Australian medical student Izhar ul-Haque was freed by the NSW Supreme Court this week. Arrested in April 2004, ul-Haque and his family were subjected to behaviour by A.S.I.O. that no Australian should ever have to be subjected to. In a damning indictment of what was a politically motivated show trial, Supreme Court Judge Justice Michael Adams said A.S.I.O. “committed the criminal offences of false imprisonment and kidnapping at common law” and commented the conduct of the two arresting A.S.I.O. officers was “grossly improper”. The case against Mr. Izhar ul-Haque has been abandoned.

Mr. Tony Tran, a refugee born in Vietnam, was illegally detained in immigration detention centres in Australia for five and a half years. Mr. Tran received head injuries while in detention, his son was put into foster care and 2 years after his release, he is still waiting for an apology from the Federal government. Two hundred and forty other refugees or immigrants have been illegally detained by the Howard government.

What has occurred is not happening in a banana republic or a Third World dictatorship, it is happening in Australia as we speak. Human rights in this country have been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Year after year, as common law rights have been legislated away, Kafka like gulags have been created that diminishes us as a people. In the midst of these revelations, the voter auction continues unabated.

The Howard government with the aid of compliant Opposition and a nation that is more interested in the coins jiggling in its hip pocket than questions about human rights, justice and liberty, are more than willing to ignore what is happening in this country as long as the 30 pieces of silver in their hip pocket keeps growing.

Poor fella my country - (Apologies to Xavier Hebert)

The Office of Police Integrity does not have the power, resources and most importantly of all the political support - to direct the harsh light of publicity on the very real business and political minotaurs who benefit from the activities of corrupt police officers and the criminal underworld.

Corruption is an issue that directly affects each and every one of us. Successive Victorian State governments’ unwillingness to hold a Royal Commission into the links between corrupt police officers, the criminal underworld, ‘legitimate’ business and political interests, allows the problems that are created by these links to fester and grow. The Costigan’s Royal Commission into the Painters and Dockers success came from the Commission’s ability to follow the money trail and shine the harsh glare of publicity on the links between the business world, politicians, corrupt police officers and the criminal underworld.

In order to tackle a problem, you need to know the extent of the problem. The Office of Police Integrity can never uncover the extent of corruption in the State because of the very real limitations placed on it by the State government. Public pressure is required to force the State government to call a Royal Commission to investigate the rumours that are circulating around the country that the money trial leads to the lairs of some of the most powerful and successful business and political leaders in Australia.

The costs as Victorians are slowly finding out are not just financial. The agreement signed with Transurban makes it virtually impossible for the State government to build alternatives to Transurban for the next 34 years. The tragedy about Brumby’s love affair with private / public ‘partnerships’ for public schools is that eventually the private sector, not government, will be determining how education is delivered.

The ideas of a one step education shop do not necessarily benefits students, but it will decrease costs to the private sector and allow them to maximise their profits at the expense of public school students.

Why would anyone with half a brain enter a hire purchase agreement to purchase goods when they can obtain a bank loan at a much lower interest rate? Bank loans, unlike hire purchase agreements (private / public ‘partnerships’) do not have as much restrictions placed on them as hire purchase agreements do. People who take out bank loans tend to pay them out much earlier than hire purchase agreements, as the cost of borrowing the money is not as high.

Private / public ‘partnerships’ have been embraced by State governments because it shifts the costs of providing essential infrastructure to future generations, and absolves State governments of responsibilities that have traditionally been theirs. It seems the only losers in these private / public ‘partnerships’ are the long suffering taxpayer, their children and their children’s children.

To think the art of government has been reduced to an electoral auction is an indictment on a political system where ultimate political authority has been transferred from the hands of the people into the hands of that small minority that owns the means of production, distribution, exchange and communication. The major political parties follow the corporate script to a tee - neither willing to bite the hands that feed them.

Duplicity and dishonesty - the currency of an election campaign that promises everything to everybody, but only delivers to the puppet masters. The convergence of political opinion, the logical outcome of a political system that is democratic in name only. The rhetoric reality gap widens as the major parties step on each others toes, trying to find one degree of separation in their policies.

The public, spectators in a game where the only winners are that small minority that pulls the parliamentary strings. Parliamentary elections, a spectacle that pleases the puppet masters, reassures the victims and keeps the whole sorry system ticking over. Parliamentary elections, two minutes of illusory power, fairytales for children who live in Never Never land.

Not one of the major political leaders has bothered to raise issues that go beyond the voters immediate personal needs. It seems that anybody with any ideas need not apply, because we are told electors are only interested in their financial situation. Elections should be about leadership and vision, not run by grey arse bureaucrats with a calculator in their hands. Leaders, who think that electors are only interested in themselves, do the electorate no favours.

The very reasonable, boring ‘their as she goes’ election pledges, lacks substance and vision. They are an insult to an electorate that has indicated on numerous occasions they are interested in issues beyond their immediate needs. It is frightening to think that if we get the politicians we deserve, we will be lumbered with this listless soulless lot.

The current election campaign reflects the aimless self-centered lives that many Australians are living today. It is sobering to think this measured pedestrian political performance is the best a nation of 21 million people can come up with. As Xavier Herbert was fond of saying - “Poor fella, me country”.

No such confusion exists about what anarchists want. They want to create a society without rulers. In order to create a society without rulers, you need to create institutions that allow people to share both power and wealth. A libertarian on the other hand, has no qualms about creating an unequal society. The struggle for liberty is not necessarily a struggle for equality. Anarchists have always understood that you cannot exercise power unless you have access to the wealth to make the decisions you have made a reality.

The anarchist slogan is both Land and Liberty, not just Liberty. Anarchists may or may not be fellow travellers with libertarians. On some issues they agree, on many they disagree. Freedom to and freedom from, encapsulate the ideas that power the anarchist movement, while libertarians are more interested in freedom to. They display little interest in becoming involved in struggles that try to iron out the economic differences between people.

As long as we remember the difference between the principles that drive the anarchist movement – the creation of a society without rulers - and the principles that drive the libertarian movement - the desire to advocate and promote liberty - it is very difficult to confuse one with the other – “Although man cannot live by bread alone, he cannot be free without bread” – THE ANARCHIST STRUGGLE IS A STRUGGLE FOR LAND AND LIBERTY. THE LIBERTARIAN STRUGGLE IS A STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY.

Next Saturday, you can refuse to vote, you can vote informal, or you can cast a ballot. This election, there is a strong move to cast a ballot because of the odious, divisive policies of the Howard government. Activists are hoping the momentum created by a change of government will be translated into more proactive inclusive legislation. Although they have little faith in the parliamentary system to deliver change, many activists will be voting.

This year, I am standing with Jude Pierce for the Senate on a Direct Democracy Not Parliamentary Rule ticket to publicly raise alternatives to the parliamentary system. If you are voting and you decide to vote for us, you can EITHER put a ‘1’ IN THE BOX ABOVE OUR NAMES on the Senate ticket OR you can NUMBER EVERY BOX BELOW THE LINE on the ballot paper starting with the numbers 1 and 2 beside the names of Joseph TOSCANO and Jude PIERCE.

If you put a ‘1’ in the box above the line, your preferences will follow the preferences lodged on our ticket. We have given our FIRST PREFERENCES to the GREENS because they have an outside chance of having a Senator elected in Victoria and we are giving our LAST PREFERENCES to the LIBERAL / NATIONAL PARTY - (the government).

If you are going to vote Jude and I – we encourage you to vote below the line on the Victorian Senate ticket and allocate your preferences the way you want them to be allocated. Only 2.5% of Australian electors bother to number every box below the line, preferring to allow the political party they vote for to allocate their preferences on their behalf. At the last election, a conservative Christian party that could only muster 2.5% of the vote, had a Senator elected in Victoria on the back of Labor Party preferences – (you normally need 15% of the vote to be elected to the Senate).

IF YOU ARE GOING TO VOTE,
ALLOCATE YOUR OWN PREFERENCES,
DON’T TRUST ANYONE TO ALLOCATE THEM FOR YOU

The Port Phillip Herald reported:- “an immense crowd..… between 4,000 and 5,000 people, the greater part of whom were women and children. From the laughing and merry faces which were assembled….. the scene resembled more the appearance of the racecourse than a scene of death. The walls and body of the new goal were literally packed with spectators awaiting the awful scene as if it were a bull bait or a prize ring”.

A quarter of Victoria’s white population had come to see the hanging. The detachment of infantry, paraded in their Sunday best, trying to keep some order in the crowd. Aborigines had climbed into the surrounding trees to witness the executions The cart eventually drew up to the gallows. The Port Phillip Gazette reported that the condemned men’s arrival was met “in explosions of uproarious merriment”. Their arrival was followed by a 20 minute “force of prayer reading” which was interrupted with calls “to cut it short”. By this time, Maulboyheenner had become extremely agitated “his moans” reported the Gazette “were terrible to hear”. “Bob’s (Maulboyheenner’s) feelings broke out in the most heart rending groans: the terrified and piteous looks he threw around him pressing against everyone that spoke to him as if to catch some chance of salvation, was terrible to witness: he trembled violently”.

James Dredge, one of the assistance Aboriginal Protectors, wrote in his diary: “The executioner tied their hands before they went up the ladder and chains hung from their ankles, making it nearly impossible for them. The poor wretches in getting up the ladder, deprived the use of the hands, were obliged to cling to the bars with their knees and chins and be partly dragged and be partly pushed up to slaughter”.

Tunnerminnerwait calmly ascended the flimsy ladder. Maulboyheenner was dragged up the ladder after Tunnerminnerwait had reached the scaffold. The crowd, seeing Maulboyheenner shaking violently on the scaffold, went quite. The executioner fixed the nooses, pulled down their night caps over their heads and hurried down the ladder. As the preacher uttered the key words “in the midst of life we are in death”, the executioner and his assistant pulled the rope.

The ‘drop’ only descended half way and a terrible scene followed: “thus the two poor wretches got jumbled and twisted and writhed convulsively in a manner that horrified even the most hardened”. The executioner and his assistant did not seem to know what to do. A bystander rushed forward and knocked away the obstruction. Tunnerminnerwait died instantly. Maulboyheenner’s noose had become displaced and he kept struggling for a number of minutes before he was strangled to death. The carnival mood that dominated the scene before the execution evaporated. The crowd angrily turned on the executioner who “grinned horribly a ghastly smile”.

The bodies were left on the scaffold for the regulation hour. They were cut down from their nooses, placed in coffins and taken to the Aboriginal section of the cemetery - now the sight of Melbourne’s thriving Victoria markets. On the way to the cemetery, the clothes were removed from the bodies (an executioner’s perk). The Chief Aboriginal Protector Robinson was waiting for their coffins at the cemetery beside their open graves.

John Davies – the executioner – soon found that the NSW government had little interest in honouring the Port Phillip Authority’s promises to him (he had been promised 10 pounds and a ticket of leave – which enabled a convict to obtain employment locally) for his services. After an initial refusal, he was only given a “gratuity” of 5 pounds for his “work”. He was not granted a ticket of leave till the 1st of December 1843, almost 2 years after he had carried out the executions.

NEXT WEEK: ‘What Happened To The Other Tasmanians’

To say I was surprised by the quality of a few of the tracks is an understatement. The Bard writes his own music and songs, trying to make sense of the world in his own way. Stephen Whitehead (The Bard) touches on issues in his songs that are universal. The 5 preview tracks explore subjects that range from the futility of the legal battles involved in child custody battles, to unrequited love, to the environment, to a track about meaningful conversation and a song about the struggle for independence and freedom.

Stephen Whitehead’s songs have to a significant degree been influenced by the music of the 60’s and 70’s. He has created his own personal style that he successfully uses to tackle universal issues that never change, to issues that are currently important.

Heartbeat Records is not some giant multinational company. They are located in Ballan in regional Victoria – about 30kms from Ballarat – not exactly the nerve centre of the music industry. Technological innovations have made it possible for good music to be produced anywhere. Imagination, effort and talent - no longer has to be drained of its content in a studio system run and dominated by transnational corporations.

Of the 5 preview tracks, the two I found most interesting and satisfying were ‘IF ONLY’ – a song about unrequited love – had a quality about it that will ensure it won’t disappear when the album is released. ‘BE ME’ – a song of independence, freedom and the right for the individual to be themselves, also had a quality about it that will ensure it will be played for years to come.

Over to you now… The World Wide Web makes it possible for you to do your own listening and form your own opinions in your own home. Try ‘The Bard’ – you will be surprised.

www.TheBard.com.au

heartbeatrecords@mysoul.com.au

P.O. BOX 67, Ballan 3342, VIC AUSTRALIA

Tel: 0432 528 634

Thanks To ‘The Bard’s’ Manager - Gabrielle Whitehead - For Sending Me The Preview Copy Of ‘In A Golden Dawn’

Things did go better with coke when cocaine, not caffeine, was the secret ingredient. The Inuit in the Artic region feasted on magic mushrooms in spring, experiencing the delights of becoming one with the Godhead. Concerned about the long dark cold winter, they collected and froze their urine so they could chomp into a cube or two and relive their out of body experiences during winter.

In the 21st century - the impatient - use manufactured drugs and natural substances to converse with their Gods. More patient souls shun drugs and find their God by starving themselves, sitting on a bed of nails, eating special foods, repeating the same phrase over and over again and last but not least using physical exhaustion to experience their Gods.

Add to this cocktail - dreams and mental illness - and you soon understand why the yearning to escape our physical limitations plays such an important role in the life of the individual and the community. It is easy to extrapolate that all visions and hallucinations are a product of the mind, not a supernatural event. Despite our knowledge, a nagging doubt still exists in most people’s minds when it happens to them.

The moment between sleep and waking can play tricks on people. As thoughts cascade through their heads - that shadow in the corner of the eyes - is it just a shadow or a lost relative or an evil spectre come to pay them a visit? The mind’s eye – the gateway to hell – inner peace and understanding - or - natural selections - salve for the pain of human existence?

The problem with Australian politics is that real power does not lie in Parliament; it lies in the boardrooms of national and transnational corporations. The convergence of political opinion and policies during this election campaign has occurred because the major political parties realise they need to sing a pro corporate tune in order to win the election.

Parliament no longer represents the interests of the Australian people. Its ability to make decisions is compounded by the power that small section of the community, that owns the means of production, distribution, exchange and communication, is able to exercise over Parliament. The inability and unwillingness of 21 million people living in a continent in the midst of an economic boom to tackle childhood poverty and homelessness, highlights how little power parliamentarians are able to exercise.

The biggest losers during this election campaign are the Australian people. Faced with a choice between political parties with similar policies, an increasing number of electors are treating this election with contempt and disdain. Many will not vote, others will vote informal, while others may cast their vote for a minor party or an independent.

Irrespective of the election result, the need for radical parliamentary reform is urgent. Unless reforms are introduced that give the Australian people, not the corporate sector, ultimate political authority, more and more Australians will refuse to participate in a process that is democratic in name only.

This passage, from John Donne’s 17th Meditation, is one of the most famous in all literature. Virtually everyone is familiar with it, especially in its heavily digested form “Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” And everyone instinctively recognizes that it expresses a noble sentiment. Few people, however, give much thought to it; and the ones who do probably decide that it doesn’t have literal significance, consisting merely in a string of poetic metaphors. After all, how could another man’s death really “diminish” me? In what possible sense could his misfortune be mine too? This misunderstanding in itself justifies a re-examination of the passage. But particularly in our troubled era, our age of universal atomization and apathy, it is imperative that we understand what Donne meant. Maybe then we’ll appreciate the terrible moral implications of interpersonal atomization.

Donne embellished his thought by invoking God, but that isn’t necessary. In any case, God is dead. (He was one of the unfortunates killed in the French Revolution) The real meaning of the passage—or the moral meaning; there are others—is that what happens to other people has metaphysical implications with respect to the value of my own life. For other people are me, in some sense: they are self-conscious like me, they have a sense of self like me, they inhabit the same world I do. What happens to them could have happened to me, and sometimes inevitably will happen to me. Their mortality is my mortality, because our essence is the same. They are me transposed in space and time, me in a different consciousness and set of circumstances.

- CHRIS WRIGHT ccwwgd@umsl.edu

UMANITA NOVA Vol 87 No.33 EL 21st OCT 2007, Settimanale Anarchico, C.50 Palermo 46, 10152, Torino ITALY.
Tel/Fax : (011) 857850
Mobile : 338-6594361
Email : fat@inrete.it

THE BEACON, OCT 07, Journal of the Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church, 110 Grey St, East Melbourne 3002, AUSTRALIA. Tel: 03 9417 4178 FaxAnswering 03 9417 4178 – 10am-3pm Weekday Servives 11am Sunday

• 4.00am - Dawn ceremony - Eureka Park at the Eureka Memorial

• 6.00am - Breakfast Eureka Park (bring your own food and drinks)

• 10.00am - March from Eureka Park to Bakery Hill to reaffirm the Eureka oath

• 10.30am - Presentation of Eureka Aust Day Medal at Bakery Hill

• 11.30am - Walk to Old Ballarat cemetery to pay our respects to all those who died in the Eureka battle who are buried at the cemetery

• 12.30pm - Walk back to Eureka Park through the centre of Ballarat

• 1.30pm - Late lunch and conversation at Eureka Park - (bring your own food and drinks)

• The name of the person nominated

• A few sentences outlining why they should receive the award

• A contact address for the nominee (We need to contact them if they wish to receive the award)

• The person you nominate can be a public figure or somebody only known to a few people

P.O. Box 43, Clunes, 3370, Victoria AUSTRALIA

andrewpstretton@yahoo.com.au

“SEDITION – Conduct or speech inciting to rebellion”

SIGN THE SEDITION CHARTER ONLINE - www.seditioncharter.org

If you’re computer literate and many of us are not, write to us for a copy of the Sedition Charter, at :

P.O. BOX 5035,
ALPHINGTON 3078,
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Terrible things happen when good people do nothing. Openly defy this government’s attempts to muzzle and intimidate opposition to their neo conservative authoritarian agenda – SIGN the ‘Sedition Charter’ TODAY!

THE POWER OF RECALL – Electors having the constitutional right to recall parliamentary representatives in between elections

CITIZENS INITIATED REFERENDUMS – The people having the power to initiate constitutional change through referendums

DIRECT DEMOCRACY – Electing delegates with limited mandates, to co-ordinate decisions that have been made by the people, not electing representatives to make decisions for us.

(We Currently Have 118 Paid Up Members)

JOIN US THIS WEEK :

Wednesday 11.30am – 21st November 2007
Corner St. Kilda Road & Flinders Street, Melbourne

DIRECT DEMOCRACY NOT PARLIAMENTARY RULE - www.rulebythepeople.org

An anarchist analysis of local, national & international events. Tune into your local community radio station to listen to the Anarchist World This Week. If they don’t broadcast it, ask them why not! If they’re one of the 150 community radio stations around Australia that are affiliated to the National Community Radio Satellite, they are able to broadcast the Anarchist World This Week.

2BAY, 2BBB, 2BLU, 2DRY, 2HOT, 2OCB, 2WOW, 2XX, 3CH, 3CR, 36CR, 3MGB, 3REG, 4NAG, 4RRR, 5BBB, 5RRR, 6YCR

MULTI-COLOURED GLOSSY A3 POSTER AVAILABLE FOR 20 50c STAMPS.
(Price includes packaging, poster in secure cylinder and postage anywhere in Australia)

‘LIFE WASN’T MEANT TO BE EASY’

553 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne (outside US Consulate)

Email : womenforpeace@optusnet.com.au
Web : www.womenforpeace.org.au

Feminine opposition to weapons manufacture war and mans destruction.

Call Shirley on 0417 456 001 for further information

5.00pm FRIDAY – 23rd NOVEMBER 2007

Victorian State Library Steps

Swanston Street, Melbourne

Speakers: Robert Richter QC, Michael Long, Dean Mighell, Father Bob Magquire

** Have some room in your car? **

An Anarchist Age reader from Silvan and another Anarchist Age reader from Cranbourne need a lift.

Write or email us with your contact details & we will pass them on

P.O. Box 20, Parkville 3052
Email: anarchistage@yahoo.com

KRISTIN RULE – The Unconventional cellist

info@theunconventionalcellist.com

P.O. BOX 43, Clunes, Victoria, 3370 AUSTRALIA

Please send AKIN SARI A POSTCARD OR LETTER OF SUPPORT TODAY!

Write to:

AKIN SARI, c/- Melbourne Remand Centre
P.O. BOX 500, St. Albans 3021
Victoria, AUSTRALIA