Today’s Accent of Women commemorates May Day – International Workers Day on 1 May every year. The Second International designated International Workers’ Day be 1 May every year, in 1889. The date was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket Affair, a violent confrontation between police and labour protesters in Chicago on May 4, 1886, that became a symbol of the international struggle for workers’ rights. The strike at Haymarket in 1886 was about a national campaign to secure an eight-hour...

It’s 11 years since the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh that housed some 5 garment factories. More than 1100 workers died on 24 April 2013 but this was no accident. Workers and in fact, just about every body, knew that the building was unstable. It was built on a pond, without the correct construction permits, extra floors were added to the building illegally, and the heavy equipment associated with the garment industry all meant that the building couldn’t hold the...

On this week’s show, we return take a closer look at a number of campaigns that have emerged in Australia in the wake of the genocide in Gaza. Specifically, anti-weapons manufacturing campaigns and demilitarisation campaigns.My guests today are Palestinian/Syrian woman Nathalie Farrah from Disrupt Wars and the Get Elbit Industries out of Australia campaign. And Palestinian activist, Dana Alshaer from Melbourne University Students for Palestine Action Group. 

A recent military escalation in West Papua is the latest episode in a long history of repression and dispossession since the island came under Indonesian control. But the authorities in Jakarta still haven’t been able to stabilize their rule over West Papua.On today’s show, Accent of Women looks at the Resistance of the West Papuan people. 3CR’s Priya Kunjan spoke with leading Human Rights Activist in Indonesia, Vanessa Koman. 

On this week’s show, we’re gonna chat about an exciting new book that’s being released in a couple of weeks’ time, called, “An Unexpected Life”, it documents the stories of 11 Canberra based women who are migrants to Australia, their journeys to this country, their successes and failures and loves and regrets. And interwoven across these 11 women’s stories, is that of the author herself,Vesna Cvjeticanin. I had the privilege and pleasure of chatting with Vesna about her book.

The Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill proposes amendments to the Migration Act to deal with situations where non-citizens subject to removal are not cooperating with government authorities, or where their own government refuses to take them back. It is widely understood to be a response to the High Court’s ruling in November 2023 that found indefinite immigration detention to be unlawful.It’s also considered an attempt to pre-empt further litigation scheduled in the High...

On this week’s show, we return our gaze to Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people there. It’s been almost 6 months since Israel launched its genocidal campaign of bombardment against the people of Gaza, ostensibly in response to Hamas’ attack on Nir Oz Kibbutz on the 7 October. The war has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, with some 1.2 million people now displaced in Rafah, with no where to go. All negotiations for a ceasefire have failed.First up, Rasha Abbas, the founder of...

23,000 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander children in out of home care.Grandmothers Against Removals is an organisation – actually started by Lidia Thorpe – that aims to end the removal of Aboriginal children, or at the very least, place them with family members.GMAR Victoria was established in recognition of the disproportionate representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home-care. They’re all volunteers. They’re all Aboriginal grandmothers. GMAR’s volunteers understand first hand...

On this week’s show, our last piece of coverage from the ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) meeting in Melbourne on 4, 5 & 6 of March, and today we continue our focus on Myanmar.Since the violent military coup on February 1, 2021, the people of Myanmar have staunchly rejected military rule, demonstrating resilience through the widespread Civil Disobedience Movement.  Over the past three years, the country has continued to reject military governance and has mobilised an...

Since the violent military coup on February 1, 2021, the people of Myanmar have staunchly rejected military rule, demonstrating resilience through the widespread Civil Disobedience Movement.  Over the past three years, the country has continued to reject military governance and has mobilised an effective alternative - the civilian government, known as the National Unity Government (NUG), which continues to consolidate its rightful claim to leadership.In opposition to, and alongside the ASEAN...

The Albanese Government has invited Ferdinand Bong Bong Marcos Junior to address the Australian Parliament on Thursday the 29th February. Bong Bong Marcos Junior is the son of former brutal dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Snr, who was deposed in 1986. The apple does not fall far from the tree, and Marcos Junior is shaping up to be quite the dictator himself. Marcos’ visit coincides with the ASEAN summit, scheduled to take place in Melbourne on the 4, 5 & 6 of March.Progressive Filipinos in...

It’s been 130 days of war and genocide in Palestine. The world watches on and there is no ceasefire in sight. Israel continues to play the victim. Netanyahu is now promising to bombard Rafah – where they have sent over 1.5 million Palestinians to escape from bombardments in the north.Ahmad Tibi, a Knesset member, and Palestinian citizen of Israel, is urging the international community to “stop this war”. He has said that anyone who intends to invade Rafah intends to commit a war crime’ At...

January 26.  Australia Day.  It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, in New South Wales, the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at that site by Governor Arthur Phillip, the invasion of Australia and the start of genocide against the original owners of this land.  January 26 is a day of mourning and a day of struggle, marked by big, loud, powerful Invasion Day rallies right across the country. In Melbourne, over 100,000 people marched...

It’s been more than a year since the U.S. Supreme Court wiped out half a century of federally protected abortion rights. Since then, the speed and breadth of far-right attacks on reproductive justice has been breathtaking. So has the resistance on the ground.Nga Bui, coordinator of the Mobilisation for Reproductive Justice in New York City, joins me today to speak about the war on women, trans folks and queers, people of colour, Indigenous, disabled, working class and poor. If you’re based in...

As we enter the 10th week of bombardment in Gaza, and over 17,000 people there have now been slain. It becomes clearer and clearer that these atrocities have very little to do with avenging the 240 hostages taken, and it always was about pushing Palestinians out of the tiny Gaza strip and occupying it. Hamas is only active in Gaza, but the killings and repression are unabated in the West Bank.So today, we return to our coverage of the movement in support and solidarity with the Palestinians –...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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....