Accent of Women

In response to the massive Israeli military assault on Gaza in May, Palestinian workers organised a general strike that swept across the West Bank, Israel and Gaza. In solidarity, thousands of workers worldwide joined in a “Block the Boat” campaign that prevented Israeli ships from docking in a number of international ports.  These recent events pose the question for solidarity activists – How do we win in Palestine? And this was the very topic of a public meeting held by Australia Asia Worker Links on the 9 October.

On today’s program, we look at the worsening humanitarian crisis and civil war in Myanmar. Since the military coup against Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in February 2021, there have been 5042 attacks that either targeted civilians or causued harm to them. The COVID pandemic is out of control with thousands of people dying everyday, and the exact amount of COVID being impossible to ascertain. Today's guest is Debbie Stothard from the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.

On 6 September, 6 Palestinian prisoners escaped from the heavily fortified Gilboa prison in Israel, sparking a wide scale man hunt and eventual capture of these political prisoners. Despite their eventual capture and torture by Israeli authorities, the event has been called The Great Escape across the world, Israel has been left humiliated by its lax security, and Palestinians have become emboldened.I interviewed Palestinian socialist and educator, Reem Yunis on Monday 20 September, one day after the final pair were captured and re-imprisoned.

Amidst South Koreas fourth wave of COVID, spurred on by the Delta variant, the Korean workers have upped their industrial action in opposition to the level of overwork in some industries, but the Government’s desire that people bear the personal cost of the pandemic. Koreans are opposing the social distancing measures, and say that COVID has highlighted the inadequacies of the public health system. While unions have increased their industrial action, forcing the government to the bargaining table, the government has also increased its repression and suppression of Freedom of association laws. On 2 September, 4000 police officers raided the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions building to arrest the President, Yang Kyeung-soo. The union movement is not deterred by this and continues its militant action. On today’s program, to talk about the situation in Korea, is Mikyung Ryu – the International Director of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

The Texas state law, passed last May, imposes the so-called “fetal heartbeat” rule adopted by half a dozen states previously, which effectively prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy—before most women even know they have become pregnant. From 1 September, this law takes effect. It creates criminal penalties against health professionals, as well as allowing any citizen in the country, completely unrelated to the case, to bring an action against health professionals.  My two guests are Rachel Mehendale and Tasnim Lat, two doctors in Texas.  I want to emphasise that the views that my guests express on today’s program are theirs alone, and not that of their employer.

Malaysia's new Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, was sworn in on Saturday 21 August, after the resignation of the former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, and his entire cabinet, less than 18 months in office. The resignation came amidst infighting in Yassin’s coalition cost him majority support. But Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob faces an uphill task in uniting a polarised society and reviving a slumping economy and a worsening pandemic. Malaysia has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates and deaths per capita. Today's guest is Irene Xavier from the Labour Law Reform Coalition.

On Tuesday 17 August, the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war. Since then, we have seen footage of desperate Afghanis trying to flee that country, amidst threats of death by the Taliban. To help us analyse the collapse of Afghanistan, we talk to Farkhondeh Akbari, a human rights activist and researcher who has investigated human rights violation by armed parties in Afghanistan, and currently based at the Australian National University.

76 years ago, on the 6th and 9th of August, the USA military dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings killed around 175,000 people with another 90,000 dying by the end of the year due to radiation injuries.Some 5 years after these bombings, a global anti-nuclear armaments campaign emerged and in 2007, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was founded. In 2017, they won the Nobel Prize for peace, for their work towards global nuclear disarmament. One of the people that accepted the award was a woman named Setsuko Thurlow – a survivor of the bombing in Hiroshima. In 2019 she gave a speech at Harvard Law School.

This is our concluding episode - Budour Hassan is Palestinian socialist feminist and journalist and a legal researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights. She talks about the latest Israeli assault on Palestinians, the role of women in the Palestinian resistance, the feminist movement against gender violence, solidarity with women prisoners, Abolitionist Feminism, and the needed regional and global socialist feminist solidarity. She is interviewed by Accent of Women supporter, Frieda Afray.

Budour Hassan is Palestinian socialist feminist and journalist and a legal researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights. She talks about the latest Israeli assault on Palestinians, the role of women in the Palestinian resistance, the feminist movement against gender violence, solidarity with women prisoners, Abolitionist Feminism, and the needed regional and global socialist feminist solidarity. She is interviewed by Accent of Women supporter, Frieda Afray.