Anarchist Age Weekly Review - Number 306 - 29th June

Number 306 29th June - 5th July, 1998

IN A TIME OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT - TELLING THE TRUTH IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT - GEORGE ORWELL

RESIST THE URGE!! Can you feel it, that urge to rush out and stuff your ballot paper in the ballot box. The barbarians are at the gates, the political parties that have screwed you in the past, now want, need your help. The cosy relationship between the Coalition and the Labor Party is under pressure. A woman has intruded on their gentleman's understanding. We're told you must vote to maintain the integrity of the parliamentary system. You know, I know, even the politicians know that power in this country does not lie in parliament, it lies in the boardrooms of national and transnational corporations. You know and I know that parliamentary democracy is little more than two minutes of illusory power. We want to be involved in the decision making processes We don't want to give representatives a blank cheque to do what they like for the next three to four years. Parliamentary democracy is in crisis, not just in Australia, but around the world. Even voters in Russian and the Old Eastern European bloc shun parliamentary elections. If anybody should be embracing parliamentary democracy, it's those people who have survived the arbitrary tyranny of communist rule. Even these people have rejected parliamentary rule. People want power, they want to control their lives. Even those people who have hitched their wagon to the One Notion wagon train, ultimately want to control their destiny and lives. As individuals and as part of the wider libertarian/anarchist movement, we need to resist the urge to throw in our lot with the parliamentary clowns. By all means use the parliamentary process to expose the wastelands of the parliamentary process, but don't encourage people to participate in the parliamentary farce. Even if we believe that the barbarians are knocking at the door, we have our own agenda. We shouldn't waste our time supporting the parliamentary process. What we should be doing is articulating ideas about direct democracy, common ownership of property, while we expose the illusory nature of the parliamentary process. The way forward isn't found by stepping backwards and throwing our support behind institutions we have already rejected. It's found by stepping forward with concrete alternatives to the current parliamentary illusions. LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS Over three million Australians listen to Australia's radio shock jocks, every day. Every state has its Laws alter ego. Commercial radio lends itself to the shock jock attack. Shock jocks in this country pander to a view of life that is the preserve of elderly Anglo Saxons. It's no accident that Australia's shock jocks have almost to a man, thrown their combined weight behind the Pauline Hanson One Notion wagon train. Their constant attacks on those less able to defend themselves has created the landscape that has allowed the One Notion wagon train an easy passage through the Anglo Saxon Australian consciousness. Daily attacks on indigenous people, the unemployed, unmarried mothers and drug addicts have focused peoples' dissatisfaction on those who are not responsible for their disillusionment. The real culprits escape scot free, they own the radio stations. You wouldn't expect the cowards behind the microphones to bite the hand that feeds them. Capitalism is the shock jocks God. Those who own the means of production, distribution and exchange are their masters. The gutless wonders behind the microphones reinforce the worst excesses of the status quo by throwing their weight behind those who have power and wealth in this society. Radio is a powerful, emotive immediate medium. Anarchists should make more use of it. Community radio gives us the opportunity to rip open the underbelly of the beast. We can play them at their own games and tear strips off their inane rationalisations. If you don't have access to community radio, hit the phones and ruin their talk back orgy. People calling in well organised clusters can destroy the shock jocks mystique. We need to neutralise their poison and cut off their air. The havoc created by corporate newspapers and television stations pales into insignificance to the damage that is done by the shock jocks. Radio holds your attention, the words eat into your grey matter. As long as we let the shock jocks control the airwaves, the social and cultural climate that breeds intolerance and inequality, will always be there to nourish the bigots and racists in our society. REHABILITATING THE LIBERAL/NATIONAL PARTY SCUM Over the past two weeks major political figures have attempted to describe the vote for One Notion as a protest vote. Political figures from all sides of the political camp have attempted to divorce One Notion voters from the One Notion leadership. Johnny Howard's foray into the One Notion heartland in Queensland this week was based on the premise that One Notion supporters are not racist. Well I beg to differ. One Notion's policies are first and foremost racist. Anybody who spends a few minutes glancing over the great leader's statements will realise that her utterances are first and foremost racist. When she won the seat of Oxley courtesy of the Liberal Party she stated that she would represent all people in her electorate except Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. As the party has gained momentum and its policies have been publicly circulated it's clear that the One Notion party is a refuge for racist sentiments and policies. It's important that as a community and as a movement we realise that One Notion voters are first and foremost racists. Trying to point the Liberal/National party scum that has come to the surface in the One Notion tank as a protest movement is a total waste of time. One Notion voters believe that what separates them from the next person is the colour of their skin. Instead of painting the state and capital as the enemy these people believe that immigrants and indigenous people are the enemy. These people are dangerous because they want to capture state power and use the power they have acquired to impose their will on those with less power than themselves. It's a mistake to dismiss One Notion voters as people who are fundamentally opposed the parliamentary system. These people are the vanguard of the God, Queen and Country brigade. They wrap themselves up in the flag and promenade up and down the boulevard of every day life shouting that their organisation promotes Australian values while the rest of the population sucks eggs. One Notion has all the hallmarks of a fascist party, its supporters are not "misguided" protest voters, they represent the racist and fascist underbelly of Australia. These people have always lived amongst us, the big difference between yesterday and today is that today they have crawled out from the wood work and have succeeded in making a private vice into a public virtue. STANDING THE LAW ON ITS HEAD The Kennett regime is about to add another first in its long line of dubious changes to the law. On Wednesday the New Confiscation Act will be proclaimed in Victoria. From Wednesday the Victorian State Government will be given almost unlimited powers to confiscate property. From the 1st of July: All assets of a person to be charged can be frozen at a secret hearing. None of the frozen assets can be used to pay for the charged person's legal defence. This presumes that a person is presumed guilty before they have been convicted in a court of law. Confiscation of property cases are not dependent on conviction. A person can be acquitted of a crime and still have proceedings instituted to seize their property. The onus of proof has shifted from the state to the individual. The accused person must prove that their assets were not gained unlawfully. In forfeiture cases it only has to be proved on the balance of probability that the assets came from crime. It does not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The current Confiscation Laws have won widespread community support. They have been skilfully sold by the Victorian Attorney General, Jan Wade, as a measure to combat drug traffickers. People convicted of trafficking or cultivating commercial quantities of drugs or of serious fraud will have their property confiscated automatically. Laws which on the surface look reasonable are a recipe for disaster. It won't take the state long to use these laws to strip political activists of their assets. It's always dangerous to give the state unlimited powers. It doesn't seem to take the state apparatus long to use new laws to pursue their own political agendas. Laws which at first look reasonable have a nasty habit of being used by the state to pursue their own agenda. It didn't take the state long to use laws that were designed to halt the spread of child pornography to be applied to people with divergent political views. If you don't believe me ask anyone of the four Rabelias editors who were charged with publishing obscene material when they published a tongue in cheek spoof on shoplifting. WORLD POWERS - TANGO Ever watched a tango, well just keep your eye on Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin as they waltz across your television screen. A thrust here, an embrace there. Two of the best, the media is the message gurus circle each other and come out exchanging bits of discredited ideological baggage. So Bill Clinton declared that the Tiananmen protesters "raised their voices for democracy". Did they Bill? Did they raise their voices in support of representative democracy, a system of government that is not supported by fifty per cent of U.S. citizens or did they raise their voices for something else? It's interesting, very interesting watching the corporate media and the publicly owned Chinese media, rewrite history. Jiang Zemin the President of China knows that democracy U.S. style is no threat to his leadership and the Chinese Communist Party. Over the past two decades China has moved from a state capitalist to a corporate capitalist system. The Chinese students who were killed at Tiananmen Square didn't die because they championed the cause of democracy parliamentary style. They wanted more than the tame squib that Clinton parades as democracy, they wanted a world where they made the decisions, they wanted a world where they owned the means of production, distribution and exchange, not where they are owned by the State and the corporate world. The literature and information that poured out of China during the 1989 protest movement, talked of something more than the pale hypocritical imitation of democracy that glib boy Clinton delivered to the Chinese and American people. What we have witnessed over the past few days is a mirage that has been tailor made for those gullible people who still believe representative government has anything to do with democracy. ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER Q. Anarchy all things to all people? A. Anarchy is one of those terms that means all things to all people. Even some anarchist claim you can't define the term. Well I beg to differ. If we want to be taken seriously, it's important we define what we stand for. The confusion about what anarchism is, is not only due to a brilliant media campaign that was waged at the turn of the century to marginalise anarchist ideas and activists, it's also based on a number of assumptions. The word anarchy is derived from the ancient Greek word anarchos which literally means "without rulers". Those people who equate anarchy with chaos, automatically assume that society needs rulers to function. If there are no rulers, society would disintegrate and the strong and the violent would impose their will on the weak and the non-violent. If anarchist activists want to be taken seriously, they need to outline how a society without rulers can be structured, so that the strong and the violent don't impose their will on the weak and non-violent. In order to create a society without rulers where one individual does not impose their will on another individual, people need to be able to participate in the decision making processes of the community and share in the wealth of the community. Equal access to wealth and power is the practical cornerstone of any society that does not rely on rulers. How these ideas are put into practise may vary within different communities but the central tenets don't. The challenge that faces anarchists is the challenge to show that anarchy is order and that government imposed on people is chaos. We currently live in chaotic societies, order in societies that are based on inequalities is maintained through force. The greater and more widespread the inequalities the greater the amount of force needed to maintain order. Whether we succeed in overcoming the stereotypes that surround political and social movements that want to create an egalitarian community via libertarian not authoritarian strategies, to a large degree depends on our ability to overcome the pervasive myth that people need rulers to govern themselves. ACTION BOX - DEAD TIME Sit down, think about what you did last week, how much of what you did could be called dead time? Think about your waking hours, how much time did you devote to a boring, meaningless job, how much time to your family and friends and how much time did you spend watching the dribble that pours out of the tube in the corner of your lounge room. Go ahead, add up the figures. You may be surprised by the amount of dead time in your life. It's easy to sit and watch life roll by in a consumer orientated society. Although Australians are a nation of sports lovers, few play sport. Although we're fond of cutting down tall poppies, few are willing to participate. It's not accident that Australian politics has been reduced to the dismal spectacle of placing a ballot paper in a ballot box every three or four years. The situationalist slogan Consume, Defecate and Die encapsulates the essence of a consumer driven society. The race to acquire gadgets and live a virtual existence devoid of contact with other human beings is a lifestyle that feeds on dead time. The amount of dead time in your life is an indication of how much of your life is controlled by mainstream consumer culture. If when you've done your maths you find that your life is punctuated by periods of dead time, think about what you're doing. Just remember life isn't a dress rehearsal. To quote a phrase that's been hijacked by the king of consumer junk culture Coca Coal, "It's the real thing!!" Try spending one week removing dead time from your life. Just sitting and thinking about your options is a much more productive process than filling your sensory organs with the never ending dribble pouring out of the tube and over the radio waves that pollutes our souls and steals our time. AUSTRALIAN ANARCHIST AND RADICAL HISTORY - THE RED FLAG PRISONERS Anarchists have traditionally flown the Black flag or the Red and Black flag. Most people equate the Red flag with the Communist movement. The Red flag has symbolised the discontent of the oppressed, it is not owned by the Communist movement. It was flown by the American revolutionaries at Bunker Hill on the 17th June 1775. British sailors raised the Red flag when they mutinied in 1789. The Red flag was carried by the French revolutionaries and it became the banner of the Paris commune in 1871. A ban on the flying of the Red flag was introduced under the War Precautions Act in Australia in September 1918. The Labour Movement was sick and tired of war restrictions and took up the governments challenge. In Sydney the well known writer, Vance Marshall, was jailed for speaking in the Domain under the Red flag. In Melbourne, Bob Ross and Dick Long, were both jailed for speaking under the Red flag at the Yarra Bank. The Trades Hall Council in Melbourne and Brisbane decided to fly the Red flag as a symbol of Labour. The Industrial Council in Brisbane called a demonstration on the 23rd March, 1919 over the Australian government's continued use of the War Precautions Act. One of the groups that supported the march was the Industrial Union Propaganda and Education League (which was composed mainly of I.W.W. members who formed the League when the government banned the I.W.W. in 1917). Over four hundred of the thousands of marchers defied the War Precautions Act and marched flying a Red flag. The Queensland police attacked the marchers, but failed in their attempts to confiscate the flags. Thirteen men had been arrested, charged and jailed for periods of up to six months for participating in the march. The thirteen included Russian immigrants as well as the Labor member for South Brisbane E.N. Free and the Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, R.J. Carroll. The Labor Premier of Queensland T. Ryan challenged the legality of the prison sentences in the Queensland Supreme Court. The appeal was turned down by the courts so the Premier sent in oysters and champagne to the prisoners at Boggo Road Jail. Ten were released when the Peace Treaty that marked the end of W.W.1 was signed and the other three were released soon after. The ban on flying the Red flag expired as a consequence of the signing of the Peace Treaty. The expiration of the war-time powers of the Federal government ended the draconian measures of the War Precautions Act. BOOK REVIEW - ABORIGINAL MELBOURNE The lost land of the Kulin People by Gary Presland. First published 1985. How many of us know anything about the history of where we live? How many of us know anything about who lived here before European colonisation? How many of us know anything about the colonisation process? How many Australians know anything about this country's indigenous people? Very very few. Aboriginal Melbourne opens up a pathway to the lives of people who lived around the site of modern day Melbourne for over 1600 generations (40,000 years). When you compare the information available about people that have lived on this site for less than 10 generations with the information and knowledge about Melbourne's original inhabitants, you realise why so few people know anything about their past. This slim volume, less than 160 pages, taps into a source of information that exists in archives and museums across Melbourne. Information that has only been available to professional researchers is now well within the reach of the citizens of Melbourne. The book is divided into eight chapters. The first 100 pages examine the early landscape, the Kulin people, contact with Europeans and how they survived that contact. The last sixty pages details how the past can be investigated and looks at archaeological sites around Melbourne which anybody interested in our past can examine for themselves. The book is illustrated with early photographs and drawings, it details where the reader can obtain further information and has a useful index. Aboriginal Melbourne fills a historical and social void for Melbourne people. It's simply written and well illustrated. The book was re-published by McPhee Gribble in 1994 ISBN 0-86914 346-8. Anybody who is interested in how the past and the present blend to create the future, needs to understand the colonisation process, modern day history and how people lived and interacted with the natural environment in Australia before colonisation. Post-modern Australian society's self-induced amnesia about this period is a recipe for future disasters. I urge all Australian readers of the Anarchist Age Weekly Review to seek out the pre-colonisation history of their place. PERSONAL OBSERVATION Winter, what a marvellous time. People hiding under doona's, grouped around fireplaces, watching from their lounge room windows, the wind playing with what's left of the trees. Babies wrapped in warm clothes, peeping out of the top of their prams. Their faces ruddy and alive with the cold. Winter can be a wonderful time for those of us who have the resources to isolate ourselves from the wind and the rain and the cold. It's good to emerge in the morning and feel winters sharp bite on our exposed faces. It's good to smell smoke in the air as you walk the dog or jog along the empty streets. For some reason I'm more aware of the cold this winter. I've seen people who stay in bed all day and most of the night because they can't afford to turn on the heater. I'm not talking about the usual down and outs, squatters or kids wandering the streets, every winter is a nightmare for them. Winter has always been tough for the Salvation Army's cash crop - the dispossessed. This year I've seen representatives of a new group, the working poor and people on social security benefits bolster the Salvation Army Crop. This new group are faced with a dilemma, do they pay for heating and skimp on food, or do they rug up and wait for spring. In flats and houses across the country, disability and old age pensioners have made the decision to leave the heating off and stay in bed. I know I see them day after day after day. I see children wrapped up in hand me downs huddled around gas stoves, waiting for spring. I go into houses where the cold cuts your innards with a knife. These people don't smell the burning wood or enjoy the warmth of a well heated home. Winter is full of demons for them. It's difficult to believe (sometimes it is so difficult to believe, that I pinch myself), that more and more people in this sparsely populated continent, don't have the means to keep warm in winter. Oh lucky country (lucky for some not for others). I despair for what you are becoming. STOP PRESS - NOSEDIVE If there's one thing that gives a snapshot into a society, it's peoples' access to health care. If there's one thing that has deteriorated in Australia over the past decade, it's peoples' access to health care. It's no accident that over the past three years more and more Australians have become concerned about the public health system. The state of the public health system, not taxation or Wik or immigration or even unemployment will be the dominant issue at the next Federal election. Only 30% of Australians have private health insurance. People pay over $2500.00 per family or about $1500.00 per person per year for private health insurance. Even those people who can buy private health insurance have not been buffeted from the deterioration in the public health sector. Anybody with a major health problem is ultimately at the mercy of the public health sector. Very few Australians can afford the $300,000 dollars necessary to pay for one years treatment in a private health facility. Access to decent, even basic health care is a fundamental concern for over 95% of Australians. Irrespective of whether people are privately insured or not access to a vibrant public health sector is an important concern for all of us. The contracting out of public health services to transnational corporations, case mix funding and the contracting out of services like cleaning and catering to the private sector has contributed to the dismal state of the public health system. The Kennett regime has been at the forefront of the privatisation steam roller. It's no accident that the Victorian public health sector is in a pathetic condition. People may accept the privatisation of the energy system, but they won't accept a second rate health service from a second rate health delivery system. As I said before access to health care, not immigration, Wik, taxation or even unemployment will be the dominant issue at the next election. JOSEPH TOSCANO (Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society). ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK BLACK FLAG No.213, April 1998 BM Hurricane, London, WCIN 3XX, Great Britian email black.flag@quet.org.uk FREEDOM Vol.59 No.12 20th June'98, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E17QX, Great Britian. http://www.tao.ca/~freedom email Freedom Press at freedom@tao.ca GRASWURZEL REVOLUTION No.228 April'98, Kaiserstrabe 24, 26122 Oldenburg (Oldb) D4025E Germany. KATE SHARPLEY LIBRARY No.15 June'98, BM Hurricane, London WCI N 3XX England. LE MONDE LIBERTAIRE No.1127, 1128 11th-27th June'98, 145 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris France Tel 01 48053408, Fax 01 49299859. DEBT ELIMINATION APPEAL - PUSH US OVER THE LINE Our debt stands at $802.90. 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 1.7.98 - $802.90 VICTORIAN READERS LISTEN TO THE ANARCHIST WORLD THIS WEEK ANARCHIST WORLD THIS WEEK POSTER AVAILABLE FOR THE COST OF A FEW STAMPS Want to help us find new listeners for the Anarchist World This Week, then send us a few stamps to AWTW, Po Box 20, Parkville 3052, Australia and we'll send you out a colour poster (A3) for your use and a black & white poster you can photocopy and put up to help us increase the number of people who listen to the Anarchist World This Week. 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 MEDIA INSTITUTE OBSCENITY OF THE WEEK Has been awarded to the quivering mass of grey matter behind Pauline Hanson's One Notion Pty Ltd. Senior adviser and company director of the Pauline Hanson One Notion juggernaut - David (failed Liberal candidate) Oldfield. 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.