Men convicted of race hate crimes
BBC
January 9, 2009
Two men have been convicted of publishing “obnoxious and abhorrent” racist material. Simon Sheppard, 51, of Brook Street, Selby, and Stephen Whittle, 41, of Avenham Lane, Preston, have been found guilty of a number of offences. A trial at Leeds Crown Court heard they printed leaflets and controlled websites featuring racist material. The pair, who are currently in the hands of US immigration authorities, will be sentenced in March…
Cats are awesome.
Weatherman interrupted by cat during forecast : Germany’s star weatherman was forced to share the limelight with a pet cat when it wandered onto set in the middle of a prime-time broadcast…
Dear Readers: If you are connected to the Internet or near a telephone or cell-phone, U.$. spies can track you and maybe even see you visually. Keep that in mind as you read MIM and other anti-Amerikkkan websites. Do not try to email MIM. It’s no longer safe.
Poor old MIM (“the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collection of revolutionary vanguard parties leading the proletarian communist struggle against imperialism”). After almost two decades of revolutionary Internet pronunciamentos, The End has come.
Sort of.
In fact, The End has been Nigh several times for MIM.
On February 15, 2008 MIM unleashed two documents upon The World: “Where we are theoretically at the end” and “New website: http://mimlite.wordpress.com continues leftover tasks of this website”. The tricksy fan(s) of Chairman Mao then kept radio silence… until August 8, when MIM declared “New website to defend ex-MIM leaders arises; stay tuned for security developments”.
As noted in June:
In the face of an uncaring world, MIM announced its suicide last month, the last gasp of a tiny group of revolutionary academics from California. Other Maoist (Marxist-Leninist) groups still-existant in the United States — and in addition to the Great Leader‘s — include the (rival) Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Workers World.
In the United Kingdom, Maoist and Marxist-Leninist political formations include the Communist Party of Britain, the Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), the New Communist Party of Britain [?], the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and last — but by absolutely no means necessary least — the Stalin Society.
The suicide notice of May was contained on another site, MIM Lite, “a blog to continue where the Maoist Internationalist Movement (1983-2008) left off” (February 15, 2008). It was born in February and died in May: “On May 19 2008, MIM Lite will retire from politics”.
In August 2008, MIM Lite was replaced with yet another blog, Mimdefense’s Weblog. The reason? “Strange threats continue to hover over the heads of former leaders of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM). This blog has been created not to continue previous work directly, but to address ongoing problems. What happens is sometimes one “knows too much” and also there is no one able to take over in situations that continue to arise. Knowledge accumulated over 25 years of struggle does not just disappear and MIM’s enemies know that.”
From August 8 to December 19 there was a constant, increasingly fractured, stream of communications; suggesting quite strongly that the tales of ordinary madness that had previously been a feature of MIM were being increasingly eclipsed by genuinely paranoid ravings. (“Regarding suggestions that the comrade seek psychological counselling, psychologists have a history of spying on communists, including in private sessions. In fact, the incident of concern also involved a psychologist and social worker who broke the policies of her organization to deal with MIM through a white nationalist means.”)
Most recently, the MIM site aka The Etext Archives (1992-2009) has closed, this time permanently… perhaps.
Thank you for your interest in the Etext Archives.
The Etext Archives (1992-2009) are now closed, but the site lives on via the Internet Archive. You can view the historical record of the Etext Archives by visiting this URL:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.etext.org/
While you are there, consider making a donation to the Internet Archive which provides this free service.
The operators of the Etext Archives are no longer hosting any of the data previously in the Etext Archives and we have no influence over third parties who may have copied the content and continue to serve it.
But! MIM persists elsewhere as The Maoist Internationalist Movement (“This website continues the www.etext.org work”): “As we warned readers, the Democratic Party has long had its eyes on the MIM website. It has now been put out of commission. The Maoist Internationalist Movement lives on!” (January 8, 2009).
During the course of its deterioration MIM was disclosed as being primarily the work of some bloke called Henry Park. In one of its last postings, MIM (Henry) even posted an update on his (their) ‘career’.
Henry Park career update
December 14 2008In the last few days, I guess the CIA is asking me about employment, maybe not directly but through a front. I won’t say that what they said makes no sense, class-wise and given the surveillance that is going to happen anyway. Also with a lower profile, there is less of a tokenism issue.
Others still maintain that I should have gone for a government post. There were a couple misunderstandings in a key Aesopian discussion, but not important enough to change what I have reported here.
The basic problem is that hereafter I have no particular power and I have already described the sexual blackmail situation. Joining a CIA front would discredit efforts here, and we still have a very powerful readership here…
I understand the attraction of dealing with MIM, people “you know where they stand.” However, reality is we have nothing particular going on beyond this website’s substantial influence. Amerikans are not going to get what MIM is talking about in any short time frame. So the choice is going to be more disasters versus more people looking to people other than MIM to handle their various needs.
Whatever.
Elsewhere and in the meantime, Mao is more than ever associated with Maoism-Third Worldism, which ideology recently celebrated its first birthday. Thus: “It has been one year since the revolutionary movement declared its guiding ideology to be the fourth and latest stage of revolutionary science, Maoism-Third Worldism. In the past year there have been many victories. Our movement continues to grow on the ground in North America, Europe, and, most importantly, the Third World. Maoism-Third Worldism has shown its strength as the revolutionary ideology of the future…”
Part of this scientistical show of force has been bloggy.
“Monkey Smashes Heaven is a journal dedicated to smashing the old world to smithereens. The old world is rotten to the core. The First World as a whole exploits, rapes and plunders the whole planet and its peoples. It’s time to turn the tables…”
On MIM:
“MSH considers the so-called Maoist Internationalist Movement to be crackpots engaged in pigwork. MIM’s main role is to discredit Maoism, to make Maoism look ridiculous.”
“Shubel Morgan is another proud Maoist descendant of the now closed It’s Right to Rebel! Forum. IRTR has shed its older organizational skin and the comrades from IRTR are creating organizational forms suitable to the next stage of struggle. Shubel Morgan raises a clenched fist in solidarity with all the IRTR comrades!”
On “M”IM:
“The Maoist Internationalist Movement, once a Maoist beacon in the first world, has degenerated into the sad revisionist freakshow and anti-communist wrecking ball that is now “M”IM.”
Another blog, Amihan Malaya, appears to be rather critical of Prachanda, lider maximo of the Maoists in Nepal. (See Writings on Nepal from Kasama.)
For more information on the scientific breakthrough known as Maoism-Third Worldism, see yet another blog:
The People’s University (Maoist-Third Worldist) has opened in order to help disseminate revolutionary science. The university will span the entire scope of Maoism-Third Worldism, not just the most recent contributions to revolutionary science. In other words, the People’s University, in addition to recent work, will focus on revolutionary classics and background materials.
In Australia, the Maoist tradition continues in the shape of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist Leninist) and the blog Strange Times.
Like the remnants of the RCP in the UK (the mob now associated with a bewildering array of corporate-friendly political projects), the political positions adopted by these twenty-first century Maoists has a tendency to converge with those of their presumed opposition. In these strange and interesting times, to be ‘left’ and ‘progressive’ means to: support the US invasion and occupation of Iraq; maintain that George II supports an independent Palestine; believe that there has been little or no philosophical development since Hegel, Marx and Engels trod the Earth; argue that Development, Globalization, Science and Technology are Good and Ecology is Bad, and, finally, that Capitalism is Good — but Communism is much betterer.
On Aesopian language again
December 7 2008Since 2006, we have had occasion to use allegorical or aesopian language. That period now draws to a close.
The disadvantages of allegorical language are obvious. The lumpen generally does not read it. The most scientific-minded also often cannot be bothered with it.
The attraction of such language is for the ‘ole boys network, spies and the pre-scientific intelligentsia. We wish we could sustain the dialogue, but we do not have the type of backing and people we would need to continue with the isolating effects of talking with the rulers all the time. We also hereby admit to retreating from the imperialist class into the middle-class.
An example of aesopian language aimed at MIM appeared today in the New York Times “Opinion Page” section. The blurb leading into the article by Timothy Egan December 7 reads: “Typing without a clue” and then “Publishers, let’s set some ground rules: Anyone who abuses the English language on such a regular basis should not be paid to put words in print.” [Typing Without a Clue, December 6, 2008.]
It is a frequent complaint against MIM that we abuse the English language with our spelling policies.
The article goes on to comment on Sarah Palin and “Joe the Plumber,” but neither of them are known as writers yet, so to say they abuse the English language “on such a regular basis” is aesopian language by falseness clue-in, something MIM does not practice. MIM generally has used symbolic language true at all levels on our web page if we use it at all, because we are not much in favor of castrating our writing for a certain bourgeois minority. Truth-castration practices may be more appropriate in audiences unlike our webpage’s.
We gain further confirmation that the aesopian slam is really on MIM, by the sentence that says: “Not when voices in Iran, North Korea or China struggle to get past a censor’s gate.” Lately we have written on China and northern Korea in ways offensive to the Liberal bourgeoisie. Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin are not really known as opposing the New York Times line on those subjects.
There has been a combination of threats and bribery thrown in our face these past few years. This idea of preventing MIM from finding a publisher to sell our written words is the latest.
In any case, this would be an example of how to look for aesopian writing. The FBI, CIA, NSA, mafia and rulers generally use this sort of language. As of now, the international proletariat is composed disproportionately of people who cannot understand aesopian language, so it can be a disadvantage in struggle to stay with it too long, when we need to confer concrete information to organize our side of the class struggle.
Aesopian language also often results in disasters by coincidence. Proxies for Ann England delivered some really terrible aesopian language in the latter 1990s. However, it was obviously their intention all along to create havoc. At the same time, they cannot know to what extent they botched their own objectives. We’re just not going to take the blame for that. People who have to communicate via this sort of language we regard as our enemies. It advantages the ruling class.
Israel Social TV Presents:
Video Article – Thousands of Israelis protest against the war in Gaza.
Tel Aviv 3/1/2009.
הטלוויזיה החברתית מציגה:
כתבת ווידיאו – אלפי מפגינים נגד המלחמה בעזה.
תל אביב – 3/1/2009
Case of with us or against us
Assa Doron
The Australian
January 7, 2009
A FEW days ago a column appeared in the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz by a well-known journalist, Ari Shavit, about “Israelis who blame Israel”…
Propaganda does nothing for peace
Niv Horesh
The Australian
January 9, 2009
AS an Israeli-Australian who has voted all his life for peacenik parties, even for non-Zionist ones at times, I thank Assa Doron for his opinion on Israelis who disagree with the Gaza operation (Opinion, January 7)…
Stumbling in harmony with history
David Burchell
The Australian
December 29, 2008
“…A delayed anniversary of the 1968 Paris riots saw large parts of Athens reduced to burnt metal and broken glass in a spirit of nihilistic youthful rebellion. And the 60th anniversary of Israel was completed in the now time-honoured fashion, with operatic condemnation of Israel’s supposed massacre of the innocents in Hamas’s armed camps… often it seems that the main distinction between the far Left and the far Right was their level of education. The former developed its half-baked messianic theories out of bibs-and-bobs of theory culled from university degrees, while the latter focused its hatreds on more immediate physical attributes such as skin colour and ethnicity. And yet while the mystique of one group has been more or less completely extinguished, the mystique of the other continues, seemingly undimmed, through our present traumas. In turn, the present vogue of Islamist radicalism contrives to fuse the messianic outlooks of far Right and far Left into a kind of synthesis dressed up in the mantle of theology. Anti-capitalism, anti-Semitism, social revolutionism and personal ultra-conservatism, all stirred into a heady eclectic brew. No wonder it seems to produce the same intrigued ambivalence among some infidels that it does among some believers…”
Growing Links Seen Between Hells Angels and Neo-Nazis
Der Spiegel
January 5, 2009
“Motorcycle gangs have long kept the police busy with violence and drug trafficking. But now investigators are alarmed by a new threat: Militant neo-Nazis are rising through the ranks of the Hells Angels in Germany…”
Nazis.
Zombies.
Nazi Zombies.
Zombie Nazis.
Billed as the first Norwegian Nazi zombie-slasher-feelgood movie, a ski vacation turns horrific for a group of teenagers, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies…
Athens… Melbourne… San Francisco…
‘A Directory of Wonderful Things’.
“Citizen videos” spread online showing BART police officer shooting unarmed man to death
Posted by Xeni Jardin, January 6, 2009 11:05 PM | permalink
(Warning, explicit content: the video below shows a man being shot to death).
“In the early hours of New Year’s Day, 27-year-old BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed 22-year old Oscar Grant. A number of people who were riding the BART train that night witnessed the shooting, and shot video or photos on handheld cameras or phones. The victim’s family today filed a lawsuit for $25 million. Five days after the shooting, the accused officer still has not given a statement. He is said to be have received death threats and authorities are apparently moving him from place to place to protect him from harm…”
Amnesty International USA Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009
Amnesty International Calls Oscar Grant Shooting a “Clear Cut Abuse of Power”Contact: Wende Gozan at 212-633-4247 or Dalia Hashad at 202-675-8571
(Washington)–Oscar Grant, a 22-year old unarmed black man, was shot in the back by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer on New Year’s Day. On the day of his funeral, Dalia Hashad, director of Amnesty International USA’s identity-based discrimination program, released the following statement:
“When an unarmed man is shot in the back after police put him face down on the ground, it is the time for authorities to demand action, not patience. Days after the incident, the officer still has not been interviewed. The delay in this critical part of the investigation hints at the callousness to the worth of human life to a public that is all too familiar with racial profiling, police brutality and cover-ups. Whatever the final investigation reveals, the bottom line is that there is never justification to shoot an unarmed person, especially one who is restrained. It is an obvious violation of the most basic human rights standards, and a clear cut abuse of power.”
Faceless politicians and people in positions
who outrank you, they cannot hold you
Don’t feel alone
Don’t feel afraid
Get outta this place and heist your mind
Knowledge can be dangerous
beautiful and hurtful
Those who abuse it use it against you
It was High Noon today in Carlton, but the Sheriff didn’t show. (Sheriff’s Operations – Civil Support Section, 1/277 William St, PO Box 14486, Melbourne City Mail Centre VIC 8001, Tel: 03 9200 8222 (Criminal), Tel: 03 9200 8108 (Civil)).
Well-meaning liberal and Acting Vice Chancellor Peter McPhee ‘said the university spent $500,000 a year on emergency rental support and managed nine houses for struggling students. “We have put extensive resources into student housing,” he said. Mr McPhee slammed the selfish actions [of] 15 students in continuing to protest.’
Leaving aside Peter’s defamatory remarks regarding the character of what he imagines as being merely 15 students, the proposal which he and his Administration has dismissed remains a very reasonable one, and that is to convert the housing — which this same Administration has let stand idle for years — into a student cooperative. The cooperative’s purpose being to provide low-income students with a home (see International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Australian ratification March 10, 1976). This is hardly a radical proposal, and is in fact one which the University of Sydney adopted decades ago, in remarkably similar circumstances.
STUCCO is the student cooperative for full time students at the University of Sydney. Run by its residents, STUCCO embraces a rich diversity of cultures and beliefs, and gives residents the opportunity to actively participate in a communal way of living. No particular skills are required, just a keen interest and enthusiasm, and a desire to be involved in cooperative living. We are virtually the only Sydney University accommodation directed towards low to moderate income earners, and STUCCO is a non-profit organisation, meaning that the main consideration is to meet the needs of its members.
In 1982, a group of Sydney University students came together to establish community housing. An old glass-making factory was squatted, then purchased and renovated with a design from the architecture faculty at Sydney University, based around a central courtyard and retaining much of the original timber structure. Funding was supplied by the university and the Department of Housing. STUCCO opened in its current form in February 1991.
The main difference between Sydney in 1982 and Melbourne in 2008 is that in 2008 the property in question already belongs to the University. That said:
To adopt a similar course in Melbourne would be a very sensible option, providing secure accommodation for students now and in the future, and at minimum cost. The University is unlikely to do so, however, as its current management is geared towards exclusively commercial — rather than educational or social — interests and concerns. Such a perspective is of course unsustainable in the long-term, as it is for society as a whole, but educating members of the managerial class in alternative modes of living, working and studying is never a simple task. The arrogance with which managerial prerogatives are pursued inevitably requires some degree of opposition, especially when management resorts to the use of violence to re-establish its control over what is ostensibly public property, belonging to a public institution, and serving public, not private, interests.
Peter has published widely on the history of modern France, notably Revolution and Environment in Southern France, 1780-1830 (Oxford, 1999), A Social History of France 1789-1914 (London & New York, 2004) and The French Revolution 1789-1799 (Oxford, 2002). In 1999 he also published a biography of the former Chancellor Roy Douglas (‘Pansy’) Wright. His most recent book is Living the French Revolution 1789-1799 (London & New York, 2006).
Telephone: (+61 3) 8344 3744 | Email: [email protected] | Fax: (+61 3) 9341 6010. The Office of the Provost is located in the Gatekeeper’s Cottage, Building 187 (next to Gate 10, Grattan Street), University of Melbourne.
Melbourne University housing squatters face eviction
Andrew Trounson
The Australian
January 7, 2009
Melbourne University denies students squatters’ claims it’s stingy
Matthew Schulz
Herald Sun
January 7, 2009
See also : STRAIGHT TALK FOR TACHELES: Iconic Berlin Squat Receives Eviction Notice, Der Spiegel, January 7, 2009: “For years, the bomb-damaged squat in the heart of Berlin known as Tacheles has been a magnet for foreign tourists. Now, though, the owners of the building have told the artists currently occupying the premises to get out. But for now, they’re staying put…” | Odd assortment of conservative Melbourne bloggers comment…
The Kids Are Alright… for now.
Word on the street is that an eviction is not expected to take place today or tomorrow, but sometime soon. Obviously, the authorities — principally those located in the pampered offices of the upper management of the University of Melbourne — will be wanting to boost Melbourne’s homeless numbers, with a minimum of resistance, and a minimum of publicity.
This may be a difficult enterprise as a:
has been called for. Squatters have requested expressions of solidarity in the form of staffing the picket, bringing food, drink, spare bedding, good cheer and good will.
Like the University itself, the squat is located in the heart of Carlton: 272–278 Farady Street.
Uni squatters gear up for evictions, Mex Cooper, The Age, January 7, 2009
The Student Housing Action Cooperative (SHAC) are a group of students who have formed together to take action on student housing affordability. As well as raising awareness and petitioning universities and government we have recently taken possession of four double story terrace buildings that have been vacant for three years. The property – situated at 272-8 Faraday Street, Carlton – is owned by the University Of Melbourne and we are currently in negotiations with them to have it turned into a student run housing co-operative.
20…
Israeli strike kills 20 inside UN school: medics
The Age
January 7, 2009
An Israeli strike killed at least 20 people who had taken refuge inside a UN school in the Gaza Strip yesterday, in the third such attack in a day, medics said. The strike hit near a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the northern town of Jabaliya, they said. The people inside the building had taken refuge from the fighting. Earlier in the day, two people were killed when an artillery shell slammed into a school in the southern town of Khan Yunis and three people were killed in an air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medics said. [AFP]
…or maybe 40…
Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza
Chris McGreal and Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, and Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk
January 6, 2009
The civilian death toll in Gaza increased dramatically today, with reports of more than 40 Palestinians killed after missiles exploded outside a UN school where hundreds of people were sheltering from the continuing Israeli offensive. Two Israeli tank shells struck the school in Jabaliya refugee camp, spraying shrapnel on people inside and outside the building, according to news agency reports. The medical director of the hospital in Jabaliya told the Guardian 41 bodies had been brought in so far and more could be on the way. Reuters journalists filmed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood and torn shoes and clothes. A donkey lay on the ground in its own blood…
Eighty-nine children and 30 women amongst Gaza’s confirmed dead [Press release], Al Mezan, January 5, 2009
Israel’s blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza
Yosefa Loshitzky
The Electronic Intifada
January 5, 2009“I reiterate that we will treat the population [of Gaza] with silk gloves”
– Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
I am not sure that most people understand the meaning of the name “Operation Cast Lead” chosen by Israel for its murderous and criminal attack on Gaza. The name is borrowed from a Hebrew nursery rhyme which was (and may still be) very popular among Israeli children in the 1950s. In this song, a father promises to his child a special Hannukah gift: “a cast lead sevivon.” Sevivon, in Hebrew (A dreidel in Yiddish) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Somebody, in the Israeli army, who apparently feels nostalgic about his childhood, decided that if Israeli kids would enjoy a sevivon cast from lead there is no reason why Palestinian children would not appreciate it too. After all Operation Cast Lead is not the first (and unfortunately, will not be the last) of Israel’s cruel war games.
The cynicism embedded in the name, selected for what Ari Shavit, one of Israel’s most celebrated commentators, called “an intelligent, impressive operation,” is symptomatic to the cold, meticulous and calculated cruelty with which this attack was “designed,” “executed” and “marketed” to the world. As the perpetrators themselves proudly boast, Operation Cast Lead is not only a great military victory but also a success story of Israeli hasbara (meaning in Hebrew, explanation, but practically referring to misinformation, spin and lies)…
…but it’s not all bad news!
Gaza assault pushes oil back above $50, January 6, 2009: “Israel’s assault on Gaza and Russia’s escalating gas dispute with Ukraine helped Brent crude hit $51.10 a barrel in London, its highest point since the start of December 2008.”
