Given that ours are based on the British model and are being equally affected by the 'web, we should be doing the same.

Our contempt rules are hopelessly vague, and impossible to teach in journalism school, because almost every day students can point to something a media outlet has done that seems to break them.

Aside from the upcoming FairfaxNZ trial for contempt over the Tuhoe raids material (and we're all watching that one with bated breath), there are the rather extraordinary events in a couple of Auckland's district courts to consider.

In one, Judge David Harvey experimented with a suppression order that left traditional news media free to report the identities of a couple of murder case accused appearing at a preliminary hearing, but banned such information from online publication, with the reasoning that a future jury might be tempted to surf the 'net.

He invited media input, but next hearing had to resort to discussing the matter with a couple of court reporters who turned up (mind you, if they were experienced, they probably knew as much about such issues as their editors and lawyers).

Meantime, our two biggest media companies accidentally broke the suppression because their editions are automatically uploaded as page replicas on a Canadian site called Newspaper Direct.

Have a look at the coverage Indymedia is providing each day from the depositions hearing for the Tuhoe (and others) defendants charged with Arms Act offences after last year's "terrorism" raids.

It's full of comment, opinion, condemnation, etc - content that could conceivably prejudice future jury members and therefore a fair trial, not to mention possibly scandalise the court by criticising the judge.

If whoever is writing this stuff (the byline is that well-known journalist Mr Anonymous) doesn't end up in court on contempt charges, we have to conclude the whole contempt of court rules arena has become a mockery.

Though Indymedia, of course, is nowhere near as significant a target for the Solicitor-General as Tim Pankhurst and the DomPo.

I've picked the perfect time to start a mouthy anti-authoritarian blog didn't I? In discussion with friends over the events at the RNC and the near total corporate media blackout on the crackdown on journalists is chilling. It's a wakeup call, regardless of the finer points of anarchist rhetoric or social structure, I know what side I'm on after this. It's frankly a little scary. All this repression I've blogged on and seen through indymedia has had a radicalizing effect on me and I imagine many others. The cops know how to deal with protests and they don't care whether you're a national celebrity, a black hooded window breaker, or a peacenik with a sign. Stand up and they'll fuck you up. Here's the real tough question: Is mass protest, while an important tool, the only tool the resistance to this creeping fascist state can use or should be using? Does organizing ourselves into masses to be pepper sprayed every four years just put a big target on us? Instead of trying to street fight the Secret Service, Nat'l Guard, and every cop in Minnesota, would nationwide smaller actions be more effective and harder to crack down on? This is a tactical question that I'm sure has been asked before and in no means should be interpreted as a referendum on the bravery of those willing to put their asses in front of a line of mean riot cops. It's showed me just how indiscriminate police reaction to political dissent is. What if we get caught, someone asked me once...My friend, i think quoting from another source, retorted, "Motherfucker, you already caught, better figure out whatcha gonna do if you get free."

Tough Times in the U.S. of A. How are we gonna get free?

A couple of Mark Twain quotes and a song to take us out...

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either."

-Mark Twain, on Freedom

"As an active privilege, it ranks with the privilege of committing murder; we may exercise it if we are willing to take the consequences."

-Mark Twain, on Freedom of Speech

Big ups to the Stimulator, looking forward to your next projects, you've done us a favor...

Martin V.

In addition, St Paul resident and Assistant Professor at Malacaster College Erik W. Davis, has bucked the trend and provided a shout out in favour of the Anarchists who are putting in an appearance at the RNC rally, writing:

The Welcoming Committee and its affiliated groups, unlike the PAD, have explicitly rejected hierarchy, the right to rule or appoint rulers, and all oppressions based on economics, politics, gender, race, class, or sexuality. The goals of the WC and the PAD are vastly, vastly different.

Finally, there is a very important other difference. Violence. While the mainstream media in the United States loves to conflate property damage and attacks on human beings as both being forms of ‘violence,’ it is very clear, even to the mainstream press, that the vast majority of violence taking place on the streets of Saint Paul right now is committed by the police. Can the same be said of the security forces in Bangkok, which if anything, are being criticized by critics for not being violent enough? (to be clear, not my criticism).

I do not know him, but after reading this post I feel he rightly deserves a link and a shout out. The excerpt above, for example was taken from a post contrasting the gathering of protesters at the RNC, to the current anti-government protests in Thailand. Enjoy.

In case you were wondering if the powers that be are afraid of independent media observation of protest movements check out the most recent Democracy Now! broadcast from the heart of darkness, l mean, the RNC...

Despite wearing RNC convention press passes, Amy Goodman, host of the largest national indy media news show, Democracy Now!, was arrested for asking about two of her producers. They had just been arrested and charged with felony riot charges, despite also wearing RNC press passes and committing no crimes. Those passes would've let them past any guards and onto the convention floor, ideally. But instead they were arrested, bloodied, and it took an act of a congressman, Keith Ellison(D-MN), plus a few thousand other calls to get them released. However, the Secret Service, or S.S. as I like to call them, confiscated their RNC press passes once they were taken to a detention center, they were assigned an 'arresting' officer who didn't arrest them, and kept in a tiny chain link cage with seventeen other arrestees. 

Freedom of Press, my ass. Freedom of assembly, my ass. Freedom, my ass. Fuck the police, see for yourself. 

First her producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar who filmed her own arrest, surrounded on all sides by five riot cops and being shouted contradictory instructions. Check it...

And then, Amy Goodman hears her producers have been arrested despite having every required credential and committing no crime...she goes to investigate with the commanding officer in charge and is immediately arrested.

From the Democracy Now! press release on the subject...

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were arrested on suspicion of rioting, a felony. While the three have been released, they all still face charges stemming from their unlawful arrest. Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion of felony riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a “peace officer.”

laughing at the term 'peace officer' 

Martin V.

As a part of our struggle against the facist movement
we hacked the forum of: www.bloodandhonour.com!

und nicht nur das man dieses Nazi-Forum erstmal lahmgelegt hat, man hat auch gleich noch die kompletten Datenbanken etc. runtergeladen und bietet diese zum Download und Auswertung für Interessierte an!

Link zu Indymedia

(via)

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St. Paul: 10:30 pm CDT: Convergence center on Smith Ave. has been raided by the cops. They have a warrant. The cops have handcuffed everybody at the center and are processing people to get their names and identification. No arrests at this time. Twin Cities Indymedia reports: The convergence space is currently being raided. Police burst in and are using force against people. Everyone inside has been handcuffed. Estimates of people inside currently vary between 20-70. One block radius around the convergence space has been blocked off. Lawyers, legal observers and media are on the way. More updates as they come.

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Indymedia has reported that all individuals detained were later released without arrest, as this raid came on Friday the 29th. From a strict observers standpoint, it appears the cops are using scare-tactics to "discourage" organisation amongst the protesters. Though I would imagine that I would be stating the obvious.

Note: I apologise for the dodgy line breaks, the wordpress text editor is giving me grief at the moment.

Hat tip goes to Brad Spangler, or his blog at least.

(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.

There is also the impracticality of letting all comers move to already overpopulated countries to consider. How would the UK, France and Germany cope with the environmental impact of having 150 million inhabitants each?

Me: This issue comes down to one simple question Anon.

A poor, probably darker skinned person is fleeing poverty and/or repression in their home country, and trying to come to a wealthy imperialist country like New Zealand. The repressive apparatus of the capitalist state is trying to prevent them from coming here - it's locking them up, seperating them from their families, depriving them of their basic rights, and eventually deporting them back to the place they fled from in the first place! (Thakshila anyone?)

Now, here's my question for you Anaon - WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

As well as this basic question fo who we support and oppose, there's the fact that the economics of you're argument are highly flawed. All wealth in society is created by workers through their labour power, which creates surplus-value.

If immigrants are rapidly integrated into society upon arrival here, are provided with English language classes, and are able to actually get a decent job and start working, they will be creating surplus-value and thus will be "paying their way" (if we have to resort to that kind of terminology), will be creating the wealth necessary to pay for any healthcare, education or other services orovided by the state that they may need.

In a socialist society, immigration would not be an issue whatsoever, and in a socialist WORLD, it would be evn less of an issue, as the primary concern of the former FW countries would be lifting up the global south and thus removing the need for people to leave their homes and seek jobs and better lives abroad.

The problem with colonialism was not the simple immigration of white people (I'm assuming you're not one of the types who think we need to throw the pakeha filth out of NZ!) - it was the forcible subjucation of the people who lived there before, and their being made into second class citizens exploited and oppressed by the lighter skinned ruling class.

Personally, I don't see it as being that likely that immigrants desperately fleeing their lives in Africa, Asia and Latin America are that likely to conquer New Zealand and turn us all into second class citizens!

Open Borders is not just an achievable and desirable alternative to the current racist immigration controls we have - it is an important political demand to raise that challenges capitalism and imperialism, and backward attitudes within the working class itself. It is a demand that the Workers Party has consistently put forward for as long as we have existed, and it's a demand that the left needs to be a lot better at raising.

divendres, 8 d'agost de 2008
CCOO acusa Joventut d'atorgar subvencions de manera arbitrària
Reclama més transparència i la regulació de l'assignació de fons públics

S. PÉREZ. Barcelona
Acció Jove-Joves de CCOO de Catalunya va denunciar ahir que la secretaria de Joventut de la Generalitat concedeix les subvencions a les organitzacions sindicals de manera «arbitrària i clientelista». Basant-se en les dades de juliol del 2008, assegura que «no hi ha correspondència entre les subvencions i el grau de representativitat dels sindicats». Manel Garcia Biel, portaveu de la comissió executiva de CCOO, va demanar més transparència i la regulació del repartiment de fons públics.

Pel portaveu de la comissió executiva de CCOO, l'arbitrarietat en la concessió de subvencions no és exclusiva de la secretaria de Joventut del govern català, perquè «es dóna en altres àrees de la Generalitat i administracions», però sí que és un bon exemple, explica Garcia Biel. En l'informe que van fer públic ahir, Acció Jove mostra com els sindicats reben tractes diferenciats. Així, CCOO rep 2,08 euros per delegat –en té 25.6244–, 2,78 euros en el cas de la UGT i 135,40 pel que fa a la Intersindical-CSC, amb 233 delegats.
El coordinador d'Acció Jove d'aquest sindicat, Andrés Querol, afirmava que només «les afinitats ideològiques» poden explicar aquestes diferències i que, per exemple, «la Intersindical-CSC obtingui un 20% de les subvencions malgrat tenir una representativitat d'un 0,4%».

En l'informe, que ja s'ha enviat a la secretaria de Joventut, els diferents grups parlamentaris i el Consell Nacional de la Joventut (CNJC), també es fa una anàlisi de les subvencions que s'han concedit des de la secretaria de Joventut entre els anys 2006 i el 2007. «La situació discriminatòria tendeix a agreujar-se amb el temps», assegurava el coordinador d'Acció Jove. Querol afegia també que amb l'estudi també es posa de manifest que «no hi ha cap correspondència entre les bases reguladores de les convocatòries i la quantitat econòmica aprovada per a cada projecte».                                                                                                

Acció Jove-Joves de CCOO espera a partir d'ara poder començar a treballar amb el Consell Nacional de la Joventut per «buscar complicitats i fer un front comú». Reclama «una revisió del finançament que permeti corregir el comportament discriminatori» i recupera la proposta que el 2005 ja va presentar per a la regulació de les relacions entre les entitats i les administracions i que ha d'estar basada, diuen, en la transparència. Aquesta proposta fins ara no ha tingut una resposta política. 

Ahir, la secretaria de Joventut de la Generalitat, el responsable de la qual és Eugeni Villalbí, no va fer declaracions sobre l'informe presentat pel sindicat. 

Aquest nom, el d'Eugeni Villalbí, m'ha permès evocar bones èpoques, quan jo era responsable a la Intersindical-CSC. I quan dirigia la Secretaria d'Eleccions Sindicals i Negociació Col·lectiva, aquest company, l'apreciat Eugeni Villalbí, era afiliat a l'Espai Jove. M'agradaria saber si en el moment en que va ser nomenat Responsable de la Secretaria de Joventut, i fins avui, aquest vailet encara és afiliat al genuí "sindicat nacional i de classe", perquè si així fos es confirmaria allò que el company Ferran Casas sempre s'havia proposat: que des de l'Espai Jove s'aconseguissin subvencions a dojo. En qualsevol cas, felicitats a l'amic Ferran, i al nou Secretariat -per extensió- per haver aconseguit tres objectius en un: dependre econòmicament de l'Administració Pública, alhora ser independent, i a més presentar-se com a sindicat "alternatiu". Crec que ningú, abans que vosaltres, havia aconseguit la quadratura del cercle. Sou uns cracks!

Per als qui us quedi un bri de dignitat, o sia, per als que ja no sou afiliats a la Interindical-CSC, us poso aquest enllaç amb l'informe d'Acció Jove (les joventuts de la Comissió Obrera Nacional de Catalunya), perquè pugeu delectar-vos amb la seva lectura. Fa caure la cara de vergonya... als qui encara els en quedi una mica, és clar!!

A 'story' posted in indymedia UK this week talks of how eight people died when a bull fighting arena in Columbia collapsed. Now I personally think that bull fighting is pretty noxious but to celebrate the deaths of the spectators is pretty fucking low.

Footage of the event (which, to be frank, is far more entertaining than watching a bull being gored to death)

Says the article. Shows how much humanity these freaks have when they find the deaths of eight people amusing.  I swear these fucks are one step away from starting to attack people over their choice of diet.

The greatest enemy of the animal rights movement is animal rightists themselves. Ach well at least they are just a bunch of kids who will grow out of this shite eventually.