• AAWR Issue No. 770 – Peter McGREGOR

• AAWR Issue No. 771 – Jean ELY & Ray NILSEN

• AAWR Issue No. 772 – Stuart HIGHWAY

• AAWR Issue No. 773 – David KEVIN

• AAWR Issue No. 774 – Alan PARKER





• Or Download the 2007 Citations document

Individual parliamentarians in a parliamentary democracy are much more accountable to the Prime Minister than their electorate. Long suffering electors can do nothing till the next election when they go through the same sorry farce again. The amount of power the Prime Minister is able to exercise over his parliamentary colleagues can be decreased by making parliamentarians directly accountable to the electorate through the power of recall. Giving the electorate the power to recall their parliamentary representatives in between elections would make parliamentarians accountable both to the electorate and the Prime Minister. Faced with the prospect of losing their job in between elections, parliamentarians would think twice about continuing to give their support to an unpopular Prime Minister.

The power of recall is based on the idea that if 20% of electors signed a petition that they wanted a fresh election in a particular electorate because they were unhappy with the performance of the sitting member, a fresh election would have to be held. To stop electors from abusing the power of recall, the number of elections that could be called in a particular electorate in between elections could be limited to two. I am sure politicians who have built their political career on making the unemployed and social security beneficiaries accountable to the taxpayer, would have no trouble accepting the idea they should also be accountable to the community.

The breakdown of centralised States creates the conditions that allow movements for human liberation to take a more prominent role in the life of people. Decentralisation has its own rewards, even if the movement for independence is built on cultural or ethnic demands. Small States are not such a threat to their neighbourhoods as a highly centralised State is. The smaller the nation State, the more likely those who exercise power are held accountable because they don’t have the necessary force at their disposal to enforce their rule.

Small nation States need to use consensus to maintain cohesion. The initial euphoria of people having their own flag, national anthem and Parliament soon dies down when they are faced with the reality of everyday life. The same fevour and commitment that was used to achieve national independence can in such circumstances, be harnessed to create a movement struggling to form a community free of ethnic and nationalist sentiments.

The break up of a highly centralised State is a welcome development in an era where the concentration of political power and wealth has become a significant impediment in the struggle to create an egalitarian community based on direct democratic principals where the people involved in a decision, make that decision and wealth is held in common and used to make those decisions a reality.

The huge dividends reaped by the State are illusory when the real costs of gambling are calculated. Introducing programs to assist problem gamblers are not enough. Employers that lose money as a result of fraudulent activity by employees should be automatically compensated by the venues where the gambling occurred. Families that have suffered as a consequence of problem gambling should also be compensated. The heath care costs associated with problem gambling should be covered by the gaming industry.

The gaming industry has prospered because the taxpayer has been forced to pick up the tab for the problems they create. No other industry apart from the alcohol industry has the cost for the problems created by that industry directly picked up by the taxpayer. You don’t solve problem gambling by banning gambling. The way you control problem gambling is by making individual gambling outlets and the industry as a whole financially responsible for the problems the industry causes.

The legislation required to make the gambling industry directly responsible for the misery it causes is not difficult to introduce. It can be done tomorrow if the State government has the political will to tackle the problem. The gambling industry must be forced to stand on its own two feet and should not be subsidised by the taxpayer. I am certain that if the industry was taken off the public teat, the number of gambling outlets would decrease dramatically because the gambling sector is an unsustainable industry that produces illusory profits.

I agree the best way to tackle the Fourth World conditions indigenous Australians have been forced into, is by Parliament working with indigenous communities to tackle the problems created by dispossession. Unfortunately, Kevin Rudd’s public proposal to Brendan Nelson had everything to do with the Machiavellian aspects of parliamentary politics than anything to do with formulating and implementing policies that would assist the indigenous community.

If the PM was serious about tackling the very real problems caused by Aboriginal dispossession, he would have notified the Opposition leader about his proposal to form a ‘War Cabinet’ about the issue. This would have given Brendan Nelson the time to bring to heel the more racist elements within the Liberal Party to toe the line. Rudd’s proposal was a ‘clever’ political ploy to wrong foot Brendan Nelson publicly within his own Party. Considering the circumstances, Nelson had no choice but to fall into line with the PM’s proposal. I don’t care what happens to Nelson, I don’t care if he is humiliated in public and is driven out of Parliament; what I care about is Kevin Rudd giving racist elements within the Liberal Party and the community the OK to grow and flourish.

If Rudd was really interested in the formation of a ‘War Cabinet’ to tackle the issue of indigenous housing, he would have contacted the Opposition leader long before he made the apology. Playing political games to shore up his political position at the expense of indigenous Australians are not the actions of a man who wants to ensure the indigenous community begins to enjoy the same opportunities, services, infrastructure and standing the rest of Australians enjoy. What is clearly clever politics, spells disaster for a bipartisan approach to the important issues faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

The Howard government’s decade in office gave racists a prominent place in Australian society they have not enjoyed since the 1950’s. The suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act, so the military led intervention in the Northern Territory’s indigenous communities could legally occur, highlighted the role racism played in the Howard government. The appointment of historical revisionists and the lauding of cultural cowards masquerading as ‘cultural warriors’ on government boards, created the social conditions that allowed racism against indigenous Australians to flourish within the Howard government and Australian society.

Racism against indigenous Australians in this country is ingrained, ‘acceptable’ and a much greater problem than most of us wish to acknowledge. ‘Disadvantage’ in the indigenous community is directly related to the level of racism in the community. The unacceptable levels of racism within Australia are directly related to the unease we feel about enjoying the spoils of colonisation. Dehumanising and marginalising indigenous Australians allows us to enjoy those spoils without a guilty conscience.

If so much public angst surrounded a simple apology, how much public angst is going to result from the stolen generations legitimate demands for compensation? How much further public angst would occur as a consequence of a successful ‘pay the rent’ campaign that would result in the imposition of a levy, like the Medicare levy, to ensure the necessary resources were allocated to deal with indigenous disadvantage?

It is interesting to note that the Mabo decision of the 3rd of June 1992 when the Australian High Court found that indigenous Australians had rights to land in law because of their continuous occupation of that land was met with dismay and public panic. Apologising is not enough; thieves need to compensate the aggrieved parties for their loss.

While the relationship between indigenous and non indigenous Australians is limited to symbolic acts, the path towards reconciliation will continue to remain blocked and the Fourth World status of many indigenous communities in a First World country will continue, despite the Rudd government’s best efforts to reach a consensus with the racist elements that continue to resist the push for reconciliation in the Australian Parliament and Australia society.

We can go with the flow, get on with our lives and accept what happens – shit happens - and remain spectators in the game of life,

We can accept the status quo and spend our lives working ‘up the right channels’ trying to change things we are not happy with by using established institutions and political structures or,

We can eschew established institutions and use direct action to try to achieve our goals.

99.99% of the population tends to go with the flow or work up the right channels, happy to work inside the tent. 00.01% makes a more difficult choice and works outside the tent, lighting brushfires around the tent forcing those inside the tent to take on the concerns of those who live and work outside it.
Every major advance in human history has not occurred by working up the right channels. Universal suffrage abolishing slavery, access to health care, pensions, limited working hours and a 1001 other reforms that are required to create a civil society, have not occurred as a result of people working up the right channels. Small groups working outside established structures lighting metaphorical brushfires around the tent have forced the great majority living in the tent to take on the concerns that were initially raised by those working outside the tent.

Climate change is a classic example of how something which concerned a ‘few ferals’ has within the space of a few decades become a major concern for everyone. While it is a concern – those who advocate a major change in economic direction are still finding themselves outside the tent shivering in the cold. The cold hard facts of reality, pushed along by that small section of the community that lives outside the tent, could in the next decade or so, put capitalism on the intellectual dissecting block. The push for change tends to come outside the tent because those who have eschewed working up the right channels are not blinkered by the restraints that have been created to channel dissent into activity that can be manipulated and controlled by that small section of the community that exercises power.

It’s up to you. Go with the flow; living a virtual life in a virtual world. Work up the right channels and have the idealism and hope beating in your heart squeezed out of you, or be realistic - demand the impossible and work outside the tent lighting brushfires that force those within the tent to turn their attention to the major issues we face as individuals, communities, nation States and citizens of the world.

The industrial unionists and the socialists had concluded that political struggle by itself would never bring about radical change. They agreed the workers must organise into one big union – the Industrial Workers of the World. The initial alliance was an unstable one, as the industrial unionists concluded that in order to take and hold the means of production, the place to wage class war was at the point of exploitation –the place of employment – while the De Leonists still favoured political action. Three years after it was founded, the I.W.W. split into the De Leon faction and the Direct Action faction. The Direct Action faction made its headquarters in Chicago and through a series of dramatic strikes, soon came to dominate the class struggle in the US.

The Chicago Wobblies brought the message of revolutionary unionism to the workers by setting up local industrial unions which brought together all the workers (regardless of their trade or skills) who worked in the same industry. The Wobblies aimed to format social revolution through workplace democracy. The De Leon faction of the I.W.W. was established in Sydney in October 1907. From late 1908 to May 1911, the De Leon faction held sway in Australia, despite reservations that were held about the organisation by many Australian militants. In May 1911, a handful of Adelaide socialists contacted the Chicago I.W.W. requesting a charter to form an Australian branch.

The Australian De Leon supporters were “disgustingly disappointed” that this tiny group of “muddle headed, prejudiced and ignorant pseudo-socialists” should join hands with the “I-am-a-Bum anarchist hobo crowd”. Six months later, a small group of Sydney radicals asked the Adelaide local for a charter to form a Sydney group. In May 1912, the Sydney group had only 12 members. Within 3 years, the vigour and courage of the Sydney I.W.W. turned this tiny organisation into what can now be described as the most significant revolutionary movement Australians have known, spearheading a revolutionary anti conscription struggle that made those in authority turn pale and tremble in their seats.

Material for this week’s article comes from ‘Sydney’s Burning – An Australian Political Conspiracy’. Ian Turner, Alpha Books, Sydney 1967, Registry Nos. AUS 67 - 751

The Howard government’s economic credentials were built on the economic windfalls of trading with China. A country ruled by a group of old men who believe the only way they can continue to hold onto power is by showering the Chinese people with consumer goods. Howard’s apparent omnipotence had nothing to do with his political and economic skills and everything to do with the shadowy figures who have successfully hijacked the political process in this country.
Today nobody seems to write about how Parliament has been captured by that small section of the community that owns the means of production, distribution and exchange. Parliamentarians no longer represent the interests of their electorate; they represent the interests of those who exercise power through their monopolisation of wealth.

The ascendancy of Kevin Rudd does not as Judith Brett suggests, mark a new phase in the nation’s life. While access to the purse strings remains in the hands of unaccountable, behind the scenes movers and shakers, what governments can and cannot do has little, if anything, to do with what the electorate want and everything to do with maintaining the power and wealth of that small section of the community that continues to exercise a stranglehold on the political process in Australia.

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Every 3 years, all those Australians who cast a ballot, give their elected representatives a signed blank cheque to make decisions on their behalf for the next 3 years. Constitutionally, ultimate political authority in a parliamentary democracy is exercised through Parliament on behalf of the people. When parliamentary laws are made, they are made on behalf of the people. When the laws that were introduced in State Parliaments resulted in the removal of indigenous children were implemented, they were implemented on behalf of the people.

In a parliamentary democracy, the people and Parliament are one. When the Prime Minister apologised to the stolen generations, he said ‘sorry’ on behalf of himself as the Prime Minister; he said ‘sorry’ on behalf of the government of the day and he said ‘sorry’ on behalf of Parliament. He consciously did not say ‘sorry’ on behalf of the Australian people. His government was not willing to exercise the authority they could constitutionally exercise because they were not willing to upset the racist elements in Australian society.

Concerned about a possible political backlash if he apologised on behalf of the Australian people, he refused to apologise to the stolen generations on behalf of the Australian people. What has been described in the Australian media as an act of political courage is in essence an act of political cowardice.
The sad story surrounding Rudd’s apology is not just Brendan Nelson’s bumbling response or the behaviour of the moral troglodytes in the Liberal Party, but the Prime Minister’s refusal to use the constitutional powers he had at his disposal to apologise on behalf of the Australian people for electing governments that passed legislation that allowed indigenous children to be legally removed because of their racial origins, not because of their moral circumstances.

This week the Rudd government has turned its attention to the 700,000 Australians on disability support pensions - proposing they would make an excellent labour source. The Federal government is currently in the process of formulating and implementing policy that will see people on disability support pensions forced off social security benefits so they can work in the private labour market to overcome what in some quarters is being promoted as a labour shortage.
The purpose of a disability support pension is to provide security to people with significant mental and physical problems. To remove that security, by forcing people into the labour market, is sheer lunacy. It is one thing finding a job; it’s another thing holding onto that job. Those people with physical and psychiatric issues would be the first ones to lose their jobs in times of increasing unemployment and worsening economic circumstances.

If the government was serious about integrating people with physical and psychiatric disabilities into the workforce, they would introduce the same conditions for disability support pensioners that those Australians who receive a blind pension now enjoy. Pension payments and benefits should be paid irrespective of whether they are in the paid work force or not.

Quarantining disability support pensioners from the means test would give them both the incentive and the security they require to join the paid workforce. Expecting them to take the same risks the rest of the community takes for the privilege of accessing what in many circumstances will be poorly paid difficult work, is both unrealistic and counter productive.

If the Rudd led Labor government is interested in the welfare of Australians on disability support pensions, it’s time they took a different approach to the punitive measures the Howard government used to force people with disabilities into a paid workforce that treats both the able bodied and the disabled as disposable commodities.

UMANITA NOVA Vol 88 No.5 EL 10th FEB 2008, Settimanale Anarchico, C.50 Palermo 46, 10152, Torino ITALY.
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Akin Sari pleaded guilty to a number of charges stemming from the G20 protests in Melbourne in Nov 2006. He was arrested in Sydney on the 6th Sept 2007 for breaching his bail conditions. He appeared in the Victorian County Court on the 4th February 2008 for a presentence hearing. Nearly 6 months after he was incarcerated, he is still waiting to find out how much more time he will have to spend in jail. Keep his spirits up, write to him today!

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The cures for AIDS or cancer "may become extinct before they are ever found" due to environmental damage, acc to experts. Botanic Gardens Conservation Intern’l surveyed more than 600 experts. Their report says many plants used in medicine are in danger of extinction. The majority of prescription drugs are derived from chemicals first identified in plants. Many chemicals from at-risk plants can be created artificially. However the report says 5 billion people, the majority of the world's population, still rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of healthcare. Plants at risk of extinction incl magnolia, believed to help fight cancer, dementia & heart disease. More than half the world's species are now threatened by deforestation. Report author Belinda Hawkins said "if the precipitous decline of these species is not halted, it could destabilise the future of global healthcare." (MX)
UK police officers solve an average of 10 crimes each per yr, at a cost to the taxpayer of AUD$22,000 per crime. Research by think-tank Ippr found police funding had increased by 25% in real terms since 97, but this hadn’t resulted in police solving any more crimes. (MX)