Redfern, Palm Island, Macquarie Flats, the script is the same, locals die as a result of questionable police actions. Local people seething at past injustices, shocked by the senseless deaths of valued members of their community, strike back at the police. The fourth estate, government ministers and the police create a climate that allows them to temporarily put a lid on this bubbling cauldron. The participants in the riots are identified, arrested, prosecuted and eventually imprisoned.
Instant experts trot out instant theories about dysfunctional families, single mothers, television violence; the blame is conveniently shifted back onto the disadvantaged and the oppressed. Nobody is listening to the cry of desperation the increasing number of people, who know they have no future in the 21st century Australia, are making.
The Howard government is reaping the rewards of policies they have promoted that have divided Australians into winners and losers. No amount of talk about mutual obligation, no amount of police violence, no amount of dribble that passes as informed comment in much of Australia´s conservative fourth estate, can hide the fact that a rapidly increasing minority of people in this country know they have no future in Howard´s comfortable and relaxed Australia.
Latham´s mythical ladder of opportunity has been smashed to smithereens by the Liberal / National Party and the A.L.P. (Alternative Liberal Party). No pathway exists for an increasing number of Australians that allows them to climb Jack´s bean stalk so they can look for the golden goose. Faced with a life devoid of any future, faced with governments that have long ceased to listen, faced with a fourth estate that has conveniently forgotten its questioning role in society, the lid on this boiling cauldron is blowing off over and over again.
Normally Australians internalise their disappointments and bitterness, increasing rates of depression, substance abuse and personal and domestic violence are the legacy of their feelings of powerlessness. Occasionally the lid blows off the cauldron, people riot, target their immediate tormentors in a futile effort to draw the community´s attention to their plight. Governments, the fourth estate and the corporate sector ignore these warnings at their peril.
If the current situation continues to be ignored and glossed over, the sporadic community violence that is becoming a feature of life in Australia will coalesce into a formidable political movement that will demand its concerns are taken seriously by both government and the fourth estate.
(Without asking permission to do so)
Last year we thought we had won the right to demonstrate in Melbourne´s Federation Square without asking permission to do so. After numerous confrontations with Square management and two confrontations with Victoria Police, we believed we had won the right to demonstrate in Melbourne´s Federation Square without asking permission to do so.
This year, after putting up the ´Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion´ banner and handing out a few leaflets advertising the celebrations outside the Supreme Court in Melbourne to mark the 150th anniversary of the acquittal of John Joseph for his participation in the Eureka rebellion, all hell broke loose. Confronted with annoyed Federation Square officials who asked us to leave, the police were brought in to break the stalemate as we refused to move on. The five of us at the Square decided after being there for an hour, we would pack up our banner and return to reclaim the Square on another day.
Federation Square is run by a quango-a quasi autonomous non-government(al) organisation that administers the Square on behalf of the Victorian State government. The question facing the community is whether Federation Square is an open public space or is it private space. Federation Square management claim the Square is not open public space and that anybody who wants to demonstrate in the Square needs to obtain permission from them. You do not need a permit or permission to demonstrate in open public space in Victoria. The idea that you have to ask permission to demonstrate in open public space is anathema to the idea that people have the freedom to protest. There are a raft of laws that govern the conduct of protests and demonstrations that can be enforced by police if demonstrators are acting illegally. To give police or a quango the power to decide who can or cannot demonstrate in open public space, is a serious attack on those few rights and liberties people still enjoy in Victoria.
The government quango that runs Federation Square will tell you that people have the right to demonstrate in the Square as long as they first obtain permission. Their problem revolves around the legal responsibility they have to the private businesses in the Square and to those organisations that pay for the exclusive use of the Square. Having a Chinese government display or a Grand Prix display in the Square and having protestors in the Square at the same time could weaken their financial arrangements. They believe they have the power to determine who uses Federation Square, when they use it and what part of the Square can be used for demonstrations. They don´t seem to understand that you cannot choreograph democracy to fit into their private commercial arrangements.
Federation Square is either open public space or privatised corporate space. If it´s open public space, the same rules apply to it that apply to the rest of Victoria. If it´s privatised corporate space, the Square needs to be fenced off, security guards need to be put on the gates and signs should be put up that state Federation Square is private property and trespassers will be prosecuted.
At midday on Wednesday 16th March, members of ´Freedom to Protest in Federation Square´ will be holding a peaceful vigil in Federation Square without asking permission. A number of us are willing to test this matter in the courts and if asked to move on, will refuse to move on.
We encourage the people of Melbourne and Victoria to join our peaceful vigil to protect rights that have been won for us by struggles carried out by our parents and grandparents over the past century. It´s important that in times when more and more of the freedoms and liberties that we had enjoyed in the past have been legislated away, we draw a line in the sandstone in Federation Square and say enough is enough.
The Federal Treasurer Peter Costello must think that Australians can´t think straight. His reaction to the 39th consecutive current account deficit, the highest in Australia´s history, was more of the same pseudo economic jargon he is famous for.
It´s sobering to think that the $420 billion Australian deficit (7% of G.D.P.) is higher than the massive United States deficit which in comparison is only 6% of G.D.P. Costello warbled on about ships waiting at ports refusing to tackle the main issue. His solution to the current problem is further deregulation of the labour market, further removal of tariffs, people working harder to increase Australian exports and the removal of export bottlenecks.
It all sounds very reasonable until you take a closer look at the figures. The Australian people are reaping the benefits of 10 years of the Howard government´s deregulation and ´free trade´ mantra. The current penchant for free trade agreements signals the death knell of both the manufacturing and agricultural sector in this country. Every available indicator highlights that the Howard government´s economic program is a recipe for disaster.
Anyone with one functioning neurone knows that deregulation and free trade marks the beginning of the end of the Australian manufacturing sector. All you have to do is examine the current figures to know what is going on. As far as agriculture is concerned, Australian exporters are finding that the Howard government´s much vaunted free trade agreements, especially the one with the US, are not increasing Australia´s share of foreign markets. Just look at Iraq and see who has scored all those lucrative wheat contracts the US of A. The mining sector is in the middle of a boom that will last as long as the Chinese need for raw materials lasts, once the bubble bursts, even the mining sector will find it hard going.
The ballooning current account deficit is the first of a number of economic indicators that should be ringing alarm bells. The idea that has been successfully sold to the Australian people that the Howard government is a successful economic manager, is about to be turned on its head. A few more record current account deficits, a few interest rate hikes, increasing numbers of bankruptcies and a falling property market, are a few of the indicators that will blow out of the water the idea that the Howard government was ever a good economic manager.
I´m a little puzzled about the reaction by the fourth estate to the stock exchange´s announcement that around 8 million Australians (55% of the adult population) own shares directly or indirectly through their superannuation funds. We are breathlessly told this makes Australians the highest share owning people in the world.
This statement is almost as relevant and earth shattering as the statement that claims pants kill because more people who die wear pants than those who don´t. As many more people in the world wear pants than wear skirts, more people wearing pants will die than people wearing dresses. Although the statement is factual and correct, it´s wrong to claim that people died because they were wearing pants.
Examining the figures that are publicly available a little closer, it´s sobering to think that the richest 1% of Australians own 50% of the shares available. It´s astonishing to think that the richest 10% own 80% of the country´s shares. Many of the 7.2 million Australians, who own the remaining 20% of shares, are not even aware they are shareholders, as they inadvertently have become shareholders through investment strategies that have been pursued by superannuation funds they have little interest in.
Many others have received shares as a result of the demutualisation mania that has gripped the country. A process that has transformed members of mutual societies from people who were able to determine the direction that mutual society took, to disenfranchised shareholders who have little if any influence in the new corporations that have been created through demutualisation.
The advantages that are gained by those 80% of Australians who own 20% of shares, is both minimal and illusory. Minimal because decisions about a company´s investment strategies are determined by the minority of people who own the most shares, not the 80% who own 20% of the shares. Illusory because as workers, corporate policies are designed to maximise shareholders profits at the expense of the workers who create these profits; any gains they make as shareholders are soon cancelled by the losses they make as workers.
It´s time the dream run the corporate sector has had in the fourth estate over the past few decades, was tempered with a dose of reality.
Remember those children who were thrown out of humidicribs and left to die by Saddam Hussein´s soldiers in Kuwait? We all shed a tear for those poor children. It was one of the major publicity scoops that surrounded the 1st invasion of Iraq. That story captured the hearts and minds of people and created the climate that Iraqis were capable of anything. The only problem with the story was that a few years later, it turned out to be a story manufactured by intelligence agencies that was used to justify the invasion.
Well, I´ve got the same feelings now. Don´t get me wrong, I´ve little time for the Syrian government, a nasty little dictatorship, what I don´t like is how news is being manufactured to justify the impeding invasion of Syria. Remember those elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Why would Syria bother to assassinate former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a former Muslim Prime Minister who had extensive business interests with Syria? His well planned assassination has all the hallmarks of an Israeli / Lebanese Christian operation. The Israeli government´s accusation that Syria was involved in the recent Tel Aviv suicide bombing, is just another of those too convenient little jig saw pieces that point the figure at Syria.
Since the invasion of Iraq, Syria has been the next domino, all the ´coalition of the willing´ needs is a few manufactured virtual terrorists plots and hey presto before you know it, a case has been made for the invasion of Syria. The Syrian Baath Party knows that they are in the US gun sights; it makes no sense for them to launch overt and covert attacks. Why would they want the eyes of the world on them?
Implicating Syria in the current round of atrocities in the Middle East makes no sense whatsoever. The secular dictatorship that currently runs Syria is more interested in self preservation than all out war with the most powerful nation on earth, that is why the current scenario that has been pushed in the forth estate should be treated with caution.
A. I´m afraid not, Anarchism isn´t a philosophy that claims it has all the answers. It isn´t a religion or a political philosophy that both asks the questions and gives you the answers. There is no anarchist commandments, follow the 10 commandments and you´ll achieve eternal life. Anarchism doesn´t provide the certainties that people find in the Bible and the Koran. Anarchism has no gurus or holy places you can worship at and gain enlightenment. Anarchism is a great disappointment to people who are looking for ready made answers, instant solutions and a way to make sense about the vagaries of being.
Anarchism is a mechanism by which people can regain practical control of their lives. It is a philosophy that places the individual at the centre of existence. It is a philosophy that recognises an individual´s freedom is intertwined with the freedom of those around them. It is a philosophy that recognises that both individual and collective freedom is dependent on people having access to common resources to make dreams a reality.
Anarchism is rooted in the here and now. An anarchist´s common bond lies in their recognition that in order to be free, we need to develop ourselves as autonomous independent human beings. We recognise that what stands between us and this brave new world, are the institutions and structures that ruling elites have created to justify and maintain the power they are able to exercise over millions of people.
Anarchists challenge the right of those elements in society that exercise power by creating structures and institutions that allow people to individually and collectively make decisions about their lives and which allows them to use the common wealth to make their decisions a reality.
The group of people behind the organisation of the protests to reclaim Melbourne´s Federation Square for public demonstrations were in a bit of a quandary last week. The dispute is a relatively complex one and they found it impossible to put all the necessary information on one banner. They eventually settled on the banner-´FREEDOM TO PROTEST IN FEDERATION SQUARE´. Although this banner tells some of the story, it doesn´t tell the entire story.
Demonstrations are more than a show of feelings; they´re about alerting other people to what is going on. They are essentially a visual display. Far too often people mass together to display their feelings, but spectators have little idea about what is happening. The demonstration at midday on Wednesday 16th of March is essentially a static matter. Banner, people, leaflets. Federation Square is a public space, it´s the heart of Melbourne; visitors are normally milling around taking advantage of this open space. Spectators need to be able to understand what is happening.
If police become involved, people tend to move away. In such situations, those involved in the protest need to be able to generate sympathy for what they are fighting for, among the people there. A good way to do this is for participants in the demonstrations to bring along their own large hand written placards: ´PUBLIC SPACE NOT PRIVATE SPACE´, ´STOP THE CORPORATISATION OF PUBLIC SPACE´, ´WE DON´T NEED PERMISSION TO DEMONSTRATE IN OPEN PUBLIC SPACE´, ´PUBLIC SQUARE NOT CORPORATE SQUARE´, ´SHAME!! SHAME!! SHAME!!´, ´JOIN US AND PROTECT OPEN PUBLIC SPACE´, ´ENDANGERED SPECIES-OPEN PUBLIC SPACE´, ´FEDERATION SQUARE-PEOPLES SQUARE´ and the list goes on and on.
The message needs to be transmitted into the homes of people around the State - a placard is an effective way it can be done. Television cameras need visual content, placards are one very good way that people involved in a vigil or protest or demonstration can inform people about their struggle and maintain control over the direction the movement takes. If you´re coming on Wednesday the 16th of March, bring a placard to this peaceful vigil.
- ALL POWER TO THE IMAGINATION
Vida Goldstein, radical, feminists, socialist, anti-war activist, the first female to stand for parliament (Victorian Senate 1903) in the British Empire, founded the Womens Political Association (WPA) - an organisation that had a major impact on the anti-war struggle that took place in Australia during WWI. In late 1916, the WPA took out the lease on Melbourne´s Guild Hall. Guild Hall (RMIT University´s Storey Hall) acted as a meeting point for the growing anti-war movement in Melbourne.
Three days after the declaration of WWI, Vida Goldstein founded the Womens Peace Army-an anti-war auxiliary of the WPA that fought under the slogan ´WE WAR AGAINST WAR´. Despite enormous hostility in the community, the Womens Peace Army attracted a number of talented and militant female activists. Bella Lavender - the first woman to gain a degree from Melbourne University, Adela Pankhurst - a foundation member of the Communist Party of Australia, Elizabeth Wallace-a leading member of the Prahran Free Speech fight and Jennie Baines-the first Australian political prisoner to become involved in a hunger strike and the well known operatic singer Cecilia John, were a few of the more talented and energetic women who joined the Womens Peace Army.
The WPA was at the forefront of the struggle against the war. Guild Hall flew the WPA´s own flag-purple for the royalty of international justice, white-for the purity of international life and green-for the springing of hope of international peace. Members of the WPA addressed anti-conscription meetings, organised some of the largest anti-conscription demonstrations held in Australia and formed links with the trade union movement. When the Victorian wharfies went out on strike in 1917, they set up a commune in Guild Hall which provided practical support to the wharfies and their families. They also provided speakers for strike meetings that were held around Melbourne.
The end of the war saw the decline of the WPA, Vida Goldstein lost interest in political activity and dropped out of politics preferring Christian Science to active politics. The WPA commune continued operating till February 1919. In March that same year, the wharfies involved in the 8-hour day celebrations marched to Guild Hall to show their respect and gratitude to the WPA. The WPA was not able to survive in the new political climate, it disbanded soon after. Many of its members joined the Victorian Socialist Party and the newly formed Communist Party of Australia.
Walk down the Boulevard in Richmond, Melbourne and you´ll soon come across Melbourne Girls College, one of the tangible results of the struggles surrounding the shutdown of Richmond Secondary College (RSC) by the Kennett government. The long battle surrounding the closure of RSC helped to mobilise resistance around Victoria against the election of the Kennett government in 1992. It culminated in the trial and acquittal of the Richmond Eight in the Magistrates Court almost 2 years after the occupation had started.
Stephen Jolly´s account of the momentous events surrounding the closure of RSC, a microcosm of what was happening to the education system around Victoria, makes interesting, entertaining and informative reading. All too often, the history of significant community struggles is not recorded. Irrespective of the disagreements some participants may have with Jolly´s interpretation, what is important is that what happened has been brought together between the covers of one book. The publication of ´Behind The Lines´ would not have happened without the generous support of the Australian Council for the Defence of Government Schools (DOGS). They underwrote the cost of the book using a sizeable contribution from the estate of Claude Cyril Fuller, a former member of the DOGS NSW branch.
´Behind The Lines´ is a story of a 365 day 24-hour round the clock occupation of the school site. It´s a story of a group that ran an alternative school, launched an effective political campaign that demonstrated that resistance to the Kennett government was possible. It´s a story about picketers, who resisted baton charges, pressure point tactics and who went on to win their cases in the courts. ´Behind The Lines´ is essentially a story of the human spirit. The matrix of an important community struggle are aired and discussed in this important book. The tragedy about the resistance surrounding the closure of RSC is not that they only won 70% of their demands, the tragedy is that the rest of Victoria stood on the sidelines, watching the spectacle unfold, not understanding that they too could have saved their schools and institutions from the Kennett government onslaught if they had used the same tactics that were used in the fight to save RSC.
The strength of this book does not just lie in the story that unfolds before the reader, its strength lies in the example that is outlined, an example that other communities should consider following when faced with the spectre of governments that refuse to listen and who are willing to use the disciplinary arm of the State to impose their viewpoints.
The Australian Council for the Defence of Government Schools (DOGS) has given the Anarchist Media Institute 5 copies of ´Behind The Lines´. Send us $10.00 worth of 50c stamps to cover packaging and postage costs of the book and we will send out a copy to the first 5 readers who send in their $10.00 worth of stamps.
- ´A
wonderful son´,
- ´What will I do without
you´,
- ´I´ll miss
you´.
Opening scenes to a new soap opera or something closer to the bone?
Could
be either one. Context, context, context!! A busy intersection, 40,000
cars a day, traffic lights, red light cameras, icons to urban living.
Gazebo heaven, car wash, petrol station cum petite shopping complex,
pharmacy and a row of shops bear silent witness, 24-hours a day, 7-days
a
week, 365-days a year.
Nothing changes; stop, start, stop, start, green, amber, red, one millisecond later ´wonderful son´, past tense. Dried flowers, cheap wrapping paper, cello tape, hand written messages and tears running the lines together. Haphazardly wrapped with brown 1-inch packaging tape around the base of the traffic lights, a monument to a young life suddenly dashed on the bitumen. The cause? Irrelevant, the outcome personally devastating. A life thrown in a common pool, the ripples eventually reach us, each of us touched in different ways as his death gently intersects our universe. In a week or 2 or 3, the flowers will disappear, council workers prodded by the need to keep death off the streets, will tear down the monument, the hand written letters will disappear from public view. The shared pain, like the flowers, will wilt. Two or 3 weeks later, turning right, I´ll have forgotten the wilting flowers and tear stained letters, my life crowding out his life and death. Some will carry the memory and pain within them 10, 20, 50 maybe 60 years. Their intimacy, the young man´s road to temporary immortality, they´ll never forget him. When they die, he dies. In the interim, he lives in their hearts and temporarily touches our hearts. ´Dear James,.
The Sunday Age´s editorial (27/2) about the lack of compassion in community and government circles in relation to the Cornelia Rua, Cul Yu Hu and Nak Assavatheptavee, misses the point. The problem is not one of sympathy and compassion for those less fortunate than us, it´s a question about justice ´Authority exercised in the maintenance of right´.
The positive community attitude in relation to the plight of the Vietnamese boat people 30 years ago, in comparison to the fear, loathing and hatred that greeted the Tampa refugees, is first and foremost a political question. Thirty years ago, the government welcomed the refugees because it was politically expedient to do so. Through their words and actions, they created a positive climate in the Australian community for refugees fleeing communist tyranny. Thirty years later, it was politically expedient to demonise refugees, the Howard government successfully tapped into a rich vein of community prejudice and fear to maintain its hold on political power.
The Whitlam and Fraser governments took a leadership role in relation to refugees. They moulded public opinion through policies that attempted to integrate refugees into the Australian community. The Howard government has manipulated deeply held prejudices in the community that reinforce community stereotypes about refugees. It´s no accident that the Howard government has successfully mobilised the same prejudices to marginalise the unemployed. It´s no accident they are beginning to use the same tactics against sole parents and disability support pensioners.
Ultimately, how the exploited in our society are treated by the community, is directly related to the political process and attitudes taken by governments to those that are disenfranchised in our community. They can be integrated into the community or they can be treated as outsiders. Whether the exploited achieve justice or not, says more about the shortcomings of government policy, our institutions and the communities we live in, than it says about the shortcomings of those who, through no fault of their own, are marginalised in our society for political gain.
ROJO Y NEGRO No.175, FEB ´05, Publicacion Mensual Anarcho Syndicalist, C/- Copania 9, Pamplona / Iruna, SPAIN, tel:948224766, fax:948212399, email.rojoynegro@ctv.es
UMANITA NOVA Vol.85, No.4, 6THFEB ´05, Settimenale Anarchico, C/-Federazione Anarchico Torinese, C.50 Palermo 46, Torino, ITALY, tel/fx:011 857850, Mobile:3386594361, email:fat@increte.it
OPERAI CONTRO Vol 24 No114 Jan 05, Giornale per la Critica, La Lotta, Via Folck, 44-20099, Seato S. Giovanni (MI), ITALY www.asloperaicontro.org THE THOUGHT No143 NOV/DEC 05, Philosophers Guild, P.O. Box 10760, Glendale AZ 85318-0760 US. guildmaster@worldnet.att.net http://hom.att.net/~guildmaster/web
WORKERS NEWS Vol.37, DEC 04, GEFONT, PO Box 10,652, Manmahan Labour Builing, Putali adak, Gefont Plaza, Kathmandu, NEPAL Tel:97714248072, fax:97714248073 dfa@gefont.org www.gefont.org
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OUR DEBT STANDS AT $715.24. Producing a weekly publication is an expensive undertaking. In order to keep the debt at a reasonable level & to publish weekly, we require readers especially internet readers to subscribe to the AAWR. Currently snail mail subscribers are cross subsidising internet readers. If you´ve got a little bit of extra cash, think about joining the ´Dollar A Day´ club. When you write to us pop in some 50cent stamps (every little bit helps). Subscription rates for the AAWR are $1 per issue, $10 = 10 issues, $50 = 50 issues. We rely on our subscribers to keep a record of when their subscription runs out & resubscribe. Make out money orders and cheques to LIBERTARIAN WORKERS P.O. BOX 20 PARKVILLE 3052, MELB AUST. If you´re sending $20 or less, save on cheques & money orders & send us 50cent stamps.
The govt intends to deport a 104-yo woman who´s lived with her adopted daughter & grandchildren in Melbourne for 10 years & who´s outlived her relatives overseas. Cui Yu Hu has been a widow since 1973, no longer has a home in China & has outlived friends & family there. She´s been refused an aged-parent visa by the Immigration Dept & will be deported unless she successfully appeals. (Source: The Age)
The govt has announced it will send another 450 soldiers to Iraq. The announcement broke an election promise not to substantially increase troop numbers. PM John Howard conceded the $300 million decision to send the troops to protect Japanese engineers & train local security forces for as long as a year would be unpopular & could put Aust lives in danger. Mr Howard said "...I´ve previously said I didn´t contemplate a major increase & that was a fair statement of the govt's state of mind at the time I made that...but in these situations a govt must have a capacity, if circumstances alter & it´s judged to be not only in our own interest but also in the broader interests of democracy & the Middle East that we make those changes." (Source: The Age)
Funding cuts to disabled Victorian school kids could be life threatening, experts have claimed. More than 2300 disabled students now receive about $6000 less on average for vital school help & therapy, with some of the most severely disabled kids losing more than $12,000. The total shortfall is estimated at $14 million. Principals Ass of Specialist Schools Pres David Giddings said a drop in funding could potentially put kids in life-threatening situations. In some cases the students have life-threatening disabilities & need round-the-clock care to ensure they survive in the classroom. Some kids have been sent home from school b/c funding shortages mean there´s no one to look after them. (Source: Herald Sun)
A senior psychiatrist who examined ex Aust Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib, says his physical & mental state both suggest that he was tortured. Sydney Uni Prof of Psychiatry Christopher Tennant said Mr Habib "has evidence of having been exposed to very significant & unpleasant events, probably torture." Prof Tennant also asked a doctor to examine Mr Habib. The doctor found traces of cig burns & bruising. The Aust govt has rejected Mr Habib's claims he was tortured by the US military. (Source: The Age) QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "A market economy...requires that a certain number of people who want to work be unable to find jobs so that their example will discipline the wage demands of those who are already employed." Paul Krugman
The Melbourne media for virtually ignoring the 150th anniversary of the acquittal of John Joseph, the 1st of the 13 miners tried for High Treason for their participation in the Eureka rebellion. The 22nd February is the pivotal moment in Eureka story. On that day the Victorian govt acquiesced to the miners demands, realising they´d lost the support of the Vic people. I assume Kylie Minogue´s bum was a more important story on the day.
Interested in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review? Want to get hold of your own copy, then download it from http://anarchistmedia.org/weekly.html. Email it your friends, it´s the cheapest and best birthday present you´ll ever buy them. Go on, be a devil, spoil the day of all those people you know who wield power in society and email them the Anarchist Age Weekly Review.
JOIN US MIDDAY WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH 2005 To RECLAIM THE RIGHT TO USE OPEN PUBLIC SPACE TO DEMONSTRATE WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION FOR THE PRIVILEGE TO DO SO.
We need your help to stop the privatisation of public space. If we allow them to get away with this, who knows what other rights they will attempt to take away from us.
TAKE THE DAY OFF. JOIN US AT MIDDAY WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH ´UNITED-WE CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED´ BRING YOUR OWN PLACARD/S
Week TEN-48 members 502 TO GO!!
(The flood of completed application forms has grounded to a HALT)
Fill in that Application Form we recently sent to you and send it ASAP to P.O. BOX 5035, ALPHINGTON 3078 If you haven´t an Application Form, download it from Web: www.rulebythepeople.org or write to us at P.O. BOX 5035, ALPHINGTON 3078 for a Application Form ALREADY JOINED
Photocopy the spare copy you´ve received with your membership card and distribute to your friends, workmates or set up a stall in the places you live and work in. Whether Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule becomes a reality ultimately rests in your hands. Web: www.rulebythepeople.org Email: supporters@rulebythepeople.org Tel: 0439 395 489 BUILD an alternative to the fossilised parliamentary system. Stop giving a signed blank cheque to politicians to make decisions on you behalf.
JOIN: DIRECT DEMOCRACY NOT PARLIAMENTARY RULE
From the Anarchist Media Institute P.O. BOX 20, PARKVILLE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.
Two pamphlets written by Dr. Joe Toscano to mark the 150th anniversary of the Eureka rebellion.
** RECLAIMING THE RADICAL SPIRIT OF THE EUREKA REBELLION
** IT´S TIME FOR AN APOLOGY FROM THE VICTORIA POLICE FORCE FOR THEIR ROLE IN THE EUREKA MASSACRE IN 1854.
Know someone who was born or lives in Australia who you believe should be honoured for their efforts to create a better and fairer world. Then nominate them for the EUREKA AUSTRALIA DAY MEDAL ON THE 3rd DECEMBER, THE ANARCHIST MEDIA INSTITUTE WILL BE HONOURING 20 PEOPLE WITH A EUREKA AUSTRALIA DAY MEDAL AT BAKERY HILL - BALLARAT (The site where the Eureka Oath was taken 151 years ago)
WE NEED YOUR NOMINATIONS. Send them to: EUREKA AUSTRALIA DAY MEDAL P.O. BOX 5035, ALPHINGTON 3078, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.
Or Email your nomination to: anarchistage@yahoo.com
Tell us why you´ve nominated that person and send us your contact details so we can contact you in case we need further information about your chioices.
Graeme Dunstan, the lantern
maker for the Eureka Dawn Walk, has designed a
number of Eureka flags and banners we can use to celebrate forthcoming
anniversaries of the Eureka rebellion at Ballarat on 3rd December.
The designs can be accessed from our website <
We have launched an appeal to raise the $1500 needed to make these flags and banners. Send cheques and money orders made out to:
LIBERTARIAN WORKERS, P.O. BOX 20 PARKVILLE 3052, VIC, AUSTRALIA with a note saying you want the money to go towards the Eureka flags and banners The flags & banners will give the ´long march´ the visual component it currently lacks.
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 reflect the personal opinions of the authors, they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers, the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society/Anarchist Media Institute.
All material in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review can be used by anarchists, anarchist collectives and non-profit organisations as long as the source of the material is mentioned in the article. The Anarchist Age Weekly Review reserves all rights as far as commercial publications are concerned.