The Twilight of Mechanized Lumpenleisure

John Howard Kunstler writes about The Twilight of Mechanized Lumpenleisure. Apparently, the proletariat should not be heard nor seen especially in the sacred wilderness of the cultured classes who have the requisite tastes to appreciate the beauty of nature.

First of all, he establishes his creditentials as a non-Marxist (even though mentioned the word "class"):

I write this, by the way, as someone who does not have a Marxist bone in his body – in the sense that I am devoid of the impulse to reform the social class system per se, precisely because I regard it as an implacable fact of life. The universe is organized hierarchically and that’s all there is to it. All of the subcategories of things in it tend to be organized hierarchically, too, especially the social life of animals, including human beings. It might be argued that the hunter-gatherers of pre-history enjoyed more pure equality in their little bands and tribes, but that was only because they possessed next to nothing in material wealth. The rest, literally, is history. Once civilization got up and running the story was nothing but class, since our complex societies required many layers of organization in the making, moving, and caretaking of things, and some persons enjoyed more favorable roles than others.

Mr. Kunstler likes the way society is organised (except for the dependence on cheap oil and the consequent buggering up of cities and countryside). In this, he is a typical liberal: the structure of the economy and society is sound in theory and practice except for the ugly bits.

He is correct that class has been part of human history once humans acquired material wealth. He omits the class conflict as the driving force of history (but then he is not a Marxist).

The argument about the natural hierarchy of the universe is specious. The hierarchical order is an artifice of human reasoning because this makes the universe more comprehensible to us. Only one other species does the leader of the pack not feed himself and that is the lion. There the male is looked after by the females who do the hunting for the pride. In the other primate species, everyone feeds themselves and their youngsters. Even though there is a hierarchy of power, no one lives off the labour of others. The acquisition of surplus production allowed human societies to do this.

There has been benefits to this: specialist workers to make tools, pottery, etc.. However, this surplus has allowed people to be trained in warfare to take the food from the peasants while giving nothing in return.

Mr. Kunstler is also correct in saying that complex societies need a hierarchy to operate successfully. The problem is how the hierarchy is controlled and who occupies it. Feudalism said that birth determined ability and therefore a self-pertuating nobility should run things. Capitalism says that people with ability should run things and that ability is expressed by how much money in your possession.

Mr. Kunstler gives the reason for the failure of Communism as:

... It failed because it eliminated the necessary incentives for producing industrial wealth in the first place – namely, the legal right of persons to accumulate it – while it failed additionally to abolish privilege among the politically-connected. So privileged persons in places like the Soviet Union simply worked around the artificial impediments to a superior lifestyle, while the masses toiled in squalid and resigned futility. ...

Mr. Kunstler ignores the huge industrial gains made by the USSR between 1923 (when the country was devastated after a bitter civil aided by foreign invasion) and 1945 (when it defeated Nazi Germany despite losing 20 million people). A peasant economy in 1923 was able to transform itself within twenty years to become the second largest ecomony after the USA (which had 80 years to do the same).

The collapse of Communism in the USSR came about of the lack of democracy in the Soviet state. The people were left of the decision making and therefore had no reason to defend the system when it came under attack from the bureaucrats in the 1980's. Mr. Kunstler fails to mention the very same privileged politically connected people are now the new Capitalist class. The same people are running the place. They call themselves Capitalists instead of Communists.

Mr. Kunstler is probably ignorant that Marxism covers three (3) broad areas:

1. History as class conflict. Progress is achieved by resolution of contradictions which then opens up new contradictions that need to resolve.
2. Description of the workings of Capitalism.
3. Description of the society that should replace Capitalism: Communism with Socialism as a transitional stage.

Mr. Kunstler seems to have no problem with item #1, ignorant of item #2, and critical of item #3. The strange thing is that informed Capitalists recognise that Marx was spot on with his description of Capitalism. In other words, to understand how Capitalism, you have to study Marx.

The critical argument is about item #3: what replaces Capitalism? Possible answers are:

• Nothing as Capitalism is perfect.
• Socialism
• Anarchy (the political system).
• Barbarism (communes).

Enough tub thumping for tonight.

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12 July 1789

Today is the 216th anniversary of an important date in the life of M.Camille Desmoulins (later editor and publisher of Vieux Cordelier).

The Wikipedia article on Camille Desmoulins states that:

The sudden dismissal of Jacques Necker by King Louis XVI was the event which brought Desmoulins to fame. On July 12, 1789 he leapt on a table outside one of the cafés in the garden of the Palais Royal, and announced to the crowd the dismissal of the reformer. Apparently losing his stammer due to the excitement, he addressed the passions of the public, calling "To arms!" and adding:

"This dismissal is the tocsin of the St. Bartholomew of the patriots" (meaning that a massacre of the partisans of reform was under preparation).

Finally, Desmoulins drew two pistols from under his coat, he declared that he would not fall alive into the hands of the police who were watching his movements. He descended embraced by the crowd.

This scene was the beginning of the actual events of the Revolution. Following Desmoulins, they started rioting throughout Paris, procuring arms by force, and, on July 13, it was partly organized as the Parisian militia - which was afterwards to be the National Guard. On July 14, the major event remembered as the storming of the Bastille occurred.

Although it tempting to believe that one man started the French Revolution, it is more understandable that people were ready and willing to act. All that was needed was a spark. That spark was M.Desmoulins and his street theatre.

But to get the people to that state of readiness was years of reading books and newspapers, thousands of meetings in clubs and cafes, and a growing realisation that the old ways were no longer working. Newspapers would spring almost daily and die just as quickly.

Today, we have blogs as well for millions of people around the world to discuss and argue about what is happening around us. Again, we have people wondering what is going on. Are they open to new ideas? Some are but most are not. Although they recognise that the world is in trouble, it seems somehow remote.

Today if I did the same thing as M.Desmoulins did 216 years ago, I would be laughed at. We are not in revolutionary times.

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9 July 1789

On 9 July 1789, the National Assembly in France reconstituted itself as the National Constituent Assembly, which was to last until its dissolution in September 30, 1791.

Here the people (or the representatives thereof) were starting to take control of their lives. They were sick of their "betters" telling them what to do. The changes they wanted to make were minor in their view but radical in the view of their rulers. Into this gap of understanding, the revolution was born.

Ideas that were imperfectly realised in the USA were to blossom in France. Mistakes were certainly made. These were extraordinary days for ordinary people.

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Is the Crouching Tiger a Threat?

Robert L. Glass asks Is the crouching tiger a threat? He is concerned about the growing dominance of the Asian economies in the computing field. He points to the dominance at the educational and business level.

He summarises his concerns as follows:

• Student populations: The number of Asian students enrolling in computing courses is increasing; U.S. student enrollment is decreasing. The difference is dramatic.
• Student competition: Asian students are winning international programming contests.
• Practitioners: Asian practitioners are increasing at a rate sufficient to pass U.S. practitioner populations in 2006.
• Researchers: Asian institutional software engineering researchers are rapidly accelerating their publication productivity, to the point where they are leading the world in that category.
• Business collaboration: Asian nations are beginning to work together to make sure their advancements continue.

This is a crisis from the point of view of the white US working class as jobs continue to move off shore to Asia or to Asian immigrants in the US. The whites used to dominate the computing profession - now it is Chinese and Indian ancestries that dominate.

In my class at University last semester, I was the only white student. The class was evenly divided between the Chinese and Indians. This was not unexpected because Australian Universities aggressively market themselves in India and Chinia. Plus the students get the benefit of the white man's seal of approval. This may soon disappear as the Asian Universities become the centre of the computing field.

Unfortunately for the Australian computing industry, there has always been a strong anti-intellectual current among the white male programmers, and managers (colour and gender differentiation not needed). Years of experience was all that white male programmers needed for employment and advancement. The others needed a degree just to get a junior role.

In any discussion, the years of experience trumped any theoretical knowledge. This has mirrored the development of Capitalism itself. The practical people were always against the scientific people. Knowledge was seen as suspect even though knowledge drove the industrial revolution.

Both types of people are needed to keep the system operational. Unfornately, not many people know how Capitalism works. They keep doing the things that seem to work without understanding why they work.

I said earlier that this was a problem for the working class. For the ruling class, they are not worried by this offshoring trend because they still own the factories and control the banks. They will still make their billions no matter where the programmers are located or what ancestry they have.

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Lambs led to the Slaughter

The continuing war over the interpretation of the French Revolution continues. This time, the stumbling block is that of the importance of ordinary people in the course of the revolution. Elitism rears its ugly head in the following quote published in the June 2006 of Annals Australiasia (p.36). This quote also has its chilling reflection in today's world as governments wage a campaign of terror against their citizens:

The ploiticians guillotined one another in order to escape the guillotine themselves, but what of the anonymous hundreds who were sent to their deaths for no better reason that they were 'under suspicion' and consequently under arrest, and because Fouquier had orders, as he phrased it, to 'get heads'? Of what possible crime against the state can the seventeen-year-old hairdresser's apprentice Martin Alleaume have been guilty? Or eighty-five-year old Jacques Bardy? Or Marie Bouchard, an eighteen-year-old 'domestic servant'? Thanks to Fouquier's meticulous clerks, the names and conditions of nearly all the victims who died Danton's execution [along with M. Camille Desmoulins, editor and publisher of Le Vieux Cordelier] are filed at the Archives. And one can only stand perplexed and appalled before the record of these indiscriminate butcheries that tossed together nuns, soldiers, ex-nobles, workmen, servant girls and prostitutes, not to mention the victims without number who belonged to no particular class or category, but who seem to have been caught like sardines in the meshes of an invisible net.

Stanley Loomis, Paris in the Terror, June 1793-July 1794, Lippincott, Philadelphia and New York, 1964, p.239.

Emphasis Mine

As you can see from the quote, it is the occupation and/or the age of the victim that calls into question the original arrest. These victims may well have innocent but the way to investigate it is to uncover the legal foundations and processes used in the arrest and trial. Were the foundations solid? Was the process legal and transparent? These are the questions to be asked to determine the extent of arbitary terror.

Today, the events described here are happening all around us. Innocent people are being accused and caught up in a net of a dubious legal process. The clear intent is to inspire terror in citizens by their governments. No one will know when the knock on the door will lead to disappearance into the US gulag (or its Australian subsidary).

The strange thing is that the French Revolution was the decisive victory of Capitalism over Feudalism. And today, the Capitalist intelligensia want to deny this victory. As Capitalism calcifies into the Acien Regime of the 21st Century, the ruling class must suppress the truth of the birth of Capitalism when ordinary people did extraordinary things and imagined the impossible where a pauper could become the ruler. Station at birth was now longer a barrier to advancement and achievement. It is this example that frightens the Capitalist ruling class: they are no longer confident of competing against the ordinary people.

Let us imagine the future when ordinary people can again do extraordinary things. Let us dare to believe that we can change the world as those hairdresser apprentices, domestic servants, young women, old men did back in 1789. Let us always believe that we can change the world for the better.

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Ten Years of The Big Issue

In the latest issue of The Big Issue, the editorial extols how business solves a social problem. It is really not Capitalism that makes it work but a form of Socialism. Could the mechanism of how this magazine works give an indication of how to implement Socialism in Australia?

Graeme C. Wise, Patron, The Big Issue, concludes the editorial in the 03-18 July 2006 issue of this magazine with:

I have long held the belief that the brightest minds gravitate to the business sector and that if we encourage businesspeople to apply their problem-solving abilities to social needs, we greatly increase the chance of finding real and eduring solutions.

I am proud to see this enterprise blossom into a viable and successful business solution to a social problem. In the past decade, more than 3000 people throughout the country have sold The Big Issue and used it as a means of pulling themselves up. Many people have found a new direction and a sense of purpose. In turn, they have made us more aware of how we can help others by giving them a hand up, not just a hand out.

Emphasis Mine

Under Capitalism, a successful business is a profitable one. It cannot be otherwise: it has to regenerate the capital invested within a reasonable time.

In the addendum to the editorial, Martin Hughes notes that:

Although The Big Issue runs on the positive energy between readers and vendors, it takes a massive effort just trying to maintain that connection every fortnight. Simply put, we wouldn't have survived all these years without the spirited band of volunteers, staff, writers, illustrators, photogrpahers, advertisers, creative types, lawyers, accountants and other folk who donate their services and work for discounted rates to sow a little more compassion in the community. On the behalf of the thousands of marginalised people who've steadied their lives with the help of The Big Issue, heartfelt thanks and an Australia-sized warm fuzzy to you all.

Emphasis Mine

Here we see the true inner workings of the magazine: there is a lot of free or cheap labour. This keeps costs down so that the vendors can sell the magazine at a reasonable price and get a reasonable return for their investment.

In a Capitalist sense, the magazine is a failure because its income does not cover the costs, hence the need for volunteer labour. In a Socialist sense, this magazine is a great sucess because it brings together people for a worthwhile purpose to fulfill a social need.

The business knowledge that is accumulated and used under Capitalism is still useful under Socialism because it is the knowledge of how to make people work together in a productive fashion to achieve a common goal.

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A House Divided

Billmon explores the issue of A House Divided. He considers the differences in US politics to be based on culture. He admits that this is a great simplication. He also considers what happened during the Spanish Civil War to be similar to the strains experienced by the USA now.

On the other hand, that America is now divided neatly into increasingly hostile cultural camps is generally treated as received wisdom. But culture is a tricky word, hard to define, and not really amenable to the kind of short-hand stereotypes (rural rednecks listen to Garth Brooks while urban liberals sip mocha lattes) that journalists like Tierney exist to propagate.

In his book The Cousins' Wars, Kevin Phillips suggested that there is indeed a deep-seated duality to Ango-American politics and culture that can be traced back as far the English Civil War. It separates high church Anglicans from low church dissenters, Puritans from Cavaliers, and merchant and financial elites from landowning and military ones. Every hundred years or so (1642, 1776, 1861) these opposing tendencies have a go at each other.

One could, I suppose, add the domestic disturbances of the late 1960s to that list. But, as the '60s demonstrated (in both senses of the word) American society and culture have changed radically since the days when British and American cousins fought their wars. So have the opposing camps. The great influx of eastern and southern immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, the realignment of the South, the Vietnam War, feminism, gay liberation -- all these have stirred the melting pot, creating new alliances, new interests and, not least, new hatreds and resentments.

If I had to boil our modern kulturkampf down to two words, they wouldn't be blue and red, they would be "traditionalist" and "modern." On one side are the believers in the old ways -- patriarchy, hierarchy, faith, a reflexive nationalism, and a puritanical, if usually hypocritical, attitude towards sexual morality. On the other are the rootless cosmopolitians -- secular, skeptical (although at times susceptible to New Age mythology) libertine (although some of us aren't nearly as libertine as we'd like to be) and less willing to equate patriotism with blind allegiance, either to a flag or a government.

These differences can also be explained by class war. The dates he mentioned were events in the struggle between Capitalism and Feudalism, and between Capitalism and Slavery.

The old ruling class does not go quietly. They hang on tenanciously to their power.

The Spanish Civil started out as a war between the Feudal landlords and the Capitalists allied with the Socialists and Anarchists but ended up as a war between the Feudalists and the Communists.

The regional differences in the US and in Spain are based on the degree of industrialisation. The more industry, the greater the influence of the Capitalist is.

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Beware of the Rapture

Kevin Hilferty warns us to Beware of the Rapture in the June 2006 issue of Annals Australasia (pp.17-23). (The WikiPedia has an article on Rapture.) He is clearly worried by the influence that the rapture believers have in right wing US and Israeli politics.

A trechant critic of rapture promoters is Barbara R. Rossing, a New Testament scholar and associate professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicargo. She maintains that the rapture is a fraud of momumental proportions, as well as a disturbing way to instill fear in people.

'The rapture is a racket,' she wrote in the first sentence of her recent book The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in The Book of Revelation. 'Whether precribing a violent script for Israel or survivalism in the United States, this theology distorts God's vision for the world.

'In place of healing, the rapture proclaims escape. In place of Jesus' blessing of peace making, the rapture glorifies violence and war. This theology is not biblical. We are not raptured off the earth, nor is God. No, God has come to live in the world through Jesus. God created the world. God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind!'

p.22

Emphasis Mine

On a local level, the escape mentality is very much alive in Christian communities here in Sydney. When they see me out selling the Party paper, they say that they are not worried by the troubles because Jesus is coming soon. They see no need to become politically involved in order to change the world for the better. They expect to be literally spirited away before things get too bad.

This is an extremely responsible attitude given the ideas of stewardship that Jesus proclaimed: we are responsible for the world. It is up to us to improve things.

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GIs May Have Planned Iraq Rape, Slayings

GIs May Have Planned Iraq Rape, Slayings

Investigators believe American soldiers spent nearly a week plotting an attack in which they raped an Iraqi woman, then killed her and her family in an insurgent-ridden area south of Baghdad, a U.S. military official said Saturday.

This story only came to light because of the beheadings of two US soldiers.

Those troops under investigation are from the same platoon as two soldiers kidnapped and killed south of Baghdad this month, another official said Friday. Their mutilated bodies were found June 19, three days after they were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad.

The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded. The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one member of the platoon to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22.

The senior Army official said the alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session. The Army official said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it.

A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes and then later saw bloodstains on their clothes, the Army official said.

It looks like the beheadings were pay-back for the rape and mass murder.

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Che Mural Removed

Che mural removed! A victory for intolerance and a defeat for freedom of expression!

Condemn Blue Mountains Councils' censorship of art!

The controversial murals of Che Guevara and Mike D, painted on a private building in Wentworth Falls, have been painted over by the owner, under pressure from the Blue Mountains' City Council and a tiny number of vocal right-wingers. According to knowledgable sources, the owners ``voluntarily'' destroyed the murals exactly one month after they received a council notice ordering them to either remove the murals within 30 days or lodge a ``restrospective DA'' at a cost of $165!

The murals, which were visible from the Great Western Highway, were painted by aerosol artist Dan Lualdi with the permission of the building's owners. The original order to destroy the art was made after the BMCC received a complaint from ``a resident''. Lualdi described the order by the BMCC as ``mass censorship'' and pointed out that he had had many positive reactions to the giant portraits. That it was the political content of the murals that the ``resident'' and the BMCC found objectionable seemed to be confirmed by a council spokesperson, who told the April 5 Blue Mountains Gazette: ``The owner could legitimately have a different mural painted on the wall.'' Lualdi pointed to the hypocrisy of the council's decision: ``There are billboards everywhere that are sexist and offensive, yet these two murals are deemed offensive by somebody and ordered to be removed. I just don't get it and I am interested in what other people think.''

Following the Council's clumsy attempt to censor the murals, the BMCC and the Gazette were deluged with outraged letters protesting the attempt and defending the right of free expression in the Mountains. An online opinion poll conducted by the Gazette (at http://bluemountains.yourguide.com.au/poll.asp?question_id=1971), in which more than 350 people have voted so far, revealed that more than 80% oppose the murals' destruction, with just 13% in support. In the letters column of the Gazette, it soon became clear that the vast majority of those demanding the removal of Che in particular were driven by a right-wing opposition to what Che represents and were calling for censorship, pure and simple.

Even though the BMCC's bureaucratic intimidation and disregard for free speech has succeeded, let's tell the council that it is unacceptable and should never be repeated in our city. Please send an email to the BMCC at council@bmcc.nsw.gov.au condemning the BMCC's censorship. Send a letter to the Blue Mountains Gazette at editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com . Please send copies to bluemountains@socialist-alliance.org . If you haven't already, vote in the online poll on the murals at http://bluemountains.yourguide.com.au/poll.asp?question_id=1971

In solidarity,

Terry Townsend,
Blue Mountains Socialist Alliance

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Quid est veritas?

Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in him. John 18:38

Emphasis Mine

Howard compares Iran to Nazi Germany

Prime Minister John Howard was among three world leaders who today said an Iranian bill, which reportedly would force non-Muslims to wear coloured badges in public, was akin to Nazi Germany.

However, Teheran emphatically denied the report, in a Canadian newspaper, that the law would force Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on their clothes.

The National Post newspaper, citing human rights groups, had reported that Iran's parliament had passed a law this week that set a public dress code and required non-Muslims to wear special insignia.

While acknowledging they had no details beyond the newspaper report, Mr Howard and leaders from the United States and Canada went on the offensive, all evoking the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

Mr Howard, speaking in Ottawa after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the suggestion was further indication Iran was heading down the wrong path.

"If that (the report) is true, I would find it totally repugnant," Mr Howard told reporters before the report was debunked.

"It obviously echoes the most horrible period of genocide in the world's history and the marking of Jewish people with a mark on their clothing by the Nazis, and anything of that kind, would be totally repugnant to civilised countries.

"If it is the case, it's something that would just further indicate to me the nature of this regime.

"It's a calculated insult, if it's true, not only to Christians but most particularly to Jews."

Mr Howard was joined in the attack on Iran by the US and Canada, who said they had no details on the issue beyond the newspaper report.

...

Emphasis Mine

I would think that Howard believes that truth is whatever suits them at the time. Here is the man who lied about the Children Overboard, AWB scandal, GST, the Tampa, Refugees, Iraq, Siev X, etc., asking us to condemn a regime on a false report planted in a Canadian newspaper. Prof. Juan Cole exposes the whole sordid affair in Another Fraud on Iran: No Legislation on Dress of Religious Minorities.

Since Iran is now an offical enemy, any lies that support the pro-war parties in Canberra, Washington and London are acceptable.

Note that Howard was being circumspect in his comments. But it is amazing that one newspaper report can spark such a furious condemnation while the mass of evidence for global warming is seen as insufficient. I suppose that whatever reinforces your prejudices is believed, while that challenges your belief system is suppressed.

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Learning from Hitler and Nazi Propaganda

Learning from Hitler and Nazi Propaganda

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Censorship of Che mural sparks uproar

The Blue Mountains Socialist Alliance writes

The inspiring image of Che Guevara, the legendary leader of the Cuban revolution, is at the centre of an anti-censorship battle in Sydney's famed Blue Mountains. As the front page of the April 12 Blue Mountains Gazette put it: 'Almost 40 years after Che Guevara died at the hands of the Bolivian Army, the Cuban revolutionist is embroiled in a new uprising in the seemingly tranquil villages of the Blue Mountains.'

What triggered the Mountains' transformation -- at least for a few weeks -- into Australia's Sierra Maestra? It began when the April 5 Blue Mountains Gazette reported that the Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) was attempting to force the owners of a disused Wentworth Falls petrol station to destroy two large murals, including one of Che Guevara. The murals, visible from the Great Western Highway, were the work of aerosol artist Dan Lualdi and were painted the permission of the building's owner.

The Labor council claims the order to destroy the art was made after it received a complaint from 'a resident' and that the appropriate 'development application' for the murals had not been sought. Lualdi has described the order by the BMCC as 'mass censorship' and told the Gazette that he has had many positive reactions to the giant portraits. Lualdi pointed to the hypocrisy of the council's decision: 'There are billboards everywhere that are sexist and offensive, yet these two murals are deemed offensive by somebody and ordered to be removed. I just don't get it and I am interested in what other people think.' That it is Che in particular that the 'resident' and the BMCC found objectionable was confirmed by a council spokesperson, who told the Gazette: 'The owner could legitimately have a different mural painted on the wall.'

The newly formed Blue Mountains branch of the Socialist Alliance issued an email appeal and leaflet calling for all supporters of free speech and artistic expression to write letters of protest to the BMCC and the Gazette: 'While one anonymous conservative `resident' may find a big Che confronting, I think all of us who find his image inspiring need to speak out against this blatant political censorship and also defend what Che stood for.'

The April 12 Gazette reported that it had been 'inundated with impassioned pleas demanding large murals of Guevara, and Beastie Boys singer Mike D, remain untouched'. While the Gazette only published a small proportion of those received, copies sent to the Socialist Alliance reveal that dozens of letters were sent to the BMCC and the Gazette. They included letters from members of the Socialist Alliance, the Greens and the ALP, as well as trade unionists and local artists. Letters have come from as far afield as Canberra, South Australia and Canada. The April 19 Gazette reported that Che's censorship 'continued to generate an influx of letters to the Gazette ... A council spokesperson told the Gazette council has also received many letters about the matter'.

Many letters have drawn the link between this attempted act censorship and the wider assault on civil liberties. The CFMEU's Tim Vollmer described the BMCC's action as 'an outright act of censorship and a genuine threat to artistic and political freedom in the Mountains'. Daniel Banyer from Wollongong urged that 'in a world where people's freedoms and rights are being curtailed by governments, it is imperative that these forms of creative political art be respected and protected'. A Blackheath resident asked the BMCC: 'The thin end of the wedge has already gone into our freedom of expression and this is a larger slice. I have a friend who lives in the USA ... where the ... Homeland Security law forces [the librarian] to advise them of the name of anyone taking out of the library certain listed books. If you think what you're doing is any different to this, think again.'

The controversy has also sparked a discussion about Che himself. Noel Willis of Winmalee wrote in the Gazette that 'while Che may not be everybody's cup of tea, he is regarded by millions around the world as the symbol of resistance against oppression, the eternal struggle of the poor and weak against the ruthless drive for profit by the rich and powerful. Surely, in a world dominated by Bush and his followers we could do with a few more like Che!' And in his letter to the Gazette and the BMCC, Terry Townsend, from the Blue Mountains Socialist Alliance, noted: 'Despite the efforts of the powers that be to bury Che's legacy, 30 years after his death he remains an important symbol for those who have had enough of the poverty, exploitation and destruction that capitalism causes. With the escalation attacks of the Howard government on this country's working people, Che's inspiration is sorely needed. In the small town in Bolivia were Che's body was taken after his murder, someone has written the slogan on a wall: `Che -- alive as they never wanted you to be'. His inspiring image at Wentworth Falls confirms this yet again.'

Greens' councillors are expected to take up the issue at the next BMCC meeting. It seems that the council may be preparing to quietly back down in the face of overwhelming opposition. The April 19 Gazette reported that 'council staff will meet the owner of the property this week to discuss a possible option that would permit retention of the murals -- including the Che Guevara one -- by means of submitting a retrospective development application'.

Send an email to the BMCC at council@bmcc.nsw.gov.au demanding that the order for the murals to be painted over be rescinded. Send a letter to the Blue Mountains Gazette at editorial.bmgazette@ruralpress.com explaining why you oppose the ban on Che's portrait. Please send copies to bluemountains@socialist-alliance.org

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Big Brother Is Listening

As you should be aware, Big Brother Is Listening (Web Link May Require Paid Subscription) according to Mr. James Bamford in Atlantic Monthly (04/06) Vol. 297, No. 3, P. 65.

Technological advancements have widened the scope of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, while the legal barriers to such eavesdropping have been lowered with a White House mandate that permits the NSA to place Americans on watch lists and monitor their communications without first obtaining permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court. Previously a court order was required, and could only be secured if the NSA showed that it had probable cause to eavesdrop on people suspected of involvement with terrorist organizations. Now people can be placed on watch lists by NSA shift supervisors who have a "reasonable belief" of involvement, and the number of Americans targeted by the NSA has consequently ballooned from perhaps 12 annually to 5,000 over the last four years, according to sources. If innocent people are marked because they fulfill these highly subjective criteria, they may be denied visas, federal jobs, or other services and privileges without ever knowing why. The NSA's surveillance methodology is signal intelligence, in which electronic communications containing vast quantities of emails and phone calls are intercepted and run through computers that flag specific words, phrases, names, phone numbers, and Internet addresses, and forward these communications to analysts. Also clearing the way for greater NSA surveillance is the FCC's extension of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to cover "any type of broadband Internet access service" and new Internet phone services, while the two congressional intelligence committees tasked with protecting the public from privacy abuses have abnegated their responsibilities. The NSA likes to hire people away from providers of critical telecommunications system components, offering them the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art equipment and contribute to national security. Furthermore, a great deal of the telecommunications industry secretly cooperates with the NSA in its eavesdropping efforts.

Emphasis Mine

What mealy-mouth liberalism! The White House has NOT lowered ...the legal barriers.... It has broken the law! You know, the law! That fundamental principle of any civilised society.

And of course, no crime is without those abet it by carrying it out and those who ignore it. Your silence makes you an accomplice after the fact.

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What is a Racist?

I had two interesting discussions on Saturday (11 March 2006) when I was out selling Green Left Weekly. Both of these discussions were about Abbott and Costello press the race button. The front page had the following headline:

Howard's RACIST hypocrisy: Don't let him divide us!

Both discussions were about the use of the Prime Minister's name. The headline implied that John Howard PM was responsible for the racism. The problem is that people see the headline as: Howard's RACIST. They do not see the word, hypocrisy.

One observation that followed was that white people (with one exception) disagreed with the purported headline, while non-whites agreed with it. As Tim Wise once wrote that whites do not see racism because they are the beneficiaries of racism. Indeed, white people are very offended that they would be considered racist.

The first discussion was about whether John Howard PM was a racist or not. The second was about whether calling John Howard a racist achieved anything.

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La Alianza del Socialista en las Montañas Azules

Sunday April 2, 2pm: Launch of a Blue Mountains branch of the Socialist Alliance: Upstairs, Family Hotel, Parke St, Katoomba

Come and meet other Socialist Alliance members who are living in the greater Blue Mountains region (Lapstone to Lithgow). It will be an opportunity to share your ideas about what the Socialist Alliance should campaign around in our area, and discuss whether to stand candidates in local, state and federal elections in the mountains.

Anyone who agrees with the aims and objectives of the Alliance can join. Annual membership rates are: $60 waged, $24 low waged, $12 unwaged and $6 high school students. Join online or join up at the meeting.

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Poor Little Rich City

Peter Boyle writes that Howard’s rule: 10 years too long. The longevity is attributed as:

It’s the economy, stupid, chorus the pundits. What do you expect after 15 consecutive years of economic growth?

...

A detailed study, carried out by the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training, found that 60% of Australians feel that their lives are a lot less secure now compared to ten years ago. Greater job insecurity makes people more fearful of recession.

The two major contributors to economic growth over the last decade — the housing price boom and the mainly China-driven resources boom — have had an uneven impact on people’s lives.

First, the rich got richer.

The Howard government has presided over a massive transfer of income share from wages to corporate profits. Profit share of national income rose from 23% in 1996 to a record 26.2% in 2005. Further, between 1990 and 2005 the average annual regular cash earnings of company chief executives, who were also members of the Business Council of Australia, went from $514,000 to $3.4 million. Their incomes now outweigh the average full-time wage earner by a ratio of 63 to 1.

Homeowners might feel better off but mortgages are a bigger strain. For example, the number of Sydney households suffering “housing stress” — where more than one third of income goes on rent or mortgages — has jumped by more than 50% in the past decade. Repayments on first home loans swallow nearly 40% of average incomes.

The housing bubble has really enriched a few and made many others feel wealthier for a while, boosting their spending on credit. However, it has also frightened many into not rocking the boat. Coalition fear campaigns about the alleged danger of a return to higher interest rates under Labor bite hard in the mortgage belts.

Emphasis Mine

In the SMH, Sydney is portrayed as Poor little rich city, this theme is expanded upon. Those with assets have benefited both from their shares portfolio and properties.

The figures reveal how the economic fortunes of the city's people have ebbed and flowed in the past two decades and particularly in the past six years.

Despite the recent sluggish performance of the NSW economy, on the very broadest measure of living standards things are as good as they have ever been.

Income per head of population is at a record high. It has risen 12.4 per cent, adjusted for inflation, since the beginning of 2000, 2.1 per cent over 2005, and by almost half since March 1987.

The wealth of Sydneysiders has also soared. The median house price has risen more than 70 per cent and the value of the typical small share portfolio has gone up by almost 60 per cent in the past six years.

Shares are worth 2½ times what they were in 1987, and property prices are a staggering five times higher.

Emphasis Mine

The SMH report leaves out the effects of cutbacks in government services to the have-nots.

Here we have material interests determining political choices. Those with assets will vote for Howard because they see themselves as better off. Those without assets see no political alternative because the ALP tries to beat Howard at his own game. So Howard wins because he rewards his followers and there is no effective opposition (via the ALP).

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Rachel Play Postponed

"Rachel Corrie" production in New York is postponed due to the current "very edgy" political situation in Israel.

Film star Alan Rickman is protesting an Off Broadway theater's decision not to bring his hit London play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" to New York this spring.

...

Rickman told The Guardian that the New York Theatre Workshop's decision was an act of "censorship born out of fear." New York Theatre Workshop director Jim Nicola said the play, which his company had not formerly announced it would present, is being postponed due to the current "very edgy" political situation in Israel.

...

Emphasis Mine

The very reason that the political situation is edgy that the play should be presented. People need to have a different perspective to that being presented by the corporate media.

I found this article via Mickey Z.

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David Irving

I agree with the major points of George F. Will's argument why the imprisonment of David Irving means Less Freedom, Less Speech (Free registration required to view article):

What folly. What dangers do the likes of Irving pose? Holocaust denial is the occupation of cynics and lunatics who are always with us but are no reason for getting governments into the dangerous business of outlawing certain arguments. Laws criminalizing Holocaust denial open a moral pork barrel for politicians: Many groups can be pandered to with speech restrictions. Why not a law regulating speech about slavery? Or Stalin's crimes?

Some defenders of the prosecution of Irving say that Europe -- and especially Austria, Hitler's birthplace -- rightly has, from recent history, an acute fear of totalitarians. But that historical memory should cause Europe to recoil from government-enforced orthodoxy about anything.

American legislators, using the criminal law for moral exhibitionism, enact "hate crime" laws. Hate crimes are, in effect, thought crimes. Hate-crime laws mandate enhanced punishments for crimes committed as a result of, or at least when accompanied by, particular states of mind of which the government particularly disapproves. Governments that feel free to stigmatize, indeed criminalize, certain political thoughts and attitudes will move on to regulating what expresses such thoughts and attitudes -- speech.

Emphasis Mine

I suppose that this moral pork barrelling fits in with the idea that we are not supposed to think only obey. Why should we evaluate the arguments for and against the Holocaust, when the Government has a law saying that it happened?

Nearly every week when I am out selling the Party newspaper, I have arguments with a Holocaust denier. This has been going for years, but I persist. He is willing to listen to me in spite of my speech impediment, and I am willing to try to counter his arguments. I am not very good but, at least, I try. Other Party comrades just shut him out. We will not convince each other, but a dialogue is opened up.

In defending the right of David Irving and other Holocaust deniers to the right of free speech, I am defending my rights to the same.

But this challenges the orthodox views of those who believe because someone in authority said something was true. If they had to think for themselves, they would be lost. Their whole lives have been built around the fact that correct thinking brings material rewards: they get the promotion at work because they agree with the boss.

People do not realise how important free speech is to the working of Capitalism (as well as Socialism and Communism). Capitalism primarily relies on innovation: things that have not been done before. Those in authority are not the fount of all wisdom. No human being can know everything or is right all of the time. Assumptions and ways of doing things must be constantly challenged. This is in order to achieve continual improvement. This leads to competitive advantage. Those businesses who asquiesce to the owner in all things will eventually go broke. No one knows who will come up with the next killer application. This is the dynamism of Capitalism. We all have a part to play. And we cannot have innovation without free speech.

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Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, the rector of the University of Salamanca in 1936, gave the following speech to an audience of fascists (including Franco's wife):

All of you are hanging on my words. You all know me and are aware that I am unable to remain silent. At times to be silent is to lie. For silence can be interpreted as asquience. I want to comment on the speech, to give it that name, of General Millan Astray, who is here among us. Let us waive the personal affront implied in the sudden outburst pf vituperation against the Basques and Catalans. I was myself, of course, born in Bilbao. The bishop, whether he likes it or not, is a Catalan from Barcelona.

Just now I heard a necrophilous and senseless cry: 'Long live death'. And I, who have spent my life shaping paradoxes must tell you as an expert authority, that this outlandish paradox is repellent to me. Let it be said without any slighting undetone. He is a war invalid. So was Cervantes. Unfortunately there are too many cripples in Spain now. And soon there will be even more of them if God does not come to our aid. It pains me to think that General Millan Astray should dictate the pattern of mass psychology. A cripple who lacks the greatness of Cervantes is wont to seek ominous relief in causing mutilation around him. General Millan Astray would like to create Spain anew, a negative creation in his own image and likeness; for that reason he wishes to see Spain crippled as he unwittingly made clear.

This is the temple of the intellect, and I am its high priest. It is you who profane its sacred precincts. You will win, because you have more than enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to persuade you would need what you lack: reason and right in your struggle. I consider it futile to exhort you to think of Spain.

pp.120-121
Antony Beevor
The Spanish Civil War
Cassell
UK:1999

Emphasis Mine

An alternative version of this speech is given at Miguel de Unamuno, reply to speech made by Millán Astray, in Salamanca (12th October 1936) and another version is at Argument with Unamuno.

Would any of us have the balls (or ovaries) to say these things in the midst of fascist militia? I could say these things but no one would understand me! Perhaps there is an advantage to having a stutter after all.

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