In Support of Freedom of Speech and Expression in Indian Constitution

Srujanacha Algaar: In support of freedom of speech and expression in Indian Constitution. 

This is to invite you to a cultural protest programme being organised on the 26th of January at Ambedkar Bhavan Mumbai against State and non-State actors' atrocities on the people's Freedom of Expression. This programme is being organised by progressive minded cultural personalities as well as independent activists in the city.

"If the shudra intentionally listens for committing to memory the veda, then his
ears should be filled with (molten) lead and lac; if he utters the veda, then his
tongue should be cut off; if he has mastered the veda his body should be cut to
pieces." - XII. 4. Manusmruti

The institution and practice of slavery is one of the ugliest chapters of human history.
No human group on earth has suffered the unspeakable horrors so much as the Shudras
and Ati-shudras in India, who have trudged through this dark tunnel for eons. For many
eras the then prevalent Brahmanical social system had subjected this creative and
productive human group to torture and abuse through slavery, thereby denigrating their
life to a deaf and mute existence. One might question the propriety of digging up the
ancient past in today’s times – the reason is simple: These inhuman practices continue
to exist even today, slavery keeps resurfacing in one form or the other.

The 20th century in Indian history is marked by a significant occurrence - the struggle
for freedom by the slaving Shudras. The foundation of this great struggle was led by
Charvak, Gautam Buddha, Kabir Ravidas, Tukaram Shivaji Maharaj and like-minded
abrahmains, who had a rational, materialistic and scientific approach. The struggle
reached its zenith of human liberation due to the stellar efforts of Phule–Shahu–
Ambedkar.

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar brought forth a new era of equality in the Indian history by
providing all individuals an equal level of citizenship. If you look at the Indian history
carefully, it is apparent that there has always been a bigger counter-revolution by
the descendants of Manu as a reaction to a small revolution by the egalitarians. The
Mooknayaka started to speak up, to read and write, the old shackles of religion started
to loosen. As a result, the ardent followers of Manu started feeling uncertain about their
impenetrable fort of faith that seemed to stand on slippery ground. But what could they
do? Neither could they air their fear openly, nor could they bear it quietly. Then they
maintained a strategic silence and tried to come to terms with it cleverly, following their
usual strategy. Conspiratorially and step-by-step, they started dismantling the armour
from Mooknayaka that he acquired after India had won freedom. First they eulogised the
legislative principle of equal treatment and opportunity and then discreetly eliminated
it. Subsequently they played the religion card and spread religious and racial hatred.
It resulted into bitter battles and a brutal massacre of the labour and working class
belonging to certain castes and sub-castes, this was a relapse of the dark era.

As a consequence, the concept of secularism was set ablaze before it could take root.
The natural resources of Mother India were made available for foreign investment - the
sovereignty of Indian Constitution was put on auction.

No Indian can keep quiet, when the freedom of his country is for sale.

While the most lethal epidemic is spreading in the world, only a few humans stand
resolute against the enemy of humanity and are determined to remain altruistic. At any
given point of time, such people are only a small handful. Dictators consider them as a
major threat, hence they first try to woo them to join the thieves’ guild and be one of
them. If all fails, they are offered a high post in the governmental machinery, a position
of power or even monetary funds, in order to silence their noble quest for ever. If these
measures fail, they construct new prisons for these humane persons and try to crucify
them.

What is going on today? There is a constitution in this country, albeit without a soul.
All pillars of democracy are dilapidated. Only those who have financial capital, rule
the media and can brag and pontificate on anything. The supporters of Brahmanism
and under-belly of capitalism keep blabbering nonsense incessantly. Those who are
misleading the society by screaming utter lies have been given freedom of expression;
and those, who write and speak the truth are forcefully silenced either by means of the
police power or by the side-kick fascist organisations. But these moves are no more a
secret.

We are the true descandents of Shivraay and Bhimraay. We must strive to propagate,
protect and spread their thoughts.

The celebration on 26 January 2013 is a small step in that direction.

In support of freedom of speech and expression in Indian Constitution

A crusade for creativity – speak, your lips are free.

Opening : Pushpa Bhave
J V Pawar, Khalil Deshmukh, Anand Shinde will be present

Saturday, 26th January 2013, 4.30 pm
At Dr Ambedkar Bhavan, Gokulpasta lane, behind Chitra Cinema, Dadar (W), Mumbai

Cultural programme to be presented by a new vibrant team of performers.

An invitation by supporters of freedom of speech and expression

On the Legislation of Information and Creativity

On the Legislation of Information and Creativity

(Speech on the Occasion of a demonstration against surveillance and ACTA)

We have every reason to celebrate but to remain vigilant.

Attempts by commercial interests to influence public policy have been around for a long long time. In recent years with the massive development of cyber-infrastructure the role legislation plays in the culture of daily life is no longer restricted to education, publication, music and cinema as it was for such a long period of time. Today connectivity, social media, the information economy and society are intertwined, where every ripple on the digital pool has results for everybody. Today we are gathered here to voice our concerns and hopes for the future of the information society.

After ten years of professional research on digital culture and technology I have observed a worrying trend in recent years regarding how the architecture of the information economy is maintained. The massive acceptance of apps, enclosed programs mostly run in isolation on mobile devices by single users, is a great analogy for how many large corporations would like to see the Internet. You buy the app and then the channel is open for you to purchase content or receive updates from the source of the technology. In effect you live in a walled garden; you and your app. You are enjoying each other’s company but finding it difficult to meet others and share content with them. The “Like” button on Facebook works on a similar principle. You register an opinion but you really share nothing. Exactly what large corporations want; identifiable individuals consuming.

Into this growing environment of lonely consumption come the corporate lobby groups. They have been doing ok recently, thanks to new systems such as subscriptions for streaming content, apps, DRM licensing, and of course government legislation regarding copyright. However, there are still massive leakages in their revenue systems. There are strong desires from the corporate sector to see further gains in Intellectual Property Rights control.  Young people are being targeted by organizations such as the International Trademark Association (INTA), and anti-counterfeiting and the need for harmonization of existing laws (which means making more laws) are the reasoning behind recent campaigns for increased IP legislation.  Free trade agreements have been used in Australia and India to bring in tighter controls on IP, often to the detriment of small time traditional industries and crafts. Negotiations on bills to be put before governments in both Europe and the United States have seen the unparallelled presence of interest bodies from rights and patent holders and managers. The artists are not so extremely vocal in relation to increased control for rights holders, as many of them do not control the publication of their own works.

However, we do have a lot to celebrate today:

Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) - the White House said Mr Obama would veto the act if it reached his desk.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) –

The ACTA agreement was signed in October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. In January 2012, the European Union and 22 countries that are member states of the European Union signed as well. No signatory has ratified (formally approved) the agreement, which would come into force after ratification by 6 countries. After entry into force, the treaty would only apply in those countries that ratified it.

Helena Drnovšek-Zorko, Slovenian ambassador to Japan, issued a statement on 31 January 2012 expressing deep remorse for having signed the agreement. "I signed ACTA out of civic carelessness, because I did not pay enough attention. Quite simply, I did not clearly connect the agreement I had been instructed to sign with the agreement that, according to my own civic conviction, limits and withholds the freedom of engagement on the largest and most significant network in human history, and thus limits particularly the future of our children," she said

The ACTA treaty is unlikely to be ratified by the European Union, according to Neelie Kroes, the powerful European commissioner for telecoms and technology.

"After the tremendous mobilization of citizens around the world against Sopa and Acta, it would be extremely dangerous politically for the commission to propose a new repressive scheme," said Jeremie Zimmermann, from Internet advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.

In this environment of change and challenge, we stand here with the desire to maintain freedom of information and expression, to allow the poor of the world to access medicines, and to allow for innovation and development driven from the sector where the talent and creativity are strongest and not solely dependent upon money. The legislation of information and creativity pushed by corporate concerns is an ominous sign. The greatest periods of human civilization have not been the times when the lawyers ruled, but rather when education and culture was the domain of the many. The establishment of law for the benefit of the many must be coupled with the opportunity to create and share. In this digital age we now possess tools that allow for this on an unprecedented scale. I hope that my grandchildren can look back at this time and see it as the beginning of a golden age, rather than the start of a culture based on surveillance, control and capital power.

Thank you.

James Barrett

Döbelns

Umeå

12 May 2012.

Action and Mini-Festival Tomorrow

I will be playing tomorrow with DJ Vänlig (Acid Folk) at 16:20 in Döbeln Park in Umeå as part of a demonstration and festival for the continuation of freedom of expression and association via digital media. We will gather at the 'Apberget' (Monkey Mountain) in the town square in Umeå. We will then proceed in an orderly fashion to Döbeln Park for some tunes and talk. I will be giving a short talk at 17:20 on the legislation of information and creativity. Hope to see you there.

United States Use of Force in Protest

Blogging the (Un)Control Machine

“I broke out my camera gun and rushed the temple — This weapon takes and vibrates image to radio static — You see the priests were nothing but word and image, an old film rolling on and on with dead actors — Priests and temple guards went up in silver smoke as I blasted my way into the control room and burned the codices — Earthquake tremors under my feet I got out of there fast, blocks of limestone raining all around me — A great weight fell from the sky, winds of the earth whipping palm trees to the ground — Tidal waves rolled over the Mayan control calendar.” - William S. Burroughs, “The Mayan Caper”.

The author William S. Burroughs proclaimed, “smash the control images, smash the control machine” in “The Mayan Caper” from his 1961 novel The Soft Machine. Burroughs believed that the word and image has been used throughout human history to control thought. He particularly associated it with the Mayan civilization of Meso-America. Whether or not Burroughs was historically correct in his assessment of the “Mayan control calendar” is largely irrelevant today, if one pays attention to Burroughs more simple claim that images and words populate the imaginations of people when they are broadcast using the electronic mass media. Mass media for the majority of Burroughs’s life (1914-1997) was broadcast using the one-to-many model. Newspapers, Television and Radio beamed messages into the lives and minds of millions of people every day. This network of one-way information channels (if one ignores the heavily censored Letters to the Editor and talk back radio) is drowning today in an ocean of user driven digital content. Fourteen years after the death of Burroughs, anyone who can access the Internet can fashion their own ‘camera gun’ and begin beaming images into the minds of others. As a revolutionary force, the writings of William S Burroughs provide us with a set of principles that can be used to understand how the ruling order is replaced in relation to the digital media sphere. The blogs, wikis, live feeds, podcasts, web journals, micro blogs, RSS feeds and forums of today are soft weapons that ‘take and vibrate images to radio static’, breaking them up, distributing them and making the digital food of revolution. Blogging with its millions of channels is now the media ‘uncontrol machine’.  

In his fiction Burroughs paints a picture of a bygone society where one delves “Into the interior: a vast subdivision, antennae of television to the meaningless sky. In lifeproof houses they hover over the young, sop up a little of what they shut out” (Naked Lunch 11). Today it is nearly impossible to shut much out in the average suburban Western home, and controlling production of media content is like trying to contain a solar storm. Millions of channels circle the planet offering input and output possibilities for anyone with a story or an image. Among the many, the Chinese government attempts censorship in the face of this image horde, but there are always holes in any Great Wall. Recently a colleague travelled to China to give a series of lectures on film and the digital image. She was of course unable to access YouTube, so she Skyped instructions about which videos to rip off the site and I sent them to her from Europe via the file-sharing site Sprend. These videos were then shown in a Chinese university lecture hall. This is just one crude example of how information always finds a way. I would like to mention some others.

The proposed revolution of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is radio-sonic, if one judges by the radiating ‘i’ logo of the Global Revolution livestream site.  Twenty-four hours a day, beginning on September 17^th 2011, people began occupying Zuccotti Park (Liberty Park) in Downtown Manhattan in New York. Coinciding with the physical occupation is the digital barrage of Twitter (micro-blogging run off hashtags), the live video stream, forum discussion, archives of links and comments, blog posts, still images, podcasts, live audio streams, email lists and YouTube videos. This river of information has sparked Occupy [enter-town-name] around the USA and even overseas. What could be relegated as a collection of disenfranchised and left-leaning complainers has quickly evolved into an idea (“occupy everything” seems to be its slogan, and it of course comes with a manifesto http://occupywallst.org/article/a-message-from-occupied-wall-street-day-five/). The ability of digital media to spread this idea (and I am doing it right here) is a testament to the tenacity of the word virus. The need to overcome the dominant dream narratives is most recently articulated by popular Slovenian philosopher Slovoj Zizek when he spoke at OWS on 9^th October 2011 and said, "The ruling history has even limited our capacity to dream". The dream of authenticity goes on.

Philosopher-at-Large Slavoj Zizek addresses the crowd gathered in Liberty Plaza        

Global Revolution media feed, Saturday October 8^th 2011. The end of the Mayan Calendar as we know it?

The OWS movement is the latest and possibly most visible outside mainstream media of a series of high profile digital image barrages connected to popular protest and resistance we have seen develop over the last couple of years. In a rough time line that also shows a growing sophistication, these include the 2008-2009 Israeli-Gaza War, the 2009 election protests in Iran, the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the civil uprising in Syria, and finally the present Occupation of Wall Street. The Israeli-Gaza War was mostly conducted on the Internet via Twitter, with some videos and websites taking up the events only often after they occurred. The 2009 election protests in Iran were Twitter based, but many of the feeds from the micro blogging site were located outside the boarders of the Islamic Republic. However, videos built an enormous following online for the ideas and demands of the dissident forces in Iran. This culminated in the murder online of Neda Agha-Soltan, a video of the shooting death of a beautiful young woman on a street in Tehran that went viral. As Neda gazed into the camera lens, blood gushing from her nose and mouth, the viewer was propelled into the human drama of a cruel and unjust situation. The image wars in Iran had just been stepped up a notch.

The speed of the revolution in Tunisia stunned the world. On 17^th December 2010 a street vendor in the town of Sidi Bouzid set himself alight in protest over long term persecution by corrupt local street officials. Mohamed Bouazizi died on 4 January 2011, at 5:30 pm local time. Protests began immediately afterwards, and built up until President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia with his family on 14 January 2011. The rest is history, and the role of social media in the build up to the flight of Ben Ali is contentious. Wikileaks is said to have playeda significant role in the turn of events in Tunisia, along with high unemployment, inflation and official corruption. However, the Tunisian uprising is clearly an example of the masses no longer believing the official control narrative of the government. As Mohamed Bouazizi lay dying in his hospital bed, Ben Ali visited him on December 28^th 2010, promising to appoint a new Minister of Youth and to look into the unemployment problem (running at around 40% in Sidi Bouzid) . What resulted from the visit was an undermining of the official information line, with Al Jazeera reporting, “For many observers, the official photo of the president looking down on the bandaged young man had a different symbolism from what Ben Ali had probably intended.” The game was over for Ben Ali and a new set of images are still being developed to replace the old in Tunisia.

The revolutions in Egypt and Libya seem to follow a similar pattern to that of Tunisia, as information channels are gradually developed and become dominant, in form if not in content. This progression often mirrors the changes occurring in the streets and corridors of power in each nation. Images replace images as power shifts. Flows of information supporting one group or idea become larger, more regular and more widely distributed, as support grows and gains are made on the ground. What is different from the usual flows of propaganda in any political changeover is that the sources in these contemporary changeovers are multiple based on weight of numbers. While major broadcasters such as Al Jazeera covered the assembly in Tahrir Square in Cairo from atop the buildings around it, creating a visual metaphor of distance and collectivity, the real coverage was happening on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and countless Egyptian blogs. Wael Abbas, Sandmonkey, Hossam Eid, Ali Seif, Nora Younis, Misr Digital, and Baheyya are some of the most popular blogs. It must also be remembered that in the last weeks of the regime of Hosni Mubarak the Internet was shut down for the entire of Egypt in an attempt to silence dissenting images and ideas. Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates commented on the shut down in a highly perceptive analysis, "Whenever you do something extraordinary like that, you're sort of showing people you're afraid of the truth getting out." In the same story by The Huffington Post it was revealed that efforts to shut down such an information network inevitably fail. As they did for Hosni Mubarak.

Attempts are still made in digital media sites to summarize the movement in a single form of language. In doing so the summary attempts to return a movement to the singular, what the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin calls a monoglossia, which identifies the locus of control with the authoritative interpretation of the word. The OWS movement is one example of this, where a major digital news site took pictures of 34 people in Liberty Park and described it, as “This should give you a pretty good idea of the different types of people occupying Wall Street“ .  What I would ask of buzzfeed’s summary of who is occupying Wall Street is where does the occupation begin and end? Is the video feed running 24 hours a day part of the occupation? What about the forums, blog posts, videos, and Tweets? Are they part of the occupation? If they are, where are they? With millions of channels open all over the Internet, the occupation of Wall Street has become part of the infrastructure of the World Wide Web, which as its name suggests, is worldwide. There is no place for an idea, as it occupies the world as a virus does, in time but not in space.

As the forms and practices of the OWS movement become more established they are copied. Well not so much copied, as manifested. It is contagious and how it is going to end we do not know yet. In researching this article I cam across a new site in the United Kingdom called BEYONDCLICKTAVISM, which gives a little bit of background and then four reasons for its existence:

Beyond Clicktivism was set up following the netroots uk event primarily to address the following questions:

• What can we do online that is uniquely progressive so that if others emulate us their response is informed by progressive values?
• How do we get people climbing the ladder of engagement, moving from Facebook “Likes” to actual concrete action?
• How do we integrate progressive use of social media with non-political use of social media?
• How can we build tools that can also be used to call politicians to account and stop the next Blair or Clegg from flying in the face of the principles of their parties and shamelessly tearing up their pledges to the electorate?

Directly below these points is the statement; “The scope and ambitions of the site have expanded since then.” I am sure I can say the same thing about the activists and media artists mentioned in this text, working around the clock and around the globe to realize some crazy dream they have, over and over again.

Rap News: WIKILEAKS vs Censorship - INTERNET WARS

Rap News - episode 4 - resumes its lyrical forays into the world of rhyme and reason, exploring what's been happening on the Internets in 2010. Robert Foster - recently returned from his long-leave vacation in the Caribbean (prematurely interrupted due to the disastrous BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico) - takes a look at Senator Joe LIEberman's proposed bill to grant the Prez the power to shut down the web in case of [quotation mark] an emergency [/quotation mark].

But - most importantly - we discuss something else which has been leaking even more profusely than a BP oil well. An organisation of ultra-inspiring infectively-courageous cybernauts - aka Wikileaks - has been taking on the Fistagon and giving that slumbering Fourth Estate a much-needed kick in the arse, reminding us how important the internet can be as a channel of information.

What is Wikileaks? Who is Julian Assange? And why is it so important that we know? Find out with your charming host, Robert Foster.

*****************
Find out more about:

Wikileaks: http://wikileaks.org
Lieberman talking about the proposed Cybersecurity bill on CNN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkMEPbXZmwA
'Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act' - the 'Killswitch' bill which is now being considered:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_Cyberspace_as_a_National_Asset_Act
Wikileaks leaked video - 'Collateral Murder':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
Wikileaks leaked 'Afghan War Diary':
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010
Julian Assange - talking about Wikileaks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo

Download MP3 and Lyrics and find out more:
http://www.reverbnation.com/rapnews

Rap News website - coming soon!
http://www.thejuicemedia.com/rapnews

Iran

Watching the huge number of protesters streaming down a street in Tehran I wondered about their lives. I can see their faces in this video. Seemingly ordinary people risking life and limb to manifest a disapproval of what passes as their government. They chant "Death to the dictator", and film each other, moving about the cars that are staled and stuck in the sea of public opinion that sweeps around them.

I have taken to the streets (and the forests) myself and disobeyed they law to express an opinion, and prevent an act which I and many others believed to be wrong from continuing. The feeling when one is in the 'protest space', where the rules of the mass society have become the rules of the group (perhaps one can say mob) is an exhilarating sensation when it goes well. If it goes badly it can be terrifying as the authorities reclaim the space for the state.

Yesterday a group of the feared Basij militia were outnumbered and overpowered and beaten by protesters.




In another incident Basij were overpowered, beaten and their motorcycles burnt:



The intensity of the protest is so much greater than it was in the June demonstrations. It seems the popular forces are no longer as cautious as they were around the time of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan.




The only certainty regarding the events in Tehran is that there will be more deaths. The protesters are clearly aware of this but it seems that it is not deterring them. The future for Iran is being decided but it is not a revolution, it is a civil war.


Nightly chant at Tehran Ashura 88

Iran News Now has been running Live-blog: Ashura in Iran – December 27, 2009.
For more see

Justice for Iran
Tumblr: Basij
Tehran Live
BBC Photos

A Letter to Mandy

An open letter to Peter Mandelson regarding the newly announced Digital Economy Bill.

Dear Peter Mandelson,

I've been following your recent policy proposals, so now they've gone through, I thought I'd contribute some vocals. The focal point of my criticism's the ridiculous decision to bring in a system where you flick a switch and disconnect the internet when it's suspected that intellectual infringement has been detected, even if the relatives they live with definitely didn't. I think it's in your best interest to bin this, yes? 'Cause isn't it a respected institution that we're considered innocent unless different is proven? Er, excuse me - how can you excuse exclusion when you've not pursued a definite conclusion?

You're picking on the little man, the Lilliputian; now there's a pain in my gulliver and it's confusing. You're swift to treat your citizens with such little human humour it's no wonder that we're disilliusioned. This resolution's gonna end in revolution just like any other governance that doesn't accept evolution. To be perfectly honest, m'lord, there'd be less intrusion if you curtly abolished the law and left us to it.

And why do games require safety ratings, but any age can see adult-aimed plays and paintings? It's state censorship, the same as Beijing; but even China thinks a pirate isn't worth the time of day for chasing. I think Chairman Mao would say the same thing - since you became secretary, it's like the state's your plaything. You made a massive sacrifice, invaded loads of privacy, but if I wanted to download, there'd be no hope of finding me. I could take my mobile phone to the local library, and utilise the free wireless to find the file I need. Then what are you going to try - to disconnect their ISP? You might as well just burn the books on rights to speech.

Dear Mandy, stay away from my family. Yours considerably angrily, Dan Bull. Dear Mandy, stay away from my family. Yours considerably angrily, Dan Bull.

Who'll profit from the Digital Economy Bill? Not the public, but the profiteers probably will. Who'll profit from the Digital Economy Bill? Not the public, but the puppeteers probably will. I've talked about how intellectual property kills and you're still just concerned with who's copping the bill. It's quite obvious you've been lobbied until the copy holders got control, and you're probably their shill. It's not your problem when you're positioned on top of the hill, in your property that probably cost a couple of mil. But wake up and smell the coffee, the milk is going off and you're not bothered 'cause your coffers are filled.

Lord, it's time you took an honesty pill, and acknowledged the majority aren't horribly thrilled. So what if I watched a torrented comedy film? I don't need to now my country's just become a Brazil. You know the truth, Orwell spoke his views, your House broke the news and all Hell's broken loose. The utopia we hoped for is overdue, so could you help out a little bit and don't be stupid?

The onus is on you to show us you aren't using your throne in a way the voters don't approve. I know you're very close to David Geffen, so maybe his interests have given you a hazed perception. Hey, do you reckon you'd win today's election, considering you're chasing this amidst a great recession? Deception's the politician's favourite weapon but we're already jaded from one too many painful lessons.

Dear Mandy, stay away from my family. Yours considerably angrily, Dan Bull. Dear Mandy, stay away from my family.

Yours considerably angrily,
Dan Bull.

P.S. I love you, Mandy x

---------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
Samples used:
Lily Allen - Never Gonna Happen
Lily Allen - Who'd Have Known

If you disapprove of the Bill, sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dont...

Write your own message to Lord Mandelson at http://threestrikes.openrightsgroup.org/

Download the mp3: http://www.zshare.net/audio/69029460c...

Buy or download Dan Bull's debut album Safe from
http://www.freshnut.co.uk/shop

Follow Dan on Twitter @itsDanBull - share the message with the #dearmandy tag.

Connect on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Dan-B...

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/danbull

Wave of Action

The University of California is occupied. It is occupied as is the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and the Technical Institute of Graz; as were the New School, Faculty of Humanities in Zagreb and the Athens Polytechnic. These are not the first; they will not be the last. Neither is this a student movement; echoing the factory occupations of Argentina and Chicago, immigrant workers occupy forty buildings in Paris, including the Centre Pompidou. There is still life inside capital’s museum.
no capital projects but the end of capital

Yes, the university is a graveyard, but it is also a factory: a factory of meaning which produces civic life and at the same time produces social death. A factory which produces the illusion that meaning and reality can be separated; which everywhere reproduces the empty reactionary behavior of students based on the values of life (identity), liberty (electoral politics), and happiness (private property). Everywhere the same whimsical ideas of the future. Everywhere democracy. Everywhere discourse to shape our desires and distress in a way acceptable to the electoral state, discourse designed to make our very moments here together into a set of legible and fruitless demands. The Necrosocial by Giorgio Agamben

Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna is Occupied.

Life is not for Sale!
Education is not for Sale!
Palaces for everyone!
“Resistance to the education cutbacks is part of the fight against capitalism!
Luxury for all, instead of profits for the few!” Occupiers of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Vienna Calling

Free the Space Hijackers

“The vehicle, owned by anarchist pranksters the Space Hijackers, bore a number of fake CCTV cameras bolted onto its turret, a plastic pipe with holes in it for a gun and a bumper sticker that read “How Do You Like My Driving? 0800 F**K YOU”. It blared Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries from a sound system. If you can show me a police force that does all that, I can show you a police force on acid.” Leah Borromeo
Continental Drift

Prague Activities 12th-19 September 2009.

We All Are Unadapted

Media, politicians, neo-Nazis and even "decent people" have united in order to bring to light today's biggest threat: the unadapted. The abusive characterization has began to live its own life. It is used for denouncing anyone who is not a favorite: Roma, squatters, ravers, the poor...

The unadaptability label seems to point out something about the labeling society itself. It reveals what its principal value really is: to adapt. It want us to be obedient career makers indifferent to our environment, always ready to conform.

"Unadaptability", in fact, threatens the most important thing we have - freedom. Adaptable freedom is a contradiction in terms, we identify freedom precisely when it does not adapt.

Supposedly "unadapted" are, in fact, groups that are expected to accept their own deprivation. Roma nomadism was outlawed and now the society is shocked that Romas don't adapt to the lifestyle that has been forced on them. Rave subculture was deprived of free movement, it was dispersed while society attempted to co-opt free technivals. Squatters were deprived of their home - the clearing out of Milada, the last squat in the Czech Republic, meant that the last place dedicated to alternative housing as well as culture has ceased to exist. Not only those afflicted are deprived. These events represent acts against all who value freedom and diversity in the society.

Our resistance against labeling does not mean that we defend any kind of behavior that is so designated. Problems do exist but we have a choice: either to look for real causes and deal with them or to find supposed trespassers in order to demonize them.

We can demand our rights, issue complaints and remind others of all that we have been deprived of by the acts of repression. At the same time, we are convinced that if we achieve anything in this manner, we get it in a distorted form. The last Czechtek, for example, has become a caricature of itself. That is not what we want. We will manage our freedom ourselves: we will squat other buildings, organize other carnivals and parties.

The Czech initiative Freedom Not Fear has come to existence in reaction to a world wide action against repression. Last year it helped to organize Do It Yourself Street Parade against state repression - cameras, restrictive laws and invasion of privacy. We would like to continue these activities; this year we focus on violence not only one provoked by the state but also violence incited by the society that labels and excludes certain groups. This also arouses fear for it is people who are described as a threat, and, as a result, our freedoms are limited.

Pokud jsme nepřizpůsobiví, jsme také svobodní - Týden nepřizpůsobivosti Praha 12.-19.9.2009 from Freedom not fear on Vimeo.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

This Is What Democracy Looks Like (1:08:28)
This film, shot by 100 amateur camera operators, tells the story of the enormous street protests in Seattle, Washington in November 1999, against the World Trade Organization summit being held there. Vowing to oppose, among other faults, the WTO's power to arbitrally overrule nations' environmental, social and labour policies in favour of unbridled corporate greed, protestors from all around came out in force to make their views known and stop the summit. Against them is a brutal police force and a hostile media as well as the stain of a minority of destructively overzealous comrades. Against all odds, the protesters bravely faced fierce opposition to take back the rightful democratic power that the political and corporate elite of the world is determined to deny the little people. Please support the makers of this documentary. [a3] this is what democracy looks like [69m VTV xvid] (seattle 1999 DEMOCRACIA EN LAS CALLES spanish subs) indymedia [3B60C966].avi Environmental Activism, Wealth, Poverty, Peace Activist, Environmental Protest, Riot, Seattle Washington, Civil Disobedience, Labor Union, Media Coverage, Media Manipulation, Police Brutality, Political, Protest March, Protest Song, Arrest, Beating, Bill Of Rights, Corporate, Economics, Environmentalist, Industry, Mayor, Natural Resources, Policeman, Politics, Trade, World Trade Organization, Independent Film This film, shot by 100 amateur camera operators, tells the story of the enormous street protests in Seattle, Washington in November 1999, against the World Trade Organization summit being held there. Vowing to oppose, among other faults, the WTO's power to arbitrally overrule nations' environmental, social and labour policies in favour of unbridled corporate greed, protestors from all around came out in force to make their views known and stop the summit. Against them is a brutal police force and a hostile media as well as the stain of a minority of destructively overzealous comrades. Against all odds, the protesters bravely faced fierce opposition to take back the rightful democratic power that the political and corporate elite of the world is determined to deny the little people. Please support the makers of this documentary. [a3] this is what democracy looks like [69m VTV xvid] (seattle 1999 DEMOCRACIA EN LAS CALLES spanish subs) indymedia [3B60C966].avi Environmental Activism, Wealth, Poverty,

Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.

HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.

Watch the film here.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand

HOME official website
http://www.home-2009.com

PPR is proud to support HOME
http://www.ppr.com

HOME is a carbon offset movie
http://www.actioncarbone.org

More information about the Planet
http://www.goodplanet.info

Visiting Guantánamo in Second Life

Many so-called enemy combatants are still held at the US military run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, most of them never charged of any crime. January 11, 2009 marked the seven-year anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

Having just blogged an obituary for Augusto Boal, I think he would have approved of such a project as Virtual Guantánamo, a simulation of the United States military detention center in Cuba within the virtual online world of Second Life. By exposing such institutions within the structures of the state apparatus, the possibilities for democracy are strengthened.

There Goes the Neighbourhood

As I have written here before, between 1995 and 1999 Redfern in Sydney was my home in the world. An amazing neighborhood that centered around The Block, the property of the Redfern Aboriginal Housing Company. In Redfern a lot of artists, musicians and activists made their lives in a fashion that was more often than not cooperative and autonomous. I have written down some of my recollections of the period 1995-97 in Redfern here, when the threat of gentrification, the heavy police presence and the social problems (including uncontrolled hard drug use) where eating away at the sense of community that I found when I first came to The Fern in 1994.

"The Block, Redfern, has been described as the "Black Heart" of Australia and occupies a unique place within Sydney's urban landscape as a centre for the Indigenous community. It was the site for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and has been the gathering point for many protests and community events. Just minutes from the second busiest train station in Sydney are the open camp fires and communal use of public space of the community on The Block." Critical Spatial Practice

Today the exemplary blog, Critical Spatial Practice has published an account of the art exhibition There Goes The Neighbourhood along with a short essay on The Politics of Urban Space:

There Goes the Neighbourhood is an exhibition, residency, discussion and publishing project for May 2009. The central element of this project will be an exploration of the politics of urban space, with a focus on Redfern, Sydney. The project will examine the complex life of cities and how the phenomenon of gentrification is altering the relationship between democracy and demography around the world. While urban change itself is not always a bad thing, gentrification often happens at an accelerated rate, out pricing the lower income and marginalized communities from the neighbourhood and dislocating them from their existing connections to urban space. The project brings together artists from Australia and around the world whose work addresses these issues.

There Goes the Neighbourhood is also a 132 page book, that can be downloaded as a PDF from the website.

Flash Mob Heathrow

Protesters dressed in Edwardian fashion settle down to a picnic inside Heathrow Airport's Terminal 1 check-in hall. Up to 250 men and women gathered there in opposition to BAA's (British Airport Authority) plan to enlarge Heathrow and build a third runway over the neighbouring village of Sipson.

Autonomous Culture Center Burns

The culture center Cyclopen (The Cyclops) in Högdalen south of Stockholm burnt to the ground last night under very suspicious circumstances. I have never visited the place but I have been following its progress over the past two and half years via the Fria newspapers and am quite shocked at this has happened. With two large neo-nazi rallies planned for the Swedish capital city this week I wonder if the events are not connected. The Cyclops had been built from nothing (literally) by those who made use of it for music, meetings, education, festivals, art, study circles, visiting cultural figures and of course activism. I hope the loss of Cyclopen gets the attention in the mass media it deserves.


Video in Swedish on the Cyclops activist and culture house.


Cyclopen in better days- I hope it is reborn from the ashes.

More in Swedish HERE, HERE and HERE.

International Day for the World's Indigenous Peoples

By resolution 49/214 of 23 December 1994, the General Assembly decided to celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous People on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. In 2004 the Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade by resolution 59/174. The goal of this Decade is to further strengthen international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous people in such areas as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development.

So if you are in Stockholm tomorrow go to Skansen to see my friend Billy Marius from Congo speak about yeyi and the pygmie people. From midday at Samevistet. The whole programe is (in Swedish):

kl 12:00 och 14:00
Etnologen Marius Billy, bördig från Kongo framför ”yeyi” och berättar om pygmeerna i centrala Afrika.

kl 12:30, 14:30 och 16:00
Den lulesamiska etnologen Lis-Marie Hjortfors berättar om den samiska traditionella kunskapen om djuren och naturen.

kl 13:00 och 15:00
Jojk och jojkverkstad med de samiska systrarna Elina och Susanna Israelsson från Gällivare.

kl 13:30 & 15:30
Djurvårdaren Kerstin Johansson berättar om renen.

Under hela dagen kan du också prova-på att kasta lasso!

Wildman säljer souvas, renklämmor och andra samiska läckerheter på Bollnästorget under hela dagen.


Babongo Pygmies of Southern Congo Imitating Forest Animals


Wujal Wujal Aboriginal dancers at Laura Festival, Australia


Mornington Island dances with didgeridoo


On Jan. 26, 2008, the Eiteljorg Museum hosted a symposium to discuss the 1973 standoff at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The symposium featured William Means (Oglala Lakota), AIM leader and participant in the standoff, and other activists including Johnny Flynn (Potawatomi), who participated in the Wounded Knee 1973, Sally Tuttle (Choctaw), who participated in the 1969 takeover of Alcatraz Island, and Lann Thompson (Cherokee), who was working in South Dakota during Wounded Knee 1973 where he observed the immediate impact of the event. Charlie Abourezk, one of the writers and directors of Tattoo on My Heart, was also be a part of the panel.

Superstruct:: Humans have 23 years to go

Super-threats are massively disrupting global society as we know it. There’s an entire generation of homeless people worldwide, as the number of climate refugees tops 250 million. Entrepreneurial chaos and “the axis of biofuel” wreak havoc in the alternative fuel industry. Carbon quotas plummet as food shortages mount. The existing structures of human civilization—from families and language to corporate society and technological infrastructures—just aren’t enough. We need a new set of superstructures to rise above, to take humans to the next stage.

From September 22 and going for six weeks people can play Superstruct, a alternate reality game that is being presented as a simulation and problem solving exercise. Designed by game god Jane McGonigal (a past guest in HUMlab) working out of the Institute for the Future, Superstruct intends to build upon concerns for the future of human society on earth. Here is the brief:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SEPTEMBER 22, 2019

Humans have 23 years to go

Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS) starts the countdown for Homo Sapiens.

PALO ALTO, CA — Based on the results of a year-long supercomputer simulation, the Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS) has reset the "survival horizon" for Homo Sapiens - the human race - from "indefinite" to 23 years.

“The survival horizon identifies the point in time after which a threatened population is expected to experience a catastrophic collapse,” GEAS president Audrey Chen said. “It is the point from which it a species is unlikely to recover. By identifying a survival horizon of 2042, GEAS has given human civilization a definite deadline for making substantive changes to planet and practices.”

According to Chen, the latest GEAS simulation harnessed over 70 petabytes of environmental, economic, and demographic data, and was cross-validated by ten different probabilistic models. The GEAS models revealed a potentially terminal combination of five so-called “super-threats”, which represent a collision of environmental, economic, and social risks. “Each super-threat on its own poses a serious challenge to the world's adaptive capacity,” said GEAS research director Hernandez Garcia. “Acting together, the five super-threats may irreversibly overwhelm our species’ ability to survive.”Garcia said, “Previous GEAS simulations with significantly less data and cross-validation correctly forecasted the most surprising species collapses of the past decade: Sciurus carolinenis and Sciurus vulgaris, for example, and Anatidae chen. So we have very good reason to believe that these simulation results, while shocking, do accurately represent the rapidly growing threats to the viability of the human species.”

GEAS notified the United Nations prior to making a public announcement. The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Vaira Vike-Freiberga released the following statement: "We are grateful for GEAS' work, and we treat their latest forecast with seriousness and profound gravity."

GEAS urges concerned citizens, families, corporations, institutions, and governments to talk to each other and begin making plans to deal with the super-threats.

This is a game of survival.

Super-threats are massively disrupting global society as we know it.
There’s an entire generation of homeless people worldwide, as the number of climate refugees tops 250 million. Entrepreneurial chaos and “the axis of biofuel” wreak havoc in the alternative fuel industry.

Carbon quotas plummet as food shortages mount. The existing structures of human civilization—from families and language to corporate society and technological infrastructures—just aren’t enough. We need a new set of superstructures to rise above, to take humans to the next stage.

You can help. Tell your story. Strategize out loud. Superstruct now. It's your legacy to the human race.

Want to learn more about the game? Read the Superstruct FAQ.

Superstruct Now

Get a head start on the game. It’s the summer of 2019. Imagine you’re already there, and tell a little bit about your future self.

A (Small) Rally Against Swedish Surveillance Laws

“CULTURE IS WORTH A LITTLE RISK.” - NORMAN MAILER

Swedish lawmakers voted late on Wednesday 18th June 2008 in favour of a controversial bill allowing all emails and phone calls to be monitored in the name of national security.

The FRA law (FRA-lagen in Swedish) is the common name for legislation with the stated purposed of fighting terrorism in Sweden, including a new law put forward by the government as well as several modifications to existing laws, formally called proposition 2006/07:63 – En anpassad försvarsunderrättelseverksamhet (proposition 2006/07:63 – An intelligence agency accommodation). The law, taking effect in 2009, gives the Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA, Swedish Försvarets radioanstalt) the right to intercept all Internet exchange points that exchange traffic that crosses Swedish borders, though experts argue that it is impossible to differentiate between international traffic, and traffic between Swedes.
The law was passed by the Swedish parliament on June 18, 2008, by a vote of 143 to 138, with one delegate abstaining and 67 delegates not present.

Since then there has been the beginning of opposition to what is soon (January 1st 2009) to become law. In Umeå today there was a small rally, mostly made up of young people opposing the so-called FRA-Law. The rally was addressed by representatives of the youth wings of three major parties and an independant 'cyber person' (see video below with bad audio - soon).










The rally ended with people breaking up into smaller groups for discussions on encryption and VPN-tunnel techniques. Another rally is planned for Saturday in Umeå (as well as Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö and Örebro).