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Fundraiser gig! Folks for GMAR
7pm Saturday 17 March at Jura
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Come along to this night of great entertainment in support of Grandmothers Against Removals (GMAR). We have gathered passionate musicians and poets who will stir your soul like it’s a hot soup. Don’t let your soul congeal! Come get it stirred!
On the line up...
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Lizzy Jarrett is a sovereign warrior woman from the Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung, Dunghutti clans and is a direct descendant of the original stolen generations. She now makes it her life duty to help advocate for her peoples rights through activism, poetry, art, music and volunteering to community. She is a member of GMAR Sydney an organisation that fights for the return and restoration of Aboriginal families that are still being torn apart by government policies.
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Andy Paine roams around the country, playing his folk-punk protest songs everywhere from street corners and loungerooms to picket lines and forest blockades. He sings about trying to change the world and get ourselves free. He has come all the way from Brisvegas to play for us on Saturday. soundcloud.com/andypaine
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Spindles, AKA Bronsai Watkins, writes songs about love, revolution and cosmic wonderment. She uses a guitar and a violin to make you feel things. Check out her folksy perambulations from planet love at soundcloud.com/spindlesmusic
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Whoah Mule brings you old time country ballads, original songs, and driving triple fiddle dance tunes. Inspired by the rapid weather changes of the Blue Mountains and the bustle of Sydney streets, these musicians deliver a performance characterised by space and energy. With rich experience earned in bands like Catgut and Golden Whistler, they affectionately reimagine old time music. woahmule.band
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Outskert plays improvisational guitar and synth into effects pedals, manipulating them as they get spat out. Also collab-jams and binaural recordings. facebook.com/outskert
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Teri Young will also be playing acoustic songs of heart and humour; about love, Tasmanian characters and wild places. Hear her singing and playing cittern guitar, rhodes, xyloglock and clapping and stomping at soundcloud.com/teri-young
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Grandmothers Against Removals is a grassroots movement led by First Nations grandmothers committed to fighting the ongoing Stolen Generations by taking power from the state and giving it back to communities. They are currently working toward a national gathering at the Canberra Tent Embassy, where First Nations leaders from around the country will get together to plan the next phase of the movement.
$10-20 recommended donation at the door – proceeds will go to GMAR. (If you would like to attend but can’t afford it right now, an alternative may be possible, for instance we need helpers on the night!)
Please note...
Accessibility: The downstairs shop area where the gig will be held is fairly accessible to a person using a wheelchair, but the rest of the building (including the library and toilets) are up one or two flights of steep stairs. For the night, this will not be a dry space.
Jura is a safer space: This means that the venue and the organisers of this event strive to prevent and resolve situations where attendees feel unsafe. You can read the full policy at jura.org.au/saferspaces
Thanks to Effy Marie Smith for the sweet cover graphic.
Folks for GMAR, 7pm Saturday 17 March at Jura. Facebook event
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Disability and Accessibility:
Practical and Political Considerations.
Discussion facilitated by disabled radical Saz, 11am Sat 31st March @ the Rattler
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Jura is pleased to be opening up a space for discussion about the politics and practical considerations of disability and accessibility, with a particular focus on concrete ways we can improve our own accessibility at Jura and across radical meeting spaces. We are very grateful to Saz for volunteering to provide resources and to facilitate. We are also grateful to the Red Rattler for allowing us to use their space for this discussion; they are recognised as a radical community space which has had some real successes in terms of making themselves accessible. Information about their venue’s accessibility.
This discussion aims to be a starting point on understanding the ways in which Disability Justice fits into anti-capitalist work. It will attempt to lay out some ground work on the specificity of ableist oppression and how it is interwoven through Western capitalist societies, as well as its immediate manifestations within the contexts surrounding us. By drawing lines of connection between the structural and the imminent components, it will seek to push people to consider both what is immediately possible and the scope of work to come.
We want to work out how Jura can begin to invest energy into developing a consciousness around accessibility and a more developed praxis, do solidarity work, and help facilitate the opening of other radical spaces which do meet more accessibility requirements.
This discussion comes partly in response to public criticism made of Jura last year, but also because of our ongoing commitment to making our shop, library and events as accessible as possible, to as wide a range of people as possible, including people with disabilities. We try to have an intersectional approach to anarchism, and this means working towards ending all forms of oppression, both in our own space and in the broader society.
Jura also issued a call for input – so if you are not able to make the meeting in person, please consider contributing your ideas via email to jura@jura.org.au, in person when the shop is open, or in some other way if you prefer. Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments at all.
Facilitated discussion, 11am-1pm Saturday 31 March at the Red Rattler, 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville. All welcome. Facebook event
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On Sunday 25 February at 4.30pm, three members of the fascist Party for Freedom – Toby Cook, Matt Lowe and Christopher Grantham – visited Jura Books.
Off-their-faces drunk, reeking of alcohol and clutching cans of beer, the three staggered in, knocked 10-15 zines onto the floor, attempted to masturbate onto a red and black anarchist flag, and then spent most of their time denying that the Party for Freedom had collapsed in on itself, before leaving after a few minutes clutching the stolen flag.
Jura was staffed by a single volunteer at the time, and the visit was clearly an attempt – however bizarre – to intimidate us.
In light of this, Jura declares emphatically that we will never be intimidated. Fascism and racism are the mortal enemies of the solidarity required for the fight to improve our lives and to build a new world. We are - and always will be – anti-fascist.
The surest defence against these threats is for people to make use of, and support, Jura. If you want to use our space for an event, volunteer with us, donate, sign up to receive email updates, follow us on Facebook, or show your support and solidarity in any way large or small – then get in touch! We welcome the participation of all, and the stronger we are, the safer we'll be – not just Jura, but all of us.
In anti-fascist solidarity, for a world without racism,
The Jura Collective
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Upcoming community actions and events
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Vigil in solidarity with Priya
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In the early hours of the morning last Monday, Priya, her husband Nadesalingam, and their daughters – 9-month-old Dharuniga and 2-year-old Kopiga – were woken at their home in Biloela, central Queensland, by scores of police, Border Force officers and Serco guards. The family were given just 10 minutes during this raid to pack up their lives, before being forcibly flown 1,500km to Melbourne, where they are now held under arrest in the Broadmeadows detention centre, facing imminent deportation. This cruelty must stop! Join Mums for Refugees and others in the courtyard outside the Department of Immigration office at Railway Square.
5:30pm Fri 16 March. Facebook event
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Treaty Forum – Young Men speak out
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First Nations voices are growing louder for Treaty! Marking United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney presents 'Treaty Forum: Young Men Speak Out’.
Hearing young grassroots activists as they chart the way forward has never been more important. All welcome! Speakers:
• Adrian Atkins, Anaiwan/Kamilaroi
• Roxley Foley, Gumbainggir
• Nathan Leslie, Gamilaraay
• Cameron Manning-Brown, Gomeroi, FISTT representative, Treaty advocate
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Treaty Forum, Friday, 23 March 2018 – 5.30 pm for 6pm start. Redfern Community Centre, 29-53 Hugo Street Redfern. Facebook event
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Massive rally: Time to Choose – clean air, clean water, clean energy
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NSW is at a crossroads. One path leads to clean air, clean water and clean energy. The other leads us deeper into the damage of coal and gas mining.
This massive rally will build people power and shift the course of our collective futures. Saturday 24th March will be one year before the next NSW election – let's put our politicians on notice and demand urgent action to protect land and water, communities and heritage.
#Time2Choose rally – 12pm Saturday 24 March at NSW Parliament
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Palm Sunday Rally for Refugees
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Refugees on both Manus Island and Nauru remain in serious danger. The government continues to whip up fear about refugees in an effort to recover its electoral support—and is expanding to new targets such as African migrants and refugees. It’s time to end the cruelty and scaremongering. It is urgent that the Australian government take responsibility for the refugees on Manus and Nauru and Bring Them Here immediately. And it needs to welcome all refugees and provide fair processing and a secure future.
Palm Sunday Rally for Refugees, 2pm Sunday 25th March at Belmore Park
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Recent radical readings online
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Black Panther reviews and reimaginings
There have been a whole bunch of great articles to read after you’ve seen the Black Panther movie. Here are a few...
"'To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all the time.' – This is James Baldwin’s prolific quote about being Black in America and the sentiment that genius screenwriter and director Ryan Coogler tapped into when he wrote his version of the 'villain' Erik Killmonger in Marvel’s latest blockbuster film Black Panther." In Defense Of Erik Killmonger And The Forgotten Children Of Wakanda
"The defense of Killmonger is pretty typical, because we as a society are so incredibly capable of overlooking someone’s treatment of black women on the road to being pegged as a revolutionary. In short, Killmonger is simply an abuser and murderer of black women and defending him means a willingness to accept his treatment of those black women on the way to faux-liberation." You Love Killmonger At The Expense Of Black Women
"Black Panther, the most recent entry into the Marvel cinematic universe, has been greeted with the breathless anticipation that its arrival will Change Things... The change that the movie supposedly heralds is black empowerment to effectively challenge racist narratives... Which makes it a real shame that Black Panther, a movie unique for its black star power and its many thoughtful portrayals of strong black women, depends on a shocking devaluation of black American men." ‘Black Panther’ Is Not the Movie We Deserve
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Defying Dystopia: Shaping the Climate Future We Want – Roarmag
An excellent article, worth reading.
"Storytelling that removes politics from the picture serves a purpose, as it strengthens the position of those in power and denies our collective agency to remake the world in a different image... There is considerable evidence that putting more democratic power structures in place will not only ensure a more just response, but also prove to be more resilient to climate change impacts. Research on communities coping with climate change shows that those that maximize participation and inclusion are far more likely to provide the flexibility, creativity and collective strength to cope with fast, multiple changes and stresses. By contrast, unequal societies are far less resilient as they lack interpersonal trust and have weak social bonds, which make collective organizing all the more difficult. In addition, there is growing evidence that gender equity is particularly important for finding peaceful resolutions to resource challenges. The historical evidence from past weather-related or natural disasters suggests that crises and disasters, far from prompting a dystopian scramble for resources as suggested by military planners, are far more likely to prompt outpourings of support, solidarity and creative community-building efforts.” Read more
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Cracks in the Wall of Capitalism: The Zapatistas and the Struggle to Decolonize Science
"Over four days, from December 27th-30th 2017, the second iteration of ConCiencias, a conference creating dialogue between the Zapatista’s and leading left-wing scientists from throughout the world, took place at CIDECI – Universidad de la Tierra, located on the outskirts of San Cristobal de Las Casas – a city in Chiapas which has long been associated with the Zapatista’s struggle. Although it might seem tangential, the struggle to decolonize knowledge is part and parcel of the Zapatista’s broader project of resisting indigenous genocide, neoliberal capitalism, and political repression.... First, the Zapatistas convened the meeting to critically explore the ways in which science has historically been a social endeavor largely devoid of consciousness, a project in the service of capital, an endeavor that contributes to the marginalization of indigenous peoples throughout the world. Second, the conference is a space of dialogue to explore the counter-hegemonic potential of science; how can its power be harnessed to identify the cracks in the wall of capitalism, and expand upon them, leading to its dissolution and the resurgent sovereignty of indigenous peoples." Read more
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The Entire Archives of Radical Philosophy Go Online: Read Essays by Michel Foucault, Alain Badiou, Judith Butler & More (1972-2018)
"On a seemingly daily basis, we see attacks against the intellectual culture of the academic humanities, which, since the 1960s, have opened up spaces for leftists to develop critical theories of all kinds. Attacks from supposedly liberal professors and centrist op-ed columnists, from well-funded conservative think tanks and white supremacists on college campus tours. All rail against the evils of feminism, post-modernism, and something called 'neo-Marxism' with outsized agitation.
For students and professors, the onslaughts are exhausting, and not only because they have very real, often dangerous, consequences, but because they all attack the same straw men (or 'straw people') and refuse to engage with academic thought on its own terms. Rarely, in the exasperating proliferation of cranky, cherry-picked anti-academia op-eds do we encounter people actually reading and grappling with the ideas of their supposed ideological nemeses.
Were non-academic critics to take academic work seriously, they might notice that debates over 'political correctness,' 'thought policing,' 'identity politics,' etc. have been going on for thirty years now, and among left intellectuals themselves. Contrary to what many seem to think, criticism of liberal ideology has not been banned in the academy. It is absolutely the case that the humanities have become increasingly hostile to irresponsible opinions that dehumanize people, like emergency room doctors become hostile to drunk driving. But it does not follow therefore that one cannot disagree with the establishment, as though the University system were still beholden to the Vatican.
Understanding this requires work many people are unwilling to do, either because they’re busy and distracted or, perhaps more often, because they have other, bad faith agendas. Should one decide to survey the philosophical debates on the left, however, an excellent place to start would be Radical Philosophy, which describes itself as a 'UK-based journal of socialist and feminist philosophy.' Founded in 1972, in response to 'the widely-felt discontent with the sterility of academic philosophy at the time,' the journal was itself an act of protest against the culture of academia."
Read more | Enter the archives here
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