One day I believe I’ll publish my own collection of short stories: To Get out of Bed in the Morning: A Journey Through Melbourne Armed Only with Bucketfuls of Sickness and Horror in an Otherwise Meaningless Life.
Then again, maybe not.
Er, speaking of tourism, in Greece “Guy Rundle visits the troubled country’s capital to try to find the truth behind the much-caricatured crisis” on behalf of Sp!ked, The Libertarian Bizarros Formerly Known as the Revolutionary Communist Party (February 17, 2010).
And finally, um, for reasons best known to himself, but perhaps related to the recent departure of significant sections of the International Marxist Tendency, Uncle Hugo’s best mate Alan Woods has attacked Bakunin In Defence of Marxism.
Q. What’s the hardest part about rollerblading?
A. Telling your parents that you’re gay.
Following Lindsey German’s decision to resign, a small group of right-wing deviationists have also resigned en masse from the Socialist Workers Party (UK), the largest collection of Ygael Gluckstein‘s followers on the globe.
This is officially A Big Deal in Ye Olde Worlde of Leftist Trainspotting.
An authoritarian internal regime has developed as a result of this change in direction…
The use of disciplinary methods to ‘win’ arguments is completely foreign to the traditions to the SWP and should have no place in the socialist movement.
LOL.
Luna17 also asks ‘We Are Many: where were you seven years ago today?’: ‘today’ being February 15, 2010; seven years since a weekend of worldwide anti-war demonstrations that brought millions of people out onto the streets. In fact, according to the BBC: “Between six and 10 million people are thought to have marched in up to 60 countries over the weekend – the largest demonstrations of their kind since the Vietnam War.”
I was in Melbourne, advocating No War But The Class War. The banner made it on to the front page of The Age, and at some point (on that or a subsequent rally) those responsible for the dastardly act were castigated from the stage for their violent inclinations.
Or something.
Obviously, The Biggest Global Peace Protests Before A War Actually Started™ did not stop the war, which continues, apparently, in a land far, far away…
Well, there’ve always been people going around saying someday the war will end. I say, you can’t be sure the war will ever end. Of course, it may have to pause occasionally–for breath, as it were–it can even meet with an accident–nothing on this earth is perfect–a war of which we could say it left nothing to be desired will probably never exist. A war can come to a sudden halt–from unforeseen causes–you can’t think of everything–a little oversight, and the war’s in the hole, and someone’s got to pull it out again! The someone is the Emperor or the King or the Pope. They’re such friends in need, the war has really nothing to worry about, it can look forward to a prosperous future.
Kim Jong-il celebrates birthday
Mark Willacy
ABC
February 16, 2010
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has made a rare public appearance, handing out gift bags to children as part of his birthday celebrations…
Central Committee, cadre and personnel of the Rural People’s Party and Slackbastard blog wish the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea many kind salutations on the 2.16 Celebration of the Birthday of National Defense Committee Chairman KIM JONG IL.
Dear Leader’s birthday has been celebrated the world over, and he has received Congratulation from Russian President, Floral Basket from Cambodian Great King and Indonesian Party, Gifts from Russian Party and Groups, and Letter and Award from Russian Charity Organization.
A congratulatory message by the Central Committee of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) notes that Kim Jong-il’s “birth as the bright star of Mt. Paektu amid grim anti-Japanese struggle, being blessed by the era, was the great fortune of the Korean nation that promised the eternal prosperity of Kim Il Sung’s Korea and a great event of world historic significance that guaranteed the future of the human cause of independence.”
Intelligent Leader also received Congratulation from Chongryon, while Joint National Meeting of KCU, Art Performances, and Youth and Student’s Dancing Parties Held, meaning DPRK in Festive Mood.
Newspapers Observed Kim Jong Il’s Birthday, and his Exploits Lauded by Polish, his distinguished political caliber and outstanding personality as a great man Praised by Ethiopians, while the February Holiday was Marked in Russia and Turkey.
A expected, a law-talking grrl named HENNESSY, Jill has won the by-election in Altona, in a two-and-a-half horse race. WINDISCH, Margarita, the Socialist Alliance candidate, came seventh, trouncing the Independent RIXON, Andrew. “Despite our 1.6% vote the Socialist Alliance campaign in Altona achieved a minor miracle”, candidate Margarita Windisch commented. “It forced the other parties to talk about political issues, especially the ones that matter to the local community”.
Windisch last had a crack at getting into Parliament in 2006, receiving 406 457 first-preference votes or 1.45% 1.46% of the total (and last place).
The Socialist Alliance in Victoria is holding its state conference on February 27.
HENNESSY, Jill’s being bumped into Parliament means, inter alia, that the 25th31stNth Century technology being pioneered by RIXON, Andrew, will now never see the light of day.
Meanwhile, Walkley Award-winning former ‘A Current Affair’ turned ‘Today Tonight’ hack David Eccleston has located former meatworker Craig Whitney, CFMEU NSW Secretary Andrew Ferguson, Australian Protectionist Party spokesperson Darrin Hodges and Race Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes to provide the over-60s with soundbites on racism — in reverse.
Note that while Pauline ran a fush ‘n’ chup shop prior to landing in Parliament, Darrin was (is?) an online filthmonger.
Reverse racism Today Tonight
Reporter: David Eccleston
Broadcast Date: February 16, 2010
Reverse racism. What is it and are you a victim of it?
See also:
Drink spiking Today Tonight
Reporter: David Eccleston
Broadcast Date: September 9, 2009
Drink spiking. What is it and are you a victim of it?
Anarchists in Vancouver have been celebrating the Winter Olympics in style. Some independent journalists from San Francisco have been digging beneath the snow to provide ongoing coverage here. (Choice words: Angry Bystander: “You don’t have the support of the public”. Calm Anarchist: “We are the public”.) Otherwise, The Media Co-op is there. Note that there has been some Broken Windows, and speculation is rife that a ‘Black Bloc’ of 40 New Zealand anarchists — the self-appointed “ninjas” of the anarchist movement (The Canadian Press) — have once again crossed tragically under-policed international borders to cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war.
A qualified success for antifa in Dresden as a march by over one thousand (some media claim up to 5,000) neo-Nazis was prevented from reaching the city centre as scheduled. Police managed to avert any major clashes, although in a few nearby towns including Pirna (a town some 25K south of Dresden where neo-Nazis have a strong presence) some disappointed swastika-lickers attacked an office belonging to an antifa group; other accounts suggest there were a number of small-scale clashes between isolated groups and individuals on the periphery of the main rallies and actions.
schalomlibertad writes: “today, the governing coalition of the conservatice CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and the neoliberal FDP (Free Democratic Party) want to ban the black bloc. this is part of a larger trend of equating neo-nazis with the radical left under the label of “extremists.” in german: http://www.taz.de/1/nord/artikel/1/friede-wird-buergerpflicht-1/.”
As anarchism is to an umbrella full of holes, so Marxism is to a large block of Swiss cheese. Enzo Traverso examines some of The Aporias of Marxism in relation to Nazism and the Holocaust here. Speaking of Antisemitism, Antisemitism: medieval and modern is discussed by Steven Katz @ SlowTV (March 2009). Also of interest is Martin Thomas’ interview with Marxist historian Moishe Postone: Zionism, anti-semitism and the left (February 5, 2010).
Art
For some reason, the website belonging to “an organization of dubious political bandits” — aka the International Committee of the Fourth International — has decided to re-publish resident Trotskyist art critic David Walsh’s 1993 essay on Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 2 (February 15, 2010).
An estimated 25–30,000 children die every day from starvation, malnutrition and disease — but don’t let that stop you from partying!
In St Petersburg, two men, Valentin Mumdzhiev and Georgy Timofeev of the National Socialism-White Power organization, have been charged with the murder of a Ghanaian man last year while two others, Igor Gritskevich and Vladimir Smirnov of the Slavic Community, have been charged with terrorism for their alleged involvement in train bombings (Russian Extremist Group Members Charged With Murder, Terrorism, February 13, 2010): “Yevgeny Vyshenkov, an official with the Investigative Journalism Agency, told RFE/RL these two neo-Nazi groups differ from regular bonehead organizations. He said members of these groups do not shave their heads, wear leather jackets, or have many of the distinguishing characteristics of other boneheads.”
Film
The Hurt Locker is due to be released in Australia on February 18. If I’d seen it, I’d recommend it. The film is directed and produced by Kathryn Bigelow, who also *ed in Born in Flames (1983). Otherwise: The Pinky Show : Miaow miaow-miaow miaow purr purr purr-purr-purr-purr purr-purr purr-purr purr-purr purr-purr-purr-purr-purr miaow miaow.
See also : theoryandpractice.org.uk: “…part of a personal project which aims to develop a clear understanding of the world as it exists today; and through the use of this knowledge, discover what might be needed to change it for the better. It is an attempt to learn from the successes and failures of the past and to formulate better methods for acting on the present.”
For Paul Justo: Sinomania, Perry Anderson, London Review of Books, Vol.32, No.2, January 28, 2010.
Capitalist Solutions for Global Warming: More Wood for the Fire, Peter Gelderloos, Counterpunch, Peter Gelderloos, February 1, 2010. Peter Gelderloos is the author of How Nonviolence Protects the State and the forthcoming Anarchy Works. Nonviolencenet provides another perspective on violence… and the state.
Echoes of John Zerzan: Anti-Marxist myth of our time, Weekly Worker, No.803, February 4, 2010. “Chris Knight examines Noam Chomsky’s ‘scientific’ fairy tales about language and its origins.”
In Treatment *s Gabriel Byrne. It’s really good and, like The Wire, set in Baltimore (I thunk). Byrne also *ed in Jindabyne, which is also really… good. (Hear also : Gabriel Byrne and The Art of Listening, Fresh Air, NPR, April 30, 2009.)
Otherwise : Oil-slick divisions, Weekly Worker, No.804, February 11, 2010. “International Marxist Tendency has suffered a damaging split. Not a new phenomenon, notes James Turley.”
War on Terror
Anger, venom and hatred, Sally Neighbour, The Australian, February 16, 2010. “One of the most dangerous men in Australia is now behind bars.” Note: This is NOT John HoWARd.
On the eve of what may be the largest neo-Nazi rally in post-war Germany — a rally opposition to which is being sabotaged by German police — Angers Hoegstrom / Anders Hoegstroem / Anders Högström, the former leader of a Swedish neo-Nazi micro-party, has got himself arrest at his home in Stockholm (Suspect in Auschwitz sign theft arrested in Sweden, Malin Rising, The Washington Post (AP), February 11, 2010). Högström’s arrest follows the issuing of a warrant by Polish authorities earlier this month. They want to speak to Högström regarding the theft of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign from the Auschwitz death camp in December 2009.
I don’t know what penalties are attached to whatever offences Högström may — or may not — be found guilty of, but following the suicide of Belgian neo-Nazi Dieter Samoy in January — which followed closely upon his sentencing to two years imprisonment for assault — if they exceed Samoy’s punishment, neo-Nazis will be very concerned. On a happier note, the neo-Nazis who organised Samoy’s musical expedition to Australia in 2008 are organising another performance on the Gold Coast in a few months, just a few days prior to Hitler’s birthday. Word on the street is that in preparation for the aural barrage, local Blood & Honour organiser Justin O’Brien is receiving a deluge of requests for swastika tattoos at his studio in Burwood, while on the Gold Coast itself… well.
Moaron that later.
I’d play a toon by one of the *s of the upcoming nutzi gig but sadly Open Season’s smash hit ‘National Socialist’ has been removed from YouTube. So instead, here’s a Swedish band (who happen to be touring Down Under in March).
Dole bludgers, tax payers and the new right: constructing discourses of welfare in 1970s Australia Labour History – A Journal of Labour and Social History
No.96 (May 2009)
Verity Archer
Abstract:
The international shift to New Right economics in the early 1970s, led by America, was the driving force for the invention of the dole bludger in Australia. The construction of the ‘dole bludger’ as the financial burden of the ‘taxpayer’ was a vital part of a broader effort to construct neo-liberal parameters for economic debate in Australia. This new discursive frame displaced the old deserving and undeserving poor discourses that existed during the decades of full employment leading up to the 1974 stagflation. This article argues that dole-bludger discourse should be included within a broader understanding of Australia’s shift to neo-liberalism. It focuses specifically on the role that economic think tanks played in bringing these ideas to Australia and the role that political figures played in popularising New Right welfare frames for an Australian audience.
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
