Isocracy Newsletter #17, June 30, 2010
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Quote
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Every new social structure makes organs for itself in the body of the old organism. Without this preliminary any social evolution is unthinkable. Even revolutions can only develop and mature the germs which already exist and have made their way into the consciousness of men; they cannot themselves create these germs or create new worlds out of nothing. It therefore concerns us to plant these germs while there is still yet time and bring them to the strongest possible development, so as to make the task of the coming social revolution easier and to ensure its permanence.
Rudolph Rocker, The Objectives of Anarcho-syndicalism, 1938
News
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'Bloody Sunday Inquiry' Published. The Saville Inquiry, a twelve-year-long public inquiry into the fatal shooting of fourteen civil rights activists in Northern Ireland has confirmed the deaths were "unjustified" and that soldiers had "knowingly put forward false accounts". The 12-year inquiry is the longest-running and most expensive public inquiry in British judicial history, costing around £200 million. The shootings enhanced the cause of the Irish Republican movement in general and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) which resulted in 30 years of The Troubles.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0615/breaking1.html
Violence and Voting in Kyrgyzstan. At least 97 people have been confirmed dead from recent ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in early to mid June, who make up 70% and 15% of the country's population respectively. Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have fled to the border with Uzbekistan to escape the ongoing violence. Kyrgyzstan's interim government extended a state of emergency to cover the entire southern Jalalabad region, as ethnic clashes spread there from neighbouring Osh. On June 27th, the new government organised a referendum on a new constitution which proposed a parliamentary republic, with elections for the parliament held every five years, and presidential elections every six years.
Both Russia and the United States have military bases in the country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10304165.stm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsASE9A0WrZwg4ZB_016fI...
Australia Changes Prime Minister. The governing Australian Labor Party (ALP) caucus has changed their leader and therefore the country's prime minister. \]Julia Gillard has replaced Kevin Rudd, due to a drop in the Party's ratings in opinion polls. Julia Gillard is Australia's first female Prime Minister.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/24/2935500.htm
Actions
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Vote Against The Afghan War: The American Congres is planning on spending another $33 billion in supplementals for the war in Afghanistan. Already over $1 trillion has been spent for the military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, with over five and half thousand US soldiers as fatalities. A (US) petition has been organised against "supplementing" this wasteful war: http://www.democrats.com/oppose-33-billion-war-supplemental-for-2010
End Offshore Drilling: Avaaz has organised a petition against any further offshore drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Obama administration says no new drilling will be allowed until an investigation is concluded. Avaaz argues to permanently call off plans to open up more of the US coastline to dangerous offshore drilling in favour of a clean and safe energy future. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_offshore_drilling/?fp
Meetings
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The first meeting of the Isocracy Network was held on June 12 in Melbourne, Australia with some 25 people in attendence. The group voted to become an incorporated association and Dr. Joe Toscano of the Anarchist Media Institute agreed to be the Public Officer. Campaigns for the coming quarter included advocacy for resource rents, specifically the mining tax, stopping the proposed Internet filter, and putting an Australian Bill of Rights on the legislative agenda.
Article:The Evolution of the Human Spirit
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What is being presented here therefore is an outline of the development of human ideas. This development occurs alongside the development of material concerns with a grand historical narrative of of graduated and punctuated equilibrium... In doing so I will be elaborating the structures of social formations expressed by Jürgen Habermas, who proposes Primitive, Traditional and Modern social formations, based initially on the forces of production... The structures that apply to each of these formations are (a) "principles of social organisation", a term which is more expansive than the old and narrow concept of "relations of production", (b) "system and social integration", an expansion of what some would recognise as the "political and legal superstructure", and (c) "types of crisis". The inclusion of the structural development of ideas therefore also include (d) "means of communication", and (e) "modes of consciousness".
More At http://isocracy.org/node/57