Love your recession:The new vogue for Downshifting

Love your recession:The new vogue for Downshifting

I fear that I have become extremely trendy without knowing it. I’ve never been one to partake of fashion’s brief moments of in-ness. Instead I always assumed that I moved to the beat of my own drum.

But this new vogue for Downshifting has caught me unawares -- with my de rigueur pants down so to speak. Apparently it’s now all the rage and up to 20% of the Australian population have downshifted, that is, they have decided to change their lives in ways that mean they earn and consume less.

And here I was thinking that the attributes of my lifestyle were engineered by poverty! In ignorance I had assumed that I was being sentenced to an inconvenient surfeit of financial distress when I was in fact actually enjoying the fruits of downshifting.
Despite all those years of full employment, victimised by the fruits of my own determined go-getter-ness, maybe I was a latent downshifter all along?

You can imagine how miffed I now feel after putting myself through sheer hell these last so many years. My problem, if I’d only recognised it, wasn’t what I didn’t have, but what I didn’t recognise: the rich promise I woke up to every day. Less really is more and I could not see it! What I needed wasn’t a few extra bucks to my name but the balls to embrace simplicity. I was downwardly mobile, earning and consuming less, and I didn’t know how fortunate I was.

This option, of course, puts a brand new spin on industrial matters. If a company decides to downsize its workforce then we should be celebrating the fact. Another fortunate bunch of Australians are freely given the chance to earn & consume less. The lucky bastards! Downsizing and Downshifting can be two sides of the same coin if we want.

Poverty (such as my own), when you think about it, really is in the mind of the beholder.

• More Life of Riley columns

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Pyroterrorism -- "if only" says the nation's far right.

Pyroterrorism -- "if only" says the nation's far right.

By Dave Riley

On the other hand, the fires must alert us to the extreme danger posed by pyroterrorism, especially as global terrorist organisations continue to modify their strategies in the face of the increasingly effective counter-terror- ism measures that are being employed against them....Pyroterrorism may be defined as the use by non-state organisations of large-scale fires to attack, intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in order to advance political, social or religious objectives. In pursuit of its objectives it exhibits the four central elements of terrorism: the targeting of non-combatants, a political motiva- tion, extreme violence with an intended psychological impact, and organised and totally committed perpetrators. Lead article in National Observer: Australia's nightmare: bushfire jihad and pyroterrorism

The National Observer's obsession with national security issues,

"... Australia's leading current affairs quarterly specialising in domestic and international politics, security-related challenges and issues of national cohesion.
"One of the functions of National Observer is to provide high-quality commentary which is not affected by contemporary political correctness or prejudices. It, therefore, examines issues from the point of view of the long-term interests of Australians."

-- takes me way back to the sort of pitch the National Civic Council used to deploy in order to consolidate a coalition on the right of Australian politics. This time it ain't communists or the Red or Yellow Peril but Islamists. This time too it has been seeded from a strong dose of John Howard style jingoism. "National cohesion" is a wonderful catchphrase is it not that would even sit comfortably within the ALP?

This is the sort of journalese that would do B. A Santamaria (pictured a past contributor) proud.

So the Observer functions to provide resourced cover to this POV it seems while also supplying fuel for online Islamophobic web sites.

The irony nonetheless is that despite all the authoritarian anti-terrorist legislation (including the new spate of anti-biker laws being bought in in SA, NSW and QLD) the article in effect suggests that no matter what you do, no rash of legislation can protect the body politic from arson of a bushfire nature.

And bushfire arson is so cheap! No need for oodles of ammonium nitrate or fuses...you probably don't even need a can of kerosene to get the terror going -- one box of Redheads each Summer should be enough to take your terrorizing a very long way!

If that is the case it seems that Australia is breeding its very own layer of pyro-terrorists without any assistance from Al-Quaeda as one third of bushfires are thought to be deliberately lit but not, ( -- "Drat !" says the National Observer!) by Islamists. The way the National Observer is likely to rule on it -- Moslems should be banned from joining the Country Fire Authority just so they don't get in the know and in the habit -- such as leaving the mosques in Sydney's West after services and going bush for a weekend of practice burns.

I can imagine the sort of call out: "Family group of Middle Eastern appearance seen acting suspiciously , picnicking under a gum tree. Approach with extreme caution. May be armed with bbq, kebabs (on sharpened implements), Tabouleh... and matches."

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Very green left blogging

Very green left blogging

By Dave Riley

Ben Courtice who has posted here on a occasion has begun a blog ( or at least is running one I only just now discovered!)

[BCC: Words]:Eco-socialist political commentary by BCC (Ben Courtice) ...plus a few food articles and music reviews

Ben's an activist in the Socialist Alliance's environment group and has notched up quite a CV building the campaign against global warming in Victoria.

But it's the recipe bit that gets me.I'm all for it as so much good politics has been created over good food, and so much campaign funding has been generated by selling access to good food cooked up for the sake of good politics.

Maybe LeftClick could start a recipe of the month feature?

However, like all the environment work the Alliance does,you'll find Ben's commentaries on issues to do with the environment movement very much to the point since he also writes on that topic for Green Left Weekly.

As Derek Wall, a leading figure and founder of the English Greens wrote on the Socialist Unity blog yesterday,

from my amigos in Australia….a country with a radical Green Party, a Socialist Alliance that values ecology and the excellent Green Left Weeekly…..what with the indigenous revolution and a tradition of working class ecosocialism, it could be the new Latin America…lets not mention the Labour government and spoil things.

We must be living in political heaven down here down under.

But Derek's comment does suggest a certain political uniqueness -- despite the fact that positiveness isn't quite on the mark in terms of immediate prospects [for one thing the Greens may indeed back the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS)]. But Ben Courtice and Green Left Weekly and the Socialist Alliance are all products of a process that goes back now almost 25 years -- to a time that coincides with the great victory against the damming of the Franklin River.

That particular political convergence was the catalyst that began the alternative party dynamic to the left of the ALP. The immediate registration of the potency of the campaign against the Franklin Dam outside Tasmania was the "No Dams" slogan that 42% of voters wrote across their ballot papers for the 1982 Flinders By Election in Victoria. Then the rise of the "Tasmanian Independents" was followed, in 1984, by the formation of the Nuclear Disarmament Party. Driving this was split in the ALP's support base after the party's federal conference dropped the party's long standing opposition to uranium mining.

With the inspiration of the German Greens at the time, the rest, as they say, is history.

The DSP actively responded to these break out issues and along with an aggressive orientation to environment politics ( examples of which are too many to review here), in 1991 Green Left Weekly was launched. This greening up on the left -- at least a section of it -- has been a very conscious approach engineered by the DSP and the fact that Ben can be just as comfortable blogging about the union movement as he is about the environment suggests a perspective that has been worn with a lot of comfort for some time.

• My own Cook Book Blog full of occasional preferred recipes, designed for catering purposes (like for 50-200 diners) lives here.*
  

* I don't archive recipes anymore or rely on hard copy recipe books, because there are so many recipes online that I simply Google my requirements and sift through the options.

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SA member, Dr Brian Senewiratne, deported from Malaysia

SA member, Dr Brian Senewiratne, deported from Malaysia

. An international group "Canadians for Genocide Education" which is an umbrella organisation with some 46 Member Associations annually picks ONE country of greatest concern re Genocide. The country picked in 2008 was Sri Lanka, and I was picked as the "Distinguished Speaker" and given an award... The plaque reads "Canadians for Genocide Education EDUCATORS AWARD 2009 Presented on March 25, 2009 to: Dr Brian Senewiratne In recognition of his dedication to inclusivity and equity in genocide education"

I was invited to come to Canada and receive the award My presentation was titled Peace with Justice in Sri Lanka Genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils. It's Causes & Solution .

It was held in the University of Toronto before a distinguished audience of academics, policy makers etc The hall was packed to capacity The flyer describing me was way over the top (as it usually is)...

The SL Govt coote Bandula Jayasekere, or to use his official title, His Excellency The Hon Bandula, etc, tried their best to block this but failed. Then they got their stooges e.g. Asoka Weerasinghe (patriot) to write scurrilous articles, published in the Mirror ?in Sri Lanka, to the Canadian Foreign Minister asking whether he had taken leave of his senses to allow me into the country.

Unable to block my entry, the next was harassment at Toronto airport ( a 4-hour search of everything, including downloading of every document including my letters to patients and going thru every scrap of paper (hundreds of pages of hand written notes, articles etc, and photocopying them all) It took about 4 hours and I was kept standing (that was after a 23-hour flight economy class which at 78 years is no small problem)

What riled the SL govt even more is action by a bunch (of goats) who are exploring putting my name up for a Nobel Prize for Peace. That is of course a nonsense project but with a one in a million chance, if it materializes, that would be a major blow for Sri Lanka. My very close association with Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu (I think I sent the photo with his arm round my shoulder) added to the concerns of the GoSL

What also of concern was that at the end of my Oration, the whole jolly audience of some 350, rose to their feet (I'll send the recording if/when I get it). This was recorded and sent to the Sri Lankan Ambassador and t the Govt in Colombo. Their blood pressures went thru the ceiling

I was scheduled to deliver the same award winning address in Malaysia (KL and Penang) and in Singapore, some 48 hours after it was delivered in Toronto.

Urgent action was needed. Someone ?Foreign Minister Bogollagama contacted the FM of Malaysia, who contacted the Minister of Home Affairs who contacted the CID who contacted Immigration asking them to prevent me entering the country stating I was a "Security risk"!!!!!

I said that if a 78-year old senile man was security risk for Malaysia, they should urgently review their Security set-up I smiled and asked that arrangements be made for me to get to Singapore. They said "tour ticket os from Penang. You cannot get to Penang because you cannot enter Malaysia, so you will have to buy yourself a ticket (which I did). I was then escorted to the plane by 6 police officers and an Immigration fellow.

While waiting for the flight (for 3 hours) I gave the bunch a lengthy talk on Human Rights abuse in Sri Lanka"!!!

At the end, when the flight was called, I went round to shake each one's hand. One of them, a policeman, grabbed my hand and would not let it go. Struggling to suppress tears which were welling up, he said "Doctor, all of us are deeply concerned at what we have been asked to do. Please don't hold it against us or Malaysia."

I gave him a big hug and said "Of course I will not"

Not prepared to run the risk of a repeat performance in Singapore (where I knew Bogollagam was - having got there to persuade Malaysian Tamils to come to Sri Lanka to invest there!!), I decided to cancel the Singapore meeting and returned to Australia, where the harassment continued at Immigration here in my native Brisbane airport.

This will be raised in the Australian Parliament.

Regards and thanks for you effort which is much appreciated
Brian.

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Brisbane's St Mary's sent into exile by the Catholic Church hierarchy

Brisbane's St Mary's sent into exile by the Catholic Church hierarchy

The Socialist Alliance's Sam Watson (right) with Fr Peter Kennedy

By Dave Riley

While bought up a Catholic I gave the Church and all religion the flick decades ago. But since I was a exiting soul in the aftermath of Second Vatican Council I've always been impressed with those people, many of them ex priests, nuns and brothers as well as gay men and lesbians -- who left with me and who later shared the same picket line in life.

But the long term consequences of the Council was a radical edge that consolidated as Liberation Theology.

You cannot be engaged with the politics of Latin America these last 30 years without learning to respect the intellectual, political platform and ethical force that makes up this radical doctrine. An example of this is dedicated Liberation Theology supporter and Dominican Friar , Frei Betto -- who is a supporter of Fidel Castro .

Betto wrote a book in collaborated with Castro -- Fidel & Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism & Liberation Theology -- which details Castro's views on Christianity and is one of the most inspiring books you could read. So in a very reason sense what used to be called the 'Christian/Marxist dialogue' is in many instances a day to day partnership especially across Latin America and in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the Australian priest, Columban Brian Gore, has had such a political profile there that we socialist activists have organised meetings for him back here in Australia on a few occasions. In Brisbane Resistance has organised massive campus meetings for him.

More recently my experience in the Socialist Alliance is that Christians , Buddhists , Moslems and Marxists can coexist as members under the one socialist banner coalesced by a regime of mutual respect and comradeship.

So today's report that St Mary's parish in South Brisbane will be sent into exile by the Catholic Church hierarchy comes as no surprize. The present pope, Benedict, seems to be to the right of Artilla the Hun.

How much of a Liberation Theologist St Mary's parish priest, Father Peter Kennedy, is, I don't know, but his parish is the Real McCoy.

Sending it "into exile" ( see report here) has been a long standing option -- so long as the Church kept the prime real estate worth millions.The commitment by the QLD TLC suggests how much iconic community engagement with local social issues St Mary's has achieved over the past 20 years.

Fr Peter Kennedy is moved aside while the church no doubt hopes he retires soon enough and stops being an ethical thorn in its side.

The complication is that while the parish can survive what will happen with funding for its community reach out program -- MICA -- which organizes Catholics and other Christians from across Brisbane in street based services for the homeless, visiting Murris, drug addicts and the like across inner city Brisbane.

The irony is that this is primarily orchestrated as a theory/theological dispute without a moments recourse to what the activism of the parish achieves.

Reminds me of disputes on the far left...

• Background articles
• Report: Rebel priest Peter Kennedy expects congregation to follow him

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AUDIO: Life as a Salvadoran wharf laborer - English Voiceover

AUDIO: Life as a Salvadoran wharf laborer - English Voiceover

(Shortened interview with English voice-over by Warwick Fry)

(Note: This is a stereo recording with the English voice-over in the right hand channel. If the Spanish language background is too loud or distracting it can be faded down by turning up the right channel and fading down the left channel. Spanish speakers might want to do the opposite)

Meeting Gregorio from the Salvadoran Dockworkers Union (STIPES) was an unforgettable experience. Gregorio quietly and matter of factly exposes the Dickensian conditions imposed on Salvadoran wharf laborers since a military intervention in 2001 - supposedly to improve Port security after September 11 in New York, but in reality to break up the 40 year old dockworkers Union and force the wharf workers to work under a 'contract' system that yields them at best US$36 a month. Gregorio's account is a quietly understated expose of the true nature of the ARENA government that has run El Salvador for the last 20 years. Gregorio is cautiously optimistic that the new government which comes into power on June 1st might offer some change in the horrendous working conditions of these men.

Popout

Original audio source

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Memory and forgetting as memoirs go

Memory and forgetting as memoirs go

By Dave Riley
I've started to put together a few entries that could serve as a mix and match memoir. These contributions won't all be 'political' in intent although many no doubt will be.

I shall pass this exercise off with the pretentious name of palimpsest -- a noun whose meaning you can look up in your own good time.

My generation isn't as yet known for the cottage industry of memoir making but I'm sure that it is only a matter of time before old street fighters finally retire from their day jobs and start musing on days gone by. Some , among those I have known, have begun to muse so -- but these works tend to pander to nostalgia .

I doubt that this is about locating your place in history. Instead it should be about reviewing where you've come from and noting what you did en route. If it's about what you didn't do -- then maybe it's time you sort out a good shrink.

Although I'm not fixing to die or finish off doing anything I do, this piece from John Bunyan came upon me and it seemed strangely relevant:

When he understood it, he called for his friends, and told them of it. Then said he, "I am going to my Father's; and though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage; and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who now will be my Rewarder." When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the riverside; into which as he went he said, "Death, where is thy sting?" And as he went down deeper, he said, "Grave, where is thy victory?" So he passed over; and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

-- John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress

My palimpsest is here.

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Men don't

Men don't

I can navigate through my week without giving abortion a moment's thought. I've never had one, you see. It's one of those categorical differences between women and men that to this day divide the sexes.

 Women                       Men
 Live longer than men        Have more prostate trouble
 Get pregnant                Don't get pregnant
 

This is pretty basic stuff. When you get down to the nitty gritty, there really isn't much that holds the genders apart -- if, perchance, we ever thought such a thing was a good idea. The problem has been that throughout history, women and men -- for reasons best known to themselves at the time -- have indicated an inordinate determination to come together.

Such congress, I understand, can sometimes be a frequent and stirring event. Despite the associated sweat and sundry other bodily emissions, there's many a man and woman who swear by it.

Good luck to them, I say. Where would we all be without such keenness for so essential a human discipline as copulation? Practices like these generally come to us highly recommended. Getting your rocks off, shaggin', fornicatin' and making luv have become a national pastime.

Something like the cricket.

But there's a major glitch in all these amorous activities.

If I or my favoured physician were inclined to take to my never regions with a thingamajig, it would be very difficult for me to commit a criminal act by deciding to do so. I could circumcise or de-knacker myself (you know what that means, don't you?) and there's nothing specified in the criminal code to say I had broken the law. While you may think I was a bloody idiot to hack away at the crown jewels, technically -- for reasons best known to myself -- it would be my right to do so.

But if a woman does it ... it becomes something of a legal event.

I think that's a bit unfair.

It's OK that anything which happens below my belt is my business. But for a woman, anything south of the umbilicus is thought to be everyone's.

[From the LOR archive]

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International speakers at the World at a Crossraods Conference this Easter.

International speakers at the World at a Crossraods Conference this Easter.

Below are just some of the international speakers at the forthcoming World At A Crossroads socialist conference, to be held this Easter at Sydney Girls High School. Visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org for more information or to register...

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Michael Lebowitz, Venezuela & Canada

* Centro Internacional Miranda, Caracas
* Renowned Marxist economist
* Director of the program "Transformative Practice and Human Development" at the Centro Internacional Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela
* Author of "Build it Now: 21st Century Socialism" and "Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class", winner of the Isaac Deutscher memorial prize (2004)
* Professor Emeritus of economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada

• Socialism
• Marxism
• Latin America
• Venezuela
• Canada
• Bolivarian revolution
• International speaker

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Reihana Mohideen, Philippines

* Power of the Masses Party (PLM)
* Long-term activist in the women's and labour movements in the Philippines
* Vice chair, International Department, Power of the Masses Party (PLM)
* Chairperson of Transform Asia, a gender and labour institute in South East Asia
* Editor of "Socialist Dialogue", a bulletin which carries debates and discussions of the international socialist movement
* Formerly vice-chair for international affairs of the socialist labor centre, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers)

• Philipines
• Workers' rights
• Women's rights
• Asia-Pacific
• International speaker

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Ian Angus, Canada

* Eco-Socialist Network
* One of the founders of the Ecosocialist International Network
* Editor of Climate and Capitalism and associate editor of Socialist Voice
* Director of the Socialist History Project
* Author of: "Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada"; "Food Crisis: World Hunger, Agribusiness&the Food Sovereignty Alternative"; "How to Avoid Action on Climate Change: The fine art of greenwash in Canadian politics"; and "Confronting the Climate Change Crisis".

• Socialism
• Canada
• Environment
• Eco-socialism
• Global warming
• Climate justice
• International speaker

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Luis Bilbao, Venezuela & Argentina

* Long time activist on the Latin American left
* Participant in the construction of the mass United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the formation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
* Founding editor of the Latin American wide monthly magazine "América XXI"
* Author of 16 books, most recently "Venezuela in Revolution: the Rebirth of Socialism"
* Marxist professor of Political Economy and International Politics at TEA, School of Journalism, Argentina
* Member of Union of Militants for Socialism, Argentina.
Read Luis Bilbao's article 'Venezuela: Reasons to be alert'

• Socialism
• Latin America
• Venezuela
• Argentina
• Bolivarian revolution
• International speaker

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Kavita Krishnan, India

* Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist), All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)
* A long-time leader of India’s student movement, including as President of the All India Students' Association from 1999 to 2006
* Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) and an editor of the party’s magazine in English, Liberation
* National Secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)

• Socialism
• India
• Women's rights
• International speaker

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Salim Vally, South Africa

* Spokesperson of the Palestine Solidarity Committee
* Leading activist in the Palestine solidarity campaign in South Africa where dock workers recently boycotted Israeli ships. The PSC is directly working with the Council of South African Trade Unions on further solidarity and boycott actions
* Social justice and anti-apatheid activist since high school where he was a regional executive member of the South African Students’ Movement (SASM) until its banning in 1977
* Former member of COSATU’s National Education Committee
* Lecturer and senior researcher at the Education Policy Unit and the School of Education at Wits University, Johannesburg

• South Africa
• Palestine solidarity
• International speaker

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M.Saraswathy, Malaysia

* Socialist Party of Malaysia
* A founding member and currently Deputy Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, and Chairperson of the PSM's Jelapang branch
* A long-term organiser of plantation workers, urban settlers and women workers in Malaysia, and founder of the Textile Union at Imperial Garment

• Socialism
• Malaysia
• Women's rights
• Asia-Pacific
• International speaker

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Abelardo Curbelo, Cuba

* Cuban Communist Party
* Veteran of the Cuban revolution
* Central committee member of the Cuban Communist Party
* Currently Cuban ambassador to Australia

• Socialism
• Latin America
• Cuba
• International speaker

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Daphne Lawless, Aotearoa (New Zealand)

* Socialist Worker - New Zealand
* Central committee member of SW-NZ
* Editor of the journal "Unity"
* Editorial board of Workers Charter newspaper
* Co-founder of Campus Left at Victoria University 2004
* Foundation member of NewLabour Party in 1989

• Socialism
• Aotearoa (New Zealand)
• Workers' rights
• International speaker

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Nelson Davila, Venezuela

* Venezuelan Charge D'Affaires in Australia
* Founding member of Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement (MBR-200), the revolutionary group formed inside the armed forces
* Member of the ideological commission of the Maisanto Command, the coordinating body for the mass campaign to defeat the opposition’s attempts to recall Chavez in the August 2004 referendum
* Former instructor for the Centres for Ideological Formation
* Currently head of Venezuela's diplomatic mission to Australia

• Socialism
• Latin America
• Venezuela
• Bolivarian revolution
• International speaker

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Roger Annis, Canada

* Socialist Voice
* Editor of "Socialist Voice"
* Aerospace worker and member of the International Association of Machinists in Vancouver, Canada
* A coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network
* Travelled to Haiti in August 2007 as part of a human rights investigative delegation

• Socialism
• Canada
• Workers' rights
• International speaker

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Ammar Ali Jan, Pakistan

* Labour Party Pakistan
* Youth secretary, Labour Party Pakistan
* Member of various progressive student and youth groups in Lahore including National Student Federation and Progressive Youth Front.
* Previously involved in the Campus Anti-war Network at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.
* Regular contributor for the most widely circulated English magazine in Pakistan including the News International of Jang Goup, the largest chain of newspapers in Pakistan.

• Socialism
• International speaker
• Pakistan
• Anti-war
• Youth

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Soubhi Iskander, Sudan

* Sudanese Communist Party
* Active in the Sudanese Human Rights Committee
* Editor of "The Flame", monthly Arabic insert in Green Left Weekly
* Socialist Alliance member

• Socialism
• International speaker
• Sudan
• Africa

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Mericio Juvinal Dos Reis (Akara)

* Luta Hamutuk Institute
* Executive Director of the Luta Hamutuk Institute
* From 2002-2005 he was a researcher at La’o Hamutuk, The East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis.
* From 1999-2002, Mericio Akara was a Vice President of Timor Socialist Party, but he resigned from the position and from party membership in 2003.
* Prior to 1999, he spent 8 years in Jakarta-Indonesia as a student and as a pro independent activist.

• Socialism
• Timor Leste
• Asia-Pacific
• International speaker

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Deed versus word -- How not to be 'revolutionary'

Deed versus word -- How not to be 'revolutionary'

by Dave Riley

A complication of (far) left politics is that one person's "revolution" is another's Utopia. Marx did not write a three volume magnum opus and call it Das Sozialismus (-- rather than Das Kapital). Just because a section of the far left waxes on about socialism (or anything Marxist for that matter) it doesn't follow that they aren't ruled by Idealism.

Idealism is the philosophical theory that maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or ideas. It holds that the so-called external or "real world" is inseparable from mind, consciousness, or perception.

As Marx could have said in the Theses on Fuerbach, "socialists have interpreted the world in various ways -- the real challenge is to change it."

Amongst its many characterisations of the revolutionary party, the DSP deployed at one occasion this phrase which I think is thoroughly pithy and salient:"The revolutionary party returns to the attack again and again."

That I suggest is the real marker, the only real concrete measure of what such a formation does or should do. Unless you want to only build a propaganda group as many Trotskyist sects blithely advocate, I think you need to be considerate that being revolutionary is not judged solely by what you say you are -- or, for that matter, what you say you want.

That's not very , um...materialistic. As Trotsky reminded us, " We Marxists believe that in the beginning was the DEED, the WORD followed as its phonetic shadow."

Whether there should be more advocacy for socialism in the pages of whatever, or more of the exploring Marx type exercises, may be true of anything but that's not and never can be the whole story. In fact it can be deployed as a massive distraction from concretely what is to be done? That's the history of so much of the Trotskyisms isn't it? It's so much easier to talk up a revolution rather than actually put in the very hard yards doing it.

Purity of program. Rigid, "river of blood" divides and shibboleths. In fact the whole far left has had 40 years cleansing itself in such politics.

As I think was said at one stage by Jim Percy, the real judgement of a party is going to be of what you do rather than what you say. The problem with the far left is that it is caught up in this (unfortunately still very shallow) dialogue -- of the saying rather than the doing, let alone the collective doing.

I think if you look offshore -- to the history of Vietnam,to Cuba, to Venezuela, et al -- the struggle was marked not by a few relentless "socialist' catchphrases but by the sort of politics Lenin outlined in Left Wing Communism's articulate second chapter.

Sampler:The first questions to arise are: how is the discipline of the proletariat’s revolutionary party maintained? How is it tested? How is it reinforced? First, by the class-consciousness of the proletarian vanguard and by its devotion to the revolution, by its tenacity, self-sacrifice and heroism. Second, by its ability to link up, maintain the closest contact, and—if you wish—merge, in certain measure, with the broadest masses of the working people—primarily with the proletariat,but also with the non-proletarian masses of working people. Third, by the correctness of the political leadership exercised by this vanguard, by the correctness of its political strategy and tactics, provided the broad masses have seen, from their own experience, that they are correct. Without these conditions, discipline in a revolutionary party really capable of being the party of the advanced class, whose mission it is to overthrow the bourgeoisie and transform the whole of society, cannot be achieved. Without these conditions, all attempts to establish discipline inevitably fall flat and end up in phrasemongering and clowning. On the other hand, these conditions cannot emerge at once. They are created only by prolonged effort and hard-won experience. Their creation is facilitated by a correct revolutionary theory, which, in its turn, is not a dogma, but assumes final shape only in close connection with the practical activity of a truly mass and truly revolutionary movement.

Of course off-shore also references primarily the anti-imperialist struggle but even when you look to Venezuela the conscious socialist element kicks in, as Trotsky pointed out, as a " phonetic shadow" of the struggles that have occurred and the gains won.

To not see that is to promote a very formulaic and shallow view of politics and advocacy.

Let's assume, for arguments sake, that journals like Green Left Weekly are less Marxian and less promoting of socialism than they could be. Leaving aside the complication that some supposed threshold apparently exists where a sufficiency of such propaganda is seeded before you gain accreditation -- just enough for an org to pass muster as revolutionaries -- what's supposed to be the consequences of a more revolutionary content?

If we want to use that as our one marker and go with the judgment being made -- then the readers of Green Left Weekly were supposedly more prone to 'socialist consciousness' in the past (at least before the supposed cut off year of 2005 when the Socialist Alliance supposedly warped its advocacy) than they are today. But where's the proof that that was indeed the case? In fact,we can take this a step further and say that the journal that preceded Green Left, the old Direct Action, fitted that bill when GLW does not.

DA being, of course, much more 'socialist' than GLW ever was.

On the same logic, then people are better off reading the the Socialist Alternative journal or the Solidarity one because that's what they'll get.

But I assume that we aren't fools or psychotics and we know that at this moment of historical time any discussion about 'socialism' is best served by a discussion about Venezuela. That's the case isn't it? You'll note in contrast that these other outfits don't have that particular DEED to reference and consequently remain in a sort of soft Utopian broken record mode.It's catchphrase politics with passionate references to 1917.

You only have to read their stuff to pick up on the contrast -- their socialisms , compared to ours in real time.

So in a very real sense even the word "socialism" is being redefined by these contemporary struggles and we recognise, leastways I hope we do, that for good or ill ( whether you want to be or not) o r future advocacy is riding on the unfolding events in Latin America.

[The irony is that the Australian Communist Party took off in the forties in part because "battling Russia" was rolling back the Nazi hordes -- not because they had a patented vision of socialism.In the decade before that, the party grew because of its industrial true grit.]

So is it wrong to talk up the Bolivarian process as a major component of your revolutionary advocacy?

Apparently if you don't do 'enough' of the other stuff, it is. And that 'neglect' supposedly makes a world of difference to how revolutionary you are supposed to be.

Our general political problem is that while there seems to be a renewal in Marxism there is a crisis in our politics. I think that's evident, especially in the Western World.

And there is no way of resolving this by dint of polemics alone. A section on the far left would have it that there's a process of "liquidationism" is eating at the innards of our Marxian core.

OK -- if thats' supposedly the case the onus is on them to prove it! With Chris Slee's very useful essay on Liquidationism as a references , prove that this is actually happening not just here but elsewhere in other countries on other continents in the context of other party building experiences. And when you begin this exercise tell us all what are the material (and ideological) forces driving this penchant to liquidate.

It's not 1914. It's not post May June in France. It's no longer 1950 and the Cold War...

If a section of the far left is 'liquidating' its politics-- here as elsewhere in the context of the advances in Latin America -- by engaging in these new anticapitalist party projects, what's supposedly driving it?

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LeftClick Blog Roll

LeftClick Blog Roll

What we read...

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Reminder: World At A Crossroads conference this Easter

Reminder: World At A Crossroads conference this Easter

World At A Crossroads: Fighting for socialism in the 21st Century
Easter 2009, April 10-12, Sydney
Venue: Sydney Girls High School

World At A Crossroads is a conference that brings together hundreds of socialists, progressive activists and Marxist thinkers from around Australia, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and North America in dozens of panel presentations and workshops dealing with the urgent questions that confront us all: war, imperialism, food security, racism, workers' rights, sexism, the media and culture. Feature sessions and streams will include:

* The capitalist economic crisis: Putting people and planet before corporate profits
* Stopping global warming: Social change, not climate change
* Emerging alternatives to capitalism and war: The Venezuelan revolution and anti-imperialist rebellion in Latin America
* Organising to fight for a better world: Building mass movements, alliances and left parties

Most of all, however, this conference will be about creating solutions. The rising revolutionary movements in Latin America, which are posing the most serious challenge to global capitalist destruction for decades, are full of inspiration and lessons for people fighting for justice everywhere. Those struggles, and the alternative social systems they are creating, will be a big feature of this conference with the participation of guest speakers from Latin America.

The many struggles of the people in the Asia-Pacific region against imperialist exploitation and state repression, and for genuine democracy and social justice will be addressed by guest speakers from left parties, trade unions and social movements in the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Timor Leste, amongst others.

For more info, email dsp@dsp.org.au or sydney.resistance@gmail.com, or phone (02) 9690 1230. Alternatively, you can just sign up now!

Organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and Resistance.

Sponsored by Green Left Weekly.

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In praise of A frames on campaign stalls

In praise of A frames on campaign stalls

sBy Dave Riley

A Very Public Sociologist has a charming post on campaign stalls. It's nice to know that on the planet there are still others who do politics as we do, week in week out, behind each cover of Green Left Weekly.

On the Activist Toolkit wiki I had worked up an entry on How to run a campaign stall and AVPS entry into the discussion has tweaked my interest in trying to explore such hardware as A frames.

This may seem a touch obsessive. Who wants to discuss A-frames?

Well, here we've just finished with the state election campaign and A frames were our most useful item of paraphernalia. If your sign is made from corflute -- corrugated plastic -- it's light, extremely portable and stands out visually at some distance . The Socialist Alliance has been exploring and creating corflute signs for a few years and while they are usually associated with real estate agents and main stream party electioneering -- we reuse these over and over again by attaching new graphics and slogans to them.

We even recycle other peoples corflutes which we come across or purchase from recyclers -- so that you are just as likely to find the ALP insignia and sundries on the hidden side of our corflute and our politics on the other.

While we have tended to use newspaper grill A-frames , what we really need is some one with carpenter knowledge and skills to bang together a dozen A frames in pine. These are simple affairs, hinged at the top with a light (preferably cotton) rope holding the bottom frames apart at such a distance as will create an A frame lean of about 70 degrees.

So if you are bored at home with nothing to do and you have a workshop sitting there idle -- get in touch with your local SA and start producing those very light A frames out of pine.

You could bash together maybe 5 in an hour.

If anyone has an easy to follow DIY description of how to build these please let me know ASAP and I'll publish the blueprint.

A frames in use. Foreground A frame is a newspaper style metal frame. It looks ugly and is designed to hold paper posters and signs rather than corflute. One at the back ("For the millions...") is a pine wood A framed. These are much easier to use and adapt for different uses and are more stable Although you have to screw, tape , tie or staple the corflute to the frame..Cut off to right i in the bottom of the picture is a black, metal, commercial A frame which is the heaviest of the lot.

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Template fetish

Template fetish

By Dave Riley

I warned ya.I said I'd be playing around some more. And so I have. This template -- on this day, Monday March 23, 2009 --is called TypoXP 2.1 and it's a corker!

Under the hood it works like a dream. Easy fiddling to be had with the widgets. And the code! The code is a straightforward hack. If I was a mathematician I'd be in love with the numbers.

Check out the loading time.

Is good.

(Least ways I think it is. If you have problems with loading or viewing please contact me straight away.)

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VIDEO The Daily Show: Financial Advice

VIDEO The Daily Show: Financial Advice

A devastating commentary on the law that the market rules (and the rest of you saps can go jump!)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
CNBC Financial Advice
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

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Queensland state election 2009 : my provisional post mortem

Queensland state election 2009 : my provisional post mortem

By Dave Riley

I can't read the ALP result in terms of making a conclusion about how they managed to hold onto enough seats to keep government almost comfortably, albeit with a reduced margin.This was the flattest and most boring election imaginable and I doubt anyone got excited about any aspect of it.

The boredom impacted on the Socialist Alliance campaign too but we still managed to mobilise comrades and supporters to staff the booths in the two electorates 16 kilometres apart. There was an actual blackout of coverage for alternate parties as there was too much money to be made from the massive LNP and ALP investment in newspaper and other media advertising. This extended to the local 'community' press.

While this neglect helps to explain the weak alternate vote a more potent factor was probably the way the vote for Labor was shored up in the last week of the campaign because of the general fear that the ALP could lose government. Because of that protest voting was stifled to some degree.

The Greens probably will not get Ronan Lee up in Indooroopilly -- their big chance to enter state parliament in their own right. Lee , a MP, left the ALP in October last year and joined the Greens. His final vote hangs on postal votes. The Greens had preferenced the ALP in 14 seats so that they' could secure ALP preferences for Lee. However the Greens stood in all 89 seats for the first time (there in no upper house in QLD) by , in most cases, parachuting names onto the ballot across the state.

So how did the Alliance candidates fair?

SANDGATE: Mike Crook (SA)

• STILLER, Kevin 396 1.85%
• SKELTON, Keith GRN 1,756 8.19%
• CROOK, Mike 313 1.46%
• GAFFEL, Lenard LNP 6,981 32.55%
• GRUNDY, Mark FFP 455 2.12%
• DARLING, Vicky ALP 11,549 53.84%
  

We had not stood in this seat before and will be following the campaign up by forming a local Socialist Alliance branch. We were in fact aiming for 1% result. There is a Greens branch in the area but we had more booth workers mobilised than they.

SOUTH BRISBANE : Sam Watson (SA)

• ROSBOROUGH, Derek 102 0.56%
• BLIGH, Anna ALP 8,849 48.41%
• RENDELL, David DSQ 225 1.23%
• HAINES, Merilyn 337 1.84%
• WATSON, Sam 276 1.51%
• KANE, Gary GRN 3,181 17.40%
• CARROLL, Mary LNP 5,055 27.66%
• COATES, Matt 28 0.15%
• MARTIN, Greg 225 1.23%
  

We've usually stood across the river in Brisbane Central. Initial figures suggest that in South Brisbane the Greens result fell from their last share of 21.49% probably due in part to the number of candidates
standing rather and that it was the premier's seat.

Its' also clear that Sam Watson's profile as an indigenous rights activist wasn't enough in South Brisbane to separate him more from the pack, especially the other 5 Independents .

The Socialist Alliance vote -- still small -- is nonetheless holding as ours has to be a very conscious choice by these hundreds who Vote 1 for us as we aren't listed as Socialist Alliance on the ballot paper because we are not registered in Queensland. Since we didn't scrutineer we don't know what sort of second preference trend we may have received.

While I was mainly involved in the Sandgate campaign I think we did a lot of exciting and creative stuff there in the very short campaign period that was open to us. When you only have your own resources of money, tools and labour it's a challenge of how you decide to deploy them. I think the highlights for me have been:

1. Sunday markets-- wonderful opportunity to place our politics in front of an audience in an atmosphere that is conducive to two way chat. Our weekly stall (from 6am) has been a great way to begin to connect with the community in a way no other local party has tied to do.
2. Leafletting railway stations. We did each of the five stations twice (in two weeks) capturing the morning peak traffic from 6am. No opportunity to chat of course in that situation but our literature boarded the trains.
3. Corflute pickets. This is an absolute corker. Parking yourself with corflute signs on the road side at a high profile location during peak rush hour times. Very effective technique honed by the local YRatW campaign.
4. Letter boxing is always hard to monitor. I think that we needed to put in something like 40 hours to leaflet the whole electorate and in the end we ran out of our flyer print run.

And in one very self conscious sense we see our methods of engaging people as a continuation of the Your Rights at Work campaign in the area.

Total Formal First Preference Vote by Party (As of close of counting):

• Australian Labor Party ALP 779,427 42.69% [ALP final vote in2006: 1,032,617 46.92% ]
• Liberal National Party 749,970 41.07%
• The Greens GRN 150,359 8.23% [Greens final vote in 2006: 175,798 7.99 %]
• Daylight Saving Party 18,410 1.01%
• Family First Party FFP 14,877 0.81 %
• One Nation ONP 7,298 0.40 %
• Other Candidates 105,519 5.78%
  

With the formation of the LNP in July and the fall of the Howard government in 2007 there was much less ideological traction for a One Nation reincarnation. One Nation's peak was the 1998 Queensland state election, at which the party won 22.7% of the vote and 11 of the 89 seats. Inasmuch as that reflected a rejection of Labor as well as the Coalition parties, maybe the election of the Rudd government federally and the shallow options on offer at this poll has kept that ALP's soft edge from being so mercurial as it was in 1998 and deserting the party for racist populism.

Party	Seats Contested (2009)	Seats Contested (2006)
Australian Labor Party	89	89
Liberal National Party	88	89†
The Greens	89	75
DS4SEQ	32	N/A
Family First	25	26
One Nation	2	4
Independents & Others	72	46

Note the number of "Independents & Others".

What changed for the main parties?

Party		Labor	Liberal National
Last election		59 seats	25 seats
Seats won		53	32
Seat change		–6	+7

See also:Related posts

• Election diary: on the hustings in the Queensland state election
• The Queensland Election: the prospect of a Labor loss surprizes no one
• The Queensland state election

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Blogging styles and stylesheets

Blogging styles and stylesheets

By Dave Riley

A couple of days ago the blog theme I preferred -- NEO -- ran into a major glitch such that it wasn't very operational. This meant that I had to begin the process of renovating all the blogs I've created using the NEO template.

What could have been a major chore turned into an exciting surf of discovery of the latest designs being generated by the ever expanding and always generous Blogger hacker community. Among these folk BloggerBuster was my most useful port of call.

So while I now use my own hacked version of 2009 HEXADECIMAL here I've garnered an assortment of other templates for other RatbagMedia sites. So I've started to work through the refit:

• LatinRadical
• Education for Socialists (see this as an example of the blog in full functionality)
  

The complication is that you really don't know what a template can do until you use and abuse it. So if you turn up here and there has been a renovation you'll know that 2009 HEXADECIMAL has fallen from favour or I have hacked the beejeebers out of it.

If you aren't a blogger or a blogger who is as template focused as I -- you'd miss the delights that this activity can foster. I always regret the fact that most bloggers don't realize how many tools they could harness if they did a bit more web homework. There's no such thing as the perfect blog and the desire to customize can encourage a relentless creativity. [I'd call it a 'creativity', anyway].

Another design I've snaffled for use in this mode is TypoXP 2.1 for KickBike & Kettlebell. Typo --which can be viewed in Demo format here is a wonderful piece of design machinery.

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SLIDESHOW:Sydney protest against wars on Iraq, Afghanistan & Palestine

SLIDESHOW:Sydney protest against wars on Iraq, Afghanistan & Palestine

The anti war movement responds to the death of the 10th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan.

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AUDIO: Sounds of a Salvadoran Election - Red Sunday: March 15 2009

AUDIO: Sounds of a Salvadoran Election - Red Sunday: March 15 2009

An eyewitness account of election day in San Salvador. As an accredited international observer Warwick Fry spent 15 hours at a voting centre recording his impressions, then followed the massive 6 hour street party that erupted as the results were announced, declaring a convincing FMLN victory.

Popout

Original audio source

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Pacific Adventurer: polluting oil and ammonium nitrate spill another product of climate change

Pacific Adventurer: polluting oil and ammonium nitrate spill another product of climate change

By Dave Riley

On Tuesday March 10,the Pacific Adventurer,a 185 metre container ship, was enroute from Newcastle to Indonesia via Brisbane when it lost 31 containers in heavy seas about seven nautical miles east of Cape Moreton.The ship was sailing into the southern edge of the Category 5 Cyclone Hamish and navigating through swells of up to 9 metres. The fallen containers pieced the ship’s hull and resulted in the loss of heavy fuel oil.

Originally it was claimed by the Pacific Adventurer’s owners that only 20 to 30 tonnes of oil had been lost, but it is now clear that some 230 tonnes of oiled spilled into the ocean. Significant quantities of oil were deposited by tidal and weather conditions onto the coastline stretching 60 km from just north of the Maroochy River on the Sunshine Coast to the full length of Moreton Island.An eight kilometre area south of Cape Moreton was the most heavily oiled. Moreton, and Bribie Island to the its north, are national parks - home to a range of sea birds and creatures, including turtles, dolphins and pelicans.

The ship was still leaking oil into the Brisbane River when it berthed. It was then that a second hole in its hull was discovered.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Don Henry, described the northern tip of Moreton Island as an oily wasteland. “This area,” he said,” is home to bottlenose dolphins, dugongs and a treasure trove of other marine species. Turtles lay their eggs in the sand of these beaches. Beachstone curlews and sooty oyster catchers nest just above the high tide mark.”

Professor Professor Ravi Naidu -- Managing Director of the Co-operative Research Centre For Contamination Assessment And Remediation Of The Environment (CRC CARE) was quoted by Australian Science Media Centre as saying that the incident can potentially have a very significant impact on the aquatic ecosystem. “Looking at the Queensland coast,” he said,” we have a pristine environment. What this spill can do is impact these sensitive aquatic environment and in doing so it can impact the lifecycle of the marine ecosystem. The problem with this is that the oil spill will not disappear quickly. It will be present in the aquatic environment for a while. All it will do is disperse, and after dispersing the oil and the lubricant can be there not just for months, but for years unless we actively remediate it. Remediation and management of the oil spill can cost millions of dollars.”

These concerns have been echoed by the local fishing industry. The Queensland Seafood Industry Association (QSIA) told ABC News that the oil slick and lost containers of ammonium nitrate are crippling the local fishing industry.

QSIA spokesman Neil Green said that the Environment Protection Authority has not acted quickly enough to locate the 31 containers. "If they went and did their homework on what this fertiliser can do out there - and I'm sure they already know it - they would be having a far bigger response and doing something about it," he said..

"We're talking about over 600 tonne in one small area, right in the middle of a marine park - you would expect these guys to be jumping up and down."

The threat posed by the ammonium nitrate was also stressed by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) .The union said that volatile cargoes, particularly ammonium nitrate, should be regulated on the Australian coast and pristine waterways.

"It shouldn't be left to the lowest possible international shipper using the cheapest international crews," said Mick Doleman, MUA Assistant National Secretary. "These containers pose a serious and immediate danger to navigation as well as presenting a major environmental catastrophe. At this stage nobody can estimate how damaging the effects of 600 tonne of ammonium nitrate slowly leaching out of these boxes will have on our coast."

Captain John Watkinson of Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) told ABC News that all 31 containers are still missing."Some of them can float but I think in the sea conditions in all likelihood they've found their way to the bottom," he said.

The spill could not have occurred at a worse time for the Bligh ALP government. In the middle of a state election campaign , dedicated to supporting the state’s coal industry and completing the Mary River Dam at Traveston the party’s environment credentials were already in tatters before the oil spill occurred. Criticism of the government’s slow response to the disaster was met with excuses.

“The ships owners told us 20 to 30 tonnes “ complained Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, "It is now apparent that it was about 230 tonnes."

But it was up to ACF spokespeson Don Henry to note the real significance of the disaster,” For goodness sake,” he said,” the Government must get serious about tackling climate change. This ship was hit by the tail end of a category 5 cyclone. Just as Victoria will experience dramatically increased days of extreme bushfire weather, the science is telling us Queensland will cop more destructive cyclones unless we make big cuts to greenhouse pollution.

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