It’s time for women and the working class to organize and emancipate.
International Women’s Day is a day when the women’s movement around the world celebrates social, political and other achievements of women. It is also a good day for women to take a closer look at the oppression that flourishes through the double bondage of capitalism and patriarchy, and which is still an unfortunate and undeniable reality for the majority of women today.
Women’s oppression has lots of forms, perhaps a sexist boss, partner or a comrade. As anarchists we have a lot of work to do before there is equality in gender and sexual relations, both in our own lives and in the wider community of which we are a part.
The struggle for female... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The US Presidential election is over and Donald Trump has lost. While he has convinced his hard core supporters than the election has been stolen from him, he has failed to get sufficient backing from powerful actors to mount a coup. Joe Biden will take office on 20 January.
Biden will have no honeymoon. The previous two Democratic Presidents faced a massive Right wing reaction as soon as they took office, although they had no opposition worth noting from the Left. The Republicans will try a third time to mount a reactionary movement and Trump will probably lead it. Biden campaigned on a platform of being a “normal President” — but “normal” politics is precisely what led to the election of Trump in 2016. Left ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Anarchism is a social philosophy based upon the principles of liberty, equality and solidarity. Anarchists aim to create a society founded on this basis and operating by voluntary cooperation. An anarchist society can be achieved only by a social revolution, made by the working class of the world, which abolishes capitalism and the state. This revolution will require conscious and deliberate organization to prepare for it and carry it out.
As anarchists, we believe that the means we use produce the ends we reach. We therefore organize according to principles we want to see operating in an anarchist society — federalism and processes open to inspection by all members of the organization. This protects equality of participation in deci... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The coronavirus pandemic started in a market in Wuhan late last year. It grew into a crisis through bureaucratic suppression of bad news by local “Communist” Party authorities. It has now become a global catastrophe because of haphazard and often complacent reactions by capitalist governments. So far, there is no vaccine to prevent it and no treatment that can cure it. The best that doctors can do is treat the symptoms and hope the body of the patient fights it off.
This would be bad enough even in a libertarian communist society, but capitalism makes it so much worse. What needs to happen? As any epidemiologist could tell you, in the absence of a vaccine, you test as many people as possible, isolate the people infected and tra... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Today, a counter-mobilization by an alliance of women’s and Left groups defeated the “March for the Babies”, the annual anti-abortion rally organized in Melbourne by a coalition of Catholic and Protestant zealots and right-wing politicians.
The “March for the Babies” was first held in 2009, a reaction against the decriminalization of abortion the previous year. At its height, it drew a crowd of 10,000 or more, but counter-mobilizations in the last few years have helped its decline. The anti-abortionists marched to Parliament House and rallied on the steps, using a massive sound system to drown out opposition from the Left counter-mobilization.
This year, the counter-mobilization did something different. There... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) A myth is born
Australian, British and other imperialist troops land on the beach at Gallipoli. It is 25 April, 1915. It is a side-show during World War I, a vain attempt to score a knock-out blow against the Ottoman Empire and deprive Germany of an ally. The war is a clash of two great imperial alliances, attempting to re-divide the world in a struggle for markets, colonies and resources. Gallipoli is a huge waste of human life, within the gargantuan waste of life that was WWI. Official and unofficial reports to home, however, seek to glorify the ANZACs so as to promote recruitment. Events are embroidered and sometimes outright invented, with Simpson and his donkey projected as displaying a supposed heroism and nobility unique to the Au... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The AUKUS partnership announced on 16 September is a big step towards war against China. The centerpiece of its first initiative is the announcement by the Australian Government that it will buy eight nuclear submarines from the United States or the United Kingdom. The reactions to this announcement are almost as significant as the purchase of the submarines themselves.
Australian military procurement since the end of the Vietnam War has been an ongoing debacle, marked by indecision, late changes of direction, huge cost overruns and major delivery delays. These factors have been a permanent embarrassment to successive Australian governments and generations of military brass, but they are not solely the product of simple incompetence. They ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Gallipoli
In April 1915, Australian and other troops of the British Empire attacked Turkey, in a doomed attempt to knock a minor ally of Germany out of World War I. Many soldiers on both sides died, but a myth was born. According to this myth, Australians are tough, honest, irreverent towards authority, fiercely loyal and possess courage of legendary proportions. Further, these virtues are embodied in the ordinary Australian “digger”. And, according to this myth, these qualities are uniquely Australian.
Imperialism Today, Australian Style
Today, Australian soldiers are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, minor players supporting the failing U.S. “Global War on Terror”. These actions are insurance premiums on the... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Unlike the capitalists, the working class can unite across national boundaries. We can sweep away the capitalists and their State, with its armies, police and prisons. We can build libertarian communism, a world of peace and plenty, a world of both freedom and security. We can and we must.
Gallipoli
World War I had bogged down, and Britain was looking for a way to change the balance of forces. A landing at the Dardanelles in April 1915, followed by the taking of Istanbul, was planned to open the supply route to Russia and possibly knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. The campaign was a fiasco. Tens of thousands of young men from both sides were sacrificed in a minor episode of the clash of two rival imperialist alliances. Rather tha... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) International Workers’ Day
Workers have been celebrating May Day for well over 100 years. From its origins in a strike for the 8 hour day in Chicago and protests over the Anarchist trade union organizers behind it being hung on false charges of murder, it has been a day when workers stood together around the world. In that time we have won victories and suffered defeats. Many of us have been led astray for a time by false ideologies of Stalinism or nationalism. But reality intervenes and the common bond of workers around the world becomes apparent.
Australia Today
Nowhere is our common bond more deliberately obscured than in Australia. The Howard Government directly attacks the unions, the organizations in which working class c... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The murder of fifty people and the wounding of many more by a heavily armed Fascist gunman in New Zealand on 15 March is a warning to the world. Though quarreling and disorganized, Fascists are growing in number and in the danger they present. They are a clear and present danger to the working class and all oppressed groups in society.
This particular murderer considers himself an “eco-fascist”, someone who advocates a Fascist form of government for supposed ecological reasons. These people often favor genocide as a means of reducing the Earth’s human population to what they consider a sustainable level. Of course, they often hold very familiar racist ideas about which ethnic groups most need culling.
The precise doctrin... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Liberal Government brought down a budget in May that outraged workers across Australia. It is a massive attack on the working class across the board, with cuts to pensions, Medicare, higher education, State funding for health and education, unemployment benefits and much more. There is hardly a sector of the working class that won’t be dramatically affected.
Touch One, Touch All
We can’t base our strategy on negotiations in the Senate. That would leave us at the mercy of capitalist politicians. Anybody who thinks we can rely on the Palmer United Party, the Motoring Enthusiasts Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, Family First and co needs their head read. These people, where they’re not loose cannons, are hardened ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was arrested on 11 April when the Ecuadorian Government invited British police into their London embassy for that purpose. Initially charged with breaching bail, he was quickly also hit with a US charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He has since been sentenced to almost the maximum term for breaching bail and the process for extraditing him to the United States, which could be a long one, has begun.
The United States wants Assange because Wikileaks stands against the entire apparatus of national security in that country and has published much damaging information about its murderous and undemocratic activities – not least the Collateral Murder video that made Wikileaks famous. W... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) If we don’t fight, we lose. Howard fights to win and so should we. Lying low won’t save us and neither will running a PR campaign or waiting for a Labor government. Only direct action will do it, either by making Howard back down or by turning his laws into a dead letter. We have to inform our workmates, our friends & families and our communities, since they won’t read the truth in the Herald-Sun.
Howard will be back for more. Destroying the unions is his life’s work. He’s already said that passing the laws previously held up by the Senate is only the first installment. With the Business Council, the press and all the Right-wing think tanks baying for blood, Howard will go as far as we let him. If we ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On 18 May, enrolled voters in Australia will decide which members of the capitalist class will represent us in Parliament and crush us in government for the neXt three years. This election occurs at a time when the world has been informed that it has, at most, until 2030 to take effective action to stop and begin reversing climate change, or risk crossing tipping points into runaway temperature rises that would kill billions and endanger industrial civilization. So you’d think the major players would be presenting plans to fiX it. But no, this is Australian capitalist democracy and we get something different.
The incumbent government is a coalition of the Liberal Party, the open representatives of Big Business, and the National Party... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) A Turkish Beach
On 25 April 1915, Australian and other troops of the British Empire attempted an invasion of Turkey. It was designed to knock the Ottoman Empire out of World War I and free the Russian Empire to send more troops to fight Germany. Tens of thousands of young men were sacrificed in this sidelight to the larger war. The soldiers were told they were fighting for “God, King and country” and that it was “the war to end all wars”. In reality, they were pawns in the clash of two rival imperialist alliances – and the imperialists would be back again for an even bloodier war barely twenty years later.
An Imperialist Army
Before the WWI, Australian troops had been used to support the British Empire i... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) For the last six weeks, the eastern States of Australia have been suffering an unprecedented wave of bushfires. There have also been a number of bushfires in Western Australia. Some of the driest winter weather on record has been followed by a warm and dry spring that has led to huge areas of the continent being tinder dry and ready to catch fire far earlier than the part of the year when fires are traditionally regarded as a hazard. What we are seeing is unprecedented in its breadth, intensity and timing.
Sydney has been shrouded in smoke for over a month. The Gospers Mountain mega-fire has burnt out 450,000 hectares and counting. The Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service says they have dealt with 8,500 fires this season already &nda... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Australian Federal election campaign grinds on, with most people being heartily sick of the whole thing. Neither the Liberals nor Labor are trusted by most voters and the major parties are horrified at the drift of voters to minor parties of all stripes. Anarchists have something to say about this, something deeper than just advising people about voting. We say if you’re looking to fiX the problems in society, Parliament is the wrong place.
Real power in a capitalist society doesn’t reside in Parliament, but in the boardrooms of the major companies, in the editorial rooms of the mainstream media, in the officers’ mess of the military, in the courts and in the offices of top public service mandarins. Even if a governme... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Gallipoli
Churchill had a bright idea in 1915 about helping Russia, Britain’s World War I ally: to secure a passage through the Dardanelles and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. A landing was staged at Gallipoli to advance the plan. It was a disaster, conceived without reference to the terrain and executed without regard to casualties. The British Empire and French forces suffered over 300,000 dead and wounded before going home with their tails between their legs. Ottoman casualties were 250,000. Overall, it was a sideshow in the great crime of World War I, where two imperial alliances clashed over colonies, resources and markets, killing millions in the process.
Australia’s Wars
Australian troops were central to C... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) World War I
WWI was a crime against humanity, with two rival imperialist alliances fighting it out to redivide the colonies, markets and resources of the world. The lives of soldiers, Australians included, and civilian populations were sacrificed to the power and profits of their own ruling classes. After a debacle on a Turkish peninsula near Istanbul in 1915, the ANZACs were sent to the Western Front. There, they became raw material for the war machine of the British Empire. They died in their tens of thousands. The war’s death toll on both sides was at least 15.5 million. The carnage was eventually brought to an end by revolution breaking out in Germany.
Today
Though imperialism remains, much has changed in the intervening ce... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Mass murders, and attempted mass murders, committed by Fascists worldwide appear to be occurring at an accelerating pace. Since the Christchurch massacre in March, there has been the Gilroy Garlic Festival massacre in the US in July, the El Paso massacre in early August and an attempted massacre at a mosque in Norway about a week later. This is a phenomenon of the utmost seriousness.
A Fascist group is a conspiracy to murder and deserves to be treated as such. It is now clear, though, that Fascists carry out their deadly program not only through formal groups. Recent massacres have been committed by individuals who engaged in on-line discussions with other Fascists, each of them praising massacres and calling, in general terms, for their r... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Fascism, in various guises, is on the march in most advanced Western countries and some underdeveloped countries. The extent of its rise is related to the history and the state of society in each.
The situation is most severe in Europe, where liberal capitalists’ illusions about the “end of history” have been shattered most cruelly. Mass Fascist parties have risen in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ukraine. In Austria, they have even entered the government, while in Ukraine they were officially part of the government for a time after the Euromaidan protests. In addition, the governments of Hungary and Poland are hard Right wing national conservatives. They sh... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “Reclaim Australia” has called rallies against Muslims around Australia on Easter Saturday. They want people to believe they’re just “ordinary Australians” who are worried about “radical Islam”. What they’re NOT telling you is that they are Fascists – yes, actual far Right Hitler-lovers who hate Jews and Aborigines as well. They’ve just told their followers to “leave your swastikas and your white pride T-shirts at home”. Check the Slackbastard blog to see what he’s dug up on them: www.slackbastard.anarchobase.com.
Fascism is a movement of the ruined middle classes (e.g. small business going out backwards), who aim to take State power by, or with the assistance of... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Western Front
On 25 April 1915, Australian, New Zealand and other troops of the British Empire landed at a Turkish beach at Gallipoli. It was a fiasco, a disastrous side-venture in World War I. Bloodied and beaten, they withdrew in January the next year. The British High Command weren’t done with them, though, and sent the Anzacs to the Western Front, where some of the main business of WWI was being conducted. There, even more Anzac blood was shed for the cause of one grasping imperialist alliance in its struggle against another that was no better. The blood continued to flow until November 1918.
End of the War
The War ended in 1918, not because of the military victories of the Entente on the Western Front, but because revo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Late last year, the Manus Island Detention Center was closed. Nominally run by the Papua New Guinea Government, it was in reality operated by the Australian Government using remote control. Inconveniently, in April 2016 the PNG Supreme Court found that the center violated the PNG Constitution by imprisoning almost 900 people who had not committed any crime. Instead of releasing the refugees imprisoned there, the governments conspired to keep them locked up while taking their time coming up with alternative arrangements.
The Manus refugees have been protesting their treatment for years. In the run-up to the closure, they escalated their protests greatly, getting wide publicity in Australia via social media and then breaking into the mass me... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Five Years in Hell
David Hicks has been a US prisoner since 9 December 2001, mostly in the US-run detention camp of Guantanamo Bay – for the crime of being foolish enough to take up arms for the established government of Afghanistan. He has been viciously assaulted, held in solitary confinement for long periods and generally subjected to five years of torture. He has also been repeatedly defamed by the Australian Government, with allegations they know are untrue. If he ever faces trial, it will be in a kangaroo court where the verdict is predetermined.
Guantanamo Bay
Hicks is not the only prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, nor is his treatment materially different from those of the other detainees. 775 detainees altogether have been h... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In response to small but co-ordinated West Papuan demonstrations across the country in the middle of August this year, Right wing forces engaged in a provocation against Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. When the Papuans responded, these Right wing forces accused the students of disrespecting the Indonesian flag and stormed the students’ dormitory, attacking them and engaging in racial slurs.
When the stories of this assault spread, the cities of West Papua erupted in rage. In Manokwari, Jayapura and Sorong, government buildings were stormed and some torched. In these and many other places, the Morning Star flag was raised. A protest against anti-Melanesian racism became centered on the Papuans’ core demand of... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Gallipoli 1915
World War I was a crime against humanity, where two great imperial alliances clashed over their spheres of interest, fighting about territories, markets and resources. The Gallipoli landing was a failed venture for Britain and its dominions. On 25 April, British, Australian and other imperialist troops landed on a Turkish beach. The idea was to break through and take Istanbul, but they were bottled up by Turkish forces and, by the following January, sent packing. It was a waste of over 110,000 lives, a pointless massacre which was followed by more bloodshed when the Anzacs went to fight Germany on the Western Front.
After Gallipoli
The blood of the Anzacs, however, has been useful for some. Ever since WWI, Australian g... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The first trade union in Egypt under the name Brotherhood of Workers founded in 1872 by Greek workers, most of which came from the island of Corfu.
The first anarchist publication in Egypt appeared in Alexandria, probably in 1877 with the title «Il Lavoratore» («The Worker”) in Italian language.
In September 1878, Errico Malatesta leaves Naples to avoid internment. He goes to Alexandria, Egypt where there is a thriving community of Italian workers. Meanwhile, after King Umberto I assumes the throne of Italy, the republican Passamante unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate the new king. There is widespread repression throughout Italy, in particular, against the anarchists. A meeting of Italian patriots organized in ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) One hundred years ago today, a workers’ revolution triumphed in Russia, with consequences that would echo for generations. It was 7 November 1917, which Russia then called 25 October because the Czar was so reactionary he opposed switching from the inaccurate Julian calendar to the more accurate Gregorian one. That day, workers and soldiers under the command of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Soviet (which means “council” in Russian) took control of all important public buildings in Petrograd, the Russian capital, and dismissed the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky. That night, the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets met and proclaimed its power.
The Road to October
The road to the Oc... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)