Labor is and should be Democratic Socialism not Social Democrat.
Stalinism was not Socialism it was State Capitalism or Nazism it was a Dictatorship from the top. Democratic Socialism is dictatorship from the bottom through committees the tail wagging the dog. The Community should decide, not those placed on a pedestal. Trade Unionism is Democratic Socialism which should be membership driven. The Labor Party should be membership driven whereby motions from committees set out the platform and the manifesto.

Nationalised Industries our Utilities are there to serve the people not for profit but as a service. Utilities such as Electric, Gas, Railways, Minerals, Communications Hospitals, Schools should never be privatised once privatised the country is then on a slippery slope to disaster as there is never any accountabilty when greed and profit overides the needs of the consumer.

Colin Barnet has made a bra snapper, Chair Sniffer his Treasurer when he should have been sacked for intimidation harassment and bullying under the equal opportunity act. Now Colin wants to give leases to the powerful Nuclear Lobby to mine for uranium to the detriment of miners local communities and human life on this planet.

The poweful Nuclear lobby do not tell us about the tailings from mining uranium and the toxic waste and the deaths downwind from uranium mining. This asbestos of today is so toxic it cannot be harnessed once lifted to the surface it becomes a threat to all mankind yet these speculators do not give a damm to the disaster that they intend to create because it is an extremely lucrative business.

whenever i see "should be", i am tempted to ask "how?"

if you can't see an answer to "how", why talk about it?

in my view, the only question worth asking is; "who has the power to act?" once you've figured that out, you can pursue goals within that area covered by your power.

it's a safe guess, that you have no power to affect uranium mining or disposal. not many people do. your choice, if you agree you have no power, is to be silent, or to get power. or you can go on pretending ministers are reading your posts with deep attention.

get power, mate. because uranium is a danger. so is coal. the people who led us here will not, can not lead us back. only the people can effect the radical change in human behavior needed to save the nations of the world from economic disaster, the fruit of greed bred with declining resources, and ecological disaster, the fruit of those misused resources.

labor, and any party, can not save oz. it needs most of the electorate wanting action and willing to support it. this can only be achieved by democracy over the long term, but dictatorship can appear more attractive to a passive and ignorant populace, such as ozzians.

the next 50 years will be the most interesting time since we left the african savanna. the next 10 will probably set the scale of the coming catastrophe. god help young people, they have been betrayed by their elders.

Demos,

I just love it. On the one hand you seem to believe we are in the termnal stages of death by CO2, on the other you propose forming a comittee consisting of 20 million Australians to sort it out. Are you serious?

BTW, You seem to be totally ignoring the fact that at least half of all Australians are happy for uranium to be mined.

Rule by public opinion is rule by THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR. What's more, any progress would stop because on any given day, on issues which are evenly supported, opinion could swing. In that case proponents of true democracy, like yourself, could justifiably say that the issue needs to be re-voted.

BroncoLane,

Stalinism was not even remotely capitalism. You clearly have no idea about the differences between capitalism and socialism.

The USSR had a command economy where the means of production was owned by the workers party (ie the communists). The Party issued 5 year plans where all economic activity was centrally planned. Thats no kind of capitalism that I've ever heard of. Want to try again?


you say >> "This asbestos of today is so toxic it cannot be harnessed once lifted to the surface it becomes a threat to all mankind "

What unadulterated bullsh!t. In nature, uranium atoms exist as uranium-238 (99.284%), uranium-235 (0.711%),[2] and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0058%). Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle.

U238 is hardly radioactive at all. Uranium is not absorbed through the skin, and alpha particles released by uranium cannot penetrate the skin.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium

Uranium has been mined successfully in Australia at Ranger, Olympic Dam and Beverly. The magnitude of the health problems from those mines is comparable to those seen as a result of any other mining operation. The suggestion that uranium is as toxic as asbestos is pure hyperbole.

Why don't you be honest and admit that you are philosophically opposed to uranium mining because uranium (more specifically enriched uranium) is used in nuclear power and in the production of plutonium for nuclear bombs

"BTW, You seem to be totally ignoring the fact that at least half of all Australians are happy for uranium to be mined.”

Tut tut Paul.L. You debate with obfuscation when you fail to mention that 65% of Australians oppose any expansion to uranium mining.

If Wiki is your only source of uranium information, I suggest you return to the drawing board for radioactive materials left behind in the uranium tailings are among the deadliest poisons known to science - radium-226, polonium-210, that was used to poison Litvinenko; radon gas, which remains one of the deadliest cancer-causing agent ever encountered; as well as thorium-230, lead-210, and others.

When uranium ore has lain undisturbed for hundreds of millions of years, then all of the uranium decay products will have exactly the same radioactivity as uranium-238. For example, if a 10-kilogram rock contains 1000 becquerels of uranium (about one gram), it will also contain 1000 becquerels of radium-226, 1000 becquerels of polonium-210, 1000 becquerels of radon, and so on.

The total radioactivity of the rock is 14,000 becquerels, since there are 14 different radioactive substances in the “decay chain.” Once the uranium has been removed the residues still have about 12,000 becquerels of radioactivity left.

To make matters worse, most of the uranium decay products are constantly replenished by the on-going radioactive disintegration of thorium-230, which has a 76,000 year half-life. This means that only half of the atoms of thorium-230 will disintegrate in 76,000 years.

BHP Billiton admitted to losing 3 billion litres of this radioactive water into the ground in 1994.

The Olympic Dam project plunders 35 million litres per day from our Great Artesian Basin – free of charge for the next 70 years. The proposed expansion of Olympic Dam will see a further increase in water usage.

contd.....

And if you think the industry is competent, think again. In 2004, ERA, the owners of the Beverley uranium mine, were fined $150,000 for contaminating 159 workers (many became ill) who drank and bathed in water 400 times in excess of the “legal” limit.

The Yeelirrie uranium mine in WA was abandoned by WMC and left in an appalling state, exposing wildlife and humans to radioactive substances:

http://www.sea-us.org.au/no-way/yeelirrie.html

And I share Bronco Lane’s concerns. Colin Barnett will open up WA to uranium mining and a significant number of tenement holders are salivating over the proposed green light:

http://www.uic.com.au/pmine.htm

This month, former Labor Minister, John Bowler, who was sacked for leaking cabinet documents to Julian Grill, has been returned to parliament by the Goldfields’ people who seemingly approve of liars and cheats.

Bowler actively promotes uranium mining and as Demos indicates, the sheeple will now get what they deserve. Leaking cabinet documents in some countries incurs at the very least, a gaol sentence!

And lobbyists Burke (ex-con) and Grill would have been delighted to learn of their colleague's return to parliament!

I recommend this thread, to every one who questions why we have left and right in Aussie ,indeed world politics.
I a lifetime ALP activist.
A trade unionist for every day I live.
Have no true part to play in such a thread.
I am not that left as some who post here.
And never as right as others.
Yet I am in my view much closer to most Australians.
Fact is we will continue to sell uranium.
And it will both give power and be used in weapons like it or not.
Insane or not.
We in time will use it to create our own power like it or not.
And if we said no, we are not ever going to sell it, use it, nothing others who wanted it would take it from us.
In truth, regarding the dreams of my youth Socialism.
Even with the current melt down, the greed of capitalism, the unpaid for crime of Wall street, can anyone believe the world can bury greed and embrace Socialism?
We in part in this country, a constantly shrinking part, are Socially aware and in part Socialistic in our outlook to health, welfare education and much more.
One day we must find a new word to explain that old dream, communism dragged the word Socialism into dark places.
But some reality must take place mans self interest will win every time.