University of Wollongong
Research Online
The Living Daylights
Historical & Cultural Collections
1-22-1974
The Living Daylights 2(3) 22 January 1974
Richard Neville
Editor
Follow this and additional works at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/livingdaylights
Recommended Citation
Neville, Richard, (1974), The Living Daylights 2(3) 22 January 1974, Incorporated Newsagencies Company, Melbourne, vol.2 no.3,
January 22 - 28, 28p.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/livingdaylights/13
Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
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The Living Daylights 2(3) 22 January 1974
Publisher
Incorporated Newsagencies Company, Melbourne, vol.2 no.3, January 22 - 28, 28p
This serial is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/livingdaylights/13
Vol.2 No.3 Jan.22-28 1974
SCREWIN 6 T HE PETRO L GIAN TS «. A ballsy interview with
oil maverick Ian Sykes
BLACK & PROUD & ABOUT TO BE LYNCHED...
In death row with Michael X
WHAT S ON in Sydney
& Melbourne (plus
Sunbury details)
a
OLLOWING our US bases feature
last fortnight, there have been sev­
eral repercussions, the least important o f
which was the front page o f Melbourne’s
Truth, sat, jan 19.
As the source o f Truth's hallucinations
(“ BLOOD WILL FLOW” ), we were cited
as a “ left wing newspaper” (ha ha marxists) and credited with a variety o f dast­
ardly intentions. We would like to thank
Truth for publicising the march on the
US bases, leaving Melbourne early in may
and driving through the other major
cities. Details from Stop Omega, box 215,
Elstemwick, Victoria 3185.
As TI.D goes to press amidst headlines
o f war with China, it seems eccentric to
devote the cover to Men against Sexism,
although this too has all the forebodings
o f a war, with a movement that will gain
momentum and b iff the confidence o f
yer average alf-freak sexist chauvinist.
Men against Sexism demands total per­
sonal commitment to the evolution o f a
heightened consciousness . . . it will catch
many with their pants not far enough
down. Page 9.
In the cities the fight between the
developers and the residents continues.
Last week, in the wee hours o f the
morning, the men from Hookers moved
into Lanark terrace, South Melbourne,
with alsatian dogs and sledge hammers
and began demolishing some o f the build­
ings. Ross McPherson reports on page
seven.
Pics galore arrived this week, and
w e’re sorry not to be able to use them
all. Casualties included the Busmen’s
picnic, by Syd Shelton (hopefully next
week) and a series by Oliver Strew on the
dairyfarmer outlaws o f Grafton (already
saturated by straight press and television).
The great dope drought continues,
with most stuff on the market being
either worthless or poison. It is time to
campaign for an end to the pot smoker’s
oppression and we are beginning to devise
a strategy with community grass reform
groups. This week, a quick pot report by
Steven Phillips, page 3.
Amos Drummond went out to talk to
Ian Sykes, chairman o f Exoil Petroleum
Pty Ltd. Sykes has been fighting the big
oil companies since he form ed his com­
pany in the late 60s and in a way the
interview
exemplifies
the rapacious
nature o f the fuel juggernauts, their un­
derhandedness and their tenaciousness in
keeping out new rivals, however small.
See pages 22 and 23.
We’ ve boosted the overall news con­
tent, although this week Sydney seems a
little short (wake up Grant Evans) and
residents o f that city are reminded that
Stephen (Living Delights) Wall is grump­
ily available for consultation and the odd
cup o f tea, tuesday to thursday, at his
modest abode, 18 Arthur street, Surry
Hills . . . or, if you ’ re nearer 777B George
street, Sydney, there is always the should­
ers o f the ebullient George Munster o f
Nation review to cry upon.
A Melbourne news service is being
collated by Piotr Olszewski who can be
contacted direct at home, 63 Lygon st,
Carlton: 38.5979, and would love to hear
from anyone with secrets and gossip to
spill — large, small and in-between.
Finally, we are looking for a part time
graphics person — a flexible talent to
assist with illustrations, layout and typog­
raphy. This would involve about 12 hours
a week and former art students and
others with a modicum o f ability and
experience are invited to phone Jenny
Stansfield on 329.0700 for an appoint­
ment with Richard Neville. (Please, no
folios or written applications) sorry to be
so formal, but the office is already like
Grand Central station.
To everyone w ho’ s written, be patient.
Manuscripts are protruding from our ears.
Correspondence will be answered by the
end o f the decade . . . we need a cast o f
thousands, not four . . . eds.
F
n
tn
j l
f
Richard Beckett
beats up
the w eek’s news
ENGEANCE IS MINE NOT THE
LORDS: Israeli general Ariel Shar­
on welcom ed the disengagement agree­
ment between his own country and
Egypt over the Suez canal area, which
brings peace to the region fo r the first
time in 25 years by resigning in a fit o f
petulance. During last year’ s hostilities
between the tw o nations Sharon helped
the cause o f peace by invading Egypt
without the knowledge o f defence min­
ister Dayan, w ho himself is not normal­
ly known for his kindness towards
people o f opposing nationalistic views.
With a little more help from general
Sharon and his supporters, no doubt the
tw o nations will be back at each other’s
throats by the end o f the week.
V
O IT’S NOT, VENGEANCE IS
OURS: Eleven people died and
hundreds more were wounded as m obs
o f rioting students in Jakarta celebrated
the arrival o f Japanese prime minister
Tanaka in the Indonesian capital on a
goodw ill tour o f the Asian regions. The
lovable government o f general Suharto
promptly cracked dow n on the stu­
dents, perhaps remembering the part
they played in the downfall o f his own
predecessor. Back hom e an unscathed
and somewhat relieved Tanaka admitted
that perhaps it was about time his
businessmen started to improve their
image and methods o f operation else­
where in the world. And in Jakarta,
president Suharto issued a comm unique
stating that the Japanese prime minis­
ter’s visit had made a “ significant c o n ­
tribution to strengthing friendship be­
tween the tw o nations” . It did not
mention the riots.
N
ONT W ORRY, THE CATHOLICS
ARE MAKING SURE THERE
WILL BE PLENTY OF PEOPLE TO
KILL: Roman catholic authorities in
Australia said that a newly developed
contraceptive pill for man was immoral
and warned all g ood micks against using
it. T o make matters worse, Melbourne
doctors now testing the male pill believe
that Australian men are to o vain to
accept it willingly. Health minister Dr
Everingham said: “ The Australian man
is conceited about his ability to ‘give’
children to his woman. Because o f this
attitude, proven methods o f birth con ­
trol like vasectom y have been relatively
ignored.” With all this evidence against
the damn thing one might well ask why
public m oney is being wasted on some­
thing that no one will ever use.
D
:
i
i
i
i
HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN:
The R oyal Australian Navy spent
endless time and trouble over recruiting
15 (remember that figure) young girls to
attend a Brisbane party in honor o f the
heir to the British throne, prince
Charles. All the girls had to be approved
A
Page 2 — T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 2 2 -28 , 1974
b y a resident British naval liaison officer
in Canberra. One would be interested in
the criteria used b y the Australian navy
in selecting the young lovelies to grace
the royal presence.
n o th e r
fir s t
fo r
A us­
tr a lia n
DIPLOMACY: The
Australian embassy in Washington has
decided not to buy the Maryland house
o f form er United States vice-president
Spiro Agnew, not for any moral reasons
for aiding and abetting a convicted
felon, but because, more simply, the
Greek thief was demanding to o much
m oney fo r it.
A
o n v ic ts
are
to u g h e r
THAN
REFORM ERS:
Tony
Green, a Sydney prison reformer, was
released from a m ock up o f a windowless maximum security cell built at
Sydney university after spending 231/2
hours inside and almost suffering a
nervous breakdown. The object o f the
exercise was to prove that new cell
blocks built at Sydney’ s Long Bay jail
are somewhat hard on the nerves. H ow ­
ever, the good New South Wales minis­
ter for justice, Mr Maddison, upon
hearing o f Green’s sufferings said the
test was merely a political gimmick. “ I
have said over and over again - and I
say it again now — the maximum
security block is an essential feature o f
the New South Wales prison system,”
Maddison said. “ It is designed to protect
their fellow prisoners, prison officers
and the com m unity from these danger­
ous m en.” The trick is obviously to
drive these bastards crazy in the first
place by locking them in the cells and
then use this craziness as justification
fo r keeping them there - a neat th eo­
logical point that would have been
understood b y the judges o f the star
chamber.
C
The Living D ayligh ts is published every tuesday b y
In corp ora ted New sagencies C om p an y P ty L td at 113
R ossly n street, W est M elbourne, V ictoria. Y o u can w rite
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i f f bam a n d t h a n k y o u
MA’AM: China seized control o f
the nondescript Paracel islands o ff its
own coast after a light brush with the
heavily United States trained and equipped South Vietnamese navy. After the
humiliation o f the gee whizz South
Vietnamese aside, it just might be a
good idea if the yanks alerted the Pearl
Harbor shore defences — just in case
mind you .
B
:
:
:
|
;
:
o o d g o d , h e ’s a t i t a g a i n : i
Uganda’s president Big Daddy :
Yiddi Amin is threatening to enliven an •
otherwise
lacklustre comm onwealth \
games in Christchurch, New Zealand, by ■
his personal presence. Amin, w ho is fast •
turning into the world’s leading Merry :
Prankster, recently started a banana |
benefit fund for the relief o f darkening :
Britain, and called that ancient nation a :
disgrace to the rest o f the com m on- ■
wealth. Outside o f that the only news o f •
sportsmen stricken Christchurch is that, •
once again, in a true comm onwealth •:
spirit, all female athletes have been J
imprisoned behind an eight fo o t h ig h :
barbed wire topped fence.
G
h e r e w a s s o m e g o o d n e w s jj
Professor F. A. Whitlock, profes- i
sor o f psychiatry at Queensland uni- :•
versity, has stated in the Medical journal
o f Australia that operating on the i
human brain to change unwanted b eh av-:
ior is more or less immoral. Psycho •
surgery on so called mental patients was :•
being carried out, not so much for the >
good o f the patient, but for the good o f ;■
society in which he lived, professor •:
Whitlock said. Doctors, he added, had •:
no moral or legal right to perform j:
surgical treatment on the brains o f
patients solely to make them c o n fo r m :
to society’s requirements. That explains:
the continuing good health o f J o h :
Bjelke-Petersen.
:
T
COONARA
CHILDREN’S COMMUNITY
A destructured alternative primary sch ool beginning
its secon d year o f operation in the Boronia-Belgrave
area.
Enrolm ents are n ow open.
F or inform ation ring 7 5 4 .2 8 0 3 or 7 5 4 .3 6 8 5
V olunteers interested in contributing tim e or skills
are also invited to con ta ct the above numbers.
WARD McNALLY looks at the government’s
handling of the aboriginals
No
hosanna
for
Cavanagh
gloomy withdrawal from stoned drug squad on a localised scale in
fantasy, Mascot airport has fur­ Sydney’s southern beach suburbs
HERE IS a shortage o f dope ther developed its fine team o f was reported as saying it was not
in Australia at the moment. glass-eyed hash puppies. But even the individual user he was worried
Informers say pounds o f mari­ if Sydney customs was slack, dope about but the dealer who harassed
juana have risen to as high in price is still not easy to find in foreign young surfers. An intensive beach
as $500 on the ordinary market. ports.
campaign is under way this sum­
This has resulted in more and
A Sydney dealer who travels mer and every smoker in Sydney
more smokers saving seeds and regularly all over the world claims is feeling the pinch. They have
growing their own with the count­ overseas customs have also be­ been deprived o f what little stock
er-result being a complete with­ com e tighter and nothing can be was in circulation.
drawal o f seeds from the market found on the wharves.
Local market speculators are
by high-rolling dealers.
One immediately feels like ask­ tipping that seeds will soon be
The same informers claim the ing why such a potentially in­ worth up to 100 times the price
marijuana pyramid in Sydney is dependent country as Australia o f the full grown plant, pound for
not an entity itself but part o f an could not supply her ow n to her pound.
econom ic strategy designed to own. The fascinating answer is
An interesting observation is
create a sellers market and bring that local growers were dom in­ that apart from the usual Christ­
back the fat profits which had ating the market during the price mas rush, pubs have received none
been enjoyed until a year ago fall which lowered the price per o f the floating trade. Not on ly are
when the consumer price sudden­ weight half ounce from $30 to smokers not smoking, they’re not
ly dropped. People were smoking $20. Sentimental smokers say the drinking either.
more and enjoying it more be­ quality was rare.
Could it be that an econom ic
cause they could well afford to.
A series o f farming busts along trend changes the course o f the
Tightened customs security has the east coast over the past eight smoking revolution? It’s the same
also been blamed as a significant months was justly blamed for the old free-enterprise story.
factor in the current drought. As short-lived period o f plenty.
smokers roam the streets in a
A high-ranker working with the
STEVEN PHILLIPS
T
F Gough Whitlam really
does want to go into the
history book s as the prime minis­
ter w h o led the aboriginal race out
o f the darkness o f white preju­
dice, white oppression, and restore
to it some o f the dignity it once
possessed, he had better get crack­
ing or it will be to o late.
He could start by taking abo­
riginal
affairs
minister,
Jim
Cavanagh, aside and telling him to
stop trying to be so b lood y hamfisted, and listen a bit more to
people w ho really d o know what
needs to be done. People like
Charlie Perkins or professor T.
Strehlow. Remember Strehlow?
He’s the 65 year old professor o f
languages at Adelaide university
w ho resigned from the Institute o f
Aboriginal Studies a few weeks
ago in protest against the wastage
o f m oney and effort within the
institute.
Strehlow blamed much o f the
mishmash that’s been going on in
and around aboriginal affairs on
Dr (Nugget) H. C. Coombs, chair­
man o f the institute comm ittee.
I wouldnt know whether or
not Dr C oom bs is to blame for
failures in the institute, or the
recent furore over Charlie Perkins.
But I d o know that Strehlow was
born at the lutheran mission out­
side A lice Springs, and lived the
first 15 years o f his life there.
Aboriginal kids were his play­
mates. He speaks the language.
Aboriginals trust him, just as they
trust Charlie Perkins.
They dont know Dr Coombs.
He doesnt speak their language,
nor did he ever have black kids as
playmates.
Black patience is running thin
with Labor. Anger is rising like a
black tide across the land. If you
doubt me stop and listen a m o­
ment to warnings from men like
aboriginal author and poet, Kevin
Gilbert. (See Gilbert’s story this
issue.)
Gilbert, a man who taught him­
self to write in prison during a life
term for w ife murder and was
released after 14 years, said re­
cently: “ If the Labor government
doesnt d o something quickly to
give blacks a better slice o f the
national cake, something to re­
store our confidence in it, crim­
inal violence w on ’t be long in
replacing the ‘ patriotic violence’
w e’ve already seen erupting.”
Gilbert was referring to the
black resistance to police attacks
upon demonstrating aboriginals
outside parliament house, Canber­
ra, in mid-1972, and in George
street, Brisbane and in the streets
o f Redfern.
He’s right. There will be vio­
lence before long if Labor doesnt
catch up lost ground and start
honoring pre-election promises.
While researching my book
G o o d b y e dreamtime I talked to
aboriginals in many parts o f Aus­
tralia w ho vowed they had reach­
ed their limit o f endurance o f
white oppression.
Take, for instance, the father o f
18 years old Marlene Cummins.
He’ s had enough. Marlene is living
in New Zealand because she’ s
afraid to live in her native Queens­
land.
Tw o years ago she was waiting
fo r a bus on the outskirts o f
Brisbane to return home to Ips­
wich. A middle aged, respectable
looking white man drove up in his
large, immaculate car. He liked
the looks o f neatly dressed, attrac­
tive Marlene and offered her a lift.
She felt safe enough and ac­
cepted.
T w o hours later she hailed a
cab and asked t o be driven to
Queen Alexandra W om en’s Hos­
pital. She was crying. Her clothes
were torn. She had been raped.
This is how she outlined the
experience to me. “ When I paid
the taxi o f f at the hospital I asked
fo r treatment. I was shaking and
I
couldnt stop crying. A doctor told
me to sit down and that I would
be attended to soon. After about
ten minutes tw o detectives from
the vice squad arrived and took
me o f f to police headquarters.
“ When I kept asking for medi­
cal treatment one o f the detec­
tives leaned over me and leered:
‘ Cut out the com edy, you little
slut. Y o u ’ve been fucked before
. . . Y ou probably enjoyed it this
time, too, and decided to put on a
blue when you werent paid. Now
that’s about the size o f it, isnt it?”
Marlene told me: “ I was taken
back by this, and when the detec­
tive repeated it I lost m y temper
and retorted ‘Yes, I’ve been fu ck ­
ed, and by a fat pig o f a white
businessman. N ow what are you
going to d o about it . . . because
whatever you like to think I was
raped'.”
The detective did something
about it alright. He charged Mar­
lene with using offensive language.
Later, in the charge room , she was
called a "black slut” , and says
that when she objected the officer
behind the desk said: “ Well arent
you ?”
Because o f the seriousness o f
the girl’ s allegations I obtained an
interview with Queensland police
commissioner, Ray Whitrod and
asked him if he intended doing
anything about the girl’s original
claim o f being raped.
He said the matter was “ being
considered” .
Nothing ever came o f it,
though. So Marlene escaped to
New Zealand where there is no
color bar, no overt racial discrim­
ination.
But you wouldnt really expect
anything to be done about it,
would you? I mean look at the
record . . .
Take the case o f pastor Don
Brady. He’s an aboriginal minister
o f the methodist church. For
weeks his little church in Spring
street, Brisbane, was defaced with
nazi slogans and signs, and on
three consecutive Sundays as his
congregation emerged white louts
in souped up bombs roared past,
shouting racist insults. On the
fourth Sunday Brady and his
eldest son chased a carload o f
louts and trapped them in a blind
street.
“ We thought we had them, and
could take them to the police,”
Brady told me. “ And with this in
mind both Vincent, m y son, and I
tried to open the doors o f the old
car. Finally Vincent kicked at the
door. He lost his balance and the
car roared off.
“ We thought that was the end
o f it. That we’d probably be left
alone in future. But brother, how
wrong can you be! Late that
afternoon
police
arrived and
charged Vincent with causing
damage to the lout’ s car. He was
fined when he appeared in court
. . . ” Brady’s face paled, and lo o k ­
ing at me hard he asked: “ Can
you imagine the son o f a white
minister being charged if the cir­
cumstances had been d ifferen t. . .
if it had been black louts abusing
a white minister, defacing a white
church?”
A few weeks after that pastor
Brady’s Holden station wagon was
set on fire while parked outside
his house. Police visited his home
once to ask if he had any idea
who might have committed the
crime. No one was ever charged
with the offence . . .
In Adelaide where South Aus­
tralian premier Don Dunstan has
brought in legislation making it an
offence for anyone to discrim­
inate against aboriginals, R uby
Hammond, a worker in aboriginal
affairs, knows o f cases o f police
bashings o f blacks.
“ One young man spent days in
continued page 4
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 22-28, 1974 — Page 3
From page 3
hospital following a police bashing
in the lane at the back o f a city
hotel. It happens often,” she told
me.
Ms Hammond, who was born
in tribal conditions in the North­
ern Territory, says misuse o f abo-1
riginal girls still goes on in many
outback areas o f Australia.
“ I suppose I’m one o f those I
stirrers the south graziers have
been talking about lately,” she
said, adding, “ I am sick and tired
o f all this ‘ stirrer’ rubbish. All
those o f us who go out among the
semi-tribal and fringe-dwelling
aboriginals d o is to tell them they
dont have-to live like th a t. . . that
there is a better way.
" . . . that’s not stirring. I call
that trying to uplift oppressed
people — my people. O f course,
some graziers and other leaders o f
vested interests might see educa­
tion o f blacks as an end to their
exploitation o f them. They are
trying to protect their dollar and
use scare phrases to frighten
whites who have only a slight
knowledge o f the real position
it
While gathering material for
my latest book , The angry Austra­
lian, many aboriginals told me
their faith in Labor had been
shaken by Whitlam’s sacking o f
G ordon Bryant as minister for
aboriginal affairs. Generally they
seemed to think he had their best
interests at heart, and they clearly
trusted him.
They dont trust Cavanagh be
cause he hasnt shown any under­
standing o f them. They say they
want Bryant back or, failing that,
Manfred Cross o f Brisbane as their
minister.
Cavanagh can probably save his
portfolio if he reassesses his posi­
tion and takes a more understand­
ing stance towards the people who
expect his help and guidance, not
his trenchant criticism.
And one o f the best ways he
can demonstrate his sincerity
would be to stop referring to
aboriginals as “ lazy bludgers” , and
to look for causes and correct
them.
Some serious talking with men
like Perkins and Strehlow would
help in that direction. If he feels it
is below his dignity to d o that
then Cavanagh should resign and
seek another portfolio where the
iron fist and bulldozer approach
will succeed. It certainly won’t in
the sensitive area o f aboriginal
affairs. It’ s time both Whitlam and
his present aboriginal affairs min­
ister realised that.
Kevin Gilbert says
T IS ironic that at a time
when the youngsters o f
white society are everywhere seek­
ing new, simpler definitions o f
how to live, how to cut down
unnecessary consumption, how to
go back to nature and get o f f the
capitalist treadmill, that aborig­
inals are publicly standing up for
European style living standards
and loudly proclaiming the need
for same as a preliminary towards,
o f all things, assimilation!
So when it was revealed recent­
ly that the federal government
was installing wiltjas (transport­
able canvas homes or “ humpies”
- as we called the structures we
built for ourselves on the banks o f
the Lachlan river years ago) on
aboriginal reserves in South Aus­
tralia, a howl went up from at
least one section o f the aboriginal
community. National Aborigines
Consultative Committee member
J. Stanley said among other
things:
“ Whether homes are fo r tribal
people or not, they should c o n ­
form to accepted current stand­
ards. Housing goes along with
education, employm ent, hom e
management, discipline and h y­
giene. If aboriginals live in a wiltja
on a dirt floor, how can we ask
them to be clean?
“ It is impossible fo r aboriginals
to be assimilated into the Austra­
lian comm unity if their education
for it includes homes with dirt
floors. I feel strongly about these
houses being so primitive when we
should be encouraging aboriginals
to be able to move into European
style houses.”
Not long ago when I met a
university dropout w ho — alien­
ated from the city, her parents
and her entire social con text was determined to abandon her
sewered, serviced, hygienic dis­
ciplined St Ives splitlevel back­
ground to go north, to seek
among “ tribal aboriginals” that
satisfaction in living that she felt
was absent.
Unless she’s very, very lucky
I
□
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Page 4 — T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 2 2 -2 8 , 1974
We want land,
compensation
and
autonomy
Wiltja M k 1
she’s going to com e a cropper, but
who was I to disillusion her?
Could Mr Stanley, perhaps, put her
right?
O f course - like our young
seeker — colored folk like Stanley,
long without a culture or any
pride o f race, are themselves vic­
tims o f their ow n hangups. Blacks
like him have to o many emotional
blocks which prevent them from
being able to concede that the
provision
of
easily moveable
weatherproof wiltjas are, in some
semi tribal outback situations,
ideally suited to the current needs
o f the people.
As an interim solution to the
appalling housing conditions in
some o f these areas, it is to be
co m m e n d e d . European
style
houses take a lot o f sophisticated
looking after. If they dont get this
they becom e cockroach ridden,
white ant infested, badly drained
health hazards that can be seen on
so many aboriginal reserves in the
south.
A wiltja is far less difficult to
maintain. The hardstamped dirt
flo o r is easily swept, the humpies
themselves are far less prone to
vermin infestation and they d o
not cut o f f comm unity inter­
action like the suburban “ little
boxes” d o (although th ey’re a
bit tough if you like privacy!).
The only problem posed fo r us
was that it wasnt easy to drag
clean water to them daily; and,
because they were made o f scrap
iron, hessian and beaten kerosene
tins, they were never weather­
p roof. Made o f superior materials,
drained b y properly dug trenches,
they cannot help being a healthier
proposition than fixed structures
especially as their portability
makes fairly frequent changes o f
campsite possible.
We have long understood that
one o f the reasons for bad health
conditions where aboriginals con ­
gregate is because a nomadic peo­
ple, with nomadic habits, can’t get
used to having to stay in one
locality. Y ou see this even in the
south; after generations o f white
contact, many southern blacks
still maintain a lifestyle more suit­
able for a shifting type o f life. At
least in outback areas, the moveable wiltjas are the obvious ans­
wer.
O f course it is difficult for
whites to say these things, even if
experience tells them it is true.
Southern blacks, ever sensitive to
any suggestions o f racial slurs
would straightaway yell “ Discrim­
ination!” .
So h ow d o you think blacks
take it when a white official rath­
er tactlessly says things like “ abo
riginal people like to live in the
dirt?” The fact that the only thing
wrong is his use o f words and the
consequent implied slur, rather
than the basic facts o f the situ­
ation, is obscured in a wave o f
black resentment.
This sort o f thing explains, too,
why wiltjas are only suitable for
distant outback areas, preferably
where blacks live without a near­
by European settlement, for it is
not the wiltjas that are wrong; it is
the white/black psychological in­
teraction and reaction to them
that is the problem . That is why
the government could never p ro­
pose putting them up on the
fringes o f a class/color snotty
southern country town. I don t
need to labor that point any
further.
Contrary to Stanley’s ideas, un­
assimilated aboriginals dont want
assimilation (and many “ assim­
ilated” blacks regret their assimila­
tion). At a time when aboriginals
are trying, desperately, to assert
their identity, and revive their
culture, this type o f transitional
housing project is vital as an in­
terim measure until such time as
we get our land base, monetary
compensation for the theft o f the
rest o f Australia and then have the
means to decide, in communities,
how we want to live.
So it’s a self-determination and
regeneration that we seek — not
assimilation or any o f that rub­
bish. It w on ’t be until we get land
compensation as a prerequisite for
mental health that we can begin
to aim for hygiene, discipline and
so forth.
The first block against the re­
generation o f the aboriginal p e o ­
ple is the fact that white Australia
is going to do its damnedest to
ensure that blacks dont get a
meaningful land base and dont
free themselves o f white control.
The second block is the con d ition ­
ing o f blacks themselves.
Blokes like Stanley are o b je ct­
ing less to the practical applica­
tion o f the wiltja project in suit­
able areas than to the fact that, all
his life, he feels that he has been
looked dow n on by white society,
It is the aboriginality o f the w ilt­
jas that he is rejecting; the co n ­
notation o f being “ primitive” and
therefore, in his mind, inferior.
Seeing in aboriginality only shame
and degradation, “ assimilation” is
a step up the social ladder.
The black psychology is sick.
Almost the entire aboriginal race,
Wiltja M k 2
Good health without whitey
PIOTR OLSZEWSKI
HIS WEEK, while the Patterson-Perkins
aboriginal
affairs slanging match was at its
height, and hopes that some
aboriginal-non aboriginal reconcil­
iations might ever be achieved
were at their lowest, the federal
minister for health, Dr Everingham, made some surprisingly
radical statements concerning abo­
riginal health.
Everingham,
addressing
a
family
planning
seminar
at
Sydney’s Macquarie university,
advocated integrating aboriginal
medicine with current modern
Western methods and said that
“ we may have more to learn from
our old Australians than to teach
them” .
He added that aboriginals had
more wisdom in their medicine
than even they realised but they
had com e to distrust it because o f
the very powerful impact o f white
medicine.
Examples o f aboriginal medical
prowess have been known to
whitey fo r a considerable time,
although whitey, displaying his
usual closed mindedness, has not
bothered
to
take an active
interest.
Official reports and
documentation are scarce and in
most cases biased b y white
scepticism
and ignorance o f
aboriginal
traditions.
Many
chroniclers,
particularly
good
Christian fellows, were blinded b y
their abhorrence o f the aboriginals
"pagan, primitive and barbaric”
rituals.
However,
despite all this,
historical records are scattered
with
intriguing accounts
of
aboriginal medicinal feats and
suggest that concentrated research
into this area could reveal much
of
significance in
practical
medicine and in faith, or spiritual,
healing.
In november 1860, a certain
William Thomas dispatched a
report on aboriginal health and
medicine to Melbourne’ s district
police court. In his report Thomas
stated that:
“ Wounds, o f whatever kind,
which do not affect a vital part
are more readily cured than in the
case o f white people. I have seen
desperate wounds inflicted b y
their weapons (that would have
kept
Europeans
invalids
for
months) healed in an incredible
short tim e, to the astonishment o f
medical men.”
Thomas then described the
aboriginals
wound
healing
methods. “ If the wound was in a
fleshy part o f the b ody, they
sucked at it until b lood ceased to
be extracted. If b lood did not
flow, they would lance the wound
with a sharp bone, or place the
b od y in a position so as to
compress the opposite part to
force blood. Then, when the
wound was thoroughly cleaned a
lump o f pridgerory (a tree wax)
was applied and the wound left to
heal naturally. If infection set in
the wound would be reopened,
cleansed again b y sucking and
recovered with pridgerory.”
Thomas also recorded that in
dealing with disease which, in the
first instance must have been
contracted
from
whites,
the
aboriginals devised “ simple but
efficacious” cures. To combat
venereal disease the aboriginals
merely boiled wattle bark and
applied the resulting lotion to the
afflicted areas.
Thomas cites the case o f three
Goulburn
blacks
who
had
contracted VD to the extent that
the then colonial surgeon, Dr
Cousins decreed life could not be
saved unless the victims were
T
Continued from page 4
to varying degrees, feels this ap­
palling, character-sapping shame
about a culture that has been
denigrated by whites for almost
200 years. (So the editor o f a gov­
ernment magazine for New South
Wales aboriginals, New dawn,
has to apologise in the december
1973 issue for stating, in an earlier
issue, that certain tribal character­
istics survived amongst blacks at
Collarenebri!).
How can even a start at healing
for blacks com e, until white Aus­
tralia grants the substance - and
not just the principle - o f land
rights, compensation and selfdetermination? And not just in
little bits here and there and
hedged with restrictions but in
one spectacular hit all over the
continent?
Land given once, spectacularly
and in full justice is the only thing
that can set o f f the psychological
healing that blacks need. Land
would mean, for all blacks every­
where, that white Australia is at
last forswearing its arrogance and
attempting a restitution o f justice.
The alternative is clear. Unless
aboriginals are given the chance to
heal, as a race, they will continue
to be disaffected. Increasing so­
phistication and self-hate will
form the nucleus o f a criminal
class that will be virtually without
a conscience; that will always feel
it is guiltless because o f ancient
wrongs.
There are signs o f the develop­
ment o f this element already. Can
whites seriously expect blacks to
be very worried about the sanctity
o f property when they have stolen
an entire continent?
Given justice, a formidable task
would remain for those blacks
who have managed to remain reas­
onably whole. Black community
organisers are vital in the blue­
prints for aboriginal rebuilding.
Things have to start happening on
black land; a new lifestyle has to
be forged; there have to be new
outlets for the people besides
grog.
That is why, Mr Stanley, your
jo b on the NACC (if we must have
such an organisation) need never
consist o f anything more than
whispering in the white bosses
ears: “ We want land/compensa­
tion/au ton om y.” Drum that mes­
sage home, son, and y o u ’ll never
go astray.
PS: If my dedicated black broth­
ers at Nowra wish to persist in
hanging white skeletons from a
tree in retaliation for the bull­
dozing o f our burial grounds in
New South Wales, I know where
they can dig one up a little further
north o f here. I nominate Bjelkebaby as No. 1 swinger for the
year.
□
Lake Tycrs,
hospitalised
and
underwent
operations. The blacks refused
and left the settlement. A fter 18
months they returned, com pletely
cured after using only the wattle
bark lotion. Upon examination o f
the three blacks, the Melbourne
coroner, Dr Wimott stated in a
report that: "H ow ever violent the
disease
may
appear
among
aboriginals, it could not enter into
their systems as it did in European
constitutions.”
A m ong the female aboriginals
o f the Darling river, vegetarianism
was used to com bat VD. Thomas
Hill G oodw in, in a report to the
church mission station, Yelta,
Upper Murray, said that he had
observed cases o f VD amongst the
females. Severely affected females
would abstain from animal food s
and after a short time were able to
move about again.
Incidentally, a vegetarian diet
was widely used b y aboriginals o f
both sexes to com bat fevers. In
Victoria, aboriginals placed great
importance in the curative powers
o f wattle bark. T o treat boils,
which affected aboriginals badly
and could swell to the size o f emu
eggs, a wattle bark con coction was
a p p lied .
If
this
proved
unsuccessful a poultice made from
boiled wild marshmallow was
used.
To
treat
dysentery
the
aboriginals would, at night time,
take pills made o f wattlebark and
qum. During the day they would
drink
large
draughts
of
a
wattlebark con coction and chew
gum leaves constantly.
T o cure internal complaints,
swellings,
and
rheumatism,
Victorian aboriginals used steam,
or vapor baths. The patient lay on
a platform
made o f sticks.
Beneath this platform were placed
hot stones, and on top o f the
stones,
wet waterweeds. The
patient was covered in possum
rugs to help trap the steam from
the waterweeds.
T o cure sandy blight, an eye
disease, aboriginals plucked hair
from the patients head and
ground it up finely by chew­
ing. Then the patients eyes were
opened and the hair particles
spat into the eyes. This caused
acute
agony
but
the
eyes
improved rapidly until they were
perfectly cured.
Spiritualism also played a very
important
role
in aboriginal
healing. White doctors, much to
their chagrin, repeatedly reported
the death o f sick aboriginals from
a malady called moping. Doctors
reported that once an aboriginal
was moved into the hostile
environs o f a white hospital he
would sink into a deep depression
and generally just waste away.
withdraw the w ood or bone from
the patients b od y .”
The aboriginals believed that
the w ood or bone extracted by
the koonkie was the bod y o f the
disease
which
had
been
communicated b y evil persons.
Aboriginals were also aided in
their avoidance and treatment o f
disease and sickness by the fact
that they were extremely hardy
beings and displayed great natural
resistance
to disease.
Their
tenacity and stamina helped them
overcome sickness and
injuries
which could incapacitate their
Caucasian counterparts. It wasnt
until whitey arrived in Australia
that aboriginal health conditions
began to degenerate. As far back
as
1860
Thomas
G oodw in
recorded a statement made to him
by an old aboriginal:
“ In
form er
times, before
whitefellow came, blackfellow
could run like emu, but now,
supposing that big one run, then
big one tired, and plenty heart
jump about: not always like that
with blackfellow .”
Perhaps the reason for this
moping malaise could lie in the
fact
that
many
aboriginals
believed that their disease had
been comm unicated to them by
an evil disposed person.
A m ongst
th e
Dieyerie
aboriginals, doctors (koonkies)
had to see the devil (K ootchee)
before they became eligible to
practice. T o be elected to the
office
of
koonkie
young
Dieyeries, who had experienced
nightmares would relate them to
tribal gatherings, and, if it was
decided that the young man had
seen K ootchee, he would then be
initiatied in the rites o f the
Koonkie.
The healing process o f a
koonkie, as described b y a white
called Gason, is thus:
“ The koonkie sucks and rubs
the afflicted part to ascertain the
cause. He then retires and obtains
a piece
o f w ood
or bone
approximately one or tw o inches
long. He returns to the patient,
warms his hands on red hot
charcoal, kneads the disordered
parts, and
then appears to
Ennui is smothering you. Then you hear
postie’ s whistle. Aha you say, rushing ou t to
the mail b ox . And what’ s waiting fo r you ?
The usual load o f crap from Readers Digest, a
blurb from the supermarket offering packaged
poison ous “ specials” , fou r bills and an evic­
tion notice. It’ s a stone drag . . . But y ou can
d o something to lighten and brighten the load
(o n ce a week, anyhow). Yes, you can . . .
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T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 22-28, 1974 -
Page 5
B L A C K O U T on crime news available to the press fro m the
V ic to ria police has been ordered b y the Hamer Liberal
governm ent. The Liberals have imposed this censorship on crim e
reporters fo r tw o reasons.
First, allegations o f serious misconduct against the police have
increased since the recent exposure o f the drug squad using signed
blank warrants. Journalists, as well as conservative lawyers, were
shocked th a t the police could get away w ith this practice. Since
this case crim e reporters have started asking critical questions as
to o th e r police practices.
Second, the anti bashers campaign run by the M elbourne
H erald has made the com m unity highly critica l o f the govern­
ment's attem pts to stop the increasing rate in these offences.
As well as the claims o f graft and the attem pted brib e ry o f
jurors, allegations o f police bashings have increased. T w o ex­
amples are th e cases o f Christopher Currey and Leigh Lawson.
F ifteen year old Currey had his arm broken and detectives
later adm itte d th a t they had made a mistaken arrest. Lawson was
knocked unconscious fro m behind and also had his jaw broken so
badly th a t he could not speak fo r tw o months. No charges have
been laid against the police involved in these incidents.
C hief secretary Rossiter and to p police have also been enraged
at the continual questioning by several journalists fo r th e date o f
a coroner's inquest in to the death o f a police sergeant's w ife. The
sergeant, w ho is facing a charge o f breaking w ith in te n t to steal, is
under suspension. A friend o f his dead w ife claims th a t the
deceased to ld her several days before her death th a t her husband
was threatening to k ill her. The journalists hectoring has
obtained a february date fo r the coroner's inquest.
During the week tw o people died in police cells. The cops said
th a t a 70 year old man, who was found wandering in a distressed
co n d itio n w ith an apparent loss o f mem ory, was n o t charged w ith
any offence b u t placed in a cell fo r his ow n p ro te ctio n . A n
autopsy w ill be held. It's believed th a t the V icto ria n C ouncil o f
C ivil Liberties w ill look in to these incidents to see if a more
satisfactory procedure can be taken in this type o f problem and
also to investigate w hether there was any negligence on the p a rt
o f police.
But w hile the cops were treating the press w ith scorn and n o t
ta lkin g to the m , the journos were still able to get in fo via th e D 24
radio messages w hich were relayed in to the press room . This
"se rvice" ceased at 9.30 am Sunday.
A
PICS: R O D M A N N IN G
R ockers com e ou t o f the closet fo r Bill Haley's return to M elbourne
GLENN GAUDIER
HIS NEW ALBUM
HE AW ARD of an MBE to John Edward Davies, governor
o f Victoria's Beechworth training prison has brought
discord in the Victorian public service. Davies received the award
in the last new year's honors list for humane and meritorious
service to the prison service. We understand that the director of
prisons, Eric Shade, has instituted a secret inquiry into how Davies
got the award. The usual procedure is that the public service head
makes the nomination, but in this case it is believed that Davies
was nominated by several liberal politicians who have found
Shade's administration of prisons, and Pentridge in particular, to
be backward.
T
AST frid a y a dem onstration o f approxim ately 100 students
marched on the Indonesian and Japanese embassies in
Canberra to protest at the murder o f students in Indonesia. The
students also warned o f large dem onstrations being planned
against Japanese prim e minister Tanaka w ho is to arrive in
A ustralia in march.
L
HE EDITO RS of student newspapers have decided to
challenge the libel laws in Australia. A t their annual
national conference in Canberra they issued a statement that
there were too many exposes not being published because of the
threat o f libel. They have decided that if one editor is threatened
with libel then the others will all run the story as an act of
solidarity.
T
A WORK OF HUMOR, PATHOS,
INSANITY AND LOVE
35037 LP CASS
Page 6 - J H f L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , January£2 -2 8 ,, 1974
OT O N L Y leftwingers are aware o f the meaninglessness o f
" jo in t c o n tro l" at the US Northwest Cape com m unications
base. T im H ewatt, an old rightw inger fro m Geelong grammar,
claimed in his colum n in the Melbourne Sunday observer, that
w ith o u t access to the codebooks Australians w ill o n ly be at the
base fo r appearances.
N
Adelaide fuzz
buzz Triplight
THE organisers o f a proposed
Alternative Community Resource
Centre in Adelaide claim their
attempts to establish the centre
are being frustrated by constant
police harassment. They claim
police have used violence and
conspiracy to undermine the pro­
ject.
The centre’s chief organiser,
Peter Carey, claims he has been
the subject o f extreme provocation from South Australia’s police
force This provocation, he believes, is a direct result o f his
involvement in the project.
Carey takes up the story:
The harassment began a couple o f
months ago. Many people seeking
alternatives in Adelaide were beginning to realise that a consolidated effort was needed to boost
interest in our aims.
The Clear Light Bazaar, housed
in a basement in Rundle street,
was the only base for such matters
and it was beginning to get too
small for all the activities it was
attracting. A small group o f
friends and I began to look
around town for larger office
space, hoping to house free legal
and drug protection services, commune comm unication pipelines
and other activities such as coffee
lounges and vegetarian restaurantsy
started patrolling the street just
outside the building. They hurled
personal abuse and kept saying
things like “ We 11 get you .
One night I went to my car,
which was parked outside the
building in Rundle street, to find
the tyres had all been let down.
For the next six nights m y van
was subjected to vandalism. All
headlights were smashed, and the
car
on blocks one night when
a tyre was taken from it I found
the emergency brake cable would
not work and when getting it
fixed was told it had probably
been cut deliberately.
Tbe mechanic who worked on
Carey’s van
substantiates his
claims about the damaged headKqhts and says the brake cable was
cleanly cut. He says the chances
o f this happening naturally are
extremely remote,
Carey and Co weathered the
abuse and continued their work
on tbe building with the market
authorities remaining keen on the
venture. However, the major setback was still to com e,
The six weeks up, their lease
had to be signed and one m onth s
rent pa
,
^
1r!p 5
group turned up Walker told them
to get o ff the premises immediateV- He would give no reason; he
just wanted them to get out
A bout this time we heard
about a two-storey abandoned
fruit warehouse, a little along the
road from the bazaar, at 281
Rundle street. We decided to try
and get hold o f the place and
approached the owners, the East
End Market Cooperative Ltd.
Their secretary, Mac Walker,
said he was extremely keen to
have the place used for something
"esoteric” , and said we could have
the place rentfree for six weeks.
We told him we would use the
building for offices and a vegetarian restaurant, to which he agreed.
We registered ourselves with
the South Australian Companies
O ffice as the Triplight Together
Company and submitted plans to
im m ed^tely.
The Tnplight group, realising
they could not reason with the
man< a5k6d him for tw o days
^ c e to move their equipment
out The request was; granted,
However, when Walker found
501116 o f the equipment remaining
in the building on the third day he
had some market em ployees toss
it on to the street. He then barred
the d oor o f the building and
pasted signs on the window
declaring it Market C o-op propertV and lssum9 a warmn9 * *
tref asserT
s
When I called Walker last w
he » ld he woukl unot be dlawn
m to argument on the issue When
told o f Carey s allegations that he
the owners o f the building and the
Adelaide city council for the
restaurant. The plans were accepted and we began to make minor
structural changes to the building,
During the six weeks we spent
nearly $500 in materials to get the
place into condition. However
from the first time I set fo o t in
the place I had a strange feeling
nothing would com e o f our work.
Earlier on we were interviewed
by two uniformed policemen
about a chair they claimed was
stolen. They asked a couple o f
aiuicii.
°
questions about the chair and
A.
j , .
•„ „ „ __ __
then proceeded to grill us on our
activities in the building. Then
they hauled a couple o f the guys
away for questioning at police
headquarters. It turned out that
the chair had been taken from a
flat, but no one was charged and
the chair was never picked up.
r
Next up the homicide squad
arrived. They told me I was a
suspect in the case o f three
children who disappeared while at
a football match on the Adelaide
had f 0* " 8* Wlth tbe pohc,e
Mld he bad thrown the Tnplight
9r0UP out bec6Use a 6heclue be
had 16ceived from them had
bounced
, , Carey disputes this. We gave
Walker a cheque for more than
$150 to cover the rent before the
lease was drawn up. There was a
™
with this. One o f die
™embers ° f tbe group left fo
Nimbln and t0° k f ° me m of y ° u
account leavm9 « a blt
short.
“ The cheque was returned
marked Present again. However
,,
dunnq this time Walker told us to
y
,
,
?6t out and we stopped payment
111 6ase he trled t0 rip o f f 1116
™ n e y .■
branch
r ,™ ’
o f Ihe A N Z confnm ed Carey
“ ory. A t no tune did the cheque
bounce.
Following theu eviction from
Rundle street the Triplight group
tried to find suitable accom m oda­
tion elsewhere in the city but
oval because I tallied with an
identikit o f the prime suspect.
However, in the press he was
described as a fortyish “ new
Australian” with short hair. I am
in m y 20s, Australian and have
y
'
long hair.
This was follow ed by several
raids by the drug squad on houses
I had visited. The Rundle street
building was subsequently visited
by almost every squad in the
force, and uniformed legmen
Mad dogs and Hooker’s
men go out
to make a slum
ross
M cPh e r s o n
HE BRUTAL disregard for
public feeling that seems to
ch aracterise
Sydney’s
“ developers” came to Melbourne
last week when Hooker Home
Units set their dem olition team
against Lanark terrace at 2 am
thursday. They managed to pull
dow n eight chimneys and knock
huge holes in the back o f the
houses before police armed with a
court order stopped them tw o
hours later.
The terrace is a group o f six
houses, built in 1892. Resident
groups have been struggling to
prevent their dem olition since
december,
when
the
Town
Planning appeals tribunal ordered
South Melbourne City Council to
issue a planning permit. The
tribunal (which has an otherwise
encouraging record as far as
conservation is concerned) did
this on the grounds that the
houses were in a dilapidated state
and uneconom ical to restore.
At the time South Melbourne
council first rejected the permit
the tenants had just been vacated
T
from the terrace and all houses
were
in
perfect
condition.
Hookers simply left all the doors,
windows and rear access gates
com pletely open so the houses
would
becom e
"vandalised” .
Hookers didnt even complain
when the prior owner o f the
terrace flogged o f f the marble
fireplaces, staircases and bannister
rails to an antique dealer. A
member o f the Emerald Hill
association saw marble slabs being
carried out, so the association
immediately raised the m oney and
bought it all back from the dealer.
The association is incensed that
any developer can hasten the issue
of
planning
permits
by
deliberately causing deterioration.
Last tuesday was the final day
to lodge an appeal against the
tribunal’ s ruling in the supreme
court, but since justice takes a
holiday around this time o f year,
all the Master could d o was
adjourn the application. Getting
wind o f this, Hookers sent the
b oy s in after midnight Wednesday,
armed
with
bulldozers
and
alsatian dogs in what the company
later describes as a bout o f
“ over-enthusiasm” . The company
did have a planning permit for its
21-storey block o f flats but did
not have a demolition permit.
South Melbourne council will
attempt to prosecute Hookers for
illegal demolition, excessive noise
at night and lack o f safety
precautions and insurance cover.
Meanwhile, in a quick hearing
in the supreme court later on
thursday, Master Brett stayed the
planning tribunal’ s decision until
justice resumes in march. While to
ignore this ruling does not
unfortunately
constitute
contem pt o f court, Hookers have
self-righteously agreed to delay
demolition until this thursday,
after the Emerald Hill association
agreed to underwrite the costs o f
the delay.
M elb ou rn e
manager
of
Hookers,
Peter
Ford(who
doubtless would have been their
golden b oy if he had got away
with it) is understood to be on the
mat
with
the
Sydney-based
management. Send him your
Australia-day best wishes, 606 St
Kilda road, Melbourne.
w 6re told nothing was^ available
Carey claims it is obvious there
has been considerable political
pressure preventing its establish
ment.
“ A t present” , he says, “ moves
are bein9 made t0 sue the
Co-op for the m oney we lost at
Rundle street but this is not the
main issue. It seems though that
there has been some co-ordinated
effort to block our project at a
high level.”
□
5SiSSs
F ron t view , Lanark terrace, S outh M elbourn e
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 22 -28, 1974 — Page 7
HE LAST thing Michael X
will see in this life is the
face o f Trinidad’s prime minister,
Dr Eric Williams, beaming down
at him from the death cell wall.
The irony is that Williams (so
Michael X told m e) encouraged
him to return to Trinidad where
he did the state some service by
deprecating
a
black-power
movement which at the time was
discomfiting
the
government.
Now it is Williams w.ho must bear
the ultimate responsibility fo r
ordering his execution a
responsibility which
may be
difficult
to
bear
in
good
conscience.
Trinidad’s constitution pro­
hibits any “ cruel or unusual
treatment or punishment” and in
december last Michael X ’s lawyers
sought a declaration that his
sentence
was just
such an
unconstitutional punishment. The
registrar agreed to set the case
down for february 8, the earliest
date that Michael X ’s counsel,
Louis Blom-Cooper QC, could
argue it. But the government had
other ideas.
The
solicitor-general
went
secretly to a judge and demanded
the m otion be heard during the
Christmas vacation because it was
undesirable to keep Michael X in a
state o f uncertainty about his fate
(a consideration which has never
bothered
Dr
W i l l i a ms ’ s
government in relation to other
condem ned prisoners - I met one
man who had been in death row
since 1970). The judge obligingly
sat on December 28, when he
knew Michael X ’s counsel would
be unable to attend, and used this
non-attendance as a ground for
dismissing
the
m otion
as
“ frivolous and vexatious” .
Michael X, or Abdul Malik (the
name he assumed instead o f
Michael de Freitas when he joined
the black-power movement etc), is
the centre o f attention on death
row. He is under continual
observation: the light in his cell is
never switched o ff. This seems to
disconcert the warders more than
Michael X - eight have asked for
transfers since his arrival.
There is n o sympathy fo r him
in Trinidad - he is regarded as an
unholy
amalgam
of
Charles
Manson and Ronnie Kray: the
more credulous believe he is the
devil incarnate, while even learned
counsel fo r one o f his co-accused
felt it necessary to read books on
dem onology before he could
master his brief.
Yet the mercy pleas from
America in the last month have
undoubtedly
embarrassed
the
government. They have com e not
on ly from leading black-power
figures like Angela Davis and Dick
Gregory, but from R oy Wilkins,
of
the
NAACP, and other
respected black civil rights groups
for whom a “ lynching”
in
Trinidad seems as contradictory as
a gas chamber in Israel.
Was
the
trial
political?
Adm ittedly the press coverage was
reprehensible
(one
frontpage
photograph depicted Malik with
devil’s horns superimposed) and
the attorney-general, who had
staked his political future on the
outcom e, prosecuted relentlessly.
More sinister was the sudden
illness o f the one pro-Malik juror,
who recovered mysteriously as
soon as he was discharged from
the jury. But otherwise the
prosecution o f Abdul Malik for
the murder o f Joseph Skerritt was
neither “ political” nor unfair; he
was certainly the logical suspect
for the crime. The trial judge
scrupulously excluded a good deal
of
prejudicial
evidence
and
provided no grounds fo r appeal
against the verdict. But to say the
trial was “ fair” does not mean
T
Michael X, the black pow er spokesman who came to prominence in Britain in the
60s. has never been popular with anyone, black or white. It is often argued that
he ripped o f f white libs in the name o f black politics , solely fo r self-aggrandise­
ment. I first m et him in 1 966 and saw him regularly until he left London fo r
Trinidad around 1 97 0. When the muddled reports reached m e o f corpses in the
coppice, I couldnt connect them with the warm and humorous Michael that I
knew. “A b o v e all, murder is a stupid crim e,’ ’ says Agatha Christie, and on these
grounds I can hardly see Michael as a machete man. His early letters from
Trinidad, before the murder charges, were full o f brisk plans fo r consolidating the
interests o f the West Indian p o o r , cheerful and conspiratorial, with no hint o f
murky domestic dramas. N ow Michael sits in death row. G E O F F R O B ERTSO N ,
an Australian lawyer at large, has made contact with Michael and files this report.
- R.N.
Statement written by Michael Abdul
Malik, Royal Gaol, Port o f Spain,
Trinidad, May 1972.
SLRs, self-loading sub machine guns.
Around the court stand 68 heavily armed
uniform men, inside are twelve more with
side arms and ten with riot staffs, I am
curious how many are around in civilian
The first part o f this little note may seem
dress. My lawyers are harassed directly
on the surface as a litany o f complaints,
and indirectly, like for example a three
but complaining as such is far away from
hundred dollar demand or personal viol­
my mind. I relate the following picture so
ence fo r a taxi bill or on the other hand a
you who are faraway may see and g et a
refusal by Immigration to allow my law­
clear picture o f what's really happening
yer's clerk entry into the country, noting
here.
by the way he had been in four times be­
First you must be aware that this is not a
fore, working and researching in my
criminal trial, it is political. Murder as a
defence. Mr Regis the clerk is an accredited
charge in relation to myself, is an absurd
m ember at Lincolns Inn, London. My
suggestion. When I was brought back to
situation is made difficult even more by a
Trinidad, I was put in a stone and concrete
hold up at gun point o f m y wife and seizure
cell six fo o t by twelve foot, with no bed
■o f my diaries and address book and her
or any other type o f furniture, this should
diary and address book by the police. The
speak for itself, I remained on the con ­
almost finished manuscript o f my new
crete floor for twelve days. My lawyers
book was seized and destroyed and strewn
made representations to the C hief Justice
about my yard by the Police when they
and the Prisons Commissioner and I was
occupied my property, I am not allowed
finally given a little bed with fibre filled
to write bar on two tiny forms weekly
mattress, no sheets or pillow case, this is
and there I must say nothing o f my health
the situation to this day three months
or weight or conditions in prison. I am not
later, our constitution states that as a
allowed to go into the sunlight for exercise
remand prisoner I am entitled to a light
as is the custom fo r other prisoners, nor
to read by, a copy o f the Quoran as a
can I get any answers as to why I must
Muslim, and the diet o f a Muslim, table,
endure such harsh punichment, particularly
chair, but none o f these things are
as I am not convicted o f any crime.
allowed me, my usual two hundred and
M y wife on occasion visited me here in
five to two ten pounds is now down to
prison in the company o f a local person,
159 one hundred and fifty nine, since
on leaving the prison they are picked up
coming in here I have not eaten any food,
by the police and interrogated as to what
I sometimes eat a few biscuits and milk or
"pert they are playing in the R evolution"
sugar water with a bit o f citrus squeezed
some
are kept for many hours, the result,
in it, this we call "juice", or a p iece o f
people
are very frightened. Even hotels
cheese or butter substitute.
have refused to grant accomodation to my
Sometimes I go fo r a week or nine days on
wife who is in an advanced state o f preg­
water only, it it over tftree months now
nancy. She was refused'admittance in 14
I am in this-situation. They say there will
hotels. I have since advised her to go, and
be a decision in about a year. I go to court
remain in Guyana, the country o f her birth,
now about three times a week on average.
with my four daughters.
To travel the 18 miles to court, I am escort­
The picture I have shown is one o f Trini­
ed by 25 armed policepxen with modern
dad today. This beautiful Caribbean coun­
try is now described as a police state, 14
years after independence from England,
our country has been in an officially
proclaimed State o f Emergency fo r the
past year. On my arrival in Trinidad Jan­
uary 1971 I began working on a Social
and Agricultural Programme, with large
gifts o f m oney from people like you John
Lennon and your wife Y oko Ono who
came and witnessed at first hand som e o f
our work, we were able to alleviate much
poverty in what is essentially quite a rich
country (oil rich). With hard work and
much patience I gained in passing a large
following o f the ordinary people and many
enemies, the present administration is
afraid. They are parading 24 or more wit­
nesses against me on one charge o f murder
that o f a local man, and 40 witnesses on
Another charge o f murder, this one being
an English woman. To defend m yself le­
gally in this protracted legal battle will
bear enormous costs which I cannot afford
at present two lawyers from St. Lucia, Mr.
Kenneth F oster and Mr. L eo Regis his
clerk who are knowledgeable o f the Car­
ibbean scene and who believe in my in­
nocence have taken up the cause at con­
siderable expense to themselves, they can
be reached at B ox 218 Castries, St. Lucia,
West Indies. Mr. Foster is also the leader
o f the opposition party in St. Lucia, I ask
o f you my friends to send to me at the
Royal Gaol, Port o f Spain, Trinidad, what
assistance y ou can, and hope that one day
we may see and serve each other again.
Yours in Peace,
Michael Abdul Malik. .
I wish to further request you to spread
this information and write me. M.
The retaining cost has been estimated at
25,000 dollars.
Michael X ’s letter smuggled to London OZ before the trial
that the defendant was properly
represented or that the whole
truth emerged. He wasnt, and it
didnt.
The strangest aspect o f the
Skerritt murder trial — and it
puzzles Michael X as much as
anyone else - was the tactics o f
his defence counsel. The only
direct
prosecution
evidence
against him was provided b y the
accomplice Parmassar who had
previously helped, in Malik’ s
absence, to kill Gale Benson. His
credibility as a witness could and
should have been destroyed by
recalling his part in that murder.
Incredibly, Gale Benson was not
mentioned at all in the whole
course o f the cross-examination.
With Parmassar’s testimony
undented, Malik’s only hope was
to go into the witness b o x and
maintain his innocence on oath.
Many hostile lawyers feared he
would outwit the attorney-general
and "sweet talk” at least one juror
(Trinidad
requires
unanimous
verdicts) into voting fo r an
acquittal.
To everyone's amazement, he
“ elected” not to give evidence - a
decision only taken, he now
Page 8 - T H E L I V I N G D A Y L IG H T S ,J a n u a ry 22 -28, 19 74
claims, on the strenuous advice o f
his counsel, a politician from St
Lucia w h o had offered his services
b y telegram shortly after Malik’s
arrest. “ I have never lost a murder
trial,” he boasted on arrival in
Trinidad - a phenom enon which
local lawyers put down to the fact
that he had never appeared in one
before.
What will be achieved b y
Malik’ s execution, planned with a
macabre sense o f timing for the
tuesday in february closest to the
anniversary o f Skerritt’s death? It
will certainly not rebut the
fashionable conspiracy theories
that Gale Benson was silenced
because she was working for MI6;
that Skerritt died a blackmailer’s
death; that the trial was rigged
and the juror poisoned.
Capital punishment in Trinidad
is hot just cruel and unusual, it is
positively barbaric. Since the
death penalty is automatic for
murder in die island and the
murder rate — in a country where
there is always a coconut-chopper
near at hand to end a rum
punch-up — is 25 times that o f
Great Britain, the m onkey cages
lining death row in the royal jail
are fully occupied. The only hope
for a condem ned man is the
inappropriately named "M ercy
Committee”
which
has not
actually shown any mercy since
1969. Its power to reprieve is
exercised b y several government
mi ni s t e r s
(in clu d in g
the
attorney-general,
who
would
normally have authorised the
prisoner’s prosecution) and four
w orthy citizens, such as the
secretary o f the Trinidad Turf
Club.
The Mercy Committee meets
on Wednesdays. If it turns dow n a
prisoner’s petition, he is topped
the
follow ing
tuesday.
The
decision is announced, without
forewarning, between one o ’clock
and fou r on thursday afternoon.
The inmates o f death row spend
each thursday in a state o f terror,
straining to hear the creak o f a
d oor which is only opened when
there is •a death warrant to be
read. The prison official entrusted
with this task strides up and down
the row o f tortured men, stops
suddenly at the cage o f the victim,
clears his throat and declaims:
“ In the name o f Queen
Elizabeth the Second by the
Grace o f G od o f Great BritainS
Northern Ireland and
the
British Dominions beyond the
seas Queen, Defender o f the
Faith, Greetings!”
He then reads the warrant,
(signed on the queen's behalf by
the governor general) a document
incomprehensible to any but the
17th century lawyers who drafted
it. At the end com es the good
news: Her Majesty has graciously
allowed the condemned wretch 24
Trinidad dollars (about $8) to
order the fo o d o f his choice provided he orders it then and
there.
A man who has just been told
he will hang by the neck until he
is dead is hardly in the m ood to
contemplate a menu, so the
queen’s largesse is usually spent
on icecream.
There follow s a daily ritual o f
greasing the trap and weighing the
condemned man. The form er
process, Michael X tells me, can
be clearly heard by everyone on
the row - a regular reminder o f
their own fate. The repeated
weighing
is
apparently
a
precaution lest to o much guzzling
o f her majesty’s icecream should
make the prisoner to o heavy for
the strength o f the rope, resulting
in
decapitation
instead
of
strangulation.
The ropes are im ported from
Birmingham (another tie with the
mother
country)
and
com e
packaged
specially
with
the
desired weight-range for their
human victim printed on the box.
A fter use they are recycled to the
Trinidad Blind Society, whose
members use the sisal for weaving.
Recently the society gratefully
accepted a rope used to hang a
blind man - one o f its members.
On monday relatives pay their
last respects across a thick wire
mesh - touching the condem ned
man is prohibited. Other prisoners
in the cramped row must endure
the ordeal as his loved ones wail,
scream and frequently have to be
carried out on stretchers. But
evening brings a visitor with more
sang-froid: the hangman. This
gentleman, I was told, is a
Jehovah’s Witness lay preacher,
who keeps his occupation a secret
from his wife and his church, as
both
have publicly deplored
capital punishment. His fee is 15
guineas per head.
At 5.30am on tuesday the
various court, government and
prison officials obliged to witness
the execution assemble and watch
while the naked prisoner takes his
last bath. He is then ordered to
dress in a white robe and hood,
and is led, looking for all the
world like a Ku Klux Klansman,
to a cell directly opposite the
gallows where his priest is waiting.
No tranquilliser except religion
is administered - while the priest
engages his attention tw o guards
suddenly seize him, drag him
across the narrow passage o f death
row, and string him up. (Michael
claims that the flying o f the trap
is distinctly heard by the other
condemned men. He has now
heard it six times himself).
The dead man must remain
suspended for a full hour, during
which the officials are served
breakfast in the death cell. One
eyewitness described to me how
they eat while in their midst the
body twists, as it were, slowly in
the wind. At the end o f the hour
the b od y is cut down and taken to
the prison hospital and its final
degradation: a slashing o f the
wrists and the tendons o f the feet
- probably an arcane symbolic
reference to the (‘quartering’ )
aspect o f the (‘hanging, drawing
and quartering’ ) o f more savage
days.
New statesman.
The author has been living in England
f o r several years. When h e visited
hom e over Christmas, he was shocked by
the aggression and sexism o f men friends
and acquaintances and agreed to
elaborate on these reactions f o r
TLD. It was delivered the day he
departed, with stem instructions n ot
to molest o r truncate the copy, to
which w e adhered. Although a little
pious and preem ptorily dismissive o f
distant scenes (such as the US), it is
undoubtedly an important contribution
in th e gropings towards male enlighten­
ment. T oo many men have been atrophied
by th e wom ens m ovem ent o r con ten t to
u tter tokenistic jargon from behind the
arras o f a trembling ego. M en against
Sexism sorts ou t the mind revolution­
aries from the jerk o f f gang, and
fu rth er discussion is warmly invited.
THE
MEN
AGAINST
SEXISM
MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND
HERE were scattered examples o f
men meeting together to discuss
sexism in 1972 and earlier, but it wasnt
really till june last year that any sort o f
movement got-under way. A conference
on “ Masculine Attitudes” was called by a
group o f Communist Party men - known
as “ Men Against Sexism” .
(Hearing about a CP mens group really
blew m y mind, because up till then I’d
thought the Marxist Left was completely
hostile to such things.)
T
AGAINST SEXISM
A blast at the local lads from an Australian brother living in England
Their program was (1 ) opposition to
the oppression o f wom en; (2 ) liberation
from the disadvantages o f masculinity;
(3 ) liberation from sexism as a counter­
revolutionary ideology; (4 ) for socialism
— without sexism. Attended b y about 50
men, the conference itself wasnt to o
good: everyone crow ded into one room,
listening to papers, follow ed b y mainly
academic-style argument on Engels on the
family.
There were some punctures in this
atmosphere (a man broke dow n and cried
while he played a tape about his own
sexist freakouts) and, despite everything,
a real optimism that something had start­
ed which was going to develop. Going
around the room, we learnt that there
were eight groups there, most o f them
local,
which
had
grown
out
of
community-based
politics
in
which
wom en, active in wom ens liberation, had
taken part and sparked o f f rethinking
among some men.
As well as planning another conference
six months ahead, a newsletter was set up
to be produced b y a different local group
each time. The first to appear was
brought out by a Birmingham group and
was called Brothers. I remember it chiefly
for the articles which lacked the usual
male leftie certainty and confidence and
recounted personal experiences which
opened
up a bit on the hidden
underworld o f the male ego.
A
very
tentative
and
nervous
beginning.
Six months later at the Birmingham
conference I was really knocked out by
how fast things had grown, and how
much w e'd all developed. A bout 150 men
were there, most from men’s groups
already in existence (about 20), but also
quite a few who said they’d com e along
because they wanted to join one or start
their own. There would probably have
been more, but the weekend clashed
(sadly) with a Gay Marxist conference in
Lancaster.
Fears that we would try and use the
conference to get our various lines across
usual male leftie style - proved
groundless. Quite spontaneously, no one
wanted big meetings, agendas, papers,
workshops even. Instead we form ed into
small fluctuating groups dotted here and
there. When everyone did briefly com e
together on the last day, we mainly
listened to accounts o f what each group
had rapped about.
Extract from m y ow n impressions:
Never experienced such openness and
lack o f resistance from other men . . . we
avoided responding ideologically . . . we
were all listening hard, even to those with
whom we politically disagreed (a rare
thing) . . . If meetings and conferences
color our general politics, then some real
change is underfoot. A far cry from those
meetings dominated by a few, full o f
aggressive argument, and men competing
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , January 22 -28, 1 9 7 4 - P a g e 9
MEN AGAINST SEXISM
and defining themselves in opposition to
other men. Isnt this change bound to
affect how we behave at work, in strike
situations or in comm unity action?’
The conference was seen as an
exchange
point
and stimulus
to
grass-roots struggle on the level o f small
groups. Here’s a resume o f a report from
the Leeds men’s group given out at the
conference:
We havent tried to hammer out a
coherent
ideology or
political
manifesto,
although we do
see
ourselves as trying to break new
ground politically. At present we come
together because the struggle against
sexism is relevant to us. We feel the
need to extend our struggle more
widely, but are wary o f this leading us
to treat our meetings as crash-courses
in anti-sexism to be rapidly followed
by the Real Business o f trying to build
a mass movement amongst all those
“ unliberated” men. We expect our
consciousness-raising and the work o f
getting behind our masculine masks to
be long and painful and at times
threatening . . . Maybe we w on’t
always need the meeting structure and
can com e together in other ways, but
in some form collective consciousnessraising needs to go on all the time . . .
POLITICAL
MEN: By december
anti-sexism had
made inroads at a
national conference o f people active in
libertarian class-struggle politics. It was
called mainly to discuss strategies for the
winter offensive now in progress (miner’s
overtime ban, etc), lone o f the groups
(Islington) proposed that the men discuss
separately the extent to which we could
practically make anti-sexism basic to
every struggfe we were involved in
(whether around
factories,
housing,
squatting, social security, the law, free
schools, Northern Ireland).
What happened when we split o ff from
the women was mindblowing: for the
first half o f the meeting it was as if we
were trying to justify ourselves politically
to this invisible panel o f hostile male
lefties. We talked about the Political
Value in men developing more trust and
solidarity (less political disunity in crisis
situations),
the Political
Value in
demasculinising (after all the masculine
w ay
we
project
o u rs e l v e s
as
class-conscious men alienates a lot o f
ordinary people), the Political Value in
ceasing to go about our political work
compulsively and busily (which wrecked
us psychologically in the long-term and
fucked up our personal lives). We also
talked about how Radicalising it was for
those o f us working around industry to
raise with male workers the issue o f their
domestic situation, since sexism at home
com m only had a conservatising effect
(“ Sorry, I can’t go on strike occupation
with you lads, I’ve got a wife and kids to
support you know ” .)
Then suddenly we realised what we
were doing. A ll this JUSTIFYING! So we
started to talk about the fears leading us
to d o that. Most q f us, it turned out, had
a very strong fear that to make anti-sex­
ism basic to our everyday lives would
de-politicise us: eg. spending time around
babies and playgroups would subtract
from energy we could/should be putting
into agitating in the workplace or
community. I call it the "pram on the
building
site
syndrome”
after
an
experience described by one brother from
London: While agitating around some
building site, he reckoned the men
working there had stopped taking him
seriously when he turned up one day
wheeling a pram (it was his turn to look
after the baby).
We ended up talking more about our
feelings about ourselves and how we’d
had to change in order to become
political. We now at least realise that we
will often have to decide against male
priorities in our political work.
CAY
LIBERATION
AND
THE
MEN’S
MOVEMENT:
In
England,
relations between men in the GLF and
men in men’s groups are still very unclear.
The gay movement is presently going
through a period o f flux (some men at
the last Gay Marxist Conference argued
that GLF had capitulated to capitalism).
Men’s groups which include both
“ gays” and “ straights” seem to have
generated a lot o f consciousness o f the
need to break down these stereotypes.
Some o f us have attacked the GLF for its
pro-masculine ideology. Some men in the
GLF, on the other hand, have expressed
suspicion o f men’ s groups, seeing them as
the latest tactic by straights to pacify gay
militancy, and as the Labor Party o f the
sexual revolution. One key issue seems to
be: Do men need to feminise and in what
ways (obviously not by imitating women
we’ve enslaved)? On this issue, men in
both movements split different ways.
Maybe literature from the Effeminists in
the States will provoke more debate soon.
MEN AND SEXUAL POLITICS: Most
o f us at the december Birmingham
conference seemed to agree on the need
to change our patterns o f sexual and
emotional relating - to break with the
“ performance principle” . It was amazing
how many men who carrie over as normal
practising heterosexuals spoke about
sexual hangups. We talked a lot about
what was sexist about how we fuck and
what we can d o about that (about things
like needing to be always in control, etc);
about the masculine priorities o f existing
sexual freedom ideologies; about relating
to women as sex-objects. (Some o f us had
got a lot out o f reading a turgid but
exciting pamphlet — put out by a mixed
collective from London entitled
Politics o f Sexuality in Capitalism. (All
pamphlets m entioned in article available
from Rising Free, 197 Kings Cross road,
London, WC1.).
MEN A N D LIVING COLLECTIVELY:
We all seemed to agree that the nuclear
family structure was basic to our sexism.
Struggling with our sexism meant consid­
ering collective living. Men there with ex ­
perience o f living collectively warned that
there was nothing magically anti-sexist
about living that way, it depended on how
you did it. Another problem was that
you could just develop a feeling o f co m ­
placent superiority to men living in
couples or nuclear families. All the same
it did give more scope for potentially
breaking dow n sexist roles and structures
in relationships. But we all had to struggle
from where we were.
Phew! It’s impossible to say how
things will develop from here. With the
increasing
cycle
of
industrial and
com m unity crisis, it seems essential for
Men Against Sexism to link up more with
wider struggles against capitalism. Maybe
the next conference at easter will make
things a bit clearer. . .
j g NT|
MOVEMENT
IN
THE
T ’S WORTH mentioning some Eng­
lish reactions to stuff com ing out
from the States. Som e o f us were influen­
ced in the early stages by the pamphlet
Unbecoming men. (We dug it when we
first read it, now we tend to dismiss i t . . .
there’ s something fishy about that.) With
experience o f our ow n, we've becom e
more critical.
MEN'S LIBERATION ?: There’s a re­
jection o f the way some men’ s groups in
the States — and in England - talk about
Male/Men’s liberation. It’s felt this gives a
totally false impression that men’s o p ­
pression is on a par with wom en or
blacks. A t the last conference in Birming­
ham most o f us felt we should keep
central what we are against, and to focus
our attack on how and w hy masculine
superiority works fo r capitalism:
“ ‘Liberation’ has a historically and so­
I
Page 10 - T H E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S , january 22-28, 1974
cially determined meaning . . . Our
‘ oppression’ does not parallel that
which is suffered b y wom en or colon ­
ised people, or racial minorities. Their
struggle has given a new meaning to
the word ‘ liberation’ , and to use it for
our purposes would be to distort its
meaning . . . It would be a travesty for
us to use it.”
(extract from Men against sexism
Newsletter).
HUMANISM: Also a lot o f the stuff
coming from the States seems marred by
a misleading humanism. On the one ex­
treme this takes the form o f men crying
“ We’re oppressed t o o ” . This they d o to
the extent that they becom e mere trans­
mitters o f stress within a total system.
This leads to the picture that men are also
to be pitied, since they suffer. While it’s
true that we to o are dehumanised by
sexism, many o f us feel it’s hopeless to
try and base a men’ s movement struggle
on this. It suggests that men should seek
for solutions within their ow n psyches on
an individual basis. Johnny Cash here we
com e?
Another trouble with this picture is
that it makes out that in struggling
against their sexism men will have noth­
ing to lose and everything to gain (like
being more human). Whereas it seems to
us that most men have a real stake at
present in hanging on to their power and
privileges, since the alternatives seem so
threatening. T o give up dominance is
going to entail, at least in the immediate
future, loss and pain and disorientation.
Ego-dissipation. A lso it may mean a lot o f
attacking other men and refusing to
collude in their oppressive games.
At the other extreme this humanism
leads to the view that men are solely and
simply oppressors. Like all masters, they
may be fucked up, but they’re not
oppressed. Such pessimism against men
changing is nothing new. It’s com m on in
sections o f the w om en’s movement.
Amongst men it’s recently arisen as part
o f a male guilt reaction against feminist
attacks ("G o d , we’ re such sexist shits
. . . “ I wish I were a woman, then I ’d
have a cause” ). This view ignores how
men are oppressed b y sexist structures,
even if lightly, compared with women
(only Real Men make good soldiers, etc.).
But mainly it’s such a convenient cop-out
determinism: if men are inherently o p ­
pressors then there’s no point in trying to
change. This just diverts attention away
from how we daily choose to actively
support sexist structures. In any case,
since when has being white (= oppressor)
been a reason for acquiescing in racism.
Or being a first world citizen (= oppres­
sor) a reason for acquiescing in imperial­
ism. (In the sexist class-war our slogan is:
DESERT!)
CLASSLESSNESS: Since they’ re less
oppressed b y capitalism, middle-class men
are often better placed to begin a struggle
against sexism. But much o f the literature
from the States seems slanted towards
perpetuating a narrow middle class base.
Much o f it is academic and offputting for
working-class men. It may seem difficult
(especially in the States) to get revolu-'
tionary sexual politics to take root
amongst working-class men, but it’s vital
- if a men’ s movement is to seek mass
change through class struggle, that is.
There are, anyway, weak links in the
chain o f working class sexism. In the
meantime, middle-class men need to re­
think using academic jargon, cos isnt that
part o f their sexism (words are sometimes
more powerful than muscles)?
Classlessness especially seems to dog
the Effeminist movement. Their Mani­
festo, for example (which has a lot o f
circulation in gay circles in Australia, I’m
told), mentions not a word about how
sexism is affected b y capitalism, gives
econom ic and political control to a few
and exploits the majority. Instead it talks
about an abstract "M ale Principle” . All
oppression is reduced to sexist oppres­
sion, all anger is directed against mascu­
linity and none against the Monster
whose belly w e’re still in.
MEN AGAINST SEXISM IN AUS­
TRALIA.
READ
somewhere that Frank
Hardy says that the Australian
male, despite mateship, unionism and all
the rest, is one o f the loneliest people in
the world. Maybe that’ s exaggerated, but
until I left for England six years ago I
felt pretty lonely, even when I had
ongoing relationships. It wasnt till recent­
ly when I got involved in a men’s group
(in England) that I’ve felt less isolated.
In Australia for a brief visit that male
loneliness has com e back to me with a
bang. I keep on picking up on what I was
like when I lived here and how much o f
my old male self I still am. Like here I am
about to criticise sexism amongst men
here as if I was in this superior less-sexist
position. And sitting here, pen erect,
setting out to write in the very aggressive
way I want to criticise!
0 Coming back it didnt surprise me to
find that down under wom en are still
kept just so — down under. What did
surprise me, however, was how rampant
sexism still seemed amongst the male left
and the male counterculture. (It’ s men in
these scenes I want to concentrate on .)
I have heard about some striking ex­
ceptions: like the way the BLF has made
sexism an issue within some unions;
like some o f the discussion about sex­
ism at the last worker’s control con ­
ference in Newcastle. But generally the
struggle against sexism seems virtually
non-existent outside the w om en’s move­
ment. Here for what they’re worth are
some o f the attitudes I’ve com e up
against talking to and observing men I’ve
met out here:
ATTITUDES TO WOMEN'S LIBERA­
TION: I heard men talk a lot about the
wom en’s movement. I’ve com e away feel­
ing confused, because they were mostly
so negative about it. Sometimes I felt I
was in the midst o f a counter revolution
against it. Almost every male remark I
heard included somewhere a bit about
how “ they’ve got that/this wrong you
know” . I suppose I hoped men in these
scenes would at least be defensive. In­
stead they seemed to have an endless
stream o f reasons why w om en’s crit­
icisms didnt apply to them. They seem to
have manoeuvred so that they need not
see the wom en’s movement as affecting
them in the least.
I dont mean they said nothing pos­
itive. There was a lot o f lip service to the
wom en’s cause. This seemed, however, to
have little effect on the sort o f relation­
ships they were having with women, with
kids, with other men. They were dom in­
ating in discussion (often I felt the only
way I could talk to them was by adopting
their masculine style o f arguing), they
seemed to prize their masculine freedom
from things like childcare. After a while I
definitely began to feel I was some sort o f
freak who was taking the whole issue
much to o seriously.
It is this habit o f presenting themselves
as commentators - on something with
which they are not themselves concerned
- which stuck out most. All this stand­
ing back and authoritatively pronouncing
on what women in the wom en’s m ove­
ment should or should not be doing.
Whereas I felt that their commentator
position itself contributes to the bur­
den on women. A nd their own patterns
o f relating to other men (egotistical,
com petitive) were also rich sources o f
sexism? For many the whole issue o f
sexism had been twisted into little more
than a new supply o f jokes about male
chauvinist pigs and butch women.
1
ATTITUDES TO G A Y LIBERATION:
1 quickly came to see what gay brothers I
met meant by “ liberal” attitudes towards
them. Gay Liberation was OK as just one
o f many radical causes, but it wasnt
relevant to them. To them the issue raised
by gay militants was just whether or not
you fucked with other men. Most men
talked about gays as if they were a race
apart and about gayness as nothing to do
with them. They seemed to see being
“ gay” and “ straight” as chromosomally
determined. “ Hasnt gay liberation made
you think about the shit that’s involved
in being a masculine man?” , I asked.
SEXUAL LIBERATION?: An awful
lot o f the men I met saw sexual liberation
as something which only women needed.
They didnt seem to see their own pat­
terns o f sexual relating as alienated. I say
seem because most o f them were very
evasive about this topic. Made me feel
like a voyeur, actually.
Yet one way or another I heard a lot
o f references to fucking - fucking spoken
o f as something you d o to women (or
other men if y ou ’re gay), not with. A lot
o f rating o f people going on according to
whether they were “ g ood ” or "b a d ”
fucks. A lot o f sex jokes turning on
anxieties about how men perform in bed.
How much does this reflect men’s needs
to mostly be in control sexually? Why is
there such a horror o f any sort o f male
passivity?
I recognised a lot o f attitudes really
well because I still share many o f them.
My reaction wasnt so much shock as
sadness that men werent starting to talk
about them with other men. We’re never
going to get out o f these attitudes on our
own.
I sense that in the sexual sphere a lot
o f men see wom en’s liberation as basical­
ly about more benefits for men. For
instance, I was looking through an inter­
view Richard Neville did last year in
an issue o f POL he guest-edited. His
replies to questions about effects on him
o f wom en’s liberation included ones like:
“ I’m looking forward to the changes in
sexual etiquette. Ever since the Female
eunuch, I’ve been sitting round waiting
for a woman to slide her hand up my
trousers . . . ”
“ I’m personally enjoying the current re­
definition o f male-female relationships
. . . men are the first beneficiaries if
women can get their rocks o f f without
men, then we w on ’t have to pu ff and
pant so m uch.”
Maybe he's changed since he said this,
maybe he had his tongue in his cheek
(although that in itself is significant), but
reading this it’ s as if we were right back
with the sexual attitudes o f the late 60s with all their male priorities and male
values. How can freer fucking liberate
women or men so long as it leaves male
power intact?
Despite hearing a lot o f men criticising
“ nuclear couples” , most still seem to live
within a couple or else to feel unstable
outside o f one. Why d o the same com pul­
sive patterns recur and .recur? Why are so
few men trying to work out concrete
alternatives? What can we do about jeal­
ousy, com petition, possessiveness?
KIDS: I came out here with a year old
baby who six o f us have been rearing
collectively. I soon began to notice that
my being with this kid a lot made them
uneasy. They reacted as if I was getting at
them. I was. I think most o f the men I
met dont want anything to d o with kids
because they want to hang on to their
male privileges. In this sphere even men
on the left are the staunchest defenders
o f the status quo. After all, any change
from the present setup is going to mean
(G od forbid) men getting more involved
with kids. Because at the mom ent kids
are basically the responsibility o f women
(married or unsupported mothers).
OK maybe — I went on to o much
about the need for childless and single
men to decide politically to get involved
with kids. Maybe I was being to o doqmatic in saying that, but I certainly dont
want to make a revolution which still
leaves childrearing a private responsibility
o f women. But why did I have to?
Typical responses I got:
“ There’s enough kids around without me
breeding any” . (They dont consider
being involved with kids outside the
context o f raising their own family).
" I ’ve got more important things to do,
kids are a bore and time-consuming” .
(Women have more important things
to d o too, mate. By not sharing the
task around the comm unity, y o u ’re
blocking them.)
“ If wom en have kids, that’s their fault.”
(Oh yeah, why should contraception
be up to the woman alone? What
about vasectomy? And even if it were
a wom an’s fault for producing, how
does that relieve men o f responsibility
for sharing looking after kids once
they’re in the w orld?)
These kind o f responses strike me as
more or less oppressive according to the
situation o f men who made them (I ’m
told that with the rise in the unsupported
mothers pension, some freak men are
putting pressure on their wom en to pro­
duce so they can share in the handout).
There are signs o f some change. Eg.
the co-operative playgroup at the Victoria
street squat before they were evicted
involved several men, including some who
were not fathers, in taking their turn in
looking after the kids. One mother living
there with her tw o kids described the
effect o f this at a public meeting follow ­
ing the evictions: ‘ I was freed for the
first time to becom e politically involved.”
A small PS here: when men do start
involving themselves with kids, it’s not
necessarily a drag or a bore at all,
particularly if it’ s outside the usual pri­
vate family context: you can learn a lot
from kids, you might start feeling part o f
a (previously) hidden com m unity o f
childcare all around you — in the streets,
shops and buses.
MEN AMONG MEN: There’ s been
some really nice exceptions, but most
men I’ve observed behave towards other
men in aggressive, abrasive and interruptive ways . . . or quiet evasive ways which
hide their feelings. Friendships seem based
on respect for how each projects himself
to the other as possessing qualities they
both deem manly. All the intellectualising, and Politics with a big P. One way o f
communicating with other men, an en­
tirely different way with other women.
Brothers, where’s the mutual vulnera­
bility, collective commitment to change,
efforts to develop a language for expres­
sing our feeling and discussing our sexual
and emotional lives in a critical, support­
ive way? Funny thing is that I sense that
there is a positive side to mateship and all
that, but it’s usually so twisted up in
living up to each other’s sexist expecta­
tions, that it gets nowhere. And when the
idea arises o f men actively getting to­
gether to talk about sexism, a lot o f fears
and anxieties com e out (“ T hey’re self­
destructive, explosive, we can’t handle
them” ). |
j
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , January 22 -28, 1 9 7 4 - Page 11
A G U ID E T O W H A T 'S O N
IN T H E W E E K A H E A D
Australia” ,
atre.
MELBOURNE
Chris & Eva 51.9563 or
51.8214, write Flat 8. No 7
Irving Ave., Windsor, 3181.
tm
BLUES
FOLK
COMMUNE has folk oite.
580 Victoria street, North
Melbourne.
PETER
P A R K H IL L
Frank Tray nor’s,
Little
Lonsdale street, City.
JAZZ
D O V E : Prospect Hill hotel.
FILMS
“ A SAFE PLACE” (Henry
Jaglom)
and “ TAKING
OFF”
(Milos
Forman):
NFTA, Guild Theatre, Mel­
bourne Uni Union, 7.40.
« 1 .20, 80c (stu), or $7 ($5
stu.) for season ticket ob­
tainable at screening.
OUTDOORS
LU N C H TIM E
SQUARE
DANCE: Treasury gardens,
12.10pm and 1.10pm.
OPEN
A IR
SH AK E
SPEARE: Flagstaff gar­
d en s,
1 2 .1 0 p m
and
1.10pm .
TV
DUTCH
T IL D E R S :
Guests, Jams into the late
hours, Frank Traynor’s,
100 Little Lonsdale street,
City.
FOLK
ROCK
V A R IO U S
A R T IS T S :
Union hotel, cnr. Fenwick
and Am ess streets, N. Carl­
ton.
BUSHWHACKERS
AND
BULLOCKIES: Polaris Inn
h o t e l,
551
Nicholson
street, N. Carlton.
CHAIN: Matthew Flinders.
ABEL
LO D G E,
RED
HOUSE
ROLL
BAND:
Whitehorse hotel, Nuna­
wading.
UPP: Croxton Park, Pres­
ton.
TA N K, BILLY THORPE
AND
THE
AZTECS:
Waltzing Matilda, Springvale.
BOURKE AND W ILLS:
Powerhouse, Albert Park
Lake.
KUSH: St Albans hotel.
JAZZ
FRANK
TRAYNOR:
Beaumaris hotel.
S K Y L IG H T S :
Prospect
Hill hotel, Kew.
FILMS
FOLK
‘ ‘ H IR O S H IM A
MON
AM O U R ” (Resnais) and
“ PERSONA”
(Bergman):
NFTA, Guild Theatre, Mel­
bourne Uni Union, 7.40.
$1.20, 80c (stu.) or $7 ($5
stu.) for season ticket ob­
tainable at screening.
D Y L A N THOMAS MEM­
OIR: A BV2, 10.25.
SONNIE
TE RR Y
and
B R O W N IE
M cG H E E :
ABV2, 10.55.
LINK-UP ORIENTATION
NITE: 8.30, 59 St John
street, Prahran.
RADIO
TV
MUST
PROGRESS
S T R O Y : 3AR 10.15.
w
DE­
e c b te a ty
MEETINGS
UFO — FACT OR FIC­
TION?: HSV7, 7.30.
RADIO
PICK OF THE
3LO, 8.02pm.
GOONS:
ROCK
G A R Y YOUN G AND HIS
FAT CATST Whitehorse
hotel, Nunawading.
KUSH:
Croxton
Park
hotel, Preston.
BILLY THORPE: Southside-Six, Moorabbin.
RADIO
OUTDOORS
LUNCH TIM E
SQUARE
DANCE: Flagstaff gardens,
12.10pm , 1.10pm.
OPEN
A IR
SH AK E ­
SPEARE: Treasury gar­
dens, 12.10pm , 1.10pm.
JOHN CROW LE: Frank
Traynor’ s.
HUGH McEWAN, RICH­
ARD LEACH: Tankerville
Arms, Carlton.
GEOFF
AND
DIANE
H O L L IN S ,
C A P T A IN
M ATCHBOX
WHOOPEE
BA N D :
Dan O ’Connell,
Carlton.
JAZZ
OWEN Y E A T M A N : Prospect Hill hotel, Kew.
DAVE
R ANKIN
JA ZZ
BA N D : Alma hotel. Chapel
street, St Kilda.
F RAN K T R A Y N O R : Ex­
change hotel, Cheltenham.
TV
GTK 7 4 : MUSIC FESTI­
V A L : A B V 2, 7 .3 0 , Mike
McClellan and Slim Dusty.
THREE
DOG
NIGHT:
G TV9, 7.30 .
SIT YOUR SELF DOWN,
T A K E
A
LOOK
A R O U N D : A B V 2, 9.45.
Folk-rock.
A M ER R Y PROGRESS:
3A R , 1 1.10. Songs and
poetry.
ROCK
MISSISSIPPI: Whitehorse
hotel, Nunawading.
JOHN RUPERT AND THE
HENCHM EN:
Croxton
Park, Preston.
UPP, CH AIN : International
hotel. Airport West.
West.
OCKERS
ROCKERS:
Penthouse hotel, Broadmeadows.
HOT CITY BUMP BA N D :
Matthew Flinders hotel,
Chadstone.
A R IE L :
Station
hotel,
Prahran.
FOLK
BUSHWHACKERS
AND
BULLOCKIES: Polaris Inn
hotel, Carlton.
GRAEME
LOW NDES,
M I K E
O ’R O U R K E ,
C H R IS T Y
COONEY:
F rank
Traynor’s,
100
Little
Lonsdale
street,
City.
V ARIO U S A R TISTS: Out­
post Inn, 52 Collins street,
City.
JAZZ
Y A R R A Y A R R A JAZZ
BAND: Prospect Hill hotel,
Kew.
BRIAN BROWN QU AR ­
TET: Commune, 580 Vic­
toria street, N. Melbourne.
POETRY
F ITZR O Y POETRY MAR-
DANNY
SPOONER,
JOHN
and
JUANITA,
JOHN CROWLE: Frank
Traynors, 100 Little Lons­
dale street. City.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS: Out­
ATHON:
A nonym ous
poets had been seen going post Inn, 52 Collins st.
to the comer o f George City.
and Moore street, Fitzroy CARLL M YR IA D , M ARK
(St. Mark’s hall), to exploit L E AH Y, COMMUNE, 580
their potentials to the max­ Victoria st, N. Melbourne.
imum. Featuring bagpipes,
JAZZ
Geoffrey Egglestone and
Mai Morgan
Duo, and DA V E
RANKIN
JAZZ
other celebrities. 8 .3 0 , 60c. BA N D : Lemon Tree hotel,
Carlton.
FILMS
THE PLANT: Polaris Inn
hotel, 551 Nicholson st, N.
“ BLUE
ANGEL”
and Carlton.
“ M A R R Y ME, M A R R Y SKYLIGHTS (arvo) JUNC­
M E” : Trak, Late, 1 1.4 5 . TION
VILLAGE JAZZ
$2. Toorak road, Toorak. BAND, (eve): Prospect Hill
hotel, Kew.
TV
FILMS
IN
CONCERT:
HSV7,
“ THE PRIME OF MISS
10pm.
“ BORN TO K I L L ": Movie, JEAN BRODIE” : Athe­
naeum, late 1 0 .3 0 pm.
HSV7, 11.40pm .
“ STREET OF CH ANCE” :
ROCK
Movie, G T V 9, 12.05am .
HOME:
Icelands,
Ringwood.
F A N T A S Y : Croxton Park,
o a t iw id a u
Preston.
FOLK
ROCK
A YER S R O CK : Southside
Six, Moorabbin.
SID
RUM PO:
Canopus,
Box Hill.
M IS S IS S IP P I:
Matthew
Flinders hotel, Chadstone
(aft).
RON DELLS:
Whitehorse
hotel, Nunawading.
BIG PUSH: Croxton Park,
Preston.
AYERS R O CK : Southside
Six (Aft).
T A N K : Monash Uni.
KUSH : Matthew Flinders
(eve).
H OM E:
Station
hotel,
Prahran.
w u te (a &
FOLK
Go r d o n
M cIn t y r e ,
Twilight
the­
ttd a u
FOLK
PHIL
nors.
DAY:
Frank Tray-
JAZZ
TED VINING T R IO : Prospect Hill hotel, Kew.
OTHERS
POOR TOM’ S POETRY
BA N D : Commune.
N IA G G R A : La Mama.
ALL WEEK
KIDS
“ A L I-B AB A ” : Camberwell
Civic Centre, till sat, 10.15
am, 2 .1 5 pm, sat. 2.15
only, Reserve road, Cam­
berwell.
“ PUSS IN BOOTS” : Ac­
tor’s theatre, mon-sat, 2.30
pm, child.
75c, adults
$1.50,
196
Church st,
Richmond.
“ PETER PAN” : Footscray
Grand, till sun. 1.30 pm,
ch eck
w ith
cinem a,
6 8 .1 1 3 8 ,
Paisley street,
Footscray.
“ R U M P E L S T IL S K IN ” :
Alexander theatre, Monash
uni, 10 am, 2 pm, phone
54 4 .0 8 1 1 for further de­
tails.
D A N N Y SPOONER and
GORDON
M cINTYRE:
THEATRES
Frank Traynors, 100 Lt
Lonsdale st, City.
MARG
ROADKNIGHT “ W ALTZIN G M A T IL D A ” :
and
GUESTS:
Outpost Pram Factory, wed, sun,
8 .3 0 ,
matinees
wed,
Inn, City.
fri & sat, 2 pm, a national
with tomato
EXPERIMENTAL pantomime
sauce, $ 2.50, $1.50 (stu),
MELBOURNE
NEW
325 Drummond st, Carl­
MUSIC ENSEMBLE: Com
ton.
mune, N. Melbourne.
“ A F R IC A ” : Back Theatre,
Pram Factory, thurs-sat,
10.30 pm. A savage rock
MEETINGS
musical by Steve Spears,
“ THE GALACTIC SAFA­ $2, see above address.
RI” : Mr Hal Steel, TheoFILMS
sophical Society, 88 Col­
lins st.
“ SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 ”
(M) & “ SHOOT O U T”
OUTDOORS
(M): Carlton cinema, thurs“ SALUTE TO A U STRA ­ sun, T.45, 90c Faraday
L IA ” : Fitzroy gardens, 3 street, Carlton.
pm. Complete with pomp “ PERFORM ANCE” : Trak,
and ceremony. “ Films of 6 pm & 8 .30 pm.
SYDNEY H H
Stephen Wall 698.2652
PO Box 23, Surry H ill*
BOOK NOW"
ROCK
DAVID CASSIDY and sup­
porting group: The Peptic
Ulcers. Rand wick, 2 pm,
march 2, $4.20 each. Send
to David Cassidy Concert,
PO box 346, Haymarket,
2000.
ROD STEWART and the
Faces:
Randwick
race­
course, february 1, 8 pm,
$5.20. Book at usuals.
FILMS
21ST
SY D N E Y
FILM
FE STIVA L: june 1974.
Ring 6 6 0 .3 9 0 9 (BH), for
mailing list.
FESTIVALS
A D E L A ID E
FESTIVAL
OF AR TS: Ring Sydney
25.2641 for a booking bro­
chure.
CONTEMPORARY
LEE C O N W A Y , M AR IAN
HENDERSON,
JOH N
CURRIE and others: Ope­
ra
House,
february 1,
$3.50, $ 5.00, $ 6.50, 8 pm.
ALL WEEK
EXHIBITIONS
M ARILYN MONROE E X ­
HIBITION — over 160
photographs:
Angus
&
Robertson, 207 Pitt street,
Sydney, 1st floor. Free,
business hours only.
“ INDONESIA T O D A Y ” —
the largest display o f Indo­
nesian culture ever exhibitfed in Australia: The Aus­
tralian Museum, 10 am-5
pm, adults 20c, kids 10c
(except sat, sun, mon).
FILMS
“ CAESAR AND ROSA­
LIE” : Wintergarden, Rose
Bay, mon-fri, 4 pm-8 pm,
$ 2.00.
“ ■THE
HIRELING”
—
Sarah Miles: Village Twin,
2, 5.30 , 8 .3 0 , sun, 5.30,
8.30 , $2.50.
“ C R YSTAL V O Y A G E R ” :
Manly Silver Screen, 7.30
and 9 .3 0 , $2.00.
“ THE
MAGIC
CHRIS­
T IA N ” :
Manly
Silver
Screen, 5 .30 pm, $1.50
(except tues, wed).
“ TR ASH ” and “ FLESH” :
New Arts, Glebe, all week
except tues, wed. Sat, sun,
3.00, 7 .30 pm; mon, thurs,
fri, 4 & 8 pm. $2.00.
“ WATTS
TAX”
and
“ DIR TY
LITTLE
B ILLY” : Academy Twin,
Paddo, 3 3.4453, 2, 4, 7 .45
pm, $2.50.
“ THE
CANTERBURY
T A L E S ” — an erotic clas­
sic: Embassy, 1 1.00, 2.00,
5.00, 8 .00, sun, 1.30 , 4.30,
7.30,
KIDS
SUMMER ACTIVITIES —
drama,
dance, painting,
puppetry, karate: New the­
atre, 5 19 .3 40 3 (except sat,
sun, mon).
C R E A T IV E
LEISURE
CENTRES: Ring 6 1 .2 4 6 2
for details o f play groups
in your area.
SCHOOL
H O L ID A Y
CRUISES: No. 4 jetty Cir­
cular Quay, 2 .30 return
4.30, 50 cents.
“ THOSE
DARLING
YOUNG MEN IN THEIR
JA UNTY
JALOPIES” :
M anly
Silver
Screen,
9 7 7 .5 5 0 3 , 11 am. Sat, sun,
2 pm, 60 cents (except
tues, wed).
CHILDRENS MATINEES:
Manly Silver Screen, 2 pm,
info 9 7 7 .5 5 0 3 , 60 cents.
TA R O N G A ZOO: Feeding
times — Alligators, 1.30
pm, sun, thur; lions 2 pm,
daily (except fri); seals,
2 .45 pm, daily. Take ferry
from No. 5 wharf. Every
day 9 .30 am-5.00 pm.
$ 1.50, kids 40 cents.
“ PETER PAN” — Walt Dis­
n ey:
Forum, 211 .1 95 5 .
Mon-fri, 9 .30 am, 11.45,
2.30, 5.10, 8 .0 0 ; sat, 11, 2,
5, 8 pm.
“ TOM SA W Y E R ” — Fami­
ly musical film: Paris the­
atre, 61.9 1 93 . 11, 2, 5, 8
pm; sun 1.30, 3.30 pm.
“ THE ADVENTURES OF
SARAH THE COOK” —
Holiday Panto: Rockdale
town hall, 1 0.3 0 am, 2 pm.
Adults $ 1.60, kids 90
cents.
ROCK
RENE
GAYER
AND
MOTHER EARTH, special
guests THE DRIFTERS:
Whiskey, 8 pm-3 am.
SILVER CLOUD: Stage­
coach, 8 pm-3 am.
PLACES
OLD CHURCH: Drop in to
tea house and library, 2
pm to 11 pm, tue9-fri only.
THEATRE
“ LOVE FOR L O V E ” by
William Cosgreve: Opera
House,
info
6 6 3 .6 1 2 2 ,
8.00 pm, $ 5 .5 0 , pension­
ers,
students,
children
$2.7 5 (except sun).
“ JACK SHEPPARD OR
ANYTH ING
YOU SAY
WILL BE TW ISTED” : En­
sem ble,
9 2 9 .8 8 7 7 ,
all
week, 8 pm, sat 5 .00 pm,
8 .00 pm.
“ TOOTH OF CRIME” — A
savage sendup o f the pop
scene with 50s rock music:
3 3 .3 9 3 3 , tues, sun, 8 .3 0 ;
fri, sat, 5 .30, 8 .4 5 pm.
“ W H AT IF Y O U DIED
TO M O R RO W ” by David
Williamson: : Elizabethan
theatre, 5 1 .7 4 7 1 , 8 .1 5 pm,
$4.70, $ 3 .7 0 , $ 2.70.
tu e & d a y
SY D N E Y CO-OP film pro­
grammes. See opposite.
JAZZ, BLUES
M ERV ACHESON JA ZZ
TRIO: Bistro, Avoca st,
Randwick.
DICK HUGHES PIANO:
French’s tavern, Oxford st,
6-9 pm.
DON
DE
S IL V A : Old
Push.
ECLIPSE A L L E Y FIVE:
Vanity Fair hotel: Goulbum st, 7 .3 0 to 1 0 .0 0 pm.
CLASSICAL
“ THE MAGIC FLU TE ” —
Mozart (in English): Opera
House, 3 5 7 .1 2 0 0 , 8 pm,
$ 7 .5 0 , $ 2 .5 0 .
“ N E IL
W ILLIAMS
&
ELENA ALLP O R T” : Jim
Clifford, Jill Clifford and,
others: Opera House, info
2 1 1 .2 6 4 6 , 8 pm, $ 4.00.
“ BARBER OF SE V IL LE ”
— Film with Tito Gobbi
and Irene Gehna: Union
theatre, Sydney uni. 8 pm.
ROCK
CLOUD
NIN E , M A T A H A R I: Chequers, 8-3 am.
THEATRE
“ LOVE FOR L O V E ” by
William Congreve: Opera
House, 6 6 3 .6 1 2 2 for info,
8.00 pm. $ 5.50, pension­
ers,
students,
children
$ 2 .7 5 .
FILM
tv e d tte M
fa #
JAZZ, BLUES
MODERN JA Z Z - PETER
BOOTHMAN:
Limeric
Castle, 2 1 1 ,1 4 0 1 , 7 .30 pm.
GOLD
TOPS:
Fiddler’s
V in e ,
115A
Cronulla
street, Cronulla, 5 2 3 .8 0 1 9 ,
7.30 -1 0 .
DICK HUGHES Q U A R ­
T E T: Stage Door Tavern,
cnr. Castlereagh street &
Campbell street. City, 7 .00 10 pm.
CHRIS TAPPERNAC and
D A V E FURNISS: Forest
Lodge hotel, 7 .3 0 -1 0 .0 0
pm.
MERV ACHESON TR IO:
Bellevue
hotel,
Paddo,
7 .00 -1 0 pm.
“ HEAT” ,
“ LONESOME
COWBOYS” : New Arts,
Glebe, 6 6 0 .4 2 5 0 , 12, 4, 8
pm, $2.00.
TV
“ M OVING O N ” — Drama
about farming and bank­
ruptcy: Chan. 1 0, 8.30.
“ SIT YOURSELF DOWN
“ T A KE A LOOK A R O U N D
— Bernard Bucan, Marian
Henderson, John J. Fran­
FILMS
cis, Alan Luchetti: Chan.
“ THE COSMIC TUBE” —
2, 8 .50 pm.
Surfing
movie:
Opera
“ H O R IZO N ” — Looks at
House, 4 .00 pm, $2.00.
the life living on humans —
(Except this sun, mon.)
bacteria and minute ani­
“ SUNSHINE
SEA ”
—
mals: Chan. 2, 9.20 pm.
More, Surf and Foam:
‘ •THE FIRE CHASERS” —
Opera House, 6 .30 pm.
crime story with a cast of
$ 2 .5 0 . (Except tues, sun,
unknowns: Chan. 7, 10.00
mon.)
pm.
N FTA WOMENS SERIES
THE
BEST
M AN”
—
CLASSICAL
— Marlene Dietrich in
Henry Fonda, Cliff Robert“ Knight without Armor”
on, Margaret Leighton —
and “ Destry Rides Again” : “ N A BUCCO” by Verdi: political drama by Gore
Opera
House, Darlinks,
Aust. Govt. Centre theatre,
Vidal: Chan. 2 , 10.15 pm.
7.15 pm. $ 1.2 0 , (members 8.00 pm. $ 2.5 0 to $7.50. “ DUBLIN NIGHTM ARE” :
“ MADAME
BUTTER­
only join at door $3.00).
Chan. 10, 1 1 .1 0 pm.
F L Y ” Film with Royal
“ H E AT” ,
“ LONESOME
O pera
House,
Rome:
COW BOYS” : New Arts,
DISTRACTIONS
Union
theatre,
Sydney
Glebe.
6 6 0 .4 2 5 0 ,
4.00,
Uni, 8 .00 pm.
8 .00 pm.
POETRY R EAD IN GS: Old
“ A
CONCERT
FOR
Church, 1 84 Palmer street,
FOLK
BANGLADESH ” :
Opera
East
Sydney,
31.6270,
House, 9 .0 0 pm, $2.50,
8 .00 pm. Free.
T R AD IT IO N AL
FO LK :
(except tues, sun, mon.)
Elizabeth hotel, 2 6 .3 1 3 2 .
DARTS KELIMOCUM —
TV
M ixed
fol k.
Bernard
“ FREE AND E A S Y ” — Bocan,
Bill
Moyinhan,
Surfing special: Chan 7, 11 Jeannie Lewis, A1 Ward,
pm.
Dave Dehward, Eric Davis,
“ COMMANDOES STRIKE and it’s booming: Eliza­ JAZZ
AT D A W N ” — War movie: b e th
hotel,
Elizabeth
Chan 7, 9 .0 0 pm.
street, City, 8 pm. Price — PORT JACKSON JAZZ
“ THE
ERNIE
SIGLEY a mere pittance.
BAND: Stage Rock Tav­
SHOW” — Almost certain­
ern, 7.00, 1 0.0 0 pm.
ly the worst (best!) variety
UNITY BAND: Old Push,
ROCK
show
in
the
country.
8-12 pm.
Chemical aids will help: CLOUD
NINE,
M ATAChan 9, 9.00 .
CLASSICAL
H A R I: Chequers, 8-3 am.
SUMMERTIME CINEMA PUMA:
Brighton hotel,
— “ A PAIR OF BRIEFS” : 7-10 pm.
“ THE MAGIC FLUTE
Chan 2, 7 .30.
Opera House, see tues.
T R A N SIT IO N :
O ceanic
“ THE
CREEPER”
— hotel. Coogee, 7-10 pm, “ A ID A ” — film o f Verdi’s
Mystery/Horror
movie :i free.
opera
starring
overseas
Chan 1 0, 1 1 .1 0 .
heavies.
Union
theatre,
“ A CRY IN THE NIGHT”
Sydney
uni,
8.00*
pm.
THEATRE
— Drama with Raymond
Burr, Natalie W ood: Chan “ LO V E FOR
FOLK
L O V E ’*:
10, 8.30 pm.
M a tin e e
show,
Opera
“ V O Y A G E TO THE END House, 2 .0 0 pm, $4.50,
AUST,
SCOT,
IRISH,
OF THE S E A ” — Around pensioners etc, half price.
COUNTRY MUSIC: Red
the world single handed.
Lion hotel, cnr. Pitt and
D oco: Chan 1 0, 7.30 pm.
Liverpool sts, City, about
8-10 pm.
ROCK
S.F .A .:
Fiddler’s
Vine,
7.30-10 pm.
CLOUD NINE, Matahari:
Chequers, 8—3am.
T R A N S IT IO N :
Oceanic
hotel, Coogee, 7 -10 pm.
Free.
HUSH — Farewell perform­
ance: Brighton hotel, 7-10
pm. Free.
FILMS
NFTA “ W OMEN” SERIES
— Ingrid Bergman, “ Gas­
light” and “ Casablanca” :
Aust. Govt. Centre theatre,
7 .15 pm, $1.20. Members
only. Join at door for
$3.00.
SIR KENNY CLARK —
fourth o f a series o f X + l
called
“ Civilisation” .
A
much ballyhooed show on
Kultcha. Good viewing be­
sides: Art Gallery o f NSW,
12.10, 1.10 , 2.10 , 3.10,
6 .1 0 , 7.10. Free.
TV, RADIO
COM M ONW EALTH
GAMES — live. Running,
jumping
and
jingoism:
Chan. 2, 2.15 pm.
“ GTK ’74 SPECIAL”
Captain
Matchbox
Whoopee Band: Chan. 2,
7.30 pm.
BRIAN CADD AND FAM­
IL Y : Chan. 2, 8 .00 pm.
“ WRONG ARM OF THE
LA W ” — comedy film with
Peter Sellers (worth watch­
ing): Chan. 10, 8.30 pm.
“ DIVORCE
IT A L IA N
S T YL E ” : Chan. 7, 9.00
pm.
“ LAUGHTER
INCOR­
PORATED” , ABC radio
(BBC) — “ Pick of the
Goons” , 8.02 pm, “ Round
the Home” , 8 .3 0 pm, “ The
Navy Lark” : 9 .3 0 pm.
“ THE JAYH AW K ERS” —
Western: Chan. 9, 10.30
pm.
“ LUCRETIA BORG IA” —
sex, politics and pomp:
Chan. 7, 1 1 .0 0 pm.
EVENTS
CHEAP FOOD, organic
fruit? N o! Organic veg?
Listings are free. C o p y closes T h u rs d a y b e fo re p u b lic a tio n .
h ACCESS
Second Stage — 12 noon
Poor T om ’s Poetry Band;
Merrilyn
Lambert;
Rod
Freeman Smith and Moses
from the Pram Factory;
“ A F R IC A ” , Pram Factory;
Rob Ducat (folk); Vic­
torian Ballet (rock ballet);
Limehouse.
Sunday
Main Stage — 10 am-3 am
Matt Taylor; Madder Lake;
Mackenzie Theory; Kush;
Linda George; Ross Ryan;
Dingoes; Captain Match­
b ox; Rock Mass.
Sunbury . . . getting their shit together.
S U N B U R Y . Lives
again
with fo u r nights o f rock,
folk, blues and jazz. Just
about
every
M elbourn e
muso will appear, with
D addy C o o l re-form ing spe-t
da ily to play on Saturday
night. Drama, folk, and
ja zz will be alm ost c o n ­
tinuous on a seco n d stage.
A rts and crafts will be
dem onstrated
and
sold,
and hamburgers will be in
abundance. There will be a'
Milk Bar, fruit shop, health
fo o d s and grog shop on
site,
spacious
camping
grounds and m ore toilets.
A ll fo r only $12 (cheaper
than th e H ilton and m ore
u n com forta ble). T here will
p rob ab ly be changes b e fo r e
the
festival (3 X Y
will
broadcast reports from the
site), but here is the p r o ­
gram at th e tim e o f going
to press:
No! Organic paper bags?
Dont be silly!! Uni NSW
Food Co-op for all/none of
the above, 5 pm-8 pm,
STREET” : Chan. 9, 11.00.
“ PARANOIAC” : Spooky
movie,
truly brilliant!!!
Chan. 1 0, 8.30 pm.
f a
FILM MAKING W ORK­
SHOP — 16 mm facilities
for interested people: Old
Church,
East
Sydney,
3 1.6270, 8 .00 pm. Free.
SUNBURY
FESTIVAL
EVENTS
t t y
JAZZ
JA ZZ BOAT — Ray Price
Jazz Band: No. 6 wharf,
Circular Quay,
8
pm,
$2.75.
T RAD JA Z Z — Kevin
Goody: Limerick Castle,
2 1 1 .1 4 0 1 , 7 .30 pm.
CHRIS W ILLIAMS: Unity
Hall hotel, 8 2.1 3 31 , 7.30
pm.
DOC
WILLIS:
Albury
hotel, Oxford street, City,
8.10 pm. Free.
UNITY BAND: 01<^ Push.
CLASSICAL
“ CAVALLERIA
RUST IC A N A " and PAGLIACCl” — 3xh hours, so be
prepared: Opera House,
info 3 5 7 .1 20 0 , 8.00 pm,
$2.50 to $7.50.
“ DON G IO VAN N I” — film
of Mozart’s little number:
Union theatre, Sydney uni,
8 .00 pm.
FOLK
A U ST.
SCOT.
IRISH
C O U N T R Y : Red Lion, see
thurs.
CELLAR F O L K : YW CA,
189 Liverpool street, City,
8 pm.
T R A D IT IO N A L
FOLK:
Elizabeth hotel, 2 6.3 1 32 .
DON M ORRISON: Freud­
ia n
Slip,
Redfern,
6 9 9 .1 7 3 6 , 7.00 pm.
DISTRACTIONS
BAND ASSOCIATION OF
NSW and THE MUSICI­
ANS UNION BAND at
Hyde Park and Circular
Quay
west
park, post
Kitsch entertainment: 3
pm to 4.30 pm. Price:
V ER Y FREE.
SU N D AY NIGHT AT THE
OPERA:
“ Australian
Made” by Harry M.: Opera
House, 8.30 pm, $ 4 .5 0 ,
$ 3.5 0 , $2.50.
A R TS
DISCUSSION:
Camp Centre, 3 3 A Glebe
Pt. road, Glebe, 3 .3 0 . Free.
M
r fu n c ty
DOC WILLIS: Albury hotel, Oxford st, City. 3-6.00
pm.
ECLIPSE, A L LE Y FIVE
(arvo): Vanity Fair hotel,
4-7.00 pm.
MERV ACHESON TRIO:
Bellevue
hotel,
Paddo,
3-6.00 pm.
DOC WILLIS: Beresford
pub, Bourke st, Surry Hills,
8-10 pm.
UNITY BAND: Old Push,
8 .30 -1 2 .30 pm.
CHRIS WILLIAMS: Unity
Hall hotel, 8 2.1 3 3 1 , 7.30.
FOLK
SIMBA, STUMBLE: Chequers, 8-3 am.
PUMA:
Brighton hotel,
7-10 pm.
T R A N S IT IO N :
Oceanic
hotel, Coogee, 7 .30 -1 1 .45
pm.
CHOCOLATE
WATCHBAN D :
Fiddler’s Vine,
7.30-10 pm.
SUNBU RY
FESTIVAL
See Melbourne Delights.
T R A D IT IO N A L
FOLK:
Edinburgh
Castle.
BE
E A R L Y ! 8 .00 -1 0 .00 pm.
BLUES: John Burke: Lim­
erick Castle, 12 Ann st,
Surry Hills, 2 1 1 .1 4 0 1 , 7.30
pm.
FAIRPORT
CONVEN­
TIO N : Opera House, 8.00
pm, $ 3.50, $ 5.00, $6.50.
CELLAR FOLK: YW CA,
189 Liverpool st, Sydney,
8 pm.
DON M ORRISON: Freud­
ia n
Slip,
Re d f e r n ,
6 9 9 .1 73 6 , 7.00 pm.
T R A D IT I O N A L ,
CON­
TEM PORARY: Elizabeth
hotel, City, 2 6.3132.
“ THE
BALLAD
OF
ANGELS A L L E Y ” — rollicking Aust musical: New
theatre,
5 19 .3 4 0 3 , 8.15
pm.
“ THE
HOSTAGE”
by
Brendan Behan:: Cronulla
Arts Theatre, 523 .6 88 8 ,
8 .15 pm. Better to book.
FILMS
N FTA CLASSICS — “ History is made at night”
(1 9 3 7 , dir. Frank Borzage),
plus “ His butler’s sister” ;
AMP
theatre,
Circular
Quay, 7 .1 5 pm, $ 1.20.
Members only. Join at
door, $ 3 .0 0 .
“ TRAIN 349 FROM BER­
LIN ” — “ A post war film
on political refugee situ­
ation” : Humanist House,
10 Shepherd street, Chip­
pendale, 2 1 2 .2 0 3 8 , 7.45
pm. Free to humanists,
others? Bring proof!
Second Stage — 6 .3 0 pm
Poor T o m ’s Poetry Band;
Roger Bell’s Jazz Band;
Limehouse.
Saturday
Main Stage — 10 am-3 am
Bil l y
T horp e;
Lobby
Lloyd;
Queen;
Ariel;
Chain; Daddy Cool; Missis­
sippi; 69ers;
SEV ILLE ”
—
Rossini
Opera
Ho u s e ,
i nf o
357.1200,
7 .3 0
pm,
$ 1 6 .5 0 ,
$ 12 .5 0,
$9.50
(cheap. Shoes must be
worn, no long hairs).
“ THE PIED PIPER” : In­
dependent
theatre,
9 2 9 .7 3 7 7 , 2 pm.
V ILLA G E B A Z A A R — All
sorts o f goodies for sale:
Cnr. Newcombe st and O x­
ford st, Paddo, 9 am-4 pm.
FILMS
M AR X BROS — “ Room
Service” (1 9 3 8 ); BORIS
K A R LO FF in “ Bedlam”
(1 9 4 6 ):
Union
theatre,
Sydney uni,
3.30
pm,
$ 1.0 0 adults, 50c kids.
“ A D A M ’S
W OM EN” —
Australian Historical Film:
Opera House, 2 pm, $ 2.00,
$ 1.0 0 .
“ CITIZEN
KANE”
and
“ KING
KONG” :
New
Arts,
Glebe,
6 6 0 .4 2 5 0 ,
1 1.1 5 pm, $ 2.00.
“ PRINCE IG O R ” : Film
with Leningrad Kirov Ope­
ra and Ballet Coys: Union
theatre, Sydney uni, 8.00
pm.
TV, RADIO
JAZZ
ROCK
THEATRE
Friday
Main Stage — 7.30
Queen; Sherbert; Pirana;
Home; Plant; Ross Ryan.
ROCK
CHOCOLATE
WATCHBAND:
Fiddler’s
Vine,
7 .30-10 pm.
HOT ROCKET: Liverpool
hotel, 7.30 to 1 1 .3 0 pm.
T R A N S IT IO N :
Oceanic
hotel, Coogee, 7 .30 -1 1 .45
pm.
PUMA:
Brighton hotel,
7-10.
BAND OF LIGHT: Taren
Point Youth Centre, 8.00
pm, $1.40.
SIM BA,
STUMBLE:
Chequers, 8pm—3am.
THEATRE
THE
BALLAD
OF
ANGELS A L L E Y : See friday.
THE HOSTAGE: See friday.
TV
OTHERS
“ IN CONCERT” — Uriah
Heep. Canned Heat. Shawn
Philips, Mott the Hoople,
Country Joe McDonald:
“ M AN IN HALF MOON
SHOW BOAT
HARBOR
CRUISE — Harbor City
Jazz Band: No. 6 Wharf
Circular Quay, 8.15 pm,
$3.00.
“ THE
BARBER
OF
“ THE W ORLD OF J A Z Z ”
with
Eric Child:
ABC
Radio 1, 1 0 .2 5 am.
“ PICK OF THE GOONS” :
ABC Radio 2 (2FC), 12
noon.
A USTRALIAN FILMS —
A selection of 13 films by
Aus t r al i an
filmmakers:
6 .3 0 -1 2 .0 0 pm. Chan 7.
THE G O VERNOR GEN­
ERAL’S
AUSTRALIA
D A Y MESSAGE — Turn
on, tune in, turn of f ! ! !
Chan 2, 7 .30 pm.
“ THE T Y R A N T Y E A R S ”
— The emotional turmoil
of Charles Dickens’ declin­
ing years: ABC Radio 2,
8 .30 pm.
“ ABOUT MRS LESLIE” —
Sentimental
love story:
Chan 9, 1 0 .1 5 pm.
4 U
* u
ty
CLASSICAL
“ MUSIC ON THE H O U R ”
— Continuous music in the
recording
hall:
Opera
House, 1 1-4.0 0 pm.
BIRGIT
NILSSON with
the Sydney Symphony Or­
chestra and Charles MacKerras — all Mozart: Chan
2, 8.45 .
“ LA T R A V IA T A ” — Film
with Rome Opera House
Orchestra
and
chorus:
Union theatre, Sydney uni,
8 .00 pm.
FOLK
LIVE CONTEM PORARY
MUSIC — Best in town this
week: Peter Quentin, Bud­
dy Wilson, Bob Hudson,
and one other: 422 Cleve­
land st, Surry Hills, 8.00
pm, $ 1 .0 0 .
THEATRE
“ THE
BALLAD
A N G E L ’S A L L E Y ” :
friday.
OF
FILMS
M ARILYN M ONROE in a
technicolor
double
—
“ Gentleman
Pref er
Blondes” and “ The Prince
and the Show Girl” : Union
theatre, Sydney uni, $ 1.0 0
adults, 50c kids.
N F T A IM AGES OF THE
Second Stage — 12 noon
New Harlem Jazz Band;
Storyville Jazzmen; Rob
Ducat; “ A F R IC A ” , Pram
Factory;
Poor
T om ’s
Poetry Band; Ballet Vic­
toria; “ A F R IC A ” , Pram
Factory; Heillan Rovert;
Graham Dodsworth.
Monday
Main Stage — till 1 1.3 0 pm
Various artists as yet un­
decided.
In addition, other groups
will be playing during the
day and the Monash Play­
ers will rove through the
audience.
MIND SE R IE S— Bresson’s
“ Pickpocket” ; Hitchcock’s
“ The Wrong Man” : Opera
House: 7.15 pm, $1.60
members only (join at door
$3.00).
TV, RADIO
“ THE FELO N” — Convict
escape from Goat island in
early Aust.: Radio 2 , 4.00
pm.
“ ONE NORTHERN SUM­
MER” — Special on eskimo
whale hunters: Chan 2,
7.30.
“ TDT MAN BECOMES A
BUDDHIST
MONK”
—
Story of Alan Driver, 28
year old former reporter
(aflight from the media
and, alas, back):
ABC
Radio, 8 .00 am.
“ THE
PROMISE
OF
M IRACLES’ 7— 90 minutes
of the sounds of events and
entertainment of the first
50 years of radio: ABC
Radio 2, 8 .0 0 pm.
“ WHEN
THE
WHEEL
TU RN S” — comedy about
redundancy
in Britain:
ABC Radio 1, 8 .0 0 pm.
“ M OGAM BO” — Big white
hunter gets it on in the
African jungle: Chan 7,
8.30 pm.
“ MAN IN QU ESTION” —
Dr Jim Cairns: Jim tells us
why he left the police
force: Chan 2, 9.35.
“ INSIDE
DAISY
C LOVER ” , Natalie Wood,
Robert Redford — one of
the worst movies of all
time: Chan 9 , 8.30.
AN
AFFECTIONATE
LOOK
AT
GEORGE
BURNS
—
Should
be
worth watching: Chan 7,
1 0.3 5 pm.
KIDS
OPERA THROUGH THE
TIME
MACHINE — a
child’ s guide to opera:
Opera House, 1 1 .3 0 am.
Adults
$ 2 .0 0 ,
kids 60
cents.
“ LOST IN THE BUSH”
and “ ANOOP AND THE
ELEPHANT” — kids films
in color: Opera House, 2
pm. Adults $ 1 .0 0 , kids 60
cents.
n to ttd a p
STEPHEN WALL
O self-respecting m edia maniac
w o u ld b e w ith ou t the ju ne '7 3
D ep artm ent o f the M edia R ep ort o f
A ctivities. It details such m atters as the
television p oin ts scherne w h ich the
straight press rubbished w ith ou t telling
us m u ch a b ou t it. A lso provides in fo
o n the p ow er structure w ithin the
departm ent, film developm ent, and
govern m en t advertising and publishing.
Send to A G P S , PO b o x 84, Canberra,
2 6 0 0 , including 70 cents to sh ow y o u
m ean it.
T ricky s tu ff this m on ey m aking. W rite
to P riority Publications, GPO b o x 8 9 4 ,
S y d n ey , 2 0 0 1 . Free.
IN 1 9 7 2 , the heavies o f British hum an­
ists p ut o u t a small d ocu m en t called
P eo p le first — a hum anist m anifesto. It
is w ritten in the “ stop having a g o o d
tim e” m od e, u n fortu n a tely w ith a
g o o d deal o f ju stification . I am a little
cy n ical on ly because the rhetoric has
b een around fo r so long. T he NSW
humanists have reprinted it, w ith a list
o f Australian native humanists, sp on­
sors and oth er supporters. It is w orth
having a l o o k at — w ith luck it m ay be
a fu rther step tow ards b en eficial p rop a­
ganda. Send 30 cents to the S ecretary,
72 T o o ro n g a terrace, Beverly Hills,
22 09.
n o lo g y etc, etc. Their b o o k list m ay b e
a g o o d w ay o f keeping in to u ch w ith
w hat is being prin ted about what is
happening in L o n d o n and E urope. I
think the list is free b u t a dollar stu ffed
in w ith the letter w ou ld n t d o any harm
I’m sure. Rising Free, 197 Kings Cross
road, L o n d o n W C1.
N
R E C E IV E D a letter fro m R ichard F ox ,
a law yer and m em ber o f the N ational
L aw yers G uild in L os A ngeles. In part
he says “ In that there are A m ericans in
Australia w h o are m ilitary deserters, or
in trou b le w ith the S elective Service
System , w e w o u ld appreciate anything
y o u can d o t o get in form ation o u t to
those individuals that the arm y has
granted a de fa cto am nesty to its
deserters and that m any you n g m en,
w h o th in k th ey are in trou b le w ith the
S elective Service System , actually are
n ot becau se o f changes in the law and
regulations regarding selective service
since th ey left the US. If y o u k n o w o f
any deserter groups in Australia I
w o u ld appreciate y ou r relaying this
in form a tion to them w ith an invitation
t o corresp on d w ith m e d irectly regard­
ing any sp ecific cases they m ay have
any qu estions a b o u t.” W rite to Richard
P. F o x , 1888 C entury Park East, Suite
22 5, C entury C ity, L os A ngeles 9 0 0 6 7 ,
US. I h o p e his in fo is better than his
letter w riting style.
“ PEOPLE w h o can, d o, p eop le w h o
can’ t, teach .” I suspect it is the same in
business. Prem ier A skin has signed the
in tro d u cto ry fo re w o rd t o a n ifty little
NSW p u blication called D evelopin g
y o u r business. L ots o f “ h o w t o ” in fo —
like h o w t o register y ou r o w n business
nam e, lab or regulations, health regula­
tions, in fo o n energy, insurance, fi­
nance, business equipm ent, e x p ort aid
etc. I w o u ld guess that b y publishing
this b o o k le t, the person responsible is
involved in develop ing his business.
B O O K freaks, booksellers, newspapers
and sundries m ight care to w rite to
“ Rising F ree” , a n on -p rofit, non -sec­
tarian, left, b o o k s h o p collectiv e (O h,
and w hat m ore cou ld y o u ask fo r).
Based in L on d on , they, stock all sorts
o f mags, papers, journals and b o o k s
that y o u w o u ld e x p ect a n-p, n-s, 1, b,
collective t o stock — liberation, ed uca­
tion , im perialism , anti p sych iatry, tech ­
***
IT IS fairly d ifficu lt to fin d o u t detail­
ed in fo o n radio entertainm ent from
the daily press in S y d n ey ; T V reigns. If
y o u are con ten t w ith the com m ercia l
lolly p op , bu bblegu m and hi-pro, local
program s o f com m ercia l radio then this
absence o f in form ation w o n 't b oth er
y ou . But if y o u w ant to keep in tou ch
w ith A B C radio, I suggest a subscrip­
tion to th e A B C R a d io G uide — a
highly detailed w eek ly list o f program s
on all o f A u n ty ’s S y d n ey rad io sta­
tions. T here is n o such thing in M el­
bou rn e; the A g e d oes the jo b there so
I ’m to ld b y the A B C p u b licity depart­
m ent. T h at’s a shame ’ cause it is a great
little sou rce o f in fo on the m ore
obscure airings and i f classical m usic
interests y o u , it’s invaluable. C ost
$8 .50 pa, $ 4 .3 5 6 m on th s, $ 2 .2 5 3
m onths — also available at som e new s­
agents. W rite GPO b o x 48 7, S ydney.
***
TH E R E is a fellow in S ydn ey w h o
w rites a colu m n in th e Sun-herald each
week. His nam e is Leslie W alford and
this is w hat he w rote last w eek after
view ing a fe w o f Brett W h iteley ’s paint­
ings: “ A rt ex h ib ition viewing is a c o m ­
pulsion o f mine, n ot fo r c e d u p on m e
bu t com p lem en ta ry to consciousness
o f the visual w orld . T hrough the end­
less aspects o f art w e can reach extra
d im ensions o f sensations and inspira­
tions and share a w id er view o f ou r
hum an lo t, sensing also the d irection o f
our tim es.” It is tim es like this that I
wish w e had a Pseuds C orner. M aybe
A ccess in future can run a fe w o f the
m ore notable nuggets o f bullshit like
this on e. Send ’ em to m e if y o u sp ot
any.
*
*
*
SEND y ou r in fo nugcjets and access
gems t o APP, PO b o x 8, Surry Hills,
20 10 (I’ll settle fo r trace elem ents and
cut glass).
filmmakers
cinema
ST PETERS LANE DARLINGHURST 2011 PH 31 3237
P. O. BOX 217, KING'S CROSS 2011
TV , RADIO
“ THE
CHILDREN
OF
QUI N H O N ” — a special
report on South Vietnam
children today: Chan. 2,
7 .3 0 pm.
“ THE W ED D IN G ” — first
of four plays: ABC Radio
2, 7 .30 pm.
“ THE ROLLING STONES
S T O R Y ” — A BBC docu­
mentary: ABC Radio 1,
8.00 pm.
“ MONTY
P Y T H O N ’S
FLYIN G CIRCUS” : Chan.
2, 1 1 .2 5 pm.
TUESDAY ??
Children's Show
T H E K ID (Chaplin)
+ others including F A N T A
- 2pm.
French -New Wave
P IE R R O T LE FOU
J.L. Godard (1965) 6pm.
French New Wave
P IE R R O T LE FOU
J.L. Godard (1965) 10pm.
Australian Feature
TH E O F F IC E P IC N IC
Tom Cowan (1972) 8pm.
CLOUD NINE, JEMMA,
SEBASTIAN
HARDY:
Chequers, 8-3 am.
Children's Show
T H E K ID (Chaplin)
+ others including F A N T A
2 pm.
FILMS
Australian Feature
T H E O F F IC E P IC N IC
Tom Cowan (1972) 8pm.
$2 . 00 , $ 1. 00 .
F R ID A Y 25
Australian -Feature
T H E O F F IC E P IC N IC
T om Cbwan (1972) 8pm.
W E D N ESDA Y 23
“ A D A M S W O M A N ” : Aust
historical
film.
Opera
House, 1 1.0 0 am, 2 .00 pm,
Remember Vietnam
M Y LA I V E TE R A N S
Joseph Strick 10pm.
Children's Show
"THE K ID (Chaplin)
+ others including FA N TA
2pm
ROCK
“ YOJIM BO” by Kurusawa.
Japanese
film
classic:
Opera House, 7 .30 pm,
$ 1.70.
Australian Feature
TH E O F F IC E PICNIC
Tom Cowan (1972) 8pm.
Australian History
F O R G O T T E N C IN E M A
A. Buckley (1965) 10pm.
T H U R S D A Y 24
Children's Show
T H E K ID (Chaplin)
+ others including F A N T A
2 pm
Remember Vietnam
M Y LA I V E T E R A N S
Joseph Strick 10pm.
S A T U R D A Y 26
Children's Show
M OON ROCK, ZAP
+ others 2pm.
Remember Vietnam
M Y LA I V E T E R A N S
Joseph Strick 4pm.
Australian History
F O R G O T T E N C IN E M A
A. Buckley (1965) 6pm.
Australian Feature
T H E O F F IC E PIC N IC
Tom Cowan (1972) 8pm.
Australian History
FO R G O TT E N C IN E M A
A. Buckley (1965) 10pm.
TH E B A L L A D OF
JOE H IL L
Bo
Widerberg
*1971)
12pm.
S U N D A Y 27
Children's Show
M OO N ROCK, ZAP
+ others 2pm.
French New Wave
TR A N S EU R O PE
EXPRESS
A. Rohbe-Grijlet 4pm.
French New Wave
TR A N S EU R O PE
EXPRESS
A. Robbe-Grillet 6pm.
New Co-Op Films
A C K A CK G IR L . FA U S T
& others 8pm.
Open Screening (9pm)
Bring your films 10pm.
M idnite to Dawn
A U S T. M O V IE
M ARATHON
12pm
T H E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S , january 2 2 -2 8 .1 9 7 4 -P a g e 13
J
wM/i iU '-'%'Sfc S'-
ROGER HUTCHINSON
". . . wherever men are honorable and
upright and persevering, lovers o f home,
o f their brethren, o f justice and o f hu­
manity, men in the world may say, ‘ We
still have among us the gifts o f that great
English ra ce'."
- Stanley Baldwin, On England, 1924
“ An illusion can becom e a half-truth, a
mask can alter the expression o f a face. In
England such concepts as justice, liberty
and objective truth are still believed in.
They may be illusions, but they are very
pow erful illusions. The belief in them
influences conduct, national life is differ­
ent because o f th e m . . . "
- George Orwell, England Your England,
1941.
QUOTED the first because it rep­
resents a school o f opinion which
has exerted considerable influence upon
English thought for the last century and a
half - if not longer - and I quoted the
second because it seems to me to be the
truth. Both extracts are relevant in the
light o f the deportation order placed this
Christmas by hom e secretary Robert Carr,
on seven young fugitives from general
Pinochet’s chile.
Apologists for the British political
status quo have, since some children o f
Albion first realised that all things English
d o not constitute a latterday Eden,
pointed to the state’ s traditional generos­
ity in tolerating internal opposition and
granting asylum to foreign malcontents.
The fact that Marx studied in the British
museum, and that Lenin held meetings
off-Piccadilly, has been used to justify
liberal (British) capitalism more times
than either o f those gentlemen could
possibly have imagined. If the justifica­
tion was ever valid, it no longer applies.
Shortly before his death, Lenny Bruce
was refused admission to our hallowed
turf. Som e years later Rudi Dutchke, still
suffering from the bullet wounds inflicted
on him by West German fascists, was
hauled before a kangaroo “ in camera”
court and consequently deported. It was
a wholly indefensible move, recognisable
only as conciliation to the more paranoid
parliamentary rightwing. Two years ago
Dave Dellinger, veteran American pacifist,
was churlishly turned away from Heath­
row. And now, after the British embassy
in Santiago had been the only European
embassy n ot to grant temporary sanctu­
ary to the junta's victims, in a shameful
and profitless move seven opponents o f
Chilean fascism have been given notice to
leave Britain, pending appeal.
The fact o f Britain’ s acting in so
chauvinist, reactionary a manner would
be unremarkable were it not for the
pretensions that gloss the action. It is a
conviction o f the British people that they
live in a uniquely liberal political climate,
unfettered by media censorship, unsnoop­
ed upon by secret police, free to vote,
read or preach whatever they like. As
Orwell points out, such illusion can affect
reality. It has developed in this always
pom pous race, a smug self-satisfaction
which excludes any notion, any inkling o f
doubt about Britain’s leadership in the
1
Humanitarian Society Stakes.
Fed fo r lifetimes on such odious pap
as the above quote from onetime prime
minister Baldwin (“ not to be graced with
the title o f stuffed shirt” , also sprach
Orwell, “ he was simply a hole in the
air” .) this com placency allows contem ­
porary British governments, secure in a
semi mythical legend o f hospitality, to
abuse and contradict that very legend.
Perhaps more ironically, it may also allow
the present government to curtail the civil
rights o f British citizens.
Shortly after parliament re-sits for the
new year, they will debate a bill proposed
b y R obert Carr. Its name is The Cinema­
tograph and Public Displays Bill, and if
passed by the T ory majority in the
Commons it will legislate more heavily
than ever against media forms (books,
records, magazines, T V , and films) which
choose to deal with sexual matters. The
timing o f this bill is preposterously, al­
most com ically, bad.
While millions o f people are laid off,
and millions o f others trying to cop e with
rocketing prices and reduced wages, the
hom e secretary will be telling parliament
that “ indecent” public displays are cor­
rupting the British citizenry. When the
laughter dies down, it should be apparent
that Carr’s bill is as much a conciliatory
gesture to the puritanical Christian ban­
shees behind the festival o f light, as was
Dutchke’s expulsion to the vultures on
the T ory backbenchers.
A ctions o f such profound stupidity
illuminate quite clearly a part o f the
British government’s nature that is to o
often overlooked. It is apparently not
altogether a com pany o f profiteering
Page 16 - TH E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S , january 22-26, 1974
cynics, any more than it is a government
o f merit, since no profit is possible from
the C & PD Bill. Mary Whitehouse might
shut up for a month or two, but her
silence will surely be offset by the howls
o f the already overworked metropolitan
police at being told to enforce an un­
enforceable law. N obod y gains from the
banning o f a Lenny Bruce, or from the
expulsion o f Chilean refugees — unless
Heath wasnt on the re-staffed Chilean
embassy’s revised xmas card list as a
result o f them being in this country.
N ENGLISH acquaintance o f Henry
Kissinger, recently visiting Washing­
ton, tried to phone Kissinger at his private
o ffice number. He was not put through,
and inform ed that HK was “ out for the
day” . The next day our hero, determined
to speak with Kissinger, tried again.
Again, no dice. Curiously inflamed, he
caught a cab to Kissinger’s offices and
bustled through to the great man’s secre­
tary. She to o k his credentials, went into
an adjoining room , and came back tw o
minutes later with a beaming Kissinger by
her side.
“ Many apologies,” gushed Kissinger,
pumping hands. “ They should have let
your English accent through. I only told
them to block calls from N ixon.”
A
F a chronic shortage o f most lifesupport goods, and apparently
imminent rationing, has led Britain to the
edge o f a “ war time consciousness
syndrome” ; then the irregular urban ter­
rorism practised (and threatened) jointly
b y arab and Irish revolutionary groups
I
must be finishing the jo b off.
Three days ago (as I write) I had to
catch a KLM (R oyal Dutch Airlines)
plane from Heathrow to Rotterdam.
When I arrived at the airport, Heathrow
was swarming with troops, uniforms o f all
shapes and sizes, and conspicuously
prowling plain (!) clothes special branch.
Investigative Itch to the fore, I asked one
o f the cops why? It was, o f course,
security measures against a potential
Palestinian guerrilla attack, a la Lod,
Fiumicini, Schipol, and Athens airports.
I sat down again, and looking nervous­
ly around Heathrow departure lounge,
pictured the ricochet o f bullets o f f bar
counters and marble pillars, the blood
scattered across carpets; and felt deeply
for the first time in m y life a surprising
emotion - tender gratitude for the Brit­
ish army and police force.
Shaking myself together, I rationalised
that the arabs have a just cause, that their
homelands have for years been either
annexed by Western powers, or annexed
by Israel while the West stood by and
nodded approvingly. They have the right
to draw their plight violently to our
attention — or, if violence is no man’s
right, their use o f it is a little more to be
expected than most.
But it’s no good. I want to stay alive. I
dont want to suffer, or watch other
pawns suffer because o f the botchings o f
my country’s elder statesmen. And if
staying alive in that situation means being
thankful for - nay, encouraging — the
army’ s control o f civilian areas (hateful
and frightening in implication though
such a presence may be); then I’m inevit­
ably thankful.
The tactics o f urban terrorism are, o f
course, proven successful as means to an
end. The jews first won Israel partly by
assassinating a British representative. And
it may be that, if enough people are
scared o f f Heathrow (as I certainly am,
from now on), enough people bom bed
out o f L ondon’s central railway stations,
the Western powers would concede sup­
port to Black September's program. And,
in the case o f such a concession, the
tactics are (as tactics) once more justified.
But it’s the long term effect on terror­
ised countries that bother me. The fact
that every IRA bom b gives the m etropoli­
tan police more public licence to invade
homes across London; confiscate, interro­
gate, and accuse with the minimum o f
justification. Leftist groups are discredit­
ed in the public eye if they attempt
explanation o f the desperate acts o f
oppressed people: any attempt at under­
standing is regarded, and despised, as
implicit alliance.
Taken to its logical conclusion, this
thesis could becom e a double-think argu­
ment against civil disruption o f any vari­
ety. Such is not my intention. But any
revolutionary methods which deal with
the taking o f human life require thorough
consideration, targets must cautiously be
fixed. And I can think o f many, many
people I’d' sooner see dead than random
travellers and airline officials in Heathrow
airport.
K id s c o n t r ib u t io n s can b e se n t
t o e ith e r the S y d n e y o r M el­
b o u r n e m o n ito r . I f y o u live else
w h ere, c h o o s e e ith e r o n e and
e n c lo s e a s ta m p e d s e lf a d d ress­
ed e n v e lo p e . M E L B O U R N E : R o b
K ing, “ L o d g e R a l p h " , D avid
R o a d , L ily d a le. S Y D N E Y :
J o h n G ea k e, 17 B ridge street,
B alm ain 2 0 1 1 .
Introduction
DISPARATE collection this
week. There is little room
for pretense that there is some
com m on
theme
which
runs
through them. With the exception^
o f Graham Hallett’s drawing (marf
sitting on a b ox reading) they are
the work o f younger kids than
those who usually write for this
page.
The younger kid is pre-oc­
cupied with getting his feelings or
visions on to the page. Commun­
ication com es a distant second. As
a result, although they are not as
readily digestible as more sophisti­
cated work they often have a hell
o f a lot more substance.
Kill the queen and Stop fishing
were the w ork o f first formers at a
boys tech. Most kids at tech
schools feel 'hopelessly out o f
their depth when it comes to
written language. When, as occas­
ionally happens someone con ­
ducts literacy tests among tech
kids, the results indicate that,
depending on the area, between
one third and two thirds o f the
juniors are functionally illiterate.
A consequence o f this remark­
able fact is that English periods
are not happy experiences for
many o f the kids and their teach­
ers. T o o often classes becom e a
drawn ou t struggle for control, or,
when it becom es apparent that
control by either side is out o f the
question, a struggle for survival.
Like any other struggle, however
sordid it may appear, however
pointless, there are moments o f
heightened awareness for both
teachers and students. Mainly
these are transitory in nature and
are lost for ever. Sometimes they
resolve themselves into something
m ore durable, like a nervous
breakdown or a decision to quit
teaching. Occasionally they are
wrought into word or line and are
miraculously preserved.
Such is the case with these two
anonym ous works. The word
which has been scribbled out o f
S top fishing, is the name o f the
teacher, obliterated to protect the
innocent.
I am not so sure about the
origins o f Child killer. It is by
Boyd Farran, and, although it
lacks the urgency o f Kill the
queen, it is quite unequivocal
about its subject matter, and was
probably created during one o f
those uneasy classroom truces,
during which both sides take time
A
(skies my save) Disguise m y safe. I
have rencht the gate.
Child killer
ELL, one dark, misty night,
the Gruesburgs went to a
monster movie, and had to leave
little Sammy at home. They did
not see a sly, sneeky, sinister
figure, or the one and only S.S.S.
slinking along in the upper under­
growth.
Little Sammy was playing with
his tw o pet frogs. Z-i-pp, came the
sound o f a knife dashing past
Sammy and killed one o f his
frogs.
The S.S.S. figure moved in
slowly. It was dark. N ot a light in
the house was on.
A scream o f terror rang out.
The one frog that was left had
bitten the S.S.S. figure.
Later, Sammy went for a swim
in his big fish pond. Sammy got
on to a high diving board. The
S.S.S. figure came in too, with his
scuba gear, including his spear
gun.
Sammy saw him and called
‘Scitch him Rover’ .
The S.S.S. figure saw a 10 foot
alligator com e ou t from an under­
water dog house. The S.S.S. figure
just got out in time.
By this time Sammy was
thirsty, so he made a Bardi and
Coke on the rocks. Sammy was
drunk, and the S.S.S. figure
moved in with his pocket size, six
foot b olo knife.
Sammy started to see pink
elephants. He saw a pink elephant
above the S.S.S. figure. We all
know that you cannot keep pink
elephants in the air. The S.S.S.
figure was squashed.
The S.S.S. figure was mad and
chased Sammy all over the house.
Sammy ran into a dead end. He
was cornered. The S.S.S. figure
moved in with his sub pop gun, or
is it sub machine gun, blazing.
Poor Sammy never had a chance.
Later
The Gruesburgs got home at
the dot o f four hours after they
had left! Well, they fou n d Sammy
dead, and were angry, because he
hadnt fed Spot. But . . . but . . .
but . . . Spot wasnt hungry, be­
cause Spot had caught the S.S.S.
figure halfway across the tennis
court. By the way, S p ot’s a shark.
And, everyone lived, or died,
happily ever after.
W
\
o ff to engage in meditation and
other forms o f inward thinking
which will restore their strength
for renewal o f hostilities.
Graham Hallett’s drawing is al­
together a more civilised piece, a
reminder that, with age, the strug­
gle loses its rawness, without nec­
essarily changing in form. He
writes . . . Perhaps a point o f
interest, the original was created
in the thick atmosphere o f a
concrete classroom, deep with the
sounds o f settling minds.’
Kill the queen
N MONDAY might I am
going to the paecs where the
queen lives to her. I am going to
banck in with ten hand gasm one
sub maechine gum and a hand
pistle shots 50 beis. I am going to
O
R o b King.
s t o p
ayt
o f
f > s H f/''S '*
P
i t
STcifVT
f xS H / v ^
^ / L 0
B y
c i ^ o c o d
i[
^
T H E L IV [N G D A Y L IG H T S . January 22 -28, 1 9 7 4 - Page 17
OST o f you probably know
next to nothing about John
Fahey. This is what we call a state
o f primal innocence, or being
steep ed in original sin. Fahey is an
American
guitarist; or rather,
America is the country most near­
ly contiguous to the world Fahey
inhabits.
He plays a 6-string flattop gui­
tar, described sometimes as a rare
(almost unheard o f ) Bacon & Day
guitar, at other times as a Martin
D-45. Photographic evidence is
available (cover o f Requia) to
substantiate the existence o f the
Bacon & Day, while the guitar on
the cover o f Days have gone b y
may well be a D-45.
He may own tw o guitars; but
either or both may only be ma­
chines o f his imagination. It is
difficult to think o f him as using
anything but heavy-gauge strings
and fingerpicks to play his pieces.
Fahey’s source materials in­
cludes the whole depth and divers­
ity o f American traditional guitar
styles. He does not, as to o many
others have done, take the music
and polish it up, keeping only the
surface decoration o f notes; he
has gone dow n deep into the
strong currents o f em otion and
vision that sustain the melodies.
There are many strange things
going on once you get that far
dow n; and this is probably why
Fahey has more than a usual
M
The
Voice
of the
Turtle
MIKE O ’ROURKE
FDISCOG RAPH Y>
TAKOMA
C1002
C1003
C1004
C1008
R 9015
C l 014
CIO 19
Cl 020
C1030
Blind Joe Death
Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes
The Dance o f Death and other Plantation Favorites
The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party
The Transfiguration o f Blind Joe Death
Days Have G one B y
The V oice o f the Turtle
The New Possibility - John Fahey's Christmas Album
America
liking for turtles. He describes
himself as an amateur herpetolog­
ist, which is n o mean achievement
when most people dont even
know what a herpetologist is.
Perhaps his major achievement
is to have retained an ancient
musical wisdom that most o f us
have becom e to o sophisticated to
understand, and that is: musical
instruments have a built-in tend­
ency to sound good. That is what
they are for. If you are careful not
to overtax your abilities, almost
any instrument will respond grate­
fully to a sure and easy touch.
A guitar, a fiddle, a piano or a
flute all exist only to make music,
and they dont care how damned
clever you are; they w on ’t forgive
mistakes made in a flashy run, but
they are kind to beginners and
those who remain novices all their
lives. A dedicated shit-hot guitar­
ist can often lose touch with the
sound-box o f his instrument alto­
gether and start thinking o f the
guitar as a fingerboard with
sound-box attached. This is a
faulty view, is it not?
If you just breathe on a guitar
in the deadly hours o f the night it
will reply with a muffled boom or
a singing tone. And if you live in a
nice lively house, the room will
respond with vibrations o f its
own. It is those endlessly receding
reverberations that can be heard
in Fahey’s music, though you
might have to learn to listen for
them.
Often it is the beginning guitar­
ist w ho can hear them best, and
though he might not realise what
it is that he slowly loses as he
gains expertise, it is the gift o f
valuing every single note, har­
m ony or chord, no matter how
easily achieved.
The cult o f the virtuoso will
probably always be with us, but
you can at least try to ignore it.
Competence is altogether more
valuable than virtuosity.
VANGUARD
VSD-79259
VSD-79293
Requia and other Compositions
The Yellow Princess
If you
want to know
what I mean by
the term "virtuoso” ,
listen to Maha vishnu
John McLaughlin, whose
WARNER BROS
MS 2089
MS 2145
O f Rivers and Religion
A fter the Ball
creed appears to be “ never play
one not when you can fit in
75
Perhaps you think McLaughlin
is the very apotheosis o f guitarists,
in which case I would urge you to
pick up a good guitar and absentmindedly tap it about the face for
a while. A com plex piece o f music
is n o more “ better” than a simple
piece o f music than a novel is
“ better” than a poem. I have
known several people who claim
to have read and understood Fin­
negans wake and I think they may
be liars. As Joyce himself said in
another context: Life is to o short.
Fahey was born in Takoma
Park, Maryland, evidently un­
attended by signs and portents.
He started playing guitar at about
the age o f 13, his early sources
being white country music and
black country blues. At university
he studied philosophy, religion
and American folklore. He has an
MA, which means that university
graduates and undergraduates can
listen to him in the secure knowl­
edge that he is basically all right.
Now this next interesting fact
is very important: he owns his
own record company. Most, but
not all, o f his records have been
released by this company, Ta­
koma Records. It is difficult to
imagine any o f the mainstream
companies releasing these records;
they dont exactly stink o f finan­
cial success.
Fahey’ s music, like all old,
deep and secret things, tends to be
thought o f as resource matter
rather than subject matter. It may
have been all right to play guitar
like that 20 years ago, but it isnt
all right now. N ow we know
better, hey? As it is, he has been
able to lay his music dow n in a
leisurely fashion, though he has
the financial lusts o f Ed Denson
to contend with, if we may be­
lieve all that is written. Which o f
course we may not.
Who writes Fahey’s record
notes? Does Eliyah P. Lovejoy
exist? Does D. P. Banjoeawiz? I
hardly think so. They are p rob­
ably written by Fahey himself,
though the only notes he has
signed with his own name are
those on the sleeve o f The Yellow
Princess. Certainly Fahey would
So you want to buy yourself a guitarROSS HILL
URNING on to guitars in­
volves so much technical
knowledge that a lot o f people are
discouraged because they dont get
a good enough instrument to start
with and give up in disgust.
I remember when I was about
15, buying a cheap but quite
handsome instrument for some­
thing like 12 pounds — if one
remembers what those are. It was
a beginner’s guitar but had a good
sound and an easy action, (the
action o f a guitar is the alignment
o f bridge, strings and frets, usually
cheap guitars have the strings to o
high o ff the fret board and make
it painful to play), but what I
didnt know, and it turned me o f f
playing until a year ago (but
what’s ten years in the face o f
eternity?) is that the other style
turning pegs it had, made it im­
possible to tune. Moral: it's better
to buy an expensive ukulele than a
cheap guitar if you want your
child or teenager to get high on
music. O f course all knowledge
comes with experience, so take
along a good musician if you can,
if not I’ll try to share with you
what I’ve discovered.
Most o f the established music
houses are like any other m oney­
making concern, if y o u ’re pre­
pared to spend upwards o f $70
with luck y o u ’ll get a g ood guitar.
But then again, you mightnt, for
T
Page 18 - T H E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S , January 22-28, 1974
most guitars are now made on
assembly line basis and if the man
with the glue has an o f f day, 50
odd guitars find their bridges com ­
ing loose after a m onth’s playing.
Same goes for the quality o f
the w ood and the action, though
as a general rule the technical side
o f the guitar, as opposed to its
soul, will be proportionately as
good as the price.
The machine heads are vital; if
they are cheap, old or damaged
the guitar will keep slipping out o f
tune and all your musical energy
and enthusiasm will be drained.
So if y o u ’re rich go buy yourself
an Aria or Maton or Epiphone. Do
so, and h ope lady luck is shining.
But there’s another way. For
most aspiring musicians a hundred
bucks is hard to get together,
especially if you dont know
whether the guitar fantasy is going
to last. For $50 or under it’s very
hard to get an instrument made
with any sort o f love or devotion
in your established music shop.
The cheap Spanish style guitars
made b y the Japanese invariably
have p oor quality heads, often the
bridges pull away from the face o f
the guitar. Same goes for acoustic,
they may look as good as the
expensive ones but usually there’ s
a crucial flaw, even though the
overall design has been copied
from a really high quality make
such as Gibson or Martin.
With acoustic guitars the qual­
ity o f the tuning heads is even
more crucial because the steel
strings require more tension, so
they’re more prone to slip out o f
tune. And on steel string guitars
the action is also more important;
if the strings are too high o ff the
frets y o u ’ll wear away your fing­
er-tips trying to play.
Also, most salesmen in big
music shops are what I would call
chicken musicians. They have the
techniques but instead o f using
them as an artist would - to take
people higher — they use them to
sell guitars to gullible grand­
mothers by giving virtuoso per­
formances on instruments they
know are going to go out o f tune
five minutes after the money
changes hands.
The alternative is to get one
second-hand. Not only pawnbrok­
ers, but antique shops and junk
shops have them. The darkest and
dingiest might have treasure lurk­
ing in the back room, but you
have to know what y ou ’re looking
fo r because there is usually a time
factor involved and you can easily
miss a bow ed neck or a faulty
bridge if you havent got your eyes
peeled. But the advantage is that
you can get a really good guitar
with some history and character
for a third the price it would
normally cost.
With time a sorting process
occurs: new guitars are bouqht,
used and, if the assembly line was
working that day, kept and played
and handed on till it winds up on
the market again. The same prin­
ciple applies to paintings, cars,
anything really - objects take on
magic to the extent that people
give it to them. The mysticism o f
guitars is no different, if they’re
played and loved the w ood seems
to know and gives o f f its best
vibrations.
So you can buy a battered old
instrument that has more guts
than a new guitar five times the
price. The secret is to see whether
it’s been played a lot. There are
two ways to check this out: most
obviously the strum marks, and
the less noticeable marks on the
wooden part o f the fretboard. If
you see either o f these signs it’s a
safe bet y o u ’ve got a guitar that’s
worth buying.
This happened to me by
chance. I bought an old Pacific
guitar for eight dollars, a cheap
guitar but one that had lasted and
had been played. The only thing
wrong was that the heads were
damaged by rust and knocks. By
spending tw o dollars on a really
good pair o f brass machine heads I
had a humble but beautiful guitar,
with a terrific sound and easy
action (on the first four frets
which is all you need to worry
about if y ou ’re reading this). And
it kept its tune!
Life is one big treasure hunt, so
I wish you happy hunting.
not have been able to construct
his remarkable m ythology had he
been recorded by a "mainstream”
record company.
Fahey’s m ythology
centres
around himself as mythic hero,
and has the interesting effect o f
making the usual everyday world
seem like a special case o f Fahey’s
expanded
visions.
Blind Joe
Death, musical genius, who re­
solves the music o f the spheres,
appears at the beginning o f the
saga. The transfiguration o f blind
Joe Death is accompanied by a 30
page booklet in eccentric script,
which tells o f the fearsome
Getchells, their curious diet o f
human beings and $he-wolf brand
homogenised afterbirth, Ralph
Riverboat,
grist,
Evil
Devil
Woman, Beautiful Linda Getchell,
and Ed Denson’s plot to rule the
world.
These notes are signed by
Charles Holloway, whose own e x ­
istence is called into question by
the notes to The voice o f the
turtle, where he is mentioned as a
mythical figure with Pop Corn
Man and the Big Sunflower.
The voice o f the turtle comes
complete with the Fahey Picture
Album, wherein are actual p h oto­
graphs o f several beings and
places, both imaginary and exist­
ing, such as Blind Joe Death,
Chester C. Petranick, Evil Devil
Woman, The Adelphi Rolling
Grist Mill, K nott’s Berry Farm
Molly, Beautiful Linda Getchell,
and John Fahey. The merest
glimpse o f a turtle is also vouch­
safed, and on Fahey’s next
Takoma record, America, draw­
ings o f turtles and tortoises
abound.
Fahey is one o f the few con-,
temporary musicians whose later
work does not make his earlier
work seem outdated, or at worst
silly. It is impossible to effectively
describe a piece o f music in words
(a fact that lamentably few journ­
alists ralise) so I am unable to
give you a bar-by-bar breakdown
o f any o f his pieces in emotive
language and stagger you with my
descriptive abilities, which are
pretty inadequate anyway.
I can tell you that he opens up
a new understanding o f what a
guitar is, and what music is really
under all the flying-fingers acro­
batics (sour grapes I suppose) and
the academic nonsense. The best
place to start on his Takoma series
is at the beginning. The releases
on other labels do not follow any
pattern; I would recommend O f
rivers and religion for those who
are scared o f f by the Takoma
records.
The artistic passion seems to be
a genuine lust like the lusts o f the
body, and is probably an intensi­
fied, generalised lust that has to
find peculiar outlets. Did Fahey
realise that he was a creative artist
and so start to create, or did he
look at his creations and decide
that he must be a creative artist?
He even goes so far as to describe
himself as a “ creative artist” . (The
yellow princess.)
I am inclined to take him
seriously when he says it, though I
would not take you seriously if
you said it o f yourself (whoever
you may be) nor d o I take myself
seriously when I occasionally
entertain the thought. I think
Fahey understands creation better
than I do.
I also think that he is probably
bonkers, but I still respect and
fear him. He is the only creative
artist, musician or writer or paint­
er or sculptor, that I have ever
found to be absorbing me. There
are times when I almost feel that I
am turning into John Fahey. A
cold sweat springs out on my
brow and I resist, but there is
nothing to resist. Can you pos­
sibly take this seriously? Maybe
you should.
Looking
back in
nostalgia
MARGARET MACINTYRE
groups were playing the RickyTak (was it a “ y ” or an “ i” ? Scene club circuit (Marquee, eel
N THESE days with nostal­ pie island la la). Some are still
gia such a marketable com ­ with us.” His choice o f songs is
modity, hands up all those who superb - beginning with Rosalyn
remember Rosalyn by the Pretty and including such greats as the
Things? In Melbourne in 1964, Easybeats’ Friday on m y mind
Rosalyn symbolised a victory o f and Sorrow by the Merseys.
It’s obviously not just the
youth over a record com pany songs that are favorites, but the
or that’s how I saw it then.
interpretation o f these songs by
At that stage 3K Z ’s M ersey
the particular group that popular­
beat was the only radio program
to realise (in spite o f its name) ised them. Thus this album is not
that there was more to English “ Bowie Sings the Hits o f the 60s”
- rather it’s Bowie singing the
music than just the Beatles, and at
4.00 pm we would tune if for half Yardbird’s I wish y o u would, the
Who's Anyw ay, anyhow, any­
an hour to see how our campaign
where etc. He has not attempted
to have Rosalyn locally released
was going. Petitions had been sign­ to record a definitive version o f
ed and forged, tear stained letters See Emily play, but instead he has
had been sent, threats had been attempted to recreate the feeling
behind “ S yd ’s Pink F loy d ’s (as he
made.
The first import record I co v ­ calls them) version. A nd in most
eted was an English cop y o f the cases he has done this success­
single “ Rosalyn” , fo r which an fully, with a gentle humor and a
envied collective o f three school- great deal o f affection. Had he
friends had paid one pound fif­ wished to, he could have had the
teen. Envied that is, fo r a week or original backings copied note for
note, but instead, each peculiarity
so, until, finally, our pleas were
heard: Rosalyn was released on an is extended and exaggerated, and
EP along with the Pretty Things’ thus gently sent up.
Maraccas shaking away in the
next single, and all fo r 15 shil­
background — a sign that we
lings.
Only now is it becom ing hip to really are back in '6 4 - Rosalyn is
the first track on the album, and
wallow in our glorious past from 1963 to 1967. For the past all Pretty Things fans will be
couple o f years the mid 50s have amazed to discover that the song
been in vogue, but though it’s actually has words. Not world
shatteringly
profound
words,
been nice to get a second chance
to catch all that, fo r me it’s hardly admittedly, but more than just a
been nostalgic. In those days I was series o f groans and moans emit­
ted b y Phil May. Both Rosalyn
more interested in listening to
and D on t bring me down get a
Smokey Dawson or Life with
fairly straight treatment from
D exter than the hit parade.
O f late, however, both the art­ Bowie, with just enough vocal
aggression to conjure up the dirty
ists themselves and the industry
meanness o f the Pretty Things —
have been turning to the more
recent past. One o f the more
that unfortunate group whose
image has been taken by the
dubious results o f this has been
the reformation o f such groups as Stones.
Gerry and the Pacemakers, the
On Them’s Here comes the
Swinging Blue Jeans, Herman & night Bowie begins to let loose a
His Hermits, to name but a few,
little, mincing the vocals and wail­
ing down into the chorus in a
while some o f the better results
have been albums such as the
parody o f the original. It says a
great deal for Bowie's taste and
Who’s Quadrophenia.
On Pinups David Bowie takes a style that he is able to send-up
without ridiculing. He manages to
look back over his shoulder and
pinpoint that essential quality in
comes up with this collection o f
the original version that made it
12 songs, all British hits from
1964-67. Bowie himself has been
outstanding: thus in Friday on m y
in and out o f the London music mind he emphasises the manic
scene since about 1964, and his insistence
in
Stevie Wright’s
affection for those days shows vocals, to the point where you
clearly through this album. In the laugh, but only because he is so
cover notes he says: “ These songs right; it was that very manic in­
■are my favorites from the ’64-’67
sistence that made it such a bril­
period o f London. Most o f the liant song.
PINUPS: David
APL1-0291).
Bowie
(RCA
I
In Shapes o f things Bowie
sounds more like Anthony Newley than Keith R elf o f the Yardbirds, and obviously he enjoys the
profundity o f the lyrics, like:
Come tom orrow, will I be older
Come tom orrow, may be a soldier
Come tom orrow, may I be bolder,
than today
Guitarist Mick R onson also has a
lot o f fun on this track with his
Jeff Beck imitation.
The W ho’s tracks are the most
remarkable in the accuracy o f
Bowie’ s highlighting - from Keith
M oon’s maniacal drum solos to
Roger Daltrey’s tone and phras­
ing.
Sorrow is a highlight o f the
album largely because o f the song
itself. The single from this album,
it w as_a hit for the Merseys
(form erly the Merseybeats) in
1966. It is a great sob song and
Bowie wallows in it, wringing the
lyrics dry, his voice choking and
breaking.
One criticism repeatedly made
o f this album is that Bowie’s
versions o f the songs d o not sur­
pass the originals - I think Bowie
would have been extremely dis­
appointed if they did. His objec­
tive has been somewhere between
sending up these old hits and
simply celebrating the energy, en­
thusiasm and the pretensions that
made them so popular.
David Bowie has been the vic­
tim o f a great deal o f hype in the
past - so much so that it has been
tempting to dismiss him as hype
alone. He has also made a mirac­
ulous ascension to pop aristoc­
racy, rivaling Jagger with his pop
social power. Yet in all the stream
o f publicity it has been hard to
glean anything about Bowie him­
self. He has carefully fostered the
image o f artist as mirror: “ The
performer is strictly a product o f
the public’s imagination . . . I
dont feel I’ m a person at all
sometimes . . . I’ m just a collec­
tion o f other people's ideas.”
Through Pinups however we
can see that among other things
Bowie has a very shrewd musical
sense o f humor, and a fondness
for the 1964-67 period o f music
that many o f his audience will
share.
T H E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S , January 22-28, 1974 - Page 19
fHOM THE O-D BCK BKCWNIE
We planned to call this
page, From the old b o x
Brownie, but after last
w e e k ’s launch, Graham
Radley rushed to our
I
Page 20 - T H E L I V I N G D A Y L IG H T S . j an u ary 2 2 -28 , 1974
sweatshop with 50 half taken at Portarlington, Victoria.
plate glass negatives
He printed them himself,
“purchased from a flea
with staggering clarity.
m arket”, dated betw een K eep them old history-pics
1914 and 1916 and m ostly coming.
I f anyone has more informat‘on concerning the origin o f
l£eSu P,° d
ase,
f
°
„
Graham Radley through IL L ).
Tears of rage from the South
From
a
Special
Correspondent in Seoul.
ff'T 'H E
SOUTH
Korean
X governm ent
cannot
continue as it is. It is on a
collision course with the people
and the crash is less than a year
away.”
Opposition leader Kim Dae
Jung made this statement shortly
after the end o f an 1 1-week ordeal
which
began when he was
kidnapped from his T ok yo hotel
room by the Korean Central
Intelligence Agency (KCIA). In
the tw o months that have elapsed
since then, the K C IA ’s power has
declined rapidly.
At the same time, the student
movement has emerged as a major
political force, with a strength not
seen since students sent president
Syngman Rhee packing in 1960.
Marches, boycotts, fasts, and
sit-ins have spread like wildfire
from Seoul national university to
virtually every major campus in
th e
country.
Formerly
acquiescent churches have set up a
defence fund for arrested students
and have organised their own
marches. Hundreds o f journalists
have joined in, demanding an end
to the KCIA’s massive censorship
system.
The immediate government
response was to shut down
colleges and high schools in early
december. President Park Chung
Hee has warned that criticism o f
the government will be dealt with
harshly. Nevertheless, students
continue to talk about april, 1974
as the deadline fo r the existence
o f the Park regime.
Until now, the KCIA has relied
on students and professors as
informers. But this system is
breaking down as many o f these
part time agents turn on their
form er
bosses,
and
other
informers stop talking in fear o f
reprisals by their fellow students.
Says one student organiser: “ The
informers arent sure they can
trust the KCIA anymore - it has
lost so much credibility in the
past few months.”
Previously, student protests
tended
to
be
spontaneous
outbursts on isolated campuses
which were quickly put down.
The latest uprising, however, has
been different. There has been a
steady
growth
of
student
mobilisation that shows planning,
Sth K o rea : cardboard image o f Park
coordination and timing. When
other
campuses
joined
the
groundswell that started at Seoul
university, the m ood was not one
o f wild protest, but o f serious
demands. The restoration o f free
speech
and
press;
academic
freedom, including the removal o f
all KCIA agents and informers
from the campuses; the abolition
o f the KCIA; and an end to the
country’s increasing econom ic
subordination to Japan. All these
are being sought.
The m ovem ent’s steady growth
has had a considerable impact on
the larger society,
especially
among liberal intellectuals who
had been fencesitters during
earlier demonstrations. First, the
college seniors — usually the most
reluctant to demonstrate because
o f upcoming jobs — joined the
protests. Then, many Christians,
who had teen only discreet
sympathisers, found the courage
to march in the streets.
By december 1, the protests
spread to the media: reporters o f
one
of
the
major
Seoul
newspapers
went
on
strike,
follow ed b y a strongly-worded,
resolution
by
the
Korean
Journalists Association demanding
a free press. University faculty
members,
long
under
tight
government control, began to
speak out, too.
Behind
the
scenes,
the
government
has
begun
emphasising that pro-government
loyalists will be rewarded. The
minister o f education told 34
university deans on november 19
that scholarships should no longer
go
to
students
with
g ood
academic records but to “ students
o f good conduct with a firm
nation loving sense” . Similarly,
the government has put rightwing,
anti communist Christian groups
on its dole in an attempt to
undermine
growing
church
opposition to the regime.
The pace o f events has picked
up in the past few weeks. For the
first time in recent Korean
history, there is opposition to the
regime in power from almost
every sector o f society. It is
anybody’s guess how long the
Park regime will survive but as one
university professor put it, "It is
no longer a question o f if the Park
regime will fall, but o f when it
will fall.”
|
— |
Tear jerker from the North
From BILL KNOX in Singapore
ACED with ever growing
resistance in southeast Asia
to their updated version o f a
“ greater co-prosperity sphere” ,
the Japanese will certainly not be
welcom ing with acclaim the sad
and touching film Flow er girl
currently playing in southeast
Asian theatres.
On the face o f it the film is just
another tear jerker, one o f a type
that provides a relatively welcom e
respite
in
the
otherwise
neverending stream o f Chinese
swordplay and karate movies. The
Malaysian Chinese, in particular,
have flocked to the film with large
handkerchiefs to m op up the tears
shed in sympathy fo r flower girl
Ggodbun and her blind young
sister.
Although it has a mandarin
Chinese soundtrack, the film is in
fact one o f the few released for
Asian distribution b y the North
Koreans. It features anti Japanese
material in no small measure. The
Koreans, even more so than the
Chinese, have no reason to be
endeared to the Japanese who
held their country under harsh
colonial control from 1910 until
the end o f the second world war.
The
film
is
unashamedly
propagandist
though
the
sentimental
story
line
is
something o f a smokescreen -
F
and enough o f southeast Asia’ s
population have lived through the
bad times o f the first half o f the
present century, or heard o f them
firsthand,
to
have a ready
sympathy fo r the plight o f a poor
p e as a n t
fam ily
struggling
hopelessly under the double yoke
o f the landlord and colonialism.
Far m ore so than Chinese films
o f the same genre, the Koreans are
most heavy handed when it
com es to pathos. One quite
literally
expects to
see the
villainous landlord
tying the
heroine across the railway tracks
in the path o f an oncom ing train.
Though the film, set in the
1930s on e guesses, does manage
to avoid this cliche o f the western
screen, it does equally as well with
a good many other bad guy
situations. Ggodbun sells flowers
in the neighboring tow n to buy
medicine fo r her ailing mother,
w ho continues working as a
laundrymaid in the landlord’ s
house so that Ggodbun will not be
sold into concubinage.
Unfortunately,
the
flower
business is poor, and besides,
Ggodbun is subjected to the
humiliation o f the local whores
and spat at b y their snappily
dressed Japanese patrons. The
elder brother can offer no
protection,
as he has been
imprisoned by the Japanese. When
Ggodbun raises sufficient money
to bu y medicine and hurries home
with the curative herbs she finds
her m other dead.
Unremitting misery so crowds
the heroine and her young sister
that even the cynical Caucasian
observer gives a heartfelt sniff or
tw o. Finally the elder brother,
thought to have perished in
prison,
returns
from
his
revolutionary experiences as an
enlightened comrade soldier just
in time to lend a hand to the
peasants, who are in revolt and
marching with flaming torches on
the house o f the landlord. (At this
stage the front stalls erupt with
clapping and footstamping such as
one hasnt heard since childhood
days at the Saturday afternoon
matinee when the cavalry finally
arrives to relieve the indian
besieged fort.
All ends well with brother and
sisters walking into a rosy sunset,
looking hopefully
towards a
future secure in the undoubted
wisdom o f Kim II Sung and
communism.
With so little information
presently available on North
Korea, Flower girl, for all its set
formula, allows some insight into
the emotional patterns o f the
country and exemplifies the kind
o f romantic image making that
has virtually made an emperor, if
not a god, out o f Kim II Sung.
The blatantly anti Japanese
tone o f the film indicates that
whatever
t he
superficial
respectability o f relations between
North Korea and Japan, the
Koreans, along with their close
comrades, the Chinese, are fully
aware o f the political mileage to
be gained in southeast Asia by
fanning the already smouldering
indigenous
fires
of
distrust
towards the Japanese. Japan may
have
the
econom ic
and
technological resources to buy
friendship o f a sort with her
underdeveloped neighbors, but
there still remains the obvious
inability o f the Japanese to
effectively relate at the human
level beyond the boundaries o f
individual
corporate
t hei r
organisations,
much
less
so
outside Japan itself.
Such diplomatic masters as
Chou En-lai - and he no doubt
has the ear o f his Korean
counterpart - are only to o ready
to use the sinitic cultural fifth
column at their disposal in
southeast Asia to the immediate
disadvantage o f Japan.
O f further interest is the
Malaysian compliance
in the
screening o f such a film. Does the
government feel the anti Japanese
sentiments o f the film are worth
the obvious risk o f exposing the
population to the communist
message it carries? Perhaps they
feel that such co-operation with
the communist countries to the
north - and they are virtually
ready to diplomatically recognise
China — will be the quickest way
o f getting Chin Peng’s guerrilla
forces o f f their backs. Or was the
censor’s vision, to o , so misted
with tears that he missed the
political undertones o f Ggodbun’s
adventures?
j— |
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , ianuarv 22-28. 19 74 — Pane 21
AMOS DRUMMOND talks to IAN SYKES
OF THE
A N S Y K E S is the chairman o f X L Petroleum P ty L td —
a company that retails petrol principally in Melbourne.
Years ago he made the decision to fight the multi­
national, monolithic oil giants and began the great
petrol discount war.
But he fou n d his enemies also seem ed to include the
government whose bread is buttered and chutneyed b y the
international oil moguls.
When crude oil in Australia was considered
expensive, the department o f customs decided M r S ykes
had to take an unusually high quota. N o w that Bass
strait crude is dirt cheap b y world standards, and
scarce as hens teeth, the department, in its wisdom,
cut and finally eliminated his quota once again putting
X L on the brink o f disaster — a position well know n to
Sykes.
Sykes is an ascetic man. H e is an honest man and he
lacks the pretentions and slick veneer o f m ost
businessmen. His office is in the fron t o f one o f his
petrol stations at Chapel street in South Yarra.
H e has been compared with Ralph Nader but he goes
a step further than the American consumer champion. Rather
than doing his battle on the sidelines, Sykes has
chosen the same battlefield as the giants. A n d in this
case the giants are a notorious, cut-throat and highly
professional pack o f thieving bastards.
M any people label Sykes an eccentric which is a hell
o f an indictment o f honesty in to d a y’s society. I f the
big b o y s crush him, Diogenes in to d a y’s society. I f the
again.
I
DAYLIGHTS: The government has cut
y o u o f f from crude oil supplies. H ow
much petrol d o y o u have left and how
long d o y o u think y o u can keep going?
Petrol is no problem. It's basically the
crude oil allocation that we used to
obtain by virtue o f our market share o f
the petroleum market in Australia. Every
com pany with a market share is entitled
to an allocation o f new crude oil from the
Australian fields production and that
basis was decided in 1969 at a series o f
government/industry meetings. XL did
extremely well last year and has in fact
got the best sales it has ever had by
expanding in New South Wales and open­
ing up new outlets in Victoria.
N ow in spite o f this we have suddenly
been cut o ff from crude oil and it’s almost
sinister because when crude oil was low
priced overseas and high priced in Austra­
lia we were forced to take crude oil. We
were also singled out to pay for crude oil
in advance o f actually getting it, so
eventually we had $600,000 o f pre paid
crude oil. We did a deal to get this refined
with A m pol this year and recently crude
oil has gone up overseas to about three
times the price o f local crude which is
fixed til '75 by a government contract
with Esso. Our crude oil in Australia is
now very cheap and at just this point it
seems that XL is suddenly denied access
to it and that’s the part that we think
needs review.
DAYLIGH TS: Why do y o u think y o u
were singled out, (a) in the beginning to
p a y in advance and,
(b ) w hy have y o u been cut o f f n ow ?
Quite frankly there has been a long series
o f unilateral discrimination against X L by
the customs & excise department. They
imposed at one stage a duty o f 7.5 cents a
gallon on X L ’s petrol in order to make
XL sign a contract with Esso to pre-pay
fo r Esso crude oil. No other com pany was
treated in that way and I have found it
remarkable that a government depart­
ment could behave like this. It almost
seemed that they were being pushed
along b y the rest o f the oil industry.
Then again they had this customs
inquiry recently into whether XL was
dumping and whether this hurt the Aus­
tralian industry and the net result was
that the minister didnt bother referring
the inquiry to the tariff board fo r about
7-8 months which made it very hard for
XL to carry on under those conditions,
and secondly, on ce the tariff board had
heard the inquiry they m ore or less threw
it out and said that XL had to get back its
dumping securities in full and eventually
w e’ll get this back.
D AYLIG H TS: You sound like there is a
conspiracy. It sounds to the average
Page 22 - T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 2 2 - 2 8 , 1974
man-on-the-street that there must be
som e reason w hy the governm ent is pick­
ing on XL. X L was the first com pany to
start discounting petrol, is that right?
It’ s not so much that. X L is more
vigorous in its attitudes and it w on ’t d o a
deal with the big overseas companies or
anything like that whereas I think all the
other independents will or have perhaps
several times. I think XL is the main
enemy o f the big oil companies because it
w on ’t shut up and it tries to d o what it
believes right fo r the industry and Austra­
lians as a whole. So I’ m afraid if they
want us to com prom ise they'll have to
fight us to the very last penny w e’ve got.
The part that I must admit I dont like
is that if the oil companies want to fight
us, all right they can have price wars
round us which they did and failed at.
Customers could work ou t what was
going on and could see that if XL was
pushed out o f business the other com ­
panies would immediately put their prices
up.
In fact in som e garages where we lost
- because the big oil companies leased
them back from the suppliers — they o f
course put the prices up so this showed
everybody what was going to happen. So
customers stuck to us and even though
the big companies cut prices by about 12
cents near XL outlets, customers in gen­
eral didnt go away. They thought it was
better to have a reasonable discount
continuously than just a big discount as
the purchase price o f buying XL out.
But since then the big companies have
more or less been able to, in my opinion,
heavily influence the customs & excise
administration and the previous govern­
ment. I’m not saying that they’re influ­
encing the present government because
when I saw Mr Connor [minister for en­
ergy] he said the first he knew o f XL not
getting crude oil anywhere was when I
contacted him. Customs & excise have re­
fused to give me any explanation at all as
to why they have treated me in these vari­
ous ways and in fact I’d like to see it lo o k ­
ed into b y an independent judge or party,
because obviously if people have a market
share they should get a crude oil alloca­
tion.
We shouldnt be singled out to be
treated in harsh ways all the time just
because som ebody is friendly with the
people in the customs & excise. There’s a'
series now o f about six moves that have
impinged heavily against XL. Each one is
against X L and each one is in favor o f the
big oil companies. I dont think that’s fair.I
DAYLIGH TS: Besides the removal o f
you r crude allocation what oth er m oves
against X L have been taken?
I’d say the first one was ordering XL in
the very beginning to take a crude oil
allocation, because at that stage we had
no refinery and no refining deal and no
possibility o f an export licence and also
not enough m oney to accumulate a large
shipment o f crude oil. Also I think that
rule was unnecessarily oppressive to XL
when some sort o f duty could have been
imposed to m ore or less cover that
disadvantage. But no, we had to take the
crude.
Secondly, w e then actually had to pay
for the crude oil in advance whereas the
contracts with every other market share
person was simply you paid for crude oil
30 days after delivery. Truly, it was a
terrible im position fo r X L to have to fork
out $600,000 o f its small capital in order
to pay fo r crude oil that it had never seen
a drop of. That’s a terrible im position and
I’ve never heard o f such an imposition
being placed on any firm in any other
country or in any industry in Australia.
As if that wasnt bad enough the
government then imposed a 7Vi cents
duty through the customs & excise on
X L ’s petrol imports and we had to fork
out over $100,000 for that and later that
was repaid. My view was that the sole
purpose o f putting that duty on XL was
to make it prepay Esso crude oil in
advance and that naturally caused XL to
becom e insolvent.
Luckily the com m onwealth arbiter, sir
Leslie Melville, came in and said he
thought it was pretty unfair for XL to
pay in advance for crude oil and the
government couldnt d o that any more.
That saved our life.
But then the customs & excise people
decided to put on dumping cash securities
against XL and that took $300,000 o f
our m oney. That m oney is now due to be
refunded because the tariff board found
it shouldnt have been collected in the
first place. And not only that, the cus'toms really shouldnt have put that tariff
’board imposition on us fo r the simple
reason that people in their department
had already recommended that there was
no dumping case for XL to answer in the
first place.
The latest move o f the customs &
excise department is that now — when
crude oil is suddenly very desirable to
buy at the present price - suddenly XL is
the only com pany through APC to be
taken o f f the list and yet it’s got the
biggest market share it ever had. When
you add up that story I reckon it’ s really
pathetic and it seems to me that some­
how people in the department o f customs
& excise are being got at by the propa­
ganda, or by other means they’re being
got at by the large oil companies.
DAYLIGHTS: Why d o yo u think th ey
treat y o u that way?
It’s looking even more absurd because
every time they have an independent
judge or arbiter, like sir Leslie Melville,
they find for XL and against the customs
& excise people. But they still seem to be
doing these things. When I spoke to them
last week on why they cut XL o f f they
just refused to answer. I went to see them
last year and I have written to them but I
have got no satisfactory answer at all.
They quite obviously treat XL arbitrarily
and they have singled X L ou t for this
unilaterally oppressive treatment.
If a person has been crooked I think
he should be punished but the tariff
board people hadnt found we'd been
crooked or anything like this; they’d
found another company that had im port­
ed petrol had apparently evaded duty but
it wasnt XL.
I dont see w hy large companies or any
other bodies with some personal idiosyn­
crasy should be allowed to perpetually
interfere with our aims. In other words it
has kept our com pany very small and I
feel that just because w e’re honest and
that we speak out w e’re being kept small,
whereas the big companies in my opinion
have acted most improperly on a large
number o f occasions and have influenced
the department o f customs & excise.
These people seem to get all the advant­
ages. That’s not right.
DAYLIGHTS: H ow have the big oil
companies acted im properly? A re there
any specific examples?
Yes, there are. My main objection to
them is that they have basically charged
Australia falsely high prices for petrol,
shipping freight and crude oil from their
own fields overseas and through their
own ships. Most o f the oil tankers, o f
course, are registered in Liberia, Panama
and places where there is no tax at all.
When I say no tax, there might be 0.1
percent and basically the big companies
have chosen to rake their income in their
hom e countries.
That’s all very well if y ou ’re a Dutch
person, or if y ou ’re a British person, or an
American person, but it’s not so good for
poor old Australian taxpayers who are
thereby caused to pay more tax than they
should.
Also, o f course, We have seen the oil
industry paying almost no tax at all in
some years and yet they have accumulat­
ed vast assets and oilfields here. And o f
course all the petrol service stations at the
end o f the last war were largely owned by
Australian individuals. Today there is
hardly any owned by Australian individu­
als so we’re being pushed backwards by
deceitful transactions o f the large inter­
national companies.
I feel to o that the large oil companies
are rapidly losing their advantages over­
seas because the host governments arent
so happy in other countries o f what they
have been up to. I feel if they had acted
with non deceitful transactions they’d
have been able to look other governments
in the eye and say we’ve been dealing fair
dinkum and fairly we havent been fid­
dling around with governments. But they
can’t do this and they’re trying to get
advantages over and above what are fair
and reasonable.
The next thing is because the big
companies have charged Australia fic­
titiously high prices for petrol freight and
oil they’ve been able to cause the prices
commissioner in New South Wales and
South Australia - which influences the
whole petrol price structure in Australia
— to put up the price o f petrol to a most
unreasonably high level. And o f course I
think they have really got at the taxation
commissioner too by putting forward
these odd sort o f prices that they have in
their ow n invoices so I think that it's
a really good thing that the govern­
ment has appointed a royal commission.
I just hope that these people are
intelligent enough and diligent enough to
get stuck into what really are the facts.
DAYLIGHTS: The problem here is that
th ey are so big, the large multinational
oil companies, that governments are
usually afraid to get stuck into them;
th ey depend on them to a great degree?
Yes, they d o. And overseas we have seen
small South American countries where
the governments have physically been
changed b y such entities as the big
international oil companies. Not neces­
sarily the oil companies but International
Telephone and these multinational people
have got this taxation advantage over
everybody else and they are thereby
accumulating the w orld’s assets under
their ow n control.
We havent any multinational compan­
ies so really it’s a form o f economical
imperialism 1974 style. That has gone on
for a couple o f decades. The advantages
arose when various governments started
raising a large amount o f revenue by
taxation. That is a new thing that really
only happened in a big way in the last
20-40 years when taxes have gone higher
and governments have becom e bigger.
And, as you say, governments tend to
rely on these people and they then get
frightened to d o anything about it.
I think non deceitful transactions are
the basis o f all proper administration and
prediction for the future, otherwise you
just get told a lot o f bull. Y ou can’t base
proper decisions and policies on non­
sense.
What really is the price, what really are
the freight rates, what truly should be the
price o f petrol. These are the things that
ought to go to be audited and go to prices
commissioners and government depart­
ments to plan the future o f the nation. In
fact X L was only set up to be a sort o f
revolutionary force to stop deceitful
transactions and to motivate proper plan­
ning.
As I go on in XL I find that more
and more overseas people are experi­
encing exactly the same things and I must
admit one o f the things I am very upset
about at the moment is the Australian
delegation to the United Nations group
that’s studying multinational corpor­
ations. Unfortunately I think the Austral­
ian government has chosen a person who
is just going to put the view o f the
multinational corporations. I think Aus­
tralia should be saying we dont want any
more deceitful transactions b y multi­
nationals.
If Australia went to the United
Nations com m ittee on multinational cor­
porations and said that we would sudden­
ly find that 75 percent o f the countries o f
the world would be on our side. But no,
what is it doing? It’s going along to the
United Nations and it’s saying multi­
national corporations are the best thing
ever made and that sort o f rot.
The little countries o f the world are
finding that they’re being divested o f
their assets. The little business people in
Australia are finding they’re divested o f
their assets. Even the big business people
in Australia are finding their company
shares are more and more owned by
overseas people and they’re starting to
w onder why.
DAYLIGHTS: I have heard that the chap
who is going along to the United Nations
on the multinational report has n ot only
been ou t o f the country fo r m ore than 20
years but is really n o expert at all on
multinational corporations and that the
report has probably already been written
up before anyone was even asked to
com m ent on multinationals. And this
would all lead m e to believe - I dont
kn ow what it would lead y o u to believe that the present government really doesnt
have enough guts to stand up against the
multinationals.
No, I dont think that’s true. I think that
they have enough guts but they just dont
know what is going on and it’s just the
same with this bloke with the United
Nations as with the department o f cus­
tom s and excise. They just dont know yet
the serious power that the administration
has, power that should be divested in the
law courts and o f course in parliament
itself. I’m sure that the Labor cabinet - if
they realised what the report that this
man had written to the United Nations
really adds up to - would be so ashamed
they’d almost tear it up and throw it
away.
They just dont seem to realise that the
basic reason that multinationals are get­
ting so powerful is that the tax laws are
being administered arbitrarily, that inter­
national firms^of auditors, o f which there
are dozens in Australia, are signing their
names to accounts which say they are
true and fair, when the blessed things are
just a mass o f deceitful nonsense, o f
prices that really arent true prices at all.
They have just fiddled the accounts. They
have got apparently responsible audit
firms which are really only getting their
revenue from these same people both in
Australia and overseas to sign and put
their seals on accounts as true and fair
when they are just untrue and unfair,
they’ re just monstrous nonsense.
It’s those sort o f things that XL is
attacking, so its force o f action is beyond
the petrol industry but I must admit I
agree with you that the Australian gov­
ernment should get itself more wised up
into what is really going on. I realise that
they’ve got to undo the terrible transac­
tions and the whole institutional struc­
ture that has been built up not only in
Australia but worldwide in 25 years.
The things we say to the United
Nations must reflect truly what the Aus­
tralian people as a whole want and not
just what multinational corporations want.
DAYLIGHTS: What are yo u r chances o f
survival?
I think first o f all the government
will look at top level at what has
gone on and I just hope they go further
and because I dont think I’m the only
individual having the rules o f the game
manipulated against him. I think many
small Australian companies have found
the same thing but have not been able to
speak out, or perhaps are not so rash. I
think that all the people w ho lost their
garages over the past 20 years really lost
them not because they didnt have good
land or werent efficient business people
but because some other business people
had gotten from the government power
to gain capital quicker than they did, so
they lost their capital and got bad assets
and the other companies got the good
land.
20 cents a gallon. I can’t im port petrol
now to com pete on the local market if I
dont get m y local crude oil allocation at
tw o dollars a barrel. I have to pay six
dollars a barrel overseas and XL is going
to be a dead duck sooner or later. Then
again we have a contract with A m p ol and
that may stand up alright and give us the
petrol we need another way.
But the rules say that everybody with
a market share o f petrol sales — and X L ’s
had a market share in the past — gets a
share o f crude oil in accordance with that
market share. N ow w e’ve asked:
(a) fo r our market share o f crude oil in
the future; and
(b) for a special allocation o f crude oil
to make up fo r the nine months in which
w e’ve not got an allocation at all or w e’ve
got a reduced allocation.
So we just want to get back the crude
oil that basically we should have got but
havent got because the department o f
customs & excise suddenly cut us off.
DAYLIGHTS: A re y o u optim istic about
the future o f yo u r com pany in the future
o f Australia?
I’ve never been optimistic about the
future o f XL fo r the simple reason that
w e’ve had such huge enemies to deal with
and I’ve been perfectly aware o f the sorts
o f things they get up to. There’s no
transaction, there’s no underhand dealing
which they w on ’t do. I’ ve been aware o f
that from the very beginning, it’s kept my
com pany very small. When I had a court
case aqainst Shell in Canberra they kept
$155,000 o f X L ’s small m oney tied up in
a court case for years because Shell
fought it to the limit.
I’ve known the sort o f enemies I’m up
against but on the other hand the system
will work and judges generally are not
corrupt, they think on principle. So these
people eventually (and tariff boards to o )
after they get the information and get the
inquiry under way, will com e to the right
decision. But o f course this takes years
and years and I’ve seen m y competitors
grow much quicker while I have been
kept very small and very humble.
I’ve had very small trucks fo r instance
where as they’ve had big modern trucks
because I can’t afford the really big
trucks and the efficient operations that
they’ve got. But nevertheless my policy
has been to keep a bit o f cash on hand to
try and fight with, even though it means
staying much smaller. A com pany for
instance which started only four years
ago has now got about six times the
number o f outlets that I’ve got but the
thing is we’ve not cheated or anything.
We've always paid the government what
they’ve asked us to pay. We’ve not altered
our invoices overseas and w e’ve been
absolutely truthful, as far as I can be
truthfuL I’m not saying I’m perfect, I’ m
sure I’ m not. The thing is to the best o f
my ability I’ve done the best I can and
I’m going to keep doing that and if I go
under then I’ll go under fighting. N ot till
the last gun’s fired underwater will it be
the end o f XL.
And o f course this is going on all over
Australia; in fact when you look at the
share register o f BHP itself about roughly
o f the order o f 20 percent o f the stocks
seem nomineed in overseas banks. And
local banks probably represent overseas
holders so they’re not safe either. If they
think they’re smart, I dont. I think they
should radically review the attitudes that
XL is putting forward because if they let
people get capital on a favored advantage
little b y little those people are going to
gain the capital o f BHP and all the other
enterprises itself.
A m pol is another com pany that is
largely Australian owned yet when you
look at their shareholders in their register
you see huge shareholders in bank nom ­
inee companies and really they’re over­
seas companies in the main. In Australia
we dont even have the right to look
behind a nominee shareholder to find out
who is really and truly the owner. It
seems to me that w e’re pretty weak and
that we should get these things fixed up
too, so that we can find out w h o owns
the nominee shares.
DAYLIGHTS: I f the government, h ow ­
ever, does n ot step in in y o u r specific case
what are you r chances? A re y o u going to be
able to com p ete against these larger mul­
tinational companies fo r an extended
period o f time?
Obviously we’re going to be in serious
jeopardy because petrol overseas used to
be 10 cents a gallon now it’s more than
THE LlVlNG D A Y tild H + S , jartoar^ ^ -2 8 ,h & V 4
23
R ig h t s
-Notices
m aking and co m m u n ica tio n on
every hu m an level o n regular o u t­
ings, d a y o r night? If so, I am a
business exe cu tiv e , 4 5, g o o d ap­
p earance, p len ty o f hair, well
b u ilt, w id ely travelled, extensive
range absorb in g interests, w h o
seeks y o u t o share them with. N ot
interested p ros b u t nature to
sh ow kindliness and gen erosity to
right w om a n as exp ression o f re­
gard. N o t necessarily seeking e x ­
clusivity. Have p referen ce wellrou n d ed t o p lu m p ph ysica l type.
Eagerly await y o u r re p ly . INC
b o x 7541.
Seeks
a f f e c t io n
and
love.
T w en ties p referred.
INC b o x
7501.
Dalliance
A d ela id e. Male, 28, 5 ’ 8 ” , slightly
inh ib ited , seeks m ature, gentle,
con sid era te,
u n com p lica ted fe­
m ale, interested m usic, art. All
replies answered. INC b o x 7 55 8 .
Brisbane. Guy, early 20*, lonely,
seeks active hung guy — relation­
ship? N o bars. — Heads yeah! INC
b o x 7 50 8 .
M elbourne. Male graduate, 2 6,
teacher, seeks fem ale, 2 0 -3 5 , w h o
is fed up with insin cerity and
wants t o share tota lly enriching,
m ature relationship, m ind and
b o d y . L et’ s get together. IN C b o x
7502.
Brisbane. Male, 23, like t o m eet
fe m m e fo r friendship and rapport.
O K lo o k s and intellect. Idea to
m ake life m ore en joya b le. Very
hum an. INC b o x 7 5 4 6 ,
M e lb o u r n e -S y d n e y .
Bisexual
m ale, 23, intelligent, sensitive,
lo n e ly , wants a ffection a te , liberat­
ed fem ale, w h o is forw ard, even
aggressive, fo r a loving, n on -role
playing relation ship. INC b o x
7 5 1 0 .___________________________
Brisbane. Y o u n g m an with no
exp erien ce o f w om en seeks kindly
w om a n to teach him the ropes.
D iscretion desirable. INC b o x
7 53 9 .
M elb ou rn e-S y d n ey.
L on e ly
bi
gu y, 2 3, tall, slim , sin cere, a ffe c ­
tion a te, intelligent, seeks similar,
1 8-30, fo r a loving friend. INC
b o x 7511.
Brisbane. Bi gu y, y o u n g and tall,
interested m eeting guys, girls and
M elbourn e. L on g haired, 2 3 year
old , C apricorn guy w h ose on ly
interest in life is sex, d o p e , p o l­
itics, Mae West, W. C. Fields,
Marx Bros., Santana, Y es, Dylan,
Stones need* Ms t o share a b o v e .
INC b o x 7 512.
couples for fun. Must be friendly
and discreet. INC b o x 7 5 4 0 .
Brisbane. C am p gu y, 18, in ex peri­
en ced , wants to b e c o m e involved
in cam p scene b y m eeting guys
active in any part o f the scene.
INC b o x 7 5 3 0 .
Brisbane-Surfers. Passive bi guy,
30s, visiting m id-february
fo r
three w eeks, w ou ld like to hear
from b isexual heads, well hung,
f o r fu n tim es and dalliance. All
replies answ ered. INC b o x 7 53 2 .
V ictoria -C a m p erd ow n . Q uiet, sin­
cere cam p gu y, 2 6, w anting to
m eet any sam e ty p e p erson, age
t o 3 5-40. G enuine replies only
please. INC b o x 7 5 3 4 .
G old C oast. Male, 32, interested
in m eetin g others up t o sam e age.
L ocals o r visitors. F or easy going
dalliance. INC b o x 7 49 7 .
S ydney.
A ttra ctive,
healthy,
q u iet, sensitive m ale, 3 0 , m arried,
seeking m ore o u t o f life, w ou ld
like t o dally with sim ilar fem ale,
o cc a s io n a lly . D iscretion assured.
INC b o x 7 5 6 1 .
S y d n e y . G u y , 3 7 , seeks fem ale,
2 5 -4 5 , outings etc. A ll replies
answ ered. $ 2 .0 0 re fu n d e d . INC
b o x 7557.
S yd n e y -B a n k sto w n . Slim, y o u n g
businessm an, 30, u n h a p py in m ar­
riage, w o u ld like t o m eet frustrat­
ed , attractive w om a n in sam e sit­
u a tio n ; day o r night m eetings.
INC b o x 7 5 5 6 .
M elbourne. Male, 4 0, separated,
wishes the com p a n ion sh ip
of
warm , a ffection ate fem ale, 2 5 to
35, t o live in w ell a p p oin te d tw o
b e d ro o m flat, B righton. INC b o x
7522.
S y d n e y . Tall, well preserved, Eng­
lish graduate, 3 3 , seeks attractive
fe m m e , straight o r bi, interested
in th e arts and stim ulating c o n ­
versation . N ation a lity u n im p or­
tant b u t sense o f h u m o r w ou ld
help. INC b o x 7 3 7 4 .
M elbourne. G u y, 2 4, slim , g o o d
look in g , seeks sincere guy o r gal
fo r love and friendship. Have car
and flat. INC b o x 7 5 3 6 .
M elbourne. Q uiet, y o u n g gu y, 32,
5’ 6 ” , slim, seeks y ou n g guy fo r
hon est, genuine, intim ate friend ­
ship. A ny nationality. Must be
sincere. INC b o x 7 5 3 5 .
S y d n e y . C o n fu se d S y d n e y ite , 24,
aspiring lunatic, p o te n tia lly warm
and o p e n but erratic, b r o k e , seeks
organ ic, all-round
relationship
with understanding girl o r w o ­
m an. P h o to m ight help rep ly. INC
b o x 7515,
Newcastle. V ery lon ely cam p girl,
20, little exp erien ce, urgently
wishes to m eet similar fem inine
chick. Must b e h on est, resp ect­
able, gentle, loving. Interests:
cars, squash, surf. G enuine ad.
P h oto. A bsolu te d iscretion assured and ex p ected . INC b o x 7 5 2 9 .
M elbourn e.
Intelligent,
warm
d iv o rce e , 3 0, seeks em otion a lly
un attached , stable m an w h o is n ot
afraid to d ev e lo p d eep , lon g term
relation ship. IN C b o x 7 55 9 .
M elbourn e. G irls !! Missed o u t on
grou p in g y o u r favorite p o p star?
C o n ta ct INC b o x 7 5 3 3 .
S y d n e y . C onservative,
straight
lo o k in g graduate, 30s, interested
in o u td o o r s , m usic, travel, seeks
well hung, y o u n g e r guy with o w n
p lace fo r friendship etc. P h oto
and in fo rm a tiv e reply appreciat­
ed . INC b o x 7 4 9 9 .
Melbourne. Young, single Indian
S outh Australia. Surfer, 20s, b i­
sexual, g o o d look in g , h ed on istic,
seeks similar intelligent, creative
head to share fast, free, physical
life style, travel. INC b o x 7 56 0 .
d o c t o r o n fix e d sa la ry /a ccom ­
m o d a t i o n , seeks
unattached
teach er/stu d en t fem ale t o live
w ith.
Marriage if com p a tib le.
S yd n ey . A re y o u a fem m e , any
age, seeking stim ulating m ale
com p a n ion sh ip , un in hibited love-
S y d n e y . Male, 2 4, slim, wants
sam e o f sim ilar age f o r relation­
ship and g o o d tim es. G enuine
d iscre tio n assured. INC b o x 7 52 0 .
S y d n e y . G u y , 2 3 , seeks friendship
w ith o th e r y o u n g guys w h o are
slim , and w h ose interests include
film s. INC b o x 7 5 2 3 .
N A T IO N R E V IE W O N L Y (
genuinely needs stimuli male com­
p any. H op in g to fo rm lasting rela­
tion sh ip with right resp on d en t.
P hon e co n ta c t O K . INC b o x
7537.
S y d n e y . C am p g u y , 2 3, wants
c o n ta ct in D u b b o in late fe b ru a ry ;
short s to p o n ly . D a llia n ce, w h at­
ever. L ater visits e x p e c te d also,
INC b o x 7 5 3 1 .
Tasm ania. C ou p le in 3 0s wish to
find another couple to share dalli­
ance by watching each other. N o
sw appin g. INC box 7 5 5 0 .
Doings
Sydney.
H o m o s e x u a ls
and
straights c o m e to g e th e r to discuss
o u r sexist s o c ie ty . Q u ak er M eet­
ing H ouse — 119 D evonshire
street, Surry H ills. F rid a y, fe b ­
ruary 1 at 8 .0 0 p m fo rm regular
group .
In fo rm a tio n ?
— Mike
4 4 9 .4 5 4 0 o r Peter 7 8 .3 4 6 5 .
G o r d o n Meggs seeks a c c o m m o d a ­
tio n V icto ria f o r o cca s io n a l w eek­
end e n c o u n te r group s. Sleeping
and catering 14, plus ro o m fo r
grou p sessions. Q u ie t lo ra le . Call
(S y d n e y ) 6 6 5 .9 2 8 0 o r write PO.
B ox 2 2 9 , C o o g e e , NSW. 2 0 3 4 .
S y d n e y . E n co u n te r grou p w eek­
end 2nd w eeken d in feb ru a ry.
E xp erien ce j o y . D is co v e r y o u rse lf
and others. Call G o r d o n Meggs on
6 6 5 .9 2 8 0 o r w rite PO, B o x 2 2 9 ,
C oogee. 2 034.
E xistentialist S o cie ty : fo r those
interested in the ideas o f Sartre,
Cam us, N ietzsch e, D o s to y e v s k y ,
K afka, Laing, eg. Inquiries, David
M iller, M elb ou rn e. 7 5 8 .5 7 9 4 .
Q u iet grou p o f ca m p w o m e n o f ­
fers friendship to lo n e ly o r isola­
ted w o m e n , o r th ose w h o m ay
n o t fe e l c o n fid e n t en o u g h to c o n ­
tact existin g gay organisations.
M elbourn e. INC B ox 7 5 2 4 .
All States. G u y , 2 5, wants ad ven­
turou s y o u n g bi o r ca m p m ale to
a cco m p a n y him to his river in
S outh A m erica f o r d iam ond s. It’s
)
N A T IO N R E V IE W A N D TH E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S (
F IR S T A V A IL A B L E OF E IT H E R P U B L IC A T IO N (
)
)
H E A D IN G S : (C ircle required listing)
Dalliance: Dealings: Deaths: Deliveries: Departures: D eploym ent:
Dialectics; Dialling; Distress; Doings; D o p e; D u ets; Dwellings.
A ll c o p y must b e printed IN
B LO C K L E T T E R S o n this fo rm —
c o p y su b m itte d in any o th e r style is
u n a cce p ta b le . T e le p h o n e num bers
and addresses m ust in d ica te city o f
lo ca tio n . D w ellings and D alliance
ads m ust c o m m e n c e w ith their lo ca ­
tio n , eg. Canberra. C o p y is u n ce n ­
so re d e x c e p t where necessary fo r
p u b lish er’ s legal p r o te ctio n .
Dwellings
A delaide. 3 y o u n g professionals
require 3 b e d ro o m e d house in
inner eastern suburbs o r city.
Leave m essage fo r Kim D alton on
4 2 .4 9 7 3 .
Canberra. O ne fem ale one male
ca n d lem ak er b o th h appy indepen­
d e n t vegetarian seeking som e­
w h ere to live prefereably with
oth e r, vaguely creative humans.
O ffers o f help to PO B ox 15,
M acquarie, A C T .
PAY MEN T
S yd n ey . M osm an. S o u lfu l lady to
share frien d ly, m ix e d , furnished
house in garden setting. O w n
r o o m m eans $ 2 2 .0 0 per w eek.
9 6 9 .5 7 3 7 AH: ’
S y d n e y . C am p g u y , 2 1 , requires
sem i-scream ing q u een f o r Bellevue
Hill d eco-ish unit. Must b e able to
c o p e w ith in d o o r jungle, fo u r cats
and t w o birds (fea th ered ). O w n
furnished b e d ro o m .
$ 2 5 /w e e k .
3 6 .4 9 7 2 . AH.
S yd n ey . C hip p end ale. R o o m s to
let in friendly terrace, at $ 1 2 or
7 .5 0 .
P hon e
R od
o r Judi,
9 .4 0 1 1 .
t
S yd n ey . Y o u n g ezy goin g guy
o ffe r s ro o m and facilities in tw o
b e d r o o m apt. to tw o ezy going
girls, in exch a n g e f o r som e light
duties.
R e p ly
2 /1 5 4
R e d fe m
street, R e d fe m , 2 0 1 7 . NSW.
Departures
M elbourn e. A quarius male s om e­
tim e S am adhi s om etim e Samsara
(so m e tim e s ca m p ). Arriving Mel­
b o u rn e early feb ru a ry. N eeds digs
with loving fo lk . D oes so m e o n e
have an id ea? INC B ox 7 50 9 .
D o e s a n y o n e , go in g throu gh In d o ­
nesia s o o n , w ant a co m p a n io n ?
I’ m really in n eed o f s om eon e to
travel w ith. M eredith, 6 6 0 .3 7 9 0 .
S yd n ey .
M elb ou rn e. H om e alterations and
m ain ten an ce. C on ven tion al, unus­
ual o r d iffic u lt w ork carefully
d o n e b y discerning, progressive
y o u n g carpenter. M o m in g to n Pen­
insula. INC B o x 7 5 5 5 .
Dealings
St Kilda. S paciou s Edwardian
hou se o p p o site park near beach.
Share w ith t w o you n g p eop le.
O w n large furnished private room .
$ 1 2 . 4 8 C haucer street. Students
w e lco m e .
S y d n e y . H appy easy going p eop le
n eed ed fo r large restored m ixed
terrace. O w n o r share ro o m in
co m m u n ia l
atm osphere
from
$ 8 .0 0 w e ek ly . Jake’ s M onastry,
133 D ow lin g street, W o o llo o m o o lo o .
S y d n e y . M ature, to g e th e r student
c o u p le require large ro o m in clean
h o u se h o ld with intelligent, nice
p e o p le , handy to S yd n ey and
NSW Universities. 6 3 7 .1 5 1 5 .
S y d n e y — Balmain. Little house
shares yard, sh ow er with big
hou se. Warm, easy p e o p le needed
fo r b o th . $ 1 8 fo r f o o d and all.
G ary, 8 2 .5 1 6 5 .
S y d n e y . R ose Bay. C heerful girl
m id 20s w anted to share hom e
Alas and alack, y e t an oth er f o o d
c o -o p has collapsed . R ice , dried
fruits, e tc, available at favorable
prices. S yd n e y 9 4 .1 9 4 7 . Hurry,
R o b e rt.
S yd n ey . B eau tiful b lo n d e p h o t o ­
grapher will p h o to g ra p h anything,
anyw here, a n y tim e ; also d evelop
and print b /w . J u d y , b o x 6 6,
Surry Hills, NSW. 2 01 0 .
T o r p e d o lp rofiteers o f P op M usic
W orld. Send $2, b o x H 3 8, A us­
tralia square, S yd n e y fo r pirate
cassette, R o d M cK u en ’ s A ustral­
ian co n ce rt. G enuine.
G a rcon , th e best c o lle c t io n o f
male nude p h o to g ra p h y . Im m e d ­
iate delivery. Send $ 6 .0 0 t o Chris­
to p h e r W ilde, PO b o x 50H , Terrey Hills. 2 0 8 4 .
Been ch eated la te ly ??? N ow have
what y o u want. C om p letely un­
ce n sored , un in hibited, im p orted
“ a ctio n ” p h o to s, b o o k s, film s.
Try b e fo re bu yin g. $ 1 .0 0 f o r sam­
ple and ca talog u e. The Manager,
PO, B o x 13, E d gecliff, NSW.
2 02 7 .
'S&o
%
SMALL PENIS? IMPOTENT?
THE,VACUUM ENLARGER GUARANTEES
PENILE ENLARGEMENT.
D -n o tice s f o r Nation R eview : n o o n ,
T uesday p rio r t o p u b lica tio n . Dn o tice s fo r The Living Daylights:
n o o n , Thu rsday p rio r t o p u b lica ­
tion .
INC B O X N U M B E R S
A dvertisers using INC B ox nu m bers
f o r replies m ust a llow 3 w ord s in
te x t and add 20 ce n ts fo r this
fa cility — w e fo rw a rd replies w eek­
ly . D alliance ads must use INC B ox
n u m b er, w h ich w e a llocate b e fo r e
publishing.
$15.
a m%
IF f 1
F fFc .n
k iI F S
Jr\
M
P.O. Box 524, Gosford, 2250
A ll m o n ie s s h o u ld be p ayable INC
P ty L td . E very ad m ust b e p repaid
— in clu d in g repetitive an d du al-p u b­
lica tio n appearances — and a cco m ­
p a n y in itially su b m itted c o p y .
Extra words @ 10c eacli
D o c t o r D u ncan re v o lu tio n b o o k ­
sh op : C oop era tiv e m o v e m e n t sup­
ply o f fem inist and gay liberation
resources. Free ca talogue. M on th ­
ly b o o k n e w s $ 1 .5 0 p.a. PO, B ox
111, E a stw o o d , SA. 5 06 3 .
S W E D IS H 3H 0 T 0 S
Set of 10 photois ten dollars
i ■'
Or write enclosing $1.00 fo r "S u c k ".
an interestingcatali3gue-magazine
H E A D IN G S
N om in a te o n e listed head ing on ly .
)
Deliveries
unit with gu y. O w n ro o m
P hone 3 7 1 .7 5 4 8 .
Sexist Ads
In d ica te w ith cross where c o p y is t o
b e pu b lish ed . In sertion co s ts are
co n sta n t fo r ea ch appearance irre­
spective o f p u b lica tio n /s used.
Please insert this advertisement in:
TH E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S O N L Y (
S y d n e y . G u y , u n e ffe m in a te , 30s,
far o u t — a co s m ic exp erien ce!
P h o to
ap p recia ted .
INC
B ox
7494.
For Adults Only
P U B L IC A T IO N
To: incorporated Newsagencies Com pany P ty Ltd
G .P.O . Box 5 3 1 2 BB, M elbourne, 3 0 0 1 , V ic .
S y d n e y . M asculine, active m ale,
28, like t o m eet passive guys
un d er 3 0. (B ikies, fo o tb a lle rs,
b o d y -b u ild e rs e t c .) A m interested
in b o o ts , leather, jeans and uni­
form s. C ou n try and interstate re­
plies w e lco m e . INC b o x 7 5 2 7 .
Ha v e f u l l r a n g e h a r d c o r e c o l o r f i l m s
8 8 -9 0 A L E X A N D R A P A R A D E
(2 doors fro m Brunswick St.)
F IT Z R O Y
(M -F ) (F -F ) F U L L A C T IO N S L ID E S , P R IN T S
FOR D E T A IL S
SEN D STA M P E D A D D R E S S E D E N V E LO P E TO:
R IC H A R D S LA B S ,
Box 2 7 9 , P. O . G R A N V IL L E , 2 1 4 2 .
M on day to S aturday: 11 am
to M idnight
m a sm
k
»
also available fo r im m ediate delivery «
H
ADVERTISING COSTS
A ctiv ity ca tegories determ in e the
basic co s t. C ateg ory (A ) is fo r free
p u b lic m eetings ($ 1 fo r 21 w ords).
C ateg ory (B ) is fo r individuals ad­
vertising u n d e r a n y heading ($ 2 fo r
21 w ord s). C ategory (C ) is f o r any
b u s in e s s
enterprise
advertising
u n d e r any heading ($ 3 fo r 21
w o r d s ).
ALL
A D D IT IO N A L
W O R D S 1 0 c E AC H .
N OT FO R PUBLICATION
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K U jw uM 'iM n rri
MONEY ENCLOSED:
Category A ( $ 1 ) ..................................................................... $ Category B ( $ 2 ) ...........
$“
Category C ( $ 3 ) .................................................................... $ "
Extra Words (10c each)...................................................... $ INC Box facility ( 2 0 c ).........................................................$
Repeat/dual publication ad*............................................... $ -
CashICheque/Postal Order for TOTAL $ —
i hi w
All rep lies t o INC B ox nu m bers
m ust b e in a stam p ed, sealed, u n ­
addressed e n v e lo p e w ith th e adver­
tiser’ s D -n o tice b o x n u m b er clearly
w ritten in th e t o p le ft c o m e r . This
en v e lo p e is t o b e e n clo s e d in a
se co n d o n e addressed t o : IN C 13n o tice s, G PO B o x 5 3 1 2 BB, M el­
b o u rn e , 3 0 0 1 .
Dalliance respondents must include
$2 payment with each reply when
sending to IN C for forwarding to
advertisers. Non-complying letters
are destroyed.
r
BEAUIiHR
S4-50
CLOSE'
®
I
UP
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A D U L TS ONLY
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Page 2 4 - T H E L IV IN G D A Y L IG H T S , January 22-28, 1974
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.......................................
ROG McGUINN
DRUGS, SOCIETY AND PER­
SONAL CHOICE: H. Kalant and
O. J. Kalant. (Nelson. $1.95.)
HIS is an extremely cau­
tious work. Written by two
Canadian doctors, it strives for
complete objectivity, and, as a
result says little that is o f interest.
As a factual text, it is dull oversimple and tw o years out o f date.
It attempts to cover just about
everything, and as a result gives
little insight into anything. There
are
some
glaring
omissionsCocaine, for example, is barely
mentioned. Despite their claims to
objectivity, the authors indicate
that they are completely out o f
sympathy with the reasons given
by users o f drugs such as cannabis
and the psychedelics.
This does not mean that the
authors necessarily oppose legal­
isation o f cannabis. This, as they
point out, is a matter o f choice by
the people in a democratic so­
ciety. They argue that anti drug
legislation has usually been initiat­
ed by small pressure groups, with
the assent o f people who made no
attempt to probe the real issues,
but were prepared to vote in laws,
which, seemingly concerned only
an unimportant minority. The
situation has changed in many
T
countries,
including Australia,
especially in relation to cannabis
use.
The average concerned citizen,
to whom this b ook is obviously
directed, will find little basis for
getting excited about marijuana
law reform, however, on the basis
o f reading these pages.
The profile o f the marijuana
user which emerges is the tradi­
tional one o f the mal-adjusted
individual who is attempting to
escape from the pressures o f so­
ciety, and who is liable to be using
a number o f other drugs. They
make a token concession that
there may be good reason to
escape from modern society, but
ignore com pletely the question o f
why the dramatic increase in the
incidence o f marijuana usage in
western society during the past
decade.
The title is somewhat tjeceptive, since one would suggest some
discussion o f the rights o f indi­
viduals to dope themselves out if
this is what they want. Instead,
the authors assume that the gov­
ernment has a duty to protect
people from themselves, even
when they dont want to be pro­
tected.
It is innocuous and uninterest­
ing reading, and if further p ro o f is
required, it has a personal com m ­
endation from Don Chipp on the
back.
GOWIO*
number7
•A purpose in life?
•RAJA YOGA and GURU
MAHARAJ JI’s knowledge
•Mythology lost. Mythology found.
•THE jesus cult and occultism
•Numerology — using numbers
•We are all in prison
•Psychism 1: failure of modem psychic
research
•Ancient Indian medicine
•Practical steps towards higher consciousness
— a synthesis of occult systems towards
increased perception and awareness
•Pratyahara in yoga: mind control Zetetic
mind
•Passage through modern India
•CARMIC Economics
nowonsale
Distribution Gordon and Gotch A/Asia Ltd.
JEAN BUCKLEY
DEEP TH ROAT: “ Inside Linda
Lovelace” .
IT ’S HARD not to discuss Linda
Lovelace’ s b o o k o f “ revelations”
(that b o o k where she finally “ de­
livers the goodies without the
bullshit” ) without reverting to
cliches like fascinating; repulsive;
and ego tripping.
The b o o k itself presents many
doublebinds fo r the feminist re­
viewer — after all, why bother
reading such sexist crap at all?
Presumably in the hope o f finding
some documentation and attitudinal contribution that will tell
you something you didnt know
before.
It’s in this b o o k that Linda
Lovelace decides to “ tell every­
thing” - or whatever it is that
she’s been into in the past few
years: her views on the American
movie porn industry scene and the
porn market in general. However,
her insignts are less perceptive o f
the sexploitation market than
they are concerned to ascertain
how the potential o f that market
can be exploited for further per­
sonal gain (hers, o f course).
Her concern seems not so
much to degrace her sex as to
make use o f it. "S ex is sex, and let
it go at that” , she quips. A t the
same time, she insinuates that the
day will com e (soon ) when she
and “ a well known movie star”
will make the ultimate porn movie
to be called D eep Tango. The
insinuation is no less subtie (as the
“ well known movie star” is so
obviously Marlon Brando) than
her concern fo r persokal self ag­
grandisement
throughtout her
book, her film, and her life.
Lovelace talks endlessly about
her personal assets and her sen­
suality, and how she uses those
qualities to maximum personal
gain.
Her views on cock sucking are
unorthodox. The traditional view
is that cock sucking is an exercise
in female degradation, but Linda
delights in giving guys the deep
throat treatment. For her, it
means giving guys the once over,
because they seem to get “ addict­
ed” to this form o f "therapy” and
thus are bound to her whims.
Next in the b o o k is the story
o f the making o f her first big time
porno flic: D eep throat was
porno flic: D eep throat. Her share
in the renewal o f the contract she
signed to make D eep throat, was
$25,000. However, following the
success o f the first version, Linda
thought she should get more $250,000 more. Although there
was no way out o f the original
contract and the option for re­
newal, Linda still decided to press
ahead with her higher demands.
She knew that without her c o ­
operation, the producers could
say good b ye to the success o f the
second version. Without her un­
inhibited operations, the remake
o f D eep throat would be an un­
mitigated flop. Linda won on the
deal and got her $250,000.
For those who arent really
interested in movie making and
the porn industry, Linda includes
a section on b od y building exer­
cises — how to develop your
breasts and vagina (geisha and
karate style), how to save your
cunt from going to wrack and
ruin, how to prevent stretch
marks and how to suck a cock
without
choking yourself on
sperm and without incurring dam­
age to the vocal cords, should
your decide to get into deep
throat too.
She does, momentarily, con­
sider the role o f womens lib. Her
only comm ent/advice here is that
wom ens lib “ ladies” should al­
ways remember that “ Tarzan is
Tarzan — and Jane is Jane” What­
ever that means . . .
On the personal and sexual
politics level, it could be argued
that Inside Linda Lovelace is an
abysmal failure and a ripoff. But
on the level o f the politics o f
relationships, Lovelace is occa­
sionally (and unusually) acute.
She says she doesnt dig women
who say they can “ no longer
relate to men” . She can, does —
and wants to: more and more. Her
rationale for digging the sexploita­
tion scene is that she likes upstag­
ing guys and does so with com m it­
ment. Her defence is that she
doesnt dig the underdog female
role and, furthermore, that she is
not going to drop out for the
cause o f “ feminism” .
There is a slight contradiction
here: Lovelace claims to be in­
dependent in playing (and win­
ning) the game their (men’s) way.
Yet, presumably, if it werent for
her parasitical leeching o f those
guys and her exploitation o f them,
the whole structure o f her inde­
pendence would collapse. Capital­
ism and the sex market is one
thing - capitalism o f the em o­
tions is another altogether.
One constantly feels inclined
to query Lovelace’ s so called inde­
pendence. Her unabashed answer
is that she will continue to d o
what she’s doing for as long as she
can get away with it. Be that as it
may, one does admire Lovelace's
style in her manipulation o f the
business side o f the movie sex­
ploitation scene. Not for her the
suicide and the self enforced lone­
ly retirement that has been the lot
BELLENDEN KER
traditional
and
con te m p o ra ry
m u s ic,
U nion H otel, cnr. Fenwick
and
A m ess
Streets, N orth Carlton.
“L.
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Amiss'0 0 ., v>\e
avah»b—
ACTORS FO R U M PRESENTS
G ALA A U S TR A LIA N PREMIERE
Gerda Nicolson and Lew Luton
IN
A black comedy by Alan Hopgooa.
With Beverley Dunn and Gary Down
Season s tric tly lim ite d , 30th Jan.-9th Feb.
A L E X A N D E R T H E A T R E , MONASH U N IV E R S IT Y
BO O KIN GS 544.0311, ext. 3992; A . H . 541.3992.
MSD A N D MYERS.
o f many a H ollyw ood movie
queen.
Curiously enough, in the final
section o f the book , in which
Linda gives a tantalising list o f
things to try out, one finds it a bit
hard to accept her recommenda­
tions on face value without apply­
ing reality criteria. I say curious
because when you hit descriptions
like “ and both their cocks entered
me simultaneously” , those sugges­
tions are either taken on face
value or not taken seriously at all.
The onus o f p ro o f rests on Linda’s
exposition which is largely inde­
pendent.
Another
example:
stuffing
fruit up on e’s cunt was tradi­
tionally regarded as a source o f
pleasure, but when Lovelace de­
scribes exercises enabling the
b od y to absorb a one and a half
fo o t long cock, 8” in circum ­
ference, what kind o f male bod y
is she referring to?
The b o o k is similarly lacking in
definitions and researched sugges­
tion. Lovelace’s descriptions are
invariably placed in quaint con ­
texts with no information value:
“ While watching TV . . . I can
bring myself to 50 orgasms or
m ore.” One could facetiously ask
why she bothers to turn her TV
on at all.
Her recommendations are al­
ways full o f contradictions. For
example, in one breath she will
extol the virtues o f vibrators and
in the same breath, she will con ­
demn them on the grounds that
mechanically induced orgasm is so
compulsive (once the habit is ac­
quired), that no man or form o f
manual dexterity is sufficient
thereafter.
The final section o f the b ook is
taken up with Lovelace’s amateur
counselling service. These are
thoroughly elitist and she goes in
for a lot o f empty forms o f
address, such as “ m y fellow w o­
men” . Y ou share her sense o f
fatigue as you go through the limp
pages o f “ Linda’s sex manual for
tired lovers” , which is trite, slick,
smooth and condescending. Her
assumption is that Linda is the
only person ever to get into sex
experimentation. So we get en­
lightened and inspiring revelations
like: “ Something else I highly
recommend is a waterbed” . She’ s
obviously geared herself strictly to
middle class gadgetry.
Ultimately, I suppose, Linda’s
claim to fame through her b ook
rests on her reputation as being
the female answer to Henry Miller
- 40 years later. The b ook is
saturated with purple passages like
“ (while I) caress that gorgeous
throbbing muscle with hands and
cheek as though it has a soul o f its
ow n” . All in all, an out and out
glorification o f the male part in
the politics o f sexploitation.
Lovelace herself sees her con ­
tribution differently: “ My biggest
hope is that D eep throat has made
a contribution towards changing
the movie industry. I want to see
the day when sex will be an
accepted thing and violence will
be outlawed.” It all seems so
facile and simplistic - especially
when Lovelace asks rhetorically:
“ Why is the United States the
only place (in the world) where
violence seems to be favored over
sex?” Perhaps no one has pointed
out to Linda that there is a freak
exploitation and movie industry
that places as high a premium on
violence as she does on sex.
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 2 2 -28 , 1974 -
Page 25
Dunstan
disappoints
G R A E M E D U N S T A N o n the flo o d s
( T L D , 2 /2 ) is very disappointing. Tak­
ing fiv e paragraphs to establish that the
m edia interpret ou r w orld w ith very
interesting signs and sym bols, he ven­
tures fo rth t o let the elem ents im pinge
u p o n his reality. Im pinge they d o, but
he can ’ t help lam enting that the other
p eop le d o n t really seem to be making
the best o f their im pingem ents.
It seem s that the unappreciative
clod s d o n t k n o w the value o f this
w on d e rfu l and, d o n o t let us forget,
natural event, the flo o d . N ew relation­
ships co u ld have em erged fro m chance
groupings, n ew co m m u n ity values cre­
ated fro m c o m m o n struggle — bu t no,
the d elayed travellers w ere stupid
enough to w ant t o keep travelling, the
civil d e fe n ce volun teers did n o t insist
u p o n laurels all roun d or even a simple
tea and biscu it c e re m o n y fo r the tow n.
He d o e sn t seem t o realise that p e o ­
ple d o n t dw ell u p o n o r celebrate the
“ jo y and m eaning” o f big events until
they are past, until the “ m undane” jo b
at hand has been d on e. There w ere no
R SL sp eeches o n m ateship w h ile the
fighting was g oin g on . O f course, the
“ d oin g ” o f th e flo o d fo r Graem e was
the observing and the writing, rather
than sandbag filling o r even fen ce
walking w ith the kids, and he hasnt yet
been aroun d fo r the yarras and
“ m yth-m aking” (to use the favored
anthropolese) that w ill fo llo w .
T he im perturable T V w atchers o f
W ee Waa are quite co n fid e n t that they
w ill b e “ incorporating this dram atic
change in their en viron m en t” into their
daily lives as a special event — mainly
through w eeks o f hard labor and h o r­
rible living as th e water goes away.
A n d please d o n t le t’s talk ab ou t
those dead sheep, or even the indivi­
dually struggling grazier o r shearer’ s
c o o k o r semi driver. T here is n o social
lesson t o be learnt here. Graem e re­
bu k es the te en y b op p ers o f G unnedah,
saying, “ N either the reality o f the
f lo o d n or the saving had im pinged in
their w o r ld ,” y et he seems o n ly to have
been struck b y those things useful as
exam ples in his social analysis.
But a fe w asides co n v in ce me that I
m ust take the g o o d w ith the g o o d — a
closed road is a safe road, the yankee
labor ex ploiters have g o t m ud up to
and in their eyes, and fo r all y o u heads
o u t there in new spaperland, the m ush­
r o o m s w ill be o n this season!
A N G U S BISHOP,
Nowra, NSW
AS IS
Daylights
let down
A F T E R reading som e o f you r previous
newspapers, I have fo u n d them m ost
interesting and w itty — eg. the A n ­
archy issue. H ow ever, it seem s to me,
after this A n a rc h y issue you r new s­
paper has b e co m e , to m y d isappoin t­
m ent, very w eak and em pty. Perhaps
it’ s becau se y o u have in tox ica ted y o u r ­
selves w ith t o o m uch lazing around
over the holidays. I d o n t k n ow . I
frankly fe e l y o u should b e capable o f
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producing a m u ch better issue, filled
with a ctio n and im pact. If y o u h on est­
ly believe each w eek th e m ixture im ­
proves o r the energy flo w thickens,
then I suggest y o u carry this o u t. I am
seriously beginning to w on d er w hether
y o u r new spaper is really w orth 30
cents. Hence, I h o p e y o u r n ex t ed ition
is n o t such a let d ow n , causing m any
disappointm ent. So, if y o u plan to
b o o s t the new s con ten t, please m ake
the articles m ore interesting (as th ey
o n ce w ere) and ab ove all th ick en y o u r
newspaper. D o n t be such a miser. Until
then, get o f f y o u r arses and d o som e
w ork !
A non ym ou s,
V ictoria
No knowledge
Dear Daylights,
It amuses m e greatly to see the
D ivine Light M ission o n c e again classi­
Balmain
blues
D A R L IN G S , w e w ere so glad that you r
social roundsm an H aydn T h om p son
cou ld co v e r ou r little d o . . . in his par
“ o n e day o f the year” . . . ( TLD 2 /1 )
His n otes did indeed ease ou r evic­
tion fr o m the S ton e H ouse. M ost o f
the lazy left, retired radicals, drunken
d rop ou ts, burnt o u t b o o k barons and
pisspot lawyers did p rob a b ly walk
d o w n fr o m th e L o n d o n where they
generally piss-on, as Mr T h om pson
reported:
W e assume that Mr T h om pson
w ou ld have driven d o w n in his Morgan
R ep lica i f his venture o n the stockm arket — A M A D G O L D /N o liability
shares, had bean successful.
“ LE ST WE F O R G E T "
Balmain. NSW
AT
WILL TETLEY
URTHER to my L etter
from Nimbin in TLD 1/7
here is more inform ation about
the Tuntable scene. We, Coordina­
tion C oop, moved on to the Tun­
table Falls property about a
month ago taking possession o f
tw o thirds o f the 1000 acre prop­
erty, the remaining one third to
com e under our possession on
payment o f the total purchase
price.
Since moving on to the land
work has gone ahead at an encour­
aging rate. Extensive gardens are
being farmed after some kind c o ­
operation from one o f the local
farmers who spent a couple o f
days ploughing up the kikuyu
grass with a tractor drawn rotary
hoe. Now, crops o f corn, beans,
and a whole manner o f other veges
are springing up helped by the
heavy rains o f the early wet sea­
son.
A pipeline has been construct­
ed bringing fresh spring water to
the dwellings and gardens (not
that irrigation is a problem at the
moment but will be in the dry
F
Page 26 — T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , january 2 2 -28 , 1974
fied and p igeon ed-h oled w ith the
m any m o d e m day w ays o f o ccu p y in g
“ o n e ’ s tim e”
(Ian M cCausland —
C hron icles o f w asted tim e, jan 15,
19 74).
Is it that the adherents o f the D L M
are th e o n ly on es game enough t o put
their norm al everyday existence on the
line b y asking them selves the qu estion
. . . W ho am I? W hat am I d oin g here:
.?
D o n t new spaper p eop le ever d irect
these qu estion s to them selves? Is it
that th ey d o n t dare d o it? C ould it be
th ey fear losing the intellectu al secur­
ity a new spaper offers?
Is this w h y the DLM is never investi­
gated t o th e ex ten t o f a m em ber o f the
“ o b je ctiv e ” press actually taking the
k n o w led g e? S urely i f the k n ow led g e is
the cru x o f th e Divine L ight M ission, it
sh ould b e the p o in t o f investigation
. . . and nothin g else.
W aiting to hear fro m a m em ber o f
season).
A large communal kitchen is
almost com pleted as an extension
o f the “ white-house” which also
houses the library, co o p office,
trucking o ffice (the co o p now has
2 trucks at its disposal), sick-bay
and general assembly point for
meetings. It also provides sleeping
accom m odation fo r a few perma­
nent residents.
Work continues on various
structures fo r personal accom m o­
dation and a dom e and A-frame
for communal use. A large corral
is being built for com m unity
horses (4 at present) and their
breaking and schooling.
A fter the closure o f the fo o d
c o o p in the Tom ato Sauce Fac­
tory in tow n a fo o d c o o p has been
set up on the property providing
bulk food s at wholesale prices for
c o o p members and other com ­
munities around the area.
Despite the onset o f the wet
season (is it here or isnt it?) work
is still pressing ahead on preparing
the place for an anticipated influx
o f people at the beginning o f the
dry.
While Tuntable Falls welcomes
ily w h en he k n ow s that there is a group
that in his o w n w o r d s is taking “ steps
tow ards rectify in g this barbaric inquisi­
tion al attitude o f the state and m edical
profession to m ental im balan ce” .
This group is called the “ C itizens
C om m ission o n Hum an Rights Psychi­
atric V io la tion s” . T he com m ission is
very aware o f the im porta n ce o f clean­
ing up such barbaric treatm ents as
E.C .T., brain op eration s and abuses o f
hum an rights in this area generally.
If JI really w ants to see changes
occu r in th e m ental health “ industry” ,
his help and active support will b e
m ost w elcom e.
Our aims are to com p ile a record o f
psychiatric abuses, publish them and
present to governm ents reform s needed
in Australian M ental Health A cts. S o
far, w e have also been instrum ental in
achieving the release o f som e m ental
patients in Perth and A delaide w h o had
b een w ron g ly com m itted to m ental
hospitals.
C om m issions exist in Perth (3 7
Cleaver st,) S ydn ey (1 Lee st,) M el­
bou rn e (7 2 4 Inkerm an st, C aulfield)
and A delaide (28 R estorm al ave, Fullarton).
W. K oster,
secreta ry,
Citizens' C om m ission on
Human Rights,
Fullarton, SA
Jigsaw Jigsaw
the “ o b je c tiv e ”
k n ow ledge.
press after receiving
P E TE R F O R T ,
S yd n ey, NSW
Name please
Dear Daylights,
C ould s o m e b o d y please tell m e the
nam e o f th e man o n the cover o f last
w e e k ’ s (2 /2 ) D ayligh ts? I recognise
him , I k n o w him, bu t I just can’ t think
o f his nam e. I h o p e som eon e can help
me.
G R A H A M PITT,
B o x Hill, V ic
Fighting
the shrinks
Dear Daylights,
Y ou r corresp on d en t JI o f Cam ber­
w ell, V ic ( T L D , 2 /2 ), can rest m ore eas-
energetic, lively people with a
genuine interest in our project,
people who are prepared to join in
our various activities and help us
reach our aims, we do not want
our valley to becom e a halfway
house, crash pad for transients in
search o f a hippy paradise.
Come and visit by all means
but be prepared to join in and
work. Better still, com e in and
join the co o p and build yourself a
permanent, more meaningful and
satisfying life style.
Best wishes to all from Tun­
table Falls. May 1974 bring a
better world for all o f us.
Coordination C oop Ltd,
Nimbin, NSW
Thanks Will Tetley for the con­
tinuing birth notes on the com­
mune at Tuntable Falls. We are
interested
in chronicling the
growth o f the IMimbin experiment,
so if there's any spare photos of
the first formative structures,
lyrical groves, the pioneers etc,
send them along . . with some
helpful notes. Good luck to farm
freaks everywhere from us city
pollution suckers — EDS.
PA G E 25 o f TLD 2 /1 is as far as I can
understand a jigsaw. W hat’ s a “ p ost­
ob je ct c o n c e p tio n ” ?
A SELENITSCH,
Haw thorn, V ic
Potts Point
Politics
I R E A D Miss B a con ’s view s o n the
eviction o f the V ictoria street squat­
ters. Perhaps y o u w ou ld like t o k n o w
they were hated by the real residents
o f Potts Point — the p eo p le w h o pay
their way. T h ey are disliked even m ore
than the W ayside chapel m o b and that
is saying som ething.
R O N LEE,
P o tts P oint, NSW
P ig g y
Gumboot
“ R IG H T O N to the new w om en but,
fo r the sake o f Christ and hum anity, be
sure to eradicate those ‘bristles lik e
lavatory brushes’ if y ou r legs happen to
have them .” S o advises Harry Gum b o o t ’ s A B C o f anarchy etc {T L D ,
1/ 10).
W here are y o u — with us o r against
us, y o u anarchists? Y o u talk a great
deal a b ou t Truth. H ere is a Truth fo r
y o u , with o u r blessings:
Each human is unique. In a physical
sense, fo r an individual to feel at h om e
in his b o d y he must be able to accept
his b o d y ’s uniqueness. T o alter o n e ’ s
b o d y to please others is n o t in a cco rd ­
ance w ith this Truth.
Hairs on legs c o m e naturally to
w om en, as th ey d o to m en: thick-thin,
bristly-fine, dark-fair. If w e c o m ­
prom ise and keep ou r legs sm ooth in
accord an ce
with
som e
anarchist’ s
image o f desirability — w h y stop there?
W hy n ot pad ded bras, plastic surgery,
painted “ im provem en ts” to facial fea­
tures, th e lot.
Laugh a\ bristles if y o u like —
com plain abjout them if y o u must. B ut
telling us to "era d ica te” them is as
g o o d as eradicating our o w n individual­
ity and liberty.
Love from ,
JILL & JENNY,
V ictoria Park, WA
O K , y o u w in . B u t h o w w o u ld y o u lik e
a p a ir o f cheesegraters w ra p p e d a ro u n d
y o u r back? H .G .
King critic
I W O U LD like to com m en d R o b King
on his article about the current m usic
scene (TLD , 2 /1 ) and w ou ld like to
hereby con fer on him the title o f L ord
High M usic Critic o f the Y ear fo r his
e ffo r t in being h on est ab ou t the n o ­
where
d irection
of
current c o n ­
tem porary m usic.
I agree alm ost totally w ith w hat he
says, especially ab ou t the local n on ­
effo rts and the d isprop ortion a te m ini­
superstar aura surrounding them. L oca l
m aterial is certainly n o t g o o d just by
its particular nature o f being local.
T he o n ly thing I w o u ld add, h o w ­
ever, is that I think he still missed the
on e gross failing that lo ca l m usic has in
com p arison to overseas material, it’ s
on e sad, inherent constraint — ie.
singers o f any real com p arab le quality.
V ery fe w to p groups overseas m ake
it w ith ou t individual-sounding lead
singers, and the Australian e ffo r t to
o v e r co m e this d e ficie n cy , in term s o f
carefully engineered v ocal p rod u ction
(and n o t just a group o f backgroun d
girl singers a la Brian C add), is pitiful.
A s a bu dding son gw riter(!) w h o has
subm itted tapes, I k n o w fo r a fa ct that
p rod u cers d o n o t sh ow any sort o f
acute interest in m ore carefully arrang­
ed harm ony, and fro m their ivory
self-inflated tow ers fo b y o u o f f w ith a
“ keep trying, kid, b u t d o n t call m e —
I’ll call y o u ” . So, let m e just say that
it ’s nice t o see so m eon e d o a crit w h o
is n ot lost in the fake eup horia o f the
m axim that “ just becau se it’ s p o p
m eans it m ust b e c o o l, m an” . L et’ s
fa ce it, the 60s was the era, and S F A ’ s
been d o n e since.
the p oin t o f d om in ation .
It should b e em phasised that this
guilt, w h en it occu rs, is real, and that
w o m e n are o fte n in d ifficu lties a v oid ­
ing being m ore aggressive than males.
Firstly, their upbringing is in this d irec­
tion, w h en m ost m iddle class husbands
are incapable o r fo r c e d o u t o f dealing
w ith their children o n a very personal
level, so that the m oth er fills b o th
maternal and paternal roles, providing
the pattern fo r her daughters.
S e co n d ly , freak males, w h o are
m ostly the p rod u cts o f such upbring­
ing, tend t o eschew the aggressiveness
th ey think o f as an “ O ck er” character­
istic, and along w ith it such things as
decisiveness and playing gam es involv­
ing personal in teraction w ith elem ents
o f co m p e titio n . T hese males w ill o ft e n
n o t m ove unless pushed and so are
o fte n pushed aroun d b y w om en .
T hirdly, the “ O ck ers” that w o m e n ’ s
libbers are so paranoid o f are also
m ostly the p rod u cts o f such upbring­
ing, and so have little e m otion a l
strength, bu t partly as a result o f their
“ beery m ates” social setting th ey can­
n o t adm it that, and have n o w ay to
keep a tenuous h old o n their self­
esteem oth er than to p lay act at being
the “ he-m an” b y acting aggressively.
T o deal w ith these m en, w o m e n can
o n ly play at being submissive, or if the
need is great o r the w ay clear, react
w ith equ al o r greater aggression — w ith
greater ease, bu t w ith a g o o d d eal o f
guilt.
T h e solu tion to this u n happ y situa­
tion is n o t th e p sy ch oa n a ly st’ s panacea
o f rem oving the guilt (ie. th e guilt that
w o m e n feel; m en m ostly fe e l inade­
qu ate) and perm itting w o m e n to ter­
rorise m ales ad lib, bu t t o p ay som e
clo se a tten tion t o w h y males are so
short o n em o tio n a l strength.
A partial solu tion is in the alm ost
u n h ea rd -of area o f the m ale child
(n o tic e h o w friend ly and c o n fid e n t
y ou n g girls are com p a red w ith you n g
b o y s ? ). Ladies, please, b e dam n careful
n ot t o shut o f f y o u r m an fr o m the
em otion a l life o f y o u r children — if
y o u love them , d on t turn th em in to
w eaklings or m ale chauvinists (w h o are
bu t w eaklings underneath). A n d d o n t
dem and it o f y o u r man o r y o u ’ ll just
bugger it up, en cou ra ge him and b o o s t
his con fid en ce.
NE IL R OBIN SON ,
Prahran, V ic
Musical
tastes
Dear Daylights,
S o K eith S hadw ick (T L D 2 /2 ) has
jo in e d A lbie T h o m s ( TL D 1 /9 ) fo r the
great m usic debate, o r w h ich SOU N DS
are really w h ere it ’s at? A lb ie digs
David A hern, w h ich is kind o f a pity,
bu t A lb ie ’ s alw ays b een a b it slow as a
bullshit d e te cto r. D avid’ s g o t a cute
m usical version o f som e silly ideas
a b ou t theatre that som e F ren ch aca­
d em ics g o t carried aw ay w ith w ay ba ck
then — K eith put him d o w n pretty w ell
an yw ay, so w h y should I b oth er?
K eith ’ s in to m od ern jazz, the avant
garde b it ( “ avant g a rd e ?” th a t’s an
O ld e W orld e title, K eith) w h ich has a
little m ore going f o r it than A lb ie ’ s
unC aged stu ff. K eith d rop s a lo t o f
names, p oin ts o u t that R o c k has 20
years o f h istory (w h ich he thinks
m akes it o u t o f date, though I can ’ t see
h o w ; “ avant garde” jazz goes ba ck a
fair w ay t o o , and b o th o f them have
changed a lo t) and actually gives a little
argum ent. Here it is: “ the c o m p le x ity
o f the m usic, the diversity o f its
expression , th e starkness o f its presen­
tation is u n m a tch ed b y any other
con tem p ora ry m u sic” .
N o w I th in k w e can argue a b ou t the
c o m p le x ity ; w e can certain ly argue
a b ou t th e diversity (h o w diverse is
R o c k ? ) . But as an esth etic th e o ry , this
is p retty rudim en tary. L et’s b e a little
less illiterate. (W hich is a nasty w o rd ,
b u t K eith used it first.)
Great art w h ich d oes n o t take full
advantage o f the te c h n o lo g y available
t o it is rare. Great art w h ich is n ot
closely related to a con tem p ora ry or
recen tly past fu n ction a l fo r m (in the
case o f m usic, o fte n religious o r dance)
is rare. Great art w h ich is part o f a
genre w h ich is n o t p opu lar in its o w n
time o r the im m ediate future is rare.
(N otice that I didnt say that everything
w h ich is p opular is great art, n o r even
that all great art is p opu lar in its tim e;
bu t that all great w ork s are o f kinds
w hich are popu lar.)
T he o n ly kind o f m usic w h ich m eets
these criteria tod a y is R o c k ; thus it is
the place w h ere the m ajor m usical
achievem ents o f o u r tim e m ay m ost
reason ably be ex p e cte d . A ll this is
historical, and n o t d epen den t on taste.
Tastes d iffer; O rnette C olem an and
Eric D o lp h y are t o o cerebral fo r m y
taste these days: clever m usic, bu t n ot
enough gutfelt passion. Sure get in to it,
if y o u dig it. S om e p eo p le d o (I saw
C oltrane’s name in the straight press
several tim es last year, K eith —
w h ere’ve y o u been ?). But b e fo re y o u
rush in to print a b o u t A rt (w ith a
capital A ), try and get a perspective o n
where we are. A n d rem em ber that
som e stu ff w h ich sold t o th e masses o f
its tim e bu t shat the academ ics has
been recogn ised; and som e stu ff that
the masses and the acad em ics b oth
loved has fared likew ise; b u t I fin d it
very hard to think o f a great w o rk in
any m edium w h ich the acad em ics and
hardly a n y b o d y else in its o w n day
appreciated.
JIM M A C K E N Z IE ,
K ingsford, N SW
Yeah - teachin em White Civil­
isation. Big reflective pause. “ How
did you d o that?” I was drivin a
jeep round for a captain. Had a
good time over there. “ They tell
me it’s a beautiful cou ntry?”
Yeah. What, are you doing in
Mareeba? Thinks — “ Maybe I’ ll
pick up some o f that "civil-isation” . White variety. Smiles.
White. All bright alright. White­
wash God - The yellow devils
were checkmated out o f the God
ownership race in 1945. A is for
atom. A King; Queen, R ook. Have
you seen the Spook? that took a
look at War and Saw the Civilised
Man?
If you see him send him home.
Dont let him roam forever.
A L IS T E R WEBB,
Oakleigh, V ic
Tales from
the road
I
P A R T IC U L A R L Y
e n jo y e d
Phil
O ’C arroll’ s
article
on
hitchhiking
(TLD, 2 /1 ) and w o u ld like to add a
few com m en ts o n m y ow n .
I have fo u n d that there is n o par­
ticular social group w h o sh ow a tend e ce n cy to give lifts. F or ex am ple, I
th ou gh t that surfer typ es m ight tend to
give m ore lifts, bu t, n o , I’ m just as
likely to get lifts fro m plum bers or
salesmen. T here is, h ow ever, o n e g roup
w h o never gives lifts (in O ’ Carroll's
terms, th e y are c o m p le te ly unw illing to
relate to strangers) — the married
cou p le w ith a caravan.
A b o u t 80 p ercen t o f m y lifts have
been b y so lo males. O n ce tw o girls
picked m e up because I had long hair.
T h ey figured short haired guys w ere
m ore likely to get lifts fro m straights
and th ey w ere trying to even the scale.
Assum ing I fa ce the o n com in g traf­
fic travelling in th e d irection I am
headed: I have fo u n d that the drivers
o f o n c o m in g cars w h o I am facing and
d irectly encou nterin g, tend t o avoid
relating and stare straight ahead, bu t
the drivers in the o p p o site direction, to
w h om m y b a ck is turned, react to m e
(th ey call o u t o r relate in som e w ay)
ab ou t fo u r tim es m ore than those in
the o n co m in g cars. I assume this hap­
pens becau se I am n o t con fron tin g
them fa ce o n , and d o n o t appear so
threatening.
O n the negative side (fo r m e), I
generally feel com p etitiv e w ith fe llo w
hitchhikers in the same d irection , y et I
have had som e w o n d e rfu l encounters
w ith th ose travelling in the o p p osite
direction. O n the positive side, I tend
to relate m o re absolutely, and an ac­
know ledgem ent, a wave, a gesture or
som e w o r d can have c o sm ic signif­
icance.
M y w orst ex perien ces hitching were
at Canberra, becau se ev eryon e preten d ­
ed I was n o t there, and at N ew castle
late at night, becau se ev eryon e assum­
ed that a slim, lon g haired figure, was a
loose w o m a n and an easy fu ck ; bu t
even there, feeling really threatened
and desperate, a really n ice guy picked
me up and turned m e o n .
W IL L Y YOU N G,
Brisbane, Qld
Bringing up
father
I W ISH to c o m m e n d H arry G u m b o o t as
the m ost consistent sign o f health in
y o u r coverage o f “ alternative culture” .
His tell-it-like-it-is rationale has so far
been very accurate in aim at som e o f
those things w h ich “ freak id e o lo g y ”
d o e s n ot admit.
H G ’s m ention o f “ pred atory w o ­
m en” accord s w ith m y im pression that
a lot o f w o m e n s lib “ raves” sh ow both
the ex ten t to w h ich w o m e n s libbers are
m ore aggressive than the freak males
(or h om osexuals) w h o they prefer to
deal w ith, and that the purpose o f the
raves is, as m uch as anything, to obtain
a b solu tion fro m the guilt these ladies
still experien ce at being aggressive to
A Happy Medium
SPIRO MATAMARUS
R A TA TA! Ra ta ta ta! Get your
tickets for the grand final - Tully
versus the Mighty Men from Mt
Isa - at the Showgrounds Satur­
day. Y ou ’ve got to see it to
believe it. Dont miss the match o f
the year. Blah, blah, blah.
Ra ta ta ta ra ta ta . . . B ank!!
Commonwealth!! T op 40 Superstar, dont miss the Superstar pro­
gram at 4 pm every afternoon,
sponsored by the Commonwealth
bank - “ It’s the biggest!!.
Rip. Top. Rip o f f a top today.
NQ lager in the rip top stubbies,
what better way to enjoy a long
co o l drink after a hard days
work?? Brewed for the N orth’s Big
Thirst.
Summertime radio . . . Coming
on strong 1040 on your dial.
Zit zap zit zap tic tic tele tele
shuffle file, index, record. M otor
impulse — reactions from subtle
influence on brain. Reach out;
touch. Feel. A long co o l stubby.
Bank what’s left o f your m oney
after you buy your ticket to the
big game. Ra ra ra up civilisation!!
What are ya reading all that old
stuff for? What g o o d ’s all that
Egyptian bullshit gonna do ya
kids? What we got here is where
it’s at Progress! We’ve com e a
long way past them pyramids. TV,
man on the m oon, electricity, cars
- wow, boy, what’s the good o f
living in the past?? Phew! Y ou
sure have some weird interests.
Hitching a ride to Mareeba; one
hour, tw o hours; short hair, cut at
xmas, squatters shirt, clean, cool,
able-to-be-respected. Hop in. Big
grin. “ Thanks.” Dont pick up
hippies
but
you
look
OK.
“ Thanks.” Raves. Meanders. Sur­
face in Japan 1946. Year I was
born.
Another Enoch Poweil
P olice
in vestigatin g
*
com ­
p l a i n t tiia» a c d r K s r i i- e^ n
o u t s i d e o i ’f l e e s o f
the
j ! r?»*o 1d
W ilson
O rg a n iz a tio n , o n in s u r­
ance
com pany,
in
V /ov eriey
S t r e e t , i \ o t r i o g h a m , f o u n d t h a t it
was
owned
ha
Mr
Enoch
P o w e il, a J a m a ica n , w h o h a d left
it t h e r e a f t e r it h a d b r o k e n d o w n . ,
“ What were you doing over
there?” "P olice action? Just h old ­
ing things together?”
Na - we were in Hiroshima.
Terrible to see. All sorts o f d if­
ferent flowers and plants sprout­
ed. Never been seen before. Flat­
tened the place. We were teaching
the japs civilisation.
“ O h?”
The Best Harmonica Player in the world
ERIC BEACH
I
T W A S an unhigh Christmas, I
bou g h t an un derw eight o u n c e
per $ 4 0 becau se there was a drou ght
on , and three o f us sat o n the fr o n t
p orch and $ 2 5 later w e settled o n a
w h ite Ibis w h ile the river revved up its
w ater beds n o t quite breaking the
banks at M on te C arlo. We passed and
also the days. T h e night b e fo re new
year’ s eve I sat alon e o n the fron t
p orch o f a d o u b t as though there was a
war on , debating reality, bu zzed by
huge m o sq u itoes left over fr o m D u n­
kirk, w h ile the locals set up a barb wire
ring fo r a b ox in g m atch and the sec­
on d s fla pp ed w h ite tow els in free
association , I hit the road fo r S ydn ey
around m idnight. T he first man w h o
picked m e up talked w istfu lly o f drag
queens he had kn ow n , tugging w istfu l­
ly at w h ite socks w h ile his w istfu l
w h ite knees k n ob b led w istfu lly behind
his ears, w h ich ch ew ed at the distance
betw een us; I sat there fo r 4 0 m iles
afraid to sw allow .
T he secon d man to give m e a ride
said he was a V ietn am veteran then
op en ed up o n m e, w h en y o u turn over
a m an w h o ’s b een hit b y a dum dum
bu llet o r a clich e there’ s a h o le big
enou gh to put y o u r fist in to, w e talked
a b ou t P ow er W ithou t G lory and A
B unch o f Ratbags and brothers w h o
w ere c o p s and robbers, while a silent
m ora toriu m 2 0 0 m iles long m arched
betw een us.
T h e third man said h e’d d rop o u t
t o o o n ly h e ’d b een living p o o r as a
student (I m en tion ed tw o shearers I’ d
m et w h o w en t to university in the
off-sea son ) and he still hadnt resolved
this m o n e y p rob lem and he loan ed m e
$5 as I g ot o u t o f the car.
I w alked in the d o o r and she said
“ Have I m et y o u in a p sy ch hospital
and have y o u g o t an y d o p e ” and w e
sang silly songs and I said m aybe
N im bin, m ay be n o and s t o o d around in
pubs w ith junkies singing arm y songs
w ith m y hands in m y ears up to the
elb ow s wishing s o m e b o d y w o u ld tou ch
me. A sch ooltea ch er k ep t introdu cin g
m e as a w andering p o e t and taking m e
to parties during the com m ercia l breaks
saying he liked m y p rose better w hile I
shrugged as gracious as m alice and
p eo p le k ep t m e stoned fo r the sake o f
m y p orcelain eyes and I ro b b e d a thief
o f his tim e and a sch ooltea ch er kept
in trodu cin g m e as a wandering part and
I th ou gh t o f cutting o f f all m y hair
o n ly I had n o Delilah.
I was writing a p o e m w h ich was
com in g d o w n on to p o f m e w h ile the
Philistines laughed all around. L ittle
girl fr o m up north w ith y o u r piss-pot
b o y fr ie n d rem em bering m e always a
little m ad and the o n e I o n c e lived w ith
always w e m eet to d en y coin cid e n ce
w ith new s that described m e as fu nn y,
fu n n y I cou ld n t ha ha h a ck it n o t being
m ad fo r y o u but the w orld right then
and I w ou ld n t m ind the ap ocaly p se if
som eon e hadnt slow ed it d ow n .
These p eop le they never asked m e
for nothin g and I accep ted everything
and refused everything. I used t o have
a friend fou r years forever o ld w h o
used to sh out everyw here “ y gits nuffin fo r n u ffin ” and I had p len ty o f
nothing and the sch oolteach er was
trying and the thief was giving it all
ba ck and I slept w ith ou t the grace o f
dreams though I’ve dragged this on e
dream through sch ools and beaches
and dance halls and forests and c o u r t­
room s and festivals where I'm in the
m iddle o f a ro o m w ith no edges w ith
m y m outh o p e n and everything and
nothing is a bell ringing and ev ery b od y
w atching urging it ’s n o t until I w ake up
that I begin to cry.
And now, the weather
EMEMBER
laughing
at
stories about farmers and
little old ladies who, in complain­
ing about erratic and abnormal
weather conditions, would mutter
that things werent like that in the
old days, that “ they’ve” been
muckin’ round with the weather.
Well, now you can stop laugh­
ing. It seems that a possible effect
o f atmospheric pollution is a gen­
eral changing in earth’ s climate.
Currently studying the problem in
Melbourne are 400 scientists who
have gathered for the Interna­
tional Association o f Meteorology
and Atmospheric Physics and the
International Association for the
Physical Sciences o f the Ocean.
The conference will spend
some o f its time discussing the
R
future o f the earth’s climate and
look closely at the three ways
man may be detrimentally affect­
ing the climate:
• High flying supersonic aircraft.
Exhaust gasses from these may
reduce the ozone in the strato­
sphere - ozone protects us from
the suns ultra violet radiation.
Also, discharge o f planes water
vapor may create unnatural clouds
which could reflect the suns radia­
tion and lead to a global cooling.
• The increasing amount o f car­
bon dioxide in the atmosphere
could trap radiation o f heat from
the earth’s surface and lead to
global warming.
• The increase in the atm o­
sphere’s content o f fine dust par­
ticles also has a cooling effect.
T H E L I V I N G D A Y L I G H T S , January 22-28, 19 74 — Page 27
Riding the Sunbury gravy train
STU HAWK
E, THE entire entourage,
slipped aboard the special
press train on the banana
smile o f Odessa Promotions, into
the wall to wall air-conditioned
privacy o f the railways commis­
sioner’ s private bar-carriage . . .
with cheese and bickies. It was
10.43am when we pulled out o f
Spencer street station, bound for
the Sunbury site.
Sunbury. Say no more. It has
all the flavor o f W oodstock, Oz
style, with less rain, more heat,
flies, beer cans and our own
bands. For the third successive
year - same time, same place the Sunbury Pop Festival will
open its costly gates to an
expected
audience
of
some
50,000 people.
The press train was a first. A
board meeting decision to take a
group o f semi stunned journalists
on a guided tour and information
rally o f and for this year’ s festival.
Chauffeur driven Holden station
wagons fronted b y an ambulance
and a police m otor cycle escort,
delivered us to the amazingly
green "site” . The weather stained
stage even started to look part o f
the place, like a slightly disused
W
Page 28
harn It rnnlH
barn.
could have been “ the
Emergency Services Picnic’’ , what
with fire engines and bushfiremen,
ambulance
paratroopers
and
skin
police. But it wasnt. The brownyellow Sunbury stream, managed
to pick its way through garbage at
about the rate o f a glacier flow ,
The biggest water movement was
the courageous young lady in the
official
festival
t-shirt
who
splished and splashed her way
through
innumerable
camera
lenses.
Into the marquee, resplendent
with cellophaned luncheon and
punchbowl bar. It would be safe
to say that the promoters buzzed
and were more annoying than the
many flies, who arrived uninvited
. . . though not totally unexpect­
ed. We were shown the amenities
and facilities including the can o f
Aerogard. The band (Plant) who
will lead the procession which
starts this friday struck up and
away. With Macarthur's park
floating over the vermouth laced
punch, the wraps were finally
lifted from the spread. Following
an endless merry-go-round, picking and choosing from a marvellous cold c o lla tio n . . . plates piled
higher and higher, as were the
lunchers b y now , with chick and
-T H E L IV IN G DAYLIGHTS,January 22-28, 1974
turk and ham and snaraaus
sparagus and
r/b eef and fish fo r friday and all
manner o f salad greens and whites
and pinks etc, easing into the
closest available table.
And guess who came to our
dinner? Ms Duncan, w ho managed
b y her single presence to turn the
whole affair into a CWA auxiliary
talk show. Introductions and
speeches, half drowned b y the
rhythm o f many chomping molars, revealed these things:
For the first time, the festival
will be licensed, in order to try
and control the “ drinking situation” . Rather than try and enforce the semi prohibition laws o f
the previous years, the promoters
decided to try and regulate and
refresh the patrons, b y serving
icecold cans over a number o f bars
. . . tw o cans to each candidate,
with one opened at the bar.
The bright young exec from
Com alco was introduced and
explained how his com pany had
com e to the party, by providing
receptacles and cash-in spots for
the aluminium cans. For the
thirsty drinker, w ho has run out
o f m oney, by collecting 60 cans
or so, at a half cent per can refund
rate, another can o f froth can be
yours.
The karate heavies have been
axed in favor o f a team o f
specially selected “ gentlemen” ,
trained more in the art o f
diplom acy first rather than chop
fu now and ask questions
later.
Another new innovation is the
second stage. A theatre/folk/jazz/
dance/stage (open and marqueed)
is rather inconveniently situated
right at the top o f an exhausting
hill climb, and will present the
Victorian Ballet in a flesh and
leather rock opera dance, about
rebellion o f youth, and the
bridging o f the generation crap,
etc- P °or T om 's Poetry Band will
stage the od d show as well as
perform as itinerant minstrels
throughout the crowd. And the
Australian Performing Group’s
wildly successful Africa . . . the
savage new rock musical.
But the nicest thing about the
whole business - with business
the most operated and operative
word was the lady o f the farm,
She explained how they had
received no m oney last year,
because the promoters had just
broken even. In fact they lost
m oney she was told. Several
persons almost choked on their
craylegs as this “ surprising'' fact
was revealed. The lady’s intentions and homemade generosity
were one o f the most sincere and
hypeless things encountered on
our brief visit. She explained how
they had no hesitation to make
half their farm available for “ all
these young people” . She added
that neither o f the previous
festivals had seen a hair or whisk
o f stock or crop damaged,
Festival prices have doubled in
the space o f tw o short years and
the value has scarcely follow ed
suit. Inflation mate. Hitting where
it hurts. Many former festival
patrons will remember the dust
bow l atmosphere o f the site at
show’s end. Luckily a very good
rain has com e the week after each
festival and the farm has not
suffered. This year the place is
remarkably green compared with
previous years. But after 50,000
pilgrim’s feet tread the sacred soil
for three days man, the same can
be expected. In fact expectations
are the thing most catered for in
what is being billed as the
“ highlight o f the Australian music
year” . An established venue with
a reputation. For whom, what,
where and why this reputation
exists, and is perpetuated, lies the
rub.
Published b y R ichard Neville at 174 Peel street, N o rth M elbourne for Incorporated Newsagendes C om pa ny P ty L t d , the pubTtther
and distrib u to r, 113 Rosslyn street, West M e lbou rne . A n y o n e w ho Isnt a black homosexual w orking class w om an Is a pig,