For far too long the pages of Melbourne’s media have been filled with superficial one dimensional stories about criminal activity in Melbourne blurring the line between the activities of organised crime and men and women who’s lives would have been radically different if we as a society put more effort into helping people like Bobby Cobani, a single mother, bring up her son. When a troubled teenager who according to his mother “had been widely liked and respected” and who “at 17, 18 was the most wonderful person and everyone loved him” turned to drugs we should have had community and government funded programs in place to assist Bobby Cobani and her son.

All the semi automatic weapons in the world will not make Melbourne a safer place if we as a society continue to fail so many of this cities children. Not all children who are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth die violently in the streets, many do well, others turn on themselves and drift into a life of drugs, self destructive behaviours and petty crime.

In the rush to build more jails and increase prison sentences for victimless crimes, we seem to have forgotten the value of diversionary programs when young people first come into contact with the legal justice system. We have forgotten the value of community and government funded programs that assist, not punish, people like Mr. Samir Ograzden and his mother and family when they first experience problems while growing up.

In this privatised society where everything has its price, we have forgotten it takes a village to raise a child. If we continue to act as if the responsibility for raising children only lies with the immediate family, we will reap the rewards as a community of turning our backs on the increasing number of families and children who have been ignored, forgotten, ostracised and punished by a society that is unable and unwilling to treat all its children equally.

Its tragic little, if any, of these superannuation funds is invested in methods of production that benefit the people who’s labour generates the profits that keep the system ticking over. Economic security doesn’t come from using worker’s superannuation funds to fund the very system that has created global warming. It doesn’t come from superannuation funds using their economic muscle to create larger and larger corporations to exploit wage earners. Economic security doesn’t come by giving the bulk of the profits that are made from superannuation funds to that small group that owns the means of production, distribution and exchange.

Successive Australian governments have, unlike they have done in the private housing sector where they have supported negative gearing, refused to put legal restrictions on the investment strategies pursued by superannuation funds. Passing legislation that channels a small percentage of superannuation funds into co-operatives and collectives would go a long way to providing the seeding capital needed to finance alternative forms of production.

Passing legislation that diverts superannuation fund investments into green technology is one way of ensuring that workers superannuation contributions are used to tackle the problems created by an economic system that needs to generate ever increasing profits irrespective of the human, social and environmental costs to survive. Governments that refuse to place limits on how superannuation funds can be invested do so at the expense of the future of the people of Australia.

Whatever you do don’t utter the “C” word. The Australian media is happy to delve into incest, sex abuse, suicide and drugs. It is happy to conduct special investigations into corruption, drool at the sight of a page three girl, discuss the pros and cons of Australia’s overseas military involvement but nothing, nil, zilch about the “C” word. They’re happy to have long involved discussions about obesity, personal relationships, sadomasochism and a million other subjects but the “C” word is sacrosanct.

They’re happy to talk about human rights, housing, real estate values (they love talking about real estate values), prison, criminals, court cases but the “C” word is taboo, both in the media and polite society. The Australian people love discussing football, tennis, their neighbours, celebrities, television and the trouble they have with the banks, but not even in the privacy of their own bedrooms will they bring up the “C” word.

The “C” word underlies all our decisions, regulates our lives, destroys our environment, pays for our wars but no one gives it a second thought. It destroys our lives, fills our prisons, pays our wages and dominates our relationships with our families and friends. Nobody seems to realise we find ourselves waiting for care in an under funded public hospital system, can’t find a home, work extraordinary hours to pay our bills and wail about public education because we’re not willing to use the “C” word in both polite and angry conversation. Until we grow up and shout the “C” word to the rafters, nothing will change. You guessed it – capitalism, both private and state owned is the elephant in the lounge room no one is willing to mention. Unless we’re willing to raise the role capitalism plays in our everyday lives we’ll continue to eat pie in the sky till the day we die.

Let’s hope the Sunday Age’s banner headline “Mokbel Mission accomplished” (18/5) doesn’t suffer the same fate George Bush’s “mission accomplished” statement suffered. Five years after the invasion of Iraq, every reason given to justify the invasion lying in tatters the body count for both the “Coalition of The Willing” and Iraqis continues to escalate highlighting George Bush’s premature claim of victory as Iraq slowly becomes another failed state.

Just in case the Sunday Age doesn’t understand, Mr. Mokbel despite the flood of information that has saturated the mass media, is innocent of new drugs and murder charges until proven guilty in a court of law.

The Sunday Age’s triumphant headline only reinforces Mokbel’s claim that he won’t receive a fair trial in Australia, let alone Melbourne.

You either have an impartial judicial system or you don’t. Instead of going to all the trouble of funding a judicial system, appointing judges and selecting juries, we could throw Mokbel into a pond like our medieval ancestors did. If he survives he’s guilty and we’ll collectively stone him to death, draw and quarter him, impale him on a sharp stake or lock him up in a cage and watch him die of thirst and hunger. If he drowns he’s innocent. His death will rehabilitate him in the public’s eye.

Subverting the judicial system for a cheap headline isn’t a very smart move. The mission in any serious criminal case is only addressed when the accused is brought to trial before a jury of his peers. Only when the jury has delivered its verdict is the mission accomplished

Dear Rupert,

It pains me to inform you about the shocking state of affairs in your antipodean sheltered workshop. While the workshop’s patron, the former Prime Minister John Howard, offered the residents intellectual guidance, they muddled through the day. Since his electoral defeat, the residents at your flagship The Australian, are having a great deal of trouble coming to grips with a changing world they have no experience of.

It’s cruel to allow these muddleheaded 19th century cultural warriors who are clearly troubled by that cruel disease historical amnesia, to put out a daily newspaper. Its obvious they no longer have the physical, cultural or intellectual capacity to do the job. I implore you to put them out of their misery as soon as possible. In the past I’ve respected your decision to subsidise a sheltered workshop for journalists who would never make it in the real world. Unfortunately pouring your hard earned cash into this bottomless pit calls into question your commitment to economic rationalist principles. I think it is time you admitted to yourself that even you may not have the resources to keep this museum going as over the last half a century they have never managed to post a profit.
If I were you I’d take a leaf out of Kerry’s son’s book and close The Australian down. James showed he knew the value of a dollar when he shut down the non performing Bulletin, although it had been published for over 125 years. I wouldn’t worry too much about the fate of The Australian’s museum pieces, it won’t be long before they’re snapped up by the editorial board at Quadrant or find a space in one of those old fashioned intellectual museums like the Institute of Public Affairs that despite a rapidly changing world continue to collect worthless 18th and 19th century journalistic junk.

Your faithful servant in the Antipodeans

The foreign reserves collected through external taxes could be used to assist members of an anarchist community who need to travel overseas for personal, business and leisure purposes. The same currency reserves could be used to purchase goods on behalf of the community from non-anarchist sources and pay for the medical treatment of citizens who cannot receive the treatment they need in an anarchist society. No compulsory monetary contribution is needed in an anarchist community because wealth is allocated on the basis of need. If a person doesn’t need to use a three bedroom home, that home will be allocated to a family that does and the person who no longer needs to use the bigger home, would be allocated a smaller home in the same area so they can maintain the personal and community relationships they have developed over the years.

Personal security is not achieved by levying taxes in an anarchist society, it is achieved through citizens participation in the life of their community. Holding wealth in common frees society of the onerous burden of imposing and collecting taxes from the community. This frees large numbers of people to do more useful and productive work in the community.

Activists, especially those involved in campaigns that generate little community support find themselves inexorably drawn to the courts for help, erroneously thinking the courts will help them win their struggle. Unfortunately court victories are few and far between. Most activists who are drawn into the legal labyrinth soon face inevitable bankruptcy.

Even successful High Court challenges like Eddie Mabo’s High Court challenge that resulted in the judgement that indigenous Australian’s had rights to land in law because of their prior occupation of this land, can be watered down by obstinate governments. An elusive victory in court does not guarantee the success of a social or political movement, all it does is put a temporary obstruction in the way of a determined government. Legal action alone cannot win a struggle. Legal action coupled with community action has a greater chance of succeeding than legal action alone.

It is a mistake to put all your eggs in the legal basket. The effort, energy and financial resources needed to fund a legal campaign can slow down the community campaign that’s needed to keep issues in the public imagination. The momentum created by a community campaign can be lost through legal action. The only time activists should contemplate legal campaigns is when somebody has put their foot over the campaign’s windpipe starving it of oxygen.

Legal action can in such circumstances gain you the breathing space you need to continue the campaign. Legal action should only be considered in situations where everything else has been tried and it looks like the campaign will be lost unless legal action is used. Activists who put their faith in the legal process usually find they are very disappointed with the results of their legal challenge. Think carefully, very carefully before you embark on a legal campaign that can at any time backfire in your face.

Australia’s foray into Afghanistan, Iraq and the Solomon Islands continues the long tradition of Australian involvement in other peoples wars.

In 1863 the colonies sent troops to fight in the Maori wars in New Zealand. In 1885 when news arrived in New South Wales that General Gordon had been killed in Khartoum, the New South Wales parliament sent troops to assist the English in Sudan. 532 infantrymen, two batteries of field artillery and an ambulance unit was sent to Sudan. The New South Wales troops arrived at the tail end of the conflict. Despite seeing little action, three were wounded and seven succumbed to disease.

The Boer War provided the next opportunity for Australia to flex its military might. 16,500 Australian troops were sent to South Africa. The bushmen cavalry brigades were used to spread terror in South Africa. Over 250 Australians were killed in Britain’s dirty little war against the Boers and another 250 died of illnesses they contracted during the campaign.

Not content with their involvement in the Boer war, the Australian colonies became excited when they heard about the “Boxer” rebellion in Peking, the Chinese Imperial capital. Over 450 men from New South Wales and Victoria sailed to China in the Salamis in August 1900. They were soon joined by the South Australian gunboat Protector. Although they saw little action in China they returned to a heroes welcome in Sydney on the 3rd May 1901 as sons of the new Commonwealth of Australia. World War One was another imperialist adventure that saw over 60,000 young Australians sacrificed on Mammon’s altar for the glory of God, King and Country.

It wasn’t until World War Two that Australian troops were used to defend Australia (only after the new Labor Prime Minister John Curtin demanded Australian troops be sent back from the Middle East to defend Australia against the Japanese Imperial Forces). This was the first and last time Australian troops have been used to defend Australia. Since the second World War successive Australian governments have sacrificed Australian service personnel in foreign wars to shore up this country’s alliance with the United States. It’s a pity Australian governments, both conservative and reformist, have learnt nothing from Australia’s unnecessary involvement in foreign wars. Our involvement has caused pain and suffering in the countries that were invaded and they have caused a great deal of distress among the families and friends of service men and women who have been killed and wounded fighting other peoples wars to shore up Australia’s political alliances.

This is another of the plethora of books on Australian history that appeared as part of the 1988 Australian Bicentennial celebrations. Divided into six sections it gives an exceptionally potted version of this country’s history. In my defence it was one of three books I picked up for a dollar at a local school fete. Having nothing to review (my call for readers to send me their favourite tomes to read, falling on deaf ears) I took myself down to the local primary school fete in the rain to find something, anything to read.

The book is full of interesting historical bits and pieces but adds little to the Australian story. Australia’s indigenous inhabitants who have lived on the continent for over 40,000 years are largely ignored in this Bicentennial account.

Interestingly, the first Australian bushranger was a West Indian negro called Black Caesar – Black Caesar fought the Aborigines and British alike. After an extraordinary Indiana Jones life he was shot dead by an aboriginal tracker called Wimbour after the authorities put a price of five gallons of spirit on his head – who took to the bush soon after the first fleet arrived. The first fleet was a multicultural affair, people from all parts of the British empire, from the West Indies to Europe, to Egypt found themselves destined for Botany Bay.

The most interesting part of Bicentennial is the 1788 Diary of the first year of white settlement in Australia. Each day the thoughts of one of those who found themselves at Port Jackson is recorded. Reading these extracts, the extraordinary thing that strikes the reader is the exceptionally friendly relationships that developed between the aborigines and the people who made up the first fleet. Finding themselves in a new land, faced with the ever present problem of starvation, discretion not “valour” marked their initial relationship.

February 6 1788
“The male convicts unleashed frustrations built up in the twelve months they had been chained below decks, broke loose from their temporary goal-yard and into the women’s camp”.

Faced with the prospect of daily mass rapes, the Rev. Richard Johnson found himself performing more marriages than he expected.
“I have encouraged marriage so that some sort of stability might be brought into the chaotic situation” – Captain Phillip, Australia’s first Governor.

August 1st 1788 Captain Phillip
“Living with the natives…to the officers they were an amusement and an alleviation of the post’s tedium. To the convicts they were people even inferior to themselves. They all tried to take their own wrongs out on the black man or to make what profit they could out of them”

Two hundred and twenty years later, little seems to have changed.

Try your local library for a copy of this potted version of Australian history.

“Silly old fool”, “shrivelled sac of bones”, “waste of space” are just a few of the endearments I’ve seen hurled at some of our older citizens. It’s easy to ignore the elderly in a society that is dependent on a written culture.

Knowledge no longer just lies in the memory of the elderly, it is there for all to use. Look it up on the internet, browse through a book, the tyranny exercised by the elderly on youth rattled by a once in a lifetime drought is a thing of the past.

The elderly have become a burden on society, their grip on the collective wealth an impedient to the hopes and aspirations of the young. Their power no longer lies in the knowledge they hold in trust for the community. Their power lies in the wealth they control. Not that all the elderly are wealthy. Most are not, most rely on pensions to survive. Crucified by the wealthy who have used their bodies and souls to accumulate a nest egg, they are cast aside shunted into retirement homes, residential units, waiting for the inevitable one way trip to nirvana.

For every old man with a young blonde draped over his arm driving a Ferrari, there are a hundred thousand old men who’s souls have been shredded by society to fertilise the gardens of those born to rule. For every old woman with a toyboy or two and a string of diamonds, a hundred thousand elderly women look blankly at television land while thinking about how their lives would have panned out if they had experienced the same opportunities.
Fool you if you waited till you finished school, till you got a job, till you got married, till you had children, till they were off your hands, till you had grandchildren before you began to live. Fool you for not asking the question you should be asking yourself every time you open your eyes in the morning. We shouldn’t worry about whether there is life after death, we should be more concerned about whether there is life before death. Living life to the full, experiencing everyday as it comes is the elixir of a long and happy life. Waiting for the tomorrow that never comes crushes the soul, ages the body and transform us into those silly wizened old useless fools the young believe we have become.

Poor Brendan, the Federal Opposition leader, must have felt the weight of office when he delivered his budget reply. Selling his soul for the leadership of the Liberal party to the chair sniffing West Australian Liberal troglodytes wasn’t the smartest of moves. At least the recently departed Senator Mal Coulston sold his soul for the deputy leadership of the Senate, a much wiser decision in retrospect than poor Brendan’s.

Intellectually hamstrung by his pact with the Liberal cave dwellers in the West, he leapt to the defence of the great Australian consumer in his budget reply offering to cut five cents a litre off petrol and block the new tax on alcopops in the Senate.

Brendan’s attempts to scramble up the barricades and throw himself into the swirling consumer mosh pit below didn’t quite come off, as luck would have it at the very moment he flung himself into the heaving mass of humanity, the crowd parted to get hold of the cheap alcopops Malcolm Turnbull was throwing into the crowd. Poor Brendan landed heavily on the concrete.

In a final show of defiance, bleeding from a serious head wound, he lifted himself on one elbow and continued to ramble on about whatever caught his imagination. His bleeding and bruised body was dragged out of the mosh pit by an elated Malcolm Turnbull who unceremoniously dumped it into the dustbin of history among the discarded alcopop bottles the crowd had gratefully guzzled as they waited for Malcolm and his band to entertain them with one of those spectacular lightshows that are put on before the main act – Peter Costello singing “I did it my way.”

ARIVISTA ANARCHICA No.335 Vol 38 MAY 08, Editrice A, Cos. Post. 17120, Milano 20170, ITALY, Tel: 02 2896627, Fax: 02 28001271, Email : arivista@tin.it Web: arivista.org

UMANITA NOVA Vol 88 No.16 4th MAY 08, Settimanale Anarchico, C.50 Palermo 46, 10152, Torino ITALY. Tel/Fax : (011) 857850, Mobile : 338-6594361, Email : fat@inrete.it

SOLIDARIDAD OBRERA No.333 APRIL 08, Órgano de la Confederación Regional del Trabajo de Catalunya III Época, C/ Joaquin Costa, 34, entresueto 08001 Barcelona SPAIN, Tel/Fax: 93 318 88 34
Email : cntsoliobrera@hotmail.com Web : www.soliobrera.org

TIERRA Y LIBERTAD No.237 APRIL 08, Periodico Anarquista, A Gonzalez, Apartado 7056 de Madrid, 28080 Madrid SPAIN. Email : tierraylibertad@nodo50.org

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This pamphlet written and published for the 2008 Anzac Day celebrations by the Anarchist Media Institute, highlights that World War One was fought by soldiers at either end of a bayonet for the glory of God, King and Country.
This exciting new pamphlet examines the successful World War One anticonscription movement. The pamphlet is a breath of fresh air in an era when telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Pamphlet available for 20 / 50cent stamps.
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Write to:

AKIN SARI, c/- Port Phillip Prison,
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Akin Sari a 29 year old Turkish political refugee who was granted political asylum in Australia has been sentenced to 2 years & 4 months imprisonment for offences related to his involvement in the G20 protests in Melbourne in November 2006. Akin has already spent 7 months in prison awaiting trial & sentencing. He has been set a minimum 14 months sentence. Akin will have to serve the maximum sentence of 2 years & 4 months if he fails to obtain parole in October 2008. Keep his spirits up, write to him today!!

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NOMINATION CLOSE – 31st OCTOBER 2008

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

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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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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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