If you get a chance you have got to watch the new ABC series of Mystery Road set in WA. It is interesting in that most of episodes,  the screenplay writers are first nations people, must be a first.  Here is a wiki entry for one of the screen writers:

Kodie Bedford was born in Western Australia of the Djaru and Gija people on her father’s side and Irish and English on her mother’s.… Go to Article

ANU Chamber Choir director Tobias Cole sees parallels between Julian Assange and the persecuted Christ when he reflects on Handel’s Messiah.

POPULAR doesn’t quite say it: Messiah may well be the most performed piece of classical music. It’s certainly the most hummed – everybody must know the first 10 words of the Hallelujah Chorus – actually, it’s one word: “Hallelujah” repeated.… Go to Article

On a recent visit to the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) I viewed a film Amongst Equals, a history of the trade union movement in Australia by Tom Zubrycki, and was immediately struck by the censorship and unfair criticism directed at the film by Simon Crean (President ACTU) and later by Martin Ferguson (President ACTU).… Go to Article

Art & Activism in a nuclear age

This flyer was handed to me at Foco Nuevo last night where people braved cold and rain to hear great performances by Jumping Fences and Robin Etter-Cleave and Brian Brett singing Canadian ballads and Irish songs on Canada Day. Getting in the spirit of Canada Day Sue Monk sang a beautiful version of Joni Mitchell’s haunting Night Ride Home.… Go to Article

The wiles of Labor politicians – the futility of fearful and reactionary Labor leaders have been revealed in this record, and the lessons I and others so bitterly learned should preclude any further waste of time and enthusiasm in vainly endeavouring to make figs blossom and fruit on barren trees. – Ernie Lane in Dawn to Dusk

In 1956 Bob Hawke wrote home from Canberra to declare that he had sided with the ‘groupers’ (an anti-communist faction in the Labour movement) … according to research by Canberra writer, Stephen Holt.… Go to Article

The next meeting of the 17 Group will take place at 7 pm on Wednesday the 29^th of June at the BWCC, formerly known as the Paddo Workers’ Club, 2 Latrobe Terrace (corner Given Terrace), Paddington.  It will be addressed by Keith Hamburger AM on the topic: “Queeensland’s Gaol and Imprisonment Crisis.”… Go to Article

I have been re-visiting the sound from the 1985 SEQEB dispute where over 1000 workers were sacked by the Bjelke-Petersen government. Here is what Trade Union Support Group speaker, Dan O’Neill, had to say at SEQEB dispute rally in Roma Street Forum, 11 April 1985. Dan gave this speech after Gerry Connolly had satirised the government decision by imitating Bjelke-Petersen.… Go to Article

Having just recorded its most successful federal election result, you would think the Greens would be able to sort out internal matters in private. But no, the ideological conflict between the watermelons and the environmentalists is hanging out for all to see, under the strange guise of ‘trans-phobia’. This is middle-class politics gone mad.… Go to Article

Should be good

Brian & Robin with their collection of songs from Ireland, Canada, Australia and England join Jumping Fences playing their Latin influenced originals for the next Foco Nuevo. 1st July! Doors open 6pm – https://t.co/6tm8umq41u pic.twitter.com/lUTdcECkA6

— Lachlan Hurse (@lachy27) June 20, 2022

… Go to Article

This petition on the largest naval exercises in the world coming up soon, which I hope you will sign and share widely 

https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/cancel-largest-naval-war-maneuvers-dangerous-rimpac-2022

and 

an article on RIMPAC  by US Col Ann Wright who works with us on the Pacific Peace Network

plus

This comedic video is a few years old but it still relates to the policies being enacted eg AUKUS and partnership in the QUAD

For peace

Annette
… Go to Article

The UK government ordered the extradition of Julian Assange to the US on June 17.

Assange’s legal team have to the end of June to lodge an appeal. 

Assange remains in jail where he will celebrate his birthday on July 3 in Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh for the fourth year in a row. … Go to Article

Letter to the P.M.

Friends,

Please send this letter to the PM. The government has sent observers to the meeting in Vienna of the signatories of the treaty banning nuclear weapons (TPNW) and it’s important that we remind him that citizens of Australia support him signing it.

Below is the postal address of our p.m.… Go to Article

Mary Poppins on Climate Action

Mothers Rise Up created a Mary Poppins meets climate action flash mob outside Lloyd’s of London on Monday June 13 2022. The insurer is enabling dangerous fossil fuel projects that threaten our planet and all our children’s futures. Mothers’ Rise Up’s colourful action aimed to call Lloyd’s out – and do it in style!… Go to Article

We post these tributes from friends and comrades of Ted D’Urso who died in the Wesley Hospital in the very early hours of Thursday the 16^th of June. People are welcome to add anything else in the comments section down below. – Ian Curr, Ed., 19 June 2022.

__oOo__

From Ken Mansell:

I am so saddened to hear that Ted has passed.… Go to Article

The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of collective power to reshape the processes of urbanisation.… Go to Article

“Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire

To: The Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister Australia.

Dear sir,

It has come to our attention that Mohammed El Halabi, a Gaza aid worker has been found guilty of several terrorism charges in a high-profile case in which his employer (Australian NGO, World Vision), independent auditors and the Australian government say they have found no evidence of wrongdoing. … Go to Article

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) yesterday suspended the wholesale electricity market saying it has become “impossible” to operate because of the soaring cost of fossil fuels and generators withholding their capacity from the market.

Readers should all have your new energy bills from your local retailer or energy supplier by now.… Go to Article

A friend put me on to this great interview with playwright Arthur Laurents who was born in the same year as my father, 1917. It appeared in the UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. I don’t know who conducted the interview but they certainly knew what they were doing.

Tell me why you became a writer .… Go to Article

Here’s the latest from Sel at Equal Love Brisbane:

Protesting has pushed back the Religious Discrimination Bill, but we need to go on the offensive if we want to end religious exemptions that permit schools and hospitals to fire LGBTI staff.

We need to be on the front foot against the rise in transphobic rhetoric, particularly around trans people in sport and access to essential facilities.… Go to Article

The governor of the reserve bank told the ABC last night that Australia will have a headline inflation rate of 7% by December. This morning the Fair Work Commission says 5.2pc increase ‘protects real value of wages’. How is that possible when inflation is running at a higher rate than the minimum wage?… Go to Article

I can’t understand this government … a war in Ukraine, civil strife in Sri Lanka, Afghanisatn a mess and the government refuse refugees on character grounds. If police have evidence bring it forward and have it tested. Or are the police themselves acting politically, illegally? Refugee Action Collective is preparing a protest outside Meriton Hotel at Herschel Street in Brisbane at lunchtime on Wednesday 22nd June?… Go to Article

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
― Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks

Keith Hamburger was an advocate of privatisation of prisons; he was the first Director-General of the Corrective Services Commission (QCS) and sought reform .… Go to Article

“Much that passes for idealism
is disguised lust for power” – Bertrand Russell

Global Energy Crisis

A tipping point to the ‘Edge of Darkness’ has been reached, yet again. It was back in the early 90s when new Labor’s managers of capitalism were in power that the push for the privatisation of the electricity system was still running hot.… Go to Article

Please find below the news from the Brazil Solidarity Initiative sent to me by The VSC Volunteer Team. Please support the event and their ongoing campaigning in whatever way you can.
Ian Curr Ed., 8 June 2022.

 EVENT: For Lula – and the return of hope to Brazil
7PM UK time (GMT+1) Thursday, 23rd June – register for the online rally here

Elections take place in October and president Bolsonaro and his far-right allies are ramping up threats against Brazilian democracy. … Go to Article

“Hands always speak. Emotions that go beyond words. What fascinates me about hands is that through their movement they reveal so much that goes beyond our facial expressions. For me these photos are the truest form of intimate portrait. They show fragility, elegance and beauty, but above all women portrayed in a state of detachment from the world.… Go to Article