Socialist Party Australia - Letters to the Socialist Party

2 letters - one is an appeal for help from Tasmanian workers and the other is on the issue of depression and what socialists think about this growing problem

G’day comrades,

I am writing this email to you from Tasmania: the woodchip state. Currently we are embroiled in a struggle against an imperialist force which has a stranglehold on the people and the environment never seen before in any part of Australia.

The opposition comprises largely of the corporate woodchipping giant, Gunns Ltd. The biggest woodchip exporter in Australia, the biggest landowner and wine producer in TAsmania is intricately involved in the corrupt governance of the state. The Premier-Treasurer, Paul Lennon, has a shady history and his partnership with the ex-Premier, Jim Bacon, who together lead to the weakening and eventual dissolution of the union movement down here.

The CFMEU exists, but not in the workers rights capacity but more as a group of heavies supporting the rhetoric that the timber industry feeds to the people constantly. A recent pro-forestry rally prior to the Latham visit apparently saw 10000 workers take to the streets of Launceston. Most, if not all! , of the participants were paid and even bussed to the event.

The control had by the timber industry, more specifically the pulpwood industry is sickening. The Government no longer governs for the good of the people and the environment but only for an elite minority. This industrial-government complex is a shining example of the monopolisitic imperial regimes we must fight and fight until we see some change.

I ask for any mainland assitance in organising the workers to fight against this oppressive regime. Truck drivers are working 16 hour days and are the lowest paid in Australia.

I ask in solidarity with the people of Tasmania.

Jimmy Cocking

To The Socialist,
I’ve been suffering from quite severe depression recently. The more I analyse my own feelings, the more I think that this is an illness that we as socialists should be looking at. What is it that makes a person feel so totally down when there doesn’t really appear to be anything wrong with their lives.

If I may use myself as an example, I was brought up by very loving parents and had a good education. I am currently with someone who is very caring and I am not needy when it comes to things like accommodation or food. I didn’t really start getting depressed until I moved from Vanuatu to Melbourne. In that small community back home I felt like I had a definate role to play, I knew lots of people and there was a strong community feel about the place.

Here I am one of many million. My friendship circle has dramatically decreased and I feel remarkably alone.

Sometimes when I’m depressed I can see my own and the world’s problems quite clearly but I rarely see a way out or perhaps I don’t believe that the solutions that exist will ever come into practice. It’s much easier to say to yourself that everything’s fucked and there’s nothing you can do about it that to get up and start actively fixing your life.

So many people today suffer from depression. When I look at the people I know, it’s quite scary how many of them feel the way I do. This is a new phenomenon (or perhaps one that has existed for quite some time but is now so big that we can’t ignore it) and one that needs to be addressed.

Depression breeds apathy- or if not apathy, then a feeling of hopelessness and isolation. It is perhaps also at the base of many other problems in society (drug addiction, suicide, teenage pregnancy even (in that women feel that if they have a child it can fill that void in their lives). Depression certainly isn’t a problem that capitalism isn’t going to solve - I’d even go so far as to say that capitalism causes depression.

I have found it interesting that in Vanuatu I never came across this kind of depression (in myself or anyone else), yet people’s lives there seem so much worse due to the immense poverty and lack of education. People back home seem to have this amazing brightness or strength about them, despite the hardships they face. I wonder sometimes if it’s because over there life is still pretty much based on survival and getting your family fed and there is little time to sit around and feel sad.

I feel depression is linked to the fact that life can seem so totally meaningless under capitalism. I guess what I’m asking is how will socialism change this? I’m sure the answer is really obvious and I just haven’t read up enough so sorry if that’s the case.

Although socialism may change it, we do currently live in a capitalist society and I think we should be looking at how we approach issues like this one. I guess the complication is that it is such a vast problem with so many different aspects. What do your readers think about this?

Polly Dorcas Walker, Melbourne