2011 has been a big year for Jura and political organising, and there’s plenty more to look forward to over the summer. Occupy Sydney continues into its third month, there will be plenty of gigs in the Jura library (powered by our solar system!) and a new Australian anarchist journal will be launched in early 2012.

But Christmas can be a trying time of year for many people. Despite the abundance of food, drink and company, we struggle with the massive overconsumption that besieges our society. This festive season, consider opting out of the corporate rat-race – make or grow your own gifts, give favours and skill shares to loved ones, or pick up some great radical material from Jura.

We will be open until the 24th of December and take a little break, reopening on January 4th.

Have a great holiday season. We'll see you in the streets!

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In this newsletter:
: End of Year Party – This Saturday night!
: Occupy Sydney Free School
: Occupy Sydney Continues
: Last Minute Gift Ideas
: Holiday Opening Hours
: 2012 Diaries
: Gigs @ Jura
: IWW Meeting
: Sedition - a new Australian Anarchist Journal
: Get Involved With Jura
: Jura Recommended Links

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We're gradually developing and enhancing our Web 2.0 skills. Click on
the links below to follow us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jura.books

Jura RSS feed: http://www.jura.org.au/rss.xml

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End of Year Party! – This Saturday 17th December, from 7.00pm at Jura

One of the most eventful years of class struggle is nearly at an end …

From the uprisings across Africa and the Middle East, to the streets of the UK and continuing with the Occupy movement in the West. People everywhere are rediscovering their radical imagination as we realise the crises we face is caused by failed systems and simply replacing leaders while keeping the old system intact will not help. Come celebrate the recent popular resistance and plot revolution with
your comrades at the End of Year party.

With awesome music from:
: The Blast
: Paul Spencer
: And More!

See https://www.facebook.com/events/255928341135292/

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Occupy Sydney Free School – This Saturday 17th December, 1.30-5.00pm at Martin Place

Occupy Sydney has been present in Martin Place almost continuously since 15th October 2011. A crucial part of the occupation is open public discussion of issues concerning humanity and the planet. Some of these discussions are organised into a ‘Free School’, held on most Saturday afternoons. Discussions this Saturday include:
: DIY renewable energy
: Workplace organising
: Experiences of Capitalism

See https://www.facebook.com/events/188621044565148/

Occupy Sydney Free School Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/313074415382939/

More information at:
http://www.occupysydney.org.au/getting-involved/free-school/

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Occupy Sydney Continues

The Occupation of Martin Place continues after eight weeks, despite continued harassment from police and authorities. Many occupiers have faced persecution and fines for a wide range of absurd charges including stealing milk crates. Despite this, many people from all over Sydney and New South Wales have continued to converge on Martin Place coming together over ideas of anti-capitalism and economic equality. To get involved or show your support, visit the Martin Place occupation and check out the various working groups or events that are happening around the occupation.

More information at: http://www.occupysydney.org.au/

Calendar of Events, including the Occupy Parramatta Forum this Saturday to show court solidarity:
http://www.occupysydney.org.au/participation/occupy-sydney-events-calend...

Twitter: http://twitter.com/occupysydmedia

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Need last minute gift ideas?

If you need to do some end-of-year gift shopping, why not come to Jura Books, support a radical project and get awesome presents at the same time? Jura has heaps of new books, DVDs and T-shirts to choose from, as well as gift vouchers. Or you could give someone the gift of being a Jura supporter – donating $10 per month to Jura gets the supporter a permanent 15% discount on everything in the shop.

To become a Jura Supporter, see http://www.jura.org.au/donate

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Holiday Opening Hours

Last-minute commodity fetish! Jura will be open 2-7pm on 21st – 24th December inclusive. We'll be closed on 25th December for holidays and will re-open on 5th January 2012.

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2012 Dairies – Slingshot and Black Wallaby

Get yourself organised for 2012 with a Slingshot Organiser. These aren't just any diary – they're also filled with radical dates from people's struggles, beautiful artworks and political articles. The Organisers available in heaps of colours and sizes for you to choose from, ranging from $7 to $13. Or you could select a Black Wallaby diary, a beautiful home-grown version – come check out the diaries in the shop!

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Gigs @ Jura

Jura has a number of upcoming gigs and shows including:

: Saturday 17th December – Jura’s End-of-Year Party featuring The Blast, Paul Spencer and others.

: Friday 30th December – Raein (from Italy).

: Saturday 14th January 2012 – Crouching 80s Hidden Acronym and Hopes featuring many others.

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IWW meeting - Saturday 21st January, 2:00-4:00pm at Jura

Jura Books will play host to a meeting of a working group that is aiming to revive the Industrial Workers of the World union in Sydney.

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Sedition – a new Australian Anarchist Journal

The first edition of ‘Sedition’ will be hitting the printers late January and distribution will begin in early February. The journal is a mutual collaboration between members of three geographically disparate Australian anarchist collectives – Jura Books, Melbourne Anarchist Club and Organise (the Adelaide anarchist communist group). The project aims to be a constructive medium for discussing ways forward for anarchist groups and anarchism in Australia, both in theory and praxis. A launch party will be held late February – please stay tuned!

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Get Involved At Jura!

Come along to a Jura working bee or collective meeting to help Jura be a better space. We're always in need of volunteers to keep the place going and start up new projects – without you it won't happen! Our next collective meeting is Saturday 21st January, 4.00pm @ Jura Books – come along!

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Some links that Jura recommends about Occupy:

: Video – Occupy Sydney: Operation Piñata – http://bit.ly/sCdNSe

: David Graeber – Occupy and Anarchism's Gift of Democracy –
http://bit.ly/sVuHHo

: Video – From the streets of Oakland: General Strike Footage –
http://bit.ly/vRUObo

Occupy the Ports!

: Blockading the port is only the first of many last resorts –
http://bit.ly/ve1L9z

: Video – Seattle and East Coast Ports Shutdown! - http://bit.ly/uQy217

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There are now 1206 people on this Jura email announcement list and 791 fans on facebook. Please continue to tell your friends about Jura and to 'like' us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jura.books

Love and rage from the Jura Collective.

440 Parramatta Rd, Petersham
02 9550 9931
http://www.jura.org.au
http://www.facebook.com/jura.books
jura@jura.org.au

Opening Hours:
Wednesday 2 - 7pm
Thursday 2 - 7pm
Friday 2 - 7pm
Saturday 12 - 5pm
Sunday 12 - 5pm

NB: Closed for the holidays from 25th December 2011, re-opening 5th January 2012.

A global movement is growing. From Egypt to Spain, from Greece to the United States, hundreds of thousands of everyday people are occupying. Occupy Sydney began on 15 October, with hundreds of people reclaiming Martin Place. Flanked by the imposing towers of the financial and political elites, where a handful of people make decisions which affect the whole society, a new democratic space was established.

Occupy Sydney created a non-hierarchical forum for open debate, where people began to have discussions and make decisions about things which affect our lives and communities. The occupy movement democratises the dominated and elitist spaces in our cities. Even if it is partly symbolic, it is immensely dangerous to the status quo. And although the structures of participation are in their early stages, this is still an extremely significant project - a playground of anarchism and democracy.

For the first time in years, the occupy movement has legitimised an anti-capitalist discourse - usually submerged in society and stifled by the media.

At Occupy Sydney, people developed relationships based on mutual respect, and voiced our shared outrage at the greed and illegitimate power of the 1% who rule us. People from diverse walks of life visited the occupation, painted signs, donated food and participated. Between 50 and 100 people stayed overnight for 8 nights.

In the early hours of Sunday 23 October, the police forcefully evicted Occupy Sydney from Martin Place. It was a clear reminder that State repression goes hand in hand with capitalism. Police took action to recapture the space for elites - symbolically and physically.

But within hours, an emergency meeting was organised, attended by over 200 people. And we made the decision to re-occupy. Occupy Sydney continues.

Who are we? We are the workers; we are the indebted; we are the immigrants and the indigenous; we are the homeless; we are the students; we are the unemployed; we are the under represented people of the world. We are the 99%.

And we invite you to join us.

At 12 midday on Saturday 5 November we will meet at meet at Town Hall and march to re-occupy. The Occupation is not over. It has only just begun.

-> Re-Occupy Sydney rally and march, 12pm Saturday 5 November, meet at Town Hall square.

Noam Chomsky recently visited Occupy Boston, and wrote, 'Just back from Occupy Boston, in its third week of occupation of a public square near the financial center, with a wonderful spirit of cooperation, lively discussions, and great promise, like many hundreds of others in the US, and a great many more elsewhere – though some are violently dispersed, as in Bahrain and, I read now, Australia.'

Next week Chomsky will be in Australia to accept the Sydney Peace Prize. Both of his speaking events in Sydney are sold out, however Jura has three tickets that we would like to offer to three people on this email list. The tickets are one full and two concessions to the event at 7pm on Wednesday 2 November at Sydney Town Hall. If you are interested, please reply to this email with your name, phone number, and whether you have a concession or not. We will allocate the tickets randomly to three people who email us by midday on Sunday 30th October. We'll let the winners know on Sunday afternoon.

The Chomsky forums have been going very well. Together, Jura, Mutiny and Cross Border Collective have organised 12 Chomsky events over the last three months. The smaller talks attracted between 10 and 20 people each, while the larger forums at UNSW, Sydney Uni and UTS were attended by 60, 80 and 100 people respectively! We have also handed out over 5,000 leaflets about Chomsky's politics (including his anarchist ideas) at 11 stalls, and put up over 1,000 posters around Sydney. We will be giving away 500 copies of Chomsky's 'Notes on anarchism' for free at Chomsky's speaking events. Dozens more gnomes have also been appearing around Sydney as part of the 'gnome rebellion'. For photos, check out http://www.chomskyforum.net/gnomes. To help us keep up this important work, please make a donation at http://www.jura.org.au/donate.

We have also been in touch with Noam himself, and he has agreed to meet with a few organisers of the Chomsky Forum to do a short interview with us. If you have a question that you would like us to ask Chomsky, please reply to this email with your ideas. We will be doing a debrief from this meeting and Chomsky's visit in general, where the interviewers will report back and play the interview. All welcome to come along and join the discussion.
-> Chomsky Forum report-back: What did Noam say and what does it mean for activism in Australia? 3pm Saturday 19 November, at Jura.

Reclaim the night! Rally at Town Hall at 6pm before marching to Martin Place for an evening of wonderful women speakers and performers canvassing issues of violence against women. Featuring investigative journalist Nina Funnell, Karen Willis from the Rape Crisis Centre, Sirens big band, Candy Royale. All welcome. http://www.jura.org.au/node/1659
-> Reclaim the night, 6pm Friday 28 October, at Town Hall.

Juracoustic is back and will enjoy the diverse sounds of Paul Mcadam (ukulele-slingin' acoustica), and Cameron Birt (folk punk), plus an open mic. It'll be Halloween too so get awesome and dress up! We'll have spooky jugs of iced tea and snacks by donation.
-> Juracoustic, 7.30pm Saturday 29 October, at Jura.

The Cross Border Collective, based in Sydney, works to create a world where people’s movement is not controlled in the interests of capital. Their reading and writing group gets together once a month to talk about a few articles they've read and to work towards writing articles, zines and other materials that they can use in the on-going campaign to break down borders at the nation-state level as well as other social, cultural, political and economic borders which operate to divide us. All welcome. The readings are linked at http://www.jura.org.au/node/1662. It's not essential to read these, although participants will gain much more from the conversation by having a look at them prior to coming.
-> Cross Border Collective reading group, 3pm Sunday 30 October, at Jura.

The Jura library has been going through an amazing transformation, with thousands of radical journals re-emerging from dusty storage. Lots of new books also need to be put on the shelves for borrowing. Help us to complete the process at our next library working bee.
-> Jura Library working bee, 12.30-6pm Friday 4 November, at Jura.

Jura is pleased to host a casual gathering for creative writing exercises and sharing feedback - the Inner Sydney Writers' Salon. Please inquire or RSVP via the Meetup group http://www.meetup.com/Inner-Sydney-Writers-Salon/
-> Inner Sydney Writers' Salon, 7pm Tuesday 8 November, at Jura.

Calling all Community Workers, Students, Activists and Thinkers! Can community organisations actually be a part of their community, instead of an arm of Government? Can our work contribute to transforming the social and economic realities that creates the need for ‘services’ in the first place? Community Work for Social Change invites you to take part in a collective process of reinvigorating our practice, from the bottom up. Speakers include Jack Mundey, Kate Lee, Christina Ho, Paula Abood, Lina Cabaero and more. http://www.jura.org.au/node/1642
-> Conference: Community Work for Social Change, 9am-4.30pm Wednesday 9 November, Hurstville Civic Theatre.

Come and party to celebrate Jeremy leaving the country and the coming global revolution! Featuring The Blast and others. http://www.jura.org.au/node/1649
-> Party, 7pm Saturday 12 November, at Jura.

All are also welcome to come to the next Jura Collective meeting to observe and/or get involved. We always need new ideas and new volunteers!
-> Jura Collective meeting, 4pm Saturday 12 November, at Jura.

Music can help build a better world: to express common and different values, dreams and stories through song. The 'Songs of Meaning and Power' weekend will create time and space for us to raise our voices and remember the songs that kept our ancestors and past social movements strong, including movements for peace, liberation and civil rights. The weekend will include a Friday night concert, theme-based music-sharing circles, workshops and a general music session on Saturday night. http://songweekend.wordpress.com/
-> 25 -27 November, Surry Hills and other locations.

Punk show at Jura, with Insepia, Intentions, Thorax, Zita Grimm.
-> 10 December. Check jura.org.au closer to the time for more details.

There are now 1,180 people on this Jura email announcement list, and 751 fans on facebook. Please sign up to the email list at http://lists.jura.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/specialannounce and like us on facebook. And keep telling your friends about Jura.

The gnomes are getting restless. They work hard in their gardens, workshops and mines. They're forced to buy genetically-modified seeds to grow food that they don't get to eat. Made to carve furniture that they never get to sit on, type emails that don't get read, and dig up stuff that pollutes the air their children breath. While the big bosses enjoy the fruits of their labour and live in luxury.

Gnomes are sick of working long hours for others' profit. They're sick of the destruction of the climate and the constant attacks on gnome community services and public welfare. They're sick of living isolated lives in the corners of gardens, and behind keyboards. Gnomes are sick of the racism, sexism and ablism that pits one gnome against another and paints all gnomes as less than human.

The gnomes have been discussing the ideas of their comrade Noam Chomsky. Celebrity Noam said 'At this stage of history, one of two things is possible: Either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community interests guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others, or alternatively there will be no destiny to control.'

Enough! The gnomes have decided to take action! They've turned off their TVs and logged out of facebook. They're making celebrities and self-appointed leaders irrelevant. Together, they've downed tools and gone on strike. They've taken to the streets and are speaking out - finding voices they never knew they had. From Annandale to Bondi Junction, Newtown to Broadway, the gnomes are occupying Sydney. Running stalls, talking to fellow gnomes, taking direct action. And the world is changing.

See photos of the gnome rebellion at http://www.chomskyforum.net/gnomes

Noam Chomsky is coming to Sydney in November. In the lead-up to his visit, activists from Jura, Mutiny and Cross Border are organising the Sydney Chomsky Forum - a series of events to explore his radical ideas and their relevance for making social change in Australia today.

Join the gnome rebellion!

Here at Jura Books the revolution has already started! If you think the revolutionary change is not going fast enough, you could always help by joining one of our many activities or starting a new one. Come and get involved! Jura is an anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist bookshop and organising centre. We stock thousands of political books, and are actively involved in movements for social change. There are lots of things we are doing and need help with: agitating for worker's control, publishing zines and pamphlets, building the website and computer infrastructure, organising the library, putting on talks and films, and doing shifts in the bookshop.

Jura also welcomes groups and individuals to use our space and resources to organise their own activities. If you have a left libertarian philosophy and need facilities, you are most welcome!