So, I’ve been mega quiet for so, so long. And whilst I’d love to say ‘it’s just writer’s block’, I’m not actually just talking about my blog. I’ve been quiet in the sense of being active in Melbourne. Haven’t been to maaaaaaaaany a meeting in maaaaaany months. I don’t have excuses, because I don’t feel I’ve done anything wrong either. It’s simply a lack of inspiration and being burnt out by taking on too much, as a comrade warned me against quite a long time ago.

I’m still around and actually still quite present on the internet (and no, I don’t think that’s as lame as it sounds, internet is information, you can’t stop progress :-) ), adminning AptGetAnarchy.org, as well as sysadminning the two Axxs servers, which is more work than you might actually think (the axxs servers host most of the Oceanic indymedias).

Plus I went overseas. But that’s running close to giving excuses :)

Essentially I’ve been busy with work, trying to start my career going in a direction I want it to, started studying again for the first time in seven years.

I’ve gone off ‘discussing’ things in forums. I’m starting to get interested in actually accomplishing some stuff through any form of deployment of information. I’ve enjoyed setting up sites for others (a lot of work), and it pays off to see others with the energy to discuss stuff and put into words concepts that I can’t. I’m enjoying still doing this maintenance of other people’s resources especially when they’re used.
I think the concept of Indymedia is something more in tune to what I think of when I think of activism. It seems more active than going to meetings and talking about stuff that doesn’t really interest or inspire me (which isn’t to say these things are bad, but rather that my interests are shifting and I can’t help that. In fact I think that says it the best: a shifting interest, but a resounding respect for that and those that carry on doing stuff I tried to get involved in but lost the motivation and inspiration for).

It’s just evolution, but I can feel myself starting to fire up once again after having burnt the candle at both ends way back.

To anyone I’ve offended due to my apparent inactivity (which boils down to not showing up to things I said I would - I don’t really think I’ve been inactive), it’s not meant to be a desertion. Just a shift in interests, exploring new ways of doing a very old thing: resistance. I’m still around, I’m just a different me.

The Tanneries squat in Dijon France, which was facing eviction, has emerged victorious in a lengthy battle for its right to keep its walls safe.

Quick translation from their site:

The self-managed Tanneries Space remains and will remain! After the manifesto of 1st of May 19 and the occupation of the Ducs Square trees (public gardens), the self-managed Tanneries Space gained a serious victory, by obtaining the guarantee to be able to remain until at least June 2011 in its buildings. (For more information, please see our account of the manifesto and assessment of the situation (version in plain text here). We invite you to come celebrate on June 9. While waiting, our thoughts and solidarity go to all the other spaces currently self-managed in battle, like Köpi (Berlin), Blitz (Oslo), or even Ifanet (Thessalonique), in that it is a question of not forgetting.

Rock on for the win!

LOW INTENSITY WAR IN CHIAPAS:
STATE AND PARAMILITARY TERRORISM
Alejandro Reyes - 12-Mar-2007 - num.532 Radio Zapatista, www.radiozapatista.org, San Francisco, California

SUMMARY: The situation in Chiapas is very tense and everyday it worsens.
What we’re seeing is a new policy that brings together paramilitary forces with state and federal governements, the police and the armed forces, to take away the Zapatista’s land and provoke a conflict in order to justify an armed incursion.

Since early this year the authorities of the zapatista communities in resistance have been denouncing increasingly serious aggressions and threats by the paramilitary organization Opddic (”Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Rights”). Land invasions, threats of violence, shots to the air, destruction of corn fields and property, theft of crops, beatings, detentions, and kidnappings have become an everyday source of terror that affects hundreds of indigenous families in Chiapas. Even worse: according to the autonomous authorities, all of this is done with the support and complicity of the state and federal governments, the police, and the armed forces.

Alarmed by the situation—which has received very little media attention—an International Informational Brigade was formed at the beginning of March to investigate the accusations and make them public in Mexico and the world. Representatives from Spain, France, Germany, Greece, the US, and Mexico have been traveling through various municipalities and communities, speaking with the authorities of the Good Government Councils, the autonomous Municipal Councils, and common people. What they have discovered is an even more alarming situation than was believed.

“We had all of this cultivated and the brothers and sisters from Opddic came with weapons in October of 2006 and took all the corn,” recounts a man in the autonomous region of La Monta~a. “They didn’t leave behind a single cob. They destroyed three hectares belonging to our compa~eros.”

“The worst was when they cut the cable for the basket three times and destroyed with machetes the community’s boat,” says one of the residents of the village of San Miguel, to which one can only get by crossing the Agua Azul River. “We were left isolated.” San Miguel is in the region of the famous Agua Azul resort, which benefits the residents of Progreso and Joyeta’, all of them members of Opddic. “They tell the tourists we are muggers. Sometimes the members of Opddic attack the tourists and blame us. They tied one of our compa~eros and stole his money.”

On February 22 and 23, three peasants from Olga Isabel were kidnapped by Opddic and threatened to be burned alive. Only the pressure by the zapatistas and by human rights organizations was able to save them, and they were released the next day.

The representatives of the Good Government Council of Morelia said that they had received letters from Opddic cutting off dialog with the zapatistas and threatening them with violent eviction if they did not abandon their lands.

Why these aggressions? At their root of the conflict are land disputes.
Opddic has been active since 1998, and during the government of Vicente Fox it grew significantly. But the recent increase in activities is undoubtedly a reflection of a new government policy to evict the zapatistas from their land, give a blow to the movement, and open the way to multinational companies eager to get their hands on the natural wealth of the region: wood, water, and mining. In the process, thousands of indigenous people suffer daily threats and terror.

Chiapas is Mexico’s poorest state and has the worst distribution of wealth. Before 1994, the vast majority of indigenous peasants had no land, which was concentrated in the hands of large landowners. With the zapatista uprising, thousands of Tzotzil, Tselatal, Chol, and Tojolabal Indians recovered the lands that had been stolen from them for centuries.
Opddic’s main goal is to take from these Indians the land for which they have fought so hard.

In the municipality of Vicente Guerrero, the authorities explain that half of the population of the community is zapatista, and the other half belongs to Opddic. Since 2002, the members of that organization have been trying to evict the zapatistas and take over all of the land. Recently, they presented a formal request to the Secretariat of the Agrarian Reform to legalize, in their name, the entire territory, including the zapatistas’, as an ejido.

One of the main achievements of the 1910 Revolution was the creation of ejidos, which were meant to protect peasants from land speculation.
Ejidos are communal lands that could not be sold and that were granted by the Agrarian Reform to indigenous and peasant communities in order to solve the historic problem of the monopoly of land ownership. But in 1992, during the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the Constitution was modified to make ejidos saleable. Thus, that which was originally intended to guarantee a fair distribution of wealth has now been transformed into a tool to protect the interests of large enterprise.

Once the land is declared an ejido, the ejidatarios can register it under Procede, a government program that allows the privatization of ejido land. Once registered, the land can be sold to multinational timber, hydroelectric, or mining companies. The problem is that, in order to declare the land an ejido, all of the tenants must agree. In the community of Nance, for example, there are still 26 families opposed to the creation of the ejido.

This explains Opddic’s violent methods: their strategy is to corner the population to join their organization and to declare “squatters” all of those who refuse, threatening them with violent eviction. Opddic’s members receive government incentives and even weapons. According to the representatives of the village of San Miguel Agua Azul, the Chiapas Police sells them grenades and bullets. They also receive financial support from government programs which, in the context of poverty and fear, become powerful incentives for zapatista peasants to stop resisting and to join the organization.

The Secretariat of Agrarian Reform (SRA) is also in connivance with Opddic. Recently, the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research (CAPISE) revealed that Beltra’n Ruiz Chaco’n, the lawyer that represented Opddic before the Unitary Agrarian Tribunal in their attempt to evict the zapatistas from the community of Nance, is a delegate of the Workers’ Union of the SRA. With this revelation, the SRA was forced to admit that his activities were illegal. However, Procuraduri’a Agraria stated that it would continue defending the cause put forth by Opddic.

But there is another, perhaps more alarming factor: the possibility of a military incursion. The zapatistas have repeatedly declared that they will defend their lands at all costs, and this is perfectly
understandable: it cost them many lives in 1994 and in the following years to recover and maintain those lands. There they have been building all of these years autonomous education and health systems, they have invented new forms of democracy, eradicated alcoholism and drug use, developed networks of just commerce, and, above all, they have taught their children to live with dignity. The serenity with which they have resisted Opddic’s provocations is admirable. But it is fair to ask: how much longer can they keep resisting peacefully the violence, the threats, and the humiliations? Everything seems to indicate that Opddic’s methods are designed to provoke violence in order to justify a military incursion. With Felipe Calderon’s hard-handed rhetoric, nothing would seem more plausible (and nothing would be more tragic and disastrous).

That being so, it is our responsibility, as conscious citizens of the world, to do everything in our power to stop this “low intensity” warfare and to defend everything that our indigenous brothers and sisters have been building and bequeathing the world in these 13 years of resistance.

Source: CIAPEC (ciepac@laneta.apc.org) via the Chiapas95 list.

Well, that’s what I keep getting told. Even by people who don’t exist!

No, I wasn’t referring to Tom Sellick.

I’ve been busy doing not much, but *I* still exist.

“..even if it is a crimethinc publication, it still has some relevance.”

– Local Melbourne anarchist

Just testing Drivel.

AptgetAnarchy.org!

The anarchist’s source for Linux related tips and reviews, news, inventions, and general geek information deemed useful for and by other geeks! AptgetAnarchy.org is a website maintained by and dedicated to anarchists who are also geeks. The intention of the site is to provide a resource whereby anarchists interested in computers, web development, general online social networking, gaming etc, can find information on Linux distributions, general geek news, inventions etc, as well as finding useful tips and tricks for their computers. We hope to also provide enough resources to help the newbie geek feel confident enough to make that switch from Microsoft Windows and start using the logical anarchist geek’s choice, that of Linux and Open Source software! We hope to provide detailed reviews of all major Linux distributions as well as the tips and tricks for each distribution, so you don’t have to visit heaps of different sites and struggle to make sense of bad documentation, just to get your machine working. We want you to find it all here. Another goal is to provide a Linux commandline glossary, as well as a scripts library for all sorts of code, for those situations where you need to write forms, databases, even design websites, and are unsure of how to get started.

Second Latin American & Asia Pacific Solidarity Gathering
21-22 October, Melbourne-Australia

Building bridges, Organising globally

Millions of people throughout Latin America & Asia Pacific are being systematically excluded and silenced by neo-liberalism. Rather than accepting the dictates of Washington, Brussels and Canberra, they are organising at a grassroots level and fighting back in new and evermore inventive ways. What is more, they are winning!

The cracks in neo-liberalism are beginning to appear. Another world can only be realised if people like you and me are committed to this emerging project.

To embrace this invigorating social and political challenge activists/citizens need to learn more about how to build bridges across the divides of nation, language and culture, at local and global levels.

Building Bridges, Organising Globally is the focus of the Second Latin American and Asia Pacific Solidarity Gathering. To facilitate this process we have invited many national and international progressive activists/thinkers from around the Pacific Rim.

We are asking them to share with us their experiences and reflections, which have been developed through decades of struggle. Come and join us at the Gathering to be challenged, inspired and engage in emerging inter-national dialogues about creating many new tomorrows.

The Gathering will be held on October 21-22, 2006 at Trades Hall, corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia.

¡ Contra el Neoliberalismo !

International guests include representatives from: Bolivia, Venezuela, Fiji, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Chile, Phillipines, Perú, El Salvador, New Zealand, Guatemala, Mexico, West Papua…and more!

Organised by: Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)

Contacts
Melbourne: Marisol 9481 2273, Colm 9354 2703 or Lucho 0402 754 818
Sydney: Gonzalo 0415 726 951 or Ricardo 0413 013 227
Canberra: Yoly 0434 050 471
lasnet@latinlasnet.org,
www.latinlasnet.org

Gathering Supporters:
Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network,
Unity for Peace,
FMLN in Australia,
Moreland Peace group,
Australian Solidarity with Latin America (ASLA),
Friends of the Earth
Community Radio 3CR
Union Solidarity
ETU
CFMEU
AMWU
LHMU
CEPU
ANF
Victorian Trades Hall
ASF-IWA
Freedom Socialist Party
Australia Asia Worker Links
MUA

If your organisation would like to support the gathering, contact the above e-mail or phones.

Also Volunteers are needed during the gathering; if you like to help, send an e-mail or just call. Next Volunteers meeting Thursday October 12, 7 pm at Radio 3CR, 21 Smith Street Fitzroy.

Programs available asap in lasnet web