Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair 2012 (Review)

Posted on August 6, 2012 by @ndy

I went to the second annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday. It was noice, but not much different from last year (other than in size — bigger) and not really unusual in other respects.

Of the stalls, there were something like 40, about a third of which could be described as anarchist. The presence of the Communist League (a local satellite of the US-based Socialist Workers Party, a Trotskyist organisation) was exciting from a spotters perspective, but very odd given their political antagonism.

I dunno how many people attended the Fair but it was certainly many hundreds, and my impression was more folks attended this year than did last — I wouldn’t be at all surprised if next year’s attracted an even larger audience; there’s obviously a desire for gatherings such as this to discuss anarchy, organisation and social change. Speaking of which, the decision by the organisers to book several additional rooms to hold workshops was a good one and also indicative of the project’s broadening appeal, both in Melbourne/Australia but also across the many other territories in which bookfairs take place.

I didn’t attend the workshops as I was busy doing other things. You can read some of Kieran’s thoughts on a handful of the workshops here. Kieran’s comments have not been appreciated by all, some displeasure being expressed inre his reaction to Robbie Thorpe‘s presentation (see also : Anarchism and Aboriginal sovereignty, July 16, 2008). Be that as it may, I dunno if anybody else has written any other critical or semi-critical reflections on the event but I may post links to these if/when I find them.

After the Bookfair I went to The Retreat, ‘a warm and friendly pub with old world charm where they filmed The Sullivans‘. The pub was not the MCG, but news outta the MCG only added to the warmth, and was a fitting end to a good day out:

My thanks to the organisers, stallholders and other attendees. If I’m not dead or otherwise indisposed, I’ll probably see you again next year.

Coming up in November : Latin American Grassroots Movements Solidarity Conference / Conferencia en Solidaridad con los Movimientos de Base en America Latina: November 9–11, 2012 @ Latrobe University City Campus / Victorian Trades Hall [LASNET].

Posted in Anarchism, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Evasion of Rational Discussion in the Radical Milieu (Jason McQuinn, Anarchy, #56)

Posted on August 6, 2012 by @ndy

Evasion of Rational Discussion in the Radical Milieu
Jason McQuinn
Anarchy, #56

All too many anarchists – along with most other would-be radicals – seem to have mastered the evasion of rational discussion. This can be rather annoying and disappointing for those who would like to participate in the creation of a coherent new revolutionary movement which could genuinely confront and subvert state and capitalist power on the basis of anarchist theoretical principles and uncompromising practice. This evasion of sensible discussion seems to be the worst on the web, but often it is nearly as bad elsewhere.

On the internet this evasion is facilitated by the ease, immediacy and lack of responsibility – especially with regard to pseudonymous or anonymous posts – involved in writing for message boards, e-mail lists, and web sites. It may be partly a function of immaturity, since from my observations it appears that younger people more often seem to have the worst problems engaging in thoughtful and respectful discussion. (To be fair, this may also be more a reflection of the demographic of the contemporary radical milieu, in which people are sometimes already considered “older” when they’ve reached their mid- or late twenties!) It usually involves the refusal to reflect, self-critically evaluate and self-edit responses. The more unthinking, belligerent and vociferous participants tend to drive out the more thoughtful and considered opinions by making a never-ending stream of attacks, demands, and frivolous comments that must be dealt with (or, at least, patiently and consistently ignored by everyone else). With a plethora of ongoing irrational or illogical arguments, no one can engage in very intelligent discussion because anything self-critical and thoughtful – generally requiring carefully nuanced interpretation – is immediately lost in the tumult of relatively mindless noise.

In other anarchist media the evasion of discussion tends to be most obvious in the letters columns of periodicals (including, of course, the letters column in this magazine), and in some of the rants that sometimes pass for personal, point-of-view articles. These are also formats that tend to lend themselves to those writers too irresponsible, unprepared and unself-critical to put together more coherent essays that would need to be more thoroughly thought through, more logically structured, and more self-critically examined in light of other perspectives.

Wherever the evasions and whoever employs them, they most often seem to boil down to strategic or tactical decisions (whether conscious or not) to avoid dealing with particular perspectives or arguments simply because these writers have no intelligent arguments or rebuttals to make in their turn. We’ve all seen examples of this many, many times. Frequently, in response to a thoughtful and carefully worded essay that takes a principled stand on a controversial subject, an irrelevant (and often irrational) attack is launched on the author of the essay (she or he is castigated as “racist,” “sexist,” “elitist,” “bourgeois,” “fascist,” etc. with no convincing justification, or no attempted justification at all). Alternatively, or sometimes simultaneously, there is often an attempt to put some other undefendable ideas into the original author’s mouth, which can then be easily knocked down; or an attempt is made to change the subject and talk about something else, in order to ignore the controversial topic at hand; or else there is an attempt to bend over backwards making the most flimsy of excuses for the targets of the author’s critique, while in turn criticizing the most irrelevant details of this critique to excess.

In past editorials I’ve tended to interpret some of these gambits of evasion as examples of simple bad-faith. But I’m increasingly beginning to realize that many, if not most, of these gambits are the result less of bad-faith than an inability to make a rational defense of one’s own perspective. Perhaps there is less irrational hatred in the radical milieu and a bit more inarticulate ignorance than I originally perceived. Still, the cures will be similar, whatever the bases for the evasion of discussion.

1) Always attack the comments rather than the author.

This is accomplished by avoiding a number of things, and by accomplishing one simple goal. Avoid making spurious, irrelevant, or patently false accusations by sticking resolutely to actual points made in the words and context in which the author you want to criticize has actually made them! If you can’t quote the author (without distorting the context) and address your criticisms directly to the quoted words, then simply don’t comment!

2) Refuse straw man arguments.

Challenge the actual meaning of the words you quote by either accepting the definitions used by the author you want to criticize, or by making it clear why you think the author’s definitions are so inadequate as to require different definitions. If you can’t find any place where an author actually has said something you want to criticize, don’t argue that she or he has said it, or would agree with it, or secretly believes it. If one person makes a particular statement, this does not mean that all people you may want to group with that person agree with that statement. If you want to draw some logical conclusions from the author’s statements in order to criticize them (or to show that the statements lead to absurd conclusions), then first run your alleged logical conclusions by several people to make sure that your conclusions are more solid than idiosyncratic, and then be sure to acknowledge that it is your conclusions that are absurd, and not the author’s.

Above all, read any texts you want to criticize with extreme care. Avoid superficial readings and always make a conscientiousness effort to understand what is at stake. If there is something you don’t understand, then simply ask about it before you criticize it.

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Tractors ~versus~ Cops

Posted on August 3, 2012 by @ndy

zero

one

A Guy Just Drove A Tractor Over Seven Cop Cars In Vermont

“A Vermont resident just took to a farm tractor and ran over seven police cruisers. We spoke to police and they currently have “no idea why” this happened.

And yeah, seven cars…”

two

Nineteen Years Ago, A Guy Drove An Army Vehicle Into Eight Cop Cars In Perth

From Episodes in Western Australia’s Policing History, Western Australia Police Media and Public Affairs, 2006:

In May 1993 WA Police were confronted with a rampaging 11 tonne tracked vehicle driven by Gary Alan Hayes, 31 years, who had stolen the vehicle from an army depot. His first attack was on the Wembley Police Station, located 10km from the city, at 4.40am crashing through a fence, damaging a police vehicle, as well as the building itself. Detectives from this station had been dealing with him over other criminal offences. He had previously been charged over $78,000 worth of counter-terrorist equipment stolen from the SAS barracks in November 1992. Police attended and he then crashed into the rear of their van knocking them into a lamp post. He then travelled into the city, to Police Headquarters and the City Police Station where at 5.15am he smashed through security gates. He then commenced to run over six police vehicles and a motor cycle, as well as private vehicles, parked in the secure area. Crashing his way out and demolishing the exit gates, he then travelled to the Central Law Courts, slamming into the masonry supports to this building. He then travelled to the CIB building in Beaufort Street, Perth and caused further damage, but could not get past the bollards guarding the building. Travelling onto Parliament House, he circled the building and stopped. Police negotiators attempted to talk to him through a slit in the front of the vehicle, but he set off again into the central city.

Police had noticed that a hatch on the vehicle was not totally secure. Three officers climbed onto the vehicle from the rear. The driver became aware and he attempted to dislodge them by driving into a bus shelter, which he demolished in the process. The TRG officers managed to drop a tear-gas grenade into the vehicle through the loose hatch, which also gave them entry, finally arresting the offender who resisted arrest violently at about 6.15am. It was then discovered that the vehicle was not carrying ammunition for its guns. He was charged on 19 counts of Criminal Damage, burglary and Assault of Police Officers.

The preparedness of police to confront and neutralise such varied situations only comes with our commitment to planning and training for all contingencies, with each decade bringing further challenges.

Constable D. Shaw and Constable A.J. Power received a Commissioner’s Certificate of Merit for their actions resulting in the arrest of this person.

Note that local anarchist group ‘Angry People’ produced a pamphlet titled Gary Hayes: His Own Story in 1994. A copy of their zine (#9) is available for download here (PDF).

Posted in !nataS, Broken Windows, History, State / Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Monash ALP ~versus~ Wholefoods

Posted on August 1, 2012 by @ndy

LOL.

Labor students at Monash University have declared WAR! on the Wholefoods restaurant — and by most accounts they appear to be winning.

For those of you coming in late, “Wholefoods is a non-profit, collective-run, vegetarian restaurant, café and grocery, situated in the campus centre at Monash University in Clayton.”

Or was.

While (almost) maintaining its commitment to the provision of fruits, legumes and vegetables to the student body, over the last few years Labor students — presumably in preparation for their future roles in the state and corporate bureaucracy — have been doing an excellent job of sabotaging Wholefoods as a collective effort, imposing one-man management, higher prices, and destroying the collective’s volunteer base. Most recently, the Labor-dominated Executive of the Monash Student Association decided to trash the furniture at Wholefoods, reportedly spending $10,000 on tables and chairs to replace the icky old ones with others considered less likely to give a yuppie a splinter (in the unlikely event one should accidentally wander in and sit down).*

In response to their attempted sabotage, a belated campaign in defence of Wholefoods has been launched.

Anger at the MSA’s incompetence has reached boiling point etc, and a few weeks ago the restaurant was (almost) smashed to pieces by a (very small) horde of vandals, necessitating its temporary closure.

Well, kinda sorta.

Last week Wholefoods was vandalised [see img below] and Wholefoods staff received anonymous abusive phone calls. Due to these developments the MSA has had no choice but to close Wholefoods while the matter is being investigated by Monash University security and the Victorian police. These actions are a disgraceful attack on student services and student money, and are incredibly disappointing to everyone at the MSA. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this temporary closure.

The ding-dong battle between yuppie future Labor MPs and lentil-eating hippies is no doubt TO BE CONTINUED…

*Supposedly, the tables were “made in the late ’70s from recycled timbers from the Otways forests, off-cuts from logging operations collected by Wholefoods Collective members who were part of the successful campaign to turn the Otways into a National Park“.

See also : Thousand cuts death of Wholefoods, ZOG (“Jew On This”), July 12, 2012.

Posted in State / Politics, Student movement, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Joolya, working families, and political rhetoric

Posted on July 30, 2012 by @ndy


Above : Members of a working family.

“This is why workers and working Australians — the “working families” phrase long since having been taken out the back and shot — recur so frequently in the Prime Minister’s domestic speeches; not merely on industrial relations laws (the other area where Labor still leads the Coalition) but on fairness. This is the one piece of Labor turf left to her from which she can launch an attack that stands a chance of being effective.” ~ Bernard Keane, Crikey, July 16, 2012

Bernard is right about Joolya’s work fetish, but I’m unsure if it’s true that the working families working families working families meme (cf. 2007 and 2010 federal election campaigns) is dead. Certainly, the phrase appears in numerous speeches, press releases and transcripts by Joolya, the most recent reference being in June, and many more times than does the hated phrase “working class” — which, interestingly, occurs just a few times. Oddly, in the first of two references to the working class so far this year, Joolya chose the occasion of the awarding of the G20 to Brisbane to declare that “Australia is [a] nation of a number of working class cities and Brisbane is certainly one of them” (interview with Steve Austin, ABC Brisbane, July 11, 2012); a week later, she acknowledged the fact that in her inaugural speech a retiring MP described herself as “a proud daughter of the noble working class of Newcastle” (media release on the retirement of Sharon Grierson).

I wonder which other Australian cities, apart from Brisbane and perhaps Newcastle, Joolya considers to be ‘working class’… and which ones she does not?

As for the rest, in her address to the ALP national conference in December 2011 Joolya refers to the party’s commitment to establishing “an education system that [gives] working-class kids a chance”, a sentiment also expressed in her September 2011 address to the Chifley centre (“we have worked for an education system that gives working class kids a chance”). As an historian, Joolya notes that literacy is important: “A glance at British social history, for example, will reveal how working class families prized having someone in the family who could read” (2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, November 2010). Finally, in an interview with The Parrot (June 2010) she’s referred to by him as having a working class background.

Somewhat remarkably, Joolya only refers to the middle class in reference to its growth in Asia: this growing body of consumers is understood to provide Australians with abundant economic opportunities, a market which will “demand services and tourism, fine food, fine wine, all [of] the … things that Australia is so good at and has to sell” (interview with John Laws, 2SM, September 21, 2011).

Unsurprisingly, as far as Joolya’s concerned, the ‘ruling class’ does not exist, and nor does ‘capitalism’ or ‘imperialism’. For its part, ‘socialism’ exists only as an historical curio, and is trumped by feminism (“The 20th century was a century of big political movements and ideologies such as fascism, socialism and modernism. And yet the movement that outlasted them all, and surpassed them all in what it has achieved for humanity, is feminism – the struggle for women’s emancipation and equality”, Inaugural EMILY’s List Oration, September 13, 2011).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes: working families.

June

June 12, 2012: “And anyone here who was a bit reluctant to leave home and get up to Brisbane for this night will have a bit of insight into why working families need some convincing that their next job is on the other side of the country.”

May

May 11, 2012: “We’ve had the opportunity this morning to meet some working families, some people invited by the local Member Gai Brodtmann…”

May 11, 2012: “For the Federal Government, what’s our role? Well, our role is to support working families with cost of living pressures and we’ve added in this budget with the Schoolkids Bonus and the family payments for things that are at risk under Mr Abbott, and we’ve provided cost of living relief through a wide range of policies that are helping people.”

May 10, 2012: “I was making a very simple point, which is Mr Abbott, who represents one of the wealthiest electorates in the country, came into the Parliament yesterday with his Liberal Party membership ticked in one pocket and used his vote to stop working families getting money they need… I believe Mr Abbott is out of touch with working families, because only someone out of touch could have decided to vote against giving people a helping hand of around $400 for a primary school student and $800 for a secondary school student and I really objected to the tone taken by Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party yesterday, where they were basically saying working people couldn’t be trusted with $400 and $800, couldn’t be trusted to look after their kids. I thought it was insulting.”

May 6, 2012: “It’s why we created Paid Parental Leave – first time ever in this country, to do something to help working families at the time you have a baby and with the costs of the baby and needing to leave work to look after your newborn.”

May 3, 2012: “Mr Abbott already has such a big financial mess that he’s basically got to take $70 billion out of services to working families.”

April

April 24, 2012: “So when it comes to understanding the needs of Australians, Mr Abbott just doesn’t get what working families need.”

April 23, 2012: “So, to take just one example, it has enabled us to end the spectre of hardworking taxpayers’ money going to support the private health insurance of millionaires. So that money can be available for front-line services that families need. Now that is important to working families. They are the sorts of goals that I have as Prime Minister: looking after working families and making sure that we best meet their needs, for the services they rely on, great schools, good hospitals, family payments support which assist them, like paid parental leave and the like… And, to fully answer your question, yes that is in the interests of working families because I have met too many people, from the kind of families you live next door to, the kind of families you feel you know really, really well, but what you don’t know is happening behind those closed doors is that they can’t meet the mortgage, they can’t put food on the table, they can’t get the kids to school with everything paid for that the kids need, because too much money is going down the poker machines.”

April 13, 2012: “These reforms promise to deliver far-reaching changes that will make a difference to the lives of millions of Australian working families.”

April 4, 2012: “So that means you face some tough choices and how we’re dealing with some matters involving public service employment are one of those tough choices, but it’s all about doing the right thing by the economy, the right thing by managing it in the interests of working families and that’s bringing the Budget to surplus exactly as we promised.”

April 1, 2012: “The Opposition has got itself in a position that even after it endorses all of our budget savings it will need to provide $70 billion more of cuts into things that working families rely on and Tony Abbott’s always telling us to judge him on his track record.”

April 1, 2012: “I know what it’s like to be in a family where people puzzle over the bills and worry about how you are going to get those bills paid and as we engage in this time of change for a clean energy future, I am not going to leave working families behind, which is why we are providing them with money through tax cuts, pension increase and family payment increases to help them through.”

March

March 31, 2012: “[Abbott’s] already in a position where he’s going to have to slash and burn $70 billion of services that working families rely on… We’ve just had a discussion about cost of living pressures, imagine ripping child care support dollars out of the hands of hard-working families… We have that clear plan, it’s about sharing the benefits of the mining boom, it’s about making sure our future economy can offer people jobs and prosperity, it’s about managing the economy today in the interests of working families and helping them with the pressures that they face, the cost of living pressures they face as they raise their families.”

March 29, 2012: “When the world was threatened by the global financial crisis, we stepped up; we managed the economy in the interests of working people, we supported jobs and we also worked to provide new benefits to working families to help them with cost of living pressures.”

March 26, 2012: “They want to see us working alongside working families whether its tax cuts, pension increases, which obviously will be delivered by the government… We are about creating the future economy which means people have got an even better opportunity to get ahead tomorrow in tomorrow’s economy and of course we are about delivering the benefits working families need… As we make the choices to bring the budget to surplus, we will take our Labor values about supporting working people and working families with us as we make those decisions.”

March 19, 2012: “These reforms promise to deliver far-reaching changes that will make a difference to the lives of millions of Australian working families.”

February

February 28, 2012: “We’ll be continuing to provide a package of benefits to working families, paid parental leave, our new education tax refund, more money going into childcare than ever before and of course we’ll be building a new platform for the future and fairness in the future and that is a better way of helping Australians with disabilities and their families so we’ve got to lot of work to do.”

February 25, 2012: “And I said to those who love the Labor Party here today that after Monday’s ballot we must come together and unite. Be a united Labor Party that is continuing to deliver the reforms and policies and plans which mean that we are running the economy in the interests of working people, supporting working families with the benefits that they need and creating the economy of tomorrow so people can live a stronger and fairer future… We vote on Monday and then we unite. And we get the job done of governing each and every day. Of delivering what we know will make a difference for working families today, for their jobs, for their health, for their education, for their communities, as we shape the future. That’s what I’m determined to do.”

February 25, 2012: “Delegates, I am absolutely determined that we use every day of government and every ounce of our energy to deliver today to working people, to run the economy in their interests, to make sure that we support hard-working families, that we give them the benefits that they need, whether they’ve got a child just born, a child in kindergarten, a child at school, a child in an apprenticeship, a child going to university – that we are there with them… And he apparently started having the tantrum because he was concerned about government debt, but here he is now with a $70 billion black hole, more debt or $70 billion of cuts to services that hard-working families need.”

February 24, 2012: “During 2012 I’ve got a very clear agenda that I want to lead our government and our nation in. It’s about jobs, it’s about education, it’s about skills, it’s about the future of our economy, it’s about getting working families the services they need.”

February 23, 2012: “And of course we don’t know where the $70 billion of cutbacks to the services working families need are going to fall. But there’s only so many places in the budget you can get huge money like that – cutting pensions, cutting Medicare, to take just two examples.”

February 19, 2012: “I have the strong confidence of my colleagues, their strong support and my focus is on getting on with my job as Prime Minister. We’re doing that today marking a very special and important event in Australia’s history, but we’re doing it every day. Building the strong economy we need for the future while we make sure we deliver a package of policies to support working families today. So that’s where my focus is and that’s where it will remain… And we’re working today too to deliver the benefits of a strong economy to working families through policies that support them like Paid Parental Leave, like our expanded Education Tax Refund to help with the cost of getting the kids to school, like more money into childcare than ever before.”

February 8, 2012: “And of course we don’t know where the $70 billion of cutbacks to the services working families need are going to fall. But there’s only so many places in the budget you can get huge money like that – cutting pensions, cutting Medicare, to take just two examples.”

February 6, 2012: “It will be a debate a between the Labor Government’s approach; between our approach of managing the economy in the interests of working people or the approach of our opponents who are determined to slash $70 billion out of services for working families… Do we make sure that we support working families with the assistance that they need or do we succumb to the Liberal Party agenda of cut backs for working families. These are the issues that [are] at the core of the economic debate which will happen in 2012… I have made up my mind about all of the choices in this debate. We stand for managing the economy for working families… Do you want to go with the cheapest plan for change – our plan, or do you want to impose a bill of $1300 per year on working families to pay for a scheme that won’t work and can’t work? …We are being invited by the other side of politics to stand still, to rip benefits off working families and to stop supporting jobs – we won’t be doing it.”

February 3, 2012: ” I’m going to be here working to support working families today, because a lot of people are finding it hard to make ends meet, so we’re increasing benefits for families, like being able to put your school uniforms as you buy them on your tax and get a rebate for them – that matters.”

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#StrikeColes v.2.0 : NUW 1 Coles/Toll 1 (w/- BONUS! HSU & SDA & WTF &…)

Posted on July 28, 2012 by @ndy

NUW!

The two-week long strike at the Coles/Toll warehouse and distribution centre ended on Monday with both Coles/Toll and the NUW declaring victory. Thus:

In the end, the striking workers got most of what they had asked for.

Their union argued it was a win for workers, while Toll said tonight that it was little more than a re-working of the cash offer it put on the table before the strike began.

Toll’s Andrew Ethell said the value of what Toll had been offering its workforce through the two-week-long battle had not changed. “It remains an effective four per cent annual wage rise over three years,” he said.

The negotiated settlement had been achieved by shuffling the structure of how wages and conditions were allocated, he said, “effectively reducing some conditions in order to be able to increase others”.

Patrick O’Connor — recently a candidate in the Victorian state by-election in Melbourne (where he received 156 votes or 0.57%) — expresses his distaste for the NUW in ‘Union shuts down warehouse strike, imposes sell out’ (wsws.org. July 25, 2012). According to Patrick, the NUW sold the workers out. “After deliberately isolating and wearing down the workers, while allowing Coles to avoid any significant disruption to its business by stepping up operations in other warehouses, the NUW rammed through a regressive enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) that meets none of the workers’ central demands.” Elsewhere, Victorian employers expressed disappointment at the failure by police to smash the picket. “The capacity to freely enter and exit a business premises remains a fundamental right and businesses should not be forced to launch expensive legal action in order to do so. The Victoria Police must play its part in upholding and enforcing the law where court orders are obtained because the ramifications for all businesses are frightening if it does not.”

On a spotterly note:

…the NUW was backed by the pseudo-left organisations. Socialist Alternative functioned as the chief cheerleader for the union bureaucracy throughout the dispute; now the organisation has hailed the sell-out as a “victory.” The Socialist Party is yet to write on the outcome, but it posted an article on its web site on Monday, just hours before the agreement was imposed, urging the Victorian Trades Hall to organise flying pickets at every Coles warehouse and to “mobilise all their affiliates and call for a mass community assembly at Altona tomorrow.” After these pathetic entreaties to the union bureaucracy, the Socialist Party regretfully concluded: “Disappointingly the NUW leaders have so far responded at a glacial pace.”

HSU!

One union bureaucracy that’s in heap ’em big trouble is the HSU (East). Apparently, several thousand of its members have failed to renew their memberships after revelations that its leadership, especially the union’s (former) boss, Michael Williamson, may have been slightly greedy and possibly even engaged in some corrupt and nepotistic practices(!). Former HSU boss Craig Thomson has his own battles, of course, some of them playing themselves out on the ah, Internets, especially Wikipedia. For what it’s worth, I think the most sensible solution would be for Thomson to go on a study tour of the United States (and possibly Cancún) to find out how the intarweb works and — in accordance with the requirements of Clause 9.2(b) of Remuneration Tribunal Determination 2006/18 — submit a statement reporting on his overseas study travel.

SDA! Here to stay!

In other news, Australia’s biggest and bestest union the SDA has successfully applied to FWA for a six-month adjournment to EBA negotiations with pizza chain Domino’s (see : Anarchists Deliver Fair Pizza, Conal Thwaite, newmatilda.com, June 15, 2012). This is plusgood news for both Domino’s and the SDA but ungood news for workers covered by the agreement, which now dates back to 2001. The best news is of course that Domino’s is now ranked 6th among Queensland-based businesses, its market capitalisation now estimated to be $289 million, an increase of 69.7%.

More on that later. In the meantime, a group of workers has decided to form a ‘General Transport Workers Association’ to see if a more direct and democratic approach to union organising is possible. (See also : SDA : Australia’s Worst Union? (November 30, 2009).)

Finally, the IWW has a new branch in Radelaide and Wobblies in Melbourne have a blog. In Queensland, in response to the LNP’s attacks on the public sector, a Workers’ Audit is being undertaken. One “written by angry workers’ for angry workers”, the audit “is an attempt to provide information and analysis on the LNP’s attacks on us all”. See also : An Appeal to Reason: the future for maritime workers and the MUA | Unite.

Bonus!

Posted in State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, Trot Guide | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Interviewing Salvador Torrents (1950/1975/2012) : Spanish anarchist exiled to Australia

Posted on July 27, 2012 by @ndy

Interviewing Salvador Torrents (PDF) is a re-publication and the first English translation of an interview originally conducted in 1950 with the Spanish anarchist Salvador Torrents (1885?–1951), exiled to Australia in 1915. It was edited, published and produced by Acracia with the co-operation of the Grupo Cultural de Estudios Sociales de Melbourne, based on a text originally published in 1975. Acracia has also published a history of the Spanish anarchist refugees and immigrants in Australia and a libertarian anthology. For more information on the group and its activities write to exiliolibertario[at]gmail[dot]com.

Foreword:

Salvador Torrents was one of numerous Spanish anarchists that found refuge in this distant continent of Australia following numerous chapters of rebellion and struggles for Justice throughout the history of the Iberian Peninsula. Until death, they all remained faithful to their libertarian ideals, constantly contributing and planting the seed of anarchism with the hope that one day it would flourish.

Salvador Torrents, was born so it is believed, in 1885 and began his libertarian militancy at a young age in the township of Mataró. In 1903 along with Abelardo Saavedra, José Sánchez Rosa and Mariano Castellote, he participated in the first anarchist meeting held in the town. He further contributed in establishing the anarchist group “Nueva Semilla” (New Seed) as well as the “Ateneo Obrero” of Mataró.

Following the events of July 1909, he exiled himself in France. He was forced to return to Spain and in approximately December 1915 he elected to migrate to Australia. He settled in Essendon, Melbourne for a brief period finally establishing himself in the coastal township of Innisfail, Queensland. In either late 1919 or early 1920 he was joined by his compañera Teresa and daughter Paz Universal (translated into English the name signifies Universal Peace).

In early 1950, compañero Campio Carpio, a recognized and respected writer in the Hispanic libertarian journals interviewed compañero Torrents via correspondence. This interview was published in a booklet form in 1975 by the Spanish anarchist publishing collectives of Militando from Sydney and Ravachol from Melbourne, it was printed in Melbourne by Ravachol Press.

See also : Judith Keene, ‘The Word Makes the Man’: A Catalan Anarchist Autodidact in the Australian Bush, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol.47, No.3 (2001) | Robert Mason, ‘No Arms Other than Paper’: Salvador Torrents and the Formation of Hispanic Migrant Identity in Northern Australia, 1916–50, Australian Historical Studies, Vol.41, No.2 (2010) | Robert Mason, Anarchism, communism and hispanidad: Australian Spanish migrants and the Civil War (PDF), 2009:

Internal divisions within the community became more noticeable after reports reached Australia of Barcelona’s May Day clashes in 1937. Reports made clear that long-running street battles had occurred between anarchists and government-sanctioned forces. The reason for the violence and locus of culpability was obscure however. Mutually incompatible reports suggested either that communists had provoked anarchists in order to consolidate political power or that anarchists were deliberately undermining the war effort and had to be controlled. Unable to understand the complex political reality, Queensland Spaniards instead inserted reports into their pre-existing perceptions of the ACP. For local anarchists, the fratricidal May Days appeared to betray the very communal ideals that were fundamental to their support of the Republican government. Local Spaniards who accepted communists’ arguments were quickly ostracised, but arguments also erupted between anarchist sympathisers.

Anglo-Australians present in Barcelona concurred that anarchists were undermining the effort on the frontline, and had to be restrained by the Republican administration. Judith Keene notes,

“in her analysis of Spanish affairs Aileen [Palmer] entirely supported the Communist Party-Popular Front position. She wholeheartedly defended the rights of the central government to dismantle the militia of different political groups and dissolve the spontaneous organs of popular control that had sprung up in opposition to the generals’ pronunciamiento. She was also distrustful, even derisory, towards the Spanish Anarchists.”

Keene argues that Aileen Palmer’s highly critical views of decentralised popular control ‘probably provided a foundation of [her parents] Nettie and Vance’s own analyses in Australia of the civil war in Spain. It was a basis from which they wrote their articles and speeches for the Spanish Relief Committee’. The Palmers undoubtedly valued their daughter’s opinion, but were also provided with a steady stream of alternative anarchist analyses from Queensland Spaniards. Nettie Palmer’s confusion at divisions in the Popular Front is made clear in her diary: ‘Reading some papers sent from Innisfail by Torrents: Franco-Spanish, I mean French and Spanish, anarchist – Popular Front news’.

Queensland anarchists were infuriated by the comments of the prominent Anglo-Australian communist, Lawrence Sharkey, after the May Days. Sharkey avowed “since the fascist revolt, the Communist Party has tirelessly watched over the unity of the People’s Front, guarding it against the attempts at disruption by the counter-revolutionary Trotskyist P.O.U.M. and the small anarchist section known as the ‘Uncontrollables’”. Sharkey provocatively claimed the war had taught anarchists a much-needed lesson on submission to communist control and “the futility of the anarchist conceptions and the correctness of Marxist-Leninist teachings”. His public comments were pointed and Spaniards’ perceived them in the context of their own refusal to accept communist authority.

Speaking of Sharkeys and Uncontrollables, I’m currently reading Paul Sharkey’s translation of Abel Paz’s The Story of the Iron Column: Militant Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War, a joint publication by AK Press and the Kate Sharpley Library (2011).

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Golden Dawn in Melbourne?

Posted on July 26, 2012 by @ndy


Above : Local Golden Dawn supporters attend Greek Independence Day celebrations in Melbourne, 2012.

Dunno why but The Australian is running an article about the attempt — not yet fully realised, it seems — to establish a branch of the fascist Golden Dawn party in Melbourne. The article notes that the group has a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/xryshavgh.melbourne) and alleges that members attempted to disrupt a rally celebrating the Greek Independence Day (March 25). The group’s attendance was apparently not reported in the local Greek press (Neos Kosmos) but was commented upon by other ethnic media (Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee | AIJAC). According to the report by the AMHRC, Golden Dawn’s official website carried the story but, sadly, wordpress evicted the group several months ago, and subsequently “xryshaygh.wordpress.com is no longer available”, having been “archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service” (hate speech).

As noted in John Ferguson’s report, the group’s Facebook page currently has over 2,500 fans, but only a few dozen of these appear to reside in Melbourne, most support coming from members and sympathisers in Greece. Not surprisingly, the most marked increase in support for the group’s page occurred not when it was established (March 2, 2010) but in the wake of the party’s recent electoral successes (May/June 2012). As it stands, then, Golden Dawn (Melbourne) currently has only a small core of followers: whether or not other members of the local Greek diaspora choose to join them is unknown, but I think unlikely. In Greece itself, the party’s recent victories has resulted, inter alia, in more widespread collaboration with Greek police in conducting pogroms against migrants, refugees and political opponents. On the other side of the coin, there are many more struggles in Greece directed at ruling elites rather than at fellow workers…

Greek neo-Nazis set up local chapter
John Ferguson
The Australian
July 26, 2012

A SPLINTER group in the Melbourne Greek community has been condemned for launching a local branch of the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party, which has been accused in Greece of sparking xenophobic violence by espousing neo-Nazi and anti-immigration policies.

The mission to use the cover of the internet to create a nationalistic political force among one of the world’s largest Greek communities outside Athens has been savaged by Australia’s Jewish and Greek communities.

The Golden Dawn Melbourne Facebook page has attracted more than 2500 followers – with many friends from overseas – and the proponents are planning to organise regular meetings to discuss nationalistic policies and widen appeal for a political party that has been condemned worldwide.

The Facebook page lists the group’s favourite quote as: “Northern Greece, Cyprus, Macedonia, the battle continues as in Australia blood and honour, Golden Dawn.”

The Australian backers of the ultra-nationalist party do not appear to have put their names to the project and did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

The emergence of the party’s Australian branch comes after a small group of protesters tried to disrupt Greek National Day celebrations in Melbourne in March, wearing clothes promoting Golden Dawn. Proponents are claiming to be behind the group’s first chapter outside Greece…

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media, State / Politics | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

anarchist notes (july 25, 2012)

Posted on July 25, 2012 by @ndy

• a reminder : the second annual melbourne anarchist bookfair takes place on caturday, august 4 at the abbotsford convent. nice location, dozens of stalls, many workshops, free entry, and more deets here.
• also in melbourne, on the following caturday (august 11), the melbourne anarchist club is launching an infoshop.
• anarchists in brisbane are organising a summer skool for january 2013. (i’m not sure, but i think the last such gathering took place in 2003.)
• exilio libertario have published a fascinating history of spanish anarchist exiles in australia which you can download here.

• anarchy: a journal of desire armed can has a new issue. of related interest is ardent press.
• in the uk, freedom newspaper has its back against the wall, allegedly on account of a mischievous photographer.
• kontinum.org is an online anti-authoritarian journal by anarchists in indonesia.
• bifurcación is a blog by anarchists in bogotá, colombia.
• jt ready is dead: fascism and the anarchist response in arizona, 2005-2012 is an xclnt analysis of its activities by the phoenix class war council.
• inside the fbi entrapment strategy is another useful essay published by crimethinc.
• the north american anarchist studies network has a neat website (which has a good collection of links).
• andrew coates has published a useful review of david porter’s new book eyes to the south: french anarchists and algeria.

• finally… Chaired anarchist meeting in [Eighteen-]Eighties [Obituary of Ambrose Barker], Ken Hawkes, Direct Action, Vol.8, No.1 (March 1953):

On his 90th birthday, I and another comrade spent the evening with him and his companion, Ella Twynam, at Walthamstow. During the two hours that we were with him he brought to life the story of his part in the working-class struggles of more than 70 years. We asked him what he thought of the Labour Government. “£1,000-a-year men – all of them,” he answered, “they’re doing the Tories’ work well.”

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ANARCHO-PUNK.NET ~vs~ CRASS

Posted on July 24, 2012 by @ndy

Huh.

In the same week Chumbwamba deaded, What-Was-Once-Crass-But-Now-Knows-Better-Than-Not-To-Enforce-Its-Copyright successfully complained to file-sharing site Mediafire to have several of its recordings removed. Further, in response to the complaint, Mediafire apparently removed not only the Crass material (por ejemplo) but over 3000 other albums uploaded to the site by accounts closely associated with the ANARCHO-PUNK and PIRATE-PUNK websites. I’m surprised there’s been (or seems to have been) little or no music industry reportage on the incident… but, like, whatever. You can read the butthurt on the anarcho-punk site here.

Have Crass become the anarcho-punk equivalent of Metallica?

Enquiring minds want to know!

On a more serious note, the incident raises some really interesting questions about copyright, intellectual property, love and labour, and if I wasn’t so jaded I’d probably even explore them. Speaking of which, here’s an old song by a band a guy in which later wrote a really annoying shampoo jingle.

#TrueStory

See also : Andy Capper, Anarchy And Peace, Litigated, Vice, August 1, 2010 | Steve Ignorant @ The Tote, Collingwood (17th June 2011) (June 18, 2011).

Bonus Bullshit!

…via thehippiesnowwearblack…

Bullshit Detector (unmastered short-form assembly edit) from Imperfect Cinema on Vimeo.

Posted in Anarchism, Media, Music, State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , | Leave a comment