Paganarchy Press

Seani Scullion aka Seani Fool - the founder of Paganarchy Press and weaver of Liber Malorum is off to Haiti!

To find out why he is going, and follow his work over there please visit A Fool In Haiti. Please also look at his current list of sponsors, and please consider becoming a sponsor yoursel if in any way possible.

During his time away, sales of Liber Malorum will not take place via this website and you are directed to purchase your copy from other online sources...

I'm really surprised to see something like this in the Jerusalem Post:

The Palestinian Authority is planning to mark Israel's 60th anniversary by calling on all Palestinians living abroad to converge on Israel by land, sea and air.

The plan, drawn by Ziad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah operative and Deputy Minister for Prisoners' Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, states that the Palestinians have decided to implement United Nations Resolution 194 regarding the refugees.

Article 11 of the resolution, which was passed in December 1948, says that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."

The initiative is the first of its kind and is clearly aimed at embarrassing Israel during the anniversary celebrations by highlighting the issue of the "right of return" for the refugees.

I'm sure this will be embarrassing for the Zionist movement. It's turn the old Zionist call of the "Right of Return" to Israel on its head. And why wouldn't the Palestinians also have the right to live in the land where they grew up eh?

The rest of the article is over on the Jerusalem Post.

Sean

I find it fascinating how different groups can get their estimates so drastically differently depending on their political affiliation:

"The Stop the War coalition, which organised the event, along with CND and the British Muslim Initiative, estimated that around 100,000 participated in London. The Metropolitan Police estimated about 2,000-3,000 took part."

from http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2020933,00.html

I have been reading about the Flying Spaghetting Monster

Chicago resident Malachi Ritscher last week wrote his own obituary, then set fire to himself causing his own death by fatal burns.

Reading through his blog (which includes his obituary) is a pretty intense experience. His action was a protest against the Iraq war and more generally "for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country".

Malachi says of his own country, the United States "To the rest of the world we are cowards - demanding Iraq to disarm, and after they comply, we attack with remote-control high-tech video-game weapons. And then lie about our reasons for invading. We the people bear complete responsibility for all that will follow, and it won't be pretty."

It's tragic that so many people are so full of turmoil at the state of the world that they feel the only way they can express themselves is via their own deaths. It's tragic that no media has given this much attention so I feel the need to help Malachi have his story heard.

Link: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78631

From http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78631

At 8 a.m. the convoy of workers, headed by 2 jeeps containing men in dark glasses, obviously essential for a grey, wet, morning, and 5 minibuses drove at the crowd [of peaceful protestors], barely stopping short of ploughing through the front line of women and children. At this second, an historic, awesome and brave act of non-violent direct action began as the front line women began to say the rosary, accompanied by everybody on the picket line. The initial reaction by the Gardai and the convoy of workers was one of stunned silence, nobody knew what to do, and shocked disbelief was obvious as the prayers that were loudly said witnessed the opposition paralysed.

Not pagan, and not anarchist, but I love the power of people's spirituality shining through into effective action.

Shell To Sea!

Link: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/347148.html

trasmitter writes
The biggest demonstration against the war held in Israel until now took place on 5 August, 2006, in the heart of downtown Tel-Aviv, an area that is considered especially right-wing. Close to 10,000 demonstrators from all over the country, among them many Arab citizens, marched from Ben-Zion Boulevard, along King George Street, to Magen David Square. There, at the entrance to the Carmel market, a stage was set up. The thousands that did not find place in the square flowed over into Nahlat Binyamin and the other neighboring streets.

Did you know there was a very vibrant peace activist movement in Israel? In fact, if you have some spare cash lying around, one of the best places you can put it now is in with the Refuser Solidarity Network. These brave women and men are refusing to attack Lebanon and refusing to further subdue the Palestinian people. They are copping a hell of a lot of flak for their courage. Please consider chucking in a few shekels, or at least reading their site to see what they're about.

Link: http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/index.html

"The British Government is planning to criminalise material showing sexual practices that it doesn't approve of, even if they're between consenting adults.

If you and your partner film yourselves doing something the Government doesn't like, you could go to prison for three years.

An alliance of diverse groups, backlash represents hundreds of thousands of British people who are trying to make the government see sense. "

http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/index.html

Link: http://www.fromisraeltolebanon.info/

Sickening, disheartening, disgusting.

Israeli Children write letters on missiles to Lebanese Children:

The letters arrive:

This is so sickening!

More at From Israel To Lebanon

Link: http://www.petitiononline.com/MKSApril/petition.html

To: JOHN REID - Secretary of state for Defence

We the undersigned condemn the prison sentence passed on Flight Lieutenant Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith and offer our full solidarity and support.
The sentence of eight months passed on him for refusing to serve in Basra is an outrage, we demand his immediate release.

He acted on his conscience in refusing to serve in an illegal war. In doing so, he acted on behalf of many people in this country.

The judge’s remarks that orders have to be obeyed also give cause for concern. The Nuremberg trials after the 2nd World War established that obeying illegal orders was no defence against charges of war crimes.

It is even more unjust that Kendall-Smith has been jailed while the advocates and perpetrators of this war have never been held to account.

Sincerely,

http://www.petitiononline.com/MKSApril/petition.html

Link: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/05/339335.html

"With their bare hands and the most basic of tools, prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have fashioned a secret garden where they have grown plants from seeds recovered from their meals."

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/05/339335.html

A person's spirit cannot ever be completely broken. No matter how hard authority comes down, no matter how much injustice is faced, no matter how much the power-hungry try to control what we do, people will always have a spark of Will inside them, and that spark can be used to move Mountains.

Link: http://www.saveparliament.org.uk/

from the Save parliament site

Do you like living in a democracy?

Well, enjoy it while you can, because it might not last much longer if the UK government get their way.

Unnoticed by the majority, the government is quietly slipping through legislation that is being called the "Abolition of Parliament Bill", the "Totalitarianism Bill", and other equally scary names.

Its real name is the "Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill", and it threatens to bypass normal Parliamentary controls, and make it almost impossible to stop government ministers from enacting any law they like.

Next: What's The Problem? Visit the Save Parliament site to find out everything!

I've had the most amazing weekend - my first ever munch, a fool's parade through the centre of London [pics | vid | dougie ] where we demanded the right to fool. Fooling, like free speech is a right denied to us by Blair's SOCPA legislation which all intelligent, pro-freedom people bitterly oppose.

After the parade, and a chill for a bit on parliament square, the fools, clowns and fairies had a convergence at Trafalgar Square. The Fairy Raid action and convergence had been organised by the wonderful flying folk over at Fairy Love. Truly wonderful people. And to be surrounded by such a large number of Fairies at one time was beautiful.

Then, finally, a few minutes to chill for a bit.

In the evening, the FooLuminati hosted an extremely FooLish ritual called Dance Of The Dunce on parliament square - with police permission!

The ritual was amazing and inspiring, but extremely foolish. what the fuck did the space hijackers think they were doing turning parliament square into a golf lawn during our rite? teeheehee - it great to be in ritual with them but i'll let Silver Sara explain it best:

Straight after the ritual an amazing ring of fire appeared in the air around parliament, i kid you not. the photographer's phone captured this image:

After the ritual, we all headed off to a crazy clown party and fundraiser for the People In Common. The People In Common are responsible for the most important Picnic in the world - the picnic on parliament square. The brave picnickers defiantly eat scones and drink tea despite this being considered Serious Organised Crime.

The picnickers know how to big it up and the party was awesome! A great opportunity to catch up with loads of cool friends, boogie through the night and paint each others faces - and that was just saturday! What a brilliant day it was - fools, fairies, clowns, ritualists, golfers, parades, charlie chaplin, friendly coppers, munchy clowns, the evil kevster, foolz magic and best boogie beats.

Sunday was even bigger but will have to wait for another time to get its own write up. Meanwhile, check what the fools were doing over in Sydney.

Happy Foolish New Year people!

xx Sean

And I quote from Once More:

In case you have failed to notice, Our Dear Leader is currently trying to get Parliament to dissolve itself and hand power over to the ministers that he gets to choose. His meglomania has increased recently as has his distain for Freedom and Democracy. His latest wheeze is breathtakingly bold however.

Its called the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. What a boring sounding name.

The Times says "The boring title of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill hides an astonishing proposal. It gives ministers power to alter any law passed by Parliament. The only limitations are that new crimes cannot be created if the penalty is greater than two years in prison and that it cannot increase taxation. But any other law can be changed, no matter how important. All ministers will have to do is propose an order, wait a few weeks and, voilà, the law is changed."

This is dangerously similar to The Enabling Act as used by Nazi Germany to turn their democracy into a dictatorship. Word for word. Wikipedia says "The Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag) on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The Act enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag."

Are you afraid yet?

Link: http://india.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/211375.shtml

From IMC India: "You would think that peace organizations would be working 24/7 to alert the people of the world to this serious danger. But many seem to be so shocked by the terrible belligerence of Washington DC's war-makers that they have turned into so many tiny rabbits being mesmerized by a great cobra. "

So true.

I sit here looking at my screen, like millions of others around the world, wondering, like them, what I can do to stop the US regime from gaining complete control of our planet and her resources.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, more more more and soon Iran. So disempowered are we, the people of the planet, that there is almost nothing we can do to stop this madness. So far removed from any semblance of a real democracy that we cannot even express our opinions here in London without being arrested as "serious organised criminals".

Is there anything we can do to stop the destruction?

Read the full report on IMC India, then check this Media Lens article, then post solutions as comments:

Link: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/333880.html

This wildcat strike got absolutely zero mainstream media attention as far as I can tell so I'm blogging it. Over 1000 postal workers in Northern Ireland went on strike, despite their union not agreeing with it. They weren't demanding more hols, or more cash or less hours - just to be treated fairly! What's more, the strikers were from across the traditional sectarian catholic/protestant divide. They brought the postal system to a stand-still and they've won the day. Justice for workers has prevailed. Yay! Why this didn't get media attention raises a number of ominous questions?

"At a packed meeting at lunchtime on Friday 17th February, in Transport House, Belfast, striking postal workers decided to end their wildcat strike and return to work having won their dispute.

An independent review of industrial relations, the key demand of the strikers, has been won. Strikers also forced Royal Mail to agree a non-victimisation clause in the agreement that brought the dispute to a close - while the 12 month no strike clause was effectively scrapped."

More at http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/333880.html

Link: http://sydney.indymedia.org/

Sydney Indymedia has finally finally launched the new site! Moving on from the Active codebase which was actually the 1st ever indymedia platform to go live, Sydney IMC software became dated as more software enhancements were required. The original software designers had a very wondeful open-publishing ethic but they did not foresee the horrors of Trolling when they wrote it back in 1999.

Step up the new IMC Sydney crew who have been tinkering with the Drupal CMS since September 2004. During this time I've pretty much dropped out of the collective as I haven't actually lived in Sydney for over 4 years. But I am so uber pleased that this project has finally come to fruition!

The codebase as prepased by the team includes much more efficient hiding, administration, gui editing, categorisation, blogging, user accounts, a news aggregator and a whole host of other essential features!

Congrats to all the team - Cam, Stacy, Andy, BJ, Michael, Waz and many others - well done!

Go there now!

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11766.htm

Channel 4 News tonight reveals extraordinary details of George Bush and Tony Blair's pre-war meeting in January 2003 at which they discussed plans to begin military action on March 10th 2003, irrespective of whether the United Nations had passed a new resolution authorising the use of force.

Channel 4 News has seen minutes from that meeting, which took place in the White House on 31 January 2003. The two leaders discussed the possibility of securing further UN support, but President Bush made it clear that he had already decided to go to war. The details are contained in a new version of the book 'Lawless World' written by a leading British human rights lawyer, Philippe Sands QC.

More at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11766.htm

Link: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332263.html

Four Rebel Clowns took to Parliament Square on Monday, 23rd of January 2006 to address the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act section 132.

The rebel clowns[1] and many others had spent the day at Bow Street Magistrates court expressing solidarity with five defendants who had been charged under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 132 (SOCPA 2005). The bill, for those who don't know, outlaws all "demonstration without authorisation" within 1Km of parliament. These five defendants had had the audacity to hold signs reading �We have the Right To Protest.� The magistrate must have thought they were very clearly Serious Organised Criminals indeed - because she found them all GUILTY.

We Rebel Clowns grew up on a diet of gangster movies and had always thought that in order to be considered a Serious Organised Criminal we�d have to get into the UK Government - a prospect that was way too scary, even for us! But then after witnessing the court hearing, it dawned on us that it was actually a lot easier (and a lot more fun) to become a Serious Organised Criminal than we had previously realised.

Our first port of call was to visit our MPs in the House Of Commons. Just through the security gate and whoa � the duty sergeant stopped us from going in. Alas, we were deemed �not dignified enough� by a copper calling himself the �chief arbiter of style�. Apparently fashion is no joke in the house of parliament and despite Poppins being in her best dress uniform and all, we were all refused entry. �Not dignified enough?� Well I never! Do we think that the police, who are going to be lobbying their MPs today, no doubt in dress uniform, will meet with the same sartorial discrimination???!

Armed with a delicious cake baked and iced by the wondrous Mary Poppins and a banner reading �Serious Organised Crime? Ha Ha Ha!� we hapless Rebel Clowns made our way across the road to Parliament Square where they quickly aroused the attention of the ever-alert /cluster in flouro/. All eyes were on us!

When the coppers turned up, they thrust sheets of paper at us, which initiated this dialogue:

Cop: Read this. It is in your best interest to read this.

Caesar Buttocks: It�s in your best interest to read this! (points to
�Serious Organised Crime? Ha Ha Ha!� placard being held by him and Commodore Koogie)

Cop: It is illegal to demonstrate here. Are you demonstrating?

Marshall Darkness: Does it look like we are demonstrating?

Cop: I don�t know. I�m not a mind reader.

Marshall Darkness: Exactly!

(cops jump into car.)

Mary Poppins: Would you boys like some cake?

(cops don�t respond. Unsure of what to do, they talk to each other for 2 minutes before speeding off, leaving us there with placard in hand.)

It seems police are becoming much more reluctant to be used as the pet pawns of the politicians who legislated SOCPA 132. The day before our visit, cops had refused to arrest[2] Gary who was holding a banner reading �Parliament Square belongs to the people". Gary was told by the copper who came to speak with him that his banner was �not a protest, it's a statement of fact".

The empty SOCPA 132 actually makes it illegal to hold a �demonstration� in the zone without �police approval.� A large number of concerned people had recently tested the dubious wording of the legislation by holding many demonstrations[vid @ 3]. Whilst some folk �demonstrated� how to swing poi, others used a banner to demonstrate how to lie down, how to do a roly poly, how to ice a cake and how to peel a banana. All of these brave demonstrators on the 22nd luckily escaped arrest and the actual definition of �demonstration� remains untested in a court of law.

The legislation itself is unwieldy, vague, irrelevant, devoid of all substance, embarrassing, in contradiction to the European Convention of Human Rights and is also a touch rude. It was written with the intent of banishing Brian Haw - a man who has been holding a continuous demonstration against British terror attacks on Iraq for Four and a Half Years. But the politicians and legislators forgot that they weren't allowed to make new laws work backwards and therefore couldn't keep Brian Haw out of sight and out of guilty mind by putting him in prison. Brian remains to this day.

With the original intention of the law prematurely ejaculating through their grey fingers, and to avoid everyone laughing at them, the politicians tried to cover the law's very small, flaccid bill with a big suit of anti-terrorist, protective armour and attempted to turn it on to the rest of us! But their attempts to stop us from protesting, just like their attempts to take over our democracy are doomed from the start - their legislation will not stand tall as more and more people (including the coppers) see that SOCPA is already very limp indeed. At the end of the day, we know what these politicians are really afraid of - free speech in the commons!

[1] http://www.clownarmy.org/
[2] http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332051.html
[3] http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332144.html
[3 mirror] http://paganarchy.net/blogs/sean.php/2006/01/25/illegal_demonstrations

If you know who this man is, please get in touch via manic AT bloggerheads DOT com

This man was arrested and taken into police custody on August 1st 2005 during a protest in Parliament Square, London (the two arresting officers wore badges number KF705 and KF90).

No one present at that protest has reported seeing him or hearing from him since he was bundled into a police van and taken away. Police now claim to have no knowledge or record of this man, or of his arrest.

Visit Missing @ Bloggerheads for more photos and info

As any reader of this blog or UK Indymedia must surely know by now, the UK Government has created SOCPA. The Serious Organised Crimed And Police Act. This law outlaws all protest within 1km of the UK parliament building and effectively outlaws freedom of speech within the zone. No matter how many times I tell people about it, I still get a shock as I realise the extreme audacity the people who make up the UK Government have...

As we know, the "authorities" busted up the free festival movement in the 1980's culminating in events like the Battle Of The Beanfield where a whole convoy of peaceful hippy travellers was beaten to a pulp by the police of the day. Then throughout the 1990's many police taskforces were mobilised with the sole aim of busting up free parties and raves. Many many excellent and self-organised parties were ruined by the police and many sound systems were wrecked by their policy of destruction. It seems all things carnivale and beautiful have been the target of the modern-day would-be overseers.

Now they've taken their attempts at consolidation of power to the next level - they've started outlawing protest. They've started with just a small area (1km around parliament square) but most people who have thought about this realise that the area is going to get bigger, and bigger... and bigger. In fact Schnews reports random Sussex superintendant Gray "claimed that you have to inform the police of any protests by law." which is patently false - but it certainly looks like that's the direction they are trying to take us in.

However, upon careful reading of the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act, it became apparent that the law only applies to human protestors - step up the teddys!

In honour of the many years of love we have given the likes of paddington and pooh, big ted and mr sock; in honour of all the nights we lay in bed cuddling our furry stuffed friends; in honour of a very basic right all sentient beings should have - the teddy bears have organised their own protest demanding that humans be given back the very basic right of free speech! Hooray The Teddys! We knew we could count on you!

With the teddy bears on our side, we can't lose. They are loving, caring, outspoken and committed to real grass-roots based freedom and democracy. In fact they care more about the core issues than most humans living in London care.

Thinking about it, it is pretty weird to think that the government has called the legislation banning protesting the "serious organised crime and police" act. What's serious organised crime about protesting I ask you? We can only guess that those in control are deeply, deeply scared of us. They are deeply scared that our ideas of anti-authority, freedom, peace and rebellion will spread. They are scared that we will disobey their orders and dance in the streets with wild abandon. They are scared that they will no longer be able to control us and our movements and our thoughts and our dreams.

However, the more draconian laws like this they bring in, the more people realise that the law serves no purpose at all. The more they take away our rights, the more we realise it is them who are making a mockery of the legal system. The more they lie about war, profit and climate change, the more lies they need to keep telling. They so deeply fear people knowing the truth about what they are doing that they can't possibly turn back now - but their deepest fear is that we will all one day realise that they are little more than insignificant old fools and that we no longer have to do what they say; that their only power is *our* fear.

That's the real power of (r)evolution - the decision to choose to disobey them and instead celebrate the carnival of life... just like the teddys have done.

More teddy pics are up on indymedia.

Hoorah!

As I reported in my note on the Strathclyde Police Slumber Party, I was arrested in Glasgow on July 8th, 2005. I was taken in to custody, quite literally for hugging a fairy.

What did you say?

I said I was arrested for hugging a fairy. Yeah that's right -

It was an extremely peaceful protest, and part of the manifestation against the G8 leaders who meeting up there. I was a clown at the time and one of the things I do best as a Rebel Clown is de-escalate violent and tense situations. Now of course, sometimes tense situations are called for, and I stay clear of them, but often the tension comes from hot-headed police looking for (or expecting) a fight. Being a clown lets me get away with a hell of a lot more than when I'm a civilian. Unparallel levels of foolish cheek abound!

In the morning, I had taken part in Operation Splish Splash Splosh [indymedia] which was an extremely fun and fluffy occupation of a Shell service station. One reason for the extreme levels of fluffiness was that there had been about 50 civilians killed in London the day before, and some news reports at that time had tried to blame anarchists! What Cheek! So fluffy it was. Samba and clowns, fairies and mermaids. I am talking serious pink and silver tinsel!

Oh by the way, there was a ton of Irish people at the Shell garage. (If you are reading this and don't know what Shell is doing in Ireland, then click here now. Five people from County Mayo were locked up for over 3 months for refusing to surrender their land to Shell and the fight continues. Read the Ballad of the Rossport Five and more here)

After Splish Splash Splosh, a group of about 200 protestors, (including myself and the fairy) were being herded away from the town centre. Towards the rear of this herded group, there were some extremely rough police with loads of pushing and shoving and obviously up for a bit of aggro. One WPC took it on to herself to harass a pink-clad fairy who was walking a bit slower than most of the others. We never did quite figure out why the WPC was picking on the fairy. Perhaps it was due to the ominous looking feather duster? Maybe the fairy was wearing the wrong shade of pink? We simply don't know....

Joke:
Q: What do you call a woman who takes you to court?
A: Sue.

Anyway, I could quite visibly see that the fairy was in distress so I went over to chill the situation out. The WPC will all her wee might shoved the fairy straight into me. I held on to her as simple as that and half a second later I was arrested and charged with "Obstructing Police Business" and "Attempted Rescue Of A Prisoner".

I went to court last week and it all went amazingly well... The WPC and my arresting officer couldn't get their stories straight and went as far as claiming they were not tired even though they had arrested me after a 13 hour shift. They claimed they were not hot and bothered although it was Scotland's hottest day this year. It took next to no time before I was found NOT GUILTY on both charges!

Let it now be made completely official - HUGGING FAIRIES IS NOT A CRIME! Let that be a warning to our uniformed friends next time they try to stop clowns and fairies from hugging.

Phew, well that's all for now.

With lots of love from,

Commander-in-chief Seani Buttocks