120 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
Visions Of Freedom anarchist conference and festival, Sydney, Australia.
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january 21st and 22nd, 1995.
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Somewhere between three and four hundred people attended the
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conference/festival over this weekend. Anarchists and other
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interested people came from all round australia and a few from
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overseas.
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Because it was only on for two days, there was a very crowded
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program of workshops and other events. During the times where the
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conference was organized into workshops, there were 5 different ones
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running at the same time. This covered about half the time the main
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conference part ran for.
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The workshops that were organized beforehand were as follows.
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Anarchy and feminism.
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Self-determination and anti-imperialism.
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Anarchy and ecology.
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Anarchism or barbarism.
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Anarcho-syndicalism and privatisation.
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Policing, crime and social control.
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Providing tools and training for self-reliance.
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Gay, lesbian and trans-gender politics.
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Militarism and social defence.
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Bookshops stalls and information distribution.
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Anarchist organization.
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Anarcho-syndicalism strategy and organization.
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Critique of recent sydney anarchist practice.
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Anarchist media.
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Class post the berlin wall.
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HEMP campaign.
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Confederation and building common campaigns.
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Victorian tramway dispute.
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As well as these, the following workshops happened spontaneously.
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Country anarchists.
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Men's movement.
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There were three book launches: <<Bomber grounded, runway closed>>
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by Ciaron O'Reilly, <<Hemp and the marijuana conspiracy>> by Jack
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Herer, two books by Graham Purchase: <<My journey with aristotle to
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anarchist utopia>> and <<Anarchism and environmental survival>>.
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Also, my book <Message sticks in cyberspace>> was quietly put on
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sale for the first time and a new booklet in spanish and english of
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a letter from Marcos (mexican zapatista revolutionary) was available.
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During the whole of the daytime part of the conf/fest, there was a
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small computer centre set up and running, with internet connections
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intermittently available and the entire Spunk press archive
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available for people to obtain either disk or paper copies of some
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or all of the material. There were several people there to answer
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questions and pass on information about the anarchist computer
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network and other issues related to computer comunications.
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Alfalfa House, a local food co-op provided good cheap vegan food
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during the two days.
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On friday night there was a free dance party which most of the people
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at the gathering went to.
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There was also a video festival happening during the two days which
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i didn't manage to get to at all, as it was in a different building.
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Black Rose and Jura, sydney's anarchist bookshops had bookstalls.
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A special conference edition of the Brisbane quarterly paper <<the
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anarchist>> was available too.
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I didn't get to any workshops (except the <<country anarchists>>
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one) because i was mainly tied up around the computer stuff, but
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there should be reports happening from other people who did. But i
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did go to the so-called <<plenary>> session at the end, where the
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conference was more or less summed up by delegates from each
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workshop.
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The most striking impression i got from the plenary session was
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that, sadly, the anarcist movement in australia still hasn't come to
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terms with women's issues and sexuality issues. No matter what
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complacent self-back-patting goes on, the male heterosexual
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elements of our mob still dominates everything with it's old
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pervasive self-obsessed patriarchal arrogance.
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The anarchy and feminism workshop was probably the best attended of
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the whole event, with about a hundred people. This shows it's a very
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important subject in the minds of a large proportion of anarchists.
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But still the men couldn't keep their big mouths shut and listen for
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a change. Sadly and disgustingly, the discussion on anarcha-feminst
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issues was dominated, just like everything else, by heterosexual
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male fear of losing their place in the pecking order. Hopefully in
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future, these fools will be thrown out of such workshops as soon as
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they open their mouths. If they support feminist politics, they
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should be there to listen and learn - if they don't they shouldn't
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be there at all.
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The gay, lesbian and trans-gender politics workshop was also fucked
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up by the pathetic closet-scared bullshit of this same type of
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'anarchist' heterosexual males. The patronising attitude shown by
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a certain old fool towards the subject of s&m, illustrated this
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problem very well. He was attempting to preach some wanky
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psychological crap to people who spend a large part of their lives
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thinking seriously about this stuff - from the perspective of
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experience and in relation to their totally valid anarchist politics.
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The end of the conference was an unfortunate come-down after a
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succesful couple of days. But it reminded us of probably the most
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important thing we have to deal with if we're ever going to take our
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politics to a point where they can *really* change the world - the
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thoughtless, fearful, arrogant domination of the movement by white
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heterosexual males (of which, i hate to admit, i'm one!)
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will
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