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- Commentary
- Preserving our sanity amidst the consuming madness of the times
- Removing the mask of the insecure babyman
- The internet: from digital democracy to digital dementia
- Doubt as an asset, certainty as an affliction
- Fascism, collective insanity and ourselves
- Navigating disinformation, uncertainty, individualism and the poison apple of conspiracy
- If nothing changes nothing will change: the Voice referendum
- What can we learn from disaster communities?
- New year, a time to embrace the uncertainty of it all
- We could be non-binary
- Adaptive resilience vs safety paternalism
- Left wing, right wing? What just happened to politics?
- Covid, class and the addiction to certainty
- Neoliberalism, the Life World and the Psychopathic Corporation
- Democracy is about our bodies, not just our minds
- What’s your motivation: is it yourself or the change you’re making?
- Mind over matter: The world of abstraction is driving us to destruction
- The real threats to our liberty and survival
- Avoiding the abyss of conspiracy theories
- The difference between a legal system and a fantasy novel
- What’s a conspiracy and what’s just common garden variety corruption?
- Unpredictability, humility and an emerging anthropandemic
- The trilemma – climate change, economic collapse, and rising fascism
- Happy New Normal for the decade ahead
- The race to the bottom in australian politics
- Fires, liars and climate deniers
- Talking about lock-on devices – an article in ‘The Conversation’
- The Ponzi scheme is teetering
- Regenerative culture a key part of the blockade experience
- Staying sane in the late Anthropocene
- Extinction Rebellion
- Major parties have failed on climate, it’s time to rebel.
- Elections In The Late Anthropocene
- It is the Greens that are defeating the Nats and it’s all about your preferences
- Australia’s powerhouse of democracy and innovation is in the Northern Rivers
- Is identity politics a problem for the left?
- The climate emergency and the awful state of Australian politics
- Democracy and rights under threat in corporate police state
- Liberty, freedom and civil rights? Do any of us understand these things anymore.
- The forest wars are back, time to mobilise
- …more commentary
- Workshops
- News & Events
- Media
- A Flood of Emotions – Sydney Ideas Event
- Participatory democracy in the COVID era – SCU podcast
- Activism educator Aidan Ricketts explains how and why protests can be peaceful
- Bob Brown Is Taking “Shocking” Anti-Protest Laws To The High Court
- Anti protest laws could arrest nannas, seize tractors
- “They blinked first”
- Colin Barnett quick to protest against ‘activism degrees’ – The Australian, 16/10/2014
- ‘Degrees in activism’ put brake on growth – The Australian, 15/10/2014
- Magistrate throws out vexatious police case against CSG protesters
- Outrage over school PR ‘by stealth’- The Northern Star
- CSG clash a certainty
- Communities use new tactics
- Gas group attacks lecturer
- …more media
- Activist Resources
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I like these sites
Community Organisations
- Code Green Tasmania
- CSG Free Northern Rivers
- Friends of the Earth Melbourne
- Generation Alpha
- Huon Valley Environment Centre
- Lock the Gate Alliance
- Nature Conservation Council NSW
- North Coast Environment Council
- North East Forest Alliance
- Plan to Win
- Rainforest Information Centre
- Save our Foreshore
- Still Wild Still Threatened
- The Change Agency
- The Wilderness Society
Watch out for early signs of fascism
Fascism is a creeping form of totalitarianism where democracy is sacrificed and government serves the interests of the powerful few (these days mostly large corporations). It may sound alarmist, but let’s ask ourselves what are the warning signs of the slide into totalitarianism, and is it possible to unknowingly elect tyranny?
We still have free and fair elections it would seem, but the level of influence of large corporate donors and a narrow spread of media ownership is exerting undue influence over all of our parliaments. We have understandably lost trust in the major political parties. In NSW (and less obviously federally) it seems it doesn’t matter which party is in government, the mining industry is always in control. ICAC fights a rearguard action to remedy this but seems to only ever touch the tip of the iceberg, and much too late.
Our rights of protest and collective workplace action have been steadily wound back since at least the 1970s and governments are openly clear felling civil society organisations such as the Environmental Defenders Office, indigenous legal services, and the Climate Commission to name a few.
Most worrying of all, however, is the deliberate way in which ordinary citizens who protest become labelled as extremists or anarchists as governments try to conflate opposites. No folks, peaceful protesters are actually the opposite of terrorists – they are democratic citizens.
When it comes to transparency and privacy we are witnessing a massive imbalance in which the corporate state conceals ever more information under the label of ‘commercial in confidence’ or ‘national security’ while data mining the entire population’s email and facebook accounts. Warning bells should be sounding when the US now has dissidents hiding in other countries for simply revealing concealed facts.
But my real concern is seeing the rule of law slip away. No longer can we say the law applies equally to all people, this bedrock has been breached.
Governments have created exceptional places where the normal laws don’t apply, like Guantanamo Bay and Christmas Island, and exceptional laws for specific groups of people like bikies and asylum seekers.
Nowadays what is lawful for one man or woman may be a crime for another, such as meeting with two other members of your family.
Our governments are also attacking the independence of the judiciary. In NSW we are seeing mandatory sentencing and the revocation of the ancient common law right to silence as well as the re-introduction of consorting laws.
Are we witnessing early- onset fascism? Well the danger signs are all around us.
We should not fool ourselves that just because we still have elections regularly that we are not sliding into totalitarianism, it is possible to elect tyranny. Did the people of Russia not elect Vladimir Putin, was Robert Mugabe not elected in Zimbabwe (at least in the early days).
Remember the quote by German clergyman Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.
Reprinted from the Northern Rivers Echo