state of emergency gathering in melb : Melbourne Indymedia

Coming to State of Emergency?
State of Emergency will be held in a squatted location in the inner north of Melbourne. The location will be meeting-place, bar, cafe, cinemas, music hall, accommodation and play-space. We do this as a declaration of our intent to reclaim our worlds and our lives. We squat to resist private property, to create an autonomous space, organised without bureaucracy.

The location of State of Emergency will be released on Friday, May 21at 10am.

Call the info desk on 0400 655 014 or check out this website around 10 am and make your way down to the venue as soon as you can after that.

In the event of the location not going ahead as planned a number of back-up options have been arranged. If all else fails head to Irene Warehouse, 5 Pitt St Brunswick, Tram 1 or 22 stop 22. Irene will be operating as a forum venue, childcare space and also as a chill out space. You'll also be able to find out more information at Irene.

As the location will be a squatted space, we're asking people to bring some stuff along to make it work. Bring what you think you'll need but the following is what we recommend:

>> a cushion/beanbag/folding chair to sit on
>> sleeping gear (if you plan to sleep at the squat)
>> some water (there will be some provided but it'd be good if you brought some too)
>> some snacks to share
>> a plate/bowl, a cup and some cutlery
>> a torch
>> lots of warm clothes
>> an old t-shirt [for stenciling]
>> jelly wrestling outfit

Good on you guys for trying something different....I just think though that the event sounds like it lacks sincerity. I know all involved are probably committedly anti-war etc, but I wouldn't come along bc it sounds like an event for you and your mates to loll around in a squat and pretend to yourselves that yr effecting change. I don't want to go to some kind of wacky talk fest - I'm seriously disturbed by the state of the world today and I want serious answers for what we can do about it. I think the style of yr event would alienate all but the already "anarcho-connected" out there.

If I've got the wrong understanding of what the day is about please correct me.

No, Eleanor, I think you’ve pretty much summed up the situation here.

Sounds like a branch opening of Wankers-R-Us.

They don’t support the notion of ‘private property’, supposedly.

Until someone steals their bike.

Or bong.

Then ther's hell to pay.

Stay away, girl. Your bullshit detector is working just fine.

gotta try
by its got to be perfect (sing it!) Wednesday May 19, 2004 at 03:02 PM

i think there are some swipes that could be made at this event, but sheesh one way to challenge that is to get involved yourself! there are some amazing speakers and panels and workshops by the look of the program so far, and who knows what else will emerge if people come along and take initiative!

*lookn fwd to it myself i gotta say*

'Guardian angel' is a paternalistic prat. He'd never threaten his lifelong prejudgements enough to actually attend, let alone contribute to such an event.

I'm going, even tho i know i'll have to step out of my comfort zone, be prepared to learn a little as well as cutting other learners some slack. The whole event will definately lack ushers, ticket collectors, softdrink sellers & icecream cones, but i think i'll survive.

saying like someone should go to something to make it better can be an argument for anything ... like, hows about getting involved in parliament to make it better. drongo lobotomy logic.

I agree that guardian angel is a prat and used my comments for his own ends. My criticism is just that making really cutesy posters about jelly wrestling, making out etc etc doesn't seem to do the anti-war position justice. The kind of people who have lost others in Iraq probably wouldn't respond too well to the fickle tone of it all. But it sounds like maybe it could have potential to reach beyond the usual social circles of anarchists and hopefully out to more people. I hope its a sucess and that it can come up with some serious methods for stopping the war and fighting the system.

"They don’t support the notion of ‘private property’, supposedly.

Until someone steals their bike.

Or bong. "

According to anti-authoritarianism both the bong and bike are considered possessions, not property. Perhaps you should actually understand the theories you denounce.

Im offering a reward for anyone who manages to make off with the hippies bean bag, bong, bike or any other possesion/property.

It is possible to be extremely cynical about things like this, or be naively optimistic, but I don't think a few people getting together in a squat is going to change the savage bloodletting in Iraq, if that's what its about. A few well-meaning hippies chonging away on spliffs, and sharing home made mung bean stew might be fun, but I don't think George Bush will be shaking in his shoes! Not yet anyway.

Is the left movement and alternative movement reduced to a handful of seemingly self-appointed middle class liberals, thinking that squatting is really going to change anything? No offense, but the world seems to get worse and worse, even though more people are acting all 'politicised' and all 'anti-war' and so on. The civil rights and freedoms we have all got used to are being stripped from us, and all I see is super rich people getting rivher, and everybody else getting more and more insecure. What is happening in Iraq, is happening all over the world; people's rights are being eroded, generally poor working class people, and then a load of usually moneyed people get all political and self-righteous, long after the fact, under the guise of being radical and et al. It is all old hat. The West is now morally, socially and in many ways bankrupt. There is a moral vacuum at the heart of power in the world. And it is getting bigger.

Chris Parsons / Crisco up your butthole / zvinger / spinifex / Rebecca &/or Richard Wolstonecroft / ed fusco / popcorn / lesbian and proud / zero point seven per cent / Robert Rabil / D. Thomas / (Groucho) Marx was right / the Silent Majority / Attention K-Mart Shoppers / Nazihunter/ Dr Bryce Gemmell (Ret) / Isis Khalil / wrg / Elspeth / Clay Walker / Simple Simon / Taxback / Guardian Angel /

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2004/04/66894_comment.php#67132

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/65247_comment.php#65325

"Good on you guys for trying something different....I just think though that the event sounds like it lacks sincerity."

Yeah-this is an event for loser males and desperate females to have a love-in.

The only pre-requisite is a low IQ and a desire to contract a venereal disease.

Yeah, if this were "an event for loser males and desperate females to have a love-in" it appears that some other losers don't exactly appreciate the competition. Apparently, to be considered 'honest' by some the only pre-requisite is a low IQ and a desire to project one's own mental dis-ease and sexual anxiety onto others.

Ya bollocks mate.

the beautiful thing about the indymedia comments lists is you can cut down any idea. sure state of emerg. ain't gonna revitalise the anti-war movement in melbourne or anywhere else.
but then neither is sitting bitching writing on indymedia (like i am now). soe will give some people who want to go along the chance to make some connections. talk some shitte, talk some politics and mayb some good shit will come out of it all and some fun...
and yeah quite possibly elanor you're right it won't get far beyond a certain millieu.

i think good on the crew for organising it..

having said that people should read last weeks post/discussions about soe... and various agendas. it was an interesting discussion.

back to the action of hill street blues.

I think it looks great. I'm not in Melbourne so I'll miss out. Yay for thoughtful, creative, funloving activism.

They way you people overstate everything is just plan embarrassing. I feel embarrassed just reading your program.
How sad that you must try and position yourself as an alternative to the traditional left. How sad that you feel you need to squat something to reinforce your radical credentials. Such suckers and posers it make me sick.
None of you with the exception of the few have ever made any real commitment to the ideas of direct democracy. Ya just a bunch of politicking x-trot , trade union politicians who will never be the representation of the anti capitalist -direct democratic movement in this part of the world. Be sure of that little fact.
As for the comments that mere activity denotes somehow being able to rise above criticism, well, fuck that... people should call things how they see them. There are people in Melbourne who have been working on direct democratic projects for years and years without feeling the need to project themselves as the representation of the movement. Just plugging away. Building bookshops. Free spaces, squatters unions, support groups. We are in a period of down turn at the moment but we will, in time, rise again to do these good things and you my friends will not be around, you will not be involved and you will most likely not even support us.
It takes years to build a movement and it takes years of dedication to the ideas.. no just a bit of lip service and creative ways to look cool.

Fuck off and die! Tossers.

No the problem with you Jason is that you are so critical of every dissenting voice. You call yourself an anarchist but the minute someone disagrees with you you get off on abusing them and name calling. Its no wonder that so many people feel alienated by you and Luke. I also think that you are suffering from a very bad case of megalomania. When it comes to getting off your ass and doing something , well thats not you. You are much more comfortable in front of the tv with a six pack complaining about everyone and everything thinking you are above everyone else.

J Libertertarian asserts that bong and bikes are considered possessions, not property, by the anti-authoritarian movement.

at what value does a bike cease to be a possession and turn into property? like, does a $15,000 bike rate as a possession or property? can you explain the theory for the uneducated but willing-to-learn?

so much negitivity here...
its good to see these people will stay home and watch tv
and not come down and annoy us.

isn't it wierd these people preach about sterotypes and IQ in the same post?

they probably will never get it

so let the conceptual purests continue to winge happily ever after,

while we do our best to do something

Sincerest congratulations on taking & holding the squat for State of Emergency. Was dismayed when I heard rumblings that even the squat idea would be abandoned, am happy that at least this is being enacted.

HOWEVER this event was originally proposed as an AUTONOMOUSLY organised event to FACILITATE the PARTICIPATION of individuals, in the manner of RTS. "Bring along what you expect to be there" is fine, but where will it have space to exist? With multiple streams of talks arranged, by "celebrity" speakers, would others be operating on a "level playing field"? I doubt it.
I hope that this is NOT another talkfest, I hope that people are inspired to do stuff for themselves but this has not been encouraged in the manner of organisation or the structured manner of the event. Nor is the style of talks that have been developed, likely to encourage particiaption or change. Of course none of the organisers have a problem with being "lectured to" for
an hour at a time, they are all ex or current Uni students. I find it ironic & amusing that Marxists (in contradiction to Karls ideas) seem to think that people learn through simply being intellectually convinced rather than by actual experience & material situation.

In my opinion the event became very structured quite rapidly, despite my (and others) voiced concerns, rather than open & minimalist. It is being managed rather than being facilitated. People became very concerned that the "Names" that would be attending & delivering lectures would be suitably impressed by the event, just like any other media spectacle. Stop crapping on about the nature of spectacular society & start taking a stand against it.

Sure, running something in a truly autonomous manner, relying upon convergence & emergence IS risky. It may NOT be glitzy & "organised"; it COULD fall down but on the other hand when that sort of thing DOES come together properly (and I have been involved with many projects that have flown), it is a truly beautiful experience, that directly affirms the politics of participation rather than sterilising them.

WILL you get people "just turning up" & holding workshops?
WILL you have ANY truly participative workshops?
WILL you expand the cause of anarchist/autonomous/insurrectionary politics?
WILL participation & involvment be emphasised?

I certainly hope so. I'll be off changing the world in whatever manner I can, rather than talking about it....

popefred
(:þ)

This is not Jason and i could give a fuck about luke.
You have no idea who this is but i seen they was you people work.
I've been around longer than both of them and i could care less what personal problems you may have with the stuff they may raise.

Who are you by the way. I doubt very much you even know me that well.

By the way ... I am a female!!!

Whoppee-doo, can see you're a "female" from here.

Now, sister, get over yourself/personal problems/whatever and do SOMETHING positive for the benefit of something other than your petty wounded ego.

Can't make it up to Brunswick this w/end but wish the organisers all the best.

"I find it ironic & amusing that Marxists (in contradiction to Karls ideas) seem to think that people learn through simply being intellectually convinced rather than by actual experience & material situation."

What do you expect? They're ex-trots (not marxists), NUS bureacrats and student politics kids who've discovered (after Woomera) that 'autonomy' might just get them more recruits and followers (plus a handful of others who've been wondering how they too might get their names in lghts even though they should know better).

I say 'ex-trots' with - Jess Whyte having been a paid organiser for the ISO for quite a while, never had any involvement in autonomous kinds of organising (who gets paid off by RMIT with a job after running a campaign against them), and who initiated the idea for the soe conference because (as a good leninist) she imagines that resistance comes from intellectuals 'inspiring' the masses ... Still a trot, but with 'autonomist' lip-service.

It's faction-building. Obvious.

yeah good job but its kinda preaching to the converted..

how about using the space for housing homeless for the weekend, or shelter for ppl on streets , or meals ...

so have the soe organisers built an organisation, party or faction? Was there some cooption of the anarcho-types, or was that just all hard-as-nails anarcho chest thumping? Did any of the trot/leninist stuff turn out as previous posters thought? Or what? I haven't seen any announcement of a new party on indymedia, and surely [sarcasm] as a ploy for anarchist credibility this would be the place they would announce it [end sarcasm]. Or was all that bullshit just yet another example of the shit that passes for politics around here?

it's really odd the way that all the various criticisms of state of emergency get reduced down to 'they thought we were going to start a party! how dumb!' the rest of the various questions can then be safely ignored and all those people who were there and had criticisms can also be safely disregarded.

yeh, and the criticisms above have really been of the highest quality- "you are all posers". great. another fantastic example of why indymedia is the channel we all love to watch.

But if people want to post up what they thought of the thing, that would be interesting. What did people think? All I’ve got off indy so far is some photos and a link to a jelly wrestling video that doesn’t work.