“But I’m NOT a Nazi!” // Nicola Tommasoli

Posted on May 6, 2008 by @ndy

Welf Herfurth writes a letter to Crikey!, April 22, 2008: Re. “Torch protest: who’ll be there, from Amway up”.

As a Member of the National Anarchists, and a subscriber to Crikey for many years, I am disappointed that Crikey has not spent more time evaluating their articles by reactionaries like Cam Smith, who was quick to slander the Nationalist Anarchists, whilst at the same time over-looking the Nationalist implications of the Tibetan struggle. One is left with no other conclusion that a double standard exists for those fighting for freedom and self-determination is a struggle that those of European heritage have no right to exercise. The only thing Smith managed to correctly assess in his article about the ‘National Anarchists’ is that we are indeed planning on making an appearance at the Torch Relay in Canberra, in support of the Tibetan struggle for independence.

“[The] charter of human rights (guaranteed by international law), says that indigenous populations have the right to resist colonisation and immigration. So the Tibetans are justified – legally – in doing what they do. So are we in the West: after all, we are being colonised: the massive flood of immigration in Europe, North America, Australia, is neo-colonialism.” From the New Right Website – Tibet and the Lessons for the West

Every other comment is slanderous deceitful rubbish, used for intellectual repression of ideas that do not support Smith’s cultural Marxism. The New Right / National Anarchists are about freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and the right of national, ethnic self-determination for all peoples. I find it paradoxical that someone who preaches tolerance, diversity and racial harmony would use a racial epithet to criticise those he considers Nazis. The Australian people are intelligent enough to recognise Mr Smith’s hypocrisy. The National Anarchists are not Nazis, nor do we support Nazism, or supremacy of any race towards another, including Zionism. I cannot stress highly enough; violent racist action is as far from National Anarchist ideology as you could possibly be. For further information regarding the National Anarchists and the New Right, please have a look at our website. I would recommend Smith do so before writing any other articles about the New Right/National Anarchists.

Honorary Member of the Cultural Marxist Association, Advertising Dude, Anti-Racist Activist and THE BEST JOURNALIST IN THE WORLD!, Cam Smith writes a letter to @ndy!, May 6, 2008: Re. Welf’s letter.

Oh my stars and whiskers! I apologise profusely for upsetting Herr Herfurth and his kameraden with my accurate description of their political leanings. In future, I’ll try and employ some of the pure Aryan disingenuity that he has displayed so well here – it just looks so damn tasty. The fact is, the vast majority of the membership of the ‘National Anarchists’ in Australia have been members of, or currently are members of, neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. Herfurth himself, even while he today attempts to disassociates himself publicly from the neo-Nazi movement, remains a senior figure within the local branch of Blood & Honour, an openly neo-Nazi group which is banned as a terrorist organisation in his native Germany. In his youth he was a member of the German NPD (neo-Nazis too, if you’d believe it!), and since coming to Australia he has addressed the Australian League Of Rights (holocaust deniers, if you’d believe it!) on a number of occasions.

As regards to the peaceable nature of the Australian ‘National Anarchists,’ I have had a number of conversations with members of his group in which they have bragged about acts of racial violence. Before they are punished too harshly for their loose lips, I should note that they may well have been under the impression that I was somebody else. I apologise for misleading them so. I have also been informed, by very reliable sources, that some members of NA have participated in acts of violence against members of the LGBT community. As they say in the classics, you are a liar liar whose pants are on fire, Herr Herfurth!

For more information on the links between ‘National Anarchism’ and neo-fascism, this analysis of the speakers at ‘National Anarchist’ events in the U.K. is particularly illuminating. (Quite a few neo-Nazis and holocaust deniers in there, if you’d believe it!) An essay by British historian Graham Macklin, ‘Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction’ (PDF) provides a detailed account of the evolution of ‘National Anarchism’ and its principal architect, Troy Southgate, a former member of the British National Front (would you believe they were a neo-Nazi group? Amazing!)

On a more serious note:

Neo-Nazi attack puts spotlight on Italian militants
May 5, 2008

ROME, May 5 (Reuters) – A neo-Nazi attack in Verona that put a young man in a coma has thrown the spotlight on political militancy in Italy, prompting the opposition to question whether a right-wing sweep in April elections is feeding a climate of intolerance.

The victim, 29-year-old Nicola Tommasoli, appeared to be near death after being savagely beaten on May 1 by a group of youths identified by police as neo-Nazi soccer hooligans.

The beating was condemned across the political spectrum; police have so far ruled out any political motive for what appears to be an isolated act of violence.

Still, Italy’s centre-left portrayed it as a sign a growing intolerance in a country where fears about crime — particularly by immigrants — contributed to their resounding defeat by the right in last month’s national and municipal elections.

The incident has put right-wingers on the defensive over the suggestion that support by militants helped them to win the April elections, including the mayorship of Rome.

“The responsibility lies with right-wing populists,” said Paolo Ferrero, a leftist minister in the caretaker government expected to step down later this week.

He accused the far right of creating “scapegoats” for Italy’s social problems that “brings in votes in a climate of insecurity, but also sows a long trail of hate”.

The defeated centre-left candidate for prime minister, Walter Veltroni, said: “We are faced with a neo-fascist-style aggression that cannot and should not be underestimated”.

In an informal poll by one television station, 51 percent of respondents said they feared the Verona attack could herald the start of a new wave of violent intolerance.

CITY OF LOVE?

The mayor of Verona, from the anti-immigrant Northern League which backed Silvio Berlusconi as premier, rejected any link between his party and Tommasoli’s assailants. “There are millions of people that voted for us. It could be that one of them is a criminal,” Tosi, who is cracking down on illegal immigrants in Verona, a northern Italian city made famous by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.

But Tosi is not the only right-wing politician who had to distance himself from far-right elements.

Rome’s new Mayor Gianni Alemanno urged supporters to avoid “excesses” after a small group gave him the right-armed Roman salute associated with fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and chanted “Duce!” (leader), as Mussolini’s followers called him.

Alemanno, whose National Alliance is the successor to the post-war neo-fascists but is trying to become a mainstream conservative party, complained that the left tried to depict him as a fascist and anti-Semite during the campaign.

“We must condemn any form of ideological extremism regardless of where it comes from,” said Alemanno as he visited monuments in Rome to Jewish victims of Nazi occupation, Italian wartime resistance heroes and Rome’s synagogue.

“There are extremist fringes on the far right as well as the far left, but they are more an expression of urban marginalisation than actual politics.”

During the mayoral race, Alemanno came under attack for wearing a Celtic cross round his neck — a symbol of the far right in Italy comparable to the Nazi swastika. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)

According to another source, Tommasoli has died:

VERONA: ORGANS OF ASSAULTED YOUTH WILL BE DONATED
(AGI) – Rome, May 5 – The parents of Nicola Tommasoli expressed the wish to donate the young man’s tissues and organs.

Tommasoli died as a result of a savage assault in Verona on April 30. The announcement was made by the management of Verona’s hospital. His remains are being examined to ensure compatibility with donation. In such event clinical procedures to extract his tissues and organs will commence tonight. The youth was declared dead today at 6 pm following the mandatory 6 hour period set that follows death. Upon arrival in the intensive care unit of the ‘Ospedale Borgo Trento’ the conditions of Tommasoli were already critical. He had suffered blows to the head and had a brain haemorrhage.

Neo-Nazi killing puts spotlight on Italian militants, Phil Stewart / Reuters, May 5, 2008

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Media | Leave a comment

No issue is single just because they say you’re paranoid

Posted on May 5, 2008 by @ndy

As is the nature of teh Interwebs, one thing has lead to another. In this case, police spying on anti-Olympics campaigners in Canada to Australia’s own Maxwell Smarts. Below : Protestors face off with RCMP in order to protect Eagleridge Bluffs. Note that in January 2007, “People across the province were shocked by the 14 day jail sentence handed down to 71 year old native Elder Harriet Nahanee for peacefully protesting while inside an injunction zone at Eagleridge Bluffs. Harriet served 9 days in prison at a maximum security pre-trial facility. She had filed an appeal, but became gravely ill and died shortly after being released from prison.”

Change in activists’ tactics poses serious threat to 2010 Games: analyst
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Changing tactics by Canadian activists pose a serious threat to security at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, security analysts say.

The usually fragmented, single-issue groups are converging and organizing in ways never [sic] seen before in Canada, said Tom Quiggan, a former security consultant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Where there’s usually a lull in protest activity in the years leading up to mega-events like the Olympics, the last year has seen at least 20 violent acts directly connected to the 2010 Games.

“I’m not aware of, nor have I seen in the past, this kind of organization that’s that far advanced this far ahead of the actual event,” Quiggan said.

“There is some commonality of thinking here between anarchist groups, social activists groups that happen to have a violent [sic] agenda and then I see native groups. When you see that kind of convergence coming up, it makes you a little nervous.”

As does any prospect of any real challenge, however limited, to entrenched power and privilege. Such challenges also provide a market for private security firms, subject to even less, albeit largely theoretical, legal constraint than state agencies. One of the major advantages stemming from the use of private agencies, in other words, is their not being subject to the token forms of accountability provided by government oversight.

(In Australia, one of the more notorious examples of such government action occurred on March 15, 1973, when then Attorney-General Lionel Murphy authorised a raid on the Melbourne headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Part of the impetus for the raid was ASIO’s refusal to disclose the extent of its support for local Croatian terrorists/freedom fighters, the Ustasha. See also : Jenny Hocking, ‘The State and Terror in the New Era’, Arena magazine, No.56, December 2001–January 2002.)

The article continues:

“One private security company who has worked with [Royal Bank of Canada, a major sponsor] said company officials are well aware of the ongoing threats and are taking extra precautions as a result. “Anti-Olympic activists are taking a page from the protest efforts of animal rights groups, said Michel Juneau Katsuya, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent who now runs a private intelligence firm” (Katsuya is President and CEO of The Northgate Group).

Security officials need to be a step ahead of all of them, said Quiggan.

Direct monitoring of these groups is essential to avert potential disaster, he said, and it appears right now that the security infrastructure in Canada is taking its time putting in place preventative measures to protect the Games.

Quiggan said the appointment in October of Ward Elcock, the former director of CSIS, to the post of head of Olympic Security, was a sign that things weren’t going well and someone was needed to start moving plans along.

“Two years before, a year-and-a-half before, you shouldn’t be planning, you should be doing,” he said.

“You should have sources in the field, you should have agents in the field.”

But Juneau Katsuya said its likely surveillance is already being carried out on activist groups and though the planning might not be obvious, it’s definitely underway.

The challenge, he said, comes from finding a balance.

“More security increases the budget, rather than better security,” he said.

“Better security doesn’t equal automatically more money spent.”

[David Cunningham, spokesperson for the Anti-Poverty Committee] said the change in tactics are a direct response to heavier policing and people are drawn to subversive action out of a feeling that disruption is the only thing that works to effect change.

Note that in August last year, Québec police employed a number of its members to act as agent provocateurs at a protest rally in Montreal. Police also infiltrated previous protests, including an anti-G20 rally in 2003, and an anti-APEC protest in 1997.

ASIO

In Australia, ASIO has been subject to two major reviews: the first from 1974–1977, overseen by Justice Robert Hope. Not unexpectedly, it confirmed the need for a domestic spy agency, while making a series of recommendations intended to render its activities more efficient. The following year, 1978, ASIO was implicated in the Hilton bombing, prompting another review (The Protective Security Review, 1978-79), again overseen by Hope. A third review by Hope was commissioned in 1983, the Royal Commission on Australian Security and Intelligence Agencies, 1983-1984. A subsequent review in 1992, following the end of the Cold War — and therefore the extinguishment of much of the rationale for the Organisation’s existence — recommended a cut of 60 staff and a $3.81 million budget decrease. Following the 9/11 attacks, and subsequent declaration of a War on Terror by George II’s regime, the HoWARd Government oversaw a massive expansion in ASIO’s powers and budget. “We are now fighting a war against terrorism. And in this new war, our safety and security depend almost exclusively on the quality, timeliness and accuracy of our intelligence. Intelligence is no longer a contributing factor – it is the defining and central factor that contributes to military success.” ~ Attorney-General, The Hon Philip Ruddock Opening Address to the Annual Conference, Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers, 2002.

It is not possible to find an exact figure for the increased expenditure on intelligence and security by the Government since 11 September 2001, as intelligence and security responsibilities and activities fall under many categories and agencies. There is, however, no doubt that the Australian intelligence community is experiencing its most significant period of expansion since the Second World War…

ASIO’s appropriation for 2002-2003 was $85.675m. For 2003-04, this appropriation increased to $95.236m…

Since the first review in 2002, the Parliament has passed a large volume of new legislation that affects the functions and powers of Australia’s intelligence and security agencies. These laws include:

* new terrorism offences incorporated in the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, including provisions for the listing of terrorist organisations;
* the Suppression for the Financing of Terrorism Act 2002;
* new questioning and detention powers in the ASIO Act 1979;
* amendments to the Intelligence Services Act 2001 to authorise ASIS officers to carry and use firearms; and
* new assumed identities provisions in the Crimes Act 1914…

In its submission ASIO states that “(r)ecruitment remains one of the agency’s highest priorities”. At one of its lowest staffing levels in 1998, the average staffing level fell to 488. As of February 2004, ASIO’s staff level was around 763. Information supplied by ASIO states that these levels are set to grow to around 900 by June 2005…

Source : Review of administration and expenditure for ASIO, ASIS and DSD No. 3 [PDF], Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD, March 7, 2005. In a seemingly inexorable fashion, this expansion has continued. Alan Ramsey, Rich pie in the sky for spies, The Australian, June 10, 2006:

ASIO’s budget, for the year beginning July 1, is $340.6 million, including $113 million for a new ASIO headquarters to be built alongside the AFP’s Anzac Park West building – fairly adjacent, ironically, to the avenue of various memorials to Australia’s 100,000 war dead. Compare the $340.6 million the Howard Government is allocating this coming year to the $55.9 million the Keating Labor government gave ASIO in 1995-96, its last year of office.

Over the Howard Government’s 11 budgets since 1996-97, ASIO’s funding by taxpayers has been: $52.6 million in 1996-97; $52 million in 1997-98; $63.3 million in 1998-99; $64.1 million in 1999-2000; $62.9 million in 2000-01; $73.8 million in 2001-02; $85.7 million in 2002-03; $95.2 million in 2003-04; $152.7 million in 2004-05; $174.8 million in 2005-06; and $340.6 million in 2006-07. Note that ASIO’s funding actually fell in the Government’s first two years of office. Note, too, how it soared once Australia joined the US and Britain in the invasion of Iraq.

According to ASIO itself, “ASIO’s budget increased to $234.8m in 2006-07, up from $181.1m in 2005-06, and is expected to grow to $423.9m by 2010-11”. Note that “In 2006-07, ASIO completed 53,387 visa security assessments and issued adverse assessments in relation to seven individuals seeking entry to Australia. This advice was based on rigorous assessments of the potential threat to Australia’s security of allowing these individuals entry.”

How rigorous?

“Fortress Australia”

Doyle Canning

One person to have been denied a visa was Doyle Canning. Having previously visited Australia in 2000, and participated in preparations for the S11 protests later that year, in July 2002 Canning was denied a subsequent holiday visa, on the basis of her ‘bad character’. Evidence of her essential Bad-ness was contained in a dossier complied by the Department of Immigration, Multicultural, and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA), and referred to as “Attachments A, B, and C”. In order to gain access to these documents, Canning lodged a complaint with the Commonwealth Ombudsman, but apparently DIMIA was advised that these documents could “not be divulged to any person, including the Ombudsman”.

Antonio Negri

In April 2005, Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Negri was scheduled to speak at a conference ‘Physiognomy of Origins: Multiplicities, Bodies and Radical Politics’, hosted by the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (RIHSS) in Sydney. Unfortunately for him, his impending visit came to the attention of revisionist historian Keith Windschuttle, who penned an article for The Australian denouncing Negri as a terrorist. Negri was forced to withdraw from the conference due to ill-health, but University authorities cancelled funding for the conference anyway — just to be safe. (See also : ‘The Physiognomy of Civilisation’, Angela Mitropoulos, Arena magazine, No.76, April–May 2005.)

Scott Parkin

In 2005, ASIO, in close collaboration with US intelligence agencies, arranged for the deportation of peace activist Scott Parkin. Unfortunately for him, Parkin “participated in a protest in Sydney during the Forbes Global CEO conference, organising a piece of street theatre outside the Australian headquarters of Kellog Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Halliburton is the giant oil services company with the bulk of the contracts to rebuild Iraq, and was the focus of Scott’s anti-war activism in Houston”:

On Wednesday 7 September, shortly after arriving in Melbourne, Scott received a call, from an anonymous number, on his mobile phone. He found himself speaking to an officer from the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). She told him that ASIO wanted to speak with him about his “activities” in Australia, and asked him to attend an interview…

On the morning of Saturday 10 September, after finishing breakfast at a cafe in Sydney Road, Brunswick, Scott was apprehended by six men – a combination of immigration officials and Australian Federal Police – and told that he was being taken into “questioning detention”.

To cut a long story short, Parkin was deported on September 15, 2005. Since then, Scott and his Friends have been engaged in a legal battle with ASIO and other state authorities in order to determine the reasons for his deportation. Most recently (May 2007), ASIO has admitted that the basis for its adverse findings regarding Scott’s Good-ness was in part the product of US intelligence sources, a fact which authorities had previously denied; in November, the Federal Court ruled that ASIO must disclose documents it used to determine Parkin was Bad. Interestingly, ‘Among the documents ASIO has been ordered to release is a secret 1990 “determination” which sets out the criteria that ASIO applies when assessing security threats related to “politically motivated violence”.’

Bonus!

An ad to spook the recruits, Lara Sinclair, The Australian, April 25, 2008: “ADVERTISING for spies can be a tricky business. Even so, the faceless spooks at ASIO have denied any embarrassment after their online recruitment drive for the next generation of Maxwell Smarts was linked to a photo gallery of Tibetan supporters being manhandled by police during yesterday’s Olympic torch relay. The ad was published on The Sydney Morning Herald‘s website next to photographic coverage of the torch relay. This meant its slogan – “If you want to protect Australia, we’ll pay attention to you” – appeared next to a photo gallery and stories describing how pro-Tibet supporters were hit by “thugs”. ASIO spokesman Geoff – “we don’t give out last names” – said the ad was aimed at people with an interest in national affairs and violent persons need not apply.

See also : Terror trial reality: it’s all just for show, Warwick McFadyen, The Age, May 3, 2008

Conspiracy, a 1994 documentary film about the 1978 Sydney Hilton Hotel Bombing:

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

Keeping FIT (Watch)

Posted on May 5, 2008 by @ndy

Interesting article in the New Statesman, by way of Unity blog.

Hours before Boris Johnson took the platform outside City Hall to proclaim his victory as the next mayor of London, anarchists and anti-fascist activists assembled along the Queen’s Walk to protest the elections and in a bid to blockade Richard Barnbrook and other members of the British National Party from approaching City Hall.

Protestors trickled in down the path from Tower Bridge, dispersing among the crowds of camera-toting tourists and their toddlers, high school volleyball teams on school trips, students and local workers. But what was planned as a protest against the elections and a blockade of the BNP became little more than a demonstration of power by the London Metropolitan Police and the now-notorious Forward Intelligence Team (FIT)…

As a response to police surveillance, activists in Merry Ol’ England have established a blog, FIT Watch:

Who are FIT Watch?

Fit Watch are a fluid group of people who have come together to resist and oppose the tactics of the Forward Intelligence Teams (cops who harass protesters).

We aim to act in solidarity with each other, supporting campaigns by being at meetings and protests, making it harder for the police to film and gather intelligence.

We hope to encourage a culture where their presence is not acceptable and to act when we see people being followed and harassed.

We aim to make it harder for them to photograph and intimidate us by getting in the way of their cameras, taking photos and publishing as much information as we can about them on our blog.

Of course, the state isn’t the only institution worried about dissent. The corporate sector is too. Recently, the campaign group Plane Stupid was targeted by C2i International: “C2i’s Technical Team was hand-picked from Special Operations at New Scotland Yard and were responsible for writing the accepted guidelines now used for all counter-measure examinations by governments worldwide. C2i’s team is discrete, highly experienced, and can be deployed at very short notice.” Well, not that discrete in this case. In a press release, the group stated that:

Oxford-educated Toby Kendall, 24, an employee of aerospace security consultants C2i International, infiltrated and spied on Heathrow campaign groups across London for a year. He was immediately suspected and following a Plane Stupid investigation he was last week confronted and exposed in a Japanese restaurant by the Plane Stupid activist Tamsin Omond – one of those who recently scaled Parliament. Heathrow owner BAA admitted to this morning’s Times newspaper that it has been in contact with C2i, having previously claimed it had no involvement in the spying operation.

Toby’s exposure follows on from a profile of another spy in Elle magazine; “Anna”, employed by the FBI in the United States to infiltrate anti-capitalist, radical environmental and animal rights groups. Like Toby, “Anna” was recruited as a young college student. In Australia, NSW police intelligence (?) made a similar approach to a student in Sydney, Daniel Jones, offering to drop charges against him stemming from the 2006 protests against the G20 in exchange for spying for the organisation. (See also : Tricksy ASIO wants the nasssty anarchisssts, June 26, 2007). More recently, New Zealand-based state coal company Solid Energy, by way of Thomspon & Clark Investigations, attempted to recruit another activist, Rob Gilchrist: Gavin Clark “asked Gilchrist to work undercover for his private investigation company, Thompson and Clark Investigations (TCIL). The target: spying on environment groups and other community groups for his company’s corporate clients.”

Gilchrist was shocked and insulted. He was a long-term supporter of many of the groups he was being asked to betray. But what made it most weird is that this was an exact rerun of earlier spying on environment, peace and animal rights groups uncovered by the Sunday Star-Times in May last year.

The Star-Times story revolved around an informer, Ryan Paterson-Rouse, who was planted by the same Gavin Clark inside the small environment group Save Happy Valley. The spying was being paid for by the state-owned coal company Solid Energy, whose plans for a massive new open-cast coal mine are opposed by Save Happy Valley.

Why the interest in this small environmental protest group? The answer is that Solid Energy is planning a dramatic increase in coal mining and coal exports to countries such as China, right at a time of growing world concern about climate change. Solid Energy’s response has been a vigorous public relations campaign to justify continued coal use, which last year included going as far as hiring private investigators to infiltrate and help it out-manoeuvre its environmental critics…

~ Nicky Hager, Private investigators still digging on West Coast, Sunday Star Times, April 20, 2008

See also : Spies exposed in local activist groups (May 27, 2007); Secretive Industries Must Be Exposed After Spying (June 17, 2007), Anarchia | Revealed: spying on Anarchists (October 3, 2006), slackbastard | Revealed: spying on Greens, Michael Bachelard, The Age, October 2, 2006 (“MULTINATIONAL packaging company Amcor stacked the Labor Party, infiltrated environment groups, sent people pretending to be greenies to forest protests and paid bribes overseas to secure its supply of native hardwood in the 1990s…”) | Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…

Funny video!

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

Bad news for Belgian boneheads in Blood & Honour

Posted on May 5, 2008 by @ndy

Bad News:

THE FLEMISH BRANCH of Blood and Honour (B&H) has cancelled all its scheduled activities for the rest of the year. The nazi bonehead outfit is in crisis and will not plan any more events until further notice.

Wehrwulf28, the shadowy figure who announced the decision, made in early February, organised the last B&H gig in Schoten, near Antwerp, on 26 January. The concert, a benefit for an unnamed “political prisoner”, was a shambles. The audience was tiny and the German nazi bands Sense Of Pride and Hate Soldiers failed to appear. Afterwards, one of B&H’s main activists stormed out of the organisation.

The resulting internal dispute meant that B&H Flanders did not participate in the so-called Day of Honour in Budapest on 9 February, which commemorates Hitler’s SS. It also called off its own SS memorial event scheduled for 15 March in Lommel.

B&H Flanders seems to have lost much of its reputation in nazi circles following the chaos at its ISD Memorial, which commemorates the bonehead icon Ian Stuart Donaldson, in Wolfsdonk on 27 October 2007.

Campaigns by the Flemish Anti-Fascistisch Front (AFF) against nazi activities have also taken their toll. The AFF has increased its media profile and as a result hardcore Flemish nazis have greater difficulty than ever finding venues. “This is more than we can bear”, declared one Flemish B&H activist on an internet forum.

The Belgian police are also clamping down on B&H. In January, the nazi online shop “Flemish Lion Versand”, was forced to shut down.

Later that month, the shop’s website announced: “Our site is currently under construction. We should be back soon. Please excuse us for our downtime; a statement on this will be posted soon. If you have any orders running which were paid for but not received, please contact us … and we will take care of this as soon as possible. Any emails sent between 28 November and 5 January have been lost.”

The shop had been online for six months and was hosted by a Dutch nazi living in Arendonk, Belgium. It seems likely that he was one of the nazis whose homes were searched by the police in November. The raids uncovered guns, large quantities of hate rock CDs and other nazi material including books, posters and stickers at various locations.

Source : From Wim Haelsterman, AFF/Verzet – RésistanceS in Brussels, Searchlight, April 2008. Note that while “Flemish Lion Versand” may be down, neo-Nazi label Pure Impact continues to grow, and its product is distroed locally through Deadset Music (along with occasional titles from Nordisc Records, Nordland Records and RAC Records). Pure Impact evolved out of German label Rock-O-Rama. When that label was forced to fold in 1994, German businessman Herbert Egoldt helped to establish another label in Belgium, Pure Impact, which continues to distribute racist and fascist musical product throughout Europe and the world.

Good News:

Sun 20/04/08 – Some 300 neo Nazis from the Blood & Honour group gathered in Bellegem, near Kortrijk in the west of Belgium, to commemorate the birthday of Adolf Hitler… As usual, the venue of the concert was communicated very late. The group rented the hall of a café under the pretence of holding a bachelor’s party for friends. The owners of the café were astonished when groups of boneheads arrived. The police knew that a commemoration for Hitler’s birthday April 20 was planned in Flanders, but the local police were only informed of the neo-Nazi gathering at the last minute. The concert Saturday evening proceeded without incident. On the bill were music groups from Flanders, the UK, Estonia and the Czech Republic. The Flemish branch of Blood & Honour organises neo-Nazi gatherings in Flanders several times a year.

In Adelaide, on July 18, Blood & Honour Australia will be holding its second annual Mid-Winter Fest, starring Bail Up!, Quick & the Dead and Ultraviolence. Highlights from last year’s affair was the mass saluting of a true hero of the white race, Rudolf Hess, Bail Up! belting out their hit single ‘Bomb the Boats’, and venue management saying ‘fuck off’ to one person who wandered in off the street, not knowing what the gig was about, and complaining about all the Nazis. Apparently, management was much too happy with the profits they were making from the sales of alcohol to give a shit.

Local (Newcastle) neo-Nazis boys Blood Red Eagle have also released a NEW SINGLE, ‘Warriors of Genghis Khan’; they’ve apparently abandoned ‘Viking Rock’ for ‘Mongol Rock’.

More Good Bad News:

Posted in Anti-fascism, Music | 2 Comments

Victory for Dick in Londinium

Posted on May 4, 2008 by @ndy

British National Party member Richard Barnbrook has been elected to the London Assembly. He gave a great, drunken acceptance speech.

Barnbrook received 69,710 votes for Mayor, while on the (far) left, the Socialist Workers Party‘s candidate, Lindsay German, got a mere 16,796. (As the Respect candidate in 2004, German got 61,731 votes.)

Less than half of those eligible to vote (45.33%) bothered to do so.

First-preference votes:

1) Tory Party | Boris Johnson | 1,043,761 (42.48%)
2) Labour Party | Ken Livingstone | 893,877 (36.38%)
3) Liberal Democrats | Brian Paddick | 236,685 (9.63%)
4) Green Party | Siân Berry | 77,374 (3.15%)
5) British National Party | Richard Barnbrook | 69,710 (2.84%)
6) Christian Peoples Alliance and Christian Party | Alan Craig | 39,249 (1.60%)
7) UK Independence Party | Gerard Batten | 22,422 (0.91%)
EIGHT) Left List | Lindsey German | 16,796 (0.68%)
9) English Democrats | Matt O’Connor | 10,695 (0.44%)
10) Independent | Winston McKenzie | 5,389 (0.22%)

In the ding-dong battle between the SWP (Left List) and Respect in City & East, Respect (George Galloway) got 26,760 votes (14.28%) while the Left candidate got just 2,274 votes (1.21%), less even than the National Front with 2,350 votes (1.25%). In general, of fourteen constituencies, Left List (SWP) candidates managed to avoid coming last in nine, comfortably seeing off Veritas in Barnet & Camden, the English Democrats in seven seats (although being outpolled in seven others), the UK Independence Party in two seats (losing in the remaining twelve), and seeing off challenges from two Independents, Socialist Alternative (Chris Flood), Animals Count and the Socialist Party (David Lambert), and even managed to defeat a Christian in one seat (losing all others) in the race to the bottom.

More generally, the Assembly election witnessed a collapse in the Labour vote, few if any gains for the (far) left, and a minor increase in support for the (far) right (for the first time the BNP gained over 5% of the total vote, thus guaranteeing the Party a seat in the Assembly). As a result, according to Neal Lawson, ‘New Labour is now dead’.

It’s not all bad news for New Labour though: Tony and Cherie Bliar have reportedly bought the £4m former home of legendary actor Sir John Gielgud, the Bliars’ sixth property in their growing portfolio. Tony Bliar has earned more than £1m since leaving Downing Street last July, in speaking fees and as an adviser to JP Morgan Chase. Current Labour leader Gordon Brown has also been provided with an opportunity to show his sensitive side as a result of the Party’s drubbing at the polls, saying ‘he understands people’s “hurt”, in the aftermath of Labour’s worst local election results in 40 years’.

See also : Waking up to a different London

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics, Trot Guide | Leave a comment

Further Adventures in Trotville

Posted on May 4, 2008 by @ndy

Australia

The recent amalgamation of the International Socialist Organisation, Socialist Action Group, and Solidarity, to form a new Trotskyist organisation, Solidarity, presumably bubbles along in the background… somewhere. Unfortunately, three months later, while the ISO’s site hasn’t been updated (and its paper, Socialist Worker, is also seemingly moribund), the SAG’s site has re-entered the capitalist marketplace, and the new Solidarity site has been “coming soon” for about the same period.

The World Can’t Wait! (is the name of an RCP front).

(See also : Solidarity forever? Three of the four International Socialist Tendency groups in Australia have merged, Marcus Strom, Labor Tribune, March 2008.)

Where was I?

Oh yeah…

(I’m So Bored with the) U S A

On the one hand, the wsws.org criticises the United Auto Workers union (UAW preparing agreement to slash American Axle workers’ wages, close plants, Joe Kay, May 3, 2008). After enumerating its faults, Kay concludes:

It is critical that strikers elect rank-and-file committees to take the strike out of the hands of the UAW bureaucracy. These committees should make a direct appeal to workers throughout the auto industry—in the United States and internationally—to wage a common struggle against the concessions imposed by the corporations. The committees should organize opposition to any proposed concessions contract and prepare to mobilize a “no” vote.

The issues facing American Axle workers are of a piece with those faced by workers throughout the country and internationally. Fundamentally, auto workers confront the consequences of the failure of capitalism, a social system defended by the unions and both big business parties. A new political movement of the working class is necessary…

And the best party to lead that movement is, naturally enough, the Socialist Equality Party aka the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) aka the publishers of the wsws.org. (NB. In addition to the United States, the SEP has sections in Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany and Sri Lanka.)

Of course, while capitalism may be failing auto workers — and workers generally — some capitalist business enterprises are thriving, not failing. Thus, on the other hand, the unspeakable villains of the International Bolshevik Tendency (established c.1986 and currently lead by former — that is, renegade — Spart leader, marriage celebrant, and counsellor, Bill Logan, whom one Spart reader declares to be “the antithesis of the very essence of the liberating goals of communism”) have re-published an account of the “scandal” concerning the ICFI’s business interests, provocatively titled ‘Northites Inc.: Toeing the Bottom Line: Being Determines Consciousness’.* I thought I’d already commented on this episode, but I hadn’t, and it provides the opportunity for some terrific drama. Over to the Inter-national Bolsheviks:

In the spring of 2007, the Socialist Equality Party/Inter-national Committee (SEP/IC) was rocked by a public scandal when Scott Solomon, an embittered former adherent, revealed that David North is not only the leading figure of the SEP and IC, but is also CEO of Grand River Printing & Imaging (GRPI), a multi-million dollar business in Michigan [and “premiere provider of commercial web offset printing services”]. The SEP leadership would apparently prefer to keep its successful commercial venture secret, but it cannot deny the facts.

The GRPI evolved from the in-house printshop that used to produce the Bulletin, the newspaper of the Workers League (WL—the SEP’s predecessor). When the WL/SEP suspended publication of the Bulletin in favor of producing an online daily on its World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), the party print shop was apparently quietly transformed into a full-blown business.

At about the same time, the SEP/IC leadership discarded the traditional Marxist view of trade unions as defensive organizations of the working class and declared that they had become simple agencies of the capitalists. North wrote a lengthy essay on this theme entitled “Globalization and the Unions,” [sic] in which he announced the “objective transformation of the AFL-CIO into an instrument of the corporations and the capitalist state.” We polemicized against this in 1917 No. 29 (see “SEP: Defeatist and Confusionist: The Class Nature of the Unions”).

But really, what’s wrong with employers and employees working together towards a common goal? And do unions do anything other than cause industrial unrest? According to the Honourable Julie Bishop, MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Employment, Business and Workplace Relations, in a statement regarding ‘Increasing levels of trust between employees and employers’, dated Monday, 14th April, 2008, for example:

The unprecedented levels of industrial harmony in recent years in Australia have coincided with the dramatic decline in union membership. Declining union membership is evidence of the increasing levels of trust and cooperation between employees and employers. The vast majority of private sector employees choose to negotiate directly with their employer and do not choose to be represented by a union. The challenge for the union movement is to provide a relevant service for which people are prepared to pay membership fees voluntarily. Unions should not seek to use Labor Governments to force an increase in membership through a return to compulsory unionism and “no ticket no start”. The decline in private sector union membership contradicts Labor Party and union propaganda that business has been exploiting workers in recent years.

Across the world, Green River provides a dramatic example of a capitalist business run on the basis of ensuring a harmonious relationship between employers and employees:

David Green founded Grand River Printing in 1978. He was convinced that the key to long-term success was the creation of a unified and internally cohesive management team based on a common strategic vision and shared ideals. In the years to come, his most important contribution to the firm proved to be his ability to recognize talent, bring together people from very different social and professional backgrounds, arouse their interest in the immense potential of the graphic arts-printing industry, and impart to them a vision of a company that was both profitable, ethical and humane.

‘David Green’ is however, a Marxist revolutionary: the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, in which capacity he has “lectured extensively in Europe, Asia, the US and the former Soviet Union on the history and principles of Marxism and the program and perspective of the Fourth International”, and is “the author of several authoritative works on the Fourth International and the Russian Revolution, including The Heritage We Defend, Perestroika versus Socialism, Trotskyism versus Stalinism and In Defense of the Russian Revolution“. (Also Marxism, History & Socialist Consciousness, Leon Trotsky & the Post-Soviet School of Historical Falsification, The crisis of American democracy: The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, Leon Trotsky and the Fate of Socialism in the 20th Century: A Reply to Professor Eric Hobsbawm and Anti-Semitism, Fascism and the Holocaust. See the Mehring Books site for all the exciting details.)

So much for his consciousness. As for his being, according to Scott Solomon:

Newsgroups: alt.politics.socialism.trotsky
From: Scott Solomon
Date: 22 Apr 2007
Subject: David W. Green (“North”) . . . CEO/Cult Leader for “Revolution”

EXHIBIT 1
EXHIBIT 2 [PDF, see page 2]
EXHIBIT 3 [PDF, see page 9]

Some years ago, the communist political cult to which I used to be a member for one year (then known as the Workers League, now known as the Socialist Equality Party) made an interesting “turn” in its political line. According to SEPtic, the unions were no longer organizations of the working class.

I found this “turn” to be quite startling. Upon further thought, however, it sorta made sense. David W. Green (“North”), the cult leader of SEPtic, having run the cult since the mid 1970s, had been a complete ineffectual. He and his cult never organized any workers, ever gained any influence in the labor movement, never accomplished anything. So, in a strange way, it made quite a bit of sense that “North” was now writing off the unions altogether.

Still, I wondered, how was it that “North” managed to keep control over a dedicated cluster in the top leadership.

Today, playing around on the web, I found a possible answer. It seems that David W. Green is CEO of the 241st largest printing company in the USA. EXHIBIT 1 is a link to the company’s site. EXHIBIT 3 shows that in 2005 the company generated $21m in sales. EXHIBIT 2 has pictures of “David North” and his wife in Crain’s, touting them as some of the best employers in the city.

The “puzzle” now makes sense. Question: Why does the North cult solicit members for donations when they run a profitable enterprise that could conceivably fund the SEPtic web page activities? Is there any sort of democracy in SEPtic? Were a faction to take over the cult, what would be the impact of the North crew vis-a-vis the company activities?

It’s interesting that CEO North now tells workers that unions are no longer organizations of the working class. This same “line” is probably echoed by CEOs at all unorganized companies.

Probably.

    * The conflict between the Sparts and the IBT dates back to 1979, and centres on Bill Logan. In August 2007, the Sparts re-published The Logan Dossier, which is awesomely sub-titled ‘Documentary Evidence and Testimony in the August 1979 Trial and Expulsion of Bill Logan from the international Spartacist tendency for Crimes Against Communist Morality and Elementary Human Decency’. The IBT responds to some Spart criticism here, and describes in painful detail their version of the Sparts political degeneration over the course of the last few decades (that is, more or less since the expulsion of the IBT’s founding members). Note that the formation of the Sparts was triggered by the expulsion (in 1966) of a number of members of the Socialist Workers Party in the US.

    The other important split in the Sparts occurred in 1996, when the former editor of Workers Vanguard, Jan Norden, got purged. Naturally, he went on to found another derivative of the Fourth International: the League for the Fourth International. It boldly declared “Reforge the Fourth International!”. The Internationalist Group has adherents in the United States, Brazil, France, Germany, and Mexico. The LFI used to have a Dutch section too, but he left in 2004 to join the IBT.

    ** Bonus! The Dumbass Guide to Leninism, Marx and Coca-Cola, Monday, November 5, 2007: “Recently someone came up to me and asked “JM, I’m a college student with severe personality problems which Leninist party should I join?” To help him out, and in honor of the 90th anniversary of the second Russian Revolution, I’ve posted this helpful guide to the various sects, splinters, splinters-of-splinters, and grouplets of Leninism. Please print and distribute…”

Posted in Trot Guide | 11 Comments

Ooh la la…

Posted on May 3, 2008 by @ndy

…Detractors say that the consequences [of the events of May 1968] have been disastrous – divorce, drugs, crime and a general breakdown in social cohesion amid the pursuit of individual happiness. Mr Sarkozy was virulent in his criticism, pledging to “liquidate the legacy” of the uprising during his election campaign last year. He is in a minority. According to a recent poll 80 per cent of French people think that May ’68 had a positive influence on relationships between men and women. More than three quarters would join the students on the barricades if it happened again…

Spirit of 1968 is invoked on streets of Sarkozy’s France to demand stability, Adam Sage, The Times, May 3, 2008

Posted in Anarchism, History | Leave a comment

song (not) for nat

Posted on May 3, 2008 by @ndy

naked raygun… from chicago. geddit?

Naked Raygun was founded in Chicago in 1980, by Marco Pezzati, Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango. During their eleven-year career, they released six albums that would change the sound of punk rock indefinitely.

Shortly after their first release, Basement Screams, Durango left to join Big Black permanently, and was replaced by John Haggerty, whose unique style of buzzsaw guitar would define Raygun’s sound for their next four albums. Additionally, Pierre Kezdy replaced Camilo Gonzalez and Eric Spicer took over drums for Jim Colao. In 1990, Haggerty left the band to start Pegboy. Bill Stephens joined the band for their final studio release entitled, Raygun…Naked Raygun.

Naked Raygun is widely recognized as being one of the most influential punk bands of the 80’s. Their anthemic style incorporated politics in a uniquely accessible way, melding pop and hardcore into one cohesive sound, that would later be dubbed, “The Chicago Sound”. In 1999, Quarterstick Records reissued the entire Naked Raygun catalog. Following a successful Chicago reunion show, Naked Raygun reunited in 2007.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Go go Melbourne taxi drivers!

Posted on May 2, 2008 by @ndy

Much respect. Best wishes to the poor bastard who got stabbed. And three cheers for Jazz Randyman — you rock!

Melbourne taxi drivers consider further protests
Maria Bervanakis
Melbourne Leader
May 2, 2008

TAXI drivers have warned Wednesday’s snap city blockade could happen again.

Blockade organiser Mohammed Jama said cab drivers had been neglected for too long and were prepared to further disrupt the city to get what they wanted.

“From now on, if we are not getting what we want we will fight for our right anytime, any place, anywhere,” he said.

About 1000 cabbies blocked the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets for 22 hours calling for increased safety in taxis.

The April 29 stabbing of Reservoir taxi driver Jalvinder Singh, 23, in Clifton Hill sparked the protest.

A 45-year-old Alphington man faces an attempted murder charge.

The 22-hour protest ended when the State Government gave in to the cabbies’ demands.

Under the agreement, all Melbourne taxis will be fitted with security screens by Christmas and the government will foot half the bill. Also, passengers will be required to pre-pay fares between 10pm and 5am.

The government also agreed to compensate the injured taxi driver and launch a media campaign to promote the pre-pay system.

It will also educate drivers on dealing with violent offenders.

Victorian Taxi Directorate general manager Peter Corcoran said the actions were offered in good faith by Transport Minister Lynne Kosky.

“The community and this government cannot condone any violence against taxi drivers,” he said at the protest.

Victoria Police negotiator Inspector Paul Pottage said he was satisfied with the peaceful protest.

He said fines issued against drivers who parked cabs illegally during the blockade would be waived.

“This was a concession we made at the meeting (with Ms Kosky),” he said.

Sony Kumer, 34, left India 13 years ago to live in Melbourne. The father of three from Hoppers Crossing was a cab driver for two years but recently gave it up after he was set upon by passengers.

He said security screens would go a long way to protecting drivers.

“I had a lot of problems. I was assaulted by three men, I stopped the cab and ran,” he said.

“I am looking for a job now but one thing is for sure, I don’t want to drive cabs.”

Satvirl Khangur, 24, from Reservoir, is a rookie cab driver of two months. He had mixed feelings about the changes.

“It’s alright, pre-pay is good and security screens, I’m not sure how much safer it will be,” he said.

Mr Khangur said he was glad he joined the protest – despite sleeping on the street in freezing temperatures and not eating for 22 hours.

“I’m with my friends, all my brothers, we all united to take on the government,” he told the Leader.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder and Lord Mayor John So went to the blockade on Wednesday to urge the drivers to move on.

The Lord Mayor offered to convene a meeting at his office but drivers declined.

“I’m asking them (the drivers) to get off the street,” the Lord Mayor said before leaving on foot unescorted.

The cabbies had the support of a large cross-section of the community, with Salvation Army officers handing out cups of water to the protesters.

Cadet Peter Hobbs said it was unusual for the Salvos to attend a protest but they helped “everyone in need”.

“These guys have been here a while so we are giving them some water,” he said.

East Brunswick man Mickie Skelton, 20, brought a red basket of apples and handed them out to the applause of the drivers who vowed to “never charge him” for a cab journey.

“I’m an anarchist and a unionist and I believe in solidarity,” Mr Skelton said.

“These guys are here to say that we do not just work in your 7 Elevens, your petrol stations and drive your cabs around. We keep this city going.

“This is a class issue.”

City workers interviewed by Leader were mostly in support of the drivers.

James Henderson, 26, from Port Melbourne said: “Not enough is being done about the escalating violence.”

David Matthews, 22, of Port Melbourne said it should never have come to drivers needing to blockade.

“18 months ago a taxi driver was killed and the government said safety standards would be reviewed and here we are again. There is a need to take action,” he said.

The protest was largely peaceful until police started to fine the cabs.

Nishan Singh, 29, from Glenroy copped a $110 fine but refused to move his car.

Ms Kosky will meet with taxi drivers at noon on May 15 at Flemington Racecourse to disclose further details of the introduction of the security screens.

Posted in State / Politics | 50 Comments

May Day / Labor Day / International Workers’ Day 2008 / a sizzling BONK holiday

Posted on May 2, 2008 by @ndy
    Neat-o photos and videos from rallies around the whirled : Solidarité Ouvrière (Workers’ Solidarity).

In Australia, a brainworker reckons Stolen wages: labour’s forgotten outrage (Ros Kidd, ABC), noting that thousands of Aboriginal workers remain uncompensated for their labour (a critical factor in the development of rural industry). “When will the labour movement march with their fellow workers — and keep marching — until the most basic right of wage security is won for those whose labour was so cruelly exploited, across generations, to build our nation?”

In Bolivia, President Evo Morales has taken the opportunity of May Day to announce (again) the state’s intention to nationalise three energy companies: Chaco (owned by British Petroleum); Transredes (owned by Ashmore Energy), and the CLHB company. He also announced the nationalisation of the national telephone company run by multinational Euro Telecom International (ENTEL), 50-percent owned by Telecom Italia SPA. (See also: ¡Cochabamba! Water War in Bolivia, Oscar Olivera and Tom Lewis; Foreword by Vandana Shiva, South End Press, 2004.)

In Colombia, Killings of trade unionists on the rise in Colombia, according to Amnesty International. “We do not want marches crying for the dead, nor 1 May protests” wrote a paramilitary death squad in a letter sent to trade unionists in the department of Santander on April 22. Of course, one simple solution would be to stop killing trade unionists. Unfortunately, that would cramp the stylee of the Coca-Cola corporation; a development which would, in turn, possibly cramp the stylee of some of Australia’s best up and coming artists!, including The Cops (naturally), “rambunctious party favourites” The Cat Empire and “the laid-back singer, songwriter & surfer Jack Johnson”.

In Cuba, “Cuba labor leader calls for more efficiency, harder work” (Will Weissert): “HAVANA (AP) — The head of communist Cuba’s powerful labor union called for more efficiency and harder work in the face of rising world fuel and food prices as hundreds of thousands of workers joined the traditional May Day march on Thursday.”

In the Czech Republic, about 100 or so anarchists laid wreaths and made paper flowers in memory of the executed trade unionists from Chicago. 500 neo-Nazis belonging to the Workers’ Party and other fascist twats also gathered in Prague. In response, “The Young Social Democrats met at the same place, outside the church on Jiri z Podebrady square in Prague 3, this morning at the event dubbed “More toys for deprived nationalists.” They said they wanted to show right-wing extremists that it would be better “to play with something less ugly than baseball bats.” They left piles of toys on the square that extremists removed before their rally” (Some 500 neo-Nazis rally in Prague on May Day, ČTK, May 2, 2008). Anarchists in Poland also marched (as well as briefly encountered some fascist losers).

In Finland, about 500 partying workers celebrated EuroMayDay; police arrested 27, ‘”…the majority of the detainees were not guilty of any crime but rather the police took them in as a preventative measure,” Inspector Jortikka explained’.

In the United States, while May Day Returns to its Roots, according to Geov Parrish (Eat the State!), in Seattle ‘Arbitrator steps in to avoid West Coast port slowdown’, Alex Veiga (AP Business Writer), Seattle Times:

An arbitrator has ordered the union that represents dockworkers at West Coast ports to tell members they must report to work on Thursday and not take the day off to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A wide enough walkout could cause a slowdown at the West Coast ports – the nation’s major gateway for cargo from the Far East.

Arbitrator John Kagel issued his decision Wednesday after holding a hearing by phone with the employers’ group, the Pacific Maritime Association, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, according to a document outlining the ruling.

The union previously asked employers to clear the way for members to skip out on the day shift to protest the war, but employers refused the request and were backed by the arbitrator last week.

Despite that decision, word continued to spread on the Internet of a May 1 walkout by longshore workers and details of protests, including a march in San Francisco. Thursday is May Day, when workers traditionally celebrate the labor movement…

(And Happy May Day!, from the San Francisco Bay Guardian too.)

Still, while striking workers on the West Coast may irk order-givers in the US, in Iraq port workers belonging to the General Union of Port Workers of Iraq have issued a statement in solidarity, declaring that “The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.”

AP reports that the strike was successful, as ‘Terminal operators say West Coast cargo traffic halted’: “LOS ANGELES: Terminal operators say West Coast cargo traffic has come to a halt as port workers stage daylong anti-war protests. Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug says thousands of dockworkers did not show up to work Thursday morning, leaving ships and truck drivers idle at ports from Long Beach to Seattle. The West Coast ports are the nation’s principal gateway for cargo container traffic from the Far East. A spokesman for the National Retail Federation says shippers and exporters planned for the slowdown that coincides with May Day and expected no significant long-term disruptions.”

The Maritime Union of New Zealand also sent congratulations to fellow workers in the US. In Olympia, a couple bank windows got broke at a rally. Police used pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse those assembled.

(In Kashmir, India, an example of super-exploitation of the kind US management can only dream of (and plan for).)

In Israel Report shows workers lost NIS 8,000 each to employers’ benefit (Ruth Sinai, Haaretz):

With every passing year May Day – celebrated as the International Workers’ Day – becomes more of a day for general social protest. Friday’s Labor Day march in Tel Aviv, for example, includes a long list of organization not associated directly with workers’ right: students’ and women’s groups, neighborhood activists and a range of political organization from the Young Communist League to Meretz Youth. Among the slogans under whose banners the participants will be marching, for example, are “Maintain the standard of living in light of the price hikes” and “The municipality is for everyone, not just the real estate sharks.”

“It’s impossible to maintain the division between the struggle for workers’ rights and the overall economic policy,” Alon-Lee Green, the hero of the strike by employees of the Coffee Bean chain in Tel Aviv, which ended in March with an unprecedented revenue-sharing deal for the workers. “It doesn’t matter whether your salary is cut or prices rise. Either way you’re left with nothing,” Green said.

Residents of South Tel Aviv’s Florentine who have banded together to fight a plan to turn the area into a luxury residential neighborhood also joined in. The protest march will begin from there, proceeding to the concentration of bank offices and personnel agencies at the intersection of Allenby St. and Rothschild Blvd. “The first of May is becoming more and more relevant for more and more people who want to feel they are not alone in the war of survival” says the chairman of the Student Union of the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Daniel Bronstein. “Not only terms of employment are important to Israeli workers, but also for their children to have access to high-quality education systems as well as good medical and welfare systems,” he says.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are some May Day reflections in Lebanon: Politics in labor’s name, NOWLebanon: “It’s Eid el-Ommal, May Day, Labor Day or International Workers’ Day, as you will. By any name, it is the day on which workers around the world celebrate the achievements of the international labor movement. For Lebanese this year, however, the day has special significance, as it comes just six days ahead of a general strike called for by the Lebanese General Federation of Labor Unions (GFLU). Sadly, the bear-baiting event is more about March 14 vs. March 8 than it is about workers’ rights. The Lebanese have a proud labor legacy, but this event – just like the January riots and the Mar Mikhail shooting – is going to compromise it once again…”

In the Basque region, computer says ‘3 bombs explode in Spanish Basque region’ (Daniel Woolls, AP): “MADRID, Spain (AP) — Three bombs exploded in Spain’s Basque region on Thursday, officials said. No one was injured in the blasts, which police said were carried out by the separatist group ETA. All three blasts, which occurred on the traditional workers holiday of May Day, targeted labor-related government buildings…”

In a story that’s sure to bring crocodile tears to the eye of former Rhodes Scholar, Companion of the Order of Australia, Australian Prime Minister and working class man Robert James Lee (Bob) Hawke: “Sitting outside her hut under a spiderweb shade of bamboo and thatch, 40-year-old Ba Yoong remembers the warm May day, six years ago, when SPDC soldiers came to her village. During heavy fighting between government and rebel troops, her farmer husband, Loong Mayta, was seized by a drunken officer who demanded money. As Ba Yoong ran to him, holding her six-month-old baby, the officer shot him in the chest. As Loong Mayta lay on the ground begging the officer to spare him, he shot him in the throat, killing him instantly. Tears spill over Ba Yoong’s deeply lined face as she tells her story. “I cannot forget,” she says. “We cannot go back, but there is no future for us here.” Burma‘s top general, Than Shwe, meanwhile, has used May Day to urge workers to support the military dictatorship’s latest legal manouevring: “Burma’s top general has urged people to vote in favour of a new constitution in a referendum to be held next week. In a May Day message, Than Shwe said workers should back the charter because workers’ representatives had played a part in drafting it” (perhaps by providing their blood to be used as ink?).

There’s a different kinda May Day in Egypt, apparently: ‘A different May Day: Workers in the industrial town of Mahala Al-Kubra have cause to celebrate, writes Faiza Rady’, Al-Ahram Weekly: “Over the past two years the struggles of Egyptian workers have changed the country’s political map. For the first time in more than five decades the government will really have to address workers’ demands on May Day rather than pay the customary lip service to Egypt’s ‘honourable workforce'”, says Mohamed Al-Attar, a strike leader and veteran worker at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in the northern industrial city of Mahala Al-Kubra where nearly a quarter of all public sector textile and clothing workers are employed…” And it appears that, as a result of labour unrest — especially in the form of wildcat strikes in th country’s north to protest privatization, layoffs and high food prices — ‘Egypt to raise wages after unrest’; if only for public service workers.

In Germany, thousands of police prevented perhaps as many as 10,000 antifa from meeting and greeting 700 participants in a neo-Nazi march in Hamburg and at a similar event in Nuremberg. “In Hamburg and Nuremberg, the NPD marched between cordons of riot police ordered to enforce the NPD’s right of free assembly. Anti-NPD protesters far outnumbered boot-wearing rightists in both cities.” According to Deutsche-Welle, “Bavaria state’s premier, Guenther Beckstein, who comes from the city, told a peaceful anti-NPD rally in another part of town that his government would use undercover agents, court challenges and youth education programmes to undercut the NPD wherever it could”, which suggests he may like to brush up a little on his history. The report also briefly recounts marches and rallies in Russia, Siberia, France and Greece, where “public transport services, and ships and flights by the state carrier Olympic Airlines were paralyzed across the country as unions planned demonstrations in the capital Athens to coincide with Labor Day”. See also : Berlin.

(On France, see also : ‘Once the lion of the right, Le Pen’s roar now but a whisper’, Susan Sachs, Globe and Mail, May 2, 2008.)

In Palestine, Manar Jibrin writes that ‘Anti Wall demonstration in a Bethlehem village, two Palestinians injured’ (IMEMC News Report, May 2, 2008): “An anti-Wall demonstration of at least two hundred of the residents of the al Ma’sarah village near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem and dozens of International peace activists on Friday. Demonstrators marched from a high school in the village of Al Ma’sarah towards the construction site of the Separation Wall on the village’s farmlands. Work began a year and a half ago no the village’s lands, aimed at confiscating and isolating ten of thousands of dunums of Al Ma’sarah’s land, located south-west of Bethlehem. This week’s demonstration was to celebrate May Day (International Workers Day)…”

In the Philippines, ‘May Day protesters demand wage hikes amid surging rice prices’. “MANILA (AP) – Thousands of workers marched in scorching heat Thursday in May Day protests demanding President Arroyo’s resignation for not raising the minimum wage to help them cope with surging food and fuel prices…”

In South Africa, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) has issued a May Day statement condemning the police murder of Mathaseni, a militant of the Sebokeng Ward 2 Concerned Residents and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP), on April 30: From Haymarket to Sebokeng: the struggle continues. For more information on anti-privatisation struggles in South Africa, see anti privatisation forum.

Elsewhere in Asia, SKorean workers rally against free trade pact: “SEOUL (AFP) — Thousands of South Korean workers rallied Thursday against a planned free trade pact with the United States and the pro-market policies of new President Lee Myung-Bak…”

Zurich/Lausanne, Switzerland: “Police and anti-capitalist protestors clashed in Zurich and Lausanne Thursday after thousands of marchers took to the streets across Swiss cities in traditional May Day demonstrations. In Zurich, where up to 10,000 people took part, police used rubber bullets and water canons after being confronted by around 250 left-wing extremists throwing stones and bottles, according to the Swiss wire agency ATS/SDA. Around 20 people were arrested. Police were also looking for a motorist who drove off after driving his car into the crowd injuring two people. In Lausanne a McDonald’s restaurant was evacuated after it became a target for protestors who smashed windows.”

In Turkey, the police have had a riot: Turkish police disperse workers defying May Day ban, International Herald Tribune (AP); Riot cops swoop on Turkish May Day rally (CNN); Police break up Turkey marchers (BBC).

Oh yeah, and in the UK, BONK HOLIDAY: BRITS OUT FOR SEXY WEEKEND, writes Cameron Millar of The Daily Star: “SEX-MAD Brits are set to turn this weekend into a sizzling BONK holiday.”

Also : Workers in Asia and Europe Commemorate May Day / On May Day, a mix of rallies, violence and even hints of hope, AP; ‘Asian workers protest during May Day parade’, The Times, May 2, 2008; May Day; International Labour Day, UN Observer; The Origins and Traditions of May Day, Eugene Plawiuk, La Revue Gauche, May 1, 2006; The ONLY Spies I trust!, slackbastard, May 9, 2006.

“IF YOU CANNONADE US

we shall dynamite you.” You laugh! Perhaps you think, “You’ll throw no more bombs;” but let me assure you that I die happy on the gallows, so confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged us, then, mark my words, they will do the bomb-throwing! In this hope do I say to you: “I despise you. I despise your order; your laws; your force-propped authority.

HANG ME FOR IT!”

~ Louis Lingg (September 9, 1864 — November 10, 1887)

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

THE GROUND IS ON FIRE

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

EVERYTHING BREATHES THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT.”

~ August Spies (December 10, 1855 — November 11, 1887)

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