September 19, 2005

NO PETROL DAY SEPTEMBER 22nd!!


IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN AUSTRALIA DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF PETROL FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22nd HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND " DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF PETROL THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT. WAITING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF PETROL GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING SUPPLIES MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE SEPTEMBER 22nd A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF AUSTRALIA "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

September 12, 2005

Scott Parkin: peace activist or security threat?

By Crikey reporter Lucy Morieson

Exactly why is the visiting American peace activist Scott Parkin a threat to Australia's national security? According to today's SMH, up to six federal police and Immigration Department officers nabbed Parkin from a Melbourne cafe on Saturday because he's been classified as a "security threat" by the Department of Immigration. The 35-year-old history teacher from Houston is being held in the Melbourne Custody Centre – at a personal cost of $130 a day – awaiting deportation.

Parkin has been conducting a series of forums on peaceful protest methods, having successfully helped coordinate the well-known anti-globalization movement, the Houston Global Awareness Collective, out of his home town. Paul Wilson, a Crikey reader who attended one of Parkin's workshops on non-violent protest, describes Parkin as a "gentle spirit that writes his ideas on whiteboards with felt tip pens and encourages protest through ideas and dialogue."

A website advertising a lecture Parkin was due to give in a warehouse in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick prior to his arrest describes the protest methods of the Houston Global Awareness Collective as "community dialogue, teach-ins, film screenings, counter-recruitment and non-violent direct action."

His lawyer, Marika Dias of the Brimbank Community Legal Service, said Parkin had been detained by the Australian Federal Police on the authority of the Immigration Department and had his visitor's visa cancelled, as he was considered a threat to national security, although he was not told why.

According to reports in today's papers, Parkin, who has been in Australia for three months on a six month visa, was arrested on "character grounds" at the request of the Immigration Department, and will be deported "as soon as practicable."

Parkin had already visited Sydney and Brisbane without encountering any trouble, and took part in protests against US company Halliburton during the Forbes meeting in Sydney two weeks ago. And as Bob Brown points out, the Halliburton company has close ties to the current US administration, and there are fears the largely unexplained arrest occurred on orders from the American government.

blogged by Audrey Autonomy

The First of January Boot Co-op

It's been almost twelve years since the Zapatistas of southern Mexico said ya basta ("enough") to neo-liberalism and initiated a struggle for "a world where many worlds fit."

Today, the Zapatistas are creating a variety of participatory economic institutions to meet community needs: women's artisan co-ops, amber producers' co-ops, fair-trade coffee cooperatives and a non-sweatshop boot co-operative.

On a sunny July day, myself and a delegation of foreign solidarity activists tramped the muddy hills around Oventic Caracole, in the Los Altos region, to visit the First of January Boot Co-op. Rafael Hedez, a leading activist with the co-op, and several other compañeros welcomed us with cokes and bowls of snow-tire-tough beef soup stewed on an open fire.

Inside the workshop (basically a barn with corrugated iron roof, one of the higher-end buildings in a region of thatched farm cuts), a dozen or so men were busy cutting leather, tracing patterns, and heating branding irons. Large blue flames erupted as glue was melted to attach the soles.

After showing us around, Hedez proudly explained the ownership structure of the work-shop to us. "We have no owner. Here we are all equals," he said.

read the rest of this article by Chris Arsenault here at ZNET.
Emiliano Zapata Day of the Dead Shrine by unknown. To see other Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa folk art, click here
this article blogged by Audrey Autonomy

September 07, 2005

Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Gay Law Reform in SA 1975-2005

On the morning of September 18th 1975, South Australians awoke to The
Advertiser headline: "Homosexuality Legal in SA". After a three-year battle
in parliament, South Australia had become the first State to enact gay law
reform.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the Let's Get Equal Campaign is
holding a Rally exactly 30 years to the day, on Sunday 18th September 2005
at 2pm on the steps of Parliament House.

EVERYONE is invited to attend. Bring your banners and flags and balloons and
whistles. It's a Celebration! It's a Show of Pride and Strength and Unity of
the GLBTIQ communities.

Hosted by LGE Campaign's Matthew Loader & Roxxy Bent, speakers will include
Will Sergeant - 70s gay activist extraordinaire; Deb McCulloch AM -Women's
Adviser to the Dunstan Government; Rodney Croome AM - national gay activist
& advocate; and Linda Matthews - the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity in
SA.

There will also be performances by the Adelaide Gay & Lesbian Qwire and the
Lampshade Shop Queer Performing Arts Group.

And then from 3pm the celebration continues at The Ed Castle Hotel in the
Beer Garden, with happy hour drinks, live entertainment, and LGE Campaign
sausage sizzle and raffle fundraisers.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Ian Purcell

For the Let's Get Equal Campaign

reblogged by Audrey who reminds you all aswell that Friday Sept. 23 is International Celebrate Bisexuality Day!!!

September 06, 2005

The Afghanistan Food Crisis

"I plead guilty of failing to write anything at all about this at the time when it mattered, or even to mention it except in some scattered interviews and a few remarks in talks. That failure was deplorable, since the threat of bombing, and then the bombing, were among the most disgraceful acts of modern history, as was known instantly. In these few scattered remarks, I quoted the international relief agencies, which bitterly denounced the threat of bombing, then the implementation of the threat. As they warned, the threat of bombing, which forced them to leave the country, and then the bombing itself, put huge numbers of people at risk of starvation."

Please take the time to read the rest of this short article by Noam Chomsky here.

Blogged by Noam Chomsky, re-Blogged by Audrey Autonomy

Today's punk poetry for punk folkz


"The Separation Of Church And Skate"

[Father:] Hey Kids!
[Kids:] Hey Dad!
[Father:] What'da want to do today?
[Kids:] We don't know.
[Father:] Wanna go to the matinee?
[Kids:] NO!
[Father:] Wanna go to the Amusement Park?
[Kids:] NO!
[Father:] Wanna go to the punk rock show?
[Kids:] Yeah! Let's go to the punk rock show!

Lost in a sea of combat boots,

flush the bouncers with wasted youth
When did punk rock become so safe?
When did the scene become a joke?
The kids who used to live for beer and speed
now want their fries and coke
Cursing and flipping birds are not allowed,
in fact let's keep noise levels down

Must separate the church and skate!

Why don't we put pads on the kids?
Helmets, head gear and mouth pieces!
Then we could pad the floor and walls,
put cameras inside bathroom stalls
We make sure only nice bands play,
make every show a matinee
Teach kids to be all they can be,
and we could sing my country tis of thee
sweet land of liberty

When did punk rock become so safe?

I know it wasn't Duane or Fletcher,
Who put up the barricades
Like a stake in the heart,
Somehow we got driven apart

I want conflict! I want dissent!
I want the scene to represent...
Our hatred of authority,
our fight against complacency
stop singing songs about girls and love!
You killed the owl! You freed the dove!
confrontation and politics...
Replaced with harmonies and shticks

When did punk rock become so tame?
These fucking bands all sound the same
We want our fights we want our thugs!
We want our burns we want our drugs!
where is the violent apathy?!
These fucking records are rated G!

When did punk rock become so safe?!

Music & lyrics by Fat Mike & NoFX displayed proudly without permission.
Photos by anonymous (Brody Dalle) and Nomad Spike (John Lyndon) also displayed without permission.
Blogged by Audrey

Quote for the moment.

"When Man took to his bed the Computer, there was great rejoicing, and great fear, too, for their children were almost like gods. The mainbrains bestrode the galaxy at will, and changed its very face.
The Silicon God, the Solid State Entity, Al Squared, Enth Generation - their names are many. And there were the Carked and the Symbionts, whose daughters were the Neurosingers, Warrior-Poets, the Neurologicians and the Pilots of the Order of Mystic Mathematicians. So beautiful were these daughters that man longed to touch them, but touch them he could not.
And so was born the Second Law of the Civilized Worlds, which was that Man could not stare too long at the faces of the Computer or her children, and still remain as Man."

~ David Zindell

September 05, 2005

Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched\r\nfrom New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands\r\nhad no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st. (go to http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org)

this letter was sent to Audrey Autonomy by Norrie and blogged very shortly thereafter.

September 01, 2005

Queeruption now in Wikipedia!

Queeruption now has a wikipedia entry (finally!). You can check it out here.

So for those of you who didnt know, you can know know via an international wiki project that Queeruption are international Queercore festivals and gatherings where alternative/radical/disenfranchised queers can exchange information, network, organize, inspire and get inspired, self represent, challenge mainstream society with DIY ideas and ethics.

The next installment of this queer freakiness is Queeruption 9 in Tel-Aviv (Israel) 2006!

AudreyAutonomy

NOISE: Young Artists. New Work. Media Exposure.

Friends and allies, News from this end of the ether is that I'm back on board with the folks at Noise and, amongst other things, am again looking after the 'words' component of the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards (SOYA).
If you haven't heard about it yet it's a Qantas-funded noise-run project that awards *big* cash prizes, free travel and mentorships to young people (25 and under) in seven different creative categories.

Entries close on August 31 - just a couple of weeks away! At the moment I'm specifically chasing more quality written submissions so if you, or someone you know has a way with the written word then make sure they know about this project (unless you don't really like them at all and would rather they missed out on such opportunities).

If you work for an artsy or youth org I will be eternally grateful if you
could distribute this callout via your networks. We also have heaps of promotional material (posters, postcards etc) to hand out so if you want any just let me know and I will arrange to have it sent to you ASAP.

All the nitty gritty is available at http://www.noise.net.au

Thanks so much and a big cheerio to all of you!

Amber

re-blogged by AudreyAutonomy