Accent of Women

The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a run-off was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! and Marine Le Pen of the National Front. Macron won by a decisive margin on 7 May. 

We conclude our coverage of the recent elections in South Korea and what this means for workers in that country.

For the next two weeks on Accent of Women, we look at the recent elections in South Korea and what this means for workers in that country.

We speak with a worker organiser based in Cambodia, visiting Australia as a guest of APHEDA. APHEDA is the international aid arm of the Australian labour movement. Organising is very heavily repressed in Cambodia, and listerners might recall the demos in 2013 by garment workers, fighting for a minimum wage. Those demonstrations resulted in mass arrests and the murder of two of those activists. Giv...

Accent of Women speaks with Reem Yunis, Palestinian socialist and activist based in Melbourne Australia about the Palestinian mass hunger strike, The Struggle for Freedom and Dignity.  On April 17, 2017, more than 1000 palestinian prisoners commenced a hunger strike under the leadership of high profile political prisoner, Marwan Barghouti. Two weeks later, more than 1600 prisoners are now particip...

In Melbourne Australia, a socialist organisation called Socialist Alternative organises an annual Marxism Conference over the Easter long weekend. This year, they invited special guest Farah Kobaissy from the Socialist Forum in Lebanon. Farrah gave a keynote address at the conference, which I recorded, and broadcast for you now. 

Today on Accent of Women, we look at the situation in two neighbouring Middle Eastern countries, Lebanon and Syria. Farah Kobeissy, is an activist and a researcher in gender, labor and migration. She is also a member of the Socialist Forum in Lebanon. She was in Australia for the annual Marxism Conference organised by Socialist Alternative and I had an opportunity to speak with her.

Today on Accent of Women, we broadcast the second and final part of a speech by Angela Davis that was delivered in October 2013, at Birkbeck School of Law. The talk is called Freedom is a constant struggle, closures and continuities. I was listening to this speech recently and every point made is relevant and salient for those of us organising for freedom today, so I wanted to give you the listene...

Today on Accent of Women, I broadcast a speech by Angela Davis that was delivered in October 2013, at Birkbeck School of Law. The talk is called Freedom is a constant struggle, closures and continuities. I was listening to this speech recently and every point made is relevant and salient for those of us organising for freedom today, so I wanted to give you the listener, the benefit of some of thes...

Today on Accent of Women, I am in conversation with Madelaine Imber and Tandiwe Aebi-Moyo about Butch and Butch Identity. Butch is not a dirty word is a publication, originating in Melbourne, Australia, and the brain child of Butch activist, Esther Godoy.

The 21st of March is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – and while I don't believe that the United Nations has any commitment to ending racism, it's a worthwhile opportunity to look at anti-racist organising, particularly in the lead up to the Palm Sunday rallies across Australia, where activists will again take to the streets in defence of refugees. I'll provide t...

On the program today, and in celebration of International Women's Day, we feature two women organisers from Sri Lanka.  In mid February 2017, an organisation called JERA, Justice Equity Right Access International, hosted a delegation of about 15 grassroots and community organisers from Sri Lanka, to Australia.  We speak with two of the women on this delegation, Dr Sepali Kottegoda and Sumika Perer...

We look at a Community Foundation in Palestine that goes by the name Dalia.  It's an extraordinary organisation in that it confronted the limitations of international aid coming in to Palestine, and how ultimately, money, organised in that way, made little to no difference to the lives of Palestinians. 

President Trump stunned the world on January 27 when he signed a sudden executive order suspending immigration for 90 days from seven mostly Muslim countries. This ban had an immediate effect on people but was met with significant resistance which culminated in a legal battle that saw a federal appeals panel last week unanimously rejected Trump’s bid to reinstate this ban. Despite this, the ban is...

Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20 amidst massive protests worldwide. In his first couple of weeks in office, he has introduced some extreme policies, one of which being the ban on people born in Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Iran, from entering the US. The ban had an immediate effect – people were being detained at airports, put on return flights or transported to immigrat...

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. We should not celebrate Australia Day. It's a day that has been sanctified and...

This week on Accent of Women, we are still looking at the issue of refugees in Australia, but from a campaign and advocacy perspective this time.  The Refugee Council of Australia is organising an ongoing film festival.  They screen particular films, in particular states across the country, in an effort to shift public opinion about who refugees are and how they are created.

We're continuing our Summer Programming this week and so, a few more of Accent of Women's Snapshots. For listeners that don't remember, Snapshots was a series of radio features with women who had recently come to Australia from different countries. We produced a double CD set of 19 stories back in 2011.

We're continuing our Summer Programming this week and so, a few more of Accent of Women's Snapshots. For listeners that don't remember, Snapshots was a series of radio features with women who had recently come to Australia from different countries. We produced a double CD set of 19 stories back in 2011. So while most of us are enjoying the festive holiday season, these snapshots remind us that war...

It's Summer Programming again and I thought it would be a good time to pull out Accent of Women's Snapshots. For listeners that don't remember, Snapshots was a series of radio features with women who had recently come to Australia from different countries. We produced a double CD set of 19 stories back in 2011.

Since its initial establishment in 1956, the MCT has supported women from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds around key settlement issues – housing, English classes, community capacity building, employment and training, family counselling and mediation, leadership programs, as well as financial literacy to name a few. To celebrate these 60 years of service, the MCT has put together a b...

Alok Vaid-Menon is a trans femme South Asian writer, performance artist, and community organizer based in NYC. For the past seven years they have organized in solidarity with racial-, economic-, and gender-justice movements worldwide. 

Alok Vaid-Menon is a trans femme South Asian writer, performance artist, and community organizer based in NYC. For the past seven years they have organized in solidarity with racial-, economic-, and gender-justice movements worldwide. 

Alok Vaid-Menon is a trans femme South Asian writer, performance artist, and community organizer based in NYC. For the past seven years they have organized in solidarity with racial-, economic-, and gender-justice movements worldwide. 

Coco Solid describes herself as a musician, writer, artist and philosoflygirl hailing from Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand. She delivered the keynote address at the Listen Conference, a feminist music space, held in Melbourne over the weekend of October 14, 15 and 16.