Smells like fascism...Paris will never be defeated by the sour killers of daesh

Clouds over Paris

Why do I love Paris? It was the city me dad was in during the Second World War and where as a fifteen year old he fought nazis. Smuggling, helping people escape to the rat line. Every time I go there, and I was last there in October this year, I think of him when I see the monuments and plaques that still remind us of young lives lost fighting fascism and this week again, fascism struck taking one hundred and thirty lives Struck down doing only one thing in common, living. 

There has been that much cod spoken following the terrorist attack in Paris it could repopulate the North Sea. Writers on the left and right have been busy, often being wise after the event. The most depressing are the pious, sanctimonious, left wing warriors of comment threads with their smoke and mirror words along the lines of "although this this been terrible and in no way do I support the terrorists haven't we (the advantaged) brought it on ourselves." The victims in these statements, although not explicitly stated are the murderers who are 'disadvantaged' and have no where to go but to fire automatic weaponry into crowds of people eating, watching sport, music-in short being sinful by enjoyment and then blow themselves up with belt bombs designed to cause maximum carnage."

Then there are the white "I hate muslims" Like Reclaim Australia/Patriot Front hybrids here in Australia. Wanting us to believe all muslims by being muslim are budding terrorists just waiting to go off like shit house doors in a gale! The new "Reds under the Beds"

Here in Australia, thank goodness for the sanity of Waleed Aly "ISIL wants to split the world into two camps...they want us all to become hostile...make muslims the enemy of the west." Why give them that opportunity. Let us remind ourselves what the caliphate preachers want. A society where woman are subservient to ignorant and egotistical, testosterone driven men. Where if you are gay you will be executed. Where if you are different, you will stand out and be crushed. Where life has small value against an afterlife which for blessed martyrs (those pathetic morons who blow themselves into mince) amounts to coming into a paradise akin to a male, porno experience-how many virgins and why? Where there is only one form of acceptable fascism and all other forms of belief are unbelievers to be destroyed and killing them gives you fly-bys to paradise. Where enjoyment, love, most music, poetry, art is a sin.

But they are destroyers not creators. These destroyers of life are hypocrites and bullies and for all of their agression-cowards. For all the orange suited social media cutting of throats-it is no more than little men being big in their own eyes, killing kittens. They are in a particular dream time of history, a choking dust that can never nourish life or creativity. Shackled in shite, they are no better than the nazis and like them, eventually  they will be consigned to the dustbin of failure, crushed under the aspiration of freedom. People don't want to be suffocated by totalitarian ideologies or told by muppets with beards and long robes what to believe. Freedom fighters? They are the complete opposite-oppressors stamping on what they cannot possess and control - soul.

But what I love about Paris is that within two days people were back in the cafes, on the terraces raising a glass to life and finger to daesh fascism. Paris, for all of its shortcomings will always stand up to this shite. Smells like fascism? It is fascism. One more joyless cause promoting death and slavery. Paris, however, remains a beacon, a city of love that dares to dream.

Why the Picket at Hutchinson's is a Line in the Sand for Workers: Sydney August 2015

Botany Sydney Sunday Morning Picket

There are mornin's as of late when Belgo Geordie awakes in a cold sweat. There's ghosties parading threw an old man's dreams. Tha tramp and spark of hob nailed boots hitting the long road down to London. Miners, dock workers, steel workers, seamen, labourers on the Jarrow March to take it to those sittin in the  Parliament. They didn't have much materially but fire in their bellies, passion and a commitment to working people second to none. Whole communities walked and on the journey educated the country.

An' I'm thinking what has it all been for? In the 1930s our grandparents fought for better working rights and safer wok environments, universal suffrage, they stood against fascism and stood for better representation of working people, a decent health, housing and education system. For our women, bairns, for our future, a better world...not just our backyard, our workplace but because it was the right thing to do-for all! And this includes if there was a strike or injustices happening across the world, there was solidarity through the union movement to the struggles of others. But today in modern Sydney, it takes the likes of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) to tell oos the fight is still on, and all that was gained will not be taken from us as easily as yon capitalist, neo-libs and nat libs might think, believe and hope.
See, having joost been away, I get back to Sydney to hear Hutchinson's have sacked near one hundred of their workers and in a way that can only be described as mongrel. Well to quote the Sydney Herald "Hutchinson Ports, Australia sent nearly 100 employees (97 it appears and 40% of Hutchinson'd Australian workforce) across the nation in a text just before midnight (my italics) on Thursday night telling them their services were no longer required and directing them to an email with information about their termination." Mrs Belgo Geordie had to use a crowbar to get the old man's jaw bone out of the floorboards. Then if that is not enough to send me to the nettie with an attack of mushy peas in curry sauce, Federal minister Eric Abetz cums up with summat along the lines of "Nowt wrong in sending these buggers their notice by text" Its obviously to be applauded as an efficiency his Government has been striving to achieve. Think of the savings Hutchinson's made on not having' ta send a letter, envelope and stamp x 100. Not ta mention it wouda not made it there by midnight. No penalty rates for pidgun delivery these days of competition, price cuts an all else dear to stoney hearts and fat wallets. Talk about not having the guts to look in someone's eyes when you shaft them!
So when most folk in Sydney were still shivering oonder doonas (posh blankets) and recovering from the Wallabies rattling the fillings of the Mighty All Blacks we went down to the Hutchinson's picket line to yarn with the comrades. Although it had been a cold night, morale was good and the kitchen was going overtime with bacon butties, coffee and there was good sized logs smouldering in the braziers. But the generator number three was as boogered as first two! A good dozen men had stayed out the cold night to make an important point. The picket is a 24 hours, seven days a week action. The employer had a good go at getting the oxymoron of the 'Fair Work Commission' to declare the picket illegal (as reported by some rags on Friday). The MUA took that up flagpole and told them to consider unfair dismissal-and its usual bromide-a lack of consultation with those losing their employment and their representatives- and see if where the sun does not shine in their court might want to have a good long think on things over the weekend...so stalemate, a picket, a line of security staff (to stop those employed, sacked but still in work by FWC definition you would hope, from going on with their rightful business; entering their work site.)

THE Paul Keating, waterside worker and good man

So I had a long chat with Mr Keating about what troubled him enough to be out in the cold on this Sunday morning. Simple stuff when it all boils down. Of the near one hundred sacked, a large percentage were either union organisers, delegates or part of the safety committee. Smells of a targeted lay off. Then there is this. Hutchinson's have in many ways been seen as a union supportive employer until this. The union had negotiated an enterprise bargaining agreement reducing full time hours in order to allow the employer TO HIRE MORE STAFF! The much vaunted excuse, down-turn in economy, falling profits, technology not requiring such a large workforce had been parts of the bargaining. But suddenly Hutchinsons turns feral-no consultation-sackings by text at Midnight and too many prominent union members from both Brisbane and Sydney out on their arses. Mr Keating was very polite, vert articulate and somewhat pissed off at the turn of affairs. And who can blame him as there appears to be shenanigans at work to pull staff from other areas of the port (and other employers) to cover the work done by those sacked. A familiar ring. And even more familiar and bell tolling...to maybe contract this very work out on a as needs basis. Casualisation of employment and reduction of more full time, permanent positions. Mr Keating struck me as a clear thinker, reasonable but with vision and a good overview of the bigger picture. He acknowledged the broad grass root support the picket was getting from a range of unions and not to mention the broader MUA community.

Likewise this is a human tragedy. You can taste the damage this has had on the lives of those workers being laid off. The woman who spoke from Brisbane on yon television who said with three members of her family turfed out, who is going to pay the bills and keep their heads above water? The guy who said he has just gotten married and has a mortgage. Do the employers care? Are profits so poor they won't get their bonuses, won't be able to send their kids to private schools, might have to ditch one of the family holidays. Na, they will still be rolling in it. The company said to be worth HK$433 billion-not small change and including owning half of Vodaphone Australia. But they won't loose sleep because it is not impacting on them, other than a picket line on their doorstep and a rumble of discontent emerging from a range of unions as this Government continues to oversee a robber baron mentality of doing business. Good to see all the messages of support from other unions!

Photograph by Sam Camilleri-alias Pablo

Security...

Aye, well this were of interest like. Most of the security folk looked like new immigrants and you have to feel for them. A job of work is employment but they are the shit in this sandwich not of their making. Like the police who were not on view but had a big van parked at front.

So, why is this a line in the sand? A thin edge of wedge? Because we, as a union movement and what we represent need to see this as a wake up call. The drongos think the MUA and the more militant unions (the ones that speak up and put their collective bollocks on the line) are ones they can get good media copy by taking on, trashing and making ineffective. They think the Australian public is gullible enough to swallow another round of 'reds under the bed' alongside 'belt tightening for the greater good' etc. Worked for Thatcher in UK (Miners and the Militant-but only because Murdoch unleashed his hounds of tattle in an attempt to destroy Arthur Scargill); Muldoon in NZ (Seamens Union). Here MUA and Patrick's. Then see the Great Big Commission of Enquiry into Bad Unions the NatLibs are running. Evidence? Threadbare at best. Next to bronnys expense 'I work hard being me therefore I deserve it' and the goons currently wanting life time entitlement out of the public purse and for shame three of them being Labor! Nowt to answer to comrades when put against the good union involvement has achieved. But in a good employer turning feral, we should all take heed. The Tories are desperate for success to lift their game and what better way than through short term global neo liberal capitalist crap at the expense not just of workers and their families but the viability and sustainability of our communities. Of that they will have the media half truth tellers at their beck and call. Everyone likes to believe the big bad union bogey is keeping decent folk away from proper 'flexible' working conditions of casual employment and greater employer powers to sack or just not re-hire. Well yes, it is the union that is making a stand against the persistent erosion of working conditions not to mention undermining work place safety. Getting rid of safety officers/committees-are they barmy. The Ghost of past cums back ta haunt! Today MUA...tomorrow, if Hutchinsons win this one...we are all in deep shit...who is that I hear knocking on my door (or should that be inbox) at midnight...

We had better hope so...support the picket!

* See Woolies are Bullies-New Matilda Is there summat in the water-the closure of a warehouse in Melbourne drew the following in the article:

"In making its decision to pack up and leave, Woolworths did not consult with any stakeholders. There was no respect for any worker, any community member. They timed their meetings with the Union, the Victorian Industry Minister's office, the workforce and the media all for the afternoon of June 9.

Most workers were informed of the decision by text message. There was not even a veneer that any Corporate Social Responsibility considerations were taken into account. This is not good enough."

Adam Goodes...A Hero in our Time

This is an Australian of the Year-photograph by Paul Miller/AAP

And further more: What is their not to like about this man?

http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/after-the-furore-meet-the-real-adam-goodes-20160111-gm39aa.html

Tom Uren Memorial Fund and Review of Straight Left-Tom Uren's autobiography

STRAIGHT LEFT-TOM UREN Random House Australia (1994)

Having lived here in Australia only since 2008 I am still playing catch up with Australian politics and the history of the left in particular. One man seems to stand out-with few enemies-but undoubtably a warrior of the left. Tom Uren in his autobiography gives an entertaining crash course in Labor politics since the Second World War up till the 1990s. An Australian member of parliament for 32 years. Minister in the Whitlam and later Hawke governments but he is so much more than that. Mr Uren is a character in his own write! His chronicling of his growing up, his war service and internment, his attempt to forge a career out of boxing and then his slow growth into political animal is fascinating. I chuckled over his judging of character vis a vis what would the bloke be like to share a bag of rice with (from internment). But mostly I warm to his now old fashioned socialist politics when the left had a vision, a constituency which it wanted to represent and a belief in the basic decency of society and our responsibility to uphold and nurture this. There is sections where my eyes met in the middle (as with most autobiographies-which fascinate the writer more than the reader) but these passages are rare. Mostly I felt informed and came away from this book feeling both educated and reminded of how much socialism has been an integral part of my life. And that today, it makes me a dinosaur to so many and how much the political oxygen we now breathe is driven by free market and centrist ideology. Mr Uren you have balls and the world is a better place for you having done the work you have and forged the vision into something practical and tangible. I hope your book, will inspire some young mind to think things can and should be different from today and the reader can and will want to make a difference as you have.

"Utopia' a documentary by John Pilger

I remember John Pilger as an investigative journalist for the Daily Mirror when it still had socialist balls and investigative journalist meant summat. Informed us like. Talk to Australians today about John Pilger (although mostly living overseas he is one of Australia's sons-the generation who went to London to work and who grew up on Sydney's eastern beaches); they mostly loath him, dislike him or are indifferent. Shades of Chomsky-he can be intractable, uncomfortable and too often right. Unlike Chomsky-you will never die not knowing John Pilger's line of argument. He speaks straight, honed on journalism, his words bite but are as clear as bells ringing. Something of 'shoot the messenger' seems to dog his footsteps here in Australia. Lots of people tell me how often Pilger has got it wrong but are short on saying exactly how other than in minor detail how that is -he is an investigative journalist by trade and is an assiduous fact checker. The wrong is only when he launches into opinion, many of which he has, uses and is happy to put out into the narrative of colonisation and global politics. His documentary on Indonesian sweatshops producing labels of the 90s we all wore with pride was something else I remember, it stopped me wearing my favourite deep blue shirt, once I knew the true cost of its making. Then there were the 1989 book "A Secret Country" and the peeling back of the facade of Australia as a lucky country-for some but not all. Reading this then was a profound shock and realisation how far ahead New Zealand was in addressing biculturalism and the tragedy of European colonisation. (Not too far but in comparison...) The book apparently rose from his 1985 documentary of the same name.

And thus Utopia. Released in 2013 and 110 minutes.
This if anything is the story of the destruction caused to Aboriginal communities through the intervention and invisibility of Aboriginal people through mainstream Australia. "The universal theme of the film" says John Pilger, "is that the world is dividing into two groups - those who prosper in material comfort zones, as most Australians do, and those who are dispossessed because they are "different" and refuse to comply. It's a dystopian project that says indigenous people cannot live in their homelands - they can't live differently, they must be assimilated, they must be like us." (My italics and notes from Anthony Hayward). Utopia is the most disadvantaged area of Australia. No utilities, grinding poverty and poor access to services most of Australia takes for granted. This is the core of what makes movements like Reclaim Australia evil. The soft porn of Tory politics. And if anything in the two years since this was released parts of the rest of Australia are playing catch up-finding themselves "different"-dispossessed, engaging with fragmenting services that no longer provide a lifeline in adversity. Yet Utopia is a documentary which also portrays the courage in the struggle of resistance by the first people at the cost of too many early graves. It can inspire as well as crush. What it shows is the lies told and then held as truisms, peddle about how dysfunctional Aboriginal communities are. Or as too many red necks like to claim-"so much money is thrown at them and still they don't change-must be because there is something flawed in their make up that they can't accept (assimilate) White ways."  And no matter the evidence to the contrary, injustice prevails*. Being set up to fail inevitably results in failure. And why do we do that? Because accepting differences means our comfortable myths about ourselves...if only they would...ring a little more hollow in the face of the starkness portrayed in these communities we allow to fester and break up. These the representatives of one of the oldest civilisations on our planet, of whom we should be proud and celebrate and should support as core to being Australian. It is a powerful indictment but also a testimony to the people portrayed and to Mr Pilger for having the guts to still put this story out into the public domain.
10/10.

From a secret country, secret agent Cockie spreads the seed

*And continues. See the excellent article by Helen Davidson-"Charlie's story: Life and death of the man forced to sleep rough while on dialysis." Saturday 25 July 2015, Guardian (Australia). Ask yourself when you read this man's life story-would prominent White Australians end their life in this way? Would we let it happen?

Bill "Bring It On" Shorten: A Point of Difference or Which Way is Left?

Here was an opportunity to redefine, learn from past mistakes and more importantly-focus on the future. The Labor Party Conference in Melbourne comrades. Bringing together enough intelligence, vision and passion to make a difference. New blood and calls for the way the party representing the left in Australia does business. And at a time when we need leadership, vision, commitment.

Why? Let me count on one ham fisted hand of gnarled knuckles the current issues we face:

• Children and women abused in detention prisons and it is not allowed to be called out as a crime
• Humanitarian whistleblowers could be prosecuted
• Refugees, asylum seekers and conditional refugees and detention; off shore processing NIMBY
• The stripping back of work place conditions, the relentless progress of casualisation of labour (Myers the latest cab to take this path-dont shop there!)
• Youth not able to get permanent jobs and completing education that leads to nowt
• And paying through the back teeth for the education or being at the mercy of private providers who teach them nowt
• The disenfranchisement of a generation who will not have permanent work, buy a house and have what little they can save taken in bills, gouging and rorting
• The shrinking of the social welfare safety net
• Work till your past seventy even if you are buggered and past it
• Go without health care because you can't afford it and turn up at emergency where you wait in a corridor to die; our health services swamped and struggling to deliver care
• Womens superannuation and pay scales still being less than mens
• Big end of town still being run by old white men
• The disintegration, privatisation of infrastructure and asset stripping
• Politicians spending expenses like there is no tomorrow while telling the rest of us we have to tighten our belts and make efficiencies
• A public service being gutted (and that includes fireies, ambos, nurses and teachers) while CEO  pay rates still soar
• The underfunding of health, education, public housing, disability services, mental health and aged care provisions
• People with mental health issues living on the street
• The disgrace that passes for support to indigenous communities and services
• The intervention and the strangling of resources to remote communities
• The disgrace that passes for in 2015-violence against women and children is still prevalent
• Not enough legal aid
• The rise of fascism (Reclaim Australia is a fascist movement)
• The selling off of our food bowl regions for mining
• Not supporting long term investment of our waterways for irrigation
• No planning on climate change, or to manage for consequences of extreme weather patterns
• The lack of affordable housing (And where have the obscene amount of dollars taken from selling Millers Point in Sydney gone towards public housing Mr Baird?)
• The inability to fund alternative energy resources such as solar panels and wind farms
• Letting banks and big business pass on costs at the expense of increasing poverty in basics such as utilities, health insurance fees, food (yes and the States hunger to introduce GST)
• Allowing the poor to become poorer
• More roads not more and more efficient, user friendly, affordable public transport
• Disproportionate taxation (how can big companies and banks get away with not paying a fair tax take when they asset strip by way of huge profits gained from unfair gouging such as credit card fees, Telco charges)

So is and will this conference provide leadership on how to tackle the above? To oppose the current mob? Can Labor still call itself the party of the disenfranchised, the dispossessed and as Fanon said so long ago "The wretched of the earth"- those where hope is lost and they are sinking to become unheard and unrepresented-victims of the free market and capitalism who are not seen as consumers (can't afford it) and jettisoned out of that equation because they can't pay their way. No instead we have factional positioning, union arm twisting votes, Julia aprons, stage managed presidential leadership cringe and the suffocation by faction of change. Its the same old, same old. Deals! Deals! Deals! And outside the doors, the same injustices, inequality continues...

"Bring It On" Bill claims he can win an election fought on climate change, just as long as Labor agrees to a policy supporting turning back the boats. In a rush of breath so fast it was almost unheard-of course we would increase our refugee intake. Tanya apparently got the concessions. After all we have to be electable by the definition of "The Telegraph" and its skimmers.

As the Sydney Herald editor calls it:
"Yet Shorten's argument was as sound as it was courageous. He concluded that stopping deaths at sea by stopping maritime attempts in unseaworthy boats via people smuggling, is the right policy setting. "
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/bill-shorten-shores-up-his-position-with-strong-alp-national-conference-win-20150725-gikfp6.html#ixzz3gxSJeOBT

Oh really? We don't know as we are not told, the conditions under which people have been turned back and to where. It is just a decision based on getting elected. So as not to be condemned by history as 'unelectable for having vision and balls (but we will be condemned by doing nothing and not taking an opportunity to go to the community and say boat turning/detention and hiding what we do off shore is just plain wrong. Labor so scared of the shade of Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd. To be unelectable is such a Blair whinge. What happened to debate? To convincing an electorate on the strength of what is right. This leadership is saying they don't trust their electorate. In reality, they are not out there in the workplace, the streets and communities talking, listening and giving leadership to addressing the issues currently ripping us apart. Listen to English Labour talking about electing a truly left wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Seen as a rank outsider, he is now emerging as a serious contender. Why? Because people know the point of difference with Cameron. They know what he stands for as demonstrated by those MPs supporting his leadership push.

 "They say Labour did not lose the election because it was too leftwing, but because it “failed to challenge the fundamental economic consensus on austerity. This cost all of us votes.”


It was not inspiring earlier this week to hear future Labor leader in waiting Tanya Plibersek parroting stale Nat/Lib rhetoric (as above with Shorten at the conference) to support this motion... "to prevent needless deaths at sea." And then give her vote over so she didn't have to take a stand. At least Albo raised his hand and said accepting turning the boats back as Labor policy was a red line we should not cross. What a man! And good on those people leaping on the stage to oppose this shameful piece of deal making. And Bill Shorten as a credible leader or a wind-up-doll? Stage managed to seem stronger than he has been, to me he is still a presedential style wind up doll saying Vote for ME! Vote for ME! Labor, you've sold your balls for votes. And where is your point of difference with the NatLibs? Buggered if I can see it from this one!

The Loneliness of RECLAIM AUSTRALIA-the rally in Martin Place-SYDNEY 19 JULY 2015

On the way in on the train, I encountered four large, close cropped headed men and their female equivalents heading into Martin Place. One with his XXXL black hoodie with a logo on the back 'Isis Hunting Team, Royal Australian Infidel'. The words surrounding a bullet shattered, grinning skull. At Town Hall, the lads all needed to find a dunnie to relieve their excitement at making the parade. Hitting Martin Place, at least this time I was not being drowned like a fish but I was quickly identified by polite questioning from boys in blue that I was not there to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Reclaim Australia at the top of Martin Place. They were kind enough to let me through to take some photographs but with a reminder if I caused any trouble...                                                                                                            

Off to invade NZ... fush and chups?

The boys waiting for their parade

The Party for Freedom seemed to dominate the posters and slogans for Reclaim Australia. 'Say no to Sharia Law', 'Immigration the elephant in the room', and 'Its a foreign invasion'-only a few hundred years too late on that one. 'Assimilate or Leave!' Ouch! There was a home made sign 'No bacon, no boobs, no beer-no one will be happy.' I guess they were upset at Hooters going into liquidation. Then there was the freedom of speech banner 'Marxist Scum off our streets'. Our streets? A woman interviewed claimed "I believe we are under threat from possibly Sharia Law coming in, or Muslims getting their demands met." Possibly? By what means? The front page of the Telegraph? And which demands will Muslims be getting met? The ones to be vilified in rallies such as these, or the right to be told they are not real Australians until they behave a bit more whitely, sorry Australian as defined by right of reclaim. Ned Kelly made an appearance-reclaim our bank robber hero! And what about the group of four lads dressed in Ulysses clobber? I heard a wee lad ask his father hopefully "Dress-ups?" Then it was identified they were Spartans! Of course! The same Spartans of my book learning who liked nothing better than boot camp like marches with no kit on, followed by a bit of nudie wrestling. Then there was the man from United Patriotic Front with his lolly stick crucifix and the slogan 'Aussie Pride'. If Jesus, a jew and brown was at your rally he would be asking you where is your compassion. Actually,  the police would have grabbed him and marched him down to the other mob, long haired zealot that he is/was. A few hundred had turned up by 10.30am.

Kneeling at the feet of Bronwyn

By this stage even I had outstayed my welcome and asked the kind policeman if I could leave the Reclaim Australia and move down into the counter rally. They were kind enough to let me through to take some photographs but with a reminder if I caused any trouble... And I went to take a photograph just behind the thin blue line when an over zealous fifteen year old weighed down by acne and too much riot equipment hauled me out by my backpack and instructed me 'To get on the other side". Looking like a juvenile RoboCop he must have got the message from a wiser, more senior officer to put his testosterone back in its bag and talk nicely to the old man. 'Would you mind moving down behind the line sir?"

 

Socialist Alliance, Red Flag, the Anarchists were present and a range of Indigenous speakers. It appeared the counter demonstration had tried to engage Reclaim Australia and been pushed down towards the bottom of Martin Place.
One speaker noted three people had been arrested during this including an elder. The younger speaker made the point that Aboriginal opposition to fascism is not new and the tactics of arrest and beatings have been the result of their history of activism. In amongst this a Reclaim Australia supporter pushed his way up through the crowd. Although he had balls of brass-it was met with him being surrounded and confronted. Likewise where I stood an old man making his way up to Reclaim Australia was followed, identified as a racist and taunted. There was heat, some of it unnecessarily aggressive (the old man) but it was defused when an older Aboriginal speaker reminded people not to act in a way which would lead to the anti-racism movement being dismissed because they are violent. Another speaker said let them come down here and debate their understanding of history, test their view of history against Aboriginal history. The speaker was clear who would win. But then even though a few had the balls to walk through the crowd, they did not have the balls to debate and test their views, well, even expose their views to daylight. Which seem to be a call to arms to defend a White Australia, free the streets not just of Marxists, Anarchists and anyone who opposes their narrow view of the world but to make an Australia cleansed of muslim and free of foreigners. It smells like, and behaves like old fashioned fascism. The drums are beating and we have been warned, the fascists are on the rise!
As for Reclaim Australia it is at heart just another conservative movement of people who want to go backwards into what they think were 'better times'. Like the forces opposed to Italian, Greek, Maltese, Lebanese and Pacific Island migrants in the post Second World War up to the sixties and more recently before muslims of multiple nationalities were targeted, the Asians-anyone from India to Indonesia, the Philippines and China. Although Reclaim Australia believes it supports Indigenous people, it is not evident in their rhetoric, more assimilate, be like us not like you and it explains why there was a large number of Indigenous speakers in the counter rally. And like similar conservative movements, think USA 'Tea Party', they are afraid of the future. They think if we were all like them, we would be a better society. 'Assimilate or leave!' And despite banging on the drum of not being racist, or nazis, their fellow travellers, white supremacists, were made welcome at both rallies.

AND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Admire the spirit comrade!

                                       

Grannies for anarchy

It must be lonely living in fear of difference and the threat that we might not be part of the master race after all. Smells like fascism...

Postscript 1 August 2015: Awoke this morning to hear the English Defence League had marched in my home town of North Shields. One hundred of the mongrels, with their hate infested views. They were counter rallied by over three hundred anti racism supporters. See the pictures in the Newcastle Chronicle on line. Love my people!