| HEADING GREECE
OFF AT THERMOPYLAE PASS In 1916 the Australian Prime Minister,
Billy Hughes, faced with a growing militant ant-war movement, the
threat of a general strike and leading a pro-conscription breakaway
faction of the Labor Party which relied on the Opposition to keep
him in power, called a conscription referendum. The Australian people
despite the widespread hysteria surrounding the conscription referendum
narrowly voted NO in December 1916 and in a second referendum in
1917 saving another 60,000 young Australian men from being sacrificed
on the European killing fields for the glory of God, King and Country.
In 2011 the Greek Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou faced
with civil insurrection in the streets, the threat of a crippling
General Strike and a hopelessly divided government as a result of
the imposition of austerity measures on Greek workers and pensioners
for debts they believe they are not responsible for, has called
a referendum on the latest round of austerity measures imposed by
the European Union.
All hell has broken loose as a result of the Prime Minister giving
the Greek people the opportunity to decide on the latest round of
austerity measures. The European Union led by Germany and France
has refused to hand out any more bailout funds stating the proposed
referendum will be a referendum on Greece’s continued membership
of the European Union.
The Greek people are facing a decision that could have ramifications
that are as significant as the Spartan 300’s last ditch defence
of Thermopylae Pass in 480BC which gave the Greek City States the
opportunity to marshal their forces to defeat the Persians, an event
that changed the course of Western history. In 2011 at the front
line in the struggle against the domination of the world economy
by corporate capitalism, an economic system based on the creation
of ever increasing profits for majority shareholders irrespective
of the human, social and environmental consequences, the Greek people
once again find themselves at a critical juncture in world history.
They can succumb to the extraordinary pressures they are facing
and support the austerity measures or they can reject the austerity
measures, leave the European Union and embark on a journey that
could very easily result in events that will have impacts on the
world as seven billion people move from a period of relative abundance
to scarcity that are as significant today as the 300 Spartans’
defence of Thermopylae Pass two and a half thousand years ago was.
It’s a Greek tragedy that the parliamentary machinations
on the government and opposition have now denied the Greek people
the opportunity to express their views in a referendum
BYE BYE AL Before Qantas was privatised
by the Labor government in 1995, I like many other Australians always
flew with the National Carrier. Since the airline was privatised,
seduced by Qantas’ safety record and its advertising campaigns,
I continued to fly with Qantas. Since Alan Joyce took over Qantas,
I have had reservations about flying on Qantas because of the confrontational
approach he has pursued with his workers and have begun using other
carriers.
Since Joyce shut down the Flying Kangaroo to make a point at the
expense of people using the airline and Qantas staff, I like many
other Australians will not be flying Qantas or Jetstar (a wholly
owned Qantas subsidiary) until Alan Joyce resigns. Qantas is one
industry that is totally dependent on its customers to maintain
its profitability. Qantas’ Board and its major shareholders
need to understand there is a political and economic price to be
paid for the CEO’s outrageous behaviour. The more people who
contact the Qantas Board about their decision to boycott Qantas
until Alan Joyce is removed as CEO, the sooner this dark chapter
in Australian industrial history will be put behind us. Alan Joyce
and the Qantas Board seem to have forgotten that in a service based
industry, the customer is king.
DISGUSTING
A hundred people camp in Melbourne’s City Square to highlight
corporate greed and the shortcomings of corporate capitalism, an
economic system based on creating ever increasing profits irrespective
of the human, social and environmental costs and all hell breaks
loose. Faced with a peaceful protest, Robert Doyle the Lord Mayor
of Melbourne, Ted Baillieu the Premier of Victoria, the corporate
owned media, the government gelded ABC and a significant proportion
of the community applaud as hundreds of police, the riot squad,
police dogs, mounted police, pressure points and capsicum spray
are used to drag protestors away.
The Qantas Board decides to ground its worldwide operations, stranding
almost 70,000 passengers in order to get the upper hand in an ongoing
dispute with its staff and the public debate is all about how the
Qantas Board and CEO Alan Joyce had no option but to ground the
airline. Can you imagine the hue and cry that would have occurred
if the occupation of Melbourne City Square had caused the widespread
disruption the Qantas Board’s action caused. There would have
been calls to call in the Australian Armed Forces to deal with the
chaos caused and those responsible to bear full responsibility for
their actions. No wonder an increasing number of Australians no
longer trust anything anybody in authority in this country says
or does.
I LOVE FREEPORT MCMORAN
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Prime Minister in waiting, Taliban Tony
Abbott, need to take lessons from Freeport McMoran in West Papua
to learn how to deal with troublesome unionists. No pussy footing
around compulsory arbitration and worker lockouts with this mob.
Local West Papuan workers angry at “imports” getting
salaries that make theirs look like loose change are demanding a
whole US $7.50 an hour for their labour.
Over the past month they have been involved in a bitter industrial
dispute which has resulted in the deaths of five workers in clashes
that have occurred between police and unionists. West Papua has
been occupied by Indonesia for over five decades. A former Dutch
colony it was handed over to the Indonesian authorities in the mid
1960’s. Since then over half a million West Papuans have died
in a simmering independence conflict which, despite the overthrow
of the Indonesian dictator Suharto the decade ago, which transformed
Indonesia from a dictatorship to a nominal democracy, the Indonesian
military continue to run West Papua as its personal fiefdom.
The United States owned Freeport McMoran has been paying its West
Papuan labour force peanuts for decades because of its close relationship
with the Indonesian police and military. For years it has paid the
Indonesian military and police in West Papua “pocket money”
on top of their normal wages to keep the restive Melanesian workforce
in their place.
If only Alan Joyce and the Prime Minister in waiting, Taliban Tony
Abbott, took a leaf out of Freeport McMoran’s and Victorian
Premier Ted Baillieu’s book. Ted Baillieu has just entered
into a very cosy pay agreement with the Victoria Police Association
after its members violently evicted those pesky Occupy Melbourne
protestors from the Melbourne City Square and Joyce and Abbott offered
to pay Australian Federal Police and Armed Forces “pocket
money” on top of their wages to keep disruptive unionists
in their place, we wouldn’t have had all that trouble at Qantas.
PITY THOSE THAT FORGET THEIR PAST
The latest victims of the Israeli government’s attempts to
turn Israel into a Jewish state are the Bedouins. In 1948 the Bedouins
were moved into a triangle of land in the Neger desert. The Bedouin,
although they make up 30% of the population of the Neger in Southern
Israel, continue to live on 2.5% of the land.
Herded into 45 Bedouin villages, they have lived in the Neger for
the last 63 years waiting to return to the traditional lands they
were evicted from when the Israeli state was created in 1948. On
the 11th September this year the Israeli government adopted the
Prawer Plan, a plan to evict the 40,000 Bedouins living in the Neger
desert to build more Jewish settlements.
The descendants of the Bedouin refugees of 1948 are once again
being forcibly evicted from their homes. This week bulldozers arrived
at what are described as “unrecognised” villages and
crushed the homes of Bedouins without giving the occupants the opportunity
to empty their homes. Those that resisted were beaten.
The Netanyahu cabinet has decided to demolish 35 of the existing
45 villages, seize two thirds of the Bedouin lands and extinguish
Bedouin land right claims without proper compensation. In exchange
they will provide government services to the remaining villages.
The Neger Bedouins never received government services in the past
although they were forced to pay taxes and join the Israeli Army.
It seems where Jewish settlements are concerned, the State of Israel
is willing to ride roughshod over the rights of its non-Jewish citizens
in a manner that highlights the racist nature of the Israeli state.
ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER
Q. What is
the retirement age in an anarchist society?
A. Retirement age? It doesn’t
exist. Work in a capitalist society is all about getting enough
money to live the life of Riley when you're too old to enjoy it.
Wage slavery is wage slavery, whether you dress it up in the latest
superannuation suit or not. You work to live not slave for your
old age in an anarchist society. Living in a society where the “Common
wealth is used for the common good, where participation in the struggle
to fulfil real, not manufactured human needs, dominates everyday
life means the insecurities that accompany old age in a capitalist
society are not an issue.
Living in a society where your long term future is dependent on
the health of the society you live in, sharpens the mind, forces
you to work co-operatively for the common good. The amount and type
of work you do as you get older is dependent on you. You're not
pushed onto the scrapheap at a certain age¸ watching daytime
television while you worry about what's happening to your superannuation
nest egg as you try to put aside enough money for that trip of a
lifetime you'll be too old to enjoy.
You are part of your community in an anarchist society. You contribute
according to your ability. Capacity, not age, is the criteria that
determines whether you contribute and how much you contribute. Retirement
is a personal choice, you may choose not to retire until the day
you draw your last breath, you may choose to retire at fifty. Capacity
and interest determine your retirement age in a capitalist society,
not a number pulled out of the air to satisfy some arbitrary cut
off point in your life.
ACTION BOX
OOPS!!
UNFINISHED MONUMENT TO BATMAN’S TREATY
Sorry, I got it wrong last week. I didn’t realise the Unfinished
Monument to Batman’s Treaty project had made it to the finals
of the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture. The “central component”
of this sculpture is an A4 sheet of paper. Tens of thousands (yes,
tens of thousands) will form a plinth like stack at Melbourne’s
Federation Square.
Tom Nicholson, the creator of the Unfinished Monument to Batman’s
Treaty project will be at Federation Square from the 7th –
21st November 2011. He needs your help. He is asking for people
who are interested in getting involved in the sculpture project
to help him hand out A4 sheets of paper to people who turn up at
Federation Square or anybody else who may be interested in the project.
He wants people to attach the A4 sheet to the chimneys in their
homes. In this way the city’s chimneys are gradually re-inscribed
as a commemoration of the city’s first chimney built by William
Buckley (the convict who escaped from the failed convict settlement
at Sorrento in 1803, who lived with the Wathaurong around Corio
Bay until Batman and Fawkner arrived in 1835) Murrangurk (William
Buckly) built the first chimney in Melbourne for John Batman who,
together with John Fawkner, founded the city of Melbourne in 1835.
His claim to fame is he claims he signed a treaty with Wurundjeri
elders on the 6th June 1835 that gave him ownership of over 600
square kilometres for the price of a bagful of trinkets and mirrors.
The sculpture project highlights the unfinished business that still
exists between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians not just
in Melbourne but the rest of Australia.
If by some chance Tom Nicholson wins the $60,000 first prize he
will use the money to build a project space in Brunswick, Melbourne
that ‘will operate as a rent-free non-profit project space
for experimental art projects and activism, run by a small collective
of artists and activists”.
A win, win situation for everyone involved. INTERESTED Telephone
Tom Nicholson on 0409 253 869 email him unfinishedmonument@hotmail.com
or turn up to the sculpture exhibition in Federation Square, Melbourne,
between the 7th-21st November and lend a hand.
What have you got to lose?
AUSTRALIAN RADICAL HISTORY
THE EUREKA SERIES 2011 NO.11
PHOEBE EMMERSON SCOBIE 1832-1899
George and Phoebe Emmerson ran a small store on the Eureka goldfields.
She was managing the store by herself in December 1854 because her
husband was ill with a lung infection. A gutsy 22 year old at the
time of the rebellion. Phoebe Watson was born in Durham in England
on the 15th December 1832. She married George Emmerson in 1852.
At great personal risk to herself she sheltered three miners in
her tiny shop, George Black, John Humffray and George Scobie, on
the morning of the 3rd December 1854 when the Eureka goldfields
were littered with the bodies of the dead and dying. Hearing one
of her dogs barking she left the shelter of her shop that morning
and found Peter Lalor semi-conscious bleeding from a gunshot wound
to his arm hiding under a pile of wood. She ripped up her petticoat
and bound up his wounds and went to see Father Smyth to arrange
for people to carry Lalor to the presbytery where later that day
he had his arm amputated. When, on the following day, soldiers found
blood stained rags lying next to her store, she denied any knowledge
about them and shook until “her head nearly fell off”.
George and Phoebe Emmerson had two children, a daughter and a son.
Her husband died in 1857 aged 28 a few months after their son was
born.
She married George Scobie, one of the men she had sheltered in
her store on the 3rd December 1854, in 1860. They had seven children.
Two of their seven children died in infancy, her son from her previous
marriage died aged 13 in 1870. Her second husband George Scobie
died in a work related accident in 1874 leaving her to raise five
daughters by herself. Her eldest daughter died in 1882, aged 21.
She took in washing and ironing to survive. She died aged 66 on
the 19th October 1899. Her surviving daughters Sarah Ann Emmerson/Nance
died in 1940, Fanny Scobie Quick died in 1941, Mary Jane Scobie
Frood died in 1935, Margaret Ellen Scobie/Arthur died in 1930 and
her youngest daughter Barbara two months after Georgina Scobie Stewart,
who was born just two months after her father was killed in an accident
in 1874, died on the 2nd October 1958.
Phoebe Emmerson Scobie’s life was full of hardships. She
was one of those women involved in the Eureka Rebellion who never
received the recognition they deserved for the important role they
played in this pivotal moment in Australian history.
Source: The Eureka Encyclopaedia 2004, ISBN 1 87647861-6
BOOK REVIEW
ITALY – THE BEAUTIFUL COOKBOOK
Authentic Recipes from Regions of Italy
Lorenza de Medici
Text by Patrizia Passigli
Weldon Owen Pty Ltd 1990
ISBN 1 875 137092
The good thing about going to church fetes is you can pick up some
extraordinary books for a song. This Saturday was no exception,
I came away with four coffee table books for the princely sum of
$10. This book is a labour of love, photographs are extraordinary,
the recipes are nutritious and healthy. The 1980’s was the
time the penny dropped in Australia that the Mediterranean diet
had a lot more going for it than the three soggy veg and meat diet
that the nation was used to. Dieticians finally realised the Italian
migrants that came to Australia in the 1940’s and 1950’s
knew a little bit about nutritious and healthy food.
A few extraordinary things about this book is it was published
by a Sydney based company and typeset in Australia, something you
wouldn’t see in 2011. The book itself examines Italian cooking
in terms of regions as well as the type of courses cooked. Italy
is divided into five chapters, Il Nord-Ovest, Il Nord-East, Il Centro,
Il Sud and Le Grandi Isole (which includes Sicilia and Sardegna).
Courses include Gli Antipasti, I Primi, I Secondi, Le Verdure and
I Dolci.
The book, as you would expect from a coffee table book, is full
of bright glossy colour photographs of individual dishes, ingredients
and regions of Italy. A feast for the eyes in an era when food did
not enjoy the central place it enjoys in Australian society today.
The politics of food are integral to Italian political life. Italy
has a rich tradition of small shops, farms and markets providing
the necessities of life. Globalisation and corporatisation has,
since this book was published, homogenised all aspects of the food
story in Italy. The slow food movement and the passage of laws that
protect small farms and shops from the corporate juggernaut are
becoming an important part of an Italian political movement that
values traditions that go back thousands of years. I wonder how
many pastry shops still exist in Messina, Sicily. In 1991 the city
had over 400 pastry shops supplying sweets to a quarter of a million
people. I doubt half those shops are still open today.
I don't think you'll find Italy – The Beautiful Cookbook
for sale today. Try your local church fete, you never know it may
have been an Australian best seller in 1991.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION Calves sculptured
by one too many visits to the gym, skin pale yellow a homage to
too many spray on tans. Her feet encased in black high heel shoes
modestly push her derriere against a dress designed to highlight
her figure without pushing her spine into the unnatural lordosis
her stiletto heeled sisters assume as their centre of gravity is
pushed from their lumber to their thoracic spine. Her torso disappears
from sight as she takes a backward step. I keep rummaging through
the mail on the car seat next to me, trying to decide which letters
I’ll post today. 8.37am, a glorious morning, I open the car
door and scramble out letters piled high in the crook of my arm.
She’s standing next to the post office, scanning the road.
Forty something, the faint lines around her eyes give away her age.
Out of place in a bust suburban street at that hour of the morning.
Not a hair out of place, too well groomed to be out in the street
at 8:37am after a night of clubbing.
Gripped in her left hand what looks like a milliner’s masterpiece,
red strands lovingly stitched together to allow the sunlight to
highlight the colour of her hair. I stumble past her, filling the
letterbox with an assortment of postal flotsam and jetsam. As the
pile of letters in the crook of my arm disappears my mind turns
back to 1958, a seven year old in torn pants on the outskirts of
Brisbane has just seen an angel, pale blue three quarter length
dress, rouged cheeks, black hair flowing in the wind, bright red
lipstick, she skips towards the dust filled road as an FJ Holden
pulls up to take her back to heaven. The crook in my arm is suddenly
empty, I turn around, passing by her I nonchalantly blurt out, “an
early start for Oaks Day”, she answers back, “yes it
is”, “good luck” I reply. She smiles as she cranes
her neck looking for that FJ Holden to take her to the races on
Oaks Day – Ladies Day. Heaven on a stick for many, a story
of never ending cruelty for others .
STOP PRESS
IT DOESN’T EXIST
The biggest news this week that didn’t make the headlines
is the global amount of carbon dioxide emitted is the biggest on
record. News, you’d write home to mother about has been ignored
by governments and the fourth estate. Just in case you think I made
it up, I'm afraid the United States Department of Energy released
to “good news” that “heat trapping carbon dioxide
has jumped by the biggest amount on record”.
The world (you and me) pumped out 512 more million tons of carbon
dioxide in 2010 than we did in 2009 (an increase of 6%). I can't
wait to see the 2011 figures. At this rate I’ll be able to
grow mangos in Melbourne before I turn 70. Who said climate change
was all bad. Just in case you're going to blame all those cows on
the planet for the record increase in carbon levels, I'm afraid
that Mr. Boden, the director of the US energy department’s
carbon dioxide information analysis centre said the increasing use
of fossil fuels was the “chief contributor of man-made climate
change”. It seems those amateurs on the Intergovernmental
Panel on climate change got it all wrong in 2007. Mr. Boden claims
the current rate of carbon dioxide emissions is higher “than
the worst case projections from the panel”.
Don't despair, the climate change flat earthers led by Opposition
leader Taliban Tony Abbott will save us, they will give up their
last breath to ensure the world’s biggest emitters of carbon
dioxide don't pay one extra cent in tax and if they do because of
implementation of the Gillard carbon tax, Taliban Tony Abbott will
give them back the thirty billion dollars in tax collected when
the Prime Minister in waiting gets hold of the keys to the Lodge.
I love living in the land of Oz, a land where making a buck takes
precedence over life itself.
POEM – Stephen Roberts
SOILED
I threw dog’s faeces to the wind
I threw my face to the wind
away from all other faces
I knew my reflections were grim
At home scowls bartered for howls
TV smiles the only merchandise
A commuter I was confirmed
Office banter wrested from wound up faces
Faces at the Bar horribly scarred
Faces in the betting ring stung
Faces on billboards
gargoyles giving the good poison
ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK
CNT No.382 Oct 2011, Organo de la Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo,
Apdo Correos 385, C.P. 10080 Caceres, SPAIN Tel/Fax 927 240 523,
Web: www.periodicocnt.org
UMANITA NOVA Vol 91 No.27 28th Oct 2011, Settimanale Anarchico
Founded 1920, Federico Denitto, CP 812 Trieste Centro, 34132 Triese
TS, ITALY. Tel/Fax : 0585 75143, Mobile : 380 7351789
www.umanitanova.org
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