Accent of Women

One of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed alliances launched a coordinated attack, on 27 October, attacking a dozen military outposts in northern Shan State, along the country’s eastern border with China.Code-named Operation 1027, the plan is to assert and defend territory against Myanmar military incursions, eradicate “oppressive military dictatorship”, and combat online fraud along the border, according to a statement from its organisers, the Three Brotherhood Alliance.My guest today is the Debbie Stothard. Debbie is an active promoter of human rights in Burma and the Asean region. In1996, she founded the Alternative Asean Network on Burma. During her 32 year career, she has worked as a journalist, community education consultant, governmental advisor and trainer in Malaysia, Australia and Thailand.

Bangladeshi textiles works in the Ready Made Garment (RMG) industry have been taking industrial action for most of this year in pursuit of an increase in the minimum wage to meet soaring prices on basic commodities owing to an economic inflation crisis.These protests have been met with fierce repression, including reports of at least four workers having been killed by police, and more than 11,000 being charged with violence and vandalism.The secretary of Garment Workers Solidarity, and a garment worker himself, Babul Hossain, was kidnapped in October and then discovered as being arrested on November 14. He is facing trumped up charges and false allegations related to setting fire to a car.The Bangladeshi government is using violence, torture, disappearances and arrests to try to stifle what is the biggest uprising of garment workers in over a decade. And meanwhile, workers remain malnourished and struggling to meet the basic requirements of life.My guest today is the President of Bangladesh Garment Workers So

On Sunday, October 22nd Black Women Radicals hosted the online event, “Black Feminist Writers and Palestine."This online event focused on the importance of the Black feminist literary and political canon and the mandate of Black feminist commitments to a free Palestine. Angela Davis is well known to many listeners and she is am activist and an academic at the University of California Santa Cruz.Beverley Guy Sheftall is also a political activist and academic, and she is based at Spellman College in Atlanta Georgia.Because this public meeting was held about a month ago, some of the statistics in relation to Gaza are a number of weeks out of date. To hear the full event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7lPMBneAs

Accent of Women broadcasts a speech by Angela Davis from 2013 – 10 years ago. This talk is called Justice for Palestine and the Stop G4S campaign. I broadcast this speech, at this point in time, to remind us all that this current bombardment did not start on October 7 and did not start with Hamas’ defensive attack on Israel. This speech was given in memorium of Nelson Mandela’s death only a few weeks earlier, and Angela Davis here draws the links between South African and Israeli Apartheid.

Israel’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza has intensified its yet again, though now it’s becoming less and less easy for world leaders to support it. The international movement for a Free Palestine is marching in its millions world wide and growing by the day. More than 10,000 people are now reported to have been killed across the Gaza Strip,  and residents of the West Bank are systematically being harrassed and assaulted and murdered by Israeli settlers. On today’s program, Accent of Women continues it’s coverage and analysis of the situation in Gaza. Today, we bring you a speech by Palestinian human rights lawyer and academic at Rudgers University, Noura Erakat.

It’s now over three weeks that Israel has intensified its genocidal war against Gaza and the international movement for a Free Palestine is marching in its millions world wide. More than 7,000 people are now reported to have been killed across the Gaza Strip,  and residents of the West Bank are systematically being harrassed and assaulted by Israeli settlers. On today’s program, I bring you noises and speeches from various Free Palestine rallies held over the last three weeks in Melbourne. The Featured voices are: Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak, Kim Bullimore, Mille Cohen, May Mourad and our gorgeous singer, Aseel Taya.

The siege on Gaza continues, and so too does Accent of Women’s campaign for a Free Palestine. More than 5,000 people are now reported to have been killed across the Gaza Strip, , since Israel began its bombardment in response to Hamas’ defensive attack on 7 October, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 222 taken hostage.Israel has also cut off electricity and most water and stopped imports of food and medicine, although it has allowed in a few aid carrying trucks through Egypt's Rafah crossing. For more on what is happening directly in Gaza, I interviewed Aseel Safi, a student and activist based in Gaza.

In the wake of Hamas’s attacks on 7 October, which involved atrocities against civilians, Israel has declared war on Gaza. The country’s military—one of the most powerful in the world—is attacking hospitals, schools, mosques, markets, infrastructure and residential areas. Civilians are being slaughtered and a total siege has been imposed, preventing vital supplies and aid from entering the besieged territory and worsening the already dire situation of residents. On the program today, we hear an interview between Anjuman Rahman and Aseel Safi.  Anjuman is a reporter for Middle East Monitor, and Aseel is a student based in Gaza.

October 11 is International Day of the Girl and last week, Plan International released its annual report, State of the World’s Girls, which is research on girl’s rights. This year’s report looks at the experiences of girls and young women in activist – the barriers and significant challenges they face as campaigners.On Today’s show, I am joined by a panel of young women activists of colour who participated in Plan International’s report. They are:Yasmin Poole and she co-authored the report. Yasmin is a youth advocate, activist, writer, Plan International Australia ambassador and Rhodes Scholar. Sarah Williams is a proud First Nations woman and survivor advocate against sexual assault, Sarah founded the online campaign “What Were You Wearing”, which went viral on Tik Tok this year. She also campaigns for First Nations justice.And finally, Grace Falconer who last year was selected to participate in Plan International Australia’s Youth Activist Series for 2022. Her campaign focus areas include gender justice and

We have been sharing with you the monthly meetings hosted by the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine, which, every month focuses on a different region of the world, to discuss what solidarity activists are doing to support Ukraine in its resistance to Russian aggression and the current war.The June meeting, held on 22 June, focused on solidarity from Middle Eastern countries, and the two feature pieces I will bring you today come from Iran.  We’ll hear from two Iranian socialist feminists, Fatemeh Masjedi and Frieda Afary.

Arundhati Roy accepted the 45th European Essay Award on September 12, 2023.In her acceptance speech, Arundhati Roy calls out the fascism of the Modi Government, and provides gruelling examples both corporate and communal. Arundhati Roy's conclusion though, is that "However grim the situation is, please know that there is a tremendous fight back".

This conversation between activist scholars Sarah Haley and Romarilyn Ralston takes as a point of departure the firefighting labor of people imprisoned in California’s women’s prisons. The discussion considers the specific contradictions of that forced labor and meanders to cover the carceral state’s relationship to disappearance, precarity, interiority, intimacy, possibility, performance, and violence. 

This conversation between activist scholars Sarah Haley and Romarilyn Ralston takes as a point of departure the firefighting labor of people imprisoned in California’s women’s prisons. The discussion considers the specific contradictions of that forced labor and meanders to cover the carceral state’s relationship to disappearance, precarity, interiority, intimacy, possibility, performance, and violence. 

This conversation between activist scholars Sarah Haley and Romarilyn Ralston takes as a point of departure the firefighting labor of people imprisoned in California’s women’s prisons. The discussion considers the specific contradictions of that forced labor and meanders to cover the carceral state’s relationship to disappearance, precarity, interiority, intimacy, possibility, performance, and violence. 

A joint session of Thailand’s parliament on Tuesday 22 August, selected the Pheu Thai Party candidate Srettha Thavisin to become the next prime minister—a decision that was endorsed by the King of Thailand. This comes after 3 months of deadlock, after the progressive and union-supported Move Forward Party was prevented from forming government. On the same day that Thavisin was elected Prime Minister, former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after 15 years of self-imposed exile, only to be arrested at the airport upon arrival.Junya Lek Yimprasert, the founding member of ACT4DEM – Action for Democracy on Thailand, and an activist who is in self-imposed exile in Finland, and she joins Accent of Women to help clarify these events in Thai politics.

Lidia Thorpe is a Djab Wurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman and Independent Senator.She is the former Greens’ First Nations spokesperson prior to her leaving the Greens in 2023.She spoke about Sovereignty, Treaty and justice at this forum organised by Green Left in Naarm/Melbourne earlier this year.

On today's show we conclude our coverage of Woman, Life, Freedom – the ideas that inspired the Rojava revolution and the popular uprising in Iran. Nilüfer Koç, Executive Council member and spokesperson for the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) will share some of the new ideas inspiring the Kurdish-led feminist and green revolutionary movement that has liberated north and east Syria (Rojava) and its spread to other parts of Kurdistan, including Rojhelat (East Kurdistan currently in Iran).Koç. who spent most of the period from 2013 to 2018 in southern Kurdistan (Kurdistan-Iraq) and Rojava, will explain how the active and autonomous participation of women in all fields of society and politics (a core objective of this revolutionary movement) relates to respect of nature and ecology. She gave a keynote address at the ecosocialism conference hosted by Green Left Weekly and Socialist Alliance on the weekend of 1 & 2 of July.

Woman, Life, Freedom – the ideas that inspired the Rojava revolution and the popular uprising in Iran. That’s the topic of this week’s show and next week’s.Nilüfer Koç, Executive Council member and spokesperson for the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) will share some of the new ideas inspiring the Kurdish-led feminist and green revolutionary movement that has liberated north and east Syria (Rojava) and its spread to other parts of Kurdistan, including Rojhelat (East Kurdistan currently in Iran).Koç. who spent most of the period from 2013 to 2018 in southern Kurdistan (Kurdistan-Iraq) and Rojava, will explain how the active and autonomous participation of women in all fields of society and politics (a core objective of this revolutionary movement) relates to respect of nature and ecology. She gave a keynote address at the ecosocialism conference hosted by Green Left Weekly and Socialist Alliance on the weekend of 1 & 2 of July.

Climate change poses an extreme threat to natural environments and people around the world. The world needs a rapid transition away from fossil fuels to prevent dangerous climate change. However this is just half the story of climate justice. The other half is about creating a just future and centering stories of communities and Indigenous peoples. One organisation that does that is Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity, an Australian-based climate justice collective. Ruchira Talukdar is one of Sapna’s Co-founders and she gave a keynote address at the ecosocialism conference hosted by Green Left Weekly and Socialist Alliance on the weekend of 1 & 2 of July.

We have been sharing with you the monthly meetings hosted by the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine, which, every month focuses on a different region of the world, to discuss what solidarity activists are doing to support Ukraine in its resistance to Russian aggression and the current war.The June meeting, held on 22 June, focused on solidarity from Middle Eastern countries, and the two feature pieces I will bring you today come from Iran.  We’ll hear from two Iranian socialist feminists, Fatemeh Masjedi and Frieda Afary.