melbacg.au/for-a-truly-free-pa…

For a truly free Palestine

The following article first appeared in The Anvil, Vol 12, No 6.

As this issue of The Anvil is being prepared, the people of Gaza are being mercilessly bombed as part of a genocidal assault. The Israeli military is preparing for a ground invasion and threatening to expel its remaining inhabitants into Egypt – a second Nakba, larger than the first in 1948. Meanwhile, armed far-right settlers in the West Bank are taking the opportunity to take even more land, and kill Palestinians in the process.

The immediate task is obviously to prevent the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza, but that would still leave the apartheid regime in place. Where, as anarchists, do we stand on the solution to this underlying problem?

Resist Genocide

Faced with mass protests, sit-ins, and other obstructive tactics by those demanding a total ceasefire, some of Israel’s Western allies have called for a “humanitarian pause”. They back Israel in its campaign, but are squeamish about the optics of two million people dying of starvation and disease in such a short time. The Biden administration has responded by twisting the arm of the Egyptian dictator, Sisi, hoping that he will accept the population of Gaza as refugees – the liberal response to the crisis is to push for ethnic cleansing as the alternative to genocide.

We can’t rely on international bodies like the UN or look to politicians. The only way to halt the invasion and stop Israel’s murderous bombing of Gaza is for the working class to act. At the moment, the bulk of the Israeli working class is united behind their military, seeking revenge for the murder and kidnapping of Israeli civilians during the attack on the 7th of October.

Israel, however, imports the majority of its armaments. This means that the international working class can act to cripple its military.

Workers in a position to stop guns, bombs, rockets, military vehicles and all other supplies going to the IDF must do so. A coalition of Palestinian unions has called for unions in all relevant industries around the world to refuse to build or transport weapons destined for Israel. This applies to other supplies necessary for this massacre to continue, like oil and other fuels. Australia exports military equipment to Israel – the workers responsible for those weapons getting in the hands of Israeli soldiers also have the power to prevent their use in genocide.

These actions would run into opposition from the entire capitalist class. In Australia, there would be massive hostility from the media and from the Labor Government. In all probability, the trade union officials would also be unwilling to translate their tepid support for Palestinian rights into industrial action on the ground, particularly where it is illegal. Wherever union officials take this position they should be opposed and their demands that we be complicit in this massacre ignored. A union is only worth the name if it is controlled by its members, and stands against injustice everywhere.

Anarchists Against Apartheid

Ok this is my Pixel 4A #astrophography adventure so far - tiotrom.com/2023/11/astrophoto…

tio

2023-11-06 03:37:22

NEW BLOG POST:

Astrophotography with the Pixel 4A

Read it on my website (recommended):

tiotrom.com/2023/11/astrophoto…

Or read it here:

The Pixel 4A 4G is a phone that you can buy for about 100-200 Euros second hand, and it is an amazing device to take photos of the night sky. Most of the time you point and shoot and do no other edits. Like here’s a photo directly from the phone:

Very challenging with the Moon in the center stage, and yet it did great.

Another one from the terrace:

But when the light is weird it cannot do a great job:

I mean it is a very good photo but here it is after I manually edited the RAW one from the phone:

You can eve see a bit of the Milky Way there.

Another sample. This one it did very well:

But then I went a bit insane and edited (perhaps too much) the RAW file (because yes the Pixel also shoots in RAW):

The amount of stars is INSANE! But I feel like I made it too artificial…

Next one is a sample of a photo with yellow light pollution:

That I tried to fix using the RAW version again:

I know I made it a bit too blueish…but I think it is better than the original one. In that photo you can even see the Andromeda Galaxy:

That’s WOAH! Amazing!

Tonight we went out to take some photos before the Moon would ruin it. Here are some of the photos we took. My favorite of the night:

This is straight out of the phone. Zero editing. I LOVE it. So much that it is now the Wallpaper for my phone. Quite funny…the wallpaper that the phone took :D.

The rest of the photos are a bit edited by me but not so much:

Here are the original ones directly from the oven phone:

I think it is mindblowing to be able to do these photos only with my phone. And this is only the beginning! I have a telescope and a mount for the phone, so I will try to point it at say Andromeda or some nebulas or the core of the Milky Way and photograph through the phone. The main issue is that I have to make my telescope track these objects else they will move too fast even for the “smartness” of this camera. I cannot wait! Fuck yah!

You know I’ve seen many photos of the night sky that are 100 times better than mine. And for one they do not excite me nearly as much, simply because the ones you make are personal. You made them. So you are really enjoying them!

But second, this is about going out, seeing the night sky with your own eyes! Talk to each other, observe, be amazed. Learn more about what objects are out there….what other worlds. That’s the fun part! So I really love that there is almost no effort in taking these photos with the Pixel. I am using the Pixel Camera in Night Mode. Once it detects that it is still enough, it goes into Atrophotography mode and you simply press the shutter button. It takes usually 4 minutes to do these photos.

It’s been a while since I updated the photo gallery on my website, but now I will more often!

You know I tried to edit the above photos, their RAW files, quite a bit tonight but I feel like I should not spend too much time on that. Because it may take the fun away. In any case, if anyone is interested I am using Raw Therapee and Darktable for editing. Both trade-free.

I also took Sasha’s Sony a6600 camera to see how it compares with the phone. For sure it can take a lot better photos since the sensor is a lot bigger. But it is not that comfortable to take it with you and set it all up. I kinda fucked most of the photos I took but this one is good:

Unedited. I tried to tweak the RAW file but the above one is already good. We can even see Andromeda with a bit of color :).

I will try to do more photos with that camera too, but am telling you nothing compares with the comfort of the phone for this. However the sony camera may take such better photos if I eventually will get used to using it, that I may put up with the discomfort of it.

Next I will try some longer timelapses. The Pixel already creates some that are just 1 second long but I will find a way around it. Till then, here are some that I made:

videos.trom.tf/videos/embed/fa…

darktable

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer

^darktable

unioncommunistelibertaire.org/…

Il faut cesser immédiatement le carnage en Palestine

Au moment où se tient le IIe congrès de l’Union communiste libertaire, la Palestine est toujours en proie à une tuerie de masse, sans précédent dans l’histoire du conflit israélo-palestinien. L’UCL exige l’arrêt des bombardements, la fin de l’apartheid, du colonialisme, et le respect des droits du peuple palestinien.

Le 7 octobre, 1 400 personnes, hommes, femmes, enfants, essentiellement juifs et juives mais aussi arabes ou immigré·es asiatiques ont été assassiné·es indistinctement. Ces atrocités ont sidéré Israël et ont choqué le reste du monde. Pourtant, cette explosion de vengeance aveugle n’a rien eu d’une surprise pour quiconque avait conscience des conditions de vie infernales dans la bande de Gaza, des sommets de frustration, d’exaspération et de ressentiment accumulés depuis des générations.

Les racines du 7 octobre

Depuis plus d’un siècle, le peuple palestinien a subi la spoliation, l’exil, l’occupation, le colonialisme. Depuis 2007, la bande de Gaza a été transformée en prison, voire en tombeau à ciel ouvert, d’où tout espoir a disparu.

Le 7 octobre 2023, des milliers de Palestiniens ont franchi le Mur dans le cadre d’une opération militaire menée conjointement par le Hamas, le Jihad islamique, le FPLP et le FDLP. Ce serait donc se tromper que d’expliquer l’attaque du 7 octobre uniquement par le fanatisme religieux du Hamas. Même si l’armée israélienne atteignait son objectif de « détruire le Hamas », une nouvelle résistance ressurgirait, engendrée par la révolte et le désespoir de tout un peuple.

Un « risque grave de génocide »

C’est la raison pour laquelle les représailles sanguinaires d’Israël n’aboutiront nulle part. Il s’agit d’une punition collective dont la cruauté soulève l’indignation. Le gouvernement israélien veut opérer un nettoyage ethnique. Mais l’Égypte refusant d’ouvrir sa frontière, Tel-Aviv a opté pour la destruction et le carnage : 10 000 personnes tuées en un mois, auxquels il faut ajouter 120 personnes assassinées en Cisjordanie par des soldats ou des colons. Dans la bande de Gaza, la concentration de population emprisonnée, affamée et pilonnée est telle qu’un comité d’experts de l’ONU a alerté, le 2 novembre, sur un « risque grave de génocide ».

Les responsabilités internationales

Mais l’attaque du 7 octobre, c’est aussi le résultat d’un abandon de toutes parts de la cause palestinienne. Le sentiment que toute autre issue est bouchée. Le droit international et l’Onu sont impuissants depuis toujours. Les États-Unis, la France et le Royaume-Uni, dans une logique de « choc des civilisations » ont cessé de mimer l’impartialité, et se sont alignés de plus en plus ouvertement sur Israël. La plupart des États arabes, tout aussi criminels, ont choisi le business et la normalisation avec Tel-Aviv. Au sein même d’Israël, les pacifistes et anticolonialistes allié·es de la Palestine ont perdu du terrain, tandis que l’extrême droite montait et accédait au pouvoir.

Au sein du mouvement de solidarité avec la Palestine, l’UCL :

– réclame un cessez-le-feu immédiat, la libération des centaines d’otages israélien·nes et des milliers de prisonnier·es palestinien·nes ;

– condamne toute instrumentalisation essentialisante du conflit et la violence qui en découle, et réaffirme la nécessité de lutter contre l’islamophobie et l’antisémitisme où qu’ils se trouvent ;

– dénonce la criminalisation du mouvement de solidarité avec la Palestine et l’interdiction des manifestations par le gouvernement français, exige l’abandon des poursuites contre le NPA pour « apologie du terrorisme » ;

– réaffirme son soutien à la résistance du peuple palestinien, aux anticolonistes israélien·nes, et au droit au retour des réfugié·es ;

– appelle à s’engager dans la campagne Boycott-Désinvestissement-Sanctions pour contraindre Israël à mettre fin à l’apartheid et à la colonisation ;

– appelle au blocage des livraisons d’armes à Israël , y compris par la grève ;

– réaffirme sa confiance dans une solution politique qui, fût-elle par étapes, ne pourra aboutir qu’à un pays unique, laïc, démocratique, c’est-à-dire fondé sur l’égalité des droits de toutes et tous ses habitant·es, qu’ils soient juifs ou juives, arabes ou autres. Sans cette alternative à l’ethno-nationalisme, la population israélienne restera majoritairement persuadée que sa seule perspective est une fuite en avant guerrière et coloniale au détriment du peuple palestinien.

Congrès de l’Union communiste libertaire, 5 novembre 2023