The Big Ride for Palestine starts this week!

The Big Ride for Palestine is an initiative by supporters of the Palestinian people that combines a love of cycling with practical solidarity and awareness raising. For this COVID-safe activity participants self-nominate a distance they will ride (walk or jog) over 15 days, and seek sponsorship from family, friends and supporters of Palestine.… Go to Article

Vale Uncle Ted

Image: Edward Leonard Hopkins (Ted)

This coming Thursday (21 September 2021) we commemorate the life of Uncle Ted Hopkins in Musgrave Park.

Uncle Ted was Musgrave Park. He would always talk of his concerns about what was happening in Musgrave Park. Ted told me that he had managed to get the Brisbane City Council to upgrade the toilets.… Go to Article

Australians speak out against nuclear submarines and AUKUS

Image: March against Uranium mining and Export May Day, 1978 Brisbane.

Australia cannot become a staging point for the U.S. military, we cannot abrogate our sovereignty to the U.S., we cannot encourage nuclear proliferation and risk environmental catastrophe.

Australian peace, environmental and other activists and organisations are opposed to the Morrison Government decision to join the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) and the development of nuclear submarines.… Go to Article

Das Boot comes to Australia

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has been criticised for headlining the Australian governments proposal to build submarines as Chernobyl Submarines. He told people on Facebook:

“This dangerous nuclear submarines move puts floating Chernobyls in the heart of Australia’s cities.
It makes Australia less safe, increases the risk of conflict in our region & puts us in the firing line.

… Go to Article

Factoring in Climate Change

Paradigm Shift
Andy & guests
Friday
12:00 – 1:00 PM
September 17, 2021

Welcome to the Paradigm Shift on FM 102.1 4ZZZ Fridays at noon. We challenge the assumptions of our current society, to resist oppression …more

This week’s show is about climate adaptation and resilience. I speak with Dan Metcalfe from the CSIRO about natural disaster resilience, economist Andrew Wait about the potential viability of rural Australia, and epidemiologist Colin Butler about the public health effects of climate change.… Go to Article

Joe Toscano interviews Brian Laver

Thanks to Joe Toscano and Kelly Whitworth for the excellent work they are doing on Radical Australia and at 3CR in Melbourne. I am a fan of Joe’s Eureka tours to Ballarat and attended one about 10 years ago, driving down from Queensland.

Interview with Brian Laver
It was a shame that in this interview neither Joe Toscano nor Brian Laver could readily remember Sam Watson’s name … we are all getting old.… Go to Article

The Other 9/11: secrecy fight over Australian spies helping CIA overthrow Chile’s President

I remember at the 1978 May Day concerted attempts by people on the Left trying to get a trade union representative from Chile on the official platform. The Trades & Labour Council refused a specific request from Dan O’Neill. On the bill was Bill Hayden who attacked the Left as being ‘a bunch of Johnny-Come-Lately’s.… Go to Article

Oil imports for Lebanon: ‘Not for profit or trade’

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says Iranian fuel oil to arrive this week (16 Sept ’21). The Hezbollah leader says tanker carrying Iranian fuel oil to help Lebanon through its financial crisis docks in Syria.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, has said that the first ship carrying Iranian fuel oil to help Lebanon through its financial crisis had docked in Syria.… Go to Article

How Trev got into renewable energy

PLUS Trev’s Brisbane Forecast for next 7 Days from 14 September

I commenced mechanical engineering studies at Queensland Institute of Technology (now QUT) in 1970. It was a very conservative institution and I was becoming politicised (and educated) through the influence of my older brother, Peter, regarding both environmental and political problems.… Go to Article

September 11

We post this article from Overland continuing our diaries-of-Afghanistan series. The article below includes a look at 4 new books by Arab Australian writers. – Ed.

Twenty years of September 11: the Arab-Australian experience

September 11 did not dramatically alter what it means to be a Muslim or an Arab in the Western world.… Go to Article

Greens campaign in Griffith

The seat of Griffith is a bellwether seat in the next federal election. It is a wealthy seat. Our household received a visit from the Greens and a follow-up letter from the candidate Max Chandler-Mather. The Greens reckon they can achieve a 3.5% swing and win the seat of Griffith once held by Kevin 07.… Go to Article

Exposé of Myanmar military

I see no mention in this long but very detailed expose of the Myanmar military leadership of the armed resistance to the military. Both (military and armed resistance) have policies of genocide against the Myanmar Rohingyan people. See report on “… troops had massacred 10 Rohingya men and dumped their bodies in a shallow grave.”… Go to Article

A Book of Doors

Review by Raymond Evans

Anne Richards, A Book of Doors (AndAlso Books, 2020).

These were better days. Definitely: perhaps so much better because we were young back then. And those who were there naturally see them through that rosy-golden glow. But more likely better because it was us – the young ones ourselves – who had made them better.… Go to Article

Just Peace: rules-based International Coercion: Cuba and Venezuela

This Sunday, 12th September ACFS members Sue Monk and Lachlan Hurse will be presenting to a ‘Politics in the Pub’ forum organised by Just Peace discussing the blockade of Cuba

Also presenting will be Saul Ruiz who will be talking about the US sanctions against Venezuela.It will be a great opportunity to discuss the impact of the US sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela, and to encourage others to join our campaign to end the Blockade.
… Go to Article

Football is political

Thanks to the push of the Brisbane Writers Festival, the Political Football panels were aired on Radio National, Big Ideas program with Paul Barclay earlier this week. They are available through the Radio Natiional and also the BWF websites. I’m including the details below. Please share – it would be useful to get national exposure on this important history and future.… Go to Article

Social justice meets religion

“the Church is obviously out of kilter with the reality of people’s lives” … “They’ve been very slow in talking about domestic violence and women’s rights, and are still light years away from saying we’re all absolutely equal.” – Sister Brigid Arthur on LGBTIQ rights, [Jock Serong in The Monthly August 2021].… Go to Article

Trev’s Brisbane Forecast for next 7 Days from 7 September

In my previous post I mentioned how early solar PV owners, who installed grid connected systems around 2000, had to register our solar systems. We also had to sign power purchase and technical connection contracts with the local electricity distribution company. It was Energex in south-east Queensland. Energex had two separate departments to prepare each contract, and they didn’t appear to communicate very well, as the power purchase agreement and the technical connection agreement didn’t correspond on how the power flow from our solar systems was to be metered.… Go to Article

Hemingway


“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them …” – Ernest Hemingway

Brisbane leftie and academic, Ralph Summy, read Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms while in the army. Ralph used to quip that he gained a better education in the army than at Harvard.… Go to Article

Improved viewing and searching on WBT

I never needed anybody’s help in any way
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors
…
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please help me? – The Beatles

Workers Bush Telegraph is a magazine style website that is dedicated to worker control of production.… Go to Article

Privatising public land and parks

Ever since Expo 88 successive governments and Brisbane City Council have been privatising public spaces.

Take for example the South Bank Corporation. It controls public spaces along the river in Kurilpa (South Brisbane) … the rules that that corporation uses are very restrictive. It has its own private police force. For example, I was banned from going to South Bank for six months after I held up a banner opposing the Queen’s visit to that place.… Go to Article

Maralinga commemoration

Anti nuclear friends ,                                                

As we (WILPF, JUST PEACE, FOE) prepare for the commemoration of the atrocities of the  British nuclear bombing of the Anangu Lands, Maralinga, S.A. in the 1950s, we need to link it to present day nuclear issues. 

For example the debate around the future of nuclear power instead of green clean renewable energy will reach the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, early November.… Go to Article

The ‘social left’ and community radio

I’ve thought about the question of should people support community radio stations like 4ZZZ.

My answer is, I have renewed my subscription. But, of course, people have to make their own decisions.

This may surprise some people given my chequered history with the station since 1976.

https://bushtelegraph.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/zed-boycotts-eurovision-2019-in-israel.jpg
BDS banner at 264 Barry Parade

On International Women’s Day I broadcast two speeches by radical feminists about transgender issues.… Go to Article

Jabberwocky

This is Corey Green’s unique interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poem “Jabberwocky”

“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe” is one of the best known couplets in English literature. It is loved by children and adults alike, because it is so much fun.… Go to Article