Crapitalism, actually

Posted on September 27, 2008 by @ndy

The failure of one of America’s biggest retail banks undermined confidence in a fresh clutch of US household names today as investors digested the implications of the biggest collapse of a high-street bank on record. Washington Mutual, which was bought by the banking giant JP Morgan for $1.9bn after being seized by the US authorities late yesterday, had a stockpile of controversial mortgages known as “option ARMs” that allow borrowers huge flexibility in setting the level of their own repayments. While popular at the height of America’s housing boom, the mortgages have proven to be a huge liability for banks and other firms known to have exposure to them were struggling to stem an erosion in credibility…

But never fear: George II is here:

US lawmakers battle to salvage bailout, WASHINGTON (AFP) — US congressional leaders are back in talks Saturday to cobble a massive financial sector rescue deal as the White House called for urgent action and a new bank failure added to the gloom… “You were being asked to choose between financial meltdown on the one hand and taxpayer bankruptcy and the road to socialism on the other and you were told do it in 24 hours,” Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas was quoted by The New York Times as complaining. With lawmakers rolling up their sleeves to get back to work after days of drama and confusion, hopes were high that an accord could be forged by the time markets open on Monday. Bush voiced confidence to visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. “I told him the plan is big enough to make a difference and I believe it is going to be passed,” Bush said as they met in the Oval Office. With the world’s largest economy in a tailspin, other governments are nervously watching the protracted talks, concerned their economies could fall victim to any contagion…

Mr Bush warned that “the market is not functioning properly” and that with a “widespread loss of confidence” major business sectors were at risk. More banks could fail, triggering a recession, pushing down houses prices and “millions of Americans could lose their jobs”. He added: “We must not let this happen.” In the long run, he said, Americans had good reason to be confident in their country’s economic strength. “Despite corrections in the marketplace and instances of abuse, democratic capitalism is the best system ever devised.”

Sleep now in the fire…

See also : Good News Week! | CaPiTaLiSm In cRiSiS

…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.

~ Noam Chomsky, ‘Activism, Anarchism, and Power: Noam Chomsky interviewed by Harry Kreisler’, Conversations with History, March 22, 2002

Posted in State / Politics | Leave a comment

Keep racism out of music

Posted on September 27, 2008 by @ndy

Letter : Keep racism out of music
The Guardian
September 27, 2008

As anti-fascist musicians and campaigners, we were horrified to read (Report, September 25) of a gathering in Somerset last weekend in memory of Skrewdriver’s Ian [Stuart] Donaldson. Donaldson described himself as a neo-Nazi and Skrewdriver, which raised funds for both the National Front and British National Party, were instrumental in setting up Blood and Honour, a network of bands promoting Nazi ideology through music. The footage of the weekend’s rally on the BBC website clearly shows Nazi flags and members of the audience sieg heiling.

Despite the demise of Blood And Honour [sic — B&H actually organised the gig], the use of music by fascists to spread their ideas is not a thing of the past, with the BNP’s Great White record label being used to produce music targeted at young people. “It’s a great way of getting our message to children,” BNP leader Nick Griffin [performing live on stage in December in Australia] was quoted as saying in a TV documentary about the label shown last year, “because they will listen to songs again and again and pick the words up straight away, whereas maybe one in 100 would bother to listen to a speech.”

We believe racism has no place in music. LMHR has organised over 600 gigs, including our carnival in London’s Victoria Park and an LMHR show, headlined by the Kaiser Chiefs, in Rotherham, where two BNP councillors were elected in May. Our shows stand for unity and a celebration of our multiracial society. Rallies like the one that took place last weekend stand for the ugly politics of racial violence and have no place in Britain.

~ Jerry Dammers (The Specials/2-Tone Records), Roll Deep, Billy Bragg, Jon McLure (Reverend & The Makers), Dirty Pretty Things, Sam Duckworth, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, Late Of The Pier, Akala, Drew McConnell (Babyshambles)

If you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end

Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your uncle or your lover

If you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end

Be it your best friend
Or any other
Is it your husband or your father or your mother?

Tell them to change their views
Or change their friends
Now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end

So if you know a racist who thinks he is your friend
Now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end

Call yourself my friend?
Now is the time to make up your mind, don’t try to pretend

Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your uncle or your lover

So if you are a racist
Our friendship has got to end
And if your friends are racists don’t pretend to be my friend

So if you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for our friendship to end

GOODBYE

Note that, partly in response to the political pressures placed upon fascist bands in the UK and elsewhere, some minor transformations have taken place in the last few years. On the one hand, B&H continues its propaganda efforts: if much reduced in the UK, it flourishes in fascist hotbeds in Europe. On the other hand, in due recognition of the problems inherent in being a neo-Nazi, a plucker of strings and a thumper of tubs, others have decided to attempt to mainstream their image and their message — in much the same manner as the BNP has. Thus the neo-Nazi ‘English Rose’ is now gigging as ‘Tattooed Motherfuckers’; former members of ‘White Lightning’ (Australia) now perform as ‘T.H.U.G.’; the German label ‘Rock-O-Rama’ has re-established itself as ‘Pure Impact’; Perth band ‘The Quick & the Dead’ (which features Murray Holmes, briefly a member of Skrewdriver) has re-emerged (after a 20 year absence), and Murray himself invited on stage to perform with The Homicides. (The Homicides are also planning a split with T.H.U.G..) Beyond this, while Pure Impact distributes both neo-Nazi muzak and more general musical genres, RAC muzak is available locally through Deadset Music (Melbourne) and Snapshot Records (Sydney). A similar process is at work in heavy metal as in punk and oi!; numerous individuals, formerly sieg heiling twats, are downplaying their (former?) political commitments, and are keen to appear merely reactionary, at worst, or ‘apolitical’, at best.

It’s the same old song…

Posted in Anti-fascism, Music | 8 Comments

(Protect Australia from) Bloody Muslims!

Posted on September 27, 2008 by @ndy

The APP are certainly busy little bees, and their buzzing about Islam has once again attracted the attention of the corporate media — in this case, Jano Gibson (‘Locals oppose Muslim school’, Sydney Morning Herald, September 26, 2008) and The Muslim’s nefarious plan to blow-up build a school in Austral (a rural area in south-west Sydney).

[The APP’s] online forum, www.australianidentity.net, which openly declares that “views, ideas and contributions that are hostile to [an Anglo-Celtic-European-white heritage] are not permitted” on it, received several postings about the proposal after the development application was lodged in April. “Any chance of an APP [Australian Protectionist Party] campaign on the basis of traffic usage etc?” wrote Casapound. “Yes, indeedy,” replied Darrinh, who is believed to be Darrin Hodges, the NSW chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party, who recently stood unsuccessfully as a candidate in the Sutherland Shire elections. The Herald was yesterday unable to contact Mr Hodges, whose campaign material stated: “I will oppose mosques, sex-shops and any developments that undermine Australia’s traditional and family values.”

What a Wally.

A few points:

one

‘Casapound’ is the pseudonym used by local Patriotik Yoof Luke Connors (pictured above, smoking a fag at the Sydney Forum). His handle is derived from the name of a fascist squat in Rome, Italy (est.2003) — one which, it appears, Luke is quite enamoured with (just as he is the Italian neo-fascist movement as a whole). Luke had his own brush with fame following the Cronulla pogrom in December 2005, when he was interviewed by The Age in his capacity as the spokesperson for the now-defunct Patriotik Yoof League.

In summary, he thought the pogrom was ace.

Illuminating the meaning of the phrase ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’, however, according to the article ‘…groups such as the PYL are enjoying the publicity. Mr Connors explains: “Mate, I’m going to get brain cancer from having the mobile phone pressed to me ear all day and all night. Answering membership and media inquiries”.’ Assuming Luke has a brain (and it’s not cancerous), the irony is that, within the space of a few years, the PYL had dwindled down to one person: an elderly, tennis-playing Queenslander named John Drew (vociferously denounced by his kameraden on Stormfront Down Under for his apparent attraction to men and masturbation). Having, like Darrin, left both SF and the Australia First Party behind him, Luke now (like Darrin) extols the virtues of the APP and the mutant lump known as ‘national anarchism’.

I wonder if they’ll meet the same fate as the PYL…?

two

Apart from Darrin’s rather desultory performance in recent council elections, the APP has also come into the media spotlight (no doubt much to the chagrin of rival leader Dr James Saleam of the AFP: see Moffat, AFP, and those BLOODY FOREIGNERS!) as a result of its plans to bring the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, to Australia in December. The announcement by the APP/BNP of Nick’s intention to visit the colonies has been greeted with joy by racist wingnuts Down Under, while in the Mother Country Searchlight and allied groups have launched a campaign to stop him.

Well, kinda.

In truth, some have expressed the view that Nick should go — and not come back (perhaps as the result of an unfortunate “accident” involving a blue-ringed octopus, crocodile, jellyfish, scorpion, shark, snake, spider, stonefish or dropbear). No doubt, if he does come, a Welcoming Committee will be formed to ensure his trip is as productive as possible.

three

Speaking of the BNP, they held a little rally in Hooked-On-Classics Stoke-On-Trent last weekend, ostensibly in order to protest the manslaughter in July 2007 of (BNP activist) Keith Brown by his (Muslim) neighbour, Habib Khan. Found guilty in May and sentenced to eight years jail for the crime in August 2008, ‘Local BNP councillor, Martin Coleman, told reporters the party would start a campaign to “expose what has gone on today in court” and said he viewed the case as “insanity and madness”.’

In response to the BNP rally — which attracted around 300 supporters — a number of groups organised a counter-rally. Anindya Bhattacharyya (The BNP shows its true Nazi colours in Stoke, Socialist Worker, September 27, 2008) writes:

Despite the frustrations of being blocked from directly confronting the Nazis, local people on the anti-fascist demonstration were pleased with the turnout and determined to build a mass movement on the ground against the BNP. Speakers at the anti-fascist demonstration included local Labour MP Joan Walley, Vince Simpson from North Staffordshire Race Equality Council, Jason Hill from Norscarf and a variety of councillors and trade unionists from the city and surrounding area… Martin Smith from [Socialist Workers Party front group Love Music Hate Racism] spoke of how the BNP was aiming to use the current economic crisis to build an organisation of racist thugs. “They have no right to march on our streets – they shall not pass,” he said. Martin also argued against the idea that anti-fascists should restrict themselves to peaceful methods, pointing out that key turning points in previous struggles – Cable Street in 1936, Lewisham in 1977 – had involved physical confrontation with the Nazis.

Uh-huh…

four

Presumably, this is an indication that the SWP will be reviving the nth version of the Anti-Nazi League (now known as ‘Unite Against Fascism’), and hope to be able to claim title to headlines such as ‘Fascists routed in Cologne’ — only in, say, Coventry. That a Labour Party politician is able to share an anti-fascist platform ‘against the BNP’ — when disillusionment with the endless ‘betrayals’ by Labour of working class people is one important reason for the BNP’s modest success — is indicative of the, er — witlessness? — of the SWP’s approach to ‘fighting fascism’ and the ‘Nazi’ BNP.

Still, the tough-talking is perhaps justified in the sense that, when it comes to the electoral process, the SWP are simply no match for the BNP. Dramatic illustration of this fact was given in May, when the SWP — using the moniker ‘Left List’, since dropped for the more alluring title of ‘Left Alternative’ — did exceedingly badly in local council elections. Thus the BNP’s Richard Barnbrook — who happened to pay a spectacularly unsuccessful visit to Cologne recently — was elected to the London Assembly (and gave a great, drunken acceptance speech). Barnbrook received 69,710 votes for Mayor, while the SWP candidate, Lindsey German, got a mere 16,796. (As the Respect candidate in 2004, German got 61,731 votes.)

Note that the fortunes of the SWP in the UK are in some ways mirrored by those of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) in Australia. Both parties are major forces on the Leninist left, and both parties decided, in their wisdom, to try and hitch their wagons to the ‘anti-capitalist’ movement in the early noughties by way of joining/forming an electoral alliance. In the case of the SWP this meant, first, joining/forming the Socialist Alliance (1999–2003), then Respect (2003–2007), then Respect Coalition (2007–2008), then the Left List (2008), and now the Left Alternative. In the case of the DSP, they comprised one of the founding members of the Socialist Alliance (2001) and — while every single other member of the ‘alliance’ has since departed — have remained there. This has come at a cost to the DSP, with the recent departure of a large minority to form the Revolutionary Socialist Party. (The electoral performance of the SA has also been quite dismal.) The SWP, on the other hand, has witnessed a declining membership and, most recently, the ejection (scapegoating) of two of the leading proponents of the electoral turn, John Rees and Lindsey German, from the commanding heights of the ‘Left Alternative’…

Remember the Left Alternative? Okay, maybe not. The Left Alternative, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is the current incarnation of the post-split Reespect/Left List/Left Party that did so well in the May elections. You remember, when Lindsey German came so close to winning a seat on the GLA? No? Still drawing a blank?

This puts you in the good company of many Socialist Workers Party members, who have been asking themselves “Whatever happened to the Left Alternative?”

…So the LA is going to be a parked front, much like Globalise Resistance, kept just about ticking over in case there’s a need to dust it off again. This makes sense. Since the election debacle, practically all the SWP’s allies – who weren’t too numerous to begin with – have flaked off. The four Tower Hamlets councillors have gone, three to New Labour and one to the Tories. Kumar Murshid has gone. The very able Sait Akgul seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. And the SWP itself doesn’t have the membership or the money to keep a halfway serious electoral intervention going under its own steam…

My first reaction to this is, about fucking time. The period of Rees’ ascendancy has been one long lurch from disaster to disaster, with occasional flashes of potential in between. In this tragic-comic situation, the tragic part is that, in fact, it’s been John and Lindsey who’ve been associated with attempts to break out of the old sectist rut and turn towards some type of united front politics. Unfortunately, they’ve been congenitally unable to make that work. The trouble with united front or coalition politics is that, in the nature of things, you’re going to be working with people to your right, and that creates liquidationist or opportunist pressures. Those pressures are an inevitable overhead, and it’s a matter of taste as to whether you think them a price worth paying for the sake of a possible, but far from inevitable, future as the revolutionary wing of a much bigger movement. Hence the pressures from those who preferred the certainties of the old-style SWP politics, and hence John and Lindsey making openings to other forces, and then ruining it all by the most crass manipulation, or by seeking to square the circle by promising enormous gains right around the corner. You know the phrase, hoist by your own petard? This is a good illustration of what it means.

~ Trouble at the top: The SWP’s palace coup, Splintered Sunrise, September 11, 2008

Anyway, while John and Lindsey have presumably moved on to bigger and better things, and Splintered Sunshine provides hours of fun for trainspotters, if the pair play their cards right, they’ll be back on the front pages soon enough.

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics, Trot Guide | 8 Comments

Freedom isn’t free…

Posted on September 26, 2008 by @ndy

one

Hamilton man gets life for killing neo-Nazi
The Canadian Press
September 25, 2008

BARRIE, Ont. — A Hamilton man sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the beating of a man in Collingwood, Ont., already had 26 criminal convictions against him, a Barrie court heard.

Christopher Broughton, 30, was sentenced after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of Stephen Long, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat on April 16, 2006.

Court heard Long, who was a member of a white supremacist brotherhood called the Hammerheads [sic — Hammerskins], was attacked as he slept on the floor after a night of partying.

The group of white supremacist skinheads were at the home of Vaughn Newman, where Newman kept a baseball bat carved with slogans with reference to Hitler.

Broughton was not a member of the brotherhood, court heard.

When Broughton became drunk and obnoxious, he was put out of the house and beaten.

He returned after the others went to sleep and assaulted Long and another man with the bat, witnesses testified.

Broughton broke down in the prisoner’s box as he stood and tried to offer an apology to the father of the 22-year-old Ottawa man he killed.

“I’m sorry I killed your son,” he said, as he looked into Murray Long’s eyes.

Broughton will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

two

Extremists sent to prison over neo-Nazi webzine
ČTK
September 26, 2008

Havlickuv Brod, East Bohemia, Sept 25 (CTK) – Two Czech extremists, Erik Sedlacek [Sedlacek is a well known member of the National Resistance, a neo-Nazi group] and Libor Budik, were sent to prison for heading a neo-Nazi Internet magazine by a district court Thursday.

Sedlacek was sentenced to three years and Budik is to spend two years behind bars.

The court found both men guilty of support for and promotion of movements aiming to suppress human rights and freedoms.

Both men worked as editors-in-chief and authors of articles in the Last Generation Internet journal in 2003-2004.

According to the court, the articles in the magazine contained hateful statements about Jews, called for their liquidation and openly questioned the Holocaust, and their authors followed the ideas of national socialism.

[According to www.antifa.cz, Erik Sedlacek was also responsible for helping to organise the failed attempt last year by Czech neo-Nazis to march in Prague to celebrate The Night of Broken Glass.]

three

Austrian voters support party that wants to bring back Nazi symbols
Bojan Pancevski
The Times
September 26, 2008

“We are the owners of Austria and we will determine who gets in,” Mr Strache, head of the far-right Freedom Party, told a cheering crowd that was chanting his name.

    “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come” ~ John HoWARd, Prime Minister of Australia, December 6, 2001

…This time Mr Haider’s former protégé, Mr Strache, is expected to capture about 20 per cent of the vote, and his new party, Alliance for the Future of Austria, could win more than 8 per cent.

Mr Strache, 39, who overthrew Mr Haider as a leader of the Freedom Party with even more hardline policies against foreigners and the EU, is likely to establish himself as the third-largest political force in the country.

The former dental technician has campaigned successfully with slogans such as “Homeland instead of Islam” and “Vienna must not become Istanbul”.

He once wrote: “We must not allow our own sons to be insulted as ‘pigeaters’ in our schools and our daughters to be exposed to the greedy stares and gropings of whole hordes of immigrants.”

The popularity of Mr Strache was not damaged despite photographs being published of him in his youth wearing military uniform at an alleged far-right gathering and also showing Mr Strache raising his hand and stretching three fingers in an apparent covert version of the Hitler salute, used widely in the neo-Nazi scene. Mr Strache said that he was merely signalling for three beers in a pub.

four

ALL OUT TO CLEVELAND, OH FOR THE 14th ANNUAL ANTI-RACIST ACTION NETWORK CONFERENCE!

What: The 14th Annual Anti-Racist Action Network Conference
When: October 11-13 2008
Where: Cleveland, OH
Who: You!

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, History, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Dion says Dr Cam is a liar. I agree.

Posted on September 26, 2008 by @ndy
    Dion, December 12, 2007: “As I stated on the Bombshell forum Dr.Cam, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.”

None Dare Call It Dr. Cam’s Internet Weblog/464/21-Sep-2008
when you cheat at scrabble, you are only cheating yourself
Avant garde, no?

Just had a couple of friendly games of Scrabble with Andy Slackbastard. At least I had thought they were going to be friendly games. Turns out that Andy had thought that I had challenged him in quite a cocky manner. Reckons I said I was going to ‘kick his arse’ and ‘dominate the motherfucking scrabble board, you tiny little bad-at-scrabble man.’

I don’t have any recollection of anything of the sort. Unfortunately there is no emoticon for tipping ones hand back in front of one’s mouth to indicate that you believe somebody has been drinking, otherwise that is what would follow the previous sentence. 😮 >-|

That is a dude with like a cocktail glass just beneath his mouth. :-@

Now you can’t see his mouth because the bottom of the glass is in the way. Perspective.

We are revolutionising emoticons here, people.

Anyway, Andy ended up winning both games. Unfortunately (for him) he achieved this by cheating. Specifically, he disallowed a word in each game that would have won me both.

First game: He had just put down ATTACK. I was going to add SHAQ for SHAQATTACK on a triple word score, but oh no, King Andy of Andytown couldn’t be having that. “What’s a shaqattack?” he asks in his ignorant gormless manner.

Second game: Earlier, I had put down MULL. He’d stayed away from it (thank goodness) which allowed me later to turn it into DAVEMULLIGAN, earning me 50 bonus points for using all seven letters on my rack. “What’s a davemulligan?” he asks in the same ignorant gormless manner. Um, he’s Left Back for the New Zealand All Whites?

I had no idea that Scrabble was such an effective method of revealing character. Luckily I found out that Andy is a liar and a cheat now, instead of further on down the track when he is asking me to store plastic explosives with which he intends to dismantle global capitalism.

Posted in War on Terror | 1 Comment

Krudd : Man of the People

Posted on September 26, 2008 by @ndy

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery.



Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.

Encore!

Posted in !nataS | 1 Comment

Shades Mcgee is in your extended network… how “eerie”

Posted on September 25, 2008 by @ndy

Matthew DePalma’s rant posts fill blog, online journal
Shannon Murphy
The Flint Journal
September 23, 2008

FLUSHING, Michigan — Eerie postings fill an online journal — entries that become increasingly angry as the writer vents about being a misunderstood anarchist.

“Now I’m ready to watch the world burn,” a post dated April 18 reads. “I always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt about how they understand me. Most people don’t, hell, even I had to figure out myself from scratch.”

The online musings are believed to be written by Matthew DePalma, a Flushing native who has been federally charged in a plot to bomb the site of September’s Republican National Convention. The journal is written by a person who uses the name “Shades Mcgee” on MySpace, which a friend confirmed is DePalma…

NB. “yeah i got hurt a little last night. Narrowly leaving a party without being severly [sic] beaten or shot. (loaded weapons cocked and ready captained by drunken rednecks)” — is the sentence removed by Shannon. Meaning that the entry is titled ‘Now I’m ready to watch the world burn’, and the first few lines are: “yeah i got hurt a little last night. Narrowly leaving a party without being severly [sic] beaten or shot. (loaded weapons cocked and ready captained by drunken rednecks) well now, I always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt about how they understand me. Most people don’t, hell even I had to figure out myself from scratch…” In other words, Matthew’s readiness ‘to watch the world burn’ was triggered by his belief that he narrowly avoided being beaten or shot by drunken rednecks: not all that surprising, really.

…DePalma was charged by federal authorities Aug. 30. According to a Department of Justice release, the FBI began investigating DePalma in July after he attended an anarchist convention, called CrimethInc., in Wisconsin. While there, he told an FBI informant he wanted to “makes some bombs” and “blow up” things during the convention, according to the release…

Uh-huh. That’s what the FBI are claiming — on the basis of the testimony of a paid informant. Of course, misrepresenting Matthew’s blog entry adds to the public perception that Matthew really was ‘ready to watch the world burn’; or at least, a little part of it in Minneapolis anyways…

The “anarchist convention, called CrimethInc., in Wisconsin” is a reference to a “decentralised anarchist collective” called CrimethInc., and the 2008 Convergence organised by CrimethInc. which took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: the seventh such event organised by the collective. An account of the fifth such convergence, in 2006, is provided in ‘Mississippi Drift’ by Matthew Power (Harper’s Magazine, March 2008 [PDF]). One of those who attended the convergences in 2004 and (it appears) 2005 was “Anna”; “Anna” played a key role in convicting Eric McDavid to twenty years jail.

Sentencing Notes
May 11, 2008

Dear friends,

Yesterday was a difficult day. We all knew what Eric was facing, and we understood the vehemence with which the government was pursuing this case. But nothing could ever fully prepare us for the kind of heinous sentence that Eric received. It is clear from the reports in the media and the statements made by the US Attorneys that Eric was entrapped and used as an example to anyone who dares to dream of how things could be different in this world.

After passing through the metal detectors downstairs, everyone attending Eric’s sentencing was required, by order of Judge England, to pass through a line of Marshall’s outside the courtroom and undergo the metal detector wand, as well as a complete search of any bags. This ridiculous spectacle was clearly an attempt to harass Eric’s friends and loved ones who came to show their support.

The courtroom was nearly full of Eric’s family and friends. There were not enough seats behind the defense table to accommodate everyone, forcing others to spill over into the prosecutor’s side of the court. Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday.

It was clear from the first few sentences spoken by the judge that his mind was already made up. The same lies that were used at trial to convict Eric were repeated over and over again throughout the sentencing hearing. The government even had the audacity to claim that Eric had never had a re-ocurrance of pericarditis – despite the fact that his lawyer filed a memo with the court in November detailing Eric’s worsening condition. Despite the fact that the jail received so many phone calls from Eric’s supporters during that time that they posted a note on their website specifically asking people to stop calling. They had the audacity to claim that Eric was at no risk of harsh treatment in prison – despite the fact that he has ALREADY undergone 2 1/2 years of isolation at the Sacramento County Main Jail.

Despite the fact that probation recommended a sentence of 156 months (13 years), Judge England deferred (as usual) to the government’s recommendation of 235 months (19 years and 7 months). The length of Eric’s sentence was due largely to the application of the Terrorism Enhancement. The government has argued quite vociferously all along for this enhancement. The basis of their argument is that Eric’s targets included government facilities (such as the IFG) – a point which was never proven during trial, and was, in fact, denied by the government’s own witnesses. But the judge applied the enhancement anyway. The judge ordered 3 years of supervised release after Eric’s sentenced is served, the collection of a DNA sample and registration as an “arson offender”.

Now is the time to be outraged and make noise. The government just sentenced Eric to 20 years for a crime that was never committed. This is the longest sentence we have heard of in an American environmental case. Eric’s case and sentence have illustrated the lengths the government goes to, and how much they can get away with, in their pursuit of those who voice their dissent – who maintain their integrity and stay true to their principles and all that makes them human. Please help spread the word about Eric, his case, and it’s implications for everyone who cares about effecting real change…

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

Good News Week!

Posted on September 24, 2008 by @ndy

The world today seems absolutely crackers; with nuclear bombs to blow us all sky high. There’s fools and idiots sitting on the trigger: it’s depressing, and it’s senseless, and that’s why… the following news item provides us all with a reason to smile!

Coal baron tops young rich list
Chris Zappone
The Age
Septemberr 24, 2008

Queensland coal baron Nathan Tinkler, 32, has unseated Sydney property developer Shaun Bonett for the No. 1 spot on the list of richest Australians under the age of 40.

Mr Tinkler’s $441 million fortune, earned in two years of investing in mines, has catapulted him to the top of 100 young names, according to BRW magazine. He has poured substantial sums of his earnings into horse racing.

Mr Bonett, 37, ranked number six on the BRW Young Rich list this year, increased his real estate fortune to $340 million from $300 million last year.

Three of the five richest young people are hedge fund managers, just as global investment markets peaked over the year. London-based Hilton Nathanson, 38, debuts at No. 2 on $385 million, followed by brothers Angus, 38, and Richard Grinham, 40, worth a combined $368 million…

The party for the young and wealthy continued… with the total value of the list members’ holdings climbing 25% this year, to $6.3 billion from $4.8 billion in large part because of investment gains made at the top.

The increase means the average BRW Young Rich member was worth $72.7 million, up from $60 million…

Entertainer Kylie Minogue is among the best-known women on the list, at number 23 worth $84 million. Actress Cate Blanchett ranked #41, with $48 million.

Overall, the number of women fell to 14 from 18 last year…

“These are feral, low-life people that want society to be in a state of near anarchy for their own private profit,” remarked SA Deputy Premier Kevin Foley.

“Let’s not mince words here. People who say they are ‘developers’ but rely on state violence and environmental destruction to accumulate their wealth are clearly a bunch of people who are dangerous to society.

“These are just capitalists that enjoy disrupting civil society. They do not have one fig of credibility.”

See also : Corporate Watch Australia | Go Ahead, Hate Them, It’s Good for You, slackbastard, January 22, 2008

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Blood & Honour 2008 ISD gig : Redhill, Somerset

Posted on September 24, 2008 by @ndy
    Update :

    Neo-Nazi invasion terrifies villagers, Bristol Evening Post, September 25, 2008: A pub near Bristol International Airport is at the centre of a police investigation after 800 people attended an apparently neo-Nazi rally… The weekend event was booked as a ‘scooter rally’ and was fully licensed by North Somerset Council. But what took place was a raucous event to mark the 15th anniversary of the death of Ian Stuart Donaldson, the former frontman of British neo-Nazi skinhead band Skrewdriver… Stephen Makin, a council spokesman, said: “Anne Carter at the pub was the applicant. She applied on September 2 for the event to take place on September 20 from 4pm to midnight. It was issued as we received no objections. We are now investigating after we received five complaints from residents.” The booking was made by record company ISD, which asked to use the field for a scooter and music festival… Pub manager Ian Saunders said: “I had no idea what it was going to turn into when the man rang to book it. We’ve provided a function room for him a couple of times in the past and everything has been fine until now. If I knew that this would happen I would never have allowed it and anything the police want to do we’ll support them in any way we can.” Brewer Wadworth, which owns the pub, said: “The brewery is not aware of any similar problems that have occurred at this site and will be taking action, where appropriate, to ensure that it does not happen again.”

    Village invaded by 800 Nazi thugs, The Sun, John Coles, September 25, 2008: “A VILLAGE expecting a scooter festival found itself invaded by more than 800 Nazi yobs instead. Racist skinheads from across Britain, Germany and Eastern Europe arrived draped in swastika flags. Wearing leather jackets and army boots, they stomped through the streets chanting: “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.”

    STAGE BOTTLES – Dead But Not Forgiven

    Ian couldn’t drive a car
    As we all know
    He trusted too much in all his gods
    And though he was a human being
    We don’t feel any sorrow for him

    Now we got rid of one of those cunts
    He’s been one of our most important enemies
    So we forget our respect for life
    Cause all he did was senseless shit

    […]

    Now we’re here and having our fun
    Having our fun and thinking about him
    He’s been the one who misused the word Skinhead
    He himself was never one – he was a fucking Bonehead

Following the 2008 Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig in Beaconsfield (Victoria, Australia) on September 13 comes news of bonehead celebrations in England: The Bungalow Inn, Redhill, to be precise, on September 20. And once again, management — in this case, Anne Carter — has pleaded ignorance regarding the nature of the event. Apparently, nobody saw any swastikas, and everybody thought ‘Seig Heil!’ was German for ‘More Beer!’. Curiously, The Bungalow Inn has been described as a ‘traditional English pub’; presumably, Hitler-worship is a traditional English pastime. Bands scheduled to perform at the miniature Nuremberg rally were Avalon, Blackout, Bulldog Breed, Brutal Attack, Last Chance, Legion of St George, Unit 28, Whitelaw and Woden. And who knows? Maybe even Kill Baby Kill…

Police investigate ‘racist rally’
BBC
September 23, 2008

Allegations of the chanting of racist slogans at a “scooter rally” in North Somerset are to be investigated by Avon and Somerset Police.

A video of the event at the Bungalow Inn, Redhill, on Saturday night shows some people wearing Nazi regalia.

Chants including “seig heil, seig heil” can also be heard later on the tape.

Both the licensee and manager deny seeing any Nazi regalia or hearing racist chanting. Both deny supporting Nazi politics.

‘Good faith’

The police spokesman said that they take any reported hate crime very seriously and would be working with the local authority licensing department about the approval of the event.

The pub said the booking was made in good faith for what they believed to be a scooter rally for 500 people.

It is estimated that more than 800 turned up on Saturday night.

It is believed many people at the event had travelled from Europe. Some had Nazi flags draped over their shoulders and were seen in the video laughing and joking.

A family that lived nearby were so frightened they left their home.

Sarah Gooding said: “My daughter was petrified. We ran into the house and I burst into tears.

“I told my husband ‘I don’t feel safe we’ve got to go’. Our daughters were really really frightened.

Licensee Anne Carter said: “It was something we were totally unaware of and not happy to think it was happening on any part of our premises.

“Anything the police want to do we’ll support them in anyway we can.”

BBC Video

The Bungalow Inn
Winford Lane
Redhill
Bristol, BS40 5TP
01275 474085 // 01275 472386

Posted in Anti-fascism, Music | 78 Comments

i dissed a grrl and i got fined!

Posted on September 24, 2008 by @ndy

Poor old racist Rod; Rod’s been flogging homophobic stickers and assorted other bigoted paraphernalia for years… only now he’s been fined.

Wanker.

one

Gun lobbyist ordered to pay lesbians
The Age / AAP
September 24, 2008

Queensland gun lobbyist Ron Owen has been ordered to pay three lesbians a total of $12,500 after a landmark decision handed down by the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.

Mr Owen, from the southeast Queensland town of Gympie, also was ordered to publish a statement in local newspaper The Gympie Times within 45 days, stating the tribunal had found he contravened the Anti-Discrimination Act, News Ltd says.

The tribunal found he had displayed a bumper sticker on a vehicle, published a report to the Cooloola Shire Council where he was a former councillor, made a comment in a television interview and published a letter on a website – all of which incited hatred, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of homosexuals.

Mr Owen also had to acknowledge his conduct was unlawful.

The tribunal ordered he should pay Richelle Menzies and Tina Coutts $5,000 each and Suzanne Turner $2,500. A complaint against a fourth woman, Rhonda Bruce, was dismissed.

Mr Owen, who defended the charges, said he would appeal the finding.

“I will keep appealing until the cows come home,” he told the newspaper.

two

Only gay right is to die, says Ron Owen’s sticker
Michael McKenna
The Australian
September 24, 2008

GUN lobbyist Ron Owen has been told he is entitled to express his homophobic views, but that he went too far with the bumper sticker: “Gay Rights? Under God’s law the only rights gays have is the right to die.”

Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Tribunal found Mr Owen guilty of inciting hatred against homosexuals with the bumper sticker when he parked his car outside the Cooloola Shire Council officers in Gympie, north of Brisbane.

The publisher of the ultra-right-wing pro-militia magazine Lock Stock & Barrel and former local councillor was also chastised on Monday for comments he made in the ensuing public outcry that engulfed the rural community, The Australian reports.

The former president of the National Firearm Owners of Australia was taken to the tribunal by several local lesbians, who claimed they had been offended despite only one having seen the bumper sticker.

Two of the women were awarded $5000, with a third awarded $2500 in damages.

Tribunal member Darryl Rangiah handed down a 77-page decision, which also ordered Mr Owen to publish a written apology for inciting hatred and causing offence to the homosexual community of Gympie.

Mr Rangiah acknowledged Mr Owen’s right to free speech, but said he had gone too far with the bumper sticker and in ensuing comments made during a television interview, in a report to a subsequent council meeting and in a letter on his website.

“Ron Owen is entitled to be a homophobe and he is entitled to publicly express his homophobic views,” he said. “That much is required in a society that values freedom of thought and expression. However there are limits.”

The tribunal ruled that Mr Owen – while not the registered owner of the car – had use of it and that the sticker went “beyond a mere joke”.

“The ordinary member of the public would, in my opinion, understand that he or she was being urged to hate and to have serious contempt for homosexuals,” Mr Rangiah said.

three

Ex-councillor says paper misquoted gay comments
ABC
September 24, 2008

Former Cooloola Coast councillor Ron Owen, from Gympie in the state’s south-east, has branded the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission the “thought police” for finding he breached anti-discrimination laws over comments made about homosexuals.

Mr Owen has been ordered to make a public apology and pay more than $12,000 compensation to a group of lesbians who complained about a slogan on a bumper sticker.

He says he will appeal against the finding.

Reading from a prepared statement, Mr Owen denied he displayed the bumper sticker and says a local newspaper misquoted him.

“A single Tribunal member of the new thought police can now find me guilty on what they think I think and not on what I say,” he said.

Owen’s Lock, Stock and Barrel is renowned for its promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and advocating the formation of right-wing “guerilla” groups.

At least two issues of the paper have been banned by the Queensland censorship board. One issue explained how to convert a rifle into a machine-gun, and another how to make “two-part” explosives — explosives designed to kill and maim their victims, then explode a second time to kill emergency workers who come to their aid.

Owen is a Gympie gun-shop owner and federal president of the Firearms Owners’ Association. He also leads an outfit called the Home Security Association. It was Owen who claimed that anti-gun sentiment following the Port Arthur massacre was so strong because there are “too many homosexuals in the media, and homosexuals don’t like guns”.

Lock, Stock and Barrel sells car stickers that proclaim “Gay rights — the only rights gays have is the right to die”.

Lock, Stock and Barrel, in its May-June 1995 issue, described the white race as “superior by far” and claimed that 90% of blacks are “retarded to border-line retarded”. Whites should “have stacks of kids and then some more” and make sure their marriages succeed because “sons growing up with their mothers are four times as likely to turn into raging poofters”.

The Sydney Morning Herald on September 5 reported that Owen claimed a majority of the Firearms Owners’ Association had joined One Nation and would campaign “vigorously” for Hanson candidates. “If you think of One Nation as a being, David Oldfield is the head and we are the body”, Owen said.

~ Norm Dixon, Hanson cements far-right alliance for Queensland elections, Green Left Weekly, December 3, 1997

See also : Walksafe Queensland Anti-Violence Inc provides Queensland communities with information about how to report any level of violence, harassment, threats and verbal abuse towards someone’s sexuality, ethnicity or gender identity within a public setting.

Bonus!

Brighton and Hove Rainbow Chorus : Homophobia (Chumbawamba)

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