Davos 2009 : Capitalism in Crisis

Posted on February 1, 2009 by @ndy
    European governments tremble as anger spreads, Ian Traynor, London, The Age, February 1, 2009: “FRANCE paralysed by strikes, the boulevards of Paris resembling a battlefield. The Hungarian currency sinks as unemployment rises. Greek farmers block the road into Bulgaria. New figures show the three Baltic states face the biggest recessions in Europe…”

Important segments of the transnational capitalist/ruling class — including millionaire PM KRudd [sic: Deputy PM Julia Gillard took his place after KRudd cancelled] and his billionaire boss Rupert Murdoch (Murdoch appointed KRudd in April 2007) — are meeting once again in the Swiss resort town of Davos. While eating turkey and glutting wine, the bourgeois swine will be tut-tutting the fact that the same economic system that ensures they live lives of luxury also ensures that every day thousands of children literally shit themselves to death. Or, as a polite BBC puts it: “The biggest criticism [of the WEF Summit]… will be that many of the people who hope to solve the world’s problems are also those who have caused them”. Which is semi-correct: many of the ‘problems’ of the world — war, poverty, starvation, ecocide, Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em — are attributable to capitalism, but these ‘problems’, like capitalism, are systemic.

    Diarrhea, known medically as gastroenteritis, is a major cause of children’s death in the world–second only to acute respiratory infections (ARI). One out of every four childhood deaths is from diarrhea, which drains the life out of at least 3 million infants and young children every year. Of these deaths, 99.6% occur in the Third World, where one in ten children dies of diarrhea before the age five… ~ David Werner & David Sanders, Questioning the Solution, Chapter 6: Diarrhea: A Leading Killer of Children, 1997

Speaking of violence, in the 27 months since the G20 Summit in Melbourne — in which a number of rock *s, in addition to bureaucrats, foreign and imported, warbled about ‘making poverty history’ — the UN estimates 24,120,000 children have died of “poverty-related” causes (one might just as well say ‘wealth-related’ causes).

But hell, who’s counting?

And yet, even now — as former Treasurer Costello put it — there are some socialists, there are some anarchists, there are some people that want to disrupt world trade. Thankfully, police forces around the world give short shrift to such troublemakers. Of course, not all troublemakers are bad.

In Putin’s Russia, for example, police happily collude in the fascist butchering of oppositionists. (In Davos, police have successfully contained the scum.)

The global economic crisis poses our rulers some curly questions, the most important of which is whether or not it will trigger widespread social unrest. Australia, like other countries, is headed for recession (the term ‘recession’ generally describes the reduction of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for at least two quarters). According to the IMF, Australia “would likely have a negative growth rate of -0.2 per cent this year” (Australia heading for recession: IMF, Anne Davies in Washington and Kerry-Anne Walsh in Canberra, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 1, 2009).

There is some good news however, as world-renowned political economist yuppie scribbler Christian Kerr retains his faith: “Capitalism got us into this mess, but capitalism will get us out. Just as fortunes have been lost, fortunes will be made cleaning it up” (Give capitalism some credit, The Australian, January 30, 2009). Why, Naomi Klein even wrote a book about it!

In Iceland, the crisis has already witnessed mass protest, and the collapse of the government (See : The Icelandic Government has Collapsed… and then what?, aftaka.org, January 30, 2009). In the UK, wildcat strikes have broken out in oil refineries. (See : Unofficial refinery walkouts ‘over foreign workers’ spread, Joseph K., January 30, 2009.) In France, “As the recession begins to bite in France, transport, education and other services are brought to a halt by a national strike demanding action on unemployment and the rising cost of living” (Ex temp, libcom.org, January 29, 2009).

Walkouts in refineries by an oil worker

I work for a contracted company in charge of the maintenance of an oil refinery in south Wales. The start of the strike occurred due to an Italian company being contracted to increase refinery capacity at the Lindsey refinery. The strikes quickly spread across the rest of the refineries, sporting the slogan “British Jobs for British workers”.

In the area where I work there are two oil refineries and two LNG terminals plus an oil storage facility. Recently due to the economic crisis workers at all of these sites have been made redundant, which is pretty much uniform across the UK and even the world. With the prospect of work coming in the form of new building projects such as the planned gas fired power stations and nuclear power stations there is hope for workers who are out of work. However due to the recession the fat cats want to cut costs. As a result they will use the company who will charge the least. It’s unfortunate that overseas companies can do the job for less than the British companies. This is where the problem began — workers recently made redundant were horrified when local jobs when to an Italian company who would use Italian and Portuguese labour.

A lot of my colleagues regularly work overseas in places such as Kazakhstan, Dubai and in other countries. When this work is offered people jump at the chance. Don’t blame the workers – it’s not their fault at all. It’s the system: capitalism. To quote one of my colleagues, “foreign workers are in the same boat as us, if were offered work we would take it.” The recent wave of redundancies had nothing to do with overseas workers “taking our jobs”. It’s the whole greedy system that is to blame. In the engineering industry, especially the oil and gas industry, the job takes you world wide. Contractors can work all over the world. As I’m sure the media is pushing this on the front pages they are doing nothing to defend the foreign workers who also face threats of redundancy and unemployment. Who can blame the workers who just want to work and support their family? What happened to international workers’ solidarity?

A. It’s under constant assault. In the meantime, KRudd has provided the reading public with another tacky souvenir of pre-revolutionary Australia.

Time for a new world order: PM
Phillip Coorey
The Sydney Morning Herald
January 31, 2009

KEVIN RUDD has denounced the unfettered capitalism of the past three decades and called for a new era of “social capitalism” in which government intervention and regulation feature heavily.

    The Global Financial Crisis
    Kevin Rudd
    The Monthly

    In “The Global Financial Crisis”, Kevin Rudd offers a comprehensive and lucid analysis of the current economic situation. In mid January, while on annual leave, the prime minister wrote this 7700-word essay that brings historical perspective to bear on the causes, precedents and ramifications of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Sheeting home much of the blame to the neo-liberal agenda that has prevailed in Western economies over the past 30 years, he outlines a series of broad reforms – many of which, he argues, must be undertaken on an unprecedented, global scale. This major essay on the most pressing issue of our time is a unique contribution from a sitting prime minister.

In an essay to be published next week, the Prime Minister is scathing of the neo-liberals who began refashioning the market system in the 1970s, and ultimately brought about the global financial crisis.

“The time has come, off the back of the current crisis, to proclaim that the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed, that the emperor has no clothes,” he writes of those who placed their faith in the corrective powers of the market.

“Neo-liberalism [Bad Cop] and the free-market fundamentalism it has produced has been revealed as little more than personal greed dressed up as an economic philosophy. And, ironically, it now falls to social democracy [Good Cop] to prevent liberal capitalism [TINA] from cannibalising itself.”

See also : Recession Britain: the great debate, Will Hutton and David Cameron, The Observer, February 1, 2009: “Will Hutton, Observer columnist and one of the country’s foremost commentators on the global recession, this weekend engaged in an extraordinary email exchange with David Cameron, in the wake of his path-breaking speech at the Davos summit. In it he challenged the Tory leader to explain how he would bring about ‘capitalism with a conscience’.” | What is Rudd’s Agenda?, Robert Manne, The Monthly, November 2008 | Gloom, perplexity, divisions dominate World Economic Forum in Davos, Barry Grey, wsws.org, January 31, 2009 | wsws.org on World Economy | Join vents Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey : A close reading of the text of Karl Marx’s Capital, Volume I | ‘Jump! You Fuckers!’, Dan Hind, January 19, 2009 [PDF] |

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” ~ Desmond Tutu

Jump! You Fuckers! (January 23, 2009) | Capitalism Wins at the Polls : Anarchy Brewing in the Streets (November 27, 2008) | Crapitalism, actually (September 27, 2008) | CaPiTaLiSm In cRiSiS (September 23, 2008) | They break our legs / And we say “Thank you” when they offer us crutches (May 6, 2008) | Go Ahead, Hate Them, It’s Good for You (January 22, 2008) | Anarchy: Against Capital, Against the State (June 23, 2007) | Capitalism Explained (December 29, 2006) | Fill the ‘G // With the heads of the bourgeoisie (December 2, 2006) | Making the world safe for capitalism: Oaxaca, Mexico (October 29, 2006)

Posted in !nataS, State / Politics | 4 Comments

“The simple answer is that you the Jews are real motherf—– bastards”

Posted on February 1, 2009 by @ndy

From The Department of Some-of-My-Best-Friends-are-Jewish:

A one-day conference on ‘Justice for Palestine’, scheduled to take place on Thursday, January 29 @ The Theatrette, NSW Parliament House in Macquarie Street, Sydney, was cancelled following the publication of anti-Semitic remarks by the principal organiser, Maqsood Alshams (former Honorary National Coordinator of the ‘Coalition for Justice for Refugees’, currently Project Director with the ‘Asia Pacific Human Rights Institute’). The conference was titled “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, and organised by the Institute and the “Edmund Rice Centre in association with Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning – University of Technology Sydney and Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney”. The cancellation appears to have been triggered by the withdrawal of two speakers — Antony Loewenstein and Peter Manning — and, one assumes, the negative publicity attached to Alshams’ outburst.

Alshams, after having first declared that “Only Me, You and Us together can turn today’s dream into a reality tomorrow. And let us get it done!”, initially defended his right to a private argument (Rights activist apologises for anti-Semitic comments, Erik Jensen, January 28, 2009), but later apologised to the motherf—– bastards. Alshams explained that he was “intoxicated and angry” when he wrote the email messages to Richard Benkin, “a human rights activist based in Chicago” and “Sydney management consultant”, Anna Berger (Rights activist apologises for anti-Semitic comments, Erik Jensen, January 28, 2009).

Speaking of motherf—– Jewish bastards, one rather notorious example is Noam Chomsky. See “Exterminate all the Brutes”: Gaza 2009, chomsky.info, January 19, 2009.

On Saturday December 27, the latest US-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians was launched. The attack had been meticulously planned, for over 6 months according to the Israeli press. The planning had two components: military and propaganda. It was based on the lessons of Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which was considered to be poorly planned and badly advertised. We may, therefore, be fairly confident that most of what has been done and said was pre-planned and intended.

That surely includes the timing of the assault: shortly before noon, when children were returning from school and crowds were milling in the streets of densely populated Gaza City. It took only a few minutes to kill over 225 people and wound 700, an auspicious opening to the mass slaughter of defenseless civilians trapped in a tiny cage with nowhere to flee…

What a bastard.

He’s not alone of course. Antony Lowenstein is a right bastard, and so is the IAJV: Independent Australian Jewish Voices.

On a lighter note, Old Jews Telling Jokes (“A new (old) joke every Tuesday and Thursday!”).

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | 16 Comments

The ALP facing extinction?

Posted on January 31, 2009 by @ndy

The ALP supposedly faces extinction.

But can we believe the good news?

Once proud to claim to represent the interest of white Australian workers, the contemporary ALP — a largely middle class institution — now claims to represent the interests of ‘working families’; a mantra repeated endlessly during the last Federal election campaign by KRudd & Co.

Despite a declining membership, however, the ALP still retains a stranglehold over the trades union movement, and the labour movement more generally. (See : Union Control of the ALP, Presentations given on 26 March 2008 by [former] trade union leader and Senator Elect for NSW, Doug Cameron, and former union official [and Communist] Mark Aarons.) The ALP, in turn, is dominated by the right.

September 2008:

Future ALP politicians and current trade union officials are reportedly “furious” at former trade union officials and current ALP politicians for doing what pundits have expected: introducing “business-friendly” industrial relations laws. “Furious” trade union leaders are widely tipped to remain furious for some time, before becoming “angry”, “upset”, “bitter”, and then merely “resigned”.

The broad structure of the coal-powered fluorescent bulb on the hill was explained by Gillard in her speech to The National Press Club on Wednesday titled ‘Introducing Australia’s New Workplace Relations System’. Gillard also took this opportunity to burn her bra black armband, declaring in her opening remarks that “The signature values of nations are often defined by the circumstances of their birth… And for us there’s one value above all others that we identify with as truly our own. It’s the value that emerged out of the circumstances of Federation, which coincided with the industrial turbulence of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That value is fairness. Or as we like to put it: ‘the fair go’.”

Which is all rather odd, especially given that — as angry White men across the country know — one of the first Acts of Federal Parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act. This Act (together with the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901) formed the legal cornerstone of the White Australia policy; the Conciliation and Arbitration Act — which in Labor Party mythology has ensured a ‘fair go’ for ‘working families’ for the bulk of the country’s history — was only assented to by Edward VII in 1904. Further, while 100 years ago the Gub’mint couldn’t get rid of the Pacific Islanders quick enough, they now wanna import them — albeit if only for a coupla years…

Aside from a plummeting membership (a dilemma also faced by the Tories and their country counterparts the Nationals), the average age of an ALP member is now around 50. Yoof, in other words, find little of appeal in the ALP. Or at least, yoof in general: the party still manages to recruit ambitious young apparatchiks, principally students, Darren Ray being perhaps the example par excellence of this tendency.

Despite its hostility to socialism — formally abandoned some years ago — the Australian Labor Party “maintains formal links with fraternal parties overseas through ongoing membership of the Socialist International. This supplements the close, bilateral ties the ALP maintains with counterparts around the world”.

There’s also the Fabian Society, but nobody really pays them much attention. This may be because they have next to no influence.

See also : ARE FACTIONS KILLING THE LABOR PARTY?, Senator Robert Ray, Address to The Fabian Society Sydney, 20 September 2006 (“Thirty years ago I was doing research on the First International – an international socialist organisation formed by Marx and Engels [sic] to unify the working class movement. It quickly became the battleground between the Marxists and the Anarchists, who were to have their showdown at the Hague Conference of 1872. While not yet a nation, Australia was nevertheless represented at this Congress by a Ballarat miner whose task was to argue for an extra shilling a day for Australian miners. As the colossal ideological firestorm engulfed the Hague Conference, as Karl Marx and Michael Bakunin fought it out, the Australian delegate was reported to have intervened on only one occasion, and that was to say “Monsieur le President, I do not understand what is happening”.)

May 2008:

Union Power and the New Mandarins

The decline in the labour movement has proven to be the wave upon which a number of its representatives have surfed into state power. This decline is evidenced in the declining number of industrial disputes (the result of an exercise of industrial power by the unions) and the even steeper decline in union membership. Australian Social Trends, 1996, Industrial Relations: Industrial disputes: “In the period 1969-83, the number of industrial disputes recorded annually fluctuated considerably but was consistently higher than the number of disputes in the period 1983-94. Since 1984, there has been a steady downward trend in the number of industrial disputes. While this is part of a world-wide trend, the decline in Australia has been much greater than in other parts of the world. In 1994, there were 560 industrial disputes — the lowest number since 1940.”

Prices and incomes policy 1983-96

The Statement of Accord between the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) was endorsed in February 1983/4. Shortly after the ALP won the federal election the Accord became government policy. In September 1983 the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission agreed to establish a centralised wage fixing system based on productivity and price movements as outlined in the Statement of Accord. The ACTU agreed to exercise restraint in wage claims in exchange for social programs.

During the first three years of the Accord wages were indexed, but at the end of 1985-86 the government and the ACTU agreed to partially index wages. Subsequently, indexation was abandoned and wage adjustments were significantly below the inflation rate. In 1987 the Industrial Relations Commission recommended a two tier system. The first tier was an automatic flat increase for everyone. The second tier was related to identifiable improvement in productivity. In the following years the two tier system remained with increasing flexibility occurring. For example in 1991 the first wage increase was replaced by a tax cut. The Accord was abandoned in March 1996 following the change of government.

Number of Industrial Disputes, 1996–2007, Australia:

1996: 543
1997: 447
1998: 518
1999: 729
2000: 700
2001: 675
2002: 767
2003: 643
2004: 692
2005: 472
2006: 202
2007: 135

See also : Industrial Disputes, Australia, December 2007, ABS, March 13, 2008. Note that the number of disputes is one indicator of industrial unrest; the number of participants, and longevity of the dispute, are others. Some of the key disputes which the ALP effectively neutralised towards the beginning of its last period of Federal rule include the Australian Pilots’ dispute of 1989 and, prior to that, the successful de-construction of the Victorian Builders’ Labourers’ Federation. On the BLF, see Liz Ross, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win! Builders Labourers Fight Deregistration 1981-1994, Vulgar Books, 2004. Finally, John Stone of the HR Nicholls Society tips his hat to the Drover’s Dog:

By way of illustration, I remind you of the airline pilots’ dispute in August-September, 1989. In that dispute, we saw a Prime Minister actively facilitating:

o Use of ‘the troops’ (RAAF) to help defeat the walkout by a key body of airline employees;
o The bringing of common law actions for breach of contract against individual pilots to the same end;
o Use of Sections 45D and 45E of the Trade Practices Act for the same purpose;
o The import of foreign pilots to take the place of Australian pilots who had withdrawn their labour;
o The import of charter aircraft (and associated foreign crews) to supply services being withheld by the Australian pilots; and even
o The provision of some kind of financial assistance designed to assist a major employer (Ansett Airlines) and thus help ‘keep it in the field’ until the Australian Federation of Air Pilots had been crushed.

Mr Hawke’s zeal in all these matters thus went even further than our own. The H.R. Nicholls Society had never argued that a body of employees should not have the right to be represented by a union (or Association) of their own free choosing—a basic right which Mr Hawke and Sir Peter [Abeles] were determined to deny to the pilots.

Trade Union Membership as Proportion of Employees, 1912–2001:

See also : Social Democracy: No Future? Introduction to Articles on the Retreat of Social Democracy, Aufheben, 7, Autumn 1998: “Social democracy is in retreat. That its institutions continue to be the focus of struggles raises the question of what we want and how we should fight. But to answer such questions requires a proper understanding of the nature of social democracy. In this, the Introduction to a series of articles on the current retreat of social democracy, we unravel the essence of this dominant form of political mediation of working class needs.”

The Retreat of Social Democracy… Re-imposition of Work in Britain and the ‘Social Europe’, Aufheben, 8, Autumn 1999: “In this, the latest exciting instalment of our analysis of social democracy in retreat, we show how the left-of-centre governments now dominating the European political arena are attempting to re-impose work through common neo-reformist policies. We argue that reports of social democracy’s rebirth have been greatly exaggerated: and we never lamented its passing anyway.”

Faction-hit ALP ‘faces extinction’
Paul Austin
The Age
January 26, 2009

THE ALP faces extinction because of an ageing and declining membership and a destructive culture of personal and factional advancement, one of the party’s elder statesmen has warned.

In a letter to leaders of Premier John Brumby’s dominant Right faction, former cabinet minister Race Mathews reveals the party’s national membership has plummeted to about 50,000 — down from about 370,000 immediately after World War II — and the average age is about 50.

Dr Mathews’ letter, dated last Thursday and obtained by The Age, says there are fewer than 13,000 ALP members in Victoria and most are inactive.

He says this is “a recipe for extinction, and places the party in the category of an endangered species”.

“Sooner or later we will again find ourselves in opposition at the state or federal levels and maybe both, and our predicament at that point in the absence of a numerous and active rank and file will be truly pitiful,” he says.

Dr Mathews’ reform-or-die call to arms has been prompted by splits in both the Right and Left factions over Labor preselections for next year’s federal and Victorian elections.

He says the party is in “crisis” and accuses Mr Brumby’s Right faction of spending too much time and energy on “who gets what, at the expense of ensuring that we have an effective party”.

“Nobody — and least of all the people whose needs and interests we are meant to represent — will get anything if the deterioration of the party remains unchecked,” he warns in the letter.

“Too much squabbling over spoils ends up ensuring there are no spoils to divide.”

His warning comes as Mr Brumby returns from holidays today with Victorian Labor in turmoil after a damaging month for the Government.

Veteran minister Theo Theophanous resigned from cabinet on Christmas Eve to fight a rape charge that is likely to be before the courts for much of this year.

Mr Brumby was then embarrassed when his choice to fill the cabinet vacancy, former internet entrepreneur and “star” Labor recruit Evan Thornley, decided to quit Parliament for a lucrative private-sector job.

One of the Premier’s main tasks at a two-day state caucus retreat in Ballarat starting tomorrow will be to calm the nerves of ministers and backbenchers who fear the internal factional brawling and the global economic crisis will undermine the prospects of Mr Brumby and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd retaining office at next year’s elections.

Dr Mathews was chief of staff to former prime minister Gough Whitlam before becoming a federal MP, a minister in John Cain’s state government, and a long-time head of Australia’s oldest left-leaning political think tank, the Fabian Society.

His letter was distributed to key Labor figures on Friday by one of Mr Brumby’s strongest supporters, former ALP state president and high-profile union leader Bill Shorten, who is head of the Victorian Right and a rising star in the federal Labor caucus.

Dr Mathews writes that while it may be true that Victorian Labor is in no worse shape than the state Liberal Party, at least the Liberals are taking their problems seriously and have done a comprehensive review of the way their party runs itself and connects with the community.

A special meeting of about 1000 Victorian Liberals last October endorsed a radical reform package after a report from party president David Kemp warned that Liberal membership in Victoria had slumped to fewer than 14,000 — down from more than 45,000 when Robert Menzies won government in 1949 — and that more than a quarter of the members were over 75.

In his letter, Dr Mathews calls on Labor leaders to begin work urgently on a “party renewal charter” to try to ensure the ALP retains its rank-and-file members, attracts new ones and forges closer links to its affiliated unions.

“To paraphrase an old saying, all that is necessary for the party to die is that good members do nothing,” he writes.

Dr Mathews, who joined the ALP in 1956 and the Victorian Right in 1976, declined to comment last night.

ALP faces extinction, expert warns
January 26, 2009
Australian Associated Press

AN ageing and declining membership and a culture of personal advancement and factional fighting could spell the end of the ALP, a former party heavyweight has warned.

In a letter to leaders of the Right faction that dominates the party, former Victorian cabinet minister Race Mathews said Labor’s national membership has dropped from about 370,000 at the end of World War II to 50,000 today, The Age newspaper said.

Dr Mathews’ letter, distributed on Friday, said most of the less than 13,000 party members in Victoria are inactive and said the situation is “a recipe for extinction, and places the party in the category of an endangered species”.

“Sooner or later we will again find ourselves in opposition at the state or federal levels and maybe both, and our predicament at that point in the absence of a numerous and active rank and file will be truly pitiful,” he said.

Dr Mathews’ said Premier John Brumby’s Right faction concentrates on “who gets what, at the expense of ensuring that we have an effective party”.

“Nobody – and least of all the people whose needs and interests we are meant to represent – will get anything if the deterioration of the party remains unchecked,” he said.

Dr Mathews joined the ALP in 1956.

He was chief of staff to former prime minister Gough Whitlam before becoming a federal MP.

He joined the Right faction in 1976 and was a minister in the Cain government in the 1980s.

He declined to comment to The Age.

Posted in State / Politics | 10 Comments

Australian Protectionist Party, Australia First Party, and the future of White nationalism

Posted on January 30, 2009 by @ndy
    Theme song for this post:

The minor outbursts of youthful over-exuberance on Australia/Invasion/Survival Day has elicited concern on the part of many, but also excitement on the part of local White nationalists.

The two principal, party-political protagonists of White nationalism in Australia are the Australia First Party (NSW), under the leadership of Dr. James Saleam, and the Australian Protectionist Party, under the nominal leadership of Andrew Phillip (its National Chairman), but having as its chief spokesperson Darrin Hodges (NSW state chairman, and a former member of AF).

At present, while AF is registered in NSW, neither party has Federal registration; both have launched campaigns to obtain it. Whether one or both succeed is open to question. Thus AF was initially registered in 1996 by former ALP hack Graeme Campbell; it was de-registered in 2004. Saleam has declared the goal of 500 members within reach on a number of occasions, most recently in December 2008. The real level of support for the party — which is really a measure of support for Saleam himself — is at this stage perhaps no more than a few hundred, mostly in NSW, principally in Sydney, but also in Newcastle, where real estate agent Nathan Clarke does his best to keep the town a Jew-free zone.

Outside of NSW, the party has a tiny presence in Queensland — where its two chief spokesmen are a neo-Nazi from Toowoomba named Jim Perren, and a tennis-playing bachelor called John Drew in Brisbane (who also doubles as the Patriotic Youth League: “I may be too old to be a youth but I am very fit and an excellent tennis player”) — and also some support from a phone box in Croydon (Victoria).

As for APP, it appears to have fared a good deal better following the split in AF that produced the party (September 2007), although it has yet to reach the dizzying heights of popularity among the far right that AF has. In an attempt to hurry along the process of registration, on Invasion Day the party offered “free membership (no tabouli)”. How many accept the offer remains to be seen; certainly, there is some small degree of excitement on Stormfront Down Under.

“Why should patriots help APP? The Protectionist Party is the ONLY patriotic party to have an official policy of offering financial incentives to encourage Third World migrants to return home. Without this, Australia will become overwhelmingly an Asian country” quotes ‘Aussie13’. TrueDiversity1488 (14 = the 14 words of dead neo-Nazi David Lane, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.” / 88 = HH = Heil Hitler) and ‘AryanQueen2000’, “a member of APP since the beginning” are also excited.

    At the time of his death, Lane (November 2, 1938 – May 28, 2007) was serving consecutive sentences totalling 190 years for racketeering (20 years), conspiracy (20 years) and violation of the civil rights of radio talk show host Alan Berg on June 18, 1984 (150 years). Berg was shot and killed in the driveway of his Denver home by three members of The Order.

Less excited is ‘Hobbit’, a supporter of AF. Unfortunately for Hobbit, and other critics of APP, while Saleam’s rants about the Jewish-sponsored ASIO campaign against AF are tolerated, criticisms of APP are considered to be strictly verboten by Perth-based moderator Paul Innes, and hence removed from public circulation. The same applies to criticism of Volksfront Australia, a new project being spearheaded by Douglas Schott (of neo-Nazi reich ‘n’ roll band Blood Red Eagle) in Newcastle and Welf Herfurth in Sydney. Poodle38, a supporter of the rival bonehead gangs Blood & Honour and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins, whinged online about the new group, accusing Douglas of being a short-arsed loudmouth and Welf of loving “slopes” and cheating on his wife. Naturally, the moderator had to yank Poodle38’s chain, and little has been heard from him since he returned to his kennel.

Welf himself has his fingers in a number of different racist and fascist pies. Having previously been a member of the NPD, the Democrats, and One Nation, in addition to Volksfront, Welf is currently the leader of both the New Right (Australia and er, New Zealand), the National Anarchists, and is a close comrade of James Saleam, the terrible twosome overseeing the running of the annual Sydney Forum. This close association, and Welf’s more general dalliances with nutzis, did not prevent NSW state chairman of APP, Darrin Hodges, from joining the fascist ‘black bloc’ in Sydney in September 2007, where he and a few dozen like-minded unidentified flying racists gathered behind the banner of the New Right and the ‘national anarchists’.

Like Volksfront Australia, the fascists claiming to be anarchists have been criticised by their fellow racists, typically on the basis of their political incoherency (see: The New Right, “national anarchism”, and A White Australia, Monday, April 21, 2008). This may explain why, at this stage, Welf has only managed to recruit a handful of racist teenage refugees from Stormfront. Certainly, Darrin has not chosen to flog his very special brand of anarchism while promoting the APP.

In the final analysis, there is little doubt that Saleam will be remembered — along with his good mate Jack Van Tongeren — as being one of the hardest-working non-Whites to espouse a return to White Australia. Two of his most recent hare-brained schemes include protesting at the Coroner’s inquest into Tyler Cassidy’s death and pledging his support for any teens charged by Manly police for their racist shenanigans on January 26. In this context, Herr Doktor also asks: “What’s next: will some political time server Superintendent ‘do a Tyler Cassidy‘ and allow Australian youth to be unlawfully killed?”

Possibly. Or possibly Jim should treat himself to A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 61 Comments

Anastasiya Baburova (30.11.1983–19.01.2009)

Posted on January 28, 2009 by @ndy
    “No offence but honestly who gives a shit about some [journalist] in Russia.” ~ Nowave, Melbourne Punx Forum

Slain Moscow reporter buried in Ukraine
AFP
January 27, 2009

A young female journalist who was gunned down last week on a busy Moscow street was buried on Monday in her home city of Sevastopol in the south of Ukraine.

Several dozen mourners bade a last farewell to Anastasiya Baburova, a 25-year-old intern reporter for the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, after her body had been taken home by plane.

Baburova was shot dead on January 19 alongside leading Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who had just given a news conference protesting the release of a Russian army colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen girl.

The funeral mass was held in the Saint Vladimir Orthodox Cathedral in the centre of the Crimean port city before her corpse was laid to rest in a cemetery on the city’s outskirts.

Her mother, Larissa Baburova, told AFP that her daughter a year ago had complained that her work was too dangerous, saying: “Mum, I am not going to live long like this.”

The European Union and France had raised concerns after her killing but a Russian foreign ministry official said the slaying of Baburova had been “artificially politicised and used to discredit Russia”.

The newspaper – one of the few Russian publications ready to explicitly criticise the Kremlin – had already been hit by tragedy when its star reporter Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in Moscow in 2006.

Police said that no witness has come forward over the murder but that security cameras had recorded images of the suspected killer, a tall, thin man wearing a mask.

More reasons not to go live in Russia (January 21, 2009) | State / Politics (January 22, 2009)

AFP earlier reported that “About 200 people also gathered in Moscow to protest the killings of Markelov and the journalist, Anastasiya Baburova, a 25-year-old intern reporter for the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta“. “Russia is the third-deadliest country in the world for journalists, according to CPJ research. Since 2000 alone, 16 journalists have been murdered in Russia in direct retaliation for their work; only in one of these cases–Domnikov’s–have the killers been convicted. In all 16 cases, however, the masterminds remain at large” (Journalist, human rights lawyer shot dead in Moscow, Committee to Protect Journalists, January 20, 2009). Baburova is the fourth Novaya Gazeta journalist killed since 2000.

As a result of her murder, ‘Russian newspaper to seek arms licenses for its journalists’ (January 22, 2009): “MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) – The Novaya Gazeta newspaper will ask Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) to issue arms licenses to its staff after one of its journalists was shot in broad daylight in downtown Moscow, a co-owner of the daily said on Thursday.” A previous request was denied. The Moscow police chief has already indicated his opposition.

See also : Russian Journalists Put Their Lives on the Line, Moritz Gathmann, Uwe Klussmann and Matthias Schepp, Spiegel Online, January 26, 2009 (Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan) | “Also slain in Russia recently was Shafiq Amrakhov, owner and editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51 in Murmansk in the country’s north-west. He was shot inside his apartment and died six days later” (UNESCO chief deplores murders of journalists in Russia, Venezuela, UN News Centre, January 26, 2009 | [For Dion] Anti-fascist Activist Killed in Moscow, October 15, 2008

Actions to commemorate Stas and Nastya around Russia, Avtonomnoe Deistvie / Anarkismo.net, January 20, 2009

20th of January in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Grozniy various actions were organized to commemorate Stas Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, murdered 19th of January. At noon around 400 people gathered at the place of murder to leave flowers. Police and several buses of OMON riot police were present at the spot, but eventually they did not intervene.

Moscow anarchists decided, that candles and flowers are not enough of a reaction against such an outrageous murder, thus they decided to organise an illegal demonstration.

First gathering place was leaked to police, and it was surrounded by a tight cordon of OMON. Eventually gathering place was moved to Bolshoy theater, but police got there as well, around 7:30 PM they attacked peaceful people. Around 15 people got arrested, few more were arrested at the metro station “Okhotniy Ryad”, rest of the people moved to exit of metro Novokuznetskaya.

From there, march was launched 8:20 PM, and it blockaded Pyatnitskaya street. March went to Obvodnaya canal proceeded by embankment, from there demonstration moved to Bolshaya Ordynka street, blocking it.

People scanned “Fascists murder, authorities are covering!”, “We do not forget, we do not forgive”, “Our motherland is the whole humanity”, there were banners “No to impunity” and “Fascist murder, authorities are covering”. Trash containers were thrown to street to stop traffic. In end of the march, few bank windows and windows of McDonald’s at metro Tretyakovskaya were trashed. Altogether around 200 people joined demonstration.

During the action, around 50 people altogether got arrested, good part of them random passers by, but it seems everyone got released without charges during the same evening.

Text of the leaflet is available in Russian, but it could not be distributed in action as whole printout got confiscated before it got started.

In St. Petersburg, around 100 people gathered at Ligovskiy street 7 PM. This was openly announced action and police attempted to stop it, however people managed to launch march towards Marsova fields, where is a memorial to victims of white terror. There a small meeting was organised.

There was also a rather strange demonstration in Chechnya. This was officially sanctioned by the authorities, and among human rights organizations there were such strange entities such as “Fan Club of Ramzan Kadyrov”. It was reported, that more than 1000 people joined demonstration. Stas and Nastya were definitely no fans of current totalitarian regime in Chechnya, however Stas was defending interests of relatives of victims in two most prominent Russian war crimes courts. Whereas current Chechen regime is not too keen to punish their own power structures for human rights violations, they pursue course of prosecuting non-Chechen officials of Russian army for reasons of public relations, and also to erase from the republic all federal structures not directly subordinate to the current regime.

Accounts in Russian (w/- photos):

http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2190
http://anatrrra.livejournal.com/106028.html
http://sterm-fuck.livejournal.com/115603.html
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/21476/index.php

According to the above accounts, around 250 people protested in Moscow, 100 in St. Petersburg and 1000 in Grozny. At the Moscow protest, busloads of special police were present, and many protesters were detained, including ‘suspicious’ passers-by. It is not known if any were charged. However, some were tortured while in custody, and also threatened with having drugs planted on them. Trash bins and sundry other items were used to block a road in Moscow, a road used mostly by wealthier citizens (the beneficiaries of Putin’s regime). At least one protester was badly beaten by police, and police are stitching up a criminal case against him for assaulting police.

Anastasiya Baburova’s blog : http://file-028.livejournal.com

    Timur Kacharava (21.08.1985 – 13.11.2005) – Anti-fascist, anarchist, punk, musician | Alexander Ryukhin (Died 16.4.2006) – Anti-fascist | Ovanes Ajriumian (Died 20.10.2007) – Anti-fascist, punk, musician | Ivan Yelin (Died 15.01.2007) – Anti-fascist | Ilya Borodaenko (Died 02.07.2007) – Anti-fascist, anarchist, skinhead | Fedor Filatov (02.04.1981 – 10.10.2008) – Anti-fascist, skinhead | Anastasiya Baburova (30.11.1983–19.01.2009) – Anti-fascist, anarchist, journalist, student

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, State / Politics, War on Terror | 5 Comments

PARIS : ‘Don’t Stop The Movement’

Posted on January 28, 2009 by @ndy

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Aussie Aussie Aussie! Yip yip yip!

Posted on January 28, 2009 by @ndy

From Manly to Mordialloc, Aussie yoof go out, wave flags, wear red white and blue underwear, start to sing — and then remember they forget — the national anthem, shout abuse at strangers, get drunk, go home, and tell Mum and Dad they just don’t understand.

Meanwhile…

Greek police battle with rioters
BBC
January 24, 2009

Hundreds of anarchist protesters in Greece have fought running battles with police through the centre of the capital, Athens. The demonstrators were demanding the release of people arrested during rioting last month after a policeman shot dead a youth aged 15. Rioters smashed shop windows and threw stones and petrol bombs, police say. Officers responded with baton charges, tear gas and pepper spray and eventually dispersed the crowd. Compared to the riots that swept Greece last month, Saturday’s violence was on a relatively small scale but it showed that anger against the state and the police are still simmering, the BBC’s Malcolm Brabant reports from Athens. The street fighters and anarchists are trying hard to keep alive what they regard as December’s insurrection and demonstrations covering a wide range of grievances are taking place on a daily basis, our correspondent says. But the nature of the clashes may soon change, he adds. The futility of firing tear gas at rioters who wear gas masks has dawned on the authorities and it is reported that Greece is taking delivery of water cannon, which should be ready for action within a fortnight, our correspondent reports.

March ends in violence
Associated Press
The Observer
January 25, 2009

Hundreds of stylish anarchists fought police in central Athens yesterday following a march to demand the release of people arrested during last month’s riots. The clashes occurred outside the main University of Athens building, the rioters using stones, the police pepper spray. Anarchists were at the forefront of riots in Athens and other cities after the shooting last month of a teenager by a police officer.

See also : These nights are for Alexis: a closer look into the December uprising in Greece: “Eleven days after the 15-year old boy Alexandros Grigoropoulos was killed by a police bullet in Athens, I decide to travel to Greece. The following article is no news, nor is it an analysis of the news. It is an attempt to create more understanding of the inner workings of the uprising, the sociopolitical and cultural climate in which it took place and the movement behind it. It does not attempt to give an objective representation of the uprising; instead it is written from a highly subjective perspective and a compilation of interviews I held with people from the anarchist/anti-authoritarian movement in Thessaloniki…”

Posted in State / Politics | 28 Comments

“Fuck off we’re full.” (Of shit.)

Posted on January 28, 2009 by @ndy

[…]

Update : Hear also hack on triple j, January 27, 2009 (Reconciliation Flash Mob et cetera).

    “Alan, it’s not just a few Anglo bastards on Australia Day, it’s millions. Australia is a very big country and it’s been taken over by this scum. It’s not a few causing trouble. It’s all of them.”

    Caller: “What kind of grubs do we have here?”
    Jones: “What kind of grubs? This lot were Anglo, we’re not allowed to say it, but I am saying it.”

The antics of somewhere between 80 and several hundred teenage boys on Manly beach on Australia/Invasion/Survival Day (January 26) has triggered some inevitable expressions of anguish over Australia, yoof, and the uses to which yoof put the Australian flag. Inevitable too, the drawing of comparisons with the violent racist outburst at Cronulla beach in 2005. In 2009, however, the odds were far less favourable for the young patriots: 80:1 as opposed to 5000:1. Nevertheless, the boys did succeed in wounding a teenage girl (of Asian descent), as well as frightening a lone taxi driver (a Sikh), a few (non-White) shopkeepers, and a number of local families with children.

Enough to make any digger’s heart swell with pride.

Naturally, ‘outsiders’ are being blamed for the troubles — many of the yoof supposedly came from suburbs other than Manly. By the same token, local police are keen to play down the significance of the teenagers’ antics.

However, it may be that the general public is becoming rather tired of the notion that being a (White) Australian and carrying a flag entitles you to act like a complete arsehole — or that having chosen to be born to non-White parents is a moral failing deserving of abuse, ridicule, or even physical assault.

More broadly, draping such dickheaded behaviour in the Australian flag does not bode well for the continued celebration of the Australian nation on January 26 (the day in 1788 that the British Empire landed in Australia), and reinforces calls for a day of nationalistic feeling to be moved to some other date. This won’t happen overnight — PM KRudd has already made that very clear — but it may well be inevitable.

As noted by Chris Graham, at its 44th National Conference (27-29 April 2007), KRudd’s party claimed to be “committed to reconciliation and … encouraged by the initiative of the community and corporate sector in driving reconciliation”. Further: “Labor will implement the recommendations made in 2000 by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and will use the Council’s Australian Declaration towards Reconciliation as a basis for action”. The problem for KRudd is that “…establish[ing] and promot[ing] symbols of reconciliation… would include changing the date of Australia Day to a date that includes all Australians”; an ‘essential action’ with regards the ‘symbols of reconciliation’.

Anyway, here’s what a UK daily reckons:

Violence mars Australia’s national day celebrations
Bonnie Malkin
The Daily Telegraph
January 27, 2009

Each January 26, Australians gather in parks and on beaches to celebrate all that is great about their country: mateship, sunshine, barbecues and free-flowing beer.

But this year, across the country’s most populous state, the day of national pride turned violent when groups of youths rampaged through suburbs targetting non-white shopkeepers in a display of racism that echoed the ugly scenes of the 2005 Cronulla riots.

In the affluent Sydney suburb of Manly, where hundreds of families had set up their picnics for the day, more than 100 shirtless young men draped in “Aussie pride” flags smashed car windows and vandalised shops.

Carrying signs that read “- – – – off we’re full”, they paraded up and down the [seafront] threatening bypassers.

One 18-year-old Asian woman was injured when the gang smashed her car window, showering her in glass and causing several cuts to her arms.

There were also reports that the group attacked a taxi driven by an Indian Sikh and an Asian shopkeeper.

In scenes reminiscent of the Cronulla riots, when 5,000 white Australians congregated in the Sydney beachfront suburb and attacked Lebanese immigrants [sic], groups of men jumped on cars that were stopped at traffic lights and chanted racist slogans to the terrified passengers.

NB. Those targetted for violence in Cronulla on December 11, 2005 were all those deemed to be insufficiently ‘White’ (of ‘Middle Eastern’ appearance). This included presumed Lebanese-Australians, but also a handful of students from Bangladesh, among others, while some police and ambulance workers who came to the assistance of victims were also attacked. “Commissioner Ken Moroney says an ambulance officer was attacked while transferring an injured person and the crowd turned on a woman because of her race. “That woman was saved, literally saved by the police officers and those officers deserve my highest commendation for the way in which they went about their task,” he said.

At one point the gang was reportedly heard singing “lets go – – – – with these Lebs”.

Animosity towards Lebanese-Australians is a trait also shared by members of the ‘Southern Cross Soldiers’. At least 30 members of this volunteer army (according to the Soldiers themselves, as many as 100) gathered on Melbourne beaches to celebrate Australia Day.

Jean Hay, the mayor of Manly, said the youths came from the north-west of Sydney and were not Manly residents.

The unrest was brought under control by the late afternoon. Police charged a 16-year-old for assaulting police and three others were cautioned for offensive and dangerous behaviour.

The violence in Manly was mirrored in the coastal towns of Shellharbour to Sydney’s south and Port Macquarie to the north. Fights were also reported as far north as Queensland’s Gold Coast, where hundreds of teenagers clashed on a popular family beach.

See also : Manly ‘morons’ rampage was racist: academic, Georgina Robinson, Sydney Morning Herald, January 27, 2009

Posted in State / Politics | Tagged | 123 Comments

Thea Gilmore : ‘I’m Not Down’

Posted on January 28, 2009 by @ndy

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Flag burned

Posted on January 27, 2009 by @ndy

[img deleted]

Competitions seeking designs for a national flag run by the Melbourne Herald and the Review of Reviews in 1900 were well supported. On 29 April 1901 a notice was placed in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette inviting entries in an official competition, offering a prize of £75 to the winning entry.

From the 32,823 entries received in the 1901 competition, five substantially similar designs were selected as joint winners. A photograph of the winning design, a composite ’embodying the general ideas of the five successful competitors, but different in detail’, was published in the Review of Reviews on 20 September 1901.

The winning design was approved by King Edward VII in 1902. Federal Parliament passed a resolution on the 2 June 1904 to fly this flag ‘upon all forts, vessels, saluting places and public buildings of the Commonwealth upon all occasions when flags are used’. While the design and uses of the flag were proclaimed in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, it was not until the Flags Act 1953 that legislation was passed prescribing the form and use of the flag. Section 3 of the Act states that the flag (illustrated in the First Schedule to the Act) is ‘declared to be the Australian National Flag’.

On 14 February 1954, Her Majesty, the Queen of Australia, assented to the Flags Act 1953. The Act was reserved for Her Majesty’s pleasure on 12 December 1953 by the Governor-General, Sir William Slim. The Queen assented to the Act during her first visit, and also the first visit by a reigning monarch, to Australia in 1954.

[Cheers Sina!]

Posted in Art, State / Politics | 4 Comments