News Just In - War with Iran and more Protesting

News hot off the press, War with Iran is imminent!

My finance industry source has informed me that in Australia as of today Oct 26, 2007 all financial transactions to Iran are to be halted IMMEDIATELY. Any employee who disregards the latest embargo will be placed on sanctions.

The Australian newspaper describes how U.S embargos are being forced through the international finance community.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22651090-2703,00.html

The fact that Western Countries are halting all economic involvement with Iran can mean only one thing, we soon will be at war with Iran. The powers that be have been planting the idea of Weapons of Mass destruction in the media over the last year or two. Now we wait for the official announcement.

In other news....

Anti-Fascist Protest at Football Federation Victoria
by Michael Williams

Yesterday I was one of the few to attend the anti-fascist protest at the Football Federation in Thornbury. I was probably the only Anarchist to attend, to those who were too busy or too lazy, SHAME ON YOU! (this includes you Alex)!

The protest wasn't very exciting but the main goal was achieved thanks to Anthony Main, the media liason who organised the response from the Federation. A media statement was released stating they had no involvement in the decision to allow a fascist rock concert, and they regret it happening and claim it won't happen again......

The rock concert was held on October 13th by the two main "bonehead" groups in Melbourne, Blood and Honour and Southern Cross Hammerskins, who held their annual gig to commemorate the death of Ian Stuart, who formed Blood and Honour and ended up dying in a drunken car crash.

Now all we can do is continue to fight the system. I personally believe that as much as I hate Nazis, these petty fascist groups aren't as big a problem as others. Our main concern as Anarchists should be fighting the state and the many forms of capitalism.

Keep up the fight everyone, to those that joined me yesterday, well done!

New Zealand Consulate Protest

The following article was written by Michael Williams, an Anarchist in Geelong. He attended the Aotearoa solidarity protest on Tuesday 16th October 2007 at 11am and has written his report on the event.

Tuesday the 16th saw a group of twenty protestors stand in solidarity against the unjust actions of the New Zealand federal police against a group of New Zealand activists. The protest was held at 11am outside the New Zealand Consulate-General in Melbourne. The protestors included left-wing activists from many different backgrounds, including myself, a more covert Anti-fascist activist. We were graced by the presence of the mainstream media and of course the State Fascists in Victoria Police and two armed Federal Police officers.

On the 15th October in the early morning, up to 17 activists were arrested and charged with Possession of Firearms offences. A number of houses were raided, including activist community houses in Auckland and Wellington. The police have made the claim that those arrested may be involved in guerrilla type training in the mountains of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

In an article by the publication “Crikey,” an Anarchist activist speaks about the raids; http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=899

“As far as I understand it, those who have been charged have been charged with possession of arms and ammunition at some point in the past - ie, they had none of it on them when they were arrested...” “The raids started in Ruatoki at 4am, at the house of well-known Tino Rangatiratanga activist Tame Iti...”

“... there was a knock at my door. I opened it to find four police officers, all in plain-clothes but wearing police vests over the top. One of the officers showed me his ID, at which point I asked him if he had a warrant. He did not reply, and instead asked me if a certain person was in my house. I asked again if he had a warrant, and when he said that they didn’t, I told them to leave the property, and closed the door...”

“I was demanding they leave immediately under the Trespass Act. They refused to leave, and demanded I prove I was the occupier, or else they would stay. My flatmate soon produced our lease form, which I showed them. They wrote down our names, I told them again to leave, and shortly afterwards they did so...”

“I think that just goes to show how ludicrous these trumped up charges are. At the Wellington activist community centre, while police were supposedly searching the house for weapons, they simultaneously had no issue with residents using huge kitchen knives to cut up apples and make apple pie."

Likewise, this morning we have already seen Jamie Lockett, one of the arrestees in Auckland, released on bail [only to then have his bail denied by a higher court]. None of this seems to fit the picture of a dangerous terrorist network! And while the police found no weapons at the Wellington activist community centre, they did confiscate a backpack containing carrots and an avocado!” It seems that the actions by the New Zealand police do not fit in with the severity of the allegations made by both the police and the media. If it was truly believed those arrested were dangerous terrorists plotting armed revolution it would make sense the police would be armed to the teeth during the raids, according to the NZ Anarchist quoted above, the police were armed only with batons... Something is definitely fishy about this!

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22601472-23109,00.html

“At a bail hearing for one of the arrested men, Jamie Lockett, prosecutors said he had sent a series of text messages saying he intended to launch a war. The messages, intercepted by police, were said to include "White men are going to die in this country'' and "I'm declaring war on this country very soon".”

Though I do not denounce political activism against the government, if the above quote is true, I must reject and denounce Jamie Lockett for his blatant racism. I believe in the protection of the Maori people in Aotearoa/New Zealand and I am against any oppression against them by the Capitalists in power, Maori activists cannot put the blame on ordinary White workers. The enemy is the government, which includes people of all colours and creeds. I do not want to descend this article in to a rant about racial equality, I'd rather talk about the positive protest I attended on Tuesday...

The protest began at about 11am, with a fellow activist performed a bit of a satire pointed at the New Zealand Suppression of Terrorism Act, the act was very funny and included some volunteers from the audience wearing a variety of military style hats and throwing paper airplanes at the New Zealand Consulate... All very amusing! After the fun we heard speeches from both Sina Davis, a Maori spokesperson in Australia and a very emotional speech by an activist that knew many of the people involved. It is very scary and depressing when loved ones are arrested on unjust charges and held in prison with very little information about their condition released. In all, the protest was very successful and resulted in some media exposure. I'd like to send my good wishes to all those activists in Aotearoa/New Zealand and I hope the court cases result in true justice for everyone involved. We must all stand in solidarity against state oppression and fight for what is right!

Practial Anarchy - Work Choices

Language is a potent weapon for legitimizing any political system, and in the west a level of communication has been reached which avoids confrontational discourse and resorts to words devoid of substantive meaning.

In Melbourne on September 26, 2007, the trade unionists marched against John Howard's "Work Choices" legislation. It reminds me of the term "Newspeak" from George Orwell's 1984, or as i like to call it, the euphemism treadmill. I find liberal "double-talk" to be a fascinating thing, in its ability to subvert the thinking of the cattle class. Call the new legislation "Work Choices" and it sounds like it has a positive spin, when in reality has very little in the way of choice. Tell that to a 15 year old apprentice who's signed a work contract for less than $20 an hour "all in" (less I'm told). Of course, the workchoices advertising will tell you that a 15 year old can only sign an agreement if they have a parent/guardian present. What if the adult has no capacity to bargain? Should we rely on the goodwill of an employer to abide by their fiduciary duty? The capitalist system is designed for the interests of the self-centred, and at these rallies, it's pretty obvious that the message is "Howard out, NOW!" and that all unionist problems have come about because of Liberal party politics. Let me assure all of you, a Labour Government will make no difference. We do not have a democracy here in this country, we have Corporate Governance. You should have noticed ads on TV saying "lets keep workchoices", these advertisements ARE NOT by the Liberal Government, but rather from business lobby groups. These lobby groups are powerful vested interest groups, whose sole mission is in maintaining the status quo. So much so, that the Government has changed legislation to include protests, where the only legal protest is over pay disputes, and therefore for a wage increase. Subsequently, the protest today over Workchoices legislation is considered illeagal. According to The Age 30,000 protestors were expected, however, the threat of individual fines of $6,600 would be issued against employees and $33,000 for unions if they went.

Thirty construction union members from Austral Bricks site in Craigiburn voted reluctantly yesterday to work as usual after they were told the company planned to call the Australian Building and Construction Commission to seek fines against individual workers.

Make no mistake, even if Kevin Rudd does get into power (and put all bets aside, Howard will get back in), these business lobby groups would never allow the removal of concessions granted to them, like the ability to sack workers for no legitimate reason (so long as you have no more than 100 employees). No, I'm afraid our hope for change through reform by Kevin Rudd will only lead us down the path of disappointment, after all, he admits to being an economic conservative, has already stated that "some" of the workchoices will stay, and then of course there is his wife's conflict of interest with her multimillion dollar business, supplying casual workers to the Government. Hmmm. I'm afraid that unions are misguided if they believe that Labor will have any real or lasting impact on their job security. Taking my job as the harbinger seriously, it's important to inform you that the opportunity for reform has passed, and I would like to leave you with one last thought.