Melbourne 2014 Activities Archive
Monday, 24 November, 7.00 pm • dinner at 6.30 pmLooking for action?
Find it at Radical Women's organising meeting!
Connect with sister feminists looking to change the world. Take part in updates and discussions on the continuing battle to end Aboriginal deaths in custody. Help strategise in campaigning for birthing rights and full reproductive justice for all women. Learn about other activities in the works. Get involved - you are needed!
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
(Between Blyth & Stewart Sts. Take Tram #19 or Upfield train to Anstey Station. Plenty of parking.)
Dinner served at 6.30 pm for an $8.00 donation. Everyone is welcome! For more information, email radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au or phone 03-9388-0062. To find out more about Melbourne RW, check us out on facebook: Radical.Women.Australia.
Thursday, 23 October, 7.00 pm • dinner at 6.30 pm
Unstoppable Feminist Struggle in Latin America: Focus on Ecuador
With featured guest speaker, Daniela Alvarado, Ecuadorian feminist, reproductive justice activist and international student at Melbourne University.
Feminism in Latin America has a long and heroic life - from the first strikes of laundresses, textile workers and teachers to Slutwalk and unfolding battles for indigenous, LGBTI and environmental justice. Learn about feminist organising in Ecuador and throughout Latin America. Join in discussion about what makes it both unique and universal.
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick Take the North Coburg tram to Blyth Street or the Upfield train to Anstey Station. Lots of parking available off Staley Street.
A dinner of Latin American dishes served at 6.30 pm for an $8.00 donation. For more information, email radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au or phone 03-9388-0062. To find out more about Melbourne RW, check us out on facebook: Radical.Women.Australia.
Saturday, 27 September, 9.30 am
From Hallam to East Melbourne, Beat Back the Far-Right! Defend the Fertility Control Clinic!
The clinic defence is entering its 10th year. Every month since August 2005, grassroots activists have safeguarded the Fertility Control Clinic from the Rosary Parade of anti-abortionists on a mission to harass this health service out of existence.
The harassers are part of the World Congress of Families, whose August 30 congress was ruined by a massive, grassroots counter-mobilisation. Let's show this same collective strength at the clinic defence!
Fertility Control Clinic, 118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne Take Tram #48 or #75 to Powlett or Simpson Streets
For more information,
• email Radical Women: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
• www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
The Fertility Control Clinic Defence turns 9 years old!
On 27 August 2005, Radical Women helped start an ongoing defence of this reproductive health centre in East Melbourne. The clinic has been the target of relentless and violent harassment since abortion rights campaigner, Dr Bertram Wainer, opened it in 1972. In 2001 security guard, Steve Rogers, was killed as he protected staff and a waiting room full of people from a heavily armed fanatic intent on mass murder.
Mid-2005 was another danger point. John Howard's re-election in 2004 emboldened "family values" zealots in the governing Coalition to launch a new attack on abortion rights. As talk of an "abortion epidemic" circulated in the media, Minister for Health Tony Abbott mobilised a think-tank of church leaders and parliamentarians, allegedly to stem it.
For nine years, a line of pro-choice activists has prevented a monthly "Rosary Parade" by the Helpers of God's Precious Infants from converging at the entrance. Melbourne City Council and Victoria Police have consistently claimed that they're helpless to stop the harassment. These nine years have shown that the only defence of women's right to access the clinic, of clinic staff to work in a safe environment and of people to exercise free speech has come from the grassroots activists who have defended the clinic.
Celebrate this milestone with other abortion rights activists. Join the clinic defence, and help build a reproductive justice offensive that will sweep anti-abortion thuggery into history's dustbin!
Fertility Control Clinic, 118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne
Take Tram #48 or #75 to Powlett or Simpson Streets
For more information,
• email Radical Women: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
• www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
Saturday, 30 August, from 8.00 am
Day of Action: Give the World Congress of
Families the Welcome It Deserves!
This network of anti-woman, homophobic and transphobic hate groups will soon gather in Melbourne. Victoria's Attorney-General Robert Clark will welcome them. Key leaders of the Abbott government are also involved: Kevin Andrews, Minister for Social Services, and Eric Abetz, Minister for Employment and slasher of the public sector. So are parliamentary notables: anti-abortion crusaders, Bernie Finn and Fred Nile, and Cory Bernardi, know for his homophobic and anti-Muslim zealotry.
The event is a coming together of a far-right movement, which brought us the May budget and is behind the union busting, attacks on the unemployed, assault on women's reproductive rights, defunding of women's refuges, Aboriginal services and LGBTI health programs, rising student debt, anti-protest laws, Northern Territory Intervention, Operation Sovereign Borders, backing of Israel's terror on the Palestinians and other horrors.
Unite to beat back the far-right: Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Right to Organise!
8.00 am: Action to unwelcome and disrupt the WCF event-banners, placards & noise are most welcome
11.00 am: Equal Love rally and speakout
12.30 pm: Block Party Against Hate
Venue: St Cecelia's Parish Church, 37 Hillside Parade, Glen Iris
For information and updates, contact:
• email Radical Women: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
• www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
Wednesday, 16 July, 7.00 pm
Radical Women public organising meeting
Let's power on & make some change!
This gathering will feature updates on current activities, such as abortion and birthing rights campaigning, and proposals for socialist feminist action in these uplifting times of massive protest. Bring your ideas and energy!
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Take the North Coburg tram to Blyth Street or the Upfield train to Anstey Station. Lots of parking available off Staley Street.
Come for a delicious pre-meeting dinner at 6.30 pm ($8.00 donation, vegetarians and vegans catered for). For more information, email radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au or phone 03-9388-0062. To find out more about Melbourne RW, check out Radical Women - Australia on facebook.
Saturday, 28 June, 9.30 am
Defend the Fertility Control Clinic:
Keep upping the momentum!
The May clinic defence was BIG! Thank you to everyone who came-many for the first time-to stop the increasing anti-abortion aggression and assert our right to organise. Parliament is a political weathervane moved by the strongest force, so we need to keep strengthening the defence.
The current pre-election shenanigans inside Victoria's Parliament have put MP Geoff Shaw's anti-abortion bill on hold. But Shaw's two-month suspension from Parliament and Premier Napthine's pledge to leave Victoria's abortion laws alone in no way make women's rights safe. In Victoria and across the country, the tiny, well-connected far-right movement isn't slackening. It's waiting for the right time to push a foetal personhood bill through NSW's upper house. In Federal Parliament, Senator Madigan is waiting to introduce an anti-abortion bill. Geoff Shaw recently met with anti-abortion leaders in the United States. The harassment of services is relentless, and the Fertility Control Clinic remains a chief target.
Come to the next clinic defence on June 28 and on the fourth Saturday every month. Help escalate the fight for women's abortion rights and our right to defend them.
Fertility Control Clinic, 118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne
Take Tram #48 or #75 to Powlett or Simpson Streets
For more information,
• email Radical Women: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
• www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
Saturday, 24 May, 9.30 am
You ARE NEEDED to defend the Fertility Control Clinic!
Anti-abortionists are escalating their harassment of the East Melbourne clinic. Victoria Police and Melbourne City Council stand by, claiming they're helpless to stop it. It takes a defence line of pro-choice activists to keep the monthly "Rosary Parade" away. Without the grassroots clinic defenders, up to 80 anti-choice bigots would be standing at the entrance. This is going on more than five years after Victoria fully legalised abortion!
From September, Victoria's "move on" laws will be in force. Aimed squarely at growing civil protest -- from East-West Tunnel resisters to unionists -- these laws will be used, at some point, against the clinic defenders. Defending the clinic means joining other movements in defending our protest rights.
Stand up for the right to choose and the right to defend it!
Fertility Control Clinic, 118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne
Take Tram #48 or #75 to Powlett or Simpson Streets
For more information,
• email Radical Women: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
• www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
Saturday, 26 April, 9.30 am
All out to defend the Fertility Control Clinic!
On March 22, a strong clinic defence kept the Rosary Parade away. But anti-abortion aggression is escalating. Help make the clinic on April 26 even bigger.
Show the harassers that the pro-choice majority is serious about making them history.
Build the clinic defence before Napthine's anti-democratic "move on" laws take force in September–show the government that we will defend women's right to exercise their choice and that we will stand together to support our right to do just that!
Build up our solidarity with the clinic's workers and the women they serve.
On Saturday, March 29, the Helpers of God's Precious Infants (HOGPI) broke from their monthly Rosary Parade schedule. More than 60 zealots stood outside the clinic entrance–the space that clinic defenders have held for 10 years to prevent HOGPI from harassing women. Show the harassers that their new tactics only make us more determined to stand up for women's rights. Join us in holding this space to keep the HOGPI at bay.
Please contact Radical Women if you want to be part of a rapid response network that would answer an urgent Saturday morning callout, if needed.
Come to the clinic defence on April 26!
Fertility Control Clinic, 118 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne
Take Tram #48 or #75 to Powlett or Simpson Streets
For more information, or to be part of a rapid response network, email Radical Women: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au.
Wednesday, 23 April, 7.00 pm
RW Organising Meeting
Socialist feminism for these explosive times!
Learn about Radical Women's recent involvements and get updated on activities to come. The meeting will feature plans for building the defence of the Fertility Control Clinic against growing anti-abortion harassment, defending our protest rights in the face of Victoria's "move-on" laws, and where next after the huge national March in March protests against the Abbott government. Your ideas and energy are needed!
The meeting will be held at
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Take Tram #19 or the Upfield train to Anstey Station. Lots of parking available off Staley Street.
Dinner will be served at 6.30 pm for an $8.00 donation. For more information, email radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au or phone 03-9388-0062. To find out more about Melbourne RW, check out Radical Women - Australia on facebook.
Saturday, 12 April, 4.00 pm
Public forum
Communists in the union movement:
Yesterday and today
Working people hold tremendous power in their hands when they organise collectively. The role of socialists in unions is to inspire their workmates to not only imagine a better world but to organise for a society where exploitation cannot exist and the needs of all are abundantly met.
Communists have a proud tradition of political unionism—working to build class consciousness through their activism in the union movement, connecting struggles across industries, building international solidarity, opposing imperialist war, winning support for Aboriginal rights, and raising the demands of the most oppressed by challenging racism and sexism and educating about LGBTI rights.
Learn the lessons from history and get energised for building on the work of earlier generations of union rebels with courage, a vision and a program.
Panellists:
Doug Jordan is a lifelong socialist, who spent a quarter of a century as a tramway worker and unionist and is a veteran of the great 1990 strike. He presents City Limits, a weekly program on 3CR, and is a campaigner for public housing. He is the author of the recently published, Conflict in the Unions: The Communist Party of Australia, Politics and the Trade Union Movement, 1945 – 60.
Alison Thorne is Melbourne Organiser for the Freedom Socialist Party and a workplace delegate with the Community and Public Sector Union. While working as a teacher, she fought two epic battles, one based on her gay liberation activism and the other resisting union busting. She has put Aboriginal rights on the agenda in the union movement and campaigned for equal pay.
Peter Murray, a passionate environmentalist who is an activist in the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, will chair the panel. Murray worked alongside Jordan in the 1990 strike and led two rail strikes in the '80s.
The discussion will be followed by a "Nothing's too good for the working class" dinner, which caters for all tastes, for a $10 donation.
We'll also take up a collection to boost the fund to help members of Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party travel to Los Angeles in May to participate in the Freedom Socialist Party Convention, A World to Win ... A Planet to Save!
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Take Tram #19 or the Upfield train to Anstey Station. Lots of parking available off Staley Street.
Hosted by Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party For more information call 03 9388 0062, email: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
Saturday, 15 March, 2.00 pm
Celebrate International Women's Day 2014 with Radical Women
Reproductive Justice Warriors speak out about childbirth:
Control of our Bodies! Control of our Lives!
"Obstetric violence" is a term coined by the birthing rights movement to expose the dehumanising medical control of childbirth, which denies women their right to make their own decisions throughout their pregnancy and birth. Had enough of being treated as an incubator? Fed up with empty words? Want to make real change? Bring your voice and your demands!
Hear our special guests:
Lisa Barrett, birthing rights advocate, mother and former registered midwife
Tanya Koolmatrie, proud Ngarrindjeri woman, mother, activist and sociologist
Tanja Pocock, childbirth rights activist, petitioner and mother
Rhoda Marie, mother, feminist and all-round rowdy woman
Janet Fraser, feminist, writer and activist
Open mic time for questions and stories
Share your ideas and demands in a "Where to from here" dialogue. Let's start building a movement to win back our rights in childbirth!
Afternoon tea will be provided for a donation of $8.00. Everyone is welcome!
We also ask for donations toward our interstate speakers' travel expenses. Any amount left over will contribute toward Radical Women's reproductive justice work.
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Take Tram #19 to Blyth Street or Upfield Train to Anstey Station. Plenty of parking.
To find out more, contact Radical Women:
• Phone: 03-9388-0062 o Email: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
• Twitter: @RadicalWomenMEL
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
Saturday, March 8, 1.00 pm
On International Women's Day
March with Radical Women!
Melbourne's IWD 2014 puts a callout for equal pay and abortion rights, both crucial for women's liberation. Let's honour the unstoppable global struggle for women's equality with the demands of all women, here and around the world. Join RW's multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-sexuality, multi-gendered contingent, and give these demands a voice:
- Reproductive freedom for all women
- Free, quality, 24-hour childcare
- End all discrimination against LGBTIQ people
- Increase welfare payments; a secure, livable income for all
- Free, quality education and training for all, kindergarten through university
- Quality, secure, affordable housing for everyone; fund and build public housing
- Expand Medicare; nationalise the health system under workers' and community control
- End the Northern Territory Intervention; scrap the Basics Card; recognise the sovereignty of Australia's Aboriginal nations
- Full citizenship rights for refugees and immigrants; open the borders
- End all violence against women; women must have the right to defend themselves
- Stop the exploitation of women's bodies: end sexism in advertising and the media; support the right of all sex workers to organise
If you've had enough of being done over by the sexist profit system and want to fight back, bring your demands!
State Library, Melbourne
(corner of Swanston & Lt Lonsdale Sts)
For information, contact Radical Women:
- Phone: 03-9388-0062 o Email: radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au
- Twitter: @RadicalWomenMEL
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Radical.Women.Australia
Alternate Sundays, 9 February - 6 April, 1.00 pm
5-session Radical Women discussion circle
Beyond Protest:
Feminists take on changing the world!
How do we move from protests to a mass rise-up? What makes an uprising powerful enough to topple the 1% and make the world ours?
Russian revolutionary leader Lenin famously said: "Every revolutionary should learn to cook, and every cook should learn to rule the state."
Join Radical Women in the revolutionary kitchen as we explore the key ingredients for creating the beautiful world we crave. We'll source and share living stories, both local and global. We'll learn from courageous resisters who have gone before us and look to those leading today's global upsurges. Helped by writings of revolutionary leaders, from Leon Trotsky to Clara Fraser and present-day freedom fighters, we'll sift and sort-find what makes a resistance rise or fall. We'll investigate how we can tell when conditions are ripe for revolution. Time and patience by the fire is required, but we also need to know when it's time to strike-good and hot! We'll share experiences in the social movements, weighing up the strengths and roadblocks-and the potential for driving real change. Bring your pots and pans! Everyone is welcome!
This discussion group will be held at
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Take Tram #19 or the Upfield train to Anstey Station. Lots of parking available off Staley Street.
Afternoon tea is provided for a $5.00 donation. For more information, email
radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au or phone 03-9388-0062. To find out more about Melbourne RW, check out Radical Women - Australia on facebook.
Thursday, 13 February, 7.00 pm (doors open at 6.30 pm)
Film screening of the documentary
Sally's Story
With remarks by special guest Sally Goldner
"I'm a kosher, bisexual, transgender cowgirl...Stand back and give me room." This is how Sally Goldner ends the frank and inspiring documentary, Sally's Story, about how she became a fighter for the rights of trans people and everyone in the rainbow. Not only well known as a presenter of Radio 3CR's Out of the Pan, pioneering leader of TransGender Victoria, rousing rally speaker, singer/songwriter and stand-up comic, Sally is ALSO's 2010 Activist of the Year.
Radical Women will round off the Midsumma season by showing the film and hearing from Sally in person about how the intersecting struggles of her life have shaped her multi-issue activism. Everybody is welcome!
A donation of $10 concession, $15 waged or $20 solidarity includes a delicious midsummer buffet spread. All diets catered for. Proceeds go toward Radical Women's organising on all liberation fronts.
Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Take Tram #19 or the Upfield train to Anstey Station. Parking available off Staley Street.
For more information, email radicalwomen@optusnet.com.au or phone 03-9388-0062. To find out more about RW, check out www.RadicalWomen.org or Radical Women - Australia on facebook.
2013 Activities
2012 Activities