For comrades at Socialist Alternative, the only thing worse than the West are splitters
ABC’s Q&A, Monday:
My name’s Lily … I’m a member of Socialist Alternative.
Which socialist alternative? Editorial, The Age, May 1, 2002:
Looking at the far left of politics these days is like staring at microbes down the barrel of a microscope. The groupings are tiny and largely invisible … but … the more you look, the more they seem to divide and multiply … (there’s) a Communist Party of Australia … (not) to be confused with the Communist Party Marxist-Leninist that had already split from the original Communist Party over (Mao) … another group has taken over the Socialist Party name … (that) used to be called the Militants … not to be mistaken for the Democratic Socialist Party that used to be called the Socialist Workers Party, or the … Socialist Alternative …
Monty Python’s Life of Brian:
Brian: Are you the Judean People’s Front?
Reg: F..k off! … We’re the People’s Front of Judea! … The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f..king Judean People’s Front.
PFJ: Yeah …
Judith: Splitters.
Francis: And the Judean Popular People’s Front.
PFJ: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters …
Loretta: And the People’s Front of Judea.
PFJ: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters …
Reg: What?
Loretta: The People’s Front of Judea. Splitters.
Reg: We’re the People’s Front of Judea!
Loretta: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
Reg: People’s Front! C-huh.
Francis: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
Reg: He’s over there.
PFJ: Splitter!
ABC’s Q&A, Monday:
Lily: The multi-billion-dollar Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation is offering millions to Sydney University to offer a (BA in Western civilisation). In the words of Ramsay Centre board director and infamous racist Tony Abbott …
Infamous racist or anyone who likes the flag? Tony Bramble, Socialist Alternative, April 25, 2007:
Whenever I see the Australian flag, I want to puke … Australian nationalism has always been deeply reactionary, racist and imperialist …
ABC’s Q&A, Monday:
(Socialist) Lily: … the proposed course is not merely ABOUT Western civilisation — it’s in favour of it …
In favour of Western civ? (gasp!) Ibn Warraq, City Journal, Winter 2008:
The great ideas of the West — rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law and equality under the law, freedom of thought and expression, human rights and liberal democracy — are superior to any others devised by humankind. It was the West that … secured freedoms for women and racial and other minorities … recognises … the rights of the individual … proceeds through … open discussion … and self-correction … (gave us) nearly every scientific discovery of the last 500 years … (and to which) millions of refugees from … totalitarian regimes flee.
So, the West or the rest? Woody Allen, The New York Times, August 10, 1979:
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.