Anarchist Age Weekly Review 13th July '98 Number 308 14th - 20th July, 1998 IN A TIME OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT - TELLING THE TRUTH IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT - GEORGE ORWELL "The Parliament of the Commonwealth may make laws prescribing the method of choosing senators, but so that method shall be uniform for all the states" - Australian Constitution Section 9. The temporary Liberal Labor alliance in Tasmania that has been formed to decrease the number of members from the House of Assembly from 35 to 25 and the Legislative Council from 19 to 15 is a stroke of pure genius. The old party network has been hamstrung by the presence of four Greens and one Independent in the Tasmanian Lower House. The Hare Clarke proportional representation electoral system in Tasmania ensured that minor parties are able to elect candidates to parliament. The increased quotes that will be needed to elect a candidate into parliament will invariable mean that the old boys Liberal/Labor network will once again reign supreme in Tasmania. If we examine the Australian Constitution, the Commonwealth parliament has the power to determine how senators will be elected. The current proportional representative system can be changed by an act of parliament. Parliament also has the power to decrease the number of senators from twelve to six. Few Australians know, or for that matter understand that a government with a majority in both Houses of Parliament, or a temporary alliance (A La Tasmania) of the Liberal/Labor party can pass legislation that will make it difficult if not impossible for a minor party to be represented in the Senate. I'm sure that the Federal Liberal/Labor party are watching the Tasmanian alliance closely. If independents and minor parties are kept out of office because of the change in the Tasmanian electoral laws, it won't be long before the Federal Liberal/Labor party will strike a deal to pass legislation that will wipe minor parties and independents off the political landscape. I wouldn't be surprised to see legislation introduced after the next election that will ensure that the Federal parliament continues to be the preserve of the Liberal/Labor Party. I'm sure Howard and Beasley (or their new counterpart) will be drumming up support for this measure in the name of good and stable government. If only they could remove the people from the equation it would be a much nicer word for the major political parties. VIVE LA FRANCE? France's World Cup victory can be examined on a number of levels. The celebrations in every city, town and hamlet have led to a reassessment of what it is to be French. In a country where over 40% of people are happy to describe themselves as racists, the World Cup victory may lead to a reassessment of racial relations in France. The number of people who have taken to the streets to celebrate their team's victory in a soccer match almost equals the number of people who poured into the streets when France was liberated from the Nazi and Vichy yoke over fifty years ago. It's ironical that the hero of France's world cup victory Zidane is a Marseille - raised son of poor Algerian immigrants. The victorious French team had players born in New Caledonia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, two Basques and players of Armenian and Spanish descent. The crowd that danced the night away on the Champs Eleysˇe was a coalition of Whites, Asians, Africans and Arabs. Whether the euphoria that has greeted the French win will be translated into better and more harmonious relationships between different racial groups in France, will be seen in the next few months. Even if long term relationships are not improved, the sight of two multi-racial teams competing for the World Cup is a sight that most people will remember for a long time to come. Le Penn's National Front may have been dealt a mortal blow by the multi-racial French teams success. Whether the euphoria is transient or not depends on the extension of the current good will into other facets of the people's lives. Irrespective of the nationalistic media and capitalist hype that surrounded the World Cup, the outcome of this competition has punctured a number of deeply held racial stereotypes. IF THE HAT FITS - WEAR IT! One of the most pathetic sights I've seen for a very long time is Jeffrey (Glib) Kennett trying to reinvent himself as a champion of the people. Listening to him rabbit on about how he will chase the One Notion mob down every burrow, you'd think the man who has led the very government that has created the conditions that allow One Notion to flourish, has been converted on the road to Damascus. Nothing could be further from the truth. The morally bankrupt and socially inept policies that have been pursued by the Victorian State Government over the past six years have done more to destroy what's left of the social fabric in this state than any other government has done this century. The governments privatisation policies have given the public sector away to the private sector. Their health and education policies have resulted in the slow agonising death of a delivery system which in the past at least tried to cover people's basic needs. Everything they've touched has fallen apart. Their policies have significantly raised the gap between the haves and the have nots. Any analysis of the implementation of the state government policies will show that the changes that have occurred at both a state and local level have reduced services, disenfranchised electors and have made Victoria private fiefdom for a small number of transnational corporations. It's only in the last six months or so that many Victorians have realised that there's no gain, irrespective of the pain that the government has imposed on the community. Whether it's the privatisation of state assets, education, health, the prison system, parks and gardens, social services and a host of other so-called government reforms, few, if any Victorians have benefited from the wholesale changes that the Kennett regime has imposed on this community. PAT EARL NEEDS YOUR HELP Pat Earl, a Federal prisoner, who was made to parole to the state of Texas, is being denied basic medical care by the Texas state authorities. When you compare the treatment Mr Earl has received to the statements Bill Clinton made in China about the fate of Chinese prisoners, it's obvious that the United States Federal Government is very big on rhetoric but light on substance. Pat Earl was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, he fled to Canada during the war but returned once the war was over. He embarked on a number of armed robberies when he returned to the United States. He was caught and sentenced to 24 years in prison. He has spent the last fifteen years behind bars. He made contact with anarchist ideas five or six years ago. Since then he has edited the Satin Shoe and was in the process of editing a new anarchist paper, the Solitary Anarchist, when he was struck down with a severe illness. He is slowly losing the power in his arms and legs and will become a quadriplegic if he doesn't receive treatment for his condition. Mr Earl is asking that his problem be investigated and he receive adequate treatment for his condition. He is asking for his constitutional rights, nothing more, nothing less, "that he is not subjected to cruel and unusual punishment." Although he has had his symptoms for over two years and he is losing the power in his arms and legs and his body is racked by sever pain, the authorities have chosen to ignore his condition. The Texas prison authorities will only take an interest in his case if they are publicly shamed into taking action. We ask all those people who read the Anarchist Age Weekly Review to: 1. Write to their local United State ambassador asking him/her to raise the matter with the Texas government. 2. Write to the prison Director outlining the harsh and unusual punishment Mr Earl is subjected to. 3. Write to U.S. Senator Baily Kay Hutinson c/- United States Senate in Washington. 4. Write directly to Pat Earl offering him moral support. 5. If you're on the internet log into the Governor's Internet site and voice your concerns about the lack of treatment Mr Earl is receiving. HTTP://WWW.TEXAS.GOV/AGENCY/301 @HTN- Addresses Pat Earl 744542, Box 150-X311, T-Town Texas, 75884 United States TOCJ Director, Box 99, Huntsville Texas. 77340, United States The best way to achieve results is to write directly to the United States ambassador in your country. They will have to answer your letter and pass on your concerns directly to George Bush Jnr. the Governor of Texas. The more letters and Email they receive the sooner they will be publicly shamed into doing something about Mr Earl's urgent medical problems. PEOPLE BEFORE MARKETS The Japanese half Senate election that was held on the weekend has sent shivers down the spine of the markets. Listening to financial and media commentators you'd think that the ruling Liberal Democratic Parties losses were due to their inability and unwillingness to deregulate the Japanese economy and bail out the Japanese banks bad debts by using taxpayer funds. Examining media reports it's very obvious that the financial gurus are indulging in wishful thinking and banana bending. They are massaging the figures to suit their world view. Japanese voters have given the ruling Liberal/Democratic Party the bum steer, not because they haven't acted fast enough to open up the Japanese economy to the winds of globalisation, but because they are opening up the Japanese economy to outside interests. Japanese electors are not interested in using taxpayers funds to bail out the capitalist system, they're not interested in opening up an economic system that has served them well in the past. The Japanese half Senate election results are a clear cut indication that the Japanese people want their interests put before the interests of the market place. Anybody with even the most rudimentary understanding of economics, knows that if Japanese agricultural markets are opened up, Japanese agriculture would collapse within a few years. Although protection artificially raises prices, the social dividend far outweighs the gains that could be made if the price of agricultural products dropped. Unless the Japanese government makes provisions to protect its citizens from the winds of deregulation and globalisation, Japanese electors are not going to fall for the furphy (the Big lie) that what is good for the market is good for the people. ANARCHIST QUESTION and ANSWER Q. Would an anarchist community produce more than it needs? A. Of course it would. An anarchist community is not based on profit or the barter system. Some societies will be able to fulfil all their needs, others, will not be able to satisfy their basic needs. Those that can't will rely on the generosity of the people around them. The question we need to grapple with is, why would any community go that extra mile to help anybody else? If we want to live in a safe secure society we need to share what we have access to. If we're not willing to share, the chances are that those communities that don't have enough to survive will steal what they need for survival. If our short term and long term survival depends on our ability to assist our neighbours, it's more than obvious that as individuals and communities we will do what we can to help our neighbours. If we need to produce more food or commodities to satisfy those needs, so be it. If we need to produce more than we can use to assist those around us, so be it. This week it will be their turn, next week it may be our turn. Mutual Aid is just that, Aid to those who need it. No community is completely isolated and no community can satisfy all its needs. Co-operation between individuals and communities lays the lattice that is necessary to create an egalitarian community. If this means producing more than our immediate needs, it's a small price to pay for living in a co-operative society, where the satisfaction of human needs not the creation of profit for profits sake, is one of the central tenants of that society. One for all and all for one encapsulates the sentiments that are necessary to create an anarchist society. ACTION BOX - THE POWER OF ONE!! One of the most depressing aspects of living in a consumer driven society is the secondary rule that the individual plays in society. It's common, unfortunately very common to see people waiting for somebody else to do something, anything about the situation. Passivity has become a dominant feature of post modern existence. The individual feels so powerless, they are for all intentional purposes paralysed with the fear of failure. Irrespective of how hierarchical and passive a community is, the individual still matters. In many situations individual effort is the spark that can ignite the struggle for change. Whether individuals are willing to take that step depends on their sense of personal security and self-confidence. The "what's the point" dribble that is such a constant feature of everyday life can be buried by individual action. Never underestimate the power of example, never underestimate the power of courageous action. Individual effort and action can make a significant difference. If you are to experience the luxury of working with other people, good, if you don't, don't sit in a corner waiting for somebody else to do something about it. How you approach the problem is up to you. You can become an arm chair critic waiting for the golden moment that never comes or you can act. Even holding a regular book discussion meeting, or selling books, or setting up an internet site or holding a public discussion meeting, or anonymously putting up stickers or putting leaflets in letter boxes is better than whingeing about how nothing every happens. The Anarchist Media Institute is interested in helping individuals overcome their political isolation by embarking on projects that an individual can carry out. If you are isolated and want to be active, give us a tingle. Who knows for the cost of a telephone call you may embark on a new adventure that will help you to become part of a movement that is fighting to create an egalitarian society. AUSTRALIAN ANARCHIST SOCIETY - ONE BIG UNION Over fifty five thousand workers belonged to the I.W.W. at one time or another during the first two decades of this century. At its Zenith the Australian I.W.W. had eleven thousand paid up members. The W.I.I.U. (Workers Internation Industrial Union) and the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World) were instrumental in promoting the concept of the One Big Union (O.B.U.). The ideas of the I.W.W. and the W.I.I.U. filtered down throughout the whole established union movement. Both groups wanted to establish the One Big Union from below. The established unions did their best to destroy both the I.W.W. and the W.I.I.U. One of the main unions that fought the I.W.W. and the W.I.I.U. tooth and nail was the A.W.U. (Australian Workers Union). Confrontations for the hearts and minds of workers occurred across the country. One of the worst disputes occurred in 1919 at Eildon Weir in Victoria. Workers who were constructing the Eildon Weir were members of the W.I.I.U. The A.W.U. demanded that the weir workers should also hold A.W.U. as well as W.I.I.U. tickets. When the workers refused, the A.W.U. declared the job black. Other Unions withdrew their members from the project. W.I.I.U. members were also blacklisted by local shops and lodging houses. They were eventually forced to leave Eildon and find work somewhere else. The I.W.W. believed that if they could form One Big Union from below, they would be forming "the structure of the new society within the shell of the old". Although a conference in March 1920 decided to form the Australasian Workers Union, the birth was stillborn. Although the struggle to form One Big Union from below was a failure, the idea led to the amalgamation of many allied unions from above. The struggle to form O.B.U. helped lay the foundations for the formation of the A.C.T.U. in 1927. I.W.W. members would be turning in their graves if they saw today's A.C.T.U. All the criticisms they made about union amalgamations from the top down are embodied in the structure of today's A.C.T.U. BOOK REVIEW THE ABORIGINES OF VICTORIA Volume 1 Volume 2, 1876 By R Brough Smyth The Aborigines of Victoria published in 1876 barely forty years after the colonisation of Victoria is an exceptionally interesting book. Divided into two volumes, illustrated with literally hundreds of black and white drawings, the words in the 950 pages that compose these two volumes opens a window into the minds of the colonised and the colonisers. You won't find these books in your local bookstore. About the only place the public can have access to these relics is the Victorian State Library. The Passage of the Wik legislation through the Senate last week, highlights the inability and unwillingness of many Australians to confront their past. Interestingly the word Australian in 1876 is used to denote Australia's indigenous people. The Colonisers are described as Europeans, Chinese etc. The self-evident truth that stares out of these pages that were written over 120 years ago, makes the contemporary rising tide of hatred that is directed at indigenous Australians by ordinary Australians and the state difficult to fathom. As most readers of the Anarchist Age will never be in a position to examine these volumes, I'd like to quote some passages from both volumes to help dispel some of the myths that have crept into mainstream Australian culture about this lands indigenous people. "Neither the rifle not the pistol, however, was so effectual in destroying the natives as the diseases and vices introduced by the pioneers". "That the children are sometimes neglected is true, but as a rule they are kindly treated". "The small-pox supposed to have been introduced by the white in 1788, was the cause of numerous deaths among the natives - the blacks could not bury their dead, the father was separated from his family and children fled from their parents". "My experience enables me to speak in the most favourable terms of the Aborigines, whose degraded position in the midst of the white population affords no just criterion of their merits" - Major Mitchell 1839. "To this day the older men can clearly point out the land which their fathers left them, and which they once called their own". "When the colony was first settled the decline in numbers of the natives was very rapid. Quarrels occurred between the whites and the blacks, and how many of this latter were slain will never be known". "Nothing that can be provided for their sustenance and comfort can compensate for the loss they experience in being deprived of their lands, the society of the friends, and the delights of the chase". "Let us then judge this people with knowledge, and not condemn them and their customs in ignorance". It's a pity Harradine and Howard and many Australians continue to be plagued by collective amnesia whenever Indigenous issues are raised. PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS I'm sitting in an Italian Club in Melbourne, having lunch with a man who's writing a book about 116 Italian immigrants who disembarked in Melbourne from the same ship in 1921. He's spent over a year picking up the fragments of their lives. His appetite for the project was wetted by one of his relatives, a passenger on the ship. I'm handed a photocopy of a note in a plastic envelope. "Mamma and Pappa when you receive this I'll be in a better world". - The words written in Italian are neat, well rounded, flowing, they show no hesitation. He hands me a folder that contains fragments of the lives of 85 of the 116. The ones he can't locate, he believes may have returned to Italy. I place the note back in its place and study the two photographs on the page. One is a black and white head and shoulders shot of a man with deep set eyes. The other, a recent colour photograph of a small group of people huddled round an unmarked grave in a regional Victorian cemetery. The man I was having lunch with had traced the author of the notes family in Victoria. In 1998 almost sixty years to the day, they had come to pay their respects to an uncle who had disappeared without a trace in 1938. Their uncle was a powder monkey who spent his life moving from quarry to quarry, extracting granite from the ground with dynamite. In 1938 he lived in a slab hut in Central Victoria next to a quarry. For seventeen years he had cris crossed Australia moving from quarry to quarry. Never returning home, religiously writing postcards, sending money back to Italy to help his mamma and pappa. A lonely, brutal, harsh existence. Every day he went through the motions of life, a desiccated soul in a grown mans body wandering across an alien landscape. One morning in 1938 he went down to the quarry, put two sticks of dynamite in his mouth and lit the fuses. The authorities picked up the pieces, held and inquest and buried him in an unmarked grave in the local cemetery. His letter to his mamma and pappa and a few other personal effects were placed in a box and forgotten, until the man I was having lunch with found them last year. His chance find initiated a chain of events that resulted in the marriage of the past with the present and the present with the past for a lost soul buried in an alien land. STOP PRESS - JOHNNY!! JOHNNY!! JOHNNY!! Can you believe it, Honest John is trying to clear the decks so he can call his little election. John Howard our beloved Prime Minister believes, yes believes that tax, especially the Goods and Services Tax, should and will be the cornerstone of his pathetic re-election strategy. He thinks the old hip pocket nerve will his gateway to political nirvana. No Wik legislation for him, no health care policies for our little mate, no big ticket items for little Johnny, except maybe a few thousand stuffed pork barrels. Howard and the intellectually challenged members of the Liberal/National Party want the next Federal election to be fought on taxation. It's our job to ensure that the next Federal election is fought on more fundamental concerns. The nature of democracy, how wealth is distributed and how decisions are made. If the political parties think we're all going to work up the right channels and shadow box with them they've got a surprise or two coming. Why should we play their game? Why should we let them decide what is and what isn't on the political agenda. It's time, no not for another change of government, but for a reassessment of the myths and fallacies that form the foundations of Australian Society. Elections are important not because we as individuals or a society are able to make some cosmetic changes to who governs us, they're important because they give up an opening by which we can attack the political processes that form the cornerstone of our society. Each election campaign raises possibilities. Whether we are able to utilise these opportunities to further our own aspirations as individuals and as groups will determine whether we are able to cut through the mist that surrounds the parliamentary system. JOSEPH TOSCANO (Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society). ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK ARIVISTA ANARCHICA 28th Year No.3, No.224 April'98, Cas Post 17120, 20170 Milano, Italy Tel/Fax (02) 2896627. BIBLIOTECA PANIZZI, Archivio Famiglia Berneri, Aurello Chessa, Fiamma Chessa, Via S. Anna 27B/9, 16035 Rapallo (Ge), Italy. BULLETIN No.54 March'98, C.I.R.A. Beaumont 24, Ch-1012 Lausanne, Switzerland. Tel +4121652 4819, 6523543. FIFTH ESTATE Vol.33 No (351) Summer'98, 4632 Second Ave, Detroit MI, 48201 United States. FREEDOM Vol.59 No.13 4th July'98, 84b Whitechapel High St, London E17QX, United Kingdom, http://www.tao.ca/~freedom email FreedomPressatfreedom@tao.ca LE MONDE LIBERTAIRE No.10 Summer98, 145 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, France Tel 0148053408 Fax 0149299859. http://www.altern.org/fa NAUTILUS 1998 Catalogue, Casella Postale 1311, 10100 Torino Italy. SEME ANARCHICO 19th Year No.1/2 Jan-Apr'98, C/- Fabio Razzi, C.P. 168, 53034 Colie Val d'Elsa (SI), Italy. SICILIA LIBERTARIA 22nd year, No.163 Mar'98, Via Galilea Galilei 45, 97100 Ragusa Sicily, Italy. UMANITA NOVA 78th year, 29th March, 5th & 19th Apr'98, Tizlino Antonelli, Via della Leccia 8, 57100 Livorno, Italy. Tel 0586/885210. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK GARAMUT Autumn'98, Bougainville Freedom Movement, PO Box 134, Erkineville 2043, New South Wales, Austrlia. WESTEND NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWS No.55 June'98, PO Box 5208 Westend 4101, Brisbane Australia Tel (07) 38464358. PROWORKER No.2 June'98, Ge Font, PO Box 10652, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel +9771248072, Fax +9771248073 email gefont@mos.com.np, http://wwwgeocities.com/CapitalHill/ DEBT ELIMINATION APPEAL - PUSH US OVER THE LINE Our debt stands at $714.50. We would like to eliminate this debt by June. Over the past two years we have been able to reduce our debt from over $3000.00 to a little over $800.00. If you've hesitated helping us overcome our debt because you didn't want to throw good money after bad, well you don't need to worry as we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We need a little bit of extra help to push us over the line. So if you haven't helped before and want to help, make out cheques or money orders to Libertarian Workers and send it to L.W.S.S. PO Box 20 Parkville 3052 Melbourne, Australia. THANKS!! DEBT 15.7.98 - $714.50 A) ANARCHISM TOWARDS THE 21ST CENTURY B) TOWARDS AN ANARCHIST SOCIETY - Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society Position and Activities 1998. Send $4.00 of stamps to L.W.S.S. PO Box 20 Parkville 3052 Melbourne Australia and we will post out both booklets to you. ANARCHIST AGE MONTHLY REVIEW BACK!! - 36 PAGES OF NEWS AND VIEWS - SUBSCRIBE TODAY Subscription $48.00 - 12 issues wage earners, $30.00 - 12 issues non-wage earners Please make out cheques and money orders to LIBERTARIAN WORKERS and post to PO Box 20, Parkville 3052 Melbourne. Australia. ISSUE NO.80 JULY 1998 - OUT NOW. AS WE DON'T WANT TO SUSPEND PUBLICATION IN THE FUTURE, ONLY SUBSCRIBERS WILL RECEIVE THE ANARCHIST AGE MONTHLY REVIEW. ARTICLES WANTED NOW - FOR ANARCHIST AGE MONTHLY REVIEW If at all possible, please send articels on disc. Sending your article on a disc saves us time and money. ANARCHIST BOOK DISCUSSION MEETING SUNDAY 19th JULY, 3.00pm, Lincoln Hotel, 91 Cardigan Street, Carlton Melbourne. All Welcome. Phone Oscar 9429 9837 for further information. ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE PUBLIC DISCUSSION MEETING ANARCHISM AND VEGETARIANISM, Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane (Near Swanston St), Melbourne, 8.00pm Thursday 30th July, All Welcome. Anarres Anarchist Bookshop will have a stall on the evening. ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE OBSCENITY OF THE WEEK Has been awarded to the National Party for selling off Telstra - Black Jack McEwen must be turning in his grave. If You Like What You Have Read, Photocopy This Publication and Leave It In Doctors, Dentists, Vets Waiting Rooms and In Railway Stations, Bus Stops, Libraries and Restaurants Etc. The articles in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review express the opinion of individuals within the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society/Anarchist Media Institute. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society/Anarchist Media Institute. P U B L I C A T I O N S Anarchist Age Weekly Review - 4 pages of Anarchist commentary on Local, National and International events. $50.00 for 50 issues $10.00 for 10 issues Anarchist Age Monthly Review - Issue 80 out July 1998 $48.00 wage earners - 12 issues $30.00 non wage earners - 12 issues Make out cheques or money orders to: Libertarian Workers, PO Box 20, Parkville, 3052 Victoria Australia. All material in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review can be used by anarchists, anarchist collectives and non-profit organisations as long as the source of the material is mentioned in the article. The Anarchist Age Weekly Review reserves all rights as far as commercial publications are concerned. NEVER DOUBT THAT A SMALL GROUP OF THOUGHTFUL COMMITTED CITIZENS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD - MARGARET MEAD.