Paradigm Shift 4zzz fm 102.1 friday at noon on 28 Oct 2016.
Andy and Ian talk about the 1916 conscription referendum and Andy interviews Humphrey McQueen about opposition to world war one (WW I).
Playlist
Monica Grabin – I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier
Phil Ochs – Draft dodger rag
Edna St Vincent Millay – Conscientious objector
Paul Spencer – War’s a game for powermongers
The Black Market – If you call out my name
Paradigms shift 4ZZZ at fm 102.1 on Friday at noon on 21 October 2016.
Andy and Ian talk about the ethics of drone warfare.
Andy interviews Alex Edney-Browne who is doing a PhD on the ethics of Drone warfare at Melbourne University. Alex queries the accuracy of drone technology. She discusses the number of civilian casualties in Pakistan Yemen and Somalia. Estimates by the Obama administration say that total civilian casualties are between 64 and 116. Independent journalists estimate 1,147 civilian deaths.
Drone have a kill radius of up to 90 metres.
Guilt by Association
They depend upon signals intelligence of daily routes of their targets. Pine Gap processes this intelligence.
Many taxi drivers get killed by drones simply because they are on the road dealing with different people (militants) and are conspicuous.
Alex talked about ‘rogue states’ getting the technology. Andy gives an example of IS (Daesh) using a drone in Iraq recently. She mentions Iran, Russia and Nth Korea (but this depends on your political perspective).
Proxy wars
Alex questions the ethics of USA’s undeclared wars on Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen.
Human fallibility
Drones are an attempt to rule out the humanity of people required to kill others when there are innocent children nearby.
Reference
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-most-important-us-air-force-base-youve-never-heard-of/
Paradigm Shift 4zzz fm 102.1 broadcast on Friday 14 Oct 2016.
Andy speaks about the legacy of Bill Morrison who passed away recently.
[Listen on demand at http://ondemand.4zzzfm.org.au/paradigm-shift/2016-10-14%5D
Interviews with David Spicer (Permaculture Research Institute of Australia) and Dick Copeland (Northey Street City Farm).
Permaculture is the harmonious integration of plants and people; it includes all species is not just human centric.
Interview with David Spicer … spoke of permaculture design and how Bill Morrison was both a teacher and a person who practiced his ideas in a down-to-earth manner.
Permaculture promotes sustainable systems and the idea is to work with nature and it’s systems and to mimic natural systems to combine or produce a marriage of disciplines like ecology, hydrology & zoology i.e it is multidisciplinary.
Housing and growing food under broader principles of working with nature.
It is an example of ‘positivism’ not getting bogged down in negatives full stop Northern New South Wales is a hob and has influenced around the world. There are many people involved in permaculture on-the-ground in Africa, Asia, and South America than Australia. The idea is to provide good drinking water and fresh food.
Bill Morrison is not talked about as an influential thinker in Australia but should be recognised as such. Bill Morrison didn’t like to talk too much but liked to go out and do it.
David Spicer said that Bill saved me, grounded me when I was a very angry young man.
Andy: Bill Morrison was born in Stanley in Tasmania, he left school at 15 but worked at the CSIRO and then went on to uni and developed an interdisciplinary approach introducing permaculture where there was need for better food.
He was involved in the campaign against the Franklin Dam and against the hydro (-electricity) and he evangelized his ideas which were full of ideology and almost religious.
His work and ideas have spread across six continents and he is confronted communal farming with an anti GMO critique of the economy and agriculture. He died at 88 years.
His autobiography is called travel in dreams.
Interview with Dick Copeland from the Northey Street City Farm.
Dick is involved in permaculture and got no history going about 22 years ago it is a 4 acre Community Garden in the centre of Brisbane and follows on the permaculture ideas in the inner Northern Suburbs full stop new line the Brisbane City Council found a land in 1994 and it involved people in growing food.
The idea of permaculture is not to create problems for other species. Bill Mollison said and wrote a lot, he was a man of action and used the power of example he is not often spoken about but leaves an incredible legacy of research and Theory.
Out of permaculture came the transition movement. This has had a big impact on sustainability and continues to expand at the grassroots. Bill Morrison worked with David Holmgren on permaculture, it was their joint idea.
Even though permaculture is a hip term and it is a sort of a nice idea with the hippie ring to it.
Andy: Bill Morrison could be a grumpy old bastard and an incorrigible optimist … there is an interview here with him in 2005.
Interview with Bill Morrison
Bill talks about his anger and fury about what is happening and his dislike for the global monetary system and spiritualism often embodied in the term ‘community’. He describes how he grew up in a village and the idea is to follow the rules. Even though grandmothers say they’re practicing permaculture when they grow something in their backyard this is not true because what they’re doing is one dimensional. We need to look at the designer agriculture and genetic engineering which is a grave danger. We eat too much and have heart attacks.
Henry Kissinger argued that the US should move food onto (global) commodity markets and that way they could control anyone through food.
The response was that people involved in permaculture setup enormous seed libraries moving away from monoculture food production.
End: If people are interested they can go to Northey Street and Enoggera Creek and in volunteer one day a week and attend PermaBliss events.
Playlist
Formidable Vegetable Sound System – You are what you eat
Tin Tree Factory – From ferris wheels
Spindles – Dream
Formidable Vegetable Sound System – No such thing as waste
The Lurkers – When time
Paradigm Shift on FM 102.1 4ZZZ Friday 12pm Fri 7 Oct 2016.
[In memoriam Bryan Law]
Listen at http://ondemand.4zzzfm.org.au/paradigm-shift/2016-10-07
Over the past 50 years Pine Gap spy base has provided signals intelligence so that the US military could conduct cold wars against the Soviet Union and now China plus actual wars against the people of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Muslims in the ‘war on terror’.
On 26 September 2016 Andy, Tim and Franz walked onto Pine Gap to participate in a lament of the wars and deaths it has enabled.
They were all charged with entering a prohibited area, contrary to section 9(1) Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 (Cth). Andy filmed the lament and was also charged with use of a camera in a prohibited area, contrary to section 17(1) Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 (Cth. Maximum penalty for each offence is imprisonment for 7 years.
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Paradigm Shift (4ZZZ fm 102.1 Fridays at noon) begins with a song ‘With my hammer’ by Seize the Day about a ploughshares action in Liverpool England in 1996. The song tells the story of how three women de-commissioned a ground attack aeroplane to be used against the East Timorese in the Indonesian airforce:
“On 29 January 1996, three women entered the British Aerospace military base at Warton, Lancashire armed with household hammers. They smashed the radar nose and control panel of a Hawk ground-attack aircraft, which was part of an order of 24 aircraft destined for Indonesia. They called their act a Ploughshares Action, which was inspired by the biblical injunction (Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3) ‘to beat swords into ploughshares’.
A British activist named Chris Cole had performed a Ploughshares action on British Aerospace three years earlier. The three women – borough counsellor Joanna Wilson, gardener Lotta Kronlid and nurse Andrea Needham – were charged with illegal entry and criminal damage.
The fourth member of the group was environmental campaigner Angie Zelter, who had supported them and publicly announced her intention to carry out another Ploughshares Action. Zelter was arrested the next year while on her way to a public meeting. Their trial by jury began on 23 July 1997.
Solidarity activists organised blockades, sit-ins, teach-ins and other vigils, all of which combined to generate enormous negative publicity for the Indonesian occupation. Sensationally, they were all acquitted after the jury accepted their defense – they claimed they had acted lawfully because they were using ‘reasonable force’ to prevent the much greater crime of genocide. The entire episode served to highlight Indonesia’s human rights abuses, and the equally crucial factor of Western support for Indonesia’s actions.” [from Grounding a Hawk with a Hammer]
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Tim describes how, in 2008, one of his cousins deflated the radomes on a New Zealand base at Waihopi exposing the secret satellite dishes inside. Beating swords into ploughshares. They were sued for $1.2M damage to the base. One was a dominican priest sworn to poverty. NZ dropped the charges.
Franz describes how his father Jim has been involved in the anti-war movement and Franz has grown up going to demonstrations.
Ploughshares is a symbolic act which becomes an artwork. The three pacifists describe the hike onto the base at Pine Gap took the form of a lament. It was hastily done while on the run from the police and filmed using live-streaming.
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They play Joe Pug Bury me far (from my uniform)
“War is older than mankind
But it’s younger than grace
Won’t you bury me far from my uniform
From the iron cross medals I would’ve worn
From the statues that sisters and widows mourn
From the newspaper clippin’s and microform
From Geneva, The Hague and Nuremberg
From the sex of this world that I’ll no longer taste”
Followed by “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” by Phil Ochs:
Oh, I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British war
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain’t marching anymore
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Andy discusses the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) conference held in Alice Springs in September 2016 and recent protests against the US occupation in Germany.
They talk about other bases: Exmouth in WA, and at Shoalwater Bay in Qld where the US runs war games every two years.
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Peace movement against global war.
History of Australian war resistance. 100th anniversary of the Conscription referendum for World War I in 1916 – the conscription referendum (and the referendum to ban the Communist Party) were the two most contentious referenda in Australian history . Mass protests were the response to past wars like Vietnam and Iraq. Nowadays war is invisible even though over 1 million people have died in the Middle East during the recent conflict.
Franz Dowling plays Bob Dylan’s Masters of War leaving out the last stanza (in deference to his role as a peace pilgrim).
Scott Ludlam (Greens Senator) speaks from the gates of Pine Gap and talks about how to break free of the Lib-Labs condoning the US alliance. ‘There are some good ones in parliament.‘ Ludlam says that all this is done in our name, the war in the Middle East and elsewhere. During the first week of the Iraq war a couple of people cimbed the Opera House and wrote “No War”.
Andy plays Ryan Harvey’s Its Bigger than a War:
It’s bigger than a war it’s the day to day
Capitalism’s price to pay
It’s a system based on murder and the packaging of fear
The swallowing of lies and the cranking of the gears
Tim talks about not paying taxes used to fund the the war machine.
George Brandis to decide whether to invoke the Defence Special Undertaking Act 1952.
Show closes with a song about Chelsea Manning, a hero of the Paradigm Shift.
Kevin Devine ‘Private First Class‘:
Her conscience barked as she watched our Apache
Cowboy-kill civilian Iraqis
Their laughter rolled like tanks over bodies
She thought: “What if everyone could see what I see?”
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Playlist
Seize The Day – With my hammer
Joe Pug – Bury me far (from my uniform)
Phil Ochs – I ain’t marching anymore
Franz Dowling – Masters of war
Ryan Harvey – It’s bigger than a war
Kevin Devine – Private first class
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References
Pine Gap: Nautilus Institute explores Alice Springs joint defence facility
Spy base attackers in court
A bit of the “Pilgrims Lament” overlooking Pine Gap.
The Long March
Pine Gap on Trial
Richard Tanter on Pine Gap
Liberating Pine Gap
Don’t Just Blame The Guards: Don Dale Is What Systemic Violence Looks like
Background on the court ruling of #closepinegap protesters
In Defence of Australia
Pine Gap: 50 years war
Ian interviews Andy Paine Broadcast on Paradigm Shift 4 triple Z at fm 102.1 on Friday 29 September 2016
The arrest and subsequent court appearance of the pine gap four who were taken by police inside the US spy base but charges were dismissed for lack of authority from the attorney general, George Brandis.
Will the attorney-general now authorise charges under the DEFENCE (SPECIAL UNDERTAKINGS) ACT 1952 are or will he demur? There seems to be little political justification for charging the defendants because all they were doing was singing a lament and drawing attention to the US spy base.
Here is relevant section:
DEFENCE (SPECIAL UNDERTAKINGS) ACT 1952 – SECT 28
Prosecution of offences
(1) A prosecution under this Act or the regulations shall be instituted only by or with the consent of the Attorney-General or of a person acting under his or her direction.
(2) A person charged with an offence against this Act or the regulations may be arrested, or a warrant for his or her arrest may be issued and executed, and he or she may be remanded in custody or on bail, notwithstanding that the consent of the Attorney-General or of a person acting under his or her direction has not been obtained, but no further proceedings shall be taken until that consent has been obtained.
(3) Nothing in this section prevents the discharge of a person charged if proceedings are not continued within a reasonable time.
It seems clear that the attorney-general will provide his consent.
If he does, a long court case awaits the defendants.
Maximum penalty for trespass at Pine Gap is 7 years jail.
Andy interviews Jason McLeod author of ‘Merdeka and the morning star– Civil resistance in West Papua‘ about the past and present of the struggle for independence in the Indonesian province.
Playlist
unions[On strike against the labour law]
Andy interviews Marta, a student activist from France, about protest against labour laws in Paris, Nantes & Rennes in France.
Fight back against austerities.
Marta 1
France has a history of strong unions. Workers have power. If a law is better for the worker, be it local or national, then that law is preferred. Without these laws, where unions are weak, workers have to fight in every workplace. Article 49.3 allows the government to pass a law without any discussion in the parliament. and this is what happened to the labour laws … making it easy for companies to increase hours and reduce wages.
The protest began with a petition. This was supported by You Tubers and a # on Twitter. Over a million people went onto the streets.
Contrast this with the response by Australian workers against the repressive laws being passed in the Australian parliament against building and construction workers (The ABCC legislation).
Marta 2
Marches were organised by trade unions. Still must have a history of protests especially in Nantes and Rennes. Students are workers as well … Even high school students participated in the demonstrations. Discussion of movement tactics. When the media the right of demonstrators into good and bad … For example Black Blockades in Nantes and Rennes … The response was we respect a diversity of tactics. There was an occupyaction caled Nuit debout which means ‘night standing up’ or ‘not going to bed’.
Marta 3
Currently in a summer in Paris. Students intend to occupy some squares. A state of emergency has been declared because of the attack by a truck driver in Niece. These laws are repressive.
Playlist
“Je suis fils” by Corrigan Fest
“Merry blues” by Manu Chao
“On Lâche Rien” (don’t give up) by HK and Les Saltimbanks
“La Rage” by Keny Arkana
“Washington Bullets” by The Clash
Paradigm Shift 4zzz fm 102.1, friday at noon 16 Sep 2016
Andy interviews Richard Tanter (Uni Melb and Independent & Peaceful Australia Network IPAN).
1. Signals intelligence
Pine Gap is a ground base for three military satellites that pick up radio signals and a vast amount of data that is spread throughout US military .
2. Relay Station for Early warning of missile launches
3. Listening in on telecommunications
i.e. spying on Indonesia
Pine gap is immensely important to the US military. It works in with other bases around the world mainly in New Zealand and in Yorkshire in England.
It is a military target together with the satellites that it controls.
Message from Richard Tanter:
You asked how do we know about Pine Gap. The research work that Des Ball, Bill Robinson and I have done is all published (with more to come) in detailed papers published through the Nautilus Institute in the Pine Gap Project. All are online at this url, together with some more accessible media commentary on them:
http://nautilus.org/briefing-books/australian-defence-facilities/pine-gap/the-pine-gap-project/
Pine Gap is now much more concerned with war fighting in the Middle East in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
How important is time gap?
Hard to tell, because in the old days it was a standalone facility, and now it works together with others.
If there was a conflict between the US and China what is the role of pine gap?
In would require a nuclear attack on pine gap by China in order to blind the other side. If there is a war with Russia is even more a high priority target.
How much power has Australia got to affect what’s going on there?
The United States is likely to put a lot of political pressure on the government and we haven’t seen stronger government going to resist.
Interview with Jim Dowling about attempts to shutdown Pine Gap
Can you tell us the times you have been out to Pine Gap and the reasons?
Jim visited Pine Gap first in 1987 which was the anniversary of the setting up of the US spy base in 1967. On another occasion in 2002 prior to the Iraq war a large group of people went out to find out to try to oppose the war and challenge the US presence on Australian soil. On a third occasion in 2005 Jim went with the group called Christians against all terrorism to do a citizen’s inspection of the base and to expose the fact that it was a terrorist base. He sees no difference between the terrorism of the suicide vest and the terrorism of this electronic facility. Four people were arrested went though a long process of trial. Belief that direct action and still disobedience is the best method of challenging the state.
Citizens inspection
Went in at night test pass on the base and then had a long legal battle to last time of the Defence Special Undertakings Act of 1952 carried penalties of seven years for trespass and two years for taking a photo.
John Negraponte was at the base at the time & frowned on the lack of security. Done I’ll hand organise the former charge Ron that call to defend the four charged and launched account repeal saying they were getting a fair trial. Making a case that this act could only be used if there was defence of Australia involved. They won the appeal at all charges were dismissed. The Labor government changed the law to declare that a place like home was covered by the Defence special undertakings act.
Going back out to find out this month, why is that?
Wars are still going on in the middle east and much worse could happen. Pine Gap is integral to Star Wars and the US ability to have first strike. The pine gap agreement
Andy interviews Chris Tomlin, an Arrente man from central Australia.
Australia government has not the power or the guts to challenge the United States and get rid of Pine Gap. Chris invites everyone to come to Alice, to come together in unity and help with a healing process.
The Pine Gap agreement was signed in December 1966 by Harold Holt then Prime Minister of Australia. Bob Askin and Harold Holt greeted Lyndon Baynes Johnson the President of the United States. Demonstrators lay in front of the limosine and Bob Askin told his driver to run them over.
http://ondemand.4zzzfm.org.au/paradigm-shift
Playlist
The Lackey Country by Disables
Domination quickstep by Red Gum
I’d Hate To Be A (Hated) American by Bad day down
Washington Bullets by The Clash
How Punk music ‘made the world a better place‘
In memory of the Brisbane Devotee, John Reid
[Paradigm Shift 4zzz fm 102.1 3 Sept 2016]
Listen @ http://ondemand.4zzzfm.org.au/paradigm-shift/2016-09-02
Andy and Ian speak with guests Peter McGrath, Cass Bradshaw, Peter and Ian does an interview with Michelle McIntyre about punk. How did punk culture me
sh with left wing politics and vice versa.
This Paradigm Shift came out of a funeral for an organiser of punk gigs at local halls in 1977/78 and manager of bands like Razar and The Leftovers. He was called the ‘Brisbane Devotee’ aka John Reid. We pay our respects to John, family and friends.
Peter ‘V2’ McGrath was born in Beaudesert and grew up in Sandgate, his family and friends worked either at the Golden Circle Cannery at Northgate or Arnott’s Biscuits on Coronation Drive. As a 13 year old, V2 and Ed Wreckage painted the Deagon Railway Station pink. They formed a punk band called The Leftovers. Golden Circle cannery ‘was a terrible place to work ... but that was the only life people had‘. ‘Poverty was a way of life in Sandgate’.
Cass Bradshaw was born in Tamworth and grew up in the western suburbs and on finishing school was drawn to the inner city ‘such as it was’ and the music scene, in Brisbane in the late 1970s. Her sister Lee played in a band called The Supports. Gigs were held at AHEPA hall in West End, Caxton Street and Griffith Uni.
The other Peter grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney and was an observer of the punk scene in Brisbane.
Michelle McIntyre grew up in Boondall and joined the punk scene at the age of 16 in the early 1980s.
Punk Scene in Brisbane
Poverty was a way of life in Sandgate. Casuals were picked out and paid 20 cents to the SDA union and if they were rejected they had to go home and come back tomorrow. Going to a gig was like running a gauntlet. Toombul, the Valley, there were always fights at the railway stations.
Task Force
Punk is about the music as well as the politics. Young people having fun, playing rock ‘n roll … Task force would been the violence. The violnce was caused by the police. Very little violence inside the punk scene.
Was it a media beat up?
Sunday Sun did a big article on the punks in Brisbane in 1978. To instill fear into people? Any one involved in the gay scene, feminist, International Socialists, right-to-march were targeted. Punks stood out in the march against Joh and the country party. Mum’s and dad’s were often liberal voters but could not believe what Joh did back then.
Expression of freedom
Attempts to get liquor licences were difficult. John got a liquor licence for the Hamilton Hall gig yet cops still smashed it up. They came in with batons drawn.
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Playlist
Razar – Task force
No Mercy – Caucasian guilt
Channel 3 – I’ve got a gun
Death Sentence – The push
Death Sentence – Anti apartheid
D.R.I. – Violent Pacification
Banner photo
Northgate Golden Circle cannery Brisbane
[Paradigm Shift 4zzz fm 102.1, 26 August 2016]
Andy spoke with Tim Duddy who is a Liverpool farmer in the NW New South Wales about the Caroona mine buyback by NSW government from BHP.
Tim: “Where mining occurs near water table there is always damage to that water”
Conservative farmers came out against the mining. Was a lawful protest for 2 1/2 years then the campaign adopted NVDA tactics which the farmers supported.
Climate change was not the motivator by the Farming community
BHP made a tidy profit.
A decision to cancel the licence for the Caroona coal mine in the north-west of New South Wales is not a sign the nearby Shenhua mine will also be cancelled, the State Government says 12 Aug 2016
In response, Liverpool farmers are promising civil war.
Andy: Leftpress to do a book about strikes in the Gippsland mining and power industries.
Talking about rural communities.
A lot of the farmers are very wealthy and influential growing grops and grain been able to shift the government on BHP mining in the Liverpool plains.
Aboriginal people are fighting Adani in the Gallilee basin.
Acklan community are in the Land & Enivironment court fighting extension of coal mining on the Darling Downs.
Andy interviews Rob McLaughlin from Bolger in the Hunter Valley resisting an open cut coal mine by Rio Tinto.
Playlist
The Dead Maggies – Savage River
The Lurkers – Lock the gate
The Bushwhackers – Leave it in the ground
Bob Campbell – Killer black coal
Kev Carmody – Livin’ in the country
[Paradigm Shift on 4zzz fm 102.1 19 August 2016]
In the build up to ZICS Andy and Ian talk about the DIY phenomenon of Zines, self-publishing at its most basic, innovative, eclectic covering everything from cats to abolition of restaurants … [you can’s always get what you want at Alice’s Restaurant, but you can get what you need.]
What is a zine?
[From Fanzine examples include gutter slug and a punk zine from the 1990s called Rat-Sack]
A printed self published publication. These days often made on a photocopier. Rise of zines
Is the need to print stuff obsolete with the internet.
Andy interviews the author of gutterslug
The author of a new zine “Break Free from Break Free” talks about the pros and cons of big NGOs in environmental activism.
Playlist
Bastian Fox Phelan – Fears of your life
Gunk – Mi goreng special
Copy Scams – Copy and destroy
The Julie Ruin – I decide
Alternative TV – Strange kicks
4PR - Voice of the People 