AWAKE!..To a new day.

Are you full to the gills of the endless bullshit and denial from the right-wing nut jobs and the cynical swinging voters about the continual arguing on such subjects as economic rationalism and the trickle-down effect..Climate change denial or as it is now; climate change shifting of the goal posts, Indigenous treaty/Land rights/history/ culture wars, etc,etc..by a right-wing politically useless middle-class that no longer has any contribution to make to further discussion into this century?

And then there is the renewable energy question..or rather ; NON-question, as only an absolute cretinous imbecile could work up an argument AGAINST free fuel for an eternity..and also let’s not mention the wha, wha..: NBN!

Well, I’m here to give you the good oil…There really is no longer a need to take the slightest heed of those troglodytes of the right of politics. They are an anachronistic excuse, just a dying fish out of water floundering around and drowning in their own wasted space. Time to leave them behind.

Back a post or two, I mentioned that I was intending to block from my Twitter stream every direct right-wing news or information source or commentator..well I did..except for Lyonheljm, and he just told me to get f#cked, so I will keep him to annoy when required, after all, no-one can really take HIM seriously. But the rest I have and will and I do not miss any news from the action of doing that. The likes of Divine, Bolt, Kenny or Albrechtsen and the others have no positive or constructive message to give, nothing intelligent to add to the conversation..and with Social Media now becoming THE major broadcasting source of ALL world news and views, I can do without helping to relay right-wing sourced news and views..I would suggest we all do the same, for without the circulation of hard-copy newspapers, and then being cut from much access to social media, companies like News Ltd. Will be further restricted from an audience.

But we must do more than this. We must curb the cynicism toward soft-progressive politics in place of more radical politics and get this lefty cab off the rank..and once we are “on the road” and freewheeling, we can push for more radical policy. Because we are still a long way from winning the next election, and you can bet London to that brick the Murdoch crawlers will be sifting through that chest of 8×10 glossys and the dirt-filing cabinet to come down on any one of the left politicians, be they Green, Labor or a sympathetic cross-bencher.

Jay Wetherill in SA. And Daniel Andrews in Vic., and now Mark McGowan of West Aust’, are setting a good example by taking on the energy market and pedalling their states into the future for fair and equitable delivery of policy..at least as much as they can be expected in this nation of quite conservative thinking. SA’s energy policy has to be the way to go, along with the bank tax and I would hope this will lead to more radical thinking along the lines of public transport and water resources protection. I will note that Federal Labor has thankfully moved a tad further to the left and is adopting a more radical stance on many policies. I trust they will go one further and finally address that open wound of asylum seekers if they win govt’. But they are in a good position now with the electorate who have had enough of this wastrel, useless LNP.

Now for that new day!..I believe we need to talk up more State (Fed / state govt’)controlled utilities, restoring the Murray/Darling Basin plan, restoring a Govt’ bank, Govt’ energy supplies, and a host of other necessities that are now outsourced or sold off to an incompetent private sector. We need to talk up the need for a more equitable tax system and restore proper funding to our schools, universities and health sector..There is so much to be done and I don’t believe we need to waste any further time on arguing with RWNJ’s about their fear and loathing. Their stupidity will not change and will only delay the implementation of much needed policy.

I think if we can direct our optimism and energy and enthusiasm toward those policies and ideals that most move us, and make the debate for those ideals the centre of our discussions, there will be so much more impetus and energy pushing those good policies forward, rather than wasting our energy and spirit on those hopeless, depressing beings on the dark side.

Because the right-wing of politics is now no more than a dead-weight, without a life-force to sustain it, has become likened to the futile supporting in a sea of ideas, the inert body of a drowned companion. A hopeless, risky and thankless task and we have to let go of trying in vain to carry this corpse of lost hope any further….let them as a collective go, let the cadaver sink into the sediment of history as fertiliser for a future of grand ideas. Further as another metaphor; We have carried their unresponsive corpse for far too long, we have tried in vain to keep nurtured the body of bi-lateral politics for the good of social cohesion, heavens knows how long and wearily we have tried, but now is the time to switch off the life-support of an already dead body-politic, and do no more than stand away as its corrupt and evil spirit is spent into the trash-can of history.

We, of the progressive side of politics have work..much work to do. There is a world of nature that needs our undivided attention, and the hard yards of environmental resuscitation will have to go on uninterrupted by any more delays and foolishness. The social contract between the many ethnicities and cultural beliefs needs also a load of hard work…but the foundations are there, we have many of us already given our word to the reunification of the nation, those good and decent intentions cannot and will not be in vain.

Let us awake ..to a new day!

We have a VERY serious problem.

We have a very serious problem. A quite dangerous precedent happening with the deliberate covering-up of political damaging information by the main-stream media. This , combined with a never ending onslaught by the Murdoch employee journalists to attempt to divide the community on ethnic, demographic, religious and personal life-style preference lines is slowly corrupting our community. We are already a divided nation on ethnic and religious lines, driven sometimes to fatal fever-pitch by Right-wing shock-jocks feeding the Murdoch media hate machine.

A study of past societies will easily demonstrate that a nation divided cannot stand, but it is also well documented that while leadership could be corrupt, if the people living under that tyranny are in the majority united and acting with their core decency intact, that nation can rise above such corruption. This is the case now in Australia, I believe We, as a people have a core decency that can rise above this corrupt government and once again restore the respect and honesty to governance that is required.

BUT..if this current condition of giving the Murdoch Media a free rein to spread its vile base of division and hate continually through our community, the eventual result of such cancer could tip the scales so that if the majority of the citizens is persuaded to go along with the corruption promoted and practiced by this govt’ and its vested interests, there will be little hope for long term Peace and equality in our community.

At this moment, it is without doubt that it is the Murdoch media above all other MSM outlets which is concentrating its vitriol on the most vulnerable. The recent admission of the once Prime Minister ;Tony Abbott, to laying drunk in the building while a vote on the rescuing of the economy of our nation was being debated on the floor of The House demonstrates how inept and unsuitable for the office of Prime Minister that man was. Yet this most important and political dynamite information , while being well known (and suspected along with other salacious hints of behaviour) in the Press-Gallery circles and “insiders” of government house, it was not delivered to the Australian people by those self-appointed guardians of democracy ; The Fourth Estate, until just recently…Sure, the rumours did fly, but were not corroborated, in fact, I would go so far as to claim these facts along with a host of other totally outrageous behaviour actions, including the obvious flirtations with his chief of staff, that was a most gross insult to his marriage partner and in itself ought to have disqualified him from holding any office above janitor for Alan Jones’s private dunny!

What has been happening is the deliberate and conspiratorial collusion by mainly the Murdoch media and its employees to have a LNP govt’ foisted upon our nation so that vested interests could lobby such a govt’ to damage, destroy or implement policy disadvantageous to the national interests so as to facilitate an open-house, free-market, winner take all economy most suitable for the 1% and the devil take the hindermost.

This is now reached its most dangerous stage. The politicising of overseeing authorities, the castration of the office of Solicitor General , the corruption of the ACCC, the implementation of a ruthless ABCC to hit upon union activity, the strange and inconsistent behaviour of the policing and security agencies, the complicit behaviour of a certain magistrate in a recent TURC royal commission, and the list goes on…we have a serious situation in place that will warrant intense investigation as one of the first order if Labor gain office at the next election.

There will have to be some sort of investigative tribunal put in place to look into the connections between those vested interest institutions like the banks, the business council, energy suppliers, the above govt’ authorities and the Main-stream media..PARTICULARLY those arrogant mouthpieces in the Murdoch media , who, while sheltering under the protective umbrella of their Australian passport seem only too willing to sell the interests of our/ their nation out to an overseas national who is their paymaster..an act of treason if EVER there was one, and a behaviour that should deserve the most stringent account before a court of law!

There will have to be oversight of the MSM, particularly in regards to the Canberra Press Gallery. This “institution”, acting now as little more than a cabal of vested interests and lobby groups will have to be stripped of its press-status and admission to the The House press Gallery and a complete review done on each and every member. They have shown past reluctance in the integrity of their responsibility of “frank and fearless” reporting of those representing our democracy, and if they cannot be relied upon to tell the truth or report the details relevant to our making a decision on who is to future govern the nation, then they do not deserve the privilege or right of entry to the heart of the Parliament.

I, in my own tin-pot way will be exercising my right from this day by serially blocking all MSM journalists from my Twitter Stream that I do not feel have come up to a decent standard of honest reporting on the politics and politicians of the day..and THAT will certainly be EVERY Murdoch journalist without exception..and I acknowledge it may not seem much of an action, perhaps even laughable in some quarters, but I am also aware, as should we all be, that in this moment of history, Social Media is THE MAJOR source of outlet for the distribution of information AND DISINFORMATION…and by blocking them, I am protesting against the spread through my followers and their followers of THE most vital distribution outlet of the Murdoch Media.

They can go screw themselves!

Renmark to Mildura in a Rowboat.

This article originally appeared in the “Riverlander” March 1958.
The author, Therese Hocking, who is now in her 85th. Year (now deceased), did the trip with her parents in the depression years, when work and money were very scarce. It shows the determination of the hardy souls in those times.

Row-Boat from Renmark to Mildura.

By Therese Hocking.

Have you ever thought of travelling by river? Not in a comfortable steamer, but in an open boat. My father and mother, my sister and I, tried it some years ago when we did the trip from Renmark to Mildura and back.

Our two-roomed canvas cottage that stood on blocks was exchanged for a rowing boat and a white tent. We rolled the latter, stowing it with only what was necessary, including a fortnight’s groceries, into the boat and left early one morning.

It was my job to mind my little sister, while mother and father, seated side by side, rowed the boat. Unfortunately “Mary” developed a love for watching things zig-zag down through the water out of sight. I am unable to remember how many odds and ends we lost this way until she tired of it. We then began to count the scarred trees out of which the aborigines had cut their canoes. On the lonely stretches of the river there often were many.

Posts for the tent were cut whenever we decided it was too chilly to sleep under the stars, or if we stayed a few days to fish or set rabbit traps. In fact, we travelled ‘Wagga’s way’, as we came to call it; because he was the only other person we met using a rowing boat for that purpose.

Wagga was the first, but one of the many characters we happened to meet. A big man, straight, in spite of sixty years, He had a huge, rounded beard as black as midnight. So was his big cat “Satan”, who sat on the prow of his master’s rowing boat and was the most ‘human’ cat I have ever met. Wagga always pushed, facing the front to row his boat, as he “liked to see the way”, He was a super-cook and used the native way to cook fish or wild game, straight from line or gun, wrapped in clay and placed amongst glowing coals: When cooked the feathers stripped off with the clay.

We first met him one evening when he rowed across the river to warn us that the side where we intended to camp was haunted. The story was that a woman passenger on one of the paddle steamers had wandered off while the crew were cutting logs for the boiler fires. She was never found. Her spirit, we were told, used to come back to that part of the river looking for the boat.

Mother is Irish, so we did not stay to find out the truth, but quickly crossed to the other side. It was here next day that a huge ram frightened us. Father and Wagga went off shooting and We other three sat on a fallen gum tree to drink in the surroundings. Suddenly mother’s sixth sense caused her to look round and there, not more than three yards behind, stood the ram. His curled horns looked really dreadful. We hastily and quietly withdrew to the boat and continued enjoying peace and wild beauty from there.

Between towns we met several families who had settled on the banks of the river. One that astonished us was the goat farm people. They were a big family and owned goats of every kind, size, sex and colour. They ate goats, milked them and used home-tanned skins for rugs and mats. We were welcomed like old friends. A huge meal was prepared for all and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I have often wondered how they never grew tired of goats, goats, goats.

Sometimes we never met anyone for days; there was just the never-ending scrub and the gurgling of the Murray River. Then, round a bend, a home stead would come suddenly into view. The people of the homesteads were mostly kind, giving us meat and often flour. In return father would solder their leaking kettles and things.

There was only one accident.Mary, running down to the water’s edge to watch a paddle steamer, cut her foot badly. We came to a homestead next day and the people there re-bandaged it. Not a scar was left.

We reached Mildura four days before Christmas, pitched our tent opposite the town and decided to stay a few days.

The next couple of mornings father spent in the township, trying to get soldering or other work. We others washed and cleaned every thing, giving, the camp oven a good scrub with the clean, white sand found at he water’s edge. Christmas was spent quietly, it was cool under the giant gums. Then it was decided we would go back to Renmark. In Renmark the fruit picking season was about to start and father had been promised some work. So we started back. It took six weeks to come up, and a fortnight to get back.

Last Post on an Origami Government.

The object of origami is to take a piece of paper and with dexterous folding, you produce a facsimile of a “real-life” object. Of course, the folding of paper gives an angular abstract of the desired image, but that is good enough, the imagination does the rest. Such also is the dream of LNP / IPA. society.

Planning, Costing, Promoting and Selling of such a phony dream also has that “angular-edge” appearance of origami..and you have to ask..;”Is it real….or are these sharp, flat lines of “Agile Politics” a sculptor’s fantasy?” Like a child in anticipation, with all the anticipatory hand gestures of the impatient to get a touch of the object, Malcolm Turnbull draws pictorial images of what HE imagines the finished product will look like…and not having competent command of those Aussie vernacular words adequate for even the most simplistic description, he stutters, stumbles and finishes with the fumbling tongue smacking of :’Look..look…it’s like this…” Like a child really…like a little child.

Of course, his dream of “Corporate Democracy”, like his “Origami Government” is nothing more than that old nightmare of Fascism. The angular creases in the plan being the “lines in the sand” where “shit happens”…shit like Union decapitation..democratic protest debased…social media curtailed and the social welfare net ripped to shreds! In a democracy guided by “bottom-line” considerations, any emotive considerations for retaining loyal employment will not be considered, blind obedience to “profit consideration” will reign and as in the land of the blind, the one-eyed (in every sense of the word!) entrepreneur and speculator will be king.

Consider the personality type of our new rulers..; “Disciplined, methodical, tough-love, tougher-hate and control”. all the best characteristics of the budding tyrant…and a tyrant’s dynastic reign. There are numerous contemporary examples.

But I blame history..or rather ; a lack of understanding of it. Because the positioning of this govt’ and it’s “lay-down misere ” political business plan is the standard blueprint of many authoritarian govt’s as shown throughout history.

I have to agree this time with Machiavelli in his “Discourses of Titus Livius”..when he describes :

“… when I see, on the other hand, the works of greatest virtu which Historians indicate have been accomplished by ancient Kingdoms and Republics, by Kings, Captains, Citizens, Lawgivers, and others who have worked themselves hard for their country, to be more readily admired than imitated, or rather so much neglected by everyone in every respect that no sign of that ancient virtu remains, I cannot otherwise than wonder and at the same time be sad: and so much more when I see in the civil differences that arise between Citizens, or in the maladies which men incur, they always have recourses to those judgments or to those remedies that have been judged or instituted by the ancients.”

That there are set-pieces of both legislation and policy that once put in place will force the people to change their behaviour to be obligated by those laws to obey them..and like the set rules of origami, guided by realistic logic and exactness, a fold MUST be committed in a certain place, at a certain angle with a certain intent…or all is wronged and the model a failure. The deliberate manipulation of our history, our laws , our language and our mores by this economic rationalist philosophy has but one intent, one direction and one ideal..TOTAL CONTROL.

Again to Machiavelli :

“ … from not having a real understanding of history, and from not drawing that [real] sense from its reading, or benefiting from the spirit which is contained in it. whence it arises that they who read take infinitely more pleasure in knowing the variety of incidents that are contained in them, without ever thinking of imitating them, believing the imitation not only difficult, but impossible: as if heaven, the sun, the elements, and men should have changed the order of their motions and power, from what they were anciently.”

Time may have moved on, but not the mind-set nor behaviour of humanity within any given condition. Which is why we still gasp at moments of drama in a Shakespearean play, why we still absorb with interest the romance story of Antony and Cleopatra, why an ancient religious doctrine can insinuate itself so deep into the puerile imagination of humanity so it will kill, maim and destroy down through history and still, in this age hold sway over a nation’s heart.

Our human condition captures us on that “carousel of time”, we are mesmerised by rather than acutely aware of the repeating absurdities of our own behaviour…each generation believing they are inventing a “brand new wheel”.

Of course, having come this far on a well-worn track, it is of little effort to imagine where it may lead to from here. As with any “T-junction” we have two choices..

A : The same old-same old.;a mad dog-eat-dog scramble for wealth, position and power.

B : Equitable socialism with thorough regulation of speculation enterprises.

History shows perfect example of the end result of ; “A”, while the relatively “new” ideology of socialism has yet to be tried WIDESPREAD on a democratically elected society…it is not untried and where it has been sincerely used (I’m thinking of certain Scandinavian States), one has to admit it has less dramatic social upheaval than that capitalist love child; “ Laissez Faire”.

“In each of us there is that twist,
That in the end will come to this.
No matter the culture, the mother, the art,
Each to each,
Heart to heart.
My hair be silver,
My eyes still shine,
Each part of me is a part of thine,
I am the earth, the trees, the vine,
Drink of me, heart sublime!”

Democracy..So?

So..we got democracy..ok..I can live with that..: “Of, By and For the people”..sounds alright to me..And there’s the Westminster System of Parliament..that’s sweet..everything above board and regulated..and if not, we have that other essential arm of democratic governance..: The Fourth Estate to fearlessly report and expose any Machiavellian plots to undermine…oh, hang on..now we’re drifting into a kind of fantasy..Let’s go back a couple of steps and look at this thing more closely.

Firstly, the so-called “Fourth Estate” ; the main-stream media, is not reporting ON the activities of the LNP govt’, it is FRAMING the propaganda spin FOR the govt’ and thereby being a political player in the LNP scheme of politics. With the control and influence of the vast majority of MSM being owned by one mogul who is an avowed supporter (at this moment!) of the right-wing of politics, there is little or no room to move for any progressive or left-wing movements to get coverage in the main media suppliers to the public…indeed, there is so much false and obfuscated reporting that deliberately works against the Labor Party and other minor parties in a most un-democratic way, that is being used as a reference point for other media outlets to use ..even the national broadcaster..This is a complete loss of any oversight of our democracy by an independent body.

And then we have the LNP members themselves. I had to go back to an old “Crikey” (social media) survey to find some numbers on the LNP front bench…:

“ State schools may have had good reason to worry. A Crikey survey has found that 82% of Tony Abbott’s cabinet went to private schools, with annual fees as high as $32,000 in 2013. This compares with the general public, where 35% of students attended private schools in 2012, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics….The Crikey survey found that 14 out of 17 cabinet ministers were privately educated. Two ministers were excluded from the survey; Nigel Scullion and Mathias Cormann refused to tell us where they were educated (in Cormann’s case, it was in his native Belgium). The majority come from religious schools, some in the Roman Catholic tradition, such as St Ignatius Riverview in Sydney (Abbott and Joyce). Anglican institutions like The Peninsula School, Mount Eliza are represented (Environment Minister Greg Hunt), while others come from non-denominational independent schools, such as Brisbane Grammar (Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane). Some, like Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, went to Sydney’s elite Greater Public Schools group.” (Crikey survey.. https://www.crikey.com.au/2013/12/16/beware-cabinet-really-is-a-private-school-boys-club/ )

If this is the case as it stands in the Turnbull govt’ (and I can’t see it changing much) then how is this representative of the general population?..And doubtless that this has been the percentage “norm” in many LNP govt’s, then it would seem our “democracy” and government is an act of ownership of the “Greater Private Schools” system…or in other words..: A racket!

“In 2016, the share of national student enrolments at the affiliation level showed that the Government share increased from 65.2% in 2015 to 65.4% in 2016. This was balanced by the Catholic share of enrolments dropping to 20.2%, down from 20.4% in 2015. The Independent enrolment share remained steady at 14.4%.” (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4221.0)

So that we have governance by and for the interest of a minority percentage of the population. This elite cabal of religious / private school indoctrination of ideals would give direction to the type of political outcomes we have been suffering under for much of the LNP time in governance. This is not a democratic ideal of “FOR” the people, but rather..; “TO” the people. For how could a minister who had swanned through their younger years with all the privileges of class and paved ways of higher education, have feelings for the greater majority who have and will struggle through the hard-rows of school, work, finances. Of course they wouldn’t hold close to their hearts the vague unfulfilling notions of the poor and unemployed…those of the more wealthy suburbs would naturally seek to even make more easier the paths of their own…How would we expect otherwise?

If the percentage of ministers that draw up legislation and propose policy are consistently from a minority demographic bringing governance with their own or vested interests upon the greater majority for no reason other than to enrich those of the same class as themselves, this is not a democracy, it is an “Authority”.

Then we come to Parliamentary Procedure and rule of law, both civil and constitutional. The latest outrages against Parliamentary Procedure with the “dual citizenship” fiasco and the recent “Contempt of Court” outrage along with numerous rorts and allowances grabs etc. too many really to list!..YET..as far as I can ascertain, there have been no charges laid or investigations done by our policing agents or bodies..why is this so?…why is there no authority overseeing those “close to the wind illegalities” committed by the LNP members? Could it be because, as written above, there is a unwritten acknowledgement of “confederacy of kind” between those of a certain class and education elite that gives a kind of “automatic Lebensraum”..room to move and to allow leeway for a change of direction…a sort of convenient forgiveness.

In a recent post, I wrote of when Norm Gallagher was goaled for contempt of court with no offer of a contrite apology given. Yet the recent same charge to three members of the LNP govt’ allowed an escape clause with a rather disingenuous apology..why?..because if the charge was rightfully upheld, it would have brought down the LNP Govt’…this was seen as an impossibility for that class of society..THEY were born to rule and it was “not cricket” for it to be brought down by some of their own!..So a convenient “out” was given, publicised and promoted by the fourth estate urged by those three minister’s colleagues and accepted by the judiciary..the “balance” was restored..

But this is not democracy in any shape or form, this is a corruption of the name and system. We have for many years been deluded into thinking we are living under a democracy, but it is in reality a “confederacy of elite collegial conspiracy”…not so much an oligarchy, nor an authoritarian govt’, but with a combination of those three ingredients; MSM, Private/Religious Education Groups , Legal Authority, we have a new order of “Triumvirate”.

I would urge the Australian Labor Party if or when they gain office to this time NOT do a Kevin OH! Seven and leave those LNP sleepers in their positions of authority or power, but to go through the entire higher order of governance, bureaucracy and media like a dose of salts to purge the rot that has permeated through the whole of the system, not just to secure their own governance, but to restore respect and honesty to our democracy.

The “White-washing” of the working-classes.

“Candidate” is from the Latin word candidātus..; “clothed in white” (adj.), candidate for office (noun, in reference to the white togas worn by …Roman officials aspiring for election to high office).

I am going to use the term : “White-washing” in this article to denote the action of taking smart, radical, working-class people out of the common pool of the population, bringing them “into the middle-class tent” and clothing them in a “whitewash” of reward, indoctrination or propaganda with the covert aim of neutering any future action on their part of radical protest.

Geoffery Bardon, a teacher who came to Papunya ..: “ As Bardon observed on arrival at Papunya in 1971, of the four tribal groups brought together there, the Aranda had been ‘detribalised’ and “soured” at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, and that “the white man had made them earn a discontent and misery, for they had learned all the whitefella-ways, and about money, and how something or someone did not have any full worth or place because of money and other concerns” (Bardon 2004 p.7). (Christine Williams on Albert Namatjira)

The use of religious conversion to subjugate indigenous peoples is an old “trick” of colonisers. It was used not necessarily to bring the natives close to “The Lord”, as to dull their inherited tribal totems and traditions..and similar to the subjugation of working-class radicals, driving their culture, skills-base and adherence underground and out of sight..if not into oblivion..and as we now know in regards to the indigenous peoples of this country, they failed.

“ Albert Namatjira, being an early product of the effects of white culture superimposed on other ways of knowing and seeing, had despite the hardship, been able to carry his knowledge across to lineally-focused painting, whereas so many Aranda people must have felt alienated at being misunderstood.” (Christine Williams on Albert Namatjira)

I recently attended a funeral service for an indigenous person..it was a vibrant and moving ceremony, held in a church without the overbearing Christian ceremony and given with random testimony from relatives and friends of the deceased…As I say, the “white” influence or overbearing organisation was obvious by its absence..the beautiful care of the deceased a tribute to inherent maturity of local indigenous knowledge and confidence to take care of its own without White-fella control. No more the Albert Namatjira oppression.. and it is only now a matter of time before what was wronged in the years since colonisation is righted fair and square. The Garma Conference on the Uluru Statement from The Heart in 2018, drew a new determination line in the sand that Labor has given policy word to grant a voice in Parliament and MUST follow through with legislation if or when they gain office.

Same with working class aspiration..not necessarily toward a middle-class consumerist lifestyle, but fair pay and conditions with social policies attached, allowing a natural growth of family and/or ethnic traditions to have opportunity to flourish without the overbearing threat of unemployment, casualisation of employment or stolen wages and conditions…an apparent raison d’etre for the existence of a middle-class.

The working-classes in these times need to reflect and perhaps adopt the more radical practices of past union confrontations.

History :

“ Norm Gallagher helped to build up a powerful, national trade union organisation – the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). He was General (National) Secretary for 31 years (1961-92). He was head of a downtrodden group in the working class – the labourers of the building industry.
He was a tremendous organiser. The greatest working class organiser of them all. He became delegate/shop steward at 16 years of age and Victorian Branch organiser at 18 years. He became General Secretary at 30 years.
He did what was necessary. He had the will and determination where others failed. Norm gave everything. He gave his whole life. He devoted himself to builders’ labourers and the working class as a whole.” ..( Steve Black : A Tribute.)

I started my working life in the building trade at 14yrs..and can say that the BLF (Builder’s Labourers Federation) put the balls back into radical unionism..Put the balls back into the working-class conflicts and led the way with the BWIU ( Building Workers Industrial Union) to give power and voice to workers demands. I don’t buy the bullshit that the likes of the right-wing in the halls of power and the Murdoch media painted about Gallagher or the BLF….I saw them in action on the multi-storey building sites and they were bloody good!..they helped resurrect building workers from the most dangerous work-place environment to one of the safest..a position that is now being undermined by this LNP govt’ with their malicious The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

I will make the extra point here to remind all that ..: “ He (Norm Gallagher) had been gaoled for three months for contempt (of court) for daring to criticise an Arbitration Judge’s decision on disallowing 1.9% wage rise to builders labourers. Norm had stated that the judge’s decision must have been written by the Master Builders Association. TV, Radio had wanted his views; he gave it and that was Norm, always available. And where were those great bastions of free speech when Norm was gaoled for speaking these views? The media barons supported his gaoling.” (Steve Black ..A Tribute.)…and I will ask: Why were those LNP ministers never jailed for THEIR contempt..is there one law for some?…Of course there is…of course there is…while the middle-classes write the legislation and laws in this country, they will ALWAYS write laws that protect their own “people”and their own “property”.

The “clothing in white attitude” toward the indigenous peoples and the “white-ing” of upper middle-class ideals and opinions onto radical working-class policies thereby attempting to minimalise their effect and to attempt to “own” their radical direction won’t work anymore..Like the “Industrial Omnibus Bill” proposal..the cutting of penalty rates and the “underfunding NDIS alternative” and many other ameliorated compromises from the Right-Wing of politics…We have all become cynical of these measures to deny the majority a fair share of this nation’s wealth , health and education. The white-washing of those with radical policies and opinions by cutting them out and attempted bribing them away from their support and “tribal” base will no longer work. Both the indigenous, local born and the immigrant ethnic working-classes demand the right of equal opportunity…

With the election of more radical working-class representatives to the ACTU  and a radical approach along with the likes of Sally McManus and John Setka, we have forces in place to confront the gross inequality and wage-stealing current in our community…and to break the back of the hopeless middle-class idealists of Neo-Liberalism.

We HAVE to get these middle-class “managers” out of our faces, out of our lives and out of governance!

“ In 1985, in a great miscarriage of justice, with the jury locked up for ten days, Norm was gaoled on trumped-up charges for so-called “secret commissions”. The judge who gaoled him was Judge Waldron. He happened to be the then Victorian State Premier, John Cain’s, “Best Man” at his wedding thirty years earlier. Cain was the man overseeing the job of getting Norm and the BLF in Victoria.” ..(Steve Black ..; A Tribute).

NOW..with implementation of more radical working-class ethics, goals and ideals into this current corrupt and degenerate middle-class parliament, we have to force through those ideals that best favour the REAL producers of the rich and vibrant lifestyle of the nation..We are now obvious by the visible presence of the working poor among us..the impoverished casuals in the bullshit “gig economy”, the homeless and the impoverished aged and the under-employed or just not employed at all.

NOW…WITH AN ELECTION COMING ON..WE WILL BE HEARD!

Failure Politics.

Pessimistic policy agendas of the LNP.

We won’t have it!..We won’t take it!…We don’t want it!

We don’t want the sickly pessimism of these failed penny-ante philosophers, these failed leaders, these failed and failures of small-minded-people that head and advise this govt’.

Look at them ! :…Failed Priests, failed Fathers, failed relationships, failed business , failed careers..Fail! Fail! Fail!…and they want to tell US how to live OUR lives! The majority of us who have gone down the hard-track of either self-training, self -employment, single mothers, full families full work-load and all the trials and tribulations of life and living …Give us a break!…give us a fucking break!…

GET OUT OF OUR LIVES, YOU DEADBEATS..GET OUT OF OUR LIVES !

There was a perfectly decent set of policies put in place by the Gillard Labor administration that laid the foundations for a more fair, equal and financially secure society. But it has been trashed by these failures that are now trying AND FAILING AGAIN! to sell us a dodgy set of principles that will only lead to many young people failing in their quest toward a decent life and career, breaking the hearts and minds of a whole generation.

That is because the only politics those of the right-wing lobby groups, think-tanks and individuals can promote is the politics of failure ..or to give it a title : “Failure Politics”..that’s all they got to offer…FAILURE POLITICS.

Infrastructure : Dismantling or environmental damaging = Fail.

Social safety net : Dismantling and abandoning the most vulnerable = Fail.

Health Coverage : Destroying or favouring the privileged = Fail.

Education : Overpricing or under-delivering = Fail.

Environment ; = Fail (without even listing the items!)

Communications : Complete destruction to favour a “failed mate” = Total Fail!

Foreign Policy..: Insult nearly every neighbour, religion and culture = Fail.

One could go on and on and on….Failure after failure, stumble after stumble…Fuck-up after fuck-up!…and no contrition nor admission….just a continued game of “Blind man’s bluff”….To criticize this govt’ has become a situation of “Where to start”…seriously, where does one start?…it’s like picking up the pieces of shattered crockery…it is total chaos, total failure…in fact, never since the second world war has the anagram “SNAFU” been more apt!….never!

Not only can they not control the very economy they have worked and corrupted so hard to create with their juvenile “economic rationalism” policies, they are many of them so deep into speculative investments, rorts and negative gearing opportunities, they now cannot even afford to stop their own rot!..Likewise with the same-sex marriage issue..regardless that many of their own are either involved in same-sex relationships and want to resolve the issue to their own satisfaction, they have not the gumption to face up to their own members to pass the bill for bringing it on…Hopeless, gutless and useless.

So let’s get serious and consider..; What does one do in the workplace when one is confronted with management that has no idea how to run a situation, yet is in charge?..one leaves it in place but powerless and by-passes it. Here we have a bit of a problem..the fools in charge THINK they know what to do, have the power to implement it, still bugger it up and then move on to the next disaster in waiting!….it seems it is US who are powerless.

We are supposed to be living in a “rule by law” society, but I see there is one law for some and another for others…The wealthy have access and by-ways and by-passes and the poor or at least the working poor have only social media to push their barrow..The powerful have the MSM to punt them along endlessly and relentlessly..The wealthy citizen can even now lobby this LNP government to put in place their favourite hobby-horse dreams as law or legislation, support their acts of lying and thieving without any seeming comeback in either law or policing.

But wait a minute…we have one thing going for us that has the potential for mighty power..as we have seen when we unite on social media locally to punish companies who back a stupid idiot when they do a stupid action. Perhaps we need to “up the ante” a tad or two and start to unite the voice of social media internationally to request peoples of other nations to stop buying products from certain corporations or the united voice of people on social media will unite to stop buying that nation’s companies products!…Sure..a big ask…but never before has there been such international unified communication. Perhaps we are on the cusp of a revolution, but a new type of revolution…not arms of weapons, but arms of people raised in protest…The revolution of the passive refusal to be a consuming conspirator of pessimistic politics!

I say…: “ LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN !” :….and for a start..: Switch off Murdoch!

Like it was built by Gods.

To stand up-road a tad from The Pantheon and look at the building, is to see a dun-coloured brutal, beast of a thing..squat and huge, like a monster about to spring!..but when you enter through those massive bronze doors, you enter into air…air and light so vast and ethereal that it can seem like it has its own atmosphere. The spherical dimensions of the interior are a marvel and a testament to the genius of innovation of an age so long ago as to be almost unimaginable. I went with another person there and as we passed through those wondrous bronze doors, she gasped at the sight in front of us and involuntarily whispered..: “ It’s like it was built by Gods..”

But it wasn’t..It was built by skilled workmen under the orders of (if you look under the pediment up front) “ Marcus Agrippa, 3 times consul built this ”…put there by the Emperor Hadrian after he rebuilt it.

[ “M.AGRIPPA.L.F.COS.TERTIUM.FECIT”, means: “Marcus Agrippa son of Lucius consul for the 3rd time built this”.]

THAT was in the days when we, as humanity, built magnificent things.
THAT was in the days when we, as humanity took pride in civic obligations.
THAT was in the days when those in governance took seriously their civic duty.

It was pure selfish greed and masculine vanity dragged that world down into the dust, and with it so much ingenuity and capacity..a lesson in how NOT to run a society..truly a slow-motion destruction.

But where, one could ask are the spectacular buildings of antiquity built by women?..Oh they are there..have been for many centuries, just not brought into the limelight..I had to look them up…from ancient Egypt :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/women_01.shtml ..” In order to understand their relatively enlightened attitudes toward sexual equality, it is important to realise that the Egyptians viewed their universe as a complete duality of male and female. Giving balance and order to all things was the female deity Maat, symbol of cosmic harmony by whose rules the pharaoh must govern.
The Egyptians recognised female violence in all its forms, their queens even portrayed crushing their enemies, executing prisoners or firing arrows at male opponents as well as the non-royal women who stab and overpower invading soldiers. Although such scenes are often disregarded as illustrating ‘fictional’ or ritual events, the literary and archaeological evidence is less easy to dismiss. Royal women undertake military campaigns whilst others are decorated for their active role in conflict. Women were regarded as sufficiently threatening to be listed as ‘enemies of the state’, and female graves containing weapons are found throughout the three millennia of Egyptian history.”

Of the many examples in antiquity of temples or palaces designed and built by women, one sees a subtle difference in the “sensitivity “ of design of some of those structures..where the masculine warrior / ruler has a built-in command of sometimes brutal, solid power expressed in the very masonry, a temperament of “holding away”, I can detect a more “inviting” atmosphere in the buildings of women designers..But that may just be a personal prejudice.

Click to access 9789004255944-04-cooley-offprint.pdf

“…By the second century AD, however, women had come into prominence,with the result that by the Antonine period we find public statues, building-inscriptions, and architectural designs all featuring the names and images of women in the towns of Italy and the western provinces.From the mid-second century AD., some women were so integrated into civic life as to become-adopted as patrons of towns and of collegia,or to be named ‘City Mother’,although the holding of municipal magistracies remained barred to them.”

Interesting the statement above of the Egyptians seeing their universe as a duality of Male / Female, for THAT would have to be accepted as the natural balance..before a patriarchal masculine warrior class took command and dictated the corrupted idea of gender superiority.

The masculine idea of power and control was brought into Roman architecture most visibly in their copying of the Greek temples..almost identical in every way right down to the supporting columns surrounding the walls…but the difference was in the entrance..Where the Greek temples allowed entry from all four sides via three steps, the Roman temples had a front entrance only and that via a flight of stairs up to a legionnaire on either side at the top…one was forced by this method to ascend toward the base of power, in a metaphorical act of submission.. a contradiction to the “democratic” every person entrance to the Greek temples.

All these bits and pieces of loose ancient recorded history paints a vague picture of gender politics in those ancient times…BUT..if we were to “step back”…a pace or two and take in the whole panorama of the time-span, we can see that in the era of “Paganism” (a borrowed word from the Latin ; “country/ rustic” person), there is solid evidence of gender equality in many areas of living / conflict…and the picture changes radically once we enter the “civilised society” stage of masculine legal and religious orders…particularly religion.

It stands to reason that any tribal hunter/ gatherer situation would demand gender equality to survive and it also stands to reason that with the commencement of sedentary societies, there came the establishment of councils and authorities..which would, with the power that comes with such, mean the likely creation of cabals of confederacy and conspiracy..particularly within masculine groups in the tribe, leading to the gradual oppression of those most vulnerable in the tribe..eg; women via children and the aged.

“ Maria Mies, in her book, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, has collected much information from women-centred research in anthropology on this question. This evidence leads her to put forward the thesis that it was men’s role as hunter which led to his expertise in simple weapons of aggression and capture. In addition, within nomadic pastoral tribes, men’s work involved breeding the animals with a lessening role of gatherer for women and an increasing pressure on women to breed and be controlled along with the animals by men. Man the hunter was then able to hunt and capture women and young men, both of other agricultural tribes and nomads, when they came into his territory. He was thus able to take the first steps in accumulation of property, surplus and power.

Maria Mies stresses that evidence suggests that it was women who were the early agriculturists, not only, making vessels for gathering surplus food but also cultivating crops by means of early tools, such as digging sticks and hoes. At this stage, hunting for meat was a peripheral activity, which only men could afford to experiment in, women being involved in the day-to-day feeding of herself, her milk- producing capacities and her young children. But, of course, societies developed differently in different parts of the globe, depending on vegetation, climate, and animal species. Grasslands were more suited to nomadic life, fertile plains and river valleys to settled agriculture.

The accumulation of surplus and private property, by pillage and force, not only made one section richer and more powerful than another, but was notable in that this powerful section was almost entirely men.”…( https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/uk.hightide/basis.htm )

Maria Mies ; book, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Here is a short review of her book..very interesting.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43157768?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

It just goes to show how long some accepted “orders of social correctness” have been in place, so the problem of changing them to a more reasonable and natural balance may be a long process..unless there is a more revolutionary act.