‘Democracy’ is on the retreat throughout the world because the forms of government that claim to be democratic are democratic in name only. Increasing community dissatisfaction with the 57 different varieties of ‘democracy’ around the world (all unfit for human consumption) is directly related to the fact that governments have no control over economic factors. You can make all the decisions you like, but if you don’t have access to the resources to make those decisions a reality, democracy means nothing.

Democracy isn’t about electing representatives to make decisions for you, it is about making decisions and electing or appointing delegates to coordinate those decisions at a local, regional and federal level. If coordination is impossible, delegates would have the power to reach a compromise decision. This modified decision would have to go back to the groups that made the original decision for ratification before the compromise reached could be implemented.

Democracy is about the community, not the State or private corporations exercising control over the ‘commonwealth’ so communities have the resources to implement decisions made by the community Parliamentary democracy – Clayton’s democracy – is a salve for the gullible. Direct democracy is the hard core stuff a disillusioned world is yearning for.

The problem with Victoria’s attempts to deal with road safety is that the line between State revenue raising and road safety have become blurred in the public’s mind. Many of the government’s road safety initiatives especially speed and red light cameras are seen by many Victorian motorists as nothing more than another tax. Considering around $800 million was poured into the State coffers during 2007 as a result of traffic fines (the great bulk generated by speed and red light cameras), the government’s road safety message is lost on many Victorians, as Tim Pallas grapples with new ways to sell the road safety message to an increasingly sceptical public.

Road safety is as much a matter of attitude as it is of having appropriate road safety programs. Increasing public disillusionment with those segments of the Victorian road safety program that are clearly designed to raise revenue, not tackle the road toll, are reflected in the attitude that many Victorian drivers display when they get behind the wheel It is a pity that the attitude that saw previous Victorian governments implement successful ground breaking initiatives to reduce the road toll has been subverted by the State government using the very important issue of road safety to generate income.

In light of what is happening in the community, the Victorian State government’s attitude to road safety needs to be urgently reassessed. Legislative attempts to reduce the road toll that alienate the very people they are designed to help, reinforces the negative attitudes to road safety that have developed in Victoria. While these attitudes exist, the task of reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries that occur on Victoria’s roads is an almost impossible task.

Our campaign was hamstrung by the fact that we were not a registered political party; this meant we had no party name next to our box above the line and were denied the use of the word ‘Independent’ by legislation that has been pushed through Federal Parliament to deny independents the opportunity to fight the Federal election on a level playing field. When electors looked at the Victorian Senate paper, they were confronted by 23 boxes above the line, 19 had party names next to them and 4 were blank. Below the line on the Senate paper underneath their respective boxes, were the candidate’s names.

Electors, who chose to mark our boxes above and below the line, did so because they recognised the names stood for a radical ticket. I’m not stupid enough to believe that everybody who voted for us, voted for us because they supported our political program. Many people voted for us because they knew we were people with integrity who were willing to put our heads above the parapet to promote ideas and policies that would benefit people as a whole. Those who voted for us knew they were voting for anarchists because of the publicity we have been able to generate over the years in Victoria for anarchist ideas. It is likely many people voted for us because of the public stands we have taken.

Now let us look at the figures. As you know, there are statistics and statistics. I will look at the figures in a number of ways and you can make up your mind what it all means.

5,695 Victorians voted for us. What at first seems like a significant number needs to be taken in the context that 3,290,219 votes were cast in the Victorian Senate election. Putting it in a more digestible context; 1 in 550 voted for us despite all the handicaps that were put in our way by the electoral process. We came 12th out of the 23 political parties and groups that stood. We received more votes than 8 of the 19 registered political parties. I could go on and on but I won’t. If you want to look at the raw data and dissect the vote, log onto:

http://vtr.aec.gov.au/SenateStateFirstPrefs-13745-VIC.htm

The major spin off of the electoral campaign is that we are slowly becoming a force that will need to be taken seriously by the authorities. Through consistent hard work over the last 3 decades, we have finally established a bridge head for radical egalitarian ideas in the Victorian community.

It’s important we remember elections are only a mechanism for promoting change. Real change doesn’t come from casting a ballot every 3 years, it comes from organising, forming groups and taking direct action to make that new world in our hearts a tangible reality today.

I have been involved in the treatment of people with spinal cord paralysis for over three decades, and I know courage alone is not enough when people have to deal with life long profound disabilities as a result of an injury. Compensation plays a pivotal role in the type of life people are able to pursue post injury. In Australia today, over 50% of people who sustain profound life long disabilities through no fault of their own, are not entitled to any compensation. Their families and loved ones are expected to carry the burden for their life long care.

Each and every one of us is a heartbeat away from sustaining a severe disability as a result of an injury. Those whose injury is covered by a Transport Accident Commission (TAC) or a workers compensation scheme can, despite a never ending battle with these authorities to access their legal rights, pursue their dreams - the rest have to cope as best they can.

The tragedy about the recent Federal election campaign is neither major party raised the issue of a ‘Universal No Fault Compensation scheme’. A quadriplegic faces the same issues despite how they became a quadriplegic. Why should some people who sustain the same injuries receive compensation and others receive nothing?

If New Zealand can, despite its economic problems, continue to fund a ‘Universal No Fault Compensation scheme’, why can’t the Australian government during an economic boom, pass the necessary legislation to ensure that all Australians who sustain a profound disability as a result of an injury, receive compensation despite the manner in which they have sustained that injury?

Post modern unions manage labour for capital; they do not pose a threat to capitalism. Strong unions ensure that any attempts to create alternative workplace organisations which pose a threat to capitalism are stillborn. Unions are not interested in taking over the means of production, distribution and exchange; they understand their survival is dependent on the survival of employers. Unions and employers are mutually dependent organisations that need each other to survive.

Labor governments understand the best way to manage labour is to allow unions to represent workers within a legal framework that limits the activities they are able to pursue to look after their members interests. The Australian trade union movement has never been able to exercise the power exercised by European industry based unions. Their structures limit them to looking after the workplace needs of their members. They have never posed a real challenge to government, let alone capitalism.

Governments like the Rudd Labor government, which deal with reality not ideological fantasies, are more likely to treat unions as partners, not enemies, as they attempt to use what little power they are able to exercise through Parliament to protect the people they represent from the worst excesses of capitalism.

On taking a more sober look at what can only be described as scenes from Dante’s inferno one given crops up over and over again. Hierarchy seems to be the one common denominator in the history of human brutality. The greater the concentration of power, the greater the carnage. Genghis Khan, Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin and a thousand and one other leaders in the carnival of horrors that denotes human history, were able to achieve their goals because they were able to exercise absolute power.

Anarchists understand the same person can be guilty of some of the most monstrous acts as well as act in the most humane manner possible. We understand that all human beings are fallible. Whether we act in a monstrous or in a humane way is largely determined by the type of society we live in - the more hierarchical the chain of command, the greater the possibility that individuals will carry out the most monstrous acts for the glory of God, King and country. The more debate, the less hierarchy, the fewer divisions in society, the less likely a culture of obedience will dominate the individual’s ability to make informed rational choices when given insane orders to carry out monstrous acts.

Anarchism is the only human philosophy that recognises putting your faith in a ruler is lunacy. We have no faith in human nature because we understand as social animals human nature is moulded by the circumstances we find ourselves in. That is why as a political and social movement anarchists attempt to create a society where no individual is able to exercise institutional power over other individuals, let alone a group or a nation State. Anarchists want to create a non hierarchical society to prevent the Hitlers and Pol Pots of the world using the power they are able to exercise in a hierarchical society to impose their will on the people they rule.

Kevin and his parliamentary colleagues are not as transparent as the Hawke and Keating mob. I expect a lot of rhetoric to put that 10% of the population that toys with radical alternatives to be put off guard, but do not expect the rhetoric to be put into practise. Poor old Peter Garrett has found that exercising power is not all it is cracked up to be when you are a member of a political party that only pursues policies that are acceptable to the puppet masters.

Don’t put away your radical shingle. Right now is the time to rattle the cage, not go to sleep. If you do not do it, who else will? You may be one of the 95% of radical activist who kept their powder dry during the election campaign because you wanted to see the back of Howard and the miserable cowardly bunch of men and women who couldn’t even challenge Howard to save themselves. Well they are gone – what are you waiting for – the new bunch of neo conservatives mouthing Labor Party rhetoric to do the job for you? Of course they are not going to do your job for you. The very best time to launch into radical activity in Australia is when the Labor Party exercises power at both the Federal and State level. Nothing will change unless you drive that desire for change. The Labor Party has always been a more effective bulwark against change than the conservatives because radical activists tend to take a holiday when the Labor Party is in office, keeping their energy for the next conservative government.

It wasn’t Rudd’s slick ‘Johnny come lately’ election campaign that decapitated Howard; it was people like you and me who through our activities over the past 11 years laid the groundwork for the election of a Labor government. Whether we see or don’t see radical egalitarian change during Rudd’s term in office is dependent on radical activists keeping the pressure on the Labor government. Rudd is off and running spruiking his pro corporate message - we need to be off and running, placing barriers in the Labor Party’s way.

If you take that extended holiday from political activity you have being thinking about because of wall to wall Labor governments in Australia, you only have yourself to blame when you are trying to pull out the knives they have driven into you back. - ‘Tis The Time To Be Radical, Not The Time To Be Jolly – (Apologies to Santa).

In 1906 Tom Mann the driving force behind the Socialist Party organised a group of radicals to bring the plight of the unemployed to the notice of the community. Chummy Fleming – the Melbourne anarchist who had been a thorn in the establishment’s side for over 3 decades – took a prominent role in the organisation. On the 4th of June 1906 several hundred unemployed activists began a campaign that scandalised Melbourne. Every Sunday, after informing a specific church of their intentions, several hundred unemployed crowed into the church to make their point.

‘Polite’ Melbourne society, faced with the spectre of the unemployed and radical activist polluting church pews, where suitably scandalised. Matters came to a head when the unemployed attended the Presbyterian Scots Church in Collins Street on Sunday the 17th of June 1906. Dr. Marshall – the preacher – walked out of the service mid sentence when Chummy Fleming cried “Hear, Hear” when Dr. Marshall declared “if there was no life after death there would be contempt for all authority”. This statement acted as a signal for the demonstrators to vent their feelings on a preacher who by the cold nature of his sermon had demonstrated he had no empathy for the unemployed.

The Sunday church demonstrations soon had the desired effect. A problem that had been ignored for so long soon became a major topic in the city’s major newspapers – The Age and The Argus. Once again, a small group of radicals was instrumental in highlighting an issue that would have continued to be ignored by the public, media and government if a few hundred unemployed and radical activists had not decided to invade Melbourne’s churches to bring the plight of the unemployed to the public’s attention.

The Labor Party, true to form in 1906 as it is demonstrating a century later in 2007, washed their hands of the whole affair declaring:- “The people who are most prominent in the disturbance, although a few are members of our branches, are really not acting in the interest of the Labor Party, but are injuring it more than our greatest enemies can”.

SOURCE OF ARTICLE:- Radical Melbourne – A Secret History. Jell Sparrow and Jill Sparrow. The Vulgar Press 2001,
ISBN 0957735243

In chapter after chapter, he records how an insular republic has been transformed into the greatest imperial power of the 21st century. Using the rhetoric of freedom and liberty, the American imperial agenda has subverted its original republican leanings. The main weakness in Johnson’s central argument is that imperialism is a relatively new phase of the American republic. The American dream was built on the blood and bones of indigenous Americans. Imperialism has always been the favourite fuel of the American republic; initially on the American continent, now around the world.

Although America’s direct intervention in Iraq has put a speed bump or two in the way of the American imperial juggernaut, it has not stopped it. Rome had its professional legions and its all powerful praetorian guard. America has the nuclear bomb at its disposal. It is ironic that despite all the rhetoric about the Evil Soviet Empire, the American republic is the only nation State that has used the nuclear bomb on civilian populations, not once but twice. Johnson suggests the increasing financial burdens of empire could result in the end of constitutional government in America. He believes that the only way to keep constitutional government is for America to give up its empire. He cites the British example as the template for the survival of American democracy.

Johnson is far too optimistic in his assessment. The US didn’t cease to be a democracy in the last few years; it ceased to be a democracy soon after it won its independence from the British in 1776. Imperialism is the logical end product of the American dream. Technological innovation has given the US the power to turn its dream into reality. The by-products of the same technological innovations that have fuelled the military industrial complex, not financial ruin or military defeat, will eventually destroy the military machine that has allowed the US to become an imperial power.

Would I spend AUD$35.00 buying ‘Nemesis’, I doubt it. Are the ideas outlined in ‘Nemesis’ new? No! What Johnson has successfully done is put these ideas in an easily digestible 350 pages - actually 279 pages. The rest of the 350 pages are filled with extensive well referenced notes and a useful index.

Thanks To Brian From Melbourne For Lending Me His Copy Of ‘Nemesis’ To Review.

‘Nemesis – In Greek mythology the Goddess of retribution who punishes human transgression of the natural, right order of things and the arrogance that causes it’

Their twisted, gnarled branches live in harmony with a profusion of plants and shrubs that spring from the sandy soil. The tangled mess provides shelter for a myriad of life forms and holds the soil together as the relentless waves pound rocks into fine grains of sands.

Just in case you are thinking I’m about to launch into one of those ‘how wonderful nature is’ dissertations, I’m afraid you are wrong. My thoughts about the bush on the Mornington Peninsula were more pedestrian and utilitarian than any lofty thoughts about the wonders of nature. If I attempt to pick a path through the thick underbrush and avoid the nettles and wear strong boots, have a machete in one hand, and ignore the plague of mosquitoes and flies, I reckon I could travel 200 metres through the bush in 30 minutes or so; I could do a kilometre in possibly an hour or two.

I’m not talking about walking down the bitumen highway or some sandy track. I can understand why the first European settlement in 1803 at Sorrento was such a dismal failure. After 6 months of swatting flies, Lieutenant Collins and his soldiers and convicts packed their ship and moved across to Tasmania to establish a European beachhead in Hobart. The Tasmanian Aborigines loss was the Kulin nation’s gain around future Melbourne town. While the Tasmanians were slaughtered to the point of extinction in less than 30 years, the Victorian Aborigines had the pleasure of seeing vibrant dynamic tribal groups reduced to lifeless remnants by European introduced diseases that had spread from sealer camps on the Victorian coast and Sydney, to kill over 80% of the Victorian population, while their brothers and sisters were slaughtered in Tasmania.

Now this sad tale brings me to the point of my little story. When Tunnerminnerwait, Maulboyheenner, Planobeena, Truganini and Pyterruner launched their attack on the settlers in Dandenong and the Mornington Peninsula in 1841, they were travelling up to 50 kilometres a day through the impenetrable scrub in bare feet, carrying their supplies and guns with them. You and I at a pinch could travel maybe 5 or 6 kilometres a day, as long as we have got the Aeroguard and can make a pit stop or two at Maccas to recharge the batteries, have a cold shower or two and drink cold water out of the esky. If the police were chasing us on their trial bikes, I reckon we would have thrown in the towel in a day or so ago.

Looking at the terrain first hand gave me an invaluable insight into what remarkable, resourceful and tough people this little group of freedom fighters were.

Considering the effort and expense that is required to keep the Governor General’s retinue in lamingtons – (The lamington is an Australian concoction developed by a French chef working for the Queensland Governor Lord Lamington (1895 – 1901) who, faced with a dearth of ingredients when asked by the Governor to rustle up some cakes with the cucumber sandwiches for afternoon tea, whisked up the lamington – a desert that puts Australia’s other famous or should I say infamous dessert the ‘pavlova’ to shame) and the poor value for money that Australians receive for their ‘investment’ at both the State and Federal level, the time has come to democratise the position, instead of continuing to allow the Prime Minister and the State Premiers to appoint the Governor General and the State Governors.

Instead of going to all the trouble of electing a Head of State who would soon exercise the authority of a de facto President, it is time that each and every Australian citizen had an equal chance of becoming a State Governor or a Governor General. This could be done simply. Each year the Australian Electoral Commission could hold a Federal lottery and State lotteries that would choose 52 lucky citizens at the State and Federal level who would act as Governor General or State Governor for a week. What could be more democratic than that?

The Athenians choose their representatives by lot; what is to stop Australians using one of the most popular national pastimes - the humble lottery – to give 364 lucky Australians the opportunity to gorge themselves at taxpayers expense on cheese sandwiches and lamingtons for a week while they cut the occasional ceremonial ribbon.

P.S. 92 Palestinian children died this year, mainly shot
– no Israeli child dead.

TIERRA Y LIBERTAD No.232 NOV 07, Periodico Anarquista, Apartado 7.056 de Madrid, 28080 SPAIN,
Tel: 917970424
Fax : 915052183 
Email : tierraylibertad@nodo50.org

theconch.org

Published by the Anarchist Media Institute, Written by Dr. Joseph TOSCANO EAM, this booklet will be launched at the Tunnerminnerwait & Maulboyheenner Commemorations in Melbourne on the 20th of January 2008.

Order your copy today – send 20 x 50cent stamps to:

AMI – P.O. Box 20, Parkville 3052, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

P.O. Box 43, Clunes, 3370, Victoria AUSTRALIA

andrewpstretton@yahoo.com.au

“SEDITION – Conduct or speech inciting to rebellion”

SIGN THE SEDITION CHARTER ONLINE - www.seditioncharter.org

If you’re computer literate and many of us are not, write to us for a copy of the Sedition Charter, at :

P.O. BOX 5035,
ALPHINGTON 3078,
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Terrible things happen when good people do nothing. Openly defy this government’s attempts to muzzle and intimidate opposition to their neo conservative authoritarian agenda – SIGN the ‘Sedition Charter’ TODAY!

THE POWER OF RECALL – Electors having the constitutional right to recall parliamentary representatives in between elections

CITIZENS INITIATED REFERENDUMS – The people having the power to initiate constitutional change through referendums

DIRECT DEMOCRACY – Electing delegates with limited mandates, to co-ordinate decisions that have been made by the people, not electing representatives to make decisions for us.

(We Currently Have 122 Paid Up Members)

DIRECT DEMOCRACY NOT PARLIAMENTARY RULE - www.rulebythepeople.org

An anarchist analysis of local, national & international events. Tune into your local community radio station to listen to the Anarchist World This Week. If they don’t broadcast it, ask them why not! If they’re one of the 150 community radio stations around Australia that are affiliated to the National Community Radio Satellite, they are able to broadcast the Anarchist World This Week.

2BAY, 2BBB, 2BLU, 2DRY, 2HOT, 2OCB, 2WOW, 2XX, 3CH, 3CR, 36CR, 3MGB, 3REG, 4NAG, 4RRR, 5BBB, 5RRR, 6YCR

MULTI-COLOURED GLOSSY A3 POSTER AVAILABLE FOR 20 50c STAMPS.
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‘LIFE WASN’T MEANT TO BE EASY’

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Please send AKIN SARI A POSTCARD OR LETTER OF SUPPORT TODAY!

Write to:

AKIN SARI, c/- Melbourne Remand Centre
P.O. BOX 500, St. Albans 3021
Victoria, AUSTRALIA

The US Dept of Justice has been accused of ignoring crimes committed by US contractors in Iraq, incl the gang rape & imprisonment of a woman. Jamie Leigh Jones said she was drugged & gang-raped inside Baghdad's Green Zone while she was working for KBR, the Pentagon's largest private contractor in Iraq. After she reported the crime to an Army doctor, "KBR security then took me to a trailer & then locked me in a room with two armed guards outside my door...I was imprisoned in the trailer for approx a day. One of the guards finally had mercy & let me use a phone." Ms Jones said she knew of at least 11 other women who were raped by US contractors in Iraq. However Democrat Robert Conyers said the US Dept of Justice "can't even give us 1 eg of a prosecution where the victim was a civilian contractor employee in Iraq." (Herald Sun)

Food prices are set to rise around the globe, with climate change making it harder for the world's poorest people to get adequate food, acc to a new report. The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute said food prices, which have been falling steadily for decades, will rise for the forseeable future. Although 1 factor in the increase is higher food consumption in countries such as India & China, rising global temps are another. The report said hunger & malnutrition could rise as poor agricultural communities most sensitive to the environment, such as in Africa, are hurt. The world's agricultural production is projected to decrease by 16% by 2020 due to global warming, the report said, with land used for certain crops shrinking. For eg, it said land to grow wheat could almost disappear in Africa. (Time magazine [US])

A judge has described an impact statement from a victim of child sexual abuse as a "waste of time", & accused the victim of receiving "illicit pleasure", before declining to jail his abuser. Judge Michael Kelly said the victim, who was 13 when he was assaulted by a 24yo man, "wouldn't have done well in a British public school in the 30s". The abuse continued for 2.5yrs. The judge added "the majority of people who suffer this kind of incident at some stage in their life simply get over it & think no more of it", & that perpetrator & victim had "both...acquired illicit pleasure." The victim said "me & my family all thought he was on that bloke's side, just the way he talked." In ‘98 Judge Kelly declined to jail a man who had pleaded guilty to trying to establish a child sex ring in Africa, sending letters to people there explaining how they could "train little girls" as young as 4 to have sex. (Herald Sun)

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT: "Govt, in it's last analysis, is organized force." Woodrow Wilson.