Back to the Barricades …

.. or, The Hidden Dangers Of Nostalgia ..

Sometimes it's not a revolution.
Sometimes it's just trying to protect what you have.

There is, in Brisbane, a feisty, articulate, well-read, witty and passionate young Union Organiser. She works for the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, (MEAA) - the union formed from the amalgamation of the old AJA (Australian Journalists Association) and Actors Equity. She is an outspoken feminist, principled leftist and budding word-smith. Indeed "the force is strong in this one". She will be the primary union official on the latest 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie due to be filmed in Queensland next year. She is also my youngest daughter.

The reason I mention her is that I've just watched Gough Whitlam's state funeral, and was reminded that without Gough this young lady would not exist. That's not to say that he had any personal connection with her conception. Only that until Gough abolished conscription in '72 my family would not have immigrated to Australia. As my father bluntly put it, "I'm not raising sons to be cannon-fodder in someone else's war." And without me, no she.

 

Flight Lieutenant Edward Gough Whitlam served as a navigator
with No. 13 Squadron RAAF, flying in Lockheed Ventura bombers.

Still she's Gough's creation in many ways. The daughter of two immigrants, one English, one German; both families economic migrants from post war Europe. Both families refugees from economic stagnation, ancient tribal enmities, entrenched privilege and ugly, rigid class-systems; from boom and bust economies that serve capital over people and from a continent that's been either a battleground or a breeding ground for war for century after century. 

She's the daughter of hope, optimistic endeavour and reformist politics. And, like her sisters, she was raised in full knowledge of her rights and freedoms in our liberal social democracy, and takes it at as read that they come with the responsibility to champion those same rights and freedoms rights for everyone without discrimination.

Gough prepares for a hectic parliamentary session.

I'm pointedly aware of this because it reminds me of an interview with Gough I did for an obscure magazine on public policy in 1994, a highlight of my brief journalistic career, and one in which we agreed to disagree on a fairly fundamental issue. I remember it very clearly, in part because, sadly, after all these years it appears that I was right and Gough was wrong.

The topic was a Bill of Rights for Australia, something I believed was needed to entrench basic rights to free speech, freedom of conscience, rights to self-determination and personal habeas corpus, and freedom of assembly and association. Gough was quite clear this was both unnecessary, and politically unlikely to be achievable. Instead he championed our international obligations to the UN's Declaration of Human Rights and all the charters and agreements that flow from it. That was our protection, he said. That's what guarantees our rights and limits the behaviour of governments both state and federal. 

How could he know that the current government would stoop so low as to excise from the Migration Act all references to the UN Refugees Convention replacing them with a uniquely Australian set of interpretations that ask, for example: 

"Could this 'illegal/refugee/foreigner' modify his behaviour a bit, you know, and be less irritating, and therefore not be tortured by people when we send him back to, you know, who cares where?" 

I kid you not. 

The dangers of nostalgia…

Edward Gough Whitlam 1916 ~ 2014
Australia's greatest Prime Minister

In his contribution today to Gough's eulogy the brilliant Graham Freudenberg said: 

"You would go to the barricades with such a man." 

Which was and is true. But this is not the time for nostalgia about the heroic age of the Labor Party, or the Whitlam era of social advancement, a nineteen-seventies that was Australia's decade late (as usual) contribution tho the nineteen-sixties of Selma, Alabama, Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" and the Prague Spring and Paris revolts of '68.

Those barricades are still there, and the swing to the right in Australian politics in the last two years means every issue which Gough fought for, and the changes he instigated, are all under threat from the Abbott Government and the passive, flaccid, tacit agreement of the right wing of the ALP which dominates the party federally.

Current labor Leader Bill Shorten rises to the call to arms.

It's in this kind of environment that people write idiotic articles suggesting that unspecified 'problems' with democracy can be solved by taking the messy 'people actually voting' out of the equation.  

These are the times in which we live.

This is the übermenschlich 'Devil take the hindmost' zeitgeist that we face.

A example of this, currently being taken up by MEAA, is the threat of 10 years jail for any journalist falling foul of the new security laws being thrust through parliament by the ever-reasonable, and ever-sensible-to-nuance Attorney-General George Brandis. Senator AG-GB has stated categorically that no "journalist would ever be prosecuted for doing their job". But as the ABC's Media Watch reported, experienced journalists and lawyers do not agree. The Foreign Fighters Bill carries such blanket wording relating to journalists responsibility and culpability that you could drive a News Ltd truck, or Police paddy wagon through it. 

And who really believes that this government, so keen on secrecy, autocracy and belligerent, parochial nationalism would eschew the opportunity to trample on free speech, free reportage, peaceful protest or anyone unwise enough to cross them, by say, leaking unhelpful details to asylum seekers? How on earth, given the last Abbott election campaign and its denouement of bland, shoulder-shrugging brass neck?

Tony Abbott ~ What can you say?

"We lied, what can I say? You were silly enough to believe us. You should've known we were lying. So it's your own fault. And anyway it's too late now. Oh, and, just remember to believe our next campaign, whenever that is. 'Cos that will be true. All of it. Trust me. After all, would I lie about something like that? Again, that is? Doesn't make sense does it? So, just bugger off for now, OK? I'll dog-whistle when I want you."

Dear Julia, Thanks for your leadership, and example.

 

"If there is something I hope I have done for the image of women in public life is that we can go into an adversarial environment like parliament and we can dominate it and conquer it."

Dear Julia,

Polls, parties and politics aside, thank you for your inspirational and epoch making leadership as Prime Minister. Six years ago when you first became Deputy Leader I wrote to you confidently predicting you would be the first female Prime Minister of Australia. Who could have predicted how that would come about, and how incredibly difficult a period this would become?

Throughout it all I have been a strong supporter of yours, and remain so today. You have been the most inspirational, ground-breaking, and personally principled leader in the ALP for many years. Not since Paul Keating have I been so impressed, not by policies or vision, but by character, courage and personal integrity.

I well remember sitting in the gallery with my three daughters watching you in the Senate chamber when Workchoices was voted down. Your joy in this achievement was a solid example of the value of politics in making a positive difference in peoples lives. I was delighted that they got to see you and Penny Wong congratulating each other.

Your achievements in the Gonski Education reforms, and in resurrecting the Government's direction and purpose when you became leader neatly bookend an all too short period in power, but one with a record of policy achievement that will in time be recognised as outstanding. That Gonski was finally legislated today, before the spill, is a tribute to your determination and drive to improve this nation and iconic of your focus on achievement no matter how hard the road may be personally.  An enduring legacy will be the results of the Royal Commission on Child Abuse. This will address a wound in the nation's psyche that no Australian leader has had the courage to address.

Your consummate political skill in 'the art of the possible' when establishing a minority government while Tony Abbott spluttered and fumed in his anger at the electorate for not handing him a clear victory was not only a deeply satisfying moment for me in seeing the Tories outdone, but also a lesson I could pass on to my daughters on the importance of being decisive, purposeful and focussed on your goals when opportunities come along. That you were in this position because of spiteful, petulant behaviour by ALP people who leaked information to damage you personally is shameful, but also a lesson on how far there is for the party to go in dealing with women in power.

Beyond personal style, personal animosities or factional positions I firmly believe that the extraordinary character of the endless smearing, shaming (attempted), and vile personal attacks on you are rooted in a deep fear of female power and a knee-jerk Australian misogyny that is so embedded in the culture it will take many years to uproot. You, however, have done far more than any one person could be reasonably expected to do in fighting this form of social malaise. 

When you made your famous 15 minute 'I will not be lectured on misogyny' speech I was in America, and so out of the reach of Australian media reaction, which was clearly shameful and testosterone driven. What was even more gratifying was the way in which that speech was so inspiring to women and girls around the world. That YouTube video had more watchers than any other political speech of any length anywhere in the world. The reaction of people in America and Canada who I met was not only strongly supportive, but also deeply impressed at your anger, passion, clarity of thought and self-control. It made me very proud that your sterling qualities, your world-class capabilities were recognised by people outside the Australian context.

I think you would do well to consider traveling outside Australia to lecture on feminism, pragmatism and politics. I am certain you would be well-received. It's also important to keep in mind that this country is very small, and very narrow minded. You may well have outgrown it. Certainly you have the talent, the record of achievement and the time to consider other ways to make a difference in the world.

It will be interesting to see whether the current determined mass media campaign against the government will continue in its current vein, given the change in leadership. I suspect that those who own and run the media will continue to fight the facts and focus on installing a Tory government no matter what.

Whatever the case, you have my thanks and my admiration. I haven't always agreed with your policy choices, but your personal qualities have always impressed me. You will always be a role model for my daughters. Your example to them both in grace under pressure, and in strength of character under the most appalling personal vilification will be a powerful memory for them and a solid reminder that there is much left to do in this country and around the world in putting women's rights, talents and opportunities in the forefront of social change and advancement.

You will always have my respect, admiration and support.

Best regards, Lee Kear

Sexism, Misogyny and the Gillard Woman

We all know the speech. 15 minutes of lucid, clear and well-argued excoriation of a Leader of the Opposition who has been deliberately trying to undermine Prime Minister Julia Gillard's confidence and emotional self-control in the Australian Parliament's House of Representatives. Women around the world have listened to and watched the inspiring YouTube video of the speech. It is all the more powerful in that there are clearly strong emotions under tight control in Julia Gillard's landmark performance.

And there has been the inevitable backlash, a global backlash from conservative and mysogynist pundits, columnists and unlicensed public loud-mouths, male and female, decrying and seeking to minimize the importance of this landmark political event. For it is a landmark event. The 21st century's first major public statement that women have arrived in politics (again) and the ways of the past won't wash. Feminism is back, and it has teeth. 

Most of the anti-Gillard backlash has been focussed on two elements. The first is the hoary old chestnut that by playing the gender card, by crying foul when foul behaviour is evident is weakness. It's the feminine inability to stand up to rough politics and take it like a man. It's evidence that, by nature, women can't take it. That they really are weak, emotional and unfit for high office. That their opinions and actions do not matter. Abbott's Opposition has already labelled criticism of his sexist attitudes by female Government Ministers as the attacks of a "handbag hit-squad" in an attempt to trivialize and belittle their comments.

The second element is that 'playing the gender card' is a diversion from the real business of politics, that it's a sign of 'political' weakness, a sign that the issue of entrenched misogyny and sexist behaviour isn't a mainstream issue, it's trivial and irrelevant. Nothing could be further than the truth.

There is a direct and inextricable link between the politics of right-wing authoritarianism and male-dominated politics and political practice. Misogyny, an underlying contempt for women, is no different, in process and practice, than an underlying contempt for any group outside of traditional patriarchal politics. Gays and lesbians, immigrants, the unemployed, the elderly, any of Mitt Romney's 47% fit the paradigm. Which is where this all started in the first place.

When right wing shock-jock Allan Jones claimed that Julia Gillard's father had "died of shame" because of her "lies" he did more than cause offense. He handed Tony Abbott a nasty little meme to add to his already extensive bag of snide and vicious asides he has been whispering across the despatch box in an ongoing campaign to undermine Julia Gillard's confidence and self-control. The nation was rightly appalled at the original spiteful comment from Jones. That Abbot would pick up the cudgel and use several times to suggest the Government should "die of shame" was a low act by any standards. 

More importantly it was a behaviour that betrayed an underlying attitude.  A crude, sexist behaviour that would never have been tried with a male Prime Minister. It betrayed an underlying contempt for Julia Gillard as a woman, as any woman, who could be emotionally attacked and bullied. Not any politician who stands between him and the office of Prime Minister. Contempt for a woman because she is a woman.

Just by the way, how's that working out for you, Tony?

When Julia Gillard called out Abbott on this she was not playing the gender card, she was calling a spade a spade. When she denounced Abbott's vile, emotionally based tactics she made it clear that Abbott's sexist behaviour is evidence for his underlying attitude of contempt and mysogyny. It could not be more clear. 

No-one who saw the speech or who replays it on YouTube can deny it's accuracy and power and it's direct assault on misogyny as contempt. This wasn't a woman whining or complaining that he was "being mean" or "hurtful". It wasn't a woman complaining that it wasn't fair. This was a strong, determined and powerful woman making it perfectly clear that his comments were offensive, would not slow her down, and were utterly contemptible.

Jones and Abbott have done us a positive service. This what misogyny looks like. This is what misogyny sounds like. This is what we will not stand for, or put up with without calling out those who think they can bully women for the sexist, misogynistic scumbags that they are.

Tony Abbott may well love the women in his life, may well think of them with genuine respect, admiration and affection. That doesn't mean he isn't a misogynist scumbag in his dealings with the world, and particularly in his very public role in politics and in parliament. He had his first lesson this week that his behaviour betrays his attitudes and that he needs to change his ways, man up, and grow a pair.