30 July 2013

VICTORIAN WOMEN'S TRUST PAYS FOR ADVERTISMENT TO SUPPORT GILLARD

DISCLAIMER: I have never personally been a fan of Julia Gillard - during her term as Prime Minister she did some appalling things in relation to human rights - asylum seekers, homophobia, xenophobia and many other items which will take some time to analyse. At the same time, the main stream media and most parliamentarians behaved appallingly to Gillard because she is a woman, and this was the premise on which they built their foul attacks. The level of abuse and insult reached new depths and so many people and organisations are to blame for this dreadful behaviour. Gillard removed herself with a grace which very few of those attacking her and replacing her have been able to show, and we look forward with pleasure to the next election when hopefully dozens of appalling people will be removed from the political sphere and hopefully replaced by more acceptable people. JUST DON'T HOLD YOUR COLLECTIVE BREATHS

Sent: Sunday, 7 July 2013 5:52 PM
To: women@vwt.org.au
Subject: Credit where credit is due
Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne,
PO Box 1675
Preston South
Vic 3072
Attention Mary Crooks AO and Diana Batzias
Dear Mary and Diana,

We read your article in The Age newspaper - an article with content which the mainstream media totally ignored and battered Julia Gillard into the ground on - one of the main offenders being a senior female journalist with Fairfax media - and I would like to obtain your permission to place the article in our blog and on our web pages.

It is a magnificent example of what has been missing in the discourse of politics in Australia since 2007 and which became progressively worse over the following six years.

We hope you will agree to this request and we are grateful that you managed to convey so much in so little space. It is impossible to make up six years of wasted journalism and political bastardry, but you have helped spark discussions in the wider communities.

Here are links to our web pages and blog:
http://www.josken.net
http://www.red-jos.net
http://red-jos.blogspot.com.au

Thank you and all your colleagues.

Regards and best wishes,

Mannie De Saxe

ADVERTISEMENT

Credit where credit is due

WE HAVE all witnessed something extraordinary in Australian politics over the past three years.

The 43rd parliament came to a close with the removal of Julia Gillard as the nation’s first female Prime Minister: the first woman ever to hold the position after one hundred and ten years of federal political leadership that saw 26 male Prime Ministers elevated to the highest office.

The frenzy of the forthcoming federal election campaign will change the nation’s focus. Before it’s too late, we want to pay public tribute to those who made this period of democratic minority government a successful one - against the odds.

The federal election of 2010 delivered a hung parliament. Prime Minister Gillard successfully negotiated and formed a minority government, the fourteenth in our history. This coalition of the ALP, Independents and the Greens, opted to provide careful, thoughtful, stable government for a full term, so that our national government could get on with the business of governing in the national interest. And it did just that.

However, from the outset, and despite its democratic legitimacy, the Gillard-led minority government sparked an unheralded series of hostile reactions from different quarters across the country.

An Opposition Leader, stung by being denied what he saw as his due, proceeded to launch a ‘seek and destroy’ mission centred on opportunistic appeals to people’s prejudices and fears. A deposed Prime Minister, stung from being removed so decisively by a Caucus that had lost faith in his capacity, spent the next three years currying allies on a parallel treacherous ‘seek and destroy’ mission – with Prime Minister Gillard squarely in his sights.

Significant sections of the mainstream media fuelled these separate but powerful agendas by refusing to accept the legitimacy of the minority government with Julia Gillard at the helm. Her many achievements went largely unproclaimed while her mistakes were amplified - and continually referenced. Instead of delivering dispassionate reporting, seasoned journalists and broadcasters became players in the game.

Low showing in opinion polls was attributed to her poor communication and her government’s performance, without factoring in the damaging impact of the on-going duplicity within her own party. The very day in March this year that Prime Minister Gillard delivered a majestic Sorry speech on forced adoptions, a speech that belongs to the store of great national oratory, she had to contend with yet another destabilising leadership meeting at which her opponent failed to declare himself.

The ensuing toxic political discourse surrounding the Prime Minister and the minority government gave public licence across the community, online and elsewhere, for an unprecedented campaign of sexist and chauvinist abuse, denigration, double standards, gross disrespect for the office of Prime Minister and gross disrespect for her as a person.

It has been a fraught political environment and we remain baffled by several of the Gillard government’s policies – on immigration and asylum seekers, reducing economic support for single parents and the Prime Minister’s position on same–sex marriage. By and large, however, she has displayed an enormous capacity and style of effective leadership rarely seen in parliamentary leaders across the political spectrum. She oversaw the introduction of a raft of impressive and far-reaching legislation, showing high-order negotiation skill, sharp intelligence and a great ability to command strategy and detail across complex issues.

Much of this legislation is nation-building, addressing our common future as Australians

– the introduction of a carbon price, the roll out of a National Broadband Network, The Murray-Darling Basin Plan, a ground-breaking National Disability Insurance Scheme, a much more equitable model for funding primary and secondary education, a national paid parental leave scheme, and the establishment of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse. There were many more reforms. Achievements in foreign policy, including Prime Minister Gillard negotiating the basis for future high level discussions with China, were notable and more far-reaching than those of her recent predecessors.

On her watch as the nation’s Prime Minister, our growing economy has been the envy of the world - low unemployment, low interest rates, low inflation and triple-A credit ratings.

We salute former Prime Minister Julia Gillard for getting on with the business of governing for us, the people; for the skilful negotiation, resolve and the leadership required to maintain the confidence of the Lower House; for steering the government through a full term; for enabling close to 500 pieces of legislation to be passed; for introducing significant and visionary reforms that will deliver great benefit to the Australian people in the time to come; and for remaining strong and poised when everything bar the kitchen sink was thrown at her.

We pay tribute to those male and female colleagues who worked with her on the nation’s behalf, respected her capacity and gave her the loyalty she deserved.

We pay tribute to retiring Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott for their true independence, their courage and hard work in upholding democratic values; and for enduring with dignity, the threatening abuse aimed at them, their partners and staff.

The success of this minority government has come at a significant cost.

The past three years have led to a great loss of civility and common decency, a poisonous political discourse and a downturn in respect for our leaders. We now have a climate in which people willingly and disrespectfully attack one another in anonymous and often vitriolic commentary that is no substitute for mature democratic debate. There is a jaded cynicism and a sense of deep despair and powerlessness across much of the community.

With men now back in their perceived ‘rightful place’ as political leaders of both the government and Opposition there will be little gendered attack in political circles. But the seams of aggressive contempt and sexist abuse that lay beneath everyday life and which surfaced with Julia Gillard’s elevation as Prime Minister, have not gone away.

We have just lost our very first woman Prime Minister – a woman with a great sense of purpose and skill, a true reformer. Julia Gillard’s final observation, in a speech of supreme grace, was that her experience as the country’s first female Prime Minister will make it easier for the next woman, and the next and the next. If this proves to be the case, she will deserve further recognition and gratitude.

Smoother passage for the generations of younger women coming through the ranks will only come about with more commitment – changes within political parties themselves, a greater focus on the benefits to be gained from gender equality, cultural change that reduces violent abuse and sexism and social action at many levels of our society.

The truly ugly aspect of our national life revealed by the past three years should give cause for us all to reflect on what else is required to restore and maintain respect, civility, common decency and a fair go for women - in our society and in our democratic politics.

Mary Crooks AO Diana Batzias
Executive Director Acting Convenor
Victorian Women’s Trust Victorian Women’s Trust
Author of A Switch in Time
www.vwt.org.au

The Board and staff of the Victorian Women’s Trust wish to thank the generous and thoughtful women who provided us with the funds to place this statement on the public record – without the privilege of tax deductibility.

Authorised by Mary Crooks AO
Victorian Women's Trust
9th floor 313 La Trobe Street Melbourne Vic 3000

06 July 2013

THE PASSION OF BRADLEY MANNING by CHASE MADAR

If you only read one book this year, the book - which is a must-read - is "THE PASSION OF BRADLEY MANNING" by CHASE MADAR and the updated edition was published by Verso in 2013.

The subtitle of the book is "THE STORY BEHIND THE WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER.

The author tells the story of Bradley Manning's entrance to the US army and what happened to him when he went to Iraq, saw the indescribable, and had access to an incredible amount of so-called secret US documentation about the wars, the people involved and much more as well.

Jeff Sparrow reviewed the book in the Saturday Age on 11 May 2013 and heads his review "Prisoner of Conscience." (Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both, apparently, refused to endorse Bradley Manning as a Prisoner of Conscience!)

Manning showed an aptitude for computers at an early stage in his life, and his early years were extremely difficult - the separation of his US father and his Welsh mother - and the bullying he was subject to because he is gay and is also very small, making him the butt of school children but also causing problems in the army.

When he returned to the USA from Iraq he started communicating online with Adrian Lamo, a young man who eventually betrayed Manning to the authorities.

The story of the arrest and subsequent ill-treatment by his own government and the military is itself an indictment of the US democracy and the Obama administration of whistle-blowers even after Obama stated in his first term as US president that whistleblowers should be treated with respect and protected. Obama has done exactly the opposite.

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who blew the whistle on the Pentagon Papers relating to the war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, stands fairly and squarely behind Bradley Manning and has rallied support for him in any way he has been able to.

Thanks to an international outcry about Manning's treatment by the government and its army when he suffered unbelievably indignities in the Quantico military prison, Manning's conditions of incarceration were changed for the better, and now, after 3 years of intolerable incarceration, his trial is underway - with a great deal of illegal activity by the army - in Fort Meade, Virginia, USA.

Bradley Manning needs all the support he can get and it is necessary for those of us outside the USA to do what we can to assist him to get a fair trial.

Wikileaks, Assange, and other whistle-blowers in the USA and elsewhere, are helping to support this extremely brave young man in his hours of greatest need.

Obama has recently (June, July 2013) completed a short tour of a few African countries. He is quoted as saying to Africans - especially its young people- to build on the progress the continent has made by promising democratic and honest government, "and a thriving middle class".

Isn't it time Obama practised what he preaches?

RED JOS - ACTIVIST KICKS BACKS



Welcome to my blog and let me know what you think about my postings.


My web pages also have a wide range of topics which are added to when possible. Look for them in any search engine under

"RED JOS"




I hope you find items of interest!

Search This Blog

Followers

Blog Archive

Total Pageviews

About Me

My photo
Preston, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
90 years old, political gay activist, hosting two web sites, one personal: http://www.red-jos.net one shared with my partner, 94-year-old Ken Lovett: http://www.josken.net and also this blog. The blog now has an alphabetical index: http://www.red-jos.net/alpha3.htm

Labels