Brisbane Anarchy -

A Little Detour through Utopia

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:40:24 -0500

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/

Message to those Attending the Canberra protest for Indigenous People

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:16:30 -0500

"This is a message and story for all the Balanda [white people] who are doing the protest for Indigenous people about the new laws of ‘the Intervention’.

Our home is a small community by the sea in North East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, called MataMata.

Before, we thought that it was safe to allow the new government to share our canoe. But now we can feel they are paddling in the opposite direction. Now it’s too difficult and hard for Yolngu people.

It doesn’t matter that the government has changed – their attitudes haven’t changed. The two governments are both in their own world. They are both in their different world without the Indigenous people.

The contradictory effects of Quarantining Indigenous Welfare Payments

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:33:26 -0500

The following is not an anarchist analysis, but general analysis of one aspect of the new Intervention laws affecting Indigenous people in the Northern Territory:

As the quarantining of Indigenous welfare payments rolls out across the Northern Territory, its alleged benefits need to be weighted against the possible cultural and economic consequences. The end results may well be opposite to those desired. Quarantining could make it harder to access services, increase the cost of food provision, constrain saving patterns, and in turn, exacerbate the conflicts it intends to curtail.

The recent Federal election featured large in remote Aboriginal communities. In between conversations about kin, hunting and weather patterns there was much discussion about the ‘new laws for Aboriginal people’ - a collective reference to the various aspects of the Howard government’s ‘Emergency Intervention’.

Anti-Warhol

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:17:46 -0500

Communist philosopher Anthony Hayes has written an good anti-Warhol blog as the blockbuster exhibition continues at the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art this week (23/1/2008).

http://antyphayes.blogsome.com/2008/01/09/p18/

I added a comment:

I thought Ant was clear — I had more problems understanding the relevance of the divisions Patrick raised [this refers to the previous comment on the blog site pasted above, though my comment here should make sense even if you do not go to that blog]. To show why a short comment may be useful.

Taken as an entirety, Warhol’s praxis is thought to engage with the market in a clever and appealing manner. Aware of the influence of pop culture, like ‘his’ Velvet Underground or later The Ramones etc, Warhol as artist and person then became an icon for those who are attracted to a cultural alternative to the mainstream. He is taken to be important to “counterculture,” and shares the appeal that counterculture understandably posseses. Thus in Queensland the Warhol exhibition was opened by figures like Robert Forster of the Go-Betweens, a band that began in a scene opposed to Sir Joh’s conservative vision of post-war Australian society.

“How can I be sexist? I’m an anarchist!”

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:06:04 -0500

This is an excerpt from Chris Crass' essay in the 'Going To Places That Scare Me: Personal Reflections On Challenging Male Supremacy' at Znet

"What do you mean I'm sexist?" I was shocked. I wasn't a jock, I didn’t hate women, I wasn't an evil person. "But how can I be a sexist, I'm an anarchist?" I was anxious, nervous, and my defenses were up. I believed in liberation, for fighting against capitalism and the state. There were those who defended and benefited from injustice and then there’s us, right? I was 19 and it was 1993, four year after I got into politics.

Nilou, holding my hand, patiently explained, “I'm not saying you're an evil person, I'm saying that you're sexist and sexism happens in a lot of subtle and blatant ways. You cut me off when I'm talking. You pay more attention to what men say. The other day when I was sitting at the coffee shop with you and Mike, it was like the two of you were having a conversation and I was just there to watch. I tried to jump in and say something, but you both just looked at me and then went back to your conversation. Men in the group make eye contact with each other and act like women aren’t even there. The study group has become a forum for men in the group to go on and on about this book and that book, like they know everything and just need to teach the rest of us. For a long time I thought maybe it was just me, maybe what I had to say wasn't as useful or exciting. Maybe I needed to change my approach, maybe I was just overreacting, maybe it's just in my head and I need to get over it. But then I saw how the same thing was happening to other women in the group, over and over again. I'm not blaming you for all of this, but you're a big part of this group and you're part of this dynamic.” This conversation changed my life and it’s challenge is one I continue to struggle with in this essay.

Biofuel vs Food

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:41:00 -0400

Recent studies have warned that China and India risk future famine by using scarce water to irrigate biofuel crops rather than food. The two countries are expected to provide two-thirds of the global growth in biofuels: maize in China and sugar cane in India.

It raises the question of the inevitable increase in competition for ‘other’ resources as the supply of oil declines. Not only scarce water resources, but land, labour and the utilisation and/or monopolisation of other energy resources, for the increased production of ‘biofuel’.

On the rare occasions I drive, I sometimes joke that at least I’ll be speeding up peak-oil. Point being (perhaps not funny I admit), that I have unthinkingly harboured some positive associations with peak oil. I’ve been secretly hoping or assuming that Peak-oil will bring about fundamental structural change. If we can’t start the revolution, perhaps, I thought lying in bed, a world wide shortage of oil might be just the catalyst and opportunity for such change.

Do Not Vote For Holly Kemp

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:27:21 -0400

Do not vote for Holly Kemp

Holly Kemp is running for the position of secretary with the leftwing Catalyst group in the coming UQ St Lucia student elections. Voters should know that she misrepresents students if she thinks it is in her interest to do so, and that she does indeed think it is in her interest to do so.

At the 2006 SOS (Students of Sustainability) conference Holly Kemp misrepresented my friends and I.

We were interested in campus activism at the 2006 SOS. The main target of this activism was to be campus militarism such as the scramjet program at UQ and Boeing sponsorship at St Lucia. We wrote a leaflet that argued it is irrational to develop military technology when there are other technologies that could benefit from resources currently allocated to the military, and when these other technologies could help us address (for e.g.) environmental concerns. Our recommendation was that we demand more R&D funding for (inter alia) renewable energy, while also pursuing the abolition of research projects into hi-tech weapons. The leaflet took up the counter-argument that investment in militarism is desirable in order to deter attackers, for instance scramjet tech supposedly may have anti-ballistic applications. However leaflet argued the best way to prevent of war is an international peace movement, and that such a movement is incompatible with deterrence (for a copy: s200408@student.uq.edu.au).

What's on at Green & Black Bookshop?

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:57:27 -0400

OCT 13: This month's movie at Black & Green: " What A Way To Go - Life At The End Of Empire"

A middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the American Lifestyle. Featuring interviews with Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, Jerry Mander, Chellis Glendinning, Richard Heinberg, Thomas Berry, William Catton, Ran Prieur and Richard Manning. [See more here] Saturday 13th October, from 7pm. Come early for some cakes and coffee!

OCT 17: Meet a Zapatista @ Green & Black Bookstore, 80 Ryan St, West End.

Revolution in Burma?

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:03:32 -0400

[This article is not an anarchist analysis of the situation but nonetheless offers an important insight into what is going on in Burma at present - it was written by Monique Skidmore,a medical anthropologist who has been researching in Burma since 1994.]

The Burmese People have had Enough

Enough poverty. Enough malnutrition. Enough civil war, torture, arbitrary arrest and incarceration. Enough repression, fear, and censorship.
That’s what the current protest is about, but its roots stretch back to 1962 when the Burmese armed forces, led by General Ne Win, usurped power from Burma’s democratically elected government of Prime Minister U Nu. General Ne Win ruled the country by fear, informers, propaganda and isolation. A civil war has waged since then, with estimates of the loss of life at up to 10,000 each year.

Violence at APEC

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:28:18 -0400

Once again anarchists have become scapegoats for government scare campaigns surrounding the impending APEC summit in Sydney. Government representatives have variously expressed their ‘worry’ and ‘disgust’ at the (alleged) violent intent of protesters. But given the current security/military build up in Sydney, such allegations seem rather ill directed.

Violence and violent intent? One might cynically point to the Berlinesque wall that has been erected by police – the new $600,000 armoured truck, fitted with a high-powered water cannon – the conspicuous and hilariously over the top show of ‘security might’ on the harbour, on the streets and in the skies, not to mention the emptying out of jails in anticipation of mass arrests and the veiled threats by John Howard himself – warning protesters to re-think attempting to practice their democratic right to protest. Such a build up is clearly aimed at intimidating, not only those who oppose the APEC agenda, but those who the leaders purport to represent. The message they are sending is loud and clear – ‘We, the most powerful ‘world leaders’ have the power to do whatever we like and we have the arms, resources, and authoritarian gall to violently quash anyone who dare attempt to oppose us.

Citizenship Test = Racist Baloney

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:31:10 -0400

This week the H government introduced a draft citizenship test for immigration applicants that I reckon most Aussies would be hard pressed to answer. In addition, it is a profound insult to the heritage of Australian indigenous people ignoring as it does the 60,000 years + of non-white, non-european settlement prior to Cook and his imperialist buddies and it pays absolutely no heed to Australia's rich social and ecological history outside of white-man's politics.

Ironically, the test, says Minister for the Harassment of People Foolish Enough to Want to Immigrate To Australia, will not have any power to prevent people becoming Australians. Why have the contentious thing then?

AFP Home invasions harass indigenous people opposing nuke dump

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:07:46 -0400

A letter from Jennifer Martinello:

FYI- This has gone to the 7.30 report and several newspapers. please circulate. Let me know what we can do.

Dear Kerry O'Brien and 7.30 researchers,

I have just returned from the Northern Territory.

I want John Howard to explain why house to house raids without warrants are being conducted by the AFP in all the Alice Springs town camps.

I also want to know why at least two of the senior women who toured major cities speaking out against a uranium waste dump on their traditional lands have been raided by the AFP on warrants issued by a Federal Magistrate in Canberra, their furniture slashed with knives, belongings damages, aptops and mobile phones seized, and phones tapped. I was told by one of the women that the warrant gave 12 hours access to her home, and that she was told that the measures were justified because of the security crackdown for APEC ministers.

Council Amalgamation = less people power

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:30:22 -0400

Our system of government can't be called true democracy when most of us only get to have a say in public process once every three years or so in elections. Given that massive flaw in representative democracy, nowhere is government more particpatory (outside of an anarchist commune!) than in local government. Most of the community realises that - in local government you are more likely to be able to have an effect on decision making than in a bigger, more distant government.

A good example is perhaps the Leichardt Shire Council in central coastal Queensland. Leichardt Council encompasess Yeppoon as it's major centre and lies adjacent to Rockahmpton Shire Council further inland. During recent years Leichardt has been dubbed the 'Peace Shire' due to the number of peace advocates that have emerged from the community in response to the escalation of U.S. invovled war manourvers in their back yards. During the 2007 Peace Convergence the local community, supported by hundreds of vistors from around Australia, succeeded in making a great public show of their desires for the community - a non-militarised, environmentally and personally safe and non-toxic environment for humans and the unique wildlife of the area. They convinced the Leichardt Shire Council to vote in an anti-nuclear policy and the mayor of Yeppoon, Bill Ludwig, agreed that he would rather see their natural areas used for tourism as a national park than war games.

Volunteer with Radical Radio 4zZz102.1fm in Brisbane

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:51:11 -0400

The Radical Radio collective at Community Radio 4ZzZ 102.1fm is looking for left leaning volunteers with an interest in social and environmental justice.

We need people willing to learn the skills of local news researching, phone and live interviewing, digital editing, on-air announcing and general opinionated news reporting from experienced media activists. We can teach you these skills and enable you to talk about local, regional and international news and events that interest you for the community radio audience. Our shows are broadcast four days a week. We hope prospective volunteers would be able to join us for at least one show a month and commit to one of our four shows, depending on your interests. Details below.

Locking-on to USA Military Trucks is Good for the Soul

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:39:05 -0400

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.