The SUWA Show

Friday 5.30 - 6.30 pm

In English.

Since the mid 1980's the SUWA show has been covering a variety of issues about squatting, unemployed and unwaged organising, the working poor and troublemaking in general. Our focus is on struggles for change which are grass-roots and use direct action. Our basic aim is to support and promote those out there resisting the social order and trying to create an alternative to it.

Currently the show is produced on a monthly calendar with the following regular themes:
1st Friday of the Month: Monthly Rebel Roundup with news and views from the Centerlink queues, Top 3 Actions and Crap Arrests from around the world, and upcoming events.
2nd Friday of the Month: Food Not Bombs Show with news about the Melbourne Food Not Bombs Collective, dumpstering, scavenging, squatting and general troublemaking
3rd Friday of the Month: Melbourne Squatters Union show
4th Friday of the Month: Activists Rights and resisting the loss of civil liberties with a focus on squatters and welfare legal rights including regular interviews with welfare advocates and activists
5th Friday of the Month (when it happens): Willful Trespass with news and views about international squatting and squatters' legal struggles.

CRAM Article - June 2007

A 3CR broadcaster on The SUWA Show, and a member of the Melbourne Squatters Union, questions whether the housing reality in Victoria matches government rhetoric.

Zero interest rates and zero rent! you too can have your own little piece of Melbourne!

We are in a housing crisis! - According to the City of Melbourne’s website, there are almost a thousand homeless people in the city alone; there are 35,000 people on Victoria’s Public Housing waiting list; people have extreme difficulty securing affordable rent; real estate agents allow informal rent auctions, pushing prices up for everyone; home owners have purchased houses at massive prices; enormous mortgage repayments and hence enormous rents have become the norm, while many of us can’t earn a living wage from low paid work or the dole.

And yet “housing is apparently a human right.” Really?! The Victorian State Government’s lack of action in upholding this so-called right renders this statement meaningless. The government’s approach to public housing is Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). As part of the arrangements for PPPs, private companies are provided with massive grants to redevelop existing public housing sites. These private companies inherit the responsibility for maintaining and managing public housing. This raises massive questions around the State’s duty of care and responsibilities towards people with disabilities, elderly people and other residents with specific housing needs. We are also seeing proof with the redevelopment of the Carlton housing estate that the PPP approach to public housing reduces overall public housing places.

The Melbourne Squatters Union are not just calling for more public housing, a reduction of the year-long public housing waiting list, or the removal of intense surveillance and control from housing estates. Trying to reform a system that is fundamentally flawed requires ignorance of the reality that housing issues are inherently class issues that need to be addressed through collective action, mutual aid and self-organisation.

Welfare Economics in a Neoliberal State 101: The trickle down effect is not real!

In a housing crisis, there is a political imperative to utilise disused property. Melbourne is full of disused houses and abandoned buildings and people are justified in finding their own accommodation and claiming it for a roof over their heads. The Melbourne Squatters Union can provide information and assistance about existing empty buildings that are currently not squatted as well as lend tools and organise transport. Electricians, plumbers and trades people who are willing to provide assistance are encouraged to contact the Melbourne Squatters Union.

The Melbourne Squatters Union can be heard at 3CR’s The SUWA Show on the third Friday of every month, 5:30pm – 6:30pm. For housing information and assistance, call and leave a message with the Melbourne Squatters Union phone: 0434 037 996 or call 3CR on 9419 8377 during the SUWA show. Meetings are held fortnightly at 4:30pm at Trades Hall Bar. If you would like to offer skills and assistance, come to a meeting or call.

The writer wishes to remain anonymous as there is a police task force specifically set up to bust squats and squatters.

You've Got To Party For Your Right To Fight: The AIDEX '91 Protests January 2008
In 1991 the Australian movement for peace and social had a rare victory when around 1000 people successfully disrupted the Australian International Defence Exhibition (AIDEX) to the point where all future events of a similar kind were cancelled. With the Asia Pacific Defence and Security exhibition to be held in Adelaide this November now is a good time to revisit what happened at AIDEX '91 and what made the blockade and protest so successful. In this 80 minute documentary, produced by Iain McIntyre, six protestors talk about their experiences at AIDEX '91 and how it shaped their views on the media, police violence and peace activism. Download MP3 (13.7MB / 79:35min)