April 7, 1998. A date which is burnt into the memories of countless activists from all around the world. The day that Patrick Stevedores, at Webb Dock Port Melbourne, locked out its entire unionised workforce. The naked anti-union aggression was breathtaking. Security guards wearing balaclavas and with dogs, charged in to clear the docks. The… Read more »
culture & reviews
Art to Resist the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal: “What does it mean?”
What does it mean to me, A Chinese American woman. To have Mumia sitting on Death Row For over 17 years? What does it mean to me, A retired worker, a poet To have “The Voice of the Voiceless” writing us from his prison cell? What does it mean to you and me, Working people,… Read more »
In Denial: The Stolen Generations and the Right
Robert Manne has for many years been associated with anti-communism and a trenchant opposition to the Left in Australia. This has led to a tendency among leftists to dismiss him as just another apologist for rampant capitalism. The truth, as always, is more complex. In fact Manne has been a consistent liberal, believing in the… Read more »
Reality TV: Telemarketing and tittilation
There’s no doubt who won Big Brother. It was the Ten Network! According to Melbourne’s Age newspaper of 21 July, the program was responsible for a “modest improvement” in the broadcaster’s notoriously weak advertising sales. As anyone who saw a single episode is aware, the Big Brother house had wall to wall advertising. Not surprisingly,… Read more »
Funky Feminist Fights Hip Hop Hate: A Tale of Two Rappers
Eminem, aka Marshall Bruce Mathers III, is white, male and famous. The hip hop “artist” from Detroit sings about raping his mother, brutally murdering women and terrorising gays and lesbians. Sarah Jones is black, female and a little-known underground artist. She raps against sexism, using her talents as a powerful wordsmith to answer all misogynists… Read more »
Kick the Tin: A survivor of the stolen generation kicks back
If you want to understand what it’s like to be a member of the stolen generation, read Kick the Tin by Doris Kartinyeri, a member of the Ngarrindjeri nation. Not that we can ever truly know. As her sister, Dr Doreen Kartinyeri, says in her introduction: “Only those who have been taken from their families… Read more »
Living Out Loud: Loud, Proud and Effective!
While reading Living Out Loud: A History of Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia, an item on the TV news caught my attention — the Gay Games are coming to Sydney in 2002! The Chief Executive of the Board predicted more participants than the Olympics and Gay Games profits boosted through queer visitors booking out… Read more »
For Pat Parker and radical dykes everywhere!
I know this didn’t happen just this year, but the other day, I found out that Dykes on Bikes, the traditional leaders of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade changed to The Women’s Motorcycle Contingent. I wonder how much more the queer movement is going to allow itself to be co-opted into capitalist America… Read more »
Crisis and Leadership: A time-tested blueprint for today’s leaders
In the 1960s, when I was a teenager in the United States, it seemed like a day didn’t go by without a city boiling over in protest. The Civil Rights movement had erupted out of the South, and African Americans’ struggle for basic democratic rights had spread across the country. Conscription for the Vietnam War… Read more »
Rape ain’t natural! Misogyny masquerading as science
I have a confession to make. I haven’t read this book all the way through. After reading, on page 103, that a women’s waist size is related to her ability to detect the risk of rape, my scepticism began to distract me. But it was the assertion that those who connect rape with patriarchy is… Read more »
