November 25 is White Ribbon Day : Melbourne Indymedia

November 25 is White Ribbon Day
23 November 2006

The White Ribbon Day campaign is a chance for all to speak out against violence against women and children in our communities, but especially an opportunity for men to show their support.

Already in Australia, politicians, academics, community leaders and union representatives are speaking out on this important issue, all to make our workplaces and our communities safer and better places to live.

Will you and ASU members in your workplace join the campaign to demand a safer society?

You can join the world wide campaign, coordinated through the United Nations, simply by displaying a poster in your workplace and/or wearing a white ribbon.

Posters and media ads are available for download from the website: http://ww.whiteribbonday.org.au/advertising Use them and pass them on.

Resources and background material is available at the White Ribbon Day website at http://www.whiteribbonday.org.au

Have you thought of displaying a white ribbon on your council truck, electricity van, water emergency vehicle or other work vehicle to show your support?

Watch the Tri Nations Grand Final on Saturday 25 November and look out for the large White Ribbon on the field at the 50m mark. Go Australia and White Ribbon Day!

You can promote White Ribbon Day

You can promote White Ribbon Day and its principles through your place of work or community organisation. The White Ribbon Day website is a public site and there for you to use.

Under Resources you will find facts and figures, a PowerPoint presentation, inserts for newsletters and internal communications and logos - all for you to explain and promote the issues.

Place an article in your newsletter and create a link from your website to that of White Ribbon Day. Download the Ad campaigns and send them through your networks.

Wear a White Ribbon and encourage others to buy and wear them.

The world wide campaign is supported by the United Nations development fund for women http://www.unifem.org

Join the White Ribbon Day Blog - The Blog is a forum for public discussion about the White Ribbon Campaign and the issues it addresses, and is moderated by Dr Michael Flood, an academic in the field and recent recipient of the NSW Violence Against Women Prevention Award. Simply go to
http://www.whiteribbonday.org.au and click on the link.

There are major White Ribbon Day events being held in Sydney, Melbourne, the ACT, Brisbane, Perth and Darwin; in fact, there White Ribbon Day events occurring all over Australia.
See http://www.whiteribbonday.org.au for details.

Contact Details

Name : Greg McLean
Telephone : (02) 9283 9280
Facsimile : (02) 9283 9270
E-mail : gmclean@syd.asu.asn.au
WWW : http://www.asu.asn.au/women/

"...politicians, academics, community leaders and union representatives are speaking out on this important issue..."

Of course, political and ideological agendas precludes acknowledgement that police also play a significant role in reducing the incidence of family violence (almost entirely suffered by women and children). We mustn't mention them.

We can't acknowledge that they actually contribute in a significant way in reducing family violence, suffered almost entirely by women and children.

Not too many academics, politicians and union reps are to be found at 3 am when mummy and the kids are having the shit beaten out of them. They're tucked up in bed, nice and warm.

I wonder who the aggrieved ones turn to then?

Prejudiced prat.

I think we should have a memorial somewhere for all the women raped, tortured and murdered by ' Australia's most corrupt institution'* - the Victoria police. Don't you?

*Quote from the Australian Federal Ombudsman in late 2005

OK, then let's get this memorial thing rolling.

Let's start off by naming a few 'victims' of police rape and murder.

Or maybe just one.

Think you can come up with even one name of a woman or child (not some cowardly, anonymous crap that can't be validated) which can be verified as having been raped or murdered by Victoria Police?

Mmmm.?

Put up or shut up, tool.

White Ribbon Day is a fraud. All people who oppose sexism should condemn this sexist hate campaign against men.

----

REFERENCES EXAMINING ASSAULTS BY WOMEN ON THEIR SPOUSES OR MALE PARTNERS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Martin S. Fiebert
Department of Psychology
California State University, Long Beach

SUMMARY: This bibliography examines 196 scholarly investigations: 153 empirical studies and 43 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 177,100.

one of the few people and books to try to document the abuses by the Victorian Police and subsequently the author was vilified by the cuorrupt Authorities, media spun as sick etc.

THE HOSER FILES - THE BOOK - POLICE CORRUPTION IN VICTORIA - AUSTRALIA

Victoria Police Corruption is the most detailed summary of Police corruption ... police raping citizens, Maryborough rapes, the Denis Tanner murder/s, ...
http://www.smuggled.com/vrb1.htm

How many other journalists are willing to expose Police who are rapist nd murderers ... name them and show me their writings...the last cop who spoke out against minor scale corruption Karl Konrad was "encouraged" to leave Victoria by his Police Association thug workmates.

The Whistle, May 1998
Just ask the former Victoria Police constable Karl Konrad, whose repeated allegations in 1995 led to that State's largest internal corruption investigation, ...

http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/contacts/au_wba/whistle199805.html - 110k -

Not that there are not a few busted for excessive acts now and again of course:

November 24, 2006 11:54am
Article from: AAP

TWO former Victorian drug squad officers have been jailed over conspiring to traffic about $1 million worth of heroin.
Former senior detective Glenn Sadler, 41, and detective sergeant Stephen Cox, 42, were convicted in September of conspiring to traffic a commercial quantity of heroin after a trial that lasted more than six months.

At the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne today, Sadler received the larger sentence of 10 years jail with a minimum term of six years.

Cox was sentenced to seven years jail and will be eligible for parole in four years.

The court was told the pair were drug squad detectives working together when they conspired with a trafficker and another police officer to sell about 5.5kg of high quality heroin between May 1999 and December 2002.

Sadler was involved in the heroin trafficking enterprise for a longer period and gained the larger profit of $130,000, the court heard.

While Cox was directly involved in the conspiracy for a shorter period, and was estimated to have received a $20,000 profit, he was the instigator of the criminal enterprise, the court heard.

Justice Stephen Kaye said their conduct weakened the public confidence in the Victorian police force and shamefully betrayed their fellow police officers.

''(It is) disappointing that two men who during their lives have exhibited such good positive character traits and otherwise lived useful beneficial lives have stooped so low to be involved in the type of corrupt activities you are now convicted of,'' Justice Kaye said.

%$%$%$%$%$%

G20 spectacle and media cyclone Part 457.
seems like a faction fight amongst the hierarchy by those who want to make the Police State come out with the iron fist straight away:

Mark Buttler
November 24, 2006 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun

SENIOR police have been accused of not acting on key intelligence about the intentions of anti-G20 protesters.

Sources have told the Herald Stunned important details of the masked demonstrators' plans were made known to top police but not factored into the response.

A police taskforce has been set up to track down those responsible for ugly scenes in which police were bitten, spat on kicked and punched.

Every window in a brawler van was smashed in what Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon called "guerilla tactics".

(not that a Saturday brawl in Dandenong, Frankston, Melton etc is any less VIOLENT just doe snot involve the yuppie end of Town so prole vs prole arson murder, rape is not "news")

But the police sources said the taskforce would not have been necessary if there was a better preparation based on what was known of the protesters' intentions.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force was satisfied with the approach taken based on available intelligence.

( THE SUSPECTS:
Victorian Forward Intelligence Unit/Special Branch II;
Federal Police agents and latest gadgets of surveillance technology industry tried out on "Muslims"
Sydney "riot squad" Bosses/visitors monitoring the Sydney contingent;
plus ASIO/ASIS agents
plus The Americans in Town and already here at the St Kilda Rd Consulate plus the private security spies from Halliburton, Chubb etc
- they had a heap of information and informers
any of above can always read the indymedia/listen to 3CR interviews to get the latest if they are lazy!)

Police in recent days have visited Melbourne media outlets to track down every possible image of those responsible.

At least seven arrests have been made and more are expected over violence as the world's financial leaders met at the Grand Hyatt.

(yet media has hyped the one "middle eastern appearance" fellow now is that a War of - whoops "on" - Terror agenda or what ?)

still you gotta larf:

X-rated Christmas windows

Nick Higginbottom

November 24, 2006 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun

EYEBROWS were raised outside the Myer Christmas windows in Bourke St yesterday when a platypus appeared to be intimately involved with a wombat.

A malfunction was the cause of the accidental and unfortunate positioning of the two characters in this year's Christmas windows titled Wombat Devine.

But window watchers in attendance did not know about the mistakefor some time and many were quite surprised by what they saw.

* If you tooks photos or video of the scene
send them to us

"I don't know what to think," said a mother of four.

"They look like they are ... involved."

Morning radio programs were flooded with upset callers who thought what they had seen in the particular window was in bad taste.

One curious punter posted a rather raunchy video on the internet site youtube.com allegedly of two koalas from the Melbourne window display also involved in a questionable position.

The video depicts one koala bent over with some sort of robe or sheet covering its head with the other koala positioned behind it.

The mechanical nature of the display creates an interaction between the furry characters that would be better suited to a more adult forum.

But some people who were getting into the Christmas spirit outside the traditional window scenes weren't at all upset by the scenes.

"It's for kids and they don't think like we (adults) do so I'm sure they wouldn't even notice it," said one woman with her grandchildren.

Technicians from the company Myer employed to create and install the displays were called in quickly and climbed into the window scene to fix the problem.

They explained the platypus was supposed to be rolling the sleeping wombat to try and wake it up, but the coupling that attached its hand to the wombat was loosened by the rocking motion.

16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE 25 NOV - 10 DEC 2006
2006-11-21

The Women’s Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services (WA) and Amnesty International (WA) have co-ordinated and produced the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Calendar of Events now for the third consecutive year...
.

This is a global campaign to raise awareness of the importance of women’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being, as well as working towards the elimination of all forms of violence against women.

This campaign commences on 25 November each year, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and finishes on 10 December, The United Nations Day for Human Rights, in order to symbolically link the connection between women, violence and human rights.

This year’s calendar has 48 activities scheduled to take place within the community in WA. This is the biggest series of events to date for the calendar.

Please go to:
http://www.womenscouncil.com.au
to access the calendar.

Paris: Demonstration against violence towards women
by Alternative Libertaire - AL Friday, Nov 24 2006,

One woman dies every three days in France as a result of violence in the home, a problem that concerns 10% of women. As part of the international day against violence towards women, the National Collective for Women's Rights (CNDF) is calling a demonstration

Demonstration against violence towards women
25 November 2006
One woman dies every three days in France as a result of violence in the home, a problem that concerns 10% of women. As part of the international day against violence towards women, the National Collective for Women's Rights (CNDF) is calling a demonstration which will take place on Saturday 25th November at 2.30pm at Place de la République in Paris. It is particularly important as the CNDF will shortly be presenting a draft parliamentary Bill modelled on a Spanish Bill passed in 2004 following an intense campaign by feminists. Alternative Libertaire (AL) is heavily involved in the anti-patriarchal struggle - including the fight against violence towards women - witnessed by the passing of two motions on the subject during its last two Congresses.

For this reason we invite you to take part in the AL sector of Saturday's march. Look out for the AL flags and lorry at Place de la République at 2.30pm.

Download the AL leaftet for the demo (in French):
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/IMG/tract_n47_violences_faites_aux_femmes.pdf

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org

ALSO lets think positively:
:-)
Anarchist Responses When Elected Governments are Overturned

What should anarchists do when an elected government is overturned by a right-wing coup, as happened in Venezuela or Nepal?

Firmness in Principles, Flexibility in Tactics
Anarchist Responses When Elected Governments are Overturned
What should revolutionary anarchists do when an elected government is overturned by a right-wing coup? I am thinking, for example, of the 2002 coup in Venezuela against President Hugo Chavez. This was carried out by a section of the military forces together with most of the capitalist class. It was backed by the U.S. government and other U.S. institutions. Some of the U.S. support was overt (immediate recognition of the new regime) and some covert (channeling money to the plotters beforehand). However the coup was soon reversed due to several factors: pressure from Venezuelan workers and the poor, support for Chavez by many lower-level military, and international pressure by other South American governments. Chavez was helped by the knowledge of many governments and businesspeople that he was not really anti-capitalist, despite his radical rhetoric.

Another recent example was the 2005 coup in Nepal, where King Gyanendra dismissed the elected government and ruled directly, relying mainly on his military forces (parliament having been suspended three years earlier). He was opposed by very widespread street demonstrations and strikes, organized into a Popular Front of bourgeois parties, other popular organizations, and the Maoist forces in the countryside. In April, this coup, too, was reversed. The king turned power over to the elected parliament. The Maoists had gained a lot of popular credit for their participation in the struggle. They have just signed a peace agreement with the reform government and are posed to run their leader in the next elections.

Very many other examples could be recalled. It is typical of capitalism that its gains of political democracy are shaky at best. Countries go through cycles of democracy and dictatorship and back again. I need only mention the history of European fascism. Even, for example, in the U.S.A., the current administration stoled the 2000 election. Since then it has been steadily curtailing political liberties.

How should anarchists deal with such situations? The issue points to a historic weakness in anarchism. Despite its excellent goals and great ideas, anarchism has repeatedly been defeated, crushed by fascist or Leninist forces, or merely marginalized. A major reason for this, I strongly believe, has been its rigidity and its tactical and strategic clumsiness. The anarchist movement has consistently failed to maneuver tactically in an effective fashion. This was, I believe, the cause for its disastrous failure in the Spanish revolution of the 1930s. Instead, our approach should be

FIRMNESS IN PRINCIPLES, FLEXIBILITY IN TACTICS.
Anarchist Views on Elections
As a general principle, anarchists have opposed participation in elections. Under capitalism, for all its promises of democracy and freedom, in fact a minority of the population, the capitalist class, rules the economy, and therefore the state. This is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, whether or not in an overtly democratic form. Anarchists do not seek to manage the capitalist state nor to elect people to do so. That is not what we are about. Instead, we seek to organize labor unions, community associations, antiwar movements, and so on. We engage in militant nonelectoral action from below against the state and the capitalist class.

Anarchists do not believe in choosing leaders to be political in our place, for us, as our representatives. The interests, opinions, and desires of tens of millions of citizens cannot be packaged into two parties or embodied by two candidates. “Mass democracy” is a contradiction in terms. We want direct, face-to-face, democracy, in workplace and community assemblies, in a cooperative economy (libertarian socialism). We want as much participatory democracy as possible and only as much representation and delegation as is minimally necessary for federation.

The issue of electoralism was the main practical issue in the original split between Karl Marx and the anarchists. Marx advocated the formation of working class political parties which would, he hoped, break the workers from reliance on capitalist parties. History has not supported his electoralist strategy, if we consider the dismal record of the Social Democratic or Communist Parties or even the recent Green Parties. In any case, Marx was completely against voting for capitalist parties or politicians. (Today in the U.S., most so-called socialists are either for voting for the capitalist Democratic Party or for liberal, capitalist, third parties such as the Green Party or Nader’s operations. They reject both anarchist and Marxist principles.)

While rejecting participation in elections, anarchists have usually believed that capitalist democracies are better for the workers and other oppressed people than are capitalist political dictatorships (military juntas, police states, monarchies, fascisms, etc.) It is not that we think that the workers could control the state through elections--the myth of bourgeois democracy. But it is easier for workers to organize unions, for oppressed peoples to organize popular resistance, and for radicals to publish political literature, to hold meetings, and to spread their ideas. There is repression, but not the same as in a totalitarian state. A popular sentiment arises in favor of free speech and freedom of association, which anarchists use to protect ourselves from government repression. The capitalists do not want to give us these rights, but they must if they are to have them for themselves, let alone to give the workers the (false) impression that the people rule.

Errico Malatesta, the Italian anarchist, wrote, “...The worst of democracies is always preferable, if only from an educational point of view, [to] the best of dictatorships.... Democracy is a lie, it is...government by the few to the advantage of a privileged class. But we can still fight it in the name of freedom and equality....” (1995. The Anarchist Revolution; p. 77) That is, bourgeois democracies claim to stand for “freedom and equality” and therefore can be challenged to live up to their claims.

In my opinion, an anarchist set of tactics for dealing with right-wing coups is based on this evaluation of bourgeois democracy as more useful for the working and oppressed population. If this is rejected, then my argument falls down. (I am not discussing the issue of coups by the authoritarian left; this has differences which I will not go into here.)

There is another issue. Most situations in which antidemocratic coups take place are in oppressed nations--the so-called Third World. The coup-makers are often backed by foreign imperialists, as the U.S. backed the Venezuelan forces. This raises the question of the right of the oppressed nation to self-determination, of its people to determine their own future and their own government --or nongovernment-- without imperialist domination. This is also one of my premises, although it is not essential to the argument.

The fundamental principle is FREEDOM. Working people should have the freedom to choose their system of governance and to chose who to have as their leader, if they want a leader. People have the right to be wrong. In fact, a class or a nation only learns by making mistakes. Anarchists are the strongest supporters of freedom. We should always support the right of the people to make their own decisions, even when we disagree with what they decide. Of course, we must never give up our right to raise our politics and to patiently explain our opinions. This is part of the process of their learning by experience.
A Lesson from the Russian Revolution
When a coup happens or is threatened and masses of people are in the streets in protest, it is the task of anarchists to find their way to the people. We must find a way to participate in the popular struggle, without for a moment giving up our anarchist principles. We cannot endorse the government nor vote for even the best of presidents (let alone authoritarian bourgeois politicians). Anarchists can give absolutely no political support to bourgeois politicians or the state. These are principled positions. However, anarchists can join in opposing the coup. In doing this, we are supporting the people, not the state. Within the popular movement, anarchists can cooperate practically and concretely with the bourgeois politicians and Stalinist forces, agreeing on immediate, short-term goals, without any agreement on long-term goals.

In the popular movement, anarchists warn the people that they cannot rely on the bourgeois politicians. Anarchists can call for councils to be formed in neighborhoods and in workplaces in order to out-organize the coup. Anarchists should demand distribution of arms to the working class, rather than reliance on the military. An armed, self-organized, people is the most effective way to smash a coup -- and, we argue, go further than the limits of bourgeois democracy.

The approach advocated here has been learned from the experiences of the Russian and Spanish revolutions, among other experiences. During the Russian revolution, there was a not-very liberal Provisional Government, headed by Kerensky. This government was persecuting the left, anarchists and Bolsheviks, jailing as many as it could. However an even more right-wing force was led by the Cossack general Kornilov. He sought to overturn the liberal regime, smash the workers’ and peasants’ councils (soviets), and wipe out all the socialist parties, even the most moderate. In short, Kornilov intended to be a proto-fascist dictator and advanced on the capital to carry out this program.

What should the Bolsheviks do? (I do not know about discussions among the anarchists at this time.) A group of sailors visited Trotsky and other Bolsheviks in their prison and asked, “Isn’t it time to arrest the government?” “No, not yet,” was the answer. “Use Kerensky as a gun-rest to shoot Kornilov. Afterward we will settle with Kerensky.” (Trotsky, 1967, History of the Russian Revolution, vol. II, p. 227)

Bolsheviks and anarchists, along with activists from other socialist parties worked with rank-and-file workers to set up large numbers of committees for defense of the revolution. These spread throughout the Russian empire. They distributed arms among the workers, mobilized reliable military forces, and organized workers to sabotage the advancing Kornilov forces (so that railroad troop trains got thoroughly lost and telegraph messages never got through). Workers and soldiers from Petrograd were sent out to meet the advancing forces, to talk to them and persuade them to turn around. These methods were highly successful. The military advance dissipated like water poured on hot sand, almost nonviolently (some officers were shot). This led to a big upswing in the influence of the far left and a discrediting of the moderate socialists. It was only a matter of time until the Kerensky regime was overthrown by a coalition of the Bolsheviks, Left Social Revolutionaries (peasant-populists) and anarchists.

Throughout the Kornilov affair, the Bolsheviks did not join the Provisional Government (and certainly the anarchists did not). In fact they politically criticized the Kerensky regime for its waffling and weakness in defending democracy. They maintained contact with other parties for purposes of practical coordination only. In later years, Trotsky often cited this incident as a guide to action. Trotsky summarized it, “Support them technically but not politically.” (p. 305) Lenin was even clearer about not supporting the liberal government. At the time, he wrote (“To the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.”),

“Even now we must not support Kerensky’s government. This is unprincipled. We may be asked: aren’t we going to fight against Kornilov? Of course we must! But this is not the same thing; there is a dividing line here....We shall fight, we are fighting against Kornilov, just as Kerensky’s troops do, but we do not support Kerensky. On the contrary, we expose his weakness. There is the difference.” (Selected Works, vol. 2, p. 222)
A Lesson from the Spanish Revolution
Similar lessons may be learned from the 1936 to 1939 Spanish revolution. Usually recognized as the two main sides were the legally elected Popular Front government (the “Loyalists” or “Republicans”) versus the fascist military forces which intended to overthrow it (and eventually did, with military aid from Hitler). The Popular Front was a coalition of working class parties (including the Communists and the Socialists), and pro-capitalist parties. The mass of the workers was divided in half between those in the unions affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Party and those in the anarchist-led unions. When the military attempted its coup, the workers beat it back. Voluntary armed forces (militias) were created by the anarchists and various socialists.

Given the outbreak of the civil war, what should revolutionary anarchists and other socialists do? Just like some anarchists today, there were some (Bordigists and others) who thought that revolutionaries should not support either side. As one declared, “No political or material support to the bourgeois Loyalist government!” (quoted in Trotsky, The Spanish Revolution, 1973, Pathfinder, p. 422) After all, the Popular Front republic was a capitalist, imperialist, state, with a colony in Morocco, and which had jailed thousands of workers and leftists. In practice, this was an unrealistic position, since the workers were not ready to overthrow the republic in the face of fascism. The leaders of the Spanish left felt (correctly) that the republic was clearly a lesser evil to the fascists. The leading anarchists, however, drew the conclusion from this that they should enter the Popular Front government, in alliance with the reformist Socialists, Communists, and out-and-out capitalist politicians. They subordinated their struggle to the capitalist state.

There was, however, a third possible position. This was for the anarchist and left socialist militias to focus their forces against the fascists--until they were strong enough to overthrow the Republican state. Until that day, they should give military-technical support to the republic but no political support. Revolutionary workers must not give up their political independence from the class enemy. They should not join the Popular Front government, nor vote for its candidates, nor vote for its programs. The revolutionaries would be in political opposition. They should expose the vacillations and betrayals of the Popular Front (which, in fact, led to the defeat of the Republic). They would persuade the workers, peasants, and little people of the need for a revolution, replacing the bureaucratic-military state with an association of workers’ and popular councils--with internal democracy so that different parties and organizations could compete for influence. In fact, this could have been demonstrated in one region of Spain (Catalonia) where the anarchist unions had the support of the big majority of the local workers.

This approach was raised by a revolutionary minority of anarchists, the Friends of Durruti Group. Fed up with the class compromises of the anarchist union leadership, they called for completing the revolution by overthrowing the republican capitalist state and replacing it with a national defense committee elected through the mass unions. In their 1938 Towards a Fresh Revolution, they denounced the political support of the Popular Front: “We are opposed to collaboration with bourgeois groups. We do not believe that the class approach can be abandoned. Revolutionary workers must not shoulder official posts, nor establish themselves in the ministries....That would be tantamount to strengthening our enemies and tightening the noose of capitalism.” (p. 38)

However, the Friends of Durrutti accepted practical, material, cooperation with the bourgeois state, until they were able to overthrow it: “For as long as the war lasts, collaboration is permissible -- on the battlefield, in the trenches, on the parapets, and in productive labor in the rearguard.” (same) Anarchists could not hope to win over the workers who were fooled by the liberals, the Communist Party, the Socialists, and so on, unless they were willing to engage in practical, concrete, cooperation against fascism. Unfortunately, the Friends of Durruti organized too late to be effective in changing the course of the war.
Even in the U.S.A.
It is not the job of anarchists to find ways of staying out of popular struggles, in order to be pure. Yet we must not surrender our principles in order to be popular for a time (as the Spanish anarchists did when they joined the Popular Front government, or as most of the world’s socialists do when they embrace Hugo Chavez).

For example, right after the 2000 presidential election in the U.S., it became obvious that the election had been full of fraud, trickery, and racism. In particular, African-Americans were furious about many of them being denied the vote, after so many had struggled and died for the right to vote. All this was widely reported, yet no one organized protests about this -- not the Democrats nor Nader. I think that anarchists, if at all possible, should have organized mass protests against the fraudulence and racism of the vote counting, explicitly exposing the Democrats as unwilling to defend the people’s rights. This would go side-by-side with our explaining our criticisms of electoralism overall (even when you try to vote, they do not let you!).

Today it is literally a life or death matter for revolutionary anarchists to find ways of participating in popular struggles while sticking to our principles and telling the truth to working people. Given the world’s economic, military, and ecological crises, we simply cannot afford to let anarchism be defeated or marginalized again.

add your comments

Untouchable burnt to death after accusing high-caste man of rape
By Justin Huggler in Delhi

Published: 25 November 2006
Independent

Asha Katiya was 15 years old. When she was raped she did not, like many Indian women, try to hide it for shame. She went to the police and registered a case against her attacker. She later said he had threatened to kill her unless she dropped the case. This week she was burned to death. A man broke into her house while she was sleeping and poured kerosene over her. The man she accused of raping her has been detained in connection with her death.

But there has been no outcry in India. The case has been barely reported. Because Asha Katiya was a Dalit, a member of the former Untouchable caste, and India has become used to outrages like this being carried out against Dalits.

The man Asha accused of raping her, and who her family say killed her, comes from an upper-caste family. Even as Asha lay dying, upper-caste neighbours refused to take her to hospital, according to relatives.

Asha accused a local upper-caste man of raping her last year. It was no small matter for her to go to the police in Indian rural society, where being a victim of rape is still considered deeply shameful.

India's cities may be changing fast, but Asha came from Sahalwada, a small village in Madhya Pradesh state, part of the great rural hinterland where there is barely a sign of India's emergence as an economic power. In the villages, a man accused of rape may be found guilty and punished by the courts. But a woman who comes forward as a rape victim is certain of her punishment by society. She faces little prospect of marriage, and life for an unmarried woman in the villages is bleak.

As she lay dying of her injuries in hospital on Wednesday, Asha allegedly told police that the upper caste man was her murderer, and that he had previously threatened to kill her unless she changed her statement so the charges against him would be dropped. Her mother, Shashibai, told The Indian Express the family was preparing to flee but Asha was killed before they could leave. An aunt has also come forward to the suspect as as the man she saw fleeing after the incident. But the alleged rapists parents say he was with them when the incident occurred.

The incident is the latest attack on Dalits in India. It comes even as protests are continuing in Maharashtra state over the murder of four members of a Dalit family in a village there. They were killed by upper-caste residents because they refused to hand over a field they owned so locals could build a road over it.

Asha Katiya was 15 years old. When she was raped she did not, like many Indian women, try to hide it for shame. She went to the police and registered a case against her attacker. She later said he had threatened to kill her unless she dropped the case. This week she was burned to death. A man broke into her house while she was sleeping and poured kerosene over her. The man she accused of raping her has been detained in connection with her death.

But there has been no outcry in India. The case has been barely reported. Because Asha Katiya was a Dalit, a member of the former Untouchable caste, and India has become used to outrages like this being carried out against Dalits.

The man Asha accused of raping her, and who her family say killed her, comes from an upper-caste family. Even as Asha lay dying, upper-caste neighbours refused to take her to hospital, according to relatives.

Asha accused a local upper-caste man of raping her last year. It was no small matter for her to go to the police in Indian rural society, where being a victim of rape is still considered deeply shameful.

India's cities may be changing fast, but Asha came from Sahalwada, a small village in Madhya Pradesh state, part of the great rural hinterland where there is barely a sign of India's emergence as an economic power. In the villages, a man accused of rape may be found guilty and punished by the courts. But a woman who comes forward as a rape victim is certain of her punishment by society. She faces little prospect of marriage, and life for an unmarried woman in the villages is bleak.

As she lay dying of her injuries in hospital on Wednesday, Asha allegedly told police that the upper caste man was her murderer, and that he had previously threatened to kill her unless she changed her statement so the charges against him would be dropped. Her mother, Shashibai, told The Indian Express the family was preparing to flee but Asha was killed before they could leave. An aunt has also come forward to the suspect as as the man she saw fleeing after the incident. But the alleged rapists parents say he was with them when the incident occurred.

The incident is the latest attack on Dalits in India. It comes even as protests are continuing in Maharashtra state over the murder of four members of a Dalit family in a village there. They were killed by upper-caste residents because they refused to hand over a field they owned so locals could build a road over it.