Update (May 20): Two — not one — Bulgarian police have testified that Jock acted in self defence and in defence of a Romani. Originally, ten police officers did so, but eight later changed their testimony in court. Further, two pieces of video evidence have been referred to in court: one was ‘lost’. The prosecuting attorney offered a different (false) version of what was on the first piece of tape; the other video footage is still ‘lost’, however the presiding judge ordered for it to be found, and if not, for a report to be written as to what happened to it. To cut a long story short, Bulgarian police failed to secure the tape within a four-day period, and it was deleted. Subsequently, Jock’s lawyer requested that the HDD onto which the footage was recorded be examined. Somewhat miraculously, the HDD then up and exploded (the alleged result of a power surge). Then, when asked to have the HDD examined, it was instead — again, somewhat mysteriously — thrown into what is reportedly Bulgaria’s largest rubbish dump. Finally, it should be noted that, according to court documents, having been tested, there was no evidence of Jock having any traces of illicit drugs in his system, and he was recorded as having a blood alcohol reading of 0.1. Andrei, on the other hand, had a BAC of 0.29, and Anton a BAC reading of 0.19. In other words, of three individuals — Jock, Andrei and Anton — Jock was the most sober, and the only individual among a group of 20 arrested — this despite the fact that the mob attacked police when they attended the scene.]
For those of you coming in late…
Jock Palfreeman is an Australian citizen currently on remand in prison in Bulgaria. He stands accused of the murder of Andrey Monov and the attempted murder of Antoan Zahariev on the night of December 28, 2007. According to the prosecution, on that evening Jock launched an unprovoked attack upon Andrei and Antoan, possibly while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. According to Jock’s defence, Jock acted in self-defence, his action being prompted by an assault upon him by a large group of fascist football hooligans, one preceded by an assault by the same group upon a Romani.
Jock’s case is still making its way through the Bulgarian court system. At recent hearings, evidence has been produced by his defence which lends support to Jock’s claims. Thus:
One policeman has testified that police who were initially present at the scene informed him that Jock had gone to the defence of two Roma, under assault by a group of men, and that this same group then turned upon Jock.
Another witness has testified that he saw Jock running away from this group and that upon catching him members of the group proceded to beat him.
Video footage — which had previously been ‘lost’ — has been found and played in court. It shows a group of approximately 20 men chasing a Roma. Other footage shows the group throwing stones at the same person. Importantly, the footage was taken prior to the incident involving Jock in which Andrei was killed.
Also of interest: in February, local fascists organised a rally in Sofia, demanding that Jock be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. A local journalist who attended the rally was threatened by the protesters.
More generally, attacks against Roma have spiked in recent years, and much of the far right, in a number of European countries, have declared that the eradication of Roma from their territories is of utmost political importance. The anti-Roma campaigns include both propaganda and violence. (See : Fascism, the next generation, Anna Porter, Globe and Mail, May 9, 2009 ~versus~ May Day: Festival against racism.)
For further infos, see : The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), “an international public interest law organisation engaging in a range of activities aimed at combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma. The approach of the ERRC involves, in particular, strategic litigation, international advocacy, research and policy development, and training of Romani activists.”
For further information on Jock’s case, please see:
German neo-Nazis scream for ice cream… vanilla ice cream.
It was curious to note that on May Day in Germany a trades union rally was attacked by a mob of 300 or so neo-Nazis. An account of this incident is available by way of the Trotskyist World Socialist Web Site: Germany: Neo-Nazis attack May Day demonstration in Dortmund, May 9, 2009.
Two points of interest are that the social democrats on the march were seemingly unprepared to face the nutzi mob, while German authorities — despite having the obvious capacity to monitor any preparations for such an assault — appear to have allowed the attack to proceed: the policeman who kicked a Turkish demonstrator in the head while he lay prone on the ground perhaps embodying the attitude of the institution social democrats rely upon to protect them from the nutzi menace.
Approximately 300 neo-Nazis attacked a demonstration organised by the DGB, the German trade union federation, on May 1 as it set off from the square in front of the old synagogue towards Westphalia Park…
Armed with sticks, firecrackers, stones and lumps of clay containing glass fragments the Nazi thugs attacked a contingent of Kurds and Turks at the rear of the demonstration, injuring several people, including some police officers. One demonstrator was said to have received serious injuries after being hit by a bullet-like projectile.
The DGB demonstrators attempted to defend themselves. The relatively few police officers present, who were poorly equipped, tried to separate the two groups. Some of those on the DGB demonstration were treated with extreme brutality by the police, as is shown in photos published in the press and in one video, which clearly shows a prostrate Turkish demonstrator being kicked in the head by a policeman in full riot gear…
On the bright side, an action which would no doubt bring a smile to Tim Blair’s face.
Not unexpectedly, our correspondent infantilises the ‘misguided young “left” Autonome’ who engage in direct confrontation with the state and its little helpers the nutzis, but is less sanguine on the manner in which the German left might protect itself from attack at future public events — a certainty given the size and growing strength of militant fascist groups.
A communiqué from Autonome Antifa Freiburg, on the other hand, is a little more direct: Beat the Fascists wherever you meet them! (Schlagt die Faschisten, wo ihr sie trefft!) It identifies the ‘autonomous’ or ‘free’ nationalists — essentially, the extra-parliamentary far right — as being “a new form of right-wing radicalism in Germany”, one which first came to major media attention only last year (but which has been developing slowly for many more years). Aside from its rejection of close stewardship by the leading neo-Nazi party the NPD, the autonomists distinguish themselves by way of their aping the tactics of their ‘antifa’ opponents. The protection the German state provides their public assemblies, and the impatience many on the far right have with the arrogance and corruption of the NPD, have proven attractive to a number of racist youth in Germany. Given that, in one study, almost 5 per cent of boys ‘said they belonged to a “right-wing group or Kameradschaft“, the future is looking rosy for the ANs.
On the other hand, as some local punk conservatives have observed, ‘who gives a shit about Germany’, and if I’m so interested in Germany, ‘why don’t I go live there’? (On ‘conservative punk’, seeLiz Worth, ‘From the White House to the Punk House’, Punk Planet, No.72, March/April 2006; some Melbourne punks are also rather conservative.)
On May Day 2009 around 1,000 Nazis marched through Ulm (Baden-Württemberg) and Neu-Ulm (Bavaria) where they were confronted by 5,000 counter demonstrators. On this day there were further fascist demonstrations, with a total of 3,000 participating Nazis. Despite the militant resistance in Ulm, the only Nazi march that could be prevented was in Mainz. The march in Ulm was organised by the youth organisation of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), the young national democrats (JN). A broad spectrum of fascists participated at the march.
While in Ulm autonomous Antifa were subjected to excessive police violence, they were yet again betrayed by the “German Confederation of Trade Unions” (DGB) but received solidarity only from Kurdish as well as communist demonstrators. The DGB has yet again placed itself in the tradition of May Day 1933. Even then the Nazis attempted to transfigure the international workers day into the “day of national work”. On the 2nd of May 1933 they devoured the trade union movement while on the day before part of the trade Union movement went on the streets together with the Nazi Party. Every year the Nazis try to claim May Day for themselves so that its roots will be forgotten: The anarchist assembly in 1886 at the Haymarket in Chicago to promote a general strike for an 8 hour working day.
May Day 2008 became a signal for a new form of right-wing radicalism in Germany. For the first time the “Autonomous Nationalists” (AN) received attention from the media. It was then that 1,100 Nazis from a militant youth subculture marched through the Barmbeck district of the city Hamburg. Over 9,000 leftists gave resistance, the Nazis concentrated their attacks against members of the press as well as political opponents. The police were surprised and dumbfounded by the new quality of right wing militancy. Within the scene the attention resulted in a greater momentum in the attractiveness of the AN. The AN present themselves as a superficial right-wing rip-off of Autonomous Antifa and are attempting to develop a violent and modern image in order to attract young people. Although they are turning away from traditional repugnant Nazi images such as the narrow minded hair parting (aka Hitler) or the thuggish Nazi-skin, in order to appeal to a new generation, they have however failed to achieve the support of a broad spectrum necessary for a mass movement.
On the 12th of April 2008, 800 ANs had already marched through the town of Stolberg (North Rhine-Westphalia). The reason for this is that on the 4th of April a youth had been killed in a street fight after attending an NPD meeting. The largest rally so far by the Autonomous Nationalists occurred on the 6th of September 2008 when 1,200 Nazis, despite counter-protests from 1,800 left-wing demonstrators, were able to march undisturbed through the streets of Dortmund (North Rhine-Westphalia). The march was to commemorate the German invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939. The Nazis have been commemorating the start of the second world war for the past four years, cynically running under the motto of “national anti-war day”. On the 1st of May 2009 the AN marched once again through their stronghold Dortmund, this time 300 of them attacked a Trade union demonstration.
On the 13th of September 2008 1,100 Nazis took part in the 4th “Festival of the nations” (Fest der Völker/Fdv) in Altenburg (Thuringia), they were met by 2,000 left-wing counter-demonstrators. At the annual Rechtsrock (Rock against communism) festival, organised by the NPD, the bands which play mainly belong to the music network “Blood and Honour”. Hardcore Nazis from all over Europe travel to this festival which serves as an opportunity to improve right-wing networks. Many of the Nazis are independent of political parties organised into the so-called “Freien Kameradschaften” (independent camaraderie organisations). The aim of such large meetings, such as the “Festival of Nations”, is to construct so-called “nationally liberated zones” within larger cities, which in contrast to some rural areas will only exist for a limited time.
The largest Nazi demonstration in Germany, since the end of the second world war, took place on the 14th of February in Dresden (Saxony). On the anniversary of the allied bombing 6,500 Nazis, from all over Europe, marched through the city. Although for the first time this year, several thousand left-wing counter-demonstrators also attended, the revisionist event has managed to inscribe itself in the agenda of European Nazis. Just as the marches in Wunsiedel (Bavaria) to the grave of Rudolf Hess or the annual party of the NPD newspaper “Deutschen Stimme” (“German voice”) mostly in towns in East-Germany before, Dresden has become the main annual meeting of European Nazis.
The three main characteristics of the larger Nazi meetings is networking and organising, promoting self confidence in the internal ranks and demonstrating a potency to the outside world. The reason why the Nazis are meeting is unimportant, as long as they serve as an identification function for the whole Nazi spectrum. This is especially the case for historical revisionist themes, where mainly Nazi political strongholds are selected. It is not enough to just stop the larger Nazi meetings, the Nazis have shown that they are able to react flexibly to legal restrictions. Besides fighting against the Nazi ideology present within the society and reporting about Nazi activities it is completely necessary to smash the Nazi structures: every single Nazi has to be attacked by any means necessary.
In Australia, the ‘autonomous nationalists’ have established a tiny foothold among the far right, with the only development of any real significance of late being the announcement of an informal alliance between the ‘New Right’ and boneheads belonging to ‘Volksfront Australia’. The chief architect, in both cases, is the Sydney businessman, German-born ex-NPD member Welf Herfurth. Presumably, the handful of boneheads belonging to Volksfront are intended to supplement the teenyboppers Welf has assembled around the banner of the New Right.
The local Blood & Honour franchise apparently held a gig on April 25 in Perth. Presumably, given media attention and political pressure from the local ‘ethnic’ lobby, police monitored the event, but were otherwise happy to ensure that there was no ‘trouble’. At some point, more details will be forthcoming, but being 2,700kms away from the city in which the gig was held makes it a little difficult to ascertain much of anything.
Bonus!
In Athens, Greece, 300 (100?) or so fascists belonging to Chryssi Avghi (‘Golden Dawn’) have enjoyed whinging and whining in public about 500 or so immigrant workers currently squatting a building in the city. Despite being fuckwits, bums and lowlifes, the ‘foreign’ squatters were joined in attacking the pea-brained racists by a group of anarchists, while other leftists also counter-demonstrated. Naturally, police had to intervene in order to ensure the fascists were able to beat at least some immigrants before making a safe exit; sadly, it appears that a number of the squatters were injured during the confrontation, although whether by fascists in uniform or out of uniform is not known [BBC video]. Further disco on the collaborative efforts of Greek neo-Nazis and Greek police is available @ the blog clandestinenglish: Police and Neo-Nazi scum collaborate once more in Athens…, May 10, 2009.
…The neo-nazis when obstructed from doing the demo started beating randomly immigrants with iron bars in Menandrou street. The police all the time looked but not intervened. Their collaboration got even tighter when the neo-nazis moved towards their headquarters, which is located near the Court of Appeals building at Socratous Street. Under the protection of the riot police, from their hq’s roof and then from the street, the neo-nazis attacked the building where immigrants find refuge with stones and flash and sound grenades. The neo-nazis were all wearing helmets, this at a time when in Greece the state attempts to illegalise hoods in protests. They tried to invade the building but the immigrants defended it with stones. Four protestors and many immigrants were injured. A girl was arrested…
On the history of the Wobblies (IWW) in Australia, see Verity Burgmann’s Revolutionary Industrial Unionism: The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 1995 and Frank Cain’s The Wobblies At War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Spectrum, Melbourne, 1993. The contemporary IWW has a website here.
Denis O’Hearn makes reference to the continuing relevance of the ideas of The Anarchist Formerly Known as Prince Peter Kropotkin, in particular those contained in his classic 1902 text Mutual Aid. Harry Cleaver, author of Reading Capital Politically, has written an interesting essay on Kropotkin and autonomist Marxism, ‘Kropotkin, Self-valorization and the Crisis of Marxism’. Also of note in this context is Andrew Giles-Peters‘ translation of ‘Ten Theses on Marxism Today’ by Karl Korsch, originally published in Telos, Winter 1975/6, and ‘Karl Korsch: A Marxist Friend of Anarchism’, originally published in Red & Black, No.5, 1973. On Karl Korsch, see Douglas Kellner, editor, Karl Korsch: Revolutionary Theory, University of Texas Press, Austin & London, 1974 (PDF). On Ireland, prisons and anarchism, seeJohn McGuffin (1942 – 2002).
Cindy Milstein (see : Cindy Milstein on Anarchism, Planes For Baskets, April 20, 2009) rejects what she regards as being the false divide between anarchism on the one hand and Marxism on the other, and prefers to locate herself (and anarchism) within a broader left-libertarian tradition — one which is opposed to ‘authoritarian socialism’. In this context, she cites Gustav Landauer’s (1870–1919) essay ‘For Socialism’ (Aufruf zum Sozialismus, 1911; English translation by David J. Parent, Telos Press, 1978) and recommends the overview of these currents provided by Richard Gombin in The Origins of Modern Leftism (first published as Les Origines du gauchisme (Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1971); English translation by Michael K. Perl, published by Penguin (London, 1975): “…having consigned Marxism-Leninism to the ideological dustbin of history, the modern leftism theory claims to be the expression of current struggle. In this sense, it no longer represents one radical utopia among others, but the theory of a revolutionary movement in full flood.”)
Ziga Vodovnik takes note of the craptastic London conference On the Idea of Communism, at which cryptoneo-Leninist and philosophical superstar Slavoj Žižek was a keynote speaker. (On Žižek, see : Don’t know what i want, But i know how to get it, March 6, 2008 | Resistance is Utile: Critchley responds to Zizek (Harper’s Review, May 2008), May 16, 2008 | Uncle Hugo & the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, February 12, 2009.) Further, that while academic conferences such as the Left Forum may continue to be dominated by ‘Marxist’ and (other) ‘social democratic’ discourses, there is — at least in Europe — a backlash by the authoritarian Left, spearheaded by professional chatterers such as Žižek, with the potential to seriously damage radical social movements. On the relationship between anarchism and Marxism, Ziga also quotes from a letter of Proudhon’s to Mister Marx (1846):
“By all means let us work together to discover the laws of society, the ways in which these laws are realised and the process by which we are able to discover them; but, for God´s sake! (sic!), when we have demolished all a priori dogmas, do not let us think of indoctrinating the people in our turn”; Proudhon points out that he does not want to act like Luther, who replaced the catholic theology by a “protestant theology”. Proudhon “wholeheartedly” consents to presenting all opinions, “let us have a good and honest polemic; let us set the world an example of wise and far-sighted tolerance, but, simply because we are the avant-garde of a movement, let us not instigate a new intolerance, let us not set ourselves up as the apostles of a new religion, even if it be the religion of logic, or of reason. Let us welcome and encourage all protests, let us get rid of all exclusiveness and all mysticism. Let us never consider any question exhausted, and when we have used our very last argument, let us begin again, if necessary, with eloquence and irony. On this condition I will join your association with pleasure, otherwise I will not!” ~ ‘Marx-Proudhon: Their Exchange of Letters in 1846; On an episode of world-historical importance’, Lutz Roemheld, Democracy & Nature, Vol.6, No.1, March 2000.
Ziga also draws attention to Maurice Brinton’s For Workers’ Power (Edited by David Goodway, AK Press, 2004) and David Goodway (editor), For Anarchism: history, theory, and practice, Routledge, 1989. Brinton (aka Chris Pallis: 1923–2005) was an excellent libertarian writer; the other volume is equally interesting.
Note that all of the members of the audience who responded to the panel are male; one of whom makes the point that, in addition to anarchism, other liberatory ideas and movements — including but obviously not limited to feminism and the women’s movement(s); queer theory; ecological re-visionings, indigenous struggles and critical race theory — have embraced some form of ‘prefigurative politics’, antagonism to social hierarchies, and made important contributions to the articulation of a ‘revolutionary praxis’. The latest volume of Robert Graham’s anthology of anarchism further extends anarchist writing beyond European borders and, like many more recent treatments, also locates ‘The Anarchist Current’ among a diversity of movements, and in an array of different social contexts. (See : David Graeber, ‘The New Anarchists’, New Left Review 13, January-February 2002: “Is the ‘anti-globalization movement’ anything of the kind? Active resistance is true globalization, David Graeber maintains, and its repertoire of forms is currently coming from the arsenal of a reinvented anarchism.”)
Authoritarian Marxism is beaten to a pulp in An Anarchist FAQ; as for a synthesis of anarchism and Marxism, French writer Daniel Guérin (1904-1988) had a good honest crack. Also worth examining are Karl Marx and the Anarchists by Paul Thomas (Routledge, 1980) and Change the World Without Taking Power by John Holloway; which, despite basically dismissing anarchism, as indicated by its title, has a very strong libertarian flavour (Pluto Press, 2002) — see also‘A critique of John Holloway’s Change the World Without Taking Power‘ by Colm McNaughton (originally published in Capital & Class, June 2008 but subsequently liberated).
Finally, libcom.org has a wonderful library of writings on anarchism, Marxism, and a whole lot more besides; for communism is also ace; there are an abundance of other materials available for free online, links to some of which may be found in the sidebar.
ezln military base occupation 2001 (chiapas mexico)
…[Socialism] has roots. Coming back to the United States, it has very strong roots in the American working class movements. So if you go back to, say, the 1850s, the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, right around the area where I live, in Eastern Massachusetts, in the textile plants and so on, the people working on those plants were, in part, young women coming off the farm. They were called “factory girls,” the women from the farms who worked in the textile plants. Some of them were Irish, immigrants in Boston and that group of people. They had an extremely rich and interesting culture. They’re kind of like my uncle who never went past fourth grade — very educated, reading modern literature. They didn’t bother with European radicalism, that had no effect on them, but the general literary culture, they were very much a part of. And they developed their own conceptions of how the world ought to be organized.
They had their own newspapers. In fact, the period of the freest press in the United States was probably around the 1850s. In the 1850s, the scale of the popular press, meaning run by the factory girls in Lowell and so on, was on the scale of the commercial press or even greater. These were independent newspapers — a lot of interesting scholarship on them, if you can read them now. They [arose] spontaneously, without any background. [The writers had] never heard of Marx or Bakunin or anyone else; they developed the same ideas. From their point of view, what they called “wage slavery,” renting yourself to an owner, was not very different from the chattel slavery that they were fighting a civil war about. You have to recall that in the mid-nineteenth century, that was a common view in the United States — for example, the position of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln’s position. It’s not an odd view, that there isn’t much difference between selling yourself and renting yourself. So the idea of renting yourself, meaning working for wages, was degrading. It was an attack on your personal integrity. They despised the industrial system that was developing, that was destroying their culture, destroying their independence, their individuality, constraining them to be subordinate to masters.
There was a tradition of what was called Republicanism in the United States. We’re free people, you know, the first free people in the world. This was destroying and undermining that freedom. This was the core of the labor movement all over, and included in it was the assumption, just taken for granted, that “those who work in the mills should own them.” In fact, one of the their main slogans, I’ll just quote it, was they condemned what they called the “new spirit of the age: gain wealth, forgetting all but self.” That new spirit, that you should only be interested in gaining wealth and forgetting about your relations to other people, they regarded it as a violation of fundamental human nature, and a degrading idea.
That was a strong, rich American culture, which was crushed by violence. The United States has a very violent labor history, much more so than Europe. It was wiped out over a long period, with extreme violence. By the time it picked up again in the 1930s, that’s when I personally came into the tail end of it. After the Second World War it was crushed. By now, it’s forgotten. But it’s very real. I don’t really think it’s forgotten, I think it’s just below the surface in people’s consciousness…
For what it’s worth, below are a few events taking place in Melbourne in the upcoming fortnight which you may wanna attend…
Rally for Tasmania’s Old-Growth Wednesday, May 13, 3pm
Federation Square, Melbourne
Featuring speakers, music, stalls, and a march through the CBD from 5pm.
The Florentine & Weld Valley blockades in Tasmania have been raided and destroyed in the past week. Logging is imminent! If you can’t get to Tasmania come to this rally and SHOW YOUR SUPPORT for the forests and the blockaders. Invite your friends and family, tell everyone, let’s make our message loud and clear!
Mexico Open Forum Thursday, May 14, 7pm
Uniting Church, 251 High Street, Northcote
Freedom for Atenco: the local launch of an international campaign seeking freedom for political prisoners in Atenco. Presenting the documentary Femicide: The Murder of Women in Juárez. Keynote speakers include Colm McNaughton, an award-winning radio documentary producer, who will be discussing his upcoming project in and about the city of Juárez in Mexico.
The Latin American Solidarity Network / Red de Solidaridad con los Pueblos Latinoamericanos (LASNET) is a crucial source of infos, and regularly organises events in Melbourne to promote inter-continental solidarity.
October 15th Solidarity in the Kulin Nations Friday, May 15, 1pm
NZ Settler Consulate, 350 Collins Street, Melbourne
“The October 15th defendants will be appearing in the (New Zealand) High Court on May 15th, where they will once again have to plead guilty or not guilty. The court case has been moved to the High Court as the police are charging several of the defendants with “participating in an organised criminal group”. The police are doing this in an attempt to salvage some credibility after the original terrorism charges were not allowed to go forward. This will also be exactly one-and-a-half years since the state’s ‘terror’ raids and invasion of the defendant’s homes and the community of Ruatoki in 2007…
Remember the state terrorism and support Tino Tangatiratanga and Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe! Show your solidarity Please bring banners, placards and flags.
The struggle continues! Ka whawhai tonu matou!”
End Israeli Apartheid Friday, May 15, 5.30pm
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne
Rally to demand an end to the occupation.
“The 15th of May 2009 marks 61 years of the Palestinian Nakba (‘Catastrophe’). In 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland by Zionist forces, with more than 500 Palestinian villages depopulated and destroyed. Today more than 7 million Palestinian refugees, the largest refugee community in the world, are living in exile from their homeland, dispersed around the world…”
Daggy Disco! Saturday, May 23, 9pm
Octo Bar, 911 High St, Thornbury
The original and the best! Featuring disco classics from the ’70s and ’80s and more recent bootylicious tunes being spun by Old Skool DJs War Bastard 90210, Grim Sim and Alice and New Kids Sam and Anna. Also featuring b u b b l e s and smoke machines!
A benefit for the Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre (62 St Georges Rd, Northcote) and the Black Star PA Collective: $10 workers / $8 shirkers.
West Papua Info Night Thursday, June 4, 7pm
Uniting Church, 251 High St, Northcote
West Papua, or ‘Irian Jaya’, is under Indonesian military dictatorship. Indonesia extorts billions of dollars of worth of resources from West Papua, with no respect for landowners, who live in constant fear for their lives, have no rights, and have been coerced by one colonial exploiter after another.
Films screening: Raising West Papua & Rainforest Warriors, with performances by Pataphysics (hip hop) / Tabura (traditional West Papuan music) / Expressive Women’s Choir (directed by Bronwyn Calcutt) and featuring a snacks and cake stall: $12 workers / $8 shirkers.
“Expressive Women’s Choir is open to all women in the community. Our aim is to bring women together through singing and sharing our stories. We build a repertoire of songs relevant to the group and weave these together with our stories in community performances. No singing experience is necessary…”
Profit is the key measure of our success. Our focus on profit never wavers, but we know that without the dedication of our people, our sustained positive performance on our range of projects and our ability to continually build partnerships with our clients, our staff and the communities within which we revolve, projects will not be delivered.
At John Holland, our people, performance and partnerships ensure that we deliver the very best profit.
Leighton reports increased operating profit and work in hand at record $37.5 billion
February 12, 2009
The directors of Leighton Holdings Limited today announced a 20% increase in pre-tax operating profit before impairments to $387m but a 56% decrease in after tax Group profit to $111m due to the recognition of $239m of pre-tax asset impairments. A fully franked dividend of 60 cents per share was also announced by the directors versus a 50% franked interim dividend of 60 cents last year…
What price a life? In the case of John Holland, no more than $242,000.
The family of Mark McCallum, a rigger and crane driver killed at Dalrymple Bay Coal terminal last year, is worried that his employer John Holland will not face justice.
CONSTRUCTION giant John Holland is facing court over the death of Mark McCallum, 34, at Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal last year.
Mr McCallum was killed in early May, 2008, crushed by industrial machinery as he worked on the port’s expansion.
Comcare, a Federal Government department which investigates and prosecutes breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, has taken the action that could lead to a maximum fine of $242,000…
Comcare was also still investigating John Holland over the deaths of two Filipino nationals who were killed when the troop carrier in which they were travelling rolled as they travelled to the Nebo MAC camp…
Like other corporate criminals, John Holland has form.
Established in 1949 by Sir John Holland, and now a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings, the company (along with others) covered itself in glory on October 15, 1970, when the West Gate Bridge collapsed, killing 35 workers and injuring many others — the worst industrial ‘accident’ in Victorian history. The Royal Commission into the collapse appears to have been quite generous in its attribution of responsibility. Or at least, this is what is stated in the extract the Victorian Government kindly provides:
…The commission was careful to examine the role each party played in the tragedy. It concluded:
‘The disaster which occurred … and the tragedy of the 35 deaths was utterly unnecessary. That it should have been allowed to happen was inexcusable. There was no sudden onslaught of natural forces, no unexpected failure of new or untested material.
The reasons for the collapse are to be found in the acts and omissions of those entrusted with building a bridge of a new and highly sophisticated design.
The various companies who supplied the materials used were not shown to be in any way at fault, and must be held blameless. However, among those engaged upon the design and construction of the steel spans there were mistakes, miscalculations, errors of judgement, failure of communication and sheer inefficiency. In greater or less degree, the Authority itself, the designers, the contractors, even the labour engaged in the work, must all take some part of the blame.’
~ Report of Royal Commission into the failure of West Gate Bridge, VPRS 2591/P0, unit 14
The Authority, the contractors and the labourers were to blame. Naturally, no names are mentioned.
Another extract — provided courtesy of The West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee and taken from the introduction to the Commission’s report — is more specific:
To attribute the failure of the bridge to this single action of removing bolts would be entirely misleading. In our opinion, the sources of the failure lie much further back; they arise from two main causes.
Primarily the designers of this major bridge, FF & P (Freeman Fox and Partners) failed altogether to give a proper and careful regard to the process of structural design. They failed also to give a proper check to the safety of the erection proposals put forward by the original contractors, WSC (World Services and Construction Pty Ltd). In consequence, the margins of safety for the bridge were inadequate during erection; they would also have been inadequate in the service condition had the bridge been completed.
A secondary cause leading to the disaster was the unusual method proposed by WSC for the erection of spans 10-11 and 14-15. This erection method, if it was to be successful, required more than usual care on the part of the contractor and a consequential responsibility on the consultants to ensure that such care was indeed exercised. Neither contractor, WSC nor later JHC (John Holland & Co), appears to have appreciated this need for great care, while the consultants FF & P, failed in their duty to prevent the contractor from using procedures liable to be dangerous.
Recently, major (re-)construction work has (re-)commenced on the Bridge, with the main contractor being John Holland. Word on the street is that the current structure is bound to fail, and to avert a second disaster at some unknown point in the future, the Bridge requires further work. Be that as it may, John Holland, with the full support of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner (ABCC), has decided in its inestimable wisdom to go on the warpath against the Construction division of the CFMEU, one of a handful of ‘progressive’ union formations in Australia.
The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC)
The ABCC was formally established on October 1, 2005:
The ABCC was established and provided with powers to enforce workplace laws, to address the problems that the building and construction industry encounters.
The ABCC provides a national service, with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart. Its key objective is to ensure that workplace relations laws are enforced in building and construction industry workplaces. The ABCC also promotes proper conduct through educating industry participants on their rights and obligations.
The ABCC’s establishment followed the HoWARd Government’s institution of the Cole Royal Commission in August 2001. Its official purpose was “to enquire into and report on the nature, extent and effect of any unlawful or otherwise inappropriate conduct in the building and construction industry”. Unofficially, both the Commission and the ABCC formed (and in the case of the ABCC still forms) part of the HoWARd Government’s campaign to destroy or disrupt ‘militant’ (read: effective) trades unionism, and the labour movement more generally.
A key dimension in the class war, obviously.
One of the first shots fired in this campaign was directed at the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) in 1998, just two years after HoWARd was first elected. The conspiracy to smash the MUA — and it was a conspiracy — was later dramatised by the ABC in the docu-drama Bastard Boys (2007). Other accounts of the ‘War on the Waterfront’ include a compilation of articles published by the MUA and Tom Bramble’s lengthy essay written on behalf of the Brisbane Defend Our Unions Committee (October 1998).
Bridge Building and Bad Behaviour
While John Holland faces fines of up to $242,000 for breaches of OHS that lead to the death of a worker, the CFMEU (and AMWU) could be penalised twice that amount for taking industrial action: the company’s preference is to deal directly with Australia’s Worst Union (AWU), which has expressed its willingness to trade away conditions in exchange for coverage.
Two unions could be forced to accept an unprecedented $500,000 bad behaviour clause in an agreement to end a costly industrial dispute at the West Gate Bridge.
Senior industrial relations sources described the proposed agreement, which parties said was moving closer to completion, as “highly unusual”. One union leader said it could set a damaging precedent for unions…
…You pass by the pickets on the front gate
You don’t care that you’re letting down your mates
I don’t know how you dare to show your face
Scum like you are a disgrace
Deserting your mates sucking up to the boss
Has all your self respect been lost?
You’re only thinking of the money thinking of yourself
Well you’re a dirty scab and you can go to hell…
*The following is an account of dishpig involvement in the 1998 MUA dispute:
On April 7th 1998 MUA workers were run off the Swanston Docks of Melbourne by balaclavaed thugs with dogs… in a military and brutal manner… as part of an attempt by the company [Patrick] to break the union hold on the waterfront by sacking the union workforce and using scab labour from the ranks of the desperate and stupid. Earlier in January a similar event happened on Webb Dock to facilitate the setting up of an “alternative” workforce.
The immediate response of the union was to set up picket lines bringing the transit of goods from the main docks of Melbourne (and around Australia) to a halt…
With the threat of forceful breaking of the picket line on April 18th the call went out and by the time Victoria’s Finest arrive to do their duty they find 4–5000 people gathered in support of the MUA dockers determined that it wasn’t gonna happen…
Totally outnumbered the police stand off, making a few optimistic feints towards the crowd, but never really seriously trying it on…
The feeling is electric… spiky punks stand and links arms with burly wharfies on one side and grannies on the other… searchlights try and pick their way through the swathes of thick smoke pouring from the fires lit to warm ourselves as the news and police choppers circle overhead…
With the arrival of several hundred building workers at 7am on the Saturday morning the police finally admit defeat and withdraw to lick their figurative wounds and wait for further orders…
As the day goes on people come and people go… the numbers up and down but never less than a few thousand with the comforting promise of doubling that again at the first sign of trouble… barricades are fortified, awnings and tents spring up about the place as people settle in to wait it out…
After a day of false alarms and drill after drill of linking arms to hold the line we (Dishpigs and others) leave with the general call for food ringing in our ears… promising to return the next day.
So come noon Sunday a few of us arrive in the (now dead but fondly remembered) Food Not Bombs van… equipped with a huge pot of soup and enough to make another…
Quickly setting up a table and and setting to on the vegies it was not long before the delicious aroma of the soup drew takers… cold and hungry from the long night…
From such small beginnings grew Food Not Scabs, a collective made up of DishPigs, Food Not Bombers and others, which fed that multitude of unionists and supporters 24 hours a day for going on 4 weeks.
We soon got into the swing of it… churning out delicious soup after delicious soup along with a few vege stews and with considerable respectful remembrance to Rocky who in that first 24 hours ran a marathon of stir fries without pause…
Amazed at our ability to operate non-stop providing good sustaining food the wharfies and other unionists and supporters couldn’t do enuff for us… from a rickety trestle table with a single burner and a handful of bowls and cups, Food Not Scabs soon found itself in a fully-equipped kitchen tent with a new burner and as much cooking materials and utensils as we wanted… Having a solid base became more and more important and most of us decided to move in for the duration with some living in the dead van whilst others slept under the cover of the infamous PTU tent which tended to act more like a windsock cum weather balloon than a shelter… nevertheless it did keep the sun off heh heh.
As time went on FNS very quickly became a well-organised force with a loose roster, regular supplies being brought in by the unions or donated by supporters, and enuff structure to be able to organise daily food drops to the other smaller pickets holding the lesser gates around the docks, as well as sending a bit of food to Webb Dock from time to time…
For three and a half weeks we fed people from all walks of life… wharfies, retired, kids, unemployed and professionals… all coming down to stand beside the MUA; to fight for their own right to organise and be unionised… through supporting the rights of the waterside workers. As it was in the 1930s people were quick to see the significance of the waterside dispute and recognise that a defeat for the wharfies would mean a long-ranging defeat for us all…
And throughout it all Food Not Scabs cooked
and cooked
and cooked
…and even took up organising entertainment with various gigs put on over the time to entertain the picketers and keep up the public awareness as well as attract people to come down in support.
We marched beside the MUA at the May Day rally (with much cynical humour) listening to the brown-nosing politicians always found at the picket line looking for cheap points. We linked arms at the sight of trouble and attended the drills. We even mounted a campaign against the use of disposable utensils… but ALWAYS our biggest concern was whether there was any soup.
Sadly what should have been a resounding victory for workers that would have sent the company dogs howling to their respective kennels was twisted, manipulated and finally sold out, with an agreement to sell off another 600 jobs and allow non-union labour into the maintenance and cleaning positions… the thin edge of a malicious wedge which will eventually destroy one of the last remaining stronghold of militant unionism…
“Perhaps our greatest challenge and achievement has been the successful reform of the Australian waterfront: Patrick’s employees now embrace the new culture of productivity and service. Continuous improvements in work practices will remain our primary focus – a happy workforce equal better performance and better client service.”
Regardless of the abysmal sellout, many good and encouraging things came from the 30 odd days we gathered at the docks… the feeling of unity, the breaking down of false barriers between sections of the community, and even different unions themselves, and the level of autonomous co-operation that grew from the dock gates occupation is something not seen since the days of the tramways dispute or the deregistration of the BLF. Strong bonds were forged between union and community… employed and unemployed… bonds that will last and add further strength to the struggles that surely lie ahead…
Food Not Scabs itself was hilarious… an ever-evolving experiment in a return to propaganda by deed… it grew faster than we could ever have imagined… from a symbolic pot of soup on a old grey Sunday, Food Not Scabs became one of the central meeting points for cold weary and hungry picketers… marathon soup sessions would take place overnight… pots steaming in the midnight hours and rumours of cooks that never slept…
Incredibly successful in it own right, providing essential food to the picket line… Food Not Scabs was also a demonstration of spontaneous collectivity… providing ourselves with a chance to practice what we preach… and others an example of our ideas in action…
Food Not Scabs also provided food to picketers during an industrial dispute at the Australian Dyeing Company in 1999: the Clifton Hill factory closed its doors at the end of 2006, and the factory was demolished at the end of 2007.
A group of 40 Kiwi anarchists — 20 of which are known by name — have been spotted in Milwaukee. In their ongoing Quest To Destroy Western Civilization And All That Is Good And Decent, they have unleashed a wave of terror on the city, the violence a product of years of schooling in The Noble Art of Self-Defence.
MILWAUKEE – Broken glass littered the sidewalks in the North Avenue area near Prospect and Farwell, as group of suspected anarchists left their mark in that section of Milwaukee’s east side.
The vandals are accused of breaking windows late Friday night at a U.S. Bank Building, Whole Foods Market, Bruegger’s Bagels, and Qdoba.
Witnesses told police that a group of about 20-30 vandals dressed in black and wearing masks committed the vandalism.
Police are looking into whether the damage was related to a protest earlier in the evening by a group of self-titled “anarchists” in the Riverwest area.
MILWAUKEE — A UW-Milwaukee teaching assistant and suspected anarchist was arrested as part of a group dressed like ninjas that carried out a vandalism spree on Milwaukee’ s East Side.
Witnesses saw 20 to 30 people dressed in black, breaking windows…
[A] witness followed the group as they vandalized businesses, eventually watching them get into a car. Police tracked the vehicle’s plates to a UWM teaching assistant.
During a search of the suspect’s Riverwest apartment, police uncovered black clothing including hooded sweatshirts and gloves. Investigators also found anarchist literature and information about sling shots.
UWM lists the 23-year-old as a member of the journalism department…
The suspect’s attorney released this statement: “No guns, no drugs, no explosive making materials were found. A sling shot and a book seem to be a long stretch to making the assumption of anarchist activities”.
MILWAUKEE–Surveillance video shows several suspects destroying dozens of brand new cars parked on the Don Jacobs car lot at night. The damage is severe… broken windows, ripped interiors, dents, and smashed windshields.
“We can’t believe how much damage they did,” Don Jacobs General Manager Andy Haros said.
Jacobs says the dealership received a lot of tip calls after the story first aired Monday, including one tip that may lead right to the vandals’ front door.
“They gave us names, they gave us addresses, and I turned that over to police right away. They’re interviewing them today,” he said. “The oldest child was 14 years old, the youngest was eight.”
Haros said the vandals destroyed at least 26 brand new cars. With repairs and deductibles on each car starting at $2,500, the damage adds up to nearly $100,000. That leaves Haros wondering how the company will pay for it. And to top it off, nothing was stolen. The damage was strictly destructive.
“A lot of money will be wasted for someone to get their kicks and have some fun. It’s sad,” Haros said.
Surveillance video shows the vandals coming into the gated lot after bending the fence. They used pieces of old asphalt and large rocks to do the damage. Haros suspects that area teens are to blame for the damage, but he said, in this economy even kids need to realize how much the damage hurts.
“People are going to end up getting pay cuts or something because we have to pay for this stuff,” Haros said…
Over @ Leftwrites, Tony Hartin — in Scientific Socialism for the dull — welcomes a revival of interest in Marx & Engels. Sadly, Leftwrites does not welcome my commentary — first accepting and then rejecting my words of wisdom. Ah well. Probably just a glitch in Teh Matrix. Anyway:
Includes a video of a presentation by some bloke called Harjit Singh Gill at the 2009 Left Forum, and a dialogue between Harjit and Joshua Stephens.
Arguably one of the rising stars of north american anarchism, Harj recently sealed his status as someone to watch in a panel (in somewhat hostile territory, even) on Prefigurative Politics at the Left Forum, and totally wrecked house. Definitely check out the video below, and follow his writing at Planes for Baskets (he’s far better about staying on top of this blog business than I could ever hope to be).
In the classic anti-imperialist film, The Battle of Algiers there occurs a moment at which a leader of the FLN, Ben M’Hidi, is captured by the French occupying military forces and given a press conference, an opportunity for the French military to attempt to glorify their capture.
During the press conference one of the reporters asks M’Hidi why it isn’t cowardly to have bombs carried in baskets to public places by Muslim women.
M’Hidi quite sensibly replies, “Is it any less cowardly to bomb villages from planes with napalm? Give us your planes and we’ll give you our baskets.”
Or as The Celibate Rifles sang, weren’t the IRA just an army that delivered bombs by hand?
…In summary, the criminal law in this State does not recognise a crime of genocide. Such a crime is not recognised at common law or under the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) or any other statute at this point in time. In England genocide constitutes a crime under specific legislation, namely, the Genocide Act 1969. The English legislation specifically creates an offence of genocide if a person commits any act falling within the definition of “genocide” in Article II of the Genocide Convention. Under Article II genocide is defined as meaning specific acts committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethical, racial or religious group by one of the following acts:
(a) killing members of the group;
(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
45. An equivalent provision to the Genocide Act (UK) does not exist in the State of Victoria. In my view, therefore, genocide is not recognised at this time as part of criminal law in this State. Even so, having considered the exhibits in support of the appellant’s case I do not consider he is able to make an arguable case on the material of an intent on the part of the respondent such as to satisfy the intent contemplated by Article II of the Convention. The materials, in part, tell of a tragic time in the history of this State but of itself such materials cannot demonstrate on the necessary basis an intent of the respondent.
46. Insofar as it is necessary for me to do so I consider that genocide is not recognised as part of domestic law in any event in this State in so finding I rely upon and adopt the principles expressed by Wilcox and Whitlam JJ in Nulyarimma and Buzzacott and Nyland J in Sumner. It follows that I consider that the appellant has failed to make out a prima facie case and accordingly the appeal from the Master is dismissed.
Recorded at Artec Sound Vision Productions, South Australia, February/March 1989.
Released on Dominator Records.
John Scott — Guitar/Vocals | Kim Scott — Bass | Campbell Robinson — Drums.
Feeling like a man
Let’s go for a ride
Sweet memories will fade
When you’re torn apart inside
Welcome home hero
Battlesick loner
With your head in your hands
Could be no-one understands
This ride’s the wrong way
I don’t wanna be saved!
Seeing what you see
Stoned in your dreams
Going home alone
Always the same song
I don’t wanna be saved! (x4)
Welcome home hero
Battlesick loner
Everything will burn
I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe
BEATNIGS
Television EP (Alternative Tentacles) 1988 The Beatnigs (Insight/Alternative Tentacles) 1988
On their debut album, this striking San Francisco quintet explodes in a tight and danceable riot of industrial percussion, vocals and tape manipulations. According to an enclosed booklet (“Aural Instruction Manual”), the word “nig” is defined as “a positive acronym…[it] has taken on a universal meaning in describing all oppressed people who have actively taken a stand against those who perpetuate ethnic notions and discriminate on the basis of them.” Assailing “Television” (the medium, not the band), poverty and hunger (“Burritos”), the “CIA” and South Africa (“Control”), the Beatnigs cross Devo, Test Dept. and the Dead Kennedys in a brilliant, original coincidence of extremist musical ideas and radical politics. “Television” was subsequently given a pair of head-spinning remixes by Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail and Mark Stewart and issued on a four-version 12-inch.
Beatnigs leader Michael Franti went on to front the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and then Spearhead in the ’90s.
[Ira Robbins]
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
