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| Issue No 112 |  |
21 September 2001 |
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The SoapboxAustralian Heart of Darkness
Rowan Cahill ruminates on the importance of critical thought at times of national crisis.
******************** I was en route to Sydney the morning of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and stopped for fuel some 120 kilometres from the CBD. The service station was a modern outfit, complete with a bowser forest, ATM, a well stocked convenience store, motor repair shop, and rural machinery franchise. Whilst paying for my fuel, I overheard four locals discussing the terrorist attacks; they had apparently absorbed a couple of hours of television coverage. "I reckon Bush should raze the Middle East", said one of the speakers. The group nodded heads in agreement, including the man I took to be the proprietor, given his uniform, group body language, and the deference extended to him. Collectively, and ironically given where we were, a zilch understanding of the geo-politics of oil was on display. "Did you see them dancing in the streets, celebrating?" ventured a thirty-something woman from a bull-bared newish four-wheel drive. She was referring to contentious television footage of alleged West Bank Palestinian youth celebrating the terrorist attacks. "Death's too good for those Hebrews," she continued, demonstrating a grasp of history, geography, race, culture, politics, and religion that literally blasted right off the Richter scale. During the days that followed the dreadful attacks, there was blanket local television coverage of events, choreographed by US networks, couched in Cold War terminology and the language of Hollywood. US President Bush came into Australian living rooms sounding uncomfortably like the mad Dr. Strangelove, infused with the creepy rhetoric of right-wing Christianity. There was condemnation aplenty, as there had to be, but little in the way of critical analysis. For the most part, the painfully obvious, the knee jerk reaction, and the official line dominated. The burning question: Why is it that America has so many enemies? was not addressed. Nor was there any attempt to explain why people who had presumably been born as normal human beings, with all the human capacity to care and love, should have chosen to end their lives in mass murder and suicide. The absence of such analysis and informed critical comment allowed the sort of misinformation and ignorance I had overheard at the service station to fester and proliferate. Nor did it help that somewhere along the line, sixteenth century French astrologer Nostradamus got a run, helping drive sales of his prophecies to the top of American best-seller lists; he even got time locally on Channel 9. American television coverage reflected a disturbing American trend, best illustrated by a recent analysis by Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist ditched by his paper in 1997 because it was alleged he wasn't making enough money for his employer. A pacifist, Colman had been a Post columnist since 1969. Colman examined the 430 opinion pieces published in the Post during June, July and August 2001. Of these 420 were by right-wingers and centrists; only 10 by columnists one could consider Left. Even before the terrorist attacks, Americans were not exactly getting access to a range of opinion and comment in the mainstream media. Back on the homefront, local talkback radio in particular gave time and space to the generation and promulagation of misinformation, lies, and racist madness. The term "animals" gained currency on the air waves. By the end of the week ethnic hatred had been conjured from out of the Australian Heart of Darkness. Significant anti-Muslim abuse and attacks were taking place in the three Eastern States, including the stoning of kids of Arabic descent, and grafitti and arson attacks on schools and mosques. Fertile ground for this racist hatred had been prepared earlier by Prime Minister Howard when he played the Hanson electoral card during his handling of the Tampa asylum seekers, thereby demonising them. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, there were Australian opinion makers who suggested there could well be future terrorists amongst the Afghan refugees currently seeking asylum in Australia. Arguably NSW Premier Carr had also contributed to the racist inflammation with his recent poll-driven emphasis on enthnicity and crime. Unfortunately, racism has historically been one of Australia's most powerful, and distinguishing, national emotions and characteristics. It is a card that political power players should avoid like the plague. Once played it leads in directions that cannot be forecast or controlled; directions as varied and complex as the darknesses of the human soul. Issue Number 111 of Workers Online was a notable exception to the Australian journalistic excesses and bloody mindedness of the week. Editor Peter Lewis, and Neale Towart, helped readers access a view of American events that did not simply rubber stamp the US Administration line. In doing so they followed a notable Australian, and Sydney, precedent overlooked by most historians. During World War 2, two labour movement papers became the source of alternative war news and Left comment, particularly during the crucial early war years when censorship, the draconian curtailment of civil liberties, and the shortage of newsprint, made the public captive of official propaganda. The papers were the Ironworker (journal of the Federated Ironworkers' Association), and Progress (last issued July 1946). According to historians Robert Murray and Kate White, the Ironworker became "something of a popular cause amongst left-wing intellectuals".
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   Interview: Exit InterviewMichael Costa looks back at his 14 years with the Labor Council to chart the highs, the lows and the bits in between. Parliament: Opening SalvoIn his Maiden Speech, delivered this week, Costa gave vent to his views on immigration, Marx, globalisation and mental health. Scandals: My Evil TwinCo-conspirator and 'intellectual soulmate' Mark Duffy recounts the legendary 'Leaked Paper' Affair and how its predictions soon came to pass. Politics: An Agent for ChangeFormer secretary Michael Easson argues that Costa was instrumental in redefining the factional balance in NSW in the wake of the Cold War. Review: The Thoughts of Chairman MCNeale Towart trawls the collected works of Michael Costa and looks at his love-hate affair with Marx. Factions: Kyoto SunsetNaomi Steer - the first left-winger to work at Labor Council in decades - recalls how she discovered the real Michael in a Karaoke lounge. History: A Proud TraditionFormer Premier Barrie Unsworth argues Costa enters Parliament as the best qualified Labor Council leader ever to make the transition. Psychology: The Man Behind the MaskCosta's predecessor Peter Sams argues that behind the bluff facade lay a loyal and caring friend. Seduction: Michael and MeChris Christodoulou recounts how Costa convinced him to cross the factional divide and take up residence in Sussex Street. Satire: Ode to LeonLong-time sparring partner, Peter Botsman submits this lyrical tribute to Costa's career.
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