Despite blanket media coverage of Wikileaks and Julian Assange, there has been little discussion of the fact that Assange is merely one leader within a large and complicated social movement. The better analyses have found it interesting that the Swedish Pirate Party are aiding Wikileaks; some note links to the German Chaos Computer Club. But only “geeks” and “hackers” (technology workers) are aware that all of these organisations are members of the same movement.
This social movement, which has been termed the “free culture movement”, has a thirty year history. It incorporates elements reminiscent of earlier workers’ movements: elements of class struggle, political agitation, and radical economics. The movement’s cadre, mainly technology workers, have been locked in conflict with the ruling class over the political and economic nature of information itself.
A devastatingly courageous photo exhibition is opening at the Linwood Community Arts Centre in Christchurch on 15th August.
Showcasing the daily experience of Palestinians living under occupation, the exhibition features bold images from the front line of the struggle for justice in Palestine.
This exhibition is a rare opportunity for New Zealanders to see a different side of the conflict.
“We want to show the different ways in which Israel destroys people’s livelihoods, homes, land and hope” says Israeli peace activist and exhibition organiser Kerem Blumberg.
“But we also want to emphasise that Palestinians and Israelis continue to work together towards real peace and justice, through non-violent resistance to the Israeli state and military. Now that I am living in New Zealand, it feels like something that I can share,” continues Kerem.
“I have found other people here who have been witness to the occupation who wanted to make the exhibition happen”.
These moving images are the work of the widely published group ‘ActiveStills’ a collective of photographers, based in Israel, who believe in the power of photography as a tool for social justice. Formed in 2005, they have since held and participated in exhibitions in Munich, Olympia, Bil’in (West Bank), Tel Aviv, Toronto, Montreal, Malmo, Lund and Amsterdam.
Date of exhibition: 15 August- 22 August 2010, 12-4 pm. Opening 5-7, 15 August 2010 Location: Linwood Community Arts Centre,
Corner Stanmore Road and Worchester Street, Linwood.
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday February 2, 6pmThen open Wednesday - Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-3pm, Thistle Hall, corner of Cuba and Arthur Streets, Wellington
Showcasing both the daily experience of Palestinians living under occupation and the joint Palestinian-Israeli non-violent resistance to the Israeli state and military, ‘Occupation & Resistance- Photos from Palestine’ features courageous images from the front line of the struggle for justice in Palestine.
These moving images are the work of the widely published group ‘ActiveStills’, a collective of photographers based in Israel, who believe in the power of photography as a tool for social justice.
Opening night will feature music by Don Franks and Albert Williams and include the New Zealand launch of the book ‘Gaza: Beneath the Bombs’ by Sharyn Lock of the Free Gaza Movement and Sarah Irving.
Sharyn who was in Gaza during the attack by Israel last year writes about her unique account of the reality of life, including her harrowing eyewitness accounts while volunteering with Palestinian ambulance medics. Sharyn’s blog can be found at http://talestotell.wordpress.com/
Film screening: Slingshot Hip Hop Thursday February 4, Thistle Hall, 6pm koha entry
Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them. More info: www.slingshothiphop.com
Teach in: From Palestine to Wellington Saturday February 6, Thistle Hall, 2-6pm Light refreshments provided, koha entry
Featuring: Don Carson — on the history of Palestine from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire up to the current peace plans. Don is a journalist who first became interested in Palestinian issues in the 70s. Nicholas Boyack — on the Massacre of the Palestinian village of Surafend by soldiers of the ANZAC Mounted Division in 1918. Nicholas is a journalist and former historian, his interest in Bob Dylan and the Weather Underground led him to research the Surafend Massacre. Hamid Abu Shanab — On the impact of the occupation on his family in the Hebron area of the West Bank. Hamid is a Palestinian living in Wellington.
Kerem Blumberg — On peace and Palestine solidarity activism inside Israel, including Anarchists Against the Wall and opposition to the 2006 invasion of Lebanon. Kerem is an Israeli peace activist who became involved in the conscientious objectors’ movement in high school.
Te Kupu — On the links between Palestinian and Maori experiences of colonization, oppression and racial discrimination and his 2008 visit to the West Bank. Te Kupu is a tino rangariratanga activist, filmmaker and MC.
SPECIAL FILM SCREENINGS 2nd – 12th SEPTEMBER 2009
$8 / $6
THE FILM ARCHIVE
Corner Taranaki & Ghuznee Streets , Wellington
The Film Archive is proud to present a special two-week anniversary season dedicated to the Wellington-based independent production company Vanguard Films. The company celebrates 30 years this month. Each session will be introduced by a member of Vanguard Films.
Vanguard Films have made some of the most important and difficult documentaries about modern New Zealand life. Tackling subject matter that is largely ignored by the mainstream – workers’ struggles, anti-war activism, the neo-liberal economic agenda, and health care – Vanguard members have sought to illuminate the margins of society, the challenges of ordinary people, and the deeply traumatic social changes of the past 30 years.
These works are required viewing for anyone who seeks a real understanding of modern New Zealand society.
Saturday 5 September, 7pm Kasama, 1988, 90 minutes | Green Guerillas, 1995, 30 mins
A documentary on the underground revolutionary movement in the Philippines Kasama was shot over eight months while Rod Prosser was living with the guerillas of the New People's Army (NPA) in the Bicol region. The Green Guerillas was made for German television focusing on the armed struggle of a local clan of indigenous people, the Mandaya, together with the national-democratic movement, to save a tract of ancient rain forest on the island of Mindanao.
Wednesday 9 September, 7pmRebels in Retrospect, 1991, M, 74 minutes | The Terrorist, 1993, M, 28 mins
Prominent members of the Progressive Youth Movement (PYM) reflect on their involvement with the group during the era of the Holyoake government and Vietnam war in Rebels in Retrospect while The Terrorist is a short film dedicated to Rachel Bennett (1967-1991).
Thursday 10 September, 7pm Someone Else’s Country, NZ, 1996, 100 minutes
This feature documentary tells the story of how the new right elite took power and exercised it relentlessly to turn New Zealand into their version of the model free-market state during the 1980s.
Friday 11 September, 7pm
Primary Health Care, 1990, 28 mins | Backroom Troubles, 1997, 50 mins
A short documentary looking at the struggle of the townships and suburbs, Eketahuna, Newtown (Wellington) and Urenui (North Taranaki) to gain primary health care for their population in Primary Health Care - the Experience of Four Communities. Backroom Troubles frames the stories of several New Zealand women who had abortions when it was illegal, between 1930 and 1979.
Saturday 12 September, 4:30pm Sedition, NZ, 2005, 140 mins
This hard-hitting documentary tells the story of conscientious objectors and anti-war campaigners fined and imprisoned in New Zealand for the duration of World War II.
Saturday 12 September, 7:30pm The Intruder, 1999, PG, 16 mins / Taking the Waewae Express, 2008, M-Drug use & offensive language, 93 mins
Two dramas - When the habit of loving becomes all habit and no love, it is time for the intruder (NZ, 1999, PG, 16 mins) to enter their midst. Taking the Waewae Express (NZ, 2008, M-drug use & offensive lang, 93 mins) follows the blame, bitterness, love and loyalty when Wiremu's younger brother dies in a car accident.
More information available at: http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/news/news.html
Short previews and trailers can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/user/VanguardFilmsNZ
Conservative politicians, local and National, are figuratively tearing their hair and rending their garments in impotent rage over graffiti. Whether we love or hate graffiti. In my opinion the visceral hatred from the "the powers that be" to graffiti is centered on two things;
1/ Protection of property rights, (which is a serious concern to those who actually have property, a decreasing minority in NZ)
2/ The monopoly of all means of public expression by the privileged.
The taggers, with their incomprehensible, inarticulate, messy and destructive petty vandalism, have a message for us all to read, if we choose too.
The message writ large and often ugly, is one of alienation, anger, boredom, societal breakdown and increasing inequality and lack of resources at the bottom of society. This is a message, that more privileged members of our increasingly stratified society would like to see suppressed at all costs. (Like the builders of the potemptkin towns of medieval Russia they want to project the facade of a decent all inclusive society.)
What are the choices? Suppression or engagement?. More and Harsher punitive laws, greater and more aggressive enforcement and repression. (Which I believe as well as being expensive will be futile.) Or Engagement with the taggers. The so called Labour Government, automatically rushes to extremism and harsh repression, with out considering any other alternatives,
One alternative could be to try and bring taggers and their sub-culture into the open, let's try and encourage and harness these creative urges. This could involve government sponsored lessons in art, and creative expression, with competitions and recognition of the talented daring and creative. The creation of public spaces to be made available where tagging is acceptable. Suitably specialist structures could incorporate a challenge for city planners and architects.
To begin with a large public wall, in the most public space possible, (not tucked away in some remote spot as conservative councils might agree to.) Should be built 50 cubits long and 10 cubits high. (the height being necessary to challenge the more inventive and daring taggers.)
Architects at university should be challenged by their lecturers to design specialist multi functional structures for this purpose. Lots of other outlets for these young people's creative urges could be explored and properly funded.
Who knows? a new type of acceptable People's Baroque city decoration, complete with giant multicoloured balloon letters might result. That art training and engagement with the tagging culture try to encourage a taggers code of conduct, were the defacing of home owners private property comes to be seen as dishonorable and beneath the contempt of their tagging stars and peers.
I remember all the millions of dollars given by this labour government to the rich America's Cup contestants for their priviledged pastime.
NOW THE PEOPLE HAVE AWOKEN:Exploring Venezuela's Revolution
New NZ Documentary12 December, 8.15 pmAcademy Cinemas, AUKFilm followed by discussion with local directorsTo reserve your ticket contactactivoproductions@yahoo.com or call 0210339220$10 unwaged; $14 waged
Except for beauty queens and oil, Venezuela has never been on the international stage. Now Venezuela is at the center of international controversy: for some it has been stolen by a populist dictator, while for others Venezuela represents the centre of a continent-wide
democratic revolution. There is much at stake.
Venezuela sits atop the biggest oil reserves in the world, which are being used to foment a new order. President Hugo Chavez, who survived a military coup in 2002, has supported a number of controversial social programs which have pushed Venezuela onto the United States government, and media, enemy radar.
What makes Venezuela tick? Who is behind the movement and what does it seek? Filmed through the 2006 presidential elections, this is a film about the people of the new Venezuela.
THE HOLLOW MEN A tale told by e-mails, full of guile and perfidy. Adapted from the book by Nicky Hager.
“As the head of ‘spin’ for the National Party leader’s office, one of Richard Long’s main jobs was scripting the words used by the politicians when talking to journalists. Long always referred to these as ‘lines’, a term borrowed appropriately from the world of theatre and fiction…”
Opens Sept 26, Bats Theatre, Wellington. Then at Centrepoint, Palmerston North.
The Resident Action Movement's campaign for Auckland Regional and City Council kicked off on Wednesday night in a Trades Hall auditorium that echoed to rockabilly, swing and passionate poetry, where local environmentalists, anti racists, trade unionists, student leaders and community activists united for a strong campaign against the dominance of corporate led politics.
The evening began with an eloquent speech by well known Chilean poet Esteban, who spoke about the tragic death of his neighbour Folole Muliaga, in a city where profits came before people. Esteban, main organiser for the Latin American Cultural Centre in Onehunga, said he was a supporter of RAM because he agreed of its vision of uniting Aucklands communities from the base. And then he went on to rock out on the bass, to the revolutionary Latin Rockabilly that is Echeverria Y Cia!
Red Chelly
The Belfast Poets Collective treated the audience to their show "Love Poetry, Hate Islamophobia", currently on world tour. When they heard about the attempt by racist fundementalist Christian preachers to demonise New Zealand's Muslim community, they made a sharp detour, to lend their support for RAM's strong anti racist stance. Their show gave thoughtful, radical and sharp lessons from a city where communities have been divided, strengthening the resolve of the audience to stand up and be counted for unity and peace.
Phatbob combined the romantic with the anti corporate- A favourite Celtic cocktail of RAMs!
Gordon Hewitt exploded in a rage of fire and anger, at the pain caused by military occupation
Uniting the communities from the bass...
Roger Fowler, Co ordinator of the Mangere Community Centre, sang the RAM anthem "Movin On", painting a joyous picture of an Auckland without traffic jams and parking tickets, where frequent fare free busses funded by corporation tax and the money currently wasted on the motorway lobby not only improved life for the people, but helped reduce the pollution causing climate change. Roger is standing for RAM in Mangere.
Robyn Hughes, RAM's Councillor on the Auckland Regional Council, looked forward to being joined by Roger and many other new RAM Councillors after the election. Being only one voice amongst 13 was hard- if the RAM bloc increased in size and influence, so too would the reality of implementing what we were fighting for.
Finally, Grant Morgan, Ram organiser, unveiled RAM's secret weapon in the Battle of the Billboards. Where other tickets such as the CityRats, CityVision and Mike Lee's Repe concentrate on their political brands and egos, RAM's billboards are dedicated to the four main policies they are fighting for- a cut in home rates for Auckland's hard pressed workers, free public transport, a strong stand for diversity, peace and multiculturalism in the face of racist attempts to divide Auckland's communities, and the protection of our public assets from privatisers, such as the Pikes Pt park in Manukau harbour.
Now the Battle of the Billboards begins! If you agree with RAM's policies and want to put a billboard up in your community, please give Joe a phone at 021 1861450, 09 634 3984, or email joe@solidarityunion.com. RAM has no corporate donors like the National and Labour financed tickets- we are made up of grassroots campaigners and community activists sick of an Auckland run for big business. Please join us in the fight!
TOM MORELLO is an outspoken musician and political activist who has played in the bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Recently, he has been working on a solo acoustic guitar project he calls The Nightwatchman. Morello spoke to Socialist Worker’s KRIS JENSON and KEITH ROSENTHAL about The Nightwatchman and his album One Man Revolution.
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WHO IS the Nightwatchman, as opposed to Tom Morello?
IT’S DEFINITELY a part of me that I’ve discovered through writing and performing these songs.
Originally, I was playing at an open mic night in Los Angeles, and I didn’t want to sign up as Tom Morello, because then people would be yelling for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave songs, and I was doing something completely different. I wanted the space to push out as an artist without having my work as the “Daywatchman” haunt me.
So I chose that as a moniker. It seemed to fit the material I was writing, and it also was a way to explore the more shadowy recesses of my psyche in relative safety.
WITH YOUR reputation for playing electric guitar, was exploring these other regions the motivation behind doing an acoustic album?
YES. I’VE always been a fan of heavy music and of rebel music. Originally, that was heavy metal music when I was a kid, and then it became punk rock with bands like the Clash, and then it was hip-hop with Public Enemy.
It was only in more recent years that I realized that sometimes the heaviest music is made with just three chords and the truth, and that the right couplet can strike a damaging blow for social justice as much as anything played through Marshall stacks.
YOU’VE DESCRIBED your album One Man Revolution as a “Bob Dylan in reverse” moment, and you can hear some Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger influences. Was this tradition a big inspiration?
MY FAVORITE guitar player of all time is a guitar player with no existing recorded works--that would be Joe Hill. It was his example and his quotes, like “A book or a pamphlet is read one time, but a song is sung over and over again”--this idea of music as a glue of solidarity to bring people together and to inspire on an almost intangible level.
That was always an important part of what I wanted to do, ever since I started playing guitar at 17 years old. I didn’t choose to be a guitar player--it chose me, and that was my curse [laughs]. Then, once I was stuck being a guitar player, it’s been my ongoing mission to find ways to weave my convictions into my vocation.
THE TONE of the album seems dark, but at the same time bittersweet and hopeful--specifically the song “California’s Dark,” with the line “You start with a spark and the fire can grow.”
I THINK you’ve given a really accurate review of the record right there. The entire record turns on two lines within it.
One is the song “The Road I Must Travel”--the final couplet is “There’s a sign along the highway/But it’s too dark now to read,” which is maybe a less optimistic way of looking at where we’re headed. Then there’s “Maximum Firepower,” which is, in a way, the Nightwatchman’s national anthem. There’s the line “If you take a step toward freedom/It’ll take two steps toward you.”
Those are the things that are at war within me; if not an optimist, I’ve always been one who’s willing to go down swinging [laughs], and the Nightwatchman doubly so.
As far as what I do in “California’s Dark,” it’s not about the LA riots that happened before; it’s about the LA riots that might happen again.
It’s my personal experience, literally and figuratively. I literally stood along the side of the road among rattlesnakes. It’s my literal journey from Libertyville, Illinois, to moving to California. It’s also my ideological journey going from being just a suburban kid to an aspiring activist.
WHAT ABOUT “Flesh Shapes the Day,” which says, “I support my troops/They wave black flags and they wear black masks”?
I’VE PLAYED “Flesh Shapes the Day” at hundreds of union rallies, demonstrations and antiwar marches, and what struck me is that most of the songs that were sung at these events were songs from the ’60s or even earlier. And I thought, “We need songs for now!”
The Nightwatchman needs to write songs for today, and they need to have “Si se puede” in them, and they have to address the anarchist black bloc and the Zapatistas.
I would be at some of these rallies, and the streets are lined with these awful stormtrooper cops waiting to smash everybody’s heads, and I’d see like a hundred of these anarchist kids with their flags and I thought, “Well, those are my guys! We might be alright!”
WHAT ABOUT “Union Song”?
I WENT with Billy Bragg and Steve Earle on an anti-globalization, anti-media consolidation tour. We would play daily in front of hotel workers, and we were tear-gassed at the Free Trade Area of the Americas riots in Miami.
And in all these events, I thought, “I don’t have the right song to play for today.” So I got back from the tour with my T-shirt still smelling of tear gas, thinking, “I need to get something together for the next one.”
Yes, that song is my personal experience with the history of the labor struggle in this country--it’s ongoing. The first time I played it was when grocery workers were striking here in LA, and we were doing some benefit concerts for the strike fund.
And it occurred to me that the future of the working class isn’t going to be decided in the halls of Congress--it’s going to be decided in a Vons parking lot, and I’m going to be standing in that parking lot playing that song.
THERE’S BEEN a seismic shift in people’s political consciousness, and it’s reflected in literature, film and music. What role can musicians play in popular consciousness and struggle?
FIRST, I’VE noticed that, too. It seems that you can’t swing a cat these days and not hit a band with an anti-Bush song.
For years while I was in Rage Against the Machine, I was asked, “Why are you guys the only band?” We were all fired up about the Clinton administration! So now, it seems that every CD I’ve come across shows this, whether it’s Nine Inch Nails, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, the Coup’s new record, even Linkin Park.
I think this shows that not just artists are disgusted by what they’ve seen over the course of the last seven years or so, but everybody’s disgusted. And some of them happen to have access to recording studios. Culture can play an important, even crucial, role in helping to build to a critical mass of change.
My concern is that this administration has done so much damage internationally, domestically, environmentally, that it may take generations to undo.
People laugh about that YouTube vignette of Bush standing on the aircraft carrier with the “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him, like that’s a joke. Well guess what--that’s not a joke. The mission was accomplished. Afghanistan has lost. Iraq has lost. The United States has lost. Halliburton has won. Mission accomplished.
He doesn’t care that his approval rating is around 27 percent. The damage is already done. So I applaud artists and musicians stepping forward. Hopefully, it will spark and galvanize their audiences, or push them toward greater revolutionary fervor.
That alone isn’t going to turn the tide. It’s by action, mixed with those words and songs, that we’ll see a future that’s brighter than the one that Bush has sketched out for us.
YOU ONCE said “A good song should make you want to tap your feet, but a great song should destroy cops and set fire to the suburbs.” Do you mean that in terms of its content?
NOT NECESSARILY. I think that great art should always be dangerous. I think that a John Coltrane solo can be just as devastating as a System of a Down antiwar rant.
Art that challenges convention is the art is most exciting and worthwhile. That can mean explicitly political lyrics if it’s done in the context of a great band or a great hip-hop song, or it can mean things that are artistically challenging--like a John Coltrane or Charlie Parker solo that can make you think things are possible that yesterday you didn’t think were possible.
If that’s true in the realm of music, it might very well be true in the realm of society as well.
TELL US about the Axis of Justice.
AXIS OF Justice is a nonprofit political organization formed by Serj Tankian, the singer for System of a Down, and myself. It’s been in existence for about six or seven years now, and the idea is to bring fans of music, progressive-minded musicians and local grassroots organizations together to fight for social justice.
The genesis of the organization was about seven or eight years ago when I went to an Ozzfest show and was appalled by the number of White Power tattoos I saw people very comfortably displaying at the show. Ironically, that day on the main stage, every single band had at least one non-white member in it. It made me think, “Hey, this is my music, too. How dare they?”
The next year, System of a Down was headlining, so Serj and I formed Axis of Justice to have an antiracist booth at all of the shows. Since then, it’s grown to be almost spiraling out of our control. If you go to axisofjustice.org, you can get some idea of what goes on, but we try to do a number of things--from serving the communities we’re in by helping the poor with soup kitchens and free stores, to organizing fans of our music who are looking to plug in.
For 15 years, fans of my music have said, “How do I get involved?” And it’s a question that I sympathize with, because I grew up in a little suburb outside of Chicago and was really wound up about apartheid and death squads in Central America, and all I could do was go to a KISS concert. I didn’t know what to do!
So we try, via the Web site, to hook up aspiring activists with local organizations. There’s a myriad of other things--a reading list, a movie list and lots of other stuff. It also serves as an alternative news source, for people to keep up-to-date with the world and provide an alternative to something like Fox News.
DID YOU have a particular audience in mind that you were trying to reach with One Man Revolution?
THAT’S A good question. I think, on the one hand, that audience will encompass the people who were Rage Against the Machine fans for the right reasons, and there may even be a new audience--perhaps people that shied away from my Marshall stacks work. Whether it’s fans of Johnny Cash or Bruce Springsteen, they may find themselves liking this as well.
I actually don’t know. I’ve played these songs in front of a tremendous variety of audiences.
I went on the subtly titled “Rock Against Bush” tour with these four hardcore punk rock bands. Here are these 15-year-old high school kids who just want to jump up and down, and here comes Old Man Morello, with a nylon string acoustic guitar, like “Children, now I know your dad might like my other band, but I’m going sing some folk music for you.” And it went over great!
I was playing at these rallies in front of political crowds, and kitchen workers might not know Audioslave. So in ways, I think it’s going to find that audience, and I’m excited about that prospect.
IS THERE some significance to just a voice and a guitar that you were trying to achieve, as opposed to the heavier sound?
DEFINITELY. ONE part is that there’s a practicality to it that cannot be overestimated. If my friends at the anarchist collective in San Francisco are holding a benefit concert for bail money for some of their comrades who were arrested at a demonstration, and they want Audioslave or Rage Against the Machine to play, it’s this behemoth that has to get going. You have to have a band meeting, decide if this is something you should do, get a tour manager and get all this stuff moving.
As the Nightwatchman, I just pick up my guitar, and I do it. I can drive there. It’s definitely music that is literally on call--if the Batman light shines in the night, there can be the Nightwatchman sign, and here I come! It can be very effective in that way--like I’m the fire department.
DO YOU have any books or albums you are reading or listening to now that you can recommend to our readers?
I FELL in love with the new Arcade Fire record, and I love the new Bright Eyes record. Each of those records go beyond just sounding like great music, in that they tap into something in the--I don’t know--reptilian brain, where it feels like “This is important” and there’s a truth within.
That’s what you get when art is good and music is good--you get this truth that goes beyond statistics, and those two records I’ve been feeling this very much.
As far as books, I can recommend Cinderella’s Big Score by Maria Raha. It’s about the women of punk and the indie underground--it’s really interesting. Another is Secrecy and Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq by Robert Parry. Those are the two nonfiction books that I can recommend.
Someone asked me to write a song for The Kite Runner, which I just started, and it seems very sad. I haven’t finished it, so I can’t yet give a review or a recommendation, but that’s what I’m reading.
Te Hunga Mahi Maranga mai te hunga mahi Wetekina ngä here Ko te mana hinengaro Ko te waka mö tätou Käti rä te wehi noa E te iwi, e tü, e tü Ka huri rä te ao katoa Ka eke rä te taumata
Anei te whana kai tangata Whakapiri mai, aku hoa Ko te hunga mahi, Ko te ao katoa Anei te whana kai tangata Whakapiri mai, aku hoa Ko te hunga mahi, Mö te ao katoa
Arise ye workers from your slumbers Arise ye prisoners of want For reason in revolt now thunders And at last ends the age of cant. Away with all your superstitions Servile masses arise, arise We'll change henceforth the old tradition And spurn the dust to win the prize.
So comrades, come rally And the last fight let us face The Internationale unites the human race. So comrades, come rally And the last fight let us face The Internationale unites the human race.
The Internationale was written to celebrate the Paris Commune of March-May 1871: the first time workers took state power into their own hands. They established in the Commune a form of government more democratic than ever seen before. Representatives were mandated on policy questions by their electors, they were recallable at any time and were paid wages that reflected those of their constituents. The Commune was a working body, not a talk shop. The distinction between legislative and executive arms of government was abolished. Marx's Civil War in France is a superb account of the history and significance of the Commune. The Commune was drowned in blood by the conservative French government in Versailles, cheered on by the ruling classes of the world.
Workers have adopted a similar pattern of organisation whenever they have challenged the capitalist class for state power: in the form of the Soviets in Russia in 1917; collectives in Spain in 1937; the Workers Council of Greater Budapest in Hungary in 1956; the cordones in Chile in 1973; and, in many respects, Solidarity in Poland in 1980.
THE BOLSHEVIKS ARE IN THE CHERRY ORCHARD Dean Parker
The two heavyweights of 20th century Russian theatre go head-to-head in Wellington at the beginning of next month. On the night of Saturday, June 2, Anton Chekhov’s elegiac Uncle Vanya will be ending its run at Circa, while on the previous Wednesday at Studio 77 Maxim Gorky’s explosive Enemies will open for a short five-night season. Chekhov was middle class, educated, good-humoured, gentle—a country doctor. Gorky was poverty-stricken, untaught, suicidal, bitter—a bum, living on the margins of society until he discovered he could write. Chekhov wanted a gradual transformation of czarist despotism into an enlightened, liberal society. Gorky wanted a revolution and suffered imprisonment for it. Gorky was the younger man, by eight years. He had been born into poverty, run away as a child, tramped about as a migrant worker, been driven to despair and a suicide attempt. But as a child he had been taught to read and it was to be his salvation. He read voraciously and began to write. Years ago I picked up a piece of writing by him and can still remember my eyes widening at the sentence, “The stars spread out above me like bed-bugs.” Gorky revered Chekhov. Chekhov had the magic touch, a simplicity that revealed the complex, an irony which rebuked a class. Gorky corresponded with him. Chekhov advised the apprentice to show restraint in writing, to keep his descriptions short and compact. Gorky was the humblest of petitioners. “I am as stupid as a locomotive,” he wrote. Chekhov warned him against getting up on his high horse, instructed him that characters should have a life of their own and not be just illustrations for a tract. He tried to convince Gorky that he didn’t need to be in a revolutionary party to improve people’s lot. Gorky readily took the literary advice but remained unconvinced of the political. He continued an involvement with Lenin’s Bolsheviks and remained on the files of the secret police. In 1901 he visited Chekhov in the Crimea, spending a week with him. A police agent following Gorky hung around outside the house. Chekhov described Gorky to others as having, “the appearance of a tramp, but inwardly he is a very elegant man.” The following year Gorky wrote his stunning stage account of life at the very bottom of the underclass, The Lower Depths. It was vivid and violent. Directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, it took Moscow by storm. Nearly fifty years later, in February 1951, when Wellington was about to be wracked by a massive and bitter dispute on the waterfront, it was Gorky’s Lower Depths that the left-wing Unity Theatre was rehearsing. In Moscow Gorky became lionised, but his fame was still not enough to prevent him again being picked up by police and jailed, accused of trying to set up a revolutionary government when strikes and shootings rocked Russia in 1905. He was released, helped found the first legal Bolshevik newspaper New Times and then, in December, was in the thick of a Moscow general strike, helping distribute rifles to strikers. Following the strike his position was precarious. He went into exile, travelling to the United States on a fund-raising tour for the Bolsheviks. He continued to write. He had begun depicting the middle class that flocked about his theatrical successes, the wavering class caught between social forces and depicted with such melancholy by Chekhov. In the aftermath of the 1905 risings he wrote Enemies. It was proscribed by the Russian censor who described it as “nothing but a diatribe against the ruling classes.” The setting of Enemies is Chekhovian: a country estate, an extended middle class family. But this is a family that has chopped down Chekhov’s cherry orchard and erected a textile factory on the land. Their idle life is broken by a dispute in the factory. A virulent manager and co-owner has been on vacation and in his place a more liberal family member has made concessions to the workers. As all trainee Wal-Mart managers know, give the workers an inch and they’ll take a mile. The manager returns to find an increasingly bolshie work-force. Like Australasian supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises last year, the manager decides to give the workers a taste of lockout. For his sins he is shot dead. Military police arrive. The family is dismayed and divided. Radicals move to consolidate a presence in the factory. When Enemies was given an English production by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1971, a critic described it as “the missing link between Chekhov and the Russian revolution”. And clearly it is. The Bolsheviks are in the Cherry Orchard.
Enemies Studio 77 77 Fairlie Tce, Kelburn. Wednesday, 30 May until Sunday, 3 June, 7.30pm.
Sue Bradford’s Crimes Amendment (Substituted Section 59) Bill will give children the same protection against violence that the law already gives to adults and animals. It removes the defence of “reasonable force” for anyone brought before the courts for inflicting violence against a child.
Why then is there overwhelming opposition to what’s become known as the “anti-smacking bill”? In some polls it’s been over 70%.
Certainly a culture of smacking has been passed down from generation to generation in this country. So while smacking is less widespread than it was ten or twenty years ago, many parents still use smacking to discipline their children (though there will be a big range in the level of frequency and intensity). Many people figure it’s OK to do so and resent the implication that what they’re doing is child abuse. That’s one reason for opposition to Bradford’s bill.
Significant also is that the “revolt” against the “anti-smacking bill” has got a lot of its impetus from the middle classes in the media. These people are “up in arms” because they feel they’re “targeted” by the legislation as well – laws that affect the working class poor don’t matter so much. This has allowed space for right wing groups, including the religious right, to voice their opposition to the bill.
And despite being Sue Bradford’s bill, Labour’s support for it has given the right the opportunity to attack the government’s perceived political correctness – it’s another example of Helen Clark and her parliamentary colleagues “interfering in people’s lives”. Working class people alienated from the political process can be receptive to such arguments. They’re just so sick of superior sounding politicians.
The bill needs to be defended from attacks by the right and any progressive politics has to be in favour of protecting children from violence, but we can’t ignore the opposition to this bill amongst the working class. One of the things this “opposition” shows is that working class identification with the Labour government is fast eroding. Clark and the rest of them don’t have enough respect amongst the working class to lead on issues like this.
The Green Party fares little better. Like Labour, their focus on electoral politics means they too don’t have an organic connection with ordinary grassroots people. Their ability to lead and educate the working class is therefore marginal. They don’t have the kind of respect and authority that can only come from years of connection between a party and the masses.
Sue Bradford has been courageous in proposing the bill and for facing up to all the attacks in the media – and the debate surrounding the bill will probably result in some parents thinking about other ways to discipline their children – but the Green Party’s distance from the working class remains.
The other reality is that changing the law won’t stop violence against children, particularly in the extreme form that horrifies people. Violence against children is a symptom of powerless and alienation, of people living in extreme poverty and under incredible stress. It’s a problem of society that’s been created by two decades of neo-liberal policies.
A recent government report titled Wealth Disparities in New Zealand based on Statistics NZ figures shows that 95% of New Zealand’s net wealth is owned by half the population. The other half is left with the crumbs – a mere 5% of the country’s wealth. Many of the “wealth deprived” will be on benefits, just battling to stay afloat on unliveable incomes. Bringing up children in that situation is difficult in the extreme. A good proportion will be working parents, doing long hours for crap pay in factories, fastfood, retail or elderly care. The problem here is simply time.
Bringing up children takes huge amounts of time and energy, plus a “clear head”. Disciplining children effectively can’t be done without a lot of focused attention on the child. If anything good can be said of reality TV, then I’d have to single out Supernanny. As a parent of small children, I’ve learnt a few tricks about how to discipline a child successfully. And from my own experience, I’m constantly amazed at how you can reason with children from a very young age, they can be taught the difference between right and wrong. But it takes time, time that many working class parents simply don’t have. Smacking becomes an easier option, to the detriment of both child and parent.
Chronic low wages is creating extreme stress for families, its forcing ordinary people into a situations where they can’t be the parent or caregiver they’d like to be. The government’s much hyped Working For Families package has put some extra money in the hands of working class parents, but it’s being eaten up by rising costs, particularly for housing.
Recent modest increases in the minimum wage has lifted the bar slightly at the bottom level, but many workers outside unions – which in the private sector is the huge majority – have had their wages stagnate for decades. The relative poverty of these workers has been increasing. It used to be that one income might be enough for a family, that’s no longer possible for the majority of working class people today.
Of course any attempt by workers in unions to lift their wages – like the Progressive supermarket workers last year – is met with fierce resistance by the entire capitalist class. The harsh industrial laws kept in place by Labour places a huge barrier in the way of workers trying to win real gains (like wage increases that do more than keep pace with inflation). Labour, because its main focus is to keep business profits up, is overseeing the conditions in society which give rise to domestic violence, in all its forms.
The National Party is claiming that their extensive private polling is revealing a swing away from Labour – they’re citing the anti-smacking bill as one of the main reasons. Without an alternative, alienated and angry working class people can be manipulated by the forces of the right. That danger remains ever present.
The “smacking debate” once again points to the need for a mass workers’ party with organic and lasting connections to the working class. There’s no overnight solution, just lots of sustained hard work, with many up and downs. Socialist Worker is at the forefront of positive initiatives focused outwards to ordinary people. With RAM, Workers Charter, Solidarity Union and VAST we hope to be laying the foundations for a broad left alternative to the Labour Party to emerge.
One of the things we can fight for is free early childcare for everyone who wants it. Labour’s miserly increase in early childcare funding has made its election promise of 20 free hours of childcare for 3 and 4 year olds unworkable. They could use some of the $10 billion dollars of budget surplus the government’s got in its coffers, instead most of that is being tagged for tax cuts for companies and the rich. It’s a matter of priorities, and the working class know where Labour’s lie. If the Green Party continues with its strategic alliance with Labour then they’ll be increasingly tarred with the same brush.
Not hitting your children is “good sense”, and the working class has plenty of “good sense” if given leadership by people they respect and who stand with the working class on all issues.
The thousands of bloggers who use the web to question the status quo are continuing a proud tradition, argues Christian Hogsbjerg
Since the invention of the printing press, every great social upheaval in modern history has been preceded and accompanied by an explosion of political pamphleteering.
What often began with a few isolated dissident intellectuals calling for the overthrow of a particularly dictatorial tyrant became, in periods of revolution, a flood of paper – as thousands found the freedom and confidence to voice their dreams of a completely new society for the first time.
The classic example here is probably that of the Enlightenment, which in Paris before the French Revolution inspired a profusion of satirical pamphlets flowing from numerous pens.
Historian Robert Darnton describes “an illicit literature of vitriolic pamphlets” from a whole host of unknown writers who “desecrated everything sacred in the social order of the Old Regime.
“A prolific literary underworld disseminated a vast illegal literature that conveyed a seditious ideology to readers everywhere in France.”
This honourable tradition of pamphleteering was itself born out of an earlier revolution, the English Civil War in the mid-17th century.
In his 1948 introduction to “British pamphleteers” – a collection of classic pamphlets ranging from John Milton to Jonathan Swift – George Orwell noted that the pamphlet was special because it was inherently subversive.
“A pamphlet is a short piece of polemical writing aimed at a large public, it is written because there is something that one wants to say now, and because one believes there is no other way of getting a hearing.
“A pamphlet may be written either ‘for’ or ‘against’ somebody or something, but in essence it is always a protest.”
Orwell continued, “If one had not a certain faith in democracy, one would not write political pamphlets, one would try to get one’s end by intriguing among influential people.”
Accordingly, “pamphleteering will flourish when there is some great struggle”.
There are signs that today the lost revolutionary art of pamphleteering may well be making a welcome return, albeit not quite in a form Orwell ever imagined.
It strikes me that the recent explosion of political “blogging” – resulting from the development of new technology which allows anyone with internet access to freely publish their thoughts online on a weblog – may well be ushering in another great “age of pamphleteering”.
The significance of the rise of blogging is often overstated, but the rapidity of its rise in popularity remains remarkable. Technorati, a blog search engine, tracked 100,000 blogs at the start of 2003, and today, two years on, it is estimated there are over 65 million.
In another few years, who knows how many people will write blogs?
Some will argue that such a comparison of blogs with pamphlets is flawed as most blogs are not political – and many are of relevance only to those who know that individual blogger.
Yet as Orwell noted of pamphlets, “Of course, most pamphlets do not deserve attention. Most of them are rubbish. This must have been true at all times.”
Orwell remained a champion of the pamphlet nevertheless, for reasons which seem equally applicable to the modern blog:
“In a pamphlet one can do things that are possible in no other medium... Above all, the pamphlet does not have to follow any prescribed pattern.
“It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of ‘reportage’. All that is required of it is that is shall be topical, polemical and short.”
As Orwell concluded, “The great function of the pamphlet is to act as a sort of footnote or marginal comment on official history.
“It not only keeps unpopular viewpoints alive, but supplies documentation on events that the authorities of the day have reason to falsify. It is a job that needs doing in all ages, and surely never more than in the present one.”
“It might be argued that in England, with its free and reasonably varied press, there is not much scope for the pamphleteer. But this will not be endorsed by anyone who has ever tried to get a hearing for a genuinely unpopular cause at any given moment there is a sort of all-prevailing orthodoxy, a general tacit agreement not to discuss some large and uncomfortable fact.”
Orwell would not have been surprised by the tacit agreement among all sections of the powerful corporate media to avoid discussion of the large and rather uncomfortable fact that George Bush and Tony Blair are mass murderers, war criminals with the blood of countless numbers of dead on their hands.
I suspect Orwell would have been heartened by the way in which anti-war and anti-capitalist bloggers are beginning to challenge the dominance of ruling class ideas on the internet.
In upholding the tradition of pamphleteering and defending the truth from those in power, the best political blogs out there are truly modern footnotes on official history.
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