the case for the Monarchy questions in what way would a republican change, enhance or protect our freedom? Is there a republican government in the world that can be given as a prime example? The answer? By far the Monarchical system has proved the most stable form of government.
As a Professor of Law, David Flint shows that the reserve powers of the Monarch's representatives ensure that an umpire will resolve any conflict between political parties. It is certain that the Republican issue will be pursued in the future, so this book is an excellent tool to combat the arguments which will arise.

Water Wars by Vandana Shiva.
A leader in the International Forum on Globalisation, Shiva won an Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) by using her remarkable knowledge of science to study the erosion of communal water rights . An international plan to "levy" the use of water, threatens all cultures and the livelihoods of the peoples of the world. Before becoming an activist on this crucially important issue, Shiva was one of India's leading physicists.

All books are available from League Book Services.