A Dissident Dancer Fighting Against the Drug War

2005-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ravesafe Team shot

2005-10-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ravesafe Party E-flyer

2005-10-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Playlist for Dissident Dance Tuesday October 25th

Good Ship Liberty by Non Bossy Posse
Cliche by Snog off Dear Valued Customer
Oh My God by Spearhead off Stay Human
Anyone Can Do It by Downsyde off When The Dust Settles
Exploration of Space by Cosmic Gate
Peaceful Turbulence by Wasabe off Pulse 4
Shamanix by Hallucinogen off TIP (001) - Yellow
Track 6 & track 2 by Andy Maurer off melbourneshuffler.com promo cd
Night & Day by Cosmic Force

Guests: Dave & friends from the melbourneshuffler crew (www.melbournesuffler.com) talking about their upcoming documentary release
(short show, finishing at 23:30)

2005-10-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

Flabbergasted about courts' treatment of NAP activists

Its been a busy last few days, meaning i haven't posted this sooner, but at any rate i think it has taken me that long to work up a good head of angry/astounded at the treatment of activists of the Network Against Prohibition (Northern Territory).
With Ema already doing a fortnight in Berrimah, and Gary facing a custodial sentence on monday, the final straw of injustice has broken a very fucked up donkey's back.

I had the good fortune to attend the 1st International Conference on Using Direct Action to End the War on Drugs, staged by NAP in Darwin in September 2003.
My friend Bronwen and I had a mad road trip of 14000km over seven weeks - from Wollongong to New England Tablelands to Nimbin to inland South central QLD, to Hervey Bay, to Cairns & the Barrier Reef, to the Daintree, and then across to Mt Isa, 3 Ways, Mataranka & ElseyNational Park, and then to Katherine where my dad lives.

We'd planned a week in Kakadu but i called Gary from Katherine and they clearly could use a coupler of extra pairs of hands for the week leading up to the conference, so we headed straight up and arrived nine-days before the conference kicked off.
The comrades had been working their arses off - they were already being harassed with criminal charges - and they were trying to do it all without even a car.
It was an honour to help out - being able to drive them to court so that they could get that bit extra sleep; and i had heaps of fun, paste-ups , spray ups.
Two comrades from the Thai Drug Users Network were subsidised to make it out here; and we had two wonderful trips to the gorgeous Howard Springs - surely one of the most beautiful swimming holes in the country.
2000 for the 14000 kilometres we did just running around Greater darwin in the two weeks i was there. :)

The doof we'd planned - Equinox - for the conference close had some technical difficulties; the car that was going to tow the gennie (which was itself fucking massive and had big floodloghts attached) had its engine catch fire, then when we did eventually get it to the site a dickhead fiddled around with the generator and we ran out of power at 3am. but i'd been able to play some great tunes 'til then, there were almsot enough eck-ies for everyone that i had brought up from sydney; in the morning a longgrasser family came out from where they were camped nearby aand thanked us for the music, the young kids were practising their spear-throwing - experiences you just don't get down here in the souther styates.
Although it was a difficult time for me personally - among many other things, Bronwen, in a speed-psychotic episode unintentionally broke one of my ribs :( - i was amazed and inspired by the dedication, the creativity, the selflessness displauyed by NAP. They were open and loving, their politics was spot-on... i loved it there in Darwin and in the big NAP house, and i loved Nap as a group, and the Napatistas as individuals.
Gary and I have communicated very regularly since that time, and i feel very much a part of nap. its taken me a while to get my shit together, but i've finally got the ball rolling on a fraternal anti-prohibition, drug-user driven organisation here in Vic.
Tamsin's favourite track at the moment is Spearhead's "Oh My God" from Stay Human. I've played it on radio a few times, its a great track.
Readers who are familiar with it will no doubt be able to here Michael's tone when he sings "Oh my God!"
He gives voice to the almost undescribeable emotion of looking at what is going on in the world around us and just... shaking your head. Its part curse, part exclamation, part prayer - for me not a really prayer to a greater being, but to humanity, to the random forces of the universe itself. Or if there is a greater being, well then, a prayer to it, but also a demand that it get off its fucking arse and do something.
It describes how i feel about the harassment and imlprisonment of the napatistas -

Oh-my, oh-my God!
in my mind they got us livin' suicide
singin' oh-my, oh-my God!in my mind they got us livin' genocide
oh my my...
Slam bam I come unseen/
but like gasoline you can tell I'm in the tank/
like money in the bank/
I smell appealing, /
but I'm toxic, can send ya reeling/
without an inklin', /
keep ya thinkin/
''cause you gave cash to the feds, left your school district for dead fucked you up in the head,/
but still they sayin' nothin's wrong sellin' firewater but outlawing the bong/
still believing the system is workin/
'while half of my people are still outta workin'/
anonymous notes left in the pockets and coats/
of judges and juries/
from 'Frisco to Jersey/
threats and protests politicians mob debts/
trumped up charges and phoney arrests/
stage a lethal injection, the night before the election/
'cause he got donations from the prison guard's union/
Oh-my, oh-my God!/
in my mind they got us livin' suicide/
singin' oh-my, oh-my God!/
in my mind they got us livin' genocide /
oh my my.../
Listen in to my stethoscope on a rope/
internal lullabies, human cries/
thumps and silence, the language of violence/
algorithmic, cataclysmic, seismic, biorhythmic/
you can make a life longer, but you can't save it/
you can make a clone an then you try to enslave it?/
stealin' DNA samples from the unborn/
and then you comin' after us' cause we sampled a James Brown horn?/
scientists who's God is progress/
a four-headed sheep is their latest project/
the CIA runnin' like that Jones from Indiana/
but they still won't talk about that [Jim] Jones [People's Temple mass suicide] in Guyana/
This ain't no cartoon/
no one slips on bananas/
do you really think that that car killed Diana?/
hell I shot Ronald Reagan, /
I shot JFK/
,I slept with Marilyn [Monroe] she sung me happy birthday!/
singin'Oh-my, oh-my God!/
in my mind they got us livin' suicide/
singin' oh-my, oh-my God!/
in my mind they got us livin' genocide /
oh my my...
Well politicians got lipstick on the collar/
the whole media started to holler/
but I don't give a fuck who they screwin' in private/
I wanna know who they screwin' in public/
robbin', cheatin', stealin'white collar criminal/
McDonald eatin', /
you deserve a beatin'/
send you home a weepin',/
with a fat bill for yourCaribbean weekend/
for just about anything they can bust us /
false advertising sayin' "halls of Justice''/
you tellin' the youth don't be so violent/
then you drop bombs on every single continent/
mandatory minimum sentencin'/
cause he got caught with a pocket fulla medicine/
do that again another ten up in the pen/
I feel so mad I wanna bomb an institution/
singin'Oh-my, oh-my God!/
in my mind they got us livin' suicide/
singin' oh-my, oh-my God/
!in my mind they got us livin' genocide
oh my my
and we say nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah

2005-10-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

Dissident Dance Playlist for 11th October 2005

Cliche by Snog off Dear Valued Customer
Evolution by Vinia Mojica ft Last Emperor off No More Prisons
Addicted to Bass by Josh Abrahams
We become One by Faithless
Join Us by Non Bossy Posse (Live @ Earthdream, Sydney Park)
Rock the Nation bY Spearhead off Stay Human
Block Rockin' Beats by Chemical Brothers
Sound Of E by Ultra Shock
You're Shining by Styles & Breeze
Excerpt from Century of Lies from the Drug Truth Network
Franco Un-American by NOFX
Crime to be Broke in America by Spearhead off Home
Qwest by Combat Wombat off Unsound $ystem
Nosebleed Section by Hilltop Hoods off The Calling
3am Eternal by KLF
Spoken Word: 50 million years by Timothy Leary
Maya Moon by MFG
Peaceful Turbulence by Wasabi
Oh My God by Spearhead off Stay Human
Cycles of Live by
Trance & acid by Kai Tracid
Love U More by Public Domain
Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim
The Harder They Come byJimmy Cliff

2005-10-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

Stopping for a scoobie while climbing Mt Gar (Mt William) in Gariwed (the Grampians)

2005-10-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Art - After-Effects: Mibrane & Eden take 5

2005-10-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

Holders of My Heart - Source of My Spirt "Eden the Eccentriccaly Extraordinary", "Tender Tamsin the Tantalizing"

2005-10-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Eden looks up, ahead, beyond... his eyes show love, and laughter,

2005-10-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

"Make a Drug Sunda(y)e...with a cherry on top" Mibrane, pastel and crayon on paper, circa 1994

2005-10-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

Mibrane & Eden delve into the world of the visual arts

2005-10-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Lucky rides shotgun as we head to the Lerderderg River for a summer splash (Jan 05)

2005-10-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ken & Pete do their best to turn around Grampy's comedown

2005-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Grumpy, Dion & Pete risk the Stompin Sneaker Stench Swamp in search of Silver Bulb Bush (01-01-05) Wandin Vic

2005-10-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

Krazy Khemist Ken, Peakin Pete and Disco Dion Dawnpatroller in the Silver-bulb Bush, messycreations New Years 05, Wandin Vic

2005-10-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Freaky Finger Five (left to right): "My friend made me do it", "Day After Grumpy", "Peakin' Pete", "Disco Dionysus Dawnpatroller", "Krazy Khemist Ken" - Mibrane in background. New Years Day 05, Messycreations Party, Wandin Vic, Oz

2005-10-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Stopping for a scoobie while climbing Mt Gar (Mt William), the highest peak in Gariwerd (the Grampians)

2005-10-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Dissident Dancer Playlist (broadcast on4th October)
Dissident Dance: www.subfm.org Tuesdays 22:)0 - 0:)0 AEST (GMT + 10)

Oh My God by Spearhead off Stay Human
Mutate the State by Non Bossy Posse
Down At The Crossroads by Cosmosis
False Prophet (Man with NoName Remix) by Zodiac Youth
Down Under by DJ Mind X
Dark Side of the Moon by Ernesto vs Bastian
Anyone Can Do It by Downsyde off When The Dust Settles
After School Special by Jurrassic 5
Corruption Dub by Combat Wombat
Express Yourself by NWA
Spoken Word: Don't Sit in, Stand Up (Malcolm X) & Targeting Women (Angela Davis)
Psychaos by Dense Dawn
Get It Together byNon Bossy Posse
Totally Addicted to Bass by Josh Abrahams
I Smoke Alotta Herb by Bias B
No More Prisons by Kool DJ EQ featuring The Last Poets
Plan It by Non Bossy Posse
Mahadeva by Astral Projection
Karmaflage by ManMadeMan
Purple Rain by Prince

Latin America Fights Back

2005-10-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Latin America Sick of US-sponsored War in All Forms – governments, health organisations and peasant groups unite to fight drug prohibition

On September 7th 8th and 9th Buenos Aires played host to 1st Latin American Conference on Drug Policy Reform, an important step forward in an area of the world where US drug policy has held absolute sway for nigh on forty years.
Of greater importance, though, were the parallel sessions organized by the region-wide Latin American anti-prohibitionist network, REFORMA, focusing on the development of grassroots campaigning..
The conference’s structure, scope, and diversity of attendance helped to create an incredibly successful gathering, and should be analysed closely by conferences - like the annual International Harm Reduction Conference, - that have been running for much longer, with bigger budgets, and would be hard-pressed to show parity with the depth of strategic direction, the clarity of resolutions and demands, and the creation of forms that can truly involve people and build a successful, activist movement opposing the Us-lead drug war.

Eduardo Garcia, A Deputy of the Argentine Senate, who has sponsored a bill calling for the depenalization of drug possession in his country, set the tone at the conference opening, held in the chambers of the Argentine Senate. Garcia told attendees that their presence in the chamber was more than symbolic. "It is important that we are meeting here…" he said.” For some years now we have been trying to modify the drug possession law here, trying to reverse it." While his bill is pending, Garcia worried that it may not pass. "I am concerned that we may be going backwards, which will only aggravate the problem," he said.

In stark contrast to the yawns and nodding heads that frequently feature at conference openings scheduled for the evening (or the morning, for that matter) Nancy Obregon, a key leader of Peruvian coca growers, helped alleviate any feelings of lethargy created by travel and jet-lag, and raised attentiveness and enthusiasm throughout the crowd, by distributing coca leaves.
A reinvigorated group listened attentively as conference key organizer Silvia Inchaurraga of the Argentine Harm Reduction Association detailed her hopes for the conference. "This is a meeting not only of individuals but also of organizations demanding the reform of the drugs laws," she said. "The question is how we can effectively involve the countries and organizations of Latin America in this process. We will be hearing diverse perspectives. We will hear from producing countries, we will hear from consuming countries, we will hear from senators, judges, and drug uses and coca growers alike. We will also discuss the relationship between harm reduction and anti-prohibitionism."
In stark contrast to most of the advanced capitalist world - where spinelessness characterizes the approach of elected parliamentarians, their high-salaried policy advisers and program bureaucrats; and where researchers have substituted sin and ecclesiastical ‘morality’ for science and the empirical method – a number of prominent parliamentarians, members of the judiciary, and even police officers raised their voice at the REFORMA- organized conference.

Along with Eduard Garcia, the conference heard from former Colombian Attorney-General Gustavo de Greiff, now acting as honorary head of REFORMA
“The drug laws exist without justification," said de Greiff "In 40 years of drug war, they have not fixed the problem. To the contrary, they have created more evils. They are responsible for the corruption, the crimes of the drug traffickers, the deaths of innocents. And drug use has not diminished. In fact, it is easier to get prohibited drugs now than in the time of Richard Nixon, who began this war and imposed it on the world."
De Grieff described himself as “moderately pessimistic” about the possibility of global reform due to the massive infrastructure and funding weighted on the prohibitionists side of the battle lines, and described the tool of international repression that is the Unites States Drug Enforcement Agency. He noted however that "The drug fighters [prohibitionist agencies] in Mexico tell me it is a fruitless war, but they won't say so publicly.”
"I am pessimistic, but of course, I will not stop struggling."
It is possible for de Grieff to be pessimistic. Drug user activists, facing the daily pressures of poverty, prison, and pain rely on our certainty that the ever-increasing barbarities perpetrated in the name of the drug war cannot go on forever. While vitally important to the anti-prohibition struggle at a lobbying level, professionals from law, medicine, and government have to start to recognize the growing strength of the user movement - combined with the anti-prisons movement in the US and the coca-growers movement in Latin America -and support us in taking our rightful place at the vanguard of the movement.
A Quechua-speaking woman, addressing the conference from the floor - first in Quechua, then in Spanish - held up coca leaves, as she told it "Coca has to do with life, with the future, with the past. [Coca is] a great message from our ancestors," The traditional coca-grower performed a rite which sought blessing from the sacred leaves. "It is useful as a food, useful to fend off tiredness, useful to calm the people. Its use must be permitted."
One of the central hopes of REFORMA – utilizing the conference to draw together a broad-based, but determined, movement to end drug prohibition – is the first step in mounting a real voice of opposition for the next UN General Assembly Special Session on Drug Policy, scheduled for Vienna in 2008, as Inchaurraga explained. “"We are looking at Vienna in 2008 and we need to strengthen our movement. There is ample evidence that the war on drugs has failed, with tremendous cost to Latin America. We must have drug policies that are… just and effective”
Towards that end, the conference issued the Buenos Aires Declaration.
Whereas:

Prohibitionist policies have failed worldwide, with this failure signifying grave problems for citizens, organizations, producers, peasants, and drug users;

Prohibitionist policies have also failed in their effort to control and reduce the supply and demand for drugs

Latin America shows significant signs of political, institutional, police, and judicial corruption, the criminalization of users, the demonization of plants, etc.;

Alternative approaches have had to and must confront significant obstacles and are in many cases neutralized, as is reflected in the reality that countries that have made progress with harm reduction strategies in the region have usually been associated with the prevention of HIV/AIDS and anti-prohibitionist organizations have not received official support;

It is urgent that the agendas of harm reduction not be reduced to the prevention of the transmission of HIV/AIDS but that they include the social, political, and institutional harms associated with phenomenon like police and judicial corruption, urban and institutional violence, and the weakening of individual rights as well as environmental and cultural harms;

It is necessary to involve health and legal experts, governments, the means of communications, economists, and leaders in general to demand the reform of drug policies in Latin America;

The war on drugs has diverted 80% of the billions of dollars appropriated for the issue toward warlike, repressive, and overwhelmingly police-military ends when this immense amount of resources should have been made available for prevention, aid, and health promotion for the affected populations and the preservation of ecosystems;

It is absolutely necessary that actions are coordinated so that human rights includes access to health and information and guarantees of social justice and preservation of the environment.

We resolve:

To denounce the harms created by Latin American governments aligning themselves with the policy of a war against drugs, which has been transformed into a war against the ecosystem, plants, indigenous people, peasants, drug users and even anti-prohibitionist thinkers, maximizing social exclusion and the harms derived from the criminalization of poverty;

To demand from our governments a rigorous study of the effects and impact of the drug policies that have implemented to this time and a study of the costs of executing these policies to reject the international treaties on drugs;

To convoke a group of specialists from the region to form a committee of advisors to REFORMA that will accompany us in creating a document for the United Nations Commission on Drugs in 2008;

To call on local and national authorities, professionals, the mass media, and drug user and peasant producer networks to join in the 2nd Latin American Conference on Drug Policy Reform to be held in 2006 in Brazil;

To contribute to preserving the human rights of peasants, indigenous people, and drug users beginning with the need to reduce the harms of mistaken policies that have overwhelmingly failed in Latin America, and to support the development and strengthtening of harm reduction in Latin America and campaigns and initiatives for the necessary legislative reforms in the region;

To reject public policies that are not in accord with Latin American cultures and traditions, en particular those of indigenous peoples;

To reaffirm the ritual, traditional, and medicinal uses of substances like coca leaf and marijuana, and to contribute to the diffusion of scientific evidence in the matter;

To conceive drug users as citizens and defend their role as protagonists as health agents in harm reduction programs;

To defend the rights of individuals over their own lives and bodies as well as the right of free expression and the right to information about drugs;

To push for the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use, home growing for personal use, and the legalization of marijuana for therapeutic use as perfectly viable proposals for the medium term in Latin America;

To open the debate over the alternatives of open and controlled legalization through forums with international specialists and the establishment of working links with other anti-prohibitionist organizations around the world;

To reject the current UN conventions on drugs and the proposals for alternative development as violations of the sovereignty of signatory states, and to appeal for the defense of the sovereignty of peoples over their legal systems;

The demilitarization of the anti-drug agencies and the redistribution of those resources in the field of drug control from the police-court ambit to the areas of health and education.

One extremely disappointing aspect of the conference and the moves towards a united hemispheric campaign is the ongoing unwillingness of Cuba to engage with the movement, and the absence of any representatives from Venezuela at the conference, despite the Bush administration adding Venezuela to the State Department’s annual list of nations not implementing their full orders for the prosecution of the drug war, and thus utilizing prohibition as another tool with which to bash the Venezuelan revolutionaries.
The annual Washington decertification ritual has long been accused of being a way to spank unfriendly governments while ignoring similar behavior in friendly ones. This year's rite follows that convention, with Washington foes Venezuela and Myanmar being decertified, while China, with whom the US seeks closer relations, was rewarded from being removed from the list of drug-producing or transit countries despite major flows of heroin in and out of the country.
Given the leading role of Cuba and the Chavez administration in Venezuela in opposing corporate tyranny across Latin America, a decision on their parts towards greater recognition of the growing movement against prohibition would be most welcome and assist in the recognition of the validity of the movement by organized progressives both in Latin America and globally.

Opposing the drug war: the forces described

2005-10-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

To get us started, let us set the scene for the battle for human being.

Part One:
The Armies Engaged in the Drug War

Soldiers of the Status Quo
The Corps for Complete Control of Culture: Chemical, Creative, & Community

The Division for Disease (D4D):

Their ammunition - HIV, Hepatitis C, dental decay and gum disease, abscesses and endocarditis. Delivered by: Bureaucrats and fiscal controllers through - Refusal to fund Needle & Syringe Programs or defunding and rolling back existing programs, police blitzes that drive users away from areas where services do exist,(Command, Control & Cash Collection: pharmaceutical transnationals, privatised health care system operators, UN Anti-Narcotics, US government-enforced maintenance of status quo through "dollars for drug laws" aid programs)

Platoon for Propagation of Poverty(P4PP):
Their ammunition: Heavy Artillery: A black market system that (i) ensures prices remain at an artificially inflated level; (ii) prevents peasants and poor farmers from participating in a legitimate market for crops that could ensure their economic viability - opium and coca. Field Guns: Increased use of drug-testing and the removal of basic workers rights defending them from dismissal. Delivered by: Employers, corrupt local governments, big-capital drug cartels. (Command, Control & Cash Collection: 'Legitimate' Industry with illicit interests; agri-business multinationals that want to determine the crops planted, and control the seed-stock used for planting; drug-testing businesses; big capital which wants a workforce desperate, downtrodden & de-unionised)

Confinement-Custodial Column (CCC):
Their ammunition Drug-laws affecting growth, production, possession, and supply. Many US-states have a 3-strikes & you're out clause that can see people sentenced to life imprisonment for 3 counts of supply - amounts can be smaller than a pound. In the NT 'Drug House' laws allow individuals and their homes to be targeted and have basic rights of requiring warrants for searches or police entry to be waived. Sniffer dogs - and the subsequent search-without-cause - are being increasingly employed against users for possession only - on trains, before raves, in clubs. Delivered by: Front-line units of police and drug law enforcement agencies, with their operations targeting small-time user-dealers, particularly those belonging to ethnic and cultural minorities.(Command, Control & Cash Collection : The prison-industrial complex - private profiteers who are paid with our tax dollars to keep communities behind bars and who then manufacture goods with a slave-labour force; along with the concentration-camp construction conglomerates; telco's cashing in on prisoners desperate for contact with their loved ones; arms producers who provide the hand-weapons, rifles, flak jackets, and tear-gas for cops, all the way up to the helicopter gunships used against peasant-run coca farms)

The Battalion of Bullshit, Bigotry & Brainwashing
Their ammunition: Bullshit bullets and battery bombardment brainwashing - A constant 'cradle-to-casket' campaign of indoctrination drawing on the education system, the mass media, medi-business and governmental "information". Their key concepts: (i) Prohibition is a social measure designed to protect public health - illicit drugs create harm inherently, and that is why they are illegal (ii) Drug-taking is anti-social and deviant (iii) Drug users ("addicts") care not at all for their own health, the health of their friends, or the community as a whole (iv) Addiction is the inevitable outcome of illicit drug use (v) Addicts are without morals, and will lie, cheat or steal for their next fix (vi) Despite their loss of moral compass, most addicts were lured into the lifestyle by dealers pushing their product, and have the potential to rejoin the "constructive community" if they receive treatment for their illness. Delivered by: Teachers, journalists, health professionals; and Key Concept Collaborator-Conduits - (While the other sectors of the army rely primarily on the direct-employment of foot-soldiers to carry out their work (programs like Neighbourhood Watch or Dob-in-a-Dealer are only ever limited in scope - communities, for the most part, will not consciously infect, impoverish or imprison their own) the BofBB&B rely on indoctrinating individuals to become ongoing mouthpieces for their lies in order to ensure a constant, unfettered flow of bigoted bullshit. Moreover, instilling the concepts in everyone helps create a gestalt amongst users whereby we internalise the bigotry, where we feel we really are doing something that is wrong, deviant, unclean. This helps make users less likely to challenge the outrages we are subjected to ("well, its my own fault isn't it; i deserve it maybe"), to ensure a divide-and-rule structure amongst users of different drugs ("yeah, I'm fucked up, but at least I'm not as fucked up as them"; "only pot and natural drugs should be made legal"); it can also see us speed up the work of the D4D ("well, all the images I’ve ever seen of users show them hitting up in dirty toilets and sharing fits, I suppose that's just what I've got to do if I want to use drugs" or "well users don't care about our health, so why should I make an effort to use safely”). Instead of being able to turn to our families for support, many users find this environment turned against them into another arena for judgment, for their behaviour to be constrained, or find themselves forced to live a lie, compounding the feelings of guilt and low self-esteem.(Command, Control & Cash Collection : The advertising giants paid to promote & preach prohibition; the corporate media - the radio shock-jocks and the stations who air them, and papers that publish tabloid columnists (who scapegoat users -on rostered rotation with refugees, single mothers, and welfare recipients- and sew fear, misunderstanding and bigotry); religious 'welfare' enterprises operating 'treatment' centres; government-controlled 'research' centres and university faculties churning out unscientific data on non-existent problems )

Fighting Forces for Pharmaceutical Freedom -The Anti-Prohibition Partisans

Units of User Activism:

While it is true that many drug users have played active roles in challenging prohibition since at least the 1950s, it took the impetus of the potential threat of HIV epidemic amongst our communities and the actual experience of losing loved ones to AIDS, before drug user organisations became a feature of the anti-prohibition army, in the late 1980s. User organisations take many forms around the world. In many locations, our groups have been forced to make the difficult decision of entering into a Faustian pact whereby, through acceptance of government funding, we are able to deliver vitally needed health programs for our communities – Needle & Syringe Programs (NSP), peer education, safe using training etc. Within this framework most groups seek to tackle bigger policy issues, and user magazines and other media forms enable us to challenge the accepted orthodoxy and encourage users to reject negative self-image and internalised stereotypes. Funded peer education programs themselves play a vital role in shifting users’ self-perception, and thus helping to build the ranks of the user-activist units. But the potential for organising effective mass, direct action against the system as a whole is compromised by our acceptance of funding from the system, and the fear of what would happen to our people if the programs were scrapped entirely or handed over to 'treatment' centres.Increasingly, specific, campaign-based, user-led anti-prohibition groups are forming. "A movement for liberation must be led by those it seeks to liberate."It is likely that the strongest potential for movement growth is through the parallel development of funded user-controlled organisations, and independent, activist-based anti-prohibition groups
In Australia, the peak-body of drug user organisations is the Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) www.aivl.org.au and the vanguard of user-controlled, direct-action anti-prohibition campaigners is currently the Network Against Prohibition (NT) www.napnt.org

2. Legion of Law Reform
As a result of the assault on drug users, the combined impact of economic pressures, a perceived (and often actual) need for individual secrecy to prevent police harassment or unwanted family complications, the daily time pressures associated with scoring, and the huge ideological assault telling us that using is wrong and prohibition right, it is frequently difficult for drug users to step forwards and play an active role in the fight against the drug war. Consequently, the movement against drug prohibition up until now has frequently been championed by professionals in the fields of medicine & pharmacology, harm reduction, journalism, and law.
Some of the most outstanding examples can be found at www.stopthedrugwar.org (The Drug Reform Coordination Network), www.ihra.net (International Harm Reduction Association), http://www.antiprohibitionist.org (International Anti-Prohibitionist League).
Campaigners for rational, evidence-based drug policy have earned their place in the partisan army, have no doubt. It is important, however, that these organisations give the drug user movement proper recognition, and acknowledge that the place of drug users, wherever and whenever possible, is out in front.

With apologies for butchering the Bard:
"Two social policies, but, alas, only one believer in dignity,
In not-so-fair Victoria, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the factories, bars, bedrooms, squats & hives
An army of star, cross, crest & totem tattooed lovers stake our lives
On efforts we hope overthrowBarbarities best buried with the Bard
Atop the grave we will watch, water, and doof hard as a tree of true humanity doth grow
Bringing forth fruits for fun, fucks, freedom, for fast, and for slow
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend."

A beginning

2005-10-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

"Direct action, having proven effective along economic lines, is equally potent in the environment of the individual. There a hundred forces encroach upon his being, and only persistent resistance to them will finally set him free. Direct action against the authority in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code...""I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things" Emma Golman, 1917
"I take the needle off the record/
and shove it in my arm/
anytime I feel life/
is coming on too strong"
Michael Franti & Spearhead "Crime to be Broke in America" 1994
Dance. Drugs. Direct-action. Welcome to my blog, which, in the tradition of the great movement organisers like Emma Goldman, recognises the struggle for control of our own bodies, minds & human spirit is a critical battleground in the fight for a better world.The drug war is rapidly taking on the scale of a holocaust. It is a social abomination that in a century or so our descendants will look back on with equal parts disgust and dumbfoundedness.It is, horribly, only one of dozens of atrocities spewed up by a rotten system upon humanity in every corner of the planet, and upon the living planet itself. But radicals, revolutionaries, activists have for far too long ignored the battle for our humanity, for the right to create, to build, to change our perceptions, to dance in the bush at sunrise. For the right to control what we do with our own bodies and minds. For me that's the most fundamental right, and it’s completely denied under the system of prohibition.But the sheer scale of the horrors of the drug war are creating conditions where resistance becomes inevitable - as in every arena the system gives birth to its own gravediggers.After a decade in the drug user movement, opposing prohibition, it starts to look like there is the spark of a real movement internationally, an acceleration towards critical mass.If we accept the prohibitionists' terminology, a war - the drug war - is raging.It’s fairly useful to accept their term, war: a declaration of hostilities and an indicator of the level of violence - economic, psychological, biological - the system is willing to employ, against both individuals and whole communities.Be it through coincidence or choice, I am a soldier in this war. Prohibition must end. This blog will provide regular accounts of issues taking place to users in my own community, in Victoria (Aus), In Australia, and across the globe.It will discuss the choices I make about consumption of substances and the reactions I obtained from them.And it will share with you the other key nutrient for me in the struggle: beats, rhymes, doof, and dance - what I'm listening to, what I've been playing on my radio show, parties I've partied at.To hear me on air tune to www.subfm.org Tuesdays 22:00-0:00 Aus Eastern Standard Time (GMT + 10) for Dissident Dance - revolutionary rhymes, political party-pulsing peakers, and just good hard dance. Tie the brackets up with short pieces of spoken word from the greats - Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, William Burroughs - and announcements on user issues, and a whole range of anti-corporate struggles.In coming weeks the show will have its own site with this blog, and I’ll be able to podcast so you can listen at your convenience. In the meantime, check out the live stream.

This week’s Dissident Dance playlist (broadcast 27th September 2005):
Hip-hop (Oz)

77% by the herd from an elefant never forgets released through elefant traks (2003)

Clockwork by Combat Wombat from Unsound $ystem released through on elefant traks records (2005)

Hip-Hop (International)

Drug Warz by The Coup from No More Prisons released through Raptivism Records (2003)

Rock The Nation by Spearhead from Stay Human released through Bop Boo Wax (2001)

Fuck The Police by NWA from Straight Outta Compton released through Priority (1989)

Trance

Exploration of Space by Cosmic Gate released through Data Records (2002)

Black Magic by DJ Wag

The Spice by Arrakis

4 Just 1 Day by Kai Tracid released through Tracid Traxxx (2002)

Political Techno

Solidarity Forever by Non Bossy Posse from Organarchy Selects Non Bossy Posse (1995)

Free Quency by Non Bossy Posse (live at the Golden Ox Squat) from Organarchy Selects Non Bossy Posse (1995)

Catalyst by Non Bossy Posse from Saboteurs of the Big Daddy Mindfuck(1993)

Good Ship Liberty by Non Bossy Posse (live at Reclaim the Streets) from Organarchy Selects Non Bossy Posse (1995)

Dance

Addicted to Bass by Josh Abrahams (released under his Puretone moniker in some areas) from Sweet Distorted Holiday releasedthrough Prozaac (1999)

Funk

Raspberry Beret by Prince & the Revolution from Around the World In A Day released through Warner Bros (1985)

Spoken Word

Century Of Lies (9th Septmber 05) – talkback (excerpts) - hosted by Dean Becker Live Fridays 3:00 PM, ET, 2:00 CT, 1:00 MT & Noon PT at www.KPFT.org and www.drugtruth.net

Cultural Baggage (2nd September 05) – interview with Tommy Chong (excerpts) - Live Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT, 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at www.KPFT.org (MP3 Avail. Sat AM) and www.drugtruth.net