Radical Change?
This week (6 March 2020) the Paradigm Shift (4ZZZ fm 102.1 Fridays at noon) looks at radical change in local government. There is a discussion with Jonathan Sri the councillor for the Gabba ward. We cover his background, the fight against developers, radical community engagement, Democratic Rights, Land Rights, Justice for Deebing Creek, Housing and Child Safety.

Playlist
Rivermouth – Propaganda (You can’t trust the LNP)
Mouldy Lovers – Six foot fences
Mouldy Lovers – Paint Bomb Grenades
Cachicamo Latin Harp – Medley

“Native title is not Land Rights and Reconciliation is not Justice” – Gary Foley at Sam Watson’s funeral 6 December 2019.

Paradigm Shift Friday 28 Feb 2020 4ZZZ fm 102.1 at noon.

Yesterday on Thursday 27^th Feb I drove out to Deebing Creek near Ipswich about an hour from Brisbane. I went via the Centenary Highway and arrived near Stage I of a housing development at a roundabout where the Centenary highway converges with Grampian Drive and Pisasale Drive. The latter was named after Ipswich former mayor Paul Pisasale now in jail for corruption. Surely authorities should review the name of that road?

Along Grampian Drive on one side were new houses and on the other side was bushland. I could see two camps in the bush both with aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags waving. The bushland was similar to country where I grew up in the 1950s. A place called Moggill just across the Brisbane River from Ipswich was a farming dairy and pineapple growing district.

Some Aboriginal land sat idle after colonisation – the bora rings, middens, carvings, scar trees and rock art remained relatively untouched Aboriginal people were rounded up and put on missions like Deebing Creek. So I parked at the end of Grampian Drive and began walking over country. Along the way I saw Nissan huts left there by the army, the old mission and school were only visible through the large Palms and old trees planted nearby so many years ago. The ground is sandy loam and the grass lush after rain with creek flowing into small lagoons. High Tension power lines cross the land. They head toward the Swanbank Power station along an easement in the bushland once the sole preserve of the Yuggera people.

Now land has become valuable – small blocks  with houses covering 90% of the blocks and selling  from $328,000 says the developer sign across the road.  This may seem cheap to people living in Brisbane but houses are squashed together, no trees or gardens can grow on these blocks. The authorities who allowed this cared little about the quality of townships like Ripley just around the corner from Deebing Creek.

State governments only wished to provide cheap dwellings for workers needed to service South-East Queensland. It was Queen Victoria who stole the land from aboriginal people.

Now the land has become valuable deals have to be done. Governments and NGOs report alarming statistics of drug use, domestic violence, family breakdown, youth incarceration and suicide.

Developers like STOCKLAND, A V JENNINGS and FRASERS want the land. Two groups have challenged them – one under the banner of sovereignty and the other under the banner of traditional ownership and native title. Negotiations are being conducted with the native title holders but not the sovereignty group.

Ian interviews Karen Coghill from Justice for Debbing Creek and Jim Dodrill President of Ipswich Ratepayers & Residents Assoc and IRATE. 

Special guest is Colin Hewitt, President of the Local Government Reform Alliance.

Playlist

Paradigm Shift on community radio 4zzz (fm 102.1 Fridays at noon) is covering Queensland local government elections. This is the second in a series in the lead-up to voting on 28 March 2020. Please contact the announcer Ian on iancurr@bigpond.com if you wish to contribute.

Ian (Paradigm Shift) and Elizabeth Handley (Brisbane Residents United) discuss the 2020 Local Government elections.

Ian interviews:
Chelle McIntyre – Candidate in Toowoomba
Gary Duffy – Ipswich Mayoral candidate

Playlist
Jumping Fences – Sounds of our town
Bobby Darin – Mack the Knife
Joni Mitchell – Night Ride Home

“These are dangerous days
To say what you feel is to dig your own grave” – Sinead O’Connor

Paradigm Shift (4zzz fm 102.1 Fridays at noon) on Friday 7 Feb covering Queensland local government elections which is part of a series in the lead up to voting on 28 March 2020.

Brisbane (Meanjin) is a city of the homeless, especially in summer when it is warm; its a place of summer storms, of weatherboard homes, high-rise on a floodplain, a dirty river slicing urban sprawl into a north / south divide. A port city to export coal and wheat. An aerodrome without curfew with two parallel runways. Meanjin, a city of deaths in custody where street marchers were arrested in their thousands crying out for democratic rights in the 1970s. This river city is hot and humid. The climate has changed. Creeks are flooding through developments with banks falling down. It is not safe for strangers, especially if they are young women, who have been attacked and killed only metres from police stations. Once it had central markets in Roma Street, trams and trolley buses, now it has freeways and traffic jams.

Each September, this city is on fire.

Once dominated by Labor the Brisbane City Council is the largest local government in the southern hemisphere with a $3.15 billion a year budget.

Curiously it has a library network without parallel where you can borrow books, film and magazines from and about anywhere in the world.

Yet developers run city hall.

To quote from Maaate – Bribe Proofing the Public Purse against Good Blokes by Bernie Dowling:

“Something is broken at councils in south-east Queensland. By 2017, it could not be ignored. The Crime and Corruption Commission, an independent investigator created by State Parliament, called an inquiry to investigate the conduct of the 2016 elections for the councils of Moreton Bay Region, Ipswich and the Gold Coast.”

This inquiry was later broadened out to include Logan City Council. As a result many corruption charges were laid against councillors and the entire Ipswich City and Logan City Councils were sacked by the Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe.

So, with 2020 local government elections imminent, I attended the postponed Reimagine Brisbane: Ideas Fiesta and Policy Conference held on Saturday 31 January 2020. The conference was delayed out of respect for the deceased Sam Watson, an aboriginal leader who grew up in Mt Gravatt in Brisbane and who had such an impact on this city.

At the end of the plenary session, councillor Jonathan Sri made a call for feedback and further discussion. This is Paradigm Shift’s attempt to do so. This is part of a series where I wish to tell a wider audience what important work is being done behind the scenes by activists to improve representation at local government levels here in the capital and in regional Queensland. There are local government reform alliance groups around the state particularly about amalgamation of shires but little is known about candidates who are part of this reform. I hope to remedy that.

Michael Berkman (Member for Maiwar) proposes to stop corporations influencing councils and government from giving political donations.

Interviews
Ian discusses local government with Rob Pyne from North Qeensland.
Topics covered are – Is it a Climate change Election? – where power lies – what are councillors paid – corruption in Ipswich and Logan City – Operation Belcarra into how elections are funded – calls for ICAC style inquiry – ad hoc changes – higher accountability than state government elections – amalgamation from 156 councils down to 77 councils – cairns amalgamation of Port Douglas with Cairns – should have combined Cairns with Kuranda and not Kuranda with  Mareeba – distribution of funds – money raised by commonwealth – state and federal should do more – a lot of money spent on Douglas shire – bridges needed to be replaced – councils often the biggest employer – infrastructure – the public interest – transparency – councils should operate water infrastructure – local repesentation versus party representation – influence of News Corp on elections – bad media coverage – Queensland Government Reform Alliance

Andy talks with Jim Dodrill from Ipswich Ratepayers & Residents Association about how his campaign against corruption ended in both he and his father being bashed.

Playlist
David Rovics – Margot Black Campaign Song
Ruth Mundy – Love in the time of coral reefs  
Jumping Fences – View from a Wooden Chair

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then, dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter” – George Washington

PShift (4zzz fm 102.1 fridays at noon 31 Jan 2020) looks at various citizen journalists helped by John Jiggens (Bay FM) and Andy Paine (Paradigm Shift).

This show is about citizen journalism. Professors of International Relations are writing books about the “End of History.” This has been going on ever since Fikuyama article of the same name appeared in the National Interest just months before the Berlin Wall came down.

Now it is Clinton Fernandes “What Uncle Sam Wants.” Articles about whether the United States can have a cogent foreign policy. And more about what we can learn from the American New Left of the 1960s.

At least one of these books is based on 700,000 pages of Wikileakes downloads supplied gratis to the professors of International Relations by their greatest ever research assistant, Chelsea Manning. Her work was supplemented by Edward Snowden. These are the endowments to modern scholarship provided by citizen journalists like Julian Assange.

For the past ten years Paradigm Shift has reported on the exploits and subsequent persecution of Assange, Manning and Snowden. These were three of the best citizen journalists and anti-war research assistants of those years.

Now another investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald is facing jail time. Dr John Jiggens looks at another disturbing case of the global attack on a free media.

There is also Andy’s interview with Charlie Massey ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’ and various songs, poems, and skits.

Thanks to ‘Bring Julian Home’, ‘Waging Peace’, Andy and the various artists & activists who provided relevant material for this show.

Western Window
Trains go south with guns
And bats hang on fruit trees
While hills roll in slumber
Pinkish in sunset mist
Green and blue
No war here
As bellbirds sing

Ian Curr
31 Jan 2020

Playlist
Nina Simone-Backlash Blues
Phil Monsour and the Crisis Actors-Our House is on fire
Happytown-Ballad of an Outlaw
Billy Bragg-Between the Wars
Lionel Fogarty-My Cry is Lost in a Name
George Telek-West Papua
Midnight Oil-Blue Sky Mine
Ruth Mundy-Adani Song

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. – Eisenhower.

Listen in to Paradigm Shift (4ZZZ fm 102.1 Fridays at Noon) 24 Jan 2020 … today’s (24 Jan) show: ‘No to War on Iran‘ or listen online @ Paradigm Shift on Soundcloud.

Ian has discussions live with Annette Brownlie (Independent and Peaceful Australia Network) Maureen Todhunter (Just Peace, Brisbane, Corey (formerly Paradigm Shift) and interviews long time peace activist Gareth Smith Historical background on Iran prepared by Bevan Ramsden (IPAN) and Andrew Fullarton (IPAN).

Playlist
“Demons of Hell” by Franz Dowling and Margaret Prestorious with sound recording by Corey.
“Who killed Reza Berati?” by Phil Monsour
“El derecho de vivir en paz” by Victor Jara sung by various Chilean artists.

Climate Change War

Significant mobilisation has been brought about by the bushfires in Australia. Uni Students for Climate Justice should be commended for organising these protests. People’s disenchantment with the federal government has been crystallised by the tragic consequences of the fires over the Christmas period 2019-20. That is why 10,000 people turned out at the rally in Brisbane on 10th Jan 2020. The bushfires and smoke have dissipated in Queensland and, predictably, so did the numbers at the follow-up rally.

So why have mobilisations on climate change been wrested from Extinction Rebellion or #Stop Adani or #Frontline Action on Coal?

There has been little discussion about people trying to stop the trains at Camp Binbee near Bowen in North Queensland. Not that facebook is any guide, but acceptances for the #Galilee Rising campaign are still small, reflecting the reality that getting people to where the coal is being exported, far from the big population centres, is difficult.

At the last rally in Brisbane on 17th January 2020, I listened to an excellent speech by Oula from Uni Students for Climate Justice about how the bushfires have displaced people from their homes.

There are claims that climate change was a contributing factor to the civil war in Syria (2011-2020). Syria, a largely agrarian society, had experienced a terrible drought forcing farmers off their land. Moving to the cities was followed by unemployment, poverty and tensions with their city cousins. When people began to protest about this in 2011, the Assad government cracked down hard on some, leading to civil war, or so the theory goes. There is no doubt that Syria experienced a severe drought in the lead up to the civil war and that this had a major impact in a country whose economy depends on agricultural production.

The Assad government is secular and provides protection for various religious groups. For example, Christian living in Syria support Assad because he guarantees them safety. Although some authorities say that there has been a bitter split in the Christian community because of the civil war. However this may reflect views of Christians outside the country who don’t need protection. I don’t know.

The Syrian speaker at the rally concentrated on the failure of the Australian government and the fossil fuel companies and how the Australian government has demonised refugees by placing them in detention. The reality is about 3.8 million Syrians have been made refugees in neighbouring countries by the civil war. That’s one third of the population! Lebanon and Jordan took the bulk of these refugees.

The facts of the campaign against Scott Morrison are outlined in several articles on this website under Brisbane: ‘Sack Scomo’ series I, II, III and so on).

Academic versions of the debate can be found elsewhere. John Quiggan on his blog of the same name gives a good academic account of the forces at play however the language used is often technical. Quiggan does make an economic argument against the federal government’s denialism protecting profits.

So it is little wonder that the main slogan of the Sack ScoMo demonstrations has become Make the Corporations Pay! The corporations that profit from burning fossil fuels at least.

Attempts have been made to link the onset of war with climate change and bushfires. However more emphasis is placed on how bushfires have mobilised people not on why they were linked.

Discussion has centered on how difficult it is to mobilise people against a U.S. war on Iran. Trump is to the anti-war movement what bushfires are to the Climate Change movement. When the US President backs down as he did in June 2019 after threatening to fire missiles into Iran people don’t come out on the streets. Marxists call this the ‘objective conditions’.

On this occasion it looks like an accomodation has been made between the antagonists. Activists have spent years watching the crowds dwindle on peace and refugee issues. Vibrancy has gone out of the refugee movement with the slow absorption of asylum seekers from detention offshore to community detention onshore . The peace movement has been in the doldrums since the 2003 Iraq War and the disaster it caused the people of Iraq.

We do need to make a stronger case for why sitting home watching the television or surfing the internet is not an option. Some people feel secure because their wealth is not under threat, the stock market is on the rise, super pensions are paying dividends, the haves are happy with Morrison if a little concerned about the fires. They think their wealth will protect them from climate change.

We need to organise workers, to mobilise their unions. The Queensland Council of Unions Secretary spoke at the first Sack Scomo rally echoing the feeling in the crowd that getting rid of Morrison is not enough.

This article does not claim to be definitive. It poses questions that should be addressed especially in a society like Australia that has limited knowledge of the Middle East.

People should attempt to find out what is going on and attempt to explain the crisis to others. It is important because successive Australian governments have sent troops into the region and provided intelligence to the United States for no good reason. The refugee crisis has been provoked by Australian government intervention.

Finally we need to discuss the reasons for success or failure of actions taken in the public arena and how to build and organise a stronger anti-war movement.

Ian Curr
0407 687 016
Paradigm Shift 4ZZZ
21 Jan 2020

NO WAR ON IRAN
National Protest Rallies (IPAN together with unions, community and other anti-war organisations has called a national day of protest and in support of the international day of protest against war on Iran)
25th January, 2020
at the following locations:
PERTH: 11 am outside U.S. Consulate Contact: ipanwa2019@gmail.com
SYDNEY: 12 midday outside Sydney Town Hall Contact Nick 0420 269 929
ADELAIDE: 1 pm on Parliament Steps Contact 0404 629 764
BRISBANE: 11am, King George Square: Contact Annette 0431 597 256
MELBOURNE: 1pm, Steps of State Library: Contact Shirley 0417 456 001
NEWCASTLE: 11am, Westfields Kotara: Contact Bevan 0418 697 528
ALICE SPRINGS: Courthouse lawns, time TBA Contact Jonathan 0403 611 815
Bring our troops home from Iraq
No Australian Naval vessel for U.S. war in straits of Homuz
Keep Australia out of U.S. warsipan.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/IndependentAndPeacefulAustraliaNetwork/

For more information …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War#Refugees

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629816301822

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/WCAS-D-13-00059.1

Paradigm Shift 17 Jan 2020 4ZZZ fm 102.1 Friday at Noon.

Not only do victors write the history, but they also prosecute in the courts.

Ian hosts a program talking with Dr John Jiggens and Adlin about the campaign to bring Julian Assange home. Dr Jiggens points out why a new book by Imre Salusinszki The Hilton Bombing and the Ananda Marga is wrong. Evan Pederick did not bomb the Hilton in 1978 to kill Indian Prime Minister Desai. Jiggens says it was the NSW Special Branch that organised the Hilton bomb that killed two garbage workers and a policeman.

The show begins with a report by John Jiggens about the campaign to rescue Julian Assange from deportation to the United States to face espionage changes. Jiggens, Adlin and Ian discuss

Adlin (b 1988), a child of change from East Berlin, provides four songs and her take on climate justice and the current rallies to sack Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Ian outlines the Paradigm Shift’s take on all three issues.

Julian Assange is a controversial figure who revealed the brutal murder of civilians in Baghdad by US helicopter crews. The Video produced was called “Collateral Murder” and stung the American establishment on both sides of politics. President George W Bush on the Republican side because he instigated the war based on a lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. On the Democrat side, Assange released Hillary Clinton’s emails showing how Clinton supported wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Clinton was always careful to be pro-Israel in any Middle Eastern conflicts. It is alleged that Assange’s release of the Clinton emails tipped the balance in favour of the Trump 2016 Presidential election. So both sides of politics want to get Assange. [John Jiggens says that Assange fell victim to a honey-trap in Sweden that gave the authorities the ammunition to deport him to the US].

Paradigm Shift has done a number of shows on Assange, and his informant Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Snowden is the only one of the three whistle-blowers still at large. [Hear from Dr John Jiggens from the Campaign to bring Julian Home.

1. Why is it important to bring Assange back to Australia where he grew up?
   
2. What was the real success of Wikileaks from a journalists perspective?

Interviews with Julian’s father John Shipton about conditions in Belmarsh prison and UN Special Rappontuer on Torture Nils Melzer who has described the treatment of Assange by the UK, Sweden and the US as legal torture.

Imre Salusinszky’s biography of convicted Hilton Bomber has just come out. This books defends Special Branch, ASIO and armed forces against allegations they were somehow involved in the Hilton Bombing.

[to Jiggens]

1 In 1991 you wrote a book after the Hilton Bombing trials. it was called the Incredible Exploding Man. What is your take on this new book?

Sack Scomo Rallies

Last week (10 Jan) we had a shift in the political climate with sell attended rallies in Brisbane and Sydney. Unfortuneately the rally in Melbourne was poorly attended because of the weather and because the Daniel Andrew’s Labor government came out against the rally.

The ALP in Victoria seems to have adopted a leave it to us attitude.

[Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who urged protesters to postpone the event, sent protest organisers a stern warning on Thursday, telling ABC Radio “they risk losing support from those like him that believe in climate change”.]

Meanwhile the Green’s vote which usually hovers around 10% is on the rise on the back of serious impacts of climate change in Australia and abroad.

Paradigm Shift was there at the rally in Brisbane organised by rthe Uni Students for Climate Justice. Let’s hear more about this grom Jonathan Sri, councillor for the Gabba Ward who spoke to about 10,000 people at the rally.

Note: The Uni Students for Climate Justice responded to government criticism that they have alienated workers by inviting the Qld Council of Unions Secretary Michael Clifford to speak at the first rally and Rural Fire Service volunteer to speak at the second rally.

2019 has been a strange year. Capitalists have been fighting back. In the West we have three clowns running the show: Scott Morrison, Donald Trump and now Boris Johnson in the UK. It seems that Morrison would rather be in US, or at least in Hawaii, than be here … bushfires can’t provide a smokescreen for happy clapper incompetence.

Globally there have been set backs in the East and in South. In Latin America the capitalists have taken over in Bolivia, Chile Ecuador, Colombia and elsewhere. Cuba is still fighting the economic blockade tightened by Trump. Bolivian President Evo Morales and hisfamily barely escaped with their lives after a coup in Bolivia. The right-wing politician Jeanine Anez has declared herself President while waving an impossibly large bible in her hand.

Strike the Beast Hard – Gaviota … Sue Monk and Sergio Aldunate singing the beautiful Ruben Galindo Strike the Beast hard – the beast is imperialism – because if you don’t it will leave you hungry. Strike it because they’ll kill you (something Evo Morales found out recently) And they’ll cover you with earth. To sing then to live!

IWD and May Day

During 2019 there were two big working class events – as there are in any given year – International Women’s Day and May Day. These two days are important for theunion movement because each of them grew out of the union movement both here and overseas.

This year the leader of the waterside workers and seamen, Bob Carnegie broke with ALP bosses and urged workers to oppose the ADANI mine in Carmichael in Central Queensland.

The bosses fought back and Carnegie was deposed as State Secretary of the MUA. Here is an excerpt of a speech given by Bob Carnegie showing solidarity with the mining workers – however the bosses managed to overcome his opposition to coal. He introduces a miner’s union organiser the Hutchinson Dispute where wharfies in Brisbane and Sydney were sacked by text message. [Bob Carnegie’s Speech].

That was Chris from the Miners who locked on with Bob Carnegie during the 1998 MUA Dispute. All of their members were sacked by Patricks Stevedores in a conspiracy between CEO Chris Corrigan and the Federal government led by John Howard and Peter Reith to get rid of the MUA altogether.

Let’s go to Alistair Hulett’s version of the song ‘Dirty Old Town’. Alistair Hulett was a working class poet and singer, once a member of the International Socialists. This song is also sung by Ewan McColl from the Pogues. [Alistair H sings Dirty Old Town].

Of course Alistair was of Scottish descent but spent over 25 years in Australia. He was a political activist and musician. After he passed away in 2010 his friends and comrades set up a memorial trust to help musicians interested in social justice. Here’s a song that won the 2018 award. It is by Teri Young and is called Fishing at Okehampton Bay. [Song Plays].

Teri Young was the winner of the 2018 Songs for Social Justice Award – it is critical of the giant salmon fish farm set up at Okehampton Bay on the East coast of Tasmania.

Extinction Rebellion
On the environmental front XR made a big splash in 2019 with an international crusade against the burning of fossil fuels. Locally laws were introduced to stop Extinction Rebellion from entering the CBD in Brisbane.

This was an initial setback for the movement but may prove to be a plus in 2020 as people are finding ways around the anti-lock-on laws. Politically the fight is on two fronts – the environment blockades and the democratic rights struggle to stand against climate change. The environmental struggle is in full swing as shown in this report by Andy who is interviewing Hannah from XR. [Interview plays].

Feraliza sings Like it or Not.

That was Feraliza singing about the existential threat that is Climate Change.

War

Another existential threat is the ongoing war against terror better described as a war of terror.  This war is being conducted by the coalition of the willing including Australia. No stranger to imperialism, the Australian government is conducting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, although you wouldn’t know it from reporting in mainstream media.

During 2019 Donald Trump nearly got us into another war, this time with Iran. And this may still happen given the genocidal policies of the US administration, now responsible for over a million dead in Iraq. No International war crimes charges against the US administration. Sure Congress has impeached Trump for seeking assistance from a foreign power to roll his political opponents at home.

But that won’t come to much as the US Senate will UN-impeach him in 2020.

Meanwhile his following is growing because he can claim underdog status because he is being pursued by the American elite.

Things are on the up for Trump as they would be for Boris were it not for Brexit and for Morrison were it not for the bushfires.

On Brexit, half of Britain don’t want it and an overwhelming majority of Scots don’t wish to be part of Britain so they are likely to secede. Another hope is that Ireland will be unified over a century after the Easter Rebellion in 1916. This is a rebel song sung by Sinead O’Connor.

Don’t be cold Englishman
Oh please talk to me Englishman
What good will shutting me out get done
Meanwhile crazies are killing our sons

Oh listen Englishman.

Saving UQ Union complex

2019 saw a campaign to save the University of Qld Union complex from demolition. [Interview with Jeff Rickertt plays]. We received word this month that the heritage council refused our application for heritage listing so maybe a direct action campaign will be necessary.

Bring Julian Home

Another campaign is Bring Julian Assange home. There was a forum organised at Kurilpa Hall where about 200 people turned up calling for Assange’s release. Julian’s father John Shipton and anti-war activist Ciaron O’Reilly were interviewed by Independent Australai journos Dave Donovan and Michelle Pini. Plus there were some questions form the audience. [Bring Julian Home interview plays]

Vale Sam Watson

Political activists in Brisbane were shaken by the untimely death of Sam Watson and aboriginal leader who has done much for progressive causes over a period of 50 years.Sam handed out how-to-vote cards in the 1967 referendum to include aboriginal people in the census.

Eulogy for a Black Man by Kev Carmody

Ian Curr
27 Dec 2019