SLACKBASTARD: eXposed

Posted on July 21, 2010 by @ndy

…no better than the trash I fight against…

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Leave Tim Noonan alone!

Posted on July 21, 2010 by @ndy

Now that Walkley Award winning journalist Martin King has swapped television for radio, his place in my ♥ has been taken by Walkley Award winning journalist Tim Noonan. Tim is a fearless independent documentary filmmaker, whose enormous and possibly unique talents have, thankfully, been spotted by Walkley Award winning journalist Matthew White and the production team at Today Tonight. Sadly, Tim’s talents have made him the subject of a campaign of state-sponsored political harassment — yet another in a seemingly endless cycle, this time titled ‘Tweed Tales on TT’.

Leave Tim Noonan alone!

See also : F___ Off I’m On Today Tonight! Or: Reverse racism. (February 16, 2010) | How to Make Trouble… // The Dole Army (November 6, 2009) | Justin Sheridan in Canberra (September 22, 2009) | Justin Sheridan : Australian of the Year (September 15, 2009).

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Solidarity with Álvaro Paredes

Posted on July 20, 2010 by @ndy

I gots the following msg in my Inbox recently. It’s issued by antifa skinheads who organise themselves as members of RASH: Red & Anarchist Skin Heads, and concerns a skinhead from Ecuador named Álvaro Paredes. On May 17 this year, Alvaro was ambushed outside of his school by a group of four neo-Nazis, and in self-defence killed one of his attackers.

Solidarity with Comrade Álvaro Paredes

The International Confederation RASH UNITED, which brings together hundreds of sections around the world, with thousands of active militants, gives full support to and expresses complete solidarity with comrade Álvaro Paredes, a member of the BAF [Brigada Antifascista] in Quito, Ecuador. First, we send him a supportive greeting, already in knowledge of his confession to authorities of Monday, May 31: the same day on which we issue this statement. Likewise, we give full support to and express complete solidarity with Ecuador’s antifascist movement, reminding you that you’re not alone, and that we are working with all types of organizations (social, political, and so on) to denounce all the cases where these neo-Nazi groups have been involved, attacking with impunity the social movement.

We also ask the international community to publicize this case: our comrade Álvaro acted in self defense when four neo-Nazis attacked him, chasing him outside his place of study (there is ample evidence of this) — a further example of the persecution to which Álvaro was daily being subjected, and which ended up with the situation as we now know it.

[See : Grupos Nazis en Ecuador, TV Ecuador, May 23, 2010 (Spanish).]

We, the antifascists of the world, are not criminals, nor murderers: we act in self-defence and do so only as a last resort, when our life is in danger, as in the case of our comrade in Ecuador, and in many other cases elsewhere in the world.

RASH UNITED urgently calls on all sections and all its members in the world to mobilize representations to Ecuadorian embassies in each country where they are present, and to make a clear, formal complaint to embassy authorities. In this way, we are going to exert direct pressure, so that the case of our comrade Álvaro takes another direction, one different to the one in which the media is trying to take it currently, as a mere gang fight, a claim which cannot be further away from the truth. These are selective attacks by extreme right-wing groups, made with the economic assistance of Ecuador’s paramilitary organizations.

Here we provide links to illustrate the “fascist” groups in Ecuador, so that they can be brought to the attention of the embassies:

[JUVENTUD REVOLUCIONARIA A.N.R. ECUADOR
[A.N.R.- REVOLUCION NACIONAL
A.N.R. CUENCA-ECUADOR]

Also this link to a video made by the neo-Nazi group to which the deceased, allegedly an angel, belonged:

[RAM 88_ NUNCA TE OLVIDAREMOS…]

Finally we appeal to all the Anti-Fascist Brigades of the world to show solidarity with Álvaro, it is time to show our support in these hard times. Remember that any of us could be the victim of paramilitary movements of this kind because they abound in the streets of every city. Also to the Coordinadoras Antifascistas of all the world to demonstrate in the same way, to the comrades of Accion Antifascista and in general to all the social movements that have been aware of such cases for a long time now. Comrade Álvaro Paredes is a political prisoner because he defended himself from the clutches of the fascist puppets who wanted to murder him. Self defence is not a crime, it is a tool with which we human beings defend ourselves.

ÁLVARO! FRIEND! COMRADE!
RASH UNITED IS WITH YOU!

(///)

FREEDOM, EQUALITY AND SOLIDARITY FOREVER!

RED & ANARCHIST SKINHEADS INTERNATIONAL
R.A.S.H UNITED – ORGANIZATION CREW – ADMINISTRATION
(///) SINCE 1.993 – LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND SOLADIRITY
R.A.S.H UNITED IS R.A.S.H INTERNATIONAL
WE ARE THE RASH! ALWAYS BLACK AND REDS!
PALANTE!

Useful / relevant but not necessarily endorsed links include : RASH UNITED (///) | R.A.S.H. UNITED | RASH International | RASH ECUADOR.

Note:

RASH was officially launched on January 1st, 1993 by members of the Mayday Crew (R.I.P.), a left-wing skinhead crew based in the New York area, with support from skinheads in Ottawa, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati and Montreal. Shortly after the initial call went out for the formation of such a network, chapters formed in other countries (Colombia, Italy, Germany, etc.). Now RASH is spread across North America, South America, Europe and the Caribbean…

Bonus Skinhead Attitude!

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Victory @ Kennon Auto!

Posted on July 19, 2010 by @ndy

LOL.

Word on the street is that the workers @ Kennon Auto have won their weeks-long dispute with management. The new EBA maintains the terms and conditions of the old EBA, and includes a 4% wage increase.

How about that eh?

PS. In other good news, Lex Wotton has been released from prison. Sadly, while Lex and many others were sent to jail for the part they played in community resistance to police violence on Palm Island, the person (or persons) responsible for the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee go/es unpunished. Lex has also had a gag order placed on him, so it will presumably be a while before he can be said to be free — or free at least to speak his mind. Hopefully, Lex will also be free to enjoy some financial compensation for his many trials and tribulations.

Posted in State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Support Ark Tribe // International Day Against Multinational Corporations

Posted on July 19, 2010 by @ndy

Support Ark Tribe
When: Tuesday, July 20, 9:30am
Where: Cnr. St.Kilda & Toorak Rds, Melbourne
Why: Rank and file S.A. building worker Ark Tribe faces 6 months jail, after being singled out by the ABCC. His trial restarts 20-22 July 2010 in Adelaide.

Last month Adelaide Magistrate David Whittle ruled that the ABCC case against Ark Tribe would continue. This followed a 3-day legal battle that began on Tuesday 15/6 to have the charges dismissed, due to the validity of the proceedings. Brind Zichy – Woinarski QC for the federal DPP and the ABCC argued the Federal Crimes Act allowed the charges to be laid the way they were served on Ark Tribe.

Magistrate David Whittle rejected the jurisdictional challenge from Ark Tribe’s lawyer Michael Abbott QC, opening the way for the trial to go ahead. The legal teams agreed the rest of the full trial will be heard from 20 July 2010…

See also : Rights On Site.

International Day Against Multinational Corporations
When: Thursday, July 22, Midday
Where: State Library, Melbourne
Why: Corporations around the world act as a law unto themselves. We see this play out in our myriad struggles. Many people are continuing the fight against the domination corporations exercise over peoples’ lives, and we ask that you join us on this day to take a public stand against the devastation these amoral corporations are inflicting on us and other oppressed peoples.

Multinational corporations act only to benefit the privileged few at the expense of the majority; to reinforce exploitation of poor people, smash unionism and undermine workers rights, terrorise and murder union activists, displace and assimilate indigenous communities, and trash our natural resources and environment.

The well-documented crimes of corporations such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, Coca-Cola, Fonterra, Chiquita Brand, Monsanto, Drummond, Nestle, and BP is hardly complete; nevertheless, these will be a focus of LASNET in illustrating the multitude of corporate crimes occurring globally.

We acknowledge, and support, the proliferation of local struggles for workers rights/community power, autonomy and self-management, for freedom from corporate domination and devastation. We see this event as one of many actions we will be undertaking, and we are currently in the process of organising a ‘Latin American, Australian & Asia Pacific Solidarity Gathering’ to occur on October 15-17, 2010 in Melbourne. We invite you to both attend this rally on July 22 and further to assist us in the organising of our October Gathering.

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“Dead, buried, cremated, that’s my signature,’’ Mr Abbott said.

Posted on July 19, 2010 by @ndy

LOL.

The Mad Monk tries and fails to kill the albatross that is/was ‘WorkChoices’, bravely battling the reality that it won’t be until after Labor’s next term in office that the ill-will the scheme generated will dissipate — by which time, it’s also likely he’ll have been demoted for being too unpopular among the ladies. Speaking of which, Cath Bowtell is the lollipop lady taking over from Lindsay Tanner and taking on law-talking guy Adam Bandt in the seat of Melbourne, a marginal undertaking quite possibly falling victim to the disease Paul ‘I Was A Teenage Trotskyist’ Howes has identified as turning Green into Red:

[The Greens are] being infiltrated by many whose commitment to the environment is questionable, and who are more focused on turning the Greens into a left-wing, socialist-style party. Some people call these Greens “watermelons” – green on the outside, red on the inside.

[Lee] Rhiannon is one of those. In fact, if you look back at her 11 years on the comfortable red couches of the NSW Legislative Council, not much has been said by her on Green issues, but she has spent a lot of time talking about issues not dissimilar from those she campaigned for when she was an active member of the Stalinist Socialist Party [now better known as the Communist Party of Australia].

Rhiannon’s “watermelon” faction of the Greens is growing in strength. They are increasingly flexing their muscle through their base in the inner-city Green branches against the traditional “true” Greens such as [Bob] Brown.

Howes has a point: certainly, nobody could mistake Labor for being “a left-wing, socialist-style party”, especially when they have enough trouble distinguishing it from Another Liberal Party. “Clearing the decks of difficult issues has dominated Julia Gillard’s brief prime ministership so far. First the mining tax, then asylum seekers. She did a deal on the first, and helped herself to a reworked version of Coalition policy on the second.” (See also : Real chance for Greens in historical Labor bastion, Farah Tomzin, The Age, July 19, 2010.)

‘Making tracks nightly’ (Katherine Murphy, The Age, July 19, 2010) is a nuts ‘n’ bolts account of the Labor machine in action. Among the many gems of electoral wisdom to be gleaned from the article is the observation that “Polling is an evolving art, and online is playing a greater part in the overall enterprise”. In which context: Adam Bandt has 895 followers on Twitter; Cath Bowtell has 162. 2,540 people like Adam Bandt on Facebook, while 265 people like Cath Bowtell.

See also : Ben Pobjie | loon pond | OMGWTF! The Mad Monk! ROFLMAO! (December 2, 2009). Hear also : Episode 33: A General Sense Of Unease And A Mild Dislike On The Campaign Trail, Gather Around Me, July 18, 2010.

Forward ho!

Bonus KRudd! A Sweary Blast from the Past

Posted in Death, State / Politics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

antifa notes (july 18, 2010) : elections, forums and muzak

Posted on July 18, 2010 by @ndy

August

A handful of white nationalists, namely Tony Pettitt in Greenway and Mick Saunders in Lindsay, will be losing at the upcoming Federal election, yesterday announced as taking place on Saturday, August 21. Both Pettitt and Saunders are members of veteran fascist militant Dr James Saleam‘s ‘Australia First Party’. According to AF, the pair will be bravely battling the combined forces of “big money, Chinese imperialism, Zionism and so on”, but as the final list of candidates is yet to be confirmed, I’m unable to confirm if these rather unusual names will also be on the ballot. Otherwise, AF’s arch-rivals in the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ earlier made some noises about standing a candidate — a rather cranky racist named Nicholas Hunter Folkes — for the seat of Sydney, but this is also yet to be confirmed. Finally, the botched abortion that is (or rather was) Pauline Hanson‘s ‘One Nation Party’ will presumably be wheeling out a few dozen more losing candidates in various seats across the country — moaron ON later. Given major party commitment to Fortress Australia, the already-existing political marginality of the far right is unlikely to be remedied at the ballot box; on the other hand, xenophobic elements within the micro-parties, and among the population in general, can only find encouragement in the race to demonstrate who’s toughest on asylum seekers / ‘illegal non-citizens’.

But that’s another story.

September

In September, there are two major scheduled events on the fascist calendar: the Sydney Forum in Sydney on the weekend of September 18/19 and the Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig in Melbourne on September 25. The Forum is being organised by AF and a small number of allies (including local neo-Nazis Nicole Hanley and Welf Herfurth), while the gig is being organised by ‘Blood & Honour Australia’ and the ‘Southern Cross Hammerskins’. This year’s special guest at the Sydney Forum is Canadian Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm; last year, the US white supremacist Andrew Yeoman spoke, while local neo-Nazi skinheads have promised two foreign bands will be appearing at this year’s memorial. As for location, last year’s Forum was held at the Petersham RSL; the memorial gig was held at an undisclosed venue.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Music, State / Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hot Pies!

Posted on July 17, 2010 by @ndy

Despite the best efforts of the men in yellow…

Dazzling Magpies fly to the top of the ladder… Pies smash Saints… Pies flaunt premiership credentials…

Collingwood 4.4 7.7 11.7 15.10 (100)
St Kilda 1.4 3.5 4.11 6.16 (52)

Official Crowd: 81,386 at the MCG.

Posted in Collingwood | 1 Comment

Kennon Auto : No Ifs Or Buts, Cough Up!

Posted on July 16, 2010 by @ndy

Update : Unions unite to support Kennon Auto workers, Sue Bolton & Anna Maidstone, Green Left Weekly, July 17, 2010. See also : NOT A GOOD FEELING, TCFUA Media Release, July 13, 2010.

The industrial dispute @ Kennon Auto Pty Ltd (32-46 Chifley Drive, Preston, VIC 3072: (03) 9474 0300), which began several weeks ago, has entered into a crucial stage, with production having stopped, stockpiles having been liquidated, and management now attempting to bring in new supplies (having already hired a large number of new, casual workers to replace those on strike) in order to meet contractual obligations with Toyota Australia. Today (Friday), management attempted to truck in new supplies, but the trucks were stopped by picketers — this despite the company having enlisted members of the Tactical Response Group (!) as well as having the otherwise unremarkable assistance of uniformed police.

Kennon is a former Nylex factory, and manufactures supplies for Toyota Australia. The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) has coverage at the factory, and has organised a campaign in support of striking workers (you can make a donation to the workers here). The company has recently undergone a change in ownership, and the new management is attempting to institute a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), one which attacks existing pay and conditions. Further, workers at Kennon have not received a wage rise in almost three years (for moar infos, please see : Workers denied pay rise for three years, Ron Guy, Green Left Weekly, July 3, 2010).

The next few days would appear to be crucial ones in determining the outcome of the dispute, and management is again expected to try and bring in new supplies tomorrow morning. For this reason, members of the general community are being encouraged to join striking workers on the picket line from 6am tomorrow morning, Saturday July 17…

Posted in State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Lenin Goes to Canberra? (Trot Guide 2010)

Posted on July 15, 2010 by @ndy

Maybe.

Maybe not.

But with a Federal election due any day now, I thought it was about time I again surveyed the local Trotskyist* scene, and thus ascertain: Who looks forward to this historical opportunity to seize state power by way of the ballot box?

To begin with, the latest addition to the Guide: the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

Oddly, given her impeccable** feminist and Marxist credentials, the communist Van Thanh Rudd has thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and will be drawing her into the elaborate performance piece Rudd has given the provisional title of Lalor Election 2010. Otherwise, in early 2010, the RSP announced that Hamish Chitts would be going into battle against The Rudd Formerly Known as the Australian Prime Minister in the seat of Griffith (see : RSP federal election campaign: No racism! No war! For a working people’s government!, Kathy Newnam, Direct Action, No.22, May 2010).

The RSP’s evil Siamese twin is the Socialist Alliance. It will be fielding a range of candidates this year — about two dozen, in fact.

Socialist Alternative (SAlt) is not standing any candidates at the election — and I don’t remember it, or its precursors within the iSt, having done so at any electoral contest in the past — but does urge anyone who cares to put the Tories last on the ballot:

In the coming elections Socialist Alternative advocates giving a first preference vote to either Labor, the Greens or others who are genuinely left-wing, like socialist candidates, and putting the Liberals last. However what really matters is not what we do in our five minutes in the polling booths, but what we do day in and day out to build a fighting movement that can begin to turn the tide in our favour.

The other groupuscule most closely allied to SAlt is Solidarity. As far as I can tell, it’s position is more-or-less the same as SAlt’s: vote for leftist and/or Green candidates where possible, but put the Liberals (Coalition) last. This also appears to be the position of the Socialist Party (SP), who have the rare distinction, along with the SA, of having experienced some success at the ballot box.

Along with SAlt, Solidarity, and the SP, the other explicitly Trotskyist party in Australia is the Socialist Equality Party. Federally-registered, it regularly participates in bourgeoisie elections, and regularly comes last.

The two main non-Trotskyist Marxist parties are the Communist Party of Australia and the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist). In early 2009, the CPA was the primary (and perhaps sole) initiator of the Communist Alliance, which has since fielded one candidate, Bob Briton. Briton was very happy at his success in the SA seat of Lee (Great result for Communist Party in Lee says candidate, March 24, 2010). The CPA’s cousin in the CPA (M-L), meanwhile, do not appear to stand their own candidates, tho’ former members have assumed high office (see : Stalin! FARK! Avakian! Mao! Rage! Muzak!, January 30, 2008).

Otherwise…

The Freedom Socialist Party was once a member of the Socialist Alliance, but left several years ago. They will almost certainly not be standing a candidate, but will presumably advocate voting for somebody else. The Progressive Labour Party, on the other hand, was once registered, and contested elections under its own steam, but is now seemingly defunct (or perhaps merely resting). According to Trotskyist Platform, “If You Support Socialism then You Must Defend North Korea!”, but If You Support Socialism then Who Must You Vote for in the Upcoming Election?

Given the above, a more significant ‘progressive’ challenge to the ALP will likely come from the Greens. In Melbourne, widely considered to be The Seat Most Likely, law-talking guy Adam Bandt will square off against former union hack Cath Bowtell — an ”inner-urban progressive family woman”, presumably. A member of the Socialist Left faction, despite making all the right noises, Bowtell’s job has not been made any easier by party policy on gay marriage (against) and on locking up asylum seekers in foreign countries (for).

See also : What happened to the Left? (February 27, 2010) | The Long Strange Posthumous Life of Leon Trotsky (September 1, 2009).

Bonus Blob Avakian!

Posted in State / Politics, Trot Guide | Tagged , | 8 Comments