Accent of Women

Since the election of Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, there has been a marked increase in military spending by the government.  This has led to an upsurge in anti-war actions in the last few years with massive demonstrations across Japan.  As the world prepares for increased military operations in the Middle East, Japan is eagerly running into these conflicts despite fierce opposition from the people. To help us understand the situation in Japan, Chie Matsumoto talks to Accent of Women. 

On today's show, we will be learning about the work of ADEC, Action on Disability in Ethnic Communities, a community based organization that aims to empower people with disabilities from ethnic backgrounds, their carers and families.To learn about this organization we spoke with of its founding members, Effie Mehan, a woman from Greek background living with Cerebral palsy. She is a tireless advocate for the rights of people from CALD backgrounds living with disabilities in Victoria, and she is currently an ambassador for her organization. She has been working in the sector for over 30 years. In 2006, in recognition of her work, she was included among the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. Effie speaks about her personal experience living with cerebral palsy and the challenges she encounter living as a migrant women in Australia, at a time where not many services were available for ethnic communities. She also speaks about the role of the organization she helped build.This interview was recorded in 2014

African feminism is as old as society. From Kenyan women asserting their right to dress as they choose and Nigerians standing up to the misogynist Boko Haram to feminists organising across the continent for LGBTIQ rights.  The Socialist Feminist organisation, Radical Women, recently organised a public meeting on Feminism in Africa. Nita Okoko, Kenyan feminist and international student at Melbourne University was the keynote speaker, and 3CR's Areej Nur recorded the speech.Nita started off by explaining that in many respects, it's difficult to discuss feminism in Africa – an entire continent, and that the expression of women's struggle is very different depending on where in Africa you are. Nonetheless, Nita embarked on this mammoth task.

On this week's show, we speak to an unlikely activist, a muslim woman who was so overwhelmed with the grief in her community that she organised a public meeting on fighting Islamophobia.

On the show this week, we bring you a remarkable story of the victory of the Anganbadi workers in India, who after weeks of struggle, won their dispute with the government. Anganbadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care program which relies solely on the work of the Anganbadi workers most of which are women. The urban poor in Delhi rely heavily on these services from pre-natal care to accessing information about immunization.  Apart from looking after malnutritioned children, as well as poor and expecting mothers, the Anganbadi workers make birth and death registrations and recently they also have been assigned election duties for which they receive no additional remuneration.  These workers are paid a mere 5000 Rupees ($100AUS) per month for supposedly being volunteer workers. After some two weeks of hunger strike and much police brutality, these workers won all of their demands, when their struggle ended in victory on Thursday the 30th of July.To tell that story, one of t

July 20 was a historic day in Havana, Cuba and in Washington DC in the United State. For the first time in 54 years, the Cuban embassy in Washington and the American Embassy in Havana re-opened their doors. After months of negotiations that involved even the pope Francis, and after many years of work behind scenes, this important moment took place.In recent years, there have been a number of political, economic and legislative changes.An important day in the Cuban revolution Calendar is July 26. The celebrations in Cuba and Latin America to commemorate this date remind us there are a lot of questions in the air when discussing the re-establishment of the Cuba-US diplomatic relations.What will this mean for the socialist model that Cuba has developed all this years? Is Cuba giving up and opening it-self to American economic influence? How much will change as Cuba moves to a new generation of leadership?Today we are listening from Kenia Serrano Puig, she is the president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship wi

Lorena Pizarro is human rights activist and currently the President of the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Chile. She toured Australia in June this year to talk about the cases of forced dissapeared in Chile and Latin america and to highlight the importance of seeking justice for human rights abuses in Chile.She was invited by the National Campaign for Truth and Justice in Chile to support the campaign for the extradition of Adriana Rivas.This talk was presented at La Trobe University. Interpreting by Pilar Aguilera.Some information on the case here.Accused from Pinochet’s Chile still in Australia.

As Accent of Women goes to air, Greece is approaching its due date with the European Community and the IMF to impose severe austerity measures on its people, in order to be granted another bailout. It's looking like Greece will refuse to do this, and will await the outcome of a referendum, scheduled to take place on July 7.To look more deeply at the Greece Economic Crisis, Accent of Women is joined by Afrodity Giannakis, member of Syriza, a part of the left platform and the red network. Afrodfity is one of many Greek nationals leaving Greece at the moment, because the situation is too severe and too harsh. Afrodity has lived in Australia in her childhood, and is here once again.

Auckland Action Against Poverty is a direct action and welfare rights advocacy group. It is an openly anti-capitalist group formed to expose and oppose the New Zealand government's agenda of welfare cuts and austerity attacks on the country’s poorest communities. We spoke with AAAP's coordinator Nadia Abu-Shanab. She is a Palestinian, a en educator and trade unionist.The talk was recorded at the Marxism 2015 Conference that took place in Melbourne in April 2015 in Melbourne, organised by Socialist Alternative. 

The Australian Council of Trade Unions held its annual conference from teh 26th to teh 28th of May 2015.  A number of international guests were invited, and among them, Sineat Yon from the Cambodian Food and Service Workers' Federation.  Accent of Women had an opportunity to interview her about organising unions in Cambodia.

Revisiting Accent of women's archives we bring back an interview with Sylvia Marcos, a scholar committed with the struggles of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.We discussed the idea of decolonising feminist, and what is the contribution of indigenous women in Zapatista communities in the South of Mexico, where indigenous people build autonomous territories and day by day challenge the old ways.Accent of women has an upcoming fundraiser:Heart of Time (Corazón del Tiempo)A film that takes you to the heart of the Zapatista resistance.Director: Alberto CortésMexico-Spain 2008Winner of Cine Ceará Film FestivalIn the Zapatista mountains, land of rebellious dignity and free indigenous peoples, a young woman´s love leads her to challenge the old ways. That is possible in liberated land and in the heart of time.Entry:Concession $10Full fee $15Solidarity donation $20All funds will support Accent of Women, a radio program by and about women from diverse cultures in Australia and around the world. Part of3CR Co

We discuss the situation of political prisoners in Peru over the last 20 years, particularly in the context of  the fierce anti-communism of the Fujimori regime, and the recent changes to the incarceration system.We talk about how political prisoners have used art as a therapeutic tool and a way to share their stories.Viviana Salas is a Peruvian photographer living in Melbourne and the curator of Art Inside, an exhibition currently displaying Melbourne at the Victorian Trades Hall (crn Victoria and Lygon St) The exhibition presents artwork produced by political prisoners around the world, including West Papua, Chile and Peru. The exhibition closes on May 15. 

We speak with Emily Woo Yamasaki, an Asian-American activist and queer feminists based in New York.We talked about racist police violence and environmental racism in the USA today. Emily is a contributor to the book "Talking back, voices of color", published by Red Letter Press.

We spoke with Nellie Wong, a Chinese-American, feminist poet and socialist activist. She is the editor of the book "Talking Back, Voices of Colour", published by Red Letter Press. Talking back is an anthology featuring voices of youth, political prisoners, immigrants and history-makers. In Melbourne, the book was launched on Saturday May 2 at Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick. Here is the link to the event.