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Australian Left Must Condemn The Latent Antisemitism Of Anti-Zionists A NON-APOLOGY FOR AN ALLEGED NON-COMPLIANCE RATBAG ZINE

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Sick of the poor choice between the barely concealed right wing Neo-con media juggernaut on one hand or the unashamedly biased to their viewpoint micro party socialist propaganda kicking around on the other side of the fence we have created RATBAG. The aim of RATBAG is not to sway your thoughts one way or the other, it is to share some though provoking articles that are out there in circulation in the public domain and also to create a bit of space for the publishing original alternative content. We wish to be inclusive of all, so please do feel free to email us your article about what ever is on your mind! Political content is fine but RATBAG is not the organ of any political grouping. Nor will be publish any hate-based articles and the like We suggest you write Andrew Bolt.

CONTENTS: Australian Left Must Condemn The Latent Antisemitism Of AntiZionists A NON-APOLOGY FOR AN ALLEGED NON-COMPLIANCE: Ray Jackson, ISJA Sydney, on the 2014 Sydney TJ Hickey March and police harassment. FUNNIES AND... BACKCOVER! TWO IMPORTAINT ARTICLES IN THIS EDITION PEEPZ...

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Australian Left Must Condemn The Latent Antisemitism Of Anti-Zionists

With and it is sad to say still yet another instance of the Socialist Alternative being accused of antisemitism, and the myriad of online anti-Zion comments being made by people involved with Friends of Palestine groups who also happen to be members of socialist groupings, it is high time for the Australian left to get its collective house in order on the issue of antisemitism once and for all, or suffer the real risk that all of the Australian Left will be tarnished as being antisemitic. The most recent time Socialist Alternative have been accused of being antisemitic involves a 12th of February 2014 incident at a Australian National University Market Day, where it is alleged that a Socialist Alternative stall attendee threw a paper plane (made from one of the ANU Socialist Alternatives petitions entitled Oppose Abbotts Right Wing Agenda) with the message death to the Zionist entity, love from Hamas into the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) stall. Another allegation is that later on the same day on a Socialist Alternative stall attendee said filthy Jew and Israeli bitch to a AUJS stall attendee. In response to these allegations, the Socialist Alternative hierarchy reportedly investigated the matter and perhaps not surprisingly has found that its members were 100% innocent of any antisemitism, perhaps to the point of being biologically incapable of making an antisemitic comment due to taking out a Socialist Alternative membership. There seems to be no official response from Socialist Alternative to this incident on their website, but the online response made by various people on former member and still Socialist Alternative ally John Passants Woroni: Jaccuse Facebook post on the incident reveal that most respondents are unquestionably willing to accept the possibility that the incident is a false-flag frame up of Socialist Alternative by someone. Respondents to the post seemed perfectly content to lay the blame on Zionist Mossad agents seeking to maliciously defame the Socialist Alternative as a whole. Another defence put up by defenders of Socialist Alternative in regards to this incident is quite simply - prove it. That is, prove absolutely that a Socialist Alternative stall attendee muttered the words filthy Jew and Israeli bitch If you cant produce an audio and video
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recording (presumably also showing the Socialist Alternative stall attendees lips mouth the words also) it simply is a Zionist frame up of the Socialist Alternative. It is also asserted that anyone questioning whether the paper plane incident actually occurred also needs to prove it.

In regards to the paper plane, despite the offensive latent antisemitism of someone sneakily stealing a Socialist Alternative petition not a flyer, something designed to be full of names and addresses for recruiting people to Socialist Alternative - right in front of the Socialist Alternative stall attendees to commit an act of Zionist trickery against Socialist Alternative, a second level of offensiveness is achieved by the defenders of Socialist Alternative in expecting the rest of the left to accept this dubious logic. A third level of offence is achieved where the defenders of Socialist Alternative are content with insinuating that anyone doubting this version of Zionist trickery is themselves a Hasbara Stooge in receipt of a stipend (presumably paid in shekels) from global Zionism. At this point we must dissect the meaning /s of the word Zion. The word itself Zion is first found in a section of the Hebrew Bible Samuel II, 5:7 dating to c.630540 BCE. Zion is a place name often used as a synonym for the city of Jerusalem. The biblical term Zion hence does not equate to Zionism, which is a word that has its origins in much more modern times. Zion is a biblical place name It is not a shorthand version of Zionism. To use Zion as a shorthand version of Zionism is factually incorrect. Unless you are using the word Zion as a reference to the biblical notion of the city of Jerusalem, you are and heres the wakeup call - perpetrating antisemitism.

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So then: what is the definition, the actual meaning of Zionism? Since 1897 Zionism has been a political movement to have the entire Jewish diaspora as in every person of Jewish heritage across the World - return to Eretz Israel (the Hebrew biblical area definition of the land of the Jews) to found a Nation of the Jews. A note here: Zionism as a concept was formulised by the Ashkenazi (Mediaeval Hebrew for Germany) Tribe journalist and Author Theodor Herzl, who at the time lived in Austria Hungary, birthplace of Hitler the desire was in this then-utopian concept was to seek a place removed from the historic and contemporary persecution of Jewish people in Europe. To set the scene: As the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse, Herzl followed the 1894 Dreyfus Affair, a notorious anti-Semitic incident in France in which a French Jewish army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany. Herzl was witness to mass rallies in Paris following the Dreyfus trial, where many chanted "Death to the Jews!". Being witness to this, and knowing the history of European oppression of the Jewish diaspora, Herzl came to believe that Jews must remove themselves from Europe and create their own state. Dreyfus was executed by the French State.

ABOVE: IWW ALL WARS KILL KIDS STICKER, EARLY 2013

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Back to the definition of Zionism. In its contemporary definition, Zionism still means virtually the same, except that as a result of the (Palestinian) Arab Higher Committee rejecting a 1947 United Nations General council proposal to establish both and Arab and a Jewish state in the British controlled territory of the Palestinian Mandate; a civil war occurred. With the Jewish side winning this war, the establishment of the State of Israel, a key objective of Zionism was declared in 1948. Hence Modern Zionism has moved on from the establishment, to the strengthening, of the State of Israel along with the continued political movement to have the entire Jewish diaspora as in every person of Jewish heritage across the World - return to Eretz Israel. But what of the Palestinians? The case is that the author of this article believes it a crime against humanity that any people, or just one person is displaced from their home right down to the extent to the four walls of the perhaps one room house due to a persons religion, background or ethnic grouping. Such is unequivocally reprehensible and an obvious breach of human rights. Much more severe is the crime against all humanity of the killing of a child - Palestinian or otherwise. There is never any political sound bite or volumes of tome that can balance this wrong. My point of this article however, is to talk about the issue of antisemitism on the Australian Left. On the statement: But were not antisemitic - were antizionist, which is the common counter assertion made when some group on the Left is accused of being antisemitic, the question of the use of the words Zion and Zionism need to be looked at in their actual uses. Whilst Zion is in fact a biblical place name, the word is also coarsely used by antisemitics as a by-word for Jewry, a mysterious Jewish entity working behind the scenes and of course form a part of the title of the most infamous antisemitic tome in history The Book of Zion, one of the books that was used by Hitler and the Nazis as evidence against all Jews. In relation to the word Zionism, in its correct use it describes a political theory, but again in coarse parlance again it is a by-word for antisemitic concepts such as international Jewry, again, along with Zion, a mysterious Jewish entity working behind the scenes and it happens to be the antisemitic byword of choice for the right wing New World Order conspiracists evidenced by their assertion that all World Governments are occupied by Z.O.G. the Zionist Occupational Government. With this, given such coarse and unfortunately common misuse of the words Zion and Zionism, would it be a wise thing for some people of the Australian (Far) Left to use the same terms? Do we as the Left want to use the same words that have undoubtedly been corrupted in modern parlance via Hitlers Nazis and the New World Order Conspiracy twits? Additionally, on potentially enabling antisemitism via the continued incorrect use of the word Zion and the most typically ill-applied use of the word Zionism, We must ask ratbagzine@gmail.com Free Monthly Zine Page 6

ourselves: Are these people on the left that continue to use such words potentially or even deliberately enabling antisemitism? Aside from typically being used incorrectly, which is sloppy intellectualism, Is the continued use and ill-application of these words socially responsible? What of the safety of the fellow inhabitants of Australia who happen to have been born Jewish, or perhaps to simply be assumed to be of Jewish extraction by some antisemitic ignoramus Is it worth the while of the Australian Left to apply some self-management so as to be careful of not in some way contributing to a Jewish Australian walking around minding his own business randomly suffering a verbal or physical attack, simply because of the persons appearance? At this point, if you are reading this far and have either said Yes, absolutely, we need to use the right terms but - or if you have just been base and thought that people deserved to be attacked at random because of their appearance - well I have to break it to you: In the first part of but you, in not being at risk yourself yet willing to increase risk to others, are being at the least being callous, suburban and a potential antisemitic enabler, and in regards to the second part - you are just some cowardly obviously antisemitic shit-breath who is no better than a violent right wing skinhead. In the context of Australia, what could the Australian Left do directly to deescalate, or at the very minimum, not irresponsibly add to the serious tensions in the former Palestinian Mandate, and also to not potentially or directly enable antisemitism towards people who may be assumed as being of some Jewish heritage as they walk down the street minding their own business? Simply, we need to scrap the use of the word Zion along with any other antisemitic enabling term, and to only use the word Zionism in its correct use re the particular theory in question. This, and also give the groups or people on the left that continue to misuse these words notice that at the very least they are potentially enabling antisemitism, or at worse, are just being fucking antisemitic-scum-hiding-behind-cowardly by-words that need an ANTIFA booting out off the Left.
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A NON-APOLOGY FOR AN ALLEGED NON-COMPLIANCE: Ray Jackson, ISJA Sydney, on the 2014 Sydney TJ Hickey March and police harassment.
a friend asked me yesterday why i had not made any statement appertaining to the hickey march on friday 14th february. i told her that i was waiting for the commander of redfern police station to contact me to arrange a meeting to discuss the perceived problems arising from the march. sadly luke freudenstein has failed to make any contact whatsoever. i personally find this attitude to be most unprofessional. i also needed to hear from the other isja members and supporters of their views of the march and rally. i do agree that there were some problems over the length of the march beginning with our entrance to the side of redfern police station outside the redfern club. normally this area is fenced off whether by barricades or by police but on this occasion neither were present thus allowing the marchers to swing around in front of the police station itself. no attempt was made to enter the police station itself. the closest we got to that was for our fireman, who was carrying the fire, placing it upon the steps leading up to the police station entrance. we had our speakers and the two minutes silence and then moved on. there was no violence, there were no problems. under our contract or schedule 1 as it is known, we agreed to have the marchers march down the relative footpath and immediate left lane leaving the other lane free for emergency vehicles. i admit that this became problematic due to the fact of the number of people marching, believed to be up to 200. i was in the sound van and my task was to maintain a sense of order about not crossing out of the left hand lane. because of the numbers however this proved to be a problem and some marchers did stray over the line. even though i continued to call and inform the marchers to move to the left towards the footpath this was not always heard. upon reaching chalmers street there was a fracas about half way down chalmers between an asian police officer and a marcher. the police view was that the marcher had deliberately marched over the line forcing the asian police officer to move him back into the march area. somehow or other, it was alleged, the officer came off his bike and police and protesters rushed to the spot whereby there was a loud request to let the marcher free. things were heated and different versions were swimming around as to what had actually happened but under some negotiation they agreed to release the
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young man and the march continued. by the time i arrived at the scene it was all over. several of the marchers told me however that that officer was aggressive in his attitude.towards the marchers but i saw nothing as i was in the sound van. after the three nominated speakers and the two minutes silence was given we then left central to march to the office of the DPP in liverpool street and again had speakers and another two minutes silence and then marched to college street to parliament house. as we were approaching parliament house the senior officer in charge informed me that there was a group of people who were carrying offensive signs. i inquired as to the content of the sign to be told that it was 'fuck the police.' i informed the officer that i personally did not find this to be offensive. i later learnt that there was another sign referring to the burning of cop shops. i do not agree with that sign, the tj hickey march for 10 years have been based on non-violence and non-confrontation with the police. it is my view that these signs are carried by a group that have their own agenda and they are not there to support the hickey family in any way. we continued to parliament house where we were surrounded by up to 100 police and we remained in the car lane and the footpath area outside the house. when the rally and march officially was called off the police swooped in and confiscated the banners and apprehended 2 of the people involved in carrying them. again there was a protest by some of the marchers to that action but most did not become involved. most certainly neither isja nor the family had any involvement in that event.

a personal note. whilst i did not find the first banner to be offensive i found the second banner to be stupid and provocative in its content. to reference the burning of cop shops has only one end in mind and that is to excite the police into action. that is not what the tj marches are about. they are about informing the general public of the true facts of tj's death, to inform the government of the day that we want justice for tj and also to continue to inform the police that we will never accept their corrupt white-washed version of his death. he was killed as a result of a police chase and nothing will change that fact.
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both banners are deliberately used to wind the police up and that does not serve the aims of the anniversary marches. i was and am offended by the attitude of this small group that they can hijack the march to push their own agenda and to take the cops on. as i said, that is not what the march is about. the march is to allow aborigines, in the main, to raise their voices against the ongoing crimes of the police and the state. other agendas show no respect to the hickey family or their cause. another police initiated concern to us was the police action of cutting in front of our 4 vehicles for the elders thus isolating them from the march itself. this left the 4 drivers open to police harassment from police not recognising that they were meant to be integral to the march itself. this, i am told, happened as we left redfern police station and the burn-copshops banner was unfurled. the police cut our elders vehicles off so they could position themselves directly behind that banner which they then ridiculously followed all the way to parliament house! how stupid are they? it was distressing to both the hickey family and to isja that the media accepted without question the police view of the events without any recourse of asking the organisers of the march for their view. for commander freudenstein to make a public statement that this would be the final tj hickey march based on their own biased opinions, we find to be insulting. it is an open secret that the redfern police with some of their community supporters have been attempting to stop the hickey march for several years. the events arising from last fridays march have been grabbed by the police and mutated into a reason for shutting the march down. under no circumstances were the family, isja or our supporters guilty of any violent action towards the police. because of an element within the march the police are now saying there will be no further marches. this is totally unacceptable and we put the police on notice that on february 14th 2015 we will be marching. we have done nothing wrong. we complied with schedule 1 and police had the opportunity to remove the banners they saw as being offensive from the march before the march began. that they did not reinforces our argument that they were only looking for a reason to shut the march down and the two banners gave them that opportunity. that the police are uncomfortable at the presence of the march and its language is a given and we do not resile from that action and never will. as i said outside the house whilst they may be offended by the intent of the march and its language, we on the other hand find the killing of our people, especially our youth, to be absolutely offensive and criminal in nature. we followed to the letter of the schedule 1 agreement every stop we made. there were no other stops included throughout the march. we did err somewhat on time spent at these stops but the quality of our speakers and the designated silences allowed this to occur. i was by no means going to cut short our speakers, some from interstate, to meet a police timeline. i would not show such disrespect to our speakers. i take this opportunity to thank
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all our speakers who spoke strongly of the cause of justice. i also thank those speakers who travelled from interstate to show their support. i also thank isja-melbourne and the deaths in custody watch committee, wa for their solidarity actions in their home cities. if i have missed other groups that may have organised support in some way i give my sincerest apologies. the anniversary marches are growing, both here in sydney and nationally and we give much thanks and appreciation for that as does gail and the family. we will march next year and as it will be held on a saturday in 2015 we expect our support to be even more than this year. whether we march with or without a schedule 1 is up to the police but we will march. Fkj, ray jackson president, indigenous social justice association, sydney.

FUNNIES...

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