historical artifact

Last year the APEC Summit came to Sydney and a mate of mine who went to (observe?) the protest picked this up.
It's evidence of how much of a police state Australia has become in the early 21st Century and how much in thrall of capital our so-called liberal democracies are.
I look forward to the day when we look back on artifacts such as these and marvel at the oppressiveness of the times.
Having said that, at least we're not in Zimbabwe...
If you want to and you don't know what I mean by the above, send me a comment and I'll reply as I can't be fucked writing more tonight.

vote for lame

The above clip is an ad for one of this year's federal unnatural selection candidates for the seat of Wills (in Melbourne). Namely, it's an ad for Zane Alcorn from Socialist Alliance (SA). If you can stomach watching it, you'll see a failed attempt at winning the youth vote. Somebody has clearly neglected to tell SA that it takes a bit more than a terribly unfunky aesthetic to win a seat. And who the hell thought it would be possible to win a seat by appealing to just one cohort within it? Especially with that terrible attempt at humour? Strangely enough, I couldn't bring myself to vote Zane second, despite the Greens 'how to' card asking me to do so. It was very difficult bringing myself to vote at all.
SA are allied with the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), so that explains why Zane's been posing as a woeful Emcee posing as a politician: feeding votes, more or less, to the DSP.
There is an argument that content is more important than aesthetics. But sometimes there can be a lot of content in aesthetics. In Zane's case, there's a very clear agenda of attempting to win the youth vote by presenting himself as an alternative to the other politicians.
So I'm not criticising Zane on the basis of his content (not of this clip but of his policies [the usual SA/DSP suspects: environmental sustainability/global warming, worker's rights and youth rights, etc.]) because no doubt there's plenty of merit to the ideas he's put forward, in principle. My assertion is that, if Zane's intention is to effect change in regard to these issues, participating in Government isn't going to help. Representative Democracy is a sham. It won't solve issues, it creates them. Zane's aesthetic belies a disingenuous attempt to paper over this fatal flaw in the logic of our so-called democracy: the illusion of choice.
Having said all that, I did vote. It was a guilty pleasure helping vote out Howard. But I'm certainly not labouring under the misapprehension that there is a substantial difference between Howard and Rudd and his lackeys. Or if I were Zane I suppose I'd say, "Rudd and his homies."
now playing: battles - rainbow

national 'anarchists'

Below is a statement penned by that Slack Bastard, @ndy, regarding the presence of so-called national anarchists in Australia.
To date, it's been signed by:
Barricade
Anarchist Direct Action
Wild Cat
Melbourne Anarchist Club

(The symbol directly below is, apparently, the national anarchist logo. I obtained it from a site called Folk and Faith, which, whilst denouncing racism, simultaneously screams blue bloody murder about the existence and imputed practices of 'judeo types' and eschews miscegenation. It also claims to be neither right nor left. Which may be fair. Theirs is an entirely whole new order of insanity.)

Introduction

On Saturday, September 8, 2007, a small group of between 15-30 individuals assembled in Sydney under the banner of the New Right. They were there to attend the anti-APEC summit rally and protest, and did so while assembled in the manner of a black bloc (dressed in black uniforms and wearing masks to disguise their faces). Their propaganda proclaimed the group to be composed of 'national anarchists'. This statement is being issued by a number of anarchist groups in Australia [and Aotearoa] in order to unmask these impostors, to expose 'national anarchism' as being the fascist nonsense that it is, and to give notice, both to the 'national anarchists' and to the general public, that anarchists in Australia [and Aotearoa] will not tolerate fascist elements attempting to use anarchist rhetoric and imagery in order to pursue their goals. We do so on the basis of our support for the equality and freedom of all individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity, and in recognition of the role of fascists ideas, parties and movements in destroying the libertarian working class cultures and movements which anarchists promote and which we depend upon for our survival. But what, exactly, is the 'New Right', and what is a 'national anarchist'?

The New Right

In Australia, the New Right is a tiny grouping on the far right, established in late 2005, largely via the efforts of a German-born, Sydney-based businessman named Welf Herfurth. Herfurth has a long history of involvement in the German neo-Nazi movement, including the NPD, and more recently the Australian far right, including organisations and projects such as the Australia First Party, Blood & Honour, One Nation and the Inverell and Sydney Forums. According to Herfurth and the New Right, “National-Anarchism represents the political embodiment of the... New Right — it is the political wing”. In other words, while the New Right provides the 'theory', 'national anarchism' is the 'practice'.

National anarchism

'National anarchism' has its origins in the UK, and is largely the brainchild of Troy Southgate, another individual with a long history of involvement in the British neo-Nazi movement, including organisations such as the National Front, the International Third Position, the English Nationalist Movement and the National Revolutionary Faction. Critic Graham D. Macklin notes that "When put into its wider context… ‘national-anarchism’ appears as one of many groupuscular responses to globalization, popular antipathy towards which Southgate sought to harness by aligning [his activities]... with the resurgence of anarchism whose heroes and slogans it arrogated, and whose sophisticated critiques of global capitalist institutions and state power it absorbed…". In essence, 'national anarchism' is an attempt to use anarchist rhetoric and imagery in order to better advance the cause of reactionary, racist and fascist politics.

Our response

As anarchists, we categorically reject this. We also categorically reject any and all attempts by the New Right (and any other group with politics similar to it) to align themselves in any way, shape or form with the contemporary anarchist movement in Australia [and Aotearoa]. The use of such tactics by the far right, including the formation of 'black blocs' such as the one in Sydney, has been witnessed in Europe for a number of years, and it now appears that an attempt, however minor, to do so in Australia is now being made. (In Germany, for example, some right-wing radicals even use the “Antifaschistische Aktion” logo (a circle with a red and black flag) but adorn it with the slogan “Nationale Sozialisten” (national socialists)!) We consider the use of such tactics to be deliberately aimed at causing confusion among the broader public with regards the aims and methods of elements of the far right, and to confuse anarchism with the pursuit of 'white, nationalist' politics. Such tactics are also based upon a recognition by elements of the far right of the attractive nature of anarchist rhetoric and imagery to many young people, and a desire to win some of these individuals away from genuine attempts to create true anarchy; a society without rulers -- of whatever colour, and of whatever supposed nationality.

The Sab Cat.
As such, we, as anarchists: wish to make our opposition to the New Right and 'national anarchism' known; denounce their attempts to appropriate 'anarchist' rehetoric, imagery and symbology for their own racist and fascist purposes; commit ourselves to to ensuring, each in our own way, that any and all confusion be eliminated in the minds of both the 'national anarchists' and the broader public regarding the opposition between anarchism and the antics of groups such as the New Right.

For more information, read @ndy's blog.