High Court ruling favours release of 'Palace Papers' on Whitlam Dismissal

The High Court has ruled that hundreds of letters between the Queen and former governor-general Sir John Kerr before the dismissal of the Whitlam government are public records, paving the way for the release of the potentially explosive documents.

Professor Jenny Hocking, a political historian who has written extensively on Labor figures including former prime minister Gough Whitlam and his attorney-general Lionel Murphy, fought for a decade for access to the letters to help shed light on what Buckingham Palace knew before the Dismissal in November 1975.

Her fight included a three-and-a-half-year, million-dollar legal battle with the National Archives, which insisted the letters were "personal" records that sat outside a statutory regime providing for the release of Commonwealth records after 30 years.


Professor Hocking said the historic decision ends "decades of residual British control over Australian archival material, kept from us in the name of the Queen through the exercise of an alleged Royal veto".



                                                                                         PM Whitlam at time of his dismissal

Vic Gammon: The Past is not my Home

Let me try to sum up. There is no knowledge without implicit or explicit theory. That theory both enables knowledge and sets limits on the knowledge it makes possible, it both guides our sight and blinkers it. There are more and less likely theories but there is no place from which to criticise theories that is not itself already theorised explicitly or implicitly. There is no neutral place; there is no human understanding that is not structured by culture and by academic traditions. Our knowledge of the real is cultivated by our ideas and concepts. This is the human condition; there is no escaping it. We cannot transcend it we can only be aware of it work within it.

No form of total knowledge is a possibility. We all encounter only fragments of the total cultural experience that is potentially available to us. One of the ways in which we are active in our self-making is through selecting from the total cultural experience available. This can be done in a more or less informed and critical way. We cannot get away from the fact that our cultural experience (and in the case of academics our intellectual life) is both partial and fragmentary.

If total knowledge is not a possibility there is a sense in which academic enquiry is privileged, it can provide a perception of the area under investigation that is simply not available to native participants of that culture.

I have just been reading David Atkinson’s excellent book on the English ballad. In assembling the different versions of these oral sung narratives, looking at their similarities and differences, their patterns and anomalies, Atkinson is doing something that simply was not possible for the thousands of people who over centuries were the carriers of these songs.

Another example: in an enthusiastic review that discussed my essay on the social background of the musical tradition of the Copper Family from Sussex, one reviewer expressed surprise that we discover the socio-political background in which the Coppers flourished and in which their songs survived, in the sort of detail which members of the community would have been only subconsciously aware of. Indeed, we learn that some members of the community were actually mistaken in their view of it!

If the researcher cannot get a more synoptic and synthesised view of social and musical phenomenon than is generally held by those who are ‘native participants’, then we must seriously doubt what the research is achieving. The reviewer might be surprised to learn that one inspiration behind my essay included historical and anthropological studies of witchcraft in small-scale communities.

The ideas and categories of ‘native participants’ are important but they should not be the ends of the story. It is in the encounters between different systems of classification that I believe that significant knowledge is produced.

To impose our categories on another culture is ethnocentrism, to engage with those categories questioningly and reflectively, so that they modify our views, is to pursue knowledge and understanding. As Iragary has written ‘...if we continue to speak the same language to each other, we will reproduce the same story’.

Bakhtin gets close to my understanding of intellectual enquiry and has some interesting things to say about the self-deception that may be involved in intellectual work.
Bakhtin uses the term exotopy to mean that state of being spatially, temporally or culturally ‘outside’:

There is an enduring image, that is partial, and therefore false, according to which to better understand a foreign culture one should live in it, and, forgetting one's own, look at the world through the eyes of this culture.

As I have said, such an image is partial. To be sure, to enter in some measure into an alien culture and look at the world through its eyes, is a necessary moment in the process of its understanding; but if understanding were exhausted in this moment, it would have been no more than a single duplication, and would have brought nothing new or enriching.

Creative understanding does not renounce itself, its place in time, its culture; it does not forget anything. The chief matter of understanding is the exotopy of the one who does the understanding - in time, space and culture - in relation to that which he wants to understand creatively.

Even his own external aspect is not really accessible to man and he cannot interpret it as a whole; mirrors and photographs prove of no help; a man's real external aspect can be seen and understood only by other persons, thanks to their spatial exotopy, and thanks to the fact that they are other.

In the realm of culture, exotopy is the most powerful lever of understanding. It is only to the eyes of an other culture that the alien culture reveals itself more completely and more deeply (but never exhaustively because there will come other cultures, that will see and understand even more).

I would not want to ally myself too strongly with what would seem to be the optimism of the end of this passage but in terms of what constitutes human understanding I am drawn to it strongly. Understanding is a creative act. In a memorable metaphor, the historian Christopher Hill wrote ‘Statistics and imagination are for the historian what oil and petrol are to the internal combustion engine: an excess of one will not compensate for the lack of the other’.

The healthy effects of ‘postmodern’ critiques of historiography are to make us more circumspect in terms of our claims as to the truth of the research we produce. There is no ultimate truth to it. What we produce is always an observation on phenomena from a position that is always-already culturally situated.

Some of the old arguments still hold good, there is better and worse historical and ethnomusicologal writing, but I make those judgements from a position that cannot claim access to, nor even make aspiration to, an ultimate truth. We never reach ultimate understanding of the other.

Ethnomusicologists and social historians have to use evidence, select and combine it to tell stories about the subjects of their study. In certain ways those stories are given, pre-formed and conventional. Each discipline is in the business of making meaning.

Neither ethnomusicologists nor social historians will ever achieve a total representation of the cultures with which they are dealing–not even native cultural participants can achieved this although it is entirely possible for such people to grow in understanding and self-awareness to do ‘ethnomusicology at home’ that may well provide insights not available to the extrinsic observer. In so doing they transform themselves and assume a cultural position this is both part belonging and part alienated.

Alex Hood folklore collection. Edgar waters

Summary

Folkloric recording.
Edgar Waters speaks of the early days of the Bushwhackers;
Wattle records and films; experiences in England;
Russell Ward;
Geoff Way;
Cecil English;
John Meredith;
Communist Party of Australia (C.P.A.);
The Folk revival; Hans Bandler;
his interest in Australian folklore and old "bush" songs;
Eureka Youth League;
the collection of folklore;
Joe Cashmere;
A.L. Lloyd; the influence of
Australian folklore in England;
the Bushwhackers;
Sally Sloan;
Duke Tritton;
Alan Lomax;
Jimmy Macbeth;
Tim McMahon;
re-writing and re-working material;
the Rambleers;
Folk Clubs; English-Irish influences;
Declan Affley; Nationalists;
Melbourne folk revivalists and collectors; the
Brisbane revival; Joe Furnside; Jack Hughes.

Notes
Recorded on December 7, 2006 at Nowra, N.S.W.
Digital master available National Library of Australia;

Dr. Jim Cairns in the Chair

MELBOURNE: Dr. Jim Cairns MHR was elected as the new chairman of the
Congress for International Co-operationand Disarmament at the annual meeting
last week.

He replaced the Rev. Alf Dickie, who had been chairman of CICD since its formation in 1959. Mr. Dickie did not seek re-election, and was made a life member.

Warm tributes were paid to his services to the peace movement by Dr. Cairns and Mr. Sam Goldbloom.

One of the new committee members to be elected was Bob States, one of the three draft resisters currently serving an 18 month prison term in Pentridge jail. The newly-elected committee was directed to initiate and support actions in solidarity with the imprisoned draft resisters in Victorian jails, who are at present Bob Scates, Ken McClelland, and Ian Turner.

Harry van Moorst, who recently returned from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, presented CICD with a vase made from an anti-aircraft shell casing and parts of American planes shot down over Vietnam. He passed on the gift from the Hanoi Peace Committee as a mark of their appreciation for the work of CICD and the Australian anti-war movement in opposing foreign intervention in Vietnam.

On The Dresser

Tom Uren: This is a class struggle

 Tribune (Sydney, NSW : 1939 - 1991)  Tue 25 Nov 1975  Page 2.

SYDNEY: "Make no mistake, this is a class struggle", elected Urban
Affairs Minister Uren told a Balmain rally last Saturday."
This was very obvious to the more conscious of both the
ruling class and the workers.

Mr. Uren went on to say that Kerr's action gave many in the
middle ground their first real taste of where power really lies,
and how little regard the ruling class has for its own rules when
their power base is threatened.

Mr. Uren went on to say "Who does rule Australia? Let me tell
you that it is not the parliament (if Labor is in a majority there).

"Since Labor was elected in 1972 it has become increasingly
clear to me that Parliament is powerless in so many ways ....
and the will of the people means nothing against the will of the
ruling class Power lies with those who own and control the
economic base of this country, and with the
administrative/military elite.

"In 1972-73 .... 41 per cent of total Australian company income
was earmarked for foreign owners. In recessions .... this profit
is called home to prop up the parent, so the satellite economy
suffers even more .... the interests of the foreign owners
(and members of the Australian ruling class who sell Australia
out to them) dictate the direction and form the economy will take.

The needs, aspirations and independence of the people don't rate
a mention in their deliberations."

Mr. Uren said that there weren't many of these people, but they
determined almost every facet of our lives. Last week they acted in
a way they had rarely had to act. They felt themselves under threat:
they had to reassert themselves.

They acted against the Labor government because it brought a
redistribution of income in favor of the bottom two-thirds of the
population: provided benefits foreducation, urban improvement,
health care, "instead of providing playtoys for the military establishment and
sops to big business". It had tried to gain some control over natural resources.

Tom Uren charged that the Fraser-Kerr coup was the end result of
"some plan, sometime-table, that has been in operation since at least
May of this year .... and I'll bet London to a brick that they have some
gem planned for the last week of the election campaign."

The world recession has bottomed out, he said. The downward trend
has halted in Australia, and the country will slowly ease out of the recession.
"This would shoot to pieces the capitalists' claims of Labor mismanagement
they cannot afford to have that happen."

Night Time Amongst The Paper Bark Trees

NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir on return from space

On September 25, 2019, as dusk settled over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, along with two fellow crewmates, rocketed off to the International Space Station. On April 17, Meir returned—if not exactly to the world she left behind. Reentry has its usual set of potential discomforts. Some have described the so-called “soft landing” of the capsule as having the sudden jolt of a car accident; motion sickness may occur as the body adapts to gravity. But rejoining life on Earth during a pandemic is another matter entirely. “It’s really difficult—I’m a hugger!” Meir explained in a call from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she and fellow astronaut Andrew Morgan just spent a week in on-site quarantine. A few NASA friends and family members, who self-isolated for two weeks prior, were there as support—sometimes literally. “You’re obviously a little bit wobbly at first,” Meir said. “You pick up your phone or tablet, and it feels like it weighs 30 or 40 pounds, even though your brain knows it doesn’t.” Still, broadly speaking, this isolation after isolation makes for a strange welcome. “Seven months go by, and now I still can’t come and hug people.”

Even before Meir (a dual American and Swedish citizen) emerged from 205 days in space—part of a group at the ISS that ranged from three to nine people—she staked her career at the outer limits. “I think I’ve always been attracted to these extreme environments, places where fewer people have been, where conditions are a little bit more harsh,” she explained in a NASA video celebrating the September launch. In it, a montage of photos shows Meir scuba diving in ice-capped waters off Antarctica, where she studied the diving physiology of emperor penguins as part of her PhD in marine biology. By the time the 42-year-old participated in the first all-female spacewalk in October, spending a little over seven hours with fellow astronaut Christina Koch floating in the pitch-black void, it was hard to imagine where Meir would land next.

But in the early weeks of the pandemic, as people stocked up on nonperishables and began drifting from their home office to their home home on the other side of the room, I found myself thinking about Meir’s setup at the ISS: tight quarters, family video chats, indoor workouts, vegetables arriving by special delivery. Is Meir the oracle of quarantine? I noticed as her scenic Instagram posts from space quietly took stock of the situation below; a slideshow of clouds from March 19 bears a reminder that “they are all fleeting in nature—the storm always clears. #EarthStrong.” Having now joined us in terrestrial quarantine, Meir finds it “much more isolating and confined here,” she acknowledged when we spoke on Earth Day—even if aged Gouda and wine have sweetened the homecoming. Hers is the voice you want to hear: a scientist with long-range optimism, who imagines future humans growing mizuna on the way to Mars. Read on for her descriptions of NASA’s next-gen space food, her blazing reentry, and the space movies that pass her muster.

Clouds Above

Italian Invaders in Spainish Civil War Exposed

Japan and Europe roll out huge stimulus packages

Two of the world’s biggest economies moved to hand out funds to cushion the blow from lockdowns and chart a course toward recovery.

The Japanese cabinet approved more than $1 trillion in stimulus funding that includes a combination of subsidies to companies and to people. Parliament is expected to approve the measure next month.

In Brussels, the European Union’s executive arm said it wanted to issue bonds in capital markets to raise 750 billion euros, or $860 billion, to finance the bloc’s economic recovery.

The fund will distribute €500 billion worth of grants—free money that will not be added to national debt—to all 27 member states, with Italy getting the largest slice, followed by Spain.

In the Park

Poem By Coal Miner Jock Graham

The Death Draw



(A Poem by Jock Graham) in Dark Roads 1973 p. 21.

Friends all changed to foemen, by propaganda lies.
A pretty little box we've made—a gift to "Uncle Sam,"
Full of young Australian lads marked for Vietnam.
Who will make the lucky draw not the lad who goes

Those who stay and help to make our peaceful friends our foes.
One, two, three, four a thousand mothers' sons—
Who will be the lucky lads to feed our war lords' guns.
Shades of last war's million dead I can hear their cries:

Lovely lives they promised, new Order all serene—
God . . . it was a horror, hunger doles obscene.
Still the lying broad-cast: all Vietcong are commos—
(Like to swim across the sea and take Australia from us.)

Some who draw a marble are knighted for renown,
Robbing workers' wages and keeping pensions down.
Ask ourselves the question, the moving question  WHY?
Should, for such aggression, little children die?

Draw a little marble, change it to a man,
Shape him in a war machine and send to Vietnam:
One, two, three, four—a thousand mothers' sons;
Who shall be the fodder to feed aggression’s guns? 

Paul Robeson to Australian Visit Human Rights Assembly

ROBESON TO VISIT AUSTRALIA
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ASSEMBLY

Paul Robeson, distinguished American Negro singer and world-famous as an advocate of peace and democratic rights, has accepted an invitation to attend the Australian People's Assembly for Human Rights in Melbourne on September 14.

ROBESON said on Friday that he would "do everything possible to be there," despite the US State Department's demand for the return of his passport.

He was speaking over the radiotelephone to the Secretary of the Democratic Rights Council of Victoria. Mr. V. J. O'Connor. The DRC has appealed, to all Australian democrats and lovers of liberty to demand that ' the US Government allow . this distinguished son of America to participate in the Assembly.

A cable, signed by national trade union leaders, was sent on Monday to the World Federation of Trade Unions asking it to send an English speaking delegate to the Assembly. Delegates Invited Invitations will be sent this week to every organisation throughout the Commonwealth interested in any aspect of democratic rights. Representation will be on the basis of two delegates for the first 200 members of an organisation or part thereof, and one for the next 100, up to a limit of 10 from any organisation. The NSW DRC aims to secure at least 400 delegates from this State.

The Council has also launched a drive for £1000 to pay for publicity
and fares of overseas visitors. Subscription lists will be issued.

Robeson Plan To Visit Australia -- White Australia Policy Critisised

PAUL ROBESON.
Plan to Visit Australia.

"WHITE AUSTRALIA" POLICY
CRITICISED.
LONDON, April 28.

Paul Robeson, the famous American negro
singer, told the Australian Associated Press
that he is planning to go to Australia later
In the year.

"The 'White Australia' policy must lead to
an explosion sooner or later," he said. "
I consider the great responsibility of the Australian
Labour movement is to remove discrimination
against colour.

People cannot be divided by race or colour.
Only economic differences are
fundamental. People can be lifted, no matter
how low their social position may be.

Is the Australian aboriginal so low? It must be re-
membered that the boomerang Introduced a
now mathematical principle."

Peekskill, USA - Howard Fast Reports

Peekskill, USA - Fast
indicts American fascism
HOWARD FAST, famous American
writer who went to gaol
in the cause of peace, has powerfully
recorded one of the most
significant events in American
history in his fine literary work
—Peekskill USA.

It is a simply told "personal experience,"
but under the pen of this
giant of modern novelists the story
stirs and inspires heights of thought
and feeling seldom reached in the
reading of any novel.

At Peekskill, the suburb of New
York, from August 27 to September
4, 1949, Fast says ". . . the
whole struggle in America was crystallised
in the actions of a few
days. In that brief time, the fascist
forces rallied to their plans all
the rotten and lumpen elements
they could command. In the same
time, the working class rallied and
organised itself to halt fascism, to
defend the Negro people and to join
with the Negro people in common
defence. The fact that this was

done in terms of a cultural event
built around one man who stood
for the peace movement in America
and for progressive culture in
America, deepened the whole significance
of the action."

That "one man" was Paul Robeson
and the "cultural event" was
to have been a concert where this
great artist was to sing his songs
of peace and freedom. But the
concert that took place was not a
recital of Robeson's warm songs, but
"a special music that had played
its melody out in Germany and
Italy."

Fast was to have been chairman
of the concert—instead he became
the courageous and able leader oi
the concert-goers' struggle against
the unexpected fascist attack.
Of particular interest to the Australian
reader is Fast's description
of the American police and their
"neutrality" which enabled the fascists
to attempt this "mass lynching".

On the other hand, when so
many thousands attend a protest
meeting in Harlem, and the police
are completely outnumbered, Past
brilliantly ridicules this "change of
nature." „

"There were the police," he writes,
"almost a hundred of them, caught
between the crowd inside and the
crowd outside, the guns
and stayed—there the they were.
'Oh. that was something to see,
almost a hundred New York City
cops in a spot like that—indeed,
that was something to see. I have
never seen the like oi it before in
New York, nor since, such quiet
cops, such genteel cops, such silent
cops, each one of them standing
quietly and politely right in his place,
eyes on the ground, nightstick
clasped unostentatiously, their whole
attitude being, 'Just don't you dare
notice us at all, because we're just
here because we have to be here,
dtoty and all that, you know; but
after all. New York's finest, and
who else takes children across the
street or finds them when they're
lost?' Yes, that was something;
and I could only think of the French
police when the working class of
Prance comes out in all its mighty
power—and at such times the
French police assigned to cover the
demonstration stand very still, eyes
on the ground, neutral in the best
tradition.

Yes, there are many things about
this book which is of special interest
not only to the Australan
working people but to all who believe
in peace and freedom.
It can't happen here", Fast and
his friends said on the eve of Peekskill—but
happen it did.

The book is not a "complete factual
itemisation" of the event, but
only, as Fast says, "What I saw with
my own eyes . . . and my own conclusions."
None the less it is surprising
that in his observations and
conclusions, Mr. Fast fails to draw
the clear connections between the
fascist tendencies in his country
and the Truman's Government's foreign
policy of expansion and conquest
through war. And more surprising
still, when one considers the author's
courageous participation in the
American people's struggle for peace
and freedorfi, is his failure to show
the growing strength of the people's
movement since Peekskill, not just
in America but more particularly on
a world scale.

Because of this
there is a faint note of despair
which just doesn't belong to such
a brave book. For instance when
Fast writes: "I know well enough
how exceedingly late it is for the
voices of logic and reason to be
raised. Yet I think that they must
be raised, even if those who raise
them go down to defeat."

Today millions of voices are crying
"Peace" and peace they will
win—not "go down to defeat."
However, * books like "Peekskill,
USA" strengthen such voices and
peacelovers everywhere say "Thank
you, Howard Fast."—Joan Clarke.

Charles Parker -- Radio Ballader

Alf Edwards - Radio Ballads Performer

Ballad of John Axton

Norman Bethune in Spain Discoveries In Blood Transfusion

 The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954)  Tue 15 Jun 1937  Page 7

BIOLOGIST MEETS
SUCCESS
Discoveries In Blood
Transfusion

EXPERIMENTS IN SPAIN
VALENCIA, June 13.

According to an American biologist,
Mr. Herman J. Muller, who has been
conducting research for the past two
months with the Hispano-Canadian In-
stitute into blood transfusion, bleeding
to death from wounds can be appreciably checked.

He declares that the vital elements can now be kept alive
in the blood outside the body and
coagulation prevented, enabling trans-
fusion within a fortnight.

Dr. Norman Bethune organised in
Madrid a service of blood donors, who
were fed, but not paid. The blood
was collected at base hospitals, and
conveyed to first-aid stations on var-
ious fronts, where transfusion was
made. The donor and recipient must
belong to the same biological type, and
the blood must be germ-free. Russian
experiments proved that blood taken
from corpses was transfusable eight
hours after death.

HEARTENED THE LOYALISTS Paul Robeson in Spain

Paul Robeson in Spain
Paris, Feb.- 3.

Paul. Robeson, who recently went
to Spain in order to hearten the loyalists with negro spirituals, is now returning to England. Hesays that over 100 negroes from the United States, Cuba and Jamaica are fighting with the international brieade. knowing what they are fighting for, unlike Franco's Moors.

Robeson sang to the wounded in the Teruel hospitals, including many Britons, and witnessed air raids at Valencia and Barcelona, which were not directed at military objectives and affected only civilians. His visit determined him to help the loyalists by giving his services at concerts in London and elsewhere.

SAN FRANCISCO Paul Robeson sings again

Tribune (Sydney, NSW : 1939 - 1991)  Wed 16 Oct 1957  Page 6

Paul Robeson sings again
SAN FRANCISCO:

Back in the full swing of his concert' career, Paul Robeson has appeared five times in
California and sung to 10,000 people in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"There were 5,000 people in the park in Los Angeles," Robeson told the Canadian Tribune, "who
were there under the auspices of the- Foreign Born  committee. The First Unitarian Church brought in 2,400 more for two concerts, and my concert at the Third Baptist Church inSan Francisco brought in 1,100 more."

All these appearances were sold out within three days after they were, announced and the
great. American artist said he could do 15 more within six weeks, if he were not going back to New York. Response to his concerts by the Negro community, said Robeson, was "magnificent."
The successful Robeson concerts on the West Coast have not been noticed—or reviewed— by the
commercial press. "And what's more," said Robeson, "I don't care."

The resumption of his concert career has taken place under the auspices of ordinary people, work
ing people, he said. "I will probably- not go back to the regular concert or theatrical management of the past.

"If you attend the opening of the Opera House," Robeson said,"you will see the sort of audience the concert managements of our country cater to — the well to-do snobs. Some of them may know something about music and some of them may not. But I have no desire to sing for them again.

"My labors in the future will remain the same ; as they have in the past. They will be based on my whole experience— in the anti-fascist struggle that saw its finest expression in Spain, in the worldwide struggle of working people against their oppressors. "This struggle is going on and has reached a new height. Not only abroad—where the colonial peoples are leading the fight and where three-quarters of the human race has refused to be kick ed around "any longer— but also here in my own United States, where the Negro people of in South—who are also a semi-colonial people — are leading fight."

PAUL ROBESON IN SPAIN Spirituals for Wounded Loyalists.

Spirituals for Wounded Loyalists.

PARIS, Feb. 3. Paul Robeson, the famous negro singer, who recently went to Spain to hearten the loyalist soldiers with negro spirituals, is now on his way to England.

He stated today that there were more than 100 negroes from the United States, Cuba and Jamaica fighting in the International Brigade.

Unlike General Franco's Moors, they knew for what they
were fighting. "My proudest moment was when I heard of a young negro from Chicago, Oliver Law, a corporal in the regular army, who went to Spain as a volunteer and was killed in action while
commanding the Lincoln Brigade," he
added.

"I should like to make a film about him. Negro opinion almost unani-
mously supports the loyalist cause for the same reason as it opposed the invasion of Abyssinia.

Robeson sang to the wounded in the Teruel hospitals, many of his listeners being Britons. He witnessed air raids on Valencia and Barcelona that were not directed at military objectives, affecting
only civilians.

As a result of his visit he has decided to help the loyalists by
giving his services at concerts in London and elsewhere.

Taking a stand Robeson in defence of of Republican Spain

Taking a stand

From a 1937 anti-fascist speech in defence of Republican Spain:

“Every artist, every scientist, must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights.

There are no impartial observers.

Through the destruction, in certain countries, of the greatest of man’s literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged.

The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. … The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”

– Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary.

Gerald Horne has made an amazing contribution to African American radical history with the newly published biography Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary.

Though not as widely known as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Malcolm X – at least, not among most white activists – it is impossible, as Horne argues, to understand their lives without first understanding Paul Robeson’s.

“Like Malcolm, he Robeson was a militant: a turning point in his dramatic fall was when he confronted President Harry S. Truman face-to-face in the White House, berating him because of the lynching of African Americans…” Additionally, Robeson, who lived abroad for years, “developed a global appeal that dwarfed what the Muslim Minister only sought to accomplish in the final months of his life.”

Further, “Like Dr. King he had a mass appeal among African Americans. But, unlike the Nobel Laureate, Robeson was not only an artist whose performance stirred emotions and fealty worldwide, he was also allied with a then rising socialist left and allied trade unions…providing this performer with a reach that even Dr. King at his height found difficult to match,” writes Horne.

Time magazine in 1943, would claim Robeson was “probably the most famous living Negro…” The Worker in 1964 would proclaim Robeson “the best known American in the world,” though he would ultimately also become “the most blacklisted performer in America…,” as Pete Seeger, the well-known folk singer, told his fellow performer.

As a political biography, Horne does a great job connecting Robeson’s internationalism with the emerging socialist camp – and the concomitant rise of Communist Parties – as the Rutgers educated sportsman, actor and activists’ thirst for language, enabled him “to communicate more effectively with diverse audiences” around the world.

Robeson intently “deepened his knowledge of languages,” which “introduced him to the unity of humankind and thus dovetailed with his developing socialist beliefs…” Horne writes.

Arguably a product of his times, Robeson was a man one generation removed from slavery who grew up in a country practicing its own form of racist apartheid known as Jim Crow. As a Black man who eventually became a world-renowned actor and artist, early in his career Robeson’s “groping as an actor in his attempt to grasp the lineaments of Othello was of a piece with his groping as a black man seeking to grasp the lineaments of capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy.”

Seeking to make a living as an actor, it was in London where Robeson got his first big break – and began his life-long relationship with communism. For as Horne writes, while Robeson was very close to U.S. Black communists like Ben Davis and William L. Patterson – and while he never shied away from supporting the CPUSA – he repeatedly denied membership, though “his closeness to London comrades raises questions – rarely asked, hardly answered definitively – as to whether he was ever a member of the party in Great Britain, more of a likelihood than U.S. membership.”

Gus Hall, the CPUSA’s long-time chair, would later claim in 1998 that Robeson was in fact a member of the Communist Party, USA. He told attendees at a Robeson centennial tribute in late May of that year, “My own most precious moments with Paul were when I met with him to accept his dues and renew his yearly membership in the CPUSA. I and other Communist leaders, like Henry Winston…met with Paul to brief him on politics and Party policies and to discuss his work and struggles.”

Regardless of Robeson’s actual membership status, he unabashedly supported communists – even at the height of McCarthyism, telling a crowd of 5,000 in Harlem in June 1949, “…I’m not afraid of Communists; no, far from that. I will defend them as they defended us, the Negro people. And I stand firm and immovable by the side…” of the arrested CPUSA leaders. “Their struggle is our struggle.”

Though he was at times an extremely wealthy man – making $100,000-plus a year in the late 1940’s – he was also always broke, as he donated considerable income and time to working class and revolutionary movements, often singing and/or performing for free or donating the proceeds to progressive political causes. One example was the Council on African Affairs (CAA), “the vanguard organization in the U.S. campaigning against colonialism,” headed by W.E.B. Du Bois and W. Alphaeus Hunton.

As McCarthyism enveloped the United States, Robeson’s passport was confiscated, eliminating his ability to travel and earn a living, though his “voice continued to resonate abroad.” In fact, argues Horne, “…Robeson’s consistent internationalism, his maniacal study of languages and cultures was redeemed…when a great wave of humanity demanded that his right to travel be restored.”

Paul Robeson's 1956 HUAC testimony

In May 1956, Robeson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. In response to questions concerning his alleged Communist Party membership, Robeson reminded the Committee that the Communist Party was a legal party and invited its members to join him in the voting booth before he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to respond Robeson lambasted Committee members on civil rights issues concerning African-Americans. When one senator asked him why he hadn't remained in the Soviet Union, he replied, Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you. And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear? I am for peace with the Soviet Union, and I am for peace with China, and I am not for peace or friendship with the Fascist Franco, and I am not for peace with Fascist Nazi Germans. I am for peace with decent people.

When asked about Stalin's purges he stated that, "I have told you, mister, that I would not discuss anything with the people who have murdered sixty million of my people, and I will not discuss Stalin with you." And "I will discuss Stalin when I may be among the Russian people some day, singing for them, I will discuss it there. It is their problem." Asked if he had praised Stalin during his previous trip to the Soviet Union, Robeson replied, "I do not know." When asked outright if he had changed his mind about Stalin he implored

Whatever has happened to Stalin, gentlemen, is a question for the Soviet Union, and I would not argue with a representative of the people who, in building America, wasted sixty to a hundred million lives of my people, black people drawn from Africa on the plantations. You are responsible, and your forebears, for sixty million to one hundred million black people dying in the slave ships and on the plantations, and don't ask me about anybody, please.b

Lauds Stand By Robeson

The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950)  Wed 2 Jun 1948  Page 8

Lauds Stand
By Robeson

LONDON Wed. (AAP) :

Commoner J. F. Platts Mills has cabled congratulations to Paul Robeson
for having refused to tell the United States SenateJudiciary Committee
that he was a Communist.

Platts-Mills was expelled by the Labour Party recently for having sent a
goodwill telegram to Left Wing Italian Socialists, leader Nenni, on the eve
of the Italian elections.

SAN FRANCISCO ROBESON BARRED

ROBESON BARRED
SAN FRANCISCO, Tues.

Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW : 1911 - 1954)  Wed 30 Apr 1952  Page 4

The Board of Trustees of the
San Francisco. War Memorial
Opera House has decided un-
animously to bar Paul Robe
son from singing in the Opera
House.

They said that as a pro
Communist, the negro singer
was unfit to appear within
the memorial — where he had
planned to sing at a concert
on May 22.

--J.W. Poem for Paul Robeson

 Smith's Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1919 - 1950)  Sat 25 Sep 1937  Page 23.

Paul Robeson in Hospital

The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) Wed 14 Jan 1976 Page 14

Paul Robeson

PHILADELPHIA, Tues
day (AAP-Reuter). —
Actor and singer Paul Rob-
eson has been admitted to
hospital in Philadelphia, a
hospital spokesman said
yesterday.

She said the 77-year-old
black entertainer was admit-
ted on December 28 to the
Presbyterian University of
Pennsylvania Medical
Centre and is in a fair
condition. She said his
family had asked that the
reason for his entering
hospital not be made public.

Paul Robeson

Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative

Paul Robeson

PAUL Robeson. the outstanding
star of 'Show Boat,' and the
greatest singing star of the age. will
be featured in 'Song of Freedom.'
which comes to the Regent on Sat
urday. June 26, and the Criterion
Monday and Tuesday, June 28. 29.
In this picture Robeson's glorious
voice will be heard in numerous
song numbers.

The supporting attraction will be 'Melody For Two,'
featuring James Melton and Patricia Ellis, together with short subjects,
commencing at 7.30 p.m.

Paul Robeson Breaks from Hollywood

The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 - 1954)  Sat 26 Sep 1942  Page 4

PAUL ROBESON
NEW YORK, September 23.-Fol-
lowing the negro picketing of "Film
Tales of Manhattan" Paul Robeson
announced he is not making any more
Hollywood pictures because the direc-
tors insist on portraying the negro as
a clown on a plantation. The disput-
ed episode deals with a negro share-
farming community, Robeson playing
the principal part.

He explains : "When I first read the
script I protested that it was silly and
endeavoured unsuccessfully to secure
a modification of this offence to my
people. Hollywood replied ;"We cannot
make the negro any other role because
it will not suit the box office in the
South. "

Paul Robeson on Marx

The Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1930 - 1956) Thu 21 Jul 1949 Page 5

PAUL ROBESON
UPHOLDS MARX

NEW YORK, July 17.-The
negro singer, Paul Robeson
today said that "We Com-
munists" would lead in the
struggle of the American peopls
for the rights they were losing.

Robeson said the negro
people also would be in the
forefront of the struggle.
"We are going to reach out
for some of this great land."
he said. "We have found a
weapon with which to fight.
This weapon originated with
a man named Marx."

Robeson declared that no
civil rights should be given to
enemies of the working class.

The Twin Trees in Autumn

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The current pandemic is giving humanity a crash course in apocalypse management. Whether COVID-19 is actually apocalyptic or not is debatable, but the pandemic has many of the characteristics that we associate with something of that scale. Like climate disruption, it’s global; like nuclear war, it’s deadly. Most importantly, like any crisis of this magnitude, it cannot be solved by a single country or region alone, no matter how powerful. Pushing back against COVID-19, let alone the apocalypse, requires cooperation, and not just at the level of the nation-state, but within communities as well. It is probably not a surprise that this is proving difficult.

It certainly comes as no surprise to those of us who have encountered the various novels, movies, or television shows about the end of the world: a lack of cooperation in the face of catastrophe is a common theme in apocalypse stories. Tales of an imminent eschaton often include selfish, fearful, and greedy people unwilling to help their neighbors or work together. It occurs frequently enough to be considered a narrative trope and sits at the heart of all sorts of post-apocalypse sagas. The uncooperative antagonists might be paranoid neighbors, armed gangs stealing food, or wannabe-warlords using basic resources like water as a means of control. Or, more frequently—and more simply—they could just be hoarders jealously guarding their supplies of toilet paper.

But COVID-19 has shown us that this paradigm is actually incomplete, and in a fairly surprising way. It’s something that authors of apocalyptic narratives have rarely, if ever, envisioned. It turns out that an unwillingness to cooperate can also arise from the complete denial that a global catastrophe is underway.

A Walk In the Park

Looking Up !

Jack Mundey in Court 1972

Tribune (Sydney, NSW : 1939 - 1991) Tue 28 Nov 1972 Page 4. 

SYDNEY: "There is no separate law for television
stations and for Mr. Mundey ... If the statements are
dearly and beyond all reasonable1 doubt contemptuous,
having regard to what happened before — and I
emphasis ir — it was highly improper for any tele
vision station to broadcast them ... To disseminate
Mich remarks creates a damage which is far beyond
the remarks made to the few people outside die
court . . .

Judge Hope said this at one point in the hearing
of a "contempt of court" charge against Mr. J. B.
Mundey (NSW secretary of the Australian Construc
tion Employees & Builders Laborers Federation) over
statements by Mr. Mundey in a TV interview which
took place after a court case.

Mr. Mundey was charged with contempt by the
Attorney-General in the Askin Government. The court
was told1 in the course of the "contempt" hearing that
the Attorney-General did not intend to take "contempt"
proceedings against TV persons involved.

A leaflet issued recently by the Defend Jack Mundey
Committee gave the names and addresses of over 550
persons who had signed a declaration that the charge
against Mr. Mundey is a political act and repeating
the substance of the statements over which Mr. Mundey
has been charged.

The leaflet, which pointed to environmental stands
by the Builders Laborers, said that "the Developers
Lobby and their friends—headed by Sir Robert
Askin, Mr. P. Coleman and the Liberal Party—want
to get rid of Jack Mundey . . ."

The statements over which Mr. Mundey was charged
followed' the sentencing on August 23 of Mr. R. Pringle
(State president of the Builders Laborers) and iron
worker J. Phillips — who have since appealed — for
having damaged goalposts at the Sydney Cricket Ground
in an anti-apartheid protest before a Springbok match
last year.

In an ABC telecast of an August 23 interview out
side the court, Mr. Mundey used the phrase "a miscar
riage of justice" and referred to the judge in the
Pringle-Phillips case (Judge Head) as a "racist".
Evidence was given in the "contempt" hearing that
the ABC film had been edited1 before being telecast
and not all the interview was shown.

After several days of hearing, Judge Hope last week
reserved his decision on the contempt charge.
At one point when, he was giving evidence last week,
Mr. Mundey said that in the Pringle-Phillips case
there had been sharp clashes between the defence
counsel and the judge about the question of the union's
decision on apartheid and international sporting orga-
nisations' decision on it.

To a layman's way of thinking, he said, the judge
was concerned only with two hacksaws and two goal
posts: "it seemed to me that the emotion-charged
atmosphere that led to the motivation of these two
people cutting the goal posts was completely ignored
and divorced from the actual court proceedings."

Mr. Mundey said that he had seen the real issue in
the Pringle-Phillips case to be a question of racism,
"that the Australian Rugby Union and the Government
had played host to an all-white Rugby Union team in
the face of world opinion."

He said, too: "I felt it was not a case of two larrikins
sawing down goal posts; it was a case of two men
who felt strongly about apartheid and about the
presence of the Springboks, who attempted to highlite
public opinion and, in fact, to prevent the game taktog
Mr. Mundey said that the telecast film had quoted
him as referring to the "deeply ingrained racism" in
our society. In a section not telecast, he had gone on
to say that we ourselves of the industrial working
class, while not able to influence all strata in society
had a very big problem to overcome racism among
workers.

He said that his statement was made in the context
of an overall examination of racism, and was not
aimed at any one person, including the judge.
Under cross-examination by Mr. D. F. Rofe (for
the Attorney-General), Mr. Mundey was asked about
his telecast statement in the interview that
"I think the main purpose of the industrial action by
the workershere this morning, the spontaneous action of work
ers walking off jobs, stopped the racist judge sending
those two men to jail ..."

Mr. Rofe: Did you not have a part in organising
this group of workers to go to court that morning?
Mr. Mundey: There was no organisation from the
union as such. If such organisation was carried out
there would have been thousands of workers at the
court.

Asked by Mr. Rofe in what way he believed that
the action or presence of the group of men in court
would influence the judge, Mr. Mundey replied:
"No  body lives in sweet isolation, nobody lives
in a vacuum, and public interest is of immense concern
to all people regardless of the position they hold."
He said also: "I think that all people are influenced
by public concern, public participation."

In re-examination by Mr. Lusher QC (for Mr.
Mundey), these passages occurred in relation to Mr.
Mundey's August 23 statements:—
Mr. Lusher: Did you have any intention of scandalis
ing the court?

Mr. Mundey: None whatsover.
Mr. Lusher: Or influencing any appeal?
Mr. Mundey: Of course not.

Mr. Lusher: Did you have any knowledge of the
law of contempt at that point of time or, if so, what
knowledge did you have?

Mr. Mundey: I have a slightly better one now
(Laughter).

Mr. Mundey went on to say: "My belief at the
time was that, once the case was ovejr, I was free
to comment on that case. . ."

Seldom photographed together:

Jack Mundey takes over the microphone
during question time at a recent election meeting in
Prime Minister McMahon's electorate of Lowe,
while Billy takes a back seat.

John Desmond Bernal and Picasso's Mural

The only mural produced in England by Pablo Picasso has been unveiled to the public by The Wellcome Trust.



The mural, known as "Bernal's Picasso", was acquired for £250,000 by the Trust in April 2007 and is now on display as part of Wellcome Collection, London’s new £30m venue exploring connections between medicine, life and art.

Drawn by Picasso in November 1950 while visiting the home of his friend, eminent scientist Professor John Desmond Bernal, the mural depicts the head of a man and woman with laurel wreaths and wings.

“The mural's history sparked our interest here at Wellcome Collection as it marks a particular and harmonious moment in the relationship between an artist and scientist," explained Clare Matterson, Director of Medicine, Society and History at the Wellcome Trust.

Bernal was an eminent Irish scientist who worked on X-ray crystallography and took the first X-ray photographs of protein crystals. Yet it was his political beliefs that attracted as much attention and led to his friendship with Picasso.

Despite being one of the scientists who worked for the government in preparing for the D-Day landings in June 1944, he was a peace activist at heart.

In 1950 he met Picasso after the aborted World Peace Congress at Sheffield City Hall left several delegates stranded in London. Bernal threw a party at his London flat as a compensation for their thwarted efforts and Picasso drew the mural on the wall of Bernal's sitting room.

a drawing in the style of Picasso of a man and a woman with laurel wreaths on their heads and wings
A copy made of the mural by Picasso biographer Andrew Brown.

Eventually the mural was saved from Bernal's flat, which was due to be demolished, and in 1969 Professor Bernal presented it to the ICA.

It was displayed publicly for a number of years, and then went on loan to the Clore Management Centre at Birkbeck College, where it has remained ever since.

Both the ICA and the Bernal Family have always believed in keeping the important piece of work in the public domain and as the ICA has no permanent collection space it was a priority to find an accessible and visible home for the mural.

“It's especially fitting that its new home is a centre dedicated to the relationship between art and science,” said ICA Artistic Director, Ekow Eshun. “I'm sure the mural will continue to inspire generations in the future as it has over past decades.”

The purchase follows on from a series of highly successful partnerships between the ICA and the Wellcome Trust, and is likely to lead onto further opportunities for collaboration.

Whatever hasn't happened will happen !

The Luddites Revisited

Despite their modern reputation, the original Luddites were neither opposed to technology nor inept at using it. Many were highly skilled machine operators in the textile industry. Nor was the technology they attacked particularly new.

Moreover, the idea of smashing machines as a form of industrial protest did not begin or end with them. In truth, the secret of their enduring reputation depends less on what they did than on the name under which they did it. You could say they were good at branding.

The Luddite disturbances started in circumstances at least superficially similar to our own. British working families at the start of the
19th Century were enduring economic upheaval and widespread unemployment.

A seemingly endless war against Napoleon’s France had brought “the hard pinch of poverty,” wrote Yorkshire historian Frank Peel, to homes “where it had hitherto been a stranger.” Food was scarce and rapidly becoming more costly. Then, on March 11, 1811, in Nottingham, a textile manufacturing centre, British troops broke up a crowd of protesters demanding more work and better wages.

That night, angry workers smashed textile machinery in a nearby village. Similar attacks occurred nightly at first, then sporadically, and then in waves, eventually spreading across a 70-mile swath of northern England from Loughborough in the south to Wakefield in the north. Fearing a national movement, the government soon positioned thousands of soldiers to defend factories. Parliament passed a measure to make machine-breaking a capital offence.

But the Luddites were neither as organized nor as dangerous as authorities believed. They set some factories on fire, but mainly they confined themselves to breaking machines. In truth, they inflicted less violence than they encountered.

In one of the bloodiest incidents, in April 1812, some 2,000 protesters mobbed a mill near Manchester. The owner ordered his men to fire into the crowd, killing at least 3 and wounding 18. Soldiers killed at least 5 more the next day.

Earlier that month, a crowd of about 150 protesters had exchanged gunfire with the defenders of a mill in Yorkshire, and two Luddites died. Soon, Luddites there retaliated by killing a mill owner, who in the thick of the protests had supposedly boasted that he would ride up to his britches in Luddite blood.

Three Luddites were hanged for the murder; other courts, often under political pressure, sent many more to the gallows or to exile in Australia before the last such disturbance, in 1816.

One technology the Luddites commonly attacked was the stocking frame, a knitting machine first developed more than 200 years earlier by an Englishman named William Lee.

Right from the start, concern that it would displace traditional hand-knitters had led Queen Elizabeth I to deny Lee a patent. Lee’s invention, with gradual improvements, helped the textile industry grow—and created many new jobs. But labour disputes caused sporadic outbreaks of violent resistance. Episodes of machine-breaking occurred in Britain from the 1760s onward, and in France during the 1789 revolution.

Even after 200 years, Lord Byron's maiden speech in the House of Lords has a searing effect. Delivered in 1912 in response to plans to make the breaking of weaving machines a capital crime, it sprang from Byron's direct knowledge of the unemployed weavers' revolt in Nottinghamshire.

"Nothing but absolute want could have driven a large and once honest and industrious body of the people into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families and their community," he began.

"You may call the people a mob, but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the sentiments of the people," he went on.

"Can you carry this bill into effect? Can you commit a whole county to their own prisons? Will you erect a gibbet in every field and hang up men like scarecrows?" Two weeks later, Childe Harold was published and Byron awoke to find himself famous. But it is not just his poems that still ring down the ages.

Song for the Luddites

Lord Byron©1816

As the Liberty lads o'er the sea
Brought their freedom, and cheaply with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings by King Ludd !
When the web that we weave is complete,
And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
We will fling the winding sheet
O'er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd.
Though black as his heart its hue,
Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd !

Another Ludd song 

Chant no more your old rhymes about bold Robin Hood
His feats I but little admire
I will sing the Atchievements of General Ludd
Now the Hero of Nottinghamshire
Brave Ludd was to measures of violence unused
Till his sufferings became so severe
That at last to defend his own Interest he rous'd
And for the great work did prepare

Now by force unsubdued and by threats undismay'd
Death itself can't his ardour repress
The presence of Armies can't make him afraid
Nor impede his career of success
Whilst the news of his conquests is spread far and near
How his Enemies take the alarm
His courage his fortitude strikes them with fear
For they dread his Omnipotent Arm!

The guilty may fear but no vengeance he aims
At [the] honest man's life or Estate
His wrath is entirely confined to wide frames
And to those that old prices abate
These Engines of mischief were sentenced to die
By unanimous vote of the Trade
And Ludd who can all opposition defy
Was the grand Executioner made

And when in the work of destruction employed
He himself to no method confines
By fire and by water he gets them destroyed
For the Elements aid his designs
Whether guarded by Soldiers along the Highway
Or closely secured in the room
He shivers them up both by night and by day
And nothing can soften their doom

He may censure great Ludd's disrespect for the Laws
Who ne'er for a moment reflects
That foul Imposition alone was the cause
Which produced these unhappy effects
Let the haughty no longer the humble oppress
Then shall Ludd sheath his conquering Sword
His grievances instantly meet with redress
Then peace will be quickly restored

Let the wise and the great lend their aid and advice
Nor e'er their assistance withdraw
Till full fashioned work at the old fashioned price
Is established by Custom and Law
Then the Trade when this arduous contest is o'er
Shall raise in full splendour its head
And colting and cutting and squaring no more
Shall deprive honest workmen of bread


Great Enoch was the name given to a big hammer used to smash the machinery, rather ironically as it was named after Enoch and James Taylor of Marsden near Huddersfield who were the ingenious blacksmiths who invented the cropping machine.

Those autumn leaves !

Once was lost -- Shelly Radical Poem

A radical poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley when he was just 18 years old can now be read in full despite having been kept under lock and key for the last 204 years.

The 172 line poem by the romantic poet expresses his outrage at the government, the Napoleonic war and the state of poverty in Britain among other things.

All copies were believed to have been destroyed after Shelley was kicked out of Oxford University - where he was an undergraduate — not long after it was written.

However, it turns out that Shelley gave one copy of the poem, which was published as a 10-page pamphlet, to his cousin Pilfold Medwin who took it to Italy.

Shelley begins his poem, written on the occasion of the Peterloo Massacre, Manchester 1819, with the powerful images of the unjust forms of authority of his time, "God, and King, and Law" – and then imagines the stirrings of a radically new form of social action: "Let a great assembly be, of the fearless, of the free". The crowd at this gathering is met by armed soldiers, but the protesters do not raise an arm against their assailants:

"Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war.

And if then the tyrants dare,
Let them ride among you there;
Slash, and stab, and maim and hew;
What they like, that let them do.

With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay,
Till their rage has died away:

Then they will return with shame,
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek:

Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!"

Day of Mourning held by the Aborigines League (est 1932)

1938: Day of Mourning held by the Aborigines League (est 1932) and the Aborigines Progressive Association (1937). It is the first major protest by Indigenous people. The manifesto “Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights” and the newspaper “Abo Call” are published.

1949: Australian Citizenship Act gives Indigenous Australians the vote in Commonwealth elections if they are enrolled for State elections or have served in the Armed Forces.

1957: National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) formed with support from Federal and State Governments, churches and major Indigenous organisations. Its aim is to promote Aboriginal Sunday as a day to draw community attention to Indigenous people in Australia.

1958: The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines (later the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) begins a ten year campaign to end Constitution's discrimination against Indigenous people.

1962: All Indigenous people are given the vote in Commonwealth elections.

1967: Referendum held – 90.7% of Australians vote YES to count Indigenous Australians in the census and to give the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws for them.

1970-1971: Aboriginal Legal Service and Aboriginal Medical Service set up in Redfern (grassroots activists include Mum Shirl, Fr Ted Kennedy), along with Aboriginal Housing Company.

Neville Bonner becomes the first Indigenous member of Parliament when he filled a casual Senate vacancy.

1972: Tent Embassy established outside Parliament House. It adopts the Indigenous flag.

Whitlam Government elected; White Australia policy abolished. Department of Aboriginal Affairs established. Self-determination adopted as policy for Indigenous people.

Neville Bonner is elected on the Liberal Party ticket in Queensland.

1975: Whitlam hands back title to Gurindji people.

Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) passed.

Aboriginal Day extended to National Aborigines Week.

1976: Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT)

1978: Pat O'Shane becomes the first Indigenous law graduate and barrister.

1979: Indigenous people at Noonkanbah protest against an American oil company's test drilling for oil. The WA Supreme Court grants an injunction, but tests eventually go ahead.

1983: Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) recognizes dispossession and displacement.

1985: Uluru handed back to traditional owners.

1987: Hawke sets up Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

1988: Bicentenary protest sees tens of thousands march on Australia Day.

NADOC changes its name to include Torres Strait Islanders; it is now NAIDOC

1990: ATSIC established.

1991: Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody presents report. 339 recommendations, with the final recommendation being that a formal process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia be undertaken.

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation established by Act of Parliament – to have a 10 year-lifespan.

1992: Mabo decision by the High Court overturns terra nullius and rules that native title exists over unalienated Crown land, national parks and reserves.

First “Survival Day” concert held at La Perouse (in 1998 the event moves to Waverley Oval near Bondi Beach).

10 Dec: Paul Keating's Redfern Park speech for the launch of the United Nations International Year for the World's Indigenous People

1993: Native Title Act.

1995: HREOC National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families announced.

Mid-1990s: NAIDOC wound up as ATSIC assumes responsibility for NAIDOC Week;.

1996: Howard Government elected.

The High Court rules in the Wik decision that native title and pastoral leases can co-exist.

Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party campaign against what they say is “special treatment” for Aboriginal people.

Commonwealth Parliament makes statement of commitment to Reconciliation.

1997: Bringing Them Home, the report of the inquiry into the Stolen Generations, is released. It recommends a national sorry day to commemorate the history and effects of removing children from their families.

PM Howard makes a personal apology to the Stolen Generations, but refuses to make an official apology on behalf of Australia.

At the National Reconciliation Conference on 27th May, hundreds of people turn their backs on Howard during his speech, in protest at his refusal to apologise to the Stolen Generations.

“Sea of Hands” outside Parliament House in Canberra in support of reconciliation and the Wik decision.

1998: Native Title Amendment Act 1998 is passed; seen by many to reduce native title rights for Indigenous people.

First National Sorry Day – over 1 million signatures collected in Sorry Books.

John Howard & Liberals re-elected; commits to reconciliation by 2001 in his election victory speech.

2000: Corroboree 2000. Handover of Document for Reconciliation at Sydney Opera House, more than 300 000 join in the Bridge Walk.

2004: Federal Government introduces legislation to abolish ATSIC.

TJ Hickey is killed while being followed by police – the Redfern Riot erupts.

Mulrunji Doomadgee dies in police custody, sparking a riot on Palm Island.

2005: ATSIC abolished; National Indigenous Council to replace and advise. NIC is not elected, meets four times a year.

2006: Aden Ridgeway chairperson of National NAIDOC committee.

2007 - 21st June: Howard Government announces its intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities.

2008 - 13th February: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says 'Sorry' to the Stolen Generations.

2010 - 8th November: Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces plans to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.

Labour Day in Australia

The history of Labour Day in Australia spans over a century. It is an important annual event that remembers those who struggled and succeeded to ensure decent and fair working conditions in Australia. During the mid to late 1800s the working day was long and arduous, where some employees would work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Many Australians saw the need for better working conditions and in the 1850s there was a strong push for this. On April 21, 1856, stonemasons at the University of Melbourne marched to Parliament House to push for an eight-hour working day. An agreement with employers for a 48-hour week was eventually reached and Australian workers welcomed the new eight-hour day.

 A victory march was held on May 12 that year and each year after that. In 1856 the new work regulations were recognized in New South Wales, followed by Queensland in 1858 and South Australia in 1873.

In 1874, Tasmania joined the other states, which were colonies at the time, in adopting the shorter eight-hour working day. In 1879 the Victorian Government made one further step towards better conditions for employees by proclaiming a paid public holiday that year. In light of the labour movement’s successful push for an eight-hour day, a large May Day meeting was held in Melbourne in 1890. On May 1 that year a local newspaper made reference to that day as May Day.

A Handsome Stand

New York Times on Joseph Needham

Our vocabulary for describing what is great has been so impoverished by the misuse of Hollywood publicists (Stupendous!!! Colossal!!!) that it is hard to find suitable words to describe the real thing. And Joseph Needham is the real thing: he is one of the great intellects of our time. Merely to call him a polymath gives no idea of his achievement: a fellow scholar at Cambridge University, a man who is not given to making rash judgments and who is well‐versed in the British art of understatement, recently commented to me that you have to go back to Leonardo before you can find anyone with such a grasp of the whole of human knowledge.

History, philosophy, religion, mathematics, astronomy, geography, geology, seismology, physics, mechanical and civil engineering, chemistry and chemical technology, biology, medicine, sociology, economics.... just to list the topics covered in his massive “Science and Civilisation in China” would take more than the space of this article (the summary of contents in the publisher's prospectus covers more than 12 closely printed pages.) And, at the same time as dealing with China, throughout the work Needham compares and contrasts with what was going on all over the rest of the world. In spite of Hollywood, it is stupendous, it is colossal.

Joseph Needham, Fellow of the Royal Society and holder of the Brilliant Star of China, was born in 1900, the son of a doctor. He took his degree at Cambridge, and in 1924 became a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, of which he is now the Master. In the same year he married a fellow‐student and fellow‐biochemist, and later Joseph and Dorothy Needham became the first husband and wife both to be made Fellows of the Royal Society.

When he was 31, Needham published a three‐volume work on “Chemical Embryology.” This led to his “History of Embryology,” and his involvement in the history of science. Then, before the Second World War, an important influence came in the form of a group of Chinese scientists who came to Cambridge to do postgraduate work in biochemistry. Working alongside them Needham developed an interest in Chinese culture and science, and simply for his own interest taught himself the language.

He also began to ask himself, first, why it was that during ancient and medieval times China was so far ahead of Europe in science and technology, and then why the advance to modern science took place in the West: these were the basic questions that were later to underlie his great work. One of these Chinese scientists, Lu Gwei‐djen, was a cardinal influence at this time. Not only was she trained in modern science, but also she had access to the old Chinese culture through her apothecary father, to whom the first volume of “Science and Civilisation in China” is dedicated. Later she returned to Cambridge, where she has now been working full‐time with Needham on the project for 12 years.

When the war came Joseph Needham was, as a Chinese‐speaking scientist, exceptionally qualified to be sent to China as head of the British scientific mission. For four years during the war he directed the SinoBritish Science Cooperation Office, in the course of which he travelled thousands of miles all over China, made contact with a vast number of. Chinese scientists and engineers, and began to build up material about Chinese science.

Joseph Needham with Chinese scholars 1988

Kathe Kollwitz

China Wood Cuts

Way way back, the Chinese invented relief printing and (sorry Gutenberg) also had the 1st printing press. With that out of the way, modernist Chinese printmaking started in the early 20th century with young artists influenced by international currents in art.

Particularly Kathe Kollwitz, Frans Masereel, and the German expressionists. This work was brought to China by a public intellectual named Lu Xun, who exhibited and published the work, and then mentored and published the work of younger Chinese artists.

Japan Wood Cuts

Introduced during China’s Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, the art of woodblock printing was not popularized in mainstream Japan until its Edo period, an era denoting 1603 through 1868. Initially, the woodblock printing process was used to reproduce traditional hand-scrolls as affordable books. Soon, however, it was adapted and adopted as a means to mass produce prints.


While woodblock printing was eventually replaced by methods of moveable type (in terms of text), it remained a preferred and popular method among Japanese artists for decades—namely, those working in the ukiyo-e genre. Japanese masters like Andō Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, and Kitagawa Utamaro helped elevate the practice with their “floating world prints,” which are considered world-class works of art today.