Anonymous: “Self-organisation of the computer nerds”

March 3, 2013 by
Guy Fawkes mask, associated with Anonymous, worn at a Wellington demo in solidarity with Palestine

Guy Fawkes mask, associated with Anonymous, worn at a Wellington demo in solidarity with Palestine

Daphne Lawless.

For those who’ve been watching Internet culture for a while, it’s still a bit of a culture shock to see Anonymous being discussed in the mainstream media. As this article is being written, Anonymous has been credited with bringing down the website of a large private university in India whose boss had been censoring Internet articles criticising him. Also in the news, Anonymous claims to have hacked some 600,000 Israeli email accounts as part of an ongoing campaign.

The media generally describe Anonymous as a “hacktivist” group. But the most important thing to understand is that Anonymous is not a group of any sort, or an ideology. It’s an idea, and a culture.

The birthplace of Anonymous as we know it was the infamous webforum 4chan, whose “random” board (/b/) is known (among much less polite things) as “the cesspool of the internet”. Contributions to 4chan are all credited to “Anonymous”– there is no way to trace any image or message to any individual.  Under the Anonymous moniker – except a permanent ban for anyone posting child pornography – posters to /b/ (known as “/b/tards”) are free to act out the darkest impulses of their psyche and of the cultural environment.

The board has become notorious as the place to go for the most sexist, racist, homophobic, gory and otherwise transgressive content imaginable. However, the no-limits creativity of this environment also has also given birth to so many of the Internet injokes we can now take for granted. “LOLcats”, for example, began as a 4chan custom known as “Caturday”. You can now buy T-shirts, calendars, badges and other items featuring images  and concepts which had their origin on 4chan. Of course, the anonymous originators of this content don’t get a slice of the profits.

In this culture, harrassment and “trolling” are not only tolerated, but considered high entertainment. Those who get on Anonymous’ wrong side can expect to have their personal details broadcast, their websites and email addresses hacked, and to be harrassed with prank phone calls and bogus pizza deliveries – and worse.

But – perhaps surprisingly – the power of Anonymous began to be used for pro-social causes. One famous target of Anonymous was an American teenager who posted a YouTube video of himself abusing his pet cat. Another was neo-Nazi talk radio host Hal Turner, who was driven off air and unmasked as an FBI provocateur. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Science & Technology

The Hobbit and SkyCity: Government’s priorities laid bare

March 1, 2013 by

pokie

Writers for Fightback

Information released in late February, on the Hobbit labour dispute and the SkyCity convention centre deal, lays the National government’s priorities bare. In both cases, the government prioritised the needs of business owners over all other concerns.

On February 19th, the office of the deputy auditor-general released a report on the controversial SkyCity deal. SkyCity was given the contract for an international convention centre, in exchange for a law allowing 500 more pokies in its casino.

This report placed the blame on civil servants, rather than the government per se. However, in an opinion piece published the following week, prominent bourgeois commentator Rod Oram highlighted the “whitewash” and contradictions in this report.

Oram notes that SkyCity extensively lobbied the government to reject alternative options, such as a publicly owned convention centre. Before the government opened up an Expression Of Interest (EOI) in 2010, SkyCity had already been working with the government for a year, and had met with government representatives including the Prime Minister.

Oram notes the message this sends to businesses, “If you want to build a convention centre, school, road, hospital, prison or any other form of infrastructure, don’t bother with the appropriate processes… deal directly with the prime minister.”

It’s also telling that the government neglected the option of a publicly owned convention centre, and instead prioritised gambling profiteers. While community organisations focus on helping individuals with gambling addictions, those who profit from casinos remain untouched. The only challenge to SkyCity has come from wage claims by Unite members, a struggle which must be defended and extended. [Read more…]

Filed Under: National Party

Strike debt: Government and household debt in Aotearoa/NZ

February 27, 2013 by
Cancel All Debt: banner from Occupy Wall Street

Cancel All Debt: banner from Occupy Wall Street

Ian Anderson

Debt has received a lot of attention during the global financial crisis. Occupy sites abounded with theories about “debt slavery.” Governments, and international financial institutions, justify harsh austerity measures by pointing to government debt.

We must examine debt closer: what is its purpose? Who does it benefit? Is it necessary?

Fictitious capital: Necessary evil for capitalism

Debt is a form of “fictitious capital,” capital not generated by production. Mainstream economists define fictitious capital as the value of “future cash flow.” Given the present financial crisis, triggered by the collapse of loans that could not be paid back, defining debt as “future cash flow” seems a little optimistic.

Marxists argue rather that fictitious capital is a claim to property ownership, by the lender. A mortgage is a claim on property, and until it is paid back the bank owns the house. In The Limits to Capital, Marxist political economist David Harvey notes the strange importance and universality of fictitious capital:

 The money capitalist is indifferent (presumably) to the ultimate source of revenue and invests in government debt, mortgages, stocks and shares, commodity futures or whatever… [Marx] wishes to alert us to the insanity of a society in which investment in appropriation (rents, government debts, etc) appears just as important as investment in production (The Limits to Capital, David Harvey, p269).

However, Harvey also warns against drawing a simplistic line between finance and “real” production. While some (often anti-semitic) conspiracy theories suggest that bankers are perverting the natural course of capitalism, profitable financial institutions are necessary to generalised capitalist production. Banks centralise the means of exchange, and lend out the initial capital for private production:

When the system of exchange is relatively simple, the personal knowledge and trust of individual capitalists may guarantee the quality of debts incurred, but in a complex market system this cannot form an adequate foundation for the credit system. The bank seeks to institutionalize what was before a matter of personal trust and credibility (ibid, p247).

Banks and financial institutions must also make a profit – which means interest, predatory lending, speculation, incentives to gamble with workers’ savings as poker chips. Although they can be regulated or stabilised, predatory financial institutions are a necessary evil for capitalism. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics

“Up with workers, down with the government” – largest strike in world history

February 26, 2013 by

Al Jazeera reports on mass strike in India (video).

Filed Under: Internationalism

Tens of thousands challenge asset sales

February 18, 2013 by

anfs-hikoi-parliament

This article by Jared Phillips, member of Fightback, was originally published by the Socialist Party of Australia.

 

At the beginning of 2011 the ruling National Party in New Zealand (Aotearoa) announced electoral policy for the partial sale of several major state assets including the Solid Energy coal company, Air New Zealand, and three major power companies – Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, and Genesis Energy.

After its re-election and the formation of a coalition government with the ACT party and the Maori Party in late-2011, the government has pursued the sale despite the policy being very unpopular.

A TV3 poll conducted in early 2012 found that only 35% of people surveyed agreed with the sales while 3.5% were unsure and 63% opposed the sales. As a consequence a broad opposition of diverse forces has formed and driven a struggle on the streets, in the courts, and by successfully pushing for a referendum on the issue.

The stated aim of the part sale of these assets is to free up $10 billion (NZD) to reduce government debt and establish a surplus by 2013/2014. In relation to the sales Prime Minister John Key stated, “Weaker global growth, particularly in our key export markets in Asia and Australia, will put downward pressure on the demand for our exports. That will have a real and noticeable effect on the New Zealand economy, which is expected to grow somewhat slower than was predicted at the end of 2011.”

This demonstrates the connection between the world economic crisis and the asset sales. It shows that the ruling National Party is prepared to carry out policies which force ordinary people to pay for the impact of the world economic crisis. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Asset sales
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