Small Town AmeriKKKa versus Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

Posted on August 20, 2006 by @ndy

Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows,
Everything that’s wonderful is what I feel when we’re together,
Brighter than a lucky penny,
When you’re near the rain cloud disappears, dear,
And I feel so fine just to know that you are mine.

Boo!

Rainbows are bad.

‘Rainbow flag creates controversy’
Tucker Jankosky
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Thursday, July 20, 2006

For J.R. and Robin Knight, owning a bed and breakfast is everything they’ve always wanted. “We came here in search of our dreams, my wife always wanted a bed and breakfast and I always wanted a restaurant,” says California native J.R. Knight.

But recently their dream has turned into a nightmare, all because of a flag they’re flying outside. “It’s a rainbow flag – to some people it means friendship to some people it means gay pride,” says Knight. But for Knight, it was just a souvenir from his 12-year-old son.

Knight says the local Meade newspaper is trying to put him out of business and was frustrated when it ran an article about the flag and did not even bother to contact him regarding why he put it up. In fact, most people we spoke to in Meade said they didn’t even know what the flag meant until the article ran. But once word got around, the reaction was harsh.

Knight says the radio station has called him threatening to remove the restaurant’s commercials if he does not remove the flag. A local pastor stopped by said it was equivalent to hanging women’s panties on a flag pole. When Knight jokingly said he might consider that – the preacher said he would have him arrested.

His business has suffered – down to only a few local customers. The folks in Meade who’ve boycotted say it’s too offensive for them to eat there.

Local resident, Keith Klassen says the flag is a slap in the face to the conservative community of Meade. “To me it’s just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood. I can’t walk into that establishment with that flag flying because to me that’s saying that I support what the flag stands for and I don’t,” says Klassen.

Knight says it’s not meant to be a gay pride symbol but he doesn’t mind if that’s how it’s taken.

“Any gay or lesbian people that do stop by will be treated with the best service I can give you,” says Knight.

But despite the local ridicule and loss of business, Knight is determined to stand his ground. “When this rainbow flag shreds, I will buy another one, and another one, and another one – just like my American flag, I’ll buy another one.”

Knight says his son gave him the flag after a trip to Dorothy’s house, a museum about the Wizard of Oz. The flag reminded the boy of “somewhere over the rainbow.”

The story was soon picked up by AP, and syndicated all over the place. The choicest quote is from waitress Vicky Best of Meade: “It’s hard enough to keep your kids on the straight and narrow without outside influences like that. We stay in a small town to stay away from the crap like that that’s happening in big cities.”

Yeah right: one look at a rainbow flag and the next thing you know Jack’s dumped Jill for John…

Notwithstanding the desire of some for a quiet life of homophobic desperation, as a result of the surrounding weirdness, the story has become bigger and bigger, and the “tiny town” of Meade, Kansas has become an “unlikely hotbed of gay rights debate” (Deb Gruver and Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle, August 15, 2006).

In a recent development, the two cowardly, homophobic brothers arrested for stealing the rainbow flag from the Knights have apologised for their action, stating that ‘”Even though we may not agree with what our neighbor is doing, we cannot impose our beliefs on someone else, and we certainly cannot step on their rights,” Todd and Joshua Postlewait said in a letter this week to the editor of the Meade County News‘.

Closer to home, Daylesford council’s decision to disallow the raising of the rainbow flag during an annual celebration has gone largely unremarked; the extent of the council’s concern reflected in the fact that the denial has been issued despite the festival ‘injecting several million dollars into the local economy’!

‘No gay flags for Daylesford’ (Doug Pollard, Melbourne Star, August 3, 2006); ‘Against all flags [Ha! That’s anarchy!], Daylesford sparks a flap somewhere over the rainbow’, (Orietta Guerrera, The Age, July 26, 2006).

I say:

Let’s rock!

    Boys in bikinis
    Girls on surfboards
    Everybody’s rockin’
    Everybody’s fruggin’

    Twistin’ round the fire
    Havin’ fun
    Bakin’ potatoes
    Bakin’ in the sun

    Put on your noseguard
    Put on the lifeguard
    Pass the tanning butter

    Here comes a stringray
    There goes a manta ray
    In walked a jelly fish
    There goes a dogfish
    Chased by a catfish
    In flew a sea robin
    Watch out for that pirahna
    There goes a narwhal
    Here comes a bikini whale!

See also the Wikipedia page on the Rainbow flag — apparently the homophobic editor of the Meade newspaper referred to it in the original article attacking the Knights.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Collingwood & Jack : Outta Jail!

Posted on August 20, 2006 by @ndy

Pies snatch thrilling win over Port!
ABC Online

Collingwood kicked two goals to none in the final term to escape with a narrow two-point win over [The Pretenders to the Magpie Throne] Port Adelaide in the round 20 AFL match-up at Football Park [duh] on Friday evening. The 12.17 (89) to 12.15 (87) win has kept the Magpies’ hopes of a top four spot alive, the black and whites joining five sides on 12 wins for the season.

From Villain to Hero!

Magpies forward Alan Didak was the hero, slotting his first goal of the game with just 20 seconds left to turn a three-point deficit into a three-point lead and hand Collingwood the four competition points.

Yes!

Didak kicks Pies to victory in thriller (The Age); Didak haunts Port as Magpie scrape home (Sports Australia); Magpies steal win (The Age); Last gasp goal ruins Port’s night (Advertiser); Malthouse praises effort (The Australian); Didak brings Magpies to life (The Australian)…

From Fears to Tears!

Plenty of tears in the Port Adelaide rooms after the match, so many that they probably spoilt RubberMan’s commemorations.

Has there ever been such a mob of poor sore losers as Port Adelaide and its stupid, ugly, mean-spirited fans?

No!

In fact, such is the extent of Port Adelaide’s loserdom, their reaction to their deserved loss at the hands of Good Old Collingwood rivals the Federal Government’s reaction to Jack Thomas’ release from prison.

Hit the Road, Jack

Less than a month ago, Jack Thomas, the first [?] person to be convicted under Australia’s new terror laws, was facing the prospect of possibly having the mandatory serving of his sentence increased from forty to seventy-five per cent of the five years he received when originally sentenced. Now, however, he has been released on appeal.

‘Australian terror convictions quashed’
The Australian
August 18, 2006

AN appeal court has quashed the convictions of the first man jailed under Australia’s new anti-terror laws.

Joseph Terrence Thomas was arrested in Pakistan in January 2003 and convicted in Australia in February this year of receiving funds from al-Qaeda and holding a false passport.

He was sentenced to five years’ jail with a minimum term of two years.

But today, Victorian Court of Appeal Justices Chris Maxwell, Frank Vincent and Peter Buchanan quashed the convictions, saying the evidence used to find Mr Thomas guilty was inadmissable.

The SMH reports that the fact that Thomas was interviewed in Pakistan by AFP officials without being accompanied by a lawyer was the key to the Justices’ decision. Read commentary by Ian Munro (The Age, August 18).

In the meantime, ‘Rights groups fear tougher terror laws’ (The Australian, August 18, 2006) as a result of the success of Thomas’ appeal; Another Liberal Party attempts to score some cheap points by accusing (The Australian, August 18) the Government of bungling the prosecution; while Jack’s brother Les (The Australian, August 20) has objected to the demonisation of both his brother and the 13 men currently being held in Barwon jail on terrorist charges…

Jack’s father, Ian Thomas is reported to have said: “Hallelujah, that’s all I’ve got to say. Hallelujah.”

See also : Against Terror, Against the State | Australia: terrorism trial of Jack Thomas to rely on coerced evidence

Posted in Collingwood, Music, Poetry, State / Politics, War on Terror | 2 Comments

A life cut tragically short…

Posted on August 18, 2006 by @ndy

Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay’s former dictator, died August 16, aged 93, but you’ll have to travel to Brazil to join me in pissing on his grave: Stroessner left Paraguay for that country in 1989, after his 35-year-old dictatorship was finally ended, in stereo-typical South American fashion, with a military coup. Besides amassing a huge personal fortune, Stroessner also oversaw the murder, torture and imprisonment of thousands of his regime’s opponents, as well as the provision of a safe haven for Nazi war criminals such as Josef Mengele and even poor old Anastasio Somoza, the Nicaraguan dictator ousted in 1979 by the Sandinistas. (Anastasio was given his just desserts when he was shot to death behind the wheel of his Mercedes-Benz in Asuncion, just one year after fleeing the scene of his many, untold crimes.)

‘CONDOR archives unearthed in Paraguay expose U.S. allies’ abuses’
Diana Jean Schemo
New York Times
August 11, 1999

ASUNCION, Paraguay—When Martin Almada asked a judge for records of his arrest under the dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, he hoped merely to learn more about his own private tragedy: nearly four years of captivity, during which the police telephoned his wife so she would hear his screams under torture.

Instead, the one-time schoolteacher unearthed a mountain of records detailing repression among United States-backed military regimes throughout South America during the cold war. From floor to ceiling, five tons of reports and photos detailed the arrest, interrogation and disappearance of thousands of political prisoners during General Stroessner’s 35-year dictatorship.

The documents trace the creation and work of Operation Condor, a secret plan among security forces in six countries to crush left-wing political dissent [ = hunting down, torturing and often killing leftists and other opponents in the 1970s and 1980s] …

Two of the thousands of cases contained in the archives are those of Gladys Sannemann and Agustin Goiburu, physicians in Asuncion who refused to falsify an autopsy to show that a man beaten to death under police custody in 1958 had died of natural causes. Instead, Dr. Sannemann took the cadaver to her medical school in Asuncion and performed a proper autopsy before her students.

Practically from that moment it began, said Dr. Sannemann, an immunologist who is now 69 and practicing here in Asuncion. The challenge marked her out for the Stroessner regime.

Seeking safety, Dr. Sannemann and her husband, Rodolfo Jorge, fled to Brazil in 1963, a year before the military seized power there, and then moved to Argentina. But in March 1976, the military took power in Argentina as well.

Hours after the coup, the Argentine police abducted Dr. Sannemann and tortured her at the Escuela Mecanica in Buenos Aires. Dr. Sannemann said she was bound and plunged into a bathtub of vomit and excrement.

They accused me of killing a patient in my office, Dr. Sannemann said, calling the charge a total lie. Then the police falsely accused her of selling drugs, she said. A week later, Dr. Sannemann’s husband was abducted and tortured as well.

Stoessner was one of half-a-dozen rulers who — along with dictators from Argentina (Videla), Bolivia (Banzer), Brazil, Chile (Pinochet) and Uruguay — implemented the Condor Plan on behalf of the US state, helping the US to destroy progressive social movements throughout the Americas. This policy was partly based on the construction of ‘National Security States’, a policy developed in the 1950s and 1960s.

Today they might call it ‘Homeland Security’.

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics | 4 Comments

“Would you accept a racist flyer from this Klan?” (Part 2)

Posted on August 18, 2006 by @ndy

Almost two months ago now, I posted on the subject of Australia First Party member Darrin Hodges‘ attempt to further entrench his reputation as a racist loser, describing in some small detail his campaign to distribute racist propaganda to disinterested commuters and irate public transport workers. Just recently, similar (if not identical) flyers have appeared in Port Macquarie:

‘Racism outrage: Pamphlet condemns Muslims’
Lynn Hord
Port Macquarie News
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

A LETTER drop of pamphlets denouncing Islam and multi-culturalism has left some Port Macquarie residents incensed…

The materials that have elicited such strong reaction are anti-multicultural pamphlets from the Free Australia Movement and the Australia First Party.

The former is a six-page booklet about Islam, claiming it is an ideology that if ignored, could orchestrate the end of the Australian way of life.

The latter equates multiculturalism with genocide, stating that it is “an extremist anti-Western political ideology … that wishes to snuff out the existence of all white-populated countries”.

Member of the national council of the Australia First Party Dr Jim Saleam stands behind the content of his party’s publications.

While he has no knowledge of who made the letter drop in Port Macquarie, he has no problem with Australia First material being disseminated as long as it is in an “appropriate manner” and bears the Australia First mark.

Dr Saleam said his party did not have an affiliation with Free Australia Movement…

Interestingly, similar pamphlets appear to have been distributed in March 2005 in the electorate of Prospect. According to the Federal Member, Chris Bowen, in a speech to the House (March 9):

I would like to bring the House’s attention this morning to a pamphlet which is circulating in the community, and I think may have been circulated to other honourable members, by the group called the Free Australia Movement. I read this pamphlet, which arrived in my electorate office late last year. It says: This is not a hate session against Muslims, but rather about a system and an ideology, nor is it a conspiracy theory unsupported by fact. This pamphlet then goes on to prove that those statements are incorrect; it is a conspiracy theory unsupported by fact and it is a hate session against Muslims.

My first reaction was to throw this in the garbage bin and treat it with the contempt it deserves, but then I thought that some of the statements in this pamphlet, which is being circulated in the community, should be responded to in the House and be recorded in Hansard. It is a diatribe of unsupported facts, of prejudice, of bias, of racism and of religious bigotry. It quotes selectively from the Koran and quotes out of context. It talks about all Muslims in gross generalisations, saying, Muslims, on their own admission, have world rule as their goal. It says — and this is perhaps the most offensive — It is as much a political system as was Nazism and Communism. More repressive of those who don’t accept its rule, more repressive than the Nazi regime and the Communist regimes, which have imprisoned, tortured and killed thousands of people.

Going further back, one can find mention of the text in question at the racist website (Sydney Orange Net) — which gives the FAM address as being PO Box 9091, Wyee, NSW, 2259 — while another, Queensland-based, Christian right-wing site claims to have received a copy in November / December 2004.

Next week, Australia’s leading bigots will assemble at the Sydney Forum, a conference organised by the Australia First Party. Dr. James Saleam will be one of the key speakers while the German-born neo-Nazi Welf Herfurth — a former member of One Nation, now a member of Australia First — will act as MC.

Not appearing will be His Excellency Tamman Sulaiman, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic, a development which has Saleam (‘radnat’ on the White supremacist site Scumfront) most upset.

Who’s next to withdraw, I wonder?

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media | 2 Comments

Homophobic wankers in Estonia

Posted on August 16, 2006 by @ndy

12 Injured as Gay Pride Marchers Attacked in Estonia
Sunday, August 13, 2006

Boneheads and anti-gay protesters armed with stones and sticks attacked a march for homosexual rights in Estonia, injuring around a dozen people in a country that prides itself on its tolerance, organizers said.

Around 20 young men attacked the parade as some 500 gay-rights supporters with rainbow-coloured flags made their way through the winding streets of the capital, Tallinn, in Estonia’s third such annual event, according to march officials quoted by AFP.

Parade spokeswoman Lisette Kampus said about 12 people were injured, including a Frenchman who needed to be hospitalized with a head injury.

Gay rights activists said they were “in shock at this absolutely unacceptable behavior.”

“It’s particularly revolting that the gang, calling themselves Estonian patriots, attacked women demonstrators first. Then they started throwing stones and sticks at everyone,” Kampus told AFP.

She also criticized police. “There were too few police present so they could not really handle the violent attack.”

Police said they detained six people for violating public order.

Only one person had so far officially complained of being attacked, police spokeswoman Julia Garanzha told AFP.

The colorful gay parade set off 20 minutes late after police received a call warning that bombs would explode in Tallinn’s Old Town shortly before the event was to begin. No explosive devices were found.

Marchers carrying rainbow-colored flags, the international banner of gay and lesbian movements, were earlier pelted with eggs as they began making their way through the cobblestoned streets, said Maali Kabin, another spokeswoman for the parade.

Dancing to music that blared from loudspeakers, demonstrators carried placards with messages such as “Love Doesn’t Ask About Gender,” “Right to Be What We Are,” “Children of Gays Need Protection Too,” “We Heteros Support Gays.” Anarchists from the local movement PunaMust, organized an autonomous bloc, giving out leaflets and holding a big banner saying “Anarchists Against Homophobia.”

“The aim of our parade is to show that we exist,” Kabin said. “We don’t promote a certain kind of sexual orientation, but we remind people of our right to be equal with everybody else.”

Despite calls from some critics to ban the march — the culmination of a week-long gay cultural festival called Tallinn Pride — authorities gave permission for the parade.

Two earlier gay pride events held here over the past two years passed without violence.

Estonia’s lesbian and gay community has become more visible after the country regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and became a member of the European Union in 2004.

In the run-up to the Tallinn Pride week, organizers said Estonia had proved the most tolerant to homosexuals of the three Baltic states, which include Latvia and Lithuania.

“Unfortunately, Estonia is now in line with Latvia and Poland, where gay and lesbian parades have been viciously attacked,” Kampus said.

A poll conducted in June showed that one in four Estonians would not want to live next door to a homosexual.

The survey was commissioned by the Postimees newspaper after the Dutch ambassador to Estonia, Hans Glaubitz, asked to be transferred to another posting, saying his partner — a black, gay male — had been harassed.

A gay parade in neighboring Latvia was banned last month. Alternative gay pride events ended violently with homosexuals, journalists and tourists assaulted and 14 people arrested.

Hundreds of protesters blockaded gay-rights activists including a Dutch European lawmaker inside a church in central Riga and pelted them with excrement as they left.

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics | 4 Comments

The Sydney Forum, 2006 : Re-Setting the Agenda

Posted on August 16, 2006 by @ndy

Dr. James Saleam has done it again. Re-set the agenda for the 2006 Sydney Forum (August 26-27), that is.

For some reason, Sandy Thorne is no longer being advertised as a speaker, and the Syrian Ambassador has also seemingly withdrawn from the event, only to be replaced by ‘A Surprise Syrian Speaker’ who, much like the Ambassador, ‘Will Address On The Middle East Crisis’: although s/he will hopefully have a better grasp of diction than Dr. Saleam…

BEFORE :

FLASH: SYRIAN AMBASSADOR WILL ADDRESS SYDNEY FORUM

His Excellency Tamman Sulaiman, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic

“The Ambassador will speak on the Syrian position on the war in Lebanon, the resolution of the Palestine question, Israel and related issues. This is a special opportunity for Australians to obtain a direct view on the crisis of the region. The Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic will provide useful materials for the audience. Questions will be answered. It is the view of the Sydney Forum that no Australian soldiers should be employed in the Middle East in roles that inevitably serve Zionism and the American agenda. Perhaps the views of Syria deserve real consideration in defining these issues.”

AFTER :

FLASH: SURPRISE SYRIAN SPEAKER WILL ADDRESS ON MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

“The Syrian position on the war in Lebanon, the resolution of the Palestine question, Israel and related issues needs to be explained. This is a special opportunity for Australians to obtain a direct view on the crisis of the region. Useful materials for the audience. [“Useful materials for the audience.” Huh?] Questions will be answered. It is the view of the Sydney Forum that no Australian soldiers should be employed in the Middle East in roles that inevitably serve Zionism and the American agenda. Perhaps the views of Syria patriots [?] deserve real consideration in defining these issues.”

Yeah well, maybe just those ‘Syria patriots’ (sic) who manage to remain unaware of the role of the Australia First Party, the Patriotic Youth League and other neo-Nazi elements in first encouraging and then attempting to profit from the racist mob violence at Cronulla in December last year.

And maybe His Excellency Tammam Sulaiman has avoided a diplomatic nightmare.

Take it away Sheik :

    “I am disgusted that a white supremacist website (sponsored by Ben Weerheym) based in Australia profiled my picture and linked to my website. I refuse to be used for such nefarious purposes as white, Christian chauvinism, which is the enemy of the message I spread. I also unambiguously reject their anti-Jewish agenda, as well as their clear antagonism to people of color. To think that Palestinians fighting for their liberation have common cause with them shows their own desperation and irrelevence. Such fringe groups, we have to remember, are just as anti-Arab as they are anti- any other group. Though they are fringe, as the beatings near Sydney last year show, anti-Arab racism is far too prevalent to take such hate groups lightly.

    I applaud those opposing fascist, ultra-nationalist groups — whether in the form of Australian hate groups, South American cartels, Arab dictators, American Neo-Cons, or Israeli leadership. Keep up the good work.”

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | Leave a comment

Reds! Under our beds!

Posted on August 16, 2006 by @ndy

Don’t look now but… there may be a Red under your bed!

Well… if you reside at RMIT. As the Herald Sun breathlessly reports:

‘S11 protest leader takes up new career’
Craig Binnie
Herald Sun
August 4, 2006

THE leader of the violent S11 protest that left police and horses injured has been made the public voice of RMIT.

Aaarrrggghhh! Run screaming!

1) Glanz wasn’t The Leader; Luther Blissett was, and ‘You’re the Voice’ was his anthem.
2) Yes, the S11 (September 11-13, 2000) protest was violent. Oddly enough, the vast majority of this violence was committed by police.

Making Binnie either a fool or a liar. (Or both.)

David Glanz, who at the weekend also declared his support for the Arab militant organisations Hamas and Hezbollah, is the university’s new media and communication adviser.

He said both groups had the right to resist, and the Federal Government was wrong to outlaw Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

The anti-globalisation S11 protesters embarked on a campaign of violence, injuring 100 police and costing the state an estimated $20 million.

In the parallel universe that Binnie inhabits, this may well be the case.

For those of us who dwell on Earth, however, in reality, it was the Herald Sun and other elements of the gutter press (and media generally) that embarked on a campaign of villification of “anti-globalisation S11 protesters” for their allegedly violent intentions many months prior to the protest itself. (Often resorting to some fairly bizarre, perhaps — barring the presence of a saboteur among the ranks — unintentionally hilarious, allegations: I’m still waiting on that plane full of British anarchists to arrive!)

This campaign of villification built on the knowledge police and other authorities in the US acquired at a similar protest — ‘N30’ in Seattle in 1999; that is, just 10 months prior to ‘S11’. It was a product, in part, of a PR campaign on behalf of the WEF, but more generally, was simply a reflection of the corporate media’s systemic function: producing corporate propaganda.

And unfortunately, while levels of media ownership in Australia are already highly concentrated, they’re only going to get more so — with the full support of the Federal Government, natch.

Demonstrators threw urine bombs, metal screws, marbles, glass and steel nuts at police.

A completely unsupported allegation, one contradicted by the Ombudsman’s report, but one which functions to place participants in S11, and any potential sympathisers, on the defensive.

(The Ombudsman’s Report (June 2001), is naturally a whitewash, but is still valuable, if only for the way in which it exposes the state’s strategic response to political protest; Dr. Bernard Barrett’s ‘Beating Up : Report on Police Batons and the News Media at the World Economic Forum, Melbourne, September 2000’ is a far more reliable and nuanced account.)

This allegation also helps to obscure the fact that the subject of the protest — the World Economic Forum, its role in promoting neo-liberalism and, most importantly, the effects the implementation of such doctrines are having in Australia — has not, and will not, be discussed.

Instead, what we get is injured police and their horses, “urine bombs, metal screws, marbles, glass and steel nuts”.

Mr Glanz last night refused to distance himself from the protest.

“The S11 protest involved some 20,000 people from all walks of life in overwhelmingly peaceful protest against globalisation, privatisation and corporate greed,” he said.

And capitalism.

(And I mean, the hack in question could just as easily have written that ‘Mr Glanz last night said that, despite violent police intimidation, he continued to support the campaign for social justice’.)

“I witnessed police officers clubbing protesters over the head, causing severe injuries. Protesters are still waiting for an apology.”

Mr Glanz has been actively involved with the radical International Socialist Organisation, which has advocated assassinations, blowing up military targets and tearing up the roots of the capitalist system.

So, Glanz is a member of the ISO.

I wish him a speedy recovery.

But as far as I’m aware, the ISO is a legal organisation, and always has been. No member has been convicted of terrorist offences, and the party does not advocate terrorism. Instead, it advocates the construction of a revolutionary party of the working class, a party which — according to the, what? 50 — 100? members — will lead the working class to socialist revolution (by which term is meant the capturing of state power by the workers’ party and the subsequent imposition of a dictatorship of the proletariat).

In short, Orthodox Trotskyism, albeit of the ‘Cliffite’ variety.

Leaving aside the fact that their interpretation of what it means to ‘tear up capitalism by the roots’ is radically flawed, as for the ISO having “advocated assassinations, blowing up military targets and tearing up the roots of the capitalist system”… it has? I don’t recall them ever having done so. (Advocating the assassination of whom? The blowing up of which military targets?).

When asked if he still supported this view [ / beat his wife], Mr Glanz said yesterday: “Individual acts of terrorism do not advance the campaign for a world free of injustice, poverty and war.

“I mourn the innocent 3000 people who died in the US on September 11, 2001, but their fate did not justify the death of tens of thousands more in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Which is actually not an unpopular opinion, nor an unreasonable line of argument.

This may explain why it’s shared by a broad cross-section of the population, many of whom would rightly be surprised if informed that their views were ‘extremist’.

RMIT has been linked several times to the S11 protest.

So has the Herald Sun.

And?

In 2000 it announced a radical social action course in which S11 organisers would lecture on their tactics during the rally against the World Economic Forum.

Huh. So like, seven years ago, when S11 was actually taking place, RMIT, as part of a ‘radical’ social action course (?), invited a number of S11 organisers to talk about the protest to a classroom audience, comprised of students who had an interest in studying forms of ‘social action’?

And that means… what, exactly? RMIT was like, educating students? And, like, educating students is… bad?

The course was to evaluate protest methods, media manipulation, the use of cyberspace for organisation and propaganda, and the creation of alliances between community, church and radical groups.

An RMIT spokesman said its Community Advocacy Unit did not support the S11 protest or teach demonstration techniques.

Ah yes, “demonstration techniques”…

While many people consider Mr Glanz to hold extreme views, he is a man with a conscience.

Many people consider Collingwood to be supported by people who hold extreme views.

Good.

He has been involved in a wide range of causes and groups including Brunswick Against Nazis [Campaign Against the Nazis], Save Albert Park and the campaigns for the Richmond Secondary College and against Nike’s use of cheap labour.

…In the meantime… what does any of this have to do with his role as Media & Communication Advisor?

Mr Glanz worked for the Herald Sun in the 1990s.

Aaaaaahhh… now I get it.

‘MP son stirs up racist row’
Chris Tinkler
Herald Sun
August 13, 2006

STATE Health Minister Bronwyn Pike is at the centre of an anti-semitism storm after her son called for Israel to be dismantled.

Student activist [and current General Secretary of LaTrobe SRC] Paul Coats has described Israel as no better than apartheid South Africa and dubbed Zionism “foul, racist and militaristic”.

He has also called for the US to be thrown out of the Middle East.

Ms Pike yesterday distanced herself from her son’s comments, saying everything should be done to enable Jewish and Arab people to co-exist in peace.

But the outburst from her 27-year-old Socialist Alternative son has provoked outrage in Victoria’s Jewish community.

The rant came in a National Union of Students email discussion group late last month.

In his email, Mr Coats said: “It is not racist in any way to name Zionism as the foul, racist, militaristic ideology that it is.

“If you support Zionism, you are no better than a supporter of apartheid South Africa.

“There can be no peace without justice, and that means the dismantling of the racist Zionist state.

“Of course, this means chucking the US out of the Middle East too.”

Ted Lapkin, of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, described Mr Coats’ email as despicable and moronic.

Yeah well, he would eh? I mean, it is, quite literally, his job.

A spokesman for Ms Pike said: “As any parent knows, their sons and daughters will often form views that differ from those held by their parents.

Um, yeah…

“Bronwyn believes both the Jewish and Arab peoples have the right to live in the Middle East and we should be doing everything we can to promote their peaceful co-existence.”

Uh-huh…

When asked about his email, Mr Coats said: “I stand by my convictions.”

Yeah… but where’s the “storm”? The only recorded response to Coats’ email is Lapkin’s: “despicable” and “moronic”.

Moronic

That equals “storm”?

Despicable

And why should Bronwyn Pike be at the cente of it?

They’re Paul Coats’ views, not hers.

Finally, why should a call for the dismantlement of a racist institution — in this case, the state of Israel — be regarded as necessarily anti-Semitic? If “Israel [is] no better than apartheid South Africa”, surely it should be dismantled; and its dismantlement justified on anti-racist principles.

The view that ‘contemporary Israel’ = ‘apartheid South Africa’ is not one shared by Lapkin or the AIJAC. Coats’ description of Zionism as being “foul, racist and militaristic” is also not one shared by Zionists, obviously, and a judgement of this sort is, equally obviously, bound to be regarded as controversial by the editors of the Herald Sun. Still, the real ‘hook’ lies not in the fact that such views are held by a left-wing student, but that the student in question is the son of a politician, and has expressed his otherwise unremarkable opinion at a time when Israel is at war — a war which the Australian Government supports… and which we must too.

Posted in !nataS, Media, Student movement, Trot Guide, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Be careful what you wish for…

Posted on August 14, 2006 by @ndy

NZ race-hate website being investigated
Sunday News [NZ]
August 13, 2006

Police are investigating a race-hate website targeting New Zealand Jews.

Sunday News was alerted to the site – set up by Wellington-based national socialist Nic Miller – after personal details of four Jewish families living in the city were posted on it.

The postings were removed last night after Sunday News confronted Miller, 22, telling him we were going to publicise his… website blog, which still contains pages of derogatory comments about Jews and other minorities.

One of the four Wellington addresses posted on Miller’s website was the home of Professor Peter Munz, who escaped Hitler’s gas chambers…

Contacted yesterday, Lower Hutt aluminium machinist Miller said he didn’t know his website was being investigated by police.

Miller said he had posted details of people who had written letters to a newspaper regarding Israel.

He said he was not encouraging anyone to act against the Jewish people whose details – including names, photos, addresses and telephone numbers – he posted on his site.

“I distance myself from any harassment from individuals or criminal activity whatsoever,” he said.

He said his own privacy had been compromised by critics of his beliefs.

“People do flyer drops against me, saying I’m a Nazi and kick over Jew[ish] graves and ridiculous accusations like that,” Miller said.

He was unrepentant in his hatred of Jews.

“I’m anti-[S]emitic. I do not like the Jews, not one bit,” he said.

“They should have been exterminated.

“Jews being in New Zealand is harassment to me. They do not belong here.”

Miller said he was ready for any police action on his website.

“The police are welcome to look into it,” he said.

“I am ready to face whatever happens over this.”

All Heil the Fourth Reich… or not.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media, State / Politics | 4 Comments

PARANOIA

Posted on August 13, 2006 by @ndy

‘Neo-Nazi anger’
Olivia Watson
East Torrens Messenger
August 11, 2006

White supremacist posters stuck on phone booths and bus stops across the north-eastern suburbs have “appalled” local community leaders.

The posters – which state “we must secure our existence for the future of white children” [probably a mis-reading of David Lane‘s 14 words: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”] – were spotted in Campbelltown and Glynde last week.

NS&SP Mayor Robert Bria said a group known as “White Pride World Wide” [?] had been distributing the posters through-out the Campbelltown area and he last week saw one on a bus stop at Glynde.

According to the posters, the group has links with US-based extreme right wing website Stormfront.

The website, among other things, supported Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Jew rantings in Malibu last week, accused Jews in Rome of defacing their own shops with swastikas, accused African-Americans of faking hate crimes and even offered a “kids page” for young white supremacists.

Mr Bria said white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups “posed a dangerous and divisive threat to peaceful communities.”

“There is no place for racism in Australian society,” he said.

Campbelltown Mayor Steve Woodcock said he was “absolutely appalled”.

“We will not tolerate that sort of behaviour in Campbelltown,” he said.

“We’re a very multicultural city and we’re very proud of it – I was just mortified when I heard about this.”

Hartley (ALP) MP Grace Portolesi said she was made aware by a resident of several posters on phone booths along Lower North East and Clairville roads, Campbelltown. She has asked the SA Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission to report on the issue.

Norwood Police acting Sen-Sgt Margaret Action said late last week the matter was being investigated but she could not at that stage give details of how many posters there were.

“A lot of them were taken down by the public,” she said. “We are putting together our intelligence on the matter and certainly investigations are being made into the persons that are responsible.”

Acting Sen-Sgt Action said police would deal with the matter under the Summary Offences Act, which includes up to three months imprisonment for anyone found guilty.

[Courtesy : Fightdemback]

Posted in Anti-fascism | Leave a comment

RevolutionaryLeft & The Cult of ‘Che’

Posted on August 13, 2006 by @ndy

RevolutionaryLeft.Com is an online forum, modestly described as being “one of the world’s largest leftist forum communities where over 4,000 leftists from around the world come to discuss politics, history, political theory, philosophy, music, literature, films and much more in over 500,000 posted discussions!” Actually, as of August 12, 2006, the forum has over 8,000 registered members.

But what the fuck is it? Established in July 2001 by some German bloke called ‘Malte’, the site’s logo contains three images: the first, a hammer and sickle; the second, an antifa flag; and the third, a circle A. The forum itself is sponsored by another site: Che-Lives.Com, an online shrine to the long-dead authoritarian Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara; while Che-Lives is in turn sponsored by another site: theCHEstore.com…

theCHEstore.com sells “the largest selection of Che Guevara short sleeve and long sleeve shirts, tank tops, club shirts, and hoodies for men, women, and children”; Che Guevara headwear — “baseball caps, trucker hats, beanies and toques, bucket hats, bandanas, and the famous Cuban-style berets with embroidered or metal star, just like the one [eeek!] Che Guevara used to wear”; Che Guevara lighters, key chains, pins, wall clocks, Cuban stamps, shooter glasses, postcards, wallets, textile posters, courier/messenger bags and much, more more. (Or less… depending on your political perspective.)

Why would a business dedicated to making money from a dead icon’s face sponsor a site dedicated to perpetuating his myth? A site that then, in turn, sponsors a forum which deliberately confuses anarchism with authoritarian rule and the perpetuation of personality cults?

Hint. Hint.

…with Castro’s rise to power in 1959[, a] great many anarchists, especially in Europe, were so desperate to see positive social change that they saw it where there was none — in Cuba, thanks in part to a skilled disinformation campaign by Castro’s propaganda apparatus. Despite suppression of civil liberties, the prohibition of independent political activity, the government take-over of the unions, the militarization of the economy, the gradual impoverishment of the country (despite massive Soviet economic aid), the reemergence of a class system, the institution of a network of political spies in every neighborhood (the so-called Committees for the Defense of the Revolution), and the government-fostered personality cults which grew up around Fidel Castro and Ernesto (“Che”) Guevara, large and important sections of the world’s anarchist movement supported Castro until well into the 1970s.

That situation began to change in 1976 with publication of the respected American anarchist Sam Dolgoff’s The Cuban Revolution: A Critical Perspective. But even today some anarchists continue to be hoodwinked by the Castro regime’s “revolutionary” rhetoric and the veneer of social welfare measures with which it covers its ruthless determination to cling to power at any price.

Posted in !nataS, Media | 5 Comments