Paul Madigan & The Humans : ‘Prick’

Paul Madigan & The Humans [Ed Bates (Sports) & Wayne Duncan (Daddy Cool) & Ross Hannaford (Daddy Cool) & Peter Ingliss (Skyhooks) & Freddie Strauks (Skyhooks)].

Posted in Music | Tagged | 18 Comments

Anarchy, Catholicism, Democracy, Greenery, Independence, Labor… Higgins!

Ten candidates have put their hands up for the Federal seat of Higgins:

    1. Stephen Murphy — Independent [“climate sceptic”]
    2. Fiona Patten — Australian Sex Party
    3. Kelly O’Dwyer — Liberal Party*
    4. Isaac Roberts — Liberal Democrats [“libertarian”]
    5. Clive Hamilton — Greens
    6. David Collyer — Australian Democrats
    7. Joseph Toscano — Independent [“anarchist”]
    8. Steve Raskovy — One Nation
    9. Peter Brohier — Independent
    10. John Mulholland — Democratic Labor Party

    *Winner.

Making it a ding-dong battle for last.

See : Liberals draw third spot in Higgins, Steve Lillebuen, The Age [AAP], November 13, 2009.

The Moar You Know…

1. Stephen Murphy is a “climate-change skeptic”. In fact, he is a member of ‘The Climate Sceptics’. You can find out moar about Stephen at his blog. “I strongly believe that we have been mislead on the issue of climate change. I can find no credible scientific evidence supporting the claim that human CO2 emissions are causing dangerous global warming – can you?”

2. Fiona Patten of the Australian Sex Party also has a bone to pick — with Clive Hamilton. Not because of Hamilton’s concerns over global warming, but his ‘clean living’ and ‘nannying’ approach to the availability of sexually-explicit material (pornography): “He might have some great economic ideas but it is frightening that the Greens will endorse a candidate with such Nanny philosophies. When you consider that he joins another anti-sex campaigner endorsed by the Greens, Kathleen Maltzahn, we could be starting to see the rise of a morally conservative streak in the Greens as they increase their vote” (Clean Living Clive, fiona patten, October 25, 2009).

3. Kelly O’Dwyer is a Tory and a former adviser to Peter ‘Catch the Fire’ Costello. She is also the next Member for Higgins.

4. Isaac Roberts — Liberal Democrats. The Mystery Candidate. A Dark Horse.

5. Clive Hamilton — Greens. A well-known face, Hamilton will come second to O’Dwyer.

6. David Collyer — Australian Democrats. Yes, they still exist. “We are the voice of middle Australia, the party of moderation and progress,” Collyer said at the announcement of his candidacy.

7. ‘Uncle’ Joseph Toscano — of the Anarchist Media Institute / ‘Anarchist World This Week’ / Citizens For A Royal Commission into Corruption / Defend & Extend Medicare Group / Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule (nee Vote Informal Today, Direct Democracy Tomorrow) / Libertarian Workers For A Self-Managed Society / People for Constitutional Human Rights / Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion / Sedition Charter / Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner Commemoration Committee — is the go-to man for The Age‘s gossip column, and its favourite local anarchist. A one-man anarchist band, the indefatigable Doctor Toscano has been declaiming anarchy for over thirty years, and contested numerous elections, receiving up to 0.2% support in various tilts at the Federal Senate:

    YEAR : VOTE

    1990 : 215
    1993 : 171
    1996 : 1,998
    1998 : 2,173
    2001 : 1,364
    2004 : 3,393
    2007 : 5,663

8. Steve Raskovy (OAM) is a 76-year-old anti-immigrant Hungarian migrant and former wrestler (1964 Tokyo Olympics) who lives in Ringwood. “Unfortunately Pauline Hanson made a few racist comments,” he said. “But it’s different now, our treasurer is Dutch, the state director is Italian” (Raskovy in for one more shot at seat, Bianca Carmona, Progress Leader, November 10, 2009).

One Nation is the tenth party Raskovy has joined, and he will also be failing to obtain a seat in the Federal Senate on behalf of One Nation at next year’s Federal election. He “joined One Nation because he knows the horrors of living under a totalitarian regime where only one way of thinking is tolerated [and] people can be jailed for speaking their views”.

9. Peter Brohier is a law-talking guy and a proponent of a ‘National Sea Highway’: “The National Sea Highway concept is that Tasmania should be connected to Victoria by a ferry-based surface travel option offering, all year, comprehensive National Highway equivalence for both people, vehicles and non-bulk freight.” Brohier is bursting with lots of other ideas to reform the state’s transport systems — but will the citizens of Higgins pay attention?

10. John Mulholland — Democratic Labor Party. A descendant of the party born in 1954 and dying — or at least being in extremely poor health — in 1978, the DLP was re-born/the zombie stumbles on in its home state of Victoria, and remains a home-away-from-home for right-wing Catholics and Protestants (see : Turning hard right: the battle for Right to Life, Michael Bachelard, The Age, August 23, 2009). Weirdly, the DLP website states that:

The DLP is not running a candidate for the Higgins By-election. Due to [an] anomaly in the registration of candidates with the AEC, Mr Dominic Farrell, the candidate pre-selected by the DLP executive to represent the DLP at the Higgins By-election[,] has been unable to stand. The DLP hopes to stand Mr Farrell at the next Federal election.

And yet, it moves!

See also : Clive Hamilton and Higgins & Green on The Greens in Higgins II, Larvatus Prodeo, October 26 & 29, 2009.

Posted in State / Politics | Tagged | 22 Comments

Oh! What a Lovely War // Noam Chomsky in HARDtalk

Oh! What a Lovely War in Afghanistan.

And Iraq.

And so far away!

Better still, upon visiting Australian soldiers in ‘Kamp Holland’, PM KRudd has declared that “We in Australia are here for the long haul… We from Australia will remain for the long haul.” Sadly, KRudd had to hop on a plane shortly thereafter, and will soon be (re-)joining other stay-at-home patriots back in Canberra, making his own personal ‘long haul’ a rather short one.

In any event, Operation SLIPPER — involving approximately 1550 Australian soldiers — is going really well, apparently, with billions upon billions of dollars flowing steadily into the bulging pockets of Afghani elites… tho’ a handful of children are not getting enough to eat, and a few civilians have been killed. And yeah, a few chicks are complaining, but then, don’t they always?

Noam Chomsky in HARDtalk

Another wryly-amusing BBC skit. Uncle Noam plays the straight man — as usual — while Stephen Sackur provides the laffs.



See also : Noam Chomsky & the WSM discuss politics over breakfast, Anarkismo, November 10, 2009.

On O’Bama’s Presidential Campaign Finance ($747.8 million), see Contributions to Obama, Barack by State Through 09/30/2009 (FEC); Banking on Becoming President (Open Secrets).

On ‘denazification’:

As a final illustration of the callousness of the American response to what the mass media reveal, consider a small item in the New York Times of 18 March 1968 headed, ‘Army Exhibit Bars Simulated Shooting at Vietnamese Hut’. The items reports an attempt by the ‘peace movement’ to disrupt an exhibition in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry:

    Beginning today, visitors can no longer enter a helicopter for simulated firing of a machine gun at targets in a diorama of the Vietnam Central Highlands. The targets were a hut, two bridges and an ammunition dump, and a light flashed when a hit was scored.

Apparently it was great fun for the kiddies until those damned peaceniks turned up and started one of those interminable demonstrations, even occupying the exhibit. According to the Times report, ‘demonstrators particularly objected to children being permitted to “fire” at the hut, even though no people appear there or elsewhere in the diorama’, which just shows how unreasonable peaceniks can be. Although it is small compensation for the closing of this entertaining exhibit, ‘visitors, however, may still test their skills elsewhere in the exhibit by simulated firing of an anti-tank weapon and several models of rifles’.

What can one say about a country where a museum of science in a great city can feature an exhibit in which people fire machine guns from a helicopter at Vietnamese huts, with a flashing light when a hit is scored? What can one say about a country where such an idea can even be considered? You have to weep for this country.

Those and a thousand other examples testify to moral degeneracy on such a scale that talk about the ‘normal channels’ of political action and protest becomes meaningless or hypocritical. We have to ask ourselves whether what is needed in the United States is dissent — or denazification. The question is a debatable one. Reasonable people may differ. The fact that the question is even debatable is a terrifying thing. To me it seems that what is needed is a kind of denazification. What is more, there is no powerful, outside force that can call us to account — the change will have to come from within.

~ ‘Introduction’, American Power and the New Mandarins, Penguin, 1969, p.17.

Bonus!

Added Bonus!

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

“…a younger persons’ music gig…”

“…a younger persons’ music gig…” is how Dr James Saleam has described the annual Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig organised by the neo-Nazi groups ‘Blood & Honour Australia’ and the ‘Southern Cross Hammerskins’ (Melbourne, September 12, 2009). I think this statement probably trumps Ben (the ‘Commie Killer’ who plays bass for Marching Orders et. al.) and his description of the gig as involving ‘persons of a right-wing persuasion’… “and fuck you stupid fucking anarchist pieces of shit. Fucking die already.”

ROFLMAO.

Anyway, over to that Lebanese Greek fella…

It’s A Small World? Who And What Is Now Mobilizing Against Us?

Dr. Jim Saleam
Eureka! #196 (8.11.09)
________________________

Electronic Bulletin of Australia First Party
[email protected]
0407 732 868
(For internal use; not for re-publication unless an article is marked)
________________________

This article might be difficult territory for some. It is a minor labyrinth of detail. Even those amongst us with no particular interest in political ‘detective work’ and an esoteric discussion about a lot of funny persons from the political twilight, might spare a moment for reflection. Why?

Essentially, it has become obvious that Australia First (and anyone else pushing a pro Australian barrow for that matter) is now on the receiving end of electronic and paper smears and incitements and at long last – confrontation.

This was shown when the Sydney Forum was picketed on September [26]. A small number of demonstrators arrived to shout ‘fascist’ at Forum guests and try to obstruct entry to the RSL venue. The Police ultimately moved them on. These people called themselves ‘Antifa’ (or [anti-fascist] as the term means) and were drawn largely from the anarchist inner-city sub-culture. A couple of websites have tried to fuel this world of marginal people with the hype to take on the nationalists physically and, although there is some sort of tension between the anarchists and the scribblers at these sites, they finally took their cue.

Some weeks prior in Melbourne, the Antifa opted to damage the shop of a man involved in organising a younger persons’ music gig. Reason: Antifa considered the gig “fascist” and “racist”. Needless to say, this may have led to other incidents and the anarchists complain of – a certain direct response.

    Herr Doktor refers here to two incidents — one on (or about) September 14; the other on the afternoon of Monday, September 28. On the first occasion, a post on Melbourne Indymedia states: “On the morning of the 14th of September, anti-fascists attacked the business of Justin O’Brien, known to be the Victorian representative of Blood & Honour, a worldwide neo-[N]azi organisation responsible for various race-hate crimes, including [?] the racially motivated murder of a woman and her baby in Belgium. O’Brien’s tattoo shop, ‘Hold Fast Tattoo’ [Hold Fast Body Art] in Burwood was painted with ‘Nazi Scum’ and signed ‘Antifa’, in addition to its windows being smashed. This comes after Blood & Honour held its annual Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig in Melbourne on Saturday night. Ian Stuart Donaldson was the singer of the late British neo-[N]azi skinhead band ‘Screwdriver’.”

    On the second occasion, Justin and three of his kameraden paid an impromptu visit to the ‘Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre’. Staying for approximately 10 or so minutes, the boneheads demanded to ‘speak’ with myself, threatened with violence the group of six or seven individuals present (who were attending a meeting of a group campaigning against sexual violence), and stated that if there were any further ‘anti-fascist’ activity in Melbourne they would return and make good on their promise of violent assault.

    All in all, an odd way for Justin to drum up business for his tattoo studio; but I suppose that, in fairness to Justin, in these uncertain economic times, thinking outside the box is a prized tactic for aspiring small businessmen. See also : MAC statement on neo-Nazi attack on MARC.

Let us be very clear and precise. Anti-fascism is usually a game operated by deluded people at the behest of others who play from behind the scenes. A group is found that the establishment dislikes and fears. Australia First Party, the nationalist movement generally, is that target. The media reacts and smears the challenger in any number of ways. Lately, figures from the major parties and other liberal commentators have criticised our movement as a dangerous and evil thing, but our challenge grows and has raised itself to a national profile. We are still a small force, but we are taking on organizational flesh.

So it occurs that we must now receive a dual attack: an entity (ie. Antifa) is brought to bear, one that stalks the new movement physically whilst also stigmatizing it propagandistically in the terms the establishment would have it labelled. In other words: through confrontation and harassment, we may be restricted; by calling us names in public and via reporting of the new group’s actions, some people who may be available to us as voters and activists, could turn away in confusion. Just as screaming at a bloke “wife beater, wife beater” might cause some to think he is one, so calling patriotic ordinary Australian working people “fascists”, could cause some members of the public to think it’s true – and they would decline support.

    Note that Saleam has two criminal convictions: one for fraud, the other for his involvement in the organisation of a shotgun assault upon the home of ANC representative Eddie Funde: “Saleam was living [at The Bunker] in 1989 when he provided a shotgun to two boneheads who fired into the home of Eddie Funde, the African National Congress representative in Australia. Funde and his wife were inside and shotgun pellets narrowly missed their sleeping baby. Saleam was sentenced to 3½ years’ jail for his involvement. It was also the venue for an insurance scam in which he falsely claimed the house had been robbed. He was jailed for two years for fraud.”

This anti-fascism is as much psycho-politics as physical politics. It is designed to vex, confuse and disorient. Having someone scream that the party is something it is not, to risk arrest and carry out assaults in the name of a false position, is bizarre. Yet, that is the point. To mobilize people against us, the operators of Antifa must spoon feed something to the troops to keep up their activism. “I get it”, said one old World War Two veteran, who had just been called a “Nazi” as he entered the Sydney Forum venue; “he needed a straw man to knock down, some idea in his head to keep him fighting.” True.

The anti-fascists in the street are genuine fools. They really believe that the Australian nationalists would impose fascist rule if we could, will cause no end of social turmoils and hatreds on our path to power and they really imagine that we are inspired by historical fascism. As anarchists or Trotskyites or Maoists, they are impelled to act. For sure, it is all a delusion. In fact, we intend to impose (sic) a radical democracy upon Australia! Yet, knowing this impulse to act against us exists, the shadowy players who need a confrontational Antifa to do the dirty work can move more easily to mobilize it. Hence, we observed those websites like ‘Fight Dem Back’ and ‘Slackbastard’ and which tried to organize the protest movement, had establishment connections with the Labor Party and Zionist groups and so on, were just too brazen and the Antifa was hesitant. Reasonably, pseudo revolutionaries don’t like the establishment either. So other less obvious agents are undoubtedly employed such that the new Antifa structure can be promoted into street politics and given a certain media sanction – as long as it does its job.

That was bad I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E., very bad I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.

A month or so ago, the staff at the incontinent pro Australian I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. blog ‘Whitelaw Towers’, put it out there that in Sydney at least, a peculiar clique of people based on the leadership of the former Builders’ Labourers’ Federation (BLF) in New South Wales and a network that was connected to it and formerly instrumental in the old Maoist-style Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist), had been sniffing about, setting up small structures to push odd communist type agendas.

The members of this grouping have freed themselves of much of the ideological baggage of Maoism, but have retained their taste for a radical communist solution. In that regard, these people were not beyond embracing such of the arguments and methods of the anarchists if it leads to ‘direct action’.

After yet another ‘anti-fascist’ action on October 2 in Sydney, this time aimed at a speaking event in inner-city Chippendale, the interest of the ex Maoist group in anti-fascism, was revealed. Such a small world politics can be when bad eggs return to the fray.

A certain writer appeared on the Indymedia website, someone whose suggestions are pregnant with the future. This writer, who I quickly understood to be one C. Maltby, recorded how he and his friends once turned over a literature table of a student nationalist organisation at the University of New South Wales and directly confronted the group. That was 1979. I was there. Maltby naturally omitted that he had positioned himself behind Mr. F.K. Salter chairman of our group [‘National Alliance’] and struck him to the head with a (thankfully smooth) rock. Although Salter sustained no real injury, it was a dangerous assault. Maltby was alluding to old, perhaps to his mind, happy memories. His article counselled further and aggressive action based upon the ‘validity’ of violent confrontation.

    Salter stood for the seat of Grayndler in June 1979: he gained 863 votes (1.7%). He quit the Alliance in May 1980. In October 1980, Saleam stood for the seat of Parramatta. He gained 1,248 votes (1.9%). In May 1981 the Alliance merged with the ‘Progressive Conservatives’ and the ‘Immigration Control Association’ to form the ‘Progressive Nationalist Party’; following the PNP’s collapse a short while later, ‘National Action’ was launched on ANZAC Day (April 25, 1982).

To say that Maltby is just a would-be thug underestimates the fellow and those he sails with. The Maoists were not unintelligent. He has reviewed the political landscape and – using my name to make the point – tells his readers [captain swing, Re: Anti-fascist demonstration, Chippendale, October 14, 2009]:

…Kevvie’s ALP, with the Breakfast Creek mob providing invaluable support ‘in the rear’ – but beware, the collapse of the ALP could give the likes of Saleam rallying points around which to gather votes… If Saleam et al ever get anywhere west of Parramatta in Sydney, watch out! And what will the likes of the Greens do then? Hit them with banana leaves, or try to reason with them? No, they’ll just ‘peacefully protest’ as all democratic institutions are torn apart. Only one answer and it’s still Socialism Comrades – it would be a very different form of Socialism – perhaps the Anarcho-Syndicalists do have something, other than books to sell! Cheers, The Captain.

In one regard, Mr. Maltby is dead right. Australia First intends to campaign to gather the support of working people – and Western Sydney holds many disgruntled unionists and self-employed people under the gun of big business and now too hosts a legion of young unemployed. This social pattern is duplicated in every metropolis.

Maltby proposed a new alliance to stop us from realising our objective – an alliance of the anarchist movement and leftover activist Maoism. Interesting. Now that anti-fascism is in the street, we now see the forces of our opposition meld together. We are warned and must become prepared.

I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. is down! I repeat, we have no I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.!

The opposition, which Australia First Party and the entire patriotic movement faces, will gather in pace and in intensity. This cannot be avoided and is a reflex to our growth. How we handle it will be a major test of our courage, resources and professional acumen. Needless to say, whatever plans we may have cannot be discussed in the open on a website or in an e-mail newsletter.

Certainly, we will stand our ground and extend our reach. We intend to develop a party with popular roots and to do so over the next twelve months. Swatting the blowflies of Antifa is simply ensuring that we reach those Australians we need that we may move to higher stages in building our mass work.

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Anti-fascism | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Mr Fab & RIAA

Welcome to the online home of Los Angeles-based DJ/musician MR FAB (not the Oakland rapper) and mashup/sound collage project RIAA. All music is free!

Check it out!

See also : Music For Maniacs.

Posted in !nataS, Music | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lily Allen ~versus~ Metallica (?)

Australia will be getting their hands on Lily for three special headline gigs taking place in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in January 2010!

Lil’ will be heading down under to wow the crowds on the following dates…

Tuesday 19th January – River Stage, Brisbane
Thursday 21st January – Hordern, Sydney
Thursday 28th January – Festival Hall, Melbourne

Wow.

Also wow is the fact that, a lil’ while ago (September 2009), Lily done a Metallica.

In September 2009, Lily started blogging: http://idontwanttochangetheworld.blogspot.com/. Sadly, her blogging efforts were less well-received than her muzak, and not long after she opened it, Lily closed her blog down. On September 20, Lily posted the following:

letter to all artists
Sunday, September 20, 2009

The debate on digital music piracy is reaching a critical point as Peter Mandelson and the government move to legislation that will tackle unlawful file sharing. The industry’s had a say, the ISPs have had a say and some artists – through the Featured Artists Coalition [-] have had a say. But I don’t agree with them. Do you?

I feel really strongly about file sharing. I see it having a damaging effect on British music – especially on emerging artists. Overall the internet’s had a great effect on music and been crucial in helping people like me break through. But file sharing is different to legal streaming or making some music available as promotion. File sharing eats away at opportunity for new artists: by cutting off income at the most crucial, cash-strapped point in their careers and by limiting A&R’s ability to sign new acts outside of the mainstream.

The ISPs have got their message out there: they don’t want to be the internet police. Fine. The industry has got its message out there: they’re losing money and they want it back. No surprises there.

And now some artists have got their message out there: that file sharing is fine when you’re a successful artist with sell out tours and a back catalogue ready to be sold to a new audience. That might be fine for them, but it’s not fine for the acts that haven’t made it big yet.

What I’d like is for artists that don’t think file sharing is fine to get their message out there too. I want to make it clear that file sharing is not alright. And I want the industry and the artists that have made it, to look at how we can help those artists that are still struggling to break through in the file sharing age.

So obviously I’m writing you because I’d really like your help. You don’t have to like my music – you don’t even have to like me. But if you think file sharing’s not alright and reckon we should be doing more to ensure emerging artists aren’t cut off, then I’d love a hand.

I want to get everyone together – the artists, record companies, ISPs and government – to properly talk about this. So we can stop bickering and try and come to a solution. We can even see if we can come up with some new ideas too.

I want us to talk about how we support emerging artists. If we support emerging artists, we can ask our fans to support them too. And if we’re not going after piracy, we need to talk about how we are going to support new talent.

The majority of British artists are against file sharing, because it will harm British music. We can talk about all the legal means of accessing music out there and even come up with new ways to access music, but ultimately we need to establish that we think file sharing is wrong.

If you agree with what I’m saying and want to be involved with voicing our opinion, then get in touch.

A few days later, Lily was accused of plagiarism — Lily Allen: Copying Isn’t Alright… Unless It’s Done By Lily Allen — in response to which she posted the following apology:

50 CENT POST
Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I THINK ITS QUITE OVIOUS [sic] THAT I WASN[‘]T TRYING TO PASS OF [sic] THOSE WORDS AS MY OWN, HERE IS A LINK TO THE WEBSIITE [sic] I ACQUIRED THE PIECE FROM . Apologies to Michael Masnick[.]

Bonus!

See also : Single mums : BAD! Copyright : GOOD! (June 19, 2009) | Heavy metal in/from Iraq: You can’t stop the music! (October 30, 2008) | “I get so emo, I could die” / Drop the attitude, fucker / In music, nothing happens… (April 30, 2007) | Metal Militia! (July 31, 2006) |

Posted in Music, State / Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

anarchist notes (november 11, 2009)

My email is working again, and to celebrate I’m posting.

Stuff.

Alpine Anarchist Productions

Alpine Anarchist Productions is a site maintained by some troublemakers — who really should know better. Anyways, one troublemaker, Gabriel Kuhn, is in town to talk. On Monday, November 16, he’ll be speaking on the subject of ‘Anarchism, White Supremacy, and Anti-Racist Action’; on Wednesday, November 18, on ‘(The State and the Future of) Radical Publishing’. Both events are being held @ Loophole Community Centre (670–672 High St, Thornbury), from 7–9pm.

[Viola/Gee]

Amadeu Casellas

Amadeu Casellas, an anarchist prisoner in Spain, ended his hunger strike — begun on July 15 — on October 21. This followed the decision by a Spanish magistrate to authorise his forced feeding. Amadeu is in a very poor state of health, but his family, friends and comrades remain determined to free him.

[Martita]

Kulon Progo : Peasant Resistance

‘Kulon Progo Regency’ is one of the four regencies of the ‘Yogyakarta Special Region’ (Indonesia). Coastal farmers in that part of the world are fighting against mining company ‘PT Jogja Magasa Mining’. The company, in conjunction with Indo Mines Limited (the Australian-based company formerly known as ‘Australian Kimberley Diamonds’), is planning on establishing an iron mine, one which will displace local farmers. Thus:

Indo Mines Limited owns a 70% interest in the Jogjakarta Pig Iron Project located approximately 30 kilometres from the major city of Jogjakarta, Indonesia. In November 2008 Indo Mines signed a Contract of Work with the Indonesian Government to develop the Project. The Company is now in the process of completing the Bankable Feasibility Study and arranging finance. The Project has a JORC compliant mineral resource of 605 million tonnes and the initial focus is to mine and process the 273 million tonne surface sand unit down to a maximum depth of 9 metres.

Peasant resistance to the mine, and the organisation of that resistance through the umbrella organisation PPLP (‘Paguyaban Petani Lahan Pantai’ or ‘Association of Shoreline Farmers’) is documented in a blog : Bertani atau Mati – Tolak Tambang Besi. Of the PPLP, the author(s) note that:

The organisation had an unusual structure. Aside from a chair, secretary and treasurer and their deputies, they also appointed older farmers as advisors. There is also a field coordinator in each village, who acts as a delegate, uniquely this coordinator is only ever one person, and they often rotate in a quite flexible way. Each village also has an autonomous PPLP unit, each with its own structure. What is clear is that there is no-one that holds authority in the PPLP structure. The whole coastal community are members of PPLP and their feelings about new information in the mining plan is always discussed at the meetings of each PPLP unit as well as the umbrella meetings. One more unique feature is that there is no office for either the umbrella organisation or for each PPLP unit, as each household along the coast is a space for coordination.

The PPLP has also been active in organising protests. Here is footage of a protest held on October 20, 2009:

[Jurnal Anarki]

Noam Chomsky

Dunno why, but for some reason the ABC’s ‘Background Briefing’ has broadcast an interview with Uncle Noam. Who’s Uncle Noam?

He’s over 80 and has written or contributed to 95 books. At one time he was the most cited living academic, a Vietnam activist and a thorn in the side of Reagan. Today he is also critical of ‘the left’ with dire warnings. Noam Chomsky is as astute and interesting as ever. Producer, Kirsten Garrett.

[dj/Viola]

Bonus!

McShit has been expelled from Iceland! This just goes to show that every global financial crisis has a silver lining…

Huzzah!

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Thousands of Icelanders lined up at McDonald’s restaurants to order their last Big Macs before the U.S. fast-food chain abandons the crisis-hit island at midnight Saturday due to soaring costs.The world’s largest fast-food company said earlier this week that all three of its restaurants in Iceland, operated by franchisee Jon Ogmundsson, would shut down October 31. Iceland has been reeling from the effects of the financial crisis since October 2008, when its banks collapsed in the space of a week under the weight of billions of dollars in debt. The fall of the banks sapped confidence in Iceland’s economy and sent its currency, the crown, into freefall. McDonald’s said the crown’s weakness was part of the reason for its withdrawal, along with the high cost of importing food from abroad. McDonald’s said it would not seek to come back to Iceland. In a nearby stationary store, Thora Sigurdardottir, a 35-year old nursing assistant, said she had no intention of going for a final McDonald’s meal. “Good riddance,” she said.

Onya Thora!

Posted in Anarchism | Leave a comment

Uncle Joe for Higgins!

After narrowly missing out on becoming Lord Mayor, Uncle Joe Toscano is throwing his hat into the ring for the Federal seat of Higgins:

Seeking poll position

LIBERAL bluebloods had palpitations when Kelly O’Dywer won pre-selection for Peter Costello’s Higgins seat, and now bring out the defibrillator. The Australian Sex Party (cough, splutter) candidate is Fiona Patten, the anti-censorship convener who wants a national sex-education curriculum in schools. And Anarchist Media Institute warrior Joseph Toscano is a ”Radical Independent” campaigning for a ”New People’s Bank”. Toscano will launch his Higgins tilt by doing what he does best – holding a rally – outside the King Street office of Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner. The placards will wave tomorrow [November 11], Remembrance Day, on the anniversary of Ned Kelly’s hanging and Gough’s dismissal. A historic date for uprising.

November 11 is also the date upon which the Haymarket Martyrs – George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons & August Spies, all anarchists – were executed in Chicago. 250,000 people lined Chicago’s streets during Parson’s funeral procession. “There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are strangling to-day” Albert Spies famously remarked. Rather than be executed by the state, Louis Lingg, another anarchist condemned to death, committed suicide.

Obviously, the idea of a “People’s Bank” is not new. In fact, one of its major proponents in the nineteenth century was the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. In 1922, David Tucker wrote (The Evolution of People’s Banks [PDF]):

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) was one of the founders of anarchism. In a history of nineteenth century France, his figure would be a more conspicuous one than that of Buchez. But within the narrower field of cooperation, Proudhon is important for only one reason. In 1848 he launched a grandiloquent scheme for a “People’s Bank” with a structure that was by no means cooperative. His bank collapsed within a few months and by its collapse did much to prevent the development within France of any genuine cooperative banking movement.

See also : Proudhon’s Ghost: petit-bourgeois anarchism, anarchist businesses, and the politics of effectiveness, Lawrence Jarach, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, No.64, 2007.

Bonus!

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, State / Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Neo-Nazis in Sydney // Neo-Nazis in Phoenix

A Tale of Two Cities

Sydney

In Sydney, the NSW Humanist Society owns and administers a property in the suburb of Chippendale (an area first occupied by the Gadigal people of the Dharug nation). Since at least 2003, the Humanists have been making available their Happy House to local neo-Nazis, members of the KKK and the (now-defunct) ‘White Pride Coalition of Australia’ (among others). In recent years (2005–), neo-Nazis have been holding meetings among the humanists in the name of ‘Klub Naziya’, the two principal organisers of which have been local Sydney neo-Nazis David Palmer and Jason Rafty (occasionally by use of the title “Public Information Forum”).

Last month, the neo-Nazi meeting was interrupted by a public protest. So too, last Friday (November 6). An account of the protest is available on the Cotton Ward blog: Stomping out Nazis in Chippendale. Jim Perren @ Whitelaw Towers also provides some pretty pictures — http://whitelawtowers.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-are-we-implying.html.

Phoenix

In Phoenix, Arizona, the ‘National Socialist Movement’ held a rally on November 8. According to another bastard: ‘The Anarchists Own the Nazis, and the Nazis Cause a Car Wreck as They Amscray’ (Stephen Lemons, Phoenix New Times, November 8, 2009). The sole NSM representative in Australia is the batshit crazy Carl D. Thompson.

Bonus!

Noam Chomsky: on humanism, the vulnerability of secular nationalism, and the mother of all book plugs
The Humanist
January/February, 2007

[Interview by David Niose, attorney and treasurer of the American Humanist Association.]

Noam Chomsky is one of America’s great dissenters. Skeptical of concentrated power in any form, for over forty years the MIT professor and world-renowned linguist has been a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy and militarism. On September 20, 2006, Chomsky’s already considerable fame went up a few notches when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, held up Chomsky’s 2003 book, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project), and recommended it to the world, especially to Americans. The book, which had already sold about 200,000 copies, immediately shot to the top spot on bestseller lists. On September 22, as his book was hitting number one, Chomsky sat down with the Humanist to discuss his humanism, the religious right, the American social and political landscape, and a host of other issues.

========================

The Humanist: You recently got the mother of all book plugs when Hegemony or Survival was recommended by Hugo Chavez addressing the United Nations General Assembly.

Chomsky: I got a funny letter from a friend of mine. He looked the book up on Amazon.com and it was somewhere up there, and his book was about 1,253,428. He wrote: ‘Could I get Chavez to write a review for me?’

Continue reading

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Media Watch ~versus~ Good Game

Besieged by angry nerds, Media Watch‘s Jonathan Holmes has made the following comment on Jeremy Ray’s sacking by the ABC:

Author Jonathan Holmes (Presenter)
Date/Time 06 Nov 2009 8:21:00pm
Subject Re: Junglist demoted from ABC’s Good Game

Ok gamers. Think about this.

If the ABC had decided it wanted to change the host of The Good Game [sic] to appeal to a different audience, or because it wanted a woman instead of a man (though both of those things MAY be true) would it really have done so a few weeks before the end of [T]he Good Game’s run? Wouldn’t it have waited until the end of the season? Would it have courted the reaction it’s got from its hard core fans by just dumping Junglist without even a chance to say goodbye, without explanation etc?

We have looked into this. If we thought there had been a gross and high-handed management intervention we’d happily have said so. But we don’t. And like the team at The Good Game, we can’t say why without making matters worse.

Frustrating, I know. But there it is. Calling me a coward won’t change anything, or make Junglist feel better either.

Noel Coward Jonathan Holmes has a point: in retrospect, it doesn’t make very good sense for the ABC to change the host of Good Game before the end of the current series — if this situation could be avoided. Sadly — or fortunately — as the ABC PR department put it (apparently — I can’t seem to find the original press release): “The reason for replacing Jeremy Ray was ongoing behind the scenes performance based issues”.

In which case, the issue becomes just how bad an employee was Junglist?

Given his sudden dismissal — not only as host but also from The Good Game [sic] and the ABC as a whole — he must have been a very bad employee indeed. Legal agreements apparently prevent the ABC from embarking upon any further disclosure, so consumers/clients/citizens will have to take ABC management at its word — or not (as the case may be).

So: from Media Watch‘s perspective, dumping Junglist had nothing to do with any desire on the part of Good Game / the ABC to re-position Good Game in the market, and everything to do with some unspecified failure on the part of Junglist-The-Employee. For legal reasons, these reasons cannot be discussed, but in any event they do not involve any “gross and high-handed management intervention” (in which context, Johnathan implies, Media Watch would be more interested).

The situation is slightly complicated, however, by Amanda Duthie, the ABC’s ‘Head of Arts and Entertainment’, who on October 26 released the following statement to the blog ‘TV Tonight’:

After three years, we felt Good Game needed a refresh to take the program into 2010 and beyond, and the decision was made to change the hosting team.

Jeremy had travel plans which meant he was not going to be available to tape the final show of the season, the one hour Christmas Special, and we were announcing details of the launch of the Good Game: SP program on our new channel, ABC3. So it made sense to work in with these timings to introduce Stephanie ‘Hex’ Bendixsen as our new host.

Understandably, Jeremy has many fans who are disappointed to see him leave the program. However, we are absolutely confident that Bajo and Hex will bring a new dimension to the show and, along with the dedicated behind the scenes team of gamers, continue to bring Australian audiences independent reviews and information about video gaming in Australia.

Obviously, one could read this as spin; even as an attempt by Amanda — concerned over Junglist-The-Bad-Employee’s future job prospects — to distract attention away from the supposed fact that Junglist was indeed a very bad employee. Thus, in this version, Junglist’s replacement as host of Good Game was simply a question of timing, prompted, on the one hand, by a need to “refresh” the format and, on the other hand, Junglist’s unavailability — through his own choice — for a super special one hour Crassmas special.

However, the situation is further complicated by the fact that one of Good Game‘s producers (production manager Gannon Conroy or ‘TheGog’) stated on the Good Game forum — on the same day (October 23) that Junglist’s sacking was announced — that:

You’re all smart enough and have heard enough to know that it wasn’t Jung’s choice and I can tell you it wasn’t anything I personally had a say in, so it is a decision made from above which certainly had a lot of us behind the scenes worried BUT having personally seen Hex in action I can see why such a decision was made…

In relation to which, there are two points.

The first is the fact that here TheGog explicitly contradicts a later statement released by the Good Game team to the effect that the decision to dump Junglist had its unanimous support; the other is the fact that, after having made this statement, the ABC moderator has edited TheGog’s statement to remove the offending passage.

A “gross and high-handed” example of “management intervention”? Apparently not.

Of course, the Good Game statement can not only be held up against TheGog’s statement of October 23, but also the statement Junglist made in reply to Good Game; one which, if correct, lends further weight to the possibility that the Good Game statement of October 29 is, in fact, untruthful. That is, “the decision to take Junglist off air” was, in fact, “forced upon [Good Game] by ABC Management”.

Author Junglist (Reviewer)
Date/Time 29 Oct 2009 4:48:18pm
Subject Re: Statement from the team…

I can tell you that this is a lie. There was no vote taken, no consensus reached. In fact, the GG team was completely unaware of the change until the same day I found out. The same confidentiality clause that prevented me from saying anything publicly, prevented management from telling them anything.

I have spoken to members of the GG team who clearly DON’T support this, but can’t say anything publicly. Of course they’ll tow the party line. They have to.

Up until now the situation has just been poorly handled. But to now LIE to your own audience, in an effort to save face for replacing an experienced reviewer/presenter with an inexperienced one, is quite simply the lowest thing I’ve ever seen ABC management do.

I feel now as if I’m being professionally attacked, so here’s a truth bomb. In the meeting where I was told I would be replaced, the reason given was they wanted a girl on the show. “Mass appeal” was a direct quote from that meeting. After a half-hour of explaining how they’ll lose their hardcore following, they responded that yes, they knew this, but expected to make up the numbers with a new following. “A show can grow beyond its hardcore base”, is another direct quote.

The decision was forced by ABC management, for a mass appeal direction, and will naturally be dumbed down for the loss of experience. Case in point: Monday night’s show. Both Forza 3 and Kingdom Hearts clearly written by people with no idea about those franchises. Hell, no one on the team even thought to correct the presenters on how to pronounce “Forza” correctly? Expect a lot more of that…

A “gross and high-handed” example of “management intervention”? Apparently not.

One might also consider the fact that during the course of the first, Junglist-free Good Game (October 26), Bajo announced that Junglist, while no longer host, would continue to work ‘behind-the-scenes’ at Good Game.

OK gamers. Think about this.

If the decision of October 23 to sack Junglist was not forced upon the Good Game team/work unit by ABC Management, and was one that was “fully supported” by all the Good Game team, would Bajo really have stated — wrongly — in the episode of October 26 that Junglist “has just taken a behind-the-scenes role on the show”? After all, according to ‘Team Good Game’ (October 29), “things … have happened over many months inside Team Good Game which have impacted on the production”; and if you substitute ‘things’ for ‘Junglist’, ‘Team Good Game’ had been preparing itself for this decision for months. It therefore makes more sense to assume that Junglist is in fact correct; the decision to sack him was taken by ABC Management — for whatever reason — not ‘Team Good Game’. Subsequently, ABC Management requested/ordered ‘Team Good Game’ to issue a statement condoning its decision, and the one piece of evidence belying that claim was removed from the Good Game forum.

A “gross and high-handed” example of “management intervention”? Apparently not.

In closing, one might also consider the following (Axed Good Game host sticks to his guns, Sarah Collerton, ABC News Online, November 2, 2009):

[Junglist] says he was told in a meeting almost three weeks ago that he was going to be replaced by a woman because the ABC wanted the video gaming show to garner “mass appeal”.

Ray, who was born in Australia but lived in the United States for most of his childhood, says there was “a lot of internal politicking” going on behind the scenes, but that was not the reason for his dismissal.

“In the meeting, the only reason they gave was that they wanted a female presenter,” he told ABC News Online.

“There were comments made in that meeting that it would be great if the audience assumed, seeing as there is only four or five weeks left in the season, that I was sick or on holiday and that this whole thing was my idea.

“It was even suggested [at a different time], that I say on air that I’m going back to the States, which I found a little offensive because I’m an Australian citizen.

“Those sorts of comments made me worried that I was going to be misrepresented.”

See also : Junglist, Or; How Not To Fire An Under-Performing Employee (October 30, 2009) | Axed Good Game host sticks to his guns (November 2, 2009).

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