• Doreen BURROW – Wollongong, NSW, (Radical Activist - over 50 years)

• Jean ELY & Ray NIELSEN – Melb, VIC, (Public Education Activist - over 40 years)

• Stuart HIGHWAY – Darwin, NT (Community Radical Activist - over 20 years)

• Dave KERIN – Melb, VIC (Workplace & Community Radical Activist - over 30 years)

• Peter McGREGOR – Newcastle, NSW (Community & Education Radical Activist – over 40 years)

• Alan PARKER – Sorrento, VIC, (Environmental Activist – nearly 60 years

As the world tries to deal with the by-products of an economic system based on the creation of profits, irrespective of the human and social costs, no one from the participants at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali to the regular contributors to Australia’s major newspapers, do their best to ignore the elephant in the climate change living room – capitalism.

It is not surprising in a ‘free’ society where the means of production, distribution, exchange and communication are owned by a tiny minority, that only a few stunted old perennials bloom in the capitalist garden. Culture, community, personality and even individual body shape have become victims to a relentless barrage of capitalist propaganda. Individuality and community are from the moment we are born, willingly sacrificed in the race to squeeze a profit from every human activity.

In an era of material plenty, our souls wither in isolation, victims of an ideology that operates on the premise that everybody and everything has a price. Facing the challenge of increasing greenhouse emissions, the capitalist stands on the platform selling tickets on the last train to the hell they have helped to create.

Ideas no longer will be coming from the political wing of the ALP. They will be coming from the senior echelons of the bureaucracy – a bureaucracy which to a large degree has been moulded by the ideological wet dreams of the Liberal / National Party. Raised on a diet of deregulation, corporate and middle class welfare and paid handsomely from the public till, these faceless bureaucrats will drive policy while Rudd attempts to drive out the politically motivated from the Labor Party.

Australia does not need more centralisation of power and wealth in fewer and fewer hands. The last thing Australia needs is a Prime Minister who is acting as a CEO of a large corporation. Giving Howard’s ideologically driven senior bureaucrats the green light to develop policy is a recipe for more of the same. The public service serves the people of this country by implementing government policy. It doesn’t, as Rudd seems to think, set the political agenda for government.

Why go the trouble of holding elections and bankrolling Parliament if policy is going to be determined by senior public service bureaucrats. Turning citizens into shareholders is a recipe for increasing the problems face by a community that continues to pursue economic policies that have created the situation that has put the continued existence of the human race on the political agenda.

The Eureka rebellion was not, as Howard’s ageing discredited band of historical revisionists would like us to believe, a ‘small business’ revolt over mining licenses. The spirit of Eureka is encapsulated in the Eureka oath taken by 1,500 miners on the 29th of November 1854 on Bakery Hill in Ballarat – “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties”.

Five days later, the revolt was drowned in a sea of blood. Only 110 poorly armed miners, some only armed with crudely fashioned homemade pikes, were overrun within 15 minutes by over 250 well armed mounted troops and police. The killing did not stop with the dispersed of the miners. For up to 3 hours after the revolt was crushed, Victoria’s newly created police force, smarting at their humiliation by the Ballarat miners, were involved in an orgy of looting, arson and murder which included bystanders who had nothing to do with the revolt who were living in tents more than a kilometre from the stockade.

The central elements of the Eureka rebellion - Direct Democracy, Direct Action, Solidarity and Internationalism – are as relevant today as they were 153 years ago. It says something about the continuing legacy of the Eureka rebellion that the Howard government, in one of their last desperate efforts to hold onto political power, banned the flying of the Eureka flag from building sites across Australia.

It says something about us as a people and a nation that we are willing to celebrate and enjoy a public holiday to honour the birth of an overseas monarch (on a day that is not her real birthday), but do not publicly celebrate or enjoy a public holiday on the 3rd of December to mark what most commentators regard as the birth of Australian democracy.

Increasing temperatures will bring even dryer weather patterns to Southern Australia and worsen the impact of drought in the region. The frightening aspect of this latest scientific data is that these changes may alter the distribution of important trace gases in the atmosphere that could worsen greenhouse effects and reduce ozone in the atmosphere.

Changes to the climate related to greenhouse emissions are occurring much more rapidly than any of the previous scientific reports have indicated. The delicate balance that exists in nature is changing faster than anybody has previously predicted. Faced with this challenge, the business as usual attitude that has been taken by the world’s governments, even those who have signed the Kyoto Accord, is hard to understand.

Greenhouse emissions are real, global warming is real, these changes have occurred as a result of human activity. In a 21st century the evil that ‘no one dare mention its name’ is CAPITALISM. The triumph of private and State capitalism has resulted in the development of a world economic system based on the creation of profits irrespective of the human and social costs, has been instrumental in creating the challenges we now face.

Until we acknowledge the central role capitalism has played and continues to play in the creation of global warming, we will never be in a position to halt what increasingly looks like the human race’s greatest challenge.

Instead of becoming involved in activities that will lead to decrease greenhouse emissions, the talk amongst the US top brass is about the spectre of increased ‘terrorist’ activity, as those people who are affected by climate change, attempt to pursue new economic, social and cultural options to deal with the issues that have had such a profound impact on their lives.

The ‘terrorist’ label is being applied to these new social movements by that small section of society that owns the means of production, distribution, exchange and communication because people’s response to global warming threatens the hold capitalism has on the world. The word ‘terrorist’ is used to frighten people in the First World from pursuing the same goals. The real terrorists sit on the board rooms of national and transnational corporations who have created the situation we find ourselves in. The real terrorists are those parliamentary representatives who continued to believe that capitalism holds the solution to the real problems we are faced with as individuals and communities.

The negative consequences of people who take action to survive the damage caused by a world economy dominated by corporations whose major responsibility is to their major shareholders, pales into insignificance when compared to the actions of that small section of society that exercises power and authority whose activities have driven the human race to the brink of extinction.

Considering what can happen, it makes good sense to build decentralised energy sources that share a common grid. It is more difficult to control or destroy a grid than it is to control or destroy a centralised energy supply. Solar energy is a free abundant energy source that does not increase carbon dioxide emissions. Most importantly of all, it is a natural decentralised energy source that can be connected to a common grid. The only negative thing about solar energy is the sun’s rays are plentiful and free. Once the cost of installing the solar panels are met, no corporation can make profits producing energy. Solar energy is a viable decentralised energy source that is also inherently anti capitalist.

Technology in a capitalist society is not value free. The type of energy sources that have been developed are centralised sources because corporations can make the maximum amount of profits from such endeavours. Nothing is stopping the State from providing every household with enough solar panels to produce the energy needed to keep society ticking over. The problem is the hold that small section that runs and owns the centralised energy sources we are currently dependent, are able to exercise over the decisions that parliament can and cannot make.

The question about building renewable decentralised energy sources is essentially a political one. Enough technological initiatives exist to allow society to alter the current power grid so it is powered through solar panels, not fossil fuels, organic diesel fuels or nuclear power. The questions surrounding the creation of a society that uses renewable decentralised energy sources are political, not technological ones.

It is Important we make the effort to dig out these moments, wash them in the public arena and celebrate these pivotal moments. To allow those who rule us, to deny our history, is to allow them to retain their power and wealth. Information does exist about those pivotal moments. Oral history gives us a lead, forgotten records allows us to flush out these pivotal moments. Why celebrate their victories when we can celebrate our own.

Over the past decade the anarchist media institute has spend more and more time looking for this pivotal moment, fleshing out radical history and publicly celebrating it.

By publicly celebrating radical history, we reclaim the past and use that past to understand the present and change the future. Nothing changes unless we create the climate for change. Using the past gives us the leverage we need to influence the present and change the future.

If you don’t have the time, patience or resources to rediscover these pivotal moments, support those who have, by publicly celebrating with them. We can remain glued to the TV screen or chained to the internet or we can reclaim the streets and redirect our energy into celebrating events that have and continue to influence the course of history. The ball is in your court.

According to a Geelong correspondent Christopher Crook who witnessed the carnage “at the end of the battle, little terrier sat on the breast of the man I spoke of, and kept up a continuos howl; it was removed, but always returned to the same spot; and when his master’s body was huddled, with other corpses, into the cart, the little dog jumped in after him, and lying on his dead master’s breast began howling again”.

There is some debate about whether the dog belonged to Edward Thonen or William Emmerman – (Edward Thonen was the blacksmith who made pikes for the insurgents). Edward Thonen, the only Jewish person killed at Eureka, was little over 5 feet tall and sold lemonade in the goldfields to make a living. A very good chess player, he was at the second meeting of the Ballarat Reform League at Bakery Hill on the 29th of November, chosen to be captain of a group of diggers. He was only 24 when he died in a hail of bullets defending the Eureka stockade.

William Emmerman was born at St. Petersbury in Russia in 1834. He was only 20 years old, the youngest of the miners killed at Eureka when he was shot dead by the advancing troops and police. No one knows what happened to the little terrier, but the story about the Pikeman’s dog continuos to haunt Australians.

On the 5th of December 1999 a life size bronze sculpture of an Irish terrier was unveiled in the courtyard of the Eureka Stockade Centre in Ballarat to mark the event.

SOURCE OF ARTICLE: The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Justin Corfield, Dorothy Wickham, Clare Gervasoni, Ballarat Heritage Services 2004, ISBN 1876478616.

The latest incarnation of ‘Black Flag’ has gone about its new found task enthusiastically lifting the lid on what is happening in France, equating the election of Sarkozy in France with that chrism. The rest of the articles do not meet the expectations raised by the cover article. Reviewing historical precedents, the ‘Black Flag’ editorial collective has decided on concentrate on the past. Nearly 90% of the content has been devoted to articles about past anarchist personalities, analysis of the Russian and Spanish revolution and a feature of the failure of the French Popular Front in 1936. Even the article about sect and socialism by Maurice Brinton – one of the founders of the English group Solidarity – follows the well worn path followed by anarchist magazines.

I welcome the re-entry of ‘Black Flag’ into the anarchist publishing scene. I despair at much of the content. In order for the anarchist press, it be relevant and useful much more of its content needs to be devoted to analysing what is happening today in the communities we live and work in. Although the anarchist goal to create a society without rulers has not changed, the type of society we live in and the social relationships that exist within the communities we live and work in, have changed.

The anarchist movement was successful in the past because it was able to fuse the desire for land and liberty with people’s day to day lives and concerns. ‘Black Flag’s’ editorial collective asks if the UK anarchist scene needs another anarchist magazine. Any addition to the anarchist press is welcome. The more anarchist magazines and newspapers concentrate on what is happening around them today, the greater the anarchist impact on the community. If ‘Black Flag’ was able to devote 20% of its content to history and the other 80% to the here and now and the relevance of anarchism to 21st century society, the resurrected ‘Black Flag’ would be doing its bit to help the anarchist movement grow.

I strongly recommend you support this venture and get hold of a copy of the new ‘Black Flag’ by:

Email: black_flag@lycos.co.uk

or by writing to them at:

Black Flag, BM Hurricance, London, WCIN 3XX UK.

This year’s celebrations got of to a great start; for almost 2 hours the people who arrived for the dawn ceremony spoke about why they came. Their stories were moving and emotional. The darkness turned into light and the Southern Cross disappeared from the sky by the time everybody had spoken. After a communal breakfast in and around Eureka Hall, people had to kill 3 hours. Some slept in cars; others were seen deep in discussion. The opinion of those waiting was that we should start much earlier than 10am. Considering few people joined us at 10am, it seems to be a good idea to start at 8.30am or 9am. We marched down the road to Bakery Hill, the youngest member of the group – all of her 7 years - recited the Eureka oath.

The presentation of the Eureka Australia Day Medal to Doreen BURROW, Stuart HIGHWAY, Dave KERIN, Peter McGREGOR and Allan PARKER at Bakery Hill was a highlight of the day. After the presentations, we marched down the main street to City Hall to voice our concerns about how the city uses Eureka to bring in the tourist dollar, but doesn’t fly the Eureka flag on the main flagpole on City Hall on the 3rd of December. Ironically they don’t even hold any ‘official’ events on the day to celebrate Eureka. We then walked to the old Ballarat cemetery to pay our respects to the diggers and soldiers who died 153 years ago at Eureka – workers at either end of a bayonet.

By the time we left the cemetery, the crowd had dwindled to about half the people who set out 3 hours earlier. Those left, walked through Ballarat stopping at the Aboriginal Health Centre to say sorry. John LAWRENCE, a local, led the group in expressing our sorrow to the indigenous people of this country. By now, we were looking forward to walking the last 3 kilometres back to Eureka Park.

In terms of emotion, the celebrations were a success. All those who participated took something precious home with them that was much bigger than themselves. Participants in the long march through Ballarat reclaimed the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion on Monday the 3rd of December 2007. We encourage you to join us next year for the 7th Anarchist Media Institute Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion Celebrations.

Special thanks go to Anne and Bill PICKERING for hosting some of the participants at their home and driving them to Ballarat. We also thank them for storing the banners and flags during the year. Thanks to Phil for driving his truck behind the group to protect us from traffic when we took over the streets of Ballarat. A very special thanks to Stephen REGHENZANI who donated 50 Eureka Stockade 2004 (150th anniversary commemoration) - $1 un-circulated coins. Some of these coins were awarded to participants who had taken part in 5 of the 6 Eureka Australia Day celebrations. We will continue this tradition next year to publicly acknowledge people’s participation in the celebrations. Many thanks to everybody else who helped and all those who came. Hopefully you can come next year.

RADICAL SPIRIT OF THE EUREKA REBELLION CELEBRATIONS
– USE THE PAST TO UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT AND CHANGE THE FUTURE
– SEE YOU NEXT YEAR AT 4am ON WEDNESDAY THE 3rd DECEMBER 2008.
START MAKING ARRANGEMENTS TO COME TODAY.

In such circumstances we should not be surprised if ambitions people like Brendan Nelson change horses in midstream attaching the political colours to the Party that’s more likely to advance their political career. The issue is not Nelson’s character; the issue is why the major political parties are shadow images of each other. The convergence of political opinion in Australia is to a large degree related to the convergence of political opinion in a media that is dominated by a handful of owners.

What is practical, desirable and ultimately achievable is dictated by the needs of the corporate owned media to generate increasing profits for its major shareholders. In such an environment, political success is dependent on political parties articulating and promoting policies that support the interests of that small section of the community that owns the means of production, distribution, exchange and communication.

In such a climate, political realist like Brendan Nelson realised that political success is not dependent on policy innovation but pre–selection for a safe seats.

ARIVISTA ANARCHIA No 330, NOV 2007, Editrice A, C.P.17120, 20170 Milano, ITALY,
Tel : 022896627
Fax : 0228001271
Email : arivista@tin.it
Web : www.anarca-bolo.ch/a-rivista

BLACK FLAG Issue 226 2007, For Anarchist Resistance, BM Hurricane, London WCIN 3XX, ENGLAND
Email : black_flag@lycos.co.uk

UMANITA NOVA Vol 87 No.38 EL 24th NOV 2007, Settimanale Anarchico, C.50 Palermo 46, 10152, Torino ITALY.
Tel/Fax : (011) 857850
Mobile : 338-6594361
Email : fat@inrete.it

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,
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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 122 Paid Up Members)

JOIN US THIS WEEK :

11.30am – WEDNESDAY 12TH of DECEMBER 2007
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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.

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

Write to:

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A 6yo girl who was left brain-damaged at the hands of her parents will receive unsupervised visits from her mother, despite the Dept of Community Services claiming it could "end in tragedy." DOCS Dir-Gen Dr Neil Shepherd wrote "the course that’s been embarked on may end in tragedy". However he was unable to prevent the visitation order made by the courts. Both the girls' parents were charged with abuse after she arrived at hospital aged 10 months, with a fractured skull, underfed, & covered in bruises & scars. Her foster mother says the girl has already had several visits with her biological mother, & has complained of being locked out of the house, of her mother's male friends threatening to put her in a washing machine. "She is absolutely petrified" she said. "I have no problem with her seeing her mother in supervised visits, but it has to be in her best interests & when she comes home sobbing & banging her head against a wall that is not in her best interests." (Daily Telegraph)

An ALP candidate & former union leader has bought a luxury beachfront terrace for almost a million dollars, miles away from the electorate he's standing in. Ex ACTU leader & current ALP candidate Greg Combet & his wife paid $940,000 for a beachfront terrace in Newcastle. The terrace is over 10km away from the electorate of Charlton, where Mr Combet is standing. Mr Combet has rented a flat in Charlton, but intends to move out once the election is over. (Daily Telegraph)
Roughly half of all wage deals checked by the Coalition's workplace watchdog have failed the "fairness test" & been sent back to employers for correction. The Workplace Authority confirmed 26,833 agreements had been rejected for failing to comply with minimum standards since the PM introduced the test in May - 49.2% of those that have been fully checked. Another 142,000 agreements have yet to be fully checked. The standards are meant to ensure employees who lose conditions such as overtime receive some compensation. (The Australian)

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT: "B/c they don't teach the truth about the world, schools have to rely on beating students over the head with propaganda about democracy. If schools were, in reality, democratic, there’d be no need to bombard students with platitudes about democracy. They’d simply act & behave democratically & we know this doesn’t happen. The more there’s a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is." Noam Chomsky.
QUOTE OF THE MOMENT: "One party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - & both commonly succeed, & are right." - H.L. Mencken

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." Alan Greenspan, ex head of the US Fed Reserve, in his memoir.