Accent of Women Jiselle Hanna

Today’s Accent of Women commemorates May Day – International Workers Day on 1 May every year. The Second International designated International Workers’ Day be 1 May every year, in 1889. The date was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket Affair, a violent confrontation between police and labour protesters in Chicago on May 4, 1886, that became a symbol of the international struggle for workers’ rights. The strike at Haymarket in 1886 was about a national campaign to secure an eight-hour workday. May Day is a day of protest and action, right across the world, and this year Palestine was a major theme everywhere. On today’s Accent of Women, I bring you four speeches delivered at the May Day rally in Melbourne, Victoria – on a very frosty autumn evening.

It’s 11 years since the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh that housed some 5 garment factories. More than 1100 workers died on 24 April 2013 but this was no accident. Workers and in fact, just about every body, knew that the building was unstable. It was built on a pond, without the correct construction permits, extra floors were added to the building illegally, and the heavy equipment associated with the garment industry all meant that the building couldn’t hold the weight of its contents.But also, on the day of the collapse, cracks had appeared in the walls of the building, and the other tenants  – banks, small shops, they all closed for the day. But the garment workers were not afforded this basic safety measure. They were forced to work that day on threat of losing an entire months wages. They staged massive protests outside the building, but were eventually forced inside because of the unrelenting poverty that they are subjected to.So Rana Plaza was no accident – it was, it is, Industrial murder. 11 years on, these workers are fighting for an across the board wage increase. Their year long campaign has had some gains. Joining me today to discuss the wage case and the anniversary of Rana Plaza, I am joined by Taslima Akhter.

On this week’s show, we return take a closer look at a number of campaigns that have emerged in Australia in the wake of the genocide in Gaza. Specifically, anti-weapons manufacturing campaigns and demilitarisation campaigns.My guests today are Palestinian/Syrian woman Nathalie Farrah from Disrupt Wars and the Get Elbit Industries out of Australia campaign. And Palestinian activist, Dana Alshaer from Melbourne University Students for Palestine Action Group. 

A recent military escalation in West Papua is the latest episode in a long history of repression and dispossession since the island came under Indonesian control. But the authorities in Jakarta still haven’t been able to stabilize their rule over West Papua.On today’s show, Accent of Women looks at the Resistance of the West Papuan people. 3CR’s Priya Kunjan spoke with leading Human Rights Activist in Indonesia, Vanessa Koman. 

On this week’s show, we’re gonna chat about an exciting new book that’s being released in a couple of weeks’ time, called, “An Unexpected Life”, it documents the stories of 11 Canberra based women who are migrants to Australia, their journeys to this country, their successes and failures and loves and regrets. And interwoven across these 11 women’s stories, is that of the author herself,Vesna Cvjeticanin. I had the privilege and pleasure of chatting with Vesna about her book.

The Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill proposes amendments to the Migration Act to deal with situations where non-citizens subject to removal are not cooperating with government authorities, or where their own government refuses to take them back. It is widely understood to be a response to the High Court’s ruling in November 2023 that found indefinite immigration detention to be unlawful.It’s also considered an attempt to pre-empt further litigation scheduled in the High Court. The case of an Iranian man refusing to cooperate in his deportation is due before the court next month. However, the amendments introduced in the bill go far beyond addressing this issue. They have wide-ranging impacts for how non-citizens are treated in Australia, and indeed for Australia’s relationship with governments around the world.My guest today is refugee, and refugee activist, Lavanya Thavaraja.