Post NO-G8 Fundraising 27 Dec (Sat) @ FNBKL's house

Harap semua dapat dtg.. kalau sesiapa yang pergi ke Femme Fest, harap dapat singgah lepas gig tu.. kami ada menyediakan MINUMAN ISTIMEWA malam itu.. semua kutipan hasil dari jualan minuman ini akan diberi kepada movement anti-G8 di Jepun.


kepada kolektif2, kolektif dijemput pada 29hb, ke Radical Collective Convergence di rumah FnbKL. Dalam convergence ni akan membincangkan tentang strategi, rancangan, objektif, masalah, dan halatuju kolektif yang ada. kepada kolektif yang berminat.. sila hubungi +603-79559041 untuk confirm kedatangan.


cheers!

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A little overview on what is G8.


G8 is a forum of the eight most powerful governments: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; in addition, the EU is represented within the G8, but cannot host or chair. Each calendar year, the responsibility of hosting the G8 rotates through the member states and each year they discuss ways to eradicate poverty, minimize the spread of HIV, access to health care, weapons, and environment and so on. You are right; it is too good to be true. The truth is the G8 summits effectively decide what sort of world you and your children will live in. Behind closed doors decisions are made that mean our environment is sacrificed to profit, our health service is run down and privatised and millions of people continue to die for want of clean water and basic medicine. Simple example, US, one of the actors in G8, advocates on preserving the environment and how we should all go green. But at the same time, this is the same government which refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and yet they are talking about making the world a greener place. Same goes to free trade. There was once where they were all talking about, "MAKE TRADE FAIR". But again how far is that true. These are the same countries which dump whatever products that they can't sell to Africa and other countries. Another example, which we can all relate to, is FTA. Free Trade Agreement. US and now EU are both pressuring Malaysia and other ASEAN countries to join them in fulfilling their dreams of making this world a borderless free trade area. In this very same agreement, these countries, which happen to be manufactures of medicine, impose intellectual property rights. This monopoly benefits producers of brand medicines and delays availability of generic products, making many products unattainable for many of those who are badly in need of medications such as PLHIVs.


Knowing that there are parties which are trying to systematically capitalize on others disadvantages, weakness, and vulnerabilities, there are initiatives and movements which are trying relentlessly to put an end to this. Every year as those eight countries prepare to meet, these movements too make their plans on ways and means to show their dissent and subsequently to put an end to the summit of eight. Early this year, the summit was held in Hokkaido and again many activists around the world met in the island to show their dissent. This year was a bit different; many were sponsored to Hokkaido to extend their solidarity and to join them in making this G8 the last one ever. But things didn't work as they planned and more cost incurred during the anti-G8 protest which left them with a big debt. So now, we are organizing a post anti G8 event to raise fund to ease their burden. There will be an art exhibition, performances, Bebe's infamous delicacies, and many more, and the best part is all the proceeds will go to the organizers of the anti-G8 protest.


Below is the itinerary of the programme:

Venue: No.
14, Jalan Jelawat 8/10 (map)

27th December, Saturday

11.00 am
* Art exhibition
* The Really, Really Free Market
A Really Really Free Market is like a potluck for whatever you want to give or take away. We all have skills, ideas, objects, smiles, talents, friendship, excitement, discussions, and many other things to share. If we bring them all together at the Really Really Free Market, we can provide more balanced and full lives for everyone. Everybody brings something and goes away with more.You are more than welcomed to bring your things so that you can give it to people for free. If you have no items to be given away, then you can also provide services e.g. free haircuts, free massage, fix bicycle etc. Anything as long as the key word is FREE! Or, just come on by to check out the things and you might just end up with a bag full of free stuff or knowledge to be taken back home. Maybe even a new haircut. FOR FREE! (Please bring your own plastic/shopping bag. Save the environment.)

* Bebe's infamous delicacies

1.00 pm
* Screening
-Fourth World War (90 minutes)
-Broga
- anti-G8 documentaries.. etc

3.00 pm
* Introduction of collectives
There are many collectives in Malaysia and outside of Malaysia which are doing great work but we know very little of them. This session will introduce to us all these new and old collectives and these people will be travelling all the way from their hometowns (some are even coming from Singapore!) to KL especially for this event so that they can tell you themselves what they are all about and what do they do.


4.00 pm
* Kids coloring session

6.00 pm
*Alind's experience sharing session
Alind and another friend went to the previous No-G8 protest in Japan.
In this session, he'll share his experience during the protest

7.00 pm
* Fund raising event
• Live Bands (The Pips, Meor, Laikong Brigade etc)
• Performances and screenings
• Bebe's infamous delicacies

12midnight
End

We hope you and your friends would be able to join us that day and we also hope to share and learn from you via this programme. Hopefully, this will be a beginning to more great things to come.


Thank you
Food Not Bombs Kuala Lumpur

Greek youths break into state TV center, take over

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Protesters forced their way into Greece's state NET television news studio Tuesday and interrupted a news broadcast featuring the prime minister so they could urge viewers to join mass anti-government demonstrations.

For more than a minute, about 10 youths blocked a broadcast showing a speech by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. Instead, they displayed banners reading: "Stop watching, get out onto the streets," and "Free everyone who has been arrested." No one was hurt, and no arrests were reported.

NET chairman Christos Panagopoulos claimed the protesters violently forced their way into the studio. "This goes beyond any limit," he said.

It was the latest twist in 11 days of riots and protests after a policeman shot and killed a 15-year-old boy on Dec. 6. The violent protests have evolved from being just aimed at Greek police to being highly critical of Karamanlis' conservative government.

Karamanlis has rejected mounting demands to resign and call new elections.

Earlier Tuesday, masked youths attacked riot police headquarters in Athens and protesters clashed with police in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Police said 30 youths threw petrol bombs and stones at the riot police building, causing extensive damage to seven cars and a police bus parked outside.

Students blocked streets in Athens and dozens of teenagers gathered outside the capital's main court complex and a maximum security prison—where some threw stones at police.

Protesters have called for riot officers to be pulled off the streets, for police to be disarmed and for the government to revise its economic, social and education policies.

The protests have brought higher education in Greece to a standstill. Lessons have stopped at more than 100 secondary schools that are under occupation by students, according to the Education Ministry. Scores of university buildings across Greece are also occupied.

After the shooting death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, furious youths smashed and burnt hundreds of shops in Athens' main shopping area, and attacked riot police who responded with massive tear gas.

Dozens of people have been injured in the rioting, while more than 300 people have been arrested. The policeman accused of killing the teenager has been charged with murder and is being held pending trial.

In the northern port of Thessaloniki, riot police fired tear gas Tuesday to disperse 300 youths throwing fruit and stones outside the city's main court complex. The disturbance followed a court decision that found eight police officers guilty of abusing a student following riots two years ago.

The policemen received suspended sentences ranging from three years and three months for grievous bodily harm to 15 months for being an accessory to the abuse.

In a symbolic gesture meant to revive riot-shocked Athens, city authorities will light a large Christmas tree Tuesday on central Syntagma Square—which has been at the center of many of the protests. The tree replaces one burnt during last week's riots.

Overnight, arsonists attacked three Athens banks with petrol bombs, causing extensive damage. There were no injuries or arrests. Every year, small anarchist groups carry out dozens of firebombings in Greece against government property, banks and diplomatic vehicles.

A Few Words on the Greek Insurrection

From Anarkismo

There is no denying the tragedy of the violence in Greece, especially the murders by the State’s police forces and their “citizen” allies, but also of all violence which is never pretty except in some illusions. But all the same, this is probably the best and most important news for us since May 1968. It is especially good news after our public discredit in the U.S. during the convention protests. This insurrection makes anarchism an internationally important social and political movement again. Not to say that in itself it will lead to anarchism becoming a popular movement elsewhere, but at least it does not end in public humiliation whereas it does demonstrate the power of a popular anarchist movement to resist the bourgeois State. Still, it is worth making a few more critical notes.

The social rebellion in Greece contains all the explosive potential for a revolution. But an insurrection alone is not a revolution. Now more than ever discipline is needed to keep the struggle going and intensifying — not the discipline of waiting but the discipline of acting, the discipline it takes to step up the struggle faster than the authorities are able to control. More than that, it requires a more definite social content than fighting police and ransacking banks. Insurrections that fail to deepen and intensify inevitably become defensive, then either are defeated by the State or simply fade out. Without discipline and direction, this rebellion will fail to deepen and intensify. By deepening, I mean moving from only immediately fighting the police and State forces to seizing capitalist and State property, as well the need for social self-organizing of the people, more specifically of the rebellious workers and anti-authoritarian students. That is how this uprising can become a revolutionary struggle.

The anarchists and the rebellious people of Greece have shown they know how to fight, that they know how to agitate and organize well enough to effectively resist the State. It is unlikely that even their best efforts will lead to a complete revolution, but with disciplined, concerted effort they could make some real revolutionary conquests. Furthermore, the uprisings in Greece point the way to wider anarchist agitation and involvement in popular social struggles to resist the oppressive apparatus of the State. Anarchist groups and organizations should openly support the rebellion in Greece and make every effort to equal the achievements of our Greek comrades. At the same time, all must be wary of the old mistake of substituting riot for revolution, the past failure of our movement of letting confusion and disorganization prevent us from being at the front of social struggles and turning rebellion into social revolution.

Article written for Anarkismo.net

Why Athens is burning

By Stathis N. Kalyvas

Athens, along with several other Greek cities, has been burning for the several days. The rioting was triggered by the death of a teenager killed by the police on Saturday night. How to make sense of a reaction that appears to be so massively disproportionate?

Several observers have pointed to the usual suspects: maladministration and corruption; the collapse of confidence in the government; political scandals; a growing gap between the rich and the poor.

These arguments are wanting: Greece is hardly exceptional in terms of its problems, yet rioting and destruction on such scale are unusual in Europe.

In fact, these riots are a symptom of a deep cultural problem rather than a social one. The rioting youths are not disadvantaged, poor, or even immigrant (as in France). They are, for the most part, regular teenagers, children of the middle class; in fact, the teenager killed by the police lived in one of Athens's most exclusive suburbs. Why are they, then, reacting in such a way?

After Greece's transition to democracy in the mid-1970s, a public discourse of resistance against authority emerged and became dominant. Civil disobedience, including violent demonstrations and the destruction of public property, is almost always justified, if not glorified; the police can only be wrong: If they act too harshly they are brutal; if not, incompetent. This discourse has proven to be extremely resistant to time and momentous world events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, and is promoted in the media. On the one hand, several journalists came of age in the mid 1970s and are openly sympathetic to it. On the other, political entrepreneurs see it as a resource that can be used handily for political or even economic advantage.

As a consequence, all governments since the 1970s have stood by while an anarchist subculture grew, complete with its exclusive urban enclave (the neighborhood of Exarcheia in downtown Athens which is a no man's land for the police). In regular intervals and on a variety of occasions (e.g. Bill Clinton's visit to Greece, various educational reforms, etc.), anarchists engage in violent demonstrations and widespread destruction. These are led by a hard core of 500 to 1,000 individuals which has grown in strength since the late 1990s and fantasizes that it is enacting some sort of 19th century social revolution against the bourgeois. Depending on the popularity of the issue they are joined, by hundreds or thousands of others of lesser commitment and varying motivations, from ideology to simple looting, who are nevertheless socialized into this culture.

Undergirding these actions is a more or less complete absence of sanctions - few people get arrested and almost no one gets sentenced. Participation in these riots is seen as a fun and low-risk activity, almost a rite of passage. This attitude of toleration covers a variety of other acts, such as the widespread use of graffiti, which has totally defaced Athens in the past few years.

The police lack a consistent policy. They are regularly harassed by groups of youths - a recurrent activity that is perceived as more or less normal; badly trained and inefficiently led, they are prone to outbursts of brutality. The cycle is vicious.

Greece's political, cultural, and intellectual leadership has been unwilling to act against this anarchist subculture. In fact, some have fully, and sometimes openly, justified, abetted, and in some instances endorsed it - especially small parties of the left, as well as mainstream left-of-center newspapers.

Clearly, these riots are undermining an already weak government. The opposition Socialist Party is already calling for its resignation. However, this problem won't fade away with the present government. Opportunities for riots will always present themselves. Addressing this problem requires nothing less than a deep cultural shift at the top.

Stathis N. Kalyvas, a professor of political science at Yale, is the author of "The Logic of Violence in Civil War."

Anarchist murdered by police in Greece

On the evening of Saturday Dec. 6th a police patrol in the area of Exarhia (an area known for its strong anarchist presence in the centre of Athens) was verbally confronted by a few people in the area. Immediately a police officer pulled out his gun and shot a 16-year old (some accounts say he was 15) in the chest in cold blood. The 16-year old was transported to Evaggelismos, a major hospital in Athens, where he was dead on arrival.

The centre of Athens was immediately swamped by police, while people gathered at Evaggelismos. The crowd there twice repelled police who attempted to enter the hospital. There have been numerous reports of confrontations between people and police riot units at Tsamadou, Polytechnio, Acropoli, Panteios and Ermou (different locations and schools in Athens). There are massive gatherings at Polytechneio while the Law School and ASOEE have been taken over by students.

Spontaneous demonstrations, marches and confrontations are being reported all over Greece, including Thessaloniki, Mytilini, Giannena, Komotini, Iraklio, Xanthi, Serres, Hania, Alexandroupoli, Sparta, and Volos .

Major marches have been scheduled for 13:00 Athens time
Sunday December 7th in Athens, Thessaloniki, Xania and Patra.

Violence marks Kashmir election

Violence has erupted during the second stage of state elections in parts of Indian-administered Kashmir, where thousands of troops have been deployed.

Police used batons to drive back hundreds of anti-election protesters in the village of Kurhama, 30km (19 miles) north of the main city, Srinagar
Two protesters were shot dead on Saturday in the town of Baramulla. Separatists are boycotting the polls, which are being held district by district to facilitate policing.
The separatists argue that the polls strengthen India's hold over the region.
The Indian-administered area of Kashmir was put under federal rule in July following the collapse of the state government over a land transfer deal for a Hindu shrine.

Teenager killed

Voting was temporarily halted in Kurhama, a police official told the Associated Press news agency.

Protesters had reportedly tried to prevent voters entering a polling station.
In Baramulla, , 55km north of Srinagar, a teenager died when security guards protecting a candidate's motorcade opened fire on protesters throwing stones, AP reports.
A man was later shot dead when protesters clashed with police.
Voting in the state is being held in seven phrases, lasting until 24 December. The counting of ballots will begin on 28 December.
An unusually strong turnout in the first phase of the elections on Monday took everyone by surprise, the BBC's Altaf Hussain reports from Srinagar.
The turnout in Muslim-majority constituencies was slightly more than 50%, with many Muslims voting despite not accepting Indian rule in their troubled state.
Six districts were voting on Sunday, accounting for about 500,000 of the state's 6.5 million eligible voters.

Syed Hamid explains again base closure

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the written reply he had made to a question in Parliament that the police beat base in Lorong Haji Taib had been closed for security reasons was "not accurate and clear".

The home minister said the reason the beat base was closed was because the owner of the land wanted it back, and not for security and health reasons like he said before.

On Oct 16, Syed Hamid said in his written reply to Titiwangsa member of parliament Dr Lo' Lo' Mohamad Ghazali, that the Lorong Haji Taib beat base had to be closed as the police found the location no longer suitable or safe for the police personnel on duty.

The dirty surroundings and criminal threats endangered the security of personnel, he had said. Speaking after visiting the Chow Kit police station yesterday, Syed Hamid said Chow Kit was once considered a "black area" full of criminals and illegal immigrants.

Malaysia blogger's joy at release

(source : www.bbc.co.uk)
A prominent critic of the Malaysian government, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, has been freed from jail on the orders of a judge.

Mr Raja Petra, 58, editor of the website Malaysia Today, has been held without trial for eight weeks under a draconian security law, the ISA.

He had been accused of causing ethnic tensions by ridiculing Islam.

"I'm really glad it's over," a tearful, haggard Mr Raja Petra said as he hugged his family and greeted supporters.

"I'm really tired. The judge's decision proves that there was no justification for my detention.

"We have to fight all-out and get the ISA abolished," he told reporters, referring to the Internal Security Act, which allows detention without charge for an initial two years, with indefinite extensions possible.

Mr Raja Petra was garlanded by supporters and then driven home in a maroon Rolls Royce which one of them had provided, said one report from the scene.

Critical

Mr Raja Petra was freed from a notorious prison camp in northern Malaysia on the orders of the high court in Shah Alam city near Kuala Lumpur.

It ruled that Interior Minister Syed Hamid Albar had overstepped his authority when he ordered the detention.

Mr Raja Petra has increasingly angered the Malaysian authorities with his critical Malaysia Today website, the country's best-known political blog.

He still faces charges of sedition for an article he published which linked Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak to the 2006 murder of a Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Mr Najib, who has consistently denied any involvement, is widely expected to take over as prime minister when incumbent Abdullah Badawi agrees on a transition date.

'Great day'

Raja Petra's lawyer, Malik Imtiaz, described Friday's ruling as "historic", saying it was the first time a court had ordered the release of an ISA detainee since the government banned such rulings in 1989.

It was "definitely a wonderful step in terms of civil liberties in Malaysia", he said.

His words were echoed by Malaysia's human rights commissioner, Denison Jayasooria, who called it a "great day for human rights and fundamental liberties", according to AFP news agency.

He called for the ISA to be used only "where there is a real threat to national security".

Mr Raja Petra was arrested on 12 September under the ISA as part of a government clampdown on opposition voices.

He was arrested along with opposition deputy Teresa Kok and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, both of whom have since been released.