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October 2009

Blood & Honour… in the ‘Sunday Herald Sun’!

No place for race hatred Editorial November 1, 2009 THERE is no place in a modern multicultural society such as ours for race-hate groups. Sadly, they do exist. One that has recently come to our attention is an insidious neo-Nazi group calling itself the Australian chapter of Blood and Honour. Members of this group profess hatred for Africans, Asians, Jews, [...]

Continue reading at slackbastard …

Songs for a Sunday

More urban guerrilla attacks in Greece
taxikipali
libcom.org
October 30, 2009

Two more urban guerrilla attacks occurred in Athens and Salonica respectively within 24 hours of the armed attack against a police station in Athens [see : Police station attack tests Greek government, John Hadoulis/AFP, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 28, 2009]. A time-bomb hit the house of a leading conservative politician in Athens and another explosive mechanism hit the Spanish consulate in Salonica. At the same time confusion reigns over the communique with which a new armed group appears to be claiming responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.

Within only 24 hours of the Tuesday armed attack against the police station of Agia Paraskevi in Athens which has left 6 police officers seriously wounded (two remain in intensive care), two more attacks, with explosives this time, have come to add up tension to the already heated social and political climate in greece.

On the early hours of Friday 30 of October, a time-bomb hit the entrance of the house of a leading conservative politician, Ms Marietta Giannakou, causing material damage but no human injuries, as a phone-call by the urban guerrillas to the press had warned of the explosion. Ms Giannakou is the leading MEP of the now in opposition New Democracy right-wing party, and was the Minister of Education during the massive movement against educational reforms in 2006-2007. The attack against Ms Giannakou’s house has been claimed through a long communique by the Nuclei of Fire Conspiracy who amongst other things used the opportunity to communicate their views against anarchist participation in educational protest marches, professing once again their self-proclaimed nihilist platform.

Earlier this week the Minister of Public Order, Mr Chrisochoidis, has gone public urging the 6 persons wanted in relation to the Nuclei of Fire bomb campaign to surrender, arguing that the State will show leniency due to [their yoof].

The same night in Salonica, the Spanish Consulate was hit by an explosive mechanism. A communique by a first appearing group has claimed the attack was in solidarity to Amadeu Casellas, a long-term anarchist prisoner in Spain. [According to one source, "the attack in Thessaloniki has been claimed by the “international chamber for the diffusion of revolutionary violence”...".] Last week more explosive mechanisms in Salonica had hit several MP offices, including the office of the Deputy Minister of Public Order, Mr Vougias, as well as the house of the extreme-right minded Archbishop of Salonica.

The new attacks come to add to the climate of escalating tension in the country, to which considerable confusion was added by a communique published on Friday in the daily press, claiming responsibility for the Tuesday attack against the police station of Agia Paraskevi. The communique which employs long quotes from the Communist Party leader during the Civil War, Nikos Zachariadis, as well as from the Communist International, is signed by the acronyms OPLA, the name of the Communist Party “Groups for the Protection of People’s Struggle’, [Organization for the Protection of the People's Struggle (Greek: Οργάνωση Προστασίας Λαϊκού Αγώνα, abbreviated ΟΠΛΑ - OPLA)] an elite corps of combat units and intelligence teams during the Civil War, notorious for assassinations of both monarchofascists and political opponents within the communist movement. Besides changing the acronym to now mean “Groups of Popular Proletarian Self-Defense”, the communique consists largely of paraphrases of the original text announcing the forming of OPLA in the 1940s, urging “the organisation of structures of mass popular self-defense” against state and parastate repression. The Communist Party of Greece has responded angrily, denouncing the communique as a provocation and a mockery of history and the armed struggle of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE). The authenticity of the communique remains highly disputed and controversial.

I was stopped by a soldier, said he, “You are a swine”
He beat me with his baton and he kicked me in the groin
I bowed and I scraped, sure me manners were polite
But all the time I’m thinking of me little Armalite…

Sure a brave RUC man came up into our street
Six hundred British soldiers were gathered round his feet
“Come out, ye cowardly Fenians”, said he, “Come out and fight”
But he cried, “I’m only joking”, when he heard the Armalite

See also : Racism and fascist violence in Northern Ireland PLUS (June 18, 2009) | The Mother of a Thousand Dead Still Not Quite Dead… Yet (March 12, 2008)

The Jerusalem Post Slams Amnesty International – Again

If you only got your news from the Jerusalem Post, you’d think that Amnesty International was the vilest, most hate-filled organization on the planet. You’d probably think it was a branch of Hamas. You’d probably have no idea that it’s actually…

Continue reading at Don Emmerich's Peace Blog …

With Respect to Mondragon

This, if it is true, is a very sad report.

The Mondragon Experiment, except for their ignorance of social ecology, was a very promising alternative socialist organization.

They formed successful workers' cooperatives, which spawned others, and they grew to relieve poverty and disaffection in their isolated region.

The problems started as they grew too big and began to need to integrate their business operations with the Capitalist world that surrounded them. The expediency of business operations and personal greed began to outweigh the egalitarian and solidarity principles based on the ICA principles.

Although they carefully built a very democratic cooperative corporate governance model, the complexity of large-scale operations and the accelerating pace eventually began to erode the vigilance and influence of the holders of the founding principles.

If I were beginning a socialist business entity, I would most certainly start with Mondragon, their founding principles and their early history as a positive example. I would study where they went wrong and try to devise mitigating interventions so that the new socialist economy was not corrupted.

The problem is that there IS a Capitalist system, where corporations have certain strategies and tactics (e.g. diversification, economy of scale, worker and environmental exploitation and the eschewing of those costs, etc.) to defeat small business. Otherwise, I'd suggest that the next Mondragon stick to the small mutualist business model and form community alliances only. However, that would not be realistic and successful. As long as there are corporate capitalist conglomerates, it will be impossible to build an alternative socialist economy.

We need world unity, understanding and cooperation.

Nothing less.


Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA

Molly’sBlog 2009-10-31 16:54:00


CANADIAN LABOUR/INTERNATIONAL LABOUR:
VALE INCO SOLIDARITY IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC:
As Molly has mentioned before the United Steelworkers who are on strike against Vale Inco in Ontario and Newfoundland have been busy building international solidarity across 4 continents, amongst other workers who are employed worldwide by this corporation. The following item from Radio Australia tells about their recent visit to New Caledonia ( known as Kanaky amongst the locals) where Vale Inco also operates. In previous posts Molly has mentioned the fact that, considering we live in an age of the internet and 'teleconferencing' that it may be perceived that sending certain privileged members of the USW on worldwide jaunts might "come back to haunt" the leadership of the USW, especially if the strike ends as something less than an obvious victory.The membership could easily perceive that these trips were a frivolous use of the strike fund, and maybe they are.
Here's another thing that may later come back to haunt the leadership of the USW. As previously mentioned the USW has had a previous solidarity agreement with the USTKE in Kanaky as per unions representing workers employed by Vale Inco across the world. The USTKE has ties with both the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-F and the ex-communist CGT in France. Despite the fact that the previous agreement was with the USTKE the Steelworkers' travelling solidarity/vacation delegation decided to accept an invitation from the colonial branch plant union in New Caledonia of the French Force Ouvriere (FO) union confederation. Molly has discussed the various union confederations in France previously on this blog. The FO may legitimately be characterized as a 'right wing' union federation, from its origin as a split from the CGT (perhaps engineered by the CIA), through its continued existence as an alliance of right wing social democrats and right wing Trotskyists whose major (only ?) raison d'etre was to oppose the CGT.
Now, this may not have as great an influence in Canada as the possibility that, if the strike ends up as even a partial failure, that there will be questions about the money spent on the various foreign trips. Still, it should have at least some relevance. The USW has ignored the previous requests for solidarity against state repression from the USTKE, and now they have bypassed them entirely on their tour in favour of a union that was not part of the original solidarity agreement, a union that might be seen as an "agent" of the present conservative French government in its attempt to suppress a more militant alternative in one of its colonies. I'll leave the literate reader to suggest an appropriate word for such actions on the part of the USW. In any case, here's the story from Radio Australia.
ILILILILILILILIL
New Caledonian unions back Canada's striking Vale workers:
Unions representing ( some of the -Molly ) workers at the Vale Inco nickel mine in New Caledonia have agreed to back strike action taken by their counterparts in Ontario, Canada. The Worker's Force trade union has hosted two of the workers who have been on strike for three and a half months, as well as a representative from the United Steel Workers (USW) union. It's part of a global push for support by the union, which has also held talks with Vale workers in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales. The visit comes just weeks after the Worker's Force union sent a letter to the president of New Caledonia, asking him to investigate reports that workers at the local Vale Inco mine were over-worked and under-trained. They've also raised concerns about a series of environmental issues at the plant, which they believe has jeopardised the safety of the workers. Speaking to Helene Hofman from the capital Noumea, the research director for Canada's United Steel Workers union, Charles Campbell, said the Canadians employed by the Brazilian miner had similar concerns.
Presenter: Helene Hofman
Speakers: Research director for Canada's United Steel Workers Union, Charles Campbell
CAMPBELL: The experiences have definitely point to similarity and when in Australia and here, we have definitely found when we describe our situation, the workers nod their heads and raise similarities that they have seen since Vale bought their company in case of here in New Caledonia, its 2006, in Australia, its 2007. Again they have seen many of the same efforts and practices on the part of the company to roll back things that workers have fought for over the years.
HOFMAN: I understand those things are, for example, pensions and I know there have been some concerns in New Caledonia that under training and under working employees. Are those the kind of problems you are talking about?
CAMPBELL: That is definitely among them, I mean the tension system in Canada is so completely different that it is not an exact parallel, but the problem that Vale Inco is trying to operate its facilities without giving people the proper training or adequate staffing. What we here from the people of New Caledonia definitely matches up with what we see happening back in February, where for the first time in Inco's history, they say they are going to start production without our 3,000 members, who normally make the mines, the mills, the smelters work. They started training people who either un union or people who are members of our union, but under a different agreement for the office workers and so they are training the office workers to do the work in the mines and the smelters. It's actually hard to believe that they are serious about that, but if they are serious about it, they could have the same kind of problems in February that they have had here in New Caledonia with the workers not being properly trained.
HOFMAN: So from your end, you've now garnered the support of these workers unions in New Caledonia and also in Australia. What have you been able to give them in return?
CAMPBELL: For now, it's principally, the exchange of information, the commitment to stay in touch, the commitment that when if they find themselves on strike or otherwise in conflict with Vale, that we will definitely provide whatever support we can and to continue building ties for the long term as well. Because in a world where Vale and for that matter other companies are more and more operating internationally and they certainly coordinate their policies between Canada and Australia and New Caledonia. We need to be equally active in making sure that the workers on their side are doing everything they can to support each other.
HOFMAN: And then I guess in New Caledonia, the Vale Inco facility does not go into production until January. I suppose that is what you have heard from their case, it is probably then that they are going to need your support?
CAMPBELL: Vale Inc has announced that their mine here in New Caledonia will start production in January. What we've found in general here, both from the workers who work here and also from others in the community is there is a lot of scepticism as to whether that will really happen between the concern about the acid leak and other events there and indications that the process is not working nearly as well as the company would have hoped. It is not clear to us that they really are going to start in January. It may well and among the points of similarity, I mean time will tell on this, but we begin to see indications that when they say they are going to start production in February with people who don't know how to do the work, or they say they are going to start production in January in New Caledonia, and it's widely thought that that just is not technically possible, that they may be doing more in the way of trying to propagandise and scare our members into accepting concessions that they are just not going to accept as opposed to really setting out what is going to happen.

The Picket Line — 1 November 2009

1 November 2009

In the eighth section of the sixth book of The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle takes a closer look at practical wisdom, and its relation to the political arts, to universal and particular knowledge, and to intuition.

Practical wisdom, or prudence (phronesis), is one of the five faculties by which people can grasp the truth. Aristotle covered it in section three of this book, where he said that it is a virtue of the deliberative part of the rational part of the soul that manifests as the ability to deliberate about what actions would be beneficial and expedient in leading a life of virtue and eudaimonia.

Here (and in the trailing paragraphs of section seven, which some people fold into this section), he has a few more things to say about it:

  • Practical wisdom is concerned with down-to-earth, human things, and things that it makes sense to deliberate about — that is, things that have a purpose that human action can influence (there’s no reason, for instance, to deliberate about whether to grow old or not).
  • Practical wisdom requires knowledge of both universals and particulars. In this respect, it is like Philosophy (see section seven), though Philosophy concerns itself with impractical-though-interesting things. The “universals” and “particulars” bit has to do with the syllogism. For example:
    All men are mortal (universal)

    Socrates is a man (particular)

    ∴ Socrates is mortal (practical wisdom about Socrates!)
    You can go wrong in practical wisdom by failing to know the truth about either the universal or the particular. For instance:
    Cans that are swollen may contain rotten food that can make you sick (universal)

    The food you’re about to eat came from a swollen can (particular)

    ∴ You may get sick if you eat it (practical wisdom about your future!)
    In this case, if you have faulty understanding of either the universal truth about swollen cans or of the particular truth about the can you’ve just opened, you’ll lack the important practical wisdom that will keep you from getting sick. Or, try on this anarchist syllogism:
    Theft is wrong (universal)

    Taxation is a variety of theft (particular)

    ∴ Taxation is wrong (practical wisdom)
    You need the universal, the particular, and the logical process in order to get to the conclusion, and you can go wrong at any of these stages. Intuition will get you the universal, but it may take practical wisdom itself to get you the particular from which you can draw appropriate conclusions.
  • Practical wisdom comes under different headings, depending on the sphere in which it is exercised. For example:
    headingsphere
    prudenceself-government
    domestic managementhome economics
    legislationthe universal principles of politics
    deliberative governmentexecutive government; the carrying out in particular cases of the universals enacted by legislation
    judicial government

    The varieties of practical wisdom, from R.W. Browne’s The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (1889)

    The varieties of practical wisdom, from J.H. Muirhead’s Chapters from Aristotle’s Ethics (1900)

    The varieties of practical wisdom, from Alexander Grant’s The Ethics of Aristotle (1874)

  • People who apply practical wisdom in their own lives are considered people of practical wisdom, while those who apply it to other peoples’ lives (for instance, the legislators, deliberators, and judges in the list above) “are considered meddlesome.” But Aristotle asks us to consider whether it might be impossible for most people to mind their own business if some people didn’t try to apply their wisdom to problems of the community, and whether it is possible to mind your own business without at the same time minding the business, at least to some extent, of those you interact with, either in your household or in the community at large.
  • While it’s possible for a young person to be a savant with a genius understanding of something like mathematics, practical wisdom seems to be something that must be acquired through long experience. Aristotle thinks this is because expertise in mathematics largely requires an intellectual understanding of abstract universals, while practical wisdom requires actual encounters with real-life particulars. When you teach a young savant a mathematical truth, he or she grasps it as a truth immediately; but when you teach a truth of practical wisdom, the same student may have reason to be skeptical and to need to see that truth exemplified in real-life examples first before he or she can internalize it into his or her worldview.
  • Practical wisdom concerns things of “common sense” — knowledge that like that gained via Intuition (see section six) is known but cannot be justified via logical deduction from other facts. However, knowledge gained by Intuition has to do with general, universal “first principles,” while the knowledge of practical wisdom has to do with particulars. The sense we use to gain this knowledge is the one we use when, for instance, we see a drawing of a triangle and think “that is a triangle” without actually measuring the angles and counting the sides. It is the sense that allows us to go from an observation to a particular fact, breaking out of the potentially endless loop of skeptical ratiocination to decide “aha! I know such-and-such about such-and-such, so there.”

Comment on today’s Picket Line!

Refuge of Oppression #7: I Blame The Victim edition

This is a recent bit of correspondence that I received from an anonymous victim-blamer through my online contact form. Apparently in response to my post from October 2007 on Officer Dan Gilroy, a grown-ass man who has no problem using his position as government police to repeatedly punch 15-year-old black girls in the face over allegedly walking outside after midnight. Our anonymous correspondent thinks that Shelwanda Riley — the 15-year-old victim of Officer Dan Gilroy’s sado-fascist power-trip anger management problem — is the one whose conduct ought to be at issue. And would like us to know, I guess, that she ought to feel grateful that the pig didn’t break her ribs or something:

From: Anonymous (no e-mail address provided)
Date: 10/28/2009 10:47 AM
Subject: Shelwanda Riley (radgeek.com feedback form)

I know this is old. I just saw the youtube video of the cop and the resister. That girl was fortunate to only have been beaten as badly as she was for the terrible behavior she exhibited. Police brutality is different with each situation, and if I was that cop… The cops will not mess with anyone who is not acting stupidly.

Oh, O.K., what with the girl walking alone at night and not doing exactly what this hyperviolent control-freak ordered her to do, well, obviously she was asking for it. Of course.

The Easter Bunny On the DTCC

From Bob O’Brien’s “Sanity Check,” a succinct account of why the “fail to deliver” problem is a big and serious one: • The DTCC, via Cede & Co., is the registered owner of all shares held in “Street Name,” which are all shares in margin accounts. • Margin accounts represent the bulk of independent investor account types. • [...]

The FSA, with both guns blazing!!!

       The current scandal on insider trading on Wall St. with regards the Galleon hedge fund and some other big guns in the rip-off money club seems to have come to court because of the authorities using wire tapping and other forms of surveillance. It is not unusual in the US to see these sort of affairs hit the headlines and the courts, after all there is plenty of that sort of thing about, it is the way big business works, but not here in the UK, we are a bit more refined. You see here in the UK financial world it is gentlemen that you’re dealing with. If you need proof of this then the outcome of the UK Financial Services Authority “investigation” into insider trading should be proof enough. When the British Financial Services Authority thought that there might be some dirty dealings, sorry, insider trading, they became utterly ruthless and sent a letter to all the UK financial institutions asking if they knew of any evidence of insider trading. Naturally nobody seems to have had any knowledge of this sort of thing, after all, this the UK, we would never dream of indulging in such grubby events. You might make a lot of money, but would you be able to sleep at night?
      
ann arky's home.
Categories: Anarchism

Rodin, controversy, direct carving

Towards the end of the 19th century there was a big to do regarding the fact that Rodin didn't do all of his work on stone sculptures himself. Instead, he had assistants rough them out and went in and did the finishing touches afterwards. People were concerned that they weren't getting 100% Rodin's. Sounds straightforward, right? After all, what are finishing touches anyways? It's not that