Archive for August 2008
Open Borders
(this is a post I made on Indymedia in response to a guy arguing againt Open Borders – I think it summed up my own views on the subject and the basic reasons why it is a correct slogan to raise quite well)
Anonymous: In the past we had this situation, it was called colonialism. Native Peoples across half the world were swamped by other cultures because of it. Open borders today would cause the same on a global scale. A place like New Zealand would overnight have a population in the tens of millions and transmogrify into a vast third world shantytown.
Workers Control
One of the greatest myths about capitalism is that it is somehow the most efficient, productive and effective system on offer – that for all it’s flaws (such as the misery that most of humanity is forced to endure), capitalism is at least capable of ensuring that everything operates the way it should, and all the jobs get done. However, this doesn’t stack up to reality.
I spend every Sunday pushing trolleys in Countdown carpark. It’s a boring, monotonous job with very little to stimulate my mind – I walk outside, get trolleys, take them back inside, and repeat the process. Every now and again I shake things up a bit by taking a trolley into the store, collecting baskets and taking them out to the foyer.
New People’s Army in the Philippines – Enviromentalism in Action
(The New People’s Army, military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has attacked and destroyed buildings and machinery belonging to the Philex Mining Corporation, which was conducting gold mining operations in the area. It’s operations were causing grievous enviromental destruction to the area, and the people of the area were suffering from this. The NPA is proving through it’s actions it’s commitment to the wellbeing of the Philippino masses, it’s commitment to the national demoratic revolution and the socialist revolution, and it’s opposition to the enviromental destruction inflicted by capitalism on the world.
Cops off Campus video
Video of the Cops off Campus protest earlier today. Sadly I only appear in passing and you don’t get to see or hear my brilliant chant leading, but hey, at least you get to see the protest. That counts for something.
Dunedin – Cops off Campus protest
(I’ll have pictures of the protest up here soon, and hopefully video footage of it too. Watch this space…)
Today at 2pm, about 100 people assembled on a cold, grey and drizzly day to protest against the presence of plainclothes police on Otago University campus, the arrests of NORML activists by the previously mentioned undercover police, and the increasingly frequent use of Campus Watch, Campus Cops and the police to crack down on political activism, dissent and civil disobedience.
