A-Infos (en) Anarchist Age Weekly Review No. 404 12th ­ 18th June, 2000

["Philip McCrory" <philmcc@melbpc.org.au>]

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ANARCHISM ­ ADVANCING IN DIVERSITY STRIKING IN UNISON ­ YAMAGUCHI KENJI

JOHNNY CARES!!
I admire John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, because he cares.
That's right, he cares.  I know he doesn't care about indigenous Australia's
problems, I know he doesn't care about the plight of all those people on
limited incomes who will be seriously affected by the introduction of the
Goods and Services Tax.  I know he doesn't care about the plight of
Australian Workers and people on social security benefits.  I know he
doesn't care about what happens to those illegal immigrants that are cooped
up in Australia's gulags, but believe me, the man truly, really cares.

How do I know he cares?  Well, he's just told all Australians he cares.  Why
shouldn't I believe him?  He is the Prime Minister of the country.  If you
can't trust him, who can you trust?  Look, whatever you think of Howard as a
man and as a Prime Minister, you need to understand be really truly cares.
Just yesterday he told the country's health ministers that he wants them to
dilute the agreement they made last year about labelling products that had
genetically modified material in them.

Not that the Health Ministers wanted to label genetically modified food, but
the public clamour to know what they were putting into their mouths, left
them with little or any choice.  Well, it looks like Johnny is unhappy with
the proposed laws and he wants the State Health Ministers to modify their
agreement and not label all the products with genetically modified material.
You see, the Prime Minister has the welfare of the community's poor in mind.
He's told everyone who cares to listen that he wants labelling laws relaxed
because he's concerned about how labelling laws will affect the poor.  As a
man who cares, he can't in all honesty let these laws go ahead without
criticism.  Now that we all know he 'cares', I assume he'll say sorry to
Australia's indigenous people.  The man who's reinvented himself as the man
who cares for the poor will surely be able to utter those two magic words.
Johnny cares.  We all know he cares about the bottom line and welfare of his
corporate mates.



PUT THEM IN PRISON!!
Over four thousand boat people, mainly refugees, from Afghanistan and Iraq
have arrived in Australia over the past twelve months.  These illegal
arrivals have been placed in detention camps in some of the most
inhospitable parts of Australia.  Last week camp internees from all three
camps broke down the fences of their internment camps to bring their plight
to an indifferent Australian public and a hostile mass media.

Ruddock, the Immigration Minister, has been able to use the illegal's plea
for a modicum of decency and justice to his own advantage.  Playing the race
card, he has stated that the problem is one of security.  He has said that
security needs to be updated and these people need to be put in prison.
That's right.  It's not enough that they spend months, even years in
detention in some of the most inhospitable conditions in this country, while
the State decides whether they're 'genuine' refugees or not, now they are
going to be stuffed into prisons, while they wait for the immigration
department to make up its mind about their refugee status.

The treatment that illegal immigrants and refugees are subjected to in this
country is not only harsh and inhumane, it's also illegal as far as United
Nationıs guidelines are concerned.  This is a chapter in the history of this
country that is almost on a par to the treatment Indigenous Australians have
received in Australia.  Refugees are seen as little more than criminals and
are treated in ways that even convicted criminals are not subjected to.  The
relatively peaceful demonstrations at Woomera, Derby and Port Headland by
the inmates of the government's detention centres has put the treatment that
refugees are subjected to in this country back on the public agenda.
Irrespective of Ruddock's response and media stories about how much it costs
to detain illegal immigrants, the fact that they are treated as convicted
felons has not escaped the attention of the civilised world.











ASIO  10,  DISSIDENTS  0
Last week, the Federal Government, Her Majesty's loyal opposition, the Labor
Party and the Australian Democrats, combined to pass legislation through
both houses of parliament that gives A.S.I.O. and A.S.I.S. extraordinary
legal powers.  In the past A.S.I.O. needed to get a warrant from a
magistrate to tap a particular telephone.  Today, sophisticated,
technological advances have given agencies like A.S.I.O. the power to tap
into any conversation at will.

A.S.I.O. no longer needs warrants to tap individual phones.  They have the
legal power and the technology to tap into millions of telephone lines
simultaneously.  They can do this by scanning telephone calls, looking for
key recognition words (e.g. they could type in the word 'anarchy' and ask
the Telstra computers to provide them with details of all phone
conversations that use the word 'anarchy').  A.S.I.O. can then use this
profile to set up specific databases, which they can use to carry out
espionage on everyone who used the word 'anarchy' during a specific period.

This method overcomes the problem of applying for warrants to tap specific
lines, now A.S.I.O. can have a warrant issued that covers particular words.
A "great leap forward" in A.S.I.O.'s eyes.  Over time most Australians will
be dragged into A.S.I.O. espionage activities.  Before we know it, A.S.I.O.
will have opened up a file on most Australian citizens.

IT GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE
The current South African cricket inquiry has lifted the lid on a sea of
corruption.  Players, managers and referees have all been implicated in a
messy, little racket that has seen players from most of the world's cricket
countries put their love for a buck before their loyalty to their country
and their cricket team.

Players from South Africa, India, Pakistan, England and Australia have all
been implicated in match fixing allegations.  Cricket has always been
portrayed as a game that is incorruptible.  The phrase "it's not cricket"
has been used as a byword for honesty and fairness.  Today it's not an
exaggeration to say that the phrase "it's not cricket" has been replaced by
the phrase "it's cricket" when people discuss fraud and dishonesty.

Every day brings new allegations that snare more and more people.  Even
referees have been accused of manipulating a game for a buck.  The game
itself has become a byword for corruption.  The current inquiry has not only
raised doubts about Packer's pyjama game, it has also thrown doubts in the
holiest of holies, Test Cricket.

Everybody seems to have been on the take.  The most disappointing aspect of
this whole sorry, little saga has been the mass media's response to these
allegations.  For years, the mass media has kept the lid tightly on this
little scandal.  At the end of the day they have covered themselves with the
same glory that corrupt players, referees and officials have covered
themselves with.  It's unlikely that the game will ever recover from the
allegations that have been levelled at it.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Just in case you think I am unfairly picking on the Prime Minister, I'm not.
All I'm doing is bringing the readers attention to this manıs pearls of
wisdom.  While at a State funeral for the recently deceased Japanese Prime
Minister, Mr. Howard was able to have a few face to face words with
Indonesia's new President, Mr. Wahid.

It was nice seeing Johnny Howard reassuring Mr. Wahid that the Australian
government had no intention of giving any support either moral or physical
to the West Papuan Independence Movement.  Just a week ago over three
thousand indigenous delegates from across West Papua gathered in the capital
to unilaterally declare independence from Indonesia.  Listening to Howard's
response made me think of the response of successive Australian governments
to the plight of the East Timorese.  For twenty-four years both
Liberal/National and Labor Party governments did all they could to ignore
and stymie the East Timorese independence struggle.

The East Timorese won their independence as a result of the persistent
efforts of the many Australians who helped the East Timorese keep the
independence struggle alive.  The Australian people were able because of
their revulsion about what happened after the independence referendum in
East Timor, to force the Howard government to commit troops to maintain
peace in East Timor.  The people of West Papua find themselves in a similar
situation to the situation the East Timorese were in twenty-five years ago.
It's important for Australians to remember that Australian governments will
only act when the Australian people pressure them to act.  It may take ten
or twenty years for the West Papuans to gain their independence, but gain
that independence they will.

ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER
Q. Would an anarchist martyr themselves for the movement?
A. Over the last few years, the world has witnessed the emergence of the
suicide bomber.  The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and Muslim fundamentalists in
the occupied territories in Palestine have spearheaded the re-emergence of
this tactic.  Anarchism is a political and social philosophy that maximises
human potential.
Although martyrs have played an important role in the anarchist movement, no
anarchist would ever sacrifice their life for the movement.  Movements that
sacrifice their members to obtain limited political objectives have nothing
to do with anarchist ideas and objectives.  The martyrs that have played an
important role in anarchist history, are activists who have been persecuted
and executed by the State, not people who have willingly given their life
for the movement.
There's something inherently inhuman about asking or forcing an individual
to give up their life for an idea.  Any movement that sacrifices it's people
in the interests of it's short term and long term agenda has nothing to do
with the struggle for human freedom.  Any social, political or national
movement that has such little regard for the lives of its own people, has no
understanding of the struggle for human liberation.  The anarchist struggle
is a struggle that's centred around human liberation, not national
liberation.  Anarchists have a great respect for human life; no anarchist
would contemplate let alone willingly give up their life for the movement.

ACTION BOX
"THE HOLY TRINITY"
Over the next twelve weeks I'll be concentrating on the forth coming
demonstrations against the Asia Pacific leg of the World Economic Forum
meeting that will be held in Melbourne on the 11th, 12th and 13th of
September.  This demonstration is arguably the single most important
demonstration that has been held in this country since the Vietnam Moratiums
that were held in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
One week before the Olympics, one thousand of the worlds corporate leaders
will be gathering in Melbourne to set the political and social agenda for
this country.  The Australian mass media has suddenly discovered that
protesters are well organised and could mount a successful pre Olympic
peoples festival outside Crown Casino which by sheer weight of numbers will
prevent the meeting from going ahead.  As well as cancelling all police
leave, the city council, State government and media have begun a campaign to
win the hearts and minds of Victorians and isolate protest organisers.
The Holy Trinity - the Lord Mayor, Frank Costigan, the Premier, Steve Bracks
and the Police Superintendent, Peter Halloran (the man responsible for
security) have fired their first salvo through the mass media.  Costigan and
Bracks have gone into overgear about the benefits of the conference, while
Halloran has begun to wave a big stick telling us how the police will use
all the means at their disposal to ensure the conference delegates are not
"intimidated" by the protesters.
Whether tens of thousands of people participate in the demonstrations and
through weight of numbers bring the summit to a halt, depends on our ability
to neutralise Costegan's and Brack's message and encourage people not to be
frightened by Superintendent Halloran's comments.  Each and everyone of us
needs to continue to organise among our friends, our families, school and
work mates and neighbours to make sure that the non-representative swill
that is going to make decisions about our future hear our voice on the 11th,
12th and 13th of September.
NEXT WEEK - "MAKING A RACKET"

AUSTRALIAN ANARCHIST HISTORY - SYDNEY ANARCHIST GROUP - 1973
In 1973 there was not a functioning anarchist group working in Sydney.  The
anarchist movement consisted of a number of people who were friends and who
worked together on particular projects.  The Sydney anarchists in 1973 acted
as a Libertarian tendency within mass action groups.  The "push"
Libertarians who had been functioning since the late 1950's were active in
the Victoria St. (Kings Cross) residentıs action group.  They attempted to
stop high rise development destroying their local community.  The Resident
Action Group and the Builders Labourers Federation joined forces to
physically overpower karate experts who had been hired by developers to
illegally harass and evict the tenants.
Anarchists were also active in the Sydney Centre for Workerıs Control.  They
supported Women Liberationists associated with the Centre who wanted to run
the Centre through a monthly general assembly.  The anarchists and women
liberationists consistently won out in their struggle against people who
wanted to establish a hierarchical organisation to run the Workerıs Control
Centre.
A Workerıs Control Conference was organised by them for August 1973.  The
proposed topics for discussion were
1.  What is Workers Control?
2.  Workers control of prices.
3. The nature and role of shop floor
    organisation.
It didn't take long for the Sydney anarchists to abandon the ad hoc approach
they had in 1973.  Within a few years, JURA Books was established to act as
a focus for anarchist activity in Sydney.  The tactics used by the Sydney
anarchists in 1973 of organising as a specific anarchist tendency within
mass organisations is one which is still being debated about in the
Australian anarchist movement in the year 2001.

BOOK REVIEW
Everyone Wins!
Co-operative Games and Activities, Sumbhava and Josette LUVMOUR, New Society
Publishers 1998,
ISBN 0-86571-190-9
Reading this 100 page booklet reminds me of that old adage "horses for
courses".  I'm positive some 3 to 10 year old children will take to these
games but I don't believe the great majority will.  The problem is not the
games themselves, they all have positive aspects about them.  The problem
lies with the society we live in.  How do you interest children about the
excitement of co-operative games and activities when they have 'Mortal
Kombat' and Virtual Reality?
You may get away with playing most of these games with children in community
orientated schools, but the big wide world - that's another question.  The
games themselves, Hold me Up, Hello, Circuits and Nature Web may be
exciting, interactive games, but I don't think kids are going to play them
outside a school setting.
If your are sick and tired of children playing Mortal Kombat and becoming
virtual reality junkies, this may be the book you've been looking for.  Get
a copy, have a look at it and examine the alternatives to dominant culture
that are presented in EVERYONE WINS!  Sambhava and Josette Luvmour have done
us a service by putting on paper over a hundred co-operative games.
Thanks to Anarres Books for providing the review copy of this booklet.  The
book is available for the very reasonable price of $8.95 from Anarres Books.
Write to them at P.O. Box 150 EAST BRUNSWICK  VIC  3057,  Melbourne,
Australia.  Email your order to mailorder@anarres.org.au  Look at their
extensive catalogues (over 400 titles) on their web page  www.anarres.org.au
or write to them for their current catalogue.
This booklet could be just the gift you could give to your local primary
school or kindergarten.  Ask your library to buy one so parents have
alternatives to virtual reality.

PERSONAL OBSERVATION
One, two, three, four, five.  Five spires on a hill overlooking row upon row
of houses.  I've never noticed them before but tonight's different.  One,
two, three, four, five spires.  That's right, five.  All Christian churches,
all different, all the same, brick on brick, sandstone, grey, black.
Stained glass windows looking inwards.
It's dark, windy, another time, a hundred years ago they shouted, wealth,
stability, eternity.  Tonight nothing, just a few shabby thoughts, doors
locked, windows closed.  Leaves rustling, dark merciless footpaths leading
to locked church entrances.  Imposing buildings stand on the hill, one's a
cathedral, solid, stable, substance, strength.  Will it outlast the
pyramids?  I doubt it.  Five different churches, five different Christian
sects on the same hill.  Each calling to the same God, for eternal
salvation.  Smaller and smaller congregations, wearied by age wait for the
inevitable.
One church has become a trendy office, another proclaims it's a drop in
centre.  All that time, effort and money, for what, temporary partitions, so
somebody can make a buck.  The cathedral is circled by a 2 meter cyclone
fence.  It sits there squat and ugly.  I wonder if it's only open on Sunday.
A labour of love languishing forlornly on the very top of the hill, looking
across a city that no longer has a need for tales of eternal salvation.
Mammon beckons for the human soul, these cold, dark, grey, impersonal
churches are no match for the joys that tinsel town promises.



STOP PRESS
"BOUGAINVILLE BECKONS"
Will the Solomon Islands become another Bougainville?  Not if the Australian
and New Zealand governments can help it.  According to them, Bougainville is
a disaster, not because over 5% of the population have died as a consequence
of the New Guinea and Australian imposed blockade, but because the people of
Bougainville are the only people who have been able to send global capital
packing.
The Solomon's may not have much, but they do provide a nice, little
stop-over for global capital.  The problem the West faces in the Solomon's
is not the undeclared civil war, it's much more.  It's the example the
people of Bougainville set.  The C.R.A.'s of the world can be defeated.
Life goes on irrespective of whether you do or do not make a buck for the
main man.  The people of Bougainville have survived and continue to grow
irrespective of whether C.R.A. is digging or not digging in Bougainville.
They may not have all the comforts that post-modern capital can provide, but
they do determine their own destiny.  The B.R.A. has moved into the West
Solomon Islands because the people there are listening.  Very little of the
wealth that has been created in the Solomon's has filtered back to the
people.  The closure of this little Western outpost wouldn't rate a mention
in Vanity Fair or The New York Times.  It doesn't rate much at the best of
times.  What everybody is concerned about is that the Bougainville example
is infectious; if the Solomon's goes the same way, it won't take long for
other Pacific countries to follow suit.  No wonder the United States,
Australian and New Zealand governments are so keen to put their troops into
the Solomon's.


JOSEPH TOSCANO (Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society).


ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK
… BARRICADE NEWSLETTER APRIL 2000, Barricade Books/Info Shop, 115 Sydney Rd,
Brunswick, 3056 Melbourne. Australia Tel (03) 9387 6646, PO Box 145, East
Brunswick 3057, Melbourne Australia Email infoshop@bedlam.anarki.net
… DIRECT ACTION, (paper of the I.W.W) No.172 Autumn 2000, PO Box 78,
Bellingen 2454, New South Wales, Australia www.iww.org.au/da/
… WORKERS SOLIDARITY NO.4 May 2000, (Newsletter of the Melbourne I.W.W.
Branch), PO Box 145, Moreland 3058, Melbourne Australia Tel (03) 9689 2700
Melbourne@iww.org.au
… ARIVISTA ANARCHIA No.261 Mar 2000, Editrice A, C.P. 17120, 20170 Milano,
Italy, Tel/fax 02 28966270, email arivista@tin.it
www.anarca-bolo.ch/a-rivista
… FREEDOM Vol 61 No.11 3rd June 2000, 84b Whitechapel High St. London,
E17QX, Great Britain, http://www.tao.ca/~freedom email
FreedomPressatfreedom@tao.ca
… KATE SHARPLEY, Library Bulletin No.22 May 2000, BM Hurricane, London
WCIN3XX, England.
… LE MONDE LIBERTAIRE No.1207 25th-31st May 2000, 145 Rue Amelot, 75011
Paris France Tel 01 48 053408, Fax 01 49 299859.
… ROJO Y NEGRO No.120 Mar 2000, C.G.T. Sagunto 15, 28010 Madrid, Spain Tel
(91) 5931628, Fax (91) 4453132.
… UMANITA NOVA 80th year, 20th Jan, 5th Mar, 19th Mar, 26th Mat, 21st May,
2000. C. so. Palermo 46, 10152 Torino Italy. Tel/fax inrete.it email
fat@inrete.it
OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED THIS WEEK
… OPERAI CONTRO No.92 Feb 2000, Via Falck 44, 20099 Sesto S Giovanni (MI)
Italy http://www.savonaonline.it/aslo

DEBT ELIMINATION APPEAL
Our debt is now $322.50.  If we can continue to keep it below five hundred
dollars we can continue to publish till the cows come home.  It costs around
1500 dollars a month to produce the weekly, quarterly, radio program and
finance our other activities.  The Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed
Society provide 800 to 900 dollars per month of this total.  The other 700
to 800 dollars needed to keep this level of activity going needs to come
from our subscribers and supporters.  Itıs important to remember to keep
those subscriptions and donations rolling in.  If you are sending relatively
small amounts (twenty dollars or less) send us 45cent postage stamps (this
saves you bank and money order charges) and help us to pay our 400 dollar
per month postage bill our second  biggest expense after our radio costs.
Make out cheques and money orders to LIBERTARIAN WORKERS and send them to
P.O. Box 20 PARKVILLE 3052, Melbourne AUST.
DEBT 14.6.2000 - $322.50


ANARCHIST WORLD THIS WEEK
NOW ON THE INTERNET - FOR ANYBODY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD TO LISTEN IN TO.
LIKE THE PROGRAM - TELL YOUR FRIENDS AROUND THE PLANET ABOUT OUR INTERNET
ADDRESS -http://www.freespeech.org/anarchistAge
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 & white poster you
can photocopy & put up to help us increase the number of people who listen
to the Anarchist World This Week.

11th, 12th, 13th September
ASIA-PACIFIC LEG OF WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM MEETS IN MELBOURNE.  WILL YOU BE
WELCOMING THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BE MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT YOUR LIFE TO
MELBOURNE TOWN?  IF YOU THINK YOUıLL BE MAKING THE PILGRIMIGE email, write
or telephone us for an A3 b/w poster about the demonstrations planned for
these three days.  You can photocopy and distribute this poster in your
workplace, school or around your community.  The more who turn up, the
merrier.

STAMP APPEAL
We normally spend over $400.00 per month on postage stamps.  If you have any
spare stamps floating about or are about to write to us, stuff a few stamps
in the envelope.  Every little bit helps.

BARRICADE/INFOSHOP PLEDGE GROUP
Want to see a permanent Anarchist Bookshop / Information Centre in
Melbourne.  Then join the BARRICADE/INFOSHOP PLEDGE GROUP.  Cost five
dollars per week.  The Barricade/Infoshop Pledge Group is trying to raise
10,000 dollars so they can put a deposit on their own building.  Write to
them at PO Box 145, East Brunswick 3057. Melbourne Australia. Email them at
infoshop@bedlam.anarki.net or telephone them on (03) 9387 6646 and become a
member of the pledge group.

A) Anarchism towards the 21st century
B) Towards an anarchist society 1999 handbook
Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society Position and Activities 1999.
Send $4.00 of stamps to L.W.S.S. PO Box 20 Parkville 3052 Melbourne
Australia and we will post out both booklets to you.

Politically manipulated and scorned?  Sick of being a peripheral player
every time a Federal election comes around, then join:- VOTE INFORMAL TODAY,
DIRECT DEMOCRACY TOMORROW, a "political party" that is putting the boot into
the Australian Parliamentary Process.  Send a stamp self-addressed envelope
to VOTE INFORMAL TODAY
DIRECT DEMOCRACY TOMORROW
PO Box 20, Parkville. 3052. Melbourne. Australia  (03)9828 2856 (24 hour
answering service).  We will send information about how to join this unique
21st century Australian phenomena.  DON'T PUT IT OFF.  JOIN THE PUSH FOR
CHANGE NOW.
Written and authorised by Joseph Toscano (National Convenor 205 Nicholson St
Footscray 3012  Melbourne Australia)

ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE OBSCENITY OF THE WEEK.
Has been awarded to the Liberal/National Party, The Australia Labor Party
and The Australian Democrats for passing legislation through parliament that
gives A.S.I.O. widespread powers to gather information on Australians ­ good
one boys and girls.


If You Like What You Have Read, Photocopy This Publication and Leave It In
Doctors, Dentists, Vets Waiting Rooms and In Railway Stations, Bus Stops,
Libraries and Restaurants Etc.

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.

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IN A TIME OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT TELLING THE TRUTH IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT ­
GEORGE ORWELL
WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY ­ THE ANARCHIST CENTURY

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