(en) Anarchist Age Weekly 19th May '97

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Number 250 19th - 25th May, 1997 HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY Welcome to the 250th edition of the Anarchist Age Weekly Review, four pages of anarchist analysis of local, national and international events. The Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society have now been publishing for five years, no mean feat, considering our limited financial resources. Although our minds and bodies want to expand the content and scope of the A.A.W.R. our limited resources have become our albatross. Irrespective of what happens we aim to be around for a long time yet. We thank our readers for their support over the past five years and hope you will support us in the future. Joseph Toscano (Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society) WOOF! WOOF! You've got to hand it to the boys and girls on the Coalition benches, they know that whenever their master opens his mouth the media houndogs will go yapping after his latest rabbit. Last week, John Howard and the Coalition government were having trouble making themselves heard. The WIK fiasco, questions bout the governments proposed cross media changes, John Howard's love child, Pauline Hanson's antics and the budget that made the Sheriff of Nottingham jealous, all combined to make the government look a little bit jaundiced. By the end of the last week those incredibly perceptive media commentators that serve up the dribble that passes as informed comment in this country, had the Coalition in its knees. Now John Howard has been around for a long time, let's not forget that he was Malcolm Fraser's Treasurer, almost twenty years ago. Now little Johnny may not be many things, but he is first and foremost a sharp political operator. He and his trusted side kick Tim Fisher, both knew they would have to dig deep to throw the media hounds off their trail. On Monday morning they whispered into the ears of the assembled media hounds that they wanted to resuscitate the G.S.T. Yes you heard right the Goods and Services Tax. By Monday after noon the hounds were barking up Johnny's tree, breathlessly making inane comments about the G.S.T. In order to make doubly sure that our intellectually challenged friends in the media didn't bring up WIK, cross media rules, the One Notion party and the Budget again, Peter Costello let the early election hare loose on Tuesday afternoon. What else can you say but Woof! Woof! AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION - WHAT A JOKE! You've got to laugh sometimes. We're constantly told that competition and capitalism will deliver the goods. We're told that competition is a natural outcome of capitalism. So if competition is a natural by-product of capitalism, why has the government bestowed so much power on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The answer is obvious, very obvious. Monopolisation not competition is the natural by-product of capitalism. If you leave capitalism to itself and don't intervene in its affairs, you'll be left with a small number of monopolies that control most if not all of the economy. No wonder you need the A.C.C.C. to stop amalgamations, takeovers and the formation of natural monopolies. Anybody who is stupid enough to believe that the A.C.C.C. has any real power only has the look at the monopolies that have been created since the A.C.C.C. was established. We have now reached a point where real power resides in the boardrooms of national and transnational corporations, it doesn't lie in parliament or its watchdog (lapdog) the A.C.C.C. Although the A.C.C.C. may talk tough, it has little if any power to prevent the formation of monopolies let alone have the power to break up corporate or private monopolies. Power does not lie in the barrel of a gun or parliament, it lies in the boardrooms of national and transnational corporations. The A.C.C.C. may be staffed by well meaning people, but it's essentially a joke. The A.C.C.C. is a show pony that can't run. It's very good at posturing but it can't guarantee that consumers will benefit from competition, let alone help to foster competitive capitalist forces in Australia. The wave of privatisation that has seen many States assets fall into private or corporate hands has reinforced the power of private corporations at the expense of the public sector and consumers. Competition can't flourish in a Capitalist community, it is the very antithesis of capitalism. MOBUTU OUT - SUHARTO NEXT? It's not a good time to be a dictator, just ask Suharto. The so-called "festival of democracy" the Indonesian military dictatorship has tried to sell to the Indonesian people, seems to be turning ugly. Although polling in Indonesia is restricted to three government approved parties, Indonesians are taking advantage of the very limited freedom enjoyed during this period to actively show their displeasure at the military dictatorship that has ruled Indonesia since 1966. The fall of Mobutu, must have sent a shudder up Suharto's spine. Suharto and Mobutu have been able to maintain power in their respective countries for over thirty years because both regimes have been bankrolled and propped up by the Unite States money, arms and advisers. The collapse of the Communist empire and the incorporation of China into the Capitalist bloc has greatly diminished the value of dictators to the United States government. Although dictatorships may be able to maintain political stability through force, they create very poor economic conditions. The corruption that is an essential component of any dictatorship, saps profits. By the time local and foreign business interests have greased the palms of the dictators supporters there's very little profit to go around. The Suharto family and the Mobutu family have treated Indonesia and Zaire as their own personal fiefdoms. They have plundered both nations of billions of dollars and have used government as an agent to amass their wealth. Indonesia is on the boil. Over one hundred people have been killed in Java in the past few weeks in politically motivated violence. Riot troops are out on the streets of Djakarta and throughout Indonesia trying to extinguish each and every flicker of revolt. People are angry, they know that the Indonesian dictatorship is using these elections as a diversion. They know that irrespective of who they vote for Golkar the dictatorship party will win office. Suharto's festival of democracy may indeed become a festival. A festival of the oppressed celebrating the demise of another hated dictator. Mobutu and his entourage fled to Rabat in Morocco, maybe Suharto and his family will turn up in Canberra, who knows? THE PRIVATISATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH One of the little known and seldom discussed consequences of the privatisation wave sweeping the planet is its effect on scientific research. Traditionally Universities have been responsible for most of the ground breaking research this century. Once a researcher or a research team had reached a conclusion, they published their work in one of the many scientific journals that were publicly available. Other scientists were able to analyse these results and if necessary replicate the experiment. Anybody who read the publication was able to use any of the published material to push the frontiers of scientific research out even further. How very different things are today. As university funds dry up and as departments refuse to take on new staff, private institutions and corporations are mopping up more and more research staff. So what you say, the research still gets done. Well yes and no. Although research is still done the direction that research moves in is tied up with the institutes or corporations race for profitability. No private institution or corporation is going to embark on research that will embarrass the company or not fill the companies coffers. Even more importantly any research results that are discovered are no longer the scientists or the public's property. They belong to the institute or corporation that funded the research. The scientist as a company employee is not able to publish his/her results without the permission of the company. Even if they are given permission to publish, it's possible they may be forced to skew the results in a way that shed a positive light on the companies activities. The current mania to move research from the public to the private sphere is doing untold damage to the expansion of human knowledge and to the development of concepts and products that did not generate profits or challenge capitalist ideology. Science in Australia is fast becoming a tool of the corporate sector and the state. The public are being squeezed out of the equation. Although scientific research has never been value free, it has been open to public scrutiny. Today scientific research is fast becoming the preserve of the corporate sector. What little independence scientists enjoyed in the pat is being strangled by the abolishment of tenure, limited contracts, the privatisation of Universities and the farming out of scientific research to private institutes and the corporate sector. So much for that often touted phrase that scientific research is value free and through publication is open to peer group and public scrutiny. THE POLITICS OF FAMINE The current North Korean famine will result in the deaths of over one million North Koreans in the next six months. The international and North and South Korean machinations that surround this famine highlight that the politics of famine are an integral part of the current relief efforts. The pathetic pictures of skeletal bags of skin waiting to die that flashed across the world's television screens, forced many governments to send aid to Ethiopia in 1984. Although Ethiopia was ruled by a brutal dictator, the suffering that the world saw every night on their television screens galvanised people to force their governments to provide aid to Ethiopia. Although reports of cannibalism and people eating bark and grass to survive are filtering out of North Korea, there are no television pictures being beamed outside North Korea to galvanise people to force their governments to act. On one side of this dreadful situation you have a brutal military regime that masquerades as a Communist State willing to sacrifice millions of its people to maintain its hold on power. On the other side the South Korean government and its United States and Japanese allies are using the impending famine as a stick to wrest economic concessions from the North Korean government. Both sides have no interest in the welfare of the million or so North Koreans (in a population of nineteen million) who will die of starvation this year. Most of the world and the world's media seems to be oblivious to the suffering in North Korea. Although the North wants food aid, it's not willing to let television crews into photograph the famine. To do so would be admitting that they can't even feed their own people. On the other side South Korea and its allies believe that mass starvation will undermine the North Korean military dictatorship. They seem to have forgotten that Stalin's Russia and Mao Tse Tung's China both suffered great famines and neither regime collapsed. The politics of famine can only be overcome by mass action. Individuals and groups need to pressure their governments to provide food aid to those who are suffering from starvation, irrespective of where they live and what type of government they live under. To deny them food aid while surpluses around the world are rotting, highlights the idiocy and immorality of using famine as a political tool. ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER Q. How would an anarchist community deal with all those neighbourhood problems that make life difficult in any community? A. Let's not fool ourselves whether we live in an anarchist community or not, there will always be problems between family members, neighbours and communities. How an anarchist community tackles such problems could determine the long term survival of that community. Mediation centres would be an integral component of any anarchist community. Instead of trying to appoint blame on one or other party, mediators would attempt to bring both parties together to work out a solution to the problem. Mediators would be appointed or elected to deal with these problems. They would live in the communities they serve. One or both parties or even a third party could bring any matter to the attention of the mediator/s. The mediation centre's authority would be backed up by the community they serve. They could provide alternative accommodation even organise people to move to another community. Mediators could, if necessary call in experts or other community organisations to help them solve a problem. If mediation is unsuccessful or one party refuses to mediate then the matter could be referred to a community jury to make a decision on behalf of the parties involved. An anarchist community will be able to provide the structures that allow a community to solve its own problems. These structures attempt to bring conflicting groups together and through discussion find a satisfactory solution to the problem. Structures will exist that allow the problems to be solved internally. Anarchist communities do not need external structures to solve their problems. Through mediators, mediation centres and if necessary community juries, they will be able to solve problems that occur within family units, between individuals and neighbours and between communities. ACTION BOX - PESSIMISM Sometimes you do everything right and nothing happens. Feeling pessimistic about change and the possibility of change is something we all experience most of the time. It's not unusual to work your butt off doing all the right things involving yourself in campaigns and finding that at the end of the day you have nothing to show for it, or do you? Let's be realistic. Most of the activities we're involved in are not going to pay immediate dividends. In many ways radical activists act a little bit like farmers sowing ideas in a variety of soils. Most won't grow some will but they may take some time to flower. It's unrealistic to expect that if you do A and B you'll get C at the end of the day. Mathematics may be based on certainties, life isn't. Let's not forget that nobody in a position of authority, let alone the mass media is going to give you a free kick. Why should they? You want to destroy their power and create an egalitarian community. Don't fall for the trap of hoping that change is around the corner, that everybody agrees with what you are saying or even understands what you're trying to say. Although many people may make understanding noises when you raise anarchist ideas, most have no background or experience of such ideas and will automatically think that you have unrealistic expectations. When you feel down and out it's important to re-group to analyse what you have done, possibly retreat for a while and then start again. Pessimism is their weapon, optimism is ours. They want us to believe that change is impossible, that it doesn't matter what you do, nothing can or will possibly change. If you feel pessimistic think about what you have done (not necessarily what you have achieved). What would you do if you decided that change was impossible and you decided to stop resisting. Would you work hard for a boss, discover religion, slide into an alcoholic or drug induced stupor or take on some esoteric hobby. Whatever you do don't let pessimism destroy that little ray of hope you nurture. Once that's put out, there's little else to live for. AUSTRALIAN ANARCHIST HISTORY Anarchists 1 Special Branch 0 The Queensland Special Branch always had a special place in the hearts of Queensland radicals. It was specifically set up by the Queensland Labour Government in the 1920's to spy on and intimidate radical activists. If they didn't like what you were doing these very special human beings were not adverse to taking you round the back and beating the living daylights out of you. The self-management group, a radical egalitarian group, had over forty active members in Brisbane in the early 1970's. In 1972 their education cell was running rings around the Special Branch, playing a cat and mouse game, leafleting secondary colleagues across Brisbane. In 1972 leafleting Brisbane Secondary Colleges with radical egalitarian literature was viewed by the Bjelke Peterson government as akin to openly selling heroin at the school gates. The Special Branch eventually caught up with our friends and while searching their car, surprise, surprise found a view vials of Pethidine in the glove box. It looked like Greg George and one other member of the Self-Management Group's education cell were flogging hard drugs to the kiddies. The Special Branch Group (intellectual giants they weren't) that conducted the raid, asked the lads whether they knew anything about the pethidine, obviously they denied all knowledge about the substance and told the Special Branch they had planted the stuff in the glove box. The Special Branch Boys got rather heated and told the Self-Management lads to take the stuff out of the glove box and have a good look at it to see if it was theirs. Greg George and his friends were a little bit quicker on the uptake than the Special Branch and refused point blank to touch the stuff. They realised that as soon as they touched the vials their fingerprints would be all over them. The matter eventually went to court. The Self-Management Group decided that although the potential penalty included a long stretch in Brisbane's notorious Boggo Road jail, they would have no chance in front of a magistrate. In 1972 no Queensland magistrate would take the word of a radical activists against the word of the Special Branch. Eventually the trial was heard before a judge and jury. During the court case the Special Branch was not able to present any evidence that either of the accused had left any fingerprints on the pethidine vials, although the vials were lying in their car glove box. A short time after the jury retired they came back with a NOT GUILTY verdict. A stunning victory considering the times. Was the matter reported in the Courier Mail, Brisbane's main newspaper? Of course it wasn't. Were the Special Branch members charged? Of course they weren't. Did the accused receive an apology? Of course they didn't. As they left the court the Special Branch vowed that they were marked men and they'd get them next time. PERSONAL OBSERVATION International airports can be fascinating places. In the space of five minutes I came across more diversity than I'd seen in Melbourne in the past month. People of all shapes, sizes, creeds, colours and cultures waiting to start or continue their journeys to who knows where. I caught sight of a Middle Eastern man in traditional garb with his two year old son tucked neatly into the fold on the top of his protruding belly, he was discretely followed by two women wearing white socks and sandals enveloped in dark flowing robes that covered their heads and faces. Their eyes danced as they hurried along taking in the sights and sounds. Four tall slim dark men from the Horn of Africa gesticulated wildly trying to catch the attention of a beautiful slim tall dark woman, immaculately dressed who seemed to be staring nowhere. A huddle of tired elderly Japanese tourists tried to listen to what a young guide was trying to tell them. A group of Aussie sportsmen bursting with life and energy hugged their womenfolk before they burst into the duty free mecca in the international departure lounge. Generations of Greeks crowded around an elderly matriarch dressed in black who was waiting to go home and die. She knew and they knew this would be their last meeting. An Indian woman in a Sari kept her luggage in her sights as her husband and children made a beeline for the toilets. People from all corners of the earth mingled together waiting to feed their luggage through the departure terminal. Sitting there waiting for a friend to go through the formalities of embarkation, I wondered whether apart from our humanity we had anything in common. Did the heavily robed women with dancing eyes have anything in common with the bronzed athletes. Did the wildly gesticulating men from the Horn of Africa have anything in common with the elderly Greek matriarch? Did I have anything in common with any of them? Thinking about it, it's obvious that I have something in common with every single one of them. The essential difference between anarchism and any other human philosophy is that we hold no culture above any other culture, we hold no race above any other race, we hold no human being above any other human being. When we judge (and we all judge) we don't judge on racial, gender, sexual preference, age, cultural or even religious grounds. We judge whether a person, their culture or religious beliefs encourages freedom or authoritarianism. Looking around me, looking at this little cross section of the world I feel we have much more in common than our humanity. Each of us is capable of enslaving others and ourselves and each of us is capable of freeing others and ourselves. This is the cement that binds us together and pulls us apart. STOP PRESS - LOOK AT THE SMALL PRINT, STUPID THAT'S RIGHT, THE SMALL PRINT Flicking through the six volumes of the Coalition's budget papers, it's becoming increasingly apparent that this is a particularly nasty budget. Reading through entry after entry, it's obvious that many people who can't afford to suffer are going to suffer from this help the rich budget. If we move beyond the big ticket items, the cuts to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the continuing cuts to Labor programs, there are many "little" cuts that are going to push tens of thousands of people over the edge. Looks like the Coalition government has been listening to the One Notion crowd (or maybe there's very little difference between them) and has continued to savage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They have also turned their sights on what's left of the former governments job creation programs and have closed them down in all but name. Looking at most of the budget changes, it's become apparent that in those areas where people will gain a few paltry benefits, they won't enjoy these benefits till July 1998. Although the Domiciliary Home Care Benefit for people who choose to live at home to prevent sick and disabled family members from entering nursing homes will increase from twenty one to twenty five dollars a week, the increase will not be paid till July 1998. Currently Social Security beneficiaries receive their entitlements one week ahead of time, from July this year they'll receive it two weeks in arrears. Changes to the Child Care Budget and public housing budget will gain impact on those least able to survive these cuts. In an effort to stop people from taking their complaints to the Human Rights Commission the Federal government has decreased their budget by 40%. Following the Coalition's logic it's obvious they don't want people to complain about racial, sexual, gender and disability issues. If they did you wouldn't expect them to decrease the Commissions budget by over 40%. The Federal government thinks that people are essentially stupid, they won't read the small print and their changes will slip through without challenge. Well the mainstream media may only be interested in big ticket items, but some of us aren't stupid and look at the small print. Joseph Toscano/Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society. ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK ANARRES BOOK CATALOGUE Winter 1997, PO Box 150 East Brunswick 3057. Vic Australia. web site:- http://www.anarki.net/anarres Email:- anarres@anarki.net **** DESERCION OBJECION Dec 1996, C/- E Tesoro, Apdo Postal 6303, Carmelitas, Caracas D.F. Venezuela. **** FREEDOM Vol 58 No.9 10th May 1997, 84b Whitechapel High St. London E1 7QX, England. Web:- http://www.tao.ca/~freedom Email:- FreedomPressatfreedom@tao.ca **** LE MONDE LIBERTAIRE No.1083 7th-14th May 1997, 145 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, France. Tel 01 48053408, Fax 01 49299859. **** LIBERCANA LIGILO No.89 1997, Gilbert Ledon, Rua Maria Aparecida Anacleto 111-A, BR 04809-120 Sao Paulo, SP Brasil Tel & Fax +55-12-262 1983. **** NOTIZARIO CDP No.148 Sept/Oct'96, Via Degli Orafi 29, Cas Post 347, 51100 Pistoia, Italy. Tel & Fax 0573/367 144. **** SEME ANARCHICO Yr 17 No.3 Aut/Winter'96, C.P. 217, 25`54 Bresica. Italy. **** OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK COUNTER INFORMATION No.48 March-May'97, C/- Transmission, 28 King St, Glascow GI 5 Q.P, Scotland C148, United Kindom. **** DISCUSSION BULLETIN No.82, 83 Mar-Apr'97, May-June'97, I.U.C.E. PO Box 1564, Grand Rapids MI 49501. United States. **** ANARCHIST AGE HOME PAGE http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3879 ANARCHIST AGE EMAIL - email:anarchistage@geocities.com. ] P U B L I C A T I O N S [
Weekly 4 pages of Anarchist comment on Local, National and International events. Subscriptions: $50.00 for 50 issues, $10.00 for 10 issues, Subscription includes postage. Monthly 36 pages of Local, National and International events. 12 issues $36.00 wage earners, 12 issues $20.00 non wage earners. Make out cheques or money orders to: Libertarian Workers, PO Box 20, Parkville, 3052 Vic, Australia. FEDERATION OF OCCUPATION BASED UNIONS National Co-ordinator Evan Ling, PO Box 560, Altona 3018, Melbourne. Australia. Inquiries Tel: Evan Ling on 041 9394243. 8.00am-10.00pm. Autonomous Health Union PO Box 5035, Alphington. 3078 Melbourne, Write in for a leaflet outlining our activities. 46 PARTY TIME 46 Help us Celebrate Five Years of Continuous Publications Of The Anarchist Age Weekly Review. Help Us to Celebrate The 250th Issue Of The Anarchist Age Weekly Review. Date: Thursday 29th May Time: 8.00 p.m. Venue: Ross House 247 Flinders Lane Melbourne All Welcome. Bring Along - New Ideas for the Weekly, Musical Instruments, Drinks, Food. Anarres Bookshop Collective will have a Book Stall on the Night. "GARAGE SALE" - Yes that's right "a garage sale". Our backs are to the wall, we continue to have debts of over two thousand dollars. We either clear these debts or cease publishing. Do you have any unwanted goods in reasonable condition. Do you live in Melbourne. Then give us a call on the A.M.I. number - (03)98282856 leave a contact name & phone number & Steve will get back to you, to organise a suitable time for us to pick up the goods. The garage sale will be held in early July, so give us a call now. ANARCHIST WORLD THIS WEEK POSTER AVAILABLE FOR THE COST OF A FEW STAMPS Want to help us find new listeners for the Anarchist World This Week then send us a few stamps to AWTW, PO Box 20 Parkville 3052, Australia & we'll send you out a colour poster (A3) for your use & a Black and White poster you can photocopy & put up to help us increase the number of people who listen to the Anarchist World This Week. The articles in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review express the opinion of individuals within the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society/Anarchist Media Institute. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society/Anarchist Media Institute. Anarchist Media Institute Obscenity of the Week Has been won by the Federal Treasurer Peter Costello for delivering a Budget that continues that great Coalition tradition of robbing the poor to pay the rich.

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Number 250
19th = - 25th May, 1997

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