I can burn your fucking flag wherever I damn well please.

Ack!

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:49:46 GMT

Flashback!

smashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredomsmashboredom

Flash forward! Add my new 2008 journal! Bye!

You boycott your brain, you answer with fists.

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 04:28:49 GMT

WE'RE DOOMED FUCKING DOOMED FUCKING DOOMED FUCKING DOOMED FUCKING DOOMED

Yeah I just updated, so what. There's good chance I wont actually get to update much during the last two weeks of this journals life, but we'll see what I can do.

I woke up in Levenshulme this morning, and had absolutely no choice but to get the bus back into town. The level of disgusting, racially charged poverty in this city is not helped by the winter grim demon. Over here in Cheshire, my comfortable so-called voluntary poverty looks like a sick joke after seeing a blind Asian girl stumble around a crowded bus. And people say there's no point trying to improve the buses because scum will make them unbearable again in no time. I was at Em's house, having slept rather well on an airbed. I don't hold it against her for sacking me, which I suppose is what happened. I wish I had had more notice, so that I could get people along who always promised to come, but in the end it was the usual crowd, barely. I might ask Tony if he wants me to try doing some punk and ska for his night.

I never used to be able to understand why people didn't always fill in the "music" field on here. It's because you can't show how cool you are when you listen to the same few bands over and over again, can you? Hey, how brilliant is Livejournal? Let's big up Livejournal.

Confession time! I truly believe all the things I say about working less, buying less, living more. But I like having money in order to escape money, like all the people who want to win the lottery so they dont need to work. I have a small (subjective) stash of money that I don't like to see deplete as it makes me feel more secure. I'm not really living on the brink (not that I would purposefully put myself there) but I wonder if when I get some big expenses and get down to the red, I'll be able to hack it. I try not to spend much at all even now, but I know I remain in a relatively privelidged minority. I found a quid on the floor of the pub tonight though. I should be reassured of my survival skills by the fact that I was actually looking on the floor for loose change.

I would rather like my new journal to have some kind of design that gave it small entry boxes, but I can't do that shit.

A story from a while ago that I want to document. Last month I stayed at Adams home after going out to a club. Drunkenly, I ate some rosemary in their kitchen. They are quite an ethical couple, vegan and vegetarian, all the rest. But this rosemary was just about the most unethical food product there is.

It was Tesco. Okay. Even I eat Tesco bread, because they use it as a loss leader.
It was air freighted, and said so explicitly.
Air freighted...
...from the West Bank.

Edit: When I said I had absolutely no choice but to take the bus, I meant that I would rather walk as that of course is free (tying those parts of my entry together), not that I wouldnt want to ride the scummy bus. But I had no idea how to get from where I was to somewhere I knew.

While they are pissing around in Bali and (thank FUCK LJ saved this entry, my browser closed).

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:49:24 GMT

I've had a few things to post in this journal for a while that people have kindly allowed me to steal. Here's one from sentienthing called Climate change and public health, from a medical magazine, which argues, like I have done, that doctors and nurses should be more into the environment. Isn't it better to prevent injury and illness than deal with it later? Surely they are taught that? I want to print this and take it to local hospitals. The medicine companies, that I can understand, but not people who have devoted themselves to helping people live. Also, see the link to see me arguing with a climate change denier! Quite well too I think.

What is the correlation between this and medicine however, you may be asking? The answer is that climate change cannot be separated from its public health implications. People are already suffering from its effects and the future impact has been predicted to include changing food production worldwide and associated malnutrition; an increase in tropical diseases and waterborne illnesses and a generally increased worldwide burden of illness. We in the UK will also be unable to escape the effects and it will be our generation of medical students that will have to treat those affected.

It was my last time DJing at Bomb Ibiza last night. I did it for over 3 years and it got more fun as it went on, rather than less. Here's my last setlist:

11:20 - 12:00

The Filaments - The Farse
4ft Fingers - Hopeless Romantic
The Code - 40 hour week (thanks roach_!)
Smoke Like A Fish - Alright Jack
The Specials - Free Nelson Mandela
Ye Wiles - In Appreciation of Zoltan Kanoly
Rancid - 1998
Link 80 - For The Crown
Sublime - The Ballad of Johnny Butt
Operation Ivy - Yellin' In My Ear
Capdown - Faith No More (live)
Mouthwash - We Evolve
Propagandhi - Ska Sucks (immediately after which the music stopped and Em auctioned off the right to shave off Mikey Wongs quiff for charity)

1:50 - 2:25

Lightyear - Blindside
Leftover Crack - Crack City Rockers
Streetlight Manifesto - The Receiving End Of It All
King Prawn - Day In, Day Out
Duff Muffin - Pipe Down
[spunge] - Kicking Pigeons 2001
Less Than Jake - All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Adequate 7 - Gotta Stay Focused
No Comply - Silencio
Capdown - Headstrong
Sublime - Santeria

What was the last song of the night, that Em played after announcing it was my last night and saying thank you?
Mariah Carey.

LA

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:57:21 GMT

I threw some more money into the pockets of Richard Branson and bought train tickets to London tomorrow (only £39 for a return, I suppose I should be thankful). I think I am just about ready to bear the capital again and just about ready to venture outside again, after being horribly ill for over a week. I was originally going to go on the purpose-coach for the Global Climate Demonstrations, but it emerged I'd be going alone so I decided to go for the whole weekend and spend some more time with Southerners. Somehow, all 6 of us have just about managed to organise our way to a venue that none of us have ever been too to see the gig on the side here, featuring a Johnny Cash sounding act and circus, for a peace charity. Then on Saturday after the march (with George Monbiot) some of us might be seeing Mark Thomas, the activist comedian who has taken on the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (no demonstrating outside partliament!) and the arms trade. Then home on Sunday.

I'm going to watch King of the Hill in a minute, for the simple reason that it's on before a film I want to watch at 2am (Charge of the Light Brigade).

I've made a new journal. The name reflects my odd realisation that the struggle for freedom within our own lives (and it is a struggle!) is just as important as the global issues. Again I want to recommend How to be Free by Tom Hodgkinson to everyone (thank you harlicat!)

smashboredom

"Careers are a 20th century invention, Mr Franz. And I don't want one." - the great Into The Wild.

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:19:34 GMT

Short version? Another job has been vanquished!

Brought over from Facebook:

There's been a few topics on which I thought about writing my first note: Microsoft and Google battling to buy Facebook and pollute our eyes with internet banners; wondering why otherwise intelligent and caring people add to the misery and racism Gypsies and Travellers get from government policy; and others. But I always left it too long after feeling inspired. Well here's a fitting first one: the amusing story of how I, once again, got sacked (it's posible and likely that next year I will enter double figures for the number of jobs I've had).

It was for a few reasons apparently - being late, other people not wanting to work with me because I don't work hard enough (I can't imagine multiple people complaining about that. I may slack but I make a conscious effort not to hurt my co-workers. Anyway, fuck whoever is the source of that rot), and because the manager found me saying bad things about him on Facebook, which I suspect to be the overriding real reason. That's right! You think it can't happen to you, but it can. If you are one of the 30 - 40% of the population who like their job.. well I suppose you won't be complaining on here about it, so there's no risk. I don't know what exactly he read, as it will have been at least some weeks ago and I am drawing a blank, but apparently I called him a wanker and a bastard and said I was leaving soon. Which is true. I was going to give them a weeks notice tonight (I am polite). I did not need to bother. So that was nice.

I'm not even sure of the legality of letting someone go because they called you a name, and not to your face no less. Even the best employer (which this bloke was certainly not) should know their employees are going to occasionally slag them off. He said it was because it was "where other people could see it," too. Well evidently, since he was snooping enough to find it. As if it has any bearing on the amount of custom they get, or him doing his job, or that the average patron of that pub would have a clue what Facebook was. Besides all that, if someone who works for you is calling you a wanker, perhaps you should be asking why? What am I doing wrong? Oh and why have we had to hire an almost entirely new workforce in the last two months? Perhaps don't blame the person and make a snap decision based on personal power. Utter lack of respect is why I was planning to quit. They can't even show you enough respect to get your wages right. He said I should have come to him if I had a problem, not written about him on the internet. Well 1) Why can't I do both? Why can't I say what I want to my friends, regardless of the medium? 2) I did do both. I asked countles times to get my wages, politely. Roy told me to bother you and you told me to bother Trish - the only one of that trifecta that seemed to have a clue about how to treat employees. It's totally unorganised bullshit, and I still never got all the hours I was owed. Also Roy had a huge go at me a few weeks ago, uncalled for and disrespectful, for which he never apologised and Andy never stuck up for me about. In fact Andy never showed much politeness or gratitude at all.

So I got my wages and left (it would be interesting to know if he got another person in to fill my shift, or if he just screwed his other employees by sending me home early on a busy night because he was power tripping). I decided to go to As Nature Intended since I was in the area, and have wanted some things for a while. I didn't have my canvas bag with me, so I started thrifty living right there and reclaimed a plastic bag (a clean one) from a bin. It had unopened (and organic!) food in it, some of which was vegan or near. I am quite sure they don't see many skippers in Hale on a Saturday evening. But the bag wasn't strong enough for what I got, so I grabbed a couple out of a council recycling bin (they'll find their way back to recycling, don't worry). The plastic bag bin was the only one not padlocked, thankfully.

So this is probably the least upsetting sacking I've ever gotten, although as I write this I do wonder if I even said what he accuses me of. It felt good though, like that feeling when you got the day off school. I got to spend the evening doing more important things, like talking to my girlfriend, eating a gorgeous falafal and hummus wrap and having an impromptu nap. Employment Sucks. To know I wouldnt have gotten home until 1:30am only made it better.

I don't know how this notes thing works on here, but I realise the manager might find it. If so, I don't care. If you can see this Andy, all I have to say is that the 4 hours I am owed for Wednesday better be there next week. If you all try to screw me I will bring the law in. I'm a social activist and I know my rights, one of which, astonishingly, is being paid for the hours I've worked.

Thanks for reading, this got kind of lengthy. I didn't know who to tag, just people I have worked with before or who I thought might be amused. If you think someone else might be amused, feel free to direct them over.

James.

--

And since you LJ types are more hardened to my longer entries, you can have a bit more info. Mos Def was bloody fantastic. I'm working on a review of the night. I think after Christmas I will see if I can get a job in a bookshop, even if its a dirty corporate one, as that sounds like it might be okay. Especially since I am reading more than I watch films now. 2 months of proper freedom, woohoo! And I am really sorry that I have written about this sort of thing so many times before.

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:15:55 GMT

A week late. Last night was the excellent but sadly underpopulated Middle Finger Response.

12:30 - 12:55

Sonic Boom 6 - People Ack Like They Don't Know
Tiger Army - Power of Moonlight
The Toasters - Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down
Random Hand - Scum Triumphant
Smoke Like A Fish - Freezing in the Desert Sun
Lightyear - Nuff Cuts
The Filaments - Dub
Against Me! - Sink, Florida, Sink

1:35 - 1:55

The Filaments - Trevor
The King Blues - Track 6 (no idea what it's called)
Rancid - Ruby Soho
Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
Lightyear - Shatners Bassoon
Operation Ivy - Freeze Up
King Prawn - Smoke Some Shit
Goldfinger - Answers

2:20 - 2:35
Sonic Boom Six - uh, my writing is illegible. Danger danger?
No Comply - Your Life (is Your Direction)
Capdown - Cousin Cleotis
Random Hand - Anthropology

Since I am seeing the amazing Mos Def tonight (in a venue under a train station) I would like to post this passage from the start of his first album Black on Both Sides. Be sure to see outside the hip-hop box he is talking about.

21st century coming, 20th century almost done. A lot of things have changed. A lot of things have not. Mainly us. We gonna get it together right? I believe that. Listen, people be asking me all the time, "Yo Mos, what's going to be happening with hip-hop?" I tell them you know whats happening with hip-hop; whatever's happening with us. If we smoke out hip-hop's going to be smoked out, if we're doing alright hip-hop's going to be doing alright. People talk about hip-hop like it's some giant living in the hillside - coming down to visit the towns people. We are hip-hop. Me, you, everybody, we are hip-hop, so hip-hop is going where we going. So next time you ask yourself where hip-hop's going, ask yourself, "Where am I going? How am I doing?" So you get a clear idea. So, if hip-hop is about the people, and hip-hop won't get better until the people get better, then how do people get better? Well, in my understanding, people get better when they start to understand that they are valuable, and they're not valuable because they got a whole lot of money, or because somebody think they sexy but they valuable because they been created by God. And God makes you valuable, and whether or not you recognise that value is one thing. You got a lot of societies and governments trying to be God wishing that they were God. They want to create satellites and cameras everywhere, make you think they got the all seeing eye. [something I can't make out, a quote about paranoia] I don't get phased out by none of that, none of the helicopters, the TV screens, the newscasters, the satellite dishes. They just wishin' - they can't ever really do that. When they tell me to fear their law, when they tell me to try to have some threat in my heart behind the things that they do, this is what I think in my mind, and this is what I say to them, and this is what I'm saying to you, check it. ("fear not of men because men must die")...

Fuck Christmas Presents!

"What better way to forget something than to commemorate it?"

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:18:45 GMT

Do you think it pisses World War veterans off (or in theory since they are getting fewer every year) when subsequent wars are justified using the fight they fought, and the sacrifice they made?

I'm thinking of how Saddam Hussein was "the new Hitler" when it suited us.

And Milosovic. And many others, whether or not the exact quote was made.

Using the fear of Hitler's actual threat to fight imperialist wars against tinpot dictators.

I refuse to buy and wear a poppy because most people who want to support the old vets won't respect their legacy by demanding the end of the fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The soldiers that are there are not heroes just because their lives have been endangered by government terrorists. They are being killed so we can drive, buy and eat. Oil-based food of course.

If my grandad was alive I would ask him.

It will be interesting to see how this one transcribes.

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:47:33 GMT

My ma.

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:17:54 GMT

Also Lauren, she says happy birthday for next week.

Voice Post

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:38:27 GMT

Grow up and act your rage!

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:54:32 GMT

I am feeling physically under the weather, due to being tripped up on concrete steps, inhaling germs in the pub, and the dentist halloween horror. Blargh.

Capdown, The King Blues, Buzzkill, The Desperate Cycle
Sunday 21st October 2007
Academy 3/Hop & Grape, Manchester

Capitalism: "an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit". The definition according to an anarcho-punk? The Compact Oxford English Dictionary. The logical end of this is the eventual privatisation of everything that was previously state-run. That is why our public transport is all run by private corportations, efficient at making a profit, not at delivering good service. Which is why, on this particular day, I have to get on a Stagecoach Metrolink tram, and initially travel in exactly the wrong direction, delaying me for half an hour. This makes me late for the last ever Capdown (Capitalist Downfall) gig in Manchester.

The companies with a vested interested in Manchester University also fudge me, by having the gig start 30 minutes before it says on the ticket. All this means I miss initial act The Desperate Cycle, and at least half of Leeds act Buzzkill. Buzzkill are solid and well worth a listen, but whilst such a performance at a large bands last gig would usually be a pick-me-up for the future of the music, in the shadow of the soon-falling Capdown, it's hard to get excited.

The King Blues from London do a good job of keeping things interesting, as they evoke the political and musical spirit of Capdown through an original compound of cultures and genres. As a very newly popular band they are ideal for this tour, and judging by the mutual calls for respect, Capdown clearly have plans for where they want to pass the baton. The King Blues have songs to dance, sway and think to that rail against the BNP to bigger threats like "that cunt Gordon Brown", so they can be praised for things like having a great light show, and coming up with an effective way to divide a crowd into left and right (literally demand a path down the middle of the room), without it being for a lack of things to say about their kick arse music.

The excitement as the instrumental snippets start and Capdown creep onto the stage under shield of darkness seems only too fitting for a band that in recent years seemed to become so popular that the punk and ska scene could barely withstand them. It seems odd that this gig is even taking place in Academy 3 and not one of the bigger venues, but it guarantees a large number of lifelong fans for this final outing. Promising to give every last drop of sweat he's got and thanking the crowd extensively for their support over the past decade, Jake leads the rest of the band through their back catalogue of every-song-is-a-hit first two albums, as well as a few from their recent eclectic electric offering Wind Up Toys. Whirlpools develop across the crowd and people dive through them like total maniacs to the fist-pumping and knee-flaring wall of sound which bricks up the entire venue. I myself am overcome by the memories of youth this massively influential band evoke and fling myself into the ether! An encore made up of Bitches and Nike Shoes and Ska Wars ends the Manchester part of the Exit tour.

Perhaps the time the absence of the band will free up for its members will allow them to help finish off capitalism. http://www.capdown.net

8/10

For dance_insane.

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:38:50 GMT

This post in no way represents my feelings about going to see my tosspot dentist for fillings tomorrow.

Fuck depending on other people's skills. ESPECIALLY if they are tosspots.

Ben Elton, technology being shit, books and cabbages.

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:31:45 GMT

Also, I just phoned the pub and I have 26 hours next week. Much better than 9.

Oh and I got punched in the back and front of the head by a couple of pissheads last night. It was a good night despite all the real and fake brawling though.

A tale of capitalist dickheads wasting my time, money and life.

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:31:37 GMT

AND shortly after making this post I was nearly run over by a police SUV. Twats! I shouted abuse at them and they ignored me.

I'm off to dance here, at a night called Indiependance.

Kings, Bombs and Heads.

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:49:48 GMT

Round 2.

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:28:28 GMT

Not Work Safe.

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:30:00 GMT

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:00:43 GMT

Feeling a bit of the winter blues today. Feeling a bit weird. Maybe its a vicious cycle. I have been busy with one thing or another lately, and today there is nothing. I feel like I've been unproductive with my time so far today. And this blah slump has left me with no mental or physical energy to feel like doing anything with the rest of the day. I've written the first half of my Capdown live review, and I think it's okay, but if I felt less than brain-juicy before, now the TV is on in here and how can I write about a fusion of dancehall and ska in an interesting way with that shit on in the background? I can't be arsed moving the laptop. Anyway, I'll finish it later or tomorrow, and post it here.

They were bloody brilliant anyway. The last time I saw them was Glastonbury 2004, I think.

I'm sure things will get better later today, anyway.

The pub on Saturday was the pure and fucking hell I feared it would be, even though England lost the rugby. There was also a United match on before that, and a birthday function with 110 people. I had a job interview and trial last week at Y... McGregor, I'll find out this Wednesday if I got the job.

Hooray, I just found out my next rental to arrive will be The Thin Man Goes Home.

I'm going to get up to wander for a minute now, for reasons I couldn't tell you. Be back in a minute.

Meme that is actually good.

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:32:22 GMT

Stolen from ilyeana.

For the first three people that reply to me and re-post this challenge, I will send you something. It might be something I've made, or something cool from my hidden stash, it might be a mix CD, or a rubber duck, a book I think you will enjoy, or something else that is awesome. Whatever it is, I promise that I will get it to you in 365 days or fewer. The only thing you need to do in order to participate is to be one of the first three to reply to this, AND post this very same thing on YOUR LiveJournal - cause it's fun to give people stuff.
---
I just inhaled far too many chilli flakes for my feeble English mouth.

Today while serving some business lunches, I overheard there was a guy at one table who was a vegetarian, and possibly a vegan. They spent much of the rapid lunch talking about this. One bloke huh-lariously said "if God doesn't want us to eat animals then why are they made of meat?" Once I'd finished serving them I bucked up the courage to politely say "if God doesn't want us to eat humans then why are they made of meat?" This line by itself isn't that clever, since I certainly don't believe in God and my veganism has little do with thinking eating meat is "wrong". It's only vaguely clever in response to the initial line. I tried to say it light-heartedly but I suppose when 9 out of 10 people at a table are having their completely basic habits questioned for perhaps the first time you can't expect gales of laughter. He of course got a medium sized guffaw and I got a few murmers of intrigue and/or approval, plus whatever faces were made and things were said after I immediately turned my back. I didn't get chance to ask the beanburger-eater anything but I did overhear him talking about something they inject into cows before they slaughter them.

Check out the very last words of this page to see what I did against Royal Bank of Scotland on Monday!

RBS Day of Action Round Up - 31 actions!

... and more demos, pranks and propaganda against RBS and NatWest! Bradford students leafleted a campus Natwest, Reading Rising Tide held a demo at the Reading RBS branch, students did protest performance trying to 'open accounts' in St. Andrew's town centre, activists gave 'pollution awards' to two Edinburgh RBS branches by sticking posters to their walls, a group of 5 held a demo in Leamington, cash-points were stickered with anti-RBS stickers in Leicester and leaflets were stuck on lampposts in Altrincham!

Woo!

Sorry for the load of "news" entries lately.

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:49:11 GMT

1am - 1:45

Sublime - Santeria
Propagandhi - Haillie Sallasse, Up Your Ass
Rebelation - Getting Tough
Random Hand - Anthropology
Sonic Boom Six - Bigger Than Punk Rock
Adequate 7 - Gotta Stay Focused
Big D & The Kids Table - LAX
King Prawn - Dominant View
Capdown - Ska Wars
Reel Big Fish - Beer
The Filaments - Trevor

And that's it! There was a gig that ran quite late so we didn't get to go as long. A gig by BI, admittedly.

Food Not Bombs Manchester Events - 12-19 October.

After the success of last week's initial foray onto the streets of Rusholme, when we fed vegetable stew, rice, couscous salad, mixed salad, fried plantain and banana, pear and cinnamon pudding to around 100 hungry mouths from our stall on Wilmslow Road, Food Not Bombs is back with more events around Manchester over the coming week.

Fri 12th, 1pm, Dallas Court Reporting Centre
Today we'll be serving hot soup (Spicy tomato, carrot and sweetcorn... mmm) and bread to asylum seekers standing outside the centre. Dallas Court is where asylum seekers from across Manchester are made to go to report and has been the site of many kidnappings, when people have gone in to report only to be taken away to detention centres and to be deported. Visits are a massively traumatic experience for many, we will be there to show support.

Sunday 14th - 4-7pm - Corner of Platt Lane and Wilmslow Road, Rusholme.
The big serving - a veritable banquet of freshly prepared hot vegan food for anyone whos passing. Information about our activities, local campaigns, veganism and more.

Monday 15-Friday 19. 1pm, Dallas Court Reporting Centre, South Langworthy Road, Salford.
Every day next week we'll be taking food to the queues outside the centre, what we serve will vary from day to day depending on donations but the message of support stays the same.

Tuesday 16th - FUNDRAISING PEOPLES KITCHEN. 7pm, Grants Arms, Hulme.
A fundraiser to support our activities. Full meal on a donation basis. Noone will be denied food for lack of funds, but please give generously folks!

Wednesday 17th
2pm, Albert Square, Central Manchester - Providing food outside the Asylum Support and Destitution Public Hearing.
6pm - Outside the Asylum Support and Destitution Roadshow, Waterside Theatre, Whitworth Street, Central Manchester.

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FOOD DONATIONS!

If you would like to help, by preparing, serving or donating food (or of course cold hard cash...) please contact us on foodnotbombsmanchester@hotmail.co.uk or call/text 07982 121423.

This is a community organisation, we want as many people to get involved as possible. Everyone welcome!

(For more info, photos of events, latest news, search out our profiles on Facebook and Myspace... we're proper down wit' youth, like.)

On Monday there is a free showing in Manchester of the film 500 Years Later.

My little brother is moving out tomorrow. I wish I could say this did not make me emotional.

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:09:52 GMT

(Oxford)

Western leaders have been vocal in condemning Burma’s ongoing human rights abuses and the current crackdown. They have also condemned China and, to a lesser extent, India for their economic ties to the Burmese regime. China has also been criticised for its military ties with Burma. However, Israel and Singapore are also important suppliers of arms to the Burmese armed forces.

“The United States is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place in Burma”, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on September 27. What Rice is less keen to keep an international focus on is that the US fossil-fuel giant Chevron, on whose board of directors she sat, is part of a consortium with the Burmese government and French corporation Total that operates in Burma’s offshore gas fields. The gas from these operations is exported through the Yadana pipeline, which was built with forced labour. Halliburton, which US Vice-President Dick Cheney is a former CEO of, was involved in its construction.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer have been vocal both in their criticisms of Burma’s suppression of the protests and of China for its economic ties to the junta. According to Downer, China’s links with Burma are the reason why economic sanctions are not feasible and the justification for limiting Australia’s response to token measures, such as refusing accreditation for Burma’s choice of ambassador in Canberra, Brigadier-General Thura U Thet Oo Maung.

However, according to Greens Senator Kerry Nettle: “For Alexander Downer to say China isn’t taking action because of their trade relationship with Burma, at the same time as this Liberal Party family are making money out of their relationship with the Burmese military dictatorship, is great hypocrisy.”

The “Liberal Party family” she referred to is the Clough family, owners of the Clough Engineering Group and McRae Investments. Clough Engineering is one of the largest corporate donors to the Liberal Party. It was also a major contributor to “Australians for Honest Politics”, a slush fund associated with health minister Tony Abbott that was used to initiate legal action against Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party in 1998, when the Liberal Party wished to eliminate the electoral competition for the far-right vote. Family patriarch Harold Clough and his son Bill have both served on the board of the right-wing Institute of Public Affairs, and have also been major backers of climate change denialist propaganda.

On November 20, 2006, the Myanmar Times, a Rangoon-based weekly that publishes in Burmese and English, featured Bill Clough signing a deal with Burma’s energy minister, Brigadier-General Lun Thi, for the exploitation of the 21,000 square kilometre Yetagun East Block gas field. Bill Clough, described as CEO of Twinza Oil, a Clough-family- owned company that appears to have been created specifically for this venture, was quoted as saying: “We are very excited to be the only independent to now be involved in the offshore hydrocarbon sector, it being the most important and dynamic industry in the country … we have developed a close relationship with the ministry over time and an in-depth understanding of the specific challenges of operating in Myanmar [Burma].”

Interestingly, Clough Engineering Group/McRae Investments are major financial stakeholders in Myanmar Consolidated Media, the company that owns the Myanmar Times. According to Irrawaddy editor Aung Zaw, the Myanmar Times’s editor, Australian Ross Dunkley, has links with Burmese military intelligence. There is a link to its online edition from the Burmese dictatorship’ s official website. The recent mass protests and their brutal suppression went unreported
in the Myanmar Times.

China’s military ties with Burma have also been criticised by the Australian government. However, this has not stopped the Australian Federal Police training Burma’s security forces at the Australian-funded Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation. The October 5 Sydney Morning Herald reported that one purpose of this was “counter-terrorist collaboration” and that Downer’s office had told the SMH that it would be ongoing. Previously, the AFP had justified its links with the Burmese military on the grounds of stemming the illegal drugs trade, a justification undermined by the Burmese security forces well-documented involvement in the trade.

Tony Iltis
(taken from Disarm DSEi planning list, no link, sorry).

Die-In at Total headquarters (London)

As the Burmese military continues its repression of dissent, we must keep up the struggle and continue to target those who financially back the regime, exposing them for what they really are: capitalists who care about nothing but profit.

PARLIA-MENT-AL
...A-TO-B PEACE MARCH BANNED AS UK JUNTA CRACKS DOWN IN SHOW OF SOLIDARITY WITH BURMESE GOVERNMENT

“This is rather a ham-fisted attempt to prevent us from demonstrating. What they (the government and police) do is up to them. We will just ignore them and we have the moral and logical high-ground. I will be marching on Monday 8 October.” - Mark Thomas

Police forbid a march on the centre of government – Rangoon? Nope, London. While Gordon Brown reminds the world of our commitment to human rights and expresses his disgust at the treatment meted out to Burmese protestors, its a different story when it come to the overwrought mother of parliaments.

The previously studiously uncontroversial Stop the War Coalition has run up against the big protest clampdown. Their planned “Troops Out” march on October 8th from Trafalgar square to Parliament has been banned by the Met police. But they’re planning to march anyway.

click for bigger image
What's Peterloo? - click here

To achieve this the cops dusted off the the 1839 Sessional Orders legislation, which allows the granting of orders to allow the free passage of MPs and peers into Parliament. The Act “ORDERED, That the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis do take care that the passages through the streets leading to this House be kept free and open and that no obstruction be permitted to hinder the passage of Members to and from this House”. When this act was passed the greatest threat to the state was Chartism, a riotous movement demanding democratic freedom. What next? Public gatherings broken up under the 'Corn Laws'? The return of the ducking stool?

The Sessional orders do not actually confer any extra powers on the police, being merely a formal expression of parliament’s wishes. Those wishes being of course being that the people should in no way attempt to interfere with the business of their masters. But it is anticipated that police will make arrests under the usual Do What You’re Told Act if any attempt is made to breach the cordon around parliament.

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:45:23 GMT

Thanks to solideogloria who told me about todays Bloggers' Day for a Free Burma, but I didn't realise they just wanted us to post a simple banner. I can't bring myself to do just that though, and I thought it would be beneficial to post some (as always) critical commentary.

THINGS CAN ONLY GET BUDDHA
...AS SchNEWS EXAMINES THE SUDDEN INTEREST IN HUMAN RIGHTS IN BURMA

"I call on those who embrace the values of human rights and freedom to support the legitimate demands of the Burmese people." - George Bush.

Burma’s people are on the streets. Simmering discontent with the military junta that keeps millions in poverty boiled over into saffron-clad streetrage this week. The biggest clashes since 1988 were sparked by a 500% rise in the price of fuel, which also sent the cost of foodstuffs soaring. The first march by students and monks on 19th August led to series of protests; a movement which has been confronted with countrywide curfews, tear gas and live fire. There is no doubting their courage but why the sudden outpouring of concern for human rights from the West’s leaders? And why is it twenty years late?

Gordon gave us the answer in a comment piece in the Independent when he came to the heart of the matter - “Burma should be one of the most promising economies in south-east Asia. Instead, it is one of the poorest countries in the region.”

Roughly translated – Burma’s military junta just aren’t very good at ensuring that enough of the country’s natural wealth ends up in the hands of the western corporations. And recently, instead of opening the country up to western investment, the regime has become more friendly with regional superpower China. During the first seven months of this year, China-Burmese trade reached £600m up 40% compared to last year. So suddenly the West swings behind the idea of sanctions - maybe if the junta can be ousted then we could find more PR friendly people with whom we could do business.

The clashes in 1988 led to mass repression and the deaths of 3000, but extracted the promise of an election out of the junta. This was won outright two years later by the NLD, personified in the West by Aung San Suu Kyi who’s been under house arrest for 11 years. Suu Kyi has achieved a Mandela-like status in the West in recent years, and Gordon demanded that any solution in Burma have her “at its heart”. However her party has little control over the uprising. In fact they’ve been pleading from the sidelines for the gatherings not to become an excuse to topple the regime, preferring the adoption of sanctions by the international community to bring the junta to the negotiating table.

Burma solidarity campaigners have been screaming for sanctions for twenty years but apart from an arms embargo, the EU has only issued ‘guidance’ on investment. The largest western investor is French oil conglomerate, Total. The UK follows with $26m in trade but ‘recommends’ that the multinationals shouldn’t increase trade with Burma. The EU - policing its guidelines - has confiscated a wallet-busting four grand. With such a brutal regime in power, it’s also a little embarrassing when by 2000, the EU was responsible for almost three-quarters of all investment and nearly one third of those corporations doing business in the country had their headquarters based in Europe. Profits from foreign investment have helped double military spending at the same time the public health and education systems have crumbled. Outside investment is not the answer in Burma – it’s the problem. What the west would like to see in Burma is a transition to ‘democracy’ of a wearyingly familiar market variety.

The Junta’s Accomplices

If you want to support democracy in Burma, phone Gary Player and the other western businessmen propping up the generals.

China has become the world’s excuse for inaction. If there is anything a government or a business does not want to do, it invokes the Yellow Peril. Raise the minimum wage to £6 an hour? Not when the Chinese are paid £6 a year. Cap working time at 48 hours a week? The Chinese are working 48 hours a day. Cut greenhouse gas emissions? The Chinese are building a new power station every nanosecond. China is our looking-glass bogeyman. If you behave well, the bogeyman will get you.

As we saw during George Bush’s climate pantomime last week, China the excuse is not the same place as the China the country. Bush insists that the US cannot accept mandatory carbon cuts, because China and India would reject them. But while he stuck to his voluntary approach, China and India called for mandatory cuts(1). “China” is a projection of the West’s worst practices.

I mention this because the western companies still trading with Burma use it as their first and last defence. If we withdraw, they insist, China will fill the gap. It is true that the Chinese government has offered the Burmese generals political protection in return for cheap resources. In January, for example, China vetoed a UN resolution condemning the junta’s human rights record. Three days later it was given lucrative gas concessions in the Bay of Bengal(2). It is also true that the Chinese government has no interest in promoting democracy abroad. But the more the Burmese junta must rely on a single source of investment and protection, the more vulnerable it becomes. China is not intractable. If western governments boycotted the Beijing Olympics, they would precipitate the biggest political crisis in that country since 1989.

The businesses still working in Burma are having to scrape the barrel of excuses. Even Tony Blair, that bundle of corporate interests in human form, said “we do not believe that trade is appropriate when the regime continues to suppress the basic human rights of its people.”(3) Explaining his company’s decision to pull out of the country, the CEO of Reebok noted that “it’s impossible to conduct business in Burma without supporting this regime. In fact, the junta’s core funding derives from foreign investment and trade.”(4) As the junta either controls or takes a cut from most of the economy, as almost half the tax foreign business generates is used to buy arms, any company working in Burma is helping to oppress its people.

...
If, like me, you have been shaking your head over the crushing of the protests, wondering what on earth you can do, I suggest you get on the phone to these companies, demanding, politely, that they cut their ties. I sense that it wouldn’t take much more pressure to persuade them to pull out. By itself, this won’t bring down the regime. But it will cut its sources of income, and allow us to focus on confronting the reality of Chinese investment, rather than the excuse.

--
Action against a Total petrol station today? I think so!

"..which is a pub incidentally not an archaic criminal offence."

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:00:45 GMT

Positive aspects of working at The Stamford Arms:

+ People go there to be social. Pubs are probably the only area in which independent community businesses have continued to thrive (despite the efforts of the Mcdonalds-style pub chains). They might be indicative of some social ills (which I have definitely bitched about before), but they do some job of holding society together in the face of clone town, isolated fake-autonomy capitalism.
+ Because people go there to be social, they are usually in a good mood. Getting slagged off is much less likely than in some kind of shop. Although I do fear that overhearing something that offends me as someone leans against the bar can never be far off.
+ Because I can so easily compare it to when I worked in a pub at age 18, I'm feeling some satisfying personal progression. My thoughts are a lot more refined now, but I think I'm able to hold the same opinions without feeling so grumpy. Okay, I was having arguments with homophobic customers just earlier this year, but lets just focus on pub culture. I hate the blokey, bullshitty culture where you can find so much smallmindedness. And I hate the idea that I should be chatty and smiley whether or not I get some pitiful tips from it. But somehow, I'm now looking at people and finding it much easier to see the positive, and thus, actually enjoy being genuinely smiley or even talkative. This in turn means, at some point, if a subject which I am passionate about should come up, they are much more likely to take it on board. I already found this with one co-worker. And the chef who found out I was a vegan. Maybe its just because the co-workers have mostly been really helpful, so I dont feel so much inner resentment. But I also like to think it shows signs of growing up. And I think this only could have come from 6 years of low-skilled jobs. Don't let anyone tell you you can't take anything away from those kinds of jobs, because I think you can.
+ It's in a wealthy area. They don't necessarily tip more, but there's more people tipping more often. And whilst I don't like the idea of customers having to tip because workers aren't getting paid enough, here it does seem like a nice sign of community and co-operation - because, to me at least, it all feels genuine. It adds to the overall happiness in the place. I'm on minimum wage, so it's nice to have tips topping it up.
+ Luke is working there, and I have never worked with him. That's made it so much easier to settle in.
+ Like every place I work at, I get to partake in my secondary, initially secret job, of making the place less wasteful and inefficient. My budget is not $40,000 for this service.

I could write a list of negative things. But I'm trying to be sunny side (and it's not been that difficult lately) and the bad things about such a job are probably blatently obvious or not that interesting.

Speaking of standing up to homophobes.. Even though I have been to summits and camps where I stood up to the G8, coal companies, arms factories and democracy-hating, repressive police, I've never taken so much physical threat as when I occasionally tell someone off for using homosexual hatespeak. I got punched, and also abused in work for it within the past year, and this week some wanker on facebook (and his girlfriend) that I stood up to eventually threatened my life and cited that he knew where I worked. I know its partially because an encounter with an individual is always going to be more in-your-face than one with the global institutions of power, because they don't address me personally. But I also think it shows how bound to "manly" gender roles these "I'm not homophobic because I use gay as an insult" arseholes are. They have to "prove" their heterosexuality with threats of physical violence towards people who don't act the same and kill any inner feelings that could be considered not to fit in with that goal. The boring, bullshit-filled motherfuckers.

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:54:13 GMT

My opinion of London is pretty low right now. It's not really the cities fault, but DSEi was a washout, both personally and politically. I really wish I had made plans to go to the No Borders camp instead, which is going on right now (US readers may be interested to see there's a camp going on in November on the Mexico border!) That's another shitter, that every event is taking place in London lately. Time for nationwide solidarity actions I'm thinking. Here's an article written by an asylum seeker:

I am an asylum seeker who has experienced arbitrary detention in the UK for immigration purposes. I am also a national of a former British colony, where internment and detention were used to control the freedom movement of whole communities. I have strong criticisms of the use of internment and detention of a particular group of people as a form of control or punishment without any regard for justice. Currently in the EU countries there are approximately 174 purpose-built detention centres. The camps are now being extended to North African countries, and plans are underway to put together a ‘rapidly deployable force of border guards which would assist countries facing an immigration emergency’.

...
Inaccurate media stories often have direct consequences on how the public perceives the immigrant. Sections of the media from across the political spectrum have misrepresented asylum seekers as a homogeneous group of ‘scroungers’, a drain on state resources, a threat to British identity and even a danger to health and security. Politicians led by the tabloid agenda have taken the baton in formulating and implementing Government policy on asylum and immigration. Just recently, John Reid, the Home Secretary, told the BBC, ‘It is unfair that foreigners come to this country illegitimately and steal our benefits, steal our services like the NHS and undermine the minimum wage by working […] year on year, we are going to make it even more difficult for them to do that’ […] we are now throwing out more asylum seekers - failed asylum seekers - than ever before’.

Let's listen to the victims, not just ourselves. Just look at how I sent a message to US readers about the "Mexico border." You could argue about language barriers, computer access, livejournals base, yes yes yes. But the point is when did one of us last hear a speech by someone who wasn't a white person from the Global North, or email a campaign group in a poor country? I'm not saying none of us ever do these things, but I just think we are still missing out on an awful lot of interesting and useful stuff.

12:50 - 1:35

King Prawn - Day In Day Out
Random Hand - Anthropology
Duff Muffin - Pipe Down
The Filaments - BPC
Choking Victim - 500 Channels
Capdown - Cousin Cleotis
The Scrub - Storm Ahead
Reel Big Fish - Beer
Shootin' Goon - Back Again
NOFX - All Outta Angst
No Comply - Silencio
Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights
Lightyear - Bomb Ibiza
Sublime - Caress Me Down
Streetlight Manifesto - That'll Be The Day

2:15 -2:35

The Cat Empire - The Car Song
Sublime - Santeria
APB - Advertising Is Vandalism
Streetlight Manifesto - Point/Counterpoint
The Lock-Up - Brain Tumour Rumour

I made a group on Facebook that I am hoping will flourish into a lovely little campaign: Shut Down Tesco Altrincham.

Shoot ‘Em Up
New Line Cinema, 2007
Dir: Michael Davis
Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci

Rarely is a film’s title as honest as Shoot ‘Em Up. Rather than try to sum up its patchy plot with a handful of words, or try to tantalise us with a boringly subtle single word title proceeded by ‘The,’ we’re told to expect a computer game – some fun. Without any images or descriptions, we learn about the film’s style and the angle from which it is coming. Quite artistic for a film that’s literally 2/3 gunfights and totally brainless and pointless.

Within 5 minutes, you may come to a few conclusions: Clive Owen is playing a similar, unwilling, baby-saving hero like he did in Children of Men; his talent would be a waste in tuxedos, schmoozing around as Bond; and it’s going to be a vegan-friendly affair, as Owen’s character Smith disposes of a bad guy using a carrot. Given that Smith - who is only slightly less one-dimensional than Agent Smith from The Matrix - chooses to steal a BMW then run another Bond-esque car right off the road (both for their owners being inconsiderate rich bastards - a trait left over from being inconsiderate, rich wannabees, Smith reckons), it’s probably for the best that Owen is at his coolest when he looks like shit.

I could explain the plot (which is actually not that terrible and rolls out throughout the film quite nicely), but you’re not going to make your decision to see the film or not based on it. Let’s just say the baby Owen ends up protecting from thousands of bullets will grow up to be a real tough bastard and it’s interesting to see a liberal message about gun control that doesn’t praise the Democrats, especially when fights break out every 5 minutes leading to a death toll in the triple figures. It’s amazing how many different ways there are to shoot someone. The film comes before the message. Again, quite art house.

The experience does feel rather hollow, after Owen’s performances in films that were both cool and clever (Sin City, Inside Man). But it’s still much less hollow than anyone with a grain of cinematic sense will feel from merely setting eyes upon a Steven Segal DVD box. From the title to the really bad jokes (mainly Giamatti's), at least writer-director Davis is being honest with us. The actors are all credible and we’re kept company by Nirvana, Motörhead and um, Paul Oakenfold at every inconceivable and original bullet-firing moment. It’s a real baby boomer.

7/10
James Lamont.

This entry dedicated to Pipecleaner Parker, he who cared not a jot.

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:36:23 GMT

Somebody on Facebook (I hope I get bored of that place once the number of new friends levels out) joined a group that inspired me to write this. I may have written about something very similar to this before, but here goes. I HATE the smugness that comes with people trying to be moderate. Namely, those who accuse climate change activists of being "hysterical." I don't think being obsessed with any issue ever helped give a good perspective on the topic (and I dont think I am obsessed with climate change, or any other issue), but being what you might call a person with a "hysterically" large interest in the subject, I am going to be, in my opinion, and by their definition, better informed than they are. That might sound daft. Like saying since I study more about the flatness of the Earth than you, I am a better authority and am more likely to be correct. But no. The real sticking point is that people who say climate change probably wont be that bad are like the people who still choose to deny it, in most cases - it's not based on any serious analysis of the science or politics involved, but an inbuilt desire to not want to change. Their opinion is fraudulent, masked up as a respectable argument. They already have the advantage because everyone would rather not change, and once you throw in a few smudged attempts at sciencing the whole complex theory away, it's a very attractive looking case. Even in the heads of environmentalists, a voice desperately wants to go "yes, maybe they're right? Maybe I don't need to change much?" Unfortunately, if you accept that its just a small problem, you arent even going to adjust a small amount. You'll do nothing. The position is just as negligent as denial because it's based on nothing of any substance.

So I am an alarmist, because you would rather be comfortable.

But I've read the science. I've made an analysis. This is not something "we" did to make everyone miserable. It's just the situation. We would love to not change too. But we have to.

Can I Change Your Mind?

This isn't joining onto the previous topic. It's about a book I've been reading for the past week from the library called Can I Change Your Mind?, which is about persuasive writing. It's really funny and has given me a lot of good ideas about how to improve my writing skills. I would like to say that the article below the cut is the result of applying some of its methods, but I think I just got in a good flow for this one. Dunno how different it might have been had I read the book first. Anyway the people who have read it already have been very nice.

Why breaking the law can be okay sometimes by James Lamont aged 22:

Break the Chains

The climate camp shows us that civil disobedience and direct action is the way to go if we want real fairness.

To think that breaking the law is never justified is to have succumbed to the arrogance of chronology. It is to believe we are at the end of history and the systems in place require no further modification. Any analysis of the world today or any prediction of the future fiercely indicates otherwise. Legal, pacifist forms of protest will not suffice now as they did not suffice in getting the right to use those levers of democratic involvement - the right to strike, the right to vote, the right to representation. Even these rights have been de-toothed as time has passed.

Throughout history there have been people who have argued that we may not like the laws, but we all have to live by them. The laws' existence justifies itself. That, in other words, the laws represent popular opinion, democracy and justice for all. This has clearly never been true before - find the present day politician who blasts what the suffragettes did - why should it be true now? It is also not true that we all have to live by them. A media tycoon or famous celebrity would scarcely expect to be treated the same as a mugger in the street. Not only can they buy better legal defence, newspapers and TV handle them with a clearly unfair dignity.

For years, people living around Heathrow that object to continuous expansion have tried, failed and been ignored by politicians at the local and national level. It's considered democratic enough that your opinion is heard, neverminding the fact that it is swiftly disregarded because the government clearly supports airport operators. The disrupting tactics of the climate camp - which locals have overwhelmingly supported - may seem underhanded. But they are no more underhanded than the tactics BAA and other corporations use to undermine democracy and exert power over us all daily, with a fake validity they get by buying the laws and social customs.

If we can accept that systems are not fair and democratic, then surely we can see that the people on the underside of the foot should act outside the boundaries, to make it fair? Maturity is accepting that our government and laws are not perfect, and granting recognition of when a crime is political. It's accepting that laws written by a handful of the populace may not involve enough of us in the discussion. And it's acknowledging that societies' opinions on what is acceptable and what is not are ever-evolving.

Furthermore, almost everyone partakes in direct action, even if they aren't trying to achieve political ends. That is why most drivers don't follow speed limit laws precisely by the book, and why police let people off with warnings - because we agree that people don't always like every law being imposed on them. The only difference with direct action on climate change is that we are taking responsibility for the irresponsible way we have been living our lives. We have realised via science that we are all now the oppressor, if not to the extent of the coal companies and airlines. Unlike the suffragettes, we fight against the centres of power and ourselves not just for our own sake, but for the people with the most to lose and the least say in the matter - the world's poor, and all future generations everywhere. Needless to say, it's harder to support a social movement when they're challenging you and everyone you know. It is much easier to call them yobs and mindless troublemakers and carry on with your life.

Without law-breaking, we will all ignore one another's complicity. If we fail to challenge laws that allow unchecked flying, mining, consuming, with costs measured only in currency, future generations will surely look at us as we look at the people who owned slaves; too arrogant to question ourselves. And they will think that we believed in the end of history in the sense that we were the only ones that mattered.