Ruling classes around the world have their national myths. These attempt to tie working people to the capitalist class through the false idea of nationhood – a recent historical development.
The Australian version of this national myth is ANZAC day. It is supposedly the day Australia became a nation. It celebrates the defeat of Australia’s invading troops at Gallipoli in 1915.
These are notes by Ian Angus on his blog Climate and Capitalism of a talk his co-author Simon Butler gave in November 2012 at a panel discussion of overpopulation. With Australia’s population set to reach 23 million, the talk is worth republishing to counter the sewer of shit spewing forth from the ogres of overpopulation. Ian writes:
At the local elections in the Australian Capital Territory in October last year the Greens were decimated, losing 4.9% of their vote and 3 of their 4 seats. Their conservatism in the previous 4 years, when they supported a minority ALP government and wrung few concessions from them, saw those looking for real change desert the Greens.
Some voters returned to Labor. Some went to the Liberals, and some went to the Bullet Train for Canberra Group, which won 4% of the vote.
After first studiously avoiding the word, 5 days ago US President Barack Obama labelled the Boston bombing an act of terrorism. Maybe it is, but how can he tell?
As I write it looks as if the Boston bombers were Chechnians who had been living in the US for some time. The story will unfold over time, and the picture as it becomes clearer may involve the Chechen struggle for independence from Russia, the Russians’ brutal wars and the Muslim faith of the bombers. The fight for independence started off as a secular one but has become more and more entwined with the quest for an Islamic state.