Accent of Women

Several thousand anti-government protesters have been rallying in Thailand’s capital for the last three weeks, calling for a new constitution, new elections and an end to repressive laws.In the last week, two leaders of the movement were arrested, resulting in ever greater resolve amongst the protest movement. The pair were charged with sedition and breaking coronavirus rules, before being released on bail.And the demonstrations are likely to grow into an even larger movement as the economy worsens amid the coronavirus pandemic.On todays show we speak with Lek Yimprasert, exiled Thai activist living in Finland.

On July 3, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11479, known as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, into law. The law grants sweeping police state powers, including the authorization of warrantless wiretapping and surveillance, and warrantless arrests for up to 24 days of anyone accused by a presidentially-appointed commission of “terrorism.” On today’s program we speak with May Kotsakis, the Co-chairperson of the Philippines Australia Solidarity Association.

One of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists is facing up to six years in prison after she was found guilty of “cyberlibel” charges on 15 June this year, a verdict condemned as setting “an extraordinarily damaging precedent” for press freedoms in the Philippines. Her name is Maria Ressa, and the offending article was about corruption of a Philippines Supreme Court Judge.Since the election of President Duterte in the Philippines in 2016, there has been a significant deterioration in civil liberties and workers’ rights. This verdict comes at a time of civil crackdown, concealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the context of the murderous war on drugs. Today’s Accent of Women features Maria Ressa herself, the journalist facing 6 years of prison following a guilty verdict. She is the CEO and executive editor, and in which that offending article was published.  

Over the last 10 weeks, protesters right across Slovenia have flocked to the streets of their cities to protest against the newly installed right-wing government there – in addition to the generalised economic pressures brought about in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Slovenia is not a country commonly featuring in the international press, so you probably didn’t notice the mass movement of 10s of thousands of people protesting out of a total population of 2 million.

 On today’s program we get an update on what is happening in India following the sudden and unplanned country-wide lockdown, ostensibly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In our March 3rd program of Accent of Women, we learned that Narendra Modi, leader of the authoritarian, right wing and ruling party of India, the BJP, shut down all manufacturing, public transport and public infrastructure with little to no notice of its people. It left millions of migrant workers stranded miles from home with no way to return. Here's a link to our March 3 podcast

Today we are continuing to cover the issue of Black Lives Matter – but a little closer to home.  Australia.  Many of you will have seen the coverage of the nation-wide rallies and marches, protesting the deaths of Aboriginal people in custody.  These rallies were organised while social consciousness was raised, owing to the murder of unarmed black man, George Floyd by police in Minneapolis Minnesota. On today’s show, I bring you some highlights from the Melbourne Black Lives Matter rally held on Saturday 6 June. 

Today we continue our coverage of the uprisings in the United States.  The street occupations, riots and protests against racist policing and the murder of George Floyd continued into their second week.  But as we go to air, the curfews are lifting, and the tide of public opinion is shifting – more and more parts of civil society are calling for the abolition of the Minneapolis Police Department.Robin Wonsley Worlabah from the Democratic Socialists of America, Twin Cities, provides an update. 

On 25 May, George Floyd was killed by police.  On May 27, an uprising began. As we go to air, thousands have been arrested and many injured. Hundreds of millions of dollars of properties have been destroyed or looted. The National Guard has been called out to some cities, and multiple police stations burned down.  A curfew has been imposed in many states and the protests keep spreading. It is, unquestionably, a turning point in US and global history. On today’s show, Robin Wonsley Worlabah, from the Democratic Socialists of America, based in Minneapolis.

Accent of Women continues its coverage of COVID-19 and its impact on impoverished communities across the world.  This week our coverage takes us to Myanmar and Indonesia. Today, we will hear from Debbie Stothard, the Coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, an organisation established in 1996 to support national and grassroots movements of Burma/Myanmar working for human rights and democracy. For over thirty years she has been active in struggles across South East Asia.Support APHEDA Union Aid Abroad.

We are continuing our coverage of COVID-19 and its impact on impoverished communities across the world.  This week our coverage takes us to Myanmar and Indonesia.We will hear from Sri Wulandari who is the Myanmar Country Officer for Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA. In Myanmar, Wulandari works with local unions to support their capacity to organise and bargain for better wages and conditions and she has previously worked with the global union, Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) Asia-Pacific and the Asia Monitoring Resource Centre (AMRC).Today’s audio was recorded over an international zoom meeting, hosted by APHEDA – union aid abroad. To support the COVID-19 work that APHEDA is doing, go to apheda.org.au.And for the power point presentations and other forum materials, go to this web page.

 Our coverage of COVID-19 and its impact on impoverished communities continues.  Today, we head to the Philippines where we see a similar pattern emerging of the use of Emergency state powers to repress social movements but little if any, genuine government intervention to keep people safe.During this year’s May Day activities in the Philippines, activists were arrested for going out and feeding the poor – yet they were placed in unsanitary prison environments. This week, Accent of Women features Cristina Palabay Secretary General of Karapatan, a national human rights alliance that also works with various social movements in the Philippines.

It is said that where countries have a strong, accessible and affordable health care system, the outcomes for populations during the pandemic are much better.Well, let’s go to the United States where health care is not accessible and is not affordable and where we are now calling New York the epicentre of the pandemic.This week, we to speak with Suzanne Adely, a Human Rights Lawyer, a labour activist and currently working with the Food Chain Workers Alliance, about how the US is handling the pandemic.

On Sunday 19 April, Alliance of MENA Socialists organised an international zoom meeting called, Toward a Global Prison Abolitionist Movement, organised by the. The panel addressed some of the key obstacles to the formation of a global prison abolitionist movement, and offered ways of overcoming them to present ideas about an alternative to the capitalist carceral and authoritarian system.

On the morning of 24 April 2013, over 1100 workers at Rana Plaza died when the building they worked in collapsed. The day before the building collapse, workers complained of clear cracks in the walls and refused to go to work because they feared for their safety. Every other business in Rana Plaza stopped work because of safety issues – these included banks and other retail outlets. But the 8000 garment workers were forced to go to work.

On today’s show we look at the struggle against capitalist authoritarianism and imperialism, and the state of the women’s struggle in Turkey.My guest on today’s program is Ecehan Balta. Ecehan is a member of Baslangic Collective, which was founded after the Gezi uprising in 2013. She is also a member of Socialist Alternative, a Turkish section of International Socialist Alternative.

On today’s show we look at the struggle against capitalist authoritarianism and imperialism, and the state of the women’s struggle in Russia. My guest on today’s program is Anna Nizhnik. Anna is a socialist feminist, publisher, activist. Specializes in Literary Gender Studies and Women’s History.

Today's show is about about developments within the feminist movement in Algeria. The facilitator is Fatemeh Masjedi, an Iranian academic historian and activist based in Berlin. She is a former political prisoner in Iran because of her women’s rights activities.  And the person being interviewed is Selma Oumari. She’s an Algerian French member  of the New Anticapitalist in France.  She is  involved in antiracist struggles as well as international solidarity.

The situation in India is slowly developing into a state engineered pogrom against muslim people. This has been developing since the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill – now law – tying people’s citizenship to India, to their religion.Workers, students and other parts of civil society have been protesting since November last year in an effort to defeat the legislation. However, some of these protests have been contested by fascist forces and thugs, and in the last week we have seen mosques being burnt down, and heightened communal violence resulting in deaths.

International Women’s Day is just around the corner and to mark this important date we hear from past and present campaigners fighting for gender and racial equality.GuestsCamaigners Natasha and Aakansha from the anti-street harassment campaign -- it's not a compliment.Adjunct Professor and Historian, Dr Victoria Grieve - Williams.To learn more about the life of Roberta 'Bobbi' Sykes check out her three volume autobigraphy Snake Dreaming.  

The economy in France has been crippled by a strike wave that has been ongoing since December 2019.  Initially in response to pension reforms by the Macron Government, the strike wave has affected broad sectors of the economy including postal services, airlines, manufacturing,  schools, hospitals just to name a few.  It’s even included the arts – with actors, writers and other artists participating in the strikes.But are those pensions really the reason for the mass activity on the streets and this level of industrial action, or is there an underlying economic desperation, for which these pensions were just a catalyst?