Author Archives: vintagereds

May 2016 Guest Speaker, Kathy Ragless

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Photo: Alex Ellinghausen, Canberra Times

Kathy has been the director of Companion House for the last fifteen years.

Companion House is a community-based NGO, part of a country-wide network of organisations working for survivors of torture and trauma. Services (which are free) continue to expand, from medical and counselling care to children’s early intervention counselling, community development, transitional housing and migration advice.

Companion House was established in the late 1980s by activists from Amnesty International. South American refugees were the first wave of clients. The organisation is largely government funded, though donations of private money have gone up in the last 5 years. Over the past year and a half, Companion House has seen about 1200 people across all programs. Continue reading →

Secret Army not so Secret

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Well done to Jude Dodd, who scored a mention for the Vintage Reds in the Fairfax Press today!  Read about the foot soldiers in the campaign to throw the Liberal party out of government on the 2nd July…

That secret army’s not so secret anymore
   Jenna Price, Canberra Times, 23 May 2016

A couple of my kids got the call-up to serve.

Some of their friends. Some of the parents of their friends, older people as well as young. They were all being drafted into working for a secret army, an army to keep former prime minister Tony Abbott to one term.

Judging on the basis of that campaign – a combination of organising, talking, tweeting and Facebooking – the secret army won its first battle, ably assisted by their unnatural ground allies, the Federal Liberal Party.

Continue reading →

April 2016 Guest Speaker, Humphrey McQueen

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Vintage Red member Humphrey McQueen addressed our meeting with the question, “Can capitalism survive any crisis?”

2015-12_Jeremy_K_McQ.jpgHumphrey McQueen described himself as “a former freelance historian and old aged pensioner”. In addition to this modest self-appraisal, he is an activist and scholar in many fields including international and industrial relations, the media, politics and the visual arts.

Humphrey considered threats to capitalism  – from nuclear war; the “end of history”, that is, the end of a world run by the interests of a small group of Western countries; and climate change – before moving to crises in finance, housing, banking etc.

Photo: Jeremy Kirkwood

Those needing to read more of Humphrey should have a look at his work on the website: http://www.surplusvalue.org.au/McQueen/sitemap.htm

UnionsACT “We are Union” campaign

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2016-4-19_Moira.jpgMoira Cully from UnionsACT spoke to the April Vintage Reds meeting to remind us that we will be gearing up for an ACT election (with eight more seats than last time) in October.

UnionsACT is up and ready, and on a campaign footing. Their vision for Canberra covers 6 points:

1. Strong and well-funded public services and emergency services;
2. Qweareunion.jpguality public hospitals and affordable healthcare;
3. Quality, well-sourced schools;
4. Secure jobs, rights at work and workplace safety;
5. Tackling inequality and ensuring fair taxation; and
6. Commitment to public ownership of public assets and services

There will be plenty of opportunities for volunteers in the five seats of Kurrajong, Ginninderra, Yerrabi, Brindabella and Murrumbidgee. Contact Moira, moiracully@unionsact.org.au.

Questions for Malcolm

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2016-4-18_QQ_for_Malcolm.jpgVintage Reds member and president of the Superannuated Commonwealth Officers’ Association, Annette Barbetti, was one of many excellent speakers at a rally in front of Parliament House on Monday 18 April.

Annette spoke about the difficulties faced by pensioners and superannuants under the current government.

Guardian Australia writer Van Badham fronted the rally, organised by the ACTU, and the twitter hashtag #questionsformalcolm trended wildly as people jumped into the conversation with their own concerns:

The CFMEU asks Malcolm, “Why would you rather collect HECS from the dead than collect Tax from billionaires?”

Glenn Fowler at the AEU asks Malcolm, “Why won’t your government honour its signed commitments to fund schools according to student need?”

March 2016 Guest Speakers from CLA

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Dr Kristine Klugman and Bill Rowlings from Civil Liberties Australia addressed the Vintage Reds meeting in March.

Civil Liberties Australia is a non-party-political organisation, which makes it able to criticise or praise impartially. Bill introduced the meeting to one aspect of the CLA’s activities, the Better Justice Strategy, illustrating this with the case in Tasmania of Sue Neill-Fraser, imprisoned for the murder of her husband. It’s a case with multiple disturbing details, and a number of people believe that she is innocent of the crime. And there are other troubling cases around the country, including here in the ACT. A few members of the legal profession have risen to high office without any apparent good reason, and some of their judgements reflect this.

Australian courts of law have barely changed in 50 years. CLA has put together a series of initiatives for reform, covering modernisation, affordable and timely access to the law, improvement in the quality of magistrates/lawyers/judges, etc.

February 2016 Guest Speaker, Jenny Miragaya

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Jenny Miragaya, ACT secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, spoke to the Vintage Reds February meeting on the ACT government’s needle and syringe program (NSP).

There have been attempts over the last few years to address the problem of needle safety in the Alexander Maconochie Centre. Unions representing staff employed at the prison, the CPSU representing prison guards, and the ANMF, have worked with government health and corrective services staff to resolve the question. Continue reading →

VR Christmas lunch, and a fishy story

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Vintage Reds tied up the end of the year with the December meeting, followed by lunch.

We filled the restaurant, an impressive turn-out of VRs and family members which augurs well for next year’s activities.

The diners were treated to a brief performance of songs: Joe Hill, Bread and Roses, and Solidarity, sung by the VR Christmas Lunch Specialist Singers. Then the plates arrived and we mowed our way through large quantities of food and drink.

The Singers’ table encountered some confusion in the ordering and paying for its dishes; but from this confusion has sprung Art, namely a poem commemorating the event:

Never mind the metre, keep an eye out for the bones
by Bill Rowlings

Continue reading →