[ILUG] Mother of God!

[Daniel Goldsmith]

On 2/16/06, kevin lyda <kevin at ie.suberic.net> wrote:

> they did their bit.  what have *you* done lately?  we still have a film
> censors office.  we still have the offences against the state acts.
> we still have flights that support the war in iraq going through shannon.
> we still have this bizzare situation where a person has to use illegal
> software to watch a dvd they paid for on a box they paid for.  we still
> have a justice minister who sees fit to destroy people's careers.
> we still have charlie mccreevy trying to stick us with software patents.
> we still force women to fly to england to be able to have a full range
> of decisions regarding their own bodies.

Campaigning, all the time, non-stop. Like you, Kevin, this isn't even
my country.

But I will not ignore the China issue (apologies for the lousy
grammar). It has been my long and bitter experience that many
non-party political activists, in this country and elsewhere, are
oriented toward the left end of the political spectrum. This has
always, IME, meant that problems in China, VietNam &c are ignored,
explained away or de-prioritised, in favour of constant campaigning
against Israel, Nicaragua, US and other non-leftist governments. Note
that I'm not saying that any of the previous four are perfect, but Joe
Average Activist will fulminate quite happily for hours about one
death in Israel/PA while mentioning Mass Organ-harvested executions in
China only in passing.

The China issue is just another example. Did you see the small turnout
in the protests against Google in Europe last week? Pathetic, wasn't
it. Notice that there were no Socialist Worker activists present? Look
at socialistworker.org - Cartoons, War on Terror and Katrina. Or
swp.ie - Shannon and 'The Wall'. Any mention of massacres of trades
unionists in Iran? No. genocide of females babies in China? No. The
continuing genocide by the leftist government in Sudan? No.

The oppression of the Chinese people by their leftist authoritarian
government is probably the single greatest Huiman Rights issue in the
world today (in terms of sheer numbers), and nothing is done or said
by any campaingners or activists from 'the usual crowd'. This allows
coporates, like Google, MS &c to continue to assist in that
oppression. SO don't go looking for motes when the beam is still
there.

Regards,

Daniel.