| Welcome to the Anarchist World This Week broadcast
across Australia on national community radio satellite streaming live
3cr.org.au This program is now Pod cast so you can pull it from the
ether, so you can listen to it anytime you desire. There will also
be a transcript of the program on the Anarchist Media Institute website
anarchistmedia.org and if you look at Google News you should find
a transcript of the Anarchist World this week on Google News. Now
those regular recipients of the Anarchist Age Weekly Review, there
is no anarchist Age Weekly Review this week it will be out next week
there are a few technical problems that will be resolved. It will
be out next week Issue #755. We put out about 50 issues per year.
If you are wondering what anarchy is all about? An anarchy society
is a voluntary non-hierarchical society based on the creation of
social and political structures which allow all people equal decision
making power and equal access to societies’ wealth. A very
simple concept, the people involved in the decision make the decision
through direct democratic means. Elect or appoint delegates to co-ordinate
those decisions at a local, regional and national levels. Wealth
is held in common and used for the common good.
Now, you know this program’s a particularly dangerous program.
You’re not going to self-emulate right now, and your house
is not going to burn down, so why is it a dangerous program? I’ll
tell you why anarchists are dangerous. It’s very simple. As
I said before, an anarchist society is a voluntary non-hierarchical
society. On the Anarchist World this Week and on the Anarchist Age
Weekly Review what we attempt to do is 2 things: we attempt to give
analysis of what is happening, and we attempt to set out a viable
alternative to corporate capitalism. Anarchism isn’t about
communism or socialisation. Anarchism is about communalisation.
Yes, communalisation. And that means the transfer of power and wealth
from the hands of the private sector and the state into the hands
of the community. So what we are seeing is both the abolition of
the corporate sector and the state, and the creation of the federation
of the community and workplace councils based on direct democratic
principles where wealth is held in common.
Now we are not stupid enough to think that you can blow up a social
relationship, and most societies are obviously based on social relationships.
We are not stupid enough to think that by throwing a few bricks
through a few windows anything is going to change. And that’s
why we are dangerous. That’s why all anarchists are inherently
dangerous. Not to ourselves, but to system of government under which
we live whether it’s through a dictatorship or a parliamentary
democracy. We have no faith in those processes. And we are about
abolishing those processes and replacing them with non-hierarchical
relationships. We’re dangerous because we realise it’s
not a project that will happen tomorrow or the day after or the
day after or in a year or two years time, but it’s a project
that requires a lot of effort, energy and work. It’s a long
haul proposal. And in the society where we are seeing the convergence
of political opinion, because the means of production, distribution,
exchange of communication, are held in the hands of fewer and fewer
people, it’s important there are people who are still out
there who articulate, not only criticism, not permanent protesters,
but a different vision of how society could be structured.
What is more ridiculous than the carnival of capitalism that we
had at Sydney last week? And what is more ridiculous than the police
state that was created to ensure that the leaders – or the
puppets – who attended the carnival of capitalism, could do
their business without public interaction? So what we saw in Sydney
last week was the very worst of the system. When the iron fist was
taken out of the velvet glove to control any decension where we
have the politicisation of the police force of the state and federal
level and the suspension of rules, rights and privileges that people
have won through decades of struggle to ensure the puppets could
be manipulated by the puppet masters. And this is what we call the
pinnacle of human achievement. Corporate capitalism. No wonder,
in an era where there is convergence of political opinion in an
era where to articulate a different position is to be criminalised
and marginalised and accused of treason, no wonder it’s important
that alternative viewpoints be put forward to the corporate capitalist
juggernaut whose wheels are lubricated by their necessary deaths
of 30,000 children every day. This is the price that is paid for
the corporate juggernaut to continue it journey. And Mr Howard and
his cohorts the Liberal/National Party, and Mr Rudd and his cohorts
in the misnamed Labor Party where they have taken the U out of labour,
think the parliamentary elections that we are going to have in a
few weeks time or a few months time are going to solve any of the
problems that we face as community they have something to think
about. Because what we are seeing in the 21st century is the spiritual,
intellectual, moral and ethical breakdown. What we are seeing is
parliamentary representatives who are elected to represent the interests
of the people, representing the interests of the puppet masters,
those in the boardrooms of the national and transnational corporations
who determine what type of society we have. It’s a little
bit like this: you and I can sit in the lounge room tonight and
think about all the wonderful places we’d like to go on holidays,
but if we don’t have the resources to make those decisions
a reality, it doesn’t matter how many decisions we make, we’ll
continue to live in never never land. It’s the same in society.
We may want better hospitals, more economical health care system,
more resources allocated to people who find difficulty looking after
themselves because of physical, intellectual, pshyciatrical illnesses,
the unemployed, the elderly, we may want better infrastructure,
but while wealth remains in the hands or a minority, and while the
political system is designed to ensure the continued exploitation
of the great number of people in this country and across the world,
then nothing ever changes. Power and wealth go hand in hand. It’s
all very well talking about democracy, even the parliamentary variety,
when you or we, as a community, don’t control the wealth.
You need both sides of the equation to create something which is
liveable and reasonable. And that is the anarchist project. As I
said before, it’s a long haul project and those of you who’ve
been listening to the Anarchist World this Week for years or decades
will know that it’s a long haul project. But the important
thing in an era when none of the fundamentals are publicly questioned,
none of the pillars on which this society is based are questioned,
because the means by which to question them are controlled by a
corporate owned media and the government gelded ABC, to be able
to articulate ideas and visions, which go against the death-loving
culture we are all part of, is in itself a revolutionary act.
It’s one thing thinking about something, it’s another
thing organising to create that society within a society that is
necessary to create the conditions for radical egalitarian transformation.
And if you think this is hot air and it could never happen in this
country, think about all those pivotal moments in history, where
the push from below has forced governments, the state and the corporate
sector to modify their demands to take into account the wishes of
that great majority who find themselves living a hand to mouth existence
on a day to day basis. Do you know what the difference between poverty
and wealth or survival is in our society? 6 weeks wages. You do
the equation, whether you’re on a social security benefit
or your employed. What would happen to you if for 6 weeks a wage
didn’t come in? You would find that your whole stable life
would fall apart because the piper would want to be paid. And that’s
what we are, we live in an insecure society. We live in an era where
as long as we’re willing to be wage slaves, as long as we
are willing to jump through the hoops, salute the right people,
say the right things, we survive and possibly temporarily prosper.
When you no longer are willing to jump through the hoops then you’re
faced with the whole might of the corporate sector and the state.
It doesn’t matter how powerful they think they are, they continue
to function because the great majority still believe their security
is intertwined with the security of the society they live in. And
anybody who thinks that only has to look at what happens when you
are forced to forgo 6 weeks wages.
You’re listening to the Anarchist World this Week broadcast
across Australia on the national community radio satellite my names
Joseph Toscano I’m hosting today’s program, if you want
to look at our website, anarchistmedia.org, you can write to us
at PO Box 20 Parkville 3052.
And while we’re talking about things just a few little reminders.
Now those of you who live in Victoria, will know the Anarchist media
Institute has been reclaiming the radical nature of the Eureka Rebellion,
this is the 6th year, and on Monday the 3rd of December we invite
all the people from across this country and from overseas to attend
the Anarchist Media institute reclaim the radical spirit of the
Eureka rebellions celebrations, the 153 year anniversary celebrations
at the Eureka Stockade site. That’s the corner of Stall and
Eureka Sts Ballarat, that’s right, 4am to 4pm. And what we
do on that day is reclaim our history and use that history to change
the future because the Eureka rebellion isn’t as many would
like you to believe, a small business revolution, a revolt against
gold license fees, or a riot as it was described in 1854. The central
element of the Eureka rebellion is as important today as it was
in 1854 and those elements were direct democracy, the people involved
in the decision make the decision, elect or appoint delegates to
co-ordinate those decisions. Decisions during leading up to the
Eureka rebellions were made at mass meetings at Bakery Hill, where
up to 10,000 people attended. Delegates were elected and those delegates
were responsible to that mass meeting. Direct action. What is more
direct than taking up arms to protect your rights and liberties?
Solidarity. People stood together and internationalism, people of
all races and all colours fought together to protect those rights
and liberties. And if you really want to understand the essence
of the Eureka rebellion all you have to do is look at the Eureka
oath. An oath which was sworn in November 1854 which is important
today as it was 153 years ago. We swear by the Southern Cross to
stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.
There it is. The Southern Cross. That’s where they were. Under
the stars. Stand truly by each other. Solidarity. And fight to defend
our rights and liberties. Because the people at Eureka believed
they had inalienable human rights that no state can take away. That
no organisation can take away. And if you are interested in coming
to the celebrations on the 3rd of December, you don’t have
to ring anybody, you don’t have to ask permission, you don’t
have to fork out any money. Just turn up. At 4am for the dawn ceremony,
and the Eureka Park, at the Eureka memorial cnr Stall and Eureka
sts Ballarat. Communal breakfast at 6am bring your own food and
drinks. This is a BYO occasion. We are not catering for anybody,
people are capable of catering for themselves. 10am march from Eureka
Park to Bakery Hill to reaffirm the Eureka oath and where we are
presenting this years Eureka Day medals, at bakery Hill. At 11.30
am walk to the old Ballarat cemetery to pay our respects to all
those who died at the Eureka battle, who where buried at the old
Ballarat cemetery, workers at either end of the bayonettes, then
a walk back to Eureka park in the centre of Ballarat for a late
lunch and conversation. Takes about 12 hours, about 12 km walk,
lots of little interesting things happening and obviously everybody
is more than welcome to attend. The great thing about this thing
being held on a Monday is that nobody else in Ballarat will be celebrating
Eureka because it’s on a work day. We encourage you to take
the day off, I mean what are you going to celebrate? Australia Day
on the 26th of January or celebrate ANZAC Day on the 25th of April.
Come on, this is our heritage. Join us, everybody’s welcome.
Now talking about inalienable human rights. What we’ve seen
in this country and I’ll look at this more closely, what we’ve
seen in this country in the last decade is the removal of rights
and liberties that people have fought and died for. Whether it’s
the right to strike, the right to withdraw your labour, the right
to openly protest, the right to be secure from arbitrary government
intervention, all these rights have been removed on the altar of
political expediency, where the threat of terror has been used to
remove those very rights and liberties that ensure that we are not
terrorised, as we saw in Sydney, by a state apparatus which has
all the power at its disposal. Human beings are born with inaliable
human rights which include the right to food, shelter, personal
security, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of
religion, and freedom of the fear of arbitrary arrest, detention,
interrogation, torture, imprisonment and execution. Citizens, and
we are all citizens, have both a right and a duty to oppose and
resist governments that attempt to legislate away our inaliable
human rights. We as citizens have a right under the 1946 United
Nations Declaration of human Rights, and a duty, under the principles
outlined in the Nuremberg Trials conducted after WW2 found that
obeying the law and following orders could not be used as a justification
for denying people their inaleable human rights. Maybe in a different
time and in a different society those goons, the state funded goons
in Sydney would find that they could never use as the justification
that they were just obeying orders or of supporting the law because
any law, any order which transcends these inalienable human rights
is both illegitimate, wrong and needs to be actively resisted. If
you think these is seditious talk, sedition conduct or speech inciting
to rebellion well then you’re right. And if you are interested
in sedition talk, you can always sign the sedition charter, you
can do it in 2 ways. If you are computer literate, just go to seditioncharter.org
have a look at the website, sign. That’s right. Be openly
seditious. The more openly seditious people there are in society,
the more difficult for the government to remove those inalienable
human rights that we have as individuals and as members of the community.
Or you can write to us at PO BOX 5035 Alphington 3078 for a copy
of that charter. To walk around and get people to sign.
I think most of you have been wondering now when is he going to
talk about the shenanigans of the Liberal Party. The great thing
about this program is that it’s podcast, it’s up there
for all eternity and as I’ve said before, on many weeks you
will see a transcript of the program on the Anarchistmedia.org website.
Because unlike politicians, we stand by what we say. And I find
it extraordinary that after 11 years of what can only be described
as evil, and I don’t use that word lightly, the people are
wondering why a Liberal/National Party agenda has such little traction
in the community. What I find extraordinary is that we still have
40% of people who thin the Liberal/National Party agenda is still
worth supporting. That’s the extraordinary thing about it
not the 60%. About the Prime Minister himself Mr John Howard, I’ve
said on this program before and I’ll say it again, that this
man is not the man of steel, this man is a coward. He is a liar,
he is a fraudster, he is a cheat and he has lead this country into
a political social and cultural cul-de-sac which it will take years
to divest ourselves of this influence. I’ll tell you why it’ll
take years. Because what we have seen in the last 11 years is micro-management
of the individual, through law. We now have a situation where all
the major institutions in this country are stacked with Howard’s
appointees from the governor-general down to the High Courts, to
the Australian museum and the list goes on and on and on. And irrespective
of whether this government loses or wins the election we will have
to put up with the ideological intellectually challenged appointments
that have been made to these institutions to ensure that Howard’s
legacy continues long after the man is gone. And if you think this
is a man who believes in the individual and freedom of speech, freedom
of association, and ensuring that everybody, not just a minority,
shares in the bounty of this land, think again. And I’ll tell
you why he’s a coward, and I’m happy to make this statement
publicly and I’m happy for in to be pod cast to be there for
eternity and I’m happy for a transcript to be there, because
I’d love to find myself in court to see what the rest of the
community thinks of these statements.
And as I’ve said before, a coward, a fraudster, a liar, and
a cheat, these are words that need to be used because he has build
his political reputation on a divide and rule strategy where the
least powerful members of our community have been harassed, marginalised,
and pauperised. I’ll give you an example; his intervention
into Indigenous affairs in this country in the last 11 years is
a classical example of using the race card to push his ideological
peccadilloes. His intervention in the social security debate where
single parents and people on disability support pensions have been
forced back into the workforce to do poorly paid, menial, boring,
repetitive dangerous work is another classical example. The way
people on unemployment benefits is little more than scum. Another
classical example of why this man is a coward, when it comes to
those that are powerless, he and his government of the men and women
of steel, when it comes to challenging those who wield real power
in our society, what we see is legislative agenda after legislative
agendas. Which redistributes wealth from the have-nots to the haves.
And redistributes power from the have-nots to the haves and ensures
the have-nots are legally discriminated against, are marginalised,
are criminalised, and there’s one thing that we have seen,
is how this coward has used government to pass legislation to make
striking illegal in this country. Where workers can actually lose
their homes and find themselves in jail for having the ordacity
to withdraw their labour to improve their conditions. And the figures
tell it all.
Mr Howard and his government ask themselves what did we do wrong?
It’s very simple. When you pass legislation to ensure that
workers are little more than wage slaves, and employers have total
control and domination, what you see is what we have seen. A large
percentage of the population finding themselves in situations where
they have now become the working poor. Where one wage earner can
no longer support a family, where you need 2 wage earners just to
pay the bills. We’re running on the treadmill faster and faster
and faster to stay in the same place and if it wasn’t for
the availability of so called easy credit, it all would have come
tumbling down long ago. So when it comes to providing infrastructure
in this country, what have we seen? We have seen the sale of profitable
publicly companies, fire-sale profitable publicly owned companies,
which are now making more than enough in one year to cover the total
costs for example Commonwealth Bank which was sold in the Keating
years sold for less than 5 billion dollars. It made 5 billion dollars
in profit this year, and the list goes on and on. Anybody can be
a good economic manager when the money keeps rolling in by digging
holes in the ground, but where is what to show for it? Where is
the public infrastructure? Where are the public assets? We have
such a ridiculous situation that we have a public health system
that is crumbling, a public education system that is almost non-existent,
where has the money gone? Very simple, it’s gone into corporate
welfare, it’s gone into creating legislative agreements which
allow wealth to go to the top 20% of wage earners to go, not just
wage earners but to go those that own the means of production, distribution,
exchange of communication. Corporate welfare, whether it’s
through taxation incentives, or direct grants, is the biggest industry
in this country. If you think I’m talking garbage look at
the ratio of profits, company profits, that is going into the hand
of wage earners is decreasing from 55%- 60% down to 40% while 60%
now goes the other way. So we do have 2 Australias and we see it
every day, we see people having trouble living on 13,000 dollars
an hour, like the director of the Macquarie Bank and people who
have to live on a pension of about 260 a week, which is about 6
dollars an hour. And they wonder why they’ve got a problem.
This is the situation that we need to look at every day, it is
not just a matter of something that has happened in the last few
weeks, it is not something that a change of leadership will change
it is not something that even a change of government will change.
Because the political opinions expressed by the Labor Party convergence
with the opinions expressed by the Liberal/national party. Because
the means of production, distribution and exchange of communication
are held in the hands of fewer and fewer players, especially in
this country. 80% of all sales of consumer items including food,
to large corporations, telecommunications, huge concentration of
power, newspapers, 75% of all newspapers in this country are owned
by the Murdoch family. And the list goes on and on and on and on.
What we have seen is the increase in the power and wealth of those
who continue to exercise power in this country. And what we have
seen governments reduced to, is to being the puppets of the puppet
masters. And although John Howard is a puppet, what’s important
about this cowardly puppet is that he has used the legislative process
to enshrine, he and his political party, let’s blame them
all, all those who raise their hands at the right time or say Aye
in parliament, who claim to have the interests of the public at
heart, but who work for those who own the means of production, distribution
and exchange of communication in this country. They know who they
are, we know who they are. They use these power plays and what we
are seeing is that even in the political processes, this government
has passed legislation to ensure that over half a million people
who’ll be entitled to vote will not be able to vote because
they’re concerned that even that very simple thing of being
able to cast a ballot every 3 years, 2 minutes of illusory power,
they’re even concerned about that. And if you look at the
electoral legislation you can see it’s a 2 horse race but
that’s a topic for another day.
So, I don’t give a damn about their leadership problems.
But what I give a damn about is that we are held hostage because
of one individual person’s opinion and the lack of courage
in people who should have had this dictator removed ages ago. And
if you think using the word dictator is a little bit strong, I’ll
give you an example. I don’t know how many of you realise
that the Prime Minister is unhappy with the way history is taught
in public schools. He is very unhappy because over the last 2 decades
there has been a push to give a real historical interpretation that
goes beyond the story that Australia began in 1788. So the first
thing this government did through the so called higher education
minister Madame Bishop or have I got my people wrong, not sure.
So the first thing they said is that they will cancel the way that
history is taught today. And they appointed at Professor Tony Tailor
to work out a new course. Now Professor Tailor worked out a new
course which a lot of people felt was quite reasonable. Now Mr Howard
didn’t like this new course so he appointed a gang of 4 to
reinterpret Australian history and at no time during the gang of
4’s deliberation of what will and what will not be taught
in public schools has the History Teachers Association, and organisation
of 4000 secondary school teachers in this country, not once consulted.
These are the very people who deliver the teaching. Not once consulted.
So this is how this man works. This is how a dictator works. ‘I
don’t like that, it doesn’t fit my ideological perspective
of what Australia is and isn’t’ so we will change the
way history is taught in this country. I don’t like the way
the Australian museum had given a fair representation of history
in this country, we will get rid of the director and appoint somebody
who will jump to Mr Howard’s orders. The thing about Howard,
when you look at the economy, there is no difference between the
Labor and the Liberal Party, but when you go beyond that and you
look at why Howard’s legacy is an evil legacy, it’s
evil legacy because it’s tried to re-write history to suit
one stunted perverse ideological viewpoint. These are people who
have no interest in letting a hundred flowers bloom, these are people
who want to see the same old stunted perennials grow in their historical
wasteland. This is what we face, day in and day out. An attempt
to use the state apparatus to re-mould the individual. Stalin and
Pol Pot have nothing, nothing, on Howard because Stalin and Pol
Pot used force, physically liquidated their enemies, this man intellectually
rationalises the appointment of his ideological soul mates to some
of the most important institutions in this country, and used that
ideological domination and leaves everybody else on the margins
and that’s why we have all the institutions playing the same
game, singing the same tune, day in and day out. If you think I’ve
made this thing up about the history, fine, look at it. That’s
how this man works. He’s trying to force his cultural agenda
on the rest of us, by using the state power that he is able to exercise
by being Prime Minister. That is the mark of a dictator. That is
the mark of a dictatorial government that is willing to use the
law to remove inaliable rights and liberties, change the past to
suit their corruption of the present to justify what they have done.
How many people know about the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner
story? We all know about Ned Kelly, don’t we? He was a bandit,
isn’t he? Some people thought he was a rebellious bandit.
I’ll tell you this story because I’ll tell you how important
these so-called history wars are. Because they create a culture
of resistance. The last 2 or 3 years the Anarchist Institute has
been holding a commemoration on the 20th January to mark the execution
on the spot that it occurred 165 years ago, in January 1842, where
the freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, the first
2 people executed in Victoria. Now their story is a story which
should be in every Australian historical text book. Because the
story of rebellion, revolution, armed resistance against invasion,
on the 20th January 1842 over 5000 people, a quarter of Victoria’s
white population, gathered at the outskirts of Melbourne, crowding
around the gallows erected on a small rise east of Swanston st and
North Latrobe street. A crowd in a carnival mood, a little bit like
the carnival of capitalism in Sydney last week, had come to see
the public hanging of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner. As I
said before, the first 2 people executed in Victoria. Early in October
1841, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, Pattarana, Puganinni,
and Punnabeena (apologies for the spelling) 5 of 16 Tasmanian aborigines,
16 of the 89 survivors who had been herded of Flinders Island, the
remnants of the 33 year war of resistance in Tasmania, were bought
across to Melbourne, the newly established city of Melbourne to
civilise the Victorian blokes. I mean, these 2 men and 3 women stole
guns, robbed stations, spearing women and children, they killed
2 sealers, wounded 4 settlers, and stole guns, food, ammunition
in an effort to create a resistant war in the Mornington Peninsula
on the outskirts of Melbourne. They were eventually captured, charged
with murder, the 3 women were acquitted, the 2 men were hung. One
little story. One little story in the tapestry of resistance to
white colonisation in this country. One little story which we will
be commemorating, the Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner commemoration
committee will be commemorating on the 20th January this year in
Melbourne.
There are these stories across the nation. And what we see is this
government attempting to remove these stories from the historical
context. This government attempting to remove the stories of the
strikes, the occupations, the battles in the streets which occurred
in this country so that we have the rights and liberties and workplace
conditions and wages which we currently enjoy which are being stripped
away. Where are these stories in the historical record? They are
not there, they are not there for a reason. For you create an historical
amnesia, if you can revise history to suit your ideological agenda,
if you can change the 25th of April, ANZAC Day from a day of commemoration
to a day of militarism and nationalism, you can manipulate public
sentiment and continue to impose your warped ideological agenda
in this nation. Isn’t it extraordinary that in a nation of
21 possibly 22 million people, the talk of the day is a leadership
challenge to an old man who is past his used by date, who has done
his best to set the clock back decades in this country. Who has
been able, through his legislative agenda, which has been supported
by his political party, bankrolled by the corporate sector, to strip
away rights, liberties, that have been won through direct action
and struggle. No wonder we now have laws which criminalise all those
activities in the past which were necessary to win those rights
and conditions which we have today. Where it’s almost impossible
to join a union, if you are a unionist you’re almost a criminal,
if you’re a unionist who participates in action you are a
criminal. If you are somebody who thinks of the carnival of capitalism
in Sydney is something that shouldn’t be there, you are portrayed
as a criminal, and every avenue, and every power, that’s the
power they have, used to criminalise you and your activities.
So, it all fits in. it’s not just this and that, as I said
before, we’re not just here to protest about this or that,
we’re here to look at the whole shebang, the whole nuts and
bolts, the whole story, about what type of society we have, how
it’s structured, how institutes have been subverted, how support
those who exercise power, how parliamentary democracy is only 2
minutes of illusory power, where we give representatives a signed
blank cheque to make decisions on our behalf, but more importantly,
we’re not just sitting in the sidelines carping about this
and that, and that’s why I said we’re dangerous. We
have ideas, we have visions, we have strategies, we want to create
a federation of community and workplace councils which are based
on direct democratic principles. What may seem like ludicrous ideas
today, may be very relevant ideas in the period of climate change.
Where human beings have to work together keep wealth in common,
use the collective experience and brilliance, to tackle what may
seem to be insurmountable problems. Why should we leave it to a
government that works for the corporate sector and is structured
in such a way so as not to represent the interests of the people
that it theoretically governs? So if you think that there are no
alternatives, there are alternatives. What we have today is a culture
that says that alternatives are irrelevant. They don’t exist,
there is only one game in town and that game is called corporate
capitalism, well that’s not the only game in town. There are
many other games in town, there are many other people who are beginning
to realise how it all sticks together, who begin to understand,
that change doesn’t come by throwing a brick through a window
or bashing up a cop, change comes from masses of people taking direct
action. Change comes from people forming organisations. To resist
having little power they have removed. Change comes by people banding
together to look after their own physical and economic needs. Change
comes from creating a society within a society. And most importantly
of all, change comes by ensuring that your fellow citizens know
what is happening, how this government works, how we are ruled by
cowards, liars, cheats, fraudsters who have no interest in your
day to day needs except possibly at election time where they’ll
promise you anything so you’ll vote for them and replenish
this system which is based on faith.
And as I said before, if they were really interested in democracy,
of the people, by the people, for the people, maybe electors should
have the power of recall, being able to call fresh elections in
between elections to remove non-performing politicians, maybe then
an elected representative will be more accountable to the population,
than the political party and the government of the day. Maybe we
should have citizens initiated referendums, if 10% of the population
want a particular issue to go to referendum, then it goes to referendum.
We now have the technonological innovations where you can have a
referendum every day on particular issues. Why leave the constitution
in the hands of a parliament which has no interest in altering a
constitution which supports the current relationships between the
state and the corporate sector. How about direct democracy as an
alternative? The people make decisions, elect or appoint delegates
to co-ordinate decisions at a local or national level. And if those
decisions are changed they go back to local assembly for ratification.
You don’t have to have meetings of hills, it can all be done
through the world wide web. Think about it. We have seen technological
innovations come into play, which make direct democracy something
which is not only tangible but achievable. But who would want the
collective wisdom of the people, when you have the wisdom of those
who own the means of production, distribution exchange of communication
and own parliament.
You’ve been listening to the Anarchist World this Week broadcast
across Australia on the national community radio website. My name’s
Joseph Toscano, this program is streaming live on 3cr radio there
is no Anarchist Age this week, there will be one next week. If you
want to sign the sedition charter, go to anarchistmedia.org and
follow the links, many of these programs are now transcribed. If
you want to look at a transcription, they will be available in the
future. It is available now, some of the old programs are there.
Some of the old programs are there, the desire is there, what we
have to remember is that change will not be coming by electing a
Labor government, change will come when you no longer allow our
political masters determine our political future. Because if you
are interested democracy rule of the people, by the people, for
the people, we not only need the mechanism, we need wealth to be
held in common and be used for the common good. As an anarchist
I support communalisation, the transfer power and wealth from the
private sector into the hands of the community. You are listening
to Anarchist World this Week, to write to us, write to PO Box 20
Parkville 3052, you can email us at anarchistage@yahoo.com you can
access the web, anarchistmedia.org so thankyou for listening to
Anarchist World this Week, hopefully you’ll listen in next
week, but remember, it’s not enough listening you need to
start organising, you have to start talking to the people around
you, you have to start your own organisations, because the thing
that they fear most is people taking action, people organising,
people directing the political process.
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