A significant theoretical contribution by Marx is the idea that workers are alienated from the product of their labour. Workers produce things, but at the end of the day it is the capitalist who owns what they produce. Uncharted Waters is an important new book which features periods in Australia’s history when workers have collectively… Read more »
Posts in: culture & reviews
Is casualisation eating us up?
Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT) is a cutting edge theatre company with a brief to produce work “for, with and by working class and disenfranchised communities.” Andrea James, artistic director for the company says, “our theatre is rude, it’s naughty and it’s un-Australian. We’re hitting where it hurts.” James explains, “as the nation steels itself for… Read more »
Bob Brown: Not quite revolutionary
Bob Brown — environmental activist, turned Senator — has loomed large on the Australian political landscape for nearly three decades. In 1983, when the first issue of Outrage, a new gay and lesbian magazine, hit the streets, I was on the editorial board. We considered our interview with Brown to be something of a scoop…. Read more »
Stiff Gins flower
It’s been three years since Stiff Gins released their debut album, Origins. Kingia Australis, their latest offering, has been well worth the wait. When band member Emma Donovan (yes, cousin of Australian Idol Casey Donovan) left to pursue a solo career, the band had to rethink its approach. Their first album had a happy-go-lucky feel…. Read more »
Revolutionary Integration: A Marxist Analysis of African American Liberation
My hometown, Guilford Connecticut, had one African American family. The only other family of colour was from Puerto Rico, brought in as cheap labour for Pinchbeck’s prosperous rose farm, just down the road from my house. We kids went to primary school together. Our education system didn’t provide much for special needs, so my eighth… Read more »
Helen Keller: A Rebel Life
What do you know about Helen Keller? Most likely that she was blind and deaf and overcame huge obstacles to learn to communicate by working with a dedicated teacher, Anne Sullivan. What you may not know is that she was a socialist activist, a feminist and fierce opponent of World War I. She was also… Read more »
Black Paradise: Singing for self- determination
Singing can be a very dangerous activity in West Papua. In 1984 the bloated bodies of musicians Arnold Clemens Ap and Eddie Mofu were washed up onto a beach. They’d been tortured and killed by the Indonesia military. In 2001, Sam Kapissa died in suspicious circumstances, described officially as food poisoning. Many West Papuans believe… Read more »
Movie Review: The Circle (Dayereh)
Picture the white wall of a hospital corridor. Screams come from within. A small aperture opens, and — as though looking through a chador — we can see the eyes of a nurse. She announces the birth of a beautiful girl to an awaiting female relative. But the woman is devastated, and she runs out… Read more »
Review: Gays and Lesbians who changed immigration history
Last February, as part of the Mardi Gras Festival, the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force (GLITF) launched its self-published official history, Lesbians and Gays Changed Australian Immigration History/Herstory. The book is a unique, compelling collection of diverse perspectives in the form of 50 interviews conducted in 2000 by GLITF activist, Peter De Waal. “No… Read more »
Making music: The Bread & Roses of Life
Facing the Music is a cinema verité type documentary on the music department of Sydney University. Shots of intense-looking students playing classical music. Passionate lectures on Beethoven. You might think that this is an odd kind of film for a radical paper to review. But it’s not. Facing the Music shows in detail, which is… Read more »
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