POLITICS AND OTHER THINGS

After working three straight days of at least 12 hours (12 on Wednesday, 14 on Thursday, 13 on Friday) and having to get up early on Saturday to go to and speak at a protest outside Villawood Detention centre, I was, for want of a better expression, totally fucked by Saturday afternoon. So much so that I went to sleep at 5pm Saturday afternoon and didn’t get up until after 9am Sunday morning. However on Sunday morning I woke up feeling very refreshed and ready to face the world again.

Now in a previous post Mr : Watermelon said:

"How exactly did this blog go from harsh political commentary to soapie?"

and you know what? He has a point. Thus while I was going to do a post in response to a tag this lady I will put this off again and will take this opportunity to explain to this lady what Anarcho-Syndicalism is , while starting off with my analysis of the political parties in Australia I used to comment on this lady’s blog.


However before going onto this a few house-keeping matters:

* The woman (you should all know which one) sent me a text message on Friday apologising for not replying sooner and indicating she still wants to "catch up". Is she still interested? Who knows (or who cares some of you may be thinking). We will see. I think I’ll leave the ball in her court now.

*AOF and Guru, I have to be down in Melbourne definitely for Friday the 25th of November. I have a few other things to do in Melbourne, but I’m not too sure if they will be before or after Friday. Once I’ve decided I will let you and everybody else know; if you want to be regaled with my stories of run-ins with the police and right-wing arseholes for political activities people, let me know.

*Justine, yes I have seen the Dinner Game. In fact it was one of the first movies I brought on DVD. However the ultimate anti-wine movie for me is "Sideways". I’m sorry, I find it hard to feel sorry for the main character given he is a major wine drinker. If it wasn’t for his love of wine I would feel so sorry for him; as it is I feel like tipping the bottles of wine over his head.

* Susanne, to me "Donnie Darko" (DD) and "Edward Scissorhands" (ES) both deal with Teenage alienation; the idea that as a teenager you feel that you hurt the ones you love. In ES Edward literally hurts those people he "touches", people he cares about. In DD, Donnie feels responsible for the death of his girlfriend, because it is he who dragged her to where she was run over. As he says to his mother "how does it feel having a fuck-up for a son?". They also both deal with something that can result from this alienation; teenage suicide. In ES, Edward "disappears" forever to escape the world that he feels (in some ways rightly) hates him. In DD, Donnie "sacrifices" himself for the good of his loved ones. Another thing both movies have in common is their belief in the bigotry that lies beneath the surface of white middle America. In ES, the dull, mindless, white middle class neighbourhood harbours a reservation to Edward and quickly turn on him when a problem arises because he is not one of them. In DD, Donnie’s Parents openly support George Bush (Senior) even though his election campaign was out and out racist, playing on the fear that African-Americans in White middle class America.


Now, my lead in to what Anarch-syndicalism is about is an analysis of the political parties in Australia.

The Liberals; They are pure evil. Their main philosophies are to steal from the poor to give to the rich and that the rich not only have the right to exploit the poor, but that it is the duty of the government to help them do this. They also believe that unless you are a rich, white, Anglo with Fascist leanings, then you are an inferior being whose life is expendable.

The Nationals: They are pure evil too and essentially believe the same thing as the Liberals, except when it comes to farmers. They view farmers as the most noble people on earth, no matter in-bred or how many sheep they have molested. In fact they believe you are not a real farmer unless you are in-bred and molest sheep.

The Australian Labor Party; A strange creature. Most of the parliamentary party and secretariat believe the same things as the Liberals, but the rank and file (ordinary members) and some of the parliamentary party believe the exact opposite. Thus they are a conflicted party that spend more time fighting one another than attacking the government.

One Nation, Australian Against Further Immigration etc: Pure stupidity AND pure evil. They hate Asians and "Ethnics" even though they have never come across any of them. Similarly they hate books and cans of deodorant. They also hold similar views on farmers as the Nationals.

Family First/Christian Democrats: These are religious fundamentalist parties like Al-Queda, except they are Christian fundamentalists. Like Al-Queda they choose obscure lines from the scriptures to justify their bigotry and hate, while ignoring the other 99% of the scriptures that preach love and tolerance of all people. However they are worse than Al-Queda because they also worship at the altar of the almighty dollar and thus support the Liberals economic policy.

Democrats: They often make up their policies as they go. They like to consider themselves socially progressive while being "fiscally responsible"; that is tight arsed economic rationalists. What they fail to realise (or ignore) is that economic rationalism causes social problems, and as such can’t be separated. Thus at times they can appear good; opposing mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and the anti-freedom, I mean anti-terrorism bill. At other times they mimic the Liberals economic policy, eg the GST and the Workplace relations act.

The Greens: A party committed to the equality of all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, religion, social origin etc. Their economic policies are based on the humane ideal that nobody should have more than they need when others are living in poverty.

Anarcho-sydnicalists: They are not actually a party, because they believe the state is the ultimate evil, and as such they cannot participate in it. They hold the same ideals as the Greens, but they believe that this can only be achieved by direct action from working people. All anarcho-syndicalysts are extremely noble and intelligent people.

As the good old Wikipedia says:

Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labor movement, hence the "syndicalism" qualification. Anarcho-syndicalists view labor unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and most forms of private property, which leads to class divisions. The basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism are:

1. Workers’ solidarity
2. Direct Action
3. Worker’s Self management.


However Wikipedia then says:

Some Anarcho-Syndicalists believe that only direct action — that is, action concentrated on directly attaining a goal, as opposed to indirect action, such as electing a representative to a government position — will allow workers to liberate themselves.

In reality, all true Anarcho-Syndicalists believe that only direct action will allow worker’s to liberate themselves. This is what separates them from Marxists/Communists with whom they share some similar views.

Marxists/Communists believe in the need for a "revolutionary vanguard", a political party that will lead the revolution and participate on some level in the political process. For Anarcho-syndicalists this is a heresy; by having an established political party you become part of the state you are trying to overthrow, and by having a party structure, you have a hierarchy which is supposed to be eliminated in a classless society. Thus this is contradictory to, and an impediment to eliminating the state.

The other main area of difference is the arrangement after a revolution. For Marxists/Communists there is the need for the state to be maintained initially via a "dictatorship of the proletariat", which will eventually cause the state to wither away. For Anarcho-Syndicalists, the state must be abolished immediately, otherwise the "dictatorship" will become entrenched and never relinquish power.

YGWIN you referred to me as a "Pinko", though in a nice way. The term "Pinko" was initially used to refer to somebody with Marxist/Communist "sympathies", a "watered down" version of red, the colour traditionally associated with Communists/Marxists. However I don’t have Marxist/Communist sympathies; I have Anarcho-Syndicalist sympathies, whose "political colours" are red and black. Thus you should refer to me as the Grey Pinko, YGWIN.

Well, I think that’s all for now. For those of you who made it to the end, Well done!