Upcoming Events
Vietnam 1965-1975 : A poster exhibition commemorating the Australian anti-war movement
6:30pm Wednesday 1 September
@ Underground Talk
Entry: $5/ $2 concession.
The poster exhibition includes 80 posters from the antiwar campaign, mostly Sydney demo posters, and about 40 reprints of Vietnamese posters, as well as badges, pamphlets, books and magazines.
Gary Presland : First People: The Eastern Kulin of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Central Victoria
6:30pm Wednesday 8 Wednesday
@ Underground Talk
Entry: $5/ $2 concession.
Gary Presland looks at the Eastern Kulin peoples from before European invasion in the mid-1830s and their world which was changed forever.
Previous Events
Author Tony Moore
in conversation with Martin Flanagan
Death or Liberty: Rebels and radicals transported to Australia 1788-1868
6:30pm Wednesday 25 August
@ Underground Talk,
Meeting Room 1, Trades Hall
Entry: $5/ $2 concession.
Co-sponsored by the Australian Fabian Society and the SEARCH Foundation (www.search.org.au).
"This important and dramatic era of Australia, Irish and British Empire history has been too often only partially told. Now we have the whole vivid tale, told by an excellent historian and engrossing narrator..." - THOMAS KENEALLY
TONY MOORE is Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University.
MARTIN FLANAGAN is the author of twelve books, and has been writing for The Age since 1985 - principally on sport, Australian culture and the relationship between black and white Australia
Tamar Hopkins and Meghan Fitzgerald : Police Violence and the Retro Three
6:30pm Wednesday 18 August
@ Underground Talk
Entry: $5/ $2 concession.
Underground Talk is sponsored by the SEARCH Foundation (www.search.org.au).
More than 20 complaints of racist violence by Victorian police involving young Africans were made to the Office of Police Integrity between 2006 and 2009. Only one has been investigated by the OPI, and it is still unresolved.
Police violence not only targets migrants and Aboriginals, but is used on protests, pickets, youths, the poor, and increasingly, anyone questioning police authority. With wealth inequality and poverty increasing in Australia police violence and state repression will become a more and more pressing issue.
Speakers:
TAMAR HOPKINS (pictured) is the principal solicitor at the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre.
MEGHAN FTIZGERALD is a solicitor specialising in cases of police violence. She who works at the Fitzroy Community Legal Service.
SAM KING is a member of the Retro Three, bashed by police in 2009.
Paul Adams The Best Hated Man in Australia: The life and death of Percy Brookfield 1875 - 1921
6:30pm Wednesday 4 August @ Underground Talk
They don't make politicians like `Jack' Brookfield anymore. From mining underground in broken Hill he `rose like a meteor in public life' to be possibly the most extreme anti-politician ever to be elected in this country. The Great War and the years that followed saw unprecedented political turmoil in Australia, and Brookfield was in the thick of it. By the times he was fatally shot at Riverton in South Australia, Brookfield held the balance of power in NSW and had played major roles in many of the era's main political and industrial events: the Big Strike, the plot of the `IWW Twelve' to burn down Sydney, and the bitter national conscription debate.
"Percy Brookfield was a giant among labour leaders. In life, as in the manner of death, he made personal sacrifice the measure of his political commitment. Morally and physically fearless, his probity withstood parliament. Paul Adams has given us a biography as thoroughly gripping as it is thoroughly researched. Inspirations floods from its pages." – Humphrey McQueen
Daniel Kowalski and Caroline Symons : Come Out and Play: Tackling homophobia in sport
6:30pm Wednesday 28 July @ Underground Talk
When footballer Jason Akermanis advised gay players to stay in the closet, former Olympic swimmer Daniel Kowalski – who had himself come out only recently – wrote of his disappointment and anger. For this special Underground Talk, join Daniel and Caroline Symons, the lead author of VicHealth’s recent Come Out and Play report, for a highly topical discussion on hwo to best tackle homophobia in elite-level and community sport alike.
Stephen Jolly : A Report on South Africa and the World Cup
6:30pm Wednesday 21 July @ Underground Talk
”South Africa is like a friendly version of a police state at the moment.” So says Yarra’s socialist councillor Stephen Jolly, who is currently on leave enjoying the World Cup – and addressing striking miners in his spare time! Upon his return, Stephen will discuss the state of South Africa and the politics of sport’s biggest event at this unmissable Underground Talk.
Entry: $5/ $2 concession.
Dave Kerin : "Earthworker Social Enterprise’s First Factory: Workers leading the way to a green economy"
6:30pm Wednesday 7 July @ Underground Talk
The response to climate change by big business and government looks like being too little, too late. But what if organised labour itself could create green jobs and push Australia towards a sustainable future?
It’s not a hypothetical, this is actually happening.
The Gippsland Trades and Labour Council (GTLC) oversees a region already hit hard by the privatisation of the power industry. Now, when some hear climate change sounding the death knell for the local economy, the GTLC is going on the front foot by backing the Earthworker Social Enterprise.
With their first factory producing solar hot water units almost ready to go, Earthworker founder and CFMEU organiser Dave Kerin will discuss how worker co-operatives can create new green-collar, manufacturing jobs alongside current coal and related jobs – and what you can do to help this important new movement grow.
Entry: $5/ $2 concession.
This event is co-sponsored by the New International Bookshop and the SEARCH Foundation (www.search.org.au)
Humphrey McQueen : Where Darwin Went Astray
6:30pm Wednesday 28 April @ Underground Talk
“Darwin's book is very important and serves as
a natural-scientific basis for the class struggle in history.
One has to put up with the crude English method of development,
of course. Despite all deficiencies, not only is the death-blow
dealt here for the first time to 'teleology' in the natural sciences
but its rational meaning is empirically explained.”
(Karl Marx to Ferdinand Lasalle, 16 January 1861)
Marilyn Lake and Joy Damousi : What's Wrong with Anzac?
6:30pm Tuesday 27 April @ Underground Talk
We are very pleased to announce this special Tuesday night event with authors Marilyn Lake
and Joy Damousi, who (with fellow historians Henry Reynolds and Mark Mckenna) have produced the
important new book What's Wrong with Anzac? The militarisation of Australian history
(UNSW Press, $29.95)
David Day in conversation with Brian McKinlay: The Centenary of the Second Fisher Government
6:30pm Wednesday 21 April @ Underground Talk
On 13 April 1910, the ALP won a majority in both Houses of Parliament. The government of Andrew Fisher was the first majority Labor government in the world, and embarked on an unprecedented program of nation-building and reform – including the creation of the Commonwealth Bank. Join historian and recent Fisher biographer David Day for a discussion of Fisher’s legacy today.
Dead Men Walking:Visiting death row in ther Deep South
6:30pm Wednesday 24 March @ Underground Talk
In 2009 Lizzie O'Shea spent four months working on behalf of prisoners facing execution without legal representation in Angola Prison, Louisiana - the largest prison in the USA. Through stories from her personal experiences she will explore the social, political and human rights implications of the death penalty, and the difficulties facing the campaign against it.
Eyewitness report from Gaza: Working with Union Aid Abroad- APHEDA in Palestine
6:30pm Wednesday 31 March @ Underground Talk
Currently an organiser with the Health and Community Services Union, Ginny Adams has been involved in Palestinian and broader refugee for 10 years. She will discuss how APHEDA's work in the Occupied Territories and Lebanon aims to transcend traditional aid programs - and give an up-to-the minute report on life on the ground in Gaza.
Sue Turnbull, Jason Steger, Jarad Henry: The Stieg Larsson Phenomenon and the Politics of Crime Fiction
6:30pm Wednesday 7 April @ Underground Talk
The late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy has ruled the bestseller lists all year – unusual territory for a onetime Trotskyist and lifelong anti-fascist campaigner! Join our panellists Sue Turnbull (Sisters in Crime), Jason Steger (The Age) and crime writer Jarad Henry (Blood Sunset) to discuss the enormous appeal of Salander, Blomkvist and crime fiction in general.
Hans Baer: Global Warming and the Political Ecology of Health
6:30pm Wednesday 14 April @ Underground Talk
Hans Baer is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is co-author, with Merill Singer, of Global Warming and the Political Ecology of Health, a groundbreaking, analysis of the relationship between climate change and human health. Hans will be discussing his work with Ben Courtice (Green Left Weekly, Climate Emergency Network.
