One of the things I love about Melbourne are the amazing graffiti pieces we get. Apparently, we’re known internationally for it, in certain circles. We have a thriving and skilled population of graffiti artists – even under draconian laws that, for example, make carrying a can of spraypaint illegal (giving the police a pre-packaged excuse to stop suspected vandals that merely “look the part”, and haven’t actually been seen doing anything traditionally illegal).

The ‘Authorities’ choose to interpret graffiti as an eyesore. This has led to ridiculous crackdowns in the past, and masses of public money blithely wasted by our state and local governments on “graffiti clean-ups”, such as during the Commonwealth Games.

In the not-so-distant past, a police graffiti/transit squad was rumoured to have engaged in “tagging” of graffiti pieces. Graffiti artists would report catching police “slashing” graffiti pieces (painting over the top of them); I found one tale on an internet forum from a guy who says he left a can of spraypaint behind while being chased by the police – and later found that his can had been used to “slash” a range of pieces.

Tags began appearing, slathered across much better pieces, reading “CTSA” – rumoured to stand for “Cops Trashing Shit Art” or “Cops That Slash Art”.

My view of graffiti is obviously more positive than the “legal” view. I think you need to put it in some kind of perspective. Consider this: We’re bombarded with advertising wherever we go. A billboard is a genuine eyesore. We put up with lists of sponsors and corporate logos on sporting, artistic, and museum events, because we want their money. But they look disgusting. Most of the time, advertisers are outright insulting us; if they’re not insulting our bodies, they’re insulting our intelligence.

Graffiti, on the other hand, entertains. It’s not something put up there to make money; in fact, graffiti artists lose money on it, and sometimes carry it out at great personal (and legal) risk. Sure, it’s about prestige and showing off, and the worst of it – the texta tagging – can almost sink to the level of a company logo… not quite, but almost ;). But it’s often genuinely impressive. If not for the skill involved, then for the “How the heck did they get up there??” factor. Sometimes, there’s even a political point to it – while companies use slick advertising to gloss over their use of overseas sweatshops and other crimes against humanity, graffiti will occasionally bring you comments like “Stop Logging Our Water Catchments!”, “No Jobs On A Dead Planet” (in massive letters on a giant smokestack), and the bitingly ironic slogan “Shut Up And Shop“. And at least it’s your fellow Melbournians trying to grab your attention, just because they think your attention is valuable – not because they want to hustle you.

In around March of this year, Melbourne commuters began noticing a new tag – “CTCV” – used to “slash” a range of pieces. Mostly along train lines, and always over much better pieces.

CTCV tags along Melbourne's train lines.

A friend of mine pointed out that “CTCV” isn’t too far from “CTSA”, and apparently he wasn’t the only one to draw this conclusion. Do an Australia-centred google search for the initials, and you’ll find lots of forum speculation along similar lines by those in graffiti culture.

Is it the work of “gronks” – less talented kids trying to annoy the older graff artists and make a mindless mark of their own? Or could the “C” at the start of “CTCV” stand for “Cops” – as it has been rumoured to in the past? “CTCV” – “Cops That Catch Vandals”? “Cops Trashing Crap Vandalism”?

We’ll probably never know, unless they’re caught in the act. And then, the only people catching them would be graffiti artists themselves – reliable enough eyewitnesses if you ask me, but I doubt the “authorities” would concur.

Melbounes Tamil community continues a nightly vigil against the genocide. The vigil is now ending it's third week.

Melbourne’s Tamil community continues to protest against the ongoing genocide in Sri Lanka, which has seen thousands of Tamils locked up in camps, subjected to terrifying conditions by the Sri Lankan military, and often killed outright, while the Sri Lankan government works to block foreign media from entering. Earlier in the week, I reported on the existence of a protest group at Federation Square. Now, after seeing them there for the third night and talking to some of those involved, I’ve learnt much more about it.

The protestors have been gathering at Federation Square, every single weeknight, beginning around 5 and lasting until 6 or 7, for the past three weeks. Previous protests have gathered around Parliament and the State Library, but at these places, they were failing to attract much notice. Now they’ve found that at Federation Square, far more people can see them. Not only that, but they’re near the police station here, and in full public view – both of which make them safer from attacks by Sri Lankan ex-pat supporters of the genocidal regime. Recently there was an incident in which a group of pro-government Sri Lankans had been out drinking, and Tamil protestors were driving through the city on a pre-planned route. The government-supporters mobbed the Tamil cars and broadcast the incident on YouTube to make fun of them. Racism is a real issue for ethnic Tamils in the Sri Lankan community.

So they stand chanting slogans relating to Tamil independance, to stopping the genocide, and to the controversial resistance group the Tamil Tigers. This is a group controversial within the Tamil community; there have been internal disagreements about holding up the flag for the Tamil regions of Sri Lanka – a tiger on a red field (you can see it in the picture above) – because it’s derived from the Tamil Tigers flag. One of the reasons for the controversy is that when they were first forming, the Tamil Tigers engaged in some violent and self-destructive turf-wars with other resistance groups. But as one protestor explained to me, in the current state of things, the remnants of the Tigers are all that’s left: nobody else is even pretending to take up arms on the Tamils behalf.

Due to the exhausting nature of the campaign, they are not sure they can continue to hold nightly gatherings for much longer.

But even if the nightly vigil doesn’t continue, they intend to at least gather there every Friday night. Every Saturday, a protest is held in the city, usually beginning at Federation Square at about 11am, and moving to Parliament or to the State Library. Tomorrow, they are planning a human chain. On Sundays, they meet to revise their strategies, and we will see what happens from there. Their community has held hunger strikes and letter-writing campaigns, neither of which have moved the Australian Government to doing anything constructive at all for them.

The United Nations have refused to become involved in the Tamil’s plight, and the Western countries such as Australia, the USA and Britain have done little to place diplomatic pressure on the Sri Lankan regime. In fact, they have knowingly helped to create the problem. Until relatively recently, the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government have held an uneasy peace. It was the decision by countries (including Australia) to block aid to Tamil-held areas and to ostracise the Tamil Tigers as a “terrorist” group that gave the Sri Lankan government the motivation to invade the Tamil-held areas of the island nation, crush the Tigers, and begin a wave of military massacres, including the setting up of concentration camps, to brutalise the Tamil population.

We helped to create this disaster, and now we – or, should I say, our leaders, like Kevin Rudd – are turning our backs on the victims of the whole farcical “War on Terror”. A childish political fad for us has become a utterly real nightmare for them.

They have been joined by one of Melbournes often-ignored socialist groups, Socialist Alliance (they’re the ones that do Green Left Weekly), and various other members of the Melbournian community who don’t belong to any particular organisation (including one girl on her way home from school), who have often spontaneously joined in, to show their support and give them some safety in numbers. Tonight there was a Channel 7 van, making people hopeful that the media was starting to pay more attention to the issue – but it turned out they were just covering a gas leak down the street. Anyone is welcome to stand with them, and I certainly intend to in future. With the Australian Government and a fickle media awkwardly ignoring them, and the United Nations turning aside, change will only come from the ground up: through the actions and activism of people like those pictured above, and those who have come to stand with them.

Banner for a protest in Melbourne over Sri Lanka's treatment of Tamils

“Tamil Tigers – Freedom Fighters!”
“Sri Lanka Sri Lanka – Don’t kill Tamils!”

A large-ish group of people had gathered to protest the ongoing ill-treatment of Sri Lanka’s Tamil population. The Sri Lankan government, under the guise of cracking down on the rebel Tamil Tigers, continues to wage a war against it’s civilian population, and the Tamils are among those at the short end of the stick. We see the same problems in Colombia, where the government uses the FARC guerillas as an excuse to continue mistreating indigenous and poor Colombians, and in Isreal, where Muslim terrorists are the favourite excuse for the government to build up an apartheid state against the Palestinian population. All of this, of course, goes on with the tacit support – in fact, through most of history, with the actual monetary and diplomatic support – of our own Western leaders, who generally refrain from kicking up too much fuss.

I was given a pamphlet directing me to these links – haven’t visited them yet, so be warned that there may be disturbing images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN4e9ZbxP1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrBPILJyonA
http://fastuntoaction.wordpress.com/

You can contact the organisers of the protest at: networktamils(at)gmail.com

A gathering of protesters outside Federation Square in Melbourne.

Redmond Barry's statue bearing an NTEU flag

The picture is of the statue of Redmond Barry – the quintessential aristocratic buffoon, and the man who sent Ned Kelly to the gallows, forever standing outside our State Library. But the flag he’s holding? Apparently after death, Mr Barry has become involved in the union movement!

It’s an NTEU flag, and the National Tertiary Education Union has called a strike today after several Melbournian universities failed to sign new contracts for many of their staff.

University managements have been mis-managing Australian universities for some time – there’s no dearth of academic articles analysing various aspects of this mismanagement (that’s the problem when you mistreat wordy-types), and various issues came to a head as the NTEU called it’s strike. I spoke to one person who has been kept on casual contracts with no job security for the past five years; one speaker referenced a friend who had been in that position for the past twelve. And I know academics who work far more than eight-hour days to keep their work going, and yet are paid part-time. These sorts of stories have become commonplace in the modern Australian university, and there’s little sign that things are going to change.

Interestingly, NTEU members seemed far more radical than the union leadership supposedly representing them, and it seemed that the strike rally ended rather abruptly, with no general call for a Speak Out – something which would certainly have kept most of there for another couple of hours!

I helped out at the RMIT picket lines today, and found that many people where generally sympathetic. Those crossing the picket line did so apologetically and with some awkwardness, a minority tried to tear down our posters and generally make nuisances of themselves, but such people are always in the minority. What was most heartening was that quite a few people i spoke to decided to turn around and take the day off, and i convinced some to come along to the rally later on.

All in all, the support from the ground up was far more impressive than the support from the top-down. If this had been announced further in advance, if those in the various ALP-aligned student unions had been willing to support it more fully, if the NTEU leadership had encouraged a speak-out and allowed the membership to dictate what happened, it could have been huge.

Some news sources have breathlessly listed the donations made by “Corporate Australia”, $14 million combined from the richest corporations by my latest count; fairly piddling, token amounts, considering the proportion of the countrys wealth controlled by some of these contributors (i suggested they donate their entire tax savings since Howard came to office… it seems fair). As usual for this sort of thing, “Non-Corporate” Australia has been far more impressive, reaching the $50 million mark – a level that is actually going to make some kind of a dent in the damage that has been done, though more is still needed.

You can donate at the Australian Red Cross website.

I have a friend who has been in view of the fires; in Warrandyte, on the edge of the suburbs. He’s described some pretty terrifying sights, like being able to watch individual gum trees explode (eucalyptus oils + heat) through his binoculars. They’re not very far away at all.

Have been tracking down information on Flowerdale, the town where i grew up (we moved when i was eight). It’s apparently been pretty badly hit, do a Google search for the town right now and you’ll find more of those nightmarish pictures of burnt out cars sitting in the middle of the road.

After we moved, the people who bought our old house let a whole bunch of trees grow up close to the house itself. I remember my parents commenting on that. It’s a fairly dangerous thing to do. I only spent Prep and Grade 1 there, but in school we had it drummed into us that you don’t let leaf litter get near the house, among other things.

I wonder how they are. I hope they’re okay. I might drive up in winter, when i won’t be getting in the way of emergency crews (or fires), and see if the house is still there.

The protest is in Melbourne, but it’s about events in Greece, so i won’t go into too much detail, but basically there have been an extensive series of demonstrations against the right-wing government (following the shooting of a teenager, but also inspired by general opposition to the current regime), and in response, pro-government rioters and police have been spreading violence on the streets. Further information here:

Uprising in Greece

Greece: Still the one…

On the Greek riots

My post about the issue

…Or just do a google search.

Since then, they’ve received support from the community and, now, trade unions as well. The University of Melbourne is hoping to kick these kids out, so today they’ve holding a free dinner and collective meeting, leading into a slumber party, to show support for SHAC’s ideas, and to give them a sense of safety in numbers.

From the SHAC blog:

After our highly successful rally and continued community support and solidarity, SHAC has now received a final eviction notice.

4PM WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER – 272-278 FARADAY ST, CARLTON.

In an article in The Age, Doyle has stated his antipathy towards Melbourne’s street buskers, declaring “They actually do need to be properly licensed and regulated so that we are not just assaulted by a whole lot of different sounds every 10 metres along the footpath.”

For those not familiar with our city, you’ll find yourself assaulted by a cacophony of raucous noises wherever you go on CBD streets – but not from the usually-talented and often-appreciated buskers; rather from the myriad of pseudo-trendy clothing stores that pump their bad pop music up as loud as the human ear can stand it.

But no, in true conservative style, Doyle has singled out one of the great things about Melbourne’s street life – our buskers. Some people may try to tell you that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or that cracking a smile at the less talented buskers is just a part of the fun of a city where people aren’t afraid to be out on the streets. But no, not Doyle.

Even more insidiously, Doyle has threatened to open up Swanston Street to car traffic. The street is already used by a minimum number of cars – taxis, buses, and police vehicles – but the basic idea behind Swanston Street is that it’s a relatively safer street for pedestrians and cyclists. It used to be called the Swanston Street walk. And as somebody who lives on one side of the city, and has to go through the city centre (parallel to Swanston Street) to get wherever he needs to drive, i can tell you from personal experience – there is absolutely no need to open it up to more car traffic. But Doyle wants to get his name out there. If you ask me, he’s only trying to make it clear to those of us who love Melbourne for it’s street life that he’s firmly on one side of the line (probably somewhere around the affluent suburbs… *ahem*), and we’re on the other.

This goal is only underlined by his reference to Melbourne as a “bogan magnet” – a bogan, for non-Australians, is a scruffy person with little fashion sense and a lower-class accent. According to legend they can be found around the far eastern suburbs, always close to a train line, a court, and a welfare office. Doyle doesn’t want any of that sort in his city.

So hey, New Yorkers, how did you get rid of Guiliani? We may be needing some expert scum-removing polish very soon, or at least a pest exterminator that specialises in country-club wannabes.

This is an abandoned building owned by the university, that has been sitting there – empty – since the counseling service was moved out in 2005. The occupying students have apparently brought the building up to health and safety standards and intend to turn it into a permanent student housing co-operative. They run free vegan food nights on Mondays and barbeques on Friday evenings. They’re trying to set up skills sharing workshops, so if you have some useful skills/training to impart and are willing to do some volunteer training, they’ll probably be happy to meet you.

You can find them online here:
Student Housing Action Co-operative blog
SHAC Petition to “University of Melbourne Council”

Not tomorrow, but the next Friday, the University has told them to leave the otherwise empty property. So Friday the 28th November will be a rally from 12-2pm. If you can get down there and want to show your support for this sort of initiative, i’ll probably see you there. (Video cameras might also be an excellent thing to bring along if you have one, in case the University tries to waste the police’s time by calling them in to restore the property to it’s empty, useless state.)

Hey fellow Melbournians,

Sick of having to switch on the television or open a newspaper to be advertised to? Well, this just in from a friend, “the Yarra River, our Princes Bridge, Birrarung Marr and that entire precinct of our city will be sold over to the National Australia Bank for FOUR DAYS to run a PR campaign”!

Apparently this National Australia Bank advertising campaign will feature art installments “depicting the dreams of Australians”.

Wow!

I know what one of my dreams is – nationalise the National Australia Bank, and re-regulate the country’s financial system! Wha… no? That particular installments not in there…? Oh. Ok.

How about something reflecting some of the dreams of Melbournian graffiti artists; to be able to walk down the street without being harrassed by police and fined for posession of spray paint. To have the same kind of access to public spaces that the National Australia Bank has, by being able to print your message up for all to see! That way, EVERY day can be a Dream Festival!

Oh… that’s not in there either?

Gee.

Well, get on down if you really haven’t seen enough ads this weekend. And please, go on to their website to see a mighty piece of prose called “Ideas. Dreams. Aspirations.” signed by John Stewart and Ahmed Fahour – the “Group Chief Executive Officer” and “CEO” of NAB, respectively – i know i’m dying to know what these intellectual and cultural giants have to say! I wonder what it’s like to get so much of the monetary reward from other people’s efforts? I hope they write some memoirs for us! Oh yeah, you better believe it. What a time to be a Melbournian!