slackbastard

November 13, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WTO ANNOUNCES FORMALIZED SLAVERY MARKET FOR AFRICA

US Trade Representative to Africa, Governor of Nigeria Central Bank, weigh in at Wharton…

Text, photos, video | Conference website | Conference contacts | WTO Contact : Hanniford Schmidt (mailto:schmidt@gatt.org)

Philadelphia - At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for “full private stewardry of labor” for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa’s free trade with the West.

The initiative will require Western companies doing business in some parts of Africa to own their workers outright. Schmidt recounted how private stewardship has been successfully applied to transport, power, water, traditional knowledge, and even the human genome. The WTO’s “full private stewardry” program will extend these successes to (re)privatize humans themselves.

“Full, untrammelled stewardry is the best available solution to African poverty, and the inevitable result of free-market theory,” Schmidt told more 150 attendees. Schmidt acknowledged that the stewardry program was similar in many ways to slavery, but explained that just as “compassionate conservatism” has polished the rough edges on labor relations in industrialized countries, full stewardry, or “compassionate slavery,” could be a similar boon to developing ones.

The audience included Prof. Charles Soludo (Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria), Dr. Laurie Ann Agama (Director for African Affairs at the Office of the US Trade Representative), and other notables. Agama prefaced her remarks by thanking Schmidt for his macroscopic perspective, saying that the USTR view adds details to the WTO’s general approach. Nigerian Central Bank Governor Soludo also acknowledged the WTO proposal, though he did not seem to appreciate it as much as did Agama.

A system in which corporations own workers is the only free-market solution to African poverty, Schmidt said. “Today, in African factories, the only concern a company has for the worker is for his or her productive hours, and within his or her productive years,” he said. “As soon as AIDS or pregnancy hits–out the door. Get sick, get fired. If you extend the employer’s obligation to a 24/7, lifelong concern, you have an entirely different situation: get sick, get care. With each life valuable from start to finish, the AIDS scourge will be quickly contained via accords with drug manufacturers as a profitable investment in human stewardees. And educating a child for later might make more sense than working it to the bone right now.”

To prove that human stewardry can work, Schmidt cited a proposal by a free-market think tank to save whales by selling them. “Those who don’t like whaling can purchase rights to specific whales or groups of whales in order to stop those particular whales from getting whaled as much,” he explained. Similarly, the market in Third-World humans will “empower” caring First Worlders to help them, Schmidt said.

One conference attendee asked what incentive employers had to remain as stewards once their employees are too old to work or reproduce. Schmidt responded that a large new biotech market would answer that worry. He then reminded the audience that this was the only possible solution under free-market theory.

There were no other questions from the audience that took issue with Schmidt’s proposal.

During his talk, Schmidt outlined the three phases of Africa’s 500-year history of free trade with the West: slavery, colonialism, and post-colonial markets. Each time, he noted, the trade has brought tremendous wealth to the West but catastrophe to Africa, with poverty steadily deepening and ever more millions of dead. “So far there’s a pattern: Good for business, bad for people. Good for business, bad for people. Good for business, bad for people. That’s why we’re so happy to announce this fourth phase for business between Africa and the West: good for business–GOOD for people.”

The conference took place on Saturday, November 11. The panel on which Schmidt spoke was entitled “Trade in Africa: Enhancing Relationships to Improve Net Worth.” Some of the other panels in the conference were entitled “Re-Branding Africa” and “Growing Africa’s Appetite.” Throughout the comments by Schmidt and his three co-panelists, which lasted 75 minutes, Schmidt’s stewardee, Thomas Bongani-Nkemdilim, remained standing at respectful attention off to the side.

“This is what free trade’s all about,” said Schmidt. “It’s about the freedom to buy and sell anything–even people.”

Weird shit.

‘Nationalist’ Australian clothing company True Blue Productions — which, while claiming to be “100% Aussie”, uses t-shirts manufactured overseas by Gildan Activewear* — is engaged in a guerilla advertising campaign called ‘The Great Australian Bikini March’. According to ‘Christine Hawkins’, “outraged Australian women and their male supporters will reassert Australian values by taking to the streets in a bikini march on… mosques on Saturday December 9, 2006″. In Melbourne, Christine claims that “the march will end at the Islamic Information & Support Centre of Australia in Brunswick, headquaters of Sheik Mohammed Omran“.

The march follows hot-on-the-heels of another attempt (by the same company) to cash-in on Sheik Hilaly’s well-publicised comments likening women to ‘uncovered meat’:

‘Uncovered meat wear’
The Daily Terror
November 9, 2006

WOMEN are being encouraged to “show the Sheik how things really are and Sheik your booty in this quality infidel clothing”.

An entrepreneurial Sydney man is cashing in on the controversy surrounding outspoken cleric Sheik Hilaly by flogging a range of “uncovered meat” t-shirts, aprons and g-strings.

Sold through US online site cafepress.com, the apparel [boasts] a pink cat embossed with the words “uncovered meat”.

Even if the event flops, which it will (who the hell wants to march to a mosque in a bikini?), it’s certain to draw attention to the fledgling business, contribute to economic growth, and be welcomed by all Right-thinking columnists.

*True Blue reckon Gildan Activewear sell fair dinkum ‘non-sweat’ apparel, the company having received the tick of approval from WRAP. In reality, the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production Certification Program (WRAP) is an industry controlled initiative of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, and has little support or credibility among human rights, faith, women, labour or non-governmental organizations. Such initiatives take the lowest common denominator approach on labour standards to gain buy-in from all member companies, and provide no information to the public on where products are made or the results of factory audits.

Recent news on Gildan Activewear is available via the labour rights monitoring project the US-based Workers Rights Consortium: Final Update Report on Gildan Activewear (Honduras), 27 July, 2006 [PDF].

The Sun
November 11, 2006

The leader of Britain’s Communist Party has become a multi-millionaire — inheriting a £20.5 million painting that had been stolen by the Nazis.

Anita Halpin’s huge windfall came when Berlin Street Scene, by German artist Ernst Kirchner, was sold at auction.

It was snatched from the home of her German grandparents in 1936, but was returned to her as sole surviving heir under Nazi restitution laws.

Ms Halpin, 62, lives in Bow, East London. Asked how she would spend the cash, Ms Halpin, whose party believe in spreading wealth equally, said: “It’s too early to call — let’s leave it at that”.

The picture sold to New York’s Neue Galerie after frenzied bidding at Christie’s in Manhattan.

See also : ‘Communist chief joins the rich list with £20.5m for masterpiece’, The Times, November 10, 2006; ‘Comrades, fellow tankies, let’s not fall out over £20m’, The Sunday Times, November 12, 2006

Earl Scheib

This song tells the unlikely but true story of the good capitalist, Earl Scheib, and how through his business he helped the People and shared his wealth. It is widely believed that his mysterious death was at the hands of ruthless Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, rumoured to be fearful of Comrade Scheib’s influence on both the Proletariat and contemporary U.S. economic theory.

Source : Liner notes, Killdozer, Uncompromising War on Art Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (Touch & Go, 1994)

Louder, slower! LOUDER, SLOWER!!!!! LOUDER, SLOWER!!!!! ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!

What’s happening in Latin America?

Stories and films in a friendly environment — music by DJ Mono.

Featuring:

+ Rosa del Carmen Curihuentro : journalist and Mapuche indigenous activist from Chile + Heriberto Salas : ‘People for the Defence of the Earth’ and ‘the other campaign’, Mexico + Maria de Lourdes Vicente da Silva : Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Brazil

When: Friday, 17th November, 7:00 pm
Where: Lentil as Anything, Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St., Abbotsford
Entry: $5
Food: Pay as you feel
More Info: 0402 754 818 // 9419 6444
Organisers: Lentil as Anything and the Latin American Solidarity Network

From the foundation of Via Campesina in 1993 and the Zapatista uprising a year later in 1994, to the birth of the World Social Forum in 2001 and the current electoral swing against neo-liberalism, Latin America has been a crucible for international movements against market globalism. This Forum brings together three members of these movements - from Mexico, Chile and Brazil - to share stories and insights.

Heriberto Salas is a representative from ‘People for the Defence of the Earth’, which has spearheaded the resistance against the forced removal of the community to make way for a new airport in Mexico City. Recently this movement has engaged with ‘the other campaign’, initiated by the Zapatistas, and been met by massive police repression and killings.

Rosa del Carmen Curihuentro is a journalist and a Mapuche indigenous activist who is heavily involved in the struggle against the theft of Mapuche lands by transnational corporations in the south of Chile.

Maria de Lourdes Vicente da Silva is an organiser with the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil, which has seen the distribution of millions of acres of land to landless workers across the country.

See also : incendio (wildfire) : una publicación de solidaridad y teórica Latinoamericana (a bilingual journal of Latin American theory & solidarity)

The Melbourne Social Forum has also organised an event — a ‘G20 Alternative’ Forum — for Sunday, Novemer 19:

The open public meeting is a democratic alternative to the closed G20 meeting that will be held in Melbourne at the same time. The G20 Alternative Forum will focus on open space workshops promoting alternative policy, and addressing debt relief, poverty reduction, climate change, and more generally renewing strategies of the global justice / alter-globalisation movement. There will also be an opportunity to hold workshops.

Location: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
Speakers / large group dialogues: RMIT’s Casey Plaza (Bowen St, off La Trobe St)
Workshops: RMIT Building 37 (corner Swanston St. and A’Beckett St)
Food: RMIT’s Student Union Function Room (off Swanston St.) provided by Lentil as Anything

ASIO has just released its Annual Report to Parliament for the (financial) year 2005-06. Dale Mills (Green Left Weakly, November 10, 2006) has courteously provided the public with a brief summary, relaxedly and comfortably titled ‘ASIO steps up surveillance of activists’. Under the rubric of ‘local politically motivated violence’(!), the report refers to ASIO’s role in monitoring protests at last year’s Forbes conference, the disruption of “Australian Defence Force recruitment stalls at universities in Queensland and Victoria” this year, and identifies the upcoming G20 protests in Melbourne (November 18/19) and expected protests at the APEC conference in Sydney next year (September 8/9) as being of particular concern to it. (As well it might, given the APEC conference’s designation as being “the most significant security event ever held in Australia”.)

The bulk of the report, however, goes on (and on and on) about Islamic terrorism, and the measures ASIO is taking to prevents its irruption in Australia.

Also of interest is the fact that while the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) may now be the nineteenth organisation proscribed (December 2005) by ASIO as ‘terrorist’, it’s still got a pretty snazzy website. Decidedly unimpressed by their creative design skills and lack of English, the Attorney-General, Montgomery Burns, nevertheless pronounced the PKK a terrorist group one week after the visit of the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, to Australia.

This was, of course, a complete coincidence. Further, the Turkish state has a long history of defending the rights of ethnic Kurds, Carlton is a great football club, and I’ll be voting for Family First next weekend.

In other, um, ‘news’, the report by Ian Carnell, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, November 29 2005, into Scott Parkin’s arrest and deportation makes for fun reading; especially in light of the recent decision by a meddling judge to allow him access to documents purporting to demonstrate that his presence in Australia was a ‘threat to national security’. Carnell notes that “it is important that most, if not all, of the substance of security assessments not be put in the public domain”. In more detail, under ‘Methodology’:

18. One of the difficulties of inquiring into intelligence and security matters and reporting outcomes is that much material is, by its nature, very sensitive. The protection of collection methodologies and various sources means that there are appropriately circumstances in which disclosure cannot be made. In balancing security aspects against natural justice considerations, there are circumstances where it has traditionally been accepted that it is in the overall public interest for security considerations to be given precedence. The current situation is one such occasion.

19. While the precepts of natural justice would point to providing Mr Parkin with the details of the security assessment and allowing him to respond and suggest ways in which the evidence and considerations might be tested, security considerations of the kind described above would appear to reasonably preclude this. Even to attempt to allude in general terms to the elements of the security assessment would be problematic in this way.

20. I appreciate that Mr Parkin and others with doubts about his treatment will most likely find this vexing, but it is inevitable given the nature of the matter being examined.

Actually Ian, it’s not ‘inevitable’. But such an attitude on the part of an office which is ostensibly committed to overseeing ASIO’s operations does suggest that, in the contemporary political climate, intelligence agencies really do think that they’re above the law. And, generally speaking, they are. But not always…

Kent Brockman: Professor @ndy, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?
Professor @ndy: Yes I would, Kent.

Exciting times at Trot Guide!

1) The DSP-dominated Socialist Alliance is fielding a grand total of four candidates this election: Margarita Windisch in Footscray; Vannessa Hearman in Brunswick; and Sue Bull and Rowan Stewart in the Western Victoria (Upper House) region. All four are members of the DSP.

2) The Socialist Party is only half as good as the Socialist Alliance, and is therefore only (allegedly) standing two candidates: Steve Jolly in Richmond and Andrew Calleja in the Northern Metropolitan (Upper House) region. NB. Calleja does not appear to appear on the ballot…

3) Jorge Jorquera (ex-DSP, es-MSN, DA // W&CF) is standing for the seat of Derrimut.

4) The Socialist Equality Party also has a candidate: Will Marshall for the Melbourne electorate of Broadmeadows.

Hooray!

And in good news for the fascist Australia Firsty Party, its candidate in local council elections for the St Johns Wood Ward of Prospect in Adelaide, South Australia, Bruce Preece, obtained 341 votes this weekend, and appears to have won a seat on the local council. A tremendous boost in his and the AFP’s quest to help keep Australia White, one local council at a time.

Congratulations church-going citizens of Adelaide! Two Wongs don’t make a White!

Fishnet-stocking wearing Adelaide private schoolboy and Australian League of Rights alumnus turned Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has taken the courageous step of securing Australia’s territorial integrity by signing a treaty with the Indonesian Government.

So much for the People’s Republic of Brunswick.

*sigh*

But wait, there’s more!

According to Mark Forbes (‘Security pact to aid Indons with nuclear power’, The Age, November 8, 2006):

AUSTRALIA will help Indonesia to develop a nuclear program, conduct joint border-protection patrols, expand military and intelligence ties and agree to suppress Papuan independence supporters under a historic security treaty to be signed on Monday [November 13].

The Australian Government’s gross hypocrisy in signing “The Indonesia and Australia Framework for Security Cooperation” is perhaps rivalled only by the notorious act of bastardry committed by former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans (”Professor Genocide”) in signing a treaty in 1989, dividing up the spoils of East Timor’s oil reserves with the then Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas. In 2004, reflecting on the making of his documentary film Death Of A Nation (1994), John Pilger commented that:

For me, the most telling and shocking sequence in Death of a Nation had been filmed five years earlier on board an Australian air force plane. A party was in progress; champagne corks popped and there was much false laughter as two fawning men in suits toasted each other. One was Gareth Evans, then Australia’s foreign minister. The other was Ali Alatas, his Indonesian equivalent and Suharto’s mouthpiece. “This is an historically unique moment,” waffled Evans, “that is truly, uniquely historical.” Flying over the Timor Sea, they had just signed the Timor Gap Treaty, which allowed Australian and other foreign companies to exploit the seabed belonging to the land of black crosses and to their victims. The ultimate prize, as Evans put it, could be “zillions” of dollars.

In a denial that’s as good as an admission, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has stated (The Age, November 12, 2006) that the treaty will not result in the Australian Government being in any way, shape or form complicit in the routine acts of political repression that take place within Indonesia’s claimed boundaries. Sources close to the Tory Party, however, suggest that even teenaged neo-conservatives are sceptical, but remain rock-solid in their support for their political master’s latest attempts to reassure Indonesian elites that 43 is simply 43 too many, and that the people of West Papua can go fuck themselves.

New Internationalist (April, 2002) provides some background information on the struggle for West Papuan autonomy here; FREE WEST PAPUA provides ongoing accounts; the Australian section of The International Commission of Jurists are Not Happy, John!; while The Age (October 26, 2006) carries a report on the fate of those who disobey HoWARd and question his Divine Right to determine who comes to this country, and the manner in which they are subsequently tortured.

Well, according to an anonymous reviewer for Blood & Honour Australia anyway…

An historian as well as a thinker, the bonehead in question begins his appraisal with an account of last year’s Ian Stuart is Fat, Round and Six Feet Underground Celebration, also held at The Birmy. It’s described as a “modest affair”, which I think means that basically nobody went — much to Gary ‘Holocaust? What Holocaust?’ and B&H’s disappointment. In contrast, 2004’s effort attracted the Bully Boys (authors of such pop hits as ‘Fire Up the Ovens’) all the way from the USA. A tremendous effort on the part of local pinheads, but still a financial flop.

Being very slow on the uptake, this year the boys apparently tried to lure Steve “Stigger” Calladine (ex-string plucker with Skrewdriver) from the UK, but, being organisationally incompetent (as well as politically pathological), he never made it. (David/Steve Calladine (”Stigger”) is a neo-Nazi musician who, as well as being a former member of Skrewdriver, performed at the BNP’s “Red, White and Blue” festival 1989-1993, and from 1994-1998 was a strong supporter of Combat 18, appearing at concerts and being interviewed in several C18 videos.) And, to be honest, even if the neo-Nazi piece of shit lived in, say, Perth, I doubt B&H would have managed to arrange for him to prance about at The Birmy in any case.

Which brings us back to 2006 and ‘The Red Reaction’:

The day of the gig started as per usual, the early starters started early and the out of towners began to trickle in as the day progressed. Surprisingly it was a rather poor showing from the Melbourne locals and a good portion of those in attendance had traveled from interstate… For a good many of them it was their first B&H concert. The evening progressed well despite the Melbourne red community getting up to their usual tricks.

For those unaware[,] The Birmingham is in a very “multi-cultural” (aka shitty) part of Melbourne. The reds seem to have taken affront to our presence and having not so cunningly deduced the whereabouts of the event, proceeded to post the location and contact details of the gig on various red websites. Some bottom touching wag then proceeded to call the pub manager and claiming to be a spokesman for the CFMEU[,] stated the pub would be closed down by violence due to the assault of a union member by [boneheads] the previous evening. Full points for originality and credit where credit is due, this story was better than the usual bomb threats[,] and did cause some nervousness on behalf of the pub management. Of course it was all bullshit that came to nothing[,] and prank calls and hang ups were the order of the night throughout the evening. Of the reds themselves however there was never any sign…

In a footnote however, many left wing punks[,] feeling betrayed by The Birmingham (traditionally a punk hangout)[,] called for a boycott of the pub from [sic] their annual pub crawl the following week due to their “support” for the Nazis. The pub crawl ended at The Birmy as per usual, red punks in tow, probably grumbling drunkenly into their beer about Nazi sympathi[s]ers.

Comments: The Birmingham Hotel is located at 333 Smith Street, on the intersection of Johnston Street and Smith Street (03 9417 2706). As such, it lies on the Fitzroy side of the border of Fitzroy and Collingwood. The pub itself was established in the late nineteenth century, tho’ Gary, the current proprietor — the license is actually held by Eighth Thelos // W. Simeoni Nominee — has only been (badly) managing the venue for the last 5-10 years (as far as I’m aware anyway).

Gary’s flirtation with fascism extends back at least as far as 2002, if not further, when he agreed to B&H holding a gig to celebrate Hitler’s birthday (April 20, 1889). Incidentally, ten years previously, in April 1992, members of the bonehead gang the Aryan National Front murdered a homeless black man in Birmingham, Alabama, after attending a Hitler birthday party — see also A Tale of Two Birminghams — while locally, in 1990, Dane Sweetman chose to celebrate the occasion by stabbing a fellow neo-Nazi to death.

As for the bonehead reaction to the reaction of the so-called ‘reds’: monitoring of the gig started early, as per usual, and much valuable information was gained as a result. The location of the event was obtained less than 24 hours prior to it, and I posted details on Melbourne Indymedia that night at 9:41pm, and again on this blog.

So much for “various red websites” (sic).

The “usual tricks” the bonehead claims “reds” engage in with regards neo-Nazi gigs is a fraudulent one: there has been very little organised opposition to any gig organised by B&H, and even less with regards their annual ‘Ian Stuart is Dead’ celebration. This is attributable to two factors. First, B&H is a tiny presence in Australia, largely ignored by most of those in a position to oppose its activities. Secondly, information regarding the network’s activities is largely dependent on the existence of opposition and, given B&H’s political marginality, this has largely been absent. More energy has been focused on the activities of other fascist groupuscules such as Dr. James Saleam’s Australia First Party, its now defunct ‘youth’ wing the Patriotic Youth League, Scumfront Down Under, and other failed attempts at fascist organising such as the still-born Australian National Front and the train-wreck that was Peter Campbell’s White Pride Coalition of Australia.

Speaking of such groups, and Gary’s pinheaded mate’s claims regarding the CFMEU:

NAZI Encounter

SYDNEY: WHEN the Branch got a call to bolster defences for an expected onslaught by neo-Nazis on the CFMEU on February 19 [2005], they were quick to respond.

Assistant Secretaries Warren Smith and Paul Garrett rallied troops and helped confront the Patriotic Youth League demonstrating outside the CFMEU’s offices.

The neo-Nazis alleged the union was involved in importing foreign workers.

“The far right have regrouped and the general shift to the right in the community arising out of the last election has no doubt buoyed their enthusiasm for action,” said Warren Smith. “It was pleasing to see that upon being greeted by a group of unionists and left-wingers in Hyde Park the fascists went running.”

The neo-Nazis re-grouped outside the CFMEU building where their numbers dwindled to four. They were protected by about 30 police as the group of unionists and anti-fascist demonstrators protested their racist and intolerant views.

The branch is calling for vigilance in combating the extreme right.

Which is all well and good, but in Melbourne the response of unions has been negligible, and organised opposition has been left to the ‘reds’: in reality, youthful anarchists, feminists and, of course, punks. Not that the response of local ‘punks’ has been uniform, some bands — The Assailants and Standard Union (SA) and Marching Orders and Slick 46 (VIC) electing to scab on a boycott of the pub. Next Saturday (November 18), they’ll be joined by Bulldog Spirit and Charter 77.

No surprises there, unfortunately.

When all’s said and done however, and whatever local scabs might think, Gary’s mates certainly don’t add much to the amenity of the area, in my opinion. Although not, it seems, in the opinion of either the Liquor Licensing Board, Yarra Council, or the scabs who drink and play at his bunker.

Don’t c r a c k under the pressure, Gary.

Sorry, this was just too !nataS to ignore. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Ben Weerhym! The lying little fascist weasel has reproduced a comment on Melbourne Indymedia regarding the recent protest at local neo-Nazi pub The Birmy, claiming not only that it’s ‘real good’ but written by a sympathetic academic… who was actually there.

Monday, November 06, 2006

‘Anti-Fascism’ is the New Fascism
by Dr Odessa
October 31, 2006

Ed: The following article is written by an academic from Melbourne who was present at the protest of self proclaimed “anti-fascists”… [who caused] a public nuisance at… The Birmingham Hotel in [Fitzroy]. This public nuisance and illegal [sic] demo[n]stration was in response to the Victorian chapter of [the] international [neo-Nazi network] Blood and Honour holding a [gig] at the hotel a week [sic] [prior]. The academic in question is rather switched on [Ben the wigger, Ben the Jew… or Ben the hippy?!?] and has some some [sic] real home-truth[s] to tell us… about the bigotry and double standards of the hypocritical far-left. Keep in mind that there are Black Nationalists and Arab Nationalists… but of course we don’t see leftist morons making a fuss about them!

Yeah… maybe, Ben… but what we certainly do see is fascist morons like Boof’Ed making piss-funny attempts at being “all intellectual… ‘n’ that”. In reality, the “academic from Melbourne who was present at the protest” is a British fascist named Aidan Rankin. (According to the site where you can read the full version of his shitty article, Rankin “is co-Editor of New European. His book, The Politics of the Forked Tongue: Authoritarian Liberalism was published in 2002 and is available from New European Publications“.) Further, Rankin wrote this diatribe years ago, and in reference to the BNP and the ANL, not The Birmy and Melbourne antifa! Whoever plagiarised his scribblings simply re-contextualised them, and removed the stuff what was too… hard. Then made the foreign toff travel to Melbourne, where he re-wrote history. Or something.

According to George Monbiot (Black Shirts in Green Trousers, April 30, 2002) the far right groupuscule Rankin belongs to is:

…a tiny offshoot of the National Front which calls itself Third Way. This is the group which most clearly articulates the way in which the politics of the hard right are shifting.

Third Way, which was founded in 1990 by the Front’s former chairman and vice-chairman, claims to reject “racism and the politics of hate.” But it believes that cultures should, for their own good, be kept apart, and defended from “mass immigration”. Globalisation, the splinter group claims, “reduces us to a rootless, transient population disconnected from its history”, precipitating ecological crisis and encouraging migration. The party’s leader, Patrick Harrington, has made contact with the black separatist Nation of Islam and orthodox Jews pursuing “separate development”. Third Way, like many far right groups, has abandoned overt racist aggression in favour of cultural isolation…

Whichever fascist twat plagiarised Rankin’s work — ooops, “a Melbourne academic” in Weerhym the weirdo’s phantasy — may well come from Melbourne, but the only thing they apparently had to contribute was a question almost as daft as Rankin’s argument:

“You say Fascism implies support for big business, and a large, controlling, central power[,] and talk about beer-swilling yobs?”

Um… the salad?

I’m a beer-swilling yob; I hate capitalism; I hate fascism; and I can spot a dickhead a mile away. Oh, and speaking of dickheads who come from miles away, the gig was also attended by the busy little neo-Nazi bee Welf Herfurth from B&H NSW. Herfurth seems to have assigned himself the role of roving Ambassador for the NPD in Australia — presumably in order to impart the NPD’s considerable organisational experience to local kameraden.

::: Social Movements Fighting Back in Latin America

Come and celebrate with us! Hear stories and strategies from people who are fighting back and winning against neo-liberalism in Latin America.

Key note speakers:

Heriberto Salas : “The Other Campaign”. Initiated by the Zapatistas in Mexico.
Carmen Curihuentro : “The Mapuche Nation”. Indigenous people in Chile.
Lourdes Vicente : “Landless Workers’ Movement”. Joga Bonito. Brazil.

Date: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10th, 7pm.
Venue: RMIT MultiFunction Room — Building 28, Level 4 (enter Building 28 from Swanston St., then take lift 1 or 3 to Level 4).
Cost: $8 workers / $5 shirkers.

Organised by: Latin American Solidarity Network — LASNET

::: Be inspired, then boogie down with Barricade!

Benefit gig @ The Wake, Sydney Road, Coburg, starring ABC Weapons, Make the Most, Miso-Maniax, The Focus and The Frantics. $7 workers / $5 shirkers.

:::

A group of around 70 people staged a noisy protest in Melbourne on Monday (November 6) to show solidarity with the people of Oaxaca, Mexico who are currently experiencing murder, torture and disappearances at the hands of the Mexican government…

See and hear also : The Zapatista Experience — Heriberto Salas, Melbourne Trades Hall, October 31, 2006