Category Archives: News

September 2017 Camino report

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20170512_Camino_group_crop.jpgWe had no speaker for the September meeting, and were instead treated to a slide show of photos with commentary, from the successful Caministas who are safely returned from their adventures.

The route chosen by Penny (an experienced tour guide on the Camino) took them through south-western France and then across the top of Spain to Santiago de Compostela, though some of the trip was taken on wheels. It’s a very long and demanding trip; the group walked all the nicest bits and clocked an impressive number of kilometres. [photos: Jude Dodd]

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VR Camino walkers oppose French anti-labour laws

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2017-9-11_French_embassy.jpgThree Vintage Reds members, who recently returned from walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela through France and Spain, delivered a letter to the Embassy of France in Canberra to protest against Emmanuel Macron’s plan to bring in new labour laws.

The new measures have been fast-tracked by decree with limited debate, and will cut back workers’ labour rights and protections.

Photo by Jude.

Don’s What’s On in Canberra

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Random-Life_by_Judy_Horacek.jpgDon’t forget to check Don’s earlier What’s On lists, below, where you will find events still to come but not all included again here.

AUGUST

Thursday 17 August: 5.45 p.m., Paperchain Bookshop, Manuka, Launch of Judy Horacek’s new crowd-funded book of cartoons.

Thursday 24 August: 5.30 p.m., National Library, Peter Stanley on “The Crying Years — Australia in the Great War“. Free, but RSVP 6262-1424

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Don’s late winter events

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AUGUST

Till 3 Sept.: National Archives, “Gough Whitlam and his Century” exhibition.

Tuesday 8 August: 5.15 p.m., National Library, lecture by Bridget Vincent, “Judith Wright“. Free but RSVP 6262-1111.

Thursday 10 August: 6 p.m., National Library, Kenneth Myer lecture, Anne Summers, “Where is Australia Headed?”. Free but RSVP 6262-1111.

Friday 11 to Sunday 13 August: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, Woden Seniors Book Fair. Woden Seniors Club, 12 Corinna St, Woden, 6282 2573.

Monday 14 August: 6 p.m., Crawford Centre, ANU, Molonglo Theatre, “Live, Lead, Learn”, by Gail Kelly, former WestPac CEO. RSVP 6125-4144.

Thursday 17 August: Parliament House, Canberra. Accountability and the Law Conference 17, including The Case for a Federal Anti-Corruption Commission. Brought to you by the Australia Institute. Speakers: Nicholas Cowdery AM QC; Geoffrey Watson SC; Hon. Mark Dreyfus QC MP; Senators Richard Di Natale, Nick Xenophon and Jacqui Lambie; and more, see http://accountabilityconference.org.au.

Sunday 20 August: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Geoscience Australia Open Day. Corner Jerrabomberra Ave & Hindmarsh Drive, Symonston. www.ga.gov.au/open-day

Saturday 26 August: 6 p.m. at the Goulburn Workers’ Club, Dinner to commemorate the 1917 Railway Strike. Guest Speaker Rodney Cavalier. $75, contact Jane Timbrell, 6249-8657.

Tuesday 29 August: 12.30 at the Hughes Community Centre, “Future of the Australian National Botanic Gardens“. $2.

Wednesday 30 August: 6 p.m., Roland Wilson Building, ANU, Prof. Jean-Claude Guedon, University of Montreal, “Promoting Knowledge in the Age of Unreason: Toward the Internet of the Mind“. Free but RSVP 6125-8983.

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While you were away… We banned the bomb!

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NOW SIGN THE TREATY!

Today marks the first day of the Parliament’s spring sitting in Canberra. Vintage Reds joined ICAN this morning to welcome members of parliament and staff back to work: While_you_were_away.jpgPhoto: Jude Dodd

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons had a historic success at the UN in New York this last month, when 122 countries signed a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Australia, though, squibbed; it voted against the 2016 UN resolution that established the mandate to negotiate a treaty, and did not take part in the Treaty process.

Anthony Albanese added his voice to our call on the government to think again, for heaven’s sake:

Photo: Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP)

Penalty rates cut — Fight Back!

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Where to go for a quick bite and a good beer at the weekend?

These local joints have refused to cut their workers’ weekend penalty rates:

Bent Spoke in Gould St, Braddon;
PJ O’Reilly’s on the corner of West Row, Civic;
and the Wig and Pen at ANU Music School.

Vintage Red Jude D. (@sister_ratched) joined in the Penalty Rates Pub Crawl on Saturday 5 August and found a very nice brew, the WestBelconnen8 Belgian-style dark strong ale, winner of the 2016 Wig & Pen Trophy:

penalty_rates_pub_crawl_Wig_Pen_Belg_dark_strong_ale.jpg

 Photo: Jude Dodd

Don Dwyer’s mid-winter calendar

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Mid-winter has passed by, and this means that Spring is on its way. It will come. Time to get out and feel the air!

Don looks around for the guides to what’s on in Canberra: BMA [Bands, music, action!] magazine, “Canberra’s Entertainment Guide”; film festival booklets from Palace Cinemas; and this month the third issue of Penguin Books’ free underline magazine, and the eighth issue of the Australian Ballet’s free fortnightly Balletomane magazine.

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Sally McManus — Change the Rules

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“The rules that made Australia fair are broken.” Sally McManus has called for people to join a union and change the rules.

Sally McManus urges unions to be ‘disrupters’ to fix neoliberalism’s damage to workers:  ACTU head says the rich have too much power & the minimum wage
no longer keeps people out of poverty.

Gareth Hutchens, 26 June 2017, The Guardian

The head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions has called on Australia’s unionists to begin campaigning hard on the issue of inequality, warning workplace rules must be repaired to reverse the damage to workers caused by three decades of neoliberalism.

Sally McManus, secretary of the ACTU, issued the rallying cry on Monday during her opening address to a three-day union conference in Sydney.

She said “one group of people” had far too much power in Australia – pointing out the richest 1% owned more wealth than the poorest 70% – and old protections for wage workers had been so whittled down that the minimum wage no longer kept people out of poverty.

She said unions must recapture their role as economic “disrupters” with serious power, with secure bargaining positions at the tops of supply chains and “across industries”, so workers could once again be adequately paid for their time and energy.

“It has taken the right 30 years of union bashing and neoliberalism to take us where we are now,” McManus said on Monday. “Inequality is at a 70-year high. Wage growth hasn’t been this low since records starting being kept.

“The rules that were meant to protect our rights are now not strong enough. They need to be rewritten … we need to change the rules so working people have more power.”

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Ban the Bomb — Finally!

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2017-6-17_Nuc_ban_rally.jpgVintage Reds joined a rally held in Garema Place on 17 June to mark the drafting at the United Nations in New York of a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons.

A poll of a thousand Australians earlier this year found 73% in favour of our government supporting such a treaty; only 10% were opposed. The Turnbull government has chosen to go with the 10%.

Since then the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been finalized, with 122 countries in favour, out of the 123 which took part in drawing up the treaty (a total of 192 countries are represented at the UN).

Speakers were Alex White (UnionsACT), Barbara O’Dwyer (WILPF), Angela Chen Chen & Byron Knight (ANU), George Browning (former Anglican bishop) and Sue Wareham (ICAN).

The Table Reds sang John Brunner’s song, “Don’t you hear the H-bomb’s thunder”, composed for the first Aldermaston anti-nuclear bomb march by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958. This choral group performed first at the Vintage Reds Christmas lunch some years ago and specializes in four-part a capella songs.

“Men and women, stand together; do not heed the men of war.
Make your minds up, now or never; ban the bomb for ever more!”

ICAN_rally_17_Jun_2017.jpgPhoto: Bron King

Don Dwyer’s May 2017 Calendar

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Bringing you Don’s plugged-in guide to what is happening around Canberra…
May

Tues. 16 May: 4.30-5.45 p.m. Humanities Research Centre, Seminar Rm 1, 3rd floor, Sir Roland Wilson Building, ANU, seminar with Assoc. Prof. Elena Isayev, University of Exeter, UK: “Between Hospitality and Asylum: Stranger as victim and agent, suppliant and guest”.  http://hrc.anu.edu.au/events/seminar-between-hospitality-and-asylum-stranger-victim-and-agent-%E2%80%93-suppliant-and-guest.

Tues. 16 to Sun. 28 May: Palace cinema, “American Essentials” film festival. Includes The Graduate (1967) and Annie Hall (1977).

Wed. 17 & Thurs. 18 May: 7.30, Llewellyn Hall, ANU. Canberra Symphony Orchestra with Umberto Clerici, Cello. Pre-concert talk, 6.45 p.m. Tickets in three price ranges from $51 (under 30) up to $91.80 (adult).

Sat. 20 May: 7.30 p.m., Llewellyn Hall, ANU, the Llewellyn Choir & Sinfonia present Verdi’s Requiem. Rowan Harvey-Martin, conductor. With Sonia Anfiloff (sop.), Christina Wilson (mezzo), Christopher Lincoln Bogg (tenor) and Jeremy Tatchell (bass). Tickets $45 (adult); $40 (pensioners and students); youth and family tickets available.

Wed. 24 May: 6 p.m., National Library of Australia Theatre, “Who Shafted Les Darcy?“, lecture by Roger Ley. Free. Bookings 6262 1111.

Wed. 24 May: 6 p.m., National Film & Sound Archive, Arc Cinema, The Killing Fields (1984, R18+) & The Odd Angry Shot (1979, M). $20 double feature.

Fri. 26 May: 6 p.m., National Film & Sound Archive, Arc Cinema, Don’s Party (1976, R) & The Club (1980, PG). $20 double feature.

Wed. 31 May: 6 p.m., National Library Conference Room, book launch by Frank Bongiorno of Australian Lives: An intimate history, by Anisa Puri and Alistair Thomson. Free; refreshments; book signing. Bookings: nla.gov.au/bookings or 6262 1424.

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