BREAKING NEWS!
In a move that has stunned many me, Ron Poulsen of the Communist League is running for the NSW Senate, NOT for the seat of Blaxland as many me expected.
More news as it comes to hand.
MORE BREAKING NEWS!
In NSW Palmer’s Australia Party has thrown its weight behind Poulsen by placing him 5th on its ticket (after Family First).
Oh dear.
I wasn’t going to write another post just yet but the decision by the WikiLeaks Party (WLP) to preference the Australia First Party ahead of the Greens in the NSW Senate contest [PDF] is I think noteworthy. So too the fact that the party has claimed that this was an administrative error, though the precise reasoning behind WLP preferencing The Nationals ahead of The Greens in WA — where such a preference may in fact prove influential on the final outcome — is a little harder to understand, especially given Scott Ludlam’s past role in supporting WikiLeaks.
Speaking of the election there’s an abundance of exciting parties on the fringes worthy of closer examination but, while we’re on the subject of Australia First, I’d like to give a special shout-out to Peter Watson, the party’s candidate in the Queensland Senate race. Peter has had a very exciting political career thus far, having first emerged as the leader (and presumably sole member) of the ‘Stalinist League of Australia’, in which capacity he starred in Crikey at the time of the 2007 federal election. Having zig-zagged his way thru numerous blogs, sites, and online identities — including a very brief stint as Labor’s candidate in the seat of Southern Downs in the 2012 Queensland state election — Comrade Watson has now plumped for Dr Jim‘s mob.
Viel Glück Peter!
Across the pond in Aotearoa/New Zealand … well, actually, all the way up in Sweden, to be precise … members of Mormon Kyle Chapman’s latest playgroup/terrorist cell a/k/a ‘Right Wing Resistance New Zealand’ (and er, Sweden) have been denounced on White supremacist forum Stormfront [http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t960496/] by fair dinkum fascists belonging to the Party of the Swedes as a bunch of drunken oafs. Well, Two Fat Swedes in particular have been denounced (is that a bunch?). As a final note, it appears that a Golden Dawn has broken in Melbourne a little sooner than expected: but more on that mob later. In the meantime, nazi scum on Stormfront — incidentally, one of the principal means AF uses to communicate with its supporters — have denounced a GD MP for not being White enough for their tastes…
LOL.
See : US neonazis question Golden Dawn MP’s ‘race’, enetenglish, August 10, 2013.
The Facebook page Anarchist Memes (AM) has (temporarily?) closed, seemingly as a result of a decision by its creator. Before it deaded, the page had attracted something in the order of 80,000 or so ‘likes’ — a very large number for an ‘anarchist’ Facebook page. As for why the page was closed, it seems to have been a reaction to discussion among its 20 or so administrators regarding accusations of harassment, stalking and rape apologism (roughly, engaging in the defence of or excusing the practice of rape) aimed at the page’s creator, accusations which have been outlined on a blog and on some internet forums (libcom, for example). While it’s obviously difficult to know what precisely the various AM administrators did/not agree upon themselves, whatever ‘accountability’ process was instituted to address concerns regarding the continued role of its creator in administering the page has come to a very abrupt end — prompting the emergence of a replacement, presumably under the control of those formerly excluded.
Outside of FB, the issues which surround the closure of AM remain largely unresolved; for a recent attempt to critique processes by which some of these issues have been addressed, see : ‘Accounting for Ourselves: Breaking the Impasse Around Assault and Abuse in Anarchist Scenes’.
…
An Anarchist Communist living in Houston, Texas has posted a statement (August 7) titled ‘AMAG Communique #1: What happened with Anarchist Memes?’ which you can read here.
[FWIW: TAV is the italian acronym for Treno ad Alta Velocità i.e. HSR, High-Speed Rail. In essence, opposition to ‘inappropriate’ (capitalist) development in Italy is being criminalised under the rubric of anti-terrorism. Ho hum. On a vaguely-related note see also Berlusconi’s guilty sentence: all you need to know, Giovanni Tiso, Overland, August 2, 2013.]
NO TAV movement again under attack
For twenty years in mountains of North West Italy, not far from Torino, a powerful movement has grown that has resisted the Italian government’s plan to build a high velocity railroad, which in addition to being very costly and economically useless would certainly destroy the mountain environment. Over and over, the NO TAV movement, now well-known throughout Europe, has come under attack by the police and the army, besides being the object of a smear campaign by politicians of almost every political stripe. However, so strong has been the determination of the people of Val di Susa and their many supporters to resist this assault on their land and their lives that so far no real construction has taken place and all that the companies in charge of the project have achieved has been to surround thousands of acres of land, belonging to the local population, with barbed wires and cops.
It is now generally recognized, even at the EU level, that the construction of the high velocity railroad is unnecessary, so that some participant countries have already withdrawn from the project. Nevertheless, the Italian government has even further intensified its attack on the resistance to the TAV trains, with the full militarization of Val di Susa. As the villagers of this beautiful historic valley, near the border with France, the center of the partisan resistance to Fascism and Nazism in the ‘40s, have repeatedly denounced, no effort has been spared to repress ideologically and physically the legitimate protest of the residents of the valley who would bear every day the consequences of the TAVS. Already the land of Val di Susa has been drenched with tear gas, and many have been arrested, wounded, and some have even died because of the government’s outrageous determination to complete this work regardless of its devastating consequences for the people of the valley.
Now a new violent assault on the No TAV movement is unfolding that demands a clear response by all those in and out of Italy who believe that the systematic destruction of our environment and the violation of people’s most basic needs and demands are crimes that affect us all and we should not tolerate.
On Monday morning, July 29, the DIGOS – the political branch of the police – has raided dozens of homes in Torino and in Val di Susa. Twelve comrades have been forced to open their houses to its agents, who have then proceeded to search for incriminating materials, presumably related to their protest against the enclosure of the land of the valley with hedges of barbed wire. Instructed to look for explosives and cutters, the police have failed in this goal, but they have confiscated all the audio-visual and telecommunication materials they could find, clearly the real objective of the search. As one of the activists raided put it: “They came for weapons, they left with computers and phones”.
The raid has included the restaurant La Credenza – a name that in Italian significantly means both ‘faith’ and ‘pantry’ – a public place of meeting and aggregation for No TAVS in Val di Susa, where workers’ unions and political associations are also located. This is a place where every day people meet to discuss current events, mostly relating to the struggle, as well as share some food and a glass of wine. Whoever goes to Bussoleno, the heartland of the NO TAV struggle, passes through it, to have a chance to talk to local people, check on current events, and have a great dinner. But the magistrates paint it as a place of conspiracy, to support the charge that motivates the raid: involvement in “attacks with terrorist and subversive intent.”
Anyone who has been in Val di Susa, or has followed the long history of the protest its people have mounted against the TAV knows this charge is false, outrageous, and is a classic example of blaming the victims. Not surprisingly the “proofs” are manufactured.
At one of the houses raided, a map of the valley was found with marker-signs on it. The young woman living there is a member of the Legal Team for the movement, and the map is part of the material that she was to submit to the defense in trials that are already taking place against some of its members. On it, the sites are marked where in 2011 several people were brutalized by the police. But according to the investigators, the map proves the existence of a militarily organized guerrilla movement.
Similarly, beer bottles presumably found on the construction site are presented as evidence for the presence of Molotov cocktails, no proof given that they ever contained anything but beer. Black T Shirts too were confiscated, though it is hard to imagine what they could prove. But the meaning of the police operation comes forth most blatantly where the magistrates state that those raided are investigated as suspects of “attacks with terrorist intent.”
In sum, the goal of this new operation is to escalate the assault on the movement by representing it, legally and through the media, as a ‘terrorist’ movement – a move obviously intended to scare its supporters, turn public opinion against the people of Val di Susa, and legitimize any violence the state will deem fit to unleash against them.
We do not think this operation will succeed. The people of Val di Susa have fought the fascists, have fought the Nazis, and for twenty years they have been able to push back the attempt of the Italian government to destroy their mountains, already traversed by many railroad lines and a recently constructed highway. However we should not underestimate the will of the government to crush this movement. This in fact appears to be the primary objective of the present operation, as reports indicate that, even from a capitalist viewpoint, the TAV project is turning out to be economically unfeasible. Why to pursue it then with so much obstinacy, to the point of stomping over the lives of thousands of people? Is it because the Italian government cannot admit that when people struggle in a unified way they can win? Or is it that the profits that private companies would make would outweigh the failure of the project to bring any benefit to the country as a whole and outweigh as well the immense agony and loss inflicted on the people of Val di Susa?
Politics these days has a surreal character. Lies, distortions, arguments motivated solely by the narrowest of private economic motives are the order of the day. But the fictitious character of the charges brought against the victims of the raid should not deceive us about the damage they can inflict. At the very least these attacks are forcing a movement to re-channel its energies from the struggle against the TAV to the defense of those under attack.
This is why we need to support the NO TAV activists under investigation, we need expand our support for the NO TAV struggle, and send a clear message of protest to the Italian government, demanding it ends the persecution of the No TAV activists and put an end to the TAV project itself.
Please sign the following statement:
We urge the Italian government and judiciary to:
*End its arbitrary use of the law to persecute No TAV activists;
*Cease the investigation against the twelve people whose homes have been raided;
*Stop the militarization of Val de Susa;
*Listen to the legitimate protest of the people of Val de Susa and abandon the TAV project itself, which has already caused so much suffering to so many people.
Signed:
George Caffentzis, Emeritus, University of Southern Maine
Silvia Federici, Emerita, Hofstra University
In less than two weeks a wild orgasm of anarchists will sweep across the city like a bush fire. Or to put it another way: on Saturday, August 10 the third annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair is taking place at Abbotsford Convent! Books, pamphlets, zines, merch, food, drink, workshops for young and old and more. Entry is free. More details here. (See also : Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair 2012 (Review), August 6, 2012.)
NB. Thursday night (August 1) journalist Will Potter speaks at Kindness House (288 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy). You can listen to an interview Dr Cam & I done with Will here. This Friday (August 2) there’s a rally at Flinders Street station (under the clocks) in support of refugee rights.
Don’t vote, organise!
Well there’s not really a lot to add: ahead of the 2013 federal election, PM KRudd and Opposition Leader The Mad Monk are scrambling to outdo each other in their defence of The Nation, with KRudd first declaring (possibly unlawfully) that no asylum seeker arriving by boat would be able to claim refuge in Australia and now Tony Fucking Abbott wanting to establish “a military-led response to combat people smuggling and to protect our borders – Operation Sovereign Borders”.
Has social democracy reached its limits? The facts speak for themselves.
In any event, along with happy news that the prison in Nauru (Nauru) was badly damaged by fire earlier in the week, this weekend there will again be protests and rallies around the country (see Boundless Plains to Share), including in Melbourne.
WHEN : 1pm, Saturday, July 27
WHERE : State Library of Victoria, Swanston Street, City
You can find a collection of posters promoting the Melbourne rally here; border-ctrl [delete] contains other agitprop; here’s a song:
Oh dear.
Last week Derek Black, son of Don Black, inter alia convicted terrorist and founder of the Stormfront website, announced that he was leaving the white nationalist movement (DEREK BLACK E-MAIL TO MARK POTOK, JULY 15, 2013, PDF). According to Derek:
“I acknowledge that things I have said as well as my actions have been harmful to people of color, people of Jewish descent, activists striving for opportunity and fairness for all, and others affected.”
“I can’t support a movement that tells me I can’t be a friend to whomever I wish or that other people’s races requires me to think about them in a certain way or be suspicious of their advancements,” Black wrote toward the end of his four-page statement. “Minorities must have the ability to rise to positions of power, and many supposed ‘race’ issues are in fact issues of structural oppression, poor educational prospects, and limited opportunity. The differences I thought I observed didn’t go nearly as deeply as I imagined. I believe we can move beyond the sort of mind-boggling emphasis white nationalism puts on maintaining an oppressive, exclusive sense of identity — oppressive for others and stifling for our society.”
So yeah.
I haven’t been paying much attention to the Stormfront website in the last few years (see The Stormfront Down Under Circus : 2004–2008, May 31, 2008), partly because there’s only so much racist butthurt I can stomach, partly because the site has lost some of its attraction for local white supremacists and neo-Nazis, many of whom now find Facebook a more suitable outlet for their diatribes. That said, the site remains an important recruiting and publicity tool for groups like Dr Jim Saleam‘s Australia First Party and Kyle Chapman’s Right Wing Resistance, as well as the handful of other, smaller and more loosely-structured groupuscules such as Blood & Honour and Nationalist Alternative. It’s also the site of occasional announcements regarding cultural border protection…
The news of Derek’s departure from the movement his father has dedicated his life to promoting has naturally caused some waves among the Stormfront community. Among those commenting on Derek’s statement is ‘White Australian’ (http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t981157/#post11384793): “We need to support Don Black and his family through this very difficult period. In the end, our entire movement is not about “hate” but the love of our people, our culture, our family and our nation.”
*rolls eyes*
As well as serving as the moderator on Stormfront Downunder, ‘White Australian’ is the leader of the Melbourne-based group Nationalist Alternative; last year he attended the annual Stormfront Seminar, which this year is taking place on August 10: “This will be an inspiring gathering with fellowship among dedicated activists in the beautiful mountains. Like last year, this isn’t a hand-wringing meet-eat-and-retreat, but a practical politics seminar on winning. As always, I [Don Black] will be MC. Seminar leaders include leading pro-White activists David Duke, Sam Dickson, Paul Fromm, Matthew Parrott, Horus the Avenger, Truck Roy, and Stormfront Chief of Staff Jack Boot.”
As it stands, I’m unaware of any Stormfront user or white supremacist organiser from Australia renouncing ‘white nationalism’ in the manner Derek has, most who have left the ideology in the gutter simply electing to quietly abandon their public activities. One person who has not is Peter Watson – the teenage fascist who in 2012 was endorsed by Queensland Labor for the seat of Warwick (before quickly being disendorsed). Peter and other white nationalists will, however, be happy with Chairman KRudd’s ‘Papua New Guinea’ solution … of which, more later.
Apologies for the interruption to service. For reasons beyond my control, the blog appears to have been down from Tuesday (16) through to Sunday (21). Thanks to those responsible for getting it back up.
In the meantime:
PM KRudd has proven to be rather more devoted to !nataS than to G*d if his praise for Dietrich Boenhoffer is any guide. In October 2006 the Good Christian wrote (Faith in Politics, The Monthly, October 2006):
Bonhoeffer is, without doubt, the man I admire most in the history of the twentieth century. He was a man of faith. He was a man of reason. He was a man of letters who was as well read in history and literature as he was in the intensely academic Lutheran theology of the German university tradition. He was never a nationalist, always an internationalist. And above all, he was a man of action who wrote prophetically in 1937 that “when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” For Bonhoeffer, whatever the personal cost, there was no moral alternative other than to fight the Nazi state with whatever weapons were at his disposal…
Another great challenge of our age is asylum seekers. The biblical injunction to care for the stranger in our midst is clear. The parable of the Good Samaritan is but one of many which deal with the matter of how we should respond to a vulnerable stranger in our midst. That is why the government’s proposal to excise the Australian mainland from the entire Australian migration zone and to rely almost exclusively on the so-called Pacific Solution should be the cause of great ethical concern to all the Christian churches. We should never forget that the reason we have a UN convention on the protection of refugees is in large part because of the horror of the Holocaust, when the West (including Australia) turned its back on the Jewish people of Germany and the other occupied countries of Europe who sought asylum during the ’30s.
Sadly, KRudd has chosen to pay tribute to this most admirable German by declaring that no person seeking asylum in Australia and having arrived by boat will be granted it. They will instead be dumped in the neo-colony of Papua New Guinea. I joined maybe 500-1000 others for a stroll around a very wet and cold Melbourne on Saturday in protest at the announcement; there’ll be another rally this coming Saturday (July 27) at 1pm at the State Library, and others around the country.
Yeah yeah I know I know.
Useful analysis : Turning point: Asylum, Rudd’s realpolitik & the Left, Dr_Tad (July 20, 2013) and Foreigners, The Piping Shrike (July 20, 2013) and Rudd’s PNG deal is a co-dependency, not a ‘regional solution’, Gerhard Hoffstaedter (July 21, 2013).
NB. While the state is happy to keep boats full of foreigners at bay, it’s also very determined to allow a foreign corporation named McDonald’s to colonise the Dandenongs, and so too it seems are the courts.
[START COMMUNIQUE]
On the 9/7/2013 the Head Prosecutor of Bulgaria rejected Australia’s request to transfer me to serve my sentence in Australia. His excuses can be summarized into 3 major points:
1. Bad prison conduct;
2. Not served enough time of the full sentence and;
3. Until now the goals of the sentence have not been fulfilled.
In reply I say:
I have had only 1 disciplinary punishment in the last 3 years and it’ll be difficult to find a prisoner with less than that amount of disciplinary punishments in a Bulgarian prison, furthermore the single disciplinary punishment I have over the last 3 years is for refusing to speak to the Director of the Sofia Prison. Yes … I was punished by having my food reduced for 3 months, for refusing to speak to the Director.
What does it matter how much of my sentence I have served, the request from Australia was to be transferred to finish my sentence in an Australian prison. This second point of the Head Prosecutor is reflective of their belief that in Australia I will be released as so many wrongly convicted in corrupt countries are when they are returned to their home countries. Australia has explicitly said they will not release me if transferred to Australia; however it is in the mind of the Head Prosecutor, that my case has become the shame of the Bulgarian state. Only in his world I am still guilty, but in no one else’s.
What are these goals that the Head Prosecutor speaks of? I have not been informed of any such goals, I was told and am told almost daily by Sofia Prison staff that I am simply to sit on my bed and finish my sentence in prison. Are these the goals that have not been achieved? If he could, as publicly as he rejected transfer, to publicly explain to everyone what these goals are and how they have not been accomplished? And how he expects them to be accomplished if no one knows what they are?
The Head Prosecutor of Bulgaria has exited the world of law and entered the world of metaphysics. Nothing the Head Prosecutor said was based on law other than his right to deny transfer. The reasons for such a denial have no connection with law or reality and almost everyone who has read the prosecutor’s decision burst out laughing at the audacity of such bold lies.
As so much of Bulgarian society are entering the streets to vent their frustration with such an inherently corrupt state, I remind the Bulgarian people and others, that I too am a victim of this disgustingly corrupt state. I was convicted to 20 years due to corruption, discriminated and persecuted in prison due to corruption and now the transfer denied due to corruption. The Prosecutor’s office attempts to be on the side of the Bulgarian people, making such a populist decision. However they have shown themselves to be of the same arrogant yoke as their political friends in parliament. They are the untouchables, unanswerable to anyone other themselves and this is where corruption and maladministration fester like gangrene to spread throughout society to destroy all around it.
Australians, in this election year, I ask all my friends and family to ask Labor and Liberal “what will they do for Jock?” Julia Gillard refused to help, so now it is time to ask Kevin Rudd “why have you been so quiet over the injustices committed against Jock?” and alternatively ask the opposition Tony Abbott “why have you not challenged such inertia and silence of the government?” Tony Abbott who claims to be motivated by Catholic values, the same values that motivated me to defend a man being attacked by 15, has offered nothing to help my family over the last 5 years despite me and many of my family living in his electorate. I have been forsaken by both political parties.
The state will inevitably keep me in prison to the minute of my 20 year sentence; this at least is the goal of Bulgarian Socialist Party Deputy Monov and his cronies in the party. And most likely they will succeed as there is no political will to help me from either of the major Australian parties. However I will be for every minute the international symbol of the Bulgarian state’s shame, the anti racist jailed for saving a persecuted man’s life against 15 bloodthirsty neo-fascists connected with National Resistance fascist organisation.
[END COMMUNIQUE]
