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| Socialist Unity Weblog |
| 05.12.05 (4:16 pm) [edit] |
My friend, satirist and net activist Dave Riley has advised me of a weblog that people might find interesting.
It's the Socialist Unity Weblog -
http://sasocialistunity.blogspot.com" title="http://sasocialistunity.blogspot.com" target="_blank"http://sasocialistunity.blogs...
I was told this weblog already has a lot of good stimulating political thought, with articles on party democracy, analysis of the recent UK election that slapped Blair in the face, the forthcoming Trade Union conference to discuss the Howard Government's planned anti-union laws, and more.
Fans of Biophilia should find this sort of stuff fairly interesting.
With Love - MD
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| Thanking The Fans Of The Love Of Life |
| 05.12.05 (7:45 am) [edit] |
Hello peoples of all countries!
It is time for me to sadly retire my weblog, which I am informed recieved over 4200+ hits with it's mix of irreverant humor, political opinion, and the odd piece of socialist realist poetry as well.
Unfortunately like many communists, I have found that politics has indeed taken a hold on my life, and I am unable to devote to my fans the sorts of things I think they are entitled to read - to cut to the quick, I think I just don't have the free energy to devote to net activism at the moment.
I suppose seeing as this is my epitaph, I should do 3 things - a) reveal myself to the public
b) thank the readers
c) Encourage peace and internationalism for all
a) My name is actually Matthew Davis, not "gramscian" - although it is true that I adore the struggle of ideas and have read Gramsci and felt inspired by the anti-war communism and strong belief in working class democracy you can find in his writings (a growing number appear on the Marxist Internet Archive for those interested)
I am a member of the Perth Hills branch of the Socialist Alliance, which has a 20 member branch intervening in political life with the loud message that a socialist society is possible and working class unity should win out in a world beset with wars, racism, discrimination and imperialist distortion.
b) Thanks for those who have contributed to the success of my blog and have added thoughtful comments, recommended links, and so on. The success that my blog achieved in such a short lifetime is due to many people, as in the old communist slogan "many hands make light work".
c) As is often mentioned, Karl Marx's tombstone rests at Highgate Cementary in London, bearing the famous slogan "Workers of All Nations Unite". If you think that the ideas of opposing a racist world bring you close to believing in communism and classlessness, then I encourage you to join with like minded people in building the genuine opposition in society. You can change the world somewhat on your own, but you will find that working with others means you can change the way people think in a much easier way than you can manage all by yourself.
I finish by reminding you of the theme of the John Pilger article on the worldwide anti-war demonstration shown below. We should not be afraid of becoming concious actors in trying to bestow a better world for future generations than the unplanned and chaotic elitism that postmodernist neoliberal globalisation offers us. THEY ARE AFRAID OF US.
Thankyou all one final time - and may you enjoy the rest of your life.
Peace and Internationalism,
Matthew Davis
swanview72@hotmail.com
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| A couple of jokes - comments welcome |
| 03.30.05 (5:12 pm) [edit] |
The mafia was looking for a new man to make weekly collections from all the private businesses that they were 'protecting'. Feeling the heat from the police force, they decide to use a deaf person for this job ; if he were to get caught, he wouldn't be able to communicate to the police what he was doing.
Well, on his first week, the deaf collector picks up over $40,000. He gets greedy, decides to keep the money and stashes it in a safe place. The mafia soon realizes that their collection is late, and sends some of their hoods after the deaf collector.
The hoods find the deaf collector and ask him where the money is. The deaf collector can't communicate with them, so the mafia drags the guy to an interpreter.
The mafia hood says to the interpreter, "Ask him where da money is." The interpreter signs,"Where's the money?"
The deaf replies, "I don't know what you're talking about."
The interpreter tells the hood,"He says he doesn't know what you're talking about"
The hood pulls out a .38 and places it in the ear of the deaf collector. "NOW ask him where the money is."
The interpreter signs, "Where is the money?"
The deaf collector replies, "The $40,000 is in a tree stump in Central Park."
The interpreter's eyes light up and says to the hood, "He says he still doesn't know what you're talking about, and doesn't think you have the guts to pull the trigger."
There were once two people travelling on a train, a scientist and a poet, who were riding in the same compartment. They had never met before, so naturally, there wasn't much conversation between the two.
The poet was minding his own business, looking out the window at the beauty of the passing terrain. The scientist was very uptight, trying to think of things he didn't know so he could try to figure them out. Finally, the scientist was so bored, that he said to the poet, "Hey, do you want to play a game?" The poet, being content with what he was doing, ignored him and continued looking out the window, humming quietly to himself. This infuriated the scientist, who irritably asked again, "Hey, you, do you want to play a game? I'll ask you a question, and if you get it wrong, you give me $5. Then, YOU ask ME a question, and if I can't answer it, I'll give YOU $5."
The poet thought about this for a moment, but he decided against it, seeing that the scientist was obviously a very bright man. He politely turned down the scientist's offer. The scientist, who, by this time was going mad, tried a final time. "Look, I'll ask you a question, and if you can't answer it, you give me $5. Then you ask ME a question, and if I can't answer it, I'll give you $50!" Now, the poet was not that smart academically, but he wasn't totally stupid. He readily accepted the offer.
"Okay," the scientist said, "what is the EXACT distance between the Earth and the Moon?" The poet, obviously not knowing the answer, didn't stop to think about the scientist's question. He took a $5 bill out of his pocket and handed it to the scientist.
The scientist happily accepted the bill and promptly said, "Okay, now it's your turn." The poet thought about this for a few minutes, then asked, "Alright, what goes up a mountain on three legs, but comes down on four?" The bright glow quickly vanished from the scientist's face. He thought about this for a long time, taking out his notepad and making numerous calculations.
He finally gave up on his notepad and took out his laptop, using his Multimedia Encyclopedia. After about an hour of this, the poet quietly watching the mountains of Colorado go by the whole time, the scientist FINALLY gave up. He reluctantly handed the poet a $50 bill. The poet accepted it graciously, turning back to the window. "Wait!" the scientist shouted. "You can't do this to me! What's the answer??" The poet looked at the scientist and calmly put a $5 bill into his hand.
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| John Pilger on Iraqi War and Media Spin |
| 03.24.05 (12:45 pm) [edit] |
PILGER TO ANTIWAR RALLY: 'BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU'VE ACHIEVED'
Sydney Hyde Park, 20 March 2005:
The other day, the Aboriginal film-maker Richard Frankland said this: "When you've got a voice, you've got freedom, and when you've got freedom, you've got responsibility. Negotiating with politicians doesn't work. You've got to change attitudes." That's the task for all of us here today. It's not an easy one. In fact, many good people in Australia and other countries believe their voice cannot possibly be heard: that the forces of bigotry and violence are far too powerful.
And yes, they are powerful. John Howard can lie repeatedly to the Australian people and get away with it - it seems. There is no Labor opposition in federal parliament. They've become a bad joke, to the point where Kevin Rudd, the opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, refuses to say anything critical of the government that is not immersed in crude sophistry.
We also know that those who are paid to keep the record straight, who are meant to challenge Howard's lies and uphold our right to freedom of speech, a freedom that is a cornerstone of any true democracy - I refer of course to the media: journalists, broadcasters - we know where they stand. We know that, apart from a few honourable exceptions, they are not merely craven and silent, but occupy a place in this society not dissimilar to the media in the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe.
Throughout my career I have reported, often undercover, from countries ruled by repressive regimes where dissidents would read me reports in the press that were no more servile and false than the reporting you read every day in the Murdoch papers in this country. In Eastern European states, for example, the papers had tame correspondents in Moscow, who would parrot the Kremlin line. Now read the Washington correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, Michael Gawenda, and there is no difference. The same parrotting of Bush's dangerous absurdities, such as his claims of bringing democracy to the Middle East - when the very opposite is true.
Considering this, we might ask: Is there no shame?
Is there no shame that, in its annual review of press freedom three years ago, the international media monitoring organization, Reporters Without Borders, placed Australia 41st in the world. Countries with greater press freedom were the following: Lithuania, Bosnia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, Hong Kong. All these countries have either been run by dictatorships, or racked by war or by civil upheaval; yet in 2002 they had greater press freedom than Australia, which was just ahead of autocracies. None of this, or the reasons why, are ever mentioned at the numerous back scratching awards ceremonies so beloved by the Australian media.
Honourable exceptions aside, supine journalists, like cynical opposition politicians, like corporate academics, represent unaccountable, violent power and a corrupt democracy that today offers us no more choice that between a McDonalds and a Hungry Jack's. But they do not represent us. And they do don't speak for us. And they don't speak for humanity. And they don't speak for democracy. And they don't speak for all the moral decencies by which most people live their lives. In fact, they speak for the very opposite.
I may have first understood this when I reported from repressive Czechoslovakia, with its Stalinist regime, in the 1970s. The dissenters who spoke out in that country seemed so few, yet I wondered why the regime went to such lengths to silence them and attack them and sneer at them, usually via the state press. I put this question to the great protest singer Marta Kubisova, whose thrilling voice sang the anthems of the Prague Spring in 1968. Meeting me in secret, she replied by reading to me the words of one of her most defiant songs, written by a banned Czech group called the Plastic People of the Universe. I have abridged it slightly.
They are afraid of the old for their memory,
They are afraid of the young for their innocence
They afraid of the graves of their victims in faraway places
They are afraid of history. They are afraid of freedom.
They are afraid of truth. They are afraid of democracy.
So why the hell are we afraid of them? ...for they are afraid of us.
What all of you should remember on this second anniversary of the brutal assault on Iraq is that you are not alone: that you are part of a great worldwide movement that refuses to accept the dangers and moral indecencies of Bush and Blair and Howard. Yesterday, all over the world, people, like you, expressed their defiance and anger at the unprovoked attack on Iraq, a defenceless country, and the killing of more than 100,000 people and the theft of their resources and their poisoning of their land: all of it justified by demonstrable lies. Go back to a speech John Howard made early in February 2003. He spoke for 53 minutes and lied about weapons of mass destruction at least 20 times: 20 lies in less than an hour. Even Bush and Blair would have trouble topping that.
Then he sent Australian troops off to take part in an invasion which, under the universally acknowledged and respected terms of the Nuremberg judgement in 1946, the cornerstone of international law, was, "a paramount war crime".
That's not my rhetoric, nor is it agit-prop. It's the law of civilized people. And it's our job to help people understand the great crime committed in their name, and how those who claim to speak for us, such as the media, have normalised the unthinkable: as if no crime has been committed, as if thousands of people have not been murdered, as if it was all merely a respectable adjustment of the 'world order'. My point is, they are not respectable; they may wear the suits of respectability and travel with their fawning courts, but they are prima facie criminals, be assured.
The other day, an ABC foreign correspondent was promoting his book of professional adventures in a Sydney bookshop. He told his audience that it was good to be back in a country where politicians at least didn't kill each other. That's true, but what he didn't say was that the same politicians collude in the killing of men, women and children in other countries: in Falluja, where the truth remains unreported in the so-called mainstream media in this country - including the ABC, which has allowed itself to be intimidated by the Howard government for giving us, now and then, a glimpse of the truth about Bush's criminal assault on Iraq.
The time is long overdue. That time is for journalists to break ranks and speak up. It's time for teachers to write on their blackboards that great truism of Milan Kundera: "The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." It's time for those who know the dangers, but who say nothing - academics, lawyers, union leaders, even members of parliament - to break their silence before their own privileges are undermined by the steady assault on centuries-old, hard-won civil rights, vividly expressed in the abandonment of Australians tortured in other countries by their government and the locking up of people in this country indefinitely: indeed the erosion of the bedrock of our justice system: innocent until proven guilty.
Above all, never forget how important and right you are. It is you, in company with millions all over the world, who have taught again the great lesson of democracy. You didn't stop the invasion of Iraq, but you, and the millions like you, in Spain and Britain and France and Italy and Brazil and the United States, have alerted the world to the true darkness of the regime in Washington and its collaborators.
Never in my lifetime as a journalist have I known ordinary people all over the world to be more aware of the dangers and the issues that face us. Many can't be with us today; but their support is, I believe, a presence. Think back to the popular movement, much of it led by women, that prevented conscription being introduced in Australia during the Fiirst World War. Those campaigners also felt rather isolated at times; but they weren't:: they were the voice of what was right.
Had it not been for you and your movement, I believe Iran and North Korea would have been attacked by now, and in the case of North Korea, nuclear weapons might have been used.
Be proud of these achievements: be proud that the seedy, violent power of Bush and Blair and Hoaward has been exposed by you and that behind their bravado, they are afraid of you, and of the millions like you, so, in the words of the song, why the hell should we afraid of them?
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| Press Release on Iraq War |
| 03.16.05 (8:11 pm) [edit] |
Socialist Alliance press release:
March 17, 2005
Italy withdraws its troops and PM Howard offers replacements?
Bring all the troops home!
The Socialist Alliance condemned PM John Howard for saying on March 16 that he would not rule out sending more troops to Iraq to replace the 3000 Italian troops when they depart in September.
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been forced by domestic public opposition to announce the troop withdrawal. It follows some of the biggest protests in Rome since the war began two years ago. Again, on February 19, before the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, half a million Italians took to the streets to demand the troops be brought home.
As the war continues, the "Coalition of the Willing" is shrinking. Just a handful of countries remain in the “multinational" force. With the United States, Britain and Australia still at its core, we have a special responsibility to keep up the pressure on our governments to withdraw the troops and stop the war.
Recent polls show that a majority of Australians do not agree with by John Howard’s decision, announced on February 22, to send 450 more troops to Iraq to replace the departing Dutch military contingents. This follows other polls showing overwhelming opposition to the war, in which more than 100,000 Iraqis are believed to have been killed and no-one knows how many have been wounded. More than 1500 US soldiers have been reported dead and 11,220 wounded.
Australia currently has about 800 troops in and around Iraq. The extra contingents are to be based in southern Iraq, where British commanders have reportedly said they aren’t sure what the Australians are needed for, or will be doing.
Domestic opposition in Spain and Italy forced back two of the more pro-US, pro-war governments, and we can do the same here.
Socialist Alliance calls on all those who oppose the war to use the global protests scheduled this weekend – the second anniversary of the invasion – to send a strong message to the Howard government: You don’t speak for us. No more troops! Bring the troops home!
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| Socialism in Venezula |
| 03.10.05 (12:33 am) [edit] |
ZNet | Venezuela
Building a democratic, humanist socialism
The political challenge of the 21st century
by Derrick O'Keefe; Seven Oaks Magazine; March 09, 2005
We have to invent the new socialism for the 21st century. Capitalism is not a sustainable model of development. Hugo Chavez, March 4, 2005
In recent months, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has begun to explicitly advocate for socialism, marking a significant development for both the Bolivarian Revolution in that country and for the broader international movement.
There is no doubt that the United States government understands the significance of the current direction of the process in Venezuela. An oil-rich country with a radical, anti-imperialist government which has received repeated, indisputable democratic mandates and now advocates for socialism, the government in Caracas poses the gravest ‘threat of a good example’ since the Cuban Revolution of 1959. As if taunting Uncle Sam for its historic failure to destroy and isolate Cuba completely, Chavez now flaunts his close friendship with Fidel Castro, inviting thousands of Cuban doctors to Venezuela, and sending oil at preferential prices to the energy-starved Caribbean island.
Little surprise that, with a newly emboldened Bolivarian government and an increasingly demoralized opposition, there have been repeated warnings of plots to assassinate the Venezuelan president. Chavez addressed the situation with a threat of his own, announcing on his Alo Presidente radio show that “the Venezuelan people will stop even one drop of oil from going to the U.S. if there is any attempt made on my life” (Bloomberg, March 5, 2005).
While flexing oil muscle in an effort to dissuade U.S. complicity in efforts to physically eliminate him, Chavez remained on the ideological offensive:
I am convinced, and I think that this conviction will be for the rest of my life, that the path to a new, better and possible world, is not capitalism, the path is socialism. (Alo Presidente, February 27, 2005)
The global movement for social justice must take seriously the continuing threats against the Bolivarian process in Venezuela. Much of the Left initially remained aloof from Chavez, variously denouncing him as a Bonapartist, reformist, or caudillo.
The reversal of the April 2002 coup against Chavez changed this sectarian approach for the better, but much work in building links of solidarity remains to be done. More than just defending Venezuela’s right to self-determination, though, progressives should also take seriously the challenge to ‘re-invent’ socialism.
The movement against corporate globalization has, rather proudly, avoided projecting any specific solutions to the ills of capitalism, eschewing the classic ‘meta-narrative’ of the Left, that capitalism would inevitably be replaced by socialism and communism on a world scale. Political pluralism became a watchword for the World Social Forum (WSF) and its leading convenors; certainly this could be understood as a healthy and understandable reaction to the evils perpetrated in the name of socialism throughout the 20th century.
But while Kampuchea’s killing fields, Russia’s gulags, and the repugnant bureaucratic privileges and internecine murders sullied the image of socialism, so too has social democracy – from the chauvinist betrayal marked by support for the carnage of World War I right up to Tony Blair’s imperial adventure in Iraq – systematically disappointed and betrayed the working people and progressives who fought for social change.
This record of failure left the Right triumphant and, buoyed by the fall of the Berlin Wall and “actually existing socialism,” on the offensive over the past 15 years, aggressively implementing neo-liberal ‘reforms’ globally, either through the WTO and economic blackmail, or through cruise missiles and ‘regime change.’ So the Bolivarian Revolution, together with other vibrant social movements in Latin America and global resistance to war and occupation in the Middle East, represents a welcome and overdue challenge to Empire.
Venezuela likely would have been the last place that the champions of capitalist hegemony expected to see their perspective begin to be seriously challenged. Through the 1970s and much of the 80s Venezuela was lauded as a stable democracy, in a continent marked by guerrilla insurgencies, coup d’etats and brutal right-wing dictatorships. The ancien regime in Caracas, in fact, began to shatter in 1989, the same year that the Berlin Wall came down. While that year’s Tiennamen Massacre is universally remembered, the Caracazo is largely unknown; in February, 1989, an uprising against neo-liberal austerity measures was drowned in blood, with hundreds killed by the Venezuelan police and army.
That experience accelerated the plans of a dissenting group of young army officers, and in 1992 Colonel Chavez led a failed military-civilian rebellion. Chavez’s televised statement of surrender in 1992 catapulted him to national prominence, and within six years he was swept to power in an electoral landslide.
As mentioned, Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution were initially disparaged by much of the Left, and some worried about this ‘top-down’ leader’s influence on the World Social Forum. At this year’s gathering in Porto Alegre, though, Chavez was unquestionably the most popular figure, his presence revealing deep-going resentment of Lula’s moderate approach and collaboration with IMF dictates.
Chavez, in fact, had to intervene to quell a packed stadium’s chants of “Chavez si, Lula no!” Before that same crowd, the Venezuelan leader made his most overt ideological statement to date:
We must reclaim socialism as a thesis, a project and a path, but a new type of socialism, a humanist one, which puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything. That’s the debate we must promote around the world, and the WSF is a good place to do it.
Let’s hope this call is heeded, and that the debate begins in earnest. Defeating U.S. imperialism and developing viable alternatives to neo-liberalism depends on us meeting this key challenge for the 21st century.
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| Socialist Alliance Public Meeting |
| 03.01.05 (7:52 pm) [edit] |
Perth East/Hills SA public meeting success
By Barry Healy
25 people attended a public meeting convened by East/Hills SA branch to discuss Aboriginal affairs on February 20. Organised under the title “What's missing in the WA elections? Discussion of Aboriginal; Inequalities!”, the meeting was opened by SA East Metropolitan region, candidate Annolies Truman and featured a short video dealing with the murder of the Young Man from Kamilaroi in February 2004 at Redfern and allowed a wide-ranging discussion from the floor.
SA member Jan Cowan, a Pitjakarly woman was the first speaker and highlighted the complexities and difficulties of advancing the cause of justice and reconciliation in this period. The local Greens candidate, Sharon Davies, spoke at length about developments with the Swan Valley Noongar community struggle with the WA government. She said that essentially WA has gone back to the legal situation of 1905 regarding Aboriginal peoples. Many people gave moving contributions about their own experiences and observations. An elderly Hungarian migrant said that he had left his homeland just after WWII and returned in 1995. He said that 50 years of national oppression at the hands of the Soviet Union had scarred Hungarian culture and had given him insight into the effects of 200 years of occupation on Aboriginal society. Another speaker, a local artist said that she was 50 years old before she found out about her Aboriginal forebear. She described the fraught relationships that she has encountered as she has traced both sides of her family tree. She is the product of an irregular union between a rich member of WA's establishment and an Aboriginal woman. Her rich relatives won't even recognise her existence. But she is using the experience as the basis of an explosive art exhibition that will shortly grace a local art gallery!
Another SA member, a migrant community worker described the personal cost to her of battling racism within local government on behalf of Aboriginal people. Her tale opened a window on what the daily experience of Indigenous people is in Australia.
The format of the event, as an open forum, allowed a warmth and level of personal expression that was appreciated by all who attended. East/Hills SA intends to follow it up with a more structured event featuring a panel of Aboriginal community members with the intention of sparking action against the racist WA government.
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| A fairly good Joke - comments welcome! |
| 02.10.05 (7:54 pm) [edit] |
There was a man who went to church with his wife, and he always fell asleep during the sermon. The wife was fed up and decided to do something about this. One Sunday she took a long hat pin along to poke him with every time he would doze off.
When the preacher got to a part in the sermon where he shouted out "... and who created all there is in six days and rested on the seventh..", she poked her husband, who came flying out of the pew and screamed, "Good god almighty!".
The minister said "That's right, that's right." and went on with his sermon. The man sat back down, muttering under his breath. and later began to doze off again when the minister got to "... and who died on the cross to save us from our sins..." the wife jabbed him again. He jumped up and shouted "Jesus Christ!".
The minister said "That's right, that's right!", and went on with his sermon. The man sat back down and began to watch his wife and when the minister got to "... and what did Eve say to Adam after the birth of their second child?" the wife started to poke the husband but he jumped up and said "If you stick that damn thing in me again, I'll break it off!"
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| Tariq Ali on today's Imperial Delusions |
| 02.08.05 (3:29 am) [edit] |
This article comes from "Counterpunch Magazine" and I find it very interesting in it's take on late US Foreign Policy and recent world events.
February 7, 2005
"Democracy Promotion" and Resistance
Imperial Delusions
By TARIQ ALI
The United States, unlike the Empires of old Europe has always preferred to excersize its hegemony indirectly. It has relied on local relays--uniformed despots, corrupt oligarchs, pliant politicians and obedient monarchs--rather than lengthy occupations and nation-building with carefully-controlled forms of elite, low-intensity democracy. It was only when rebellions from below threatened to disrupt this order that the Marines were dispatched and wars were fought.
Despite the changed world that came into existence during the Nineties necessitating a shift in US priorities and the establishment of the Washington consensus, the imperial elite is still allergic to long-term occupations. If, during the Cold War, money was indiscriminately supplied to all anti-communist forces (including the current leadership of al-Qaeda) the 21st century recipients are more carefully targeted. The aim is to slowly replace the traditional elites in the old satrapies with a new breed of genetically programmed neo-liberal politicians, who have been trained and educated in the United States. This is the primary function of the money allocated to ´democracy promotion´ programmes in the US. Loyalty, being a commodity, can be purchased from politicians, parties and trades unions. And the result, it is hoped, is to create a new layer of janissary politicians who serve Washington.
Why is this necessary? Because in the absence of a system whereby the financial benefits of foreign investment accrue directly to the US treasury, the costs of maintaining the Empire must be largely funded by the satrapies. Already the US military budget has reached astronomical heights. The US spends more money on arms then the next fifteen nations combined. Iraqi oil is vital to help maintain the US military bases that now exist in 138 countries all over the globe.
This is what ´democracy promotion´ is all about. Its most recent variant has now been applied in Afghanistan and Iraq and it will hit Haiti (another occupied country) in November this year. Create a new elite, give it funds and weaponry to build a new army and let them make the country safe for the corporations. The Afghan elections of 2004, even according to some pro-US commentators, were a complete farce and the much vaunted 73 percent turnout was a fraud. If this were not the case the US pro-consul would not be engaged in re-building a new alliance with Taliban factions close to Pakistani military intelligence.
In Iraq the turnout (according to DEBKA the totally loyal Israeli intelligence website) was closer to forty percent and in Basra (subcontracted to Tony Blair) was no more than 32 percent. Sistani´s followers voted to please their Ayotallah, but if he is unable to deliver peace and an end to the occupation, they too might defect. The only force which can be relied on at the moment are the Kurdish tribes. The Kurdish 36th command batallion fought alongside the US marines in Fallujah, but the tribal chiefs want some form of independence (even as a US-Israeli protectorate) and some oil. If loyal NATO ally and EU aspirant, Turkey, vetoes any such possibility, then the Kurds too, might accept money from elsewhere. The battle for Iraq is far from over. It has merely entered a new stage. Despite strong disagreements on the boycott of the elections, the majority of Iraqis will not willingly hand over their oil or their country to the West. Politicians, bearded or otherwise, who try and force this through will lose all support and become totally dependent on the foreign armies encamped in their country. The popular resistance will continue. Times have changed. Many in the North find it difficult to support this resistance. The arguments for and against are old ones. In the last decades of the 19th century, the English socialist William Morris celebrated the defeat of General Gordon by the Mahdi: "Khartoum fallen-into the hands of the people it belongs to". Morris argued that the duty of English internationalists was to support all those being oppressed by the British Empire despite one's disagreements with nationalism or fanaticism.
The triumphalist chorus of the corporate and state media of the West reflects a single fact: the Iraqi elections were designed not so much to preserve the unity of Iraq but to re-establish the unity of the West. Already after Bush´s re-election the French and Germans were looking for a bridge back to Washington. The French had collaborated in the occupation of Haiti without any dissent from the French media. The Germans can now re-join the pack. Will French and German troops now join their battered British, American and privatized mercenary colleagues in the war zones of Iraq to seal this unity? And if they do will their citizens object or will they accept the propaganda that sees the illegitimate election (the Carter Centre that monitors elections worldwide refused to send observers) as justifying the occupation. And if French and German troops are dispatched will they be forbidden the use of digital cameras to record the torture that still goes on in open defiance of the Geneva Convention?
The occupation of Iraq involved both a military and an economic invasion as envisaged by Hayek, the father of neo-liberalism. The essential vision of imperial power was firmly embedded in the original doctrine. It was Hayek, after all who pioneered the notion of lightning air strikes against Iran in 1979 and Argentina in 1982. The re-colonisation of Iraq would have greatly pleased him. He despised pieties. Politicians masking their true aims with weasel words about ´humanity´ would have greatly irritated him.
Hayek's followers in Washington, however, did not predict a resistance in Iraq. Nor did most of the Western world, where a majority of intellectuals, TV journalists and web-site afficinados are so disillusioned, bitter and cynical that they assume the bulk of the world is like them. They don't like to be reminded of cases to the contrary. They forget that the graph of history is always twisted. There is never a line of uninterrupted progress. And so it happened that the occupation of Iraq produced a resistance. Contrary to the bulf of reports in the western press, this resistance is NOT dominated by Zarqawwi or his tiny band. If it were it would have been crushed long ago.
There is a popular resistance in Iraq, both armed and non-violent. The bulk of the armed resistance consists of demobilised soldiers and officers, many of whom were disgusted by Saddam's corruption and cruelty and his failure to defend the country. To these one must add both secular nationalist and religious groups who hate the occupation. The left is weak in Iraq because the Iraqi Communist Part backed the occupation and served in the puppet government.
The size and scale of the Iraqi resistance (and, incidentally, it exists also in the Shia south and resistance cells are numerous in Basra) took the world by surprise. The Iraqis were like lightning, compared to the European resistance against the Third Reich. In France, the Vichy regime was popular with a large majority. Not so in Iraq. In occupied Holland the resistance was tiny and very dependent on British support. Not so in Iraq where the resistance receives nil support from its Arab neighbours. In Vietnam, the nationalist resistance to the French, Japanese and American Empires was led by the Communist Party. In Iraq it is completely decentralized. In all the above cases there were collaborators who worked closely with the occupying power. Here Iraq is no different.
Is it a perfect resistance? No. How could a resistance be pretty when the occupation is so brutal and ugly. The senseless violence inflicted upon the Iraqi people by the occupation results in a violent response. It was no different when the Algerians fought the French to a standstill in the early Sixties of the last century. When a leader of the Algerian resistance was asked why they often bombed cafes and killed civilians, he replied: 'Give us planes and helicopters and then we will only target French troops.'
During an early stage of the occupation, US papers reported young kids in Baghdad shaking hands with the Marines. What these newspapers did not report (because the journalists did not speak Arabic) was what the kids with a smile said to the marines; 'We hate you, motherfucker.' These photographs stopped a long time ago. Many smiling children have been shot dead.
And what of the media, the propaganda pillar of the new order? In ´Control Room´, a Canadian documentary on al-Jazeera, one of the more telling and disgusting images is that of embedded Western journalists jumping and whooping with joy as the capture of Baghdad was announced. The coverage of élections´ in Afghanistan and Iraq is little more than empty propaganda.
This symbiosis of neo-liberal politics and a neo-liberal media helps to reinforce the collective memory loss from which the West suffers today. The insistence that the totality of contemporary politics is encompassed by the essential categories of ´friend´ and `´enemy´´ has a long pedigree. It was Carl Schmitt, a gifted legal theorist of the Third Reich, who first developed this view to justify Hitler´s preemptive strikes against neighbouring states. Schmitt´s writing were adapted by local conservatives to the needs of the United States after the Second World war and are currently the bedrock of neo-con thinking. Their message is straightforward: if your country does not serve our needs it is an enemy state. It will be occupied, its leaders removed and pliant satraps placed on the throne. But when the troops withdraw the satrapies often crumble. Occupation, rebellion, withdrawal, occupation, self-emancipation is a pattern in world history.
Only in the North is the death of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians ignored by the mainstream politico-media complex. Iraqi lives don't matter to the human rights brigades in the West. It is this that helps fuel an anger against the West as a whole. The demonisation of Islam has reached such heights that dead Muslims don't have to be counted. And the fount of this demonisation is the government of the United States, a country awash with religion: 95 percent of Americans believe in God, 70 percent in angels, 67 percent in the devil. 'Who believes in the Devil', wrote Thomas Mann in Doctor Faustus, 'already belongs to him.' Against the terrorism of tiny Islamist cells is deployed the almighty terrorism of the American state and its allies. But David was always more popular than Goliath. This is what I attempted to explain in my book, Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads, Modernity. For most of the 20th century, conservative Islam was, more often than not, supportive of the British Empire and its American successor. Islam was seen as a conservative social force, rattling the chains of superstiton and fanaticism to stifle even the most fragile tremors of social revolution. The West was delighted to have such an ally. Times change.
I was in Brazil last week for the World Social Forum. In this time of frustration and defeats, when social advance appears marooned on the shoals of the Washington consensus, it was heartening to hear a Latin American leader--Hugo Chavez of Venezuela--address a large crowd of 15,000 participants and defending the resistance in Iraq. The United States had made three attempts to topple him. They had failed. 'If they try by force, we will resist just like the Iraqis', he declared. He called for the establishment of a worldwide Anti-Imperialist Front. The curtain is still down on the main acts of the drama that is history, but the breaks and intervals are also full of tension and conflict.
At the Nurnberg War Crimes trials the German Foreign Minister, Von Ribbentrop, was also charged with war crimes. Why? Because he had provided the political and ideological justification for the pre-emptive strike against Norway.
If this precedent were to be followed in an imaginary dock of some future tribunal, then Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Tony Blair and their big boss in the White House could face a similar indictment. Unlikely, but desirable.
Tariq Ali's latest book, Bush in Babylon: The Re-colonisation of Iraq, is published by Verso.
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| Forum on Gay and Lesbian Rights |
| 01.29.05 (6:19 pm) [edit] |
On Monday, the 24th of January, I was pleased to attend the WA Social Justice Network's free public forum, "From Stonewall to Reform and Backwards Again".
Rod Swift, convenor of the Gay and Lesbian Equality organisation, spoke first and mentioned how the Stonewall experience heralded the beginnings of queer organising in the United States and throughout the world.
The first Australian Gay and Lesbian organisation was CAMP, set up in the early 1970's, for many years campaigining for the legalisation of same-sex partnerships. In 1989-90, Western Australia took the decision to decriminalise Lesbi-Gay relationships, and on Feburary-March 2002, the age of consent was legalised for all relationships, adoption laws, access to family court to resolve disputes, and IVF treatment for lesbians seeking children were brought into law.
State Opposition leader Colin Barnett is known to be against these reforms and seeks to enact "pro-family"legislation - in spite of the fact that his reforms are against working-class families. There has been no real opposition to this overt agenda from the main liberal party, the Australian Labor Party. In 2002 the WA Liberal Party decided to "roll back" these measures without any community consulation. Single women and defacto partnerships are also under attack. However, Rod mentioned that Max Trenorden the leader of the National Party, who form a coalition with the Liberal Party, was known to be against "roll-back" measures, and it was important that people write away to him and support his morally principled stand. A series of future forums involving Gay and Lesbian Equality WA and leaflets on issues like adoption and family laws were also planned.
The next speaker was Giz Watson, a Greens party member, lesbian and proud, and a state MP. She pointed out that before the ALP legal reforms people only had access to the family court if they were married. This was out of step with the rest of the country. The ALP reform also meant children living in defacto or same-sex families were not discriminated against. Colin Barnett in a recent discussion paper mentioned the need to reverse these legal gains. He has however stated on talkback radio that he would "leave alone finance and employment" anti-discrimination laws, however we are uncertain what other areas he would attempt to "roll back".
Ms Watson said we should engage with Liberal party candidates to oppose anti-family and disriminatory legislation, and she thought that the Liberal party must be defeated when it was clearly supporting such laws.
Senator Brian Grieg, of the Australian Democrats, pointed out that prior to the equalisation of the age of consent in 1989, the law for homosexuality in WA prescribed 14 years in prison with or without whipping. He pointed out that John Tonkin the WA Premier in 1972-73 tried to legalise same-sex relationships only to back off due to strong resistance from opposition leader Sir Charles Court, who opposed any measures that in his language, affected "public morality". In 1989, the opposition to Lesbigay relationships was about the threat of "AIDS", and sexual disease. Today these same politicians justify their support for discrimination as being in opposition to "sexual abuse and paedophilia". All these laws were designed to "keep you in the closet", and scare people from speaking out for equal rights in society.
The World Health Organisation and the WA AIDS council all condemn the proposed anti-gay laws mooted by Colin Barnett. This was primarily because it is difficult to reach people with safe-sex material if same sex partnerships were criminalised.
Grieg also pointed out that there had been 3 Royal Commissions in history he could think of that also backed the need for legal recognition. In 1969 a UK Royal Commission described anti-gay laws as a "Blackmailer's Charter" because they opened the door for corruption and police entrapment. In New South Wales the Wood Royal Commission of 1998 and the WA Royal Commission in 1972 both found that age of consent laws should be equalised because there was no link between age of consent laws and child sex abuse or sexually transmitted disease. Further evidence of this same point was in South Australia, where in 1975 the government equalised the age of consent for all relationships to 17 years of age, and ever since they have enjoyed the lowest STD rates in Australia. Not one police commissioner in the country fails to support the equal age of consent for same and opposite sex relationships.
Brian Greig finished his speech by pointing out that we need to remind Colin Barnett that discrimination against the Lesbian, Bi, Gay and Transgendered community exists and that it is important politicians do not encourage this by supporting discriminatory laws. Also civil rights are about much more that opposing one politician and his laws, and there should be more attention paid to wider discrimination in housing and other areas of social life.
The third speaker Louise Pratt, of the Australian Labor Party, spoke of the recent legal reforms, and how WA IVF laws were the most advanced in the country. She also spoke about the stigma caused by the politicians backing laws to take away equality, and said the visibility of Gay and Lesbian and other relationships was very important. She said organisations like GALE WA should be supported.
Questions were then taken from the floor mostly on the need to internationalise the struggle for equality, especially perhaps today in Nicuragua, and also of the need to put to the forefront the new proposed laws on vilification and gender rights into the future. Giz Watson spoke of the need for the ALP to support education on gay and lesbian and transgendered history. Louise Pratt answered also that whoever wins office, there should be a reform of the bureacracy to make public servants better informed on same sex issues. Rod Swift also urged people to write to Max Trenorden and support his opposition to Colin Barnett's proposed "roll back". If people came across any news items or international news on gay and lesbian equality they should email or phone GALE WA.
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| Robert Fisk on Iraqi Elections |
| 01.23.05 (5:39 pm) [edit] |
Not even Saddam could achieve the divisions this election will bring |
by Robert Fisk; The Independent; January 22, 2005 |
Sunday 30 January will be the day when myth and reality come together with - I fear - an all too literal bang. The magic date upon which Iraq is supposed to transform itself into a democracy will no doubt be greeted as another milestone in America's adventure and, I suspect, another "great day for Iraq" by Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara. He, of course, doesn't have to be blown up in the polling stations or torn to pieces by suicide bombers on the way home. The "martyrs of democracy", as I am sure the dead will be feted, will be those Iraqis who have decided to go along with an election so physically dangerous that the international observers will be "observing" the poll from Amman.
The real trouble with this election, however, is not so much the violence that will take place before, during and, rest assured, after 30 January. The greatest threat to "democracy" is that with four provinces containing around half the population of Iraq in a state of insurgency and many of its towns under rebel control, this election is going to widen the differences between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds in a way that not even Saddam Hussein was able to achieve. If the Sunnis don't vote - save for those living in America, Syria and other exotic locations - then the Shia community, perhaps 60 per cent of the population, will take an overwhelming number of seats in the "Transitional National Assembly".
In other words, the Shias, who are not fighting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, will be voting under American auspices while the Sunnis, who are fighting, will refuse to participate in what the insurgents have already labeled a "quisling" election. The four million Kurds will vote. But however many seats they gain, they are not going to abandon their quasi-independence after the election. Thus the dangers of civil war - so trumpeted by the Americans and British - may be increased rather than suppressed by this much-touted experiment in democracy. In fact, Iraq is a tribal - not a religious - society and the real war, which some in the West might like to be replaced by the civil variety, will continue to be between Sunni insurgents and the United States military.
Nevertheless, nobody could miss the significance of last week's assassination of Mahmoud al-Madaen, along with his son and four bodyguards, at Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. Al-Madaen was the personal representative in the town of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leading Shia prelate in Iraq. On the same day, another of Ayatollah Sistani's aides, Halim al-Moaqaq was found "drowned in his own blood", according to a spokesman, in Najaf. The ayatollah has given his blessing to the elections which will, theoretically at least, give Shias power for the first time after being marginalised and crushed by the Ottomans, the British, the kings and then the Sunni dictators of Iraq.
The Shias have been repeatedly told by their leaders to take no revenge for these attacks and have behaved with remarkable restraint. Even when Mohamed Baqr al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was blown up by a car bomb last year there was not a single act of vengeance committed by the Shias. Yet they well understand the threat uttered by Osama bin Laden, that participation in the elections is an act of apostasy because the Iraqi constitution "is a Jahaliyya constitution that is made by man". Literally meaning "ignorant", Bin Laden's expression refers to the Arabs of pre-Islamic times, who lived in "ignorance" of God before the birth of the Prophet. Of one thing we can be sure: those Iraqis who vote will be brave men and women. Whether they are wise is another matter.
Yet even if the Shias win the largest share of seats in the 275-member parliament, the war will go on and the Sunnis will have nothing to lose by supporting it. Besides, the election is of such complexity that even those who dare to visit polling stations in Sunni areas may be perplexed by the ballot. There are 75 parties and nine coalitions standing - in all, 7,471 candidates for the 275 seats - and all will be elected by proportional representation. Any candidate who receives 1/275th of the vote will get a seat. A party with 20 per cent of the vote would get 20 per cent of the seats, its 55 top-scoring candidates going to parliament. The parliament's job is to propose a constitution which will then be put before a referendum - another dangerous poll that is supposed to be held before 15 October and then - wait for it - there will be elections by 15 December to choose a new government.
This divinely optimistic schedule has been put together by the Americans and Iraqis inside the Green Zone, the much-mortared fortress in central Baghdad from which few emerge to visit the real world of open sewers and power-cut suburbs and destitution beyond their gates.
Of course, with all those observers sipping their gin and tonics in Amman, there's no way of ensuring that the voting figures for these elections cannot be massaged. That the electoral group headed by the current "interim" Prime Minister, ex-CIA agent Iyad Allawi, should have been caught handing out $100 bills in plain envelopes to Iraqi journalists last week did not suggest that the poll will be free of corruption. The Americans and British will make great play, of course, of the thousands of Iraqis who vote abroad as well as the turn-out in Shia cities and in the Kurdish north. We'll be told repeatedly that the Iraqi people have expressed their democratic wishes, that freedom really has arrived in Iraq, that the bombers could not defeat the march of democracy, etc.
All well and good. But without the Sunni vote the parliament will be as unrepresentative of the nation as those glorious elections of old. And there is other cause for worry. While the insurgency has continued, the number of suicide bombings over the past few days has noticeably dropped. I wonder why. Have the volunteers dried up? Or are the suicide squads being saved up and collected in preparation for the big day?
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| Interesting News and Letters 11-1-05 |
| 01.14.05 (9:18 pm) [edit] |
I thought a couple of things were interesting in "The West Australian" recently. Thought I would share them with you - your comments as always are welcome!
Letter To The Editor -
"I suspect that the monumental slap in the face for Health Minister Jim McGinty (Angry Nurses reject pay offer, 11-1) is far less about the money and much more a monumental vote of no confidence in the minister.
Mr McGinty has, in my opinion, proved to be the most spiteful, uncaring and self-serving Health Minister in years. His bullying tactics to try to keep nurses quiet by seeking a non-union agreement has backfired magnificently. Hooray for Nurses.".
Letter No 2:
"Jim McGinty would seem to be taking a leaf from Bob Hawke's book. Having clawed his way to a position of power via the union movement he now appears to prefer bypassing the very system which allowed him entry to the hallowed halls of government. How quickly they forget."
World News Article:
"Bolivian Leader Caught In Trap
Indian groups and civic activists who have sealed Bolivia's two biggest cities have trapped President Carols Mesa between two extremes, analysts say.
The mostly Aymara Indian residents of the city of El Alto have blocked all the roads leading to La Paz, the administrative capital, while civic activists in Santa Cruz have shut down the country's commercial capital with a general strike.
The challenge presents Mr Mesa with his severest crisis since an Indian-led uprising drove his predecessor from office and brought him to power 15 months ago.
Cesar Rojas, a political scientist in La Paz, said the Government was caught between a radicalised labour and Indian movement which would be satisfied only when the country's utilities and natural resources were nationalised, and business leaders who wanted the President to use force to restore order.
The showdown between Mr Mesa and leftist and regional leaders in the impoverished country has been building since the President ordered increases in the price of diesel fuel and petrol two weeks ago.
Anger over the price rises has set off a variety of other demands, including calls for increased autonomy for eastern Bolivia and for the takeover of a local water company.
In a televised speech on Sunday, Mr Mesa said he would rather resign than call out the army and police to restore order.
Dozens of people were killed when President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozoda used force to clear the streets and highways of protestors in 2003.
Mr Mesa has granted a key concession to the El Alto protestors. He agreed on Tuesday to terminate the contract of a French-owned utility company that provides water services to El Alto.
The El Alto leaders also hace demanded that Mr Mesa rescind the price increase on fuel, something the President has said would bankrupt the Treasury.
In Santa Cruz, civic leaders are demanding more control over the region's affairs. Eastern Bolivia has the country's most fertile farmland and holds its most valuable natural resources - oil and gas reserves. The local leaders also have demanded that Mr Mesa rescind the price increase on fuel.
Instead, Mr Mesa made a series of concessions this week to farmers in the region, including lower interest rates on loans.
"The Government is retreating because, in the weak position it finds itself, it is the only option possible", Mr Rojas said.
Mr Mesa, a historian and former television commentator, retained strong support only among the country's small and so far largely passive middle class, Mr Rojas said."
From the Los Angeles Times
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| Asian Tsunami Blog |
| 12.29.04 (1:38 am) [edit] |
This is a pretty urgent topic. This weblog contains much useful information and invites public comment:
http://asiantsunami.blogspot.com" title="http://asiantsunami.blogspot.com" target="_blank"http://asiantsunami.blogspot....
Thought I'd let you know...
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| Public Meeting on Refugee Rights |
| 12.21.04 (3:51 pm) [edit] |
Perth Hills branch of Socialist Alliance held a public meeting last weekend on the topic of refugee rights with two guest speakers - Sue Hoffman of the WA Refugee Alliance and Virginia Brown of the Refugee Action Network.
About 20 people attended. Many names were collected on the petition for the release of Stephen Khan, who has spent more than 6 years in detention and cannot work because he is on a bridging visa. As of early December, despite government claims to the contrary, there were over 100 children in detention. Senator Amanda Vanstone the Immigration Minister claimed there were only a handful, but her statistics were deliberately misleading because they did not count Children in custody of the Australian Government at Christmas Island or Narau.
The two speakers mentioned the Baxter convergence protest planned for Easter in 2005. Conditions in Baxter were "like a mental asylum" Sue said, and there were very high rates of depression, self-harm and self-humiliation. Baxter was deliberately located in the desert in an army base and was also built in such a way as to make outside communication very difficult. Hence the rooftop protest of some Iranian huger-strikers recently. Abuses are normal inside Baxter, and medicating asylum-seekers and solitary confinement for the slightest offences was quite common. Sue has worked with many asylum-seekers and refugees from Baxter and explained how families were often seperated under Temporary Detention Visas, so you see grown men in a state of deep depression because they cannot see their children or their mother.
Virginia Brown mentioned the political background to the recent events in Baxter. She spoke of an extention of the White Australia Policy in that only refugees and asylum-seekers from a mostly Middle Eastern background were detained, unlike the much higher number of Europeans who overstay their visas each year. The Australian government was still sending people to Iraq and Afghanistan, contrary to international laws which state you cannot deport people back to a position of danger. Virginia was hopeful of future change and said public opinion had swung back towards refugee rights since the 2001 Federal Election was dominated by the SS Tampa affair. Big Brother star Mervyn was travelling around Australia, talking out for refugee rights. Sue added she heard him speak once and he was proving very popular, especially amongst younger people who tend to recognise him very easily in public places.
Virginia mentioned also that Tampa Day was remembered by public protests Australia wide, and that thousands of people had signed up for the Refugee Sancturary Network, to offer support and accomodation to refugees fleeing detention. The liberal Australian Labor Party's appointment of Laurie Ferguson as the shadow Immigration Minister showed that they were backpeddling on ending mandatory detention. Ferguson made a series of remarks critical of Lebanese communities and yet was still allowed to remain in his position. Senator Ludwig in the Senate had pushed a motion condoning the raids on refugee activists homes recently and accused the people of attempting to undermine Australian laws. CARAD, an organisation which provided support for people who cannot work while they are detained indefinately on bridging visas, urgently needs financial support, and fundraising drives. Sue urged people to contact their local MP's and make them aware, especially government MP's, of Australia's human rights obligations.
Australia it was pointed out only took a very small number of refugees in world terms. In Iran refugees numbered 1.3 million, and even Cameroon with over 10,000 refugees took a higher number than Australia, which ranks about 34th or 35th in the world.
There was also a man called Mohammed, an Iranian seeking permanent residency, who lost his whole family in the tragic sinking of the Siev-X. He was greeted warmly after the meeting, including a job offer, and most people I spoke to afterwards believed that the day had been a great success and that it was useful to hear the other side of the story from the public relations bump sold as the news in the Australian mass media.
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| Poem By Denis Kevans |
| 12.17.04 (2:21 am) [edit] |
From The Green Left Weekly, December 15 2004
Mend The Torn Air
Your beak is the needle,
The thread is your song,
And you mend the torn air,
When the madness is
gone.
And the harmonies old, of
the bushland unfold,
When you mend the torn
air with your song.
And when harmony reigned
In the forest of green,
And no screaming steel
Desecrated the scene,
All the birds of the air
made the harmony there,
And they threaded the air
with their song.
Now they tear down the
trees,
And a nightmare it seems,
The timeless old forest
And the screaming
machines,
But you with your song,
you follow along,
and you mend the torn
air with your song.
When the screaming of
shells
And the big guns did roar,
The larks, with their song,
Tried to even the score,
They near burst their
hearts, in singing their
parts,
And they mended the air
with their song.
So your beak is the needle,
The thread is your song,
To mend the torn air,
When the madness is
gone,
Like the larks in the war
Who have done it before,
You mend the torn air
with your song.
Denis Kevans
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| Another Joke About Xmas |
| 12.16.04 (2:24 pm) [edit] |
Three rednecks die in an accident and when they get to Heaven, St. Peter is there at the Pearly Gates. He tells them that since its the holiday season, in order to get in, they must produce something that they each have in their pockets that represents Christmas.
The first guy digs around in his pants pockets and pulls out a lighter and flicks open a flame. St. Peter asks, "What does that represent?"
The guys says "A candle of hope." And St. Peter lets him in.
The second guy digs around in his pants pockets and pulls out a big tangle of keys and shakes them.
St. Peter asks, "What do they represent?"
The man replies, "They're bells." And St. Peter lets him in.
The third guy is digging around his pockets and finally pulls out a pair of red panties, which he proudly displays.
St. Peter asks,"Now what does that have to do with Christmas?!"
And the guy says, "They're Carol's."
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| The Angel On The Tree |
| 12.14.04 (3:14 pm) [edit] |
One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip, but there were problems everywhere. Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule.
Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her mom was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more.
When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More stress.
Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked, and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.
So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered that the elves had hidden the liquor, and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider pot, and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw end of the broom. Just then the doorbell rang, and irritable Santa trudged to the door. He opened the door, and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't it a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?"
And thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.
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| Socialist Alliance Fight Back Conference Pt 2 |
| 12.14.04 (2:53 pm) [edit] |
The final plenary of the Socialist Alliance Fight Back conference heard from 3 different speakers on the topic of trade unions and the Howard Government. The opening speaker spoke about the importance of reading the news in a critical way. A particularly good example was the "Australian Financial Review", which often provided a clue to Treasury thinking and capitalist values.
The crux of John Howard's anti-union legislation he added is the Enterprise Bargaining Agreements, which will be changed to only relate to the employer-employee relationship from the 2005. This makes it very difficult for workers to bargain collectively or discuss things with their co-workers. The Federal Government also wants to take over control of the right of entry, as opposed to the state legislation, which will make it harder for union officials to inspect workplaces. In Australia, the liberal Australian Labor Party mostly leads the state governments. Likewise the Federal Government is likely to increase the cost of unfair dismissal claims to make them unaffordable to many workers. They also aim to "simplify" the industrial awards, imposing limits on casual employment and reducing public holiday pay, travel payments, etc. The timeframe of enterprise bargaining agreements will rise to 4-5 years from the current 3 years. Also, they will be pushing Australian Workplace Agreements and using secret ballots to cut unions out of bargaining altogether and make discussion of workplace issues harder.
The main effort of Australia's ruling class was to attempt to make the right to strike illegal in all but name, and at the same time appear quite reasonable. Of course, there is currently a major campaign amongst Australian trade unions to put people into the 3-year EBA's before February when the new laws will take effect.
The new laws would place Australia in a pretty similar position to before Gough Whitlam was elected as PM. Of course, these laws were eventually defeated because of the union solidarity seen in the late 60's when Clarrie O'Shea was imprisoned for refusing to pay a huge fine and the massive rallies and stop-work meetings all over Australia that turned the heat on the bosses legal system. That's why the ACTU should get more active in opposing the Howard agenda of picking off unions one by one.
Joe McDonald received a very warm welcome. Of course, everyone in WA knows who Joe McDonald is, he's the one who insists of workers right of entry and right to picket even though the capitalists in the ALP and the so-called "opposition" have been trying their hardest to discredit him because he actually believes in the right to strike.
Joe shook his head as he took up the issues raised by the previous speaker. Union solidarity these days was not the same as in Clarrie O'Sheas' day - in fact the Craig Johnston campaign demonstrated that the union leadership were "sadly, sadly lacking in many cases", also mentioning that the largest WA political protest of all time were the demonstrations against Graham Kierath's "Third Wave" legislation in Perth a few years ago. Once again, Joe grimaced in disgust, mentioning that these huge protests didn't find any follow-up from the trade union leadership.
"But who's afraid of who", Joe continued, "except that the Government is afraid of Johnston". But for the "treachery and arrogance from the ACTU" they might have used the Free Craig Johnston movement to make the unions a good deal more relevant to larger numbers of workers. Joe McDonald said he still defies the bans on construction unionists right of entry into workplaces since 4 years ago when he was so ostracized in the WA media for doing so. Furthermore, he pointed out he would continue to do so even if the Bosses made it illegal. "Let them talk" Joe said, "but you don't have to listen to what they want".
He described the attempts to outlaw t-shirts bearing Ned Kelly on their design by the metalworkers union leadership as "disgraceful", because the unions had to learn to be more attentive to what the workers want.
He named a few names "Cameron, Sutton, Combet" from the ACTU, and accused them of betraying Craig Johnston even though 8,000 workers downed tools to demonstrate his imprisonment. "Geoff Gallup", the WA Premier, "had done nothing" since bringing the Labor Party to power a few years back.
He pointed out that the last remaining survivor of the 1854 Eureka uprising was buried in WA, and spent the last years of his life in the WA country at York. He then said we needed to inherit that tradition of indifference to the state's silly IR laws. "Don't take them seriously", he urged the conference, punch on, and times will change".
Chris Cain, the Maritime Union of Australia and Socialist Alliance member agreed with Joe on the need for leadership. 75% of the MUA nationally for instance, signed the petition for Craig Johnston release from jail. He pointed out the importance of the slogan "touch one, touch all", and illustrated this was an example of the recent Rottnest Ferry Strike, and more particularly the phone call he received at the height of the strike for reasonable work hours, from the mother of a 17 year old who was exploited by an employer who hired him for a period and then sacked him without paying him any wages, even though he paid for his uniform from his own money. When Cain heard this, he immediately rang the employer and told him that he would force his company to shut down unless he paid the young man his $200-odd dollars in back wages. This he citied as an example also of what trade unionism is necessarily about: you've "got to do the job as best you can, even if need be to break the law". Cain also put forward the proposal to disband the lifeless UnionsWA and get the more militant unions into an alliance". He received a great ovation. Most people left the conference with a look of determination on their faces, and feeling that much more inspired to show solidarity with the oppressed which is just what the Socialist Alliance vision is all about.
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| The Socialist Alliance Fightback Conference |
| 12.12.04 (2:59 pm) [edit] |
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The Socialist Alliance Fight back Conference was held at the Inglewood Community Centre Saturday 11 December 2004. There were roughly 35-50 people there to attend a series of workshops on racism and refugee rights, Cultural activism, and the war in Iraq and Union campaigns. At the beginning there was a plenary on the state of the world and socialist politics. Then at the end there was also a plenary, speeches followed by questions from the floor. The guest speakers were two of Perth's most militant trade unionists, Chris Cain and Joe McDonald. A speaker of the Social Justice organisation kicked off discussion by talking about the importance of optimism. He spoke of how the word "class" has because a taboo recently in the US election, with the massive conservative backlash at the recent US elections. He said that Znet and Common Dreams were the best he knew of what he termed "voices of dissent and sites of resistance which must be supported wherever possible". He thought we should show bipartisanship in our opposition to the war. He also said that the US troops in Iraq are suffering a considerable loss of morale and how the Pentagon was actually doing it's upmost to extend the tour of duty of present personell, suggesting recruitment figures are well down from the beginning of the conflict. He felt also that Gay Rights was a crucial area, citing the leader of the conservative Australian Liberal Party Colin Barnett was well-known for his homophobia, and we must challenge his narrow-minded view of "family values". He also spoke of how the word "reform" had lost it's obvious meaning in today's meaner and leaner world. Nikki Ulasowski, of the Socialist Alliance spoke about the need to challenge hegemonic language in today's Australia, particularly the types of language used by Stephen Smith MP she read on a ALP website called "workers online", urging people towards "responsible" politics, the need to "represent Middle Australia". She spoke of how public opinion was changing - not just on the war itself but also on the Free Craig Johnston campaign there had been a "touch one, touch all" rally in Melbourne that attracted about 8,000 people, in spite of the silence by the ACTU and sections of the broader union movement. She also pointed out that public counsciousness shifts from left to right but we as socialists must be principled and keep a optimistic attitude in the time ahead. Our "tasks" as Nikki saw it, would be for the Left to wage it's own battle of ideas, to avoid becoming "soft" on mainstream politicians like Senator Amanda Vanstone with her concept of "mutual obligation" on social services . We must challenge the myth of politics as a specator sport by participatory democracy, ie. involve everyone in everything. Finally she said we must put our ideas into the "Parliament of the Streets", because that was the best way build a successful socialist society. She said the Second Anniversary of the Iraq war and the State Election in Feb 2005 gave us a splendid oppurtunity to demonstrate these ideas in practice. Numerous people then spoke from the floor, especially concerning the situation on Iraq. Alan of the International Socialist Organisation said the previous speakers were missing the point on the importance of building the resistance within Iraqi society as much within as without. We needed to look at the reasons why Saddam Hussein came to power and highlight his connection to Rumsfeld and the CIA. He pointed out the absurdity of US War Propoganda in that Hussein was a secularist and Stalinist and the US tries to link him to Bin-Laden, who is a religous fundamentalist. The US was in an "unwinnable situation" and Feb 15 2003 saw the largest ever political protest in World History, but that this protest movement had no clear political leadership. And he spoke of the Baxter Detention Centre protest with people on hunger strike waiting for years for a determination of refugee status in the middle of the desert behind razor-wire, and the need to link this imperialism with the Iraq conflict, especially as many detainees were fleeing oppression in these Middle Eastern countries, only to be deported back to a situation of danger in violation of international law. Next speaker was Jerry, a man with a thick US accent that seemed to me to bear the hall-mark of Alabama with it's exaggerated syllables. He pointed out that many institutions of working class society were hosing down the working class resistance, and we need to get out into our workplaces, schools and Universities and raising revolutionary ideas. Sarah Harris spoke about how hard it was for delegates to take up trade union issues with the executive. She pointed to the example of Workers First, in which over many years a left wing bloc was formed in the Metal Workers Union as an example of how persistance can pay off. She said that as well as the other naughty words, "solidarity" has become illegal in Industrial Relations. The motto must become "Touch One, Touch All". The Greens Senator Bob Brown was an example of how networking and being principled also pays off in the end, for the Greens popularity has massively increased and he paid a big part in that. So as you can see, so many things were discussed. I think I will break this off for now, and come back to the final plenary with the exciting miltant unionists in Part 2 of this report sometime soon.
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| The Potato Garden. |
| 12.12.04 (1:49 pm) [edit] |
There is always a way to think outside the square...
POTATO GARDEN
An old man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his potato garden but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Fred, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.
Dear Fred,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were her, all my
troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Dad,
For heaven's sake, Dad, don't dig up that garden, that's where I buried the bodies.
Love Fred.
At 4am the next morning, FBI agents and the police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologised to the old man and left. That same day, the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love Fred
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| To Fans Of The Love Of Life |
| 12.11.04 (1:53 am) [edit] |
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Gramscian here. I have been fairly busy today at the Fightback Conference for Socialist Alliance. We had plenaries and workshops on many different subjects, the ones I attended concerned racism and refugee rights and the need for a militant union leadership. Chris Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia, a Socialist Alliance member, and Joe McDonald the radical construction unionist were guest speakers. I was able to meet up with an aboriginal woman who told me she would like to work with me on a solidarity campaign with the Swan Valley Nyungah community who were kicked off their land in Midland and Bassendean - "shifting" to use the colonialist language - without any alternative site with amenties for their people, in spite of promises from previous state governments and the local council of the area. So I have yet to meet up with the local Swan Valley Nyungah community but I have been to their website and I know they are feeling mightily peeved off with the Gallop Government here in Western Australia because of this business. They had a Select Committee report recently in State Parliament and they reported that the reasons the Gallop government gave for the eviction of Aboriginal people from a public place - the Pyrton site in Bassendean, was largely based on "hearsay" evidnece of abuse of drugs and children and should not have been grounds for "removal". And so it is that we can remind the government of their promises to the first owners of the land and hold them to account. I look forward to the oppurtunity, because attempts to force discussion on land rights are rare in Australian politics because it is usually done behind closed doors by bureacrats and there are only limited oppurtunities for mass action. This time I think it could be very different. So I'm sorry I haven't updated this weblog for quite some time with political and social commentary but I assure you that from Monday you should be seeing quite a few interesting reports, starting with today's Fightback Conference. :wink:
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| Nurses Candidates In WA State Election |
| 12.09.04 (10:13 pm) [edit] |
I thought this an interesting news article from today's "West Australian" because it shows how much health services have been degraded over the past few years. The nurses have lost faith in the liberal Australian Labor Party, or so it seems.
article begins
A group of WA nurses is recruiting members to start a political party, hoping to run candidates in marginal seats and raise the profile of health issues.
The nurses, mostly Australian Nursing Federation workers, have 300 of the 500 signatures needed to register the party, to be called Nurses for Health.
Registered nurse Trish Fowler, one of the organisers, said the group hoped to get the rest of the signatures and register before Christmas.
It will run candidates in as many electorates as possible, with a focus on marginal seats. THere already had been a volunteer to run against Health Minister Jim McGinty in his seat of Fremantle.
Ms Fowler, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Princess Margaret Hospital, said policies still were being formulated bit nurses would bring a realistic outlook to health planning and policy.
More resources needed to be put into preventative health care and care for disadvantaged people after discharge from hospital, she said.
Equal access to health services, attracting and retaining nurses and planning for future demand, as well as reasonable workloads, also would be important issues.
The party wanted to see the Health Minister hold only that portfolio, saying health needed a full-time focus.
While doctors and non-nurses could be members, only nurses could run as candidates.
Australian Nursing Federation State secretary Mark Olson said the union supported the party and would provide resources but not funding. He ruled out running as a candidate.
article ends here.
Of course, it's always exciting to see unions taking on the bosses in whatever area, but very rarely in this country do you see unions running candidates against the ALP as an independent avenue for working-class protest. We in the Hills Branch of Socialist Alliance will also be focussing on the cutbacks to Kalamunda Hospital services and increasing health funding as part of our local campaign in the forthcoming State Election (likely to happen in Feburary if the grapevine is reliable).
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| At the Top of my voice - Mayakovsky 1930 |
| 12.07.04 (1:36 am) [edit] |
1
She loves me-loves me not.
My hands I pick
and having broken my fingers
fling away.
So the first daisy-heads
one happens to flick
are plucked,
and guessing,
scattered into May.
Let a cut and shave
reveal my grey hairs.
Let the silver of the years
ring out endlessly !
Shameful common sense -
I hope, I swear -
Will never come
to me.
2
It's already two.
No doubt, you've gone to sleep.
In the night
The Milky Way
with silver filigrees.
I don't hurry,
and there is no point in me
waking and disturbing you
with express telegrams.
3
The sea goes to weep.
The sea goes to sleep.
As they say,
the incident has petered out.
The love boat of life
has crashed on philistine reefs
You and I
are quits.
No need to reiterate
mutual injuries,
troubles
and griefs.
4
D'you see,
In the world what a quiet sleeps.
Night tributes the sky
with silver constellations.
In such an hour as this,
one rises and speaks
to eras,
history,
and world creation.
5
I know the power of words, I know words' tocsin.
They're not the kind applauded by the boxes.
From words like these coffins burst from the earth
and on their own four oaken legs stride forth.
It happens they reject you, unpublished, unprinted.
But saddle-girths tightening words gallop ahead.
See how the centuries ring and trains crawl
to lick poetry's calloused hands.
I know the power of words. Seeming trifles that fall
like petals beneath the heel-taps of dance.
But man with his soul, his lips, his bones…
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| Peaceniks Picnic and Book Chat |
| 12.06.04 (4:48 pm) [edit] |
On Sun December 5th I attended a book launch and get-together between different peace groups in Darlington. The main speaker was Simon Adams, Foundation Dean at the Notre Dame University, and he spoke at length about the war in Iraq and his book about the war. "All the Troubles - Terrorism, War and the World After 9/11" Dr Adams said that Australia was one of only 2 countries involved in Operation Sea swap with the United States, and one of only 2 or 3 countries involved in live bombing exercises, at Lancelin off the coast of Western Australia. He pointed out that the US refused to confirm or deny the use of Depleted Uranium weapons in these exercises, even though DU weapons are known to have caused cancers in Puerto Rico.
On the war itself Adams reminded us of the casualties so far - well over 1,000 US deaths and at a minimum 11,000 Iraqi civilian casualties (of course these were official statistics). Remarkably, the post 9-11 report by the US Congressmen was very lucid in it's analysis - even pointing out that Afghanistan was a failed campaign because in many areas the Taliban are very powerful and Afghanistan was far from being a democracy.
Dr Adams said he taught several US service people who went to Notre Dame University as part of their training. Even their opinion of the war was shaky at this point compared to where it was after Bush declared war. The line seems to be one of "we got rid of Saddam", but this is wearing thin when compared to the reality of a protracted war against a well-trained and well-organised guerrilla resistance. This growing realisation has led the Spanish, Honduras and Costa Ricans out of the war, and this is soon to be followed by Poland, it is believed. Australia is to the best of his knowledge the only country talking about increasing their troop numbers in Iraq. Even the UK government is looking for an exit strategy and phased withdrawal.
As was the case in Vietnam, the war in Iraq has seen a small but growing peace movement worldwide. He used the example of the US commander when asked what he thought about an air strike destroying a village of non-combatants - "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" - to describe the recent carnage at Falluja. The commercial media coverage tends to repeat the old line of "one last push" against "insurgents", even though the resistance shows a high degree of resilience and organisation. During the April 2004 push on Falluja that ended in a forced withdrawal of US marines, 40% of the Iraqi police forces - trained by the United States - walked off the job. 10 percent of these people joined the opposition. The Fallujah destruction Adams said would not break the will of the resistance, in fact if anything it would increase the numbers of the military opposition.
Adams believes that the US is too tied down in Iraq to take seriously the Iranian nuclear program. He ended his speech by saying that it was small groups all around the world like ours who could force the US to pull out at some stage. This was endorsed by the other speakers.
Suzanne from the Hills Peace Festival said her organization provided a "creative alternative" to the war through exhibitions, theatre, musicals, and other cultural events to increase the visibility of minority peoples - refugees and indigenous people for example - and hence to build up a substantial opposition to the unwinnable war. She mentioned that on the August 6-7 weekend in 2005 as in every year there would be a large festival and this she pointed out coincided with the Hiroshima remembrance day of the 7th of August. The Hills Peace Festival also was using a film "Whale rider" to raise funding. The other speaker Mark spoke from the Oxfam Community Aid Abroad organisation about their advocacy work, especially with the HIV-AIDS epidemic in Africa where they helped change the Australian government’s stance against health funding. He pointed out the Oxfam Community Aid Abroad were planning more local events for 2005.
Finally Hills NOWaR alliance speaker - M - pointed to the importance of our regular public meetings and rallies, including the involvement in the World Refugee Day march in Fremantle, the March 20 rally earlier this year on the Anniversary of the Iraqi invasion, and the October 3rd "End The Lies" rally against the distortions of the Howard government. We sold 60 copies of Alwyn Evans "Walk In My Shoes" book about the experiences of Afghani refugees, and we are planning a Cultural Dissent Art Exhibition to show how racism and war were all bound-up.
There were plenty of questions and afterwards most people stayed for the BBQ, in very relaxing surroundings. The Socialist Alliance were able to make 3 new members from the interested public, including two high school students.
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| The Big Issue Magazine... |
| 12.04.04 (1:28 am) [edit] |
I had an amazing experience on Friday as I stood selling Green Left weekly's on the pedestrian footbridge, I finally discovered what the magazine "The Big Issue" was all about.
Of course, I had seen the modestly dressed sellers before, so this time I brought a magazine and I was amazed to find such a wealth of controversial news and culture reviews on contemporary fiction and film, etc. that would stand amongst the highest production values of just about any mainstream media outlet.
But the really amazing thing was the half of the $4 cover price goes to the homeless and poorer people of Australia who sell these magazines and better still, are trained in the art of selling magazines. What a novel idea! To think I had seen these sellers so often before without thinking of buying such a good quality magazine from them.
This fortnight's issue contains news of the 20th anniversary of the Bophal disaster in India, Disabled workers interviewed for International Day for People with a Disability, the Survelliance issue in modern times, the experience of being a young mother, social satire from a Triple J youth radio broadcaster, and plenty more reviews of films, DVD, books...so believe me if you come across somebody trying to sell you the Big Issue, it's a really worthwhile social investment in many different ways.
:idea:
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