Tuesday 21 June, 6 p.m. Tonight’s Lionel Murphy Memorial Lecture, presented by Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, HAS MOVED to Theatre 3, Manning Clark Centre, Australian National University. If you have any questions please contact Penny Cox on 0478 337 706.
Put the Liberals Last!
Vintage Reds have been campaigning in Yass, Tumut and Queanbeyan with Australian Unions to Put the Liberals last!
Photos: Jeremy Kirkwood, Alex White
Don’s calendar
Don’s calendar was unfortunately buried and forgotten under an onrush of paperwork and bills after a trip out of town… and is consequently later than usual. Apologies from the Vintage Red’s admin team…
Don’s Calendar, May 2016
Don’s calendar was unfortunately buried and forgotten under an onrush of paperwork and bills after a trip out of town… and is consequently later than usual. Apologies from the Vintage Red’s admin team…
May 2016 Guest Speaker, Kathy Ragless
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
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.
April 2016 Guest Speaker, Humphrey McQueen
Vintage Red member Humphrey McQueen addressed our meeting with the question, “Can capitalism survive any crisis?”
Humphrey 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
Moira 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. Q
uality 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
Vintage 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?”
Don’s April 2016 calendar
This is Don Dwyer’s Exclusive Calendar of Events for Canberrans.