This is a report from International Women's Day in Brisbane (Meanjin) on 12 March '21. 

During the course of the broadcast there was an intervention in the show and it was subsequently pulled by station management. Paradigm Shift has been suspended till further notice. So this week's show about the new whale structure to be built by the state government on Minjerriba was not put to air.

My personal feelings about this are mixed. I attempted to report on IWD21. I believe the show met the relevant Community broadcasting guidelines but, in hindsight, I would not play the show again because it has not advanced the cause of women at a very difficult time.

However I do not wish to self-censor Paradigm Shift so I have made the speeches available here. I have added a song that relates to one of those speeches. 

Also I am doing this to save having lots of personal conversations with people. 

I think there is agreement on both sides over the issues covered but there is a sticking point on who is a woman. As far as I can tell there has been an attempt to conflate sex and gender when they are distinct. This has created confusion, with too much heat and dust.

Ian Curr
20 Mar 21

Notes on issues covered
Cashless welfare card.
Job Seeker allowance.
Needless medical intervention in women's bodies.
Anti-poverty
Save Women's sport
Unnecessary surgery on Trans people
Equality at work and in society.
Opposition to men's violence.
Freedom to dress and behave as we wish.
Reproductive Rights - right to choose.
Anti sex work, anti porn - controversial "hypersexualisation of girls".
Conflates female genital mutilation with trans people's own decisions about their bodies.

Doesn't want to de-gender spaces.

"Safety, dignity, fairness and privacy are being eroded by gender identity ideology" - the Left needs to show more solidarity. Not sure what this is about?

Genderism - what does this mean - "women could be anything"?

Women's sex-based rights - who is saying we should not defend women's rights?

Define women as "adult human females".

Men's violence is related to the power dynamics of gender, and a world view that puts one particular form of masculinity at the pinnacle.

We must keep including radical feminists that came before the current generation as well as having a space for new feminists and new ideas. Given what's happened so far over the trans issue, it is a difficult undertaking to resolve this huge rift, but I do believe that it would be worthwhile.

Notes by Ian Curr

Report on International Women's Day 2021

A collection of reports compiled by Ian Curr for the Paradigm Shift (4ZZZ fm 102.1) now podcast on 4PR - Voice of the People.

International Women's Day (Meanjin) 2021

International Working Women's Day

You don't often see events for this day with the word "working" in their title. 

But for ourselves it is a very deliberate inclusion. We're here demanding for and building a movement that is for all of us, not just for a privileged view. 

So on that note, I'd like to acknowledge that we are gathering today on the land of the Yuggerra and Torubul  people and pay my respects to elder's past and present. I'd also like to acknowledge that sovereignty over this land was never ceded, meaning the land we stand on now was stolen. 

It's important to have this at the forefront of our minds, because the system that depends on women's oppression, and poverty was born from colonialism. And if we refuse to look at the horrors that continue to occur in this country, we will be forever doomed to a feminism like I mentioned before, one of expensive luncheons for nice white ladies the privileged few instead of one that can bring us true liberation. 

So we called this rally last week, when the news came out about the LNP government's so-called raise to "job seeker". This raise is actually a cut of $50 a week, coming with this false raise or a bunch of awful welfare changes that our speakers will be talking about today. 

One of the most pertinent to International Women's Day, being the employer dob-in line. This line allows bosses to dob-in interviewees who supposedly refused suitable work. 

It's obvious a lot of dodgy shit is going to happen from this. The scariest being bosses coercing women, alone in a room with them into awful situations with the threat of having their centerlink payments cut off hanging over their heads.

It's obvious the LNP detests women's rights. Over the past few weeks, the news that broke about how deep this rock goes. The rape allegations and cover ups aren't an aberration. They come from a political party and a society where misogyny is deeply embedded. There is in charge to test anyone not at the top of the pile. We can't rely on their consciences to fix this. So we need to come together to collectively to demand a safe and fair world. 

Today is one step in that fight.

Transcribed by Ian Curr

Sian intro to Internatonal Working Women's Day

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks out after Republicans sexist attack.
Anna McCormack on men's violence.
Brian Sullivan on creeps speech.
Calypso - Anti-Poverty Network
Hannah on poverty.
Julia Gillard's anti-misogny speech.
Kath Deves - Save Women's Sport
Sian intro to IWWD
Taylor McGowan - poem
Jumping Fences - Yo Vengo a Ofrecer Mi Corazon
HELEN REDDY - LIVE GRAMMY PERFORMANCE OF I AM WOMAN - THE QUEEN OF 70s POP (couldn't be played here because of copyright restrictions.
Image - Snr Constable John Watt arresting a woman at the 1978 IWD rally in Brisbane (Meanjin) at KGSq.

Alexandria Ocasio - Cortez Speaks out after Republican's Sexist Attack

Brian pays tribute to the work done by women counsellors who try to get violent men to realise that what they are doing is wrong. Men’s power plays are hurtful to everyone, to society at large.

At one point it seemed like he was making fun of "woke" people but when he explained it it turned out what he was saying was really good. And that he might have even taken on board what some woke people were saying, as evidenced by the use of the term "virtue signalling".

Brian Sullivan 'Creep' Speech

Hannah on Poverty

Calypso - Anti - Poverty Network

The broadcast – Report on International Women’s Day on Paradigm Shift (4ZZZ Fridays at noon) – has been widely misunderstood. Station management claims there have been many complaints about the program and so went on air to publicly apologise soon after Paradigm Shift. I resigned from 4ZZZ on the principle that this broadcast contained factual material and honestly held belief and so should not have been taken down. 

However I do regret putting the show to air because the reaction against a small part of the program has been so strong that it does not advance women’s struggle.

Strong reaction to International Women’s Day broadcast
I underestimated the bias against socialist ideas at the station and among subscribers generally. It seems identity trumps humanity. The humanity that underlies socialism seems to have evaporated with each groups desire to have their identity paramount. This individualism is typical of western consumerist countries where individuals of all ages get their information form social media.

Few people would be aware that International Women’s Day came from the collective struggle for socialism in the early part of the 20th century. Liberal capitalist countries like the US, Australia and Britain did not even recognise the day until 1977 when it became part of the United Nations calendar.

How 4ZZZ de-programmed the Report of International Women’s Day ’21
I was trying to login into Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA)’s music pages (amrap) to re-enter deleted playlists of shows played on Paradigm Shift on (4ZZZ on Fridays at noon) from 26 Feb till 26 March 2021 .

I couldn’t. I had been excluded from making any changes. My username had been deleted.

So I wrote to the CBAA asking: “Can you please explain why the (Paradigm Shift’s) playlists have been deleted?

I received the following reply from the CBAA on 1 April 2021:

“Thanks for reaching out to the CBAA about 4ZZZ’s Paradigm Shift Amrap Pages account. It appears that each episode from Fri March 5 onwards has not been ticked to be publicly viewable. I have attached a screenshot (below), you can see the checkbox at the top of the page needs to be ticked to be visible by the program maker.
Andrew Morris, Manager, Online Products & Services“

    Changes to Paradigm Shift’s Amrap page by 4ZZZ management

Screen shot of Paradigm Shift Amrap Pages account.

The CBAA does not have any published policies on Dispute Resolution.
Their website says this is under development. So much for fairness in bureaucracy.

Shooting the messenger
4ZZZ station management made no attempt to engage or discuss with me how this should be resolved or even why they wanted the broadcast to be taken down. They did however issue me with a series of written ultimatums that I should take the material down. When I spoke to management over the phone, they resorted to process refusing to discuss the substantive matter of why they wished to take the shows down.

I have been associated with the station since its inception so, given the circumstances, I had little choice other than to resign.
– Raymond Evans in The Future

Ian Curr
4PR – Voice of the People
3 April 2021

4PR - Voice of the People

Opinion Police on Women

See https://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2021/04/12/mugged-by-zed/ 

Playlist
From the Bim Bimbi's Blues

Mugged by Zed

Analysis of speeches given on International Women's Day 2021 in Brisbane.

Image: Special Branch dragging a woman from the steps of parliament during Reproductive Rights Struggle in Brisbane in 1980. This was part of a larger democratic rights struggle in Qld where over 2,000 people were arrested when the government banned street marches.

Playlist
Allie Sherlock - Fall in Line

The 'Trans' Dialogue

4PR - Voice of the People is a podcast about class, culture and country.
We believe that change can come only through revolution and participation by working class people.  Conditions in time and place must be understood and acted upon.  Workers of all countries unite! 
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