Greece: Conventionality Belongs To Yesterday

"I don't believe in heroes or saviours, but I do believe in fighting for right... no one has the right to reduce a proud people to such a state of wretchedness and indignity.
"We have never been in such a bad place. After two and a half years of catastrophe, Greeks are on their knees. The social state has collapsed, one in two youngsters is out of work, there are people leaving en masse, the climate psychologically is one of pessimism, depression, mass suicides."
"Defeat is the battle that isn't waged. You ask me if I am afraid. I'd be afraid if we continued on this path, a path to social hell... when someone fights there is a big chance that he will win and we are fighting this to win."
"It is not between nations and peoples. On the one side there are workers and a majority of people and on the other are global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds. It's a war between peoples and capitalism … and as in each war what happens on the frontline defines the battle. It will be decisive for the war elsewhere."
"[Greece] was chosen as the experiment for the enforcement of neo-liberal shock [draconian tax rises and spending cuts] and Greek people were the guinea pigs. If the experiment continues, it will be considered successful and the policies will be applied in other countries. That's why it is so important to stop the experiment. It will not just be a victory for Greece but for all of Europe."

Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece's left-wing Syriza party, The Guardian.
Polls indicate Syriza could win the next election.
For more on all this and on the background to events in Greece and the Eurozone crisis see this section of Znet.

Michael Bronski: What Happpened To Queer Anarchism?

"When I was writing A Queer History of the United States, I began to formulate the argument that some of the major impulses inspiring the LGBT movement had roots in American anarchism. I was surprised by this at first, but then it began to make sense. Mid-19th century political thinkers such as Ezra Heywood—a social utopian who argued passionately that the state had no right to dictate people’s personal, emotional, or sexual lives—argued for frank public discussions of sexuality as indispensable for attaining personal and sexual liberation..."

Great article by Michael Bronski from Z Magazine.

Michael Albert: Now Available In Europe

"Michael Albert, writer, activist, author of 'Parecon - Life after Capitalism' and co-founder of ZNet, will be giving talks at various locations in Europe in October 2011. Subjects include media, participatory economics, the creation of a new international organisation for a participatory society, and strategy for social change."

Woop woop!
Dates here.

Uganda: The Politics Of Distraction

Update: It's hard to know what is happening with this story. Fagburn will come clean and say he is not an expert on Ugandan law - but it seems the resurrection of this bill may have been hyped up. Yours - as ever - in scepticism.
Update 2: Looks like the bill has gone, at least for now...

Ugandan police have sprayed opposition politicians with a pink liquid to stop them holding a rally in the capital, Kampala.
An interesting choice of colour, I'm sure you'll agree.
They got off lightly.
At least ten people were shot dead by police in riots in Kampala last month, according to Amnesty International.
The government has recently outlawed all protests.
And people in Uganda have a lot to protest about right now.
Inflation and unemployment are high, and there has been a steep rise in fuel and food prices.
So what does the Ugandan government do?
It resurrects an old "Anti-Homosexuality Bill".
The bill calls for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of "the offence of homosexuality", and the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", such as having gay sex when HIV positive, or with a minor.*
The bill also proposes banning "the promotion of homosexuality".
I wonder where they got that idea from?
It is unclear if MPs will get to vote on the bill before the current parliamentary session ends this week, or after a new parliament is sworn in next week.

Regular updates here.

• 'Ugandan Spring? Instability Spreads To East Africa' Stephen Roblin, ZNet.
An online petition currently has over 800,000 signatories.
Not sure if this will make any difference - and as reactionaries in Uganda are trying to equate being pro-gay with colonialism it may do harm.

* There's a PDF of the original bill here. Spoiler alert: It's depressing as fuck.

Update: It's probably not happening.

Noam Chomsky: Is The World Too Big To Fail?

"The democracy uprising in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces—coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other U.S. cities.
"If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed in opposite directions: in Cairo toward gaining elementary rights denied by the dictatorship, in Madison towards defending rights that had been won in long and hard struggles and are now under severe attack..."

Noam Chomsky - ZNet appears to be down now, but you can read it here on Guernica.

Michael Bronski: On Bradley Manning

The April issue of Z Magazine contains a short essay by one of Fagburn's most favourite writers, Michael Bronski; 'Sex and Security - Bradley Manning, Sexual Identity, and WikiLeaks'
"When the Manning story first broke last June, Gawker ran a column that was pure exploitation, conjuring up fears that Manning's sexuality was the reason for his 'betrayal.' Asserting that Manning might be transsexual (a rumor so odd that no one else has mentioned it), the report claimed that Manning was turned in to the FBI by a man with whom he had had a flirtation ('Was Wikileaker Bradley Manning Betrayed By His Queer Identity?').
"Since that time, stories about Manning have ignored or downplayed his stated sexuality. The LGBT national press has written very little about him, choosing, presumably, not to play off the angle that someone who allegedly hurt national interests could be a gay martyr..."

You'll have to sign in to read it in full - or even better become a Zmag/Znet subscriber or make a donation.

• Michael Bronski's A Queer History of the United States is published on May 10th by Random House.
• 'Bradley Manning Case: British moral authority 'at risk' Welsh MP says UK must challenge US over treatment of soldier being detained for alleged leak of state secrets to WikiLeaks' - Ann Clwyd MP in The Guardian.

Update: Ann Clwyd's EDM on Bradley's case was discussed in the Commons Monday night - UK citizenship confirmed, representations to be made to the US State Department...

"I loved it - I look forward to reading Fagburn all the time now" - Michael Bronski, February 2011

Thought For The Day: Beyond Gay Marriage

Brian Bassinger, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Housing Coalition, which works with homeless and low-income people with AIDS, claims that "the gay marriage movement took the air out of the AIDS movement, as well as the funding. While we as a community were fighting for gay marriage, the governor decimated the state's Office of AIDS."
When Bassinger heard that $43 million was spent on Proposition 8, which he feels was "such a narrow agenda for such a small part of the population," he was livid because "at the same time, they were cutting $85 million in HIV/AIDS care in the state of California. They eliminated funding for housing, including residential care facilities for the chronically ill." But the response in the LGBT community was negligible.
Bassinger and his partner are both HIV positive and on disability funding. If they were to get married they would lose their SSI and SSDI benefits. And his situation is not uncommon.
"The majority of people with HIV and AIDS in San Francisco are living in extreme poverty," says Bassinger. "There's this mythology that gay men are wealthy. The reality is that gay men living in poverty are twice the national average. We are poor. And poor people see marriage equality as a middle class and upper class issue."

From Beyond Gay Marriage by Lisa Dettmer in Z Magazine via ZNet.
Read the US Williams Institute study 'Poverty In The Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community' by Randy Albelda, Lee Badgett et al - a PDF is here.

• Image by Homocult.

Egypt: Queen Of Denial?

"Suave and smooth, Gamal Mubarak would seem ideally qualified to steer Egypt through political and economic turmoil while retaining the trust and friendship of the West. Only a few months ago he was seen as “the best hope for Egyptian democracy”.
"Today, his very name is toxic. Although he has been poised for power and swiftly embraced the cause of the poor and the disaffected, two fatal flaws disqualify him from office: his name and the opposition of the powerful Egyptian Army. No one in Egypt will stomach the hereditary succession of another pharaoh, as President Mubarak, his father, is known, and the army has no time for a civilian who has not demonstrated an understanding of military power.
"To his many Western friends and former banker colleagues, Gamal is affability itself, ferociously intelligent, well-informed, a clear analyst, a man who embraces Western standards with a shrewd understanding of image and public relations. Egyptians, however, see a man aloof from their daily lives, cocooned by privilege, the beneficiary of nepotism, wealth and inherited influence...
"A few years ago it was also rumoured, improbably, that he was gay, a slur [sic] with resonance among the Islamist faithful. He married in 2007, at the age of 44."

The Times wonders if President Mubarak could hand over power to his son, Gamal.

• Read Robert Fisk on the new Arab revolts in Egypt and the Middle East, plus other essays on the current crises, via ZNet.