Here they come, la la la la la la, la la la la la la, the TV ad jingle writers

First,* Transplants wrote ‘Diamonds & Guns’ to help sell ‘Garnier & Fructis’, then Le Tigre went revolution grrl style NOW! with the help of Telus & Goldmark & Nivea… & now the TV Personalities’ ‘Part Time Punks’ is the soundtrack to a breakfast cereal Kraft Easy Mac®.

I think that this may be an ongoing series. Like, a soap opera.

Wanna buy a bridge?

Bonus!

As a result, your video has been blocked in these locations:

Afghanistan, Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo – Democratic Republic of, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia – Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Posted in Music, State / Politics, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

May Day 2010

In Melbourne Tonight this May Day weekend:

MAY DAY

Rally in support of refugees

A rally has been organised by refugee rights activists and others to protest the KRudd Government’s “Indonesian Solution”. From midday @ Trades Hall (corner of Lygon and Victoria Sts, Carlton).

Rally to oppose femicide in Juarez (Mexico)

Also @ midday, @ the State Library (corner Swanston and LaTrobe Sts). Organised by Melbourne Action for Juarez. For more information, please see: The hidden victims of Mexico’s femicide, Eleanor Bell, ABC, March 10, 2010. You can read an interview with Colm McNaughton — who’s recently produced a radio documentary for ABC’s Radio National on Juarez — in the new issue of Melbourne Black, which is also being launched on Saturday (see below).

May Day social / zine launch

The Melbourne Anarchist Club is having a BBQ and launching the second issue of Melbourne Black. From 3pm @ the Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre, 62 St Georges Road, Northcote. The online version of the zine is available here.

May Day gig

The Renegade Activists Action Force has organised a gig, *ing Ben Fuller, Commander & the Colonel, Comrade Dubs and Madelena Zoe. At Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, from 7pm.

MAY 2

Trades Hall has organised a rally, march and picnic. Assemble @ noon @ Trades Hall. There will be speeches, songs, stalls, Australasian Spartacist newspaper sellers, and lots of leftist trainspotting. See also : Melbourne Protests on May Day 2009.

For more infos on these and some other, related events, please see Australia Asia Worker Links.

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

“Shut up!” they explained…

Who the hell does Maxim Electrical think they are? Jesuit Social Services?

Union talk may cost man $22,000
Ben Schneiders
The Age
April 27, 2010

ELECTRICIAN Mirek Grzegorek was stunned to receive a letter from the building industry watchdog warning him he could be fined $22,000 for attending a couple of short union meetings.

Mr Grzegorek said the meetings were to discuss workplace entitlements, with claims his employer, Maxim Electrical, was trying to escape its award obligations to pay redundancy when its work finished at the ANZ project in Docklands.

”Obviously a lot of guys were concerned. We had a couple of union meetings in relation to that,” he said.

”At the time there was an understanding if you go on a union meeting during working hours then your employer rightfully can deduct up to four hours of your time, even if the meeting takes 10 minutes.”

But the letter warned that Mr Grzegorek could face a much bigger penalty for attending an unauthorised union meeting.

Mr Grzegorek said the two meetings ran only a short period into work time. He said it was after he had lost his job and had to visit his sick father in Poland that he received the letter from the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

He said he had ”some big expenses because we went to Poland”. He said the letter also wanted him to provide evidence of what was said at the meeting.

”Such things really upset me in a democratic country … I didn’t even realise such a law exists in Australia,” he said.

Electrical Trades Union assistant state secretary Troy Gray said the letters were aggressive. He said the union had tried to get an authorised meeting on the issue of entitlements but that had been rejected by the employer.

Unions will tomorrow hold a rally from Trades Hall in Carlton, as part of the International Workers Day of Mourning, accusing the commission of undermining safety standards.

Commissioner John Lloyd said the law prevented him from disclosing information on an ongoing investigation. But, he said, in general it was not unusual for unions to make inaccurate comments about the operations of the ABCC.

He said a ”code of silence” culture was perpetuated by unions telling their members not to co-operate. ”This culture often obliges the ABCC to rely on more formal means for conducting investigations and gathering information,” he said.

LOL. But honestly Commissioner: the Comedy Festival ended last week.

Posted in State / Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

April 26…

Harry O’Brien has a blog! Alright!

So does Walter Mignolo.

Rick Roderick is dead, but his legacy endures online.

A Very Public Sociologist provides a spotters guide to The Far Left and the 2010 UK General Election here. The Alliance for Green Socialism, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, Communist League, Communist Party of Britain, Direct Democracy (Communist) Party, ‘Left Independents’, Peace Party, People Before Profit, Respect, Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), Scottish Socialist Party, Socialist Equality Party, Socialist Labour Party, Socialist Party of Great Britain, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Unity for Peace and Socialism, Workers’ Power and the Workers’ Revolutionary Party have all thrown their hats into the ring.

In Australia, the Revolutionary Socialist Party recently launched its campaign ‘against racism and Labor government’ by way of Van Rudd ~versus~ Julia Gillard in the seat of Lalor. (Come the election, their rivals in the Socialist Alliance will be battling the Australian Protectionist Party in at least one seat in Sydney apparently.)

Finally, Anthony Hayes has some things to say about unions and revolution in the fourth anniversary issue of Mutiny zine (#49, April 2010), a subject to which I might compose a reply, while the second issue of Melbourne Black will be launched at a BBQ on May Day (Saturday, May 1).

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Confronting Neoliberal Regimes: The Post-Marxist Embrace of Populism and Realpolitik (Boris Frankel)

    Anti-German Translation has a post discussing Faces of the new right (April 18, 2010). It makes reference to the US journal Telos, Danny Postel’s essay ‘The metamorphosis of Telos: A splintered journal pokes into its own contradictions’ (In These Times, April 24–30, 1991) and Australian scholar Boris Frankel’s longer essay on ‘Confronting Neoliberal Regimes: The Post-Marxist Embrace of Populism and Realpolitik’ (New Left Review, Vol.1, No.226, November-December 1997). The left/right distinction is one that Waleed Aly discusses in the latest Quarterly Essay — a subject to which I’ll return, perhaps before or even after I’ve read it. Otherwise, I think it noteworthy that, in his history of the Iberian Anarchist Federation, Stuart Christie makes positive reference to Robert Michel’s ‘iron law of oligarchy’ (see also : Michael Schmidt and Lucien van der Walt, Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (AK Press, 2009), Chapter 6: ‘Ideas, Structure, and Armed Action: Unions, Politics, and the Revolution’).

    See also : Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite (No.666), January 20, 2009.

The dominance of neoliberal policies in Anglo-American countries during the past two decades has not only had a profound impact on the character and programmes of major parties, but has also led to dramatic changes within the ranks of former Marxists and critical theorists. [1] These former radicals now either believe that the old categories of Left and Right are irrelevant, or argue that the political concepts used by these historical movements have been largely rendered obsolete by contemporary conditions. [2] Here, I would like to specifically focus upon the quite different, contextually driven responses to neoliberal regimes by two post-Marxist schools of thought that are expressed in the American journal Telos and British journals, especially Economy and Society. These new exponents of an anti-Marxist Realpolitik not only oppose the universal values of the radical Left, but draw upon a mixture of traditions and theories that continue to be associated with anti-class and anti-Marxist elite theory. Moreover, the recent upsurge of right-wing populist movements in OECD countries has been complemented by Telos’ theoretical cultivation of ‘postmodern populism’. These anti-socialist analyses should not be ignored for they raise a number of pertinent questions to do with the possibility and the form of a viable alternative politics given the impact of neoliberalism, globalization and postmodern cultural processes on contemporary societies.

Before discussing these post-Marxist theorists, it is important to recall that in the decades preceding the rise of Mussolini and Hitler, a body of classical elite theory emerged that also claimed to understand the workings of Realpolitik. Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto directed much of their critique against the optimism of socialists who believed in education and the goal of equality. They dismissed Marxism as a metaphysical theory that ignored the real workings of politics. In this respect, there are certain similarities between classical elite theories and recent post-modern critiques of class analysis and grand narratives. Max Weber, who ended up a quasi-liberal democrat, warned against the illusions of advocates of direct democracy. Not only would the experts replace the revolutionaries once the barricades came down but, he argued, each step towards greater equality would only lead to further bureaucratization. Likewise, Robert Michels’s disillusioning critique of the gap between leaders and rank-and-file members in the pre-1915 German Social Democratic Party ultimately ended, as we know, in the ‘iron law of oligarchy’ which he applied to all organizations.

In his book The Destruction of Reason, published in 1952, Lukács argued that the preoccupation of the elite theorists, of Nietzsche and Heidegger, and of other philosophical tendencies with irrationality, tragic existentialism, vitalism and cynicism all culminated in their support for fascism. [3] While there is a certain degree of truth in Lukács’ polemical thesis—for example, Pareto and Michels’s admiration of Mussolini, or Heidegger and Schmitt’s embrace of Nazism—we also know that elite theory led to a redefinition of liberal democratic theory in the form of Schumpeterian and American pluralist notions of a circulation of elites. [4]

These pluralist notions of power became, and largely remain, the foundation of middle-class conceptions of citizenship in the twentieth century. Despite serious flaws in Weber’s theory of bureaucracy and Michels’s iron law of oligarchy, no radical democrat can afford to ignore the fundamental issues raised by these theorists. Similarly, one does not have to agree with Mosca and Pareto’s ahistorical and stereotypical divisions of people into lions and foxes, or the supposed inherent genetic differences between the elite and the masses, to recognize the necessity of understanding back-room political machinations, the irrational aspects of voting behaviour and other forms of undemocratic practice in contemporary societies.

Over eighty years ago Michels warned that: ‘The problem of socialism is not merely a problem in economics… Socialism is also an administrative problem, a problem of democracy, and this not in the technical and administrative sphere alone, but also in the sphere of psychology.’ [5] For three decades, the New Left, the counter-culture and new social movements have struggled to develop democratic alternatives to Stalinist dictatorships, command planning, bureaucratic social democratic welfare states and ‘correct line’ revolutionary sects. Just as Lenin found Pareto’s critique of Marxism much more difficult to deal with than conventional bourgeois criticisms so, too, the new post-Marxist practitioners of Realpolitik theory challenge views and objectives widely held by socialists and new social movements.

Continue reading

Posted in History, State / Politics | Tagged , | 9 Comments

April 25…

Well, there’ve always been people going around saying someday the war will end. I say, you can’t be sure the war will ever end. Of course, it may have to pause occasionally–for breath, as it were–it can even meet with an accident–nothing on this earth is perfect–a war of which we could say it left nothing to be desired will probably never exist. A war can come to a sudden halt–from unforeseen causes–you can’t think of everything–a little oversight, and the war’s in the hole, and someone’s got to pull it out again! The someone is the Emperor or the King or the Pope. They’re such friends in need, the war has really nothing to worry about, it can look forward to a prosperous future.

~ Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage (1938)

Posted in Death, History, State / Politics, War on Terror | 11 Comments

The workers of Trades Hall are revolting?

Trades Hall staff battle their boss
Ben Schneiders
The Age
April 23, 2010

THE workers of Trades Hall are revolting. The emblem of trade unionism in Victoria faces its own industrial upheaval this morning with a picket line set to be formed from 9 o’clock near or inside the grand old Trades Hall building in Carlton.

Activists emailed a notice yesterday afternoon confirming a picket and asking for support from friends, relatives and ”anyone you know who may support us”. ”We need as many people as possible there,” they said.

It is believed at issue is a dispute over about six contract positions that were not renewed after project funding came to an end. Those who are to lose their jobs claim they are entitled to severance and redundancy pay as part of their enterprise agreement.

”All of us have a strong commitment to unionism but unfortunately are facing serious industrial issues with our union employer, the secretary of Trades Hall, Brian Boyd,” the email said. ”Our enterprise bargaining negotiations have been continually delayed and made extremely difficult because of the secretary’s refusal to participate in the negotiation process.”

They also claim that some contract positions have been shortened by three weeks.

Mr Boyd would not comment yesterday.

The workers claim he has ignored consultation processes and said the picket line would ”send a clear message” to him.

It is believed the picket is likely to form inside the Trades Hall building and that the union representing the workers, the Australian Services Union, is pursuing talks with the employer to try to resolve the issues.

The picket is targeting the Trades Hall executive meeting scheduled for this morning.

Posted in !nataS, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Whaddya got?

The Defense Of The Prophet (salaa Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam) / Theo Van Gogh – Have Matt Stone And Trey Parker Forgotten This? Campaign Etc.

We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them. Maybe they have not listened to this lecture before…

Lay Down Your Guns
Ben Pobjie
New Matilda
April 21, 2010

Laugh it up, infidels. Ben Pobjie is ready to step up and do what the UN and the Coalition of the Willing couldn’t: stop al-Qaeda.

See also : The Misery of Islam.

Posted in !nataS, Media, State / Politics | 1 Comment

Gold Coast Nazis endure sun, surf, seafood, steak, racist muzak and flogging by wet lettuce

“Neo-Nazi white supremacists” — a group which, one assumes, frequently clashes with neo-Nazi black supremacists — have had to endure almost two weeks’ worth of solid, investigative journalism. Despite these efforts — and the fact that copious amounts have been written about them for over two decades, most of which is easily available online — Blood & Honour and the Hammerskins remain as enigmatic at the end of this period as they were before it. Thus, although subjected to a barrage of questioning, the boneheads have kept stumm and, sadly, no reporter, even the most intrepid, has been able to penetrate the many layers of protection the swastika-lickers have been able to construct around their mighty redoubt on the Gold Coast.

one

Neo-Nazi festival outrages Gold Coast locals
Charlotte Glennie
ABC
April 20, 2010

Residents on the Gold Coast are furious after a group of neo-Nazi white supremacists were allowed to hold a gathering on the Queensland tourist strip over the weekend.

Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke condemned the gathering, organised by a group calling themselves the Southern Cross Hammerskins, but said he was powerless to stop it.

The boneheads organised the gathering alongside the international hate groups Blood and Honour and Crew 38 but very little else was known about it.

Anyone who was interested in going was merely told to email an organiser named Tattooed Aryan.

That person would then arrange to pick them up and take them to a secret location.

Gold Coast police monitored the weekend event and say it past [sic] without incident but they wouldn’t be interviewed about it and they would not say exactly where it took place.

They also would not comment on how many people turned up.

Councillor Clarke says while he was absolutely opposed to it happening, there was nothing he could do to stop it because it was held on private property.

“You can’t account for people’s political leanings, tastes, or stupidity, can you?” he said.

The gathering started about 7:00pm on Friday when a group of about 30 boneheads turned up at a suburban restaurant in Ashmore on the Gold Coast.

Some of the heavily tattooed and shaven-headed men displayed swastikas. Others were wearing t-shirts with the slogan “Blood and Honour”.

Blood and Honour is a global bonehead network which was banned in Germany in 2000 for spreading Nazi messages.

    The name ‘Blood and Honour’ is derived from the slogan ‘Blut und Ehre’, employed by members of the Hitler Yoof. The organisation B&H was established in 1987 by two dead English boneheads, Ian Stuart Donaldson and Nicky Crane.

Sociologist Alec Pemberton from the University of Sydney says Australians should be worried about the group’s activities here.

“These are white supremacists and they’ve actually been engaged in other countries in real acts of terror,” he said.

“[Oklahoma bomber] Timothy McVeigh and people like that, they’re along those lines.

“My point would always be, you are better off knowing about them, knowing where they are, what’s going on, than having them undercover and underground.”

    Oddly enough, the boneheads’ merchandising arm, 9 percent productions, sells copies of dead neo-Nazi William Pierce‘s The Turner Diaries, the fictional account of a bloody White uprising in the US said to have ‘inspired’ McVeigh’s attack upon the FBI building 15 years ago. (McVeigh was also ‘inspired’ by the FBI’s destruction of a compound belonging to the religious bizarros of the Branch Davidian sect at Waco, Texas, in 1993.) See also : Post-Hutaree: How Glenn Beck and Fox News spread the militia message, Eric Boehlert, April 6, 2010.

The so-called Hammered Music Festival was promoted as the first event of its kind on the Gold Coast in fliers and over the internet.

Promoters touted it as a weekend of “sun, surf and racialist musical mayhem”.

“These events aren’t just about music – they’re about networking and meeting new comrades – so we look forward to seeing ya [sic] and hopefully many other good white folk there,” one promoter said.

The ABC tried to contact a number of members of the bonehead groups who organised the event, but all requests were ignored.

However Blood and Honour’s online radio stream reveals that members often get together “to build a strong, white community”.

Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas is unimpressed.

“Those sort of attitudes of that sort of people are disgraceful and disgusting,” he said.

But the president of the Gold Coast North Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tony White, says there could be a case for the state government to go further if bonehead groups continue to meet on the Gold Coast and cause trouble.

“If it escalates, I think something maybe has got to be put to law by the State Government,” he said.

“We know that they can bring in these laws – they ban bikie gangs, so if they can ban bikie gangs, they can ban these outlaw Nazi gangs … if they start causing problems that is.”

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Neo-Nazi music festival goes ahead without incident
Amelia Bentlay
Brisbane Times
April 19, 2010

A music festival held by a white supremacist group went ahead without incident on the Gold Coast at the weekend, police say.

Local police expressed concern prior to the event, which was held at an unannounced location on Saturday.

Officers planned to patrol the area near the festival, but a police spokesperson said there were no incidents reported in relation to the event.

The Queensland chapter of the Southern Cross Hammer Skinheads had distributed flyers for the white pride gathering, Hammered, sponsored by Gold Coast neo-Nazi groups Crew 38 and Blood and Honour.

Advertising did not name the venue, but interested festival-goers were asked to email the organiser, known only as Tattooed Aryan.

The organiser would then give interested parties details of a “meet and greet” gathering at which the festival’s exact location would be disclosed, it said.

Tattooed Aryan promoted the event as a week of “sun, surf and racialist music” on the SCHS website.

SCHS claims its goals can be summed up by its mission: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children”.

    “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children” is a phrase coined by dead neo-Nazi David Lane. The slogan is usually referred to as ‘The 14 Words’, and is in usage by groups across the White nationalist spectrum. Lane, who died in prison in May 2007, will be remembered for his role in forming the Bruders Schweigen / Silent Brotherhood / The Order; ‘The Order’ is remembered for its assassination of radio DJ Alan Berg in 1984 (his crime was being loud-mouthed and Jewish). On a superbly bizarre note, David Lane’s ashes were divided into 14 after his death, and one portion was sent to Perth. Here, plasterer Paul Innes — currently moderator of the Australasian section of the Stormfront website — helped to oversee its dispersal.

Gold Coast City Council or police could not prevent the event, held on private property, from taking place.

An anti-racism protest was held on Saturday at The Spit on the Gold Coast, in protest of the SCHS festival.

The Gold Coast Bulletin reported a group of about 30 men and women wearing clothing with the slogan ‘Blood and Honour’ had dined at suburban restaurant Ashmore Steak and Seafood Restaurant on Friday night.

Staff reportedly seated other patrons away from the group, whose clothing bore swastikas.

The German branch of Blood and Honour was banned in Germany 10 years ago for spreading Nazi messages.

At that time, the German government said members of the group had been arrested after a series of attacks on foreigners inspired by music played at concerts organised by the group.

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, Music | Tagged , , , , | 62 Comments

Noam Chomsky @ Havens Center, April 8, 2010

For M…

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