Communard's blog

I know the cut and paste is a half-arsed way to write a blog, but I'm doing anyway. I got sent this and thought it deserves to be shared. Nice to see what is still possible.

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Check out this place in Spain, Marinaleda "A Utopia Towards Peace" (the local council's slogan!) in Andalucia, where they have reclaimed 1500 hectares of land from the local count and have set about building their own little utopia!

http://pathsthroughutopia.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/a-utopian-detour/

Two participants in the recent Peace Convergence against militarism at Shoalwater Bay, have just faced court in Rockhampton.

They had been charged by the Qld police with "public nuisance" and "wilful interference with a mobile vehicle" and faced court for these charges last Friday, 13 July.

They received these charges after they locked-on to a USA military truck, that was travelling down the Bruce Highway, towards the Rockhampton military barracks, on Sunday 24th June.

The truck pulled up at a set of lights, when 'Glen' and 'Ben' rushed the truck and locked onto the axle, with the support of numerous other peace activists.

Local residents in Byfield have said that hundreds, possibly thousands, of different species of birds and bats have died in the Byfield area over the past week.

The mass die-off began about one week following the live bombings in Shoalwater Bay by the Australian and USA military. These bombings are part of 'Operation Talisman Sabre', the largest joint war games since the Vietnam War. The designated bombing area is immediately north of Byfield.

The live bombings practise various tactics, such as 'ship-to-shore', and test various munitions, such as white and red phosphorous bombs and munitions containing perchlorate.

During the recent Peace Convergence, I've heard a few comments in support of Operation Talisman Sabre amd the Shoalwater Bay military base. Below are my responces to some of them.

1] They need somewhere to train.

This is probably the most common argument in favour of ‘Operation Talisman Sabre’ and Shoalwater Bay military base. They (joint USA and Australian military) only need somewhere to train if Australia intends to follow the USA around the globe on various campaigns of aggression and neo-colonialism. I’d say Australia should stop doing this also, which would remove the need to train at Shoalwater Bay. New Zealand doesn’t have a ‘Shoalwater Bay style’ military base, and they aren’t in any danger. Actually they are probably safer for it.

The right-wing nationalist group, 'Save Australia Alliance' (S.A.A.), is publically claiming to be 'united' with the 'Peace Convergence'. The S.A.A.has a racist, anti-migrant, pro-gun, militarist political agenda.

The Peace Convergence is a network of organisations and individuals. It has not formally, or publically, indicated any support for, or wish to co-operate with, the Save Australia Alliance.

The Peace Convergence has publically indicated strongly support for aboriginal sovereignty and land rights. Many Peace Convergence participants have publically indicated stong support for the rights of refugees and migrants. Many Peace Convergence participants also promote a politics of internationalist humanism and demilitarised society.

Printed below is an open letter from the Munity Collective (Sydney), in regard to the coming APEC summit and surrounding protest movements. (See http://www.apec2007.org/ and http://www.pmc.gov.au/about_pmc/divisions/apec2007/index.cfm)

This is not my opinion, but republished for the purpose of informed discussion.
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An open letter from Mutiny to people thinking about organising protests at APEC

Some people have said that they don’t want APEC to be another G20. Neither do we. We don’t want to see ‘protest organisers’ publicly denouncing other protesters. We don’t want to see groups responding to a climate of police aggression by distancing themselves from those being targeted. We don’t want to see groups so busy scrambling for crumbs of media ‘legitimacy’ that they willingly play into media hysteria about ‘violence’ and false and dangerous dichotomies between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ protesters.

Just wanted to encourage everyone who sees this, to make a real effort to come to the Peace Convergence, at Yeppoon 18-24 June.

All the details about whats going on is available at http://www.peaceconvergence.com

In short the Australian Government has signed a treaty with the USA government which will allow the USA military to build a permanent military base at Shoalwater Bay.

As part of this deal, the Australian and USA military will have regular joint war games called Operation Talisman-Saber at Shoalwater Bay.

These war games are the largest military exercises conducted since the Vietnam war, with over 30 000 troops involved this year. They will practise a number of techniques, including ship to shore bombing, amphibious landings, and occupation strategies for third world slum/cities. They are even going to build a fake 'slum' to invade. All of these are expliectly aggressive exercises that are about invading and occupying other territories. Not 'defence of the homeland'.

I’m sure this is old news by now, but I still feel sick in the guts thinking about it.

No doubt most people in Queensland know of the results of the recent findings by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare, in regard to the death in police custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee.

For those that don’t know, Mulrunji Doomadgee is an indigenous Australian that died in police custody on Palm Island, Qld. At the time local residents rose in grief and anger and burned every institution of the State on the island, starting with the local police station. It is commonly understood that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley severely beat Mulrunji Doomadgee and left him to die in his cell.

So Level 4 water restrictions. Anyone know when the last time this happened? Not just Brisbane, but every major urban area and farming land across Australia is in 'drought'. Sydney is the latest to bring in major water restrictions, while the Murray-Darling hasn't been much more then a muddy ditch for ages.

But why? Obviously climate change. But why?

To me this situation is a fine example of what is fundamentally wrong with the way current society is managed (or more accurately controlled).

Every person that went through year 9 science was exposed to the concept of 'transperation'. The simple understanding that trees draw WARter from the ground through their roots and 'exhale' the water into the atmosphere through their leaves. This process creates water vapour that forms clouds that forms rain, which again falls on the ground, the trees suck it up and put it into the air. And on the cylce goes.

So what’s wrong with Fascism? Nazi Germany had one of the highest standards of living and lowest unemployment rates on the planet during the 1930’s depression. The Soviet Union (red fascists) had the fastest growing economy in the world during the 1950’s. Singapore has exceptionally tidy streets and street crime is almost non-existent in Syria.

If I remember my propaganda lessons correctly from school and TV, police states were wrong because you could not trust your neighbours, or even your kids, from vindictively naming you as a ‘subversive’ and making you known as such to the police. This reality created a climate of fear, where a person was not able to be free or freely associate with others in their community. Unlike here in our great Australian democracy.