Hello folks and a big mpua welcome back to the blog.
Has everybody rolled a martini?A nice big fat juicy martini.Good o! Nothing could be finer...
We've had a bit of rain of late, and I'm having a great time of it- lot's of hot chocolates and homemade soups, out with all the woolies and stow away the summer gear, the garden's getting a good soak, the dam levels are rising, and, best of all, there's hardly anyone on the streets.
My pet hate though punters, are the people on the footpaths with the really big umbrellas-aren't umbrellas of this size frowned upon unless one is at ones golf club? Because I think that lumbering about with big umbrellas on small, overcrowded city footpaths is nothing short of anti social behaviour-I mean it people.
Because I'm a civic minded soul, I disdain the use of big umbrellas on city streets- it's an anti social practice I tell you! And I want nothing to do with the rude people who ruin it for all of us with this selfish, inconsiderate, boorish anti-social misbehavior.
Which is funny when you think about it because I have no such objections, when it comes to Australia's outlaw bike clubs. In fact I think outlaw clubs are kinda neat-even when they kill each other! So go figure.. it might be that my moral compass is screwy and I sure hope so, cos I've put a lot of time and effort into screwing with moral compasses, the moralities d'jour, and the social pressures to conform.
I'm not a conformist. Can't remember a time when I've been in agreement with the wider social frameworks-maybe at the moment of my conception?!
I grew up in an era of change-the 1970's. The sexual revolution was upon us, the tent embassy politicised Aboriginal claims for land rights and more active citizenship rights, and women's liberation captured the imagination of Australia, the times they were a changin'.
Leaving home became the adventure of a lifetime, and along the way I would meet some hairy fellows and their women, and occasionally we'd all hang about for a while. Big loud bikes, fast old classic cars, and Wow! these people really put the party hearty into the phrase 'party hearty'.
These people, like the mpua, like all of us, really, believe in the finer things in life- a decent sense of hospitality, a well stocked bar, an always full mull bowl, lots of music, strong friends, and, thank the Gods, full sized pool tables.
How can this possibly be construed as anti-social?!
Have you seen our public spaces on a wet day? Damn those big umbrella people with their crowding up an already crowded place-are there no common courtesies anywhere, anymore? Perhaps we're all so overly regulated we can't be bothered with the social niceties anymore, yes?
Bikers get a lot of bad press at the moment, and the big umbrella people get off scott-free. Where's the justice in that! I think one of the major reasons that bikers get bad press is that it's an election year here in NSW, and after one too many leadership spills, the ALP still looks a little shonky, a little shaky.
A strong law and order agenda is seen as equal to strong government in the hearts and minds of the spin doctors, and in turn, the electorate. Ultimately, this legislation has little to do with bikers and everything to do with winning the votes, the hearts and the minds of the electorate.
To this end, legislation, on par with the Howard governments anti-terrorism raft of laws, is forcing bikers into clandestine and illegal associations-with each other. That's right folks you can go to prison for being a biker, for chatting with a biker, or for dressing as a biker.
Outlaw bike club members are forbidden to wear club colours in public-burqa anyone?!.... does this sound like the kind of NSW you want to live in? Islamic women being dictated to about how they may dress, trade union officials denied entry to workplaces full of their members, and potential members, middle eastern men suspected of being terrorists on the basis of ethnicity, and now the bikers freedom of association is taken away under point of law. (The criminal organisation legislation amendment bill was passed by NSW parliament in May of last year)
God help us all if Fatty O'Barrel and The Budgie Smuggler(aka The Mad Monk) get in at the upcoming elections! Amendment upon amendments. Ouch.
There are a few other compelling reasons why bikers and their club ways should be left alone-and of course they're also the major reasons why politicians and morality groups will never let them be.
If, as alleged, outlaw biker clubs control the production, manufacture and supply of illicit drugs like cannabis and amphetamine based contraband, the mpua has to state loudly and clearly; these alleged crims are surely our friends! How enterprising! To allegedly control the supply and demand of such an unwieldly industry-awesome!
Surely, for the mpua at least, now as never before, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
These alleged enemies of The State are alleged to be involved in alleged criminal activities and thus on supposition and suspicion alone, our elected representatives have moved to legislate against them all.
Now I'm not trying to glorify the very random acts of violence that occasionally come from the outlaw clubs, but I do understand the need for people to take care of business according to custom.
Whether that's defiantly and proudly wearing the burqa, joining a trade union in the face of your own hesitations or your managers disapproval, not buying a train ticket, taking drugs before the sun is over the yard arm, or beating a man to death in a very public place with a bollard.
The same blood is shed in all the houses of parliament, and apparently it's worse in the party rooms of caucus. It's threats of violence down there in the bear pits and back rooms of politics, verbal rather than the physicality of the bikers; and in parliament it's all protected by privilege. No such luck for us plebs.
Would it not make more sense to decriminalise drugs and in the contemporary governing of the day, this work would be outsourced by tender, and the hairy devils could have at it legitimately, which brings me to another important point, the illigitimising and criminalising of these self proclaimed bands of outlaws.
Outlaw bikers are not new in the world, not even here in youthful old Australia. WW2 vets are the founding fathers of these freedom loving fellows. Imagine. Coming home from the horrors of war, finding it'd all gone to hell in a handbasket, and starting up a club(a band of brothers) to ease the pain and the burden of it all. Fast bikes, and faster women-how very therapuetic after your time at the front.
In Australia, it was the The 70's, that time of social upheaval, that saw clubs form along side, and inside, the wider revolution.
Most bikers are working class, with a huge passion for taking to the road on a souped up motorbike. Most bikers labour in the workforce, most bikers marry and have kids, most bikers uphold the notion that we all have a right to believe whatever we believe in- a benign live and let live attitude that is missing in most media portrayals.
For all the live and let live philosophies, it is germane to point out that my favourite biker maxim suggests that we might like to: kill em all-let God sort em out.
So you are aware from the onset, via the mystique and a self-satisfied desire to Fuck The World, that hanging with the bikers can be a lot like dancing with cobras-fun, sexy, thrilling, scary and potentially(allegedly) deadly. Caveat Emptor.
The point of the outlaw/the outsider is to highlight how safe, within our laws, and our lives, we are. They're our polarity. We define ourselves against them; good/bad, for/against, cops/robbers et al. They give us that scary vicarious thrill that the roar of a tricked up bike might just rattle our spine, our cage, our very jones.
Bikers do the things we dare not dream of. They live beyond the pale.
They reinforce how good we are to adhere, day in day out, to dreary post revolutionary times.To work without complaint, to always give notice to whomever, about our whereabouts. To toil each and everyday. To not be free. To not have the freedom of the road. To not have that fraternity, that enviable brotherhood.
To not be able to be like the bikers, we who also wish to be free, outdoors, outlaws, and in the wind.
By virtue of their status as outlaws, and outsiders, they also allow for an expansion in our definitions of ourselves, in opposition to them, or in identifying with them. Bikers give us all the finger everyday and in every way. And for this, we're just that little bit envious, no? With self-proclaimed outlaws like the bikers; you've got to wonder if we're not trying to teach them a lesson, punish their audacity, clip their wings so to speak.
Mostly I think it's institutionalised envy, and, of course, this years State and Federal elections.
Long may they be in the wind and not in gaol.
To send us all off in style, and, as a timely reminder of what can happen when good people stand by and do nothing. and to highlight, once again, that here at the mpua we have long memories indeed.
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Martin Niemoeller, the fellow who penned this prose, was one of the most respected protestant leaders in Germany. He was a decorated U-Boat captain in the First World War. In 1933, when he became one of the most high profile of Hitler's opponents, he was interred in a concentration camp. He remained in the camp for the duration of the war.
So, as we like to challenge at the mpua: put up or shut up, people!
And on that final note, we wish all a fond farewell and we offer up a bit of media that we like, here at the mpua hq-the first link is to Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild, with footage of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the wind. Easyrider. Beautiful(and check out the resonance of 35mm film-ah the good old days, indeed)
Then it's over to a reporter by the name of Dylan Welche-it's possibly the very best feature, we've ever seen, about outlaw clubs here in Sydney(very high production skills in this piece, kiddies-exceptional, given the usual coverage meted out to bikers, and their affairs)
The final say must go to the outlaw motorcycle clubs themselves. We've posted the link to The United Motorcycles Clubs NSW, for your further interest. The mpua urges you strongly to look and think about what you are seeing on these sites, gentleman-peoples freedoms are very at stake here....Touch one, touch all, remember fellows.
On the news and media pages (hit the videos tab) check out the 'declaration of independence' vid at the top of the page, then have a gander at a fellow named Ferret speaking at The National Press Club in Canberra, recently. Very witty and informative-rarely seen footage of bikers in some familiar, some unfamiliar habitats. This is the most balanced and measured reportage, that we've ever seen, of outlaw bike clubs and their members.
That'd be because the clubs are in control of the means of representation and production; thank you Karl Marx-one of the finest economists and social commentators to ever have lived. Vale.
On that note I'd like to make a toast to bikers and their families and friends everywhere: To you hairy devils! May your quest be swift and victorious, and may all the freedoms of The State be yours to scoff at once again. Cheers fellows!
And as a final aside, let me say bah humbug and curses! to big umbrella people everywhere, the Bastards!
The mpua is saddened by the death of Dennis Hopper(17/5/1936-29/5/2010) Vale.
http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/bikie-wars/bikiesatwar.html
http://www.umcnsw.org/
*** the mullers and packers union of australia retains any and all intellectual and creative copyright in this and all or any subsequent and previous posts..the mullers and packers union of australia also respects acknowledges and sources to the best of it's ability all and any other copyrights in play that are used in the commission of the creative goals of the author and the mullers and packers union of australia and all who sail with her. ***
