Jean Ely and Ray Nilsen were instrumental in launching the unsuccessful High Court case in 1980’s that challenged the government’s use of public money to support private education. Only the much persecuted High Court Judge Lionel Murphy out of the seven High Court judges supported their arguments. They were forced to pay for the full cost of their challenge. Today they continue to fight for public education. Jean and Ray are part of that dwindling group of activists, voices in the wilderness who continue to fight for public education as more and more public money is set aside for private schools and as State governments enter into private ‘partnerships’ to fund public schools.

Two hundred and twenty one years later, we continue to celebrate that invasion, dancing on the graves of the dead and dispossessed, ignoring the unfinished business that exists between indigenous and non indigenous Australians. How would Australians feel if the Japanese had successfully invaded Australia during WWII and forced Australians to celebrate their national day on the day the Japanese stepped ashore on Australian soil?

The problem isn’t that we shouldn’t celebrate what is unique to us as a people, our good fortune which has been built on the back of indigenous Australian’s misfortune and the important relationships that exist in our community, the problem is that governments, the business sector and the media continue to promote the wrong moment in our historical journey to celebrate our national day.

Many other days exist which could be used to celebrate Australia Day that are not offensive to indigenous Australians and their many supporters. Mabo Day – the 3rd of June, the day when the High Court of Australia decided that indigenous Australians had the rights to land in law – a day which marked the beginning of a reconciliation process between indigenous and non indigenous Australians based on justice not charity, is one of the many days that could become Australia’s national day.

To continue to celebrate Australia Day on the 26th of January belittles us as a people and rubs salt into the wounds that are carried by indigenous Australians as they continue to seek justice among a people that refuses to acknowledge their pain, let alone compensate them for their losses.

Pitted against this monolith is the Blue Wedges coalition – a small group of environmental activists – which have hounded the government every inch of the way. Draconian legislation has been passed through Parliament that has created exclusion zones round dredging craft that are so extensive it will mean that over a third of the bay cannot be used while the dredging goes ahead.

The bottom of Port Phillip Bay is filled with almost 200 years of toxins – a legacy of the city’s growth. It is proposed that the toxic filled sand and mud will be placed in the centre of the bay. On all available evidence, Port Phillip Bay will suffer short term temporary damage and possible long term permanent damage. The Melbourne Port’s plan is short sighted, dangerous and ridiculously expensive. Legal action to stop the dredging has failed. Although the Opposition is making all the right noises, it has no intention of stopping the dredging, voting with the government throughout this sorry process.

When all else fails, mass action is required. If we want to keep the Bay as Melbourne’s playground, if we want the Bay to play the pivotal part it plays in Melbourne’s life, we need hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets to show their disgust with what is happening. If we continue to work up the right channels, the Bay will be dredged. Although the dredging ships are in Port Phillip Bay, it is not too late for hundreds of thousands of people to show their dissatisfaction with what is happening by taking to the streets. To do nothing is to sacrifice Port Phillip Bay on the altar of Mammon.

The proliferation of bank fees is a direct consequence of a lack of real competition in the banking sector. The range and extent of banking fees charged by the major banks are depressingly similar. The sale of the Commonwealth Bank by the Hawke led Labor government opened the floodgate as far as banking fees were concerned. While the Commonwealth Bank remained in public hands, it acted as a bulwark against the privately owned banks, unilaterally raising their fees or introducing new fees. While the Commonwealth Bank remained in public hands, the bulk of bank profits were made through investments, not through fees.

The Commonwealth Bank was established in 1919 to provide affordable banking and to provide loans to middle and low income earners. Its presence put a brake on the excesses of privately owned banks. Australians had a real choice when it came to banking; they could use a bank that was created to cater for their needs or they could use the private banks.

A publicly owned Commonwealth bank encouraged competition among the private banks because their profitability was linked to their willingness to match the lower fees charged by the Commonwealth Bank. Once the Commonwealth Bank was privatised, the brake that had been placed on banks using their customers as cash cows was removed, and the range, scope and level of fees charged by the private banks have spiralled out of control.

On each and every occasion that the Victoria Police has used excessive force to disperse demonstrators in the past, the fourth estate has acted as a cheer squad for the police, refusing to examine questionable police tactics, while demonising demonstrators who are involved in legitimate political activity.

Dissent has become a criminal offence in Australia. New ‘anti terrorist’ laws at both the State and Federal level are being used to stymie dissent. The ‘you are with us or against us’ mentality that dominates the way police are used to intimidate Australians who are involved in protest action, creates the mentality that sees the dog Squad, the police helicopter and a fleet of police cars used to disperse a teenager’s party and police officers use capsicum spray to deal with rowdy behaviour at the Australian Open.

Next time people hear stories about police using violent tactics to break up demonstrators and picket lines, it would be good to see the fourth estate look at both sides of the story before they act as a cheer squad for questionable police action. The Victoria Police need to understand citizens still enjoy some rights in this State.

The police’s willingness to use excessive force against citizens who are publicly expressing their opinions or enjoying themselves are directly related to the lack of public and media response that has occurred in the past, when police have used excessive force to deal with demonstrators, giving police command the green light to use the same tactics on every Victorian.

Ian Taylor, a resident of Dora Creek in NSW lamented the fact that when he and a few mates turned up at Ballarat to take part in a dawn ceremony to mark the 152nd anniversary of the rebellion, they were bitterly disappointed that nothing had been officially organised to mark the 152nd anniversary on Sunday the 3rd of December 2006. If they had taken a few more steps towards Stawell Street, they would have stumbled across about 50 hardy souls from around Australia who were reclaiming the radical spirit of the Eureka rebellion at the people’s monument that was erected in Eureka Park in 1884, a few hundred metres from today’s Eureka centre.

After the dawn ceremony which began at 4.00am, he could have joined us for a communal breakfast at Eureka Hall and then walked to Bakery Hill to swear the Eureka oath – “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other to fight and defend our rights and liberties”. He could have listened to speeches by recipients of the Eureka Australia Day Medal and then walked with us to the old Ballarat cemetery to pay our respects to the miners and soldiers (workers at either end of a bayonet) who died on that fateful morning. He could then have walked with us through the centre of Ballarat back to Eureka Park for a late lunch and conversation.

Since 2002, the Anarchist Media Institute has organised the Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion celebrations. These celebrations are open to everyone; they are free and they NOT subsidised by the Ballarat ratepayers. People can take part in all the events we have organised to mark the day or just the events they are interested in.

Considering that since 2002 we have provided The Courier and the Eureka Centre with a program that outlines our activities, I am surprised The Courier published Ian Taylor’s article without first checking out what happens in Ballarat on the 3rd of December.

We invite everyone who doesn’t want the Eureka spirit to fade away to join us this year at 4.00am at Eureka Park next to the Eureka monument on Wednesday the 3rd of December 2008 to Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion.

The difference between an anarchist federation and a nation State is that resources are held in common and are used for the common good in an anarchist federation. Another important difference is that an anarchist federation’s economic activity is based on the satisfaction of definable human needs, not production for production’s sake and profit for profit’s sake.

The federation’s responsibility is to the communities that make up the federation. The community’s responsibility is to their individual citizens. In such circumstances, it is important that communities within the federation make allowances for the needs of the federation as a whole, as well as their individual needs. This does not mean that each community satisfies the needs of the whole federation, what it does mean is that individual communities attempt to reach the targets they have agreed, to meet to look after the interests of the federation as a whole. Communities within the federation produce what they are best at producing within a sustainable manufacturing and agricultural model.

Sustainability, human need and the responsibility of an anarchist federation to meet the human needs of the communities that make up that federation, dictate what is produced, how it is produced and what sections of the federation produce those products for the benefit of the federation as a whole.

Far too many activists take on far too much activity because in a consumer based culture, few people are willing to take up the baton and run with it. Those of us who are involved in political activity need to take on ‘bite’ size action. We need to remember we can’t change everything today. It is important that as individuals and groups, we become involved in activities that we have a good chance of successfully completing. No issue, no campaign is worth our health and our lives. We need to accept that in the great majority of cases, most people, even those that are directly affected, are not willing to passively resist, let alone, actively oppose legislation that negatively affects them.

We need to know when to walk away. We need to regularly review what we are doing, how we are doing it and what effect, if any, our activity has on the world. Those who are not willing to change tack in mid voyage won’t last long in the struggle to create an egalitarian community. Of the hundreds, possibly thousands of people I’ve been involved with politically over the last 40 years, only a few are still alive. Those that are still politically active are tired, and for the most part disillusioned. It’s important that activists structure their days and activities to suit them. To not do so, is a recipe for psychological and physical illness.

Remember if you don’t look after yourself, nobody else will. In a society where activists are isolated and marginalised, we don’t have the opportunity and social networks to support each other if we become ill. The burden falls on our partners and friends. Faced with their own problems, it’s unrealistic to expect they will look after us if our political activity affects our health. We owe it to ourselves, our partners, families and friends to know when to continue with our political and community activities and to know when to walk away. To ignore our own mortality, our needs and the needs of those around us is a recipe for personal disaster.

He soon returned to Sydney poorer for his California experiences. Esmond moved back to Buninyong where he had previously run a weekly coach service from Buninyong to Horsham. While living in Buninyong, he befriended a German physician Dr. Bruhn. The good doctor, an amateur geologist, found a quartz reef near Clunes which looked like it could be mined for gold. On the 28th of June 1851, Esmond’s luck changed and he struck gold. He sold 14oz’s of gold in Melbourne on the 22nd of August 1851. The first ever commercial quantity sold in Victoria.

Esmond became a full time miner. He moved to Ballarat and soon became an influential member of the Ballarat Reform League. He was heavily involved in the activities that led up to the Eureka rebellion. Esmond was so well thought of by his fellow miners, he was elected as a section commander by the Eureka miners who were rebelling against the government. In the early morning of the 3rd of December 1854, he was one of the 120 miners who fought the police and soldiers as they overran the stockade. Esmond escaped to Geelong with Peter Lalor and kept out of sight until the government pardoned the miners involved in the rebellion.

Twelve years later aged 45, he married Margaret McAulife. They had 3 sons and 6 daughters. Still looking for that elusive gold strike that would make him rich, he invested heavily in mining ventures that inevitably failed.

Esmond William died dirt poor; there were so few mourners at his funeral in 1890 the undertaker did a quick count to make sure he had enough people to carry the coffin. His body was consigned to the earth in the new Ballarat cemetery unhonoured and unsung.

There has always been vigorous debate about whether Esmond William was the first man to find gold in Victoria. Although it is now accepted that he was the first person to find commercial quantities of gold in Victoria, another miner Louis John Michel had earlier found a very small quantity of gold in the Upper Yarra.

SOURCE OF ARTICLE:- The Eureka Encyclopaedia 2004, ISBN 1 876478 616

Not only is it there, but it had some interesting material that I had never come across before, although I’ve done some historical research in this area. The second chapter, on the first settlers, looked at the interaction between the Boon wurrung and the sealers and escaped convicts who made the Mornington Peninsula their home long before Batman arrived in 1835. This section on the squatters lifts the historical blanket that has been thrown over the Australian killing fields by the historical revisionists who were the darlings of the fourth estate and the Federal government. Even Gunson – a man who doesn’t seem to be too impressed by the original inhabitants - was aghast at the brutality that was used by the squatters to eradicate them so their sheep and cattle could graze in peace.

In 1968, Gunson ends his account of the Shire of Cranbourne by lamenting – “Planners should also take into account the natural beauty of the Bay which, from a human point of view, is its greatest asset”. Tell that to the Brumby Labor government as they finalise their plans to destroy Port Phillip Bay so a few ships can bring in a few more consumer goods into Melbourne.

All in all this was a surprising book. It was much more than a history of Cranbourne. It was a book that tried to tell the story of Cranbourne Shire for its centenary from every bodies point of view. It is a bright light in a sea of incomplete, drab, boring, local history books.

If you want to get hold of a copy, I suggest you try the Cranbourne library. They are sure to have a copy – if not, try the State Library.

We all die, when we die, we don’t come back. When the memories fade, we disappear. Hitler lives; the unnamed soldier is just an unnamed soldier. Julius Caesar lives; the unnamed Romans that made Julius Caesar a household name today no longer exist. Genghis Khan still lives; the 10% of the known world that died as a result of his wants and desires have disappeared, compost for the wants and needs of future generations.

Purpose? What purpose? Free will? Free will to do what? A book of rules enshrined in religious dogma or an empty book waiting to be written? The purpose of life in 300 words – a Herculean task or a highway to nowhere? Reality? That’s another book waiting to be written.

One day planet Earth will be a pile of meteorites circling the solar system. Human history will have come to nothing. Purpose? Death, the last frontier or is it just the next frontier? Life without death, life without purpose – a 21st century genetically engineered fools paradise.

In the interim, green capitalism will reinforce the illusion that capitalism is not the issue. Most people think that if we tweak the system here and there, introduce a few more government controls, it will be business as usual till the end of time. Capitalism has to date, survived the boom / bust cycles that continue to dog it. The current ‘correction’ is no exception. Economic melt down only occurs when people have lost faith in the system.

Currently, there is no indication that people have lost faith in capitalism. Australians raised on a diet of easy credit, continue to buy as if there is no tomorrow; confident they will be able to earn enough money to pay their debt. While China and India continue to put their eggs in the growth basket, the Australian economy will, to a large degree, be shielded from any downturn in the US or Japanese economy. Once the boom cycle in India and China enters the bust cycle and Australians have trouble paying off their debts, they may begin to look at alternatives to an economic system that will, within the next decade, cause individuals and the community some very real personal concerns and pain.

LIBERATING PINE GAP (Booklet) 2008 (Booklet includes postage in Aust) Sean O’Reilly 69 Karumba St, Kippa Ring 4021 QLD, AUST,
Tel: Jim 07 3425 303
Email: penongke@octa4.net.au

ILS VEULENT NOUS ENTERRER! Ferruccio Brugnaro, Translated into Italian Beoutrice Goudy, (A worker & his poetry) 202 Page book, ISBN 978-2-353280-18-6

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

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Send 40 x 50cent stamps or a $20.00 cheque or money order out to:

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“We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other & fight to defend our rights & liberties”

NOMINATION CLOSE – 31st OCTOBER 2008

Send in one nomination or as many as you like. Send us the following information:

• The name of the person nominated
  
  
• A few sentences outlining why they should receive the award
  
  
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• The person you nominate can be a public figure or somebody only known to a few people.

SEND YOUR NOMINATIONS ASAP TO

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or email your nomination to anarchistage@yahoo.com

“SEDITION – Conduct or speech inciting to rebellion”

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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.

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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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‘LIFE WASN’T MEANT TO BE EASY’

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The Anarchist Savants Monthly
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The actual amount of tax paid by companies is moving further away from the supposed 'company tax rate', acc to new figures. UK-quoted companies reduced their effective tax rates from 26.6% in 2000 to 22.1% in 2004, using techniques such as registering their business in 'tax haven' countries. The company tax rate in Britain was 30% in both yrs. (The Guardian [UK])

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT: "A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.