Remember the IWW on Anzac Day : Melbourne Indymedia

So we are now coming around to the fourth annual remembrabce of the great IWW victory against conscription. I am just now buying the balloons to make the skulls for a "War Tree". The enthusiasm is running a little dry but I feel it important that this event be kept up. *

Earlier this year I tried to attract interest for a steering group, but no go. I think this is a pity; it is important for us to stay in touch with our past. And I put it to you, comrade, on the most personal level: If you do not do something on Anzac Day are you not going to feel slightly ill at all the jingoism around? I know I used to.
So 10:30, April 25, 171 Lt Bourke St, cnr Lt Bourke and Russell. That is where the old IWW HQ was. Hope to see you there. For more information follow this link:
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/138371.php

I am expecting the event to be much the same as previous years. Its important to show a little persistence. We didn't have "strikelets", red-died pikelets last year. Someone might like to organise that.

*("be kept up" that's the subjunctive there, hope you liked it!)

‘OILS AINT OILS’ (or Peter Garrett’s lament)

‘Nos-Nik’
13 April 2007
I once was a greenie but that’s in the past

As an ALP pollie I’ve made it at last

Once I bellowed and blustered in front of the Oils

Now I sit on the front bench — my eye on the spoils

CHORUS

I once was a greenie but that’s in the past

As an ALP pollie I’ve made it at last

I served with Kim Beazley but he proved a dud

No my future hopes lie with Lord Fauntelroy Rudd

At political backflips I’m now quite a dab

I’m a party line hack but don’t call me a scab

CHORUS

I fronted the Oils and made teenagers swoon

Although being tone deaf I could not sing in tune

I polluted the air — being raucous and loud

But I now sing a much different song to the crowd

CHORUS

Now nuclear power I used to oppose

And American I wanted to close

But I’ve changed my tune and I’m no longer green

And my conscience belongs to the party machine

CHORUS

Nuclear power may not be as bad

As I thought just a short while ago

American bases in WA?

Uncle Sam really needs ’em you know

In my callow youth I was rather naive

In more ways than one I was green

But now I’ve matured and my loyalty lies

With the ALP party machine.

From: Cultural Dissent, Green Left Weekly issue #706 18 April 2007.

We should remember the civilian toll of war and the danger of militarism, writes Michael Leunig.

"I hate it when they say, 'He gave his life for his country'. They don't die for the honour and glory of their country. We kill them."
- Rear-AdmiralGene R. LaRocque

We live in a national culture that glamorises soldiers, yet the sight of a military uniform with its obvious connotations of morbidity and violence provokes in me the question: "What sort of person is attracted to the killing professions?" Army recruiting advertisements beg the same question.

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