brother_X

las posta

2006-06-05T22:39:00.000+08:00

i'm gonna let this blog die i think... al

comment on perth indy

2006-02-20T01:09:00.000+08:00

I doubt yr on crack netto, but...

So many questions. Heres 2 answers...

1. There has never ever been at any time in history anything that even resembled a so-called "Free Press". Media is, and has always been, owned by someone or other. And all that paper and ink cost far too much. Journalists cost too much. etc. All information is controlled in some way or another.

The notion of Open Source, however, is a necessary evolution in information sharing.

Its time to live the change you want to see. Don't get trapped in the conspiracy of EVERTHING. All things are conspiratoral to some degree or another. You'll hurt yr brain if you look too deep.

Sometimes when doing research you look so far into something, that you forget what it was you were looking for.

2. Anyone who is either misinformed or seeks to exploit others for their own profit will always condone and/or perpetuate random (or orchestrated) acts of racism.

Nothing surprises me anymore. Except that folks are surprised at the fallout of rampant capitalist behaviour.

Aboriginal Sovereignty Day Declared

2006-01-28T01:50:00.000+08:00

Aboriginal Sovereignty Day Declared

January 27, 2006

Representatives of Australian Aboriginal Sovereign Nations at a gathering in Canberra, have declared that the 26th of January would be known as Aboriginal Sovereignty Day. January 26th (Australia Day) is Australia's official national day - commemorating the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove in 1788.

While the rest of the country celebrated the Australia Day holiday with medals, barbecues, fireworks and beer under the Union Jack, hundreds of people at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra lit a ceremonial fire and discussed the land that once belonged to their ancestors.

Indigeneous Elders have gathered this week at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy for the Corroboree for Sovereignty convergence, in response to what they say is the continual Government threat to control the historical Tent Embassy site.

The gathering identified the 34 year-old Tent Embassy on the grounds of Old Parliament House in Canberra, as a significant place of social, spiritual and political importance to Aboriginal Peoples - a symbol of the assertion of Aboriginal Sovereignty. The Aboriginal Embassy, not considered an official embassy by the Australian government, has come under review recently in a bid to remove the campsite and dwellings originally founded on Australia Day in 1972.

The Tent Embassy calls on all Aboriginal Sovereign Nations to "stand up against the illegal occupation of our country and continue to resist the oppression of our people." The Tent Embassy say that "until there is true justice for our people, these issues will not go away and we will continue to resist."

Members of the Embassy will take a sacred fire to Melbourne in March for the 2006 "Stolenwealth Games" campaign, in an effort to highlight the plight of Aboriginal people. The fire will contain a "message of peace, healing and justice, and create a focal point for unfinished business."

The group calls on all Aboriginal Nations to send representatives to the Embassy to commemorate and review the issues of Land Rights in Australia. The Tent Embassy also announced the establishment of the National Tribal Law Council.

"Invasion Day"

Indigenous leaders, including Marji Thorpe, Gary Foley, Robbie Thorpe and Michael Mansell claim that Native Title and Reconciliation haven't adequately addressed Indigenous rights. They say: "Native Title has mainly embroiled Indigenous peoples in complex legal processes where they have (generally unsuccessfully) had to prove their fundamental human rights to the land."

The campaigners, known as the Black GST, say the process "puts the onus on Indigenous peoples to somehow prove continuous connection with their land, an impossible task in many situations given the effects of our dispossession and attempted genocide."

On Australia Day the diverse and vibrant group marched peacefully through Canberra, gathered at the Embassy on the lawns in front of Old Parliament House and called for recognition of indigenous sovereignty over the land.

"We're wanting to let all the people know that all the land in Australia has been given back to the Aboriginal people... and the sovereignty now lies with all Aboriginal nations," a spokesperson Robert Corowa said at the Embassy.

To many Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people, Australia Day was is labelled "Invasion Day" - in recognition of the colonisation of the continent by the British, he said. "We call it invasion day. The most important thing is that everybody in Australia who's now living here... we strongly encourage them to come to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and place a leaf in our fire."

Legal director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC), Michael Mansell, says the current Australia Day celebrations should be scrapped and a new national day chosen. Mansell said Australia Day would forever remain a racist blot on Australia's political landscape as long as the event was held on the anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet.

"There can never be reconciliation between whites and Aborigines so long as the anniversary of the coming of white people is the basis for celebrating Australia Day," he said. "A fair and just society cannot be built on celebrating gains by one race at the expense of another."

Mr Mansell has also reported the theft of an Aboriginal sign from the TAC premises. The sign reading: "AUSTRALIA DAY Yes, let’s celebrate: MURDER, INVASION, RAPE, THEFT" was removed on the 25th of January hours after being installed on the Launceston premises.

Mansell says that he will replace the sign in an effort to "the obvious need to expose the myth, as expressed in the national anthem, that Australia is a free and fair country" and called for "white society" to punish the offenders.

"This is another instance of the continuing trend in Tasmania of racist attacks on both people and property by extreme elements of white society who don't like the truth, who don't like Aborigines and other races. As with the racial attacks on middle Eastern people in Sydney, these Tasmanian incidents show how Australia under the Howard government is becoming more openly xenophobic," he said.

Flag Burning

Activists in Brisbane yesterday burned an Australian flag to protest against celebrations marking European settlement in Australia. Around 300 protesters staged an "Invasion Day" demonstration. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie condemned the action.

"I don't care whether they're black or white ... I don't believe we should burn the Australian flag, particularly at this time (when) we all know we live in an unsettled world," he said.

One protester said he believed the wrong flag had been burned: "I just felt deep down that it should have been the British flag they burnt not the Australian one."

Compulsory National Anthem

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has strongly opposed the compulsory singing of the Australian national anthem in schools.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma wants to make it compulsory for NSW schoolchildren to sing the national anthem each day before class. The plan has strong support from both sides of Parliament in Tasmania as well as the Multicultural Council of Australia and the Australian National Flag Association.

However some Aboriginal support groups say forcing the singing of the national anthem diminishes individual enthusiasm for participation.

Michael Mansell says, "more importantly, the anthem is about the white people and immigrants and excludes Aborigines." He said the words "for we are young and free" were a clear reference to the last 200 years of colonisation by Europeans and dismissed the ownership of the country by Aboriginal people.

Sources

"Aboriginal Sovereignty Day Declared; Tribal Law Council Established". Perth Independent Media Centre, January 27, 2006

"Call to recognise Aboriginal sovereignty". The Age, January 26, 2006

"Mansell rejects day". The Examiner, January 27, 2006

Roberta Mancuso and Dave Donaghy "Aboriginal activists burn flag". National Indigenous Times, January 27, 2006

"Blacks oppose anthem plan". The Mercury, January 25, 2006

West Papuans refugees forced to fly 4000ks despite tuberculosis fears

2006-01-28T01:43:00.000+08:00

West Papuans refugees forced to fly 4000ks despite tuberculosis fears

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

January 27, 2006

West Papuan asylum seekers who arrived in Australia last week, were forced to make a 4000 kilometre journey to Christmas Island despite suspicions they had tuberculosis. The West Papuans were herded on to an RAAF Hercules last week and flown to Christmas Island.

Two of the group, a man and his child, have now been flown the 2,600 kilometres to Perth, Western Australia from the remote Indian Ocean island. Air force personnel had initially refused to fly them, concerned that the flight crew's health would be at risk.

"It's a complete farce, absurd" said one health official. "It has not only posed an unnecessary health risk, it has been hideously expensive."

The West Papuans were among a group of 43 refugees found last week on the far north-west coast of Cape York in Queensland. They had made a five-day journey from the Indonesian province in an outrigger canoe. They arrived with banners accusing Indonesia's military in the province ruled by Jakarta of genocide and intimidation. Their 25m traditional boat was fitted with an outboard motor and was flying the outlawed West Papuan flag.

Amid media scrutiny and the disapproval of the Indonesian Government, the boat people underwent health checks before being sent to Chrismas Island. X-rays and other medical examinations strongly indicated that at least one man had tuberculosis, yet the group were flown to Australia's Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre.

Upon landing at the Island, health officials recommended the patients be transferred to Perth. However, the crew of the RAAF Hercules refused to take them, saying they were not "adequately equipped".

A Department of Immigration spokesman (DIMIA) said an alternative flight was arranged. "At this stage there has been no positive diagnosis for tuberculosis," the spokesman said.

The removal of the asylum seekers to Christmas Island has been met with fierce criticism from many refugee rights groups and opposition parties, who say it was impractical, potentially traumatising and hugely expensive. The Immigration Department says it has interviewed most of the asylum seekers but won't say if they have made formal asylum claims.

Criticism

Rallies in Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin, Canberra and Brisbane were held this week, in support of the West Papuan asylum seekers. Refugee rights advocates protested the forced transfer to the remote Christmas Island facility.

Melbourne auxiliary bishop Hilton Deakin told about 130 people demonstrating outside DIMIA headquarters in Melbourne that, "we know that already the Indonesian authorities, in Canberra and beyond, are trying to get to them."

Yet the he Indonesian embassy in Canberra denied making any approach, saying: "I can guarantee that there has been no contact whatsoever, it hadn't been requested, it was never even sought."

But the Immigration Department has confirmed that "a junior delegation" from the embassy went to Weipa last Thursday seeking access to the asylum seekers. A spokesman for the Immigration Department said the Indonesians arrived in Weipa on Thursday but by then the Papuans had already been put on a plane for Christmas Island. The West Papuans were told they had a right to Indonesian consular assistance if they choose. "Not one has chosen to do so," the spokesman said.

"The majority of these 43 people are leaders for free expression and self-determination and possible independence because of the oppression from which they suffer," Bishop Deakin said. "Massacres, rapes and all the rest of it have gone on in that country for almost 30 years."

He called on the Australian Government to cancel its training program with the Indonesian military.

Democrats leader Lyn Allison said the Australian Government had "got it wrong on this issue". The 43 asylum seekers had been "whisked off" before they could tell their story, she said.

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has called on the government to grant access to Papuan asylum seekers. The senator says they should not be in detention and they certainly should be allowed to communicate with the outside world.

Senator Nettle will go to Christmas Island this weekend to meet the imprisoned West Papuans. She said the immigration department is obligated under the Migration Act to allow her to meet them.

New Zealand Support

Meanwhile New Zealand Greens have offered to take the asylum seekers. "New Zealand can show the Howard government how to be compassionate, as we did back in 2001 when we took some Afghan asylum seekers from the Tampa," the New Zealand Green Party Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Keith Locke says.

"It is shocking that the West Papuan refugees, having survived 450 kilometres of open water in a flimsy craft, are now bundled off to a Christmas Island detention camp - well out of range of those Australians who wish to help them," he said.

"Under refugee law these Papuans deserve special consideration, having come directly from their claimed country of persecution, Indonesia, not via a third country, as is the case with most asylum seekers in this part of the world.

"The Papuans certain have a good prima facie case. I know from my own visit to West Papua last April that there is substantial and ongoing harassment of the local people, particularly those who assert their right to political self-determination," said Mr Locke.

On Friday last week Indonesian security forces shot dead one Papuan protester, and wounded two others, in the Paniai district, where the 43 asylum seekers originate.

Related Winews

"40 Asylum seekers missing off Torres Strait". Wikinews, January 18
"Missing asylum seekers found off Cape York". Wikinews, January 18
"West Papua refugees sent to Australia's Christmas Island Detention Centre". Wikinews, January 19

Sources

Tom Allard "Papuans deemed fit for flight despite suspected tuberculosis". The Sydney Morning Herald, January 27, 2006

"Protests support West Papuan Asylum Seekers". Scoop Independent News Media, January 26, 2006

"Opposition Wants Access To Papua Refugees". Pacific Magazine, January 25, 2006

"West Papua: Jakarta Sought Access to Asylum Seekers". UNPO News, January 25, 2006

"NZ could save West Papuans from Aussie detention". Scoop Independent News Media, January 25, 2006

Dan Eaton "Greens lobby Govt to assist asylum seekers". Fairfax New Zealand, January 27, 2006

"West Papuan Refugees jailed on Chrismas Island". Perth Independent Media Centre, January 24,2006

Yellabinna

2006-01-25T01:25:00.000+08:00

MEDIA RELEASE **APRIL 2005*

* *

*CULTURAL SOVEREIGNTY*

*THE GREATER YELLABINNA** **NEEDS TOTAL PROTECTION***

*Attn: News Editors, Political, Indigenous & Environment Reporters*

Kokatha women with traditional associations to the Yellabinna region will be meeting with the Minister of the Aboriginal Affairs Department at 10:00am Monday April 18^th , to appeal for help in further protection of the culturally important Yellabinna area including Yumbarra and Pureba Conservation Park. During the meeting they will be presenting him with a community-produced dot painting designed by a young Kokatha woman, Colleen Haseldine.

The meeting will highlight the community's support for an extension to the proposed Wilderness Protection Area/ for the Yellabinna region located north of Ceduna, the largest stretch of mallee wilderness in the world. Yellabinna is culturally significant and holds a richness of nature which is awe-inspiring. It is an area that holds deep significance for the local aboriginal people. Much of the traditional local culture is based on a deep connection with the land and its various formations. These sacred sites connect their dreaming stories.

"Total protection, no mining, controlled tourism for the whole of the area of Yellabinna, Yumbarra and Purbea. Our traditional tucker, medicine and sacred sites are out there. It's the last safe place for them. Without the extension of the protection area to include the whole area, this cultural heritage will be lost/." claimed Sue Haseldine, who traveled down from the state's far West coast for the meeting along with another Kokatha woman, Sheena Coleman, to make the presentation.

"The time has come for us to take care of the land, when the land is destroyed, there will be nothing. The land is part of our soul. We have to take responsibility to preserve and maintain the environment, because our future is reliant upon what the land produces. If we don't respect the land then it will not produce. Bush medicine, bush tucker and being able to practice our culture have economic values which are immeasurable." Added Sheena Coleman

MORE

Austalia breaches internationally recognised human rights

2005-10-28T15:39:00.000+08:00

The impact of indefinite detention: the case to change Australia’s mandatory detention regime

In the case of children, Australia’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission reports that the average detention period for a child in immigration detention is one year, eight months and 11 days.

- There is no independent judicial review of detention
- the absence of any maximum statutory time limit;
- detention can be indefinite
- violates the right to liberty and security of persons due to its lack of a case by case examination...

Austalia breaches Internationally recognised human rights

By seeking asylum in Australia asylum-seekers are exercising an internationally recognised right to seek asylum.

In doing so, they hope to escape the persecution that forced them to leave their home countries and to find a country where their fundamental rights and human dignity will be respected.

However, asylum-seekers arriving without adequate documentation are subject to the provisions of the Migration Act, which imposes mandatory detention until a decision is made in their case.

They may be detained for a prolonged period, until they are recognised as refugees and released, or following a negative decision, removed or deported.

It is unacceptable that exercising the right to seek asylum in Australia from human rights abuses in other countries should be met with a system that further violates human rights, including administrative detention of a prolonged or indefinite period of time.

Breach of international law

Australia’s policy of mandatory non-reviewable detention places it in breach of several international human rights instruments.

Article 9 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Australia is a party, prohibits arbitrary detention and provides that a detained person must be able to take proceedings before a court that can determine the lawfulness of detention and order release where detention is unlawful.

The rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention are also protected in Articles 3 (right to liberty) and 9 (prohibition on arbitrary detention) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Amnesty International is of the view that detention under Australia’s mandatory detention policy is arbitrary and thus in breach of the ICCPR.

As confirmed by recent High Court decisions, in some circumstances immigration detention in Australia can be of indefinite duration and with no reasonably foreseeable prospect for release.

Amnesty International considers that Australia is also in breach of key provisions of other international instruments, including the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child

"We came to a country we heard has human rights and freedom. We can’t believe what’s happening to us … We haven’t any human rights. We are just like animals. We do not have a normal life like a human. Our feeling is dead. Our thinking is dead. We are very sad about everything. We can’t smile." - Ibrahim Ishreti

Ibrahim Ishreti fled persecution in search of safety in Australia. His hope for freedom turned into more than four years of detention, bridging visas, bureaucracy and despair. He is among thousands of men, women and children who have been held for anywhere from six days to six years under Australia’s immigration detention regime.

The policy is inconsistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations.
In particular it violates the right to liberty and security of persons due to its lack of a case by case examination of the necessity and appropriateness of detention, consideration of a reasonable alternative to detention or access to independent review or an effective remedy.

The report provides an overview of the international human rights and refugee law obligations that apply to Australia’s detention of asylum-seekers and refugees and makes clear that Australia’s policy does not accord with international law and standards.

The report provides recommendations the implementation of which would put an end to the indefinite detention of rejected asylum-seekers and would bring Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers into line with its international obligations.

The impact of indefinite detention: the case to change Australia’s mandatory detention regime:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA120012005?open&of=ENG-369
PDF:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/pdf/ASA120012005ENGLISH/$File/ASA1200105.pdf

30 June 2005 - Amnesty International

something pink

2005-10-28T01:51:00.000+08:00

John Howard Trust

2005-10-24T15:32:00.000+08:00

2005 WA Spring Poetry Festival: spontaneous explosion of creative ideas, fresh poetry and the power of community

2005-10-24T15:14:00.001+08:00

The 2005 WA Spring Poetry Festival: spontaneous explosion of creative ideas, fresh poetry and the power of community

Initially a flow on from the 2004 National Poetry Week activities, Coordinator Maureen Sexton met earlier this year with various Poetry organising folks from across Perth. With a view to seek ideas and energy for "Spring Poetry Month," many diverse events were planned throughout September 2005.

Keen to build a Poetry Festival for 2006, I initially came on board to help Maureen create a functional website [thewordisout.net] and to offer support where I could. I've been participating in various art/poetry/music festivals and events over the last ten years or so, as well coordinator of many events both here and interstate.

When I saw the scale and diversity of events on offer - some 50 plus activities organised across September - I realised that this was indeed a "Festival" in its own right. However there was no decent funding. And little initial volunteer support. We quickly applied for funds from the City of Perth, who came to the party with some basic funding, venue and tech support. However it was Maureen and her partner, Lyn who held the fort miraculously intact and worked tirelessly to build the Festival bones into such a workable body.

Frances Macaulay Forde's poetry events in the Pages Cafe at the WA State Library were also well attended and provided ample opportunities for our poets to read their works. Non-stop thanks and appreciation must go to these very excellent women of Perth Poetry.

BUT massive respect also goes to EACH and EVERYONE who did anything whatsoever to make this year's festival into a workable model for the future.

The inaugural WA Spring Poetry Festival was a much-needed splash of energy for this state - indeed an opiate to the general state of poetic endeavor in this part of the country. Having been a guest in August at the 2005 Melbourne Overload Poetry Fest and the Queensland Poetry Festivals, it was good to realise that much to my surprise, Perth poetry is fresh, alive and cranking in 2005.

Whilst in Melbourne and Brisbane I talked up the idea of a WA Poetry Festival to many Australian poets and poetry organisers.

From my travels over the last few years to various arts, poetry and writerly festivals and events in the eastern states, it seems that many poets are quite keen to make the journey west, but nobody really knows about opportunities to read and distribute their work here. With 100s of chances to participate over the month, the WA Spring Poetry festival is an excellent excuse to get poets here.

As a result we had several talented poets travel over from Melbourne: Steve Smart, Meg Dunne, Amelia Walker and Kristen Turbett to name a few. There was also high levels of genuine interest from many other interstate poets from all over Australia to travel to WA for the 2006 festival.

For my main role in the WA Poetry Festival 2005 experiment, I built and maintained the Festival website, offered advice and helped where I could, including some of the Friday night events. The SubVerse readings were almost surreal inside the somewhat intimidating acoustics of the newly furbished Perth Town Hall.

Whilst not necessarily an ideal venue for poetry, much fun was had and crankin poems were heard throughout the various nights. It was beautiful to hear a poetry which is invigorated and charged with political energy.
Amongst the highlights for me were David Starr and Lois Olfry’s poems about Aboriginality and life in the North West; but also Viv Glance's powerful imagery in her performance piece based on the US invasion of Iraq.

I attended several events throughout the month and was generally impressed with the quality and diversity of poetry we have here in WA. I enjoyed the Poet Trees - a virtual mini-jungle of words in the Murray St Mall. I was also impressed by the positive public reaction to actual poetry at the accompanying "Poetrees Aloud" readings - as well as the enthusiastic responses to performing poems at the Speaker's Steps!

In particular the delivery and performance aspect of poetry appealed to me during the Festival. It is a beautiful thing to listen to the human voice; to embrace the sound and rhythms of poetry; to consume the meditation and passion of the human utterance.

In the 21st century - all-consumed by post-oral, mega-hyper, glossy-mud-media - we rarely take in the real poetry of each others voice and language. But, so it seems, there’s a plethora of WA poets keen to embrace the passion of poetry performance at the moment. I look forward to hearing/collaborating on more great stuff over the next 12 months as we build the 2006 festival events program.

The Festival was also a good opportunity to see the poetry community – as scattered and fragmented as it seems – to actually come together for such an event. September 2005 saw over 100 people read and perform their works in public, along with hundreds more participating in the “Poet Trees”, the Poetry Walls and other opportunities. In essence the festival has given Perth poets an untapped mass exposure for the normally disregarded genre of poetry.

Considering the current lack of Poetry Readings on offer in WA, besides WOW and Voicebox, there has been little opportunities for emerging and even established poets to read, perform and distribute their efforts around Perth. Throughout the month there were murmurings of potential new readings appearing in more Perth venues over the coming months.

Perth Poetry is alive and bangin I tells ya!

And the 2006 WASPF looks set to be an even bigger and better oiled series of poetic events. We are seeking more funding and gathering a team of interested people who want to contribute and participate in this ongoing project to bring Poetry to People – and People to Poetry!

Please let us know I you want to help...

NOTE: The wordisout.net website is now an ongoing, organic networking resource for WA poets and will eventually become a portal for West Aussie poetry for a long time to come.

Please send me suggestions as to how you think the website could be improved.

azadi
--
allan boyd - WASPF05 Team
http://www.antipoet.blogspot.com

Mining Industry Pressure

2005-10-13T12:23:00.000+08:00

[DRAFTING article - work in progress]

[ANSTO MEDIA RELEASE]

ANSTO: "The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation - the funky "ANSTO" - was established in 1953 as the Australian Atomic Energy Commission to promote the development of nuclear energy and associated technologies in Australia. An aggressive organisation, and has a long history of attempting to manipulate the nuclear debate in Australia. It has been in large part mostly responsible for the devastation at Rum Jungle during the 1950's to 1960's. The then AAEC dismissed it as a "minor local pollution problem" - just over 100 km of polluted environments...

ANSTO are purely a front for the uranium industry and they exist so Australia can maintain it's seat on the Executive of the IAEA (which we picked up in the 1950's for allowing nuclear devastation at Maralinga).
Rum Jungle

Ecological landslide fuels nuclear debate - By Paul Gilding - 29 August 2005

The Nuclear debate here in WA, the nation and indeed across the globe has increased intensity recently...

James Lovelock's Gaia theory inspired the Green movement. But as fossil fuels begin, literally, to cost the earth, he argues that nuclear power could save the planet... [James Lovelock Transcript][ The whole world in our hands ]

It seems the argument to to adopt Nuclear power plants to halt climate change and the rate of Global Warming, is gaining ground. Mining companies and industry lobby groups have been pushing hard to get uranium back on the governments agenda.

Nuclear power quietly confident in energy debate

Guardian report: The nuclear industry
Pre-empting debate
Yahoo News: Nuclear Power and Waste

Nuclear power was dead in the water - wildly expensive, deeply unpopular and a nightmare to clean up. But now the government is talking about a new generation of reactors. Can it really be the green answer to our energy needs? Back to the future

Federal and state governments are seeking to push the nuclear barrow: A standing commitee has been set up for the very task of reigniting the issue - Inquiry into developing Australia's non-fossil fuel energy industry.

"The Committee shall commence its inquiry with a case study into the strategic importance of Australia's uranium resources. The case study shall have particular regard to the:

1. global demand for Australia's uranium resources and associated supply issues;
2. strategic importance of Australia's uranium resources and any relevant industry developments;
3. potential implications for global greenhouse gas emission reductions from the further development and export of Australia's uranium resources; and
4. current structure and regulatory environment of the uranium mining sector (noting the work that has been undertaken by other inquiries and reviews on these issues).

Renewable Versus Nuclear Debate

"2005 will be remembered as the year the nuclear industry came back for one final swing. After a long decline, world uranium prices rose sharply during 2003 and are currently as high as they've been in decades. Combined with concerns about climate change, the industry believes it is set for a renaissance, and governments everywhere are talking it up. ANAWA

The Australian Government is using the climate crisis as a smokescreen for pushing for new uranium mines across the country. State ALP governments are under attack from within to reverse decades-long policies restricting industry expansion.

Australia: uranium minefield for the world?

Progress to opening new uranium mines in Australia has been slow, with Honeymoon and Jabilukaon the back burner and Ranger in danger of runnning out of resource. But the surge in world prices and decreasing stockpiles has given the government a sniff of profit and the propaganda has been relentless.

Thursday, October 13, 2005.
WA Govt under pressure to rethink uranium ban

Western Australia's leading mining group is keeping the pressure on the Labor State Government to overturn its ban on uranium mining. Several million dollars was wiped off the share prices of uranium companies with South Australian tenements after that State Government decided to block new uranium mines until 2010.

The Chamber of Minerals and Energy's David Parker says the WA Government needs to consider the impact of its opposition to uranium mining on the overall industry.

"We believe from a chamber perspective that the ban on uranium mining is at odds with the Government's aim of maximising the state's resources reserves and creates a high level of sovereign risk for investors holding exploration and mining leases," he said.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

MPs fail to support council nuclear-free zone call

Western Australian Opposition MPs have rejected calls for local councils to declare themselves nuclear-free zones.

Albany MLA Peter Watson wants local governments to amend their town planning schemes to prohibit nuclear activity.

His call is in response to the Liberal Party declaring its support for uranium mining in WA. The Liberal Member for Roe, Graham Jacobs, says his position on nuclear-free zones depends on what Mr Watson's definition of nuclear activity is.

"I would certainly oppose and reject any proposal to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia or the electorate of Roe or anywhere else for that matter in Western Australia," he said. "So if that's the sort of nuclear activity he's talking about I would oppose that. Now, if you're talking, though, about uranium mining, that's another issue and that's not nuclear activity."

The Member for Stirling, the Nationals' Terry Redman, says he will not be following Mr Watson's lead by asking other councils in his electorate to declare themselves nuclear-free.

Mr Redman says it is important that there is a community debate on uranium mining and nuclear activities. "There's a whole heap of hype out there and there are a number of people who are not informed about the real issues and I think it's important that we do promote that to the community before people make a decision on these sorts of things," he said.

Nuclear power quietly confident in energy debate

ANSTO- The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is Australia 's national nuclear research and development organisation and the centre of Australian nuclear expertise.

With a salaried staff of approximately 860, ANSTO is responsible for delivering specialised advice, scientific services and products to government, industry, academia and other research organisations. We do so through the development of new knowledge, delivery of quality services and support for business opportunities.

ANSTO's nuclear infrastructure includes the research reactor, HIFAR (High Flux Australian Reactor), particle accelerators, radiopharmaceutical production facilities, and a range of other unique research facilities. HIFAR is Australia 's only nuclear reactor. It is used to produce radioactive products for use in medicine and industry, as a source of neutron beams for scientific research and to irradiate silicon for semiconductor applications. A replacement for HIFAR, OPAL – the Open Pool Australian Light-water reactor – is in its final stages of construction.

ANSTO also operates the National Medical Cyclotron, an accelerator facility used to produce certain short-lived radioisotopes for nuclear medicine procedures. It is located in the grounds of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown.

ANSTO also manages Australian synchrotron facilities at a number of overseas locations.

ANSTO's main site is located 40 km south west of Sydney 's central business district, occupies 70 hectares and is surrounded by a 1.6 km buffer zone.

ANSTO's general purpose is prescribed by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987 and translated into action through corporate drivers of vision, mission and strategic goals.

......

800 people deemed a potential security risk?

2005-09-28T20:38:00.000+08:00

"I can not guarantee that Australia will not be the subject of a terrorist attack. No law can guarantee that." - John Howard 27th September 2005.

As reported in the Australian today, ASIO has apparently identified up to 800 people deemed a potential security risk. Ruddock says the draconian COAG measures "deal with people who pose a risk to the safety and security of the Australian community." Hmmm, like detained and deported US peace activist Scott Parkin perhaps? What is this broad definition of a "Terrorist"?

Truth is I'm concerned that as an Anti-War demonstrator, Peace Activist and general dissident of Howard, that I am a "Terrorist" - who somehow poses a threat to National Security? Am I? Are you?

The preventative detention powers agreed to by our beloved WA leader yesterday, will allow suspect persons to be held for up to two weeks by state police and 48 hours by federal police. Thats without charge or trial.

For my mind, I'm very concerned that these laws will restrict my personal right to free speech; surpress my voice as a dissident of government policy and put me, my family and friends at risk.

If Scott Parkin was labeled a threat to national security [ie a potential "terrorist"] then I too should have something to fear from ASIO and the Prime Minister.

Surely in our reasonably open and transparent democracy we have the right to Protest and speak out! Who are the terrorists, when totalitarian laws are put in place to scare us into silence?

Keep an eye open because in the wake of these new laws, police can hold terror "suspects" for up to 14 days without charge, use tracking devices to monitor their movements, and seek penalties for people who "incite" terrorism.

What constitutes a "suspect"?

The new counter-terrorism laws have been described as, totalitarian, retrograde, draconian, path to a police state, a facist regime, an absolute disgrace, a dereliction of duty - the list goes on. In a race for seeing to be doing something, the State Premiers and Prime Minister of Australia have all failed to protect our very own human rights and safeguard our way of life. As Australians, we will regret it for years to come.

Patrick Emerton, the co-author of a report by legal academics and community lawyers opposing the Commonwealth's anti-terrorism proposals, said the agreement on preventive detention and control orders was very disappointing.

"We still haven't seen any detailed evidence put forward as to why we need these measures, which undermine Australia's tradition of liberal democracy," he said.

He said the proposed laws were un-Australian measures that would sit more comfortably in totalitarian countries where people could be locked up without proper safeguards.

The Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, warned that the new laws represented a severe erosion of individual freedoms and would create fear and division in society. He said Australians should be worried at the possibility that they could be detained for questioning for up to 14 days, on the basis of nothing more than "intelligence". "It's very frightening to think of the future," he said.

The government = PARANOIA...

But its not just the Muslim community who need to be alarmed. Its activists and demonstrators too. Its the average commuter at threat of Eight shots to the head for catching a train. Its every Australian with a bone to pick with Howard. LOOK OUT!

I wonder just how long its going to be before ASIO come barging through my front door, take me away to an undisclosed location, keep me for an indefinite period - simply because I may be a "threat to the safety and security of the Australian community," - simply because I disagree loudly with Howards ludicrous totalitarian measures.

When will it end?

stencilisms

2005-09-21T02:04:00.000+08:00

Blame John Howard: 100s attempt self-harm in refugee detention

2005-09-19T13:40:00.000+08:00

19Sep05 - Mental Hellholes - DIMIA documents released today reflect the mental inhumanity of refugee detention. A far cry from the ludicrous claims of 4 Star accomodation, its now been revealed that nearly 900 people have "self harmed" in the last 3 years, most of these in Baxter Immigration Centre - this includes attempted suicide, self-mutilation and voluntary starvation. The blame for this should be aimed at John Howard, Phillip Ruddock, Amanda Vanstone and detention service providers - Global Solutions Limited. This government, and those who vote for it have a lot to answer for...

"The primary problem is that it is an environment that drives people mad."

Statistics released under the Freedom of Information Act [F0I] show that 474 detainees were involved in self-harm attempts at Baxter detention centre, near Pt Augusta, SA; 149 at Villawood in Sydney and 24 at Maribyrnong in Melbourne. Between June 2003 and June 2004 alone, 305 detainees attempted self-harm at Baxter IDC.

When a parliamentry commitee visited Baxter in April 2005, more than 50 of the 240 detainees were on anti-depressants and many slept for long periods during the day. The Palmer Inquiry revealed mental health care at Baxter was inadequate by any standards.

Last week three asylum seekers were admitted to hospital. Two were Bangladeshis, following a hunger strike at Villawood. The third, a Zimbabwean at Baxter, was rushed to hospital after he slashed his wrists with broken glass.

John Highfield from RAR: "We've known children who put nooses around their necks — children rarely do those sorts of things... most detainees mental health started to deteriorate after about eight months."

Jon Jureidini psychiatrically assessed about 50 Baxter detainees: "Self-harm is universal in the population I've seen... I don't think I've seen anybody over the age of 11 who hasn't harmed themselves in some way... examples included self-cutting, starvation, drinking poisons and overdoses."

"The primary problem is that it is an environment that drives people mad."

According to the FOI documents, DIMIA defines self-harm as: "a self-inflicted injury or the act of causing harm to oneself, such as attempts and acts of cutting the body, voluntary starvation etc... For the past three years there have been 506 incident reports of attempted or actual self-harm involving 878 detainees."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday said he disagreed with Australia's policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers. "As a policy of course we oppose. It is not right," Mr Karzai told the ABC.

And so what then is the Governments solution to nearly a thousand acts of self-harm? More food choice and a flood-lit oval! Gimme a break.

The only way to end the mental anguish of mandatory detention, is to tear down the fences. Open the doors and let these people INTO our community. There are 10s of 1000s of Aussies prepared to house and help Asylum Seekers in this country. Why must we continue such shameful practices. These people have commited no crime. They are simply seeking shelter from anguish and refuge from persecution.

END MANDATORY DETENTION IMMEDIATELY!!

Hundreds in detention attempt self-harm - AGE

the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon

2005-09-13T02:07:00.000+08:00

the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon the web is not the end in itself. its a weapon

NVDA Peace Activist to be Deported - detained as "threat to national security"

2005-09-12T10:06:00.000+08:00

NVDA Peace Activist to be Deported

Peace activist detained as "threat to national security": Houston-based community organiser - Scott Parkin, a history teacher and Texas based peace activist, was detained by Australian Federal police on Saturday 10th September. He was arrested by AFP and immigration department officers at a Melbourne cafe on Saturday. Parkin was en route to a workshop he was about to give on the US invasion of Iraq and the companies which profit from war - such as Halliburton.

Scott Parkin has been detained by Federal Police at the request of DIMA. The reason given for his detention is that he poses "a threat to national security." It is understood that he has had his visa revoked at the Minister's discretion. No proper reason has been given.

Scott participated in a non-violent street theatre action outside US corporation Halliburton's headquarters in Sydney during the A30 protests against the Forbes meeting.

Activists say: "This is a major attack on dissent, free speech and the anti-war movement. Scott's detention prevented him from sharing his experiences of working for peace in the US with other local activists. This appears to be an attempt not just to intimidate Scott, but all those working for social justice and progressive social change more broadly."

Scott Parkin has not been charged with any offence. It is understood he will be forcibly deported on Monday.

Scott Parkin is high profile peace and global justice activist. He has spoken at numerous large public forums and events whilst in Australia including the Brisbane Social Forum and the Sydney Social Forum in August. It is now believed the request to detain came from Washington.

Read More/Comment...

See also: [ Sydney Indymedia ] || [ Houston Indymedia ] || [ Corporate Media ]

People gathered outside the jail where Scott is being held to protest his incarceration at the attack on political activism and free expression. [ Background: Download Audio ]

CAPITALISM CAN'T COPE - An Anarchist Perspective on Katrina

2005-09-12T01:02:00.000+08:00

Some Anarchist Fodder from the Anarchist Age Weekly - by Joe Toscano

"The central problem in Mississippi and Louisiana isn't race or class or the Bush administration's incompetence. The problem is capitalism's inability to deal with a crisis... In an age of mass communication, it's hard to know why it has taken the fourth estate so long to get out the 'Katrina' story... The Louisiana and Mississippi floods could turn out to be an event that shakes the bull mastiff hold that corporate capitalism has on the public imagination..."

CAPITALISM CAN'T COPE: The central problem in Mississippi and Louisiana isn't race or class or the Bush administration's incompetence. The problem is capitalism's inability to deal with a crisis. People find themselves in the deplorable state they are in because there is no mechanism within a capitalist society to deal with catastrophic loss.

Insurance and philanthropy - capitalism's customary response to disaster, cannot cope with a calamity as big as Hurricane Katrina. The tardy and inadequate response to what is happening in the South is directly related to the role the State plays in the United States. The US government is essentially in control of a State apparatus that acts as a disciplinary force. Over the past 30 years, the call for smaller and smaller government has resulted in the privatisation and outsourcing of services that were primarily the responsibility of the State.

The privatisation of welfare, health, education and prison services has dramatically reduced the role the State plays in providing for the needs of its citizens. The State has been reduced to its enforcement role. When the floods hit, people had to rely on themselves to survive; privatised services, delivery systems broke down, order broke down. Those who best survived were those who had the guns to impose their will on those around them. It's interesting to note the State was unable to respond until the armed forces were brought in to distribute aid and reassert their authority by quickly curtailing the activities of those elements in society who were filling the power vacuum created by the State's inability to act.

It's quite possible we are witnessing the end of the privatisation experiment. It's obvious that it's not possible for private organisations to deliver services and make a profit, without cheating those they are contracted to provide services for. We are drawing to the end of an era, an era that has seen the gains made by ordinary people during the 20th century, lost in a fire sale of State assets to the private sector.

Governments like the Bush administration that ignore this lesson, do so at their own peril. The private sector has never been able to deliver services equitably; to ignore these lessons is a recipe for disaster as we are witnessing in Mississippi and Louisiana for unnecessary human suffering and misery.

::::::

HOW DID THEY GET IT SO WRONG?

In an age of mass communication, it's hard to know why it has taken the fourth estate so long to get out the 'Katrina' story. The relentless march of the hurricane was documented in monotonous detail. The reporters that were left in the area were able to post out pictures as the sea rose. The reporting in the days following the hurricane was almost non existent until stories about 'looting' made the headlines.

The plight of the tens of thousands of people left in New Orleans was ignored. It's hard to understand how this could have happened when satellite technology is available that can allow the US government to target an individual standing behind a brick wall in Afghanistan. The US administration has access to information at its fingertips. It could if it wanted to, have beamed images around the world. Incredibly the American Red Cross was denied entry into the flooded areas to provide aid for the victims because those 'handling' the crisis wanted to force people to leave the area.

If the fourth estate is the eyes and ears of the people, it's hard to understand how they could not have known what was going on. The reporters in the field would have known what was happening. Were editorial decisions made to keep a lid on news? Did the Bush administration pressure the media to place an embargo on news from the worst affected areas? Was this a news story that the US administration didn't want anybody to hear about? I don't expect we'll ever know the full extent of censorship that was imposed on news coming out of the disaster zone.

What we need to understand is that news is not value free. It just doesn't appear in your newspapers, on your TV screens and on the radio. It is fashioned, refashioned, moulded and remoulded to suit the prevailing ideological concerns of those who seize power. The control of the dissemination of information is, despite access to mass communication technology, a continuing concern when the means communication are owned and controlled by a rapidly decreasing number of people pushing the same conservative agenda.

::::

MORE PERSONAL OBSERVATION: There are moments in time when one event can puncture the complacency of a lifetime. The Louisiana and Mississippi floods could turn out to be an event that shakes the bull mastiff hold that corporate capitalism has on the public imagination.

To date, every sign that society can't keep on producing commodities to create ever increasing profits for a decreasing number of people, irrespective of the human and social costs, has been ignored. Melting glaciers, the disappearing Siberian permafrost, increasing greenhouse emissions, the ozone hole and massive deforestation have all been dismissed.

Scientific data has been ignored; the globalization juggernaut keeps rolling on, the consumer goods created the soma for a population that equates consumerism with security.

In one devastating moment the certainties of an eon have been dashed. The expectations that we are the masters of our destiny have been shown to be illusory. The manufactured consensus created by a sycophantic fourth estate has been punctured by the jagged reality of mass destruction. The bloated corpses in the first world - a stark reminder that no-one is immune to natural realities. Most importantly of all, the assumptions that global capitalism are based on, lay shattered in the public imagination. Levees can be temporarily rebuilt; cities can be rehabilitated but public confidence in the mantra that 'production for productions sake and profit for profits sake' will never again capture the public imagination.

The doubt lingers on, long after the images disappear from the plasma screens. The inherent contradictions that underline the assumptions that globalization and corporatisation are based on, have been washed onto the shores of public opinion by the fury of Hurricane Katrina. Only time will tell whether we as individuals and a people choose to heed the warning bells or lemming like rush into the abyss holding onto our plasma screens.

"NEWS": The big news that is currently grabbing media attention is the outbreak of looting that is occurring in Mississippi and Louisiana after hurricane Katrina. It seems that the 'assault' on abandoned, private property by people who are reduced to taking what they need to survive, is just the diversion that is needed to keep the public's mind away from the role the United States government has played in the disaster.

It's important to remember that the majority of people who have died in this man made catastrophe were those who were too destitute to afford a ticket or had a car to get out before the hurricane hit. When the bodies are finally counted, it will turn out to be the poorest citizens in Mississippi and Louisiana who have borne the brunt of the rising greenhouse emissions created by the developed world. Looting by survivors is a logical response to the situation they find themselves in. Locked out of the 'good' life, forced to live a hand to mouth existence for generations, this is one way they believe they can achieve justice in a world that has continued to deny them justice.

The tragedy about this sorry saga is the failure of government in the United States at local, State and Federal level to make contingency plans to deal with the possible threat this part of the country was faced with. What is even more tragic is the US government's inability to make arrangements to evacuate those who didn't have the necessary cash in their pockets to leave.

The lack of planning, the pitiful response in the days following the hurricane is hard to fathom. What has happened isn't an 'act of God'; the woeful manner in which this disaster has been managed is linked to US government policies that have made the rich richer and the poor poorer.

This has occurred as a result of decreasing amounts of State revenue being invested in public infrastructure, services and in the US people. It is a tragedy that those who are bearing the brunt of the Bush administration's overseas adventurism and their domestic policies, are the very same people who have been targeted by Bush and his neo conservative allies.

The destruction that has occurred, and the inability of government to deal with the mess their policies have helped to create, may galvanise people to seek practical, social and political solutions that go beyond electoral politics. The death and destruction that has been caused by hurricane Katrina may be just the catalyst that is needed to bring the international capitalist and globalisation juggernaut to a grinding halt, not just in the US but in the rest of the world.

by Joseph TOSCANO / Libertarian Workers For A Self-Managed Society.

From: Anarchist Age Weekly Review No. 659
http://anarchistmedia.org/weekly.html

"Why I am an anarchist" - from Chuck Munson's Blog

2005-09-08T23:46:00.000+08:00

why I am an anarchist

A political treatise in progress.

I am an anarchist. Sometimes I identify as a anarchist without adjectives or a practical anarchist or a ecumencial anarchist.

1. Anarchism is the only way forward for the human species and the planet. If you don’t like labels, then “something like anarchism” is the only positive way forward for the human species and the planet. Traditional political ideologies have led the planet to ruin (capitalism and imperialism) or have prevented freedom (authoritarian communism).

2. Anarchism is a syncretic, living and breathing form of politics. Anarchism is not limited to a linear history of ideas. It is unnecessary to know about Kroptokin if you want to be an anarchist.

3. Anarchism is a broad system of thought, practice, struggle, and analysis. Anarchism has a solid tradition of supporting the struggles of women, people of color, and similar oppressed groups. Anarchism encompasses anti-racist struggle and anti-oppression analysis. Anarchism is about the liberation of all people from oppressive systems. The struggles of oppressed people are just as important as the struggles against capitalism, imperialism, and other oppressive systems and institutions.

4. Anarchism is about the rights of an individual in the context of a community. A community can only be free and healthy if it is comprised of liberated, free individuals with full rights. Individuals benefit from being part of a greater community. The splits between individualists and collectivists is a false one, as an anarchist society would be based on an integrated meshing of community responsibilites and individual rights.

5. Anarchy is practical. We must build the type of society we want to live in, now. Putting our ideas into practice not only demonstrates the vitality of anarchism, but it helps us create the space for anarchy within the current system. Anarchy is more of a process than it is a magical moment “after the revolution.” In order for the idea of anarchy to take hold among people, they hav eto embrace it as an alternative. People become liberated when they “kill the policeman in their head,” not when a vanguard of revolutionaries seize government power.

6. Humans are innately anarchists.

7. Organizations must serve the needs of the people who are part of the organizations. Organizations are not the goal, they are a tool. Way too often, anarchists and radicals form organizations because they believe that change can’t happen without an organization. They create an organization and are mystified when people fail to join it. Organizations are useful tools when they address a specific need, such as the creation of a cooperative house or the organizing of a strike at work.

8. Anarchism without adjectives. I am NOT an anarcho-communist or an anarcho-syndicalist or an anarcho-primitivist. Too many anarchists waste time and resources promoting their narrow ideological take on anarchism. These labels lead to factionalism and sectarianism.

9. Revolution of the mind. Anarchism cannot happen unless most of the population desires to live in an anarchist society. I am against any “revolution” which would intend to force anarchism on a society which isnt ready for it. I also reject extreme leftist revolutionary fantasies where “the capitalists and the rich will be shot.” Anarchism is not about mass murder of ideological opponents. Anarchism begins when people start “killing the policeman in their heads.”

10. Anarchism is ahistorical and non-Western. Anarchists need to get over their fascination with dead White European male anarchist writers and thinkers. It’s time to put away the books on the Spanish revolution. Anarchism has been a tendency that can be found around the world. It’s a contemporary system, which isn’t dependent on re-interpretating the words of some dead guy named Marx.

11. Anarchists are not leftists. Anarchism is not a system that is part of the traditional left-right political system. Anarchists are anti-state, therefore we cannot be part of a political spectrum which is statist. Anarchism has never been part of the Left, going back to the 19th century when early European anarchists split from the communists. Anarchism has picked up many new people in recent years, most of whom misunderstand anarchism as being a black-clad form of leftism. This has led to absurdities such as anarchists advocating voting and participation in election campaigns. There are also some anarchists who defiantly insist on identifying with the Left (which is always pro-statist). And the biggest problem in the anarchist movement is anarchists and anarchist groups which ape leftist rhetoric and strategies (such as workerism).

some stencils from the web

2005-07-15T21:52:00.000+08:00

Terror Silence Dissent

2005-07-12T00:42:00.000+08:00

Terror Silence Dissent

For those of us in Perth, frequenting the global Indymedia newswires, who can value an activist/radical/anarchistik perspective from the frontlines of dissent, its worth taking a browse through the UK Indymedia site. Below is an article I thought worth reposting here, considering the debate relating to the recent terrorist attacks in Britain.

Whilst there is an immediate emotional response to such repugnant acts, and my heart certainly weeps for the loss of lives and the pain of those left living - for my mind the neglected victim of these attacks is DISSENT itself.

The radical voices on display outside the G8 last week were met with fierce hostility and stifled at every turn. With only the fluffy Live-8 on offer on a mass-consumptive level, theres nothing new about charity, it fits nice in the guilt-ridden apathetic masses, the alternatives were not heard. We don't hear the radical noises on corporate TV, Radio or any news services, no current affairs will allow REAL dissent - or radical perspectives. The Corporate media cannot challenge itself and critique what it represents - the Status Quo. And will ALWAYS present the anarchist/radical voice as lunatic and violent.

Lets, kinda reappropriate the situation back to Australia for a moment and think about the Baxter05 protests - where police where more than over-the-top in their popping of balloons and beating kite-flyers to the ground - amongst other ridiculous acts. You can imagine and extrapolate the situation back here in Western Australia, where colourful dissent and active resistance to the deliberate and direct dismanlting of our trade Unions and Student organisations is met with forceful police violence. One only needs to look at the various heavy-handed approaches by the WA Police in the Perth Indymedia Newswires to see this.

Anytime we produce a new possibility it is stifled. Under the Howard regime of the past decade, and in the years to come, the Australian Corporate/Government elite is putting a lid on its Fair Go Mate ideas. We can't even be heard. And when we speak, out come the fucking Police Horses. The more stuff the Neo-Cons do, the more dissent we got! But the louder we get - the more they threaten.

ASIO is beyond itself now, with Ruddock the bossman Attorney General. And has not only been able to demonstrate that Refugees are terrorists, and should be incarcerated indefinately - he's now making sure that we are next. That we, as mere dissidents of oppression, are jailed indefinately as well. Note the current laws under review. Blah.

And now fuckers like Bin Laden and co have added to this by the heightened fear created by terrorism. Where am I going here..? Its late.

Anyway I'll shutup. And paste a link to a more articulate version of what I'm sort of trying to say...

As the Muslim Anarchist says: "The London bombers may have provided the kind of PR Blair and Bush were praying for..."

Bombs that Silence Dissent - 08 July 2005

WA Police attack students with horses at ECU Nelson Protest - Interview

2005-07-10T18:14:00.000+08:00

MP3 Audio - Federal Education Minister Dr Brendan Nelson forced to retreat:

Students at Edith Cowan Uni's Mt Lawley campus have defended their actions during a rally in which the Brendan Nelson was forced to run for cover...

Below: Perth Indymedia Radio interview with Alexis from NUS - 4 Mins 1.58 MB

MP3 AUDIO FILE HERE: http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/indy_alexis_nus_july72005.mp3

________________________________________

BACKGROUND:

Brendan Nelson runs for cover at ECU
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=11547

Dr Nelson Lashes Out At Perth Student Protesters
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=11591

Perth Indy FEATURE: Police attack students with horses at ECU: July 1 2005: nelson at ecu jun 30 "Police attacked us with horses" - from the newswire...

Students at Edith Cowan Uni's Mt Lawley campus defend their actions during a rally in which the Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson was forced to run for cover. According to corporate news reports, one student was arrested and two police officers being injured. Students from around the country had gathered at ECU for an NUS conference to protest Dr Nelson's VSU - Voluntary Student Unionism. As Dr Nelson left the building, a group of about 50 students closed in on him, forcing him to retreat inside.

As Nelson tried to leave, flanked by security officers and police on horseback, a crowd of protesters who were gathered outside refused to let him through. Tussles broke out and Dr Nelson retreated back inside the building.

University student guild spokesman Brother Steve says he was surprised at the level of force used against the students. "The people actually held off their protest to allow the children to do their performance and for the Aboriginal peoples inside to have their cultural moment," he said.

"Yet it seems the police and the minister were quite happy to go at the students with horses and as it would be, arrest one of our people." Protester Ricky Hendon says the students had organised a peaceful protest. "We were here in respect also of people who were in this Indigenous centre trying to open their centre," he said.

"We decided amongst ourselves that we would not disrupt the opening of the centre, that we would remain quiet and we did that out of respect and this is the way this has turned out, which is so very unfortunate."
___

Perth Indymedia Radical Radio 7-8pm Weds RTRFM 92.1 http://rtrfm.com.au
Contact: radiofreeperth@indymedia.org

MP3 - Perth Indymedia Radio interview with Alexis from NUS - 4 Mins 1.58 MB
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=11591

RTRFM 92.1 - LISTEN LIVE
http://rtrfm.com.au/

art activism against the G8

2005-07-06T02:33:00.000+08:00

JULY 6 2005 - movement of the imagination against G8 :: art activism against the G8 and capitalism placed on boarded up shops and over ads at bus stops in Edinburgh...

text reads: "to call on people to give up the illusions in their condition is, is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions" :: "the meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism" :: "world military spending $790 billion, provision of universal basic social services $20 billion" :: http://www.movementoftheimagination.org

Covering the G8 protests

2005-07-05T01:17:00.000+08:00

July 4 2005: From the Global Wires - Indymedia and other alternative/independent media groups are providing grass roots non-corporate coverage of events around the G8 Summitincluding counter conferences, protests and actions.

In WA, tune into Perth Indymedia Radical Radio RTRFM 92.1 on Weds 6 July - 7-8pm for an audio roundup from the G8 via global indymedia resources.

Media: Indymedia Scotland Indymedia G8 Reports Section IMC G8 Features Archive G8 Radio Streams Indymedia Centre in Edinburgh + Reporting numbers

Why Are People Protesting? [1 2] Planned Protests + Events Groups and Websites Dissent! Network G8Alternatives Make Poverty History...

MORE on G8 Indystyle: [ G8 Summit Quicklinks IMC-UK G8 Topic Pages G8 Radio (streaming) IMC-UK (breaking news) Scotland IMC (daily summaries) ]

A Performance Poetry Handbook by the Antipoet

2005-06-30T02:22:00.000+08:00

has not been written...

Perth RADIO INDY 22jun05 RTRFM 92.1- Twot, Good Feet and the Softening

2005-06-24T09:25:00.000+08:00

MP3 Audio Files of the Show here:

1. Intro and a chat with Bazra from TWOT magazine... [BS News Included!] 14 mins 5.1Mb.
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/22jun05indyintro_twot.mp3

2. PEACE WALKERS Return - Chat with kt 10mins 3.5Mb. PEACE WALKERS Return – "kt" talks about her experiences on last weeks Walk Against Wargames from Lancelin to Fremantle.
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/22junktpeace_walkagainstwargames.mp3

3. Aboriginal Sovereignty Tour 2006 - From the newswire... 6mins : 2.2Mb
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/jun2205_aboriginalsovereigntour2006more.mp3

4.Pete from RRAN - The Softening/Deceit of Refugee Policy in Australia - 13mins 4.5Mb.
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/22jun05_peterranthe_softening.mp3

5. More Chat about TWOT MAG, a poem from bazra - and we're, Outta Here... 7.5mins 2.6Mb
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/22jun05_twotseeya.mp3

Click to listen or Right Click to save the Mp3.
____________

More Info:
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5501.php

And for shitlodes of Radical media:
http://radio.indymedia.org

Thanks also to the BS News. Pinched from Melbourne Indymedia:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/92647.php
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/92775.php

Tracks we played: G8RIOT!
Mr Manage - Riot - South London's most political Hip Hoppers Mister Manage and the Suicide Farm performed on stage in Aldgate East in the Squad Rave against the G8 summit in Scotland. Check out their anti G8 Summit track, free to download:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/313148.html

And some VERY mad Queen Remix Job. Amazing. No Idea where its from - sounds like Spanish Hip Hop Anarchism!

http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5418.php

What else?

email us...
radiofreeperth@indymedia.org

What's wrong with majority voting?

2005-06-19T23:49:00.000+08:00

i should write more about this myself, but why bother when theres this:

What's wrong with majority voting?

Many of us have been brought up in a culture which believes that the western-style system with one-person-one-vote and elected leaders is the supreme form of democracy.

Yet in the very nations which shout loudest about the virtues of democracy, many people don't even bother voting anymore, because they feel that it doesn't make any difference to their lives.

When people vote for an executive they also hand over their power to make decisions and to effect change. This goes hand in hand with creating a majority and a minority, with the minority often feeling deeply unhappy with the outcome.

It is true that majority voting enables even controversial decisions to be taken in a minimum amount of time, however there is nothing to say that this decision will be a wise one or morally acceptable.

After all the majority of colonial Americans supported the 'right' to hold slaves. People in a majority rule system don't need to listen to the dissenting minority, or take their opinion seriously because they can simply outvote them. Majority rule systems say that the majority is infallible and they have nothing to learn from the minority.

This creates a situation where there are winners and losers and promotes an aggressive culture and conflict, and lends itself to steam rolling an idea over a minority that dissents with the majority opinion.

The will of the majority is seen as the will of the whole group, with the minority expected to accept and carry out the decision, even if against their most deeply held convictions and principles.

A vivid example is the imprisonment of conscientious objectors against military service in democratic countries such as Germany.

Read on...

- And of course the jailing of Asylum Seekers in Australia... People argue that this cruel treatment of refugees is fine as long as the "majority" vote for it...

What is consensus?

2005-06-17T14:02:00.000+08:00

People often ask me about Consensus decision-making process...
I just found a decent definition here...

Me: To my mind the most important element of this model is the idea of a COMMON GOAL. When the common/unified objective behind the group is compromised in any way, the difficulty of the consensus model is proven. In other words if we dont agree on the original reasons for forming the collective in the first place, then all is ostensibly lost at the foundation. There MUST be a DEFINED objective from the outset. We use the model for decision-making at Perth Indymedia.

What is consensus?

Consensus is a decision-making process that works creatively to include all persons making the decision. Instead of simply voting for an item, and having the majority of the group getting their way, the group is committed to finding solutions that everyone can live with. This ensures that everyone's opinions, ideas and reservations are taken into account. But consensus is more than just a compromise. It is a process that can result in surprising and creative solutions - often better than the original suggestions.

Consensus can work in all types of settings: small groups of activists, local communities, businesses, even whole nations and territories. The Zapatista movement in lower Mexico (Oaxaca and Chiapas) answers to a public control called "la consulta". This group - comprised of all men, women and children age 12 and over - meets in local meetings where discussion is held and all the members make the final decision.

Within a small group of up to 20 people consensus tends to be more simple, as everyone can get to know each other and reach a mutual understanding of backgrounds, values and viewpoints. For larger groups different processes have been developed, such as splitting into smaller units for discussion and decision-making with constant exchange and feedback between the different units. Our briefing Consensus In Large Groups has more examples and ideas for reaching consensus with hundreds and even thousands of people...

...Many activists working for peace, the environment and social justice regard consensus as essential to their work. They believe that the methods for achieving change need to match their goals and visions of a free, non-violent, egalitarian society. Consensus is also a way of building community, trust, a sense of security and mutual support - important in times of stress and emergency.

In the antimilitarist protests at Greenham Common in the 1980s thousands of women participated in actions and experimented with consensus. Mass actions involving several thousand people have repeatedly been planned and carried out using consensus...

FROM: http://open.coop/consensus

ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER

2005-06-16T23:59:00.000+08:00

ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER

Q. What are the fundamental differences between anarchism and communism?

A. The role of the State, the role of the revolutionary party and the movement for radical egalitarian change are three of the fundamental differences between anarchism and communism. Communists have blamed the degeneration of �communist� societies into State capitalist societies (the State owns the means of production, distribution and exchange) on individuals within the communist movement. Anarchists see the degeneration of the communist State into State capitalism as a logical consequence of trying to create an egalitarian community by using the State apparatus. Communists believe that a number of transitional States need to be created before the State eventually withers away. Anarchists believe that transitional States create more transitional States and that these circumstances the State will not wither away. Anarchists have always said that the State must be abolished not reformed.

Anarchists don�t want to seize the State and use the State apparatus to impose their will on the people. They want to see the State replaced by a federation of community and workplace councils. They want to decentralise not centralise power in a central authority. They don�t see themselves as a revolutionary vanguard that will, through the ballot box or through direct action, seize the State apparatus and impose their political program on the people. Anarchists believe that the revolutionary party is a part of the problem, not the solution to the problem. This attitude is reflected in the attitude anarchists have to single issue and social movements. Members of a revolutionary party see those involved in such activities as potential recruits. Anarchists work alongside these people, outlining their ideas trying to democratise the movement, encouraging people to make their own decisions. They want people to stay active in these movements, not abandon them and join this or that political party. Although anarchist groups may belong to larger federations, their primary role is to promote dissent, encourage people to organise and set up alternatives to current structures and institutions so people can build the nucleus of the new society in the ashes of the old.

Hierarchy plays a central role in the communist movement, but a minimal role in the anarchist movement. Although some anarchists may, because of their past experiences or expertises, assume leadership roles, their position in the movement is dependant on other people approving that role. They can at any time lose the influence they have in that movement. In a revolutionary party, the hierarchical nature of the organisation puts people in positions of real authority. The decisions they make are difficult to challenge because power in those organisations resides in those who exercise a leadership role.

The differences between anarchists and communists are real. Tens of thousands of anarchists have died at the hands of communist parties that believed their organisations reflected the will of the people and used the State apparatus to impose their political and ideological program on tens of million of people. The presence of a movement that spoke about libertarian communism and that attempted to transfer power from the State to the Soviet (council), posed a direct threat to a communist movement that supported the central role of the State in revolutionary politics. - Joseph TOSCANO June 2005

http://anarchistmedia.org/weekly.html

The Nuclear Industry Spin Cycle Demands Yellowcake! Yellowcake!

2005-06-06T22:07:00.000+08:00

With the heady waft of nuclear dollars in the dusty Australian air, the recent $9 billion takeover of WMC by BHP is no coincidence. The chairman of BHP Billiton confirmed at its February AGM that it was interested in developing nuclear fuel.

And within a month, BHP had announced the takeover bid for WMC, the owner of the world's largest uranium resource, the Olympic Dam project in South Australia.

Now it owns most of WMC and wants the rest. Look Out!

Unless the anti-Nuclear Lobby stands tall on this issue there is little doubt mainstream Australia will fall for the Nuclear spin...

According to nuclear industry pundits, the global resurgence in nuclear reactor construction has driven uranium prices to new peaks. With around a third of the world's yellowcake at our disposal, Australian uranium producers are indeed the darlings of the global energy market - and Australian leaders are currently trying to secure yellowcake deals in China.

Since its recent $9 billion takeover of WMC Resources, BHP Billiton has started restructuring already, by replacing most of the company's board. BHP has secured more than 76 per cent of WMC shares and says it will continue to chase 100 per cent ownership.

What are our beloved pollies saying? They want to talk about local Nuclear energy issues.

With John Howard's election in 1996, there has been a big push under the surface to expand Australia's uranium mining and other nuclear activities, regardless of the well documented truths of radioactive industries bothe here and overseas. So we can presume where he stands at least.

With the ubiquitous "climate change" looming, and "peak oil" on the horizon, NSW Premier Bob Carr has called for a necessary "debate" on the issue. And he seems to be pushing for an interim nuclear energy future for Australia, if not for his own state - which is home to the Lucas Heights reactor.

At this stage of the "debate", at least WA's er, good-ole Dr Gallop said it was "madness" for Australia to even contemplate going down a nuclear energy route. On the face of it, he is certainly not keen for the ALP to debate the contentious issue. He said to The Australian, "We can always debate things but I don't favour contemplating nuclear power."

"I'm not going to open up that debate here in the West Australian Labor party," he told The Australian. Dr Gallop said Australia had already had a sensible debate and should be wary of the consequences of nuclear power.

"This would lock us into a nuclear fuel cycle in Australia," he said. "We would have to manage the waste and all of the consequences of that and we should be looking at cleaner fuel alternatives rather than going down that route."

Nuclear power was not an option for Victoria either, says Premier Steve Bracks:
"I don't support nuclear energy or the use of uranium to fuel electricity generation in Victoria. We need to find cleaner ways of burning greenhouse gases and to make sure we can reduce greenhouse gases," Mr Bracks said on June 6.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has also ruled out the need to consider such a proposal.

Judging by comments like that, at this stage at least, there will be some difficulty to secure agreement on nuclear energy. But is the debate on Nuclear Energy all there is to it? Not really. Australian nuclear industries can clearly see the executive profit benefits to be had from ripping out more yellowcake. If not for the Australian energy market then at the very least as an export.

Many in the industry want the paradox solved. The paradox that is, of having SO much power under our soil and a massive global market to sell the stuff to - whilst environmentalists harp about global warming.

We havent even looked at the myriad other issues at stake with the nuclear cycle. But I won't go on.

There is much more to be said and written on this issue. It won't go away - not with BHP and the PM hacking away in the background...

The Jesus myth...

2005-06-04T23:31:00.000+08:00

As a reply to comments on Perth Indy...

The Jesus "myth" is perhaps the biggest and most enduring hoax played on humankind over the last 2000 years. The notion of a carpenter/poet from Nazareth rising from the dead, as the only Son of God, is hardly a idea based in scientific reality. Is it?

Furthermore, if you are to value one mythology over another, you only display the typical self-righteous arrogance embedded in most of the "Christians" I've met. They believe they are always far better than me. Yet their hypocrisy is, at times, outstanding.

You may dismiss "Aboriginal mythology" as less useful to your way of thinking, but for the oldest culture on the planet - it worked for them for a long long time...

And to suggest that a man born 2000 years ago had "higher powers" than ordinary folks is pushing the boundaries of reality a little - a lot!

Its cool to believe in stuff. Its cool to think you understand the meaning of the world clearer than Non-Christians, but to thrust an arrogant headset on those who are unwilling to accept such "realities" as a matter of FAITH. Which is really what it boils down to. That your Faith carries you further.

Some would even say that believing in the Jesus Myth means you are actually insane!

And imagine if JC were walkin, talkin, preaching and healing in 2005 - Well, he'd be locked up in a flash and pumped full of Prozac.

Lets at least settle on a "fact" or two: Jesus was a Palestinian Jew. He was crucified around AD30. For around three years he travelled as a preacher and a healer. He was particularly known for telling parables, and he declared the coming of the kingdom of God. He was disliked by the religious establishment of the day and executed by the Roman occupying forces as a danger to the status quo...

Thats the real stuff. The people that wrote the bits of the bible all those years ago have a lot to answer for.

Also, it should also be established that, in the process of determining the Biblical canon, a large number of works were excluded from the New Testament.

My brief attempt at a deconstruction of Racist mythology in this Perth Indymedia thread:

2005-06-02T16:13:00.000+08:00

Willy Willy" said:

1. "The Aborigine tribes came to Australia across the from the Indonesian islands just as the Europeans came here via the sea"

Me: No. This is not the same. Some 50,000 years ago (perhaps longer) the australian continent was indeed uninhabited. This island's Aboriginal Culture is arguably the oldest human culture on the planet.

The original migration was via land bridges - some tens of 1000s of years ago. Whereas Cook and others came here, [a few years ago], to forcibly appropriate this country in the name of an Empire. Indeed, a declaration of "war".

The Aboriginal Nations were stolen by England and in terms of historical context - very recently.

So, this is very different than the original migrators. Don't you think so?

Willy Willy" said:

"They were conquered by the Europeans, just as the many countries in Europe and Britain were themselves conquered through history. Perhaps I could sue the descendants of the vikings for invading the land of my ancestors?"

Me: No. We're talking a total modern disregard for culture and deliberate Genocide. And we're talking less than 200 years ago. Whereas, the "Vikings", and indeed the Romans, invaded England etc in the early centuries. Before the "Enlightenment".

Geographical australian Aboriginal People have only legally been considered people [and not "Fauna"] since the late 1960s. They were explicitly denied any say in the Constitution in 1901. They have been completely denied access to democracy until then. There is a long and bitter scar across our history - which will take years of discussion and amelioration.

But, we're certainly talking COMPLETELY different moments in the history of humanity. Apparently we have been reasonably "civilised" for the last few hundred years - civilised enought to realise there is something wrong with stealing other peoples property. Theres something abhorrent about murdering people for their land and so very recently.

Effectively, "so called" aboriginal rights have only recently been recognised as citizens - within OUR generation. And since the relatively recent Mabo and Wik cases, some recognition of the distortions of a Terra Nullius has been established, that is, it is now officially recognised that there were indeed People here before the Invasion. Yet little has been achieved.

In fact matters are far worse than ever:

June 1 2005: "Kuruma Marthudunera elder Neil Finlay said local people had not benefited from mining in the region. "Our country has been mined for iron ore for 30 years, making billions of dollars worth of profit for Rio Tinto and Robe River and nothing has been done for us - while our people live in poverty at their door and die 20 years before their time."

http://www.industrysearch.com.au/news/viewrecord.asp?ID=16848

It seems that, since Britsh Invasion of the late 1700s on these Aboriginal Lands, there has been continuous and deliberate exploitation. These ideas now being discussed as by definition Genocide. And High Courts are looking at such issues in terms of Sovereignty.

See http://aboriginalgenocide.com

We NEED to rcognise this - and not deny it with semantics as you are doing. I could go much further into your post, but I won't. Your argument is typical of the reasons this country's Traditional Owners cannot move forward.

Australia was built on Racist foundations, it has a Racist Constitution and much work is needed to heal the wounds of our disturbing racist past...

Will you help us? OR continue to deny the engrained racist philosophy this country was founded on...

Reconcilliation Talks Marred by Vanstone's Repugnant Ignorance

2005-05-31T12:16:00.000+08:00

Amanda Vanstone - Minister for Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs got a snubbing at the National Reconciliation Planning Workshop [Canberra May 31/05]. With astounding arrogance and repugnant ignorance Vanstone denied she'd even noticed the silent protest. Several Aboriginal leaders either turned their back during her speech - or walked out altogether. They say her words were "divisive rubbish".

Earlier on this year, The Howard Government dismantled ATSIC - which ostensibly means there is no longer a formal representative voice for Aboriginal people to engage Commonwealth legislation. ATSIC has been replaced with a "hand-picked" Indigenous Council.

Former chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation - Pat Dodson - is not impressed with the Federal Government's approach to what it calls "practical reconciliation". He says it smacks of assimilation and does not respect Aboriginal difference.

In an earlier address to the National Reconciliation Planning Workshop, Mr Dodson speaks of an engagement as sovereign peoples to "confront the inevitable resolution of our Unfinished Business. We as Aboriginal peoples have survived for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of the Colonisers. We have survived the past 205 years despite the dispossession and mendicant status to which we have been reduced..."

He says: "Aboriginal people will continue to occupy that place deep within the national psyche that prevents this nation attaining true maturity, that reminds governments of their failure to engage with us on just terms in the past, and that continues to demand a just settlement between our sovereign peoples..."

31/5/2005

Patrick Dodson's address at the National Reconciliation Planning Workshop:
http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/media/speeches.asp

"...A barrier that is constructed on the utter failure of Government to demonstrate the courage, the will, and the intent to achieve real justice and subsequent reconciliation for this nation.

It is a self imposed barrier that renders this young nation incapable of recognising the patent absurdity of the denial that our Indigenous people were the first Australians – a sovereign nation - with a unique law and culture that has served our society for tens of thousands of years and which, despite two centuries of cultural genocide, has survived – and will continue to survive and flourish.

It is a barrier and a wall of dishonesty that blinds our nation to the true understanding of the flawed relationship that has existed between our peoples, since the arrival of the first convict fleet in 1788. It is a wall of dishonesty that has condemned us to hide from subsequent generations the truth of our shared history and to offer them instead the historical sophism of benign paternalism and enlightenment. This deceit is the source of a spiritual malaise that afflicts this nation and will continue to be a source of crippling national ambiguity, until such time that we confront the reality of our relationship as two sovereign peoples inhabiting one land..."

SEE: http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/media/speeches.asp

______________________

Pat Dodson Image
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200412/r36924_92307.jpg

Vanstone snubbed at reconciliation Talks
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1381069.htm

Patrick Dodson - Aboriginal leader
http://www.wadidge.com.au/didgeridoo-news/patrickdodson.html

'Practical reconciliation' ignores the problems of Indigenous identity
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=1763

National Reconciliation Planning Workshop - 30/31 May 2005
http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/reconaction/planning_workshop.html
http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/

Cultural Juxtapositonist

2005-05-31T02:52:00.000+08:00

RESOURCING A NEW PEOPLES MOVEMENT Bruce Reyburn April 2005.

http://www.jargonless.com/~songline/

"The release of the book “Black and White Together” by Sue Taffe is very timely. Her work in collecting the oral histories of people involved in the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) reminds us that a peoples movement has a fundamentally important role to play in bringing about important social change.

In some ways we are now revisiting the stage when the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was founded and brought a range of indigenous and non-indigenous people (including unions, academics and churches) together to work for recognition of indigenous rights (including citizenship).

John Howard’s ‘leadership’ has taken us back to a similar stage. But this time there are important differences. Not only are there many resourced Aboriginal organisations (compared with the 1960s) and a host of other social and environmental experiences but also there is a shift underway which removes the false certainties of the modern era..."

Read More - http://www.jargonless.com/~songline/

___________________________

The Redfern Park Statement

And, as I say, the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians.
It begins, I think, with that act of recognition
Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing.
We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life.
We brought the diseases. The alcohol.
We committed the murders.
We took the children from their mothers.
We practised discrimination and exclusion.
It was our ignorance and our prejudice.
And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.
With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds.
We failed to ask - how would I feel if this were done to me?

Speech by the Hon. the Prime Minister, P.J. Keating - 10 December 1992 Australian. Launch of the international year for the world's indigenous peoples.

http://www.keating.org.au/main.cfm

________________________________________

Aboriginal resistance: source material
http://www.curriculumsupport.nsw.edu.au/hsie/abstud/resistsource.htm

Neglected History of This Volatile Country - Aboriginal Resistance [draft]

2005-05-31T00:20:00.000+08:00

"...the remainder were gradually picked out of their concealment by the crossfire from both banks, until 25 or 30 were left dead on the field and in the river..."

Diary of the colonial official, C. F. Moore. Describing Governor Stirling's mounted attack against Aboriginal people at Pinjarra, WA in 1834. The armed expedition trapped the Aborigines between the banks of a river and shot them as they tried to hide in the water...

[Note: This article is a draft of a longer work in progress - any feedback welcomed: cheers brother_x]

From the moment European explorers arrived on geographic Australian soil, the interactions between new arrivals and traditional owners have been volatile. In the last 220 years of occupation, an underlying policy of Genocide can be noticed.

From around 1810 Aboriginal people were moved to mission stations to be taught European beliefs, trained in Western White ways and used as cheap labour. A policy of "absorption" of the Aboriginal population was adopted - whereby the reproduction of Aboriginal peoples could be "controlled".

West Australian Aboriginal resistance was led in the early 1830s by people like Yagan and Calyute. The White invaders tried to break the resistance by imprisoning recalcitrants on Rottnest Island or sending them to remote missions like Moore River and Carrolup.

Across the Nation, conflict between European settlers and Aboriginal people escalated in 1824. Over 100 Aboriginal people are killed in a massacre at Bathurst, NSW and martial law was declared.

In the 1830s, according to British law and practices, NO treaties are made with the original owners of the land. Aboriginal people in Tasmania are forcibly removed and settled on Flinders Island. The living conditions lead to many deaths. Later the community is moved to Cape Barren Island.

A "Protector of Aborigines" was appointed in 1837, after a Parliamentary Select Committee examined reports of genocide of Indigenous peoples in British colonies. A massacre of Aboriginal people occurred at Gravesend, New South Wales with over 200 killed.

Myall Creek massacre [1838] NSW - 28 Aboriginal people are killed by settlers, 7 of whom are later hanged. It is the first massacre of Aboriginal people in Australian history where the offenders are punished by law. In 1840 a massacre of Aboriginal people occurred at Long Lagoon - the entire community was killed.

Around 10,000 deaths via massacre and battles of Aboriginal resistance have been recorded by various historians.

However, with little resistance to outbreaks, the biggest killer was Disease. In particular, chickenpox, smallpox, influenza, venereal diseases, and measles decimated the Aboriginal populations throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is now estimated that some 90% of the Aboriginal population decline was due to disease spreading in advance of the European colonists.

Robert Bropho said in 1997, "There was genocide, massacres, raping, kicking our childrens heads off, killing our children by swinging their heads against trees. lt is in the history books and white people close their minds to that..."

"One only has to look at Fowlers Bay where Aboriginal people were forced over the cliffs to their deaths, or the Great Massacre at Pinjarra, or the Mistake Creek Massacre near Turkey Creek, or the Busselton to Margaret River and Wonnerup Massacres where killing expeditions by the Layman Brothers took place every 3 months, or Boronia Gully at Collie, or Nightwell Massacre past Borden in WA. All this has to be left alone and not rewoken."

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/174.html

Forrest River: Phillip Knightley on the Forrest River Massacres of 1926: "The men moved from camp to camp along the Forrest River for the next week, killing as they went. When they entered a camp they first shot all the dogs, then the men, then the women and children. At one camp the women were chained to trees and forced to watch their menfolk being shot and the bodies burned. They were then marched for several miles before being shot and burned themselves. Estimates of Aboriginals killed ranged from 20 to 100..."

Exploration, invasion and massacres - early contact between Europeans and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the many resultant killings and massacres of Indigenous people...

Sources/Links

Kooriweb History/Culture

Australian Aborigine - Wikipedia

Brief Aboriginal History Perth

------------------------

THE "BATTLE" OF PINJARRA...
In 1830 Thomas Peel, an early Western Australian entrepreneur, established a settlement at the mouth of the Murray River. Pinjarra was heavily grassed and the soils were rich loams. The European settlement of the area was met by strong resistance from the local Aborigines. Pinjarra is noted more for its infamous treatment of Aboriginal People. The Battle of Pinjarra, in 1834, is perhaps the most notorious massacres of Aborigines in Australian history.

In Bruce Elder's book Blood on the Wattle: the Massacres and Maltreatment of Australian Aborigines since 1788 the so-called battle is recorded as follows:

They might have called it the Battle of Pinjarra but like all of the massacres of the Aborigines it was more a case of wholesale slaughter than of some equally poised, European-style battle. it was the same story which had been enacted on every frontier: the same overreaction to black atrocities; the same desire to "teach the blacks a lesson"; the same random killing.

Ever since the small band of settlers rowed up the Swan River looking for good pastoral land there had been "trouble" with the Aborigines. The local people had resisted the white advance. Cattle had been speared. The occasional white had been speared. Life on the frontier was fraught with dangers. The settlers developed a sense of antagonism and hatred. They were happy to attack and kill Aborigines whenever the opportunity arose. Two years before the Battle of Pinjarra a Swan River settler declared that he was prepared "to watch and attack the natives, and kill, burn, blow up and otherwise destroy the enemy".

It was in this kind of hostile environment that Captain James Stirling, Governor of the Colony of Western Australia, responded to continuing requests for military protection from a small group of settlers on the Murray River. Stirling formed a party of about twenty-five whites. The group was a mixture of police, soldiers and a few settlers. Their plan was to "punish" (ie. massacre) any Aborigines in the local area in order to drive home the message that white settlers and their cattle must not be attacked or speared.

One account of the massacre explained the rationale for the attack as simply that "the moment was considered propitiously favourable for punishing the perpetrators of such and other diabolical acts."

The party came across a group of seventy Aborigines. The Aborigines, sensing trouble, fled into the bush. Stirling divided the party and attempted to encircle the fleeing group. They caught them at a river crossing and when the Aborigines showed signs of retaliation, Stirling and his men opened fire.

No one knows how many people were killed. Estimates vary from fourteen to thirty. Those who had not been shot cowered helplessly as the posse advanced.

Then, with the scent of victory in his nostrils, Stirling called out for the bugle to be sounded and for his troops to cease firing. The Aborigines many not have seen the massacre as a battle but Captain Stirling, who had seen action in the West Indies, South America and the American war, declared his forces victorious.

The remaining Aborigines were rounded up and taken prisoner but soon after this Stirling decided to set them free "for the purpose of fully explaining to the rest of the tribe the cause of the chastisement, that had been inflicted."

The "battle" was regarded by both Stirling and the settlers as a success - it certainly did much to break the will of the local Aborigines.

________________

Yagan: an Aboriginal resistance hero

HISTORY PERTH

TIMELINE

PRE 1901 - Wikipedia

Settlement or Invasion?

timeline

________________________

The "Windshuttle" Spin
More Windshuttle Whitewash
Debate rages over "peaceful" white settlement

Attempting to Define Aboriginal Sovereignty and Genocide in Australia

2005-05-30T13:48:00.000+08:00

This is a work in progress...

In recent chats with various Aboriginal Elders, particularly in the eastern states, it seems there is a current push for the gnu-radicalisation of Aboriginal politics and Sovereignty. Groups are forming and poking at the current political fabric - much like the late 1960s and 70s Aboriginal activism.

With plenty of reasons and evidence to suggest continual "Genocide" in Australia various action groups are speaking and acting radical in the face of John Howard's Right-wing stance. However the responses by Australian authorities are less than sympathetic.

On 7 April 2005 Uncle Kevin Buzzacot was given good behaviour bond in the Emu and Kangaroo case [Regina v Buzzacott SCC 72 of 2004]. "Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna Elder and traditional owner of Lake Eyre has just returned to the Aboriginal Embassy Fire, where he is continuing his healing after the Tactical Response Group brutally removed him..."

Currently Aunty Sue Rankin and members of the Jaara Briging Them Home Campaign are organising a national Sovereign Tour: The‘Sovereign tour’ is leaving from the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra in January 2006, walking via communities along the Murray river, stopping in with the Yorta Yorta at the Barmah Beats festival and converging in Melbourne for the ‘Stolenwealth games’ actions in March. Post the Stolenwealth Games we will be travelling on to communities and major centres across Australia. [Burning the Sacred Fire]

END ABORIGINAL GENOCIDE: A recent attempt at High Court case involving the Genocide Convention [see notes below] was considered "vexacious and frivilous" at the first level and rejected at face value. [Aboriginal Tent Embassy]

The "BLACK GST" campaign is moving along with a recent well attended meeting in Melbourne. This group will take action at the "Stolenwealth Games" in 2006. What is the Black GST?

Aboriginal Genocide - International Criminal Court Genocide Litigation

Union of Aboriginal Nations: Aborigines of the Gumilaroi Nation are about to move onto several pastoral properties in western NSW to reclaim them as Aboriginal land, says the spokesman of the Nation, Michael Anderson. [Story]

I recently spoke with Michael Anderson - one of the founders of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972. We were discussing Aboriginal Nations, Self Management, Indigenous Sovereignty and a positive and powerful way forward for his people. He said "We intend to carry on our confrontation with the govermnent through peaceful dialogue... to be dealt with as a nation of people." He wants an end to "racist paternalism."

Michael Anderson, Sue Rankin, Kevin Buzzacot and many other respected Aboriginal people are speaking out - articulating the fundamental flaws in the legal and political systems of this country.

With strong Aboriginal voices like these and clusters of grass-root encouragement there is a growing movement messin with the political tectonics, a sway under the grand-suited politics of Canberra - and its a positive shift toward radical Aboriginal rights.

What is Genocide?

Australia's PASSIVE INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 and came into effect in January 1951. It defines and outlaws genocide, as a result of campaigning by Raphael Lemkin who had coined the term some years earlier. The total number of state parties is 135.

The Convention (in article 2) defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:"

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 4: "Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals..."

Stolen Generation

Some recent stuff on Perth Indymedia:
URGENT! Aborigines to repossess NSW pastoral properties
Aboriginal Sovereignty NOT Sorry Day

Another Work in Progress:
Neglected History of This Volatile Country - Aboriginal Resistance

Aboriginal Activism
Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 - KOORIWEB

Australia’s Christmas Island Gift – A $300 Million Refugee Prison

2005-05-27T02:03:00.000+08:00

Rough Draft of an Article in process about another massive detention centre - like Baxter but offshore...

The Territory of Christmas Island is a small, non self-governing Territory of Australia located in the Indian Ocean - 2623 kilometres north-west of Perth. It is 19 kilometres long, 14 kilometres wide and has an area of 135,000 hectares. 1500 people are residents. The Australian Federal Government is currently constructing a $300 million prison on Christmas Island.

Phosphate mining has been the main economic resource on the island for many years, 65 percent of its 135 square kilometres are now National Park and there are large areas of pristine and ancient rainforest. Whilst Christmas Island is an Australian Territory, it has been excluded from Australia's migration zone.

Australia’s Christmas Island Gift – A $300 Million Refugee Prison...

_____________________________________________________

In March 2002 the Howard Government announced the construction of a new detention centre on Christmas Island. The successful tenderer, Baulderstone Hornibrook, has been awarded the project's main contract for $207.9 million.

During 2001, Christmas Island received asylum seekers arriving by by boat, most from the Middle East and intending to apply for asylum in Australia.

Following incidents in 2001, such as the SIEV-X; the MV Tampa; and the Children Overboard affair, John Howard pushed legislation through Parliament to excise Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone. This means that asylum seekers arriving outside the Migration Zone cannot automatically apply for refugee status, allowing Australia to relocate them to other countries as part of the “Pacific Solution”.

In June 2003 the federal government scaled back the development, in line with a drop in the number of asylum seeker arrivals. Originally devised as a 1200 place complex, a facility of around 800 places is envisaged, with a mix of purpose-built infrastructure for approximately 400 places. - with “overflow” accommodation for the remainder.

In May 2005, site works are now well advanced, with staff housing completed, and a construction camp commissioned. It is anticipated that the project will be completed in January 2006.

Some Christmas Island residents say the expensive capital works project poses a threat to local industry and the environment. The new detention centre will be sited on land that would have been mined. The site chosen [Mining Lease 138], was leased by PRL for its phosphate mining operations. The government has since resumed this part of PRL's lease, and compensation is being discussed.

Christmas Island Shire Councillor, Gordon Thomson said "Perhaps the Government's thinking is we won't need the mine, we'll have an invasion of people who'll turn the Christmas Island economy from a mining and tourism economy into a prison type economy," he told the ABC. "From the beginning the Government has conducted itself abysmally. There's been no consultation whatsoever," he said.

Mr Thomson is also concerned about environmental issues. The siting of the detention centre "is right in the flight path of the Abbott booby. There's potential for millions of red crabs to be slaughtered."

The Australian Government has waived the usual environmental impact assessment which applies to every other development on the island. The new detention centre is being constructed in the middle of a national park, which is home to endangered species of birds such as…

According to The Wilderness Society, there are several serious environmental concerns with the selection of this site, including the Howard government's self-exemption from environmental scrutiny normally required under the EPBC Act, and its commitment to "best practice" environmental measures during construction of the detention centre.

_________________

The Refugee Council of Australia is concerned the new Christmas Island centre will be even more distressful to asylum seekers than the mainland centres such as Baxter, Woomera and Curtin. Refugee Rights advocates believe that the potential for remote detention will exacerbate the problematic situation of those held in Australia’s border camps.

Margraet Piper says: “There are many advantages to processing people on the mainland.
First is the proximity to legal advice and to specialised medical and torture and trauma services.
They also come within full spectrum of Australian law which is something that doesn't happen on Christmas Island.

Refugee advocates are also aware that the territory is exempt from Australia's migration zone and may therefore not be subject to the same level of scrutiny as exists in other Australian detention centres.

Kaye Bernard: "The Palmer Inquiry must investigate the potential for remote detention to further exasperate the future possibility of those wrongly held. Australia must call for a moratorium on the extravagant construction of this remote mega prison subject to a cost benefit analysis of the social and financial cost."

27 MAY 2005

BACKGROUND/History XMAS – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Island

Christmas Island Detention Centre Watch
http://www.nauruwire.org/christmas.htm

Christmas Island - Tourist Site
http://www.christmas.net.au/

Christmas Island - CIA The World Factbook
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kt.html

Christmas Island - General Information
http://www.dotrs.gov.au/terr/xmas/

CHRISTMAS ISLAND ACT 1958
http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/288/top.htm

Christmas Island National Park
http://www.deh.gov.au/parks/christmas/

The Territory of Christmas Island
http://www.naa.gov.au/publications/fact_sheets/fs157.html

Oh my that naughty BANKSY

2005-05-20T15:55:00.000+08:00

Banksy's up to his old self - smashing the state of art. Fuck I wish I had the guts to do that shit...

"The British Museum has been exhibiting a cave painting of a primitive man ... pushing a supermarket trolley.

The "rock painting", entitled Early Man Goes to Market, depicts the outline of a spear-wielding caveman pushing a trolley, next to the outline of a pig.

The work was planted by anonymous "art terrorist" Banksy, whose creation failed to raise eyebrows at one of London's most famous museums.

Banksy had placed it alongside a caption, stating: "This finely preserved example of primitive art dates from the Post-Catatonic era and is thought to depict early man venturing towards the out-of-town hunting grounds."

He added: "The artist responsible is known to have created a substantial body of work across South East of England under the moniker Banksymus Maximus but little else is known about him. "Most art of this type has unfortunately not survived. The majority is destroyed by zealous municipal officials who fail to recognise the artistic merit and historical value of daubing on walls."
From SMH - Read more

Banksy's Current Site:
http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html

Well I Wish I Was An Angry Fuck Response

2005-05-20T09:43:00.000+08:00

I Posted a Comment On my friend Gemma King's blog:
Gempires: http://gempires.blogspot.com

She was having "feelosophical" moment. Pondering the passion of art, activism and life: "all the people with something to say, are those who are bitterly angry at the world, those who have things to hate... what makes me angry? I'm not an activist. I'd like to say I'm politically motivated, that I have the good of society and the world at heart, but I could never pretend... I am human-centred, or rather, me-centred, and I sometimes wish I was different, but I have discovered that I am not. And what makes me tick, what I think about, what I'm interested in, are other humans... "I decided long ago to start with me, and as far as I can see 'me' is a lifelong project, one that will never be perfect, one that will always need work, and world change just sort of happens as a result of that. My own happiness is at the forefront of my life. Excuse me if I'm a self-centred twat, but this is how I see things, and this is how I will remain..."

I said:

Exactly Gem. For me too - thats where its at. A compassion for others drives it. Yet the compassion for others is perhaps derived from the thank fuck "its-not-happening-to-me" thing - and I wanna stop it from ever happening to me. Refugees in Detention centres for example. I will never meet these guys [well I have met some - and interviewed others] - but I can fully feel their humanity - they are like me. The fact that they are people, REAL people; and not some distant other thing I cannot touch...

I have kids and think what it would be like - if it were me inside there after fleeing some fleeable crap - with my kids, my family etc. I feeeeeel for those guys in detention. And I feel for me - because in a way, I AM them...

But I am free [free from what i dunno]. Free from the mental insanity of those places, and the treatment. Free from the threat of indefinite detention, of constant surveillance; shitty food; ridicule from the guards and dimia etc...

We may want to think we're different, and hide in a credit-driven apathy - but we are all intrinsically connected - by sheer atoms and matter and chemicals etc at the very base level.

So MY happiness is his happiness etc. And His unhappiness is mine.

Thats what motivates me. If I don't act in a moment of compassion. We are all a little bit deader...

[Hmmm - i guess i write better poems than micro-philosophical essays]

al
WHO AM I TO DISAGREE - POEM

4:04 PM
Delete
antipoet said...

Hmmm - I might just add to that:

On "activism". Your blog entry is an act of dissidence. You don't need to break people out of detention or wave a placard or get hit by police or sing we shall overfuckingcome to be active... Your mere presence on the net here is a form of activism.

artists - writers, poets, musicians, visualists etc [are bloggers artists?] are perhaps the best activists around. They consciously or unconsiously tell us stuff about the world - good, bad or indifferent. They point out the foibles of culture, make notes towards change. Little active pieces of dreaming a different world...

DING! the activist is in you contribting to an anti-apathy.

I rckon its in us all. That desire for the end of suffering.

YOU, my good friend, are an activist - and yeah you can't possibly change the worlds systems of oppression and free ALL the repressive expression - but you can make notes on it.

You are angry by default. And active by definition.

Antipoet Workshop

2005-05-19T02:07:00.000+08:00

i'm doing another "antipoet" workshop for the Fellowship of Australian Writers at Tom Collins House - 88 Wood Street, in Allen Park Swanbourne this weekend.

i really enjoy these things...

if theres any perth.wa folk who wanna come along...

please come.
_al

The Antipoet Workshop with Allan Boyd
Saturday 21st May 11 am to 5 pm
Cost: $20

What is "antipoetry"?

Come along and meet allan boyd [author of the antipoet manifesto] to find out.

We'll look at what it means to challenge the existing paradigms of dominant culture in 2005.
Why is now "not the time for decorative art"?

Learn that suffering for your art is a personal choice, not a foregone conclusion.

What is a "Zine"

Where are all the real poets?

Contemplate Art and Activism.

Discover how adverbs are fascist. Discuss web-writing and Internet Publishing.

"Be the change you want to see" and incorporate integrity into your art and writing.

Why is there no such thing as "writers block?"

Take the power back and shape words to your own wants, needs, desires.

We'll do some radical writing excercises using bizarre rules and tools.

We'll look at Performance Poetry techniques - see what works and what doesn’t when poetry becomes performance.

Bring work to be performed/critiqued on the day.

We'll record some poetry and play it back.

All sorts of stuff. Come on - he won't bite

Plus, if you treat him well, the anti-poet will let you in on wordworksecrets you've previously never even imagined. So be nice, cause he has much to teach...

PHONE: (08) 9384 4771 EMAIL: mailto:fawwa@iinet.net.au
FAWWA WEBSITE
http://www.fawwa.iinet.net.au/
Tom Collins House, 88 Wood Street, in Allen Park Swanbourne

MAP:
http://www.fawwa.iinet.net.au/images/map2.GIF

antipoet_manifesto allanboyd 2004:
http://al.perthimc.asn.au/antipoet_manifesto_allanboyd_04.html

Some recent stuff by allan boyd - antipoet:
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=8971

Emergency Action: Don't Let Douglas Wood Die FRIDAY MAY 6

2005-05-06T01:12:00.000+08:00

Perth Indymedia Feature: Emergency Action: "Don't Let Douglas Wood Die - Bring the Troops Home Now" - This Friday, May 6, 5pm. Outside Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Office. Assemble on corner of Sherwood Crt and St Geoges Tce, City - Info ph 9218 9608

The No War Alliance is calling an emergency action this Friday, May 6 - to urge the Howard government to act immediately to do what Douglas Wood, the Australian hostage in Iraq, is urging it do: REMOVE The Australian Troops From Iraq! [ Bulgaria to pull troops out of Iraq

At a rally in Sydney this week, Green's Kerry Nettle said: "The only sure way to end the violence in Iraq is for the foreign occupation of Iraq to end. It's quite wrong for the Foreign Minister to suggest that people ought not protest now that Mr Wood has been taken by a group calling for the withdrawal of troops. John Howard must be reminded that it was his decision to invade Iraq, not supported by the Australian people, that has led to the terrible mess we see in Iraq today and he must withdraw Australian troops..." [ Stop the War's rally for Douglas Wood outside John Howard's Sydney office on Wednesday ] [ Illegal War ]

No War Alliance say:
"We do not condone the tactics of the group holding Mr Wood. But neither do we support the Howard government which refuses to concede that Australian and other occupation troops are not wanted in Iraq. A majority of Iraqis, in all recent polls, and at the elections, are saying that they want the occupying troops to leave."

PM Howard states that Australian foreign policy is not to be dictated to by terrorist organisations. Fine. But he should listen to Mr Woods, and "be dictated to" by a majority of Australians who are saying, in poll after poll, that our troops should not be in Iraq, and we should let the Iraqi people get on with running their country." [ 300,00 Iraqis protest occupation ] [ 1000s of Iraqis Protest - April 11 05 ]

The No War Alliance wants the killings to stop. More than 100,000 Iraqis are thought to have been killed in this unjust and illegal war. [ 100,000 Iraqis Dead - Perth Indy Feature ]

It's clear that sending more troops and foreign contractors to a war zone is likely to have them killed, taken hostage, or wounded. The Howard Government, as part of the Coalition of the Willing, has the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of foreign troops on its hands.

"Don't let them add Douglas Wood to the list. The Philippines government did the right thing last year and pulled out their troops when a Filipino contractor was taken hostage. The Howard government must do the same." More info on Douglas Wood

READ MORE/Comment at PERTH INDYMEDIA...

[Coverage of Sydney emergency actions ] [ Hostage Douglas Wood's statement ] [ IRAQI PRESS MONITOR ] [ SYDNEY SNAP RALLY: DON'T LET DOUGLAS DIE - BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW ] [ STOP THE WAR COALITION ] ]

Union of Aboriginal Nations Meeting - Call To End Aboriginal Genocide

2005-04-26T02:06:00.000+08:00

FROM PERTH INDYMEDIA FEATURES:

CALL TO END GENOCIDE – LAST CHANCE FOR DOMESTIC JURISDICTION TO ACT.

UPDATE: Union of Aboriginal Nations Meeting

Indigenous Elders from geographic Australia have lodged a writ of mandamus at High Court Registry in Melbourne at 10.00am Wednesday 13 April 2005,
directing the defendants to investigate and prosecute key perpetrators
(including top government officials) of acts of Genocide committed
against Original Peoples of geographic Australia on 26 September 2002
and daily thereafter. [ Melbourne IMC Story - High Court ] [ ABC Story ] [ WHAT IS THE BLACK G.S.T.? ] [ Howard moves to privatise Indigenous land ] [ Autopsy reveals truth about Douglas Scott Scott's 1985 death ] [ Black 'Australia' has had ENOUGH! ]

They are also making a declaration that the defendants are unwilling and unable (within the meaning of the International Criminal Courts Acts 2002) to investigate and prosecute such perpetrators for such acts of Genocide.

The I.C.C now has jurisdiction recognized by domestic law to
investigate and prosecute such perpetrators for such acts of Genocide.
The Genocide prosecutors met at the High Court Registry in Melbourne on
the Wednesday 13 April 2005.

The "Genocide prosecutors" include the following Indigenous Nations’ Elders of geographic Australia:

Uncle Kevin Buzzacott from Arrabunna Country, Aunty Wadjularbinna
Nulyarimma from Gungallida Country, Aunty Isabell Coe from Wiradjuri
Country, Aunty Sue Charles Rankin from Jaara Country, Robbie Thorpe
from Gunnai Country, Mick Thorpe from Gunnai Country and Lionel Mongta
from Yuin Country are taking the commonwealth to the I.C.C.
(International Criminal Court) to prosecute for continuing acts of
premeditated criminal Genocide. They are calling on other Elders from
around the continent to also intervene.

The group say: "This is the commonwealth’s last opportunity to avoid
international prosecution. Stop the denial and resolve the issues of
the Black G.S.T. The unfinished business is Genocide

to be stopped. Sovereignty to be restored and a Treaty/s to be signed.
We intend to make these issues and our presence the focus of the
forthcoming "Stolenwealth" games in 2006".

Seven NSW Indigenous nations seek union

READ COMMENT in Perth Indy Newswire...
[ Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna elder, convicted for reclaiming cultural symbols ]

More info: [ Melbourne Indymedia Story ] [ ABORINGINAL GENOCIDE ] [ aboriginaltentembassy ] [ Genocide in Australia ]

"But who am i to disagree" - more info

2005-04-25T02:18:00.000+08:00

Windarling mine - 2004 - part of the Seven Sisters Dreaming track. 450k east of Perth
[near Southern Cross WA]

http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=3062
http://www.respectsacredland.org/
http://www.respectsacredland.org/windarling/photo-damage.html

_______________________________

Read more about this unsettling badge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Australia_policy

The White Australia Policy: "the policy of excluding all non white people from the Australian continent, was the official policy of all governments and all mainstream political parties in Australia from the 1890s to the 1950s, and elements of the policy survived until the 1970s. Although the expression “White Australia Policy” was never in official use, it was common in political and public debate throughout the period."

...

WAP ABOLITION
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Australia#Abolition_of_the_Policy

"The effective end of the White Australia policy is usually dated to 1973, when the Whitlam Labor government implemented a series of amendments preventing the enforcement of racial aspects of the immigration law. These amendments legislated that all migrants, of whatever origin, be eligible to obtain citizenship after three years of permanent residence and ratified all international agreements relating to immigration and race."

The 1975 Racial Discrimination Act made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal...

But wait theres MORE:
The Black GST:
http://www.kooriweb.org/gst/index.html

CALL TO END ABORIGINAL GENOCIDE
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=default&featureview=196

Union of Aboriginal Nations Meeting
http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=10029

BAXTER Detention Centre Protest - easter05:
http://baxter05.info

But who am i to disagree?

2005-04-24T23:59:00.000+08:00

Heres a Performance Poem I wrote this morning.
Performed at the Brass Monkey Hotel Northbridge,
Perth WA - 24th April 2005.

Based on Marylin Manson's version of Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams"...

Enjoy.

_____________________

but who am i to disagree?

travelled the world and the seventy five percent dead seas
seeking sovereignty in the shadow of a specialised jargonised hypocrisy

melting quick in tandem with coagulated planetary mirth;
some of them want to use you

all hail ye to the repetitive theft of new ideas
and those without a rock to throw at stolen tanks
a fully-armed hip-hop bling bling bubble gum invasion for crude platoons

and the labour of us all is eaten in product placement and unclarified superannuated illusions
i’m a market-share trap, a downsize redundant-coloured hollywood hyperventilation device – like a heroin for the masses

some of them some of them some of them want to abuse you;

waiting on lines cut to the clear broth anti-kitchenites - a trail of the shattered limbs
and my cute little car killed a nation today each turn of the key another strafe of helicopter gunfire
in sudan we drove hard at the walls of sunlight depletion.

those poetic clouds across the molecular moons; of crushed iron mountains the spinifex burning wild at each red horizon as the trucks reduce the peaks of a sacred seven sisters dreaming

the sweet sweet dream means the corporate mindshare drills into the crusty bone - my brain - my hand – the pen of my sweet dreams are made of you

and yet this guitar-solo werd-scape written and authorised by god by the government and spoken by you under the neon suburban streets the bleached beach of this bitumen salinty the cancer of this tragedy of the mental commons

but here in the manufactured new-skool consent, everybody's looking for something, and yet the sweet dreams are made of this - as i held a fist above your logo three billion brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and aunties and uncles living large on less than two dollars a day two dollars a day two dollars a day.

And god she whispers through the thin white noise of credit card fallacy and the gross domestic product of 48 nations less than the wealth of the world's three richest people as a billion of us unable to read or sign their names - and half the children on the planet without shelter or water

And and and...

and at the tented embassy in full riot gear they charge and everything you bought today slashes into eco-resource. your driveway/pergola quelling the sacred flame - the poets ashes - exacerbating the inequality to the boxes the boxes the boxes outbid by the fundamental media robots - a cut n paste distilled tabloid dream, and now we charge with full tanks into the face of fossil fuel depletion.

And so we hack
we hack we hack we hack hack hack
we hack we hack we hack hack hack
we hack we hack we hack hack hack
we hack we hack we hack hack hack

we shibboleth’s in anarchist clothing tearing at the foundations in radical notions with spray-painted ideas of peace and dream of a world without heirarchy

a sweet sweet dream

some of them want to be abused by you; travelled the lands of the aboriginal nations - crossed the uranium fields seeking those depleted bullets in the faces of iraqi children

like a cluster bomb in the heart of cottlesloe; and we dug up karrakatta our axes blunt on the blood of those before us

sweet fucking dreams sweet fucking dreams sweet fucking dreams the seven seas sailed and polluted all the romantic computers failed at our heart

our hands held high at the fringes of the desert detention, the fences more violent than the balloons and kites and songs of demonstration

but if you are not ever real without identity identity identity
and the primary producer/consumer split - a mind/body rejection of reality hits

and the energy flow spilt to global dimming - a frantic drumming
the airborne pieces of fantastic soot, the ash of children and elders and sonic sulphur compounds the sun bouncing back into its body like a diseased and stolen generation without sovereignty

in the reclaimed street my make-up is running and the democracy just got deader
by the second and we wait for orders unable to disable the frames around this head the borders of imaginary lines of flags and illogical distribution

the streets deep in the bodies of us in the waste of another disparate century
in the flesh of my brothers’ children - on the locked-plan crumpled mobiles we tell the stories

the bitter-sweet taste of a munted god, a random carbon particle
angry at the greed-club watchers; the billion-dollar riffs smashed at the pallisades

the barbed wire popping the razor wire glints. they climb and jump to the waiting throngs. the riots un-televised like an embedded revolution

who am i to disagree with a frontman's bleeding head
the black blood dreaming like the black GST
the GENOCIDE of a stolen people; a guitar smashed into walls of malls
the glass cutting the barefoot generation. Treaties neglected compassion rejected like a blurred barcode of the masses.

the subjects of guns in cans; shards of titanium eyes grazes our company
our PROFIT and the company the company gets what the company wants and freedom is a unnecessary dream a sweet dream made of...

and we/you/they/us/them/all/the seething mass of apathetic dissent pay a handful of mansions to eat like champions and every three years we remember to forget

like a medal of suicide of cannon fodder glory of valour in the face of a white rhyming with f/f/f/f/f/f/f/f/f/australia...

this white white australia australia australia...

rhymes with failure.

And these sweet dreams are made of these – and who am I do disagree.

Road Kill: Fifty Reasons why Cars Suck

2005-04-19T16:17:00.000+08:00

Note this is a US version of the world - yes its old to but - yet immediately pertinent as to why I don't do cars.. a_x

Road Kill: Fifty Reasons why Cars Suck By Michael Zezima (Mickey Z)

June 20, 2001 -- I was absolutely determined to launch this preamble with an anecdote calculated to allegorize the vigor of our American car culture in unaffected, yet poignant, terms. Then I changed my mind. Why be coy?

The automobile and the lifestyle it inspires have risen to prominence through the power of relentless suggestion. There's nothing delicate about car commercials and car toys and the hundreds of songs and movies that venerate the irrefutable gratification of owning an internal combustion engine of your very own. Like cigarettes, television, and the meat-based diet, cars are profoundly engrained within modern human existence. It doesn't even register when a movie character hops into a car and screeches away from the curb. We no longer consciously acknowledge the presence of cars on the street, the highway, and in driveways from coast-to-coast.

On a much deeper level, it's simply expected that singers will sing about cars, writers will write about cars, actors will act in cars, and practically everyone will become a motorist. Even radicals and dissidents regularly drive to their protests and rallies (even environmental activists do so). Owning a car is now considered a virtual birthright, an actuality not open for debate on a philosophical level. As a result, although cars have been around a relatively short time, the culture that facilitates their subconscious acceptance

Why wouldn't we? Well, to follow are fifty answers to that query. Some light-hearted, some satirical, many are well-documented realities. It doesn't (and it shouldn't) take a 400-page tome, replete with footnotes, index, and bibliography, to arouse inquiry. The efficacy of the car culture is based upon a façade, on billions of dollars of advertising, on the insecurity and gullibility of humans living in a society that feeds on and cashes in on insecurity and gullibility. It was in a child's tale that a simple observation exposed a ruler as perpetrating a fraud on an all-too-willing populace. Now, another artifice faces child-like inspection and perhaps we too will ascertain that not only does the emperor have no clothes, the emperor also doesn't need a Chevrolet to see the U.S.A.

1. There are way too many of 'em
From 1950 to 1970, the U.S. automobile population grew four times faster than the human population. Today, there are around 200 million cars in America. Which brings us to reason #2.
2. Traffic
Contrary to all those car commercials in which you see the automobile being marketed as it cruises along all alone on an open road, we Americans spend 8 billion hours per year stuck in traffic.
3. Cars kill people
During the twentieth century, 250 million Americans were maimed or injured in automobile accidents.
4. Cars kill kids
The leading cause of death for children aged 5 to 14 in New York City is pedestrian automobile accidents.
5. Cars kill celebrities
While some may (understandably) regard this as an admirable reason to expand automobile production, it may have been interesting to discover what else people like Jackson Pollock, Albert Camus, or James Dean had to offer. Just a thought.
6. Cars kill every day
Every single day in the U.S., an average of 121 people are killed in car accidents.
7. Cars kill animals
The carnage is even worse for furry, feathered, and multi-legged earthlings. Automobiles, SUVs, trucks, and other fossil field-burning vehicles kill a million wild animals per week in the U.S.
8. Cars exploit dead animals
Substances like anti-freeze, bio-diesel fuel, hydraulic brake fluid, and asphalt binder are all made with ingredients culled from the carcasses of departed animals.
9. Those Christmas tree-shaped air fresheners
Enough to turn anyone's lungs into a potential Superfund site.
10. Car bombs
An uncomplicated equation: no cars = no car bombs.
11. Drive-by shootings
A touch more of the old math for ya: cars + automatic weapons = drive-by shootings
12. Sprawl
During the last century, an area equal to all the arable land in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania was paved in the U.S.
13. Expensive sprawl
The area equal to all the arable land in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania requires maintenance costing over $200 million a day.
14. Very expensive sprawl
The surreptitious cost of the car culture totals nearly $464 billion a year in the U.S. alone, much of that going to the sustentation of a military presence in the Persian Gulf.
15. Bumper stickers
Another truism: Without bumpers, there wouldn't be any bothersome bumper stickers.
16. Malls
Need I say more?
17. Horns
Especially when they are used in lieu of a door bell. Especially at 3 a.m.
18. Alarms
Especially at 3 a.m.
19. They take up too much space
A car demands 300 square feet when parked or standing still and 3000 square feet when moving at 30 miles per hour. A pedestrian requires only 5 square feet when standing and 10 square feet when walking.
20. There's less room for bicycles
With the possible exception of written language, the bicycle just may be the neatest idea we humans have ever come up with.
21. Global warming
Automobiles emit one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gases.
22. Car toys
An entire industry designed to lay the foundation. Imagine that.
23. Drivers who ignore what traffic lights mean
Green means you drive through the intersection above the speed limit. Yellow means you drive through the intersection while making a mockery of the speed limit. Red means you drive through the intersection at a rate approaching the speed of sound.
24. Traffic lights
The next time you're feeling "free," see how far you can walk without being legally compelled to stop . . . so cars can pass.
25. Oil addiction
The U.S. spends $60 billion per year on foreign oil.
26. Serious oil addiction
Eight million barrels of oil per day is combusted in U.S. cars.
27. Very serious oil addiction
That's 450 gallons per person per year.
28. Walking in right angles
Thanks to our car-centric civilization, most cities are designed in grids forcing pedestrians to forever walk in right angles.
29. Poor posture
That's what we get from sitting hunched over a steering wheel 8 billion hours a year.
30. Car songs
With all due respect to Bruce Springsteen, I'd suggest we've heard all we need to hear about the joys of souped-up hemis, drag-strip romance, and the mythical '57 Chevy.
31. The drive-thru life
From drive-thru eating to drive-thru funerals, isn't it safe to insinuate we've forfeited a little bit of perspective here?
32. Waste
Cars create 7 billion pounds of un-recycled scrap and waste annually.
33. Car commercials
They say: "Cars make you sexy, smart, cool, and successful." I say: "Go back to reason #3 to see what cars really make you."
34. Parking lots
These structures, sitting atop once-thriving eco-systems, are rivaled only by cemeteries in the post-modern space-wasting competition.
35. Parking tickets
The inescapable consummation of the dreaded "alternate side of the street" abstraction.
36. Parking
How much time have you wasted looking for a spot, squeezing into that spot, and then trying to recall where the hell the damn spot was in the first place?
37. Tires
With approximately one billion discarded tires littering our increasingly paved landscape, meditate upon this: Every tire loses one pound of rubber per year, spewing minute grains of rubber into the stratosphere and then back down to find a new home in our water and/or our lungs.
38. Road rage
These equations just keep getting easier. Road rage cannot exist without the automobile. Hey, when was the last time you saw a cyclist brandishing an Uzi?
39. Mechanics
Your car dies, you walk into the repair shop, and you just know what the mechanic is thinking: "I know something you don't and, man, am I'm gonna make you pay for it."
40. The internal combustion engine
Or, as Ralph Nader calls it, the "infernal combustion engine." Possibly humanity's foremost folly.
41. Humans did not evolve to ride in cars
Or in boats and planes, for that matter. A transparent case of stone age biology in a space age society.
42. Carchitecture
How many structures exist exclusively to nourish the car culture? We can start with the highway, on-ramp, off-ramp, gas station, strip mall, car wash, auto repair shop, car rental establishment, bridges, tunnels, and, of course, the suburbs.
43. The suburbs
Phase one of a cunning master plan to facilitate automobile dependency.
44. De-funded public transportation
Phase two.
45. Campaign contributions
Phase three.
46. Corporate welfare
Phase four.
47. Cars are hell
During the 40 days of the Gulf War, 146 Americans died keeping the world safe for petroleum while at home, 4900 Americans died in motor vehicle accidents.
48. Personalized license plates
To foster one's singularity . . . while keeping the homogenizing car culture alive and well.
49. Speed kills
If the national speed limit is no higher than 65 MPH, why are cars capable of going twice that fast?
50. Humans drive 'em
After you've cynically dismissed all of the other 49 reasons why cars suck, take a good hard look at the person sitting behind the wheel of the next car you see.

Case closed.

ContactAcrossTheFencesMP3remix BAXTER_05

2005-04-19T09:18:00.000+08:00

BAXTER_2005

This Mp3 audio piece, from the Easter 2005 Baxter Detention Centre
Convergence in South Australia is 8 minutes of raw edit of contact
between activists and detainees - from the frontlines - served up on an
audiomulched beat/noise bed. AZADI

audio: MP3 at 5.8 megabytes

The audio begins with a few minutes of the call and response contact
between a few hundred activists and a group of detainees - some of whom
climbed on the Detention Centre's roof - on Easter Saturday 2005. Feel
free to use this on any Indymedia/Independent/Radical/Radio anywhere
anyhow! AZADI

Baxter Detention Centre: Sth Australia:
See http://baxter05.info/

AZADI = Freedom in Farsi...

Note: The raw audio of the Contact can be found here:
http://baxter05.info/?action=newswire&showall=true&parentview=620
a_x
baxter05.info

Weekly Perth Indymedia Radical Radio has changed its Timeslot

2005-04-18T15:20:00.000+08:00

ATTENTION!! all radical media lovers...

THE Weekly Perth Indymedia Radical Radio has changed its Timeslot!
We now broadcast live from 7 - 8 PM - every Wednesday on RTRFM 92.1
You can stream the new-look RTRFM anytime...
Go here: http://rtrfm.com.au

As always, you are welcome to give us a bell on-air in the RTRFM Studio: 9260 9210

But check out the perth.indy radio blog for updates,
including links to various extra information, related stories and links etc
http://perthindyradio.blogspot.com/

We're also documenting selected interviews via the Radio Indymedia project:
http://radio.indymedia.org/

The last two interviews uploaded are:
1. Interview with one of the "WA grappling hook 5" [Baxter05]
who were arrested for tearing at the Baxter Detention Centre Fence over Easter 2005.
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/4445.php

2. Interview with Chris Farnworth [Ludlow Tuarts]
who "positively positioned a pie" into the face of Collis Thorpe - the CEO of Cable Sands.
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/4388.php

So tune in at our more reasonable timeslot of 7-8pm Wednesdays
to hear and interact with the latest activist news, interviews and information
about whats happening in WA Activism and beyond -
via the Perth Indymedia, Oceania and the Global Indymedia networks...

Please let us know if there's something you'd like to see covered on the show.
People you want to hear interviewed, any news from your group etc.

Or please contribute your own content by publishing YOUR media to the
Perth Indymedia Newswire: http://perth.indymedia.org
And we can use it in the show...

We'd love to have more people getting involved with the Perth Indy Radio project.
Besides really being part of the media that you want to hear,
you can learn some radio skills as well as essential audio editing skills.

Give us a call, send an email.
WAKE UP! TUNE IN!
YOU BE THE MEDIA...

cheerx
al

allan boyd - perth imc radio
email: radiofreeperth@indymedia.org
ph 0402 573 580

perth indymedia radical radio show
WEDS 7-8pm :: RTRFM 92.1
http://perthindyradio.blogspot.com/
http://perth.indymedia.org

Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule

2005-04-17T23:31:00.000+08:00

from: Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule website
- a group wanting to register as a political party to generate attention to advocate ideas of Direct Democracy. To achieve this they need 550 people to sign up for membership in the "party" before the Australian Electoral Commissionwill place the group on the ballot.

More here: Politics Is Boring
We're Not Selling Anything: Here is where you come in. For the moment we just want to talk about the principal of direct democracy in public a little, see how far we can get it out there as an idea we can all think about and use. The way we want to do this is to get our name on the next ballot paper in the form of a political party called Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule.

Found at...Anarchist Age Weekly Review

er so what is like the but about the huh - What is Direct Democracy?
Hmmm so then What is Direct action?

-wikipedia

SEEALSO: YOUR POLITICS ARE AS BORING AS FUCK

Post-Jam Fluffiness - beer beyond art

2005-04-15T23:42:00.000+08:00

And so its friday. We always jam on fridays [for the last few months] - except when most of the members were at BAXTER!.

The band. W4BT - Waiting for broken trains. We're a Post Rock outfit. Seems that we all potentially grasp the notion of "post-rock" yet we all wanna chase songs - we can't shake the fucking addiction.

As a post-art sonic monster, I could play 2 chords for 6 hours, and I have. Except... Hmmm. I dunno...

Guitars, Drums Bass, Lyrics - Its a fucking habit. Making melody and words fit into a schemata. A formula. Yet making Post-rock music is perhaps the antithesis of this - in that we seek to abolish the notions of "corporate" rock. Rock is dead etc. There is nothing new - and whenever there is a freshness - its commodified immediately. Me - personally - as an artist. An artist with underground ideolojix - wants to Fuck Shit Up. If ya dont mind. If ya dont mind.

I fully dig to the sickness that tonja is bashing out my antipoetry in lala sing-song build to manic power word-scapes. She rocks. And Gman is a bastard of a percussionist - imagine: a physicist web-wizard hacktivator with drunnin skills. The rust is spent with G now and he's pushing some dynamics at the walls. Yum. Ray looks beyond the boredom and seeks extra within the bassness - he's still searching! Riche - well, his thurston-ness is astounding. Its 2nd generation post ASG go away God Speed kinda anti-uber-nerdiness! We fucking rock man! Fuckin kick out the freekin jammms!

Anyway we love it. Or at least I surely do.

Willing. Able. To fully kick out the rock-chords - augmented into surreal fuck-up finger poses of trad-rock. Aint no TABS for these riffs bro!

R O C K ! the reverb...

Sensory Manipulation at the Supermarket?

2005-04-14T23:38:00.000+08:00

Something I stumbled across...

NEWS FROM NOWHERE IS FUCKED

2005-04-13T00:06:00.000+08:00

yep - its gone.

died in the arse.
got the axe.
12 years. no more.

another bathwater baby. yep.
personal vendettas. yeah.
apparently irrelevant. the what.
end of a fucking era. blandify the radical.
terminate satirical. benign and commodified.
massified to the verges of middle.
the riddle of a new kind of nothing.

the logo of low community need.
soft left n liberal we boot the great unlaced.

get fucked - you bastards. you bastards. fuck fuck fuck.

they killed my favourite fucking show.
gone fucked. dead. ripped off the dial.

gone - no more.
fucked. dead air barry.
dead air...

the fucking waste.

____

WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY-THE ANARCHIST CENTURY

2005-04-08T00:46:00.000+08:00

anarchist media weekly
Anarchist Age Weekly Review
Number 637 4th April-10th April 2005 -

Posted here mainly to reminder myself to keep reading and distributing Joe's stuff...

Its Australian Anarchista talk. A weekly summary/comment from Dr Joseph TOSCANO / Libertarian Workers For A Self-Managed Society.

A Snippet:

STOP PRESS: BURIED ALIVE

There´s one way to skin a cat and there´s more than one way to bury a story. The most important report delivered on the state of the planet and the effects the human race has and will have on the health of the planet, turned out to be a one day wonder. Arguably the most extraordinary story of the century wasn´t even picked up by the Murdoch press. Even those media outlets that gave the story an airing dropped it within 24 hours. No in depth analysis, no endless debates, no mention about the role capitalism is playing in the current crisis.

Too many distractions, too much money to be made to give the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment group any space. The death of an old man, whose contribution to the world´s welfare is very questionable, a relatively small earthquake in Indonesia, the horse races, Kylie´s bum, boring pedestrian reality shows, even more boring TV shows and movies are much, much more important than learned opinions of 1350 scientists from 95 countries on the fate of the planet.

News that doesn´t fit the manufactured consensus is soon forgotten. Anything else, the world´s largest pumpkin, the next gruesome crime, the antics of professional sports players, the next whiz bang manufactured need, product placement, all have a much more important role to babble than news that doesn´t fit their own view. The monopoly media´s strength lies in its ability to set the agenda. You don´t need censorship when you enjoy a monopoly on the distribution of information. You don´t need censorship when you can appoint editorial staff that supports your world view. You don´t need censorship when the staff you hire know that if they step out of line they´ll find it difficult to ever find a job in the same industry again.

The only positive note to this dirge of despair is that they will not be able to ignore reality for much longer. The problem is that it may be too late to do anything about reality when they are finally forced to ´see the light´.

Anarchist Age Weekly Review

randomism

2005-04-05T01:52:00.000+08:00

randomism by bro_x 2005-04-05 1:44 AM +0800 - perth.indymedia.org

I suppose there are many things you can do to "live in suburbia without $$"

We start by reducing our impacts on it. Simplify.

However, it is virtually impossible to exist in society without some impact or contribution.

Its a matter of realising what you want out of life before you die. Or to be more specific - define what you DON'T want!

Its really okay to work. Working is the essence of our being. Its what work you do that counts. Its what makes you happy and gives you a sense of self-worth. But you need to do shit you like. If you like trees, get a job with trees. If you like public transport - be a busdriver; If you like cops be a cop. Get the idea.

If you don't want too much stress, learn to live with less shit.

The more shit you have, the more you have to think about; the more money you have the more your mind is occupied with financial security, wealth accumulation and insurance.

And remember, if you want the Government to give you stuff, you HAVE to give shit back. Like Identification; a bank account; mutual obligations and a self-humiliating willingness to fill out forms.

At some point however you will need money. Despite a close friend who derived 80% of his food from a Shopping Centre dumpster in Como, you do have to pay rent - somewhere.

If you do have a little bit of income, as a single person, the best way to manage rent is in a share house where the rent is broken into portions.

There are problems if you are protective of your stuff and even your share of food - another reason to give up property and posessions.

Perhaps you could pitch a tent in someone's yard or in some urban bushland. You'd have shelter, but people need homes.

You can't avoid suburbia forever - at some point you must communicate and contribute; our desire to share ideas is fundamental to human evolution. Don't hide in the dark.

There is a lot to be said of abandoning a mortgage, a credit card and even a car in the 21st Century. And it can be done.

But in terms of "scamming" - its better to give to the community than steal from it.

There a plenty of sites that delve into these ideas.

Lets look...

BAXTER 2005 Convergence for Human Rights

2005-03-28T00:18:00.000+08:00

BAXTER05 Convergence

So its over. After months of rough and ultra disparate logistical organising. After many provocative flame-wars, secret meetings and idiotic bickering amongst various elements of crusty refugee rights mobs, the crew have managed to forge an relatively aligned facade in the reality of some of the best activista bodies in the country, they're on the way home... [sigh of relief]

I've been locked onto the baxter05.info site throughout the weekend sorting out the mms and audio stuff as it came in. Juggling phone calls and emails, dictating mobile phone messages...

With excellent yet awkward indymedia-style software, it was quite a task to grab the various media as it came onto the server then make it suitable for page viewing.

Was a great experience. And I must have blown at least a hundred bucks on mobile phones!

Was good to see some dedicated crew uploading from cam phones and texting reports to my mobile - some audio reports were good too via an mbox account which i checked constantly.

however the most shocking of news i discovered from a barrage of early calls today before i had even booted up the PC...

i heard from crew that t and 4 spikey friends were arrested this morning trying to pull at the fence with a grappling hook! They were charged with "trespass" and "criminal damage". I hope there are some pictures.

Theres a report on the site i'd link to but it seems the indy server is down - hence my writing in the blog for a change!

Police Violence: I'm gonna write about the portrayal of violence in news media over the next few days.

But I'm tired...

azzzzzzadi

TAZERS KILLIN PEOPLES

2005-03-08T00:30:00.000+08:00

TASER! BBBBZZZZZZTTT!

Ripped this article straight from www.indymedia.org. - WA are in the throes of using these weapons. The recently re-elected government used "TASERS" as part of its "law and order" platform...

"Taser" is the brand name for an electrocution device produced by US-based Taser International, and is currently being used by 7,000 law enforcement agencies worldwide. The Taser is marketed as a "non-lethal" device that is "saving lives everyday." However, the recent killing of a man by police in Houston, TX, who shocked him with a Taser three times in a row, is just one incident in a growing pattern of lethal abuse that contradicts this claim. The death toll due to Taser use in North America has climbed near 100 since the weapons were first introduced in 2000.

Taser International's medical director's claims that there is no connection between the use of Tasers and subsequent death by cardiac arrest are being challenged by those who point out his deep financial ties with the corporation.

Save Our Civil Liberties | Ban Less Lethal Weapons | US-Indymedia

According to a report by Amnesty International, tasers are hand-held electronic stun guns that fire two barbed darts up to a distance of 21 feet, which remain attached to the gun by wires. The fish-hook-like darts are designed to penetrate up to two inches of the target’s clothing or skin and deliver a 50,000-volt shock to the target. The report asserts that Taser guns are "inherently open to abuse."

While police departments across the U.S. continue to insist that tasers are only used as an alternative to lethal force, their use as a tool of repression at demonstrations has become increasingly common. On January 20 (Inauguration Day) tasers were usedagainst demonstrators in Austin, TX. This sparked a campaign called by Austin Spokescouncil against taser use by the Austin Police Department. In response, the Austin City Council tabled a proposal to purchase 90 new tasers for its officers, which would have cost taxpayers $75,000.

In addition to protesters, Tasers have been used to subdue a 6 year-old boy, a man in a wheelchair and most often, people of color....

See story on Perth Indy

ALERT and ALARMED - ASIO and "Anti-Terrorism" Laws

2005-03-02T22:36:00.000+08:00

Be alert and alarmed about ASIO laws ... 01/03/2005

Be Informed: ASIO and anti-terrorism laws - is the title of an information kit just published by the Community Law Centre, University of Technology, Sydney. The publication outlines the power of ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) to detain people for up to 7 days, and where refusing to answer questions can lead to a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment. The purpose of the publication is to provoke people to make submissions to the committee which is reviewing some of the laws. [Full Story on Perth Indymedia ]

PDF version of the information kit are available at the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network at and at the Civil Rights Network.

A Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO / ASIS and DSD is reviewing these laws by looking at the effect and operation of these laws.

[Activists Rights ] [ Terror Laws Archive] [ The Parliamentary Review ] [ Atorney General ] [ Attorney General Media Release ] [ Two ASIO Annual Reports? ] [ Right To Organise in Jeopardy - GLW ] [ COMMUNITY LAW CENTRE - UTS ]

fresh experiments

2005-03-01T03:18:00.000+08:00

Tuesday: As usual I'm putting together tonight's Indymedia Radio Show : Tuesday - Midnight - 1am on RTRFM.

I havent got much to say except...

Workshop was great intimate and intense. With some excellent results from the small diverse group of poet participants. I love doing those things.

YIKES: My band MITEYKO are playing at RTR's IN THE PINES!
In the Pines 2005 Sunday April 10. Midday until 10pm. Somerville Auditorium, UWA, Crawley - we're on at 1230 sharp!

My new band "waiting for broken trains" has a party on the 12th March.

I've been throwing some new gear up on my antipoet blog...
Also on the Perth Indymedia Artswire... for a new batch of antipoet output

Very soon I'll start archiving/uploading a bunch of AUDIO stuff and i'm thinking of building a blog for the Radio Show.

Anyway just leave me alone...

see also:
http://baxter05.info

fawwa - antipoet workshop

2005-02-23T14:14:00.000+08:00

i'm doing an antipoet workshop at Tom Collins House in Swanbourne this weekend.
i really enjoy these things...

if theres any perth.wa folk who wanna come along... please come.
_al

____________________________________

The Antipoet Workshop with Allan Boyd - Saturday 26 February 10 am to 5 pm. $22 all comers

What is "antipoetry"?
Come along and meet allan boyd [author of the antipoet manifesto] to find out.
We'll look at what it means to challenge the existing paradigms of dominant culture in 2005.
Why is now "not the time for decorative art"?

Learn that suffering for your art is a personal choice, not a foregone conclusion. What is a "Zine" and where are all the real poets?
Contemplate Art and Activism. Discover how adverbs are fascist. Discuss web-writing and Internet Publishing.

"Be the change you want to see" and incorporate integrity into your art and writing. Why is there no such thing as "writers block?"
Take the power back and shape words to your own wants, needs, desires.

We'll do some radical writing excercises using bizarre rules and tools.

We'll look at Performance Poetry techniques - see what works and what doesn’t when poetry becomes
performance. Bring work to be performed/critiqued on the day. We'll record some poetry and play it back.

All sorts of stuff. Come on - he won't bite …

Plus, if you treat him well, the anti-poet will let you in on wordworksecrets you've previously never even imagined. So be nice, cause he has much to teach...

contact
PHONE: (08) 9384 4771
EMAIL: mailto:fawwa@iinet.net.au
FAWWA WEBSITE

Dead Gonzo

2005-02-22T11:01:00.000+08:00

Gonzo Dead: pics and interviews at the gonzo.org site.

Well, Hunter S. Thompson is dead. Killed himself apparently. Strange thing, I had never really fetishised the guy like others seem to do. When i first came across the idea of "gonzo" journalism at uni, i was fascinated with the idea of giving a biased and opinionated version of events. However after reading the "Great Shark Hunt" I realised WAS WRONG. To place yourself in the picture, to offer a real narrative and well-crafted version of events is more powerful and creative than the tired old methods of reportage we are so used to. Hunter began his writing career in the military.

Spose we all die eventually but its a pity he blew his fucking head off.

Hunter S. Thompson Dead at 67

- From tne Perth Indy Front Page. I whacked this cut n paster together in a vodka-induced state late last night....

GONZO IS DEAD! |||| HUNTER S THOMPSON DIES ||| From the Perth Indy newswires...

Regarded as one of the most legendary writers of the 20th century, the founder of GONZO journalism, American writer Hunter S. Thompson, author of such classics as Fear And Loathing in Las Vagas, has taken his own life after firing a gun shot to the head...

Hunter S. Thompson's son, Juan, released a statement saying he had found his father dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the writer's Owl Creek farm near Aspen. He was 67 years old.

Photos of the late HST.

Thompson, famed for such adrenaline-packed narratives as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," [ 2 ] turned his drug and alcohol-fueled clashes with authority into a central theme of his work, challenging the quieter norms of established journalism in the process.

Thompson had distilled his style of invective-laced, outlaw journalism into a slogan: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Thompson developed a reputation for fearlessly attacking the complacency and consensus of mainstream journalism in America. He lived an extravagent life at his Aspen ranch where Thompson, the cavalier liberterian, maintained an extensive gun and drug arsenal.

Always an engaged critic of American culture, some of Thompson's more memorable quotes included:

- "America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."

- "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

All hail ye to Hunter S Thompson - The Perth Indymedia banner assumes a full respect for "Gonzo Style Journalism"...

Read More/Comment on Perth Indy...
His Last Column...
Some Hunter S Thompson Quotes...

jam: kikkn jammin out the kix n jammz

2005-02-19T14:25:00.000+08:00

"waiting for broken trains"
is the name of a new band under development in my loungeroom, kitchen and backyard...

myself and 3 other perth artist/activists [will terror; dr g; and ray - the armed-poet] have been jammin away on n off for the last 6 months or so. mostly we're producing a "post rock" flavoured sonic pastiche.

its quite different to any other musical projects i've been involved with over the years - such as miteyko for example is a more poetic, mellow and kinda poppy endevour.

recently we've been getting together on a weekly basis and working these musical ideas into structural song-things. we're getting tighter and starting to really get a feel for each other's energies, ideas and abilities. we hope to get out amongst the perth independant music scene soon. and we're getting closer to it.

with such regularity, friday evenings are becoming something to really look forward to each week. when the lads arrive, we grab a carton of beer and cook up a bit of a feed and spend a few hours making and discussing our music and stuff.

we also use the time to discuss activism. currently we're yabbering about tactics for the upcoming baxter convergence. its an excellent opportunity to be with good people on a mutual level. to have a beer and talk about art and activism and radical politics and experimentation in art and life. lovin it!

but, we're looking fwd to a backyard "activist" party on 12th march to let loose our sound the perth public. backyard parties are a good place to introduce a band to the public - due to the inebriation level of most guests! ;)

THE BEST BIT: over the last couple of jams, subaware, my gorgeous lovergrrl of anarko-royalty has joined in on the fun. instead of sitting or hangin around tappin her feetses, she's started adding bits n pieces of my poetry into the mix, while i sing choruses and repetitious harmonic melodies, some verses and shouting lines in tune...

her sparkling, zesty and feisty contribution to a crusty all-boy machine is great. it opens up the energy to a feminista perspective. hearing her deliver my werds, in her way is unique, empowering and will certainly be entertaining for the audience. i really love it that she can incorporate her passion into an art project. we've never really been able to merge like this before. i think this is the beginning of an interesting and productive journey for both of us...

anyway, seems we have half a dozen songs nearly ready for consumption. just a matter of smoothing out the lyrics and tightening on the musicianship. we fuckin rock.

"i am i am i am i am am... in the red one"

and just realised the melbourne stencil fest is on 25feb...
melbourne street art is amazing. whilst we have a few pockets of interesting takes on the concrete canvases of perth, its nothing like the way creative dissident art bleeds into the streetscapes of melbs... lucky fuckers. wish i had the guts to take my stuff out into the streets more!

seeya!

nothing better than reading a succinct paragraph - anarchists rule :)

2005-02-17T13:05:00.000+08:00

ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE OBSCENITY OF THE WEEK

"Awarded to all those Australians who required the illegal detention of an Australian resident to realise that what´s happening in Australia´s detention centres is wrong, cruel & inhumane. If only the same people had realised that what happened to the Tampa refugees was wrong, cruel & inhumane, maybe Australian governments wouldn´t be meting out the same cruel, degrading & harsh treatment to asylum seekers & refugees in 2005..."

[could not have expressed it better myself - al]

Go to Baxter at Easter 2005:
http://baxter05.info

attack of the killerpoets...

2005-02-16T17:01:00.000+08:00

strange the things you do on the net. well the net IS a strange beast.
all its organic ramifications of the human condition...

so, i started another blog in november last year:
http://www.attackofthekillerpoets.blogspot.com

in an effort to bring online poetry to a different level. well to be honest i dont really know why i did it - just thought the idea was kinda cool.

since then 22 people have submitted works.

anyway, i realised, whilst logging onto the site today, that i have forgotten the password and username - so i cant access the inards of this experimental site.

hopefully it will come to me...

checkitout. and leave a poem!
_al

update! actually, the lovely blogger robots told me how to fix it!

STENCIListas - Big In Japan

2005-02-14T15:58:00.000+08:00

manila indymedia activista and stencil artist [JONG PIRATES] has just held an exhibition in tokyo. FOUND HERE...

we also played a Jong Pirates track on the perth indymedia radical radio show last tuesday night on RTRFM...

see also: Irregular rhythm Asylum, Tokyo, Japan

brother_x

Baxter Immigration Detention Centre - Detainees Statement

2005-02-14T02:21:00.000+08:00

Baxter Detainees' Statement - from - http://baxter05.info/

The following is a statement from Baxter detainees regarding the detention of Cornelia Rau and the proposed government inquiry. Contact Ian Rintoul for any further information, 0417 275 713.

The public inquiry into the happenings of the unlawful detention of Cornelia Rau should not be short-sighted but expanded into an investigation about the inhuman treatment of all those who reside in Baxter detention centre

They are all treated by the same psychologists who are unable to distinguish between severely ill mental behaviour and deliberate misbehaviour.

Severely ill detainees are punished as if it were misbehaviour.

Baxter detention centre has a specific compound for this where most of Cornelia Rau’s time and [that of] many others is spent, isolated, locked in a room for 18 hours a day and/or constantly harassed in ways hard to understand and always denied – like waking people in a disturbing manner and provoking them into matters of self-harm and anger [and] always being blamed.

Most of the officers working in the compound, Red 1, are new to the centre. It takes a great deal of time for officers to realise that this is not a criminal detention and to treat the detainees as such.

Also in the Red 1 compound detainees are severely restricted. There is next to nothing in forms of recreation - no access to gym or education facilities. Detainees are expected not only to be alone, but alone and feeling that nobody cares, which is exactly the plight of those [ie those in detention] who are unable to comprehend their situation.

Not understanding why you are in Baxter detention, with no clue of when it will end, together with feeling alone and that no-one cares, brings even someone with strong mental health to the brink of insanity.

Without proper psychological help, detainees may never find their way back.

We here at Baxter detention plea for the pious and compassionate people of this great nation to not only look at the small picture of one Cornelia Rau but at the big picture of the humanitarian catastrophe of all those still suffering in this historical precedent of inhumanity. This is called Australian immigration detention.

Baxter detainees extend our best wishes for the recovery and future health of Cornelia Rau.

Read the Detainee Statement here...

Photos from Inside Baxter IDC by Damian McDonald - from the National Library of Australia

You can read story and see all the above pics here..
AZADI

Welcome to Baxter...

2005-02-13T13:41:00.000+08:00

"Banging At The Gates"
baxter05 convergence for human rights

Refugee Rights advocates and allied activists across Australia are organising to converge on the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre at Pt Augusta (SA) - a place which, by its very design, serves to dehumanise and degrade its incarcerated and innocent victims. The Baxter 2005 Convergence for Human Rights is set to take place over the Easter long weekend and should attract hundreds of activists from all over Australia...

BAXTER05 - www.baxter05.info
Baxter Watch - www.baxterwatch.net

...

Fed up with the Howard government's consistent mistreatment of asylum seekers in this country, the diverse group of activists are preparing to engage in a variety of autonomous and colourful actions outside the gates of the centre to express dissent at many of the Government's abusive human rights policies - particularly the "jailing of refugees". In 2003 several hundred people protested at the centre, while SA and Federal police harrassed and intimidated the participants.

At an earlier protest at Woomera, SA in 2002, around 50 detainees escaped the notorious Woomera detention centre. However, according to one activist making the trip, "breaking out refugees is not on the agenda this time... we simply can't have a repeat of Woomera 02, and we do not want to. These places are entirely different. Whilst Woomera, Curtin and Pt Hateland were makeshift and hideous examples of Howard's racism, the Baxter Camp is a purpose-built machine of oppression," she said. "Theres 24 hour surveilence, reported beatings, humiliation and little contact with the outside world. Let alone the 9000 volt perimiter fences, the solitary confinement, the forced medication, the constant threat of forced deportation. But there's more to it" she said, "This convergence is also about Howard's imperial compliance of the killing of 100,000 Iraqi people. Its all connected."

Many Human Rights groups have condemed John Howard's practice of Mandatory Detention. Amnesty International says, "Detaining children for up to five years, frequent rioting and self-harm by detainees, are not acceptable by-products of refugee processing. Legitimate border control and the fight against people smuggling can be achieved without violating human rights." From one of many Amnesty reports condemming Australia's human rights abuses of refugees.

"Some of these refugees have been imprisoned by the Howard Government for over six years. Some of these people are from countries we have invaded! It's got to stop," says Karen Eliot from Adelaide.

People from Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Darwin, Brisbane, Tasmainia and elsewhere are preparing ideas and "disarming tactics" such as kite-flying displays, open space workshops and a range of Non Violent Direct Action events. The BX05 Convergence for Human Rights is organised via meetings, an email list, chatrooms and an Indymedia-style open publishing site [ baxter05.info ] where autonomous affinity groups discuss how to implement their strategies for change.

On the baxter05.info website, activists have expressed outrage over the "psychological torture, electric fences, solitary confinement, remote control zoom cameras, beatings, and microwave sensors." They say: "We oppose borders, violence, militarism, fascism and fear mongering."

Referring to indefinite detention without charge or trial, Peter Wilkie from Refugee Rights Action Network [RRAN] in Perth said, “Baxter detention centre represents stark relief policies which constitute human rights abuses and institutionalized child abuse”. He went on to say, “these polices and laws also damage and undermine a number of important conventions on which our system of government and democracy depend, such as the principle of ministerial accountability, and the independence of the military and public service”.

Since 1989 Australia has imposed indefinite mandatory detention on virtually all persons entering Australian waters without entry documents, despite these people simply seeking protection from the countries they flee. The laws, policies and programs under which this treatment operates, consistently violate human rights, unnecessarily traumatise already traumatised people, distress and shame many concerned Australians, cause international embarrassment and cost Australian taxpayers around $400,000 a day.

Many who will make the journey to Baxter feel there is an "underlying feeling of dissent in this country". They state that: "In so many ways human rights are being abused. Many Australians believe the current Government has neglected its duty to humanitarian principles." Following the 2004 Federal election the Senate is now stacked in Howard's favour. And despite arguments from Independents, the Greens and Democrats, there is a lack of effective dissent to the policy from the Opposition parties. There is virtually no real prospect of future reform within the Liberal/National coalition. Furthermore, mainstream media are not taking the issue up at all and are disallowed access to the detainees." In short, they say: "In 2005, there is no opposition but that which we create..."

Despite global condemnation, the Prime Minister's tough stance on asylum seekers has proved popular with many "Hansonite" Australians. Nevertheless, in 2002 the United Nations Human Rights Committee found Australia's practice of detaining asylum-seekers to be "arbitrary and unlawful, in violation of international human rights obligations binding on Australia". Amnesty International is also appealing to the Australian government to step back and consider the costs and consequences of the policy and to bring it in line with international human rights standards.

Australia's detention system falls far short of international standards and is the only country world-wide with a national, mandatory detention policy that cannot be reviewed by courts. Even though the government says that asylum-seekers are "seeking a migration outcome", their own figures show that the majority are found to be refugees entitled to the protection and safety they are seeking. Over 90% of asylum seekers have been recognised as "genuine refugees" and granted protection visas.

RRAN says: "There are also major concerns about how the detention system affects the mental and physical health of the detainees. There is a growing body of evidence that prolonged detention of unspecified duration, particularly when people are already traumatised by past persecution and do not know what the future holds for them, can lead to serious, physical and psychological damage".

The Australian Human Rights Commissioner, the Ombudsman, Parliamentary Committees, religious organisations and NGOs have perpetually outlined the "deep frustration and despair" among asylum seekers in detention centres - the "hopelessness and helplessness" - which drive people to frequently attempt hunger strikes; sew lips together in absolute desparation; to repeatedly attempt suicide or even to hurt others.

“We see that the mainstream media is reluctant to take up these issues," say RRAN, "we also see that the ALP has no intention of presenting any opposition to these policies and practices. We see that the constitution allows these severe and unjust laws. So we find ourselves in a position where there is no opposition but that which we create...”

So at Easter 2005, hundreds of concerned Australians will be at Baxter to expose these injustices and outline the inhumanity of these policies - to fight the dispossesion, to challenge the enclosures. And they invite you to join them in solidarity with those detained within.

To find out more: www.baxter05.info

brother_X 27jan05

jabbering on indy...

2005-02-07T23:30:00.000+08:00

brother_X
And the Robots clapped in genetic retaliation

"Well it may be the case in Australia where we the people actually get to decide who runs the country but not in the land of the free, the great USA."

Not necessarily making a distinction here. My point is that in much the same way, here in australia, we have no control over the way the government operates. An examination and complete overhaul of our constitution could see some remedy.

The ONLY reason corporations can get away with the shit they do, is because the governments are compliant. This suggests that governments [including australian govs] have stuff to gain from being in power. Governments offer a hierachial structure of authority that is unnecessary and offensive to the human spirit. When we, as ignorant and apathetic, loyal citizens, here and in and the US, vote our leaders in we surely get what we deserve...

What am I saying? That democracy itself is a failure. And we need to pursue fresh models of organising ourselves, less central control and more self-managed societies, where exploitation of others is not in anybody's interest.

"Which country has the greatest influence on what we see on TV, the food we eat and yes even the education system? Hell even the politicians that we chose grovel to the US."

Indeed - look to the over-commodification of global news media since the 1980s, the big swallowing the small, all connected through the market economy, the inability to get good stories through the media lens because of vested interest from afar... We get what we deserve though when we swallow the mainstream whole.

In the same way we choose our pollies - so do the US. But, Democracy itself is a farce. The media would have us believe there are only TWO pale choices, when there are a plethora of choices outside the majors.

And as far as the media go: All TV News is filler between the real news - the real news? Advertising of superfluous crap [driven by the global economy, fueled to the very bone by the Uncle Sam's oil industry].

Its all about business. And we are told to mind our own.

Australia Jails its Own Citizens in Baxter's "Ugly and Dark Ideology"

2005-02-03T13:57:00.000+08:00

Australia Jails its Own Citizens in Baxter's "Ugly and Dark Ideology"
by RefoBusta
From the newswire... [ See Also: Baxterwatch.net Story ] [ This could happen to you: warning - "the age" ] Following the release from BAXTER last week of Cornelia Rau, a mentally ill 39-year-old former Qantas flight attendant, we can "see the ramifications of a cruel and inhumane policy" of Mandatory Detention... [ OUTRAGE ] As John Howard promises an "Inquiry" into Ms Rau's case, the recent situation of an Australian woman caught up in DIMIA's scales of injustice, serves to highlight how the "government has no intention of respecting the human rights of even it's own citizens". Cornelia Rau spent 10 months in immigration detention, including extended periods in an isolation cell, after authorities failed to identify her as a "missing person". A leading mental health advocate says Baxter detention a mental health care 'failure'. Refugee Rights advocates say: "To force someone into detention, especially Immigration Detention, because of mental illness is deplorable and a stuff-up of monumental proportions". The Refugee Action Coalition in NSW has called for Senator Vanstone to resign as Immigration Minister. They say this is the "inevitable result of constructing a system of detention under the Migration Act that is outside the norms of Australian law and that is deliberately kept away from media and public scrutiny," said Max Phillips, RAC spokesperson. "To lock a person who is obviously mentally ill in an isolation cell for months on end is the result of a crazy and cruel system that belongs to the 19th century, not modern day Australia..." An activist from the WA-based Refugee Rights Action Network says: "Baxter represents and implements an ideology of oppression and state violence against anyone who is marginalized as "the other", as "not one of us". "These places, these policies, these ideas must be dismantled, overturned and discredited... It is about opposing an ugly and dark ideology which is being expressed in public policy and is destroying innocent lives", he said. Ms Rau, was found by a group of Aborigines in Queensland on March 31 last year. Concerned about her psychotic state, they took her to police for her own safety. She did not identify herself to police and spoke only in German. The police then assumed she was an illegal immigrant and handed her over to immigration officials on April 5. Ms Rau has been held in Baxter's Red One isolation compound, where her psychotic behaviour had distressed other detainees. Initially, asylum seekers had raised the alarm to refugee rights advocates, alerting them that a woman in the centre was very sick and needed help. "The two groups who were kind to Cornelia in all this time were the two most downtrodden groups in society - the Aboriginal people in Cairns and the refugees in Baxter," said Cornelia's sister, "There's an irony in that". Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has called for an inquiry into how a seriously mentally ill Australian permanent resident was locked up in an isolation cell in an immigration detention centre for over two months with no medical help. "It's pretty dangerous if you have Alzheimer's disease or you speak a second language right now," A Labor Spokesperson said. Refugee advocate Pamela Curr, who spoke to Ms Rau at Baxter last month, said authorities should have been alerted earlier. "Her English was fine," Ms Curr said. "She told me then she really wasn't in touch with reality, but there was a moment of clarity when she just wanted to get out of Baxter". Civil libertarians blame "secrecy" for detainee mistake "The conservative government in Australia continue to prevent journalists from covering the situation of refugees held in camps on Australian territory". Media access to asylum seekers is "strictly regulated and the immigration ministry did everything possible to discourage journalists from investigating this issue". [Reporters Without Borders] DNA samples Renewed calls for national DNA database: "Big Brother?". READ MORE/Discuss on Perth Indymedia...

brother_X = slackarsed busy boy

2004-12-21T18:11:00.000+08:00

____________________________________

to those who read this thing, and myself, apologies for not updating this blog - i've been flatout busy with indy stuff and other things... http://baxter05.info

but i'm off to Rottnest Island for xmas and new yr to spend time with family. i intend to write stuff every day - so i'll upload to this blog as i do. as well as consume some beers and good food in the sun.

subaware's sister and her husband and kids are lucky enough to live and work there 24/7. they've been on the island for nearly a decade now. so when we stay its like being in a surreal smalltown suburbia...

i'm interested in jabbering on about the particularly dark history that place has, especially in terms of aboriginal histories. seems it was a dumping ground for white australias problems. in a similar fashion to Palm Island...

anyways, more soon
_a

NOTE: well, obviously i didnt get to write up the rotto stories. subaware and i did go, with the kids and hung out with our family on rotto. we spent a considerable amount of time floating on inflatable lounges, complete with stubbie holder inserts... we floated about the bay, amongst the $200,000 boats. we drank beer and had little opportunity to write up shit. was a great xmas - messin with the kids... now, back to work...

Silent but Deadly

2004-11-26T13:55:00.000+08:00

This is from a "Science by email" from 26 nov... my kids get them.
thought it was funny enuff to chuck here.

News: Silent but Deadly

How many times do you fart a day? It has been previously thought that the average healthy person passes wind somewhere between 7-14 times a day. But a recent survey by ABC's The Lab has revealed that Aussie kids fart about 24 times a day. Almost 1,000 gassy Aussies took part in the survey and the results are startling - 28% of farters can let one rip whenever they want. Most surprisingly, only 39% of participants like the smell of their own farts.

Australia's leading Grossologist, Questacon's Dr Thatsa NastySmell is thrilled by the results, "I am excited that our very own Aussie kids are farting more times per day than other kids around the world. It makes me happy as farting is a fabulous function our bodies perform. "

What causes us to fart? It can be many things; some of the gas we produce is from air we swallow which makes its way to the stomach and continues down, or it could be caused by our diet. But most is caused by bacteria living in our bowel. Dr NastySmell blames flatulence emissions on her large intestine's E. coli bacteria. "When the E. coli bacteria come across foods like beans and cabbage, which have sugars that humans can't digest, the E. coli chew them up and emit them as gases, which can sometimes be smelly!"

Beans and cabbage contain complex sugars raffinose and stachyose that humans are unable to digest, as we don't have the enzymes needed. An enzyme is a chemical that helps a chemical reaction take place. This is where the bacteria come in, as they eat these indigestible sugars and release gas. This type of fart is usually loud and voluminous. The smelly ones are those that occur after eating eggs, meat or other food products. So, if someone accuses you of letting fluffy off the chain, pass the blame onto the E. coli in your intestines as they produce the gas and you are simply a vehicle for it.

Farts are made up of five main gases, they are: oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane. You might be interested to know that all these gasses are odourless. So what causes farts to smell? Scientists have found that the smell of flatus comes from various sulphur-containing compounds. The usual culprits that give each fart its own unique smell are the compounds: hydrogen sulphide, methanethiol and dimethyl sulphide.

Is the study of gross aspects of the body restricted to the experts? In the privacy of their own homes, Dr NastySmell claims all people are grossologists, even the most beautiful people in the world, "It is such a comfort to know that anyone can let one rip or sneak a silent but deadly fart out. One simply has to observe the number of people who sneeze into their handkerchiefs and then sneakily have a peak at what they've produced."

So next time your body does something that you think is gross; like fart or burp or sweat you might be encouraged to celebrate how amazing your body is because usually the "grossest" things are the most important and healthy functions of the body. And as a budding grossologists you might even try to find out why it happens.

To find out more about farts watch Dr NastySmell on next week's episode of Totally Wild, at 4.00pm Tuesday 30 November, where she will explain how and why this bodily function happens. She will also be testing the flammability of the gas produced by one of the Totally Wild presenters to assess its contents.
More information:

Smelly Science and the results of the Great Fart Survey:
www.abc.net.au/spark/smelly/default.htm

How flatulence works:
www.howstuffworks.com/question46.htm

A picture of a whale fart:
dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030825/whalegas.html

CSIRO's Dietary Fibre Information Sheet:
www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=faq&id=Dietary%20Fibre&stylesheet=divisionFa

all yr base belong to us

2004-11-23T09:35:00.000+08:00

ALL YR MEANING BELONG TO US

2004-11-23T09:01:00.000+08:00

i'm gonna try and write about memes today - and the "all your base belong to us" phenomena

Playboy Bunnies.. WHY?

2004-11-19T15:51:00.000+08:00

by the way... be warned - the link above goes to "playboy.com". to illustrate what it represents.

so, i'm on the train to perth the other day and this chick opposite me is busily punching keys on her mobile. i realise she's wearing this cute little toe ring... sorta sparkly. looked really nice. then i realised it was a playboy bunny. upon further perusal - as you do on trains - i realised she was also wearing a playboy bunny around her neck on a chain. its happening all over the joint in our consumer world. but do these women think to undestand what it represents?

got me thinking about this... and i've been talking about it with other people over the last coupla years about how can women wear these symbols of oppression. same thing when i see a 10 year old girl with a "porn star" label tshirt on.

its disconcerting and a retro-leap for feminist progress. the girls who wear these symbols perhaps don't realise what the logo is saying: " Hi - MY BODY IS AVAILABLE FOR VOYEURISTIC INTENT - please stare at me and fantasize"... or "i belong in a pornographic magazine"...

as a student of language culture - i look at the subtextualities of meaning in everyday language - in logos, in advertising copy, in the media etc. and so, i see in our consumer-driven society, that a woman - or feminism - has perhaps two types of empowerment. firstly there's the "equality" issue - where women are as good as men at stuff. and secondly, that women have a sexual power over men - and they can use it to get stuff they want. seems the playboy logo is proliferating on chicks cars, on their tshirts and jewellery - everywhere.

Hugh Hefner would be proud!

anyway, i'm worried, or old - or something!

more later.
al_

installmob

2004-11-17T21:31:00.000+08:00

check this out...
a few of us cheeky buggers are trying get this happening...

the first mob is:
bring a coathanger and place on a tree in Hay ST Mall - sometime next week
Time/Place TBA.

al_
heres another nice picture.

its a little trampoline in my backyard that i put some stencils on - the image has been "negatived"

poetry and sex - and insurance

2004-11-17T17:31:00.000+08:00

i was gonna write about insurance.

i'm doing a performance poetry workshop next weekend, and if i wanna get paid [its good money btw] i need to have Public Liability [PL] insurance. and this is a stipulation of the Grant Auspicing body - that all artists facillitating the workshops must have PL. theres a group of us at various levels of income. and i am at the bottom of the feeding chain.

personally i do not wish to give ANY money to an insurance company. i am morally opposed to their existence. my workshop is NOT dnagerous. but apparently if somebody trips over and gets a gammy leg on the way to be in my worshop room - well, its MY fault! for fucks sake! are we REALLY that much of a litigious society?

i could understand if i was angle-gringing or chainsawing words as performance. or dancing or anything other than sitting on chairs in a room - mainly talking, and doing a few writing/speaking excercises.

thing is: its gonna cost me around $500 and i'm not getting paid much more than that...

anyway it shits me. and i dunno what to do!

but heres some sexxy poems...

if yr interested in more of this sort of thing,
please go here to see the directory of these images
- and more i'm working on...

oh and thanks to Gempires for the comment on the last sexy stencil! i love that one...

A Stencil I wanna do REALLY BIG

2004-11-16T11:26:00.000+08:00

this is A4 size - on the back of a chair in my backyard!
but i hope to tile it and make it human-sized... for an empty.

EMPTY SHOWS

2004-11-16T10:27:00.000+08:00

the image below is from an Empty Show

i first became aware of the idea of "empty shows" during my time as an organiser of the This Is Not Art Festivals in Newcastle... the basic idea is to use a derelict space ie: a warehouse, hotel, or any disused building - even an old house, and adorn the walls etc with ART. its appropriating the notion of space and property. theres an anarchist intention deep within the concept.

similar to Squatting - but its the art that squats the vacant space! its an edgey practice because you have to "break in" to the venue in order to make your art. as youre working away [usually in the dark] you are aware of every sound and squeaky door - hoping you're not gonna get busted. its a fucking beautiful concept. the exhibition itself becomes the spectacle as the recipients of the art are also encouraged to "break in". i love the transient notions of the Empty Show concept - and the "giving away" of your product to an empty space that will soon become demolished or refurbished... gorgeous and naughty!

this year we've seen a couple in Perth - including the old Norwood Hotel in East Perth - which was done during Anarcon04. currently theres a Warehouse [ALLWEST] cnr Newcastle n Money Sts, under deconstruction!

i'll try and find some photos of the 2 perth Emptys. and post here...

i just love the one below from a recent Empty in Fitzroy - Melbourne.

[these pics via Nik's blog]

Anarchism is? i'm not an expert... but

2004-11-14T15:50:00.000+08:00

ahhh beers n blahblah - yeah i am an anarchist: i reject the institutions of authority... oh and yes i DO have a wedding ring. and so does my partner. sorry!

so, yeah. anyway, we had a meeting at Groovy Space with some extremely excellent fellow indymedia crew yesterday. a couple of "eastern-stater" indykids were in Perth over the weekend and so we caught up for a yabber and a beer on a beautiful warm perth day... cool people. RESPECTA!

we were talking about "smashing the state" etc, as ya do... sprouting the usual anarko slogans over a couple of beers. was a great yarn indeed. its really good to know we have some very articulate and passionate people in the wider indymedia network.

got me to thinking though: indymedia claims at times to be an anarchist network. although this is also disputed at the drop of a hat! but time and time again i read good peoples bastardisations on the subject of ANARCHISM. for example, we've been in discussion as to what to do, as a network, with a hostile Imc in the region. Some think we should ban them from the networks and take away their ".indymedia.org" URL, because pronciples of unity have been busted. others think there should be other forms of punishment...

but underlying this whole argument is the notion of AUTHORITY! perhaps its worth an explanation.

personally i do not support the kind of authority necessary to bash someone out of a group. yet i don't entirely know what to do about it...

however, as an anarchist, you have to ask yourself whether its a valid anarchistic thing to inflict rule over others, rather than offer Mutual Aid, or come to some consensus compromise. For me Indymedia is not about the "policing" of other IMCs. we have Principles of Unity and tons of Affinity, but we don't want to start exacting authority over each other. the debate has raged on a list for months...

So, What IS Authority? The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge... something like that. and so Authority and Anarchism must be incongruous.

are anarchism and authority mutually exclusive concepts? isnt Anarchism at its very base about NO forms of AUTHORITY? noone should rule over me - or others. there has been some talk implying the Regional collectives should "disaffiliate" another IMC. its a difficult decision to make - to effectively BAN one group from the network. the site "seems" to be functioning. the Porn and Nazi spams are being hidden reasonably early, but theres certainly a lack of diversity amongst the few remaining members. *a bitter fight has ensued over the last year or so, involving former members of a local IMC. many have left and the current crew [accused of bullying] are struggling to maintain the integrity of the Open Publishing Newswire

but in terms of Anarchism i am pretty disillusioned as to some peoples distortion of the concept No Rulers, No Hierarchy etc... it just doesnt sit well with me. its a Bastard of an anarchism!

oh shit, i have to do stuff now, but i WILL add more to this draft tonight.

al_ [sunday arvo]

ps for a recent "post-anarko" perspective:
Towards an another anarchism from a Social Forum in 2003... worth a browse.

what he said:

2004-11-11T20:44:00.000+08:00

Mar Bucknell is the staunchest anarchist i know. we do a radio show together on RTR each week [News From Nowhere - its perths only Anarchist/Dissident radio. he's been doing it for over 10 years]... this statement was in relation to the vainglorious psycho-blabbering of the post below... i respect his words. many a time he's said something which infuriates me - then a while later i'll go ahhh - of course. his dedication to anarchist philosophy is admirable. his POVs remind me a lot of ChuckOs.

and the older i get and the more i adapt my alignment to the notions of anarchism i accept his philosphy. i have always been one... the philosophy is an aside. authority is fundamentally opposed to human evolution.

but mar is old-skool.. Take it away Buckles...

Mar says:

"...I really feel like saying: How about an ABC of anarchist thought here?
Organised religion is anti-freedom. War is anti-freedom. Nationalism is anti-freedom. People in Iraq who resist the occupation are heroic in their resistance, and I support their resistance. That doesn't mean I have to support their platforms. And to put it a bit more bluntly, let's remember that the Iraqi resistance consists of a large number of different groups, some of which I regard as my enemies. And some of them are fighting each other.

For freedom.
For anarchy.
For community.

Against religion.
Aginst the State.
Against authority.
Against patriarchy.
Against the militarism.

Do the sums,
mar

...

i also posted this here to get some response for the perth indymedia mob to react...

i wish mar had a blog! maybe i can talk him into it...
al_

i saved john howards life last night

2004-11-11T13:47:00.000+08:00

in a dream.

i've been having some bizarre dreams of late:

1. travelling on my motorbike
2. plane crashes
3. big brother and john howard...

will flesh these out throughout the day as i get time...

al_

1. a decade or so ago i used to ride a motorbike. i havent for years...

in the dream, i'd been travelling. though now parked and sitting at a rural roadhouse. waiting casually without a care in the world. there were some unknown friends with me. and tonja. she was my pillion. and we were waiting to go to the next destination. the other members of the posse - they had a panel van and a station wagon - left to go their separate ways. tonja and i were deciding where to go next. i didnt care where were gonna end up. it was a very paceful dream. reminding me of Robert Prisig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence"

the thing that sticks out is my travelling pack. somehow i had been carrying an old typewriter case. kinda plastic 60's looking thing. and when i opened it the typewriter had these kinda tubes sticking out of it - i didnt know what they were for. they looked like reticulation pipes, but all mangled. reminded me of the tubes that run into the inkpad thing on an old offset printer. the typwriter inside the case was sorta dislodged from its housing. it was a weird thing - and i was trying to figure out what these tubes were for...

during the sequence of events, which werent many, the roadhouse manager was offering us advice as to what tourist destination would be best for us next. he was talking away - but i couldn't understand the words. but that didnt matter because i knew the normal tourist route would bore me... i think the dream ended with tonja and i riding off into the morning sun.

i think the typewriter was some kinda representation of the internet - and blogging perhaps...

some incohesive, incoherent thoughts...

2004-11-11T02:26:00.000+08:00

i've been listening to Paul's argument on this stuff for a few weeks now. theres also an email list we're on where he's hammering away hard at good people, and am really quite taken aback at his zeal to promote the dichotomy of an "us vs them" concept.

it seems Paul, that you want us to become terrorists or we become the Imperialist. c'mon man, isn't there another option. or even many others? life's a pretty broad experience and never one thing or the other...

we've discussed this "terrorism dichotomy" on the News From Nowhere show at length many times over the last few months - on RTR. last night mar and i had a great conversation about the subject... outcome: anarchists, when faced with two options may take the third!

but, i personally feel pretty disturbed by your support for kidnappers and murderous beheaders of innocent human rights workers, and in the way in which you promote their videos across the activist wires - are you supporting them? would you do that YOURSELF? because i think thats what you are saying. but i might be wrong. i hope i am. because you are losing a lot of respect and crediblity round the perth online community. as well as in backstreets and bars!

so, heres a 1am al_ rant:

sure the Coalition of the Killing is really fucked. very very bad. absolutely wrong in EVERY sense.

forced versions of American-style democracy are nothing more than self-serving and vengeful acts of TERRORISM. and that is very clear to pretty much everyone i know. the USA's arrogance [and Australia's for that matter] is fucked. a bunch of greedy warmongers killing thousands of children - to prove a point and get rich. post-modern war is designed to prop up the oil and military industries... and not much else. [well, there are others but thats an aside]

so its clear i am saying: "no no no" to the Bushites okay?

but the behaviour of some of the more "out there" insurgents is also terroristic in the extreme. and i have to seriously ask you man: can you really, deeply, in your good heart, support some of that shit?

have you ever felt fear like that, or experienced severe body damage? bled? been beaten into unconsciousness? lost anyone close to you? i mean imagine if these fellas had done this to your mum? or to you as you area westerner yourself.

hey! i understand where these guys come form. and they have every right to resist and retaliate the US fuckers.

YES: fighting the enemy in the street, undermining the profiteers, fighting for your territory is admirable and honourable and i would do EXACTLY the same if the US came trampling over the hill to my house in suburban perth. kill the americans - yeah i would. no worries. without a moments hesitation.

if the occupation was here in the streets of WA - then yeah - i'm out there, protecting my family, my community, my street. myself - by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. basically if its gonna happen in my backyard - i am gonna fight like fuck... YES! i support that - wholeheartedly.

to use your language: it is absolutely WRONG that the capitalist infidel has desecrated the holy places of Iraq.

but sorry - i am not going to go out and behead good people. i am not going to chop the heads of innocent human rights workers. and if i was in your guerilla cell group i would block that motion. i would leave the group if i could if i knew you were gonna do that shit. its counter productive.

so yes - i would fight in the street and many other things - but i would not and do not support some the extreme tactics of the monority of the very factionalised, incoherent, and lets face it incohesive insurgence. in other words, i cant support the WHOLE resistance. because its too general. yeah USA fuck off. but dont kill innocent people.

so, in that, i really can't get my head around your logic. its all too sterile and polemic. theres a GWB/hoWARdness about all this. where exactly are you coming from? what ARE you reading? or maybe its the lack of articulation... are you actually trying to say something else?

is it possible to:
1. have NO support for the US invasion of Iraq
2. support the Iraqi resistance
3. and still not be fence sitter.

why is it so important for you to force people to take a side on this...?

hmmm does that rant make any sense?
bro_x

paul's response is here...
and a bit more of mine.

anarchism

2004-11-11T00:14:00.000+08:00

http://anarchism.perthimc.asn.au/

perth indy attacked - and i thought the nazis were bad

2004-11-08T15:33:00.000+08:00

don't u just love the idea of open publishing!

just spent the day responding to a spate of attacks on the perth indymedia site. for a while there we were getting a barrage of blatantly ridiculous shit posts [troll] this morning, one after the other - bang bang bang. complete rubbish. things like: "DIE PERTH INDYMEDIA" and stuff about "ass-raping" us for being gay media fuckers... us. yeah!

we deleted these nusiance posts as they came in - within seconds - and we eventually blocked the ip of the poster - heres one hidden example. but theres more here - all archived on the "ocean girl" list. what a great tool shayne has made there - "og" is an application or code or tool of some sort that monitirs the incoming posts on the perth indymedia newswire. it records the posts in an email list and deposits the link into the perth irc. ocean girl is a great tool and more imcs should use it for maintaining the integrity of Open Publishing...

fuck i love the perth imc geex. they rock fully!

thanks ocean girl!

we were deleting them as they came in - musta been a dozen fuckhead comments and stories. i'm glad we have a small but strong crew of dedicated indymedia activistas online [around 20 hours a day - between us mob].

anyone attempting to maintain the newswire integrity of an indymedia site must realise their absolute responsibility to the media commons [i will write more about this notion of the media commons atsome point] they have helped create. nazi trolls and those with somthing to prove simply kill the notion of what we're trying to achieve. theres a whole other essay tangent on the nature of Open Publishing and "edtitorial police" [more later?] chuck-o has a good yarn on the subject somewhere - and we've done it to death in the perth imc discussion list archives.

so yeah, open publishing needs a degree of moderator responsibility. but more on the situation today - it all goes back to a bitter and verbose dispute between fighting members of the Brisbane Indymedia collective. seems the original members had a massive fallout and the group became completely dissillusioned and factionalised. this forced several of the founding members [some 8 people] from the group. a couple remained and let the open publishing newswire go to absolute shite.

so anyway, the fighting became so bitter the legendary c@t crew geeks wanted the bully faction off their servers. since then some members of the oceania.indymedia crew jumped in to help with editorial stuff. well, that really irked the new skool bimc heavies and they spat a myriad emails at the oceania crew, who had nothing but the best intentions of indymedia affinity. the new guys refused to see this and tookm it as a hostile "takeover"!

since this happened some people in the oceania crew wanted to disaffiliate bris from the regional collective... and some of us blocked the proposal as it all seemed a bit harsh and authoritarian.

god this is gonna take a while to write about...

and there is an oceania regional meeting now - end...

MORE SOON.

al_

CARCRASHFACE - in denial

2004-11-08T01:41:00.000+08:00

Richard Eames just asked me about Car Crash Face - one of my noisier collaborations.

we havent played for a while... our last 2 gigs were on the Invasion Day weekend 2004 - at the Anarchist Ball as part of Anarcon04, and the No Fly Zone benefit gig. we usually play at something during Artrage but we didnt this year... i'd say we'll be doing some thing somewhere soon one day! maybe at one of the upcoming indymedia screenings... [or perhaps at a new regular gig i'm hoping to start up in feb - Openmouth Dissent - more on that soon]

car crash face have a recording, which we released a while ago... in 2000 i think. we recorded with Dr Alien Smith at Bergerk Studio - i'm not sure if he has any copies left - its called: "Car Crash Face - There Is No Such thing As A Mistake (Sound Gallery) CDR" catalogue number: "BSG005". Mar Bucknell [fellow CCF noisician] and i were talking the other day about doing another recording soon.

anyway, so i did some googling. beware: car crash face is a dodgy thing to search the internet for! but heres some snips...

"Car Crash Face is more a band, with members who were previously in Magick Trousers. From what I understand a pretty heavy affair. Car Crash Face have four members who operate on a line of casio, toys, pc loops, guitar, moog. Their CDR release is full of weirdness playing, which however didn't make a consistent sound to me. Crazyness at it's best, but it never made any impression on me. (FdW)" found here

"Rising from the ashes of the infamous Magic Trousers, Car Crash Face combine Moog, Audio Mulch, Casios, Guitar, Toys and vocals to create an electronic based mish mash of sound collage and atmospherics. This is in true essence an electronic record, but the best kind, utilizing technolgy and analogue sound sources to deconstruct music and build it up again in new and refreshing ways. With a total of 15 tracks ranging from 10 minute epics to 1 minute bursts of weirdness, this CD sets in concrete the Car Crash Face sound. From: The Sound Gallery Series of Limited Edition Australian Experimental CDR's

the original - now chronically outta date CCF site

Car Crash Face Biography - CCF formed in 2000, the leftover sonic bile from perth, western australia's notorious performance poetry experimental noise-art band, the MAGICK TROUSERS. With the now-redundant legacy of the magick trousers behind them [banned from over 4 venues and hated by many], and only sonic remnants for a canvas, CCF attempt to defy the stifling structures of hegemonic music. Using moog, casio, radios, cds, computer-driven loops, toys, guitars and various found objects, CCF seek to find music in noise and noise in music. The Car Crash Face mission is clear: isolate, deconstruct, destroy the very essence of sonic meaning. Car Crash Face [anti-sonic noise-art] assembled their toys in march 2001and headed into Bergerk! Studios. working with Lux Mammoth/Bergerk! overlord, Dr Alien Smith, these nasty aural deconstructors have created an album's worth of noise gems, unfit for unsonic mothers.

the car crash gang consists of Allan Boyd - PCloops/guitar/shout, Mar Bucknell - casio/toys, Father Abe Dunovits - radios/noisetoys/shoutfeedback, Dr Jon Kirby - MOOG.

"This entire CD-R was recorded in two improvised takes, tweaking only the levels during the mixing process. Not bad, especially considering that the first track is more than 10 minutes of interesting experimental electronics with nice integration of samples and even some live instrumentation. The fact that four people were involved probably helped a lot as far as layering and structuring. Most of the other tracks are far shorter, though also less interesting to me because the instrumentation (guitar/bass) becomes more random and more noticeable. I'm not really fond of noisy music that dwells too highly on haphazardly executed stringed instrument performances, especially when the sound sources are easily identifiable as such.

When they integrate samples and loops, including beats, and let bizarre electronics take control while the guitar/bass fiddling sort of falls to the background (see "360 Degrees in Rehearsal (Owings)" it's far more effective. But I could do with tracks like "Mistake 6 (Reprise in A# Major)" altogether, as there's no real substance. Elsewhere the group displays the ability to create wonderful ambient drones with the bass as well as creating nice electronic layers, so I'm not sure why so many tracks are similar in their minimal, and basically boring delivery.

The CD-R comes packaged in a nice sleeve printed on semi-transparent orange paper with simple text and abstract images. "Support Piracy Copy Burn Distribute" is posted on the back cover, which I'm all for in cases like these. I seem to have the same general feeling about most of the Bergerk! releases that I've heard. All have promising elements, but I guess my personal tastes interfere as I'm not particularly fond of improvised recordings of this nature, so I'd rather hear them pick and choose their strengths and refine them in thoroughly constructed pieces." By Aversionline Zine

i like this one: an Italian Review here at the kathodike website...
especially when translated to english...

and apparently u can get a cd here:
www.kormplastics.nl

or just comment here or send me an email.
allanx--AT--indymedia--DOT--org

cheerio...
X_al

sunday thinking about corporate apathy and the consumer culture...

2004-11-07T22:05:00.000+08:00

thinking about the links between GET THE LATEST mobile phone ringtones and toxic spillage - but don't know where to start!

some other ideas for writing:
copyright obedience kills creativity in art and culture;
homogeneous/monoculture representations;
open source is my godhead;
sign>signifier>signified...

hmmm
back later...

making this today:
baxter05.info

corporate thuggery

2004-11-07T01:36:00.000+08:00

just spent this evening researching ALCOA for an indymedia feature story. seems everytime i look into a corporation it leads back to the USA Government. when i was looking at the Cable Sands Ludlow Forest desecration, i found the CEOs all fed back into the Whitehouse in some form or another. indeed the Cable Sands executive mob can be traced back to the Bin Laden Group - eg: Cable Sands > RZM > BeMAx > Sojitz > Cristal > Saudi Ti02 Co > Bin Laden Group

Alcoa is a massive corporate global mob... with direct links to the Whitehouse. eg: From December 2000: "On his busiest day of transition announcements yet, Bush also picked the chairman of Alcoa, Paul O'Neill, to be his treasury secretary..." O'Neill has since left the cabinet and has criticised Bush but still - the links are there.

here in WA they operate BAUXITE mines and refineries and other stuff. besides some hideous reports of toxic output from its stacks over the last coupla decades, recently there have been continual reports of spillage from the Kwinanna Refinery - like 8 spills in the last 5 months!
see indy feature here...

ha! and as i'm writing this, during a quick last minute google for more info: there's a sunday times story on the subject of Alcoa spillage.

al_

L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E

2004-11-06T13:52:00.000+08:00

its good to rediscover the "language poets". over the last few years of internet growth, a lot of stuff has been documented and made available for research and contemplation.

i'm gonna use this entry as a launching point for an article on the language poets. did i say Wikipedia rocks? well it does...

language poets?

when i was studying English at Curtin Uni a few years back, one of our tutors, Anne Brewster, introduced us to a group of avante garde poets from the 1970s - The "L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E" poets are concerned with the notions of representations in language.

will add more later - this is a draft
b_X

scenes from an animation i'm constructing

2004-11-06T02:45:00.000+08:00

i've just started uploading some images from an animation i'm working on. [ See the Directory here ]

these images are random files from the experiment. its gonna be a long slog. i havent even thought about how many i'm gonna need for say a five minute piece. i spose 24 frames per second x 60 x 5 = around 7000 individual pix. woah.

as with most things i do, theres an emphasis on the "incidental guerilla" aspect of art process, of RE-presenting culture in a random manner, yet applying anti-authoritarian structures at times, in an attempt to REappropriate the images of everyday suburban/net culture.

for me, its real art, where the intention is not commodification. indeed a rejection of commodification in art - ie the ideology behind everything in a capitalist existence - is revolutionary, radical and inspires dissent...

with this little film, basically the idea is derived from the notion of Visual Poetry vs Nu Collage. its an experiment okay!

i intend to use these as integrated background for projecting as a visual backdrop during my anarko-poetry, music and sonic performances... and as a web-based file to share.

btw, i just love the wikipedia project... eg: What is Poetry?

---

these images below from "the writer is dead" oct28.04

brother_X - the inside story

2004-11-05T14:50:00.000+08:00

i spose i better put up some info about who i am...
[see also: BIO on my antipoet.blog]

me: as at friday november 5 2004

i'm a 38 yr old white man living in perth, western australia.
despite my distate of institutional authority,
i am married to the most excellent person on this planet.
i have 2 crankin kids - boys 10 and 12 yo. they rock my world.

people call me an anarchist. i spose i am. i hate authority. and hierarchical stuctures.
i helped organise an anarchist conference earlier this year - and i hang with anarko crew.

i have no real consumer-culture time commitments, nor a credit card, nor a motor vehicle, nor a mortgage... i critique and resist much of what our cultural myths represent. television for example is not much more than a "product placed between products"; "advertising is killing the planet"... i do not desire to accumulate wealth, nor have materialistic intentions.

for work: i am a treeplanting contractor during the winter months, and since 1998 i've planted around 2 million trees [approx 2000 hectares] in the plantation forests of wa's south west and beyond.

i am a poet - in fact i am the antipoet:
as well as writing the stuff, i do perfomance poetry at various venues in perth, on radio, and have travelled interstate several times to arts/poetry festivals to spit my werd bits on the world. i also do poetry workshops, and make zines too.

here's my antipoet manifesto if you want to read a radical perspective on why poetry is fucked. since 1995 i've been organisng poetry related stuff too, and kinda got into underground community arts projects, such as the Openmouth poetry Readings and the woodwork Zine and developed my anarko radicalistix performance poetry style from there.

theoretically, i am heavily influenced by the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets... i love the performance poetry of aussie poets PieO, Jas Duke and ACR.

i am also impressed by current avante garde political/poetic hip-hop and of course, the Last Poets - who say: "When the moment hatches in time's womb there will be no art talk, The only poem you will hear will be the spearpoint pivoted in the punctured marrow of the villain....Therefore we are the last poets of the world..." yeah i like that.

whilst i am not an afro-american, i can fully relate to the sentiment of the Last Poets. and as a student of language culture i understand fully the rhetoric of the time and the necessity for a militant werd. they are the precursors to hip-hop, man!

music: i'm also a musician, guitarist and songwriter - my indie band is called: miteyKo. its a sedate affair with poetic pop lyrics cello guitar drums and swooshes of keys. kinda indie pop style. [theres mp3 stuff here when i find the bloody link! ] we've released 3 independant CDs and recently an animated music video. we don't play a great deal but we get played a bit on cimmunity radio. miteyKo were also in a feature film soundtrack - "Teesh and Trude". [ See: miteyKo review]

i've also been involved with experimental arts since the mid 90s, including an outfit here in perth called The Magick Trousers - which evolved into CarCrashFace. i used to make noise on my guitar and some old tape-decks. then i got acomputer.

i also do laptop key-jay sonic beats, ambience and anarko noise - under the BoZo moniker. i like to compose music and other sonic-art on my PC using Cool Edit and Audiomulch. i play sparodically around the place at benefit gigs and local digi-electro shows like Semikazi.

late last year i made a soundtrack for a short film by WA media-maker Richard Eames called Violent Blue Light Ghosts. its won a bunch of awards. i also have stuff played on local television each week as part of the theme for Stayers on Channel31.

since TINA02 i'm a stencil artist too. i do the occasional bit of street stuff. but i get fully wacked on the Empty Show concept. and generally putting art in places it aint sposed top be...

indymedia: but probly the main thing i've directed a lot of energy and focus over the last year or so, is as part of a group building an online activist-oriented media project: perth.indymedia.org... the Indymedia project is a global network of Open Publishing sites. there are around 160 sites operating independantly and in affinity in an effort to "Reclaim The Media Commons" across the planet. our philosophy is: "Don't Hate the Media - Become the Media". An article about Perth Indymedia here ?

radio: on Tuesday nights i co-present 2 talks-based radio programs on RTRFM 92.1 - News From Nowhere - dissident deconcstruction of the media and political satire; and the Perth Indymedia Radical Radio Show - news, interviews and discussion of activist events.

in a nutshell i am a full-time radical anarchist/activista is deeply interested in human and ecological rights.
and i won't stop. ever...

please contact me for a yarn:
allanxATindymediaDOTorg
or just comment here on this blog.

i wont bite
much.
: )

brother_X

FOUR MORE WARS - a million more dead?

2004-11-04T14:09:00.000+08:00

indymedia

so - there ya go. it happened... again. liberal politics fucked up.

four more years of fearless US Bushite neo-conservatism. it had to happen. theres a scary pattern emerging here - its frightening to compare our countries election results.

australia can be considered a reflection of the US a lot of the time and i'm begining to fully realise that both our countries have completely fucked it up. the more they yell about "terrorism" the less safe the world becomes, the more they scream about "democracy" the more our democratic er, "freedoms" are taken away. just need to look at the "ASIO anti-terror laws" to see what the Gov's got planned. the definitions of a "Terrorist" are broadening to include peace activists and bank tellers!

watching the Presidential election results unfold yesterday and into the night, was like watchin the Oz election results on ABC the other week, watching each state counted and declared - then seing the incumbent leader take the mantle of victory - albeit cautiously. bush reminded me so much of howard's wry smile. both howard and bush gained a bit more polotical power - all apparently okayed by the respective democratic populus. it'll be interesting to see if/when bush introduces the Draft/Conscription [Compulsary Military Service] in the US next year...

without going into too much detail, to examine these election results, is evidence of the fearful and credit money-driven monoculture we inhabit. we continuously tread those less fortunate, those with less access to the supposed supportive systems of capitalism, those with out the ability or desire to accumulate wealth, we tread them into the ground as if it were our democratic "right". we've seen here in australia that [around half] the people are fine with a untruthful and misleading leader. same goes for the US now. the "protest vote" is just not powerful enough. some activists are saying its high time for Direct Action - whatever that means. and hey, it always has been. as an objector to hierarchy and government its a duty is to apply energy outside of the parlimentary systems, when they have failed to deliver the aims, when government has completely dismissed the voices of the oppressed and persecuted - u gotta do what u gotta do - when yr entrusted leaders can't manage a humane approach to living.

the older i get, and the more elections i go through, the more i realise that we are becoming an apathetic culture to the extreme. i'm embracing concepts of anarchism more n more. i sort of always meant to be one, and have been discussing and applying the notions of anti-heirarchy since i was a kid. but i've came across anarchism and realise that the ideas Emma Goldman etc were the same ideas i've been having all my life. i didnt discover anarchism - it discovered me!

[regarding the nuances of anarchists, however, i was really affronted the other week when doing the NFN radio show. after reading out a very articulate post-election piece, Mar called Human Rights Lawyer, Julian Burnside, a whinging "liberal" - wow... that really seemed to kick me in the face. especially whilst we were on air. i was fully flummoxed. especially when you realise that Burnside is a brilliant legal head fighting ProBono for the rights of asylum seekers in the High Court etc. he is a true aussie legend. to hear Mar bash him like that was devastating. yet i fully agree with him! go figure...]

i can't stand bush, howard and co. when i think of the 100,000 dead iraqi people, killed within a year by the USA and the global war coalition - i wonder how many more dead there are gonna be... like a few million by the time that fucker is finished. someone needs to take him out for the good of humanity!

its good to see people in the streets though: us.indymedia.org/en

more later.
al

aboriginal nation - yeah bring it orn

2004-11-03T13:07:00.000+08:00

Germaine Greer's "Whitefella Jump Up"

'...wants every Australian whitefella and whitesheila to sit down in front of a mirror and say, "I live in an Aboriginal country . She says that this simple declaration could change Australia and its relationship with the rest of the world. "All the trappings of fake Britishness could be ditched" and "with one bound [Australia] could free itself from its spurious identification with the WASP 'axis of evil'". [Greer says that] "If we followed the Aboriginal course, we could follow the Aboriginal precedent and simply absent ourselves from activities that we knew to be evil and pointless." Most important, accepting that Australia is an Aboriginal country could save the environment. "Whitefellas simply look away when I point to the devastation inflicted on the island continent," she writes. "The denial of the disaster continues; the devastation accelerates."'

i'm reading Germaine Greer's "Whitefella Jump Up"... been looking for it for ages. i remember seeing her on Denton and some other tv interview some months ago, and feeling alligned with her fiesty comments - much to the dismay of the interviewers!

its extremely refreshing to read the anarchistic punches of Greer's assault at the spine of aussie culture. aussies have a distinct distaste for the irreverent academic. i love it. Germaine is the sort of person i could sit under a tree and yarn with for days...

all her points are salient and lucid. she cuts to the bone and makes no apologies. her strident ecological views and articulate embrace of a national aboriginality is remarkable in an unforgiving corporate culture now dominated by neo-conservative agendas. hers is an offering of antithesis toward some kind of synthesis to the current malaise. she is postulating a fresh and alternative solution to the horrendous social problems facing indigenous crew in the 21st century. and its not just aboriginal people that are affected by this cultural neglect - its tearing at the heart of aussie culture. its dividing us: we're crying inside - or becoming thicker-skinned.

her notions of the opening up of the aussie "interior" and the failure of whitefellas to adapt to the conditions of this country and its environmental management challenges are apt and cogent. her stark reflections on our use of language - ie: harsh descriptive words to explain the land to ourselves - the "desolation" poetry - is spot on.

personally, over the last few years, studying dissident media, and disecting the mainstream, from talking with all sorts of people [but radical activists in particular] i feel i'm obtaining a broader more succinct grasp of the underbelly of our aussie-ness and its languages of expression. i've been thinking this [what Greer and many others are saying] and attempting to articulate it for ages now. the longer i study and talk about these things the more i realise that its difficult to affect the struggle from suburbia. i wanna take my lil family and go lose myself in the desert - skillsharing the communities... lets go babe!

i'd like to read Greer's take on Refugee Rights. there is a crucial hub between the idea of a desperate indigenous people and asylum seekers in mandatory detention - the litany of inhumanity faced by refugees in this country is certainly worth consideration. in line with the persecution is the similar xenophobia. it's obvious: the perpetual jailing of asylum seekers, the "pacific solution", the treatment of the "other" particularly children; refoulment/forced deportations; an indefinate detention period for many - including children, compared with say, the Stolen Generation or Deaths in Custody or Land Rights etc. hmmm... hard to write about this.

when the rights of the individual - the Basic human rights ie: simple freedom of movement, good food, water, health, education, respect etc - have been threatened, restricted and removed.

[i'm not entirely sure how to articulate this though - might warrant some more research and some help - and a lot more writing and talking.]

one idea is that if the government can do this to a refugee [indefinate detention, deportation, bridging visas] - who has commited NO crime - then perhaps they can do the same to you...

that the struggles and persecutions of the aboriginal people have been perpetuated for over 2 centuries now - and their health is deteriorating further: currently rated "2nd worst in world" is indicative of australia's inability to face up to the aboriginality of this place.

Greer's hinting in her timely essay that if you are born in australia you are by default an aborigine is an interesting concept. if you consider yrself an aboriginie of this land you feel more "at home" here than anywhere else, it gives you a sense of belonging, perhaps an ownership of the "spirit" of this beautiful country. perhaps then we may feel like looking after the sacred places, fixing the environmental degredation, halting the ecocide.

so yeah - i can dig it - i live in an aboriginal nation and i want healing of this place.

one thing is definate though, we really need new ways of approaching the problem of eco-destructo corporate rape profit machines. perhaps Germaine's onto it. i certainly agree with her cogent rants.

i will add more to this rant later.

_________________

Reviews of GG's Article:
Telegraph Kate Chisholm reviews Whitefella Jump Up by Germaine Greer Dreaming it big 18/07/2004

slacker?

2004-11-03T10:10:00.000+08:00

yeah i know, i shoulda gone in.

but man i was sooooo tired and headachey... was a late late night the night before. and an early morning - kills ya eventually. sometimes i can go for a week with just a few hours sleep a night, then one day - bang! i crash!

its hard to get motivated, walkin across the suburbs to catch a bus/train/bus when yr absolutely stuffed. especialy when you've got a family to feed and a gorgeous partner to impress. i love my family. more than anything. and so they get principle attention...

doing an hour of independant media radio each week [2 hours every second week with news from nowhere] is quite a daunting task some weeks. you need to be well prepared and have lots of content. and be prepared to factually spill opinionated rants down the mic. love it!

i had the gear, lotsa stories and comments to make. but fuck i was tired. feellin heaps better today though.

i'll be back on the radio next week...

indy show tonight

2004-11-02T13:28:00.000+08:00

after going to bed at 3.45am - fuck i'm tired, and i gotta prepare a coupla hours of talks radio for tonight. gonna need a lotta coffee...

[yawns]

interesting to note the 100,000 dead iraqi civillians barely got a mention on the weekend corporate mediascape. didnt expect much more i spose. still, its an indictment of the way the world is represented by mainstream culture.

more to the point its typical. the more media i do, and over the the last coupla years its mounting, with Indymedia and News From Nowhere. its a constant dredging of the anarchist/dissident media networks for fresh content to consume comment and dissect, i come across so much info that never ever sees the nightly news... more on that later. thats what this blog is for!

listening to RTRFM right now: on the Out To Lunch show, Tim's playing William Shatner - "PULP's common people" - fucking wow. its not bad actually!

perth indy media radio RTRFM 92.1 in Perth WA. MIDNIGHT TUESDAY WA time! or www.rtrfm.com.au stream

fucking internet

2004-11-02T09:36:00.000+08:00

jeesus the net and all things PC can suck. although in a brilliant outcome way. i've just been trying to upload t's assignment to my space on the indy server. she'd tried last night to send it [10MB] via her email acct. but it never made it. she came to bed last night at around 4.30am, after working solid since 830 yesterday - that grrrrl is a fucking legend, i'm telling ya!

anyway, i keep trying to upload using a very neat tool called "WINSCP" which enables you to move files around on a server - i use the perth indymedia server to store bits n pieces of data. so, i successfully uploaded it - took about 15 mins. [slow server?]. which is strange on a broadband acct. i wonder if uploading is generally slower than downloading?

so there i am - uploaded, trying to figure out the link. my network places all ready to crash, screen flickering under stress.

she also had an empty folder - where i was supposed to find the file! :)

anyway its there now. i hope she finds it. she's so tired i bet.

i know i am.

antipoet2

2004-11-02T02:52:00.000+08:00

i am getting better with html skills. thanks to pabs and various googling. theres a good link in the sidebar to a html basics site...

first post

2004-11-02T00:57:00.000+08:00

i'm gonna use this blog to add random thoughts, dribblings etc.
i have another blog here: http://antipoet.blogspot.com
but thats poetry. this one i want to speak more. in paragraph/fragments etc.
fleshout a few ideas...

see what happens!