Cobwebs for the rich…

Posted on May 18, 2006 by @ndy

…and chains for the poor.

Once upon a time, a 14-year-old boy decided to “divorce” his parents. Sensing both an easy victim and a sensationalist headline, in 2004 the Sunday Herald Sun ran a front-page article headlined “Divorced by my son: Teen may never see mum again” [Chris Tinkler, June 20, 2004], “which described how a 14-year-old had divorced (sic) his mother because of irreconcilable differences. The story was repeated on Seven news and the network’s Sunrise show.” And this week, those responsible for circulating the story found themselves before the courts. “The [Melbourne Magistrates Court] heard Today Tonight and the Sunday Herald Sun then ran further reports, despite a warning from a Children’s Court magistrate that they may be in breach of the Children and Young Persons Act.”

Predictably, entertainers on television reacted by condemning the (previously anonymous) boy: Sunrise hosts David Koch and Melissa Doyle, Today Tonight host Naomi Robson and newsreader Jennifer Keyte, among other brats. All have escaped punishment for broadcasting the story, but in an hysterical outburst, Peter Meakin, Channel Seven’s news and current affairs chief, has accused the prosecution of being “starstruck” for going after some of the network’s biggest names. Thus, despite the idiotic grins on the faces of those acquitted (see below), it’s painfully obvious that being made in any way accountable for the lies and half-truths these well-paid lackeys tell is acutely embarrassing for them: they’re “stars”, and therefore above not only the planet, but its laws too. They know, as well as we do, that the wealth, power and social status which accrues to them as a result of their willingness to fulfil such roles provides them with virtual legal immunity. So…

In a not-exactly-unexpected development, the contempt the corporate media and its lackeys regularly and systematically display for children (whom, alongside shonky tradesmen, are favoured targets of corporate bullies, for obvious reasons) has been handsomely rewarded by the courts:

TV brats cleared over child ID case

A group of journalists, their bosses and major news organisations faced a string of charges including publishing or causing to be published a report likely to lead to the identification of a party in a children’s court hearing…

Melbourne Magistrate Lisa Hannan cleared the individual journalists involved but found the charges proven against Channel Seven Victorian news director Stephen Carey, Today Tonight national executive producer Craig McPherson and former Sunday Herald Sun editor Alan Howe. She also found the charges proven against Channel Seven Melbourne and the Herald and Weekly Times.

And the punishment imposed by the courts for showing such complete contempt, both for the rights of children and for the courts which are supposed to protect these ‘rights’ (sic)? “CHANNEL 7 and the Herald and Weekly Times have each been convicted and fined $50,000”, while “Seven News director Steve Carey and Today Tonight executive producer Craig McPherson were each fined $2000, and former Sunday Herald Sun editor Alan Howe $3000 — all without convictions. Kids Under Cover, the Smith Family, Make a Wish, the Salvation Army and the Royal Children’s Hospital will receive the $107,000 in fines.”

The Herald and Weekly Times, it should be noted, is part of the Murdoch empire: an empire with few historical parallels, and one which is responsible for conducting what John Pilger has described as a ‘cultural chernobyl’. And while the devastation being wrought on human(e) values by Murdoch and similar figures in the corporate sector is quite serious, it also has its more bizarre side. Here’s the brains trust at Sunrise speculating on what might be an appropriate way for athletes to celebrate victory at the recent Stolenwealth Games:

Mark Beretta: What would you suggest we do Kochie? Should we put the meat tray up?

David Koch: Oh! Now you’re talking big fella. A meat tray!

Beretta: Get up there with a gold medal around your neck in your green and gold tracksuit and sing it with pride and you could get the meat tray.

Liz Ellis: Can you imagine marching into the athletes’ hall, into the dining room with your meat tray under your arm and saying to the chef “cook it”.

Beretta: Wouldn’t you be popular? You would be popular.

Melissa Doyle: You could cook it yourself. Yeah! You could have a party and rejoice.

Koch: You’d be hijacked by the Bangladeshi team. They haven’t seen that much meat in their lifetime! [Laughter, groans] Right, sorry!

Such casual racism is the stock-in-trade of buffoons such as Koch, and as such is largely unremarkable (and, were it not for Media Watch, unremarked). So despite being touted as “an all-round good bloke and family man”, ‘Kochie’ is obviously much, much less: at ‘Speakers Solutions’, ‘integrity speaks’, and you too can enjoy — for a large sum of money — his unique comedy stylings.

Are there any depths to which Australia’s media won’t sink? For ‘Kochie’ and his ilk, the answer is obviously ‘no’. In practice, it seems that others — whether athletes or children — exist only to the extent to which they may be made the butt of appallingly bad jokes, or, alternatively, as commodities from which to make a profit.

Q. How do they sleep at night?
A. In absolute luxury.

(Unlike, say, the Bangladeshi masses…)

Posted in Media, State / Politics, Television | Leave a comment

Nothing to see here…

Posted on May 16, 2006 by @ndy

1) Writing in The Age (May 8, 2006), Tom Allard reports that ‘Changes urged for terror laws’: “A HIGH-POWERED committee appointed by the Federal Government has recommended that Attorney-General [Montgomery Burns] be stripped of his power to determine which groups constitute a terrorist organisation.” In addition to recommending that Burns be stripped of his power to unilaterally proscribe an organisation, “The committee’s report also advocates recasting the “association” provisions in the anti-terrorism laws, since these could send innocent people to prison. Under the provisions, a formal or informal member of a group deemed to be a terrorist organisation faces 10 years’ jail, even if he or she was unaware of any terrorist act being planned.”

2) Former NSW Labor Premier (1976 — 1986) ‘Nifty’ Nev (Neville Wran) and former PM and Federal Treasurer Paul Keating have weighed in on the subject of the Government’s terroristic laws, declaring their “utter contempt for the Liberal Party” at the launch of a new book, The Wran Era. Portraying himself as a champion of the rights of “ordinary people”, Keating also took the opportunity to claim responsibility for the supposedly healthy state of the Australian economy… despite the fact that it’s “ordinary people” who’ve suffered most from the neoliberal re-structuring of the economy that began under his auspices (1983-1996).

Wanker.

3) A US Army officer has identified the ‘terrorist manual’ which alleged terrorist Faheem Khalid Lodhi had in his possession at the time of an ASIO raid on his home in October 2003 as being in reality a US Army Field Manual. (Lodhi, a 36 year old architect, is currently on trial in Sydney, and stands accused of plotting to bomb the national electricity supply system or several Sydney defence sites, and has pleaded not guilty to four terrorism-related charges.)

4) In his 2006 Federal Budget, Peter Costello has declared that if you happen to be an ASIO employee, things are going to go along swimmingly; if, on the other hand, you’re a student, expect to sink, as he announced an additional splurge on ruling class security of

$1.5 billion over five years to 2009-10. This comes on top of the $8.1 billion allocated to new national security initiatives over nine years from 2001-2002. More than half ($801.5 million) will go [towards] increasing staff and technical capabilities at the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). ASIO’s allocation in this year’s budget has gone up 23 per cent to $227.6 million. Spending on national security is up from $83.8 million in last year’s budget to a whopping $314.2 million. By way of contrast, only $95.5 million over four years will go to increase capital funds for universities through the Capital Development Pool.

(Mike Head, on the other hand, reckons that the 2006 Australian budget is “a blatant appeal to the rich”.)

5) In New Matilda, Kirk McKenzie writes that, notwithstanding the recommendations of the Government’s own review panel, “the Federal Attorney-General [Montgomery Burns] is at it again”:

…moving to extend the life of ASIO’s post-9/11 powers to compulsorily question and detain ‘non-suspects.’ In March 2002, amid the heat and paranoia of the post-9/11 period, the Howard Government introduced a Bill into Parliament that proposed giving ASIO the power to compulsorily question persons and — if necessary — detain them for that purpose, in relation to terrorism offences. Originally, the Bill allowed incommunicado detention without charge for 48 hours, but by allowing repeated warrants to be obtained, indefinite detention was possible, without the detainees having access to legal assistance or having a right to silence… [At that time] the Senate insisted on a sunset clause of three years, which ensures it expires in July 2006. However, on 29 March 2006, [Burns] introduced the ASIO Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 — designed to extend the legislation’s life by imposing a new sunset clause of 10 years, meaning it expires in 2016. [Burn]’s second reading speech to the Bill was a casual, cursory, eight-minute gloss on the content as though he is legislating to shift a bus stop.

Opposition ‘Homeland Security’ spokesperson Arch Bevis is also worried by Burns’ proposal; unfortunately, “The government defeated Labor amendments on the sunset clause and more fully informing prescribed authorities before the bill was passed. It now goes to the Senate.”

Where it will almost certainly receive final approval.

6) Following a raid on his home by police and their discovery of a number of explosive devices, forty year old Brisbane teacher John Howard Amundsen has been charged (May 10, 2006) with fraud, declaring that “I don’t have any affiliation to any violent organisation. The explosives are being used in a TV shoot… I’ve also co-operated with the police and helped them locate everything because I don’t want any danger to them or the public.” Amusingly, ‘Lilly Boccalatte, who lives across the street from Amundsen, said the short, balding man lived with his elderly mother and was the sort of man “who mowed his lawn quickly and scurried back inside”.’

7) Finally, right-wing flack Greg Sheridan cheers on ASIO while at the same time taking the opportunity to parade before the Australian public his incomprehension on the subject of (non-state) ‘terrorism’ and the basis of moral and political authority.

Again.

Of course, the beginnings of a sensible discourse on “terrorism” require, as Chomsky has pointed out, the expression of some degree of intelligence:

“Terror” is a term that rightly arouses strong emotions and deep concerns. The primary concern should, naturally, be to take measures to alleviate the threat, which has been severe in the past, and will be even more so in the future. To proceed in a serious way, we have to establish some guidelines. Here are a few simple ones:

(1) Facts matter, even if we do not like them.

(2) Elementary moral principles matter, even if they have consequences that we would prefer not to face.

(3) Relative clarity matters. It is pointless to seek a truly precise definition of “terror,” or of any other concept outside of the hard sciences and mathematics, often even there. But we should seek enough clarity at least to distinguish terror from two notions that lie uneasily at its borders: aggression and legitimate resistance.

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

“We’ll return to the revolution after these messages…”

Posted on May 12, 2006 by @ndy

I’m going on a short hiatus from blogging to attend to some pressing, (even more) nerdish preoccupations of mine.

In the meantime, be sure and check out my favourite new TV show:

NerdsFC! : Fridays @ 7.30pm on SBS-TV.

Fourteen nerds… one team.

[Happy birthday Michael!]

Posted in Television | 4 Comments

Robin Hood & His Merry Wo/men Are Alive & Well & The Sheriffs Are Hunting For Them in Hamburg

Posted on May 10, 2006 by @ndy

‘Robin Hood’ gang rob gourmet stores in bid to feed Hamburg’s poor
Tony Paterson
Independent
May 09, 2006

They dress up in pink catsuits, have names like “Spider Mum” and feel a social obligation to plunder the most expensive restaurants and gourmet delicatessens in town as part of a campaign to help the poor.

Last week the well-heeled citizens of Hamburg’s Altona district got a taste of their antics when 30 of them marched into the city’s luxury “Fresh Paradise Goedeken” supermarket and walked out five minutes later with €15,000 (£10,000) worth of stolen goods.

The gang’s booty included magnums of Champagne at €99 a bottle, filets of Japanese Kobe beef at €108 a kilogram, legs of venison, a salmon and several boxes of Valrhona chocolate.

Before leaving, gang members thrust a bouquet of flowers into the hands of a shop assistant. Attached was a handwritten note which proclaimed: “Survival in the city of millionaires would be impossible without us!” It was signed by “Spider Mum”, “Santa Guevara” and “Multiflex”.

Another note later released by the gang insisted that the haul had been distributed to Hamburg’s needy, to the “social workers, cleaning ladies and minimum-wage earners”. It added: “The places of wealth in this town are as numerous as the opportunities to take it.”

“It was a well-planned robbery,” Carsten Sievers, the store’s manager, said on Friday last week. “Somebody had obviously been in the shop before the main contingent arrived and had already filled up several shopping trolleys.”

Fourteen squad cars and a police helicopter scoured the Altona district for more than an hour after the robbery, but failed to find the perpetrators.

“The gang covered its tracks completely. They act like professionals,” Bodo Franz, the head of a Hamburg police unit investigating the robbery, said.

As they left the scene of the robbery, the gang, clad in masks, catsuits, dark glasses and rubber masks, posed for a group photo outside the supermarket and brandished their booty in front of the camera.

The incident was the latest attack perpetrated by this Robin Hood-style gang of so-called “Spontis”, whose activities have alarmed and baffled the Hamburg police and the city’s well-to-do. Yet the gang, which refers to itself as “Hamburg for Free”, does not strike often. Its last attack took place almost exactly a year ago, when 40 masked men and women stormed the Süllberg restaurant in the city’s wealthy Blankenese district overlooking the river Elbe.

Diners were appalled as the gang snatched titbits from the plates in front of them and started stuffing the stolen food into their mouths. Other gang members brandished a huge knife and fork made out of silver foil and cardboard above the diners’ heads. A placard declaring “The fat years are over” was strung between pillars in the restaurant.

Mr Franz, who has been trying to track down the “Hamburg for Free” gang since the incident a year ago, said that investigators had merely established that the group was probably made up of a mixture of students and anarchists.

“We don’t know much about them. They are very political yet one of their main motives is fun,” he said. “The problem is that they strike so rarely and so professionally that they are a major job to catch.”

German ‘Robin Hoods’ give poor a taste of the high life
Allan Hall
The Scotsman
May 09, 2006

A GANG of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted by police in the German city of Hamburg. The gang members seemingly take delight in injecting humour into their raids, which rely on sheer numbers and the confusion caused by their presence. After they plundered Kobe beef fillets, champagne and smoked salmon from a gourmet store on the exclusive Elbastrasse, they presented the cashier with a bouquet of flowers before making their getaway.

The latest robbery is part of a pattern over the past several months, suggesting that the thieves deliberately set out to highlight what they perceive as the inequality inherent in German society.

However, the authorities do not agree. Bodo Franz, a police spokesman, said: “They get off feeling they are just like Robin Hood. There are about 30 in the group. But whatever their motives, they are thieves, plain and simple.”

Carsten Sievers, the manager of a luxury supermarket in the wealthy Blankenese area of Hamburg, recently watched the robbers run off with trolleys full of expensive foodstuffs, including Kobe beef which, at more than £100 a pound, is always on their illicit shopping list.

In another recent swoop, the gang emptied a groaning buffet table in a top restaurant into sacks, while one of their number held up a sign saying. “The fat years are over” – the title of a hit film [aka The Edukators] currently doing the rounds in Germany.

In internet statements, the gang have made a point of saying their booty is distributed to Hartz IV recipients – the poorest of Germany’s long-term unemployed. The benefit is named after the disgraced Volkswagen personnel director Peter Hartz who, before he lost his job with the car-maker in a prostitutes-and-bribes scandal, devised the new means-testing which is loathed and derided by society’s most economically challenged.

When the gang robbed the gourmet store in April – triggering a massive police investigation that cost £20,000 in taxpayers’ money without an arrest being made – they left a note behind saying: “Without the abilities of the superheroes to help them, it would be impossible for ordinary people to survive in the city of the millionaires.”

Police say they are concentrating their investigation on a loose collective of anarchists and malcontents called “Hamburg in Vain”, to which they believe the superheroes belong. But they admit there is a certain panache and skill about their robberies, indicating a strong criminal element as well.

The gang are also behind black market cinema tickets which they distribute free to the poor, and they have printed leaflets telling passengers how to dodge ticket inspectors on the city’s underground and buses.

Mr Franz said: “They try to make crime fun but are politically motivated.”

:: Joschka Fischer, German foreign minister and Vice Chancellor in the government of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005, was once a ‘sponti’: in an article in The Boston Review, Paul Hockenos writes: “With a dose of anarcho-syndicalism [sic], they called themselves spontis, a riff on the impulsive, spontaneous left-wing activism deplored by Lenin. The spontis wanted to be the opposite of the Soviet communists: provocative, emotional, and irreverent, living—as they put it—“politics in the first person.” Although RK [Fischer’s group] distanced itself from the RAF’s murder campaign, it shared many of the RAF’s views on capitalism and condoned violence against the state. For RK, rocks and molotov cocktails were permissible, guns not. It was a very fine line.”

Whatever.

Further reading on the Spontis:

Katsiaficas, George. The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life, Humanity / Prometheus Books, New York, 1997.

[Download here; review here.]

Von Dinke, Sabine. All Power to the Imagination: The West German Counterculture from the Student Movement to the Greens, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1997.

See also:

Biehl, Janet. ‘Farewell to the German Greens’, Left Green Perspectives (formerly Green Perspectives), “A Social Ecology Publication”, Number 23, June 1991.

Free as in Nicked
M28:: 6.07.04

by Dresden for Free & Hamburg for Free

Who is a city for if not for those who live there? Why do we have to pay to take a bus, go swimming, eat, or watch a movie? Beginning with such simple but, under capitalism, explosive questions, a wave of ‘for free’ campaigns have spread across German cities. Projects such as Hamburg for Free and Dresden for Free attempt to challenge the dominion of money in the increasingly gentrified and privatised metropolis. The Hamburg group have led mass free eat-ins at university canteens in protest against price rises and student fees (students and staff all joined in), organised a free night out at the local multiplex cinema for 70 activists (quickly aborted by the police) while Dresden for Free have staged actions in swimming pools, on public transport, and in theatres, a direct response to ongoing closures and cutbacks. Mute spoke to some of the activists involved…

Predictably, the state, as Statewatch reports, has attempted to infiltrate ‘the Hamburg scene’, but the piece of shit informant was busted by an old school chum.

Posted in Anarchism, Poetry, State / Politics | 8 Comments

The ONLY Spies I trust!

Posted on May 9, 2006 by @ndy

August Vincent Theodore Spies (December 10, 1855 – November 11, 1887) was an anarchist labor activist murdered by the US Goverment following a bomb attack on police at the Haymarket Riot (which, in turn, followed the extra-judicial murder — by the assembled policemen — of a number of men, women and children judged guilty of taking part in the protest cum ‘riot’).

The Haymarket Riot:

The 1st of May 1886 was targeted for a general strike in favor of an eight hour day. 350,000 workers struck, 40,000 in Chicago. On May 3, 1400 strikers were locked out of the McCormack Harvester factory. 300 scabs, guarded by 400 police, were put to work. Circulars were distributed calling for a demonstration in Haymarket Square. August Spies, Albert Parsons, and Samuel Fielden addressed a crowd of 3,000. As he was closing, 180 police appeared. (The mayor had already left and dismissed the police). The police opened fire and killed several. A bomb was thrown toward the police, killing six. The incident led to mass arrests and the first “Red Scare.” Eventually eight of the best organizers in Chicago were tried and condemned. None but Fielden was at the meeting when the bomb was thrown. Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fischer were hanged. Governor Altgeld of Illinois pardoned the others. Prior to being sentenced to hang for his role in the alleged Haymarket Conspiracy, August Spies gave the following statement…

…But, if you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labor movement — the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery — the wage slaves… if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.

THE GROUND IS ON FIRE

upon which you stand. You can’t understand it. You don’t believe in magical arts, as your grandfathers did, who burned witches at the stake, but you do believe in conspiracies; you believe that all these occurrences of late are the work of conspirators! You resemble the child that is looking for his picture behind the mirror. What you see, and what you try to grasp is nothing but the deceptive reflex of the stings of your bad conscience. You want to “stamp out the conspirators” — the “agitators?” Ah, stamp out every factory lord who has grown wealthy upon the unpaid labor of his employees. Stamp out every landlord who has amassed fortunes from the rent of overburdened workingmen and farmers. Stamp out every machine that is revolutionizing industry and agriculture, that intensifies the production, ruins the producer, that increases the national wealth, while the creator of all these things stands amidst them, tantalized with hunger! Stamp out the railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, steam and yourselves — for

EVERYTHING BREATHES THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT.

I think there’s a lesson in that for all of us, don’t you?

Posted in Anarchism, History, State / Politics | Leave a comment

June 10/11 : Resisting the Green Scare!

Posted on May 9, 2006 by @ndy

Weekend of Resistance Against the Green Scare!

For the past few years the weekend of June 11 was typically a time when we reflected on Jeff Free Luers’ 22 1/2 year sentence and held events to recognize the anniversary of his incarceration. This year Jeff writes that he wishes this year to focus on the Green Scare co-defendants…

In Melbourne, Barricade Books / Infoshop is organising a screening of the film 22/8: The Jeffrey Luers Story on Friday, June 9th @ Trades Hall.

Please stay tuned for more information, and please consider joining us in publicising and resisting the US Government’s onslaught on the radical environmental movement in North America.

[In memory of William Rodgers. Don’t mourn, organise!]

Posted in Anarchism, Film, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

trashicon // melbourne diy review

Posted on May 9, 2006 by @ndy

two quick plugs… should really sort my links out proper, eh?

first, trashicon:

Once again it’s monday, well soon to be tuesday but screw it i’m still on time…

trashicon.net is proud to present issue number 8 – ‘wide’

if you haven’t noticed already the title of each issue is completely random and as for any coincidental connection between it and its content, well we shall just leave that up to paris hilton to work out…

georgie, are you there? (she’s infatuated with paris. serious. she’s even travelling to europa in the vain hope of meeting her. pffft.)

so with out further adieu here is the news of the week :

write : ‘we do chew our food’
visit : ‘graffiti games’
listen : ‘be your own PET’
drink : ‘the order of melbourne’
sleep : ‘montpellier’
eat : ‘num fong’
drink more : ‘james boag and son’
listen more : ‘the salty dog’

as for any miss-spelt wurds and gra-matical erors please ignore them as always [no] and focus on the positive [yes].

also just found out how to work ‘myspace’; … yes i know it is demeaning, and most probably best left to the people who want to meet others interested in casual encounters, but if you want go there and sign up.

cheers once more

:—trashicon—:

p.s:

as always : if you are receiving this message, you have either signed up to the trashicon mail list yourself [no], or someone you know saw this site and thought of you … how kind of them … [yes]

and let it be known that if you don’t want to see another email like this one next week you can reply to this email and tell me why and to take you off it …

nah… keep ’em coming anonymous trashfiend!

secondly, melbourne diy review:

About Me

Name: Jo Tender-heart
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

DIY Review publishes reviews of the art, zines, music and culture that comes from Melbourne, Australia. This is a spotlight on the thriving underground culture of this city, as well as a chance for you to get your project reviewed. Send it to: loveanarchist[at]hotmail[dot]com

go you good thing!

Posted in Art, Media, Music, Poetry | 2 Comments

I’m from ASIO, and I’m here to help

Posted on May 9, 2006 by @ndy

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), via numerous links, both institutional and informal, constitutes an integral part of the intelligence network incorporated into the UK/USA repressive state apparatus. And, like its counterparts in the UK (MI5) and the US (FBI), ASIO too has a long history of engaging in political repression, most often directed at the left, but currently targeting the Muslim population. Neither ASIO’s history nor its current practices have gone unnoticed however, and, at a time when new, highly authoritarian ‘anti-terrorist’ laws are being promulgated, ASIO is coming under increased public scrutiny and popular political pressure. In fact, the illiberal nature of these laws is such that even members of Howard’s own Government have made various squeaking noises in opposition — a not very integrous stance, but one which at least reminds Us, and possibly even Them, that the real liberal philosophical tradition is something more or other than a tradition to be invoked only when convenient.

In response to growing public unease and tepid criticism from elites, and in a rather obvious PR exercise, the organisation’s current boss, Paul O’Sullivan, has recently publicly stated (May 4) that ASIO has been cooperating with police agencies, Federal and State, to investigate the ‘race riot’ in the beachside suburb of Cronulla, NSW in December last year.

Despite being treated as such, this is not ‘news’. In fact, given the disastrous consequences of the Cronulla ‘riot’ (read: cowardly bashings of those deemed to be of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ by drunken racist yobbos), especially for Australian business — the education and tourism industries in particular — as well as the support and encouragement given to such actions by those on the racist fringe — James Saleam and Australia First, its ‘youth’ wing the Patriotic Youth League (led by Luke Connors), Welf Herfurth and Blood & Honour, and a number of (supposedly) unaffiliated individuals such as Robert Roach and Andrew Sanders — it’s not surprising that O’Sullivan has felt compelled to issue such a statement. The fact that Sanders’ demonstrable links to fascist and neo-fascist groups in Australia somehow managed to escape the prosecution’s attention, however, suggests that the quality of ASIO’s monitoring of the racist right leaves something to be desired.

Or perhaps not.

When one thinks of all the thousands of villains going about the world in the pay of all governments — and very often well paid for their villainies — of the traps they lay for all sorts of artless people, of the vast sums of money thrown away in the maintenance of that army… one cannot but be appalled at the immensity of the evil which is thus done.

— The Anarchist formerly known as Prince Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, 1899

Home-grown terror focus of budget
ASIO involved in Cronulla probe
ASIO investigating Cronulla riots
ASIO investigated Sydney riots

For comic relief:

ASIO takes hunt for spies online
ASIO Googles for spooks

And does anyone remember Echelon?

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Daniel McGowan

Posted on May 8, 2006 by @ndy

“Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social justice activist, unjustly arrested and charged in federal court on multiple counts of arson, property destruction, and conspiracy, relating to two incidents that occurred in Oregon in 2001. Daniel has asserted his innocence by pleading not guilty to all charges. He is facing a minimum of life in prison if convicted.”

Support Daniel McGowan
Daniel on MySpace

‘Is ecosabotage terrorism?’
Hal Bernton
Seattle Times
May 7, 2006

Until all are free.

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

Collingwood spanks Carlton’s arse with The Wooden Spoon

Posted on May 7, 2006 by @ndy

The world today seems absolutely crackers,
With nuclear bombs to blow us all sky high.
There’s fools and idiots sitting on the trigger.
It’s depressing and it’s senseless, and that’s why…

I love Collingwood and I hate Carlton. So it’s a rare piece of Good News to know that Collingwood spanked them today @ the MCG:

COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 21.12 (138) defeated carlton blues 9.12 (66).

Third term onslaught sinks the Blues; Pies slaughter helpless Blues; Magpies fly to top; Pies move to top of the ladder; Collingwood crush Carlton by 72 points; Late onslaught sinks Blues.

Posted in Collingwood | Leave a comment