Consolidated : ‘Recuperation’

Posted on December 3, 2009 by @ndy

Free Music! Stop America!: Home
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS OVER!
FREE MUSIC LIVES!

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not. so. slack.

Posted on December 3, 2009 by @ndy

Gogol Bordello is a multi-efnik Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999… or possibly 1998.

60 revolutions per minute
This is my regular speed
So how do you want me to live with it?
How do you want me to live with it?

Without ringing all alarms!
Without overthrowing czars!
Without emptying the bars!
Without screwing with your charts!

60 revelations per minute
This is my regular need
So how do you want me to live with it?
How do you want me to live with it?

Without ringing all alarms!
Without overthrowing czars!
Without emptying the bars!
Without screwing with your charts!

I’m gathering new generation
That’s gonna stand up to it
To this karaoke, karaoke dictatorship

Where posers and models with guitars
Boogie to the shit for beats
I make a better rock revolution
Alone with my dick!

Without ringing all alarms!
Without overthrowing czars!
Without emptying the bars!
Without screwing with your charts!

Si lo mueve como lo bate que rico el chocolate
No esperarás que por alguien me mate

Without ringing all alarms!
Without overthrowing czars!
Without emptying the bars!
Without screwing with your charts!

60 por minuto es mi reputación
Y no te estoy hablando de revolución
Hace mucho tiempo que no te decían
Basta de injustica, muerte y policía

Digas lo que digas ya esta todo arreglado
Hagas lo que hagas te mandan deportado
El que tiene impone y sobre la ley dispone
Mientras que el pobre es pobre
Muere de hambre y otro se la come

Sonidelo nacional esta rumba Cuba…

Oh yeah, speaking of Gogol…

On Gogol Boulevard (OGB) was the irregular bulletin of New York City Neither East Nor West, networking East and West alternative oppositions and printing news and documents unavailable in the corporate and “left” media, using mostly material from Communist/ex-Communist countries. We singularly filled a void and we used this needed Eastern specialty as a doorway to incorporating concerns of “Third World” and “Fourth World” (land-based indigenous peoples) struggles, with a particular focus on supporting activists with anti-authoritarian and anti-Stalinist perspectives.

The OGB News Service had regular sections in The Shadow, Profane Existence, Fifth Estate, Black Fist and other papers and are now also published on the internet…

[The] title refers to Moscow’s Gogol Boulevard, a favorite hangout for counter-culture youth dissidents, anti-war, and human rights activists. On May 3, 1987 this milieu braved poking a hole in the Soviet dictatorship by organizing a small art exhibit/demonstration on Gogol Boulevard. It was met with a violent riot by plainclothes agents, police, and special internal forces soldiers. On May 4, blood was spilled again with Gogol Boulevard being raided and swept with mass arrests. On May 10 Gogol Boulevard witnessed one of the Glasnost era’s first ever youth demonstrations that openly called for human rights. Though also repressed, it was a formative event, and we take our name from that week. See you on Gogol Boulevard…

Next : http://flag.blackened.net/agony/nenw.html. Unfortunately, flag is down atm, so… I’ll dig through the archives for some of the original materials published by OGB (and its predecessors) and maybe then throw up on my blog.

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Art, Broken Windows, History, Media, Music, Poetry, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics, Student movement | Tagged | 5 Comments

Anarchists are w e i r d too!

Posted on December 3, 2009 by @ndy

First, Peni Moore.

Disturbing assessments of Bainimarama are tempered by Peni Moore, a self-declared anarchist who runs the Women’s Action for Change lobby and sat on the committee that drafted his charter for Fiji’s future.

“I’m quite extreme in my views, but they were taken on board in the charter process – in which the military was not involved,” she told the Herald.

~ The quixotic shades of Bainimarama, Paul McGeough, The Age, November 30, 2009.

Secondly, FAB: the Federation of Bulgarian Anarchists (a member of The International of Anarchist Federations (IAF or IFA), founded in 1968; the FAB joined in 2008).

The FAB has denounced Jock Palfreeman, supports the Bulgarian government’s case against him (in which the Roma he intervened in order to defend have disappeared, and his motivation was provided by way of some form of mental pathology), and joined the far right in calling for the imposition of the maximum penalty. Still, despite the best efforts of the FAB, soli demos were held in Canberra, Australia and Athens, Greece on Monday, November 30 (and possibly in London, England, as well).

That said, the FAB can now rejoice at the news that Jock has been found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Moaron that — and them — later.

But speaking of nutzis…

Seven German far-right radicals have been convicted of inciting racial hatred and violence with a neo-Nazi radio station on the internet, a court said on Tuesday.

The court in Berlin found the group responsible for broadcasting European Brotherhood Radio on the web between June 2006 and March 2009 playing neo-Nazi music, conducting interviews with right-wing extremist leaders, espousing racist violence and denying the Holocaust.

The defendants, among whom was a 31-year-old woman, received sentences ranging from a jail term of two years and nine months to a 16-month suspended sentence.

The two leaders of the group already had criminal records for activities in the neo-Nazi scene.

Not unusually, the female neo-Nazi — “Sandra F” — was also a government informant:

Sandra F. had been an informant for the Office of Constitutional Protection in Lower Saxony, or Verfassungsschutz, from late 2007 until she and the other accused were arrested in March.

She was recruited to spy on the nationalist German People’s Union (DVU) and received a modest compensation for the information she provided.

It appears that her involvement with the radio station was not known to the Verfassungsschutz until the state police began investigating her and her co-defendants, the paper reported.

The case therefore has uncomfortable echoes of previous instances of out-of-control, far-right informants for the Verfassungsschutz.

In 2003, when the federal government tried to ban the far-right National Democratic Party, the case collapsed amid farce when the country’s highest court discovered that many sections of the party’s platform may have been written by paid informants of the security services.

Happily, in Australia, running a neo-Nazi radio show is perfectly legal, and you can listen to local members of Blood & Honour (an organisation which, sadly, is banned in Germany) courtesy of internode.net any time of the day or night. Oh, and if you’re in the mood for getting a swastika tattooed on your forehead — or an image of Uncle Adolf on your chest — give the Blood & Honour organiser for Victoria, Justin O’Brien, a call on (03) 9888 8668. Alternatively, why not drop by Justin’s studio for a chat? Hold Fast Body Art enjoy doing walk-ins and they always have time to sit down and talk to you about ideas and designs, The Jewish Question, and why we have to rid Australia of Asians, blacks, and homosexuals.

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Anti-fascism | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Jock Palfreeman : Guilty.

Posted on December 2, 2009 by @ndy

UPDATE OCTOBER 2019 : Almost 10 years later, Jock remains in prison, despite having won parole in September 2019.

minus two

Even moar meeja: Bulgarian court sentences Australian to 20 years, Malcolm Brown and Ari Sharp (and AAP), The Age, December 4, 2009 / Family vows appeal against Bulgarian ruling, Malcolm Brown and Ari Sharp, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 4, 2009. Note that ‘A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the Government had ”made representations at senior levels of the Bulgarian Government”’, which is the first reference I can recall reading regarding any such ‘representation’.

minus one

Follow Jock’s case on Twitter, and help support Jock and his family stay strong for the trials ahead.

Moar meeja: Family’s anger at Bulgarian murder verdict, ABC, December 3, 2009 | Australian convicted of Bulgarian murder to appeal, David Barbeler (AAP), Herald Sun, December 3, 2009 | Life sentence for Jock Palfreeman, Boel Eriksson, The Mosman Daily, December 3, 2009 | Palfreeman trial unfair: prisoner advocate, Independent Weekly, December 3, 2009: “An Australian man sentenced to 20 years’ jail for murder in Bulgaria did not receive a fair trial, a prominent foreign prisoner advocate says…”

zero

0.5

    The ABC has obtained Dr Simon Palfreeman’s summing up of his son Jock’s case, which is printed here in full: Father’s summing up of the case [PDF].

A verdict in Jock’s case is expected to be handed down very soon…

one

Family’s agonising wait for a decision on Jock Palfreeman’s future
Boel Eriksson
The Mosman Daily
December 2, 2009

THE Mosman brother of Jock Palfreeman has spoken for the first time of the “tough and emotional” two years since his brother was locked up in the notorious Sofia Central Prison in Bulgaria on murder charges.

Jock is set to give his final statement in court today. It is understood he could be facing up to 20 years in jail.

Today’s statement is Jock’s chance to tell his side of the story in court, almost two years since the day that changed his life…

two

Australian awaits fate after years in Bulgarian jail
Belinda Hawkins (Australian Story)
ABC
December 2, 2009

Winter in the Bulgarian capital is bitterly cold and this is the third Jock Palfreeman has spent in the notorious Sofia Central Prison.

The 23-year-old Sydneysider is charged with the worst count of murder – murder with hooliganism.

His trial has been underway since May 2008 and after a series of almost farcical delays looks set to conclude today.

The verdict is likely to be handed down late today or tomorrow…

three

Australian man Jock Palfreeman awaits verdict in Bulgaria trial
David Murray
Herald Sun
December 2, 2009 7:25PM

JOCK Palfreeman’s family was braced for a verdict as the Australian’s long-running trial for murder in Bulgaria resumed tonight.

The 23-year-old, from Sydney, remained silent as he was led into court, almost two years after the bloody street brawl that landed him in prison.

His father, Sydney pathologist Simon Palfreeman, flew in to Sofia to support his son in the resumed hearing and greeted him as he arrived at court.

“I’m not going to say anything until after the verdict,” Dr Palfreeman said.

“We expect a verdict either today or tomorrow.”

…

four

Verdict expected soon in Palfreeman case
Gabriel Hershman
The Sofia Echo
December 2, 2009

A verdict is expected on December 2 or December 3 in the trial of Australian Paul “Jock” Palfreeman.

Palfreeman, 22, is charged with the murder of law student Andrei Monov after a street brawl in Sofia at the end of 2007. He has also been charged with the attempted murder of a 19-year-old (with a knife) during an altercation.

Palfreeman, from Sydney, denies both charges and says he was trying to defend himself from a group of men when he intervened after seeing them attack a group of Roma…

five

six

Dad’s hero plea for son charged with murder in Bulgaria
David Murray
The Daily Telegraph
December 3, 2009

JOCK Palfreeman’s father appealed to a court in Bulgaria to free his “heroic” son last night.

Palfreeman, from Sydney, is facing trial for murder and attempted murder after a brawl in the capital Sofia almost two years ago.

His father, Sydney pathologist Simon Palfreeman, flew to Sofia to support his son and made a direct appeal to the court.

The 23-year-old had gone to the aid of a gypsy being assaulted by a group of drunk football fans, Dr Palfreeman said.

“This is an act that can only be described as heroic,” he said…

seven

My son is innocent: father’s final plea in murder trial
Belinda Hawkins
ABC
December 3, 2009

NB. Both accounts by Belinda Hawkins are of excellent quality, and provide the most detailed summary of Jock’s case. Her latest account includes Dr Simon Palfreeman’s summing up of the case in full. Dr Palfreeman concludes his summary as follows:

…In summary, the prosecution has to establish without any doubt a motive for her accusations. The prosecution has had to resort to the motive of hooliganism to explain her versions of events in the absence of any other evidence supporting her view. I am close to my son and know him well. He comes from a large, strong and morally upright family. Combined with a good Christian education, this has encouraged Jock to grow into a young man with firm values of social justice, the worth of every human being and respect for social order. His strong belief in, and desire to defend justice and social order was behind his decision to join the British army. He is a good-natured man with a lively sense of humor. He makes friends easily. The presence of so many loyal friends and family from Sofia, Samakov, the UK and Australia in the courtroom throughout this trial is a testament to his character.

I am particularly proud of the way he has conducted himself throughout this trial, when so many witnesses were so obviously lying in an attempt to keep him in prison. My opinion of Jock is completely supported by the expert psychological report that confirms this impression of a man with a strong sense of social justice and a non violent character. The character reference presented to the court confirm this in all aspects of Jock’s life. His school wrote “He displayed a strong interest and commitment to [social] justice” and “he would go out of his way to help others”. One of his employers wrote “Mr Palfreeman does not have an inherently aggressive or threatening manner or approach to people. This is what makes the reports of the 28 December incident so incredible and seem so out of character for Mr Palfreeman”. The father of the Bulgarian family that Jock lived with (an ex-Bulgarian air force pilot) also provided a reference. He stated that Jock was reliable, not aggressive and a good friend to the family.

From the first night in the police station, throughout the investigation period and giving evidence in front of this court, Jock has not changed his story. This is because it is the truth. It is clear from Jock’s history, the expert psychological report and his conduct in court that Jock is not the homicidal hooligan the prosecutor has tried to portray.

From the evidence we are now able to attach the real motives to all the events that happened that night. The initial motive was the assault on a Roma man by this gang, initiated by Monov and Yordanov. This was a racially motivated attack. All of this gang should be held responsible for the tragic outcome and for their subsequent attempt to hide the truth with lies (they could be charged under Article 163). The motive for Jock’s involvement was initially to help the Roma man and then defend himself. This was an act that can only be described as heroic. While as a parent, I would have preferred he stayed safe, as a human being I am proud that a young man would try to help another person despite such dangerous circumstances.

There can be no doubt that when the group (initiated by Yordanov and Monov) attacked the Roma boys, someone was going to be seriously or mortally wounded. It could have been Jock, the Roma boy or as it happened 2 from the group.

I am also in no doubt that the subsequent events that led to such a tragic end were the result of the vicious attack by the gang on Jock and his justified self defense. This gang made a determined and conscious decision to assault Jock that night, using their superior numbers and large concrete tiles as weapons. They did this because he dared to confront them and prevented severe injury to the Roma man. They left him no choice but to defend himself.

What happened on that evening of 27th Dec 2007 was a tragedy. As I am also a parent I can understand and respect the grief being experienced by the Monov family and would like to express my sorrow for their loss. As a family we too have suffered with Jock being in prison for almost 2 years. It would only make this tragedy worse if the truth of what happened that night was ignored and another young life lost.

I would like the court to free my son on the basis that all his actions that night were motivated by a genuine desire to help another human being in mortal danger. There was no intention to hurt anyone. He then, in a state of severe fear, had to defend himself when he, too, became the victim of this violent gang.

Posted in State / Politics | Tagged | 33 Comments

OMGWTF! The Mad Monk! ROFLMAO!

Posted on December 2, 2009 by @ndy

Go Tories!
Women demand more rosaries on their ovaries!
The argument on climate change is absolute crap!
(And who remembers Bernie Banton anyway? He’s dead!)

See also : Tony Abbott, the mad monk ascendancy, and get your memorabilia and images while they last …, loon pond, December 1, 2009.

PS. The worm in action later in the bulletin.

Bonus!

Posted in State / Politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Used & Recommended By : World War 4 Report

Posted on December 1, 2009 by @ndy

World War 4 Report has been monitoring the Global War on Terrorism and its implications for human rights, democracy and ecology since the immediate aftermath of 9-11. With an international network of contacts and correspondents, we scan the world press and Internet for important stories overlooked by the mass media, and examine the headlines with a critical eye for distortion, deceit and propaganda. We report on the forgotten wars outside the media spotlight, and seek out unexamined contexts that go beyond mainstream sound-bite coverage. We endeavor to expose the corporate agendas behind the new military interventions, and to find pro-autonomy, anti-militarist voices we can support in the countries under imperialist assault. We support the secular, progressive anti-imperialist forces in the Middle East who reject the spectacularized “jihad-vs-GWOT” duality. We especially seek to loan solidarity to land-rooted, stateless, and indigenous peoples—the “Fourth World.” Above all, we are committed to real journalism (as opposed to mere opinion-spewing and bloggery), and seek through our example to resist its alarming decline. We are fastidiously non-sectarian, and our first loyalty is always to the truth.

So there you have it.

A recent report on events in Venezuela — Indigenous and labor rights in Venezuela: do our readers care? — poses an interesting question, which I hope this post goes some way to answering.

In other news, another casualty in the war in/on the “Fourth World” is “Venezuelan media activist Mijail Martinez, the son of a former state deputy for the chavista Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) … assassinated in a drive-by shooting Nov. 26 at his home in the city of Barquisimeto, Lara” (Venezuela: anti-impunity activist assassinated).

Further infos:

In just the latest attack on social movements in the country, unidentified gunmen shoot dead a 24-year-old cameraman involved with the Comité de Víctimas en Contra de la Impunidad (CVCI) in Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela. Below is the translation of an official communiqué from Caracas-based anarchist newspaper El Libertario:

On the morning of 26/11/2009, Mijail Martínez – 24 years old – was assassinated in the city of Barquisimeto, Lara state. Martínez was a cameraman and activist with the Victims’ Committee Against Impunity in Lara state (commonly referred to as CVCI-Lara in Spanish – translator). According to witnesses, two persons unknown attacked Mijail outside his front door, and after calling his name several times they fired several shots into his chest area. The victim was an audiovisual producer who worked on the television programme of his father, Victor Martínez, a longtime Bolivarian militant and former representative on the region’s Legislative Council. Demonstrating the contradictions within the so called “Bolivarian process”, Victor had recently been making a series of official complaints in which he had implicated a whole host of important, high up governmental and police figures in corruption and human rights violations.

Victor told the media that he believes that there was a political motive to the murder, and that it represents an attempt to silence him: “Chávez, I helped you when you were imprisoned and abandoned and noone gave you the time of day,” he said, “yet you are clearly responsible for the death of my son and many other crimes, because instead of being the most fervent defender of the Constitution, you violate it. As a result, all Venezuelans suffer from the insecurity that there is in this country”.

This political attack must be understood within a regional context of degradation at every level of government. As human rights organisations such as Provea have detailed, the state police in Lara have the second worst record nationally for human rights violations, accumulating 19.4% of all cases in 2008, with a total of 31 victims. State police have also been accused of participating in extortion, bank robberies, kidnappings and the production and trafficking of drugs in Barquisimeto, activities which overwhelmingly affect the poor.

The chronic situation in Lara has led to the formation of a number of popular organisations, one being the CVCI, which was founded in 2004. The CVCI has denounced the involvement of high-ranking regional officials – such as Rodríguez Figuera, the former police commander – in the creation of police mafias, alongside Luis Reyes Reyes, the previous state governor, who also participated and then covered his role up. Instead of investigating the official complaints, federal government rewarded the ex-governor, putting him in charge of the Ministry of Popular Power for the Presidential Secretary (which enforces Chávez’ edicts in national Congress – translator).

Due to their reports and demonstrations, CVCI activists have received a number of death threats and a number of attempts to criminalise their work. Mijail Martínez had been recording on video the organisation’s public activities with the intention of making a documentary about the members’ experiences. Some of his work can be found at http://www.vimeo.com/5130428 (in Spanish).

El Libertario denounce this event as the latest chapter in the government’s attack against base-level, autonomous, revolutionary and dissident organisations. We also send our messages of condolence and hurt to Mijail’s family and friends. Mijail was a young man, committed to social struggle, and we can personally testify as to his enthusiasm and comradely nature. We also consider this crime to be just one part of the criminalisation of popular protest undertaken by a government which is subservient to globalised capitalism.

Finally, we denounce the complicity of the government, of the media at both local and pseudo-“community” levels, of the Attorney General, the Ombudsman and the Justice Courts for any action that puts in jeopardy the life and/or integrity of Victor Martínez and his family, other CVCI activists and members of other popular social struggles within the state which have registered complaints – complete with full names – against the involvement of police and state functionaries in corruption, drug-trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and assassination in the Central-Western region of the country.

See also : Anarchy is a (Brazilian) FAG! // Smith Street Boogie (November 20, 2009) | Hail Ahmadinejad! Hail Chávez! (June 16, 2009) | Dear President Chávez (May 25, 2009).

At the head of everything is God, the Lord of Heaven.
Everyone knows that.
Then comes Prince Torlonia, lord of the earth.
Then come Prince Torlonia’s guards.
Then come Prince Torlonia’s guards’ dogs.
Then, nothing at all.
Then, nothing at all.
Then, nothing at all.
Then come the peasants. And that’s all.

~ Ignazio Silone, Fontamara (1931).

Posted in Media, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

[For Dion] Russia ~versus~ Terrorism

Posted on December 1, 2009 by @ndy
    Update : Blood on the Tracks, Roland Oliphant, Russia Profile, November 30, 2009: The Professionalism of the Attack Suggests Islamist Terrorists from the North Caucasus Have Struck Deep Inside Russia Once Again. “The attack on the Neva Express has traumatized the nation. Coverage of the incident has dominated the news for the past three days. President Dmitry Medvedev has issued his own statement of condolences to the families of the injured and killed. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Sunday hosted a memorial service in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, in which he condemned the terrorists for breaking “not only the law of man, but the law of God.” But amid the mourning, professionals are looking hard at who carried out the attack – and why… ” Also : A Sickening Bombing in Russia, Roland Oliphant, The Faster Times, December 1, 2009.

More death in Russia. Smash your head on the punk rawk!

Russian train blast raises terrorism fears
Clifford Levy
The Age [The New York Times]
November 30, 2009

THE cause of the crash of one of Russia’s most illustrious trains has been confirmed as a bomb that went off on the tracks between Moscow and St Petersburg, killing more than 25 people, wounding scores of others and raising fears of a new era of terrorism.

Officials called the weekend explosion the worst terrorist attack in Russia in years, outside volatile Muslim parts of the North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya. There were no immediate credible claims of responsibility…

Steve Gutterman writes (‘Victims being identified after Russian train wreck’, AP): “Nationalists were blamed in a similar blast that caused a derailment along the same railway line in 2007, injuring 27 passengers. Authorities arrested two suspects in the [August 13] 2007 train blast and are searching for a third, a former military officer.”

Which may or may not be the case. However, if you were to substitute ‘anarchists’ for ‘nationalists’, the story does recall the attempted framing of anarchists for the crime (see : Russian anarchists still languishing in police custody, September 1, 2007). However, after having used the incident as a pretext for the political repression of anarchists, Russian authorities “later arrested two residents of the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region of Ingushetia, but said the mastermind behind the attack was ex-soldier Pavel Kosolapov, a former associate of late Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev”.

Of the 2007 rail bombing and subsequent trial:

Train Bombing Suspects Claim Torture
Alexandra Odynova
The St. Petersburg Times
July 3, 2009

MOSCOW — Two Ingush suspects charged in the 2007 bombing of a Moscow-St. Petersburg train told a court Tuesday that they had been tortured by police and subjected to interrogations in a forest and a cellar rather than the police station. The suspects, Maksharip Khidriyev and Salambek Dzakhiyev, both 41, maintained their innocence in opening statements made to a Novgorod court at the start of their trial for the bombing, which injured 30 passengers and derailed the Nevsky Express train…

Elsewhere, Combat 18 rears its stoopid head (Description Released of Train Bombing Suspect, The Other Russia): “The neo-Nazi organization Militant Autonomous Group Combat 18 (Ingria) allegedly took responsibility for the attack, which Russian authorities are calling a terrorist act, but ultranationalist[s] are calling the announcement a provocation to frame them in the incident. Investigators do not consider Combat 18’s claim to be credible…”

Leaving aside the almost certainly bogus claim of responsibility by some Russian nutzis, the media is drawing a close comparison between this latest bombing and earlier terrorist attacks, especially ‘the Moscow theater hostage crisis’ of October 2002. This incident was handled superbly by the Russian state, with Spetsnaz pumping poisonous gas into the theatre, killing at least 129 of the hostages. The official investigation was, much like other official investigations, by any state, a sham also a complete success: failing, as it did, to provide positive information on the gas agent that killed the hostages; any possible antidote to that agent; the number of hostages released by the operation; the number of militants who seized the theatre; and the names of the officials responsible for conducting the assault.

Unpatriotic elements have called for an independent inquiry, which is now dying a slow death in the EU courts. The fate of those Russians who undertook an investigation of their own into the ‘crisis’ suggests that this is a slightly dangerous undertaking:

An independent investigation of the event was undertaken by Russian politicians Sergei Yushenkov, Sergei Kovalev, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Hoover Institute scholar John B. Dunlop, and former FSB officers Aleksander Litvinenko and Mikhail Trepashkin. According to their version, FSB knew about the terrorist group prior to its arrival in Moscow and actually directed the group to the theatre through their agent provocateur Khanpasha Terkibayev (“Abu Bakar”), whose name was included in the list of hostage takers and who left the theatre alive. At the beginning of April 2003, Litvinenko gave information about Terkibayev (“the Terkibayev file”) to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London. Yushenkov passed this file to Politkovskaya and she was able to interview Terkibayev in person. A few days later, Yushenkov was assassinated by gunfire in Moscow. Terkibayev was later killed in an apparent car crash in Chechnya.

In June 2003, Litvinenko stated in an interview with the Australian television program Dateline, that two of the Chechen militants involved in the siege—whom he named as “Abdul the Bloody” and “Abu Bakar”—were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the terrorists into staging the attack. Litvinenko said: “[w]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the rotting corpses of dead terrorists, they weren’t there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released.” The story about FSB connections with the hostage takers was also put forward by Mikhail Trepashkin. “Abu Bakar” (presumably Terkibayev) was also described as an FSB agent and the actual organizer of the terrorist act by Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Khinshtein and other journalists.

Sergei Yushenkov was murdered on April 17, 2003; Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on October 7 (Vladimir Putin’s birthday) in 2006; Alexander Litvinenko was murdered on November 23, 2006. Stanislav Markelov — who acted as a lawyer for Politkovskaya — was murdered on January 19, 2009; Anastasia Baburova — a journalist who, like Politkovskaya, wrote for Novaya Gazeta — was murdered alongside Markelov.

Prior to the 2003 “crisis”, there was another series of ‘terrorist attacks’, in September, 1999. On this occasion, presumed terrorists — allegedly belonging to the ‘Liberation Army of Dagestan’, a group which emerged to claim the bombings and has since disappeared — exploded bombs in a number of apartment buildings in the cities of Buynaksk (September 4), Moscow (September 9 and 13), and Volgodonsk (September 16). Hundreds were killed or wounded, the bombings were followed by the outbreak of the ‘Second Chechen War’, and independent investigations into the bombings — which some claim were also the end result of a FSB plot — blocked at every opportunity by Russian authorities. Said Putin: “There are no people in the Russian secret services who would be capable of such crime against their own people… The very allegation is immoral.”

We all have the strength to endure the misfortune of others.

Posted in Broken Windows, Death, History, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged , | Leave a comment

SDA : Australia’s Worst Union?

Posted on November 30, 2009 by @ndy

Ah…

The ‘Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association’ (SDA), aka “the Shoppies”.

One of the handful of unions who can legitimately challenge the AWU for the title of ‘Australia’s Worst Union’.

The SDA, which claims to have 230,000 members, is notable for: unwittingly employing fascist symbology in its promo vids; being the largest trade union affiliated to the ALP; doing nothing for its members and; saving The Silver Bodgie’s arse back in the ’80s.

Over 20 years later, the Oxford-educated pisspot is returning the favour, agreeing to preside over the launch of a new hagiography (Tomato wars recalled as union marks century, Ian Munro, The Age, November 30, 2009).

Mind you, Hawke has supported other bizarros in the past, not least The Murderous Burmese Regime Formerly Known As SLORC:

…SLORC was genuinely committed to improving the economic well being of the people and was responsible for many “good things”, Hawke told a national parliamentary inquiry.

“We have been uniformly impressed by the competence and knowledge and commitment of these ministers and their associates to the economic development of Myanmar as a basis for national and political advancement of the people of their country”, Hawke said.

~ ‘Australia raises prospect of ASEAN snub for Burma’, Mark Bendeich (Reuters), February 24, 1995.

As for the SDA, it — along with three other ‘Groupers’ unions’ (the Federated Clerks’ Union, the Ironworkers’ Union and the Carpenters’ and Joiners’ Union) — was re-admitted to the ALP in 1984:

Crikey readers would be aware that [the SDA’s] predecessor disaffiliated from the ALP in the wake of the 1955 DLP split. For the next 30 years, it functioned as the industrial base of conservative Catholicism until finally re-admitted to the party to shore-up Bob Hawke’s base in 1984. However, its legacy remains for the most part undimmed.

~ Shop assistants sidelined as Vic ALP turns corner, Andrew Crook, Crikey, February 2, 2009.

And the right-wing-Catholic-light-in-the-shop-on-the-top-of-the-hill continues to burn brightly now. The Groupers’ legacy is also being kept alive on the other side of the Parliament by The Mad Monk.

(NB. ‘Grouper’ is a term that evolved in the 1940s, being used to describe members and supporters of the reactionary ‘Industrial Groups’ established within the labour movement in order to oppose the influence of the Communist Party.)

See also : Communists, Conservatives and Continuity: The Democratic Labor Party and its Legacy, Michael Lyons (ASSLH, 2007) | Return to a secret country, John Pilger, New Statesman, November 27, 2009.

Posted in History, State / Politics | Tagged , | 30 Comments

Melvins/HoneyBucket//AFA/FightingTalk

Posted on November 30, 2009 by @ndy

o n e [For D]

t w o

Bonus!

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Music | Leave a comment

Political football

Posted on November 30, 2009 by @ndy

Jews eh?

If it’s not John Safran complaining about his Eurasian fetish, it’s the ECAJ complaining about anti-Semitism, or Barry O’Farrell complaining about Eric Roozendaal playing with cards.

Jewish groups concerned at dramatic rise in attacks
Matthew Benns
The Sydney Morning Herald
November 29, 2009

JEWISH groups have reported an ”unprecedented” rise in racial violence and vilification in the past year.

The annual meeting of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in Sydney today will hear that there have been 962 reports of anti-Jewish violence, vandalism, harassment and intimidation against Australian Jewish organisations in the past 12 months.

”That is more than double the average,” said Jeremy Jones, international and community affairs director for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, who has been logging attacks for the past 20 years…

Also in Sydney, a phantastic event, as a racist yoof grows up and gets with the strength:

Liberal candidate in bizarre race row
Lisa Carty
The Sydney Morning Herald
November 29, 2009

LIBERAL leader Barry O’Farrell has accused Treasurer Eric Roozendaal of playing the race card by opposing One Nation.

His unusual take on the fallout surrounding his party’s preselection of former One Nation office-holder Chris Spence for the seat of The Entrance has infuriated Mr Roozendaal.

Labor launched a no-holds-barred attack on Mr Spence and the Liberals in Parliament last week.

The Government said picking Mr Spence as a candidate showed that the Liberal Party endorsed racism…

Spence stood for Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Hanson in the 1998 Federal election and again in 2003. In 1998, his yoof was pitted against Labor warhorse Bob McMullan in the ACT seat of Fraser. Bob got 50,573 votes (52.4%), while Chris scored 4,773 votes (4.9%). In 2003, Spence scrambled for a seat in Parliament in the electorate of Barwon in NSW. For his troubles, he got 1,127 votes (3.0%). This was a drop of 17.5% on ON’s previous tilt (2001), and the precipitous decline in ON’s popularity and vote tally from its peak in 1998 helps to explain why people like Chris Spence are joining the Liberals. Others who remain committed to a White Australia have the option of joining one of the other groupuscules on the far right, in particular, and most prominently, the Australia First and Australian Protectionist parties.

On electoral history generally, see Adam Carr’s invaluable Election Archive, Psephos. See also : Eurasian Sensation, “Where East meets West – in human form!”.

Posted in State / Politics | 4 Comments