From: "Margaret" <margaret-AT-rie.net.au>
Subject: AUT: Here's an article from Tall Paul humour :-)
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 23:21:07 +1100


From: "Paul McCartan" <dastband-AT-hotmail.com>
To: <margaret-AT-rie.net.au>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 8:30 PM
Subject: Here's an article from Tall Paul


I was deconstructing a Chicken Shawarma in Sydney Road the other day and got
to thinking about the somewhat hidden acts of resistance perpetrated by
working class communities on a daily occurence that the official left
usually ignore or dismiss as not being a serious enough phenomenon to
warrant discussion or more in depth analysis.

Not too long ago in Campbelltown, which is a predominantly working class
'battler' suburb South-West of Sydney, there occured an event which warmed
the left ventricle of my badly damaged heart. Word had spread that if you
used your EFTPOS card at the local Coles between midnight and one am when
the system was 'down', the transaction wouldn't be recorded, hence you could
shop for free. This was an offer too good to refuse for locals, many of whom
survive on paltry social insecurity payments or minimum wage 'Mcjobs'.
Apparently a collective party mood reigned supreme as the proletarian
shopping ensued at full bore in the early hours of the morning. What was
usually a mind numbingly boring and humiliating experience (imagine trying
to feed a growing family on the dole!) became a festival of the oppressed
based on a spirit of play and adventure.

For an all too brief moment in time paupers lived like Princes, feasting on
smoked salmon and smoking posh imported cigarettes instead of the usual home
brand fish fingers and lung buster smokes we can only usually afford. Social
relations were affected too as people who were once strangers became friends
as they all acknowledged they were in the same game together. Shoppers would
often drop outrageously over priced luxurious commodities such as truffles
and pigs ears in aspic into each others trolley as gifts and signs of
appreciation, and why not? After all everything was free for the taking. We
can only imagine the community spirit which ensued in this shopping
Olympiad. Apparently a few relationships started up as star crossed lovers
met in aisle five, maybe looking for something more than frozen T.V dinners.
I would say the most important outcome of this event was the breaking down
of the chains of isolation which grind us down individually as we
anonomously believe we are the only ones disaffected with our lives.

Of course this great carnival ended far too early as the gutter journalists
got wind of a story that would take the heat off their corrupt bosses back
at the station and in parliament. These servile imbeciles bayed for
proletarian blood, mortified that poor people should have the intelligence
and temerity to steal rather than starve. This momentous fissure of
capitalist social relations wasn't reported in the official organs of the
left, nor discussed over soy lattes in Fitzroy, despite this act posing far
more threat to the business as usual mentality than any spectacular culture
jam.

Has the Australian activist scene really got it's collective head up it's
own arse? It wouldn't suprise me if many comrades had been on the European
activist merry-go-round as revolutionary tourists more times than they had
been to Dandenong or Mount Druitt. I always see red when I hear activists
whine that Australia is a cultural backwater without any serious potential
for revolutionary upheaval. While Australia isn't Greece or Spain, there are
'hidden' acts of refusal and subversion going on every day which prove that
all is not relaxed and comfortable down under.

I'd bet my left kidney that Australia can proudly lay claim to the highest
arson rate of educational facilities anywhere in the world. Increasingly
schools are being used as holding tanks for the future unemployed and
teachers have seen their roles transformed into those of social workers.
Essentially, school prepares us for a lifetime of wage slavery with it's
attendant regimentation, boredom and ringing of bells with students
subjected to the authority of a teacher as a boss figure. With the
possibility of even getting a lowly paid, no security job becoming less
likely, pyromaniac youth torch their schools as a veiled protest against the
utter hypocrisy of the myth that anyone can make it to the the top in
Ausfailure.

At the same time in the no future suburban nightmares which ring the capital
cities of this great land,alienated youth with no money, lot's of spare time
and atrocious access to public transport or meaningful activities frequently
steal cars as a mode of transport and to alleviate boredom. As unconcious
psychogeographers they 'derive' around town often heading for the exclusive
beaches which are often over 50 kilometres from their areas. Unfortunately,
many kids die in car chases when they lose control of their sought after
V8's. Their driving skills are often no match for the elite police pursuit
units, and I'm drawn to wonder whether a dead 15 year old wrapped around a
pole is worth the time and effort of the police. Obviously, the respective
State police commissioners do with their get tough on crime rhetoric which
never seems to target white collar criminals.

I'm no more convinced that hordes of angry headbangers are going to make the
social revolution any more than inner city trendoids who think a factory is
a record label or artists lair. However, blind Frederica can see that there
needs to be some sort of radical symbiosis between the two groups in order
to forge an uncontrollable revolutionary tidal wave to destroy the fetters
of capital. Already the B.L.F (Bogan Liberation Front) has started to
'intervene' in serious cafe discussions in order to bring to light the
massive campaigns going on outside the official movement. We can all learn
from each other. Real life isn't elsewhere. Real life is everywhere!

Take care, love Tall Paul.

P.S To all the comrades who've come up to me after their free beers I
promised in my last tirade, you'll have to wait because Centrestink reckon I
have to wait 13 weeks for a payment. Sorry about that.
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