I’m having an interesting time trawling virtual and dusty papers from that fun period of 2002 - 2006 when immigration detention activism was all the rage. Do any readers know of/have any critiques from that time (within loosely ‘anti-detention’ activism/debates) regarding the work of groups like ChilOut and the Circles of Friends?
I received the email below today which is funny for all sorts of reasons, not least that I had intended to go here today to protest the Mexican Government’s recent attacks on Zapatista territory; this also being the day that these protests were held.
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:49:52 -0600
From: Australian_Embassy_Mexico_City@dfat.gov.au
To: Undisclosed Recipients
Reply-to: embaustmex@yahoo.com.mx
Subject: AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION - 24 NOVEMBER 2007 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] (more…)
Diversity Boat, World Social Forum, Porto Alegre 2005.
Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride, South Park, 1997.
The “alternative thesis topic” being “Boats in Multiculture: a history from colonisation to activism”.
Young Liberals making recordings of lefty lecturers: do they really think we can’t tell which ones they are? Or will they perhaps disguise themselves in faded surf brand t-shirts a lá the undercovers at the G20 protests?
Put another way - this guy generally stands out in a Political Economy lecture:
(NSW Young Liberals President - from the Daily Telegraph article on the same issue)
“Vamos a pedirles a los compañeros hombres zapatistas que nos ayuden en cuestiones de logística. Podrán estar también los compañeros de México y del mundo para oírnos, pero calladitos, al igual de nuestros compañeros hombres zapatistas.
Este Tercer Encuentro, como será especialmente de las mujeres zapatistas, estará dedicado a la comandanta Ramona, que llevará su nombre.
Entonces queda así: Tercer Encuentro de los Pueblos Zapatistas con los Pueblos del Mundo. La comandanta Ramona y las Zapatistas. Así que lleven este mensaje para las demás compañeras. Que se vayan preparando. Al mismo tiempo, que vayan diciéndoles a sus esposos que se tienen que quedar unos días para cuidar la casa, los hijos y los animalitos mientras salen y se encuentran con las zapatistas para organizarse de cómo luchar contra el capitalismo y el neoliberalismo.”
—–
“We are going to speak, us women Zapatistas, with compañeras from Mexico and the world and you will be able to ask questions of how we organize ourselves, the women Zapatistas, more directly with women. We are going to ask the compañeros men Zapatistas that they help us with logistical questions. Compañeros from Mexico and the world may also come to hear us, but remain silent [calladitos], same as our compañeros men Zapatistas.
This Third Encuentro, as it will be especially of the women Zapatistas, will be dedicated to Comandanta Ramona, and will take her name. Thus it is like this: Third Encuentro of the Zapatista Peoples with the Peoples of the World: Comandanta Ramona and the women Zapatistas.
Bring this message to the rest of the compañeras. That they are prepared. At the same time, that they go to tell their spouses that they will have to take care of the house, the kids, and pets for a few days, while they leave and gather with the women Zapatistas to organize ourselves on how to fight against capitalism and neoliberalism.”
- Comandanta Everilda, 28 July 2007, La Realidad, Chiapas.
Watching the advert for this album flicker limply across the television screen numerous times recently, I have cursed the general halfarsedness of it all. As it happens, Long Sunday agrees with me - quoting Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, who contributes a version of ‘Working Class Hero’:
When asked why they chose the song, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said, “We wanted to do ‘Working Class Hero’ because its themes of alienation, class, and social status really resonated with us. It’s such a raw, aggressive song — just that line: ‘you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see’ — we felt we could really sink our teeth into it. I hope we’ve done him justice.”
Yep. It’s all about doing justice to John Lennon [and other nostalgic memories of Real Social Change]. Glad we’ve got that in perspective.
*Of course, by TMK I mean Those Meddling Kids, as last seen here - not Trupat e Mbrojtjes së Kosovës.
** Mujeres Creando, protesting the pimp state.
In a recent email exchange with Charlie re: Why We Are Not Habermasians, he reminded me of the phrase (originally coined, I believe, by Todd Gitlin): Freedom Is An Endless Meeting. I’ve been thinking since on how The Meeting is such a significant trope in the way that professionalization and neutrification (yes, I did just make that word up) plays out. Going to A Meeting. I’ve Got a Meeting. Meetings All Day. Let’s Have a Meeting (can the spokescouncil be different from the Meeting?). They are encuentros in activist Spanish, and remain so in activist English (and I do rather love the notion of encounter as Ahmed would have it).
(I think about the Weather Underground. What were their Meetings like?)
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