NO MORE!! The continuing death of thousands of animals as a result of the live sheep and cattle trade, is an indictment on a barbaric practice that caters to religious traditions that evolved in another millennium. To subject animals to the suffering, that long cramped trips across the ocean causes, is not justifiable on any grounds, let alone religious grounds. To pander to these religious observances, is an indictment on both those who provide the animals for live export, and those who demand that the animals are not slaughtered in Australia. There is not one reason that can justify this cruel export industry. Animals can and are slaughtered in Australia under strict Halal conditions. Slaughterhouses are built that face Mecca and slaughter men can and do kill animals in the prescribed manner in Australia, to suit the religious demands of those people who follow the Muslim faith. To pander to those who demand live animals, is unjust, cruel, barbaric and cannot be justified, irrespective of the profits this trade generates. A halt should be placed on the trade today. The RSPCA should unilaterally remove its support for this disgusting trade. All those corporations who are making money as a result of this trade should be subjected to a consumer boycott today. Everybody involved in the trade, from the farmers, to the transport companies, to the shipping concerns, should be identified. Anybody who is involved in any aspect of this unnecessary trade, should be the focus of a community organised consumer boycott. The sooner shareholders and individual owners of these corporations, realise that their participation in this trade will erode their bottom line, the sooner this cruel business will be stopped. RIGHT ROYAL SKULLDUGGERY Last weekend marked the fifth anniversary in what can be described as the House of Windsor's luckiest break - the death in a car accident in Paris, of Diana Spencer, a woman who had long ago outlived her usefulness to the British Royal family. It's interesting to note that the House of Windsor has not held any Public event to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of the future monarch's mother. Basking in the glory of her Golden Jubilee celebrations, the last thing Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of Australia would want, is a public rival for the affection of her loyal subjects. Diana Spencer's untimely death, and the public grieving which accompanied her death, shocked the House of Windsor to its foundations. The outpouring of public grief was in a large part an indication of the public's disquiet about how a 19 year old woman had been treated by the British Royal Family, after she had done her duty and delivered the heirs that the British Royal Family desperately needed, to keep the legion of members of the House of Windsor on the public payroll. If Diana Spencer had lived, she could have dimmed the star of Her Right Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth The Second. No wonder the retinue of media spin doctors that are paid by the public purse who work for the House of Windsor, have worked overtime, to smooth the feathers of a pliant media that has been blinded to the small-mindedness, bigotry and downright jealousy displayed by the British Royal Family by the Jubilee celebrations. The only good thing about the fifth anniversary of Diana Spencer's death is that people have not forgotten the myopic self-serving behaviour of the British Royal Family. A group, that to the last man and woman, has shown, and continues to show a callous disregard for their tawdry role, in the sad life of a woman who long before her sudden unexpected death, had outlived her usefulness to the British Monarchy. ANARCHIST QUESTION AND ANSWER Q. What role would euthanasia play in an anarchist society? A. The right to a gentle and painless death ­ euthanasia is a right that¹s inherent within a society that recognises that the individual has the ultimate right over their own life and death. As far as terminal illnesses and illnesses that are accompanied by unremitting pain that cannot be treated, the decision is very simple. Euthanasia becomes a debating point within an anarchist society if community expectations about euthanasia push people in particular situations to consider ending their own lives. Individuals with terminal and chronic illnesses have first and foremost the right to demand support from society. Any discussion about euthanasia must originate from the person concerned, not from society. In a society where euthanasia is a right, it¹s possible that an expectation could arise that if an individual has a terminal or chronic illness they should consider euthanasia so they are not a burden on society. The development of community expectations about who should or shouldn¹t end their own life can and will pressure people into making decisions they may not want to make, so they are not a burden on the community. The other problem that faces a community where euthanasia is an inherent part of that community is do people who don¹t have a terminal or chronic illness have the right to euthanasia. The two age groups within a community that commit suicide are normally the young and the old. Suicide is often linked to a psychiatric disorder. Should people with a psychiatric disorder have the right to choose death over life? There seems to be a double standard among some anarchists about psychical and psychiatric illnesses. Some anarchists think psychiatric illnesses are illnesses that don¹t need to be treated. My experience is that once anarchists are confronted with friends or associates who develop psychiatric illnesses, they¹re keen to use what treatments are available to help resolve the problem. The problem of psychiatric illness raises important questions about who has and hasn¹t the right to demand euthanasia in an anarchist society. Most people who attempt to commit suicide with psychiatric illnesses and are treated and survive, lead long and productive lives. As up to one in five persons in any community considers suicide as a way out of a difficult emotional situation, should all these people have access to a peaceful and painful death? What at first seemed a very simple proposal, let the individual decide, is in reality a very difficult concept. Euthanasia, like every other human decision, is much more difficult than it at first seems. My own belief is that people who have chronic and debilitating illnesses or terminal illnesses who are not suffering depression or a psychiatric illness and those individuals who have psychiatric illnesses that do not respond to treatment who want to end their own lives, should have access to euthanasia. Euthanasia should be a choice that should be exercised only by those individuals who have the intellectual, emotional and psychological capacity to make that choice. Anything else would be community sanctioned murder. ACTION BOX "CELEBRATING OUR VICTORIES" How may times have you been involved in a successful struggle and been surprised at how your contribution to that struggle has been ignored or downplayed? I think more times than you care to remember. I¹ve been amazed at how many times the very people in authority who have lost a struggle attempt to claim credit for the outcome. We¹re told that "they never intended to carry out their proposal" or that what we are witnessing "is democracy in action." It¹s just as important we celebrate our victories than it is to learn from our losses. It¹s important we claim our victories publicly. Every time we claim and celebrate our victories, we destroy the idea that "you can¹t fight city hall". Every time we achieve our aims we give hope and courage to other people who are involved in local, regional, national and international struggles. Every time we allow the very institutions we fought against to claim victory, we are doing ourselves and everybody who is involved in struggles, a disservice. Don¹t be bashful about blowing your own trumpet, if you don¹t do it, nobody else will. As we all know, success breeds success. Victory in one struggle can give impetus to another struggle. Knowing that the institutions, bureaucracies and corporations that we are challenging can be confronted and defeated, has a positive effect on other people involved in disputes and campaigns against authority. It¹s important we try to build on the success we have had and continue to have. Recording how a particular victory was achieved can help other groups who are involved or who want to become involved in other struggles. The energy that¹s generated from celebrating a victory helps to recharge people¹s batteries for the next struggle. Always inform the media about your success. The more people who know that you took on "city hall" and won, the greater the reputation of the group you¹re involved in, will grow. More importantly, the destruction of the myth that the government or a major corporation is invincible, places government and corporations under increasing pressure from people and organisations that are struggling or want to become involved in the struggle for both reform and radical social change. AUSTRALIAN RADICAL HISTORY THE EUREKA SERIES NO. 31 "TURNING THE TABLES" The acquittal of the 13 defendants charged with High Treason, turned the tables on Hotham and his scurvy crew. Although Hotham took the blame for the judicial farce, the Attorney-General William Stawell was ultimately responsible for this whole sorry saga. While men and women who were involved in the Eureka stockade are largely forgotten, a Victorian regional town ŒStawell¹ still bears the Attorney-General¹s name and Australia¹s most prestigious and well know professional footrace "The Stawell Gift", honours the memory of the man who engineered the butchery which occurred at Ballarat on December the 3rd 1854. Stawell not only goaded the diggers into taking up arms and organised the military response, he was also responsible for attempting to pervert "the course of justice" by manipulating the jury system and by encouraging the virtual army of spies he had working for his department, to perjure themselves at the trials of the 13 accused. Hotham paid the ultimate price for his rigidity and his role in the Eureka rebellion. Lord John Russell from the London Colonial Office, scolded Hotham for not following his advice and charging the 13 with High Treason. The London Colonial Office did not believe a local jury would convict the men of the charge. Broken in health, Hotham had been forced by November 1855 to send his resignation to the Colonial Office. Hotham died on the 31st December 1855 as a result of a "chill", some say a "broken heart". The Legislative Council was asked by John Pascoe Fawkner, one of Melbourne¹s founders, to set aside a thousand pounds (a colossal sum in 1856) to build a monument to Sir Charles Hotham. Peter Lalor the Eureka stockade leader, had been elected to the Legislative Council, opposed the motion stating that "Hotham had a sufficient monument in the graves of those slain at Ballarat". The motion was passed and a thousand pounds was set aside to build a monument in Hotham¹s memory. Recommended Reading:- MASSACRE AT EUREKA ­ The Untold Story - Bob O¹Brien 1992 - Sovereign Hill Museums Association Edition ­ 1998 ISBN 0909874190 (176 pages), EUREKA ­ John Molony 1984 ­ Melbourne University Press Edition 2001 ISBN 0522849628. Both these books are available or can be ordered through your local bookshop. They can also be loaned from your local library. BOOK REVIEW "LOOKING BACK AFTER TWENTY YEARS OF JAIL!" Questions and Answers on the Spanish Anarchist Resistance. - Miguel GARCIA, Kate Sharpley Library 2002, 1ST Published by Simion circa 1970. ISBN 187360503X "Dar la vida par la vida (Give a life for life) Miguel Garcia Garcia (1908-1981) The Kate Sharpley Library collective has done the anarchist world a favour by publishing this 16 page "memorial booklet" which examines the life of Miguel GARCIA. One of the best kept secrets in both the anarchist and non anarchist world is the anarchist resistance to France¹s dictatorial rule after the failure of the Spanish revolution in 1939. "He was, as he himself ruefully admitted, the embodiment of a lost history of anarchism ­ part of a resistance movement, even now little know or understood by many". Miguel Garcia was a fighter in Barcelona during the July days of 1936, he fought on the Aragon Front and outside Madrid with the anarchist militias. After the failure of the Spanish revolution, Garcia who had been trained by the British as a forger, helped to smuggle refugees from France back to Spain. He was arrested in Spain by French soldiers in 1949, Miguel was initially sentenced to death but his sentence was commuted to 30 years imprisonment, he was released in 1969 and immigrated to England at the invitation of Stuart Christie. Miguel Garcia spent the rest of his life working tirelessly to help imprisoned militants. Garcia was the International Secretary of the newly reformed Anarchist Black Cross, an anarchist prisoner aide organisation. Kate Sharpley¹s "memorial booklet" on Miguel Garcia includes an interview with Garcia first published by Simion Press in the early 1970¹s and a series of previously unpublished letters sent to London newspapers and journals. The interview gives an all too brief insight into how the resistance against the Franco regime was organised and the type of activities they were involved in before Franco¹s death. The interview "explains the motivation and methods of the resistance". Miguel Garcia¹s story opens the page on the libertarian resistance in Franco¹s Spain, an era that was dismissed by liberals, the international media and governments as work of "terrorists". "But to the world, the Resistance had become criminals, for Franco made the laws, even if, when dealing with political opponents he chose to break the laws established by the constitution; and the world still regards us as criminals" ­ Miguel GARCIA Other books available from the Kate Sharpley Library on the libertarian resistance in Franco¹s Spain include: Miguel Garcia¹s Story ­ Miguel Garcia Memorial Committee / Genfuegos Press 1982, Antonio Tellez The Anarchist Resistance to Franco 1996, Antonio Tellez Sebate, Guerilla Extraordinary 1998, Kate Sharpey Library, BM Hurricane, LONDON WCIN 3XX, UNITED KINGDOM, www.katesharpleylibrary.org. Thanks to Kate Sharpley Library for the Review Copy of "Looking Back After Twenty years in Jail" ­ Miguel GARCIA. PERSONAL OBSERVATION It¹s interesting how technological innovations can change how we think, what we do and the very perception of what is considered to be normal behaviour. The single most important personal technological innovation that has had a profound impact in both the industrial world and the non industrialised world in the last decade has been the mobile phone. The minimal infrastructure that¹s required to set up a mobile network has allowed the East Timorese to overcome the devastation caused by the Indonesian Army and Indonesian backed militias much more quickly than was expected. Mobile phones have changed the way we communicate with each other, both at a personal and business level. It¹s also become a very important tool in that it helps activists conduct demonstrations, occupations and even revolutions. It allows participants to communicate with each other in real time and vary strategies used to meet real time needs. I¹m not denying that there are problems, privacy, auditory pollution and the risk of developing brain tumors are a few of the problems associated with mobile phone users. Interestingly the mobile phone¹s greatest contribution to life has little to do with communication and everything to do with perception. The mobile phone has changed the way we view human behaviour. If ten years ago you were walking down the street and began talking to yourself, you¹d have been given a wide berth. Today it¹s normal, on any day at anytime people are spilling their guts anywhere and everywhere. We¹ve regaled with the most intimate details of people¹s lives. Inadvertently we become unwilling spectators in a game that draws complete strangers in our orbit. I remember one day some time ago, some fool was blurbering into thin air with his estranged girlfriend, everybody around him broke into spontaneous applause when she told him to grow up and get a life. He became indigent when he realised that he had made his private life into a tedious and boring public spectacle. There¹s nothing worse than being forced to listen to other people¹s problems. Driving, it is common to see some idiot jabbering into the ether, laughing and carrying on all by themselves. Less than a decade ago such behaviour would have been rewarded with a visit by smiling folk dressed in white carrying straight jackets, today it¹s seen as normal. Ten years down the track, I will still find it a little disconcerting to see people talking to themselves on the streets, in cars and everywhere I go. STOP PRESS REALLY? Two years after I began writing in the Anarchist Age Weekly Review that the Federal government was intent on destroying bulk billing, the corporate and State run media have begun to respond to the threat. As more and more general practices begin to feel the current harsh commercial reality, many are beginning to abandon bulk billing. Medicare was introduced in 1972 by the Whitlam Labor government to ensure that every Australian, irrespective of income, had access to medical care outside of a public hospital setting. Bulk billing was welcomed by the more community minded elements of the medical profession as well as the general public, especially people with large families, those on social security benefits and working people on limited incomes. For the first time in the history of this country, they had access to affordable medical care. Over the past decade, the Howard government has gone out of its way to undermine the public hospital sector and destroy bulk billing. They have diverted three billion dollars that should have gone to the public hospital system to the private health insurance industry. They have also squeezed general practitioners by not keeping the medicare rebate in line with inflation. As cuts escalate, general practitioners have been forced to selectively bulk bill and in some cases abandon billing completely. Those who suffer are not those who can afford private health insurance or those who can pay the gap between the medicare rebate and the new fees charged by general practitioners. They are the poor, working people, the disadvantaged and people on social security benefits, the very people the medicare system was established to help. Increasing gaps between the medicare rebate and the cost of using general practitioners are driving people to use overcrowded public hospital Accident and Emergency departments as their port of call. The swamping of Accident and Emergency departments by non urgent cases has profound negative implications for a public hospital sector that is already struggling to cope. General practitioners and the people they service have been asked to bear the brunt of the government¹s attack on the medicare system and bulk billing. They will not be able to withstand this onslaught unless individuals, organisations and local health authorities and State governments put pressure on the Howard government to adequately fund medicare. Until Australians become involved in campaigns to defend and extend medicare and bulk billing, the horror stories about the health care system that have become an everyday news item will continue to occur with increasing frequency. Joseph TOSCANO/LibertarianWorkers for a Self-Managed Society. http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos12867.html